Workers Press no. 1022

workers press

ACTION SHELVED UNTIL EVE OF PHASE TWO

THE TUC ABANDONS

HOSPITAL WORKERS

INCORPORATING THE N

DAILY ORGAN OF THE

By Royston Bull LEADERS of the TUC have consciously invited the the hospital workers' strike. Yesterday they deliber take urgent action in their support.

Already ten days have passed since the Special Congress emergency resolution to organize and lead in support of unions fighting the co-ordinated action' pay laws was carried. The latest hammer blow to the hospital workers hopes came with yesterday's TUC Economic Committee decision to defer acting on this resolution so that a report can be submitted to a Finance and General Purposes Com- mittee meeting next week.

This scandalous time-wasting will go on until the General Council meeting of March 28 without a finger being lifted to help the hospital workers, civil servants, or anyone else. It means that the men and women on the picket lines will have had to battle it out for a further three and a half weeks in Special Congress voiced complete isolation since the the of the trade union opinion movement about giving sup- breaking and military re- port. pression. that the It also means The time to defeat the issue will be shelved until Tory corporatist is plans just before Phase Two be- while the now. government comes law. At that point. is still hesitant and divided.

the hospital workers will not If the unions wait until the only have their own union right wing has the bit be- leaders to fight, but also the its teeth and has tween full force of the state legis- shown real steel, it some lation as well, including cri- will be that much harder a minal proceedings, fines and task. imprisonment.

TUC

Victor secretary Feather has promised urgent This is a record of down- action' right treachery, a deliberate decision once a is finally reached, but betraval of the wishes of the explains working class by its leaders.

that this takes time. If he had spent the last Where does the left-talk- few weeks on hospital ing engineering union presi- picket line, he would quickly dent Hugh Scanlon stand on get the message of the need this crucial issue? to take urgent decisions too.

words, he correctly He has no time for emer- that if the hospital states gency meetings, apparently, and gasworkers are allowed but plenty of time to go to to defeat. to go down it businessmen's lunches. would mean *the end of Tuesday he treated On trade unionism as we know himself to the City men's it' "Comment Club lunch, en- But in deeds, he takes joying the wine, cigars, and part in the disgraceful char- chat with the pleasant ade being acted out at Con- enemies of socialism. gress House. The truth is that Feather In the case of the hospital wants to hold de- up any workers' and gasworkers, a defeat for the velopments in one will, in truth, mean a movement that might lead defeat for all. to a General Strike situation.

That is the reason for the The Tories will go a on delays in solidarity action or if rampage of wage-cutting any decision on the one-day they can drive these work- also postponed till stoppage, back without paying ers next week. them a penny piece more. Feather is a reformist. At the same time. price in- "mixed believer in the completely out flation gets economy' system- -an agent of hand. (See prices story of the status quo. And when right). this requires wage restraint, And if they break these willing Feather is a col- strikes successfully they will laborator. be encouraged to introduce He is determined to dis- even more ruthless methods rupt the fight against state break the next strikes to wage controls. that come along. working class is to If the The present campign of bearing the crushing avoid threats to victimize strikers, burden of capitalism's of controllable inflation, it must the police disruption take political action to de- picket lines and the propa- feat the Tory government ganda war in the Press will forcing be replaced by full-scale in- by its resignation through the General Strike. timidation, organized strike-

NG THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY M

F THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE C

ted the Tories to smash deliberately refused to

MASSIVE

increases in food prices are on the way and the government has admitted it will do nothing to stop them. A warning that eggs pay will cost 50p a dozen by autumn has been issued by Co-op chief Gordon Lounsbach and United Hor Biscuits, the cake and me biscuit monopoly, will put up its prices by 5 per cent in July or August. These latest signs of the soaring cost of living come on top of figures in The Grocer' magazine. These show food prices are now rising by an in- credible rate of 28 per cent a year-that is 24 per cent more than wage in- RSDAY MARCH 15, 1973• No. 1022 • 4p

ITTEE OF, THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

allowed under the made, they will come much creases Tories' Phase Two state later-this privilege is not pay laws. extended to hard-pressed The truth about Tory workers fighting for decent policy was revealed late wages. on Tuesday night in the The first in the next House of Lords. Govern- round of increases which the Earl follow record wholesale ment spokesman, of Gowrie. turned down prices are likely to be amendment requiring an eggs. to be They are expected 1o all price increases reported to the Price Com- increase immediately in mission before they oc- price by 2p to 30p to 32p dozen in the shops. But curred. by November prices could Gowrie said that this system would be impos- have rocketed 50p. to to handle. Instead Shortages are blamed for sible firms are to be allowed a the increases. free hand with increases.

Prices of the most po- If investigations pular brands of biscuits are

KERS

will also rise. United Bis- of Mc- cuits, producer Vitie's, Crawford's and Macfarlane's ranges, has applied for a second 5 per cent increase this year. On Monday 50 per cent of UB's products were in- creased in price and the combine, which controls 60 per cent of the UK bis- be cuit market, wants the other 50 per cent increased in June or July plus more increases on the ones already adjusted upwards.

UB's total profits for 1972 increased by £2.8m 50p. to a new record of £21m.

Shareholders will pocket an 11.2-per-cent dividend compared with 10.67 uits percent for 1971.

workers press

ACTION SHELVED UNTIL EVE OF PHASE TWO

THE TUC ABANDONS

HOSPITAL WORKERS

INCORPORATING THE N

DAILY ORGAN OF THE '

By Royston Bull LEADERS of the TUC have consciously invited the the hospital workers' strike. Yesterday they deliber take urgent action in their support.

Already ten days have passed since the Special Congress emergency resolution to 'organize and lead co-ordinated action' in support of unions fighting the pay laws was carried. The latest hammer blow to the hospital workers hopes came with yesterday's TUC Economic Committee decision to defer acting on this resolution so that a report can be submitted to a Finance and General Purposes Com- mittee meeting next week.

This scandalous time-wasting will go on until the General Council meeting of March 28 without a finger being lifted to help the hospital workers, civil servants, It or anyone else. means that the men and women on the picket lines will have had to battle it out for a further three and a half weeks in Special Congress voiced complete isolation since the the of trade union opinion the movement about giving sup- breaking and military re- port. pression. the It also means that The time to defeat the issue will be shelved until Tory corporatist plans is before Phase Two be- while just now, the government At that law. point, is still hesitant and divided.

comes the hospital workers will not If the unions wait until the only have their own union right wing has the bit be- leaders to fight, but also the teeth has tween its full force of the state legis- shown real steel, it some lation as well, including cri- will be that much harder a fines and minal proceedings, task. imprisonment.

TUC

Victor secretary Feather has promised 'urgent This is a record of down- action' right treachery, a deliberate once a decision is betraval of the wishes of the finally reached, but explains that this takes time. working class by its leaders.

If he had spent the last Where does the left-talk- few weeks hospital on ing engineering union presi- picket line, he would quickly dent Hugh Scanlon stand on get the message of the need this crucial issue? to take urgent decisions too.

In words. the he correctly He has no time for emer- hospital states that meetings, apparently, gency and gasworkers are allowed but plenty of time to go to down to defeat. it to go businessmen's lunches. would 'the end of mean Tuesday he treated On trade unionism as we know himself to the City men's it'. 'Comment Club' lunch, en- But in deeds, he takes joying the wine, cigars, and part in the disgraceful char- with the pleasant chat ade being acted out at Con- enemies of socialism. gress House. The truth is that Feather In the case of the hospital wants to hold up de- any and gasworkers, a defeat for workers' velopments in the will, in truth, mean a movement that might lead one defeat for all. to a General Strike situation.

That is the reason for the The Tories will go on delays in solidarity action or rampage of wage-cutting any decision on the one-day they can drive these work- also postponed till stoppage, back without paying ers next week. them a penny piece more. Feather is a reformist. At the same time, price in- 'mixed believer in the flation completely out oft handets economy' system- -an agent (See prices story of the status quo. And when right). this requires wage restraint. And if they break these Feather is a willing col- strikes successfully they will laborator. be encouraged to introduce determined to dis- He is even more ruthless methods rupt the fight against state break the next strikes to wage controls. that come along. If the working class is to of the crushing The campign avoid hearing present threats to victimize strikers, burden of capitalism's of controllable inflation, it must the police disruption take political action to de- picket lines and the propa- ganda war in the Press will the Tory feat government be replaced by full-scale in- by forcing its resignation through the General Strike.

timidation, organized strike-

VG THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY M

F THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE C

ted the Tories to smash deliberately refused to

MASSIVE

increases in are on the food prices way and the government admitted it will do nothing to stop them. warning that eggs will cost 50p a dozen by has been issued autumn by Co-op chief Gordon Lounsbach and United Biscuits, the cake and biscuit monopoly, will put up its prices by 5 per cent in July or August. These latest signs of the soaring cost of living come on top of figures in 'The Grocer' magazine. These show food prices are now rising by an in- credible rate of 28 per cent a year-that is 24 per cent more than wage in- RSDAY MARCH 15, 1973• No. 1022 • 4p

ITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

creases allowed under the made, they will come much Tories' Phase Two state later-this privilege is not pay laws. extended to hard-pressed The truth about Tory workers fighting for decent policy was revealed late wages. on Tuesday night in the The first in the next Govern- House of Lords. round of increases which the Earl follow record ment spokesman, wholesale turned down likely to be of Gowrie. prices are amendment requiring an eggs. to be They are expected to all price increases reported to the Price Com- increase immediately in mission before they price by 2p to 30p to 32p OC- dozen in the shops. But curred. by November prices could Gowrie said that this would be rocketed system Impos- have 50p. to sible to handle. Instead Shortages are blamed for firms are to be allowed a the increases. free hand with increases.

Prices of the most po. If investigations pular brands of biscuits are will also rise. United Bis- cuits, producer of Mc- Vitie's, Crawford's Macfarlane's ranges, applied for a second 5 per cent increase this year. On Monday 50 per cent of UB's products were in- creased in price and the combine, which controls 60 per cent of the UK bis- cuit market, wants the other 50 per cent increased in June or July plus more increases on the ones already adjusted upwards.

UB's total profits for 1972 increased by {2.8m to a new record of £21m. Shareholders will pocket an 11.2-per-cent dividend 10.67 compared with uits per cent for 1971.

What we think Preferential treatment causing Congress storm Soviet-US trade 'Release Abu Daud' demo PAGE 2 Workers Press, Thursday March 15, 1873 UNDER THE GUISE of concern for the plight of 'The Times' low-paid workers, advocates permanent Tory 'incomes policy'. This, says the big business, would "protect newspaper of hospital staff, nurses, farmworkers and other low-paid men and women by replacing free collective bargaining with a state Pay Board.

In reality this corporatist-type measure would make these workers directly dependent on the state for their living and working conditions. It is a deliberate plan to destroy the purpose of trade unionism. A large group of workers relying on state hand- outs would be used to intimidate any trade unions improve the conditions of their seeking to members. It is not true, as 'The Times' claims, that collective- bargaining for wages discriminates against the of lower paid. On the contrary, the strength well-organized workers wins gains for the entire working class. The plight of the lower paid is not the result of the so-called 'greed' of workers Such workers who have won better conditions. have consistently fought to improve the con- ditions of their lower-paid brothers-as, for example, thousands of miners have repeatedly for the low-paid gone on strike to get rises surface workers. Deliberate Tory policies have brought hardship and poverty to working-class people who carry out essential jobs. The floating of the pound last June--it has now been devalued by about 10 per cent with more to come-was a conscious Tory measure to accelerate inflation.

Taxation of companies and high incomes has been and lessened, while charges for school meals other social services have been raised.

Entry into the Common Market means that the of food and basic necessities price other already shooting up and will continue to do so.

State control of pay has held wages down while The rent. Act prices have been allowed to soar.

has taken pounds out of workers' pockets.

The Tory government has deliberately slashed the living conditions of millions of workers and their impossible families. ( find it Many workers to live on their basic wage and are forced to work extra jobs to avoid being long hours and take driven below the poverty line—a fate which not all of them escape. This is what the employers and the government numbers of workers depen- want to see-large dent, not on workers' unity and their confidence as a class, but reduced to servile dependence on 'generosity' of the boss and his political the thin representatives in the Tory Party.

This, combined with the Industrial Relations Act, which shackles the unions to the state. programme for corporatism. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, key military figures, closely connected Tories, prepare civil war measures to with top impose a Bonapartist dictatorship on the working class. than ever, urgently necessary to It is now. more defend basic rights and to unite the entire work- ing class to force the Tory government to resign Labour government pledged to and return a socialist policies. way can lower-paid workers win Only in this security and a decent life.

can be found didate

TURKEY'S

generals the Re- acceptable to and right-wing poli- publican Peoples' Party, in ticians are locked be Dresident could conflict over the elec- elected who would chal- tion of a new president lenge the role of the by the parliament. army in Turkish politics.

After four ballots MPs The army ousted the still refused to endorse Justice Party govern- choice, ment two years ago and the army's General Faruk Gerler, martial law is still in and gave a majority to operation in seven pro- the conservative ustice vinces. Tekin Party candidate, e There are signs that Ariburun. did the army is ready As to if the not have an absolute intervene again balloting was majority, politicians do not come adiourned. heel and to. accept If an alternative can- General Gerler. the TRADE between Soviet Union and the United States could be tripled as a result of talks between Moscow officials and a United States delegation headed by Treasury Secretary George Schultz. Schultz had talks on Monday with First Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Mikhail Kuzmin and Soviet State Bank chair- man Mefodii Sveshnikov. It was also thought pos- sible he would meet Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin. Under last October's trade treaty, the USSR and the US agreed to increase annual trading turnover to at least $1,500m. Some of the demonstrators outsid TZU TSAI-CHENG, found guilty in the United States of the attempted assassina- of Kai-shek's Chiang tion son, is lying in Pentonville awaiting the prison out- come of his appeal to the House of Lords: If his March 5 appeal is rejected, Cheng faces uPalls 32 years in American followed by further extra- dition to Taiwan. There he would certainly be killed. So far Cheng's appeals not to be sent back to America have been rejected that the on the grounds movement to which he be- Formosa longs—-the Inde- pendence Movement-is in conflict with the Taiwanese

BY FOREIGN EDITOR J

Last year the turnover $642m, reached record though Soviet exports to the US earned only about $95.4m. A large proportion of the US exports was taken up by the big grain purchases made by the Soviet Union to off- set a bad harvest. In 1971, US-Soviet trade turnover totalled $218.1m. Status During the visit Schultz was planning to raise the question of granting the Soviet Union 'most-favoured nation' status, which would give Russian goods preferen- tial tariff treatment. Some Congressmen in

ISSEINS

GIVE

JORDAN

N ors outside the Jordanian Embassy Lonc government, but not with the United States govern- ment. The entire British labour movement should demand the immediate granting of political asylum to Cheng.

• A full review of the Cheng case will appear in Workers Press shortly.

US JETS BOUND

ISRAEL is to receive four jets squadrons of combat from the United States according to a 'New York Times' The US will report. also help set up production lines for an Israeli-designed jet fighter. of grain from abroad and potatoes

DITOR JOHN SPENCER

from eastern Europe was enough to stave off barely shortages and even Washington are threatening acute famine in parts of the USSR of tariff benefits a veto to hit by the worst harvest of Soviet goods in the United the century. States unless the Soviet gov- This harvest, the result of ernment removes high exit bad weather and bureau- visa fees on educated immi- cratic mismanagement, has

USSR.

grants from the widespread im- meant the However, the Nixon admi- position of rationing, even nistration has made clear for such staples as butter that it the favours giving and potatoes. Soviet Union preferential treatment regardless of its emigration policy. Rations President Nixon recently established East-West an Committee, Policy Trade Rationing is acknowledged with Schultz as chairman.

by CP political lecturers at • The Soviet bureaucracy such widely separated places extremely anxious Volgograd (Stalingrad), as more trade with the United Gorki and Astrakhan. States and for American The Press is now urging capital investment and loans farm managers to avoid last in order to avert the worst year's mistakes by planning aspects of its own economic advance for the spring in crisis. sowing.

N THE

ARAB STUDENTS demonstrated out- side the Jordanian Embassy in London yesterday demanding the reprieve of Fatah leader Abu Daud and his 16 comrades sentenced to death by King Hussein. Abu Daud was arrested on February 8 with a Fatah unit on its way to the Israeli- occupied West bank of the river Jordan. They were tried by a military tribunal on trumped-up charges of plotting against state security. Despite appeals from a number of Arab heads of state and from Yassir Arafat-chief of the Fatah-Hussein has made it clear that he will go ahead with judicial murders.

An offer from the King to reprieve the Palestinian commandoes if the Fatah gives an undertaking not to act against the Jordan- ian regime has been treated with contempt by the Palestinian freedom fighters.

More than 3,000 Palestinian fighters are in Hussein's prisons along with thousands of other political prisoners who are subjected to brutal torture during their long sentences at the hand of military courts.

Since the massacre of Palestinians by the regime in September 1970 Hussein has authorized 200 death sentences. Seven people were hanged on December 9.

London, THYSSEN Group, West The brought merger. about by consortium of a Germany's largest steel second banks, the creates has succeeded largest industrial group in company, a £2,000m Germany, with in acquiring a majority annual turnover. shareholding of the big The the move creates Rheinstahl engineering biggest privately-owned and steel firm. Europe and steel cartel in is part of the attempts by German capitalism to ra-

UND FOR ISRAEL

tionalize in competition with British. ( French and Tapanese manufacturers. Prime Minister Golda Meir Washington visited month The takeover was one of earlier this ar- range a new arms deal. De- German his- the biggest in tory, liveries under an agreement dwarfing the cartels made by President Nixon in of the 1920s which later December 1971 still backed Hitler's Nazi Party are going on. in its rise to power.

We'd be a lot stronger if everybody Police-style coach breaks St Thomas' sparks' picket

HOSPITAL WORKERS

BY IAN YEATS

our picket and

MILITANT

pickets at water over staff some of the senior London's Royal Northern have refused to treat stri- Hospital said this week kers. union leaders should call government 'If the out all ancillary workers.

doesn't improve its offer the 'We would be lot should be extended strike stronger if everybody was Even if we do have to go out,' said picket Mrs N. we will work-to-rule Cosgrave. and boycott everything. We Hours later Tory Health down not going to go are Secretary Sir Keith Joseph until we get what we want.

advised the hospital Alright wor- Mrs Mary kers: 'Go back to work and added: 'The public is blam- accept what we've offered.'

us for things going ing £2 rise He said the for in the hospitals. But wrong they should blame the and £1.80 for gov- men women could be in next week's pay- ernment. Heath should pay the money? that the packets, adding us Mr G. F. Cummines said: hospital workers were now only hurting themselves and 'It's all very well for con- condemn patients. sultants to They afford to. He said if they were not they can satisfied with are earning the money.' the increases line with Phase Two of After two weeks, many in of the workers are finding the laws, they could pay always take their grievances it almost impossible to live without their In to the new Pay Board. wages. Royal Northern Hospital husbands and some cases wives are both on strike.

ancillary workers have been air,' strike 'We can't live on for two weeks. on said one picket. It is the They are still 100-per-cent solid and morale is high government we are fighting.

Our leaders should have Strike committee member for a General Strike Ashton, 'We called Mr A. said: are treated like dirt here, before they called us out. We need the whole nation like slaves. Private patients behind us.' poured a bucket of cold Salford pickets dressed to meet the weather.

BY AN INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

A STRONG body of police yesterday manhandled electricians on the picket line at the St Thomas's Hos- pital site, south London, and allowed a coachload of scabs through the gate. Laings used a special police-style coach to trans- Frank Chapple, to wrote each of the strikers telling labour through port new them to go back to work. the picket line. He said: 'By your action The coach, coloured brown you are arming your and with Laings written on You the gov-, enemies. give small high the side, had ernment the means to frus- windows which prevented stake you make it less likour inside trate case. from seeing pickets and from seeing passengers that ALL contracting mem- carried by the placards bers will enjoy the increase strikers. (for 1974) the has union negotiated.' This is the third time this the coach has week that The men have since been police help been used-with sacked and attempts made break through the -to new labour to use on the pickets. site. More than 100 electricians hospital When the coach arrived the site new came out on strike on Feb- yesterday, about 40 pickets ruary 1 in support of a £l- rushed forward and closed and an-hour claim the gates. pay the government's or- against The large police contin- der halting wage increases of gent then moved in pushing between £2.80 and £3.20, and shoving the pickets out which should have been paid of the way. to 70.000 electricians from January 3. There were scuffles be- tween police and pickets as The men's the union,

EPTU,

has persistently the coach moved through. re- fused to strikers. back the Pickets punched the side of with their fists. general the coact Their secretary, Workers Press, Thursday March 15, 1973 PAGE 3

WERE NOT

AGAINST

PATIENTS

Militant pickets at the north London hospital.

Limited action a lost cause FORTY PORTERS and all Stead of saints act should country

BY OUR OWN REPORTER

150 domestics have noW joined drivers in an all-out the health of patients. hospital workers' strike at Hope Hos- the 'It's load of nonsense South Wales pital in Salford, Lancs. excern about patients being left.

there are any signs denied emergency they KnOW Ronald Hudson, of a break in the strike. a porter, we'd be back told Workers Press: ately.' Mr Norman Waring, divi- 'We do all the dirty work Another picket added: sional of public TV and yet no 'The wireless and one excebt some said: 'The empyces workers take more the public against •etermination or members ol than f16 a week. us.' the union firm as it was at the beginning. "The limited strike action As the pickets spoke three ne covero. seniol memders o nos- 'Reported signs of weak- ment won't back down. pital management could be nesses are

NOT

weaknesser They've just said so again.

dumping burning and but a return to duty on a rubbish. Mr Hudson angrily at- temporary line Mr Hudson said: "We need phased character Tacked suedestons will luc Heath strikers endangering General Strike. the strike. Police lay into electricians trying to stop fresh labour taking their jobs.

LAUNDRY WORKERS RETURN TO WORK

held later At meeting

THE LAUNDRY

worker Mrs point in having anothe

WOT

Launery the pickets decided call kers at Whitley Hospi- Cowie said: 'I think the week's strike while this But they tor a mass pIcket be neto Coventry, main reason for going on. this Is Lal, the site next Monday. wOrK аттет obe The committed are all ready lo Come week on strike. These members allowed some out again on strike. Building

WUIKCIS

of the laundry workers, who sup- workers London sites will be asker ACy Plent tal the clean 'I think everyone •i to go 18OI emercent! to' lake Darl purposes while our _Country shoutel hospitals, strike was on. out on strike. That is One said: It's area Socakel the only way we can more than just building the option of extending this It's all of us the strike but decided 'Most mem- gov- bers did not see much out." in the industry.' against. cunnicall

PAGE & Workers Press, Thursday Ma Sir Charles It was Hardie's birthday last Saturday, and he wasn't short of the wherewithal to celebrate it in fine style. For this already wealthy knight is raking in up to £70,000 a year from his many director- ships. Five hundred workers at BDR Machines, Bristol, spent a rather less happy weekend, Last Friday they however. were told by union officials that a meeting with manage- had yielded no change ment in plans to close the factory.

The shock closure announcement came just over a week ago-fuelling fears of unemployment in a city al- worried by the ready badly airlines' cancellation of US Concorde options. What, you may ask, has all this got to do with Sir Charles Hardie? Well, besides being chairman of BOAC, the British Corporation and Printing merchant bankers Hill Samuel, Hardie heads the £7.3m Vokes engineering group which owns

BDR.

bought the company Vokes from millionaire Harold Dol- man in 1969, but following a drastic 15 per cent fall in group profit rate, has decided to shut the vending-machine plant completely. When union officials met the management last Thursday they argued strongly that the plant could become a money- spinner again given 12 months' grace. Proprietorial faces table remained across the stony. When not presiding over board meetings at BOAC, Hill Samuel or Vokes, Hardie chairs the Metropolitan Estate and Property Corporation and Authority. White Fish the Board membership at BEA provides his pocket money, while for any other loose change he may need he relies on directorships of the Royal Canada, British of Bank American and General Trust, the Melbray group and

NAAFI.

alone is no mean Vokes organization. A turnover of £14.3m in the 1971 - 1972 financial year ranked it Britain's 693rd largest company while its pre- tax profits of £1.2m made it the 560th most lucrative.

A £l.2m profit may not seem bad going with a total UK labour force of only 5,000, but it was just not enough for Hardie and his board. The previous year they made £1.4m and then their rate of return was 29.7 per cent. By 197l- 1972 the rate had fallen to 17.1 per cent. If the Bristol union officials are right that BDR could still make money, then the decision to shut up shop and thus sack one Vokes worker in every ten would seem to have been taken principally on the strength of this plummeting profit rate. But the atmosphere in which this decision was taken ursday March 15, 1973 is also important. For instance there is the episode of little Hardie's daughter Alexandra's coming- out. For this momentous occa- sion Hardie hired the Café Royal in London's pricey Re- gent Street and spent £3,000 on flowers alone. The total cost was £25,000. In London, his two clubs are Boodles and the Royal Thames Yacht. In this setting it will come as no surprise to BDR workers of to learn that another Hardie's companies, Hill Samuel, has been major donor to the Tory Party. In the year of the last General Election, 1970, the merchant bank backed . Heath to the tune of thousands of pounds. (Towards the end of last year, Hill. Samuel was sacked by the engineers' union for paying over £5,000 ot union money to the National Relations Court Industrial without consulting with the executive.) Facing this kind of opposi- tion, even the Rev Anthony Norton seems to recognize there is little chance of soften- ing Vokes directors' the hearts. Norton is secretary of Bris- tol's St. Paul's ward Labour Party, and a city • councillor. The BDR factory lies within his ward. But if Norton isn't exactly oftering up prayers for the workers' jobs, the

BDR

scheme he is pushing is almost as much a diversion. The council, he says, should factory consider the buying and leasing it out as one large or several small factory units.

Norton admits that his pro- posal would not be a complete solution threatened to the redundancies. But we hope that it might be possible to engineering small encourage that could use the concerns skills of the BDR workers,' he says. reformist cleric also This call of Arthur backs the Palmer, MP for Bristol Central, in his demand for la full in- quiry' into the events leading up to the closure announce- ment. Understandably, the feeling is growing amongst Bristol trade unionists that the sooner Norton and Palmer are told to stop dithering and back a real fight against closure the better. Only if there is decisive action-and quickly-at the factory will the message start to get through to Charles Edgar Mathewes Hardie. • Some people are touting round the idea that BDR's founder, Harold Dolman, might decide to go back into the vending-machine business. No dice. From his Chew Magna home, Dolman (75), has expressed an interest in developing some new ideas in the automation field-but he told the Bristol 'Evening Post' last week that he was only considering con- tacting 'one or two former staff of Brecknell, Dolman and Rogers. Two new build recently been o Wythensha the estate, cil One is a Forte luxury other is a Social Security ployment excha These twin symbolize in contradictions The new hotel i to the new which leads into and is ony nve Manchester for business Tune who jet their way of the northern ca Charles room is £7.50. double is the sort of place th king class of Man checking be of the week! The

THF

splendid establishments. annual report revea fit before taxation items was f16.Im 1 ended October This compared w net profit in the p Chairman Sir C says the well and 'we are s ahead of last year placed profit. A is to be recomme will give a total f equivalent to 10p ( per share, compare (30 per cent) in t period. In the annual r generous Jays to his hotel staff: "The success depends pany and loyalty of our gives me great ple press our their energy, enth loyalty. w buildings have been opened on thenshawe coun- Manchester. hotel, the brand new ecurity and em- t exchange. monuments the

WAS IL

of capitalism. ~ noter 1s bull next M56 motorway Manchester aly five miles from It airport. executive heir way in and out rthern capital. Forte. Lord Above: of

THF.

'The morale of the manage-

AEI,

Wythenshawe, was ment and staff is excellent and opened in 1957 by 'Get-your- finger-out' Duke of Edinburgh it really is most encouraging to be conscious of the unified 1970 Sir and closed in by team spirit that exists.'

Arnold Weinstock with the loss of 3,000 jobs. During his In a recent television inter- massive rationalization of the Forte said he thought view

AEI/GEC

merged trade were permiss- groups, unions but on the other hand Weinstock is credited with ible, walked through he they were becoming having one saw large plant and then turned to too powerful. 'Sack scarcely surprising. to his manager and said: It is note that Lord Robens, for- the left hand everybody mer chairman of the National side.' There has been no real fight Board and ex-Labour Coal the

THF

by the minister, joined against unemployment board of directors in learnt 1971. Communist Party-dominated district committee of the en- Robens, who recently union. Their that he no longer gineering argu- was fight "socialist, carried through the ments that the are unemployment is against closures massive 'fruitless, that people would 1960s. victimized and that While THF is raking in pro- only get hotel people can always get other fits at their luxury (opened a month ago) there work anyway. for the right to is a growing queue of local The fight people at the other new build- work cannot be postponed any Estates Wythen- the civic centre-the longer. like ing in shawe are now faced with be- labour exchange. The unem- picking up their coming completely distressed ployed are dole money of £5 a week for Not only are they being areas. wouldn't which buffeted by unemployment, single men soaring even get you a night's kip at but rising rents and prices also threaten the stan- the THF palace. The total out of work in dard of living of those who live in the 30,000 council Wythenshawe at present is 2,452, made up of 2,114 men, houses. Wythenshawe first became 124 boys, 142 women and 72 of a council housing estate in the girls. The recent closures 1920s. The land for the de- Altrincham and plants at Stockport in Cheshire and in velopment was donated to the itself has Manchester City Corporation Wythenshawe pushed up the figures to dis- and Lady Simon Lord by of Wythenshawe. astrous levels. deliberately- A Council of Action on the There was created euphoria in the local estate must be mobilized in defence of the basic rights of Press recently about the Lyons the working class and against of the

AEI

group takeover the Tory plant at Wythenshawe. It now which is instigator appears that the total number the of jobs is to be 25! attacks. Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37₽p • Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

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

JAPAN'S PUBLIC WORKERS

FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO STRIKE

BY JOHN SPENCER

Japan's biggest labour organization is locked in a bitter struggle with the government in a bid to restore the right to strike for millions of publicly • employed workers. The campaign has intensi- fied with guerrilla stoppages and a prolonged work-to-rule cimpaign by national railway workers which has created chaos on Tokyo's commuter lines. Last month 4-million-strong General Council of Trade Unions (Sohyo) staged its first - ever half - day General Strike to back the demands of government and public corporation workers. Another half-day strike has been set for next month. The reformist-led Sohyo has also appealed to the Inter- national Labour Organization in Geneva to back its cam- paign for the right to strike.

This right was taken away service from Japanese public workers in the years immed- iately following the end of the while the country was war, occupation. under American Shortly after the war a labour law was passed which banned by all but prison strikes officials, police and firemen.

But this law was soon found inadequate to control the working class in accordance General Douglas MacArthur.

Writings of

WRITINGS OF

Leon Trotsky

LEON TROTSKY

1872-38 (1838-8)

WRITINGS OF

WRITINGS OF

LEON

LEON

TROTSKU

(1933-34] 1934-35 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 Publica meeting of striking railwaymen at Tol A with US imperialism's require- ments. After violent left - wing demonstrations, General Doug- las MacArthur, supreme com- mander of the allied occupa- tion forces, ordered that a General Strike due to begin on February 1, 1947, be called off. He asked the Japanese to review the government union law. months later the Seventeen government issued an adminis- trative decree barring public workers from striking. Sohyo says that since then the annual wage. increases rate of has labour injuries slowed down, have increased and workers have been restricted in the freedom and right to speak up against severe restrictions and unfair contracts. Most workers, particularly railwaymen, have stopped just short of striking by engaging History of Russian Revolution -special gift pack of three volumes £1.70 including postage u require. Amount enclosed f post to: tions, 186a Clapham High Street, Lon Publications Booklist is a vailable, fre nen at Tokyo's Central Station, when they wer in forms of action such as 'work - hour meetings' and work-to-rule campaigns. A prolonged campaign beginning in late February has caused the cancellation of hundreds services in Tokyo of train alone and resulted in chaotic rush-hour scenes at major terminals. Many passengers have been injured by being crammed into carriages carry- ing up to three or four times their designated capacity.

The authorities have usually with sackings, back struck suspension from duty or wage reductions that can affect a worker up to retirement since employment and a life-long seniority system are traditional in Japan. Victimization has been very widespread workers among battling for basic conditions and wages against this legal strait - jacket. More than Trotsky—a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage eet, London SW4 7UG able, free, on request. Workers Press, Thurs they were on strike three years ago.

800,000 corporation workers punished for taking were illegal industrial action from 1953 to 1972. Similar punishments were inflicted on more than 770,000 public officials, state and local, between 1956 and 1972, according to Sohyo.

government claims that The strikes by public workers, if permitted would have grave economic effects. A Labour Ministry official even claimed it would be con- trary to article 15 of the (also constitution Japanese imposed by the Americans) which says: 'All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof.' Three million workers - about one-third of the total organized labour force in Japan-are deprived of the right to strike under the The Council of Ministers of the Russian Socialist Federal Republic has once again been occupying itself with weighty matter-a shortage of cups and saucers. Despite the fact that pro- duction capacity in the crock- ery industry increased as much in 1970-1971 as in the previ- ous five years, a shortage per- sists. The present level of crockery production, it is ad- mitted, does not meet the growing demands of the popu- lation. The expansion of produc- tion and the building of new pottery factories are running behind schedule. Instructions Workers Press, Thursday March 15, 1973

PAGE 5

labour Sohyo laws. claims that the constitution backs up case and not that of the its Ministry of Labour. Article 28 of the Japanese "The states: right constitution of workers to organize and to is gain anded in it atively its annual offensive spring So wyo is seeking wage inis year, a pro- mise that the government will punish striking public

SIOU

workers. But despite four rounds of on the Talks ouestor since last November, no formula has been found satistactory Kaku sides Tanaka The government of Kakuei clearly resist the public planning to workers' demand. Having taken away the right strike from large sections to of workers. The abaest class will not concede it ing without a fight. were given for the shortcom- ings to be eliminated. The same meeting also heard about serious shortcomings in the use of agricultural mach- inery in Siberia a factor in last year's disastrous harvest. Many tractors, sowing, ploughing and cultivating machines, and com- bines were idle because of lack of repairs. The farm machinery zation was criticized for send machinery to the collect- ing ive farms with serious defects.

The Ministers Council of ordered measures to be taken to improve the quality ot re of pair work and preparation farm machinery for the begin- ning of spring sowing.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Thursday March 15

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

A few years ago Andrew Cunningham was at the peak of his power and influence. He revelled in publicity. Journalists courted his favour and indulged his weakness for boasting. One interviewed him in his ranch-style bungalow at Ches- ter le Street, Co. Durham, sur- • half an acre of rounded by neat gardens. 'If I had gone to sea,' said Cunningham, I would prob- ably have been a captain of a large passenger liner' he had become a Instead leader-though union he looked like an American busi- ness executive with his silky suits, carefully-groomed grey hair and thick expensive spec- tacles. He was an odd figure his members in the among General and Municipal Wor- kers' Union, the among lowest-paid workers on Tyne- side. But in August 1972, the halcyon days ended abruptly.

Wakefield A • court in learned that union leader Cun- the chairman of ningham, Durham • Police Authority and a leading member of Durham County Council, had enjoyed holidays in right-wing Portu- gal, paid for by an architect named Poulson-the very same Poulson who today is a celebrated bankrupt! Poulson also threw in the way of Cunningham's wife, Thursday March 15, 1973 once a teacher, a lucrative job as a 'caretaker' or consultant for interior decorating at a salary of €1,500 annually!

Later links three were established between the union boss and the generous archi- tect. In 1965 Cunningham was chairman of Felling town Housing Committee when Poulson was awarded a design project worth £250,000. While Cunningham was Regional Organizer Northern

G&MWU,

of the covering Durham, Cumberland, West- morland, Northumberland and north Yorkshire, Poulson important design won more projects for union buildings.

Finally, as chairman of Dur- ham • Police Authority and chairman of the Police Archi- tects Committee, Cunningham for turned over contract a designing alterations to Sun- derland police headquarters from the Borough architects to Poulson. The Poulson revelations caused a storm of protest in the north-east. The labour movement was numbed with shock, especially other as figures leading Labour were dragged into the case. These included T. Dan Smith, once famed as 'Mr Newcastle', an ex-city Labour councillor and ex-boss of the North East De- velopment Committee. Smith ran a publicity firm which promoted Poulson's firm 1 and paid Cunningham £1,000 a year as a consultant. So many members of the labour movement seemed to be getting a mention in the Wakefield court that Liberal MP John Pardoe was moved to say in parliament: It is becoming difficult to believe that there are any members of the Labour Party in the north east of this coun try who have not at some time or other been in the pay of Mr Poulson? Pardoe's accusations na- turally caused great protest on both Labour Tory and benches. But suspicions are easily aroused. The Granada team World in investigating Action' attempted to dispel rumours with a programme on the friends of Poulson. They stressed that all their infor- mation was based on court records. But the authorities suppressed the show. The publicity, they said, would be bad for the public interest.

So the gossip continues. Men in public life, including Labour and Tory MPs, have been mentioned in private as involved in the Poulson scan- dal. This odorous publicity is very damaging and Cunning- ham has been subject to more than most. But he has shown a remarkable capacity for weathering the storm. When the crisis broke, eager local journalists traced Cunningham and his wife to a Swedish hotel. Had they heard about the Poulson case?

What about the holidays? The payment to Freda? Cunningham brushed ques- tions aside-'That's a laugh' was his laconic reply. Since then, as more facts have come to light, he has kept his re- marks to a strict 'No com- ment. Yet he has survived a deter- mined attempt by opponents to kick him off the Police Authority. He is still on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party-though he lost the support of giant engineering union at the last election. He is also re- nominated for Durham County Council after an ini- tial decision to drop his name from Labour the list of candidates. The main seat of his influ- ence remains the union with over 90,000 members in the north east. numbers give power. Such Unions send delegates to ward and constituency com- mittees of the Labour Party in proportion to their mem- bership in the localities. Unions in big working-class centres can control commit- and therefore the selec- tees tion of councillors and MPs.

Their financial contributions to the Party locally is also a factor. This is by no means a bad Ideally it principle. would allow the working Class at local level to shape the poli- cies and actions of their La- bour representatives. But, of in most course, areas, especially strong work- ing class areas, the bureaucracy has come to predominate. The officials pick their men and the men get elected. (Last year a Sunderland lecturer fought an urban coun- cil seat in South Ward Chester Cunningham's own le Street, in against town, protest

G&MWU

domination. The three seats were held • by full

G&MWU

time officials, in- cluding Dr John Cunningham, of Andy and son MP for in his Whitehaven-also father's regional area.) So long as Cunningham has the backing of his union, he within the remains secure Labour movement. The union, for its has supported part, him, though in rather extra- ordinary circumstances. They debated their chief's involvement in the Poulson case not at their headquarters in Newcastle, but, it is be- lieved, at a remote aluminium smelter site the bleak on windswept north east coast. The episode had a whole farcical touch. Press men waiting eagerly outside the union surprised by a were rush of officials who tumbled and sped into cars away through the busy city traffic. a communication Later was issued-once Cunning- more ham had landed on his feet.

Cunningham's resilience is a characteristic of the G&MWU men. The full-time officials of this union right-wing are mostly career labour leaders.

They pride themselves on their efficiency (and their like Cunningham, dress) and, they say: 'If I have an addic- is to and efficiency method study Cunningham began at 18 in Felling as an organizer of the Young Socialists. While he was a docker, engineering and chemical he always worker, had his sights fixed on office.

He began to climb. By 1958 the local Press were calling him 'Mr Felling' —he had been three-times chairman of the council, was the chairman of Felling La- bour Party and Trades Coun- cil and chairman of Gateshead East constituency Party, chairman of Durham Educa- tion Committee and chairman of the Wear and Tees River Board. Cunningham only cut a local figure, but it was clear he designed for bigger was things. I think you can put it this way, he told newsmen.

I have always found myself in the right place at the right time' His lack of socialist dogma was perhaps one reason for his rapid His promotion. understanding of the problems businessmen faced were well revealed by his attitudes over pollution-a key issue since he was chairman of the river authority. 'You can't expect industrial firms to change their methods waste disposal overnight.

of It is a very expensive process,' he replied to people demand- ing pure rivers in the Sunder- land area. His attitudes to the work- ing class, of course, were coloured with the G&MWU's great distaste for strike action.

'Our attitude to the unoffi- action groups cial direct is bluntly but in committee that the unions can't countenance unofficial stoppage of work and that it pays in the end to make maximum use of con- ciliation machinery? Cunningham himself did eventually face action from unofficial groups. In 1970 shop stewards from Newcastle a firm, who said their dispute had been ignored by the G&MWU, toured the shipyards contacting other members in a bid to get rid of Cunningham -but they failed. In 1964 he became the Northern Regional Organizer of the union. He seemed set on a union career after having refused nomination as a can- didate for a Labour seat.

Through the union he reached into the upper eche- lons of the Labour Party itself.

In 1965 he got into the National Executive Commit- tee and in 1967 became chair- man of the Finance Commit- tee-I thrive on this kind of responsibility,' he said.

By this time Cunningham had shaken off Felling and moved to Chester le Street.

He denied the shift was be- cause Felling would be swal- lowed by the proposed Tyne- side authority, therefore dis- qualifying him from the valued seat on Durham County Coun- cil. 'I feel I want to devote my- self to bigger things, there is not much left for me in Fell- ing. explained when he he made the move in 1967. This was true. He had been the 'mayor' several times and chair- had monopolized the manship of the housing corn- mittee for 14 During years. this period he came into con- Poulson through tact with council contracts. Workers Press, Thursday Andrew Cunningham at the TUC (tar left). | and Municipal Workers Union has always bee Top right: Bankrupt architect John Poulson a various links with Cunningham. Centre: The ul Party Conference, 1972—Cunningham (secon the platform but he lost votes in the last nat Above: Cunningham, wife, car and home at The bigger things were just round the By 1969 corner. Cunningham massed had an amazing portfolio of positions in local and regional govern- ment and in public life. He was: Regional Secre- of the G&MWU; tary an Alderman of Durham County Council and the ex-chairman; a member of the Northern River Authority and the ex- chairman chairman; of Durham Police Authority; member of the Labour Party

NEC

and chairman of the Finance Committee; a direc- tor of the ill-fated Fairfields shipyard on Clydeside; mem- ber (under I. Dan Smith) of the North East Development chairman Planning Council; of the Tyneside Passenger Transport Authority and chairman of the Newcastle Airports Authority. The last two jobs were par- ticularly unusual. Both the airport and . the buses em- ployed G&MWU members. In case of a dispute, therefore, Cunningham would be both union leader - the bess and of corporatism. quintessence This did not seem to concern it worried Cunningham, but some of his members. The air- 3 Press, Thursday March 15, 1873 PAGE 7 he TUC (far left). His base in the General nion has always been his source of strength.

lect John Poulson and his wife. Poulson had gham. Centre: The union leader at the Labour Cunningham (second from right) is still on rotes in the last national executive elections.

, car and home at Chester le Street, 1969.

ports staff tried unsuccessfully to leave the G&MWU. This was Cunningham at his peak. He lived his big in bungalow and rambled on about possible avenues in life he could have chosen (sea captain for example). controversial was a figure. He lashed his shipyard members for striking, as he it, unnecessarily. The saw world did not owe them a living, he reminded them.

Tune 1971 he caused a In storm when he suggested the police might have to use 'not constitutional or legal methods' in their fight against crime. He was famous too. In March 1972 his wife launched the new Tyne ferry she named it the "Freda Cunningham'. But the storm clouds were gathering. At the height of his power, a journalist on the 'Newcastle What Journal' asked him, about the temptations of pub- lic life?' Cunningham replied: think they are over-exaggera- ted' Months later the Poulson case broke out in headlines across every paper in the land.

A RECORD OF TREACHERY

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thuraday Marc Part one of a series by Jack G The International Marx- ist Group — British sec- tion of the revisionist Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International — has attempted to answer serious charges our against their Ceylonese section, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolu- tionary), and its general secretary, Bala Tampoe. Our charges were based upon the report of the United Secretariat's Commission …on Ceylon which was read out at their Ninth World Congress held in Europe from April 11-19, 1969, and translated into the languages of all the delegates there. Serious admissions The Commission was set up Samarakkody, of Ceylon, who attended the 1969 World Congress as a member of the revisionists' International Executive Committee. Its report made the follow- ing serious admissions about Tampoe's behaviour: The Commission felt that some of the actions and policies of Comrade Bala and the LSSP(R) brought to our attention by Comrade Edmund and not denied by Comrade day March 15, 1873 Jack Gale on the revisionists and C Bala could have seriously da- maged the reputation of Com- rade Bala as a revolutionary leader, compromised the 4th International in Ceylon and [could] have been exploited by all the enemies of our move- ment. In this context, we refer following especially to the examples: (a) A series of incidents which together constitute com- promisingly close relations be- tween Comrade Bala and the Ceylonese embassies or mis- sions of the imperialist coun- tries. (1) A trip to the US in the summer of 1967, financed by the Asia Foundation. (2) His acceptance of a small private luncheon invita- tion at the residence of the British High Commissioner, during the 1966 plantation workers strike — a luncheon by was also attended that union Thondaman, a trade was playing leader who an strikebreaking role open against the plantation workers.

(3) His attendance at a small dinner party at the West German Embassy for visiting Chancellor Kiesinger. (b) A letter sent to the Ceylonese Prime Minister on January 22 1966 by Comrade Bala in his capacity as union general secretary, concerning the state emergency which he implied support for the imposition of a curfew in response to the 'violence' that occurred in Colombo. (This letter is included in bulletin March 17, 1969.) (c) Comrade Bala's policy in pa s and Ceylon. regard to the struggle against devaluation of the rupee in November - December 1967.

The CMU did not support the strike that took place at that time in the private sector. questions are raised Serious concerning why the ISSP(R) did not take the lead in fight- ing for united action by all the trade unions and working- parties class against devaluation. These were unprecedented admissions about a leading member of an organization claiming to be Trotskyist— particularly since the Asia is Foundation • a well-known front organization financed by the American

CIA,

and Kiesinger is a former member of Hitler's Nazi Party. Accordingly, we published a series of articles exposing th Tampoe and his protectors in Unified Secretariat in the Workers Press of October 18, 19,20 and 21, 1972 (soon to republished in pamphlet form). These provoked a statement of the Unified Secretariat, dated October 29, 1972, and carried in 'Intercontinental Press' on November 20. In reply to this statement we published a further series on Ceylon in Workers Press of December 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

We published in full the report of their Ceylon Com- mission on December 4 and we printed the minority report of the Indian member of the Commission on December 5.

Now the revisionists—in a in pamphlet called 'Ceylon and the Healy School of Falsifica- tion', published in January, 1973—seek not only to defend Tampoe, but to_ justify their entire record in Ceylon. This pamphlet is nothing but a collection of deliberate lies and miserable evasions from beginning to end. In June 1964 the Lanka Sama Samaja Party-then the Unified Secretariat's official Ceylonese section-joined the bourgeois coalition govern- of Mrs Sirimavo ment Bandaranaike. Since then it has supported wholeheartedly every reactionary measure of that government - including ferocious repressions ing the launched in 1971. Nevertheless, the author of this IMG pamphlet-one Jaya Vithana — blandly proclaims: 'I do not propose to deal with the absurd charge that the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International is res- ponsible for the betrayal of the LSSP in 1964'! The LSSP was your Ceylon- section Mr Vithana! ese People jumped straight from your International Executive Committee into anaike's Cabinet, Mrs Bandar- The leadership of the Pabloite International would not be able to evade respon- sibility for that political crime, even if it had not known what was going on. But it did know what was Bala Tampoe (right), general secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary). A report in 1969 at the World of the revislonists' Congress Unified Secretariat made serious about Tampoe's admissions behaviour. going on! The reason Vithana does not want to this answer 'absurd charge' is that in our issue of October 19 we quoted a letter from the LSSP outlin- ing a programme for joining such a bourgeois government to the Unified -and sent Secretariat in Paris tour years before the LSSP joined the government. letter, written by This N. M. Perera-now Finance in the repressive Minister government — Bandaranaike listed: (1) an agreement not certain election to contest Mrs Bandar- areas against anaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), (2) support_for the formation of an SLFP government 'not hedged about with conditions ', and (3) steps to bring about a programmatic agreement with the SLFP with a view to forming a joint government. No action was taken by the Pabloite International on this letter-yct Vithana claims that they were 'not responsible' for the defection of Perera and his accomplices. ever taken up No fight was with the LSSP leaders by the present leaders of the Unified Secretariat.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs were accused of having • agreement which reached an would allow 'news management by the police'. Speaking at a Press con- ference in Ottawa, New Demo- cratic Party leader David Lewis said he has seen a statement 'that journalists are supposed to exchange information with police. He added: It the sounds as if the journalists are going to become spies for the police, and that's hardly the job of a journalist ... News- men ought to be free to find out information and give it to public without being the harassed by the police and without being part of the police' CAB's president, Don Hamil- ton, denies that any agreement was drawn up. He says it was simply 'a statement of objec- tives, principles and operating relationships between the police agencies . . . and the media... It is of course not binding on anyone'. The statement does, how- ever, contain a clause saying 'because of investigative and legal requirements, the police have the right to make the decision on release of news for publication' It has been pointed out that this could mean the police censoring news during any crisis situation. Hamilton insists that the clause merely recognizes 'an existing fact. In that case, Lewis asked, why bother to draw up special statement about it?

The toll of people shot and killed by South African police 'in the course of their duty' was almost twice as high in 1972 as in the previous year.

In 1971, according to Police Minister Louwrens Muller, the police killed 52 adults and two Last year, he told the Cape Town parliament, the 91 figure was a staggering adults and three juveniles.

Most of the people killed last year were Africans-77— and only three of the remain- der were white. The other 14 were classified Cape coloured (mixed race). The three dead under-18s were two coloureds and an African, Muller said.

A further 299 people were wounded by police, 14 of them again the juveniles and majority were non-whites — 237 Africans, 52 'coloured' and ten whites. On one Tues- day this month, police shot two teenage boys. One 14-year-old is in an intensive care unit at Johan- nesburg with a bullet lodged near his spine. Another boy, aged 16, was wounded in the the same day while back running away from a suspected stolen car. Last month, Mike Carsten (27), shot in the back was killed in a busy shopping and district while trying to escape from police after being de- tained for suspected fraud- ulent use of a credit card.

'The Spanish Revolution' By Leon Trotsky. Pathfinder Press (New York). Price £4.15 cloth.

{1.65 paperback.

BY TOM KEMP PART 3

The move by Andres Nin and most of the members of the Left Opposition into the Partido Obrero Unifica. cion Marxista (POUM) in September 1935 marked their passage to a centrist position and the abandonment of the struggle to build a rev. olutionary party. unification The with Maurin's workers' and peas- ants' bloc was an unprincipled alliance which left all the de- cisive questions unanswered.

The new party declared its allegiance to the London Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Parties which was opposed to the struggle to build a new, Fourth Interna- tional which • Trotsky had pro- posed as an imperative task in the light of the Stalinist in Germany which betrayal had paved the way for Hitler to come to power in 1935.

Nin's decision to join with Maurin was conscious re- jection of all Trotsky's advice in the previous years and pre- for the be- pared the way trayals which were to follow.

February 1936, the POUM joined with the Com- munist Party and the Socialist Party and two 'left' bourgeois parties in an electoral paci based upon a common pro- gramme. This was the applica- tion to Spain of the Stalinist policy of the Popular Front laid down at the Seventh Con- gress of the Comintern in August 1935 and already in operation in France. 'In Spain', ', Trotsky wrote forcefully, 'genuine revolution- aries will be found who will the be- mercilessiy expose trayal of Maurin, Nin, And- rade and their associates, and lay the foundation for the Spanish section of the Fourth International.' It was with this perspective that Trotsky continued his polemic against the POUM • as revolutionary events rapidly loomed nearer after the elec- toral success of the Popular Front in February 1936. The study of the letters ex- changed between Trotsky and Nin which appear as an appen- dix to this volume is necessary Trotsky's to understand against struggle centrism which found its most calamit- ous form in the evolution of the POUM. Nin showed his reluctance to break with old friends and to take a stand for the Left Opposition. Instead he entered the Catalan Federation which was dominated by Maurin and "Trotsky- strongly opposed ism'. Trotsky demanded of Nin that the Left Opposition "execute an abrupt political turn to avoid being confused with Maurin any longer - a confusion which has been to his advantage and to our own disadvantage. This Nin refused to do, pre- ferring to evade discussion of all the principled political which had been questions raised. Nin's own letters con-' tain a string of complaints and protests in which the political differences were smudged over.

Amniatie Générale pour toas les prisonniers entifasciates.

Libération immédiate de tous lee Camarades du P. O. U.M.

Nous n'admettons pas le prin- cipe d'un procès contre les camarades du C. E. du P.O.

U. M. sans la garantie de la présence d'une délégation ou- vrière internationale. Nour protestors contre les exécutions sommaires et lés aserssinate de Camarades du

P.O.U UM.

Andres Nin, from a postcard of the tim march during the period of civll war.

Reviewing his relations with Nin in June 1936, Trotsky wrote to Victor Serge, with whom he also had to make a decisive break at a later date: of the 'Nin the head was Spanish Bolshevik - Leninists, and by that fact alone, he had a serious responsibility which he failed to carry out in prac- tice, all the while throwing dust in my eyes... if I am guilty of anything with regard Nin, it is of having to nourished illusions for too long on his account..! Trotsky held Nin respon- sible for the passivity and con- fusion which reigned in the Left Opposition in Spain and the failure to make significant gains. the crisis in Spain de- As veloped, with the election of Front and the Popular of ferment in the working class, Trotsky did not give up hope of bringing Nin • to see sense. The first condition was to abandon his centrist course and take a stand openly for the Fourth International and in opposition to its enemies in the POUM and against the Popular Front — 'the question of questions'. The outbreak of the Civil on- War in July 1936, made the of the exposure of question the Popular Front one of ex- treme urgency. It also raised Workers Press, Thur

ANDARS NIN

Od so troarent André NIN et les nutres disperas 7 of the time. Above: POUM banner on & more sharply than ever before in Spain the need to struggle against Stalinism, because it was only in 1936, in the course of the war, that the official Communist Party became real force in working-class politics in Spain. From the opening shots, Trotsky warned: 'By lulling the workers and peasants with parliamentary illusions, by will to paralysing their struggle, the Popular Front favourable conditions creates for the victory of fascism. The policy of coalition with the bourgeoisie must be paid for by the proletariat with years of new torments and sacrifices, if not by decades of fascist terror.' Tragically it proved to be the latter of these two alterna- tives which was to be realized in Spain. In a letter to the Interna- tional Secretariat of the Left Opposition Trotsky laid bare the Popular the nature Front, both in France and in Spain. The radicals and 'Left' bourgeois parties entered the represent the coalition to bourgeoisie, if onlye as he put it later, as their 'shadow'. Such a government could not purge the officer corps because the army was needed as a counter- weight to the working class. Nin and his friends, who es8, Thursday March 15, 1973 PAGE 9 signed the agreement which brought the Popular Front existence, had foreseen into nothing and they could not in- voke ignorance as an excuse.

The Civil war began pre- cisely with an uprising of the officer corps led by Franco.

But it was the army that the bourgeois supporters of the Popular Front-in France as well as in Spain-depended on to head off the working-class revolution. It is impossible to over- throw the bourgeoisie', Trot- sky wrote, 'without crushing officer corps. It is im- possible to crush the officer overthrowing without corps the bourgeoisie.' necessary for the It was working class to win the sup- port of the soldiers on the basis of a struggle against the bourgeoisie and the landlords whose made the sons up officer corps. That was the lesson of the Russian Revolu- tion. Trotsky was writing in order to mobilize the true revolu- in Spain for a tionaries struggle for power. That did not mean renouncing support for the Republican armies against Franco and the troops of Mussolini and Hitler sent to his aid. It did mean going to the masses with a bold social programme in opposi- tion to the Popular Front policy of victory first, then reforms. was the policy which This the POUM supported by enter- ing into the Popular Front.

Trotsky did not renounce the objective of rallying the true revolutionary forces, especially those in the POUM, in opposi- tion to the treacherous policy of alliance with the bourgeois Ministers, with 'the phantom bourgeoisie who stay in the Popular Front only to prevent the masses from making their revolution'. In any case, own the industrialists and bankers, the majority of the Spanish capitalist class, whatever side of the lines they happened to be, supported a Franco victory.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thursday March 15, 1973 IN HIS preface to 'Where is Britain Going?', Leon Trotsky wrote: 'By analysing the most important factors in Britain's historical development (we) elucidate the historical path along which the country will be urged by the external and internal contradictions of its existence? These contradictions are driving Britain on the road to revolution. That is why only a revolutionary organization can present to the working class its own true history and rip aside the bourgeois curtain of false history, based on so-called 'special British characteristics', 'gradualness' and lies. 'his false history is peddled inside the labour movement by the stalinists, th evisionists and reformists of all shades. The truth is, however, that the histor of Britain, like that of all the world, is one of wars and revolutions. As the first capitalist nation, Britain launched a ceaseless process of violent onslaught against other nations from Ireland to China.

And all the modern history of Britain the stemmed from violent revolutionary 17th of contier tne century. by the British Every gain ever made working class was made through struggle.

frequently inspired by revolutionary devel- Only Marxism can pre- abroad. sent this history today. Only the Socialist Labour League has been able to present to workers and youth, 150 years of in ne mos araman or. history, labour the fight for the unions, of the Chartists, forma- the the struggle tion …The internamona beginnings of the Labour Party.

Britain birthplace of the of was _in- Only the renalision ased method tne Here were the first dialectical the «usma worn cass. materialismn, mills and factories, docks and coal-mines.

objective conditions of the world econo- first time concessions were Here for the crisis. can show how all the accumu- wrung from tne capilanst class.

ated historical Concitions which have Marx wrestled with the gigantic task of regulated the relations between classes are Javing bare the true relations between the now being shaken to their foundations.

classes and the fundamental contradictions The present economic offensive against within the capitalist system.

Europe launched by the United States, forced British All of this leads to one central con- which turn capital to clusion. that the working class is a revo.

1010 Torces Witn Hutonean Canal ini „tre class whose historic role is the Common Market, drives the ruling class overthrow of capitalism and the construc- into a violent onslaught to take back trom tion of the socialist order.

the working class all the gains it has made since it was brought into existence.

Marxism, based on the materialist con- of history, is therefore inextricably of these contradic- ception the deepening the tions which provides the material basis for bolne lo WIli development or not working class in Britain.

the socialist revolution.

But for the working class to be victori- Those tendencies in the labour move- ment which refuse to start from the nature requires ous in its revolutionary tasks serious epoch by rapid and extensive process oi polltical nt the underlined preparation. Unlike any other acceleration of economic crisis the lead the working class capitalism prevare wore Call neruner consciously on the basis of Marxism as a working class nor examine its history. theory of knowledge. The Labour leaders, left and right, be- the This requires of the con- lieve in gradualism and always rush to structed by rescue of capitalism at times of crisis. The enin-

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MOST

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who wish to provoke Conse vave conflicts i their own terms The revisionist groups such as the In- repressions and throw the move- justify ternational Socialists and the International ment back. the Marxist Group, have revolutionary strength of the working Every struggle of the working class meekly trail along accordingiv. defend basic rights is now conflict Cass ane. behind the Stalinists, pouring cynicism on the state Tory and its

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and on revolutionary ideas and machine. But serious political preparations organization. have to be made for clashes in which the question of state power is raised and reformist. nece onDorTunIst re- visionist tendencies are not part the of This involves the ceaseless exposure of traditions of the working class. betrayal and an irreconcilable every They reflect hourganic laeology, The reformist illusions. struggle against method of compromise, back-room deals, was the purpose of our Pageant "The Road and a cvnical approach to Workers Power' presented the nait measures principles. last Sunday to an Empire Pool, Wembley audience of over 10,000. By robbing the struggles of the working class of a political of the SLL into The centred on transformation of the section down the Tory the need to bring govern revolton DaLV these tendencies- often under the International Committee ment, International, is the only guarantee against lavish of ause sootarcous militancy drive the working-class move- the emergence of counter revommon as into a blind alley and force indivi- result of workers entering serious struggles ment leader- without political preparation and groups c12! workers

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BY OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

THE

• SOUTH AFRICAN

authorities yesterday began their biggest show trial since the infamous Rivonia case which led to world- wide protests in 1963. Six men, two white and four black, are charged under the Terrorism Act and face pen- alties that vary from death to five years in South Africa's jails. The two white men, Aus- tralian Alexandre Moumbaris and Irishman John William Hosey, have already been held eight and five months respec- tively. The length of time spent in jail by the four Africans is not known. This is quite legal under the Terrorism Act, which like the British Special Powers Act, gives police the right to imprison sus- pects for interrogation, without trial for an idefinite period.

It does not oblige the police to inform the prisoner's rela- tives—Mr Moumbaris' wife was herself imprisoned for four months before she was deported back to her home country, France, without the knowledge of her parents. African Special The South Branch and police are clearly gearing themselves for a major propaganda campaign around the trial. Details of the charges have already been heavily leaked by Police Minister Lawrence Müller.

He told the mouthpiece of the apartheid regime in South Africa, 'Die Transvaler', that the six were part of a communist plot to subvert the authorities.

The plan, says Müller, was hatched in London by the Afri- can Communist Party with the

ALL

OUT

picketing Kingsway C Students yesterday's national one-day stri for stronger action from the Nat THE TORIES have appointed Mr Kenneth James Johnson, a of of the board member Courtauld's wholesale division, a deputy chairman of the Pay Board. Johnson Wadham went. to College, Oxford, and then to the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. After a tour of duty in Africa with the Colonial Service, he became director of industrial relations of the CBI in 1967.

This week Courtauld's was named as ore of the British com- panies which was underpaying its African workers in South Africa.

The salaries are so meagre in many cases, "The Guardian' re- ported, that families live in starvation. When Courtaulds was asked to help of the Soviet CP. Six highly-trained terrorists were to be landed by steamship on a deserted stretch of the Tran- skei coast. From there they were sup- posed to make their way through South Africa, keeping in conti- touch with London. Ac- nual cording to Müller_the plan was changed when steamship carrying the six from Somalia to the coast broke down. Instead into the the terrorists slipped country through Swaziland and Botswana with the help of 'a white man'. Müller says the security police picked up four of the conspira- two in Transvaal and tors in Durban, but their arrests were kept secret until the white man who had played the key role of getting them into South Africa was detained near the Swaziland border last July.

Whatever the truth of these accusations, the police are claim- ing the arrests are a major blow against communism in the Re- public. This comes at a time when South Africa is facing an unprecedented wave of unrest— the Durban clashes have passed for the present, but the black working class will not continue to exist on starvation wages for long without further mass pro- tests. The six--Theophilus Cholo, Justus Mpanza, Petrus Aaron Tembu, Gardner Kitchener Seja- Alexandre Moumbaris and John William Hosey—have no hope of justice. One apt descrip- tion of a South African trial was given by Hilda Bernstein in "The Terrorism of Torture': *

ALL

OUT

sway College of Further Education, -day strike for higher grants. Many stri the National Union of Students' leade this, senior comment on a executive said: 'If these people earn too much, they simply go on holiday? It is believed that Johnson's name was recommended to the Tories by Lord George-Brown, the former Labour Foreign Sec- and one of the most retary, consistent advocates of a legally- RELATIONS between journalists and management in Dublin have become embittered after dis- ciplinary sackings on two of the city's daily papers. The entire 180 editorial staff are : sitting-in at the 'Irish Independent' follow- ing their dismissal for stopping production after union demands for details of a take-over bid had been refused. At the 'Irish Press', followed six jour- a strike has nalists being fired for stopping work over articles in the Sunday edition written by non-unionist.

"The courts remain, the judges titles, remain, the ceremonies, formalities, modes of address re- main. There are no bribes. The corruption is much deeper, more The trial is played out subtle. with all formal etiquette and courtesy. 'Defence counsel will expose some witnesses as liars; others will confess that what they say is what they were told to say; it does not matter much. 'Counsel address each other and the judge with dignity and respect in the traditional terms.

All the trappings and the props are there. political trial The lacks only one thing-the possi- bility of justice being done.'

Apart from the lack of justice there is torture. This is a con- feature of cases brought stant under the Terrorism Act and a total of ten people have died since September 1968 in deten- tion. These include Nichodimus Kgoathe and Solomon Modipane, both who died after three months' detention. The Special they 'slipped on Branch said soap while showering' Iman Abdullah Haron died after "an accidental fall down a flight of stairs' and Ahmed Timol died in October 1971 when he "fell' ten floors from the security headquarters in Johannesburg.

The six accused, all said to be members of the banned African National Congress, are clearly in danger from greatest regime. Their savage apartheid case must be taken up through- out the labour and trade union movement in Britain. to aries со нані

STUDENT

GRANTO

MARCH

lucation, London, in support of lany strikers at the college called s' leadership. backed policy. wages Brown. is a director of Cour- tauld's and shortly after taking the job he paid a visit to South Africa to inspect the company's textile operations there. On his Brown. did not mention return, that black workers in his com- pany's employment were living on slave wages. DOCKS delegates representing the two unions in the London enclosed docks are for the moment sticking to last week's mass meeting decision to with- draw co-operation because of the government's limit of £2.60 on their negotiations. employers threat to withdraw the , offer if this happens has so far been ignored. From April 1, the dockers will insist on enlarged gangs and no shifting from job to job before completion.

Workers Press, Thursday March 15, 1973 PAGE 11 'Forward to the Revolutionary

SOUTHALL:

Wednesday March Party' 21, 8 p.m. The Library, Osterley Park Road. Thursday

WALTHAMSTOW:

March 15, 8 p.m. Royston Arms.

HOLLOWAY: Thursday March 22, Chingford Road, E.4. 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters CROYDON: Thursday March 15, Road. 8 p.m. House, Ruskin Coombe HACKNEY: Thursday March 22, Road. Parlour Room, Central p.m.

BASILDON:

March Hall. Sunday 18, opp. Town Hall, Mare 5.30 p.m. Barnstaple Community Street. Centre. LEWISHAM: Thursday March 22, DAGENHAM: Tuesday March 20, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club, 8 p.m. Barking Co-op Hall, Fan- New Cross Road. shaw Avenue. SLOUGH: Thursday March 22, BRIXTON: Tuesday March 20, 8 p.m. Community Centre, Farn- Control Room, ham Road, Slough. p.m. Brixton Training Centre.

STEVENAGE:

Thursday March EAST LONDON: Tuesday March 22, 8 p.m. 'Red Lion', Stevenage 20, 8 Festival Inn, Crisp Old Town. p.m. Street Market, E14. WILLESDEN: Thursday March 22 TOTTENHAM: Wednesday March 8 Labour and Trades Hall. p.m. High Road, NW10 21, 8 p.m. Bricklayers Arms, Tottenham High Road, nr. White

WANDSWORTH:

Monday March Hart Lane. Kings Arms, High • •l

WOOLWICH:

Wednesday March Road, SW18. 'The Fight agains Powis Street, 21, 8 p.m. Castle, Stalinism'. SE18 WATFORD: Monday March 26, 8 p.m. Trade Union Hall, Wood- WEMBLEY: Wednesday March 21, 8 p.m. ford Road, nr. Watford Junction Copeland School, High Road, Wembley. Station.

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BLACKPOOL APRIL 14/15 1973

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, APRIL 14 & 15, WINTER GARDENS, BLACKPOOL PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday Marc POLICE reinforcements were rushed to British Steel Corporation head. quarters in London yes- terday when 2,500 Welsh tried to steelworkers storm the building. Scuffles broke out and two men were detained by police workers pressed for- after ward across Grosvenor Place chanting 'We want Melchett' -the BSC chief. their wives Steelworkers and travelled to London in a fleet of 50 buses to lobby the BSC against closing the Ebbw Vale steelworks with the loss of 4,500 jobs.

After nearly hour with an vice-chairman corporation Dr H. M. Finiston, action committee chairman Mr Colin Hudson told the crowd: It was not all negative. We gained something. have Finiston has _agreed to discuss with us. We the closure dates are very satisfied.' Ebbw Vale MP Michael Foot twice interrupted discussions be- tween the ten-man works deputa- tion and BSC officials to ask them to speed up discussions in order to avoid trouble from the angry steelmen waiting outside.

Commenting on the demon- stration Mr Foot told me: went through all the 'We neither orthodox channels, but the BSC nor the government were prepared to listen, so we had to come here and tell them more clearly. want the closure dates 'We lifted so that the whole matter can be discussed properly?

At Ebbw Vale all 9,000 wor- kers at the steel works struck for the day and many shops and offices were closed. • said: 'Everything Mr Hudson is shut in Ebbw Vale. We have got shopkeepers, local councillors here churchmen with and today?

• BRIEFL

BRIEFLY

PRINTING difficulties caused by the civil service strike may hold up publication of the govern- ment's White Paper future administration of Ulster.

has affected the The strike Office and for two Stationery Order Papers days makeshift and other parliamentary docu- ments have had to be used so Commons business could that continue.

MAINTENANCE

engineers at British-Leyland's Lancashire bus and truck factories are on strike over anomalies in their bonus scheme, and lay-offs are expected amongst the 8,500-strong labour force over the next few days.

Shop stewards earlier this submitted a claim for à week substantial increase on piecework They have rejected a rates. £2.50-£2.80 offer for change-over to Measured-Day Work. the Registered as newspaper at Published by Workers Post Office. Clapham High Street, Press, 186a SW4 7UG. Printed by Longon, (TU), 180b Clap- New High Street. London Circulation: Plough

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01-720 2000. Newsdesk: 01-622 7029.

SATURDAY AND

sday March 15, 1973

BY IAN YEATS

Earlier the steel workers had marched in a half-mile long column from Speakers' Corner to BSC headquarters chanting 'Heath out' and 'We want work' At a mass rally at Westminster Central Hall the demonstrators were joined by about 200 men from Cardiff's East Moors works and Newport Tubes. Mr Hudson told the meeting that although BSC officials were willing to discuss closure dates, they had warned him that overall strategy for the industry was the •

RIEFLY

BRIEFLY

STOCK EXCHANGE dealings in the shares of BSA, the motor- engineering and cycle, guns group, were suspended yesterday the value of the shares after plunged from 19p to 4p wiping more than £2m from their mar- ket value. The company was left valued at a derisory £700,000 in BSA, which now share terms. employs 4,000 workers, has already sacked 4,600 since 1971.

Chairman Lord Shawcross said yesterday that secret negotiations had been taking place for some time 'in regard to the future of the company'. MARCH FUND £34l WE SHOULD, by now, be half way to our £1,750 target-but as you can see, we remain a long way off. We know that this month, so far, most of your efforts were towards making turned our Pageant on March 11 such a huge success. Now, from this enormous step forward, we urge you all to do everything you responsibility of the government.

Steel worker Mr Geoffrey Wil- liams told me afterwards: 'With Heath in we have no chance. We definitely lose the steel- will making at Ebbw Vale. 'They 4,500 jobs say its only with all those who to go, but depend on us it will be nearer 7,000. 'There is no other industry at Ebbw Vale and in two years they are not going to build anything.

I think if we brought out all the steel men we would have a chance. The trouble is our union accept the BSC plans. leaders They don't seem to care at all about us on the shop floor.'

STUDENTS' union leaders yesterday claimed a 90-per- cent response to their one- day strike. They want higher grants to be reviewed annu- ally and an end to discrimi natory treatment of some students because of the area they live in or their sex.

keep Workers Press to can right out in front. It is vital that we do. Workers Press must provide a lead to gasmen, hospital workers, civil ata servants and railwaymen time when their struggles are in danger of remaining isolated.

Our paper must be used to build a revolutionary leadership to unite all workers in a com-

14 & 15, WINTER GARDENS,

BY DAVID MAUDE OUR LABOUR CORRESPONDENT

STRIKERS at St James' Hospital, south London, decided yes- terday to stay out for a second week.

Despite severe doubts about their union leaders' selective strikes policy, and the attempts of a union branch secretary to force the Tories' £2 offer down their throats, they voted 184 to 62 to continue their action.

But their stormy, 75-minute meeting revealed clearly all the dangers of the unions' refusai to call all-out action against the Tory pay laws. Union official Harry Barker convinced no one with his attempt o explain why selective strikes were, in fact, more effective than a His contribution to the meeting merély reinforcec total stoppage. workers' fears that they would be isolated and cut down by the Tory attack. This opened the way for NUPE branch secretary Bert Crouch to did not want to continue the strike to try and persuade those who accept the £2 and take their case to the Tory Pay Board.

with a powerful speech, drew atten- But shop steward Ivy Bailey, tion to the class character of the Pay Board.

By the time their considered, she said, was of the increase the value would have disappeared be- cause of the rising cost of it was living and since Tory set-up, there was every they would likelihood not if their get anything even case was considered. She drew the meeting's Post Office attention to the workers' bitter experience with the Hardman inquiry.

With the gasworkers, the and others civil servants behind them, hospital work- ers were in a powerful posi- tion, she said. 'But if you want to win, fight. If we you've got to go back now Heath will be laughing at us.' Striking hospital workers James's Hospital, at St south London, voting three continue their to one to action for a further week.

of Aberdeen million through the city Half a students. took chanting 'Grants up. Heath out'.

the strike, and yester- part in called for thousands lob- At a rally speakers day afternoon the removal of the Tory govern- bied parliament. Besides pointing out that the ment. grant is existing maximum ABOUT 70 per cent of students totally inadequate because of the and Manchester in Salford living, the cost the rise yesterday stayed away from lec- National Union of Students is the one- tures in response to discretionary fighting the day strike call. awards system. Uni- of Salford Pearson John students marched

OVER

1,000 who led march to versity, Workers Press: Manchester, told ineffective to have one-day 'It's We need joint action strikes. fight is Our with the unions. Tory government. with the mon struggle to make the Tory Coventry 2,000 students IN government resign. marched round the city centre Immediately we need an all- out' and chanting 'Heath March Fund out effort for our «Thatcher out. Fair grants in'. to pull our figure right up.

Help IN LEEDS more than 3,500 took raise extra amounts to give us part in a demonstration. A meet- Post all your our Fund a boost. Leeds University Union right away to: ing donations demanding passed a resolution Workers Press

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