Students heckle Barbara Castle

BARBARA CASTLE, Minister of Employment and Productivity, had a 'hot' reception from a large audience of students and staff at Lancaster university on Friday.

Hecklers interrupted her when she praised the government's record on housing and Mrs. Castle's remark that the government 'had to have priorities' was greeted with shouts that her priorities were the bankers.

She was also heckled about the incomes policy.

On the question of anti-union legislation she claimed that the government-TUC deated the Dancepress success and editorial praising Victor Feather's intervention in the Fleet Street dispute to prove her point.

Regime

An African student asked:

'Why does the Labour government allow the use of British weapons against Biafra whilst at the same time it is against these weapons being used against the Smith regime?' Mrs Castle did not answer the question. She simply made a remark to the effect that she presumed the questioner was a Biafran and therefore biased. This brought protests from the audience.

Asked why the government had not introduced any socialist policies, Mrs Castle said that questioner should 'define his terms' and that she did not know of any satisfactory definition of socialism.

Mrs Castle was the guest of the university Labour Club.

A leaflet, distributed at the meeting by the newly formed Socialist Society headed 'Socialists-Oppose the Incomes Policy!, attacked the government's incomes policy and its support for productivity deals 'which aim at increased exploitation'.

It declared that trade unions must be independent of the state and controlled by their members and called on students to oppose the Labour government's policies, support the struggles of the working class, and to attend the inaugural meeting of the Socialist Society on the following Tuesday.