Transport House Immigrants' action sparks claims Renault facing plays havoc total shutdown

meets over Easter weekend with its finances in ruins and its membership, even according to its own figures, having dropped by almost two-thirds inside 12 months;

This reformist youth 'movement'-a small rump led by the liquidators of the so-called Militant group who supported the witch-hunting and expulsion of the majority of the Young Socialists' National Committee in 1964— is holding a three-day conference followed by a three-day rally in the Derbyshire miners' holiday centre in Skegness. of sinkers a the list speakers a printed transcript would sink a battleship.

But. when all the words have been spoken, and all the votes have been counted, what will it all mean?

Those youth who continue to cling to their relationship with the irrespective Prey right every militant-sounding phrase uttered Skegness, still saddled with a bankrupt, meaningless policy ano tired, discredited leadership.

Typical of the resolutions on the agenda call. from Brent east LPYS, for Labour's national executive and the TUC General Council to 'do all possible through propaganda, demonstrations, and appeal ranks and med preparatory the armed forces political strikes ensure that hefore full-scale General Strike situation has developed the whote labour move. ment. has been organizationally: and politically prepared for the actual taking of power.

ANd that's just the last and shortest paraparagraph pesolutionght. graph eightThis sort of fearful, nervous, bureaucratic appeal for revolution' by committee is echoed in almost every other motion before the conference. ( But Putney LPYS won't even. go as far as Brent.

In the event of a General Strike we would do our utmost to make it successful and explain to the working class that unless the TUC takes power on behalf of. the working class a Big business blames workers for TORY big business blamed the working class for the deterioration in Britain's balance of trade yesterday.

Mr A. Jarman, director of the Engineering Industry Confederation, told me: 'There have been so many strikes and disruption, people are buying abroad.' A spokesman for the Confederation of British Industry said: 'It is vital that the government does not lose its nerve as a result of these figures.' Mr Jarman added that a marked percentage of the new imports were not competitor COMMENT DAVID MAUDE tragic defeat will follow, they whine.

'Sadly this would be SO given the present leadership of the TUC as they would seek to call off a General Strike practically before it had begun.

'Therefore we must concede, that to demand of the present leadership of the TUC , "to make concrete preparations for a General Strike" and thus to subsequently call a General Strike is an act of utmost stupidity as it is entrusting a General Strike in the hands of "leaders" we know in advance would betray the moveSmall wonder, then, that the report of the LPYS national committee has to admit a slump to 385 in the number of branches it claims are functioning.

(Last year they claimed 499, while in 1971 the figure given was 503.)

Alongside this fall has gone a, drop from 18 to eight "in the average number of claimed members per branch.

On the face of it, this means that the cardholding membership of the organization had plummeted from 8,706 But how much credence can • be given to any of these figures is a matter of opinion.

In fact, of the 385 branches the LPYS claims are in existence now, only 115 bothered to submit resolutions to the conference.

The organization was cnly kept going at all trough the last year by a £1,400 grant from tne parent party. demanded full pay for the days lost and downed tools.

ment strongly opposed this. demand which, accepted, could land it with heavy costs every time there is a partial strike.

It is facing increasingly tough competition in the international car market which it has been meeting with speed-up methods against which the press-shop workers revolted.

It is prepared to lose nearly £lm day rather than give in on the principle of full payment to workers laid off through the strike action of others.

Solidarity strikes with the workers at the BoulogneBillancourt headquarters of the firm spread to two big plants in the provinces, Flins and Sandrouville, near Le Havre.

OCCUPIED

The Sandrouville plant was closed after workers had occupied the power station. When it reopened only half the 20,000 workers turned up. .The determination of the workers, and, the explosive situation throughout French industry has confronted the Stalinist leaders of the main union, the CGT, with dilemma.

Anxious to prevent a repetition of the great General Strike of May-June 1968, they called on the government to intervene.

the same time, the militancy of the workers, expressed by the Renault press-shop men, has forced the CGT to place itself at the head of strike movements in order to control them and try to reach compromise with the management.

The Peugeot strike at St-Etienne has also developed into a long and bitter struggle and negotiations have broken down. trade deficit goods, but materials and machinery.

The CBI spokesman said: 'We knew there would be difficulties as industry took in raw materials for expansion, but if the government does not lose its nerve and can hold down inflation so that we get the maximum out of plant, we should be able to overcome them.' According to the Department of Trade and Industry, imports of 'basic materials' rose by 27 RENAULT PLANTS face a comp of union-management talks to solv two-week strike of nearly 400 pres The strike was called off under press when some of the demands of the main the 7,000 workers who had been locke The Renault manageA CULTURAL has begun according to mar Gaddafi. launched last the occasi Prophe THE UNITED STATES has suspended minesweeping operations off the coast of North Vietnam cecause of alleged ceasefire violations in South Vietnam and Cambodia.

A Pentagon spokesman said the operations had been suspended 'because cf the failure of the other side to abide by the agreements and assurances of Paris'.

The US agreed to clear mines from Haiphong and other North Yietnamese ports and rivers • as a condition of the Vietnam treaty signed earlier this year. rew of the mines have in fact been cleared and the suspension of the operation is an indication of growing US concern about the deterioration of its position in Indo-China.

THE PILOT who bombed the Cambodian presidential palace in Phnom Penh in an attempt to kill Lon Nol has told a Peking Press conference how he planned and carried out the attack.

He is Capt So Photra, son-in-law of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the deposed former leader.

He had not flown per cent and fuel by ? per in the last three months.

After the shake-out of labour in manufacturing industry in the past three years the employers are bringing in expensive machinery to do jobs once performed by men.

In addition to machine tools —many from Spain-steel is being brought in from Sweden and America and coal. from eastern Europe.

The latest Sure from Stalinist leaders of the ly immigrant workers had been met.

Gaddafi's cultural revolution s-shop workers.

revolution in Libya, Col Muamwas Sunday on Vohammed's Mine blackmail by US plane lete shut-down following the failure e the dispute which arose out CGT Then d out because of the press-shop strike A number Communists, as well as Moslem Brothers, have been imprisoned because, Gadlafi said, they had not rofited from an opportunity given them to end their party affiliations.

There is no room for party members' the Colonel The United States has also suspended the work of the Joint Economic Commission and said that there will be no aid to North Vietnam unless it observes the ceasefire agreement.

US bombing in Laos has stopped after two days of intensive raids in the Plain of jars, but the Prime Minister, Prince Souvanna Phouma, said more air support would be asked for if necessary.

The key to US actions in Indo-China is the last attempt to save the toppling Lon Nol puppet regime in Cambodia. Opposition parties have refused to join a new government and the military position is deteriorating rapidly. Government positions only 11 miles from Phnom Penh, the capital, are under heavy attack.

South Vietnamese troops are attempting to clear the banks of the Mekong river to open a way to beleaguered since 1970, but entered a military base and commandeered an elderly fighter-bomber during the siesta.

He explained his poor marksmanship by lack of practice.

In any case, Lon Nol was not in the palace time. After the at :ack, So Photra flew on Chinese island of H aina the government on to new demands for raised output trom the coal and steel industries through modernization and redundancies.

And the bosses' message to the Tories is clear: Keep the working class in order if you want us to buy British and expand output.

The trade deficit-£197m in the red—is expected to be even worse next month and reveals the full precariousness of the plight of British capitalism.

By triggering an inflation-led boom and clamping down mercilessly on the trade unions, the Tories are trying to create the conditions for a last desperate bid by British industry to hold its own in world markets.

The DTI spokesman confirmed that the government will try to ride out the present balance-oftrade crisis while industry tools up for a major export offensive.

But as last week's news of a major reorganization by Thyssen, the West German steel giant, and Volkswagen revealed, Britain's competitors are doing the same thing.

As trade war clouds gather over Europe, the signals are set for a new wave of sackings and ruthless repression of the workers' organizations and their basic, democratic rights.

said. We must put them all in prison so that they may pay the price of their crime as foreign agents who do not believe in the people The country's bookshops are being purged of all books which the regime considers : objectionable. Phnom Penh and heavy fighting is going on. Their Icsses are put at 60 killed and wounded.

American air power and the aid of South Vietnamese troops is proving unable to maintain this corrupt and totally subservient puppet government in office.

Diplomatic pressure has been brought to bear on the exiled government of Prince Sihanouk via the Stalinist powers.

The suspension of minesweeping is a blatant attempt to twist Hanoi's arm over Cambodia. According to the North Vietnamese only three mines have been cleared Since ceasefire was signed.

They accused the US of a premeditated act to drag ott the de facto blockade of North Vietnamese ports in an attempt to force Hanoi to stab the Cambodian liberation forces in the back. The Peking 'People's Daily' yesterday called on the US and South Vietnamese to end their military intervention in Laos and Canıbodia. It said that they had. repeatedly violated the ceasefire agreement by military and air action. •Such actions of the US government and the Saigon authorities, it said, 'are just intolerable to the people Indo-China and the entire BRIEFLY • BRIEFLY A DECISION on the farm workers' claim for a cut in the working week from 42 to 40 hours has been deferred until June 5 by the Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales. The Board say the demand is a disguised wage claim.

THE ASSOCIATION of Teachers in Technical Institutions, which represents the majority of the 50,000 teachers in further education, has accepted an increase of £160 a year. This is in line with the Tory state pay laws. Freeze TonS mestic litted domestic air fare rises. The Civil Aviation Au thority is expected to push up seat prices by about 5 per cent.

RUBERY OWEN workers were yesterday told their three-weekold strike had been made official by the AUEW and the T&GWU. Harry Littlehales, T&GWU organizer for Wolverhampton, told the men: 'We will not accept the principle that wages can be reduced by up to f2 a week.' Thousands are laid off at Britishavlandl Massey Ferguson, Leyland Daimler, with more to Jaguar, come at Chrysler and Standard Triumph.