Workers Press no. 1044

workers press

A 'TEMPORARY

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER ® TU

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITT

By David Maude our labour correspondent of the Tory pay laws and warned his members of the 'difficulties' which would surround demands for pay rises above the government-imposed limits.

Scanlon's surrender came in his keynote speech to could be completely well the national committee of dropped by the end of the (Parliamentary Press his union's engineering Gallery). section, meeting at Torquay. No wonder Sir John Don- aldson, president of a court

SCANLON

Later this week the concorec "am. which has stripped Scanlon's victory' to the porary committee is expected to £61,000 in fines ories imposing state and costs over debate resolutions the last vear over wages. control for increases of up to £15 felt tell Glasgow able to But he leaves open who businessmen last night that a week, and it will also be thinks he them their cave the vital discussing aven a litte time the uniond issues over miners, culeracco tho and the court 'can and will' of the Industrial Relations Post Office workers, gas- be friends. men, teachers and others. Act and the Common the The alection ic blaming the work. Market. arA Cranion Communist Party and its ing class class? On all three issues-pay, "left" he like to say, per- who this SuDDoTterS law Europe- union and year claim more than haps, that the engineers Scanlon issued usually powerful position on hoc challenge to the engineers' inion nationa committee, going to become committee delegates Taking yesterday's speech the open friends of Donald- with his together recent, son and the Tories this week too? controvercial commente the Parliamentary Press Gal- The wav is open for them said: lery, he has TRADE unions will soon to answer this question, and now • It would be idle to pre be the best of friends with the not tend the government had Clearer. the National Industrial demand that not won its battle to imnose Ther can all colla- state pay control on the gas Scanlon repudiate Relations Court,

NIRC

and (Tor- boration with the Tories, or workers others president Sir John Donald- quay, yesterday). resign. put down son forecast yesterday. And they can • Too high a pay claim this would the emergency year involve mation Already the spirit of structing the engineers' difficulties unionin carione

TUC

reached the insist the (Torquay). cutiva of the Amal. make Mav 1 the start of a should be further There Strike to force the Engineer. General amated Union d Tories talle with the ing Workers, at Peckham. Moriac ont attempt to strike a deal with There was no shortage of in the a tur months he the Industrial them over "left" Scanlon's will words further. Relations Act (Torquay). speech yesterday. will posi- harasining herome • Two amendments to the Sooner perhaps than the tively oriental, but no doubt Act could pave the way for will emerge. something government exnects ex. co-operation (Parliamentary plosions and will remed Donaldson. who was Press Gallerv). prices and other elements speaking Glasgow Junior of Commerce, Trade union attitudes on warting ance hudapt Chamber was continue to rise whilst wage the Common Mart at wAra renating the recent TA. changing, and opposition

TURN TO BACK PAGE

marks of Hugh Scanlon, TER • TUESDAY APRIL 10, 1973 • No 1

OMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST

themselves respon were sible for the meagre settle- ment their leaders accepted last year? No, the responsibility lies with the disastrous plant-by-plant stategy Scan- Ion espoused instead of a united fight with the miners which would certainly have toppled the Tories. Are the gasmen respon- sible for the Phase Two fies AUEW president, that amendments to the Industrial Relations Act might pave the way for a deal with the government. He presumably feels that such a deal is certain to mean the AUEW dropping its present refusal to co- operate in any way with the court. Even in the present un- the settled climate the court's relationship with most unions of respect and me was one understanding, he told the Glasgow businessmen. "Given a little more time it can and will develop into one of friendship.' Hinting at a number of undisclosed deals involving union leaders, he said: 3 • No 1044 • 4p

IALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

settlement imposed them? No, their determined struggle was wound up by union leaders who refused to fight the government and by a TUC General Council which cynically isolated them. And is there some flaw in the hospital workers' heroic struggle which justi- fies last Friday's treacher- *Our successes will never be news, and to give pub- licity to the commonsense which is talked in sittings of the court which are not open to the public would gravely embarrass a number people and would not in the cause assist of improving public relations.'

But he did reveal one of the techniques developed by the court during its 16 months of existence. This was the private 'meeting for directions', held with all parties prior to any hearing in open court. The court, he said, always based sits behaviour on the assumption that everyone was reasonable. Faced with this attitude parties who have behaved in THERE'S at least one thing you can be certain of so far as the fund goes - every political enemy of the Socialist Labour League would be delighted to see it fail. We can almost see the smiles now when they learn that through- out the weekend we re- ceived just £1 from a kind reader in southern Ireland. Our total is £1,179 and this is the seventh day of the fund. Can we now have a reai break? Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High St London SW4 7UG FORD engine-plant workers at Dagenham were sent home yesterday because of a con- tinuing involving dispute electrical maintenance wor- kers. The dispute started on Friday when 68 of the elec- tricians walked out after a supervisor had carried out repairs. The maintenance men refused to work again yesterday because they say he was not entitled to do so.

ous statement of the TUC Finance and General Pur- poses Committee, supported by Scanion, which offers the Tories further victories?

Scanlon's statement is an Insult to every section of workers involved in the fight against the Tory pay laws.

We ask Scanion a straight question: who is responsible for the Tories' *temporary victory'? ever the most 'unreasonable' way suddenly changed. Time and again,' Donald- son added, we find that when the parties have been persuaded to isolate the only real issue they suddenly con- clude that so small a re- maining difference can be resolved between themselves.

*The process may need a little further encouragement the court, but it is from our job to know when and how to do it.' In what came close to being an open reply to Scanlon's call for amend- ments, the NIRC president said there seem to be general agreement • that the 1971.

Industrial Relations Act, which set up the court, d in could be improved.

workers press

A 'TEMPORARY

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • TU

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITT

By David Maude our labour correspondent of the Tory pay laws and warned his members of the 'difficulties' which would surround demands for pay rises above the government-imposed limits.

Scanlon's surrender came in his keynote speech to could well be Comnee v the national committee of dropped by end of the the (Parliamentary his Press union's engineering vedi Gallery). section, meeting at No wonder Sir John Don- Torquay. aldson, president of a court

SCANLON

concedes "tem- Later this week the which has stripped Scanlon's victory' to the porary committee is expected of £61,000 in fines in imposing state ories debate resolutions calling and costs over the last vear.

wages. Glasgow kontrol nuor for increases of up to £15 felt to tell able Rut he leaves open who businessmen last night that a week, and it will also be he thinks their them discussing the vital issues giyen " ittio time tha iniano miners, over tha and the court 'can and will' of the Industrial Relations Post Office workers, gas- be friends. teachers and others. Act and the Common men. the The anactinn ic. blaming the work. Market. C arp Ceonlar Communist Party and its class? On all three issues-pay, "left" who this supporters, law and Europe- year claim more than haps, that engineers IInIOn Scanlon has now issued usually powerful position on fundamental challenge to the enginears' iminn narınnal committee, going to become rommittee da agatec Taking yesterday's speech the open of Donald- friends with his together recent, son and the Tories this week too? rontaauarcio commento the Parliamentary Press Gal- The way is open for them lery, he has now said: TRADE unions will soon to answer this question, and • It would be idle to pre- canla be the best of friends with + ha Icsulac not tend government plantan. the National Industrial demand that not won ite hattle to imnose har state pay control on the gas Scanion repudiate all colla- Relations Court,

NIRC

and (Tor- workers others president Sir John Donald- quay, yesterday). resign. son forecast yesterday. And they can put down • Too high a pay claim this would involve the an emergency year matinm Already i the spirit of structing the engineers' exe- difhonltioc „nıne CAMInIIC reform' reached the to insist the

TUC

(Torquav). OuTiTA headquarters of the Amal- make Mav I the start of a should be further There General Strike to force the Engineer. with tha Torioc in ing Workers, at Peckham. tolee •an 'lorac attempt to strike a deal with There was no shortage of il she com tir merths he Industrial them "left' Scanlon's will over words spread further. Relations Act (Torquay). speech yesterday. will hargainıng harama naci. Teo amende ine ay tor Iwo 'Sooner perhaps than the tively oriental, but no doubt the way for will something emerge' Mave anyernment aynerts. co-operation (Parliamentary psion pand will r elemed Donaldson. who Press Gallery). prices and other elements speaking to Glasgow i Tunior of th0 hamer of Commerce, Trade union attitudes on Tanrinaraca hundadt was continue to rise whilst wage the Common were Manhat sanatina tha torent ra. changing, and opposition

TURN TO BACK PAGE

marks of Hugh Scanlon, TER • TUESDAY APRIL 10, 1973 • No 11

OMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST I

themselves were respon- sible for the meagre settle- ment their leaders accepted last year? No, the responsibility lies with the disastrous plant-by-plant stategy Scan- lon espoused instead of a united fight with the miners which would certainly have toppled the Tories. Are the gasmen respon- sible for the Phase Two oon AUEW president, that amendments to the Industrial Relations Act might pave the way for a deal with the government. He presumably feels that such a deal is certain to mean the AUEW dropping its present refusal to co- operate in any way with the court. Even in the present un- settled climate the court's relationship with most unions of respect and was one understanding, he told the Glasgow businessmen. 'Given a little more time it can and will develop into one of friendship! Hinting at a number of re- undisclosed deals involving lon, union leaders, he said: 3 • No 1044 • 4p

IALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

settlement imposed them? their determined struggle was wound up by union leaders who refused to fight the government and by a TUC General Council which cynically isolated them. And is there some flaw hospital workers' in the heroic struggle which justi- fies last Friday's treacher.

'Our successes will never the be news, and to give pub- licity to the commonsense which is talked in sittings of the court which are not open to the public would gravely embarrass a number of people and would not in the assist of cause improving public relations.'

But he did reveal one of the techniques developed by the court during its 16 months of existence. This was the private 'meeting for directions'.

', held with all parties prior to any hearing in open court. The court, he said, always based its behaviour on the assumption that everyone was reasonable. Faced with this attitude parties who have behaved in THERE'S at least one thing you can be certain of so far as the fund goes - every political enemy of the Socialist Labour League would be delighted to see it fail. We can almost see the smiles now when they learn that through- out the weekend we re- ceived just £1 from a kind reader in southern Ireland. Our total is £1,179 and this is the seventh day of the fund. Can we now have a reai break? Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High St London SW4 7UG FORD engine-plant workers at Dagenham were sent home yesterday because of a con- tinuing involving dispute electrical maintenance wor- kers. The dispute started on Friday when 68 of the elec- tricians walked out after a supervisor had carried out The repairs. maintenance men refused to work again yesterday because they say he was not entitled to do so.

ous statement of the TUC Finance and General Pur- poses Committee, supported by Scanlon, which offers the Tories further victories?

Scanlon's statement is an insult every section of to workers involved in the fight against the Tory pay laws.

We ask Scanlon a straight question: who is responsible Tories' 'temporary for the victory'? the most 'unreasonable' way suddenly changed. 'Time and again,' Donald- son added, 'we find that when the parties have been persuaded to isolate the only real issue they suddenly con- clude that so small a re- maining difference be can resolved between themselves.

'The process may need a little further encouragement the court, but it is from our job to know when and how to do it.' In what came close to being an open reply to Scanlon's call for amend- ments, the NIRC president said there seem to be general agreement - that the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, which set up the court. could be improved.

PAGE. 2 Workers Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 Euro-credit near breaking point

INTERNATIONAL

BY JOHN SPENCER

Euro-bonds has virtually The uncertainty on the Euro- Investors been are JOOKIng twice at all glamour stocks.

reflects growing closea down. high interest rates Bone markeT beginning to have unprofitable for that it bet or all the pr as The bankruptcy adding to emerge from the bankruptcy professional' market operators to Walch matures becomes aue Io1 an already marked remierance 'epayment) in ten months' time. of Equity Funding Corpora- buy shares which might well lose borrow monev to buv bonds.

slashed News of th bankruptcy. their value overnight. Tween ree high coste tion in which many big • Is part ol a nel- the bauity runding between by fear work of credit which is inter- bond by half. names of American inance Euro-bond national in its scope. used and uncertainty 1s The Equity Funding disaster Dosid purchase which are hor are involved. particular v the the Times' maker. markel As 'Financial put is the blow to hit purchases, in dollar bonds. it last The firm was forced into tees. There is also the in recent high monte. cuolle

LIOCOSOL

enough to otiset the hnanc.

There is also of A. Walters: case Cole bankruptcy last week when the ing charges. could hit confidence

SQUEEZE

Securities and Exchange Com- was due blow, falling severe Euro-bonds on April I worth of York dis- 1n New

UNRAVEL

commercial banks and in oractice least a third covered that at being transmitter to the The Euro-bond market involves still has 22 back grace to udys of its $3,240m life insurance federal Reserve system. mont it can. us isn Carl Gewirtz Tribune® the 'Inter- The sale or saares to necers no the business was bogus. Euro-currency, chiefly dollars indication that national Herald The complex network of Buro- held non-residents of cial must first settle an outstand- by Equity Funding credit has ine bank. aurenDus occome burned the fingers of United States which are therefore aop-hredit-rated bespanies to and ruptcy has waca akes oreccoence that it one thread snaps the en free of exchange controls.

over the debt to its bond holders.

top-credit-rated companies fabric of international credit investors wno re- For out- month the ruled garded the 13-vear-old company Funding has more than could begin unravel and ale standing bond issue worth $23m as a glamour stock. dolar-denominated time being'. one would be able to stop it.

markel Democrats protest colonial policy Portuguese police attack anti-war march AT LEAST 25 people were injured in the town of Aveiro, in central Portugal, when police attacked demonstrators singing the Internationale and demanding an end to Portuguese wars in Africa.

Eye said witnesses heavily-armed police used

BY OUR OWN

dogs to break up the pro-

CORRESPONDENT

and test march sent fleeing in demonstrators all directions when they four -and sometimes years paraded up Aveido's main 35- up to age -1s in opera- street. the Portuguese i hasear The clash came on the and the British Tory govern- of Third final day the celebrating the 1uCHI alci Portuguese Opposition De- anniversar Congress mocratic Treaty of Alliance between anniversary celebra- Portuguese troops in Africa.

wines about 1,500 people defied which the tions. cubillies EN demon- Portugal 'Britain's Messrs Roberts, Dan on public maked rora and tried oldest ally'. Garrett are reported to be strations and Workers and Dr Marcello march the monument Caetano, the less than delighted with the of a well-known local de- and claiming dictator, decision Portuguese alc that some of the NEC 'lefts students back Caetano ... 'Oldest ally' Dr José Estevao. at Bucking an cinner wit the wueer Lucial take their holidays Tuly as Palace The demonstrators were of celebra. the Fortuear pall Yemeni chanung SuCa The right-wing friends of Tions ano the buke or cal 'Down with the colonial Renault strike burgh visiting Lisbon in The anour and 'amnesty for poli- wars' Party seem oblivious to the June. Social-Demo- prisonels, students fact that the said. THOUSANDS of college and high Cane Welco school THE LABOUR Party execu- their own organization has At least two people were students together with factory workers and tive has voted send "fraternal' ties, is illegal and оссиру taken to nospital ana a num- trade a delegation to the celebra- unionists were planning march ber were injured by trun- membership by through Paris yesterday afternoon in support Lisbon, causing cheons and dog bites. heavy jail sentences. some among MPs bitterness of the wages embassy struggle Renault and the Portugal is war in all who were looking forward demand for reintroduction of military three of its African colonies, a convivial few days Guiné-Bissau, Mozambique deferment.

SIX

leading Japanese firms guests or une gal-wing 1e- YEMENI students seized gime. said they The an• A12o1a. yesterday demonstration Pompidou was the followed The cost North Yemen of the war MPs, Alfred Rob- considering the first more concilia- the Three anne onate by the workers and release of surplus land and the westion turned, borne meeting of the embassy in Cairo yester- erts. Ben Ford and Ted Gar- wool which they are accused the question Portugal, rett, were to have made the French Council of Deasants day and held the ambas- Renault strike lowest hoarding and thereby the have one the Ministers, and of trip part of an inter- where Pre- sador hostage. living standards in Europe, produc- delegation. contribuung ONCe conaldons sident Pompidou urged parlamellary 500 Representatives tion-line and immigrant About students creases. and the colonies. Their acceptance of the invi- six firms told this to the adoption of workers. the the Party enoassy in oro tation put At least 40 per cent of tough line with Liberal the test at the Democratic Chancing over position. Talle •1 ne government, the budget goes on arms, in an impossible land to Saudi Arabia and the were sum- movement in the high said, should show itself Party when thes

NATO

them supplied many Only a few weeks previ- moned to party headquarters and opposition leaders schools, auspices by SCuICL ously the party executive had unaer to explain the activities which the ous' in satisfying the de in same time AI Britain and the Unitedl students' however, the President for changes spokesman Passca are Salei nave caused States. said her test. also the Tory governent to have unusual price rises in many was more workers' conditions, conciliatory Conscription for at least nothing do with the commodities. particularly those occupation the WUrOS used Renault some culance _The to by strikers and immigrant The Ked Ser US deeper in Cambodian commandos. workers in demonstrates the general. An Israeli presence on thi No doubt he hopes to tual unLess oresen slands in the strait of Bab e create divisions between delicately cution Mandeb give the workers and handled there could be could Tren mire

THE

VISIT

Indo- tory speak ot. the country to to over the entry of students explosion class China of General Alex- shipping. Pompidou and his certain: the Lon Nol dictator.

however, struggle. Education ander Haig, President Minister, Pompidou is particu- But American planes Joseph Fontanet, larly anxious to trouble. Nixon's senior ship cannot last much lon- been pounding the libera- clear the after cabinet prevent any revival south-east shooter in its

COMMON

MARKET

tion around ger com- forces ositions the the meeting that the educa unity between The administration Nixon approved the Asia, is raising fears in capital Phnom Penh fol would and TIon service micole cass must decide whether to sale of 200,000 tons of Washington that the US kept and univer- workers was severt Weeke actively Hang i tervene more Bhion at a knockdown Soriet butter Soviet It is only matter sity liberties May- would demonstrated drawn deeper may be suffer before prop it up time giant «une 1700 into the Cambodian war. cularly numillating Neither aggression … ne deal Will

COSI

He 1s neavily • Genen cisive defeat. Common Market farm fund American ground troops servicemen taken pri- dent on the Communist about £150m in export sub- not at present involved, On Saturday the Salgon to hold the soner work party vaupations butter that the un- Whether Nixon would use regime announced that the would sidies to ing class commully bullelnes Check as been tolerated, he said. traders. task which over Consciol of round mility has re. seven-month period will General Lon Nol has vention troops situation in Cambodia con- The authority of the ligiously carried out effectively halve EEC's cut 1o pieces by the libera. remains 1o seen—the 'serious menace few chiefs of the educational over the past 'mountain' tion which Nol Republic of Viet-

4UU.U0U-LO1

estabusaments would be montas. especiauv In tue popular basis and no terri- stockpiled butter. enormous popular support. nam'. strengthened. pre-election period.

FROM DAVID MAUDE IN LIVERPOOL

SIT-IN STRIKERS at Tillotson's Liverpool carton- making factory are fighting to defend three basic rights.

These are the right to work, the right to indepen- dent trade union organization and the right to take industrial action. St Regis, the US conglomerate which now owns the factory, has challenged all three.

On Friday, March 16, 26 women workers at the factory were told they were being made redundant.

Since 1967 the labour force at Tillotson's has been cut from 700 down to 400, with waves of redundancy each year.

when another 103 jobs Last September, were threatened, the factory chapel of

SOGAT,

the paperworkers' union, decided enough was enough. The chapel said it would FoC, explained that the sit- all future redundan- in strike was being conduc- resist ted on a eLen compulsory rola Dasis, with ou voluntary. workers in attendance each shift. So the management knew Committees already would resisted-the had be been set up to run the more since negotiations various aspects of the of the redundancy plans were pation, and there would be going on at local and Still regular mass meetings. It is reason- national level. *This action is against our assume, therefore, aDle right that the company must also and against

WONK

us as elected FoCs,' he said have planned its next move.

of the company's move to The form the chapel's re- dismiss them. sistance took was a work to 'It's an attack on our The company retaliated rule. most basic rights dismissing chapel TOld unionists, and we're deter- officials. mined win these Tom Chute and Ann Shane back.' are, respectively, father and Added Shane: "The Ann the mother of

SOGAT

management's attitude has chapel (a post equivalent been completely dictatorial.

shop stewards). Eric Bradley "They refused discussion and Artie Martin, the other of their redundancy plans, two sacked workers, are although were prepared FoC deputy and chapel discuss manning levels in chairman. the factory. They refused to On March 22, Tillotson's manning agree- manager, P. ment. general the four Diewill. 'Notices issued to the 26 that they had been dismissed were compulsory, not volun- members Yet later ther Lady. break their contracts of us of opposing our members' he empioyment, right to a free choice in the claimed was an unfair indus- matter! 'Quite rightly, the women dustrial Relations Act. just handed back their Ray_Jones, assistant secre- and notices sat in the of the Liverpool branch tary canteen.' of SOGAT, says such a state- Steve Hughes, a fork-lift outside 1S quite truck four years at experience claren as official. Tillotson's, expressed the mood of the younger workers 'There may have been at the factory. of this kind other instances 'We back the union all thing, he told me, 'but OI the he said. We can't way, haven't heard of them. As lose if we stick together.

far as I know it's quite un- precedented.' I've got some mates on the dole. We're not just The following day, Friday fighting for four union reps, March 23, the 100-strong but for the work. workforce at the Commercial That's what we want.' Road factory unanimously decided Many of the sit-in strikers occupy the fac- until their chapel voiced fears that behind the tory officials were fully reinstated.

management's allitude plans for complete closure.

The management immedi- There are reports that St ately eft the Regis up residence at a new luxury has purchased a new site which will be opened up the hotel in the city centre, Holiday Inn, where they for production by 1975 and 200 will employ less than have picketed been workers. from the women workers placards. factory carrying MPs have been Girls from the occupled Labour Chute, the sacked asked to investigate. centre hotel. Com ABOUT 300 striking hos-

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

pital workers invaded the offices of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board A MASS meeting of Sheffield hospital workers Sir Keith yesterday to see yesterday voted to consider bringing out boilermen Secretary for joseph, Lne at the 11 local hospitals.

Health and Social Services.

out boilermen Chanting 'What do we put 1o a The threat to pull WaS of 150 ancillary workers at Trans- More money', they packed meeting want! of the regional of the port House by Ken Curran marched to the ordinating committee. Laundry personnel also pas- board's head- the sed a resolution to continue present level of But Joseph had a last- industrial action. of He plan. minute change The Sheffield workers agreed to meet in a week's decided to miss his Manches- reconsider the situation. Lilly Talbot, time and told Workers LeI cucculcil worker General. TrOm Nonend straight to Preston see Council Press: 'We want to stop anybody from doing volun- County Lancashire like tary work. give in now, we'll have a life i we officials. dogs. Mr Heath is frightened of a General Strike.' When they heard. Joseph would not be arriving the strikers- -mainly from the • Hospital In South Wales to con- Salford group of hospitals workers are tinue their strike action until April 18.

immediately occupied The unions agreed in committee Cardiff board room for co-ordinating yester-

DIULCOL

day to reaffirm their decision to continue the strike At this point the authori- plan.

TILL ATSONS THEI

NO LOTTE

TILLOTEONE

INar

TILLO

occupled plant picket the employers who are 'exile called the police who ties turned up in droves. The strikers agreed to leave the building if asked to do so by the police. A delegation later saw the board secretary, Mr Frank Pethybridge. Colin Barnett, north west regional officer of NUPE, said: "This is a sign of the hospital workers' increasing militancy and determination to win a decent settlement.

'Sir Joseph Keith must understand that his failure to come here today and meet deputation the from unions has caused our anger to increase. 'This is the first time a hospital board's premises have been taken over, and the management must realize they will never again be able hospital workers to kick around like they have in the past. Workers Press, Tu are 'exiled' in a city

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NOW OPEN Monday to Fridays (late night ope Saturdays 9 Press, Tuesday April 10; 1973 PAGE 3

BY ROYSTON BULL

• TYING in of Britain's

THE

economy to the requirements of the monopolies of the Common Market was again underlined by Derek Ezra, chairman of the Coal Board, yesterday when he told EEC officials, including the Com- munity's Energy Commissioner Henri Simonet, of his indus- try's hopes and needs. • Council of Ministers is The expected to review energy policy at its mid-May meeting, when long-term fuel supply decisions are due to be taken. One possible plan is for Bri- tain to concentrate on coal pro- duction while Germany concen- trates on steel. This might lead reversal of the historic to decline of Britain's mining out- the corollary would but more-the British Steel -and Corporation is about to imple- ment. But there is nothing certain about this prospect. All sorts of vested interests in nine Market countries have to be placated. This is why Ezra couches his proposals in the form of a plea authorities in —to the higher Brussels and Paris. British coal industry is The vigorously using all the Com- munity channels to state case,' an NCB handout reads. just The decision could as easily be that Britain should run down still further both its steel AND its coal industries. Ezra's main theme song all political- has been along a nationalist one: that Middle-East oil supplies are going to become less and less reliable in the crisis-fraught period ahead.

He also plays the Malthusian 'energy shortage' theme, too, the world's oil implying that supplies are going to run out or become prohibitively expensive.

The tragedy is that Britain's National Union of Mineworkers goes along with a lot of this hogwash and gets itself firmly caught up in the EEC net as a result. None of these monopolist- inspired committees can offer any solution other than an im- perialist And with the one. crisis of capitalism getting deeper every day, the prospects in the coal for all who work industry are precarious whatever is 'decided'. The truth is that no 'planning' by any capitalist countries, singly or in groups, is worth the paper it is on. The European Coal and Steel Community Consultative Com- mittee may decide one thing to- day, but harsh economic neces- sities will make them repudiate it tomorrow, just as the British and Italian capitalists have already torn the Common Mar- ket monetary policy to shreds only months after it had been drawn up.

BOOKS, PERIODICALS AND

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nday to Thursary ! :.m.-6 p.m.

'a.m.-7.30 p.m. night opening) 9 lurdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

POLICE GUARD ALLOWS SHIP TO UNLOAD

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday April

SAFETY CABS

SAVE LIVES

In 1972 there were 95 fatal accidents agricultural in work. Nineteen of them were of children under 15 years old. Thirty fatal accidents involved tractors, and five of the people killed were under 15 years old. Many of these deaths might have been avoided had the tractors been fitted with ap- proved cabs when workers drove them. Since September 1970 all tractors sold for use in agriculture must be fitted with such cabs, but not until September 1977 will tractors bought before that date be compelled to have approved cabs. Yet the Ministry of Agricul- ture has reported that 51 acci- dents involving overturning tractors with approved safety cabs were investigated in 1972 and in nearly every case the driver escaped without injury.

The Ministry statement de- clares: 'There is overwhelming evidence that safety cabs save lives. At least 100 people are alive today because their trac- tors were fitted with safety cabs when they overturned.

Most of these drivers escaped without injury; the others suf- only minor injury or fered bruising. 'This is truly remarkable in view of the severity of some of the reported overturning incidents. Some of the tractors rolled over several times down steep hillsides.' Yet the Tory Ministry has resisted pressure from the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers to make safety cabs compulsory on all tractors. Fatal accidents in agricul- ture in England and Wales last year were (figures in brackets indicate people under 15 years of age): Tractors (a) Overturned 19 (2) (b) various 11 (3) Other self-propelled machines 3 (2) Other field machinery (1) 14 Electricity 6 Falls₽ 13 (3) Drowning 5 (5) Animals Falling and swinging objects (1) Gunshot 3 Other injuries and diseases 10 (2)

TOTAL:

95 (19) ne of the worst-hit areas in the country for youth un- employment is the north-west.

At the end of last year there were five unemployed boys for every vacancy in the area.

These grim figures were given to a conference organized by the Institute of Careers Officers by Mr John Healey, chairman of the Department of Employment's central youth employment executive. He said that in March the number of young people out of work fell nationally by a third. But in the north-west the drop was only a seventh. And throughout 1972 the area was the only region where employment figures for young- sters did not improve. In mid-1968 the region had two vacancies for every boy out of work. By the end of last year there were five un- employed boys for every out- standing job. Yet in the south- east there were three vacancies for every unemployed boy.

Healey said the fact that more young people were stay- ing on at school prevented the from climbing even figures higher. Another alarming factor in the north-west was that 15 per cent of unemployed young people had been jobless for at least six months. sday April 10, 1973 Leaders of 1.5 million white-collar workers get together today at Con- gress House for a yearly beanfeast known as the annual conference of the National Federation of Professional Workers. Even if you are a member of one of the unions involved, the initials NFPW probably mean about as much to you as they do to the average miner, shipwright or steel- worker. Because this is one of those bodies which seems to spend most of its time passing pious resolutions and writing to gov- ernment Ministers, but doing little or nothing to defend and advance the living standards, working conditions and union organization of those who sub- scribe its funds. Last year the federation's 52nd conference called for 'continued unity of the trade union movement in resisting, in line with TUC policy, the implementation of the Act'.

The terms of the motion- moved by TASS, the technical and supervisory section of the Amalgamated Union of Engi- neering Workers-were drawn to the attention of all 41 affi- liated unions. A copy was sent to the TUC. Within a few weeks of the conference the TUC performed a massive about-turn and al- lowed unions to co-operate the National Industrial with Relations Court, and NFPW The Russian ship, 'Kondratil' unloading 1 Howdendyke on the Humber.

affiliates began trooping duti- fully into court at the drop of a writ, regardless of their deci- sion to resist implementation of the Act. And if the union leaders have their way the same thing is going to happen to the poli- cies they will decide today.

Five unions have motions dealing with the Tories' state control laws tabled for pay discussion. Society of Civil Ser- The vants 'rejects the government's proposals for the second stage their prices and incomes policy' , and calls for tull sup- for its own campaign port against them. TASS wants NFPW affiliates to 'maintain maximum pressure on the gov- ernment for a reversal of its present policy' USDAW, the shopworkers' union, 'affirms its strong oppo- sition to any form of statutory control of wages'-but goes on to talk about the 'imperative need' for unions themselves to a voluntary incomes establish policy giving eflective control of prices, rents and dividends.

The GLC Staff Association was 'disturbed by reports of prospective government inter- rights of ference with the staff ... to proceed by regular annual increments up their scales of pay. Insurance work- ers in Clive Jenkins' ASTMS organization want the NFPW conference to deplore 'the gov- ernment's niggardly provision in the Counter-Inflation Bill (second stage) which permits the payment of only one-third of the remaining gap between inloading timber at the unregistered wharf Clive Jenkins of ASTMS, one of the white-collar unions in

NFPW.

men's and women's rates'.

All these motions betray the deep and dangerous reformist confusion which the union leaders want to foist on their members. The report of the federa- tion's 70-strong executive com- mittee reveals the contempt in which these kind of policies are held by the Tories. Last July the executive wrote to the Secretary of State for Employment, Maurice Macmillan, expressing "deep concern' at the jailing of five London dockers for contempt of the industrial court. Macmillan handed down the letter to his Minister of State, Robin Chichester-Clark, who replied haughtily that 'the gov- ernment cannot accept that its industrial relations legislation is responsible for any increase in industrial disruption'.

The dockers could have jailed even before the been legislation of the Industrial Relations he said. In Act, other words if the

NFPW

didn't like it it was just too bad. The executive 'noted' this arrogant reply, but decided to take no further action on the subject. 'Further correspond- ence in the matter would not be fruitful', the union leaders commented. And guess who today's guest speaker is at the NFPW con- ference. None other than ...

Robin Chichester-Clark! In the early hours of Sunday, April 1, a Dutch ship, the Inge Fiedler', berthed fur- tively at Bankside wharf in Hull and began unloading a cargo of French timber. Under a strong police guard, seven non-registered em- ployees of William Barchard and Son Ltd, the wharf own- ers, discharged the vessel in seven hours flat. By 3.30 in the afternoon, its 400 tons of cargo lay ready for despatch on the quayside, the battened ship's hatches were down and the 'Inge Fiedler' lay ready to put back to sea.

This incident incensed the port's registered dockers, who have been waging a long and bitter battle against the non- registered wharfs dotted up and down the Humber and the Trent. During the national docks strike last year they staged flying mass pickets at these wharfs, closing vital loop- holes through • which strike- breaking shipowners and 'cow- boy employers , were attempt- School meals are an essential of the education and part not be hived off to should Man- private contractors, the chester education chief, Mr Dudley Fiske, has told a con- ference of educationists.

He said the service was in a vulnerable position. It was facing 'a managerial and com- merical revolution' • The danger was that meals might be taken away from educational control like the school welfare service.

He was speaking at Leeds University where a new cook- freeze unit had been pioneered.

In this experiment, meals are pre-cooked, then deep-frozen. Mr Fiske said a similar blast- freezing kitchen would open in Manchester later this year as part of the Abraham Moss Centre in Cheetham. This would produce 2,200 meals a day. He concluded by saying that Manchester schoolchildren were fed pea soup and bread in the late 19th century. Ever since those days school meals have been important both for children's welfare and learning.

Although Fiske did not mention it, in many northern schools the new synthetic pro- tein, Kesp, is being served during school meals. At one school Kesp has been used in stews and in the meat sauce on spaghetti. The experiment launched without was knowledge of teachers, parents or pupils. £97.5m Payments totalling were made to 297,000 workers made redundant last year. This works out at an average of £328 per redundant worker, the Labour Research says Department. Last year Sir John Wall left the chairmanship of International Computers Limi- ted. He received £56,000 as 'compensation for loss of office. He had been chairman since 1968. ing to pour thousands of tons of cargo. Last Thursday Barchards climbed down and agreed to use registered dockers to un- load their timber. But the threat from other wharfs con- tinued. Hull dockers want the recall of the Transort and General Workers' Union docks dele- gate conference to discuss why the National Ports Council has not recommended registration of such wharfs. One of the wharfs most strongly picketed in the cam- paign which led up to last year's national dock strike is at Howdendyke. Like Bankside this wharf tends to specialize in the han- dling of timbers. Which is what the Soviet vessel the 'Kondratii' unloading was there when the picture left was taken. What has the Communist Party, which helped sell the National Ports Council inquiry into unregistered ports to dockers last year, to say about this blatant collaboration with the dockers' enemies?

BY JOHN SPENCER

British capital plays an important part in the exploitation of the Portu- guese colonies in Africa, Mozambique and Angola, both directly and in association with South African mining and finance houses. Portugal ranks as Britain's 'oldest ally': a relationship which has kept Portugal a poor, mainly agrarian country but a lucrative outlet for capital and a market for manufactured goods. This relationship was cemented by the • Methuen Treaty of 1703 and Portugal became a main supplier of wine for the tables of the rich. In the 19th century Portuguese governments fell into increasing dependence upon the financiers of the City London. Then British capital gained a foothold in Portugal's African colonies established two centuries be- fore. As a backward country economically, Portugal did not have surplus capital seeking profitable outlets abroad.

While Europe's 'big powers' have handed over their African colonies to national-bourgeois governments, Portugal stub- bornly resists what is known as 'decolonization' because her economy is parasitic on the colonies in a different way from the advanced more imperialist countries. The colonies provide an out- let for surplus population, earn foreign exchange to bridge the balance-of-payments deficit and have reserves of cheap labour which can be employed in mines or on plantations of Mozambique and Angola. In addition, the white rulers of Mozambique are paid by the South African government to provide migratory workers for the gold and diamond mines.

In extracting profits from the cheap black labour of the Writings of

WRITINGS

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LEON TROTSHY

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colonies, Portuguese imperial- ism plays the role of middle gendarme, while the Illan anu lion's share goes inter- national business and financial interests. Considerable advantages are offered to foreign cull valle and investors: tax exemptions and guarantees that profits and capital can be repatriated.

International capital backs Portugal's vicious colonial wars because safe from ex- propriation and sure making lush profits as long as Portuguese rule is maintained.

British and international capital control the Angola Dia- mond Company,

DIAMANG,

through the De Beers Con- solidated Mines Anglo- American Corporation of South Africa.

DIAMANG

employs 200,000 African workers and has concession for almost the entire country. reMuited these Many workers are obligatory labour systems which compel Africans to work the mines for subsistence wales British capital is also 1n- volved with the South African companies which exploit the rich of Lucial reborces Mozambique. Anglo-American is associated with notorious Union une Minière, orginally operating in the Belgian Congo, in coal and bauxite mining. British firms also profit from Portugal's colonial wasted fence of international finance capital. Whitbreads brew beer for the British- troops, American Tobacco sells them firms like Plessey cigarettes, and Racall supply telecom- munications equipment. Chemi- cal warfare - defoliation of Ilberated areas-is carried on with the help of chemicals obtained from a South African subsidiary of BP, notably herbicide known as Convol- The list of firms operating in Portugal and the Portuguese colonies compiled by the Com- mittee for Freedom in Mozam- bique, Guine Angola and and published as a pamphlet is a

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veritable roster of famous business names, including ICI, Shell, the Thomson Organiza- tion, Metal Box, Unilever and Rio Tinto Zinc. Most of the big insurance companies have agencies in Portugal or the colonies. The Standard Bank of South Africa, which is closely connected with the City, has big interests. Barclays Bank and Hill Samuel have interests. also Lazard Bros have arranged two loans for the Portuguese government since 1967. The 1970 loan, arranged by the Export Credit Guarantee Department, a government agency, was backed by Barclays, the Bank of Scotland, Glynn Mills, Lloyds, Midland National and the Westminster. Portugal has now to borrow internationally in order to meet the payments on past loans.

The time may soon come when more has to be paid out in interest and repayment than can be obtained in new loans.

Although British investments in' Portugal and the Portuguese colonies has been outstripped in recent years' by those of West Germany and the United States, the government and ruling class look on Britain as their traditional protector.

None of this capital investment helps to establish the Portu- guese economy on a sound basis; it merely increases its dependence on international capital. Portugal, like Turkey, Greece and Spain, is very much part of the 'Free World'. Although not a member of the Common Market, she is closely linked with it just as she has been with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since its founda- tion. The Portuguese government is aiming to become a full EEC member and to get more support from the

NATO

to wipe out the countries colonial liberation movement.

These efforts will be backed wholeheartedly by British capitalism on behalf of its 'oldest ally' and junior partner in the imperialist exploitation of southern Africa. Crayan Trotsky—a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage eet, London SW4 7UG ble, free, on request. Workers Press, Ti Rates of interest in West Germany are continuing at record levels, creating great difficulties for any- one who wants to borrow money. The rates have risen in res- to stringent controls ponse imposed by the Bundesbank at fu the height of the monetary m crisis a month ago. The imposed Bundesbank controls to prevent the influx of Euro-dollars which were being sold for marks in the confident expectation of a mark revaluation. The Bundesbank barred German nationals from borrow- ing cash in the Euro-currency market for domestic use and forced the commercial banks to deposit a large portion of their reserves in its vaults.

The aim was to stem the inflation that threatened to get out of control as a result of the dollar wave flooding over the frontier. For every dollar brought into Germany the Bundesbank had to set into circulation an equivalent quantity of marks.

As a result of the Bundes- measures, the interest bank's rate on short-term loans has risen over the past month to reach an all-time record level.

It now stands at just under 20 per cent a year and fore- casters predict it will go even higher. Of course this will mean steep increases in the cost of living and an industrial down turn. Virtually no long-term loans are being contracted in West Germany. Industrialists who money for investment want are holding off until the price of money falls. The lack of investment in turn will lead to lay-offs and increased unemployment if the interest rates remain high.

And the Bundesbank coun cil has made it clear that it has no intention of relaxing its stranglehold on credit. No change is planned in the bat- tery of controls. This decision was taken de- spite appeals from the com- mercial banks which are affected by the increased in- terest rates. These banks are closely tied into the ownership of industry and will transmit their prob- lems directly onto the backs A leading supporter of Adolf Hitler-not General Franco— is alive and well and living in Madrid. He is Leon Degrelle, leader of the Belgian fascists, one of Hitler's favourite col- laborators. He is an avowed racialist anti-Semite and who believes in racial purity. 'I do not want to be race polluted,' he said. 'The Jews?

It is their own fault. They never want to be a true citizen of one country. They have Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973

PAGE 5

of the workers in the basic industries. The banks, of course, are lending everything they can lay their hands on in order to take advantage of the interest rates. So much so that 'The Times' banks reports some are rumoured to be unable to fulfil the Bundesbank's mini- mum reserve requirements.

This means that their liquid in hand and funds - cash securities which can be cashed demand - are no longer on sufficient to cover the amount of liabilities they have acquired.

The banks involved will be subjected to a 10-per-cent fine, but bankers indicate that at interest rates it is present profitable to make loans and pay the fine out of the interest.

However this practice could expose them to the danger of being 'caught short' without liquid capital when their debts are called in. They can no longer resort to the Euro-dollar market as a ready means of acquiring short- term liquidity. The Bundesbank has pro- mised that if any bank does get into this sort of trouble it will be able to get Bundes- bank loans against securities deposited with the central bank. This is a compromise which will not satisfy the bankers' greed for money to lend. According to 'The Times': 'One banker in Dusseldorf sombrely noted that if the Bundesbank fails to relax re- strictions in the near future, then many banks will be totally unable to grant credits.'

It was the bankers—in the eagerness to make quick gains by coupon-clipping on the Euro-currency market - who opened the door to the -in- flationary flood of dollars..

They will no doubt now turn.

round and deliver pious ser- mons to the German working class on the need to tighten their belts and share the sacri- fices the banking system is making for the fatherland.

These hypocritical exhorta- tions should fool nobody. The banks were responsible for the inflation in the first place. They now want to compound it for good measure. And when the Bundesbank steps in with controls they howl that funds are running out. always been a fifth column.'

Degrelle was responsible for thousands of Belgian Jews go- ing to the gas chambers. He now lives under Franco's pro- tection in a luxurious flat.

In an interview for Dutch television he praised Hitler as 20th the greatest century statesman and said that his only regret was that he had not won the war. It is said that many highly-placed and respectable Belgians fear Degrelle's return home. He knows too much about their activities fascist during the German occupation. He has made a. fortune in Spain in property speculation, owns five villas and is a res- pected citizen.

THE EURO-CURRENCY MONSTER

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday April The most graphic and striking expression of the inflationary crisis of day to be found in the Euro-currency market. This consists of a vast pool of paper currency, bonds, IOUs and other forms of credit which are outside the control of any individual country. It is extremely difficult to measure the size of this mar- ket and much of its business is conducted in secret. Nevertheless expert esti- mates put the volume of paper being traded on the Euro- market at over currency $90,000m. This is about 1f times the combined reserves of the nine member-countries of the Com- mon Market and at least eight times the reserves of a com- paratively wealthy central bank like the Bank of France.

The market is so large that no single country nor even a relatively powerful capitalist bloc like the Common Mar- ket, can control it. Yet, large though it is, the Euro-currency market is not the only outlet for the im- mense quantities of paper money and other debts accu- mulated during the infla- tionary boom. The United States tariff commission recently published day April 10, 1973 an estimate of the total short- term funds in private hands at the end of 1971. They concluded that this amounted to at least $268,000m-three times the estimated size of the Euro- currency market. The commission pointed out that the sum involved is equal, at the same date, to the com- money and bined stocks of quasi-money of the United Kingdom, France West Ger- many and Belgium, more than three times the total inter- national reserves of the industrialized countries ($88,500m) and well over twice the total of world re- serves. The size of this sum of paper money-and remember this represents only the short- term 'hot' money which can readily be switched over na- tional frontiers-makes any form of monetary stability impossible. As the commission put it in its report, the hot money totals 'are very large numbers.

They should lay to rest any doubts that the organizations involved are capable of gene- rating flows that could disrupt normal payment relationships among countries •.. a move- ment of a mere 1 per cent or $2,700m, in response to an exchange rate weakness Or strength, is quite sufficient to produce a first-class inter- national crisis.' The tariff commission was not exaggerating. It was a of almost movement this sum from dollars into marks on Thursday March 1 that forced the West German government to close its foreign markets and set in motion the crisis discussions which led to the present floating cur- rency regime. That crisis laid to rest fixed parities and gave devastating evidence of the power of the Euro-currency market and the impotence of governments to control it. This market, which is now such a source of heartburn for the governments and central bankers of world capitalism, was begun, paradoxically, from Moscow. Soviet and East European countries in the mid-1950s preferred to hold their over- seas balances in the form of dollars, because the dollar had the advantage of being uni- versally acceptable and in the eyes of most dealers 'as good as gold' But because they feared that Cold War considerations might lead the United States government to freeze their balances if the political situa- tion worsened, they preferred to hold their dollars with banks outside the US. These were, in reality, the first Euro-dollars, the small beginning from which the pre- sent-day monster has grown.

Most of these dollars were deposited in London, which is still the centre of the market in Euro-currency. There is nothing special about Euro-currency. A Euro- ing dollar, for example, is simply deposit a dollar held on through a bank outside the United States by a non-resi- dent of the US. Many of these dollars are in the hands of the giant Ameri- can multi-national corpora- big banks tions and of the that have muscled into Europe over the past ten years. The dollar is not the only currency traded in this way.

There are today Euro-marks, Euro-guilders, Euro-sterling, Euro-francs and even Euro- yen. The market barely existed 15 years ago. The size of the Euro-currency market in 1959 was only about $1,000m. It 100-fold has grown almost since then. The growth of the Euro- currency market ran • in par- allel with the deficit in the US balance of payments. It was this deficit which kept a permanent and growing pool of dollars outside the US.

These dollars represented red claims on the United States 2 Treasury, which was pledged to redeem them for gold at a price of $35 an ounce. In March 1968 the Treasury reneged on its pledge to sell gold to private dollar-holders and on August 15, 1971, the Nixon administration declared it would not sell any more gold at the 'official' price to central banks either. This removed the entire basis in gold terms for the in- verted pyramid of paper money and credit of which market Euro-currency important formed such an segment. The Euro-currency market was and remains an essential part of the mechanism of world trade for which it pro- vides a substantial slice of total foreign exchange. Yet at the same time this immense accumulation of paper and credit has played a prominent part in • under- and ultimately destroying it.

The Euro-currency market forms a pool of hot money which is now of completely and in indeterminate value which one currency is float- ing against another without any fixed relationship (except 'common for the European float'). Nobody any longer believes the fiction that paper can be made 'as good as gold'. This is

PAGE G

Workers Press. Tuesaay ADril 10.

demonstrated every day on the bullion markets where the price of gold continues to climb. This development was fore- shadowed a century ago by Karl Marx in his book 'Capital'.

He wrote (Vol Ill, page 4831): ... it should never be for- gotten that money, in the first place in the form of precious metals, remains the basis from which the credit system can never detach itself' In a keynote speech to the Bankers' Club of Chicago on April 27, 1971, Sir Leslie the governor of the O'Brien, Bank of England, referred to the danger that investors and bankers would lose confidence in what he termed 'the world- wide usability of the dollar' Faith in the dollar, he said, the foundation laid Euro-currency market and was its keystone. But today there is no longer the slightest con- fidence in the once almighty dollar. O'Brien Chicago told the that this 'unhappy bankers situation' of lack of confidence would, if it ever arrived, en- 'the whole fabric of danger international post-1945 the monetary system'. This fabric is already in mere two years after ruins a O'Brien's speech and it is the edifice of international credit itself which is now exposed to the danger of a crash. Paper transactions are now almost the sole means of fin- ancing world trade. Even in 1971 less than a third of world trade was being conducted in or backed by gold. . trade is But today world not conducted in gold at all.

The gold assets of the various central banks are effectively frozen. No central banker in his right mind will settle a debt in gold when he can still settle in dollars, marks, francs, ster- ling or other paper. Equally, nobody with a gold hoard wants to part with the metal while its price on the free market continues to rocket upwards and the buying power of paper currency con- tinues to plummet. Traders who need foreign exchange for their transactions are increasingly forced to bor- the Euro-currency roW on market what they need. The market is almost en- tirely free of restrictions and most countries many it not have stringent restrictions on foreign currency transactions involving their own nationals.

However, transactions con- ducted entirely in other coun- tries' monies have been free from restrictions, making the Euro-currency market an 'extra-territorial' orre.

In addition, countries which imposed controls over have the freedom of residents to in invest overseas from domestic funds have allowed such in- vestment much more freely if it was to be financed by bor- to rowing overseas. The Euro-currency market ow is international in its ramifica- tions. To cope with the de- mands of the market, the banks have grouped them- into multi- selves together national consortia banks.

These banks, in which almost every financial institu- tion of any size in the capi- talist world is involved have facilitated immensely the ex- of credit and the tens on growin ol the market. But at the same time they have concentrated the risk, ensuring the one failure can be transmitted rapidly throughout the system. In fact, the very 'sophistica- tion' regarded as such a virtue by the Euro-market money managers is the gravest source of weakness and danger. Many capitalist economists have warned about the dangers involved. At 'Financial Times' conference held re- London, cently in Professor A. Waters was quoted as saying it was remarkable there had been no large-scale failures so far-testifying to the 'know- ledge and wisdom' of the par- ticipants. 'Nevertheless', he said, 'one could hit con- large collapse fidence a severe blow, falling the US commercial banks on and in practice being trans- mitted throughout the system.

The 'Financial Times' speaks of the danger of a substantial default in either the medium. occult. term bank market or the long- term bond sector. It blames this danger on 'the pressure of competition for volume business' "a leading to continued trend towards the lengthening of the credit avail- able, increasing pressure on spreads and profitability and the extension of credit to ever-increasing number of bor who a few years back rowers would have been regarded as lenders'. marginal by most The latest Bank of England market demon- reports on the strate a marked tendency to- short borrowing and Wards lending long-in other words loaning for longer periods borrowed on short- term basis. Workers Press, Tue This is the classic formula for failure, because it places the institutions involved in the continual danger of being un- able to find ready money to pay their short-term debts.

In domestic banking practice the central bank normally acts as a 'lender of last resort' in that it will discount the bank's long-term assets, lending ready money against the long-term IOUs in the bank's possession.

But in the Euro-currency market there is no such lender of last resort. As O'Brien put it: 'There is no one national banking authority that can supervise its operations, insist on sound practices and stand ready, in emergency to be a "lender of last resort". 'By the same token, it can- not be easy for lenders, whose interbank lending is unsecured, to know much about the credit- worthiness or the full finan- cial commitments of the ulti- mate borrower. 'One big failure, it is some- times said, could lead to a chain reaction Yet O'Brien rejected the idea of supervising the mar- ket, echoing the opinion of other pundits that the Euro- currency market could not function if it were brought under control and would in any case simply migrate out of London as soon as controls were applied, depriving the British banking magnates of their parasitic earnings from internațional coupon-clipping.

O'Brien's to the answer problem of banks lending long Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 PAGE 7 Above: Sir Leslie O'Brien of the Bank of England. Left: Paul Volcker with the then US Secre- of the Treasury, tary John Connally on his visit to London for the Group of Ten meeting in September 1971. and selling short is proving entirely inadequate. In his speech he claimed: 'It is pos- sible and indeed customary for banks to maintain a fairly close maturity matching be- tween their liabilities and their assets' All this means is that banks 'customarily' don't suffer from liquidity problems. This is like failing to take out car insur- ance on the ground that motor accidents are not 'customary'.

In fact the Bank of England maintains a watch on the 'maturity matching' of banks involved in the Euro-market.

But this simply shows that the situation deteriorating: 1S banks are making longer and shakier loans and borrowing in the short-term to cover them. O'Brien comforted himself in Montreal with the thought that 'by and large', , the banks were observing the customary a matching. The Bank of England's ostrich attitude to the menace of Euro-currency market de- taults is not, of course, acci- denta!. It arises from the un- stable character of the whole of international credit. The monetary authorities paralysed: the monster are called into being to serve the credit requirements of world capitalism is out of control.

More to the point, it is so unbalanced that any attempt at discipline or control could be the last straw. which breaks its back.

PAGE 8 Workors Pross, Tuesday April 10, 1973

A TWO PART ARTICLE BY JACK GALE

The Communist Party is consistently and deliberately covering up for engineers' leader Hugh Scanlon, who has publicly de- clared his willingness to accept an 'amended' Industrial Rela- tions Act as well as 'the fact' of British entry into the Common Market. The Stalinists are doing this because they are in complete agreement with Scanlon. Despite their earlier verbal opposition to the Industrial Relations Act and the Common Market, the CP leadership is preparing to accept both. Such a somersault would be nothing new for Stalinism, as an examination of just one episode in the history of this counter-revolutionary tendency will show.

On August 23, 1939, political Herren relations. Molotov and Stalin drank re- Joseph Stalin made a pact peatedly to the Non-Aggres- with Adolf Hitler. This Pact, the of sion new era German-Russian relations, and consisted of a non-aggres to the German nation. sion agreement, the joint 'The Reich Foreign Minister division of Poland, and [Ribbentrop] in turn proposed Herr Stalin, toasts economic "co-operation'. a toast to to the Soviet government and It involved the destruction to a favourable development of Polish Communist the of relations between Germany Party, the return of refugees and the Soviet Union.' ('Nazi- from Nazism from Russia Soviet Relations' by Hencke, to Germany and the export of pp 75-76.) a Nazi Diplomat, strategic materials from Russia In Britain, the Pact was to to Germany. determine the line of the Com- The pact sparked off Bac- Party until munist right up chanalian celebrations be- the day that Hitler invaded tween the Stalinists and the Russia on June 22, 1941. As fascists: always, the interests of the 'Herr Stalin spontaneously working class sub- were to the Fuehrer, proposed as ordinated to the requirements "I know how much follows: of the bureaucracy in the the German nation loves its Kremlin. Fuehrer: I should therefore like Harry Pollitt, John Gollan, drink to his health." Herr to Bert Ramelson and company, Molotov drank to the health therefore, were outspoken op- of the Reich Foreign Minister of during this ponents war and of the ambassador. period, out of revolu- not 'Herr Molotov raised his tionary internationalism, but glass to Stalin, remarking that in order not to disrupt the it had Stalin who been had relations between Stalin and brought about the reversal in his new friends. The CP's present general secretary, John Gollan, was then general secretary of the Young Communist League. On November 4, 1939, after Hitler had invaded Poland, Gollan wrote: 'The case of Poland cannot that of be compared with China Czechoslovakia, or other victims of Nazi aggres- sion•: Who fired the first.

shot makes no difference to the fact that it is an imperial- ist war. An end to the war now means a victory for the progressive forces. ... That peace will or will not strengthen Hitler by the addi- tion of more territory is The simply not the issue. reality of the situation is not restoration of the old Polish state, nor an ideological crusade against Hitlerism.

These are simply excuses for continuing the war ... Reality and the interests of the people demand an end to the war immediate peace con- and an ference.' 'Daily Worker, fore- The runner of the 'Morning Star', has been-if possible reven more cynical. On September 25, 1939, it had headlined 'Warsaw Cries for Aid in her Agony' Five days later it had got the new line clear. The Stalin- Hitler Pact, it said, was a peace offer to Europe. To talk of war to the end, which means the slaughter of the youth of Europe, would be sheer madness.' The British Communist Party, of course, was taking its line from Moscow. In 'Pravda' of November 30, 1939, Stalin declared: was not Germany who attacked Britain and France, but Britain and France who attacked Germany. After mili- tary operations had begun, Germany approached the Bri- tish and French governments with an offer of peace. The British and French brusquely re- governments jected the German proposals and the USSR's efforts for a settlement.' (Not only the Russian and British Stalinists, but the Ger- Stalinists supported the man Stalin-Hitler Pact. Walter Ulbricht, later head of the East German govern- Unity Socialist ment and Party, wrote in the exile Party 'Die Welt', on February paper 2, 1940: "The German government declared itself ready to estab- lish peaceful relations with the Soviet Union, whilst the Anglo-French war bloc wants war with the Soviet Union ...

The German working class wants an extensive trade alli- ance with the Soviet Union...

'Many workers welcome the pact all the more because it friendship strengthens their with the great land of social- ••: not only the com- ism munists, but also many social and national socialist workers regard it as their task not in any circumstances to permit a breach of the Pact' [emphasis added]. This failure to give a revolu- tionary lead to the German class played working into Hitler's hands. But it only echoed the pro-Nazi policies of the Kremlin. The Stalinists not only greeted the Nazi crushing of Poland with pleasure, but undertook to crush any anti- fascist movement in the parts of Poland controlled by them.

On September 9, 1939, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Molo- tov, sent the following tele- gram to the Nazi ambassador: 'I have received your com- munication regarding the entry of German troops into War- saw. Please convey my con- gratulations and greetings to the German Reich govern- ment.' Then, a Supplementary Pro- tocol to the original Pact of August 23, signed by was Molotov and Ribbentrop. This said: Stalin with German Foreign after the Minister, Ribbentrop signing of the pact. Left: John Gollan who during the invasion of Poland opposed the war.

'Both parties will tolerate in their territories no Polish agitation which affects the ter- ritories of the other party.

"They will suppress in their territories all beginnings of such agitation and inform each other concerning suitable for this purpose' measures ('Nazi-Soviet Relations' _p. 107.) In this period, the British not only opposed Stalinists war against Germany, they also opposed the Churchill coali- tion government. In June, 1940, Palme Dutt wrote in 'Labour Monthly': "The new coalition govern- ment of Churchill-Chamber- lain-Attlee is a government of war, and unlimited imperialist In July, he wrote: 'Churchill and Chamberlain unite in common defence of their iden- tical imperialist and class in- terests.' In May, 1941: 'By every de- vice of publicity and flattery great bubble of the the Churchill reputation was in- flated to become the mascot for the ugly visage of finance capital. *All his previous record as the arch-enemy of the people, as the leader of reaction, as the imperialist adventurer and gambler with blood and trea- sure, and hero of a huhdred hascos, was covered over...

•.. of the ruthless crush- ing of the General Strike, of the war on the Soviet Union, of the crusade against Indian freedom, of the leadership of diehard Tories, of the eulo- gies of Mussolini and fascism ... were covered over and assumed to be forgotten.'

Within a few weeks it was of to be Dutt and his Stalinist were to be colleagues

CONTINUED TOMORROW

The Tory 'law-and-order' Frank Ing, Labour councillor brigade is getting a bit carried on Hammersmith Council, is in away with its own rhetoric.

the most curious fight. He is In Hampstead, north Lon- battling to get back to the don, that traditional home of Labour group on the Labour- millionaire Tories and trendy controlled council. 'lefts', the Conservatives have Cilr Ing's troubles began last out a four-page year when he and a group of put printed 'Election Special' to boost their other Labour councillors voted candidate, Ian Clarke, in the against implementation of the forthcoming GLC elections.

Finance Act. Housing That's Towards Under the slogan, in order, would think. a Better Hampstead', Mr Clarke After all, opposition to the pledges himself to 'stand up Act is the policy of the Labour and fight for Hampstead' and Party conference and the TUC.

makes extravagant promises But Hammersmith's right- about schools, transport, plan- wing caucus decided to vote ning and historic buildings.

to bring in the Act and raise All pretty straightforward the council rents of all the local government stuff, one local Labour For supporters. would have thought. But it is his 'heresy', Ing and his col- obviously not enough for the leagues were expelled from the behind the 'Election men group. Special'. They applied to the NEC Besides a fairly innocuous for readmission, but this has lead article saying that the vital failed, the Not wanting to give up the issues in elections are homes, roads, traffic, public fight, Ing has now reapplied pollution to the NEC. transport, and re- development of the docklands Ing told the 'West London and that a vote for the Con- Observer': is a 'vote for a servatives 'It's obvious we'll have to future and a better brighter come to a decision eventually.

London', there is a photograph They can't keep us out of a of group forever.' Or can they!

angry strikers confronting uniformed policemen. The caption reads: "The arm of the law or the rule of the The legal attack on building jungle?' workers involved in last year's But the best is yet to come.

strike goes on. Last week four In a special appeal to the men were accused of intimida- electorate Up! The 'Speak tion and criminal damage.

Majority') the Silent writer All four, Kenneth Thomas manages to produce this lurid (26), a setter, and labourers, picture of impending doom: 'In the Press and on tele- (28) Edward vision and radio the aggressive Roberts (28), all of Denbigh, voice of disruption is heard elected to go for trial. loud and clear. They were sent for trial to "The determined policies of Mold Crown Court. Conservative to government defeat inflation are derided in the biggest propaganda drive British against progress since A bright and good-looking Lord Haw Haw's wartime child was before the juvenile tirades. court at Manchester last local level, imaginative 'At Welfare week. officer Tom of Greater London's schemes had been Magee said the boy Conservative-controlled Coun- to school 44 only times in cil are knocked principle three months. on by both Labour and Liberal He had been taken to school pundits. but had run away. Magee said 'In the docks and elsewhere he baffled by was completely dissident trade union rabble the boy's behaviour. rousers seek to increase their Asked for his reasons for influence through local govern- running away from school, the boy told a court official: It is ment. 'The aim is not to improve like being locked up. the lot of all ratepayers or, 'But you are not locked up,' indeed, any section of the com- the official replied. munity. They seek anarchy I feel that way, the boy Wow! That should have said. The decided court. to boy under them shivering in their shoes place the super- at the top of Highgate Hill! for 12 months.

VISION

By LEON TROTSKY Paperback. £1.00 Illustrated Sharp pen-portraits of leading Second figures the Interna- OT tional in Russia and Europe, for.

first time published an the English edition. The translations were first commissioned by the Young 'Keep Socialists' paper Left' Their enormous success has the led to the completion of of book, translation the whole which is the first part of Volume 8 of Leon Trotsky's 'Works' pub- lished in the Soviet Union in 1926. It provides the most vivid picture available of the historic figures Second of the Inter- national, their strengths and weaknesses, written by an obser- ver who was participant also in the daily struggle of the Euro- pean and Russian working class.

Now available from New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG

BY A GUEST REVIEWER

Jacobean comedy is sig- nificant for providing the first examples of the ris- ing bourgeoisie as the protagonists of society. the Thomas Middleton side Act Moonid in Cheap, . theatre, 27 (Half Moon Alie St, London El, until April 28), English drama escapes the heroic mould in which Shakes- peare casts his characters and descends into the market place. Everything — daughters, wives and even religious con- victions—-are,drawn into .com- merce and have their price.

In this work Middleton acutely portrays the declining economic power of the aris- tocracy and their parasitic attachment to the vigorous and rapacious merchants of London-the centre of trade in the Jacobean era. The nobility stride onto the stage in the shape of Sir Walter Whorehound, a debauchee with somewhat imaginary estates in Wales. Sir Walter's attachment to int Workers Press, Tu the goldsmith Yellowhammer is twofold. His daughter Moll may provide him with the child he needs to secure an inherit- ance and the association may bring him into closer connec- with the new wealth of tion England. Yellowhammer is eager to obtain the privileges that con- bring nection with title will at the expense of Moll's even happiness, which in business is quite a secondary matter.

Whorehound's rivals are Sir Oliver and Lady Kix, unable to beat Sir Walter to the loot because they are childless.

Again we have the im- potence theme. The aristocra- tic couple have to recruit Touchwood, a poverty-stricken bourgeois noted for his amaz- ing fertility, to provide the service Lady Kix so desper- ately desires. Middleton's medium satire liberally punctuated with heavy sexual double-meanings.

The kind of comedy is, neces- sarily, rather laborious. One is amused rather than prompted into open laughter. Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 PAGE 9 The best scenes in the Half Moon production are almost slapstick-the degeneration of a Christening party where the 'gossips' prudish, prurient of trading London are trans- formed into drunken bawds under the influence of punch.

It is one of the liveliest episodes of the production.

The cynical rascality of Touchwood, who exploits his capacity for rapid reproduction with great effect, is finely por- trayed by Sidney Forest (also one of the gossips). The Latin nonsense conver- sations between Yellowham- mer's idiot son and his sly tutor from Cambridge are another high point. The Half Moon company is possible squeeze all that from what is a rather un- inspiring play. community They are theatre who have done a suc- cessful interpretation of the Jack the Ripper crimes. Their next production, 'The Mother' by Brecht, will offer them more scope for their un- doubted ideals and talents.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 All Trades Unions Alliance meetings CAMDEN: Tuesday April 10, 8 HACKNEY: Wednesday April 11, 'Prince Albert', Wharfedale Parlour Room, p.m. p.m. Central Road, Kings X. 'The

TUC

Hall, opp. Town Hall, Mare Street. must call a General Strike'. 'The TUC must call a General Strike to make the Tories resign'.

CLAPHAM: Tuesday April 10, 8

KINGSTON:

April 12, p.m. inursady 8 p.m. The Norbiton Hotel, Clifton Saths The Clapham Road (off Kingston Hill).

'Make SW4. TUC must. call Scanion retract! No collaboration General Strike to make the Tories with the Tory government!'

resign'. CROYDON: Thursday April 12,

ELLESMERE

PORT:

Tuesday, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe April 10, 7 p.m. Grosvenor Hotel, Road, Croydon. 'The fight against 'Build. the Ellesmere Port. revo- Stalinism'. lutionary party-Defend basic rights.

BERMONDSEY:

Thursday Aprll 12, 8 p.m. 'Havelock Arms', Bala- April 10, clava Street, off Southwark Park Elastic Inn, 7.30 p.m. Road. 'Build Councils of Action. 'VAT-the new attack on the Make the Tories Resign'. Fight rising prices. working class. Force the Tories to resign.

WILLESDEN: Thursday Apr|l 12, Hall, 8 p.m. Labour and Trades

HARROW:

Tuesday April 8 10, Road, "Law High NW10. "Тогу Labour Hall, Harrow & p.m. Order" and - Preparation for Wealdstone. 'The TUC must call dictatorship'. a General Strike'. HOLLOWAY: Thursday April 12,

JARROW:

Wednesday Aprll 11, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters Road. 'Forward to the Revolution- 7.30 p.m. Jarrow Labour Rooms, Park Road. ary Party'. Do you get

WORKERS PRESS

regularly? If not, why not take out a subscription now? {20.28 for 12 months (312 issues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are : £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to : Circulation Dept., Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

186a CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON SW4 7UG.

Name... Address.. Economic crisis hits shipowners THE WORLD monetary United States dollars. market under the system ritv of international ex.

created "For change rates,' the re- floating paral- has Sonne port says. lels condition serious problems for this like other industries 20-per-cent shipowners, according increase 'Many contracts not engineering alle the quarterly report building prices with completely construction which rely 10-per-cent discount surprisingly of Mullion and Co, lead long-term collapsed yards ing London ship potential charter and and call deals overseas intolerable Charter orokers.

HICS

inese •eaS have commitments have, It has particularly hit situation and wholly un- many cases become un themselves, refused tenable result of those who have placed acceptable com- mained prices preyiously which contries varnese aunty currency uneava s German marks traditionally relied with and trade is becoming with long-term cover in confidence on the integ. The state of the ship more and more difficult. Sweet strike goes on Labour key to

FOUR

HUNDRED

workers Last Thursday lunchtime he and Needier s sWeet chocolate was •cated to The managements factory in Hull voted yesterday office and told there was a query their strike. his job to continue application hanging vote Friday walked had worked at the factory for l.

aftep the sardinKen of a potentia potentia weeks. steward, was wiked on the He and shop Mr explained that last given week's Chapman LABOUR MPs may hold the warco. week union branch escorted once ractory oremises key to the outcome of to- General and Municipal Workers and management made he sure decided forward couldn't put eight speak anybody. morrow's vote in the Commons on rri- new oeople as snoo stewaros, de on the restoration of hanging.

was one of them workers walked out

G&MWU

Previously there had been little organizer Mr Bill Allen representation in the lac management yester private member's tory. from rathe coward right-wing Tory MP from cart in Glasgow. Churches made redundant political correspondent for Press Association savs: PREDICTIONS that thousands of churches would be declared redun- 'A big majority of the Labour dant in the near future were 'nonsense', says the fourth annual report Party capital punish.

UPTUSCE

Only. 14 churches but of Redundant Churches rund, published vesterday ment, the last few days went out of business last year, the fund says. This is fewer than the nas that some

OCCI

number expected. are not now such LaDour VIrS abolitionists and strong may abstain.' Those Tory Cabinet Ministers

CIRCULATION

NEWS DESK

hanging voted. Tor include Mr Anthony Barber, the Chancellor the Exchequer, William Whitelaw, the Ulster 01-622 7029 01-720 2000 Alec Secretary, Douglas Had Mrs Margare Thater, are Secretary, Education Secretary

BBC 1

1235 40 Sir Prancelot. 5.45 NewS.

Weather 6.00

A TIONWIDE.

BUGS

Flame of the DarDar Wester 3:25 10.00 10.10 11.50

BBC 2

Dan Dailey as State Governor Drinkwater with James Callahan as his Press agent George in 'There Go the Judge' an episode from "The Governor and J.J. —a new BBC1 series. Play 1.00-11.2 School. 5..25 Open

INTERACTION

7:05

ITV

UMMARY. Weather 8.10 IN A CON PLaY layer, Ton 9.00 CRIME SQUAD. Birmingha 1'Crime Hatty Regiona action. 9.00

POLITICAL

10.00 10.05 10:45 sode. Rosemar

THOUSE

Matie Eric We and loseph Bat Wey. Papathan- 5:09

TODAY ARBUCCASTADS.

Aspassia NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

ILS ONE POINT OF VIETNG.

pott

7.35 FILM TERROR THE SET

SUAIS

REGIONAL TV

Miri mawas 430-445 Cantamp Wort actions Banacek: 3.00 London. C229 Weather

ELTE

950 Wange Dan I.os London. Cod 235 London: 210 Women 950 London do 9: 35,0 s700 9,00 London lan Press Weather

HET

ULSTER:

GRAMPIAN:

12.04 • He Fame 8s0 Locke. 2.00 ton иск. 7.30 9.00 London. man alone. 0.3 .30 Ca ton. 12.10 Meditation country.

Monday Club election becomes more bizarre THE ANTICS of the Tories in the right-wing Monday Club become more and more bizarre. It now appears that some- one has broken into the club's Victoria Street premises and stolen a membership list.

This list is being used to and now a manager with Klein- wort Benson, the City bankers.

circulate information which is Police have been asked to in- detrimental to Mr jonathan Guinness, who is seeking re- vestigate a letter club members purporting to come election to the chairmanship from Guinness about the forth- of the club. coming election. Guinness orge bein Younge challenged Guinness said yesterday it was by Mr George the a forgery. It asks for votes for Guinness 'and is designed to pre- former deputy director of MI6

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

TOWARDS the end of last month Ford supervisors at the Halewood plant, near Liverpool, made a sharp change in their normal disciplinary policy.

Anyone they thought was working to rule was im- mediately taken off the payroll. Then he was told that if he failed to do the job within ten minutes the pay of the rest of the workers on his section would be stopped. If this did not work, after a further ten minutes everyone in the department was threatened Resistance for another ten minutes—just 20 minutes in all— hit the pay of all the workers in the plant.

Supervisors told workers advance that this was to they boasted. Just how high in this policy went cannot be estab- precisely. But the story is told, with an of the hundreds involved treated himself was assured by his Euro- similarly? Alan's own explanation expect the threat of serious pay point brings out clearly the link trouble in Britain to have treat on pay and the present dis- ciplinary crackdown. 'Last October I was widespread Halewood men sacked for taking part in the floor, this forecast one-day strike called on Mersey- shop over-opti- side over the Tory rents Act. began to mis that time I was working on the Henry II's sealer deck in the paint shop and tives complex there had been a decision on the Halewood blew his top a section to go out for the day.

planning meeting. god- Split up up', dam he said place is to have yelled. 'We got our jobs back, but The supervisors appear to have when we returned to work we acquired their unaccustomed were all split up. around cockiness the time that is supposed to 'I the trim line, planning meeting was put ridiculous with have taken place. which is my height. Most of the men on the There be little doubt that can fairly section are supposed to be the disciplinary crackdown they having formed part of a definite strategy small hecalise to bob in and out of vehicles all -approved at the highest level the time. the aimed at seizing initiative from the leaders and 'I only refused jobs after get- union senior shop stewards and physic- ting clearance from the company's ally breaking up resistance to the doctor, who agreed there were £2.40, company's government- things it would be

COTIN

controlled Phase Two pay offer.

dangerous for me to do. It was soon after this that the pay claim got going. 'Of course it was Crack down obvious to But it must be said immediately that the initiative was largely

SOCIALIST LABOUR

handed to the company on plate by union officials. And their

LEAGUE PUBLIC

of the same reform- continuation ist policies right to the pre- up

MEETINGS

workers' places sent moment organization throughout the Ford combine in jeopardy. Alan Dowridge is just one victim of the disciplinary crack- down. His spotlights the case Transform the SLL into danger to all Ford workers.

the Revolutionary Party A young worker in the Hale- wood trim shop, Alan was sacked

TUESDAY, APRIL 10

weeks ago on the strength two of the allegations that he left 8.30 p.m. his shift early. On the day the alleged breach Mona Hotel is supposed to have taken place he went home along with hun- James Street dreds of others from his section, Liverpool 1 all of under the whom were it was the impression correct time for ending the shift.

Lecture: The economic When this was pointed out b crisis of world capitalism hop stewards, management fel back on the argument that this incident was just 'the last straw that broke the camel's back'.

Manchester But Alan has a full and com- to management plete answer claims that he has been warned

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11

continually for other breaches of discipline. All the 'previous in the world cannot 8 p.m. warnings' answer his counter-charge ,, of Angel pub, Chapel Street.

victimization. Why was no other worker out Challenger George K. Young sent my alleged views in as un- attractive a light as possible,' he said. many of us that it was not just Ford's we would be fighting, but the government as well. So we were calling for immediate action.

A work-to-rule at that stage could have shown the company we meant business and reduced their stocks for when things really got going. 'But there was nothing doing as far as the officials and con- concerned. Even venors were comparen with time has enses the wages flop. 'Once we ended our three-day was an immediate strike there hard line from the company.

They went all out to break things up' Now Alan, married and four years in the Ford factory, is on the dole awaiting further union efforts to win his job back.

At least? one other man has also been sacked, two more sus- pended and one issued with a final written warning as part of the crackdown. Yet at last Thursday's paint, trim and assembly plant mass meeting, which voted to accept the company's £2.40 offer, con- venor Billy McGuire intervened to prevent the matter being discussed. John Dillon, a former shop

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE MEETING

Build the revolutionary party Join the Socialist Labour League Defend basic democratic rights Make the Tories resign

TUESDAY APRIL 10

7.30 p.m. Caedraw School Caedraw Merthyr Tydfil Speaker: G. Healy (SLL national secretary) Registered as a newspaper at the Published by Workers Workers Press, Tur There are fears that someone broke into the club's headquar- ters and ran off several copies of the membership list. Commander Michael Woolrych, the club director, said: 'Unfortu- nately, we cannot rule out the possibility of an "inside job": Last week a leafiet from the 'Conservative Underground Press' criticizing Guinness's leadership was circulated to club members.

There is evidence, said Wool- rych, that the same list of ad- dresses was used on both occa- sions. steward who was himself vic- timized in the aftermath of the 1971 secret-ballot settlement, had tabled a resolution before the meeting that there should be no lifting of the overtime ban and blacking of jobs then in force until the two sacked men were reinstated in full. The chairman of the meeting, a steward called Jack Jones, had asked that workers stay behind after the vote on pay to discuss this and another resolution. But the motion was not put. Jones alleged afterwards that McGuire had snatched it out of his hand.

Indictment Comments John Dillon: 'Since called off our strike and we decided to work to rule and ban overtime the company has used all the means in its power against us. "There was a big Press cam- paign before any action at all started, of course. Then, when people started working to rule, there were incidents being caused continually, workers being sent home-all designed to sicken them off. 'For the first three weeks of this we never had a full week in.

SLL LECTURE

SERIES

The revolutionary party and the history of the British working class Caedraw School Merthyr Tydfil 7 p.m. Sunday April 22 Lectures given by Peter Jeffries The Unlons and the working class In Britain. The Transformation of the SLL Into a Revolutionary Party.

READING

Trotsky. Where is Britain Going? Problems of the British Revolution. Perspectives for Transforming the SLL into a Revolutionary Party. Marxist Analysis of the Crisis.

Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 PAGE 11 The election battle is being fought amid charges of influence from the right-wing extreme National Front. Guinness has said that Young's election would mean 'a move in the National Front direction'.

There is no evidence to connect Young with the Front, Guinness Young, who is notorious for his anti-immigrant views, is offi- Tory candidate for Brent East at the next General Elec- tion. Enoch Powell spoke on his platform at the weekend. The Ford plant at Halewood, Liverpool But then they began to step it up and the sackings began.

'At least one of these lads was sacked for blacking a job in line with the decision of a mass meeting, yet we were not even allowed to discuss this last Thursday. This is an indictment of the whole way this campaign has been run.' However, John Dillon stressed, Ford management could be mak- ing a big mistake if it thought all its troubles were over.

Last week's meetings, at which the body as well as the assembly plant accepted • the £2.40, were the end of one period of the Ford workers' struggle, he said. But there was a great terment of discussion of the lessons of that period. The recognition was growing that only all-out action could defeat the Tory govern- ment. Last Friday the 6/559 branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union, organizing wor- kers in Ford transmission the who have rejected plant the £2.40 offer, demanded that the unions give a lead to this new mood. It called for the recall of the T&GWU national automotive committee to formulate co- ordinated action in support of the pay claim and the right to free trade unionism. One transmission plant worker active in the branch, said: 'So far the leadership's tried to avoid the issue of the Tory govern- that's ment altogether. But central. 'For the next stage, that lesson must be learned.'

SLL LECTURE

SERIES

The Socialist Revolution in Britain Middleton (nr Manchester) Hollins Social Centre Tintern Road, Hollins Estate 7.30 p.m. Monday April 16 (SLL Central Committee) tic rights today means prepar- ing for working-class power.

Basic reading: Perspectives : for transforming the SLL into a revolutionary party. Marxist Analysis of the Crisis..

Problems of the British Revo- lution (Trotsky). Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth Inter- national, Communist Manifesto.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday April 10, 1973 _______ 'Special case' plea to Tories

APRIL FUND

TUC plan- threat

NOW STANDS

AT £149.11 Support for our Fund this month has begun to slow down. Our £149.11 leaving total stands at to hospital workers way raisino ow _a four {1.750 target. So start today- help us turn the situation around. figure the Ao d most successful yet. We are sure you will. As trade union leaders avoid tack- the of huge price increases rent facing all worke workers, the building leadership

THE

TREMENDOUS

deter- comes more important than ever.

mination of the hospital workers Only workers rress spears oul Tories firmly against the and to win their struggle only throws their Among all sections attacks. into even greater light the re- be new revolu treat by their union leaders in 1 • To tonary leadership. the deal cooked up with TUC Don't Holded tor

HEARIS

back way general secretary Victor Feather.

to push

HOSPITA

All Your help Is up April rund. This is the plan to avoid any

KNOTH

thing you can and post imme- co-ordinated industrial action by the diately to: TUC which they were instructed to

ANCILLARY

L OUTO

Workers Press carry out by the March 5 special April Appeal Congress.

THE HEAL

Street

WORKERS

Instead, Feather is to help the hos- London,

SW4 7UG

pital union leaders with a new appeal

SERVICE

Workers should be made the only exe all hittill. ception to the Phase Two laws.

What this means, however, that all Delivery "Special case' pleading for hospltal workers will affect all workers.

other workers are condemned by the TUC to accept the state control It is reasonable for us and co-ordinated action by all : because must mean a defeat of the Tory wages at the present £1 plus strike in those left government itself and resig- unions we are Its level. une ones TUC to decide "The ing. It is for the nation wnose clalms are chalengilg Lue would cal upon it fair or not on other But at the same time, there laws. pay all us of any serenient on bet the slightest chance of Fisher workers.' not is now deeply implica- Coventry quote any settlement ted helping Feather, a recipe for disaster hospitall workers

LOES

half ot these hospitall WOrKeLS their own. *° There the hospital workers' case. Tories on down the and scanion nead on tne strike.

justification of any claim of is not the slightest Only a General Strike can and in se their own. hope possibility of the hospital this. abandoned one

TUC

This pledge by the

WULK

SIXTY-FIVE

delivery Coventry wor- March so these anne called of winning anything had theil erc wortnwnlle memders winne supported Feather. ve talen leaders, kers at the S1l- other than through the defeat of struggle, but also jeopar- Jones and Scanlon, is, and Colling, have the Tory a one-day general stoppage dised all other workers' cock government's whole in Compete violation strike action over the refusal of strategy, -however inadequate that 1s- struggles too. March Waxe contro management to pay shop stewards Lne accision obliged the TUC to support nor aurenace a mecuas wirg in struggle against the management. Tory policies anger shopkeepers pay laws who ask tor such sup- Ron Hollins, the senior Trans- port. port and General Workers' Union Phase Two an augeles to breach The TUC cannot both shop steward, told Workers Press Chamber of

THE GOVERNMENT

the National ing for Ted Heath and Com- Two stewards were requested was time Iwo and at the same by management to attend meet- Trade annual meeting. pany' yesterday accused of state tie all other unions to the laws.

a period Although as 'responsible' busi- ings with them, over The worst aspect of this He would in retailing on said shopkeepers would be willing firm interterence nessmen they The wretched Tory pay deal to the tolerate controls for pront refused to pay them although we scale not seen in peace- t• osserve restraints that the hospital work- the next three years laws Is have code of pay for such they ten die re du that. ers' but actually or sed ported time. 'Yet read that Phase negotiations. Ted Heath has gone one Abat Finer, Nosed it, He has taker Three will possiblv last for three 'Our drivers then decided that Alan general Mr Elwyn Stubbs, secretary street. I used to be the director years, we as shopkeepers say we we all stop work and that there Tuetary Finance put the laea to tre of Trade at of the Chamber I used to be the director are not going to tolerate negotiations by shop TUC's and General no Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was Purposes Committee and then co•any. now stewards until the hrm resumes Scarborough find myself a shopkeeper work- three years.' paying them. speaking

A 'TEMPORARY VICTORY' FOR THE TORIES

Canvey Island arrests in oil And what did these gen- use the industrial relations the unions to be more fruit-

FROM PAGE 1

tlemen when first the court without prior permis- Tu than tae as. continue to be restrictions sion of the appropriate Min- civil servants, then the hos- claimed plant demo pital workers, ister. beyond comprehension While token strikes, such … came to ask the General Council for This, he said, would stop as the May 1 day of protest how this could be distorted in their action' 'the Goads and other people' 'co-ordinate into suggesting some volte and stoppage, had their use. support such as the Scanion- using the Act unless it was i led mare tangible basis formula had pro- clear the government was been for the union'.

BY OUR OWN REPORTER

mised? backing them suggested such a ourse, has Congress to ensure that no The second thing that was Is it not the case that last union struggling to establish needed, he said, was to 'for- POLICE had to hold back about 200 people justifiable claim Friday, Scanlon supported wage Anyone familiar with the

TUC

statement get inis laea demonstrating at Canvey Island, axalnst une restrictions of the AUEW Essex, Scanlon then said clearly: General Pur- COnSuLuLIOn the Phase Two policy wouid Finance ana could get 'If we these two knows that, formally speak- fail for lack of positive mat- Committee yesterday, against a multi-million pound. oil which

OSCO

any change policy ing, offers hold down other to essentia amencerts industrial and hnancial enlal. be initiated refinery to te built on the island.

could then talk of some of workers' claims if the Torie: help from rest The or the practicalities. proved by the national com- the other trade union movement'. will grant special treatment mittee, which is now meet- demon- Two men were detained after the for the hospital ancillaries? 'I believe that if we could The union president at- those things for tem- -staged during the opening of a new TUC's refusal to stration- that tacked the in this light and allow But nothing, in Scanlon's join the engineers industrial firm road and bridge. claim Dorary period Scanlon's vestcludy. stand breathing-space to work out speech yesterday alters what the that his speech to asallist tne pat- Part the had voluntary policy on the has been said, not only by • Essex County to be Act liamentary Press Gallery has Ke ations

DOOV

abandoned after Council highways basis of what was discussed

ASSAY

blow against the movement'.

Workers Press but by many be 'distorted', chairman Ald R. Daniels was shouted •cer

HUSL

But what is the record? at Chequers, that would be members and AuHW viewed. forward.' branches: Was and way ment soreary Mir Rippon as cost the Riper: of the crowd shouted

CHOI

Scanlon told the Press Jack Jones of the Transport Returning the same Scanlon's proposals add arrest Rippon? gallery: Had suggered the said a- General Norkers compromise with the Tories an and amend- the

TUC

'What is important in the when Union suggested a time

WIO

General Council off the hook quickly. de- le overruled one or ms Inspectors last mont Industrial Relations Ach, as ments to me

A CI

To snow they _ colle be by granting permission for the with formula for le sta i lar that ake dy car- make it the government's earnestness feated and removed from protest start, May i? office. in wanting future talks with a-year united nelneries plant to go anead.

Planning has also been given for a s-mil 6-million-ton-a- Refineries on he 4,000-acre island.

rennery 13th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF

FOR DETAILS

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

TELEPHONE

Steel lay-off 01-622 7029 AT LEAST 10,000 steel workers

BLACKPOOL APRIL 14/15 1973

at Scunthorpe, Lines will be laid off by the weekend unless two disputes are settled, the said Steel Corporation wester SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, APRIL 14 & 15, WINTER GARDENS, BLACKPOOL Already 3,000 workers are off because of strikes by 300 blastturnacemen