"Casuals' on Mersey docks by June

Port employers have now drawn up firm estimates of the number of men they will need to make up the crippling labour shortage which followed the Jones-Aldington special severance scheme.

These estimates are expected to be put to the local branch of the National Dock Labour Board on June 12, and, if approved, to a meeting of the NDLB itself two days later. Approval is needed from both bodies before actual recruitment can begin.

In practice, the expected june 14 decision is a toregone conclusion.

Tory Ministers are the most ardent backers of the supplementary register, the employers are desperate for extra labour and, last Sunday, opposition from the unions caved in when the Liverpool port stewards' committee declared dockers in favour of acceptance. Brezhner takes detente another step UNPRECEDENTED security precautions were taken in Bonn yesterday for the arrival of Soviet Communist Party Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, for talks with West German Chancellor, Willy Brandt.

He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Foreign Trade Minister Nikolai Patolichev.

On arrival in Bonn, Brezhnev inspected the German honour guard, paused and bowed his head before the German flag and stood to attention for the singing of 'Deutschland Uber Alles' and the Soviet anthem. Before entering his limousine he beckoned an aide to pass him a cigarette.

The visit carries to a decisive stage the policy of detente between German capitalism and the bureaucracy which has been taking shape in the past three years. It follows closely on the ratification by the Bundestag of the treaty normalizing_relations between West and East Germany.

The Brezhnev visit is clearly of great historic and symbolical importance. The question now is to talk business: to get down to arranging the big deals which both sides hope 10 get out of the detente in Soviet-German reALL TRADES UNIONS ALLIANCE ACTON: Monday May 21, 8 p.m. 'Six Bells', , High Street, W3. 'Force the TUC to break off talks with the Tories'.

LEWISHAM: Monday May 21, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club, New Cross Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights'.

ABINGDON: Tuesday May 22, 8 p.m. Above New Top Taxis, Ock Street. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.' BATTERSEA: Tuesday May 22, 8 p.m. 'Nags Head', cnr Wandsworth Road/North Street. 'The economic crisis and the rising cost of living'.

BRIXTON: Tuesday May 22, 8 p.m. Brixton Training Centre, Control Room. 'The Economic Crisis and what it means for the working class'.

DAGENHAM: Tuesday May 22, 8 p.m. Barking Co-op Hall, Fanshawe Avenue. 'The inflationary crisis and the rising cost of living'.

TOTTENHAM: Tuesday May 22, 8 р.m. 'Bricklayers Arms', High Road, nr White Hart Lane. READING: Tuesday, May 22, 8 .p.m. The T&GWU offices, King's Road. The TUC and Phase Three.' HACKNEY: Wednesday May 23, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Central Hall, Mare Street. 'Build the HEMEL HEMPSTEAD: Wednesday May 23, 8 p.m. Adeyfield Hall, Queen's Square, Adeyfield. 'The fight against Stalinism' the employers move quickly on the recruitment and training process, the first supplementaries could be working by 8 a.m. on Monday, June 25.

As far as the Tories and employers are concerned . it will be an auspicious moment.

Not only will it help fill the gap in cargo-handling capacity left on Merseyside by the departure of almost 3,000 men under the Jones-Aldington terms, it will provide a level for speed-up and attacks on dockers' hard-won job security.

Unlike permanent registered dockers, supplementaries face the threat of the sack at a week's notice either by their immediate employer or the Dock Labour Board.

One man who will be particularly pleased by developments in Liverpool is Lord Aldington, co-author of the special severance West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Soviet Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev sat down at a horseshoe-shaped table overlooking the river Rhine and the Eiffel mountains for an eight-course lunch.

Their menu printed in Russian and German and bearing a painting 'Boy with fruitbasket' by the 16th century Italian artist Caravaggio was:

Artichoke hearts in dill yoghourt with crabs, Goose liver parfait with pineapple, Whale soup with old armagnac brandy, Turkey with truffle sauce, Spinach and mushrooms, Leg of lamb with celery boulangere potatoes, Cheese board, Vanilla icecream and strawberries, Fruit.

German wines with the meal were a 1971 Riesling, a 1969 Riesling and a 1971 Ahrweiler, a red wine from the wooded Ahr valley, near Bonn. lations.

Brezhnev has cleared out of the Central Committee the main critics his foreign policy orientation. He has now emerged as the dominant figure in the bureaucracy which is staking everything on an expansion of MEETINGS PAISLEY: Wednesday May 23, 7.30 p.m. The Bakers' Rooms, George Place. 'Build Councils of Action'. Wednesday May 23, Portway. WYTHENSHAWE (Manchester): 'Cock o' t' North', Portway. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights.

FULHAM: Thursday 'Fulham Broadway. 'Force • the TUC to break off talks with the Tories' HOLLOWAY: Thursday May 24, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters Road. 'Marxism and the trade unions' LEEDS: Thursday, May 24, 8 p.m. 'Peel Hotel', Boar Lane. 'The role of Stalinism in the trade unions.' LUTON: Thursday May 24, 8 p.m. Recreation Centre, Old Bedford Road. 'Force TUC to break off talks with the Tories' TONBRIDGE: Thursday May 24, 8 p.m. 'The Foresters', , Quarry Hill, Tonbridge.

WILLESDEN: Thursday May 24, 8 p.m. Brent Labour and Trades Hall, Willesden High Road, N.W.10. 'Forward to the ATUA Conference' BERMONDSEY: Tuesday May 29, 8 p.m. 'Havelock Arms', Balaclava Street, off Southwark Park Road. 'Stalinism and the struggle to detend democratic scheme which cut the docks labour force nationally by 9,000 men in six months.

Aldington is putting determined defence of the severance scheme.

Introducing the annual report of the Port of London Authority, of which he is chairman, the ex-deputy chairman of the Tory Party admitted that a shortage had developed in some ports.

But this was not so in London, he said. And he claimed it was in everyone's interest to avoid a repetition of the large surplus which hit the industry in mid-192.

*The cost of this special severance scheme, which was met by government, was high', Aldington went on. 'But the cost in money, as well as morale of continuing the temporarily unattached register, and the large trade and economic relations with the capitalist countries.

It is propelled in this direction by the colossal economic problems of which the most serious so far was the agricultural breakdown last year.

Brezhnev's visits to Brandt and Nixon and the top-level contacts with other capitalist leaders are intended to assure them that there is no intention of spreading revolution and to show that the bureaucracy accepts the existing division of the world.

On this basis, Brezhney hopes to prepare for wide-reaching economic co-operation with the capitalist countries, offering foreign capitalists openings for trade and for the exploitation of the natural resources of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

A durable detente will make it possible to reduce the huge burden of armaments on the Soviet economy and increase the supply of consumer goods in an effort to placate the increasingly restless working class which demands that promises of better living should be fulfilled fast.

Brandt's 'Ostpolitik' represents the urgent need for German capitalism to expand its markets in eastern Europe to avert a crisis of over - production.

German business hopes to carve CAMDEN: Tuesday N lay 29, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Whartedale Road, Kings Cro SS. 'Betrayal at UCSthe against Stalinism'. 8 p.m. 'Prince of Wales. May 29, , Harrow Road, onr Gt Western Road. 'The economic crisis and the trade unions'.

TOOTING: Tuesday May 29, 8 p.m. Tooting Baths, Tooting Broadway, SW17. 'Stalinism and the struggle to defend democratic rights'.

SLOUGH: Wednesday May 30, 8 p.m. Community Centre, Farnham Road. 'The economic crisis and the rising cost of living'. SOUTHALL: Wednesday May 30, 8 p.m. Southall Library, Osterley Park Road. 'Marxism trade unions' WALTHAMSTOW: Wednesday May 30, 8 p.m. 'Crooked Billet', North Circular Road, Walthamstow. 'Labour to power pledged to socialist policies' WEMBLEY: Wednesday May 30, • p.m. _ Copland School, High Road. 'Forward to the ATUA conference'.

FELTHAM: Thursday May 31, 8 p.m. 'Three Horseshoes'. : High Street. 'The economic crisis and the rising cost of living'. WATFORD: Monday Junę 8 p.m. Trade Union Hall, WoodTora Road, nr Wattord Junction Station. 'The crisis of leadership'.

Last Sunday's Liverpool docks mass meeting was said by Jones's Liverpool docks secretary, Lew Lloyd, to have approved recruitment of 500 supplementaries.

The expected breakdown is expected to be: West Coast Stevedoring, 120-180; Liverpool Maritime Terminals, 140; Harrison Line, five; and Unilever, three.

Some or all of the balance of the 500 could be taken up by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, but the official MD&HC line yesterday was that there is no firm commitment for it to do so.

London docks stewards plan to meet next Wednesday to discuss the supplementary register. Already, stewards at Tilbury have declared their opposition to any attempt to introduce supplementaries into the port.

out not only markets, but spheres of influence. The pressures which led to two world wars are once again becoming operative.

West Germany is already the Soviet Union's main trading partner in the capitalist world. Close ties have been established between big German trusts and Soviet industry. A number of big contracts have reached an advanced stage. They include the construction of a pipeline to bring Soviet natural gas from Siberia and the Urals into West Germany.

The Soviet people, taught for years to regard Germany as the main enemy and danger to peace is now being told of Brandt's friendly intentions. The West German government is being identified with the German people to prepare the way for closer ties between Moscow and Bonn.

While the Soviet Press not mention the Watergate scandal, it is full of reports and interviews relating to Brezhnev visit.

The veteran West German Stalinist leader Max Reimann dutifully praised it as an 'historic event'. Press and TV have carried interviews with leading German politicians and businessmen as well as 'rank-and-file citizens'.

ALL TRADES UNIONS ALLIANCE Public Meeting GLASGOW leformism on the Clyde - The Story of UCS.

WEDNESDAY MAY

7.30 p.m.

McLellan Galleries

Sauchiehall Street Glasgow.

Iker: Stephen Jc

All Trades Unions Alliance Meeting Jones-Aldingtr next for docker SOUTHAMPTON Vednesday May 30, 7.30 Conference Room Civic Centre Speaker: M. Banda LL Central Committ NEWSDESK 01-720

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE LECTURES Merthyr Tydfil Given by Gerry Healy, National Secretary ocialist Labour Leagu Wednesday May 23 leory and Practice of Marxism Wednesday May 30 of the revolutionary St David's Church H Church Street, Mert 1yr 7.30 p.m.

Jarrow

Given SLL Central Committee memb Civic Hall, Jarrow 7.30 p.m.

Monday May 21 The Socialist Revolution In Britain: 3. The state and revolution. Reformism and revolution in 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 Revolution (Trotsky).

Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International, Communist Manifesto.

Council of Action

North London must break off talks Tories No negotiations on Phase Three No capitulation to corporatism Make the Tory government resign TUESDAY MAY 22, 8 p.m. Lord Morrison Hall, restnut Grove, Tottenham, N.

All Trades Unions Alliance meetings TEACHERS' MEETING The way forward after the NUT conferenc hursday, May 24, 7.30 p.l Conway Small Hall.

Red Lion Square, Holborn (admission 10p)

HOSPITAL WORKERS' MEETING lospital workers and fight against the Tory government uesday May 29, 7.30 Norfolk Room Caxton Hall, Caxton Street, SW1 (admission 10p)

MEETING TUC must break off talks with Tories!

Build revolutionary party!

Wednesday, May 30, 7.30 p.m.

Tudor Room Caxton Hall.

Caxton Street, SW1 (admission 10p)

POSTAL WORKERS' MEETING Break off secret talks with the Tories! the Tories to resign! Sunday, June 3, 10.30 a.m.

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

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, 7UG. Printed by Plough ham High Street, 2000 Newsdesk: 01-720 01-622 7029.

MAY FUND NOW £723.46 PAGE Saturday May ONLY 13 DAYS LY 13 LEFT