Demand for eight-hour day MINERS STRIKE

EDITORIAL in As the 'Nouvel-Observateur' of October 6 puts it: 'We know now that, , these longer decided on France days, French is no we must wait and see what will happen between Bonn and Washington. If it hap pens that the franc conDelmas may be sunk wilin tinues fall, unless the Germans Hoat a humanatide teste operation.

Meanwhile the prestige of the Pompidou government continues Rifts beginning to appear in the All the weaknesses oth decadent French bourgeoisie are coming to the fore again.

Will mentary forms discarded tay way Gaulle - which means bringing the Socialist and Communist Parties more openly into the game-or EIGHTY THOUSAND Yorkshire miners are on strike over surface men's hours demanding eight-hour day, instead of the hours worked up to now.

The strike decision was taken by 100 delegates the Yorkshire area council of the National Union Mineworkers held at Barnsley on Saturday.

Two hundred skilled underground workers lobbied this meeting. The lobbyists came from 12 south Yorkshire pits already on strike over the market men's pay dispute which began at Cadeby Main colliery.

Many faceworkers were convinced that the area executive had hoped to divert attention from the Cadeby issue by threatening action on the question of surface men's No doubt the executive hoped the National Coal Board would come sion to surface men.

When nothing was forthcoming they were forced to carry their threats into action because of the militancy aroused over the Cadeby strike.

Advert

The NCB's contemptuous rejection of the surface men's claim goes hand in hand with an advertisement placed in the local press by Mr C. Machin, the Board's south Yorkshire area director.

Machine alleged that market men's pay averaged £5 Os. 2d. a shift and then said that their 'understandable impatience' was being 'fermented by deliberate agitation'.

He did not explain why their impatience was 'understandable' if they were getting over £5 a shift !

In fact, Cadeby miners showed wage slips for 7ls. a shift.

The Board's stubborn resistance on both these issues will be matched by the unity and determination of face-workers, day-wage workers and surface workers.

Disassociate Yet, according to the 'Yorkshire Evening Post' of October NUM president, disassociated himself from the strike resolution.

Many miners, of course, feel that the strike should be in the hands of men who support it.

This is the most crucial test yet for left-talking Lawrence Daly, NUM general secretary.

For this issue does not only affects Yorkshire, but every other coalfield throughout the country.

Will the NUM national executive instruct the Yorkshire men to return work, or will it back the T.U.C. chief's attack encol TUC GENERAL SECRETARY Victor Feather's attack last week on Merseyside workers has encouraged car manufacturers to look to the TUC for help in defeating the current strikes in the industry.

The call for government and TUC intervention was put this way by a Standard-Triumph company spokesman quoted in Friday's "Financial Times' : JACK GALE an ULSTER HUNT REPORT STRENGTHENS REACTION INTENSIFICATION of British military rule, tighter Westminster police control and re-organization of Bspecial elements under another name-these are the changes that lie behind the much-vaunted Hunt Report on the Ulster police force.

Far from implementing reform, Lord Hunt's committee, established by Labour Home Secretary James Callaghan, in fact recommends a tightening of 'security' controls on the Irish working class.

The military are to take and the state as inst armed attack'-thus taking over many of the tasks of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The RUC itself is to be limited to gathering intelligence, protecting important people and enforcing laws'.

'In principle and in normal practice' (whatever this may mean) the constabulary will no longer carry arms.

Hand over

No sooner had these changes been announced than Mr. Anthony, Peacocke, inspector-general of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, stepped down and was replaced by City of London police commissioner Sir Arthur Young.

The City is certainly putting all the reins of state power into trusted hands.

In place of the hated B-specials is to be a new 4,000strong 'Special Patrol Group' and a police volunteer reserve.

Not that the B-specials face unemployment. is to be The new force locally recruited and parttimejust like the old 'Specials.

The core of the new force will be composed of longstanding B-specials who will be joined short-service members 'whose services should be continued until their existing contracts expire'.

The new part-time force is to be raised as soon as pos•We are disappointed after a number of attempts to find a solution at the lack of nositive action by the DI TUC especially in view . arlI Vic Feather's statement that Merseyside is getting an unwelcome reputation for unnecessary stoppages.' The employers know their friends are !

And especially By our Belfast correspondent sible and is to come under the control of the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland, Sir lan Freeland.

So all the strings of state are drawn into the hands of the British Army.

The old B-special thugs now take their orders from Wilson.

The Hunt Report will no doubt be interpreted by the 'state capitalist revisionists and the Stalinists as a liberalizing move.

Since these people favour the presence of British troops, they can scarcely complain when Sir Ian Freeland takes over the B-specials as well.

These revisionists with their 'reform' programmes have all along served to lull the Irish workers with illusions.

The Socialist Labour League on the other hand has warned again and again that imperialist repression is on the way in Ulster.

No liberalization This is the real content of the Hunt Report.

There is to be no 'liberalization' in the Six Counties.

Instead, the 'restoration of law and order' under the mailed fist of Westminster's army with the aid of the old Ulster thugs will proceed in the usual imperialist manner.

FRONT' IN ACTION OUR READERS will not be surprised to learn that the enemies of the Workers' Press are on the job as usual. osSes TUC's June 18 pledge to Wilson to intervene against Car workers, now facing a line-up of TUC, the Labour government's DEP and the employers; must unite behind a programme to meet this attack.

They should therefore fight for the biggest possible delegations to the All Trades Unions Alliance motor workers' conference on November Socialist Swindon THE BROAD appear.

SWINDON BY ELECTON FRANK WILLIS YOUNE SOC ALISTS CANDIOATE CENTRAI CEMMI TICE RONMS T: "||ES OÄILY PAPIH ME! Two weeks to WILLIS, Young candidate in the by-election, is seen above (centre), outside his central committee rooms with a group of supporters.

The election writ was expected last night and the date is almost certain to be October 30.

The by-election follows the resignation of rightwing Labour MP Francis Noel-Baker, a supporter of the Greek colonels' regime.

The YS candidate is opposed by candidates from the Labour, Tory, Liberal and Communist Parties.

Reports from Swindon indicate interest from workers for the Young Socialist policies on which Willis is campaigning.

The Young Socialists have campaigned consistently in Swindon since deciding to contest the by-election, but the two weeks before the election are Canvassers and other election workers will be ATUA MEETING COVENER Wednsday, October 7.30 p.m.

Coventry Cross (The Burgess)

True enough, they have received a set-back since most of them predicted that our paper wouldn't last more than a week.

Indeed, there state capitalist Grifp ofternational Socialism', who some Leeds univer donate £500 to our fund the day the first came out, he was so confident that it would not Needless to say he now maintains a discreet silence.

The stable companion of Cliff's group Is, of course "Tribune', which in its October 10 issue describes a Mr John Swindon by-election velcomed at the central ommittee rooms, 5a Milon Road, Swindon, phone inenn At the 1966 general elecion, the result was:

F. Noel-Baker (Lab.) 25,966 N. G. Reece 15,523 I. Gradwell (CP)

British-Leyland withdraws its plans, will be put to the con. erence.

Pressed-Steel Fisher's Coventry and Birmingham plants are threatened with closurethe Coventry plant, which employs about 1,200 workers, by April 1970.

Other factories, like Albion Motors, are threatened with big cutbacks in production.

Guard moves to suppress Chicago riot AFTER a night's respite, fighting broke out again on the streets Chicago between police and the 'Weathermen', an ultra-left splinter group from the 'Students for a Democratic Society'.

The demonstrations began in connection with the second anniversary of Che Guevara's death at the hands of the Bolivian army.

As the demonstrations grew in size, 2,500 National Guardsmen moved into Chicago to assist the police, who suffered more casualties than the students.

There have so far been more than 90 arrests. On as he most lucid speakeron as down at Brighton'.

Different tone

Naturally, "Tribune' editor, Mr Clements, employs a different tone when it comes to commenting on i the demonstration organized by the Socialist Labour League to celebrate the occasion of the first issue of the Workers' Press.

'On the Sunday immediately before the conference,' he writes, 'Socialist Labour League demonstratorsthere seemed to me to be only 500 or so, but somebody told me 5,000 -showed their faith'.

We trust that Clements does not have the same difficulty totting up the sales of 'Tribune' as he does have with our demonstration.

But cheer up, there is a way out of the difficulty.

A 22-minute 16 mm film is about to be released which will enable 'Tribune' to view the demonstration and rally afterwards at the West Pier.

The number was neither 5,000 nor 500 but 1,500.

will they be forced into another form of authoritarian government ?

This time no saviour, like de Gaulle, is waiting in the wings.

The aura of discredit surrounds the ministers of the Fifth Republic and the President himself.

Working-class strength re nains the basic tactor 1r the situation.

Its readiness to fight has already been demonstrated, but the struggles of 19691970 are still only in the opening stages.

The fate of French capitalism may well be decided when they begin. even the £71 million budget surplus will do little to save the franc for very much longer.

Perhaps most ominous of all are the latest US unemployment figures. They show that September's figure of 3.2 millions was the highest rate since October 1967.

Jump

During September the jobless total rose :365,000—the biggest monthly jump in a decade.

These figures underline the fear-expressed by Professor Milton Friedman and others -that Nixon's anti-inflationary measures may have overshot the mark, producing a serious danger of recession during the coming winter.

Even a slight American recession would enormously heighten the crisis now facing European capitalism.

Turin on the side of the employers, there is now a big danger of the working class being left leaderless in the face of a right-wing offensive or even a military coup.

Big employers such as Fiat and Pirelli are clearly searching for firmer action against the working class than the present government is capable of.

The sit-in strike is a powerful weapon against any counter-attacks by the employers.

the whole history of the Italian, and international workers' movement has shown that occupation is not enough without a strategy for political power.