Workers Press no. 1060

30 April 1973 · 18 scanned pages · about 20,664 words of machine-read text

This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Columns and stories run into one another, and words are misread. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.

Bylines in this issue (from the OCR, so incomplete): Ian Yeats, Leon Trotsky

Scan page 1

workers press THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Mobilize the working Cruss Capitalism in crisis MAY DAY is being cele- brated by the interna- tional working class in the midst of the greatest economic and political crisis since the 1930s. Since the United States formally ended convertibility of the dollar into gold on August 15, 1971, when it could no longer pretend to be in a position to honour its enormous debts abroad, it has proved impossible to establish a stable currency alignment between capitalist nations. The attempt to fix new pari- ties at the Smithsonian confer- ence in December 1971 began to break down almost immediately.

In the middle of 1972 the Bri- tish pound and the Italian lira were under pressure and sterling was floated downwards in value.

The 14-per-cent devaluation of the dollar had done nothing to WORKERS PRESS will not be appearing tomorrow, May Day.

We feel it is a mistake for the unions to impose the condi- tions of the planned industrial action against the Tories' state pay laws on working-class newspapers like Workers Press and the 'Morning Star'. We shall continue our campaign in the trade union movement to change this policy by demanding dispensation for all working-class newspapers dur- ing industrial action. Wednesday's Workers Press will be a special issue with reports and photographs from May Day demonstrations and meetings all over Britain.

Be sure of your issue now by telephoning circulation: 01-622 7029.

INCORPORATING THE NEW

THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CEN

change the enormous deficits in the US balance of payments and by the end of the year, the dollar was again in deep trouble.

The final collapse of fixed pari- ties early this year and the adop- tion of universal floating has done nothing to stabilize the situation. Currencies still are being driven down or upwards in value in response to balance of payments deficits of the differ- ent capitalist nations. As a con- sequence, international credit and trading operations are becoming increasingly difficult. The massive US balance-of- payments deficit has led to further devaluation of the dollar, and a general distrust of paper money. The flight into gold con- tinues. It now stands at over $90 an ounce and US financiers pre- dict $120 before long. As currency declines in value the growth of world-wide infla- inexorable. Capitalist tion is countries have undermined their own currencies in vain attempts to expand their way out of the crisis of their economic system.

The more they print paper money, the deeper their crisis becomes, based as it is on an over-production of capital itself relative to the amount of surplus

YOUNG SOCIALISTS AND SOCIALIST LAB

DEMONSTRATE TUES. I

DEFEND BASIC DEMOCRATIC

BUILD THE REVOLUTIONARY

THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY APRIL 30, 1973 • No 1060 • 4p

HE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Either the socialist revolution or dictatorship and nuclear war value that can be squeezed out of the world's working class.

WE SAY emphatically that difficulty with credit facilities The attempts to start reflation- cannot happen without and a threatened collapse of raw Enis ary booms by creating more ficti- revolutionary materials markets. The off the

TIOUS

caDital oniy puts working class cannot day of reckoning for a while and This enormously acteicrale. ariven Dack such an inter ensures that the economic conditions revolution in national scale without a period crash, when it comes, will be of turmoil, of wars and revolu- situation where hunger and star vation predominate. a ar more devastaune scale than LOns. 1929. It is this crisis in the colonial The ruling class cannot impose The only way the ruling classes countries which could well be- such a solution on the working of the capitalist countries the sparking off point for can class without first destroying the overcome this crisis is first World War Ill. of all to make their oss There organızed class strength of work- peace in Vietnam. Japan is once WOrK- ers and inerr trace unions ing classes bear the cost of curb- more turning towards rearma- Such an attempt political parties. ing inflation by taking enormous With American connivance ment. would provoke civil war. their living standards and Tapan hopes to become the pre.

CULS IH

producing far more surplus value dominant power once The alternative way for the again return for far less goods to the Far East. A major conflict CaDita iss overcome is inevitable if this with China their crisis with Cosunc. the tact is to whip up poncy continues uninterruptea.

This is for Phase the reason

SOWIS

Two and the state ace war ino a snooune war Dr Henry Kissinger's latest Tory pay the third nuclear world war.

The Tories conspire to let laws. proposals for the military organ- prices rise to the full extent that zation of capitalist Europe We solemnly warn the labour to an updating of the pent-up inflationary spiral has the long- movement that the economic and ount conditions are being the walle wares Temain standing

DAIS

oLmel at a standstill-in a word intro- created for a drive towards dic- theatre of world war against the ducing wage-cutting. Soviet Union and East Europe tatorship and fascism simultan- eously with a drive towards the If allowed to continue, it will the degeneration third imperialist war. tran format ibn cre cosu tb Inflation has created enormous standaras transtormanon oTune probably less the oday. Tt wir problems for Stalin into the major the workers and the colonial they are today. will peasants semi-cosmal the and counter-revolution world, what in of lead the countries. takes to an intensincation une imperausı camos man ariye trade war and the rapid develop- une Torm o a arasue reducuon

TURN TO BACK PAGE

ment of a worid slump. in aid programmes, a growing

IALIST LABOUR LEAGUF

NORTH WEST: Assemble 10 a.m. Islington,

LONDON:

Assemble: 6 p.m. Speakers Meeting: Central Hall, Corner. Marble p.m. CArCA. verdoo. Meeung. .ou p.m. Pancras Assembly Rooms. Speakers Liverpool. Speakers:

CORIN REDGRAVE

HEALY

(SLL

Sec),

MAUREEN

SARAH

HANNIGAN

editoria Nat BAMBRICK (YS Nat Sec). Première show- showing Première Doara) .docar ing of Pageant film. film.

SCOTLAND:

Assemble: 10 a.m. Blythwood YORKSHIRE: Assemble: 12 Garden nOOn Square Glasgow. Meeting: 7.30 .p.m. of Rest, near Leeds Town Hall.

Meeting: St Cross, Woodside Halls, George S 7.30 Guildford Hotel Headrow. p.m.

BANDA

Soeakers: MIKE Centra

BULL

ROY

(Workers Press Speakers:

TUES. MAY IST

Committee)

GORDON

BAILEY

(YS Nat editorial board). DAVE BIRD (YS National Committee). Première showing of Pageant Committee).

AMIT

tim

ALIS

Digbeth,

MIDLANDS:

Assemble 11 NORTH EAST: Assemble: ting P.m. Hem. a.m. Meeting: 7.30 Civic Hall, Birmingham. p.m. burn centre Meeting:

CLIFF

Speakers: Civic Centre, Jarrow. Speakers: Assembly Dic dern

SLAUGHTER

(SLL

Central STEPHEN JOHNS (Workers Press editorial Committee) board), JOHN SIMMANCE (Young Social-

GARY

GURMEET

Left). (Editor - heeo Première showing of Pageant film.

ists).

WALES:

5.30 Caedraw Assemble: 9: 7.30 SWINDON: Meeting 7.30 p.m. Co-op Hall, School, Merthyr. Meyt: Speakers: S'reet. Swindon. Speaker: Roger Merthyr.

ROY

Caedraw School,

CRATIC RIGHTS

KIKI

OBERMER

(Young

BASCKODY.

Socialists).

ONARY PARTY

Scan page 2

workers press THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Mobilize the working class Capitalism in crisis MAY DAY is being cele- brated by the interna- tional working class in the midst of the greatest economic and political crisis since the 1930s. Since the United States formally ended convertibility of the dollar into gold on August 15, 1971, when it could no longer pretend to be in a position to honour its enormous debts abroad, it has proved impossible to establish a stable currency alignment between capitalist nations. The attempt to fix new pari- ties at the Smithsonian confer- ence in December 1971 began to break down almost immediately.

In the middle of 1972 the Bri- tish pound and the Italian lira were under pressure and sterling was floated downwards in value.

The 14-per-cent devaluation of the dollar had done nothing to No paper WORKERS PRESS will not be appearing tomorrow, May Day.

We feel it is a mistake for the unions to impose the condi- tions of the planned industrial action against the Tories' state pay laws or working-class newspapers like Workers Press and the 'Morning Star'. We shall continue our campaign in the trade union movement to change this policy by demanding dispensation for all working-class newspapers dur- ing industrial action. Wednesday's Workers Press will be a special issue with reports and photographs from May Day demonstrations and meetings all over Britain.

Be sure of your issue now by telephoning circulation: 01-622 7029.

INCORPORATING THE NEW

THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CEN

change the enormous deficits in the US balance of payments and by the end of the year, the dollar was again in deep trouble.

The final collapse of fixed pari- ties early this year and the adop- universal floating tion done nothing • stabilize the to situation. Currencies still are being driven down or upwards in value in response to balance of payments deficits of the differ- ent capitalist nations. As a con- sequence, international credit and trading operations are becoming increasingly difficult. The massive US balance-of- payments delicit has led to a further devaluation of the dollar, and a general distrust of paper money. The flight into gold con- tinues. It now stands at over $90 an ounce and US financiers pre- dict $120 before long. As currency declines in value the growth of world-wide infla- inexorable. tion is Capitalist countries have undermined their own currencies in vain attempts to expand their way out of the crisis of their economic system.

The more they print paper money, the deeper their crisis becomes, based as it is on an over-production of capital itself relative to the amount of surplus

YOUNG SOCIALISTS AND SOCIALIST LAE

DEMONSTRATE TUES. I

DEFEND BASIC DEMOCRATIC

BUILD THE REVOLUTIONARY

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY APRIL 30, 1973 • No 1060 • 4p the united strengin of heluc Force ine tory govi 1o resign Either the socialist revolution or dictatorship and nuclear war value that can be squeezed out the world's working class.

of WE SAY emphatically that difficulty with credit facilities The attempts to start reflation- and a threatened collapse of raw this cannot nappen without ary booms ficti- by creating more revolutionary crisis c matinge materials markets. The puts of the Hous Caval only working class cannot day of reckoning for a while and This enormously accelerates such •riven

DECK

ensures that the economic conditions for revolution national scale without a period it comes, will be crash, when of turmoil, of wars and revolu- where hunger and star. siluallull TraT more devastatno scale loan vation predominate. 1929. the colonial IT IS LIs CrISIS In The ruling class cannot impose The only way the ruling classes countries be- Which could well such a solution on the working of e cacite this crisis is first capitalist countries sparking point for class without first destroying the World

III.

There try 110) organized class strength of work ol atomake

WORK -

peace in vietnam. Japan Is once ers Then Trace Unions ing classes bear the cost of curb- more turning towards rearma- political parties. Such an attempt inflation by taking enormous With American connivance ing ment. would provoke civil war. in their living standards and

CULS

a van noves lo becont producin for for esus tus dominant power once again value The alternative way for the return far less goods to the East. A major conflict tact is to whip top the growne Camitatists China is inevitable if this with growing poncy connnues ummertupied This is the reason for Phase • a shooting war Two and the lade war Into Dr Henry Kissinger's latest tory state the third nuclear world war.

proposals for the military organ- laws. Ine lories conspire to prices rise to the full extent that of capitalist Europe We solemnly warn the labour ount to an updating of the long- the pent-up inflationary spiral has movement that the economic and conditions are being LaKe Wakes rellain Standing 10]

LICI

at a standstill—in a word intro- created for a drive dic- theatre of world war against the towards ducing wage-cutting. Soviet Union and East Europe.

tatorship and fascism simultan. eously with a drive towards the If allowed to continue, it will Despite degeneration third imperialist war. lead to a permanent reduction in the the Soviet bureaucracy and Inflation has created enormous of the CPSU b workers Slandards transommadon probably less than one quarter the Stalin into the major agency probiems lor workers ane today. It will of what they peasants the colonial world. counter-revolution in allu semi-colonial countries. lead to intensification of takes the the imperialist camps main drive trade war and the rapia aevelop- ONlI or a rasuc reducuon

TURN TO BACK PAGE

ment of a world slump. aid programmes, growing

DEMONSTRATE TUES. MAY 1ST

LABOUR

LEAGUE

NORTH WEST: Assemble 10 a.m. Islington,

LONDON:

Assemble: 6 p.m. Speakers Meeting Speakers: 7.30 Hall, Marble p.m. Central corner. St Pancras Assembly Rooms. Liverpool. Speakers:

CORIN

REDGRAVE

Nat Sec),

MAUREEN

SARAH

HANNIGAN

(Keep Left editorial BAMBRICK (YS Nat Sec). Première show- showing of Pageant Premiere ing of Pageant film. film.

SCOTLAND:

Blythwood assemble: 10 a.m. YORKSHIRE: Assemble: 12 noon Garden Square. Glasgow. Meeting: 7.30 p.m. Rest, near Leeds Meeting: Town Hall. Woodside St George's Cross. lalls, 7.30 Guildford Hotel Headrow. p.m.

MIKE

BANDA

(SLL

Central

ROY

BULL

Press speakers: Speakers: (Workers

ATE TUES. MAY 1ST

Committee)

GORDON

(YS Nat editorial board). DAVE BIRD (YS National Committee). Première showing of Pageant Committee). film

EAST:

11 a.m.

NORTH

Assemble: 12.30 Heb-

MIDLANDS:

Assemble Civic Hall, Birmingham. Meeting: 7.30 p.m. 7.30 ourn Centre Meetine Civic Centre, Jarrow. Speakers: CLIFf assembly •peakers

SLAUGHTER

(SLL

Central Committee), STEPHEN JOHNS (Workers Press editorial board), JOHN SIMMANCE (Young Social-

GARY

GURMEET

(Editor Keep Left). Première showing of Pageant film.

ists) .

WALES:

5.30 Caedraw 9: 7.30 SWINDON: Meeting 7.30 p.m.

Co-op Hall. Assemole School. Meeting: Henry Swindon. Speaker: Roger Merthyr siree

ROY

Merthyr. Speakers: School Smith (ACTT in a caedraw persollar

KIKI

OBERMER

(Young dAlIChoD. Socialists).

PARTY

Scan page 3

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 THE SO-CALLED 'popular' Press has systematically played down the abject capitulation to the Tories uttered by TUC.

general secretary Victor Feather. While the leader of more than 10 million trade unionists was declaring on behalf of the TUC his 'reluctant acquiescence' to Phase Two of the Tory state pay laws, these papers emphasized his claim that 'millions' would take part in the May I strike.

The 'Sun' headlined its story 'Millions in May Day Demo— Feather', while the 'Daily Express' reported 'Millions will be out on May Day.' The 'Daily Mirror' as Feather gives go-ahead quoted Feather as saying: 'Several million people will be in- volved-I think there will be a good response.

The main provincial newspapers followed the same line. Both the 'Yorkshire Post' and the 'Western Mail', for example, ran their story under the heading Expects May. *Feather Day Cabinet, they 'cut them- had Millions'. selves loose from the last tatters of their recent conference's oppo- Of the all capitalist news- 'The sition to wage control'. Times', which papers, only read by not widely workers, We had already pointed out- told the real story. October the TUC's Economic Committee document 'Way is paved for Heath meet- 'contained no challenge to Tory declared the leading plans for state control of wages.

geois journal. on Thursday. 'The General Council continued: Again and again ve stressec of the TUC yesterday announced that the TUC's deliberate isola "resentful and reluctant tion of sections of the working in Phase Two of the gov- class-like the gasmen and hos- ernment's anti-inflation policy.

would encourage pital workers- Heath on his road to corporat- 'The decision, taken at a meet- ism. And we fought for the only ing lasting only 11 minutes, may way to answer this: pave the way for further Down- Street talks ing on voluntary

STRIKE

measures to curo wage rises dur- ing Phase Three. Way forward 'The Times' has a clear duty to tell the truth to the class it The working class must force represents. the special Congress of the TUC on March 5 to The 'popular' Press serves capi- debate the Gen- and Strike the talism in different Its eral bringing way. down of the Tory government as function is to keep the truth the only way forward.' from away its working-class readership. We refused to leave compla- cency undisturbed. When £55,000 A workers' newspaper has an was seized from the engineers' equally clear responsibility -to union in December under the tell the truth the working Industrial Relations Act, we class at all times and to warned that 'the General Coun- it for the struggles prepare cil's failure to take decisive ahead. up backstage action and to seek Workers Press has always done deals with the government opens that and will always continue to dangers for the up enormous do so. trade union movement.' (Work- Press December 21.) ers

CONGRESS

As the TUC's March 5 Special Workers Right swing Congress approached, Press was the only newspaper to the trade After the 1972 TUC Congress, campaign to make leaders call a General for warned: 'The union example, we Strike create the economic Brighton TUC marked a definite and political conditions to force swing to the right. the and Tories to resign return The leaders of millions of a Labour government pledged to trade unionists are bent on total socialist policies. Tory collaboration with the gov- On March 2 we wrote: 'Either ernment and its anti-union laws. This open collaboration with the the is defeated or accepted.' state pay laws are machine virtual state means acceptance of the corporate state.

the ne March Our report of Tories'

TUC

opposition to Congress declared: attacks on the working class has leaders have completely aban- officially dropped.' (Work- been doned the fight for decent wages.

ers Press, September 9, 1972.) one-day protest is too little late. It will not budge and From we de- the beginning the Tories. nounced Victor Feather and the trade union leaders who, instead We were the only paper of mobilizing their members denounce the refusal to fight for against the Tory government, re- what it was-Black Monday.

peatedly trekked to 10 Downing And warned 'If Feather we Street to co-operate with Heath.

and the other TUC leaders con- Tories On October 26 we pointed out encourage the tinue to of dan- that when these leaders entered with round after round into talks with the

CBI

and the gerous talks, they will open the IT'S still coming in at a Socialist snail's pace. League branches Labour TOs £14; Bradford £22; Leeds £30; Dagenham £5. Total £9,756.77. We need £40,243.23 by May 31 the to complete first leg of our target of £50,000. Post all donations to : Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High St London SW4 7UG.

APRIL FUND NOW STANDS AT

WE need £316.46 by tomorrow to leadership is revolutionary target for April. needed as everywhere the work- complete our One last spurt and we will make ing class is showing its determi- fight. Only Workers it. nation to Press provides such a lead.

Rush everything you can to us and Our paper alone has led the immediately make sure we reach £1,750 total. fight against the corporate mea- our As thousands of workers all sures of this government and will over the country come out and continue unceasingly to cam- demonstrate May Day, paign to force them to on one resign. Their We must therefore do thing stands out very clear.

every- Stalinist and trade thing to complete reformist April Fund. amount, union leadership is prepared to Raise Heath Phase large or small, and rush it to us capitulate to on Two, accept the immediately. Industrial Rela- tions Act and Workers Press April Appeal Fund, co-operate With the pay boards. 186a Clapham High Street, More than alternative London

SW4 7UG

DAILY ORGAN OF TH

door to the totalitarian state' We continually fought to ex- pose not only the right wing, Ike Feather, but the 'lefts', , like engineering union president Hugh Scanlon who recently publicly declared his acceptance of an 'amended' Industrial Relations Act. Every word we wrote has been proved correct. Contrast this with the abysmal record of the 'Morning Star', the paper of the British Communist Party. Stalinist newspaper has This deliberately sought to hide the truth from the working class by perpetrating the lie that the union leaders could be trusted to lead a real fight against the Tories. Reporting the March 5 con- ference, the 'Morning Star' edi- claimed: Yesterday's call torial for action against wage restraint 'restraint', not state con- [note trol of wages] and rising food prices was a blow to Heath.'

Moreover, according the to 'Star' the right wing had been defeated! It was also a setback for those trade union leaders ...

who wanted to restrict opposi- tion to Heath's policy to words.'

DETERMINATION

Further action What was wanted by the 'Star' down was not a fight to bring the Tory government but 'a one- day General Strike which would the determination of all eral : show organized workers to , take all further action necessary to de- fend their rights and advance their standard of living'.

This could be achieved, their told, the readers under were Tory government by limited ac- tions led by the right-wing trade union leaders forced to lead the movement by the pressure of the 'left' union leaders backed up by the Communist Party. While open capitulation was under way, the 'Star' protested that agreeing to hold back other unions' claims 'could [!] weaken the struggle against the Tory in- comes policy. Even when the hospital work- ers were being cynically left to fight alone by the TUC, the 'Morning Star' claimed that Fea- ther was helping them! In the latest moves which Mr RECOMMENDATIONS for a re- turn to work in the five-week- old Rubery Owen dispute will be put to a mass meeting of strikers on May Day. Seven hours of negotiations in Birmingham's Albany Hotel last Friday between Rubery Owen management and a union team led by national officials. Moss Evans of the Transport and Gen- eral Workers' Union and Bob Wright for the AUEW produced the go-back call. The basis for the proposed re- turn is that lower paid workers will get a f4-a-week increase and higher paid will get fl. Talks STEELWORKERS and their families marched 3,000-strong through Deeside, North Wales, in protest the weekend at against the proposed shutdown of the Shotton steel-making plant. There was a four-hour token strike at the plant, where 7,000 jobs are threatened, and shops in Queensferry, Shotton and Con- nahs Quay closed from were noon until 2 p.m. ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Feather has made to try to help The efforts of Feather and the the hospital workers, it is regret- executive of the National Union table that it has been agreed to of Railwaymen to weaken Tues- argue that they should be treated day's demonstration merely alt put down to 'misdirected zeal'! by the government as an excep- case.' (April 9. Emphasis tional The difference the between added.) Workers Press and the 'Morning • Instead of calling for the unity Star' is the difference between of the entire trade union move- revolutionary politics and coun- to force the Tories to re- ter-revolutionary politics.

ment sign, the Stalinist daily demanded Workers Press stands in the only fund-raising and unspecified line of Marx, Engels, Lenin and 'solidarity action' with the hos- Trotsky. Its task is to continue the developments initiated by the pital workers. Bolshevik Party which carried

SMOKESCREEN

through the Russian Revolution, and the first four Congresses of Co-operate openly Communist the International, which sought to construct revo- In this way the 'Morning Star' lutionary parties world on complemented the role the scale. 'popular' bourgeois Press in keep- The 'Morning Star' is a pro- ing the real truth away from its itself created duct of Stalinism, Behind readers. a smokescreen by the pressure of imperialism erected by the Stalinists, the isolated, economically on an trade union leaders prepared to backward, workers' state.

Two of the capitulate on Phase Stalinism out destroy set Tory state pay laws and to co- Bolshevism. It became a world- operate openly on Phase Three.

wide betrayal. instrument 'Morning Star' was The anti-Marxist theo- parti- Based on the cularly anxious to protect AUEW ries of 'peaceful co-existence' and president Hugh Scanlon from 'parliamentary roads to social- his members' anger when he de- only deliberately de- ism', it can willingness clared his to and disarm the working

ACCOOL

ceive the Industrial Relations Act and class. the Common Market and when he prepared the for Fea- way

WORKERS PRESS

state pay ther's capitulation on his control by telling union's Tells the truth National Committee that the Tories had 'won the first round' Today it is the Socialist Labour and that a large wage claim League which must carry out the could not be achieved. task for which the British Com- • "We stand four-square against munist Party, with the assistance.

the Act"- -Scanlon' screamed the of the Communist International, 'Morning front page Star' after was formed in 1920. Scanlon had told the Parliamen- The revolutionary newspaper, tary Press Gallery that he would Workers Press, is indispen- an accept an 'amended' Act. sable tool for the completion of Those said Scanion had who that task. fight abandoned the the were, Not only the must existing of 'unscrupu- 'Star' said, guilty leadership of the working class lous distortion'. (April 2.)

be exposed, it must be removed Feather says that Now, when and replaced by a revolutionary of May the the Day leadership. In purpose constructing this Workers strike is to permit workers to leadership, Press will their acquiescence' express to fearlessly tell the truth to the Tory policies, the 'Star' says that working class at all times. millions of workers will be Only in Marxist this way can 'shocked and infuriated'. (April workers be trained, steeled 26.) theory and in practical struggle. Only those workers who have This is impossible without the been systematically deceived by daily revolutionary newspaper. 'Star' facing Workers the thinking that The tasks Feather was leading a fight could Press day. growing every That is 'shocked'. all be why we Even now, the Stalinist daily readers to support us in our im- proposes no fight for a new lead- for the expansion portant plans ership of the trade union move- paper and the develop- ot our ment of its ment. work. will start immediately But a young frame shop work- re- on a Friday's mass meet- vised wages structure aimed at er said after the piecework I'm 100 reducing content ing: cent against Del of the present If it's brought wages structure. the new system. Brian

T&GWU

Mr Mathers, in will £3 get a week rise secretary told a Press but what's to say I can do a 100 regional conference: per cent performance. management had agreed Mr Fred Straw. Rubery Owen's 'The to separate the claim for an im- director of production services, mediate increase from its said after the Birmingham meet- long term policy of reforming the in The proposed distribution pay system putting piece- of high base increases is fairly similar workerc on wage rate. That's the what unions have what the company originally been pressing for all along.'

proposed.' Although this was the biggest From the galaxy of platform demonstration staged speakers the crowd reseryed one ever in Deeside, the far of its heaviest cheers for appren- below the 10,000 expected by the tice Dave Anthony. organizers. He said: 'All want to tell At the rally afterwards speak- fight you is that we've got to ers from the Tory, Welsh Naticn- back. If it means we have to get Communist alist, and Labour Heath let's him out, get inen Parties appeared together on the same platform. This call was one of the along few with clergymen. Tom to get past rally chairman Three quarters of the demon- Jones who publicly insisted that strators left the park long before steelmen's the meeting and the the 16 speakers had finished.

campaign was not political.

Scan page 4

After only three weeks the national rank-and- file steel action com- mittee is falling apart. Leaders Ebbw steelworks, South Wales, where 4,500 men are due to be sacked, have announced their withdrawal. And they say they will ig- nore the committee's call for a one-day industry-wide stop- pace on May 1 in protest against the closures announced in the Tory White Paper. plant chauvinism which The decision characterized the special Connah's Quay, North Wales, conference on April 16 to its logical conclusion. Ebbw Vale works' council plainly hopes that if they keep their noses clean the British Steel Corporation's promise to negotiate closure dates may yet be turned into a wholesale reprieve for the the action committee at East Moors Works, Cardiff, has never broken from the be- lief that with good manage- ment new works can be phased in and many of the threatened 4,100 jobs saved.

Although they called the action committee's national conference, the Shotton leaders in North Wales have their share of illusions they can save 6,500 jobs by being 'reasonable' men. These moods are also behind last Tuesday's move by the Steel Industry Management Association to use court action if necessary to force the BSC to reveal the grounds on which Shotton is to be shut. In addition, works' leaders have allowed themselves to be fobbed off with the vague promise from steel union leaders that they will act where sackings are not matched by the availability of alternative jobs. A new English edition of the 'First Five Years of the Communist International' in- corporating hitherto unpublished material from Volume XIII of Trotsky's Works'

THE FIRST

TIVE YEARS OF THE

COMMUNIST

It is this belief that under- Ebbw committee lies Vale chairman Mr Colin Hudson's 'We explanation: our put official trust in the national movement.' The stark truth none of the action committees will face is that closure not related to is plant profitability, but to industry-wide profitability.

Ebbw Vale, Cardiff and Shotton all make money and the illusion is that this is all that is needed for them to be kept open. The fact is that the BSC as a whole is in serious difficulty unless the old, costly, open- hearth process can be phased and the cheaper out more modern basic oxygen system brought in. The challenge is industry- wide change-backed by the It can government. only be fought industry-wide on an basis. This means on a poli- tical basis. The Tories cannot be 'per- suaded' to scrap the plan to

BSC.

They modernize can only be stopped by a serious and decisive fight for the right to work. This be campaign must at creating the con- aimed ditions in which the Tories will be forced to resign, pav- ing the way for the election of Labour government which can be forced by mass action to implement genuine socialist policies. The action committees are One of a series of demonstrations by s riddled second Inset: Colin Hudson, Ebbw Vale with a major belief that if mistaken they end the process of changes in can only hold on until Labour the steel industry, but rather gets back to power their jobs they would try to make them will automatically be safe.

more endurable. Nothing could be further From 1900 and before it from the truth. Michael Foot the role has always been of (representing Ebbw Vale) and reformist social democracy to of other Labour MPs a galaxy the worst social temper ex- have said publicly time and cesses of capitalism while do- again that they are not nothing ing. at all to put an opposed to modernization.

end to the monster opposed They the are to responsible. manner of it under the Tory Furthermore in two years' government; to its social Labour will not be time able callousness. to put the clocks back, even Labour in power would not if they wanted to. Five ational in. ed material The First Five Years of the Communist International This first volume of Trotsky's writings and speeches for the Communist International covers the period of its first three Congresses when the post-war revolutionary upsurge reached its peak and then began to recede. It establishes, without fear of con- tradiction, the important role which he played in the foundation of this, the Third workers' International, and in the formation and early development of the French, German and Italian Communist Parties. At this time the theory of 'socialism in one country' had and Joseph Stalir was still a not been invented second-line Bolshevik leader who played no part in the international movement which he was later to pervert and eventually destroy.

F THE

Price: £1.50, 421 pages. Available from: New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG or the Paperbacks Centre 28 Charlotte Street, London, W1 (Enclose 10p for postage)

MAKING WI!

A PROFIT NE

+ OTTON

Strimorni

NO STEEL EMBAS

Mary,

SAVE

MOTTON

committee chairman. By then not only the basic oxygen new process, but the for large - scale innovations capital intensive working in rolling will be under way. Lost forever Even if the trade unions and the Labour Party between them succeed welc cushioning the social effects closures, uney job opportunities lost forever with all the frightful consequences for the steel

PENNY-PINCHING IN ABERFAN

Residents of Aberfan, South Wales, claim the removal of tips near the one which killed over a hundred people - the majority of them children —is being used to make fat profits. Instead of merely being carted shortest away in lne possible time, tip material is being processed for coal.

Once the fuel has been salvaged, the shale is then dis- tributed the 28-acre over Grove Field. But without reclamation, the residents feel the two tips on either side of the Aberfan Road could be cleared more rapidly. The work is already in its sixth month and the National Board, which is respon- Coal sible for the removals, says it is likely to go on for another yeal. A Coal Board spokesman rs Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 3 proposed closure of the Deeside works.

communities. The fight for the right to work and against the loss of job opportunities in the steel industry is one which must be stepped up if unemployment is to be avoided and whole communities like Ebbw Vale and Shotton are not to wither away. It is also a struggle which is inseparable from the strug- gle to build an alternative revolutionary leadership in the trade union and labour eel movement. denies that any profit is being made. But the whole project is an outstanding example of Tory penny-pinching in the face of a most horrible disaster.

The managing director of Ryan Industrial Fuels, con- tractors to the NCB, Mr George Tomkins, said that about 10 per cent of coal was being ing yielded by the reclamation process. He added: "This way it helps to pay for the operation.'

Mr Stewart Phillips, whose home overlooks the tip site, said: It seems to be turning into a commercial venture. It is bound to take longer when is being taken from the coal the shale. We want it com- pleted in the quickest possible time." Mrs Annette Griffiths, a teacher, said: 'It looks like a miniature colliery. If they are here, going to do good why does there have to be a profit?

This is going to slow the process down. We have seen an enough coal in Aberfan.'

Scan page 5

PAGE & Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973

ANTI-

PICKET

SQUAD —

THERE'S

Scan page 6

HISTORY POINTS A FINGER AT FEATHER

TO DE BRIE

DORSET

COUNIN

Last week Victor Feather opened ex- an hibition of historic trade union banners just a few hours after signalling 'reluctant' TUC accept ance of the Tory pay laws. Here, graphically expressed, see the we faces of the trade two union bureaucracy today.

REGS NO

DoN rouseR Equality. Fratermily, Liberty We KNEW The CHAINS

LABOUR

FROM

BARLIEST:

CHILDHO!

DAYS

REGI

We XNEW The CHAINS

LABOUR

FRoM:

EARLIESTY

CHILDHOOD

DAYS

On the one hand, stuffed in their vaults, they keep the record of the bitter struggle of generations of workers to build their de- fence organizations. These are brought out for occasional airing, to an impress rank-and-file the whom these leaders actually hold in contempt. Holiday speeches are made about 'forefathers' of the the 1882.T. PALy

TEVE TOILED

In DUSTY

FACTORIES

WEVE

SHED

OUR

BLOOD

TEARS

MAKIRS

Equality, Fraternity, Liberty

• DUSTY

FACTORIES

NEVE

SHED

coup

BLOOD

& TEARS

labour movement. hand, the On the other chiefs use these union cover their occasions to the treacherous,

ICLUSHI

which reformist practices all threaten to undermine the gains of these past struggles. When Feather spells out 'resentful, reluctant acquies- cence in Phase Two of the government's pay policy, he fact declaring the

TUC

General Council's acceptance of the first steps towards a corporate state in Britain. The corporate state means the end of independent trade For Feather to

UNTONES.

appear smiling, with a pro- amongst the pretorial air, banners of those who fought SO determinedly and self- sacrificingly found the to early unions is an act of the utmost cynicism. Earliest of the banners in the exhibition - that of the United Tin Plate Workers' 1821—was Society of about trade made were still labouring under the penal constraints vicious Combination Acts.

Today the slogan of Feather

TUC

and the General Council co- operation with a government which is seeking to legislate away all workers' rights — with those who 20-operation bring back the Walll Workers Press, Combination Acts in a modern form. Another banner in the ex- hibition is that of the export branch of the Dock, Wharf, General Riverside and Labourers' Union, which arose out of the great 1889 'dockers' tanner' strike.

John Gorman, who assem- bled the exhibition and wrote the new book 'Ban- ner Bright' (Allen Lane, £5), recalls a contemporary account of the dockers triumphant march on Sept- ember 15, 1889, having won both their sixpence-an-hour rate and recognition for their union. 'All along the Commercial Road the women turned out . in their thousands to see their husbands and sons pass in triumph. The sun seemed brighter, the music more inspiring, the banners more in number than ever before.' And there were more banners. The strike, as Gorman says, 'signalled an explosion of unionism among the semi-skilled and un- skilled'. Now all these gains, this history, are called into ques- tion and the working class needs new banners - the banners of the revolutionary party-to meet the challenge Significantly, one of the most elaborate banners on display, thought to date from Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 5 U.M. 5.

REVOLUTIOLIARY COMPETITION.

DREAMS AND TRUST

WTH MPERIALIST WAR

UP WITH MILTALIT MERS WITERISTRAL SADARTY

around 1895, only Was brought to light when the Pilkington glass strikers raided the St Helens office of the General Municipal Workers' Union in 1970. This is the banner of the St Helens Sheet Glass Flat- Trade Protection teners which became Society, part the G&MWU in 1924. Like the revolutionary traditions of another

G&MWU

constituent, the Gasworkers' Union which Marx Eleanor helped to the banner had been found, buried by the bureaucracy.

pictured last Feather was week, John Gorman, with under the Southall branch the banner of Associated of Locomotive En- Society Motormen, Firemen feels, and Cleaners. Made in 1921, the banner is still on occasion carried by the locomen's union

ASLEF.

It featured promin- ently, for instance, in demon- strations against the famous Beeching cuts Under the 'The Slogan Power of Unity Breaks Down the Barriers of Capitalism', banner portrays the une heroic figure of a worker storming the employers in their lair. Feather can certainly • lay no claim to coming from that tradition. The banners ex- hibition points accusing finger at him and his kind.

Scan page 7

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday April 3( Like Tuesday's celebra- tions, the first May Day parade held in London in 1890 took place under conditions of great crisis and change inside the working-class movement. For the huge demonstration which descended on Hyde Park on Sunday May 4 occurred at at decisive turning point when millions of workers were being forced by the sharp turn in the class struggle to break from leaders and their old create organizations political new which alone could solve their growing problems. The 1890s marked the advent of the imperialist stage of capitalism. The ruling class in every country was forced onto the offensive against the growing power of the working- class movement. In the desper- ate struggle for markets and outlets for capital exports, the employers embarked upon a determined onslaught against the living standards and or- ganizations of millions of workers. So it is today. All over the world, the capitalist system faces a crisis which can be summed up in a single word inflation. It is the pressure of inflation which now continu- ally shatters any attempt at 'stability' throughout Europe and America. It is inflation which is thrusting the capitalist class into struggle to take from the working class all those rights and privileges which it has wrested from capitalism over the last century and a half.

And just as today, so in the 1890s, Britain is at the very centre of the world crisis. It was this crisis which forced tens of thousands of workers to take to the streets, in oppo- sition to their leaders, to demand the implementation of the legal eight-hour day to curb the growing volume of unemployment, particularly among the unskilled workers.

The actual call for the May Day demonstration had come from the founding Congress of the Second International which met the previous year in Paris.

A crucial decision at the Con- gress was to organize, for May 1, a great international demon- stration, organized in such a way that on the same day the workers in all lands and cities will simultaneously demand from the powers-that-be a limitation of the working day to eight hours. The first call in Britain for the implementation of this resolution was to come from Karl Marx's daughter, Eleanor Marx-Aveling. At a delegate meeting of the recently-formed Gasworkers' Union held in January 1890 it was unanimously decided, on Eleanor's proposal, that in accordance with the Paris motion, a May Day demonstra- tion should be held for a legal eight-hour day. The gasworkers had only recently forced a re- duction of the working day from their employers, but feared that they would SOOn counter-attack and take away the gain. There was widespread action

SUDDONE

DO Cal which would make it secure.

Eleanor got in touch with the Bloomsbury Socialist Society which had been repre- Paris Congress. sented at une At first she favoured holding the demonstration on May Day.

There were practical difficulties in holding it on a working day, but she thought these could be expedient one Coming a the adopting overcome which was to permit celebra- tion in the evening if necessary.

But at an April meeting held in the Vauxhall Workingmen's Club it was decided to hold it first Sunday in the On month, central committee Eleanor's with husband, Edward Aveling, as chairman the smaller anions and Radical the smaller unions and clubs sought. was Soon, however, the commit- tee was to meet with the wrath and opposition official Ene movement. It the was in pre paration for the first May Day in 1890 that the battle between those advocating the legal eight-hour day as against those who favoured a campaign for the eight-hour day was to come to a head. This was no mere difference over words. For what the Old Guard' trade union leaders who dominated the Parliamen- tary Committee of the

TUC

(forerunner of the General Council) wanted was to tie the Party they opposed all poral class to the Liberal Party. tical action which would raise the question of a new, indepen- dent party for labour. In limit- ing the fight to the question of the eight-hour day, they wanted to confine the struggle each employer at the point of production. Eleanor Marx and her sup- legal eight-hour insisted upon the political nature of the struggle against the It was government. response to her lead that the most oppressed like workers, une gasworkers, wno were Join- ing unions for the first time, provided the basis for the huge demonstration which gathered in Hyde Park on May 4. entirely appropriate that Marx's daughter should have taken the lead in fighting to show workers the political implications struggle or ther over 80 years ago. For it is only the Socialist League Labour which has fought to explain the implica- tion of today's and marches demonstrations. mobilizing the en- Onlv bv tire strength the working united political

CASS

struggle against the Tory gov- ernment can there be any answers to the crisis. Like the early Marxist movement in the

THE

1880s and 1890s, we have fought consistently all those in the leadership of the working class, reformists and Stalinists, who have sought at every working stage to divert the away from its main class enemy, the Heath government.

Aveling soon ran into bitter opposition from the official leaders as well as the Metro- politan Police in preparing for the demonstration. The Lon- don Trades Council decided to hold a demonstration for the eight-hour day on the same day, May 4. It also got permission to use Hyde Park for its demonstra- tion and allocated two of its seven platforms to the Social Democratic Federation. This was the Marxist group formed in 1884 and led by H. M. Hyndman. The SDF, renowned for its sectarianism, had con- tinually denounced the Paris resolution as a foolish' at- tempt by the 'Marxist clique' to impose its politics on the working class. Aveling was forced to go to the office of the Commissioner of Works and, by threatening trouble at the Park, was even- tually able to obtain a further seven platforms for the central "tables committee. Now the were turned', as Engels wrote in a letter to Sorge and after May 4. He said: "The move- ment here will take on quite a different aspect, and you will then hear more of Tussy [Eleanor] publicly.* On Sunday, two processions, the one 'legal' and the other 'non-legal' started from the Embankment and marched by different routes to Hyde Park, where a vast crowd of 250,000 to 300,000 assembled. Accord- ing to Engels, three-quarters were actual demonstrators.

At a platform presided over by a member of the Gas- workers' Union, Eleanor spoke as a trade unionist and sO- cialist, declaring that *the unemployed, both at the top and bottom of society, would be got rid of. Engels' old friend, Paul Lafargue, spoke from another platform, representing the French workers, Engels, pre- sent as an observer, stood on the back of a cart. A few days later he wrote to Laura Lafargue: 'I can assure you I looked a couple of inches taller when I got down from that lumber- ing old' wagon that served as a platform-after having heard again, for the first time since 40 years, the unmistakable voice of the English proletariat.'

He thought that the Avel- ings, and especially Eleanor, had done the whole who thing' , now acquired a different standing from the one they had before, and the held real socialist mass movement has begun with May 4. In fact the 'legal' platforms far surpassed their rivals in the size of the crowds that gathered around and in the popularity of the seapkers who addressed them. Lafargue, bringing greetings from France, was received best of all.

It is important to remember in 1973 that the first London May Day was part of an inter- national movement of workers throughout Europe. Just as to- day, so in 1890, the develop- ment of imperialism unified the struggle in every country. The call for the May Day demon- strations had met with an en- thusiastic response throughout Europe. In France work had stopped on May Day in 138 towns and had been particularly well sup- ported by miners. In Italy, par- ticularly in Milan, Leghorn and Lugo, thousands of work-

Scan page 8

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday April 31 Like Tuesday's celebra- tions, the first May Day parade held in London in 1890 took place under conditions of great crisis and change inside the working-class movement. For the huge demonstration which descended on Hyde Park on Sunday May 4 occurred at at decisive turning point when millions of workers were being forced by the sharp turn in the class struggle to break from their old leaders and create political organizations new which alone could solve their growing problems. the The 1890s marked advent of the imperialist stage of capitalism. The ruling class in every country was forced onto the offensive against the growing power of the working- class movement. In the desper- ate struggle for markets and outlets for capital exports, the embarked upon employers a determined onslaught against standards and or- the living ganizations • millions of workers. So it is today. All over the world, the capitalist system faces a crisis which can be summed up in a single word inflation. It h e pressure of 1S inflation whick now continu- ally shatters any attempt at 'stability' throughout Europe and America. is inflation It which is thrusting the capitalist class into struggle to take from the working class all those rights and • it has privileges which wrested from capitalism over the last century and a half.

And just as today, so in the 1890s, Britain is at the very centre of the world crisis. It this crisis which forced was tens of thousands of workers to take to the streets, in oppo- sition to their leaders, to demand the implementation of the legal eight-hour day to curb the growing volume of unemployment, particularly among the unskilled workers.

The actual call for the May Day demonstration had come from the founding Congress of the Second International which met the previous year in Paris.

A crucial decision at the Con- gress was 'to organize, for May 1, a great international demon- stration, organized in such a way that on the same day the workers in all lands and cities will simultaneously demand from the powers-that-be limitation of the working day to eight hours' The first call in Britain for implementation of this the resolution was to come from Karl Marx's daughter, Eleanor Marx-Aveling. At a delegate meeting of the Gasworkers' recently-formed Union held in January 1890 it was unanimously decided, on ay April 30, 1973 Eleanor's that in proposal accordance with the Paris motion, a May Day demonstra- tion should be held for a legal eight-hour day. The gasworkers had only recently forced a re- duction of the working day their employers, from but feared that they would soon counter-attack and take away the gain. There was widespread support for political action which would make it secure.

Eleanor got in touch with Socialist the Bloomsbury Society which had been repre- sented at the Paris Congress.

At first she favoured holding the demonstration on May Day.

There were practical difficulties in holding it on a working day, but she thought these could be overcome by adopting the expedient of the German party, which was to permit celebra- tion in the evening if necessary.

But at an April meeting held in the Vauxhall Workingmen's Club it was decided to hold it on the first Sunday? in the month. A central committee with Eleanor's I husband, Edward Aveling, as chairman was elected and tne support of the smaller unions and Radical clubs was sought. the commit- Soon, however, tee was to meet with the wrath and opposition of the official movement. It was in the pre- paration for the first May Day in 1890 that the battle between those advocating the legal eight-hour day as against those who favoured a campaign for the eight-hour day was to come to a head. This was no mere difference Old over words. For what the Guard' trade union leaders who dominated the Parliamen- 'tary Committee of the TUC (forerunner of the General Council) wanted was to tie the working class to the Liberal Party. They opposed all poli- tical action which would raise the question of a new, indepen- dent party for labour. In limit- ing the fight to the question of the eight-hour day, they wanted to confine the struggle against each employer at the point of production. Eleanor Marx and her sup- porters, by raising the question of the legal eight-hour day, insisted the political upon nature of the struggle against the government. It in was response to her lead that the most oppressed workers, like the gasworkers, who were join- ing unions for the first time, provided the basis for the huge demonstration which gathered in Hyde Park on May 4. It is entirely appropriate that Marx's daughter should have taken the lead in fighting to show workers the political implications of their struggle over 80 years ago. For it is only the Socialist Labour League which has fought to explain the implica- tion of today's marches and demonstrations. Only by mobilizing the en- the working tire strength of class in a united political struggle against the Tory gov- ernment can there be any answers to the crisis. Like the early Marxist movement in the

THE

1880s and 1890s, have we fought consistently all those in the leadership of the working class, reformists and Stalinists, who have sought at every stage to divert the working away from its main class enemy, the Heath government.

Aveling soon ran into bitter opposition from the official leaders as well as the Metro- politan Police in preparing for the demonstration. The Lon- don Trades Council decided to hold a demonstration for the eight-hour day on the same day, May 4. It also got permission to use Hyde Park for its demonstra- tion and allocated two of its seven platforms to the Social Democratic Federation. This was the Marxist group formed in 1884 and led by H. M. Hyndman. The SDF, renowned for its sectarianism, had con- tinually denounced the Paris resolution as a 'foolish' at- tempt by the 'Marxist clique' to impose its politics on working class. Aveling was forced to go to the office of the Commissioner of Works and, by threatening trouble at the Park, was even- tually able to obtain a further seven platforms for the central Now the 'tables committee. were turned', as Engels wrote in a letter to Sorge and after May 4. He said: 'The move- ment here will take on quite a different aspect, and you will then hear Tussy more [Eleanor] publicly.' On Sunday, two processions, the one 'legal' and the other 'non-legal' started from the Embankment and marched by different routes to Hyde Park, where a vast crowd of 250,000 to 300,000 assembled. Accord- ing to Engels, three-quarters were actual demonstrators.

At a platform presided over by a member of the Gas- workers' Union, Eleanor spoke as a trade unionist and SO- cialist, declaring that 'the unemployed, both at the top and bottom of society, would be got rid of' Engels' old friend, Paul Lafargue, spoke from another platform, representing the French workers. Engels, pre- sent as an observer, stood on the back of a cart. A few days later he wrote to Laura Lafargue: 'I can assure you I looked a couple of inches taller when ing I got down from that lumber- ing old' wagon that served as a platform-after having heard again, for the first time since the unmistakable years, voice of the English proletariat.'

He thought that the Avel- ings, and especially Eleanor, had done who the whole thing' ? now acquired a different standing from the one they had before, and 'the held real socialist mass movement has begun with May 4' In fact the 'legal' platforms far surpassed their rivals in the size of the crowds that gathered around and in the popularity of the seapkers who addressed them. Lafargue, bringing greetings from France, was received best of all.

It is important to remember in 1973 that the first London May Day was part of an inter- national movement of workers throughout Europe. Just as to- day, so in 1890, the develop- ment of imperialism unified the struggle in every country. The call for the May Day demon- strations had met with an en- thusiastic response throughout Europe. In France work had stopped on May Day in 138 towns and had been particularly_well sup- ported by miners. In Italy, par- ticularly in Milan, Leghorn and Lugo, thousands of work-

Scan page 9

BUILD

THE

LABDUR

PARTY

Scan page 10

Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 7 Above: Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who put out the first call for May Day in Britain. Below: Frederick Engels. Left: Eleanor Marx-Aveling speaks of the Second International, portrayed at to workers about the founding the Pageant of working class history at Empire Pool last March.

143325 v2 901

Scan page 11

Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 7 Above: Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who put out the first call for May Day Engels. in Britain. Below: Frederick Left: Eleanor Marx-Aveling speaks to workers about the founding of the Second International, portrayed at the Pageant of working class history at Empire Pool last March.

Scan page 12

340,000 took celona over national eight-hour leaders of the working rewards Austrian while in Bar- with that Engels Its long is broken at the cutens for May England, Bakunin They had in the 1860s did the skilled 'aris- decade aLeI Democracy, summed up the gains following from the first May Day in that country: *Entire layers of the working class, with which we would otherwise have made no con- tact, had been shaken out of their lethargy. we have drawn new strength from May Day and the demonstrations have been like a plough over -virgin lands. The idea has taken root in the hearts of workers whom we could never have reached with our pro- gramme and speeches, and the inspiration will never be lost.'

The changes in the English working class were equally important following May Day 1890. It gave a great impetus to against the 'Old the nght Guard' union leaders who had up to that point dominated the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC. A new group of leaders, often working under the direction of Eleanor Marx and Engels, came forward to fight consistently inside the movement for the programme of the legal eight-hour day and for a break from Liberalism and the formation of an in- dependent Labour Party. Despite all attempts by the old leaders, represented most typically by Henry Broadhurst, secretary of the Parliamentary Committee, it was fight which brought great gains.

the summer of 1890 the Lon- don Council-which Trades only a few months earlier had led the fight against Aveling's committee central -instructed delegates to the 1890 all its

TUC

to vote for the legal eight-hour day.

EXPOSED

Never for a moment had Engels or Eleanor Marx advo- cated that the fight inside the existing workers' organizations, particularly the trade unions, should be abandoned. They had always insisted with their collaborators- Will as

-SUCO

Thorne and lom Mann-that they had to fight Broadhurst and his clique at every stage.

Despite rebuffs the early in 1880s. late when the leaders of the old labour aristocracy' had been able to isolate the socialists in the TUC, Thorne and company turned never their backs on the fight.

For Engels knew that only through a fight inside the or- of the ganizations working class, at every level, could all the new forces entering the Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 7 Above: Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who put out the first call for May Day in Britain. Below: Engels. Left: Eleanor Frederick Marx-Aveling speaks to workers about the founding of the Second International, portrayed at the Pageant of working class history at Empire Pool last March.

struggle for the first time be working class in great U1S united and the old leaders danger. It is dominated by exposed. social democrats and leaders. How Engels would Stalinists, have who are a thousand denounced the revisionists of times more reactionarv than today. They have prepared for Henry Broadhurst and the Day 1973 by advocating May 'Old Guard' of 1890 the crudest forms of rank and But it remains an enorm- file-ism' which can only con- ously powerful class. Given the same principled lead which the fuse the working class while the trade union and Marxists allowing sought to give its Labour leaders-who have great grandfathers over 80 done everything possible convinced to years ago. we are destroy a united fight against that it will be able to strike far greater blows against its he Tory government-to ge off the hook enemies inside the working Not only was May Day, 1890, class than it did in the days powerful following May 4, 1890. blow for the struggle of the socialists inside And just as Eleanor Marx, the unions. It also was a crucial Engels and their comrades step in the fight for those poli- were in the vanguard of the •Old tical changes which Engels had fight to clear out the Guard' of their day, so today, advocated throughout the 1880s. For in January 1893, on May Day 1973, the Socialist Labour League some two years before Engels this gives died. the Independent Labour pledge: We will do all in our Party was established at a power to provide the working meeting in Bradford. class with the Party which it And despite its serious limi- now requires in order to take tations and the inevitable con- power and establish socialism. fusion on the part of many of It is a fight which means the its leaders. Engels warmly struggle to clear out of the welcomed the move as a vita movement every Stalinist and step forward develop- in the reformist who in this period ment of a political movement of great danger has consciously inside British working the abandoned everything for class. which May Day stands in It is in this spirit that today the international working-class we celebrate May Day. The movement.

Scan page 13

ers marched through the streets in close formation. In Belgium, 340,000 took part in demon- strations. In Portugal, 14,000 workers struck, while in Bar- celona over 100,000 took part in demonstrations, with an even greater number attending a mass meeting in Stockholm.

Little wonder that Engels could say proudly: 'On May 4, 1890 the English working class joined up in the great inter- national army. Its long winter sleep ... is broken at last. The grandchildren of the are entering the old Chartists line of battle.' Engels' only regret was that Marx had not lived to see the day. For the campaign for May Day, particularly in England, was a continuation of the fight he had waged inside the First International against Bakunin and the Anarchists. They had opposed the fight for the legal eight-hour day in the 1860s as determinedly as did the "aris- leaders of the skilled tocracy of labour' in the 1890s.

But it was a campaign based on the continual fight to turn the working class to politics which was to reap such great rewards in the decade after Marx's death in 1883. Victor Adler, leader of the • Austrian Social Democracy, summed up the gains following from the first May Day in that country: 'Entire layers of the working class, with which we would otherwise have made no con- tact, had been shaken out of their lethargy ... we have drawn new strength from May Day and the demonstrations have been like a plough over The idea virgin lands. has taken root in the hearts of workers whom we could never have reached with our pro- gramme and speeches, and the inspiration will never be lost.'

The changes in the English working class were equally important following May Day 1890. It gave a great impetus to the fight •Old against the Guard' union leaders who had up to that point dominated the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC. A new group of leaders, often working under the direction of Eleanor Marx and Engels, came forward to fight consistently inside the movement for the programme of the legal eight-hour day and for a break from Liberalism and the formation of an in- dependent Labour Party. Despite all attempts by the old leaders, represented most typically by Henry Broadhurst, secretary of the Parliamentary Committee, it was fight which brought great gains. In the summer of 1890 the Lon- don Council-which Irades only a few months earlier had led the fight against Aveling's committee-instructed central all its delegates to the 1o9

TUC

to vote for the legal eight-hour day.

EXPOSED

Never for had a moment Engels or Eleanor Marx advo- cated that the fight inside the existing workers' organizations, particularly the trade unions, should be abandoned. They had always insisted with their collaborators- -such Will as Thorne Mann-that and om they had to fight Broadhurst and his clique at every stage.

rebuffs in the 1880s, when the leaders late of the old 'labour aristocracy' had been able to isolate the socialists in' the TUC, Thorne and company turned never their backs on the fight.

For Engels knew that only through a fight inside the or- of the ganizations working at every level, could all class, new forces entering the the Workers Press, Above: Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who put in Britain. Below: Frederick Engels. Le to workers about the founding of the S the Pageant of working class history : struggle for the first time be united and the old leaders exposed. Engels How would have denounced the revisionists of today. They have prepared for May Day 1973 by advocating the crudest forms of 'rank and file-ism' which can only con- fuse the working class while allowing the trade union and Labour leaders-who have done everything possible to destroy a united fight against the Tory government-to get off the hook. Not only was May Day, 1890, a powerful blow for the struggle of the socialists inside the unions. It also was a crucial step in the fight for those poli- tical changes which Engels had advocated throughout the 1880s. For in January 1893, some two years before Engels died, the Independent Labour Party was established at a meeting in Bradford. And despite its serious limi- tations and the inevitable con- fusion on the part of many of its leaders, Engels warmly welcomed the move as a vital step forward in the develop- ment of a political movement British working inside the class. It is in this spirit that today we celebrate May Day. The ers Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 7 , who put out the first call for May Day Engels. Left: Eleanor Marx-Aveling speaks g of the Second International, portrayed at s history at Empire Pool last March.

working class is in great danger. It is dominated by leaders, social democrats and Stalinists, who are a thousand times more reactionary than Henry Broadhurst and the 'Old Guard' of 1890. But it remains an enorm- ously powerful class. Given the same principled lead which the Marxists sought to give its great grandfathers over 80 we are convinced years ago, that it will be able to strike far greater blows against its the working enemies inside class than it did in the days following May 4, 1890. And just as Eleanor Marx, Engels and their comrades were in the vanguard of the fight to clear out the 'Old Guard' of their day, so today, on May Day 1973, the Socialist gives Labour League this pledge: We will do all in our power to provide the working class with the Party which it now requires in order to take power and establish socialism.

It is a fight which means the struggle to clear out of the movement every Stalinist and who in this period reformist of great danger has consciously abandoned for everything which May Day stands in the international working-class movement.

Scan page 14

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday April 30 A series by Bernard Franks.

Part One The Tories have launch- ed a determined attack on the rights and condi- tions of the working class in Britain. The effects of a rampant world economic crisis of capitalism are to be ofi- set by protecting and developing big business at the expense of work- ers' jobs and wages. The low-paid shopworker and others, far from being specially considered as the Tories maintain, would have their poverty-line existence permanently endorsed. In real terms of what their money will buy, all workers face a savage wage-cut. Some stark contrasts are shown in the retail distribu- tion industry. On the one hand, hundreds of millions more pounds have been flow- ing through the tills of the giant retail chains. These stem from the 25-per-cent rise in "the past two prices "during* years. Recently announced profit increases include: Safeways Food Stores: profits to October 1972, up by 50 per cent. Lennons Supermarkets: profits up by more than 25 per cent. W. H. Smith: profits for eight months up by 70 per cent on the similar eight months of the previous year. Dorothy Perkins: ladies the clothing retail group: 32 per cent increase of profit for the half-year to November 1972. (Out of this a golden hand- shake of £45,000 was paid to a director who resigned).

The John Lewis Partnership: profits for 1972 up 36 per cent on the previous year.

International Stores: forecasts made of a 25 per cent in- crease of profit to April 1973 over the previous year.

Dixon's photographic chain: profits for 28 weeks to Nov- ember 1972 increased • by 143 per cent over the simi- lar period in the previous year. Millions more are expected from the price increases to come. For example, Harrods, the London department store, took fl.Im during one a record day of the January sales, prob- ably the first time ever that a in Britain has single store a turnover in notched such one day's trading. On the other hand, the en- forcement of state wage con- trol laws, which can make any action for a living wage an illegal act, is an attempt to condemn the underpaid shop- workers and others to perma- nent privation. In grocery retail the Tories put a complete stop to a mis- erable pay deal which would barely have taken the mini- mym beyond £16 a week. put by the government or em- ay April 30, 1973 ployers on the work extra associated with the Christmas- time rush, or the additional work involved in the January sales and re-stocking. government-backed Even bodies like the National Eco- nomic Developments Office are forced to admit that shop wages are among the lowest.

"The majority of workers in the industry must be accoun- ted low-paid workers', said a 1971 Neddy report. Retail minimum rates are set by wages councils covering in- different sections of the the decisions being dustry: made law and known as statu- tory minimum rates. minimum Some statutory assistants for sales in rates 1972 were £14.4 men, £12.05 women for 41 hours in drap- ery, outfitting and footwear; £13.90 men, £11.85 women for 41 hours in retail food. These were London figures.

In provincial areas they could be more than £l a week lower.

On this basis, firms paying above minimum could rates safely point out that they were , £3 and £4 over these payıng amounts, yet still be sending their workers home with under £.16. It should be added that, un- like many production indus- rarely any tries, there are 'extras' available by way of shift bonuses or allowances, overtime payments. The above-mentioned Neddy report states: 'The shop worker on aver- age gets very little more than the basic rate.' workers should Not that have to increase their work- load and hours to get a living wage. Shop staff, like any other workers, will bear the brunt of rent rises and the price rises in line with Common Market entry. These include the pay- ment of Value Added Tax (VAT) of which the govern- ment's Green Paper explained: 'Although it is paid by traders, in effect, the tax falls ulti- mately on final consumer ex- penditure.' The Tory price freeze, of course, is a complete fraud. Food prices have run riot. Further, as every manufactur- er can claim that his product is affected by the cost of im- ported raw materials-because in virtually some substances manufacturing process every do come from abroad-then they are all in line for justi- fied' price rises. superstores In recent years there has been wide-spread rationaliza- tion of shops and shop work by the major companies and this is by no means over.

Changes from counter ser- vice to self-service; the in- troduction of decimalization; the use of modern methods of warehousing, transporting, handling, packaging, checking accounting; the trend out and towards larger supermarkets run by fewer workers, have all meant that modern store- working often takes on the form and speed of a factory production line, inroad into jobs At the moment companies are scramble to get mission for giant on greenbelt and ec These will sites. middle classes and paid worker shoppi who will not spend les to £5 a visit. At same t small town-centre being closed as and are being so velopers. The fact is, every tribution chain businesses: retailin perty. A retailing chair hundreds of key sit out the countys land zooming prices, means assets creases example, valuation of proper United by Ltd, gave an plus over book vall and stores held. The last revaluat 1965. are the people in trades In seven of the worki tion. In shops there ar million workers sales cashiers, ers, managers workers part-time anitas are women. Another jobs selling and shoe repairs, dry-cleaning. side there are sale workers, 500,000 500,000 work motor trades, or a tive workers turers-drivers, men, storekeepers. There are estahlishmen retall though tain falling rapidly. well'as includes market roundsmen's mobile stores. three-quarters dent' i.e. not These 500,000 people working with work Shop staff to be on to be the time when call, even directly being on work extra after shop hours ar line, and that an o jobs has begun. moment the major in a mad o get planning per- superstores giant It and edge-of-town e will cater for the sses and the better- er shopping by car, find it worth- pend less than £4 same time, many stores are ed as 'uneconomic being sold to de- is, every major dis- two ing chain may own of key sites through- with untry, which, and property enormous in- assets without a imple, a 1972 re. of properties owned Draper! an extra £52m sur. book value of shops revaluation was in 3.75 million Britain—one he working popula- there are just over workers, including porters, pack rs, cleaners, buyers A third are and two- 250,000 work in service-boot epairs, launderettes, •n whoie here are more than ana anotnel associated in as distribu- manufac- warehouse- keepers, and sc roughly 480,000 Bri- hishments ın the number shops, this figure depots and More Inan 'indepen- are not part of a retail are run by consisting of often most all on work is no done, before and hours and keep up a good appearance and manner.

Sales assistants in modern are required to work stores at top speed, act as a security force to watch for pilfering, ..check for forged bank notes and carry the can for promised but unkept delivery dates.

Certainly, conditions are not always perfect. A recent report on safety exposed large dis- crepancies between conditions for customers and those for staff, with 'Exit' doors locked, wedged open, no fire others instruction and poor lighting. Another concern is the con- stant contact with chemical fumes in dry-cleaning and ladies hairdressing establish-. ments. And today's mechan- ization of storage increases the danger involved in working with powered machines in confined spaces. Mostly, shop work is not complicated just chronically underpaid. Rates for young people are especially bad. They may start at £8 or £9 for boys and £6.50 for girls or less paid 'youth or • learners'. There as is, in , fact, little to learn as most jobs have been simplified elementary actions into and activities. They are simply put- ting in an adult workload for a junior's pay. Over the past ten years, the small independent shops have been closing at an average rate of 6,000 a year: 26 per cent of all grocers' shops alone have closed since 1961. Numbers of empty premises stand derelict on every high street. Now, the time and energy - consuming paperwork in line with the Tories Com- mon Market entry policy-the introduction of VAT-is to be one more mighty nail in the small trader's coffin. He is to be given the job of unpaid tax collector. It is not generally known that shop workers have history of militancy reaching back to the middle of the last century. TUC leaders They fought continuously for better pay, for union recog- nition, against pernicious hours of work and the "living-in' system, and for legislation to their rights and con- define ditions. Today many are deter- mined that to continue tradition. Before Christmas hundreds of angry shop workers from big like Tesco grocery multiples and Fine Fare registered their disgust at the Tory treatment of their pay situation. •) try L 1so of reas Shop stafi on Tyneside and Wearside demonstrated and picketed shops. Pay talks at the Department of Employment and Productivity were lobbied by staff from South Wales stores. Branches of the union rep- resenting 120,000 multiple workers demanded grocery action for a f20 minimum wage. This activity, however, is in sharp contrast to that of many trade union officials. The TUC leaders have done nothing mobilize the to membership against the Tory attacks on the labour move- Far from seeking to ment. improve the impoverished con- dition of the low-paid, they actively supported the talks with the employers and the government on controlling pay and banning strikes. Even when workers were imprisoned under the Indus- trial Relations Act for defend- ing their jobs, the TUC leaders did not withdraw from the talks. Instead, agreement was the leading reached with employers to set up a so-called conciliation and arbitration service-to police labour dis- putes. In July 1972 the TUC and the employers established …a joint standing committee to set the service. up and oversee The TUC's eight represent- atives included 'lefts', Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones, as well as the general secretary of USDAW, Alf Allen. This collaboration paved the way for the Tories to bring in their new attack on wages, strikes and trade unions, the so-called Counter-Inflation Bill.

In face of the Tory offensive the USDAW negotiators com- pletely caved in on the grocery shop workers' claim, accepting a miserable £2.30 to £3.50 offer by the employers. The action by furious shop- workers forced the officials to reopen negotiations. They finally accepted a further 50p which would-if it were paid —bring the minimum scales to between £16.80 and £21.55 a week. Said USDA W's assistant 'We general secrețary: would have liked more, but in the circumstances we are urging our members to accept the new offer.' Previously they had gone cap-in-hand along • to plead with the Tories that any rise agreed might actually be paid —after February 26-when the initial 90 days 'freeze' was to end. In fact, the Tories had made it clear that there was no question of their pay policy being a short-term measure; that, on the contrary, the cur- cent law was a holding opera- tion while a stronger, more of wage permanent system control was prepared and established. The Tory Bill had, in any case, a 60-day extension clause built in, which was clearly there to be used. Along with the already operating labour courts, the policy further developed in Phase Two of replacing collec- tive bargaining with rigid and permanent wage ordering by organizations appointed by the state, with heavy fines for strikes, is strongly reminiscent of the Labour Codes introduced by the Italian and German fascists in the 1920s and 1930s.

It is no wonder that Tesco's interim statement of December 1972 announced 'Record Group profits'— a 30 per cent in- crease-and remarked: It is anticipated that the second half of the current financial year will produce further good results.' new leadership Clearly, a must be built in the trade unions which will resolutely take up the political struggle to defend workers' rights, to defeat the Tories and to return a Labour government entirely committed to the implementa- tion of socialist policies.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

.. ....

Scan page 15

THE STORY OF MINAMATA

The Minamata factory, owned by the Chisso petrochemical corporation, source of the pollution which caused disease and death.

BY IAN YEATS

'Minamata'. Directed by Norlakl Con- Tsuchlmoto. Distributors: temporary Fllms. 'Minamata' is the story of how a happy com- munity of simple Japan- ese fishermen were over- night laid low by the callous, unscrupulous poisoning of their en- vironment by the Chisso petro - chemical corpora- tion. Into the blue, sun-dappled sea from which the fishermen drew their food and their livelihoods Chisso indiscrimin- ately pumped the waste pro- ducts from their plant. The waste included killer which Chisso had mercury introduced to step up pro- duction and increase profits. First the fish the community lived on died, then the dogs and cats, then human beings.

Even the unborn were affected in the wombs of their mothers.

At first, Noriaki Tsuchi- moto's documentary shows the fisherfolk did not know what was happening. Between 1952 and 1960, 138 Minamatans died or were maimed by the dreadful disease which took the name of the town where they lived. The disease intoxicates the nervous system and is charac- terized by ataxia, which can mean anything from slurred speech to complete loss of bodily control. Unborn children can be in- flicted with physical and ner- vous deformities as well as severe brain damage. Mothers saw the effects on their children as the disease ate away up to two thirds of their brain be- fore death. Wives saw the flesh fall away from husbands. they re- membered as sun-tanned giants.

Husbands watched for years at the bedside of wives they married as lively young giris reduced by the disease to help- less, mindless, incontinent wrecks. Meanwhile Chisso notched up profits running into mil- lions of dollars. From the start the company refused to admit a shred of its crimes responsibility for against human beings. And when the fishermen staged a monster 4,000-strong demon- stration the police were called.

Doctors refused and are still refusing to diagnose Minamata in dozens of sufferers who are therefore prevented from claim- ing compensation or state aid.

Government officials made it clear whose side they were on and for the first time many of the fisherfolk had a glimpse of the real nature of the capitalist state. In 1960 the disease was said to have officially ended. Yet in 1961 children were still be- ing born with all its symptoms.

The fishermen mounted a campaign throughout the length The Minamata factory, owned by the Cr and breadth of Japan to force Chisso to admit responsibility and pay damages. They appeared in symbolic funeral robes on the streets of major towns and cities to be gaped at or ignored putting their case over to the public with loud-hailers. They succeeded in raising hundreds of thousands of yen for their campaign and launched a single share move- ment so that they could legiti- mately attend the company's 1972 annual general meeting.

Twenty years after Chisso Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37zp *Problems of the British Revolution.

Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

Order from: NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG by the Chisso petrochemical corporation, sour first contaminated the coastal waters where the fishermen lived, the victims still had received only about $1,500 from all sources. The care of invalids, in some cases almost totally incapaci- tated and all requiring special treatment, imposed huge strains on the meagre incomes of the Villagers. The villagers went to the meeting and finally confronted the score of sombre-suited, previously faceless executives who had caused them so much horrible and untold misery...

BURNING BOOKS

Gaddafi, Colonel Muammar the young Moslem fanatic who rules Libya, has embarked on a new drive to wipe out the infidel at home. Speaking on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed on April 15, Gaddafi decreed the suspension of all laws which might stand in the way of the struggle against the infidel.

He said: 'Anyone who talks communism, about to me Marx and atheism we will put into prison. We will give the order to the Minister of the He added that he intended Workers Press, tion, source of the pollution which caused dise They were offered sympathy.

After all the suffering they had inflicted, Chisso then be- gan to move out of Minamata to more profitable locations.

Finally, after an unprece- dented campaign, the notorious Chisso company was forced to pay £1.5m to the bereaved and maimed of Minamata. The case graphically illu- strates the criminal thought- lessness of capitalism in con- sciously neglecting even the most elementary safety pre- cautions in its rapacious lust for profit. to wage a cultural battle to destroy 'rotten and alien' ideas.

'Only • true ideology stem- ming from God's Book in which we have believed since Mohammed, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him, will be tolerated,' Gaddafi said. 'There is room only for the true ideology which knows no falsehoods; the ideology which stems from the Book of God and which expresses Arabism, humanity, socialism Islam, and progress. 'People, destroy all libraries and bookshops from which the real light does not shine, the light which guides people out Destroy the of darkness. libraries which are the sources of darkness and dirt, the dirt imported of reactionary capitalist and Jewish-commun- ist ideology' Gaddafi said a committee of "revolutionary intellectuals' was already at work drawing up a list of books considered rs Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 8 aused disease and death. It shows the utter and totally ley immoral callousness of the capitalists, even after they have broken up families and inflicted the most horrible death' on scores of •living people in refusing to own up or to pay compensation. cash villagers received could not bring back lu- the dead or alleviate the suffering. While there is capitalism there will be other Chissos.

The only way to end its murderous excesses is to end capitalism. fit only for burning. He added libraries, cinemas that some and cultural centres had al- ready been purged of 'bad' literature. The 'enemies of the Union of Arab Republics' (Egypt- Libya-Syria) had to be elim- inated, even if it meant civil in Libya. Gaddafi said war ominously: His talents as a law-maker have been demon- strated on previous occasions.

His last major piece of domestic legislation restored the ancient Islamic rule that thieves should have their hands cut off. Gaddafi doesn't want any- one to think him behind the times and so he drew up a carefully-graded scale relating the size of the theft to the extent of the mutilation.

He also decreed that the hands (and in some cases feet) of the offenders should be amputated under sterile con- ditions by properly qualified surgeons.

Scan page 16

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973

HUGE PROFITS FOR

STEVEDORING GROUP

Ocean Transport and Trad- companies made a £567,000 ing, the powerful shipping loss. The major boost in this and stevedoring is group, sector came from Ocean's con- forecasting that its profits for tainer company, OCL, and from this year could exceed £15m the recently-acquired shipown- —50 the per cent up on ing and fuel contracting firm results it has just announced.

Wm Cory. Overail profit rise of 44 per The which under group, cent before tax was achieved guises has played big part in the employers' turnover up 65 per cent cam- on a will Shareholders to undermine dockers' at t13/m. receive a final dividend hard-won job-security, sailed gross the of 16t per with pre-tax profits of cent, to bring £10.4m for 1972. total for the year up to 31$ per cent. The comparable figure for Meanwhile the campaign 1971 £7.24m, and the against dockers' rights con- stock market had been expect- tinues, with the port employers ing an increase to something and road haulage interests, like f9m. among both of whom Ocean berthed with has but cean a powerful voice, firmly £3m profit from associated resisting extension of the Dock companies, which now include Labour Scheme. interests in warehousing, road head of the then • lt was haulage, air forwarding and Ocean, Sir John Nicholson, off-shore services to the oil employers' who initiated the industry. Tories, lobby of the within weeks of their election victory, This is a major turnround.

for abolition of the Previously Ocean's associated Scheme Subscribe now! Do

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Name.. Address... Bus and truck workers at the five Leyland Motor factories in Lan- cashire are waging determined battle against company attempts to push through a new pay system which would un- dermine piecework. the company's Talks on proposals are currently dead- locked; the works committee has registered a 'failure to agree. And convenor Len Brindle says there is unlikely to be any change in the situation until a connected pay dispute in- volving 58 engine assemblers is settled. The assemblers have stayed out despite a vote by the rest of the factories not to support them. By today more than 2,000 production workers could be laid off. But while there is some con- fusion in the five plants over the engine assemblers' dispute, opposition to the management's proposed new pay system is widespread. which have The proposals, been produced following nego- tiations with the works' com- starting in November mittee 1972, include putting a ceiling on piecework earnings, increas- ing the fixed element in the wage-packet, cutting bonus pay and establishing rules for the fixing and review of piecework timings. Leyland claims the aim of the proposals is to give a fairer payment system, to give earnings stability greater to employees, to reward effort and skill more consistently, to re- duce the time lost in bonus disputes'. Union officials say there are at least three areas in which the proposals require changes involving basic principle-and at least eight essential which a e not essented in the draft agreement. The shop-floor approach is much more direct. No worker will gain any- thing from the agreement in pay terms, it is said. The pro- posed average increase of £2.50 is totally inadequate to meet the rise in prices since their last pay deal. And the main avenue for increasing earning power will be blocked off.

Meanwhile Leyland will con- siderably reduce its costs. And in addition, the company has admitted that at a later stage it intends to use the deal to put work-study men on the shop floor. Leyland denies that the pro- posed deal Measured-Day is Work (MDW). But many workers insist that it would be a big step in this direction.

In the summer of 1969 the five Leyland Motor factories- Chorley, North Works, South Works, Spurrier Works and Farrington — struck for six weeks to win improvements in their then relatively poor wages and conditions. The strike resulted in some important concessions being wrung from the company. All job times were reviewed, The bonus per- for instance. centage paid for demonstration jobs was set at 200 per cent.

On the basis of the 1969 deal, over the last three years, further concessions have been won. Demonstration times are now set at 400 per cent. Aver- age bonus percentages of 550 per cent are now not abnormal.

One relatively high-paid worker compared gross pay of £23 for 47 hours just atter the 1969 strike with £38 for 40 hours today. But Leyland is now hell-bent on taking back these gains.

The company claims that 'much of this wage growth has produced unjustifiable differ- ences in wages between differ- and that 'ever- ent sections' sectional claims increasing have led to the growing number of stoppages and disruption of work'. In 1972, complained an April 17 letter to all workers from operations director A. D. Fogg, there were 48 separate strikes and 19 other occasions when workers imposed sanctions of one kind or another. Failure to agree the new proposals meant that the prac- of presenting sectional tice claims continued - conditions which produced industrial action by maintenance en- gineers, storekeepers at the Chorley factory and the engine assemblers' dispute which still going on. Len Brindle. Abovę: Leyland from Lancashire workers on strike • in the summer of 1966. But at a works' conference in the company early Aprilit intended to indicated that stick fast to the Tories' Phase Two pay-law norm, even if it meant continuing lay-offs and no agreement on the proposals.

In a bid to frighten the unions into acceptance Leyland 'wage insisted that if drift' continued at its present rate (it claimed it had been 12 per cent in 1972), it faced disaster.

At a further conference on April 13 the company reiterated that its offer was the maximum allowed under Phase Two. Then, according to Bob Crook, district secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding Engineering Unions, 'we and finally stated that since we were no longer free agents to discuss and reach agreement because of outside interference, the scheme was not then acceptable' The company, Crook says in a report to his members, was 'reluctant to call it a day. But the union side indicated that no useful purpose would be by continuing discus- served sions since it was not possible to arrive at a mutual agreement.

Since the conference had been sought by the company, it was its turn to record a failure to agree, and the union position is that the next move is up to the company. But as one worker stressed: 'On the question of scrapping the present piecework agree- ment the men are determined that come hell or high water it's not on. We are not going to give up what we've won over the last three years.

'There's a strong feeling for strike action, and since our deal has now present pay expired we're all watching very closely to see what our officials and shop stewards are going to

Scan page 17

TODAY'S TV

Cywain. 9.38-11.55 Schools. 12.25 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one.

2.05 1.30 Joe. 1.45 Pets and vets.

Schools. 3.10 Sky at night. 3.30 Holiday 73. 4.00 Huckleberry hound.

4.10 Play school. 4.35 Jackanory. 4.50 Blue Peter. 5.15 Champion for the king. 5.40 Hector's house. 5.45 News.

Weather.

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6.50 TOP OF THE FORM.

7.15 Z CARS. Suspicion.

8.00 PANORAMA.

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9.25 SEARCH FOR THE NILE.

Find Livingstone.

10.15 FORMATION DANCING.

10.50 MILO O'SHEA. Judgement Day'. 11.20 SKY AT NIGHT. How Big are the Planets?

11.40 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.45 MAN IN HIS PLACE. A Cere- monial Society. 12.05 Weather.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

7.05 PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

7.30 NEWS SUMMARY. Weather.

7.35 INSIDE MEDICINE.

8.00 ALIAS SMITH AND JONES.

The McCreedy Bust - Going: Going: Gone.

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 9.30-12.00

London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. 2.00 Plus Tam. 2.30 Women today. 3.00 London. 6.00 News. 6.15 Survival. 6.45 London. 10.30 Sound stage. Protectors Y1.50 motor racing. 11.23 Protectors.

News, weather.

WESTWARD.

As Channel except: 12.05 London. 12.37 Gus Honeybun. 12.40 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 Lon- don. 6.00 Diary. 6.20 Sport. 6.35 Date with Danton. 10.30 News. 11.50 Faith for life.

SOUTHERN:

3.0WS London. 12.05 London. 2.30 Houseparty.

Day by day. Home SerViCe 0 Bateines 3200 London.

Dateline 5.01 Report West. 6.22 Report Wales.

6145 rankenstein: 1200m °:12.00 Weathe Curse 2.30-3.00 Hamdden. wythnos. 9.00-9.30 Survival.

HTV West as above except: 6.22-6.45 This is the West this week.

Coventry Trades C

MAY DAY GREI

WORKERS EVE

All Trades Unions Allie HEMEL HEMPSTEAD: Monday WOl Square. field Queens 'Defend Basic Democratic Rights'. EAST LONDON: Monday April 30, 8 p.m. Bromley Public Hall, Bow Road, E.3. All out May 1! Force TUC to call a General the Strike! WANDSWORTH: Monday April 30, 8 p.m. 'Kings Arms', High Street, S.W.18. 'Trotskyism and Stalin- Day ism'. NORTHAMPTON: Monday, April day 30, 8 p.m. 'The Green Man.' 'All Out May Day. Force the TUC to call a General Strike.'

SOUTHALL: Wednesday May 2, 8 p.m. Southall Library, Osterley Park Road. Report back from May Day'

WALTHAMSTOW:

Wednesday May 2, 8 p.m. 'The Bell', Hoe Report back from May Street. Day'. WEMBLEY: Wednesday May 2, 8 p.m. Copland School, High Road. 'Report Back from May wor Day'.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 World War 1 (London only). 11.00 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Scribble. 12.40 First report. 1.00 Mr and Mrs. 1.30 Emmer- und. dale farm. 2.00 Schools. 2.20 Cartoon.

afternoon. 3.00 Doing 2.30 Good things. 3.25 Public eye. 4.25 Clapper- board. 4.50 Tomorrow people. 5.20 And mother makes three. 5.50 News.

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6.40 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS!

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8.00

BLESS THIS HOUSE.

8.30 WORLD IN ACTION SPECIAL.

The Rise and Fall of John Poulson.

9.30 LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 THE WILD, WILD WEST. The Night of the Watery Death.

11.30 THE ART OF THE CRAFT.

Mounting and Framing Pic- tures.

12.00 WORLD WAR I.

12.25 EPILOGUE.

8.55 CALL MY BLUFF.

9.25 FRANKIE HOWERD.

10.10 ONE PAIR OF EYES. Allan Prior, best known for his scripts for Z Cars and Softly, Softly. 11.00 NEWS. Weather.

11.30 OPEN DOOR.

ANGLIA: 9.30

London. 12.04 News. 2.30 Houseparty 6.45 London Scandal Gardening. Sheet'. 12.30 Big question.

ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London. 2.00 At your 2.30 London. 6.00 service. Today. 6.45 London. 10.30 Romantic versus classic art. 11.00 Man in a suitcase. 12.00 Epilogue. Weather.

ULSTER: 11.00

London. 1.33 News. 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper room. 3.00 London. 5.20 Emmerdale 5.50 farm ease London. 6.00 Reports. 6.15 don't eat the daisies. 6.45 London. 10.30 Monday night. 10.40 Film: Long and the Short and the Tall'.

Your service 230 London 6000c Emmerde Them: 1.25 Oursder. 12.20

GRANADA:

Your service. 2:30 Yogad 2i55 London.

2.00 6.00 News. 6.25 This rades Council sends

• GREETINGS TO

S EVERYWHERE

ns Alliance meetings day WOOLWICH: Wednesday May 2, ley- 8 p.m. 'The Castle', Powis Street, S.E.18. 'Report back from May Day'. : 3, 8 FELTHAM: Thursday May p.m. 'Three Horse Shoes' , Felt- ham High Street, Feltham, Middlesex. 'The Fight against the Tories after May Day! BRIXTON: Monday May 7, 8 p.m.

Control Room, Brixton Training Centre. 'Report back from May Day' CENTRAL LONDON: Sun- pril day May 6 7.30 p.m. Shaf- tesbury Hotel, Monmouth Street. Speaker Gerry Healy, National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League. LEWISHAM: Monday May 7, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers' Club, opp. New Cross Station. The role of the TUC in the fight against the Tories'. BATTERSEA: Tuesday May 8, 8 p.m. 'Nags Head', cnr. Wands- worth Road and North Street. 'Report back from May Day'.

Workers Press, Vanessa Redgrave opens a new BBC 2 series, 'A Picture of Kather- ine Mansfield', the New Zealand-born writer who died 50 years ago, Tuesday at 9.25. on

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL:

9.30-12.00 London. 1.15 120S 900. Lend Women. 12.04 News. 1.30 London. 2.30 Women. London. 3.00

NAWO.

4.20 4.25 London. London. Smith family. S .50 Lon- Young eyes. Partridge 6.00 About Cross- family don. 5.50 News. 6.10 7.00 Tarbuck. 7.30 Madigan. Look- 9.00 London. 6.35 7.00 Tar- buck. Curtain raiser. 35 Cool million. 9.00 News, London. werner.

ATV MIDLANDS:

9.30 London. 2.30 5.20 Women. London. Osmonds. 5.50 London. 6.00 6.35 Cross-

WESTWARD.

Channel except: Tarbuck Cartoon. roads. 12.05 Honeybun. Gus London. McMillan wife. 9.00 london. 12.40 12.57 News. 1.00 ..oneon. LOn• Weather. 12.15 Gordon Bailey. 6.00 Diary. 12.12 News. don. 12.15 Epilogue. 11.00 2.50 Romper 1.33 News Schools Romper room. 3.00

SOUTHERN: 9.30

London. 12.00 News. 5.20 Emmerdale 5.50 London. farm. 12.05 London. 2.30 Mousepasty. 10500 Cartoon 6.00

UTV

6.35 520 5.25 oncon. 9.0. 7.00 Tarbuck. London. 6.00 Day Crossroads. by roads. McMillan and wife. 8.50 Cartoon. 9.00 7.15 Hec 6.45 Tarbuck Ramsev London. London. 12.15 News. Weather. Guide- line.

YORKSHIRE:

9.30 London. 12.25

HARLECH: 2.30

London 2 2.30 House- Hammy hamster. 12.40 2 20 Chuckle. 4.20 london. kitchen 3.00| London. Harmonse s.0d Repor 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London. Cal- London. West. 6.18 Report . 7.35 6.01 endar. Weather. 6.35 Crossroads. 6.35 7.05 London. Cartoon. Film:

TAR.

'arbuck Columbo. 10 5 Mutilate'. London. • Do Fold Spindle or

NOT

men. 12.45 Weather. 0 İn an

HTV

Cymru/Wales above name except: 4.25 4.35-4.50 Mirimaws. Col- Y dydd. 10.30 Corau meibion.

2.55 10

GRANADA:

9.30 London. 6.0-16.18 London. 11.15-11.30 O'r wasg. 12.15 Come- Siting aure's on chaestring. 5.15 window. 5.20 . Cross- dians. 50 London 6. 0 Rec carpec Police roads. Film: HTV West as above except: 6.18-6.35 6.40 "The file 9.00 London. Report West. London Overseas Telephones No. 2 branch

MAY DAY GREETINGS TO FELLOW TRADE UNIONISTS

from John Haylit Sylvester McGovern Branch Secretary Branch Chairman All Trades Unions Alliance Public Meetings DONCASTER Monday April May White Bea KNOTTINGLEY: Thursday May 3, 7.30 p.m. Railway Hotel, Hilltop. Rooms. beaker: G. Healy (Natior cretary SLL

SLL).

ars Press, Monday April 30, 1973 PAGE 11

TUESDAY'S TV

BBC 1

9.38 Schools. 12.30 Mae gen i air!

12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one.

1.30 Fingerbobs. 1.45 Ask the family.

2.05 Schools. 2.25 A fringe of Caesar's empire. 2:55 Animal design.

3.20 Gardeners' world. 3.45 Governor and |. J.. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 Jackanory. 4.50 Animal magic. 5.15 Time switch. 5.40 Hector's house.

5.45 News. weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.45 TOM AND JERRY.

6.55 FILM: "The Fighting Seabees'.

John Wayne, Susan Hayward.

8.30 THE LIVER BIRDS.

9.00 NEWS. Weather. 9.25 DOCUMENTARY: The Year Money Went Mad'. Story of the great currency convulsion that paralysed Germany in 1923.

10.15 FILM 73. 10.45 MIDWEEK.

11.30 NEWS. Weather. 11.37 MEDICINE TODAY. Early diag- nosis of cancer.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.45 Bertrand Russell speaks his mind (London only). 11.00 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Hatty town. 12.40 First report. 1.00 Lunch- time with Wogan. 1.30 Emmerdale farm. 2.00 Harriet's back in town.

2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 About Britain. 3.25 Kate. 4.25 Junior show- time. 4.50 How. 5.20 Arnie. 5.50 News..

6.00 TODAY. 6.40 CROSSROADS.

7.05 IT'S TARBUCK. Guest Lulu.

7.35 FILM: 'Women in Chains'. Ida Lupino, Belinda Montgomery. A parole officer sets out young to check on conditions in the women's penal system. 9.00 SIX DAYS OF JUSTICE. The Counsellor. 10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 DOCUMENTARY: The Charl- ton Brothers'. Bobby and Jack Charlton.

11.30 PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

12.15 EPILOGUE.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

6.40 INTERACTION.

7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY.

7.30 NEWS. Weather. 7.35 WHEELBASE. The 2lst Safari Rally.

8.10 CIRCUS OF THE SHOOTING

STAR. The imaginary circus conceived by French painter Georges Rouault brought to life.

9.00 POT BLACK.

9.25 A PICTURE OF KATHERINE

MANSFIELD. Dramatization of her life and work with Vanessa Redgrave as Katherine.

10.15 FOR THE SAKE OF APPEAR-

ANCE. Shadow and Substance.

First of six programmes on his- torical costume introduced by Joan Bakewell.

WHISTLE TEST.

10.30 OLD GREY

11.00 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

11.30 OLD GREY WHISTLE. TEST

continued.

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE MEETINGS

Make Scanion retract! No collaboration with the Industrial Relations Act!

No acceptance of Phase Two! Force the Tories to resign! Build the revolutionary party! Sheffield

WEDNESDAY MAY 2

7.30 p.m. 'Grapes Inn' Trippett Lane Speaker: Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee) Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, Clapham High Street, 7UG. Printed Plough ham High Street Newsdesk: 01-720 2000. 01-622 7029.

Scan page 18

Workers Press, Monday April 30, 1973

PAGE 12

MAY DAY MANIFESTO

We demand the US forces In effect, tries into one mighty force against out of Cambodia. wages in the autumn.

FROM PAGE 1

they are opening the gates to the capitabrina corporate state. Britain, the Tory of all erdops to mh overstas.

We demand the withdrawal Day laws in anv war must still be against left with have the working class But Tory the fullest advan the nationalized property rea- while taking the advan- no are ave tions the bureaucratically de- • with the imperialist Down government. Every struggle

TOT

formed workers' taking up states Tage ever preparations for fundamental today poses bureaucracy, guided the wants where Hitler left off. nuclear world war. While waging crisis worsening economic polluca Issues. the capitalist system throughout against relentless campaign for Since the working class has to the world. preparations we will fight to defend Will continut open confrontation with fight the Tory government The TO1 freedom for the

USSR,

• We demand China and Eastern working class. its standard of preserve Europe against imperialist aggres- and semi-colonial wares lu colonal The world crisis of inflation is living, The WorKIne Class peoples. SUlle drawn directly into struggle unifying the working class in the colonial and metropolitan

COW-

101 WI. Reformist trade unionism Build the revolutionary party is bankrupt Transform the Socialist Labour League of the sharpest class struggles THE PAsI year nas been a black one for trade unionism.

necause OT LOla 010- here the stringle Work the class in Britain no tical _ane Rela- mised class-collaboration relation- Industrial Not only was the situation, where cannot fight Tory 1so em- the capitalists. In the ship with effectively while tions Act strenginened ov rurtner for power is posed, the revisionist ment of High Court and House of Lords the party Cast allowed groups would wisa to connne the Dellails. ally decisions, but it has anti-union tnis is basea upon tne relormise working Trample on une working class "peaceful road to socialism' which created a deep-going split witnin Northern Ireland and establish spontaneous Brisish CP in 1952. drafted Stalin for the the trade union movement.

military dictatorship was virtual less round of protests with right-wing trade The extreme many bureaucracy this means abolished. union leaders have already regis _ practice represents oppor- of behind the tered their unions and more al c activily tunist of the The arbitrary shootings, intern- preparing to register. Stalinists and their bogus Liaison under, pres- is looking for openings to instruct Committee Unions and avoiding arrests woul Warrants nee the membership to come to terms general reign of terror unleashed with the government on amend- Ine emerge openly bureaucracy. mobilize capitalist the General Strike the main Northern Ireland towns slut enemy. are only the preparation for what the ane bring down this Tory government.

TUC's capitu- armed forces If the working class is brought state will attempt to do in British eventually way could struggle the But the TUC Into Ciss when Une (economic a00 inflation, it is also true that the was nor tor le capitalist connivance Communist rarty. democracy cover UD Stalinists mistsend i cover wich jack jones and nugi visionists- CP supports systall Norter! Day, bu one-day protest Nowhere urgent question mn order lo Union Ulster. where the neht tion Aceal Repeal the Industrial imperialism undermined communist Icaucisilly, of bourgeois ideological influence aralnst which has prevented the develop.

workers, ment of unity between the work- gaining and repeal the pay laws; ing class of Ireland and sellull reformist bur- The eaucracy normal legal rights in Ulster and

TUC

leaders oralinist LU the proposals legal will give the the right wing, apologists enemy rights in Britain. talks with alcau capable of waging an independent This means a united cam- Tory government for workers Phase fight against the paign between the working classes Three control on of the

LIS

May with this Day this historic we ad dress you comrades and friends on inioniate THE TORY government is relentlessly pursuing its plan for a con- In its ted government Each day new sections of frontation with the working class.

workers are forced to become criminals — under Tory law —to defend their standard of living against government-inspired soaring cost of living. socialist We the policies' that pre- sent leaders of move- Large sections of these workers openly acknowledge that the only ment save answer to their fight to maintain a decent standard of living is a ducing such Indeed, the ast some of them General Strike. That is, the creation of the industrial and political join a coali- with the Tories conditions which will force the government to resign.

But if the class is the Tories cut in welfare bene- 3) The democratic right to as part of ernment to deal fits, in the health service and strike and to organize in trade with the own public spending Only in unions. the organized midst. 5) The On of be revoked. the basis working class can lead the fight for It is not the nationalization, crash pro- historical kind out of the an of trade living of expansion of ser- Every crisis. right grammit alle every unionists, sys- the unemployed, the gain won by the working class, Socialist League calls tem, low-paid, the sick and the aged

COSTS

class every democratic right in Bri- to sup- UPUl been won must be an tain, has because Intercen port The working absolute priority. unite the of the organized of strength rich, down the Tories the present the class and the Labour govern- the unions and strike The Wilson-Feather of the ment must take immediate and weapon. absolute responsibility for A Labour government of the victims of the capitalist capital in out these indus- next lavour Immealately repeal system. be forced to carry out. trial Relations Act. This fight must begin now by forcing the 1) A Labour government must 7) The right to decent housing.

TUC to break off all relations immediately repeal the Indus- Decent housing is not a luxury; with the and government Housing Act, People have It is a necessity. will provide mobilize the working Finance Act, Immigration Acts, Class to the basic right decent unified destroy state control of wages.

Fair Trading Act and all wage accommodation at rents they the living plan to After the repeal of all 4) The right to defend rights can afford. Nationalization Cunt ul. Tory anti-working class mea- the handful of building mono- won in the past and change Workers' sures, there must be legislation the system. All the changes in building polies and societies the well as to implement the Charter of run them 'legal procedures made by the will will provide the basis

TOT

Basic Rights, along the follow- massive new lory government must be 3IC- lines. 23 The right to work! Capital. - pealed. All secret police and The disgracéful MI5 organizations must be dis- problem homeless ism demands Again, the fight must the cities must be immediately banded and fully exposed. The ment. The right to a job must solved census and taking- of the Tory adminis- now.

OCCCLO

be guaranteed. This can only must be answered by the most all unoccupied pro- over of tration in this sphere must be widespread fight for be done by perty. breaking une grip published. All rights to assem- Wate of capitalist ownership on the bly, free speech and the Press 8) The international respon- economy. Employed and un- must be guaranteed. à fight to remove the sibilities of the working class. employed must unite to insist lucalls The begin working class is interna- Labour government na- struggle must The on a No closures, no sackings, tional. We fight for the tionalizing the main industries now. the union leadership. un- restricted right of any worker and banks, under workers' must be the policy of the trade Occupation of fac- 6) The right to health and wel- of nationality to any control and without compen- move fare benefits. Every Tory gov- freely through the world.

tories threatened with closure, sation. The working class • must re- control over its own establish trade unions if it is not to submit dictatorship of trade Tery to union policies. We demand that the trade union movement breaks from the Tory government and the capitalist state. Either the working class will win this struggle, or the capitalist system will steadily prepare for the introduction of ever-more violent dictatorship leading even- tually to fascism. of Britain and Ulster to force the withdrawal of British troops.

The only way to achieve these aims is by mobilizing the working class in a General Strike to bring down the Tory govern- ment. The most urgent task before the working class is to construct a revolutionary party and leader- ship based on the struggle for revolutionary Marxism as its theory of knowledge. Such a party will be based on of Leninism achievements the and the Bolshevik Party in the Russian Revolution, on struggles of Trotsky and the Left Opposition against Stalinism in the 1920s, and on the achieve- ments leading to the founding of the Fourth International in 1938.

Trotskyism today directly con- tinues the struggles of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party for the world socialist revolution. The Socialist Labour League in Britain is affiliated to the International Committee of the Fourth • International. We base ourselves entirely on the strength of the working class and its ability to overturn capitalism, exactly as did Marx and Engels when they wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. this urgent call to action: Withdraw the troops from Ireland. Unite the Irish and British working class to throw out the Lynch and Heath gov- ernments. Unite in the struggle for the Socialist United States of Europe, the only alternative to the Common Market plans for dictatorship. Withdraw all British troops from abroad and disband the present standing army. Sign treaties with all ex- colonial countries for pro- grammes of equal trade and mutual assistance. Break from NATO and all imperialist alliances. For the carrying out of such d policies the SLL fights for the up of Councils of setting Action to lead the struggle against the Tory government in every area. These Councils unite trade unionists, tenants, unemployed, all political par- and tendencies of the ties working class (Labour Party, Communist Party, SLL, IS, IMG, etc.) to fight against the main enemy, the Tory govern- ment. The SLL calls upon every socialist and class-conscious worker to consider this pro- manifesto gramme and very carefully, and to decide now to take up their inescapable re- sponsibilities. The building of in the revolutionary party is the ly burning question now, not in some remote future. The SLL is determined to carry through its transformation into a re- volutionary party. JOIN the Socialist Labour League and help transform it into a revolutionary party.

Central Committee Socialist Labour League May 1, 1973.