Workers Press no. 1068

workers press

TALKS' WITH TORIES

FORMAL DISCUSSIONS W

wage restraint and Phase Thr terday by the TUC economic single voice being raised agai Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon an sit on the committee. Downing Street is ex- pected to announce the time and place of the talks shortly. They will work out the legal curbs on workers' wages for Phase Three of the Tory pay laws due in the autumn. During Victor Feather's Press conference yesterday, the following exchanges took place: Q: What was decided at the secret talks TUC leaders had with Heath recently? FEATHER: There have been no real secret talks. Q: Did you and senior some colleagues not meet Heath once at Chequers and once at Down- ing Street? FEATHER: I see different people FE/ from time to time and accom- panied by different people from time to time. But to describe such meetings as a summit meet- ing is a nonsense. 'Nothing agreed' Q: But what was agreed there?

FEATHER: There was nothing agreed at the meetings. There were no negotiations, so there was nothing to be agreed.

Q: So was it a social gathering?

FEATHER: Well, I didn't play the piano. Q: So if it wasn't a social meet- ing, it must have been a business meeting? FEATHER: I would say it was more of an anti-social meeting.

Q: I can well believe that.

FEATHER: You believe what you want to believe.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR

ONS with the Tories about ase Three were agreed to yes- onomic committee without a ed against them. Noted lefts' non and Richard Briginshaw Q: Why was it necessary, at a Press conference two weeks ago, when you were asked if there were to be talks with Heath, for you to keep it a secret about the two sessions of talks that had already taken place? FEATHER: No reason at all, really. There were no meetings; there were no negotiations. When I give an answer, I give an honest answer. Q: Was it a kind of a reception then? FEATHER: It was a kind of a reception, a kind of a discussion, a kind of an entertainment. My job is to know what is being said and what is being thought.

Q: How do you equate today's *to explore whether a decision basis exists for continuing dis- cussions with the spirit of the March 5 Special Congress?

FEATHER: It is not out with it (meaning not inconsistent).

Q: But that Congress voted not for discussions, but for a one-day stoppage and co-ordinated in- dustrial action? FEATHER: That was March 5.

This is May 9. Q: What has happened since then? FEATHER: We have had a letter from the Prime Minister inviting us to consider the problems of the economy. Q: How do you think trade HE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY MAY 10, 1973• No 1068 • 4p

• CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

It is consistent with a deter- mination from to conceal the BY trade union movement the col- laboration with the rotten capi-

ROYSTON

talist system that is being carried through in the name of the trade

BULL

unions. Instead of exposing the weak- of the ruling class in this biggest-ever the crisis of their system, the TUC bureaucracy is going to any measure to conceal this fact and help the Tories to patch it up. Only the day before, Feather *Financial attended the Times' conference on the economy and denied that there was any economic crisis. will react to unionists today's It is wrong to talk about a for more decision back to go crisis, or of overcoming with Heath? crises. discussions We are not in any crisis situation,

FEATHER:

The overwhelming he said. majority of trade unionists will these

TUC

see it as consistent with our The contempt policies. bureaucrats have for any serious the enormous crisis analysis the gripping capitalist system Going back places the working class in great danger. The decision go back to to At talks in Downing Street on Downing Street to help the Tories Britain's problems, economic hold down under Phase wages last gain of the working every Three, together with these ex- class will be betrayed by men changes about the secret talks, who only know how to serve the are consistent with a determina- capitalist system. tion defend at all the to costs Tory The Britain and trade union movement government in demand that these talks prevent any drift towards all-out must the Tories be broken off. class confrontation. with Pool, 2,200 crowded into the Empire delegates Wembley, to see the Pageant of presented History which Unions Alliance conference in voted unanimously struggles of the working Birmingham great the class in Britain. to proceed with transforma- tion of the Socialist Labour This rally was a gathering to. League into the revolutionary gether of the representatives of the that build the party. forces will revolutionary party. At the beginning of February, Since then we have launched Workers published Press the £100,000 Party Building draft political perspectives and Fund programme for the party, sub- Social- And in every area the Central mitted by the SLL's Labour League is holding ist Committee. and meetings conferences to On March 11, the greatest day discuss, amend and improve the in the history of British Trotsky- resolution on the party. so far, becoming ism over 10.000 trade The task is more day. The

TUC

unionists and their families urgent every

£100,000 PARTY

BUILDING FUND

THE PACE is being kept up. Considering that we have two funds going at the same time, it is really gratifying. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Banbury £5; Glasgow N £5.40; Glasgow S £1; Middleton £13.50; Todmor- den £1.33; Bradford £7.50; Southampton £6; Leicester E11; Tooting £2; Acton £12; Southwark £10; Birming- ham £25. Total £11,500.56. We still need a few substantial donations to push the fund upwards. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG FOUR THOUSAND * former employees of the collapsed Upper Clyde Shipbuilders firm, will get no redundancy pay. This is the result of an indus- trial relations tribunal decision in Glasgow yesterday in a test case which could have cost the government Elm. The tribunal had heard an application by Mr Thomas McKinnon, formerly a welder with UCS, that he was entitled to redundancy pay after the firm was taken over by Govan Ship- builders and Scotstoun Marine.

The tribunal's chairman, Mr T. M. Strachan, referred to a letter from the UCS liquidators which stated that the shipyards would be taken over by Govan on September 11 last year.

Mr McKinnon Counsel for argued that this letter constituted notice of dismissal, but the tribunal held that there was no and therefore there dismissal could be no redundancy pay.

left and leaders, right, have completely to the capitulated Tory state pay laws. Behind the king backs of their members - and protected by the Communist Party - they hold secret dis- cussions with Heath. We urge all our readers to join us now in the campaign to form the revolutionary party.

Starting today, Workers Press will publish the views of workers from all parts of the country and all industries on the draft programme for the revolu- tionary party. We urgently ask all our read- ers to study the resolution and TUC to participate in this discussion.

workers press

TALKS' WITH TORIES

FORMAL DISCUSSIONS with the Tories about wage restraint and Phase Three were agreed to yes- terday by the TUC economic committee without a single voice being raised against them. Noted 'lefts' Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon and Richard Briginshaw sit on the committee. Downing Street pected to announce the time and of the place shortly. They will work out the legal curbs on workers' wages for Phase Three of the Tory pay laws due the in autumn. During Victor Feather's Press conference yesterday, the following exchanges took place: Q: What decided the

STUC

Headers had talks with Heath recent v? FEATHER: There have been no secret talks. Q: Did vou and some seniol colleagues not meet Heath once Chequers and once at Down- ing Street?

FEATHER:

I see different people time Trom time accom panied by different people from describe time. sudanceliaos asa summit meel- ing is a nonsense. 'Nothing agreed' Q: But what was agreed there?

FEATHER:

There was nothing agreed at the meetings. There no negotiations, were was nothing to be agreed.

Q: So was it a social gathering?

FEATHER:

Well, I didn't play the piano. O: So if it wasn't a social meet- ing, it must have been a business meeting? FEATHER: I would it was Say more of an anti-social meeting. Q: I can well believe that.

FEATHER:

You believe what you want to believe.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR

ONS with the Tories about ase Three were agreed to yes- onomic committee without a ed against them. Noted lefts' nlon and Richard Briginshaw Q: Why was it necessary, at a Press conference two weeks ago, when you were asked if there were to be talks with Heath, for you to keep it a secret about the sessions of talks that had two already taken place? FEATHER: No reason at all, really. There were no meetings; there were no negotiations. When I give an answer, I give an honest answer. Q: Was it a kind of a reception then? FEATHER: It was a kind of a reception, a kind of a discussion, a kind of an entertainment. My job is to know what is being said and what is being thought.

Q: How do you equate today's decision 'to explore whether a basis exists for continuing dis- cussions' with the spirit of the March 5 Special Congress?

FEATHER: It is not out with it (meaning not inconsistent).

Q: But that Congress voted not for discussions, but for a one-day co-ordinated in- stoppage and dustrial action? FEATHER: That was March 5.

This is May 9. Q: What has happened since then? FEATHER: We have had a letter from the Prime Minister inviting us to consider the problems of the economy. Q: How do you think trade HE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY MAY 10, 1973 • No 1068 • 4p

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

It is consistent with a deter- mination to conceal from the BY trade union movement the col- laboration with the rotten capi-

ROYSTON

talist system that is being carried through in the name of the trade

BULL

unions. Instead of exposing the weak- of the ruling class this ness In the biggest-ever crisis of their the TUC bureaucracy system, is going to any measure to conceal this fact and to help Tories the patch it up. Only the day before, Feather 'Financial Times' attended the conference on the and country that denied there was any economic crisis. will unionists react to today's 'It is wrong to talk about a for more decision to go back overcoming or of crisIs, crises. discussions with Heath? We are not in any crisis situation,

FEATHER:

overwhelming he said. majority of trade unionists The these

TUC

consistent contempt bureaucrats have for any serious policies. analysis of the enormous crisIs the capitalist gripping system Going back places the working class in great danger. The decision back to go to Downing Street on At talks in Downing Street to help the Tories Britain's economic problems, hold Phase down under wages last of the working every gain with these Three, together eX- class will be betrayed by men secret talks, changes about the who only know how to serve the with are consistent a determina- capitalist system. tion to defend at all the The Tory government in Britain and trade union movement demand these talks prevent any drift towards all-out must that with the Tories be broken off. class controntation. 2,200 the Empire Pool, crowded into to see the Trades Wembley, Pageant of delegates Alliance History which the Unions conference in presented Birmingham voted unanimously great struggles of the working class in Britain. proceed with the transforma- Socialist Labour This rally tion of the was a gathering 1o- the representatives of League into the revolutionary gether of the forces that will build the party. revolutionary party. At the beginning February, of Since then we have launched Press Workers published the £100,000 Party Building our draft political perspectives and Fund the programme for party, sub- area the Social- And in every mitted the SLL's Central by ist Labour is holding League Committee. meetings and conferences to amend and improve the On March 11, the greatest day discuss, Trotsky- of British on the party. in the history resolution 10,000 trade The task is becoming ism so far, over more unionists and their families day. The

TUC

urgent every

£100,000 PARTY

BUILDING FUND

THE PACE is being kept up. Considering that we have two funds going at the same time, it is really gratifying. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Banbury £5; Glasgow N £5.40; Glasgow S £1; Middleton £13.50; Todmor- den £1.33; Bradford £7.50; Southampton £6; Leicester {11; Tooting £2; Acton £12; Southwark {10; Birming- ham £25. Total £11,500.56. We still need a few substantial donations to push the fund upwards. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG FOUR THOUSAND ' former employees of the collapsed Upper Clyde Shipbuilders firm. will get no redundancy pay. This is the result of an indus- trial relations tribunal decision in Glasgow yesterday in a test case which could have cost the government flm. The tribunal had heard an application by Mr Thomas McKinnon, formerly a welder with UCS, that he was entitled to redundancy pay after the firm was taken over by Govan Ship- builders and Scotstoun Marine. The tribunal's chairman, Mr T. M. Strachan UCS liquidators referred to a letter from the which stated that the shipyards would be taken over by Govan on September 11 last year.

McKinnon Counsel argued that this letter constituted notice of dismissal, but the a tribunal held that there was no dismissal and therefore there could be no redundancy pay.

leaders, left and capitulated completely Tory state pay laws. Behind the backs of their members - and Communist protected by the Party — they hold secret dis- of cussions with Heath. We urge all our readers to join us now in the campaign to form the revolutionary Starting today, Workers Press will publish the views of workers from all parts country and all industries on the draft programme for the revolu- the tionary party. We urgently ask all our read- ers to study the resolution and TUC to participate in this discussion.

Hard day's night for housing PAGE 2 Workers Press, Thursday May UNION OFFICIALS have joined the attack on Labour's Anthony Wedgwood Benn for threatening to nationalize Rolls-Royce Motors without compensation. These same officials are part of a long reformist campaign by Rolls-Royce employees to save their jobs by making themselves 'model' workers. Last week they emerged, ap- parently victorious, when government announced the flota- in the tion of public shares company. that the fores threw ene com what happened was pany to the stock market sharks.

The whole operation has been mounted-not for Rolls-Royce workers-but for the benefit of the company's creditors and shareholders. Rolls-Royce employees are themselves being invited to put their money into shares which could plummet overnight, wiping out all their savings. From now on the Rolls-Royce workers will once again be at the full mercy of the capricious and twists and turns unpredictable of the market. But Crewe works chairman Mr Leslie Gallimore said yes- terday: 'Personally I think Mr Benn should have kept his mouth shut.' 'Such statements could have an adverse effect on share flota- tion, said Mr Keith Standring, executive secretary of the Asso- ciation of Professional, Execu- Clerical and Computer tive, Staffs. The idea that in a time of crisis, with severe economic share prices more uncertain than ever and buying at a new low, Rolls-Royce can be made to succeed in its present form in the long term is pure illusion.

Nationalization, without com- and under workers' pensation control, is the only permanent achieving security of way employment.

GET YOUR BOOKS. PE

NEWSPAPERS F

PAPŁKBACKS

sday May 10, 1973 SEVEN Notting Hill councill deputy chairman and plannin Peter Methuen — were freed locked in a church hall overnig Doors at the All Saints Church Hall in Notting Hill, West London, were guarded and barricaded by local residents demanding council action on two specific cases.

Mr Ned Gate, spokesman for the demonstrators, said they FOR THE third week running a right security cordon was set up around Lambeth magistrates court, London, yesterday morn- ing when the 'Belfast 10' were formally remanded until May 16 on a charge of conspiring to cause an explosion. Police sealed off the street to vehicles and searched all pedestrians carrying shopping At bags wheeling or prams. least four policemen were posted surrounding balconies and on rooftops. The vehicle carrying the ten was flanked by motor cyclists and the accused could be seen to wave and give victory signs through the windows. The ten, all irish, were arres- ted at Heathrow airport follow- ing the Old Balley bombing incident in March.

OKS. PERIODICALS AND

PERS FROM THE

ACKS GENIKE

4070. ..;m councillors—including council planning committee chairman • freed yesterday after being overnight by demonstrators.

wanted written promises from the councillors on the cases of a Spanish family facing evic- tion and a woman who had been homeless for 18 months.

WOMEN workers at a Swin- don record-player factory are on sit-in strike against com- pany attempts to force up their rate of working by up to 20 per cent. The women, who reluctantly accepted a pay-and-productivity scheme after strike last December, work in No. 103 build- ing of the Plessey-Garrard factory the Cheney Manor trading on estate. The way was paved in the scheme for introduction of the work-study scheme MTM-2.

A COMMUNIST PARTY

parliamentary candidate has gone out of his way to de- fend a man who crossed the picket line during the recent Rubery Owen strike. Harry Mountfield, a zone engineer, had been walking into work each day of the five-week strike at Darlaston, Staffordshire. One can imagine the strikers' dismay when learned they Mountfield was the president of Walsall trades council. Two Rubery Owen workers were delegated to go to the trade council meeting two weeks ago. They were ruled of out order by Mountfield before their protest was heard. Mountfield told the men: 'You will not be allowed to make a communist speech here. You are orders.' against standing The were evicted from the men meeting. The Spanish family-which in- cludes six children-has been evicted from a council flat due for demolition and offered single room. The locked-in councillors made Trouble over the scheme has been brewing at all three group factories in Swindown. At Cheney Manor last Friday it erupted into a strike. The 1,200 women at Cheney Manor are sitting in through the working day against attempts to •force up their work rate from around 64 units an hour to 76.

Official backing is expected soon from the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers' district committee. But on May Day it was Mountfield's turn. The Rubery Owen workers gathered at the front of the rally which he was to address. They began to heckle that the trades council president was a strike-breaker. At first Mount- field attempted to shut them up, but other workers in the hall took up the cry and the presi- dent was forced to leave the state is possible that some of the workers who were justifiably in- censed at Mountfield's behaviour were Communist Party members supporters. If so, perhaps or they should have a word with a certain Don Brayford. For on April 28 the Wolver- hampton 'Express and Star' re- ported: Harry Mountfield said 'Mr. today he had received many messages of support for his action in crossing picket lines a verbal offer to give the family a two-week reprieve, but rejected the demonstrators' demands that one of them should go immedi- ately to fix up the family's future with social service officials.

Local residents also want the council to take over by compul- sory purchase order a whole area of Notting Hill to safeguard people's homes from developers.

SKELMERSDALE branch of the building workers' union UCATT unanimously passed resolution calling for dispensa- tion for the Workers Press and 'Morning Star' during times of mass strike action. The resolution stated: "This branch considers that the important role played by work- ing-class of information organs and publicity such as the "Morn- ing Star" and Workers Press is all the more important in times of general working-class agita- tion and activity: e.g. as in the defence of the "Pentonville Five" year, and more last recently, during the action taken in re- sponse to the call from the Special Congress of the TUC in "anti- opposition to the Tory inflation" measures on May I.

"The branch considers that in circumstances similar to those described above, special dispen- sation should be afforded these two papers, to enable them to publish when their coverage and comment is most needed by the trade unionists and members of the working class, who rely on them for accurate reporting of such important events. 'We therefore

UCATT

urge uses all the methods etc., at its disposal to bring this about.'

ONE OF three workers involved in a row for walking into Raleigh Industries, Radford, Notting- ham, on May Day, has said he will from the metal resign union. Packer Paul mechanics' Jarvis (28) of Clifton, Notting- ham, stayed away from work yesterday and lost £6 wages.

The two others involved, Mrs Betty Dorothy Harrison and Mrs Holborne, are refusing to pay the £4 they earned on May Day to charity. Management will be meeting them to avert a possible all-out strike by the factory's 6,500 workers. at the strike-hit Rubery Owen plant. Mountfield has also been 'Mr defended by Mr Don Brayford, prospective parliamentary com- munist candidate Walsall for North. 'This follows a clash between Mr Mountfield and Mr Brian Bennett, a delegate from the Transport and General Workers' Union at Wednesday's meeting of the trades council. 'Mr Bennett accused Mr of being Mountfield strike- breaker, but he was told by the president that he would not be allowed to make a communist speech. 'Mr Brayford said Mr Bennett is not a member of the Com- munist Party and was not ex- pounding communist policy' Brian Bennett is chairman of the shop stewards' committee at Rubery Owen and a T&GWU shop steward.

Jack Gale examines the so-called Militant' group The reason given for the Communist Party's switch from preparing a new leadership to uncritical support of the TUC General Council of 1926 was the formation of the Anglo.

Russian Trade Union Committee on May 14, 1925. A TUC 'left' A. A. Purcell, (TUC President), delegation, led by the had visited the Soviet Union in 1924. The chairman of the Central Council of the Russian Trade Unions, Tomsky, paid a 1925 and attended the Hull Trades Union return visit in Congress. The General Council, faced with the rising militancy of their members, welcomed the protective colouring of apparent mili- tancy which association with the Russian Revolution provided.

The Russians, on their side, found the Committee useful for focusing the attention of the advanced workers in Britain onto the Soviet Union. That was entirely permissible.

What was not permissible was to present the Committee as a genuine leadership of the working class and to subordinate the independent work of the Communist Party to it.

But that is precisely what the Stalinists, in full tide their 'socialism pro-Kulak rightward in one country' policy, proceeded to do. The Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee was put for- ward by Stalin and his support- ters as a genuine left-wing move- ment in opposition to the out Thomas and out rights, and Clyne. Maintained Tomsky, then a colleague of Stalin's, in *Practical wrote Questions of the Trade Union Movement': 'Those. who have entered into the agreement with themselves us are maintaining staunchly bourgeois lies against and slanders and the against of the English former leaders Thomas, Clynes movement, and leaders MacDonald. of the The British trade unions, the section that is furthest to the left—one say with the can assurance, inusly with us, working majority harmon- In this way, Stalin used the Trade Union Anglo-Russian Committee the British to turn Communist Party into the main support of the very forces which Fal it is the first duty of revolution- The leaders of aries to expose. the British Communist Party dutifully followed Stalin's line. Even after the strike had been betrayed, Stalin rejected the call of Trotsky and the Left Opposi- break from the Anglo- tion for a Russian Trade Union Committee. In July-two months after the strike - Stalin told the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party Russian that 'the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee bloc between is trade and the our unions re- of Eng- trade unions actionary purpose of land for the struggle against imperialist war. ('Materials of the Plenum, 1926' page 71.) Revision Only after the seven years formation of the Communist International, Stalin was revising Leninism on the inevitability of The British Communist Party dutifully f democratic betrayal in social and paved the way for the TUC to betr imperialist war. order to cover for the Stalinists in 1973.

Yet Grant, who does not men- Grant deliberately and lyingly tion this, that any Claims distorts the role of Stalinism in Stalin's disciples in Britain were 1926 for one very good 'endeavouring to create a revolu- reason —he wants to cover up the role tionary party! of Stalinism in 1973. After all his years in Delitics. For it is enough to Grant possibly not say cannot un- Communist Party today that the aware of this history. 'left' does not criticize union and Jones Scanlon be- He knows it very well, just as leaders cause it has ceased to be Marx- he knows that the British trade ist'. including the union leaders, 'lefts', remained silent when the Baldwin bombed government He Nanking. knows, too, that the TUC, 'left' and right, raised when, in 1926, the no protest Tory launched the government Arcos Raid—a police raid on the Russian trading mission in Lon- don. No evidence of espionage was but the raid gave the discovered, Tories flimsy the excuse to the diplomatic links with break Soviet Union which had the been established by the Labour 1924, of And the government

TUC

immediately loyal' British behind their fell into step by walking out of the masters Union 'Left' Hugh Scanlon not criticized Anglo-Russian Trade by Stalinists . Committee! dutifully followed Stalln's line on the Anglo-Ri IC to betray the 1926 General Strike. Grant ch Nowhere does Grant name the Communist Party for what it is —Stalinist. That is, a counter- revolutionary organization which does not merely omit to criticize lefts', but deliberately sets the out to preserve their leadership.

Hold back lies and deception, by covering up for and helping to organize blatant _class-collabora- tion, it seeks to hold the work- ing class back from revolution- ary leadership and bring it to de- teat, as it has done in the past in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and throughout the world. Stalinism is not just a move- 'fails to criticize' ment which nor even one which has stopped at the abandonment of Marx- ism. It is the most counter- revolutionary force in the work- ers' movement on a world scale.

This has to be explained and fought for, again and again. What is required is not 'criticism', but Workers Press, Th independent policy. cannot be the lead • Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee Grant chooses to ignore these facts in exposure. The working class is held back by the conservative organizational and ideological within its own move- barriers ment. We are dealing not with 'mistakes' or 'failure to under- stand, but with • class-collabora- tion and treachery. As Trotsky says: 'All the traditions, organizational habits and the ideas of all the already • nor is his fellow "left' on TUC, Jack Jones. Press, Thursday May 10, 1973 PAGE 3 capable of an leading party in - Leon Trotsky existing groupings in the labour movement in different forms and with different stogans predispose them either towards direct treachery or towards compromise or else towards temporizing and passivity compromisers, relation to the The Socialist Labour League will be never temporize nor passive in relation to centrism or Stalinism. That, of course, is Grant reserves his venom for us. The 'lefts' must have 'friendliness'. The Stalinists must never be called by their real names. But the Trotskyists are 'ultra-lefts' (as the Stalinists also claim) and they 'infest' the movement. It is no accident that similar gutter-language was used against our youth when they were fight- ing the Transport House bureau- cracy in 1964—by Grant's friends . 'Tribune' called around 'Tribune'. the youth 'lice on the body politic'. Grant's group at that time was active in voting along with the right wing for the expulsion of the revolutionary youth-just as Grant had earlier voted for the expulsion of SLL Central Com- mittee member Bill Hunter.

More than that, the Grant group was instrumental in calling the police to turn the youth out of Labour Party meetings.

Honesty What Grant calls 'crude and hysterical mud-slinging' is really revolutionary honesty and in- transigence. Nearly 50 years ago, Trotsky wrote of a similar critic: 'Ruthlessness' is caused by • the necessity to reveal the reality behind a deliberate false- Nowhere in Europe does hood. canonized hypocrisy - 'cant' — such a role as in Great play Britain. Different political groupings and most even 'extreme' of them are, when fight- ing against each other, accus- tomed not to touch upon certain to call certain questions or things by their proper names. The reason is that from time immemorial the political struggle has been waged inside the ranks the possessing classes who have never forgotten that a third party is listening in. The system of conventions, implications and reservations has over the ages worked itself down- wards and today finds its most reactionary expression liberal Labour Party including its radical opposition wing. Here it is not a question of literary style, but of politics. Our polemic repels Brailsford because it lays the class contra- dictions absolutely bare. It is quite true that in those enlight- ened readers who have been brought up in the parliamentary tradition of political cant this polemic will produce not sym- pathy but annoyance. But Brails- ford notwithstanding, this is just the effect that the author, rightly, intends. It is also quite true that politicians with such an educa- tion still form a dense stratum between the working class and the programme of communism.

Nevertheless. in Britain too.

lass realities are more powerful than traditional hypocrisy. Once aroused, British workers blazing thicket of inherited through the themselves those of Baldwin and both Brailsford-will find in our • polemic a particle of their own strüggle. And this again will be the effect that we intend.

TRANSFORMING THE SOC

INTOA REVOLUTIONARY

Extract from the policy resolution adopted unanimously by 2,200 delegates and visitors at the All Trades Unions Fellow trade unionists, comrades and friends we address you with this urgent call to action: PAGE 4 Workers Press, Thursday May 10, 1973 Extract from the policy resolution adopted unani Alliance conference, Birmingham, on October 2 Fellow trade unionists, comrades and friends we In its place must be elec- THE TORY governme ted a Labour government frontation with the which is pledged by the mass workers are forced to action of the working class to defend their standard implement socialist policies.

We cost of living. 'pledged! to socialist say policies' that the pre- knowing sent leaders of the Labour move- Large sections of thes ment have no intention of intro- ducing such policies. Indeed, in answer to their fight to the last analysis some of them General Strike. That is will be prepared to join a coali- tion government with the Tories conditions which will fo to head off the working class.

But if the working, class is strong enough to force the Tories 3) The democratic right to out, it is strong enough to deal strike and to organize in trade with the its traitors in own unions. Only the organized midst. This can only be achieved working class can lead man- by exposing them in the fight for kind of the out historical an alternative socialist policy. crisis. Every right and every The Central Committee of the gain won by the working class, Labour Socialist League calls every democratic right in Bri- the working class to sup- has been port the following policies to tain, won because working class against unite the of the organized strength of the Tories and the present the and the strike unions Wilson-Feather leadership of the weapon. labour movement: Here is the policy which the A Labour government must next Labour government must immediately repeal the Indus- be forced to carry out. trial Relations Act. This fight 1) A Labour government must must begin now by forcing the TUC to break off all relations immediately repeal the Indus with the government and Relations trial Act, Housing Finance Act, Immigration Acts, mobilize the working class to destroy state control of wages.

Fair Trading Act and all wage control. After the repeal of all 4) The right to defend rights Tory anti-working class mea- won in the past and change sures, there must be legislation the system. All the changes in to implement the Charter of legal procedures made by the Basic Rights, along the follow- Tory be re- government must ing lines. pealed. All secret police and 2) The right to work! Capital- MI5 organizations must be dis- ism demands mass unemploy- banded and fully exposed.

The ment. The right to a job must secrets of the Tory adminis- This can be guaranteed. only tration in this sphere must be be done by breaking the grip published. All rights to assem- of capitalist ownership on the bly, free speech and the Press economy. Employed and un- must be guaranteed. employed must unite to insist Labour The struggle must begin on government na- now. No closures, no sackings, tionalizing the main industries and banks, workers' must be the policy of the trade under control and without compen- unions. Occupation fac- tories threatened with closure, sation. Alex Smith (36) from Renfrew think more seriously of me is my implications. Tyres, Inchinnan. For à while I looked around at the political tendencies in into Trades the labour movement. years ago. Now he has decided looked at the Communist to take an active role in build- Party-which has quite a grip in the Clydeside area. Many ing the revolutionary party. I think it is people still believe that the Communist Party is the party for the of revolutionary politics.

They leadership don't realize that under the class. Stalinist concept they are heading the working class away from the main issue- -the issue of power itself. taken A decisive event for me was The process will the ATUA conference in the not stop at this. Hall. Digbeth Birmingham, in people Powell, are waiting for their 1971. I went to this meeting influence mainly through the extremely of the Workers Press which The situation is For serious. The real drift of the had begun to read. the ruling class is towards fascism.

first found that the time They will not be satisfied until questions I had been asking they have reduced the working myself answered. The were and the class to the conditions that paper movement it workers in countries like Spain represented told the truth, no and Greece exist under. matter how hard this was to I came to socialism through stomach. Since then I have watched reading authors like Jack the movement develop London. For a long time I was watched the Tories prepare for more or less passive. I suppose Tory government war against the working class.

the it was There comes a time when you and its legislation that made unanimously by 2,200 deleg ober 22, 1972. Is we address you with this u vernment is relentlessly pursuing it • the working class. Each day 1 rced to become criminals - unde andard of living against governmen s of these workers openly acknowler fight to maintain a decent standa That is, the creation of the indust h will force the government to resig to as part of the fight to bring erni ade down the Tories. 5) The right to a higher stan- living standards trade unionists, but the profit sys- tem, which causes the crisis.

The first step must be to ex- propriate all the great fortunes, abs of the rich, close down the Stock Exchange, place a state control over all movements of capital in and out of the the country. Nationalization of the basic industries and of all large com- panies, banks, building and in- surance societies will provide the resources for a unified to improve the living plan standards of the whole people.

Workers' control of these, as . present national- well as the ized industries, will run them in the interests of the workers and consumers. Again, the fight must begin now. State control of wages be must be answered by the most widespread fight for wage in- creases to meet price rises and improve standards. This means a fight to remove the Tory government and change ngs, the union leadership.

fac- 6) The right to health and wel- ure, fare benefits. Every Tory gov- have to do something and be- come a part of that develop- ment. That was when I de- cided to play an active role.

I am member of the Transport and General Work- ers' Union, .. is a key which union, organizing some of the most important workers in the coutry. In the union we have a position where the executive committee leaders abandoned their opposition to the Indus- trial Relati § Act. They also joined in with the protests— one-day strikes and so on— against the Tory government.

Now they are party to the talks coming up between the unions and the Tories. This_kind of leadership is no challenge to the Tories and demoralizes the members in The one-day many cases. strike strategy is useless. It allows all the weakness in the working class to get the upper hand—men don't want to waste one day's pay for noth- ing. We have to replace this leadership with people who issue will tackle the main class action to bring this government down. This is what our attention should be on. The building of this kind of leadership will be a hard struggle. No one has any illusions about that.

But I am optimistic. The Socialist Labour League is the only group that has made an analysis of the economic crisis delegates and visitors at th this urgent call to action: rsuing its plan for a con- h day new sections of - under Tory law- to ernment-inspired soaring knowledge that the only standard of living is a • industrial and political to resign. ring ernment cut in welfare bene- fits, in the health service and in all public spending must be revoked. On the basis of nationalization, a crash • pro- gramme of expansion of ser- vices to the unemployed, the isis. low-paid, the sick and the aged must be undertaken as an the absolute priority. The working class and the Labour govern- ment must take immediate and absolute responsibility for the 'these victims of the capitalist system. 7) The right to decent housing.

Decent housing is not a luxury; it is a necessity. People have the basic right to decent accommodation at rents they can afford. Nationalization of the handful of building mono- polies and building societies will provide the basis for a massive programme of new house building. The disgraceful in problem of the homeless the cities must be immediately solved by census and taking- over of all unoccupied pro- perty. 8) The international respon- sibilities of the working class.

The working class is interna- tional. We fight for the un- restricted right of any worker of any nationality to move freely through the world.

AND

UNION

Banner of Transport and General Wor the leaders have abandoned oppositio that lies at the bottom of all the Tory attacks, and the pro- found disruption that this has caused in relations between working the class and the capitalist class. We must go out and explain everywhere to workers implications of this crisis and show them the necessity of a • at the All Trades Unions 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- colonia! countries for pro- grammes of equal trade and mutual assistance. Break from NATO and all imperialist alliances. For the carrying out of such 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 working class (Labour Party, Communist Party, SLL, IS, IMG, etc.) to fight against the main enemy, the Tory govern- ment. The SLI calls upon every socialist and class-conscious worker to consider this pro- and manifesto very gramme carefully, and to decide now to their inescapable re- take up eful sponsibilities. The building of in the revolutionary party is the tely burning question now, not in some remote future. The SLL is determined to carry through its transformation into a re- volutionary party. na- JOIN the Socialist Labour un- League and help transform it into a revolutionary party.

Central Committee Socialist Labour League eneral Workers Union—a key union, where I opposition to the Industrial Relations Act.

revolutionary party to meet the challenge. Councils of Action should also be formed in every area unite workers and to the housewives on the defence of basic rights-this is the real unity we should seek. A unity of the working class in struggle.

CIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

ions m nd J W he of to he x- o- ch he of le he IS, he ry us o- he LL gh re- our it where is Act. hould area and ice of real unity TB is a Leicester worker: It is correct to say: "Today British capitalism like world capitalism is at the end of all compromise solutions to the class struggle' We have seen just how far the government with anti-working will go class legislation, i.e. the In- dustrial Relations Act, 'fair rents' Act, the freeze, and Phase Two of their anti- inflation programme. We have also seen how the Labour Party and the TUC have helped the Tories with their plans to smash the working class. The Tory government's attack on workers is no co- incidence. The essence of their strategy is to destroy the trade unions, the standard of living and all democratic rights of the working class. This is caused by the economic crisis which faces world capitalism.

The only of way out the crisis for the capitalists is to defeat and smash all working- class and labour movements.

Section 8: Why a Labour government? I do not agree with this section, particularly para- graph 4: 'No one else can The carry out these tasks. more the working class fights, more the reformist and the Stalinist leaders run to the Tory enemy. All the time the crisis matures and there is no solution for the working class except the working-class con- quest of state power and im- mediate socialist measures to break up capitalist ownership and power. The working class can be united on such a pro- gramme of measures to defend basic rights and to go forward to the throwing out of 'the Tories and the election of a Labour government on social- ist policies' 2 of this para- Sentence graph: 'The more the working class fights the more the re- formist and Stalinist leaders run to the Tory enemy is, of course. correct. But we must ask what is meant by lead- 'reformist and Stalinist ers'. As I see it this can only the leaders of the mean Labour Party and the trade unions. this is correct then If we must also examine the last of the paragraph: sentence 'The working class can be united on such a programme • basic of measures to defend rights and go forward to the throwing out of the Tories and the election of a Labour government on socialist poli- cies? we accept that the La- If reformist bour Party is a party, how can we ask for the support of workers to re- turn a Labour government on socialist policies? The world economic crisis is so deep that no Labour government will or can carry socialist policies. We out understand that the must Labour Party is caught up in capitalist policies and their system. Therefore it will only see its way out of the crisis in the same way as the Tory Party. This explains why there has been no real opposition from the Labour Party on the Tory anti-working class legis- lation. Nowhere in the programme is this fact clearly put forward The Labour Party and can will only carry on from the Tories if elected to govern- ment and we know that this means the Labour Party lead- ing the fight against the work- ing class. The All Trades Unions Alliance confere who voted unanimously to proceed witl Jakubowski Steve from Dudley, Worcestershire, is a student teacher: I was recently appointed to lecture in a college of further education. During the two-month appointment I was to teach International (i) Economics since 1944 and (ii) the Inter-War Years, 1918- 1939. Due to my links with the Socialist Labour League I was strongly advised that if I re- 'left-wing prop- sorted to aganda' I would be in serious trouble with the academic staff at the college. Of course this threat was couched in typical liberal phrases, i.e. I'm sure you realize that when we teach any subject in schools or col- leges we must not be politically biased.' The factual account of the international economic scene since 1944, however, can be terms of a series analysed in of major crises and the inter- war period can equally be pre- sented factually as a period of economic boom and slump with the betrayal of coupled trade union leadership to the detriment of the whole of the . vo working class. It was no surprise, then, when in my concluding lecture a student in the class should comment: But surely isn't the with us in situation same 1973? Could we be on the verge of a revolution?' Such an analysis was made on the facts alone-and there- fore based entirely on truth so we must ourselves analyse why 1973 is such a crucial year in the history of the working class.

READ

ce conterence at Birmingham, October 22, 197 oceed with the transformation of the SLL into t Needless to say, the Social- a ist Labour League's two pam- phiets 'Perspectives for the Transformation of the SLL of into a Revolutionary Party' and 'A Marxist Analysis of the Crisis' give one adequate scope for discussion and com- ment. In my opinion, probably the most important paragraph in the 'Perspectives' document is to be found on page 1l in the section 'Why a Labour govern- ment?'. It reads: "The SLL, transformed into will a revolutionary party, undertake a specific political task: to unite the working a socialist pro- class behind gramme to throw out the Tory government.' The most important phrase here is to unite the working class', for, as Perry Anderson has pointed out in his book 'Towards Socialism', , there 1s less political 'solidarity' among workers than among the middle class and the Labour Party continually would have been in office since 1945 if unionized had supported it with the . votes anything like • the fidelity shown by salaried workers for the Conservative Party. 'Thus it is more statistically accur- ate to define the union worker as lacking in political solidar- and the middle class as solid for Conservatism. One can only draw the con- clusion from this that the leadership treacherous em- bodied within the ranks of the Labour Party has served not working only to divide the class by way of frustration and Workers Press, Thu er 22, 1972 attended by 2,200 delegates SLL into the revolutionary party.

confusion, but has also meant that the power of the Tories has increased. Therefore, a new leadership is vital if the Tory government is to be defeated and this leadership can only be found within the ranks and policies of the SLL. The need for a new leader- ship is particularly vital at this point in time when the econ- omic crisis has nearly reached its climax. Thus it is at this point where we must relate the previous part of the discussion with the second pamphlet- 'A Marxist Analysis of the Crisis' Again we must refer to the explanation of the capitalist current inflation. For years, and certainly since the end of World War II, the typical reason which was given for inflation was based around the concept of 'full employment' which led to higher wage de- mands and thus cost-push or wage inflation. The capitalists theory or such a cause of inflation was crystallized in 1958 when Professor A. W. Phillips of the London School of Economics published an article which claimed to show that there was a definite relationship between unemployment and the rate at which wages change, and indeed for many years wage increases were apparently re- lated to the tightness of the labour market. Now, of course, they are not. We must look further for an explanation as to the causes of the present inflationary situa- tion and what we see is that

PAGE 5

Press, Thursday May 10, 1973 it's not the working class which holds the blame, but the rotten i.e. decayed, capitalist system itself—perhaps a closer look at will make this this system more apparent. • Of course, any discussion on the international based capitalist system must be based primarily on the US economy. On August 15, 1971, Presi- dent Nixon announced a num- ber of economic measures de- signed to combat inflationary pressures, improve the balance of payments and strengthen the competitive position of American industry both at home and abroad. Thus, with one 'economic bombshell', the US administra- tion moved from a 'passive' stage to an 'activist' one.

Thus this new US policy represents a recognition of a new reality. Ever since the end of World War Il, the United States has the part of the 'good played guy'. US capital and know- how flowed to western Europe to assist in post-war recon- struction. Economic aid contributed on an increasing scale to the economic development of emerging nations and support of international monetary arrangements provided a fairly firm foundation for the growth of trade and financial trans- action. In essence it was a period of international bom.

Two important results/: comments can be extracted: from this: (a) This political and economic leadership in international affairs had put great strain on the US economy and the time came when the US realized that even her tremendous economic resources and vital- ity were not inexhaustible.

(b) The balance-of-payments crisis of mid-1971 and the in- ability of the US to cope with inflation and unemployment occurring concurrently brought matters to a head and made the capitalists realize that market forces alone could not be re- lied on to achieve balanced economic growth at a satisfac- tory rate without inflation.

Thus we have the inevitable insoluble crisis of capitalism which Marx predicted. One might think that this is simply a reiteration of the pamphlet, but I think not, for I have tried to enlarge some of the more important aspects of the crisis as I see them.

Once again I must refer to what I consider to be the most important part of the docu- ment. On page 9, column three, it is stated that 'There be no middle-of-the-road can solution to this crisis.'

Once again if I could remind the reader of my teaching prac- became abundantly tice, it clear that the capitalists had tried to reform the system in conceivable way and every now, in 1973 there was no other solution to draw upon except, of course, by trying to resolve the crisis by counting upon 'nationalist economics' in preparation for a trade war.

Such a war, of course, can only be won by smashing the organized strength of the work- ing class and so it is clear that the SLL must be transformed into the Revolutionary Party to defend the basic democratic rights of the working class which have been won in battle against the ruling class during the previous 200 years.

STALINISM IN THE EEPTU

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Thursday May

BY IAN YEATS

THOSE who think the Stalinists of the British Communist Party have changed their spots be- tween the teachers' con- ference at Scarborough and the electricians and plumbers' conference at the Isle of Man fall into a carefully-prepared trap.

At Scarborough their treacherous betrayal of the working class was out in the open for everyone to see.

They voted FOR the Tory state pay laws. They ABSTAINED in a vote on the one-day strike on May Day. . At the Isle of Man their tactics seemed to be reversed, but their goal was the same.

sday May 10, 1973 They led a phoney 'fight' on the Tory anti-union law and set their faces against prices and incomes policies from any government. What was the crucial difference between the two conferences? It is that the Stalinists con- the leadership of the trol teachers whereas they do not control the electricians.

In "power' their men un- scrupulously and unhesitatingly operate and collaborate in the Tory government's corporate state plans. That is what they did at the teachers' conference. Out of 'power' they pose as a bogus opposition. That is what they did at the electricians' and plumbers' conference. And there should be no mis- take that when we say their opposition to Frank Chapple was a pose, it was just that.

could a fight be

HOW

real

FAILED

which conspicuously to mention even ONCE the one issue which incenses all elec- tricians-the Joint Industry Board. Why didn't the Stalinists of this break-up call tor the Board? Why didn't they call the withdrawal of the

TON

EEPTU

representatives? Could it be they didn't raise the JIB because they intend to do a deal with the right wing aimed at pushing Mark Young into Frank Chapple's job? ex-CPer, right feel An une can rely on him to keep they the 'extremists' in check while 'left' rallying the The CP see him as a man who they work with and can will rally the 'left' to policies their own, walcd. will, nine times out of ten, be closely similar. Not only did the Stalinists refuse to raise the issue burning concern to all elec- tricians but their 'fight' on the Tory anti-union laws was a sham. Their refusal to vote for a General Strike stripped bare the real face of their counter- revolutionary policies. On the very first day of the electricians' and plumbers conference their supporters sat tight-lipped when a bid by Southampton delegate Arthur Pearse to introduce a motion pledging all possible action to bring down the Tory govern- ment was defeated by the right wing. Had the motion succeeded, Mr Pearse would have asked conference to recommend a one-day strike of electricians and plumbers on May Day. On Tuesday instead of call- Left: Frank Chapple, electrician's general secretary. The Stalinists' opposition to him was nothing more than a pose. Above: Dele- Isle of Man gates leaving the conference. ing for full support for the TUC's day of protest, the Stalinists were again silent, coming to life only to raise their arms in support of a harmless resolution urging con- ference to send telegrams to the TUC and the Scottish

TUC.

After deliberately and con- sciously failing to back action against the Tories in the open- ing session, they equally delib- erately failed to back a call for a General Strike at the end.

On Friday morning South- ampton succeeded in getting their motion before confer- ference. By failing to vote, the Stalinists lined up with right wing. Executive member Tom Breakell told conference: It is not a practical proposition to call the entire working popu- lation into industrial action to bring down the government.'

This is the impression the Stalinists want to build up.

That is why their members sat silent. It is why they sat silent while Frank Chapple and Shadow Chancellor Denis Healey 'warned' conference that the Tories were entitled to two more years in office and there was precious little to be done about it. Instead of exposing this defeatist position the Stalinists pandered to it. Instead of leading a political fight against a Tory government crashing down working- on class rights and living stan- dards on every side, they con- "fire' centrated their the on Industrial Relations Act.

The Stalinists described as a victory the hopeless great reformist campaign which allowed the Bill to become an all- Act and the law to be used

PALACE

LIDO

against trade unions and their members. Having betrayed the work- ing class into being saddled with the legislation, the Stalin- ists persist in calling for still more policies to 'defeat the Act' But the anti-union laws can- not be separated from the state pay laws and all the rest of the Tory armoury for destroying working-class rights and living standards. The Act and the whole gamut of repressive legislation cannot be defeated unless the Tories are defealed by being made to resign and a Labour government returned, pledged to socialist policies. Stalinist speakers said work- ing-class pressure had made the Tories afraid to use the anti-union law. Now, with a little more pressure from the TUC, they could be made to repeal it. Under today's political con- ditions, singling out the Indus- trial Relations Act is even more cynical and treacherous than it was two years ago. Some Tory MPs are already talking about repealing or amending the Act-not because they are afraid, but because the most vicious provisions of the incorporated in Act are now the state pay laws. More likely, amendments to the Act will be given as a quid pro quo for TUC co-operation in Phase Three of the state pay laws. The resolution the Stalinists backed on the Thursday merely called on the TUC to initiate a tougher policy to 'defeat the Act'. Feather may soon be in a position to deliver the goods. In case he is not, it goes on to "call on' the Parliamentary Labour Party to repeal the law when it becomes the govern- ment and to pledge not to in- terfere with any of the hard- won rights of the trade union movement. But unlike the 1964-1970 Labour government, Wilson has already reached agreement with the leaders of the TUC to run the economy in virtual partner- ship when he is elected to power. In other, words the labour and trade union leaders are creating conditions under which wage restraint will be imple- mented by the union leaders and the Stalinists. Workers in Scotland have already had foretaste of this scheme during the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' work-in. Here, now is the full Stalinists' of the measure treachery. Their 'fight' against the Industrial Relations Act stands exposed as a cover for no fight at all. Their 'defeat' of right-wing EEPTU leader Frank Chapple dissolves into a charade.

If and the Tories when forward with come amend- ments to the anti-union Act the Stalinists will hail this as a major victory for the labour though it movement — even will, in fact, be bound hand foot to the government's and corporate state. Despite the simulated Stalin- ist opposition to Chapple, the real unity of both Chapple and Stalinists on the basic question of secret talks with clearly the is government revealed in Chapple's incredible outburst in the 'Sunday Express': "The TUC will not be be- traying its principles by reach- ing an agreement by which we would fight for moderation in wage claims. For its part the should agree government to threshold payments added to the wage packet to match in- creases in the cost of living.

It also take effective must action to hold down prices and rents.' ('The Red Wreckers Must be Stopped. Frank 'Sunday Express' Chapple, May 6, 1973.) Wasn't this after all what Scanlon admitted in the 'Daily Express' before lon a month April 6) and which the CP vigorously defends? Now listen to Scanlon: 'Our offer at the talks was, that for a period of 12 months, we would limit wage applica- tions to an agreed figure. In er- return we said the government should statutorily control prices, do something for the pensioners, take steps to con- trol land and house speculation and postpone the future rent increases due under the Hous- ing Finance Act.' Commenting on the break- down of the first round of talks, Scanlon continued: 'But let me now put the record straight ... this does not prelude the resumption of talks on the economy with the government. And the sooner the better. These talks should be on the basis of the TUC's original proposals.' (Our em- phasis. 'Where We Stand Now' Hugh Scanlon, 'Daily Express', April 6, 1973.) This is the policy which the British Stalinists—-inside and outside the EEPTU-support.

It is also Chapple's strategy.

It is very instructive to note despite Scanlon's re- that, formist insistence on re-open- ing talks on the basis of the 'original proposals, Feather has already diluted these re- formist demands by quietly dropping, in his Bridgend all references to the speech, Industrial Relations Act and price control! Not to worry, though. Scanlon and his Stalinist defenders will fall into line. Without raising the demand to bring down the Tories and elect Labour government pledged to the repeal of all anti-working-class legislation and to a programme based on socialist principles, the Stalin- ists are opening the door to corporatism. Electricians' and plumbers' delegates at the Isle of Man had had their militancy driven up since the last conference in 1971 by the slashing effects of infiation on their pay. This is what lay behind the massive 291 vote in favour of Stalinist-backed motion the against the Industrial Relations Act. But the conscious silence and holding back of the Stalinists allowed the right wing to persistently suggest nothing more could be done immediately and that the best Workers Press, Th

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BINCE NICKSY

course lay in letting the Labour Party know what was expected on of them in government.

The Stalinists refusal to speak out allowed the right wing to stress that a General Strike would split and weaken the labour movement. Thus in the crucial vote on Southampton's resolution de- manding total opposition to the Tory pay laws, conference of voted overwhelmingly against . General Strike. Not only did the Stalinists make no attempt to correct the confusion spread by the right wing, but they themselves abstained in the vote. Once this mood had been allowed to develop among delegates, it was no real sur- prise that a Stalinist-backed motion calling for opposition to all incomes policies was thrown out. But no one should fall into the trap of thinking that their support for this motion meant they actually wanted an all-out fight. Their delegates spent the entire conference consciously heading off such a fight. The aim of backing this cynical and resolution was purely simply to retain their political credibility. Instead • of an all-out fight, conference approved a resolu- tion calling on the next Labour government to control not only wages but prices and divi- dends——a tavourite TUC theme.

The Stalinists did the same thing at the teachers' confer- ence. They voted for the Tory pay laws but later put up a resolution from Brent branch calling for a new, vigorous, pay campaign. The right-wing idea that everything can be made accept- able provided all parties are allowed a say in the discussions was really first introduced on Tuesday during the debate on branch mergers. With perhaps one exception, the Stalinists were silent on a subject which threatens to , Press, Thursday May 10, 1973 PAGE 7 destroy democracy in the union and turn its branches into rubber stamps for the execu- tive. They consciously allowed the view to predominate that the re-organization was right by itself but the methods were wrong. Conference called for consultations between more the rank and file and the executive. The Stalinists are not opposed to the re-organization nor to the appointment of officials. They hope that if CP members are appointed as officials the new structure will make it easy for them to carry on the same corrupt regime ended abruptly with the ballot- rigging case. 'negotiations-not- As the confrontation' atmosphere de- veloped throughout the week, conference inevitably settled for sniping at the Tories and drawing up recommendations for the next Labour govern- ment. The EEPTU will not stage another policy conference until 1975—possibly after a General Election. The Stalinists know that there is now no danger of the union leadership leading a fight against the government.

They have seen to that. Indeed, not only will they not fight the Tories, but the Stalinists tactics at the Isle of Man have left Chapple's hands free to continue pressing for collaboration in the anti-union laws and the state pay plan.

In two years, when the pre- sent inflationary boom goes bust and prices have shot up to barely believable levels, the employers will be engaged in mercilessly driving down workers' living standards.

That is the purpose of the machinery the corporate Tories are trying desperately to set up. This inescapable challenge can only be met by building a new principled revolutionary leadership in the trade union and labour movement to ex- pose the political cowardice of the reformists and the treachery of the Stalinists.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thursday Ma) A.series by Bernard Franks Part Nine The shopworkers have a history of militant action against long hours of work, low wages, living. in, appalling conditions and hazards at work. For 50 years they fought continuously for legislation to improve their situation and give them rights on a par with other workers. Between 1891 and 1939 there were 97 strikes and over 58,000 shop and warehouse workers ceased work or threat- ened to do so. Up to the middle of the 19th century all shops were single premises; family affairs with bound apprentices, in theory, learning the trade like any other craftsmen. In the case of girls, they were often nothing more than unpaid skivvies.

from Conditions ranged sleeping under the counter and living on 'left-overs' to living treated as one of and being the family. However, no part of capital- in Britain could ist society stand for long separated from slavery of in- the regimented ¡lustrial production méthods.

wealth amassed The great by systematic pillage of the colonial empire had enabled the rise of a well-off middle class and a section of skilled workmen in Britain, paid on a regular basis. Here was an out- let for the great mass-produced output of modern machines.

But better, speedier methods of distribution had to be found. Fortunes could be made by the sharp and the ruthless, who could put sales on a basis of mass production and mass exploitation. Huge department stores, em- ploying hundreds of workers and retail chains with tens of branches began to develop.

In place of lodging with a family there were cheap dwel- lings brought up in the poorer districts to house staff; some- times in rooms, two to a bed, six and eight to a room, with a 'house guardian' in charge.

All pretence that instruction for future proprietorship was being given was now replaced with the sole prospect of per- petual wage slavery. The Truck Act of 1831, which required workers to be paid in coins of the realm and not in kind, actually strength- living-in system ened the it excluded shop because workers. Employers could allow them a dirty bed and a few slops and count this as part or in some cases, total payment. Application of the Truck Act to shop workers was finally won in 1906. Discipline was as strict in the living quarters as in the shop. Attendance at church and morning prayers was com- pulsory, marriage often forbid- den. A series of rules governed time off-which was little enough-and regular fines and deductions taken out of an already pitifully small wage.

Workers in the upper-class shops were required to keep a ursday May 10, 1973 higher standard of dress, In- cluding top hats and frock This style of clothing coats. deceived many other workers into believing that shop staff were well paid. One great advantage to em- ployers of 'living-in' was that employees were immediately on call at all times. Up at 6 a.m. to dust displays, prepare breakfast, before wrappers then opening the shop at 8 a.m. After closing, perhaps at 7 p.m. there would be the scrubbing down of counters and floors, and movement replacement of stock, finishing maybe, at 10 p.m. Apprentices also had to continue delivering after parcels to customers hours. Some employers had speak- ing tubes rigged between shop and dining room so that an assistant might be instantly called up for action even dur- ing the 15 to 20 minute dinner break. H. G. Wells, the author, was apprenticed at a drapers' 'em- porium' in Brighton in 1881 at an early age. After two years of it he fled home to mother.

His experiences were reflected in some of his books, particu- larly 'Mr Kipps' In "Tono Bungay', he pic- tured the rise and tall of a great business empire based on manufacture of a quack the medicine and various retail swindles. Р. C. Hoffman, once an official of the Shop Assistants' Union, gave many factual. ex- amples of bad conditions and the workers struggles against them in his book They Also Serve-The Story of the Shop Worker.' He recalls the conditions during his own apprenticeship Lewis's working for Samuel Silk Market, Holborn, in 1894, small, dirty room sharing a with six other apprentices: "The gas was turned out at the main at 11.15 p.m. One of the boys lighted a piece of they candle and •hunted for bugs on the wall, cracking them with slipper heels. They stuffed cracks in the wall with soap.' Later, as a cashier, he earned 2s 6d a week from which was deducted 2d for boot clean- ing: 'My boots were never cleaned.'; 2d for use of kit- chen: ' . . charge for having extras cooked which I bought and paid for myself' and 2d Ibrary ... a few old books on the bookcase'. He also paid 2d a week to an Early Closing Association— —forerunner of the union.

Hoffman gives some exam- ples from the long 'house rules' of another Lon- don store: 'Assistants sleep- ing out without permission will be cautioned twice and dis- me charged at the third offence.

'Any article cracked or broken must be paid for at once. 'Bedrooms must be left tidy.

photos, No pictures, etc. allowed to disfigure the walls.

doing so will be Anyone charged with the repairs.

'No flowers to be put in water glasses or bottles.'

He tells of secret marriages to avoid the sack, of an Isling- ton shop walker, discharged for marrying without leave, and of an employer who had no objection to employees get- 1=1.a

LIVINC IN

*=1.

SYSTEM

LIVING-IN

ANG-IN

SYSTEM

SYSTEM

DR. CLIFFORD

CLit!

DR CLIFFORD

Members of the Shop Assistants Unio system. Above: Behind the counter at a l ting married, but who added: I would rather they go else- where and get married; we do not want people in our employ like that.' Hoffman explains the res- trictions on voting rights for because living-in assistants; accommodation could be sleeping quarters, classed as but not a home. In 1897, 170 shop assistants at Maple's in Tottenham Court Road, London, were struck off the register of voters. In 1912, in Dublin assistants were allowed the vote, but the deci- sion was reversed on appeal.

In 190/, the managing dir- ector of Peter Robinson, On being asked about the rights of assistants sleeping three to a room, said: 'In the case of young men between 21 and 25 -unmarried-have they the franchise? No, I think not. I believe that a man occupying a single room can have the lodger vote.' 'Fines' were separate and additional 'deductions'. to Hoffman gives examples of a few from a north London drapers. 'For exceeding time at meals

VING IN

SYSTEM

CLIFFORD

тояр ants Union protest against the living-in inter at a large store in 1882.

and at time of washing hands, 'A customer must not be allowed to leave the shop un- served unless the shop walker has been spoken to by the assistant, 6d. 'Assistants must introduce at least two articles to each customer, 2d' these, there would After usually be 'till deficiencies' to be made up. Instant dismissal invariable rule was the for 'offenders'; for lateness, sick- ness and forgetting to call the boss or a customer 'Sir' Hoffman quotes one report from the Industrial Commis- 'An ex-assistant who sioner: a good position in occupies the City was discharged for leaving a second helping of pork. Another assistant was told he must pay a fine of 5s for leaving a piece of meat on a plate. He refused, and was discharged. His thereupon brother, who had been there three days as an apprentice in the house, was packed off with him.' John Lewis (Oxford Street, London) would sack at the slightest excuse. 'He would go up to a man or woman and say: "I did not engage you." Invariably the answer would be: •"No, Mr So-and-So did." His reply was sometimes: • "He had no right to do so" and often the person so gaged would be dismissed en.

Dismissal was a terrible sen- on shopworkers. It tence meant loss of home as well as job-sometimes by forcible eviction-and without a refer- ence it meant no chance of similar employment. Fire was the other constant fear of the shopworker, as it could mean the simultaneous loss of job, lodging and per- sonal possessions. Accidents and illness, parti- cularly diseases of the legs and feet, could also mean loss of occupation, as these were all jobs which involved constant standing and miles of walking for 12 to 16 hours a day.

Hoffman himself was to suffer severely from the system which locked out employees living-in from the premises during their time off. On Sun- days, had to be bedrooms vacated at 10 a.m. and were not unlocked until 9 p.m.

One Sunday, he attended a massive demonstration for the eight-hour day, held in Hyde Park. It began to rain, but back in quarters the room was locked and he was unable to change out of wet clothes. He contracted rheumatic fever and was in hospital for ten weeks.

On returning to work he was called before the boss, who demanded: "Are you honest?" I was taken aback. I was not sure-for there were things. ' I think so, sir!" • 'Then why don't you pay for those eggs we sent you when you were in hospital?"'

CONTINUED TOMORROW.

What's your idea of a university professor? If you tend to picture them as typically rather harm- less old fellows absent- mindedly pottering about their studies, or discussing over their sherries who it might have been that Shakes- peare had a soft spot for, you could be hopelessly wrong. Over in the United States the groves of academe are cur- rently sheltering some really colourful characters, with quite an adventurous, not to say nefarious, past behind them.

In California, for example, they have a real live GPU man teaching in one of the Socio- logy departments. In universities all over the country there are professors who have worked, or are still working for the CIA. At Michigan State Univer-• za sity there are some real experts on how the Vietnam war started; a team of MSU "aca- demics' helped run a CIA oper- ation in Vietnam, before Ame- rica was officially involved out there, and they even provided the cover for gun-running.

Now a visiting professor has turned up at Columbia Univer- sity, New York, who could, with his past career in espio- nage to boast about, make the other fellows look real tame.

work by aca- Intelligence demics is really nothing new, of course, and if some staff in British universities are fairly quiet about some of their 'extra-curricular' activities, their American colleagues have been fairly well-publicised.

But Columbia's guest, Pro- fessor Klaus Mehnert, is some- thing out of the ordinary run 'gown-and-dagger' of opera- tives. His gimmick is that his claim to fame comes in a mention from Rear Admiral Zacharias, one-time head of US Naval Intelligence, who gives him credit for helping to plan the Pearl Harbour bomb- ing raid that brought America into World War II. In his book, 'Secret Mis- sions', published in 1946, Zach- writes: 'A number of arias Japanese agents watched deve- lopments both on the West Coast and in Hawaii. I would like to mention one in parti- cular who was a German. His work was decisive, and his procedure typical of the methods at that time being employed by Axis agents. He was Klaus Mehnert, a young German intellectual fully im- bued with the idea of Teutonic working in his grandeur and own clandestine way for its realization.' Mehnert was born in Mos- cow in 1906. In 1931, in Ger- many, he became general sec- retary of the German Society for Éast European Studies, an academic body which produced some of the 'geopolitical' ideas for the expansionist policy of Nazi imperialism. Zacharias says: 'He be- longed to a group of German plotters who had their head- quarters in Breslau and planned for a war against the Soviet Union. They called themselves the Osteuropa Gesellschaft or East Europe Society, and published a monthly journal in which they bared their imperialist dreams attack on , Pearl Harbour, Dece Japanese what happened is yet to be cleared up.

as does a patient before a psychoanalyst.' Mehnert and his colleagues working subsequently began with a group of geopoliticians around General Haushofer, and, according to Zacharias: 'Mehnert himself became a member of a small group of freelancing geopolitical spies whom the Haushofer organi- zation, with the aid received Dr Alfred Rosenberg's from Foreign Political Bureau, sent everywhere in the world. Mehnert succeeded in obtain- ing a post at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu, as pro- fessor of anthropology. Here he concentrated at first on re- searches on the Japanese popu- lation of the Hawaiian islands, and sent back reports to his Axis employers claiming that Hawaii Japanese could provide a useful 'Fifth Column' in the event of war. (An esti- mate which proved incorrect.)

From this, he moved away 'anthropological' from the field, and began looking at American naval strength in the Pacific. According to Zacharias' book: 'In his work he provided valuable informa- tion to the Japanese and was indirectly responsible for some of the great of the details strategic plan of the Japanese high naval command. His greatest work was his report based on our 1937 fleet prob- Ger- lem, which he sent to its publication There many. reached the Japanese listening posts in Berlin.' Zacharias goes on to say: 'The conclusions which Meh- nert reached, and which he communicated to his employ- ers, provided an ingenious pat- tern. He deduced from pub- lished reports and discussions of the fleet problem that the United States had a life-line in the Pacific which it had to maintain if it wanted to sur- a Pacific power. vive as 'This life-line extended from Dutch Harbour in the north through Midway in the central Pacific down to Pago Pago in the south, behind which the United States could be con- tained regardless of what hap- pened in the rest of the Paci- fic Ocean area. What we re- garded as an essential defence line for our own safety, our opponents viewed as the pri- son fence behind which to lock us. The idea which this ama- teur strategist drew up with exceptional skill was simple • enough: 'He concluded that an oppo- nent could paralyse us, Meh- nert calculated, by destroying our fleet, our only means of carrying the war west of Mid- way, and by occupying strate- just outside the spots crucial geographical line' Zacharias says that Meh- nert's hand can be detected in the strategic plan the Japanese our, December 7, 1941—the problem of made and that it was crucial in convincing them that the United States was vulnerable.

On December 7, 1941, the their Japanese delivered mas- sive attack on Pearl Harbour.

By then, however, after the president of Hawaii University had said he would investigate what he had been told about the professor had Mehnert, left the island. On June 10, 1941, he had Maru, a boarded the 'Tatsuta Japanese vessel, for China. In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, he became editor of an Eng- lish-language Nazi propaganda called The 20th magazine Century'. document now in the Archives in Potsdam, East Germany, reveals that the Ger- diplomatic mission man Shanghai had cabled Berlin to check on Mehnert's creden- tials. The document is a reply from Hilmar Bassler, of the Nazi foreign ministry, dated February 19, 1942, part of which reads: 'In 1934, ... Klaus Mehnert where he has went abroad, done very valuable work for us. I am informed by the In- formation Department that the Gestapo has no objection to his employment in our mis- sion. In March 1945, two months before the end of the war, Mehnert was awarded the War Service Cross on the recom- the Reich of mendation Foreign Minister. He returned to West Ger- many after the war, and re- turned also to his original interest in eastern Europe. As of of the Institute director Political Science at Aachen, of the new he became one breed of academics that have replaced the old geopoliticians a 'Kremlinologist' -that is; -and edited a series of perio- dicals dealing with eastern Europe. Now he is a guest professor at Columbia. of problem what The actually happened in the Pearl Harbour attack has yet to be cleared up; that is to say, the question of whether or not commanders American the actually have had might enough knowledge of Japanese intentions to have known the was coming; and if so, raid how it was that the 'surprise' was allowed to go ahead. Perhaps Professor Mehnert might be able to offer some interesting theories that on being one. Certainly his at Columbia should give Ameri- can students the opportunity to ask all kinds of fascinating questions. Among other things, they could also ask whether the Professor's outlook on the Soviet Union has changed all that much since the old days at Breslau. Workers Press, Thi

BANNED

Judge Charles Raymond Dean (50), of Davies Avenue, Round- hay, Leeds, was fined £50 and banned from driving for a year when he pleaded guilty at Halifax to driving with excess alcohol in his blood. He was fined a further £25 for driving without due care, which he also admitted, and he was ordered to pay £7.20 costs.

Mr J. T. Sleightholme, pro- secuting, said that after collision on April 1 a blood specimen from Dean was found to contain 215 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Mr_J. D. Ward, defending, said Dean and his wife had been to a private dinner dance and had just set out for home when the accident happened. He had been driving for 32 with an unblemished years record and was very conscious of an uncharacteristic lapse on his part.

ALTERCATION

Some people certainly take things to heart! Mr Gwilym Hughes, British vice-Consul in San Francisco since November was involved in a last year, minor traffic incident on March 19. As a result, . he got into 'an what described was as altercation' with the local police. And Mr Hughes was upset. So much so that he not only didn't turn up at his office the following week, but took off altogether — to Sydney, Aus- tralia. There he was interviewed by a somewhat surprised British Consul-General who seemed to think Mr Hughes had come rather a long way.

But, then, maybe they've just got tough cops in San Francisco.

PUBLIC GOOD

Many members of the Irish republican movement have their ingenuity sorely tried thinking of get in ways to and out of Northern Ireland from the south. Mr Malachy McGurran, chairman of the Six County Republican Clubs, was refused entry into Britain when he landed at Birmingham airport at Easter. He was travelling on a southern passport. Hours later found himself walking as he Press, Thursday May 10, 1973

• PAGE 9

an freely out of the gates of Belfast airport. A Home Office statement said: 'The Secretary of State, having issued directions that Mr McGurran was not to be given entry into the United Kingdom on the grounds that his exclusion was conducive to the public good, he was in- advertently moved to Belfast instead of to the Republic of Ireland.'

MYSTICAL MAO

According to the weekly of the Vatican's bulletin 'Sacred Congregation for the of Peoples, Evangelization Chairman Mao's thoughts con- tain 'Christian reflections' bulletin-'Fides'-says The that Mao's doctrine is 'a moral socialism of thought and con- duct' because it 'looks toward the mystique of disinterested work for others, to inspiration to justice, to exaltation of a simple and frugal life, to re- habilitation of the rural masses, and to a mixing of social classes'. The report reminds loyal Pope John Catholics that XXIII and Pope Paul had put forth 'a similar system of social thought in their encyclicals Pacem in terris and Populorum progression. These statements, , 'must have come says 'Fides' to the notice of the Chinese leaders'. forced to admit Although that there is one difficulty— that Maoism is namely, atheistic-the bulletin expresses the hope that 'the opening of China to the world' would provide 'a path to the Holy See' Relations between Pope Paul and Mao began to improve in 1970 when China released Missionary Bishop James Walsh, who had been jailed as an agent of imperialism.

Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37гp •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

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thursday May 10, 1973

BBC 1

INV

9.42-11.20 Schools. 12.25 Disc a dawn.

9.30 Schools. 10.5U your service (London oniv). TN schools. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one.

Cartoon. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Magic 1.30 Mr Benn. 1.45 Fanny Cradock 12.40 First 1.00 jountain reporte invites • • • 2.05 Tennis ana racine. Meague General hospital. 2.30 Good afternoon.

Blue Peter. 5.15 Robinson Crusoe. 5.40 3.00 Show. Windsor novai Morse hector' s nose a new weatner. sea a Barkleys bottoms. 4.25 of the 6.45 VIRGINIAN. The Lady From 6.00

TODAY. 6.30 CROSSROADS.

Wicular Tamer'. Dana 8.00

FILM:

"LoWn

SARUIN

Andrews. Western. Charlie Chaplin goes to Cure' sDa. a health

8.30 THIS WEEK.

8.30

THING®

MORNING

MONDAY

9.00 JAMES

MCCARTNEY.

The Undertakers.

PAUL

Wings. Ana nis group 9.00 NEWS. Weather.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

9.25

MENACE

Girls 10.30

A EUROPEAN JOURNEY.

James omi By With Peter Jeffrey, ac laggart.

TO SAY.

The Sutton. saran Cult Fact. of 10.40

MIDWEEK.

11.30

NEWS.

12.00

WHAT

THE

PAPERS SAY.

11.35

BEFORE

05 Weather. ARK. Detective 12.05

12.15 IDEAS IN PRINT.

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TODAY'S TV

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

6.40 WORKING WITH YOUTH.

7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY.

7.30 NEWS SUMMARY. Weather.

7.35 THEIR WORLD. The Social

8.00 EUROPA. 8.30 CHERI.

9.15 SCHOOLDAYS.

Times re- membered by Peter Cook. 9.25 HORIZON. The Life That Lives on Man. On safari on the human skin. 10.10 UP international Festival or Fifth International Festival Music. George Hamil- Jeannie and See Paycheck. Wally Whyton, Johnny Dotti West, Hank Thompson.

10.40 ABOUT A BOUT. With Peter Schofield, Hilary Mason, Ray Mort. 11.10 NEWS. Weather. 11.40 REAL

TIME.

REGIONAL TV

NeWS 30 London. London Film.

News. London, 4.25 Rainbow "Texas', 4.10 Cartoon. 4.55 - Osmonds. 5.20 Doris Lucy. 6.35 Crossroads. 'Belles on Their Toes'. 8.30 London.

10.30 Towards the year 2000. 11.02 Place in the country. 11.35 European journey. 12.00 News, weather.

WESTWARD.

As Channel except: 12.00 London. 12.37 Gus Honeybun.

12.58 News. 1.00 Lon- 12.40 London. don. 6.00 Diary. 10.30 Report. 10.59 News. 12.00 Epilogue. SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 2.00 News.

12.05 London. 2.30 Women London. Cartoon. 5.50 London. 6.00 Day by day.

charge. Forgotten Man'. 8.30 London. Guideline. Name of the game. 12.40 Weather.

HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Women only. 3.00 London 5.50 London.

5.20 Chuckleheads. Crossroads. 6.01 Report West. .6.18 Report Wales. 6.35 Sky's the limit. 7.05 Film: The Night Holds Terror'. 8.30 London. 10.30 See it while can. 11.00 Journey to you the unknown. 12.00 Weather.

HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: mawr. 4.35 Cantamil. 4.25 Miri 4.50- 5.20 6.01-6.18 Rainbow country. Y dydd. West as above except: 6.18-6.35

HTV

Sport West. ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London. 12.00 3.00 London. 5.20 Elephant_ boy. 5.50 Crossroads. 7.00 Cartoon. 7.05 Banacek. 8.30 Angling. 11.30 Spyforce. Weather. ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.33 News.

What's it all about. 11.20 Avengers.

YORKSHIRE:

5.20 Doris Houndcats. Weather. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: HOLLOWAY: Thursday May 10, 8 p.m. Co-op, Hall, Seven Sisters Road. "Stalinism and the strug- gle to defend democratic rights'.

KINGSTON: Thursday May 10, 8 p.m, Forward Norbiton Hotel, Clifton Road. from May Day —to remove the Tories.' WILLESDEN: Thursday May 10, Road, p.n NW10. 'Stalinism and the strug- gle to defend democratic rights. Re DARLASTON: Thursday May 10, SL 7 p.m. 'The Nag's Head'. 'Fight Measured-Day Work. -aws and State Peel Hotel, 'Building the revolutionary party.'

EAST LONDON: Monday May 14, 8 p.m. Bromley Public Hall, Bow Road, E3. WANDSWORTH: Monday May 14, 8 p.m. Kings Arms, High Street, SW18. Paul McCartney and his group Wings pre ment in an hour-long Independent progre *Battle Stations'. 8.30 London. 10.30 11.05 European 11.35 Sport. journey. Election special. 12.30 Weather. GRANADA: 9.30 London. 12.00 Songs Tarzan. 5.15 12.05 London. 4.20 Nature's window. 5.20 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. Put it in 7.00 writing. 6.30 Partridge family. Film: 'High Noon', 8.30 London, 11.20 Election special.

TYNE TEES: 9,25

Yours faithfully. 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31 Let's 4.25 Rovers. 4ase Stin3.00 London. 4.50 5.20 troop. London. 6.01 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: don. 10.30 Sport. 11.00 Police call. 11.05 European journey. 11.35 News.

WATFORD: Monday May 14,8 p.m. Watford Trade Union Hall, near Watford Junction Station.

'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.'

TOOTING: Tuesday May 15, 8 Tooting Baths, Tooting p.m. Broadway, SW17. 'Build the Revolutionary Party.' SLOUGH: Wednesday May 16, 8 ham Condunity Cardre, Farn- Road. 'Forward to the Revolutionary Party: SOUTHALL: Wednesday May 16, 8 p.m. Southall Library, Osterley Park Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.

WALTHAMSTOW:

Wednesday May 16, 8 p.m. The Crookec Billet, North Circular Road. 'Force the Tories to resign' Wings present a mixture of entertaln- ent programme starting at 9 p.m.

Ights. 12.35 Lecteash. Nash. 12.20 Greatest Sine 3. London. 25 Land te 2.30 Date- line. 3.00 London. 4.25 giants. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London.

Today. 6.30 7.00 Film: 6.00 Partners. 'Don't Panic, Chaps'. London. 8.30 11.00 Angling. 11.30 Late call. 11.35 Edgar Wallace.

GRAMPIAN:

10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 2.40 Cartoon. 2.55 News.

3.00 London. 5.20 General hospital. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Try for ten.

6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: "The Old Dark House'. 8.30 London. 11.00 Con- ference report. 11.20 Police news. Name 12.35 11.25 of the game. Meditation. WEMBLEY: Wednesday May 16, 8 p.m. Copland School, High Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.

to defend democratic rights.

SWANSEA: Thursday. May 17, 7.30 p.m. YMCA. Defend wor- kers' basic rights. General Strike to Force the Tories to resign.'

BASILDON: Thursday May 17, 8 Community Barnstaple p.m. Centre. 'Stalinism and the strug- democratic gle CROYDON: Thursday May 17, ‹ Ruskin House, coombr p.m. Road, Croydon. 'Forward to the Revolutionary Party! FELTHAM: Thursday May 17, 8 .m. Three Horse Shoes' Felt nam High Street. 'Stalinism anc the struggle to defend demo- cratic rights'

Germany's union LEADERS of the 2 million chiefs stron west workers' union metal Germany have launched an unprecedented attack on militants within its ranks. launch A leading committee of IG Metall, has declared that of membership organizations which of the are part SO- called 'Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition'

(RGO)

is witch- member- Combau Die ship of the union. Ihs 1s the nrst time in the history ot organizations alałe@ to th wokin chas organi zatons, working-class hunt ui sallualluns same nave deen oaceo on footing as the neo-Nazi

NPD

party. The union committee says: activities of "ne aImS and .the extreme left wing on left called the [illegal German Party], COrands l Me NDYU [Maoist],

KPD/AO,

worker-basis League, groups, the Communist the Communist Workers LCakuC. Workers' Press, ane communist and the so-called trade union opposition, ai c interests ardinsı une or races unionism. 'These been groups have de- clared hostile orsarilzalluns groups wendersue oI nese incompatible with membership the Metal Workers Union. Wor- "Members ot Metal Union who take part Kers' anti-trade union activities, who support them, are alLil our apalost une Interests expect to be ana Liuse expelled. This decision preceded by was à similar move by the rrint and leader Loderer Paper Workers' Union. linked rulings closely with Brandt's 'social-liberal' coalition aic •Measures 101 Secu- untera government. rity' introduced by Willy The Ministry of the Interior

BRIEFLY • BRIEFLY

CROSS-CHANNEL

links were agreed yesterday by British, dele- French Belgian police THE TORY government's pro- at a two-day sales concrcc dl posal for abolition of trial by castoourne. comererce state. ment declared: • Although each jury for certain offences represented was in country mem- ber of Interpol, Ulster has been passed in a ana interpol representatives were present, Commons Standing Committee e o conside ad thor much could done by —with the help of the Labour a personal exchange forces normaton oe Loose Opposition. separated by a narrow strip of water' MPs on the Northern Ireland

ATHENS

police have arrested (Emergency Provisions) Bill uc- casting seven univers v suders aeged Teare• -out oniv …on the have taken part in recent vote of the chairman- -an Oppo- Together with an arrested sition dispense amendment vc la se cl wels. lucy wiln unes onveren mre een- special dant agreed. WI oe Tried perore court martial, according Party opposition The Labour by statement the underground could have won vote .out- ine 'Leonidas' student had 1icill

HOL

ocen 101 Inc Hive ot the si denis are said to whip, lact that neir Mr Ton have demonstrated for (Labour, Concannon Mansfield) freedom an.t the abolition abstained because ot an agree- legis ation which threatened them nen Wila conser valve.

JV T

with conscription. Charles Fletcher-Cooke (Darwen) DR RAINER BARZEL yesterday who was unable to attend the announced his resignation meeting. Christ- of the right-wing the Parliamentary Icauer The actual voting was 12-12.

ian Democratic Attorney-General Sir group. Bulk of party voted гетет Rawlinson justified the ending of against West Germany's. Luil- trials basis jury unuea membership of the United he Nations following the admission expected lurv verdicts which UN me bership a Bd hel East Germany. Barzel favours said 'have increased with the growth of Loyalist violence'.

saw the vote He auoted four cases of Loval- as personal deea. cHe has been under strong attack for ists charged with serious offences failing. which had had lead last Rovembers surprising ver- to dicts'. come-Dack national elections. This inference that Protestant All Trades Unions Alliance

DOCKERS' MEETING

LIVERPOOL

No supplementary registers.

Defend the dock labour scheme!

Force the Tories to resign!

A Labour government must nationalize the docks and transport industries under workers' control SUNDAY MAY 13, 7.30 p.m. Mona Hotel James Street (near tube station) Workers Press, Thi The Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition puts membership its but out own magazine, of any affillated expulsion from organization the means 'official' trade union movement. gave the trade unions the Con-

DGB

edict bans the Communist Party stitutional Defence Report about under it original name the activities of left-wing groups

(KPD).

By agreement with the two years Then the trade social-democratic ago. government union leaders began take the legal ban on the Communist to Party was lifted some years ago, measures against the members of these organizations. but the party was forced to drop its original name and reform as The 'legal' German Communist the

DKP.

Party (DKP) has completely sup- The

DGB

sent circulars to ported the right-wing. politics of its district committees declaring the trade leadership. It the participation of political ten- was the first to demand such ex- dencies apart from the social- pulsions and has in the trade democratic leadership to be 'un- provided has unions the desirable'. ideological cover for such bans Saxony, the

DGB

In Lower and proscriptions. dissolved two youth commissions The DKP Stalinists put for- and there follow. more to ward resolutions at trade union Instead of organizing their own congresses demanding the expul- trade

DGB

union stewards, the sion of Trotskyists and Maoists asth it police Day from the unions. tection for their May It is worth noting that the marches. jurymen 'are not prepared to do • ALL POLICE leave has been their duty' was he reason for cancelled for the week of local Mr Ian Paisley's vote against the elections in Northern Ireland at government in the Committee. the end of the month. A spokes- Said Paisley: "The Attorney- said man yesterday that with General's speech constitutes rallies and meetings, almost 600 slander on the Protestant section Doll cou stations to be manned, and of the community and he has counting centres be pro- that the gone on record tected, the force's 4,300 men and Icason we must do away with jurymen women would be working at full Northern in Ireland is that Pro- Training stretch. be sus- testant members of juries are not Considerable use will be pended. prepared do their to duty- -that made of the ? 00-streng Royal is a very serious indictment.'

Ulster Constabulary reserve.

THE

ATTACK on Professor student union meeting condemn- Hans Eysenck at the London ing the incident and will put a School of Economics on Tuesday censure motion against some has sparked off another major LSE members of the Afro-Asian witch-hunt against students. Tory Society who, they claim, helped MP, Mr John Stokes, yesterday in the attack. called for of students a group to be punished and sent down it was proved they were

PAKISTAN

leader president responsible. The National Union Zulfigar Ali Bhutto begins a state of Students accused Stokes of where he will visit to Iran today 'grasping headline' an easy by be welcomed by the Shah. Dis- attacking students. are expected to range cussions over Soviet influence the Some LSE students will put area and Pak-Iranian relations down a motion at tonight's generally.

CASTLEFORD:

Thursday 10,8 p.m. Red Lion Hotel, May 17, 8 p.m. Sagar St Worsborough, ne ar Rooms. Barnsley. (Please note Speaker: G. Healy (National change of venue.) Secretary SLL). Speaker: Cliff Slauahter BARNSLEY: Thursday May (SLL Central Committee). Press, Thursday May 10, 1973 PAGE 11

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE LECTURES

Given by Gerry Healy, National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League Wednesday May 16 Dialectical Materialism— a Marxist theory of knowledge Wednesday May 23 Theory and Practice of Marxism Wednesday May 30 Role of the revolutionary party at St David's Church Hall, Church Street, Merthyr 7.30 p.m. Jarrow Given by Cliff Slaughter SLL Central Committee member Civic Hall, Jarrow 7.30 p.m. Mondays May 14 and 21 The Socialist Revolution in Britain: 2. The roots of capitalist crisis: Marxism and the contradictions of capitalism. Britain and the world crisis. 3. The state and revolution. Reformism and in revolution Britain. The fight for democratic rights today means preparing for working-class power. Basic reading: Perspectives for transforming the SLL into a revolutionary party.

Marxist Analysis of the Crisis. Problems of the British Revolu- tion (Trotsky). Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth Inter- national, Communist Manifesto.

All Trades Unions Alliance meetings

TEACHERS' MEETING

The way forward after the NUT conference Thursday, May 24, 7.30 p.m.

Conway Small Hall. Red Lion Square, Holborn (admission 10p)

HOSPITAL WORKERS'

MEETING

Hospital workers and the fight against the Tory government Tuesday May 29, 7.30 p.m.

Norfolk Room Caxton Hall, Caxton Street, London SW1 (admission 10p)

BUILDING WORKERS'

MEETING

TUC must break off talks with Tories! Build revolutionary party!

Wednesday, May 30, 7.30 p.m. Tudor Room Caxton Hall. Caxton Street, London SW1 (admission 10p)

POSTAL WORKERS'

MEETING

Break off secret talks with the Tories! Force the Tories to resign!

Sunday, June 3, 10.30 a.m.

Conway Small Hail, Red Lion Square, Holborn (admission 10p) Registered as & newspaper. at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, sW4 7UG. Printed 01-622 7029. ".. * to =

Israeli troops threat to PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday Ma

BY JOHN SPENCER

ISRAELI Defence Mini- ster Moshe Dayan yes- terday threatened to send troops into the Lebanon if the Syrian army should cross the border to protect Pales- tinian commandos. He said that Israel had no intention of acting as police- man in an inter-Arab quarrel so long as its own security was not endangered. This is blatant hypocrisy on Dayan's part.

FLEET MOVES

His statement came only hours after President Nixon had placed the US Mediterranean fleet on a war footing in a gesture aimed at terrorizing the commandos and bolstering the Lebanese mili- cary chiefs. Israel has appointed itself the gendarme of the entire area with the backing of the main im- perialist powers. It was Israeli action-last month's commando ABOUT 300 delegates walked out of the Civil and Public Services Association conference at Margate yesterday morning over a decision which could mean withholding pension and Social Security increases due from October '1. The walk-out—led by members of the union's post and tele- communications (P and T) group -occurred after CPSA president Len Lever refused calls for a to overturn the previous vote decision. P and T group secretary Alistair Graham sent a telegram to Victor Feather, TUC general secretary, urging him to call ofi his visit to the conference planned for today. Members of the group then picketed the rest of the morning session of the conference, return- ing to their seats in the after- noon. Monday's decision on the October 1 increases was taken to press the CPSA's own claim for a rise over and above the £2.15-£4, Phase Two award just approved by the Civil Service Department. The P and T group was absent at its own section • decision conference when this was taken. It was heavily attacked in the Tory Press, and when P and T came into the main delegates conference yesterday morning three branches tried to table motions demanding a reversal of the decision. separate conference, At its which represents some 30,000 of the union's 207,000 members, the P and T group had itself decided on a breakaway move from the

CPSA.

An emergency motion—origin- ally ruled out of order but later reinstated on the agenda-called for an approach to the Post Office Engineering Union to see if it would absorb the group. Some delegates suspected the leadership's enthusiastic group participation in yesterday's walk- out might have been connected with this move. The walk-out was also backed by members of the 'Redder Tape' group, which includes supporters Communist Party and of the International Socialists.

ursday May 10, 1973 murder raid in the centre of Beirut-which provoked the out- break of fighting in Lebanon.

The purpose of the Israeli raid was to spell out to Lebanon's conservative government: that it must act against the guerrillas in line with the repeated demands of the Zionists. In this aim the Israeli regime successful: within three was weeks of the Beirut attacks the had Lebanese moved army Palestinians demanding against the abolition of the 1969 Cairo agreement which awarded con- trol of the refugee camps to the Palestinian organizations.

Since then hundreds have lost their lives as Lebanese planes and artillery (supplied partly by the USSR and Yugoslavia as well as by Britain and the United States) have bombarded the camps. The massacre has created poli- tical convulsions in Beirut, where the prime minister has been forced to resign and the army has moved in to take control under cover of state of siege regulations. It is the army, dominated by BUILDING workers In the Manchester area have laun- ched a special campaign against lump labour in pre- paration for their mass lobby of parliament next week. Yesterday their flying picket hit the Salford site of M. W.

Faulkner's. UCATT area • official John COAL BOARD officials in the north-west yesterday recom- mended closure of a north Wales colliery, employing 1,100 miners, meeting with union off- after a cials in Walkden, Lancashire.

The recommendation came on the eve of a key meeting of the National Union of Mineworkers' executive, which faces a call from north Yorkshire for a coal- field strike over closures.

It is strengthen certain to feeling in support of the ballot move. The north Wales pit in ques- tion is Gresford colliery, near Wrexham. According to Peter Tregelles, north-west area director of the NCB, financial results at the pit have been badly hit. Geological faults have resulted in faces being stopped early, either during the development the reactionary officer corps and politically, servile towards Zion- ism, that is pushing most strongly for a repetition in the Lebanon of the Jordanian massacres of 1970. Egypt has expressed strong support for the commandos and warned of the serious conse- quences that could result from the fighting in Lebanon. The Egyptian minister Ahmed war Ismail has returned to Cairo after a flying visit to Syria.

ANNIHILATION

The mass-circulation Cairo newspaper 'Al Akhbar' appeared yesterday under the banner head- line war of annihilation against the commandos'. It said 'there was no justification for the Lebanese army to carry out this bloody massacre' But rhetoric and threats apart, the commandos are again being left to stand alone against the combination of Lebanese tanks and artillery and the threat of Israeli intervention. This is the US plan for a Mid- • im

INION DE 2

ALLO TRADES HEA

THE

Brougham (left) alleged yesterday: 'This fIrm Is work- ing outside national building have seen agreements. men arriving at 8.25 and others at 9.25. "The lump holds back social development in the industry.

It undermines conditions and the union. But we are slowly winning the battle In this area.'

John Bloom, another UCATT stage or shortly after coming into production. He conceded that the miners had co-operated fully in seek- ing a way out of the difficult mining conditions. a month to The NUM has appeal to the Coal Board against and area secretary Josiah union was bound to oppose the decision. "The jobs of 1,100 men are at stake there', he said. "This will be a big blow locally and parti- in Wrexham if the cularly closure comes about.' Gresford colliery was de- veloped in 1912 and was the scene of a major disaster in 1934 when 265 men died.

MAY FUND

TOO SLOW

WE ARE now at the tenth day of the month and so far it Is May still much too slow for our Fund. not step the up fight today it will soon be too of late to complete our target £1,750. dear readers, fil do therything confident that are dle East 'peace' being put into effect. possibe to change the position.

The imperialists know there Never before has the political settlement their can on be no situation been so favourable for terms in the area until the Pales- Workers Press. Our alone paper fighters are systematically tinian has maintained a firm stand wiped off the face of the earth. Phase Two the against and blood-thirsty reality This is the Tories' corporatist measures. of the present situation.

Only Workers Press has ex- The counter-revolutionary mas- posed the behind-the-scenes sacre in the Lebanon is a direct deals between this trade union of the policy pur- consequence leadership and the Torles.

sued by the Arab bourgeois the struggle Now as breaks rulers and by the Stalinists who out against the introduction of uncritically support them.

Phase Three, workers every- These people have traded the where will be looking to our inalienable national rights of the paper for a lead. Let's not waste Palestinian in this fight. Go Into people for the pros- time the Zionists action today and help us change pect that might deign to recognize the Raise everything them as sub- situation. servient clients. can and let's complete our you time. The bourgeois leaders plot Fund this month in good Post behind the scenes with the im- all donations to: the infamous perialists to bring Workers Press Rogers plan to fruition. May Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street The Stalinists spread the illu- London, SW4 7UG sion that 'peace' can be achieved in the Middle East on the basis of United Nations resolutions.

Between them they are com- bining to strangle the revolution in the Middle East and strength- of en all the reactionary plans imperialism and the Zionists. A

NEW

fiare-up among waterways workers in the port of London can be expected if Cory Lighterage decides to put a non-unionist back pay. The firm's legal advisers are this urging to take course the of following the refusal London Dock Labour Board to sacking of the man, allow the Andrew Shute. Following the board's deci- sion the firm went to the Appeal Court to re-argue its case for injunction stopping a strike an being called on the issue.

But three judges appeal ruled Tuesday that there on grounds for reversing were Hieh Court decision not to the grant an injunction against Workers' Transport and General Union. Cory will probably now re- commence paying Shute, who up had been to three weeks ago suspended on full pay since last The firm expected autumn. to give him three weeks' back pay. T&GWU lightermen would be incensed by such a move. A confrontation on this issue would throw into the centre of firm official (right) said: "This of the stage the whole issue Is high on our list and we have 1947 under the registration already reported It to the town Labour Scheme, Dock which is clerk. Shute what prevents being A special train will be leav- sacked. Piccadilly ing Manchester It is thought that legal circles station at 8.45 a week tomor. when Young Socialists Students Society Supplementary cash grants now!

Fight rising prices! Defend the right to higher educatior orward to the revolutionary part SATURDAY MAY 12, 2 p.m.-10 p.m.

Lecture Theatre A, ground floor Mechanical Engineering Department

IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON