Union leaders retreat on shipyard sacking

BOLD AND determined action to prevent union officials, shipyard managements and the goy.

ernment hanging the industry's deepening crisis around the necks of its workers is now urgent.

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders was working normally yesterday despite a previous decision by finishing trade workers to ban overtime in protest against plans to reduce their numbers by more than 2,000—from 4,500 to 2.300—over the next five months.

A call for strike action was rejected at a mass meeting towards the end of last week.

Shop stewards claim that the décision to call off the overtime ban, taken after union-management discussions on Wednesday, will not prevent the men striking if any shipyard worker is sacked.

It nevertheless represents a further dangerous retreat by the yard leaderships.

Wednesday's discussions resulted agreement that men with less than two years in the yards would be asked to leave voluntarily.

Union officials • are now hoping that an upturn orders will reduce the bers who have to go and that natural wastage will take care of the rést.

It is certain, however, that at least 1,000 will have to be paid off in the next few months in addition to those there for less than two years; there has been no let-up • in government pressure for UCS to halve its wage-bill.

UCS's strategy is now clear. dies into hine with their leaders attack on working practices with the threat of massive sackings.

SECOND, win their tacit support for redundancies with what appears to be a partial climb-down on the numbers involved. dously by the action of the unions.' "The history of this industry before Geddes,' McGarvey told readers of 'The Guardian' on April 30, 'was booms and slumps, strikes and lock-outs • • It was with this in mind that the unions decided on a policy of change and • cooperation with management to re-establish the industry, accepting that we may be the cause of the trouble' (Emphasis added.)

Disarm It was in this way that the union leaders set out to disarm their members in the face of what is in fact a reflection of capitalism's international crisis-and not at all the responsibility of shipyard workérs.

Who has benefited from this policy, from the spate of mergers and closures and from massive outpourings of government aid of the last few Certainly not the shipyard The number of jobs lost in shipbuilding and marine engineering since 1964, accordto ngures announced recently, totals 20,000 ... and more are on the way.

The £2.6 million loss announced by Swan Hunter on Wednesday, as all Fleet Street's shipping commentators admitted yesterday, is primarily caused by the company's expected deficit on three fixedprice tanker orders booked during the 1967 buyers' market.

It would be difficult to make a better case for nationalization not only of the entire shipbuilding and ship-repair industry, but of all its shipowning clients.

line banner of the International Red Cross and that high Dublin customs officials had been instructed to allow 'Red Cross' crates through without the usual checks.

Prime Minister Lynch, despite moving the army up to the border last August, has since publicly opposed Two editions (For any two days OR you select)

£1 for three months 24 a year POLISH DEALS WITH FRANCO ARTICLES published in the Spanish workers' movement recently show that the Spanish Communist Party offers no way forward for the working class and in particular the Asturian miners.

The Spanish Stalinists continue the Popular Front policies which murdered the Spanish Revolution by covering up for their allies in E Europe and the Soviet Union and aiming their appeals at the liberal wing of the Spanish bourgeoisie.

Their criticism of the Stalinist bureaucracies' relations with Franco are not made to prepare the Spanish working class for the fight against the fascists, but to show their 'national independence' to the liberals.

That the Spanish Communist Party trained in the theory of socialism in one country is completely counter revolutionary cannot be questioned.

OPEN LETTER

The open letter to the British Communist Party from the Socialist Labour / League published in the Workers Press on Saturday, February 21 stated :

'In the "Morning Star" of February 5, 1970, it was reported without comment that Spanish Communist Party in its paper "Mundo Obrero" (which has to be published clandestinely) had called upon the Polish United Workers' Party (CP) to deny the reports of Polish coal supplies' It has certainly been only the Workers Press, and not the 'Morning Star' or its Spanish counterpart which has constantly exposed the Polish strike breakers.

'Mundo Obrero' on February 6 carried a lead article any form of armed intervention in the North.

Both sides of the split are well aware that the Irish bourgeoisie is unable to unify the country.

But the split is not merely a reflection of a simple Lower stre interests of imperialism, had to oust the pro-interventionist faction of his party — which has a strong petty-boureois base in the country — in order to introduce more right-wing legislation against the working class.

Proposed anti-union legislation already makes provision for limiting negotiating licenses and prohibiting unofficial strikes, while the Criminal Justice Bill provides for the transfer of prisoners from civil to military custody, without a court order if the relevant Minister considers the jails are too full.

The workers in the South have shown complete contempt for his 7 per cent wages ceiling and have shaken the government in a series of militant strike struggles.

Ireland cannot be unified by peacetul means-a tact which Haughey and Blaney are demagogically using.

Lynch fears that' the reopening of the whole question of partition, even in this distorted way, will blow apart his carefully-nurtured structure of collaboration with British imperialism.

The Tories in Ulster express exactly the same Lynch has the support of the extreme right-wing Fine Gael party and the Labour Party leader, Brendan Corish, apparently supports the idea of a national government.

The crisis of working class leadership in Ireland more and more openly emerging to the surface.

The fight against anti-union laws, partition and for the overthrow of British imperialism and the victory of the working class now means the building of the Irish section of the Fourth International. Asturian miners at a pithead give Communist salute headed 'All help … to tne Asturian miners'.

PRAISE

This article praises the determination ot the Asturian miners as a major part of the struggle for freedom in Spain, as a stimulus for the uniting of all progressive forces which are struggling for a bourgeois republic.

We learn that 'a large section of the Asturian clergy' in the official bulletin of the Archbishop of Oviedo (capital of Asturias) read in most churches has declared that the strike was for 'just demands'.

The CP's provincial committee in Asturias issued a 8,000 Asturian miners are again out on strike, demanding improvements in wages and working conditions. Polish productivity experts are currently visiting Spain to advise the Franco regime on increasing the profitability of the Asturian mines.

manifesto saying that the strike was in the interests of the whole population.

No mention of the Polish Stalinist strike-breakers is made in any of these statements. Presumably the prayers of the clergy will call this forth!

TELEGRAMS

This betrayal of the miners by the Stalinist bureaucracy was carried further in the February bulletin of the Workers' Commission of Madrid, which printed telegrams support for the Asturian strikers from the central committee of miners' unions of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Rumania.

In the February publication of the CP's Madrid Committee, Santiago Carrillo, the General Secretary of the Spanish CP, was questioned about its role and relations with the E European bureaucracies.

This interview shows how CONCENTRATION of the W European steel industry is expected to accelerate rapidly over the next five years, according to the Common Market Commission now meeting in Brussels.

In in crisis far the Spanish Stalinists have gone over to the bourgeoisie as the party of national unity and future guarantor of democracy:

'The importance of the CP and one of the reasons for its strength is that it is the best guarantee that democracy won't be an attempt to repeat what happened in the past, that democracy will not only be an improvement on the present regime, but also on the pre-Civil War period.' AMNESTY The CP would overcome the class struggle of the Republic and Civil War since the CP had sons of fighters from both camps in its ranks and called for an amnesty for both sides.

The interviewer then asked Carrillo about an article, probably written by the ›panish under-secretary toI foreign affairs, which appeared in 'ABC', a fascist daily.

This article claimed that the Spanish CP's opposition to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the consequent expulsion of two pro-Soviet members of the Central Committee had led to: permanent tension between the Soviet leaders and the Spanish CP.

This tension, it continued, had allowed Franco to open up commercial offices in Warsaw and would certainly allow Spain to open up diplomatic and economic centres in other E European countries.

'The countries of the East have realized that they must let agate ment with oh panty GENERAL On the question of diplomatic relations, Carrillo offered mild criticism of the Soviet and E European bureaucracies in general terms an steel mergers increase the Consultative Committee of the European Coal and Steel Community, the Commission has stated that the Common Market's 100 steel without referring to the strikebreaking by Poland.

He has to cover this up since the Spanish CP needs the support of these bureaucracies and their distorted links with the Russian Revolution to maintain its hold on the Spanish working class.

'It is known that we have always thought that the socialist countries, even when trading with Spain, should not formalize political, consular nor diplomatic relations until the regime changed. At a certain moment the Russian comrades modified their attitude and established consular relations. We did not agree with this semirecognition of Franco, and we told them so sincerely. At that time we were assured by other socialist countries in Europe that no relations would be established whilst Franco was still in power. Now, suddenly, Poland, Hungary turn back on this agreeMISTAKES' 'We are still against this. And we would have preferred, especially now when Franco reaches his end, that the European socialist countries maintained their attitude towards a regime imposed with the aid of Hitler and Mussolini.' For this Stalinist, strikebreaking and trading with fascist states are unfortunate mistakes, made by otherwise good comrades.

The Spanish CP will be unable for very long to deceive the Spanish working class.

The contempt of the Soviet and E European bureaucracy for the Spanish working class and the bourgeois programme of the Spanish CP are both based on a Stalinist fear of the revolutionary action of the working class and a conscious rejection of real Communist internationalism.

The Commission has all eady approved the recen merger between the W German steel giants August Thyssen-Hutte (itself the La previous merger) and Mannesmann.