Czech expel

He meant, of course, anti-union laws, measures to strengthen "law and order, the reduction of immigrants to the status of aliens and all the other attacks on the working class planned by the Tory leaders at February's 'council of war' at Selsdon Park.

It was also indicated that the Tories are going to try to play down their anti-unior policies during the run-up to the Election.

They want at all costs to contain the militancy of the working class simply to questions of wages because they at that raising the issue c ttacks on the unions immedi ately will bring a growing reaction against the Tories and a big anti-Tory vote.

Co-operation

In this manoeuvre Tories will undoubtedly have the co-operation Fleet Street.

Out of over 30 questions from the reporters present not one concerned Tory policy towards the unions, which includes legally binding agreements, secret ballots and 60day cooling off periods where strikes are imminent.

Heath regretted the cancellation of the Springboks' tour, arguing that the decision to call it off should have been left solely to the sporting organizations concerned.

His reaffirming of the Tories' intention to change the law on trespass to cover demonstrations—as part of the Tory law-and-order ticket -shows that Heath's love of cricket is far from being the only reason why the Tories wanted the tour to go on.

The Tory manifesto pledges to change the law so that a moots talks FORMER Czech Communist Party secretary Alexander Dubcek is facing expulsion on the recommendation of a specially - constituted Party commission.

Reports coming through Czech CP channels say the recommendation was couched in language that made even the most recent attacks on him appear pale.

The Party's Central Committee is expected to formally endorse the commission's recommendation soon »—a step that: wilt#lmost certainly deprive him of his post as Czech ambassador to Turkey.

Mrs Dubcek, who accomanied her husband when e went to Ankara last December, has already been recalled to Czechoslovakia and is banned from leaving the country.

PRESSURE

Holding close relatives hostage was a device often used by Stalin to. apply moral pressure to his political opponents and potenby the Husak regime underSituation in Czechoslovakia British Labour must demand the right to investigate the charges being made against fellow trade unionists and socialists in Czechoslovakia before new series of Prague 'trials' is set in motion.

ITALIAN CP AVOIDS ISSUE DAVID BARNES COMMENTS: If the French Communist Party has failed to cover over its treachery and hypocrisy on the Czechoslovak question it certainly cannot blame the Italian This most right-wing of the European Stalinist parties maintained a paralysed silence on Garaudy's revelations that the French Party supplied evidence against Dubcek.

During the recent Italian newspaper strike, one of their weekly magazines I Communisti' gave only a studiously 'neutral' account of the However, a rumour circulating in Italian Party since early this year has it that not only did the French 12p.c. claim blacks out Granada T.V. STRIKE action by technicians demanding a 12 per cent pay claim blacked out Granada Television programmes from lunchtime yesterday.

The 300 technicians— members of the Association of Cinematograph and Television Technicians at Granada's Manchester studios — announced their strike plans last week.

Methods of manning for 625-line and colour transmission, they said, should be the basis of a productivity payment which would give IT'S GOING to be a tight finish.

next four days.

London, SW4. Rehearsal for rightwing coup BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT THE CONTINUING political crisis in Cyprus exploded over the weekend with a series of terrorist acts by extreme right-wing groups.

On Saturday, more than 150 armed masked men raided the central police station in Limassol at 1.30 a.m.

The masked gunmen disarmed the 30 policémen present in the station, and after locking them in cells, made off with huge quantities of arms in 30 cars and three police landrovers. • before leaving the police station's telephones and wireless sets were destroyed.

At the same time, another gang of masked men kidnapped ex-section leader of EOKA, Christakis Tryfonidis, and yet another group attempted, unsuccessfully, to arrest Andreas Etthynion, a friend and collaborator Tryfonidis.

Attempt

The raids were followed in the afternoon by an unsuccessful attempt on the life of . Konstantinou, one of a number rrested after the N VietnamChina sign aid deal CHINA and N Vietnam have signed a new military and economic aid agreement in Peking, Hanoi Radio reported yesterday.

Under the agreement, which covers the present year, China will give N Vietnam non-refundable military and economic aid.

DEBATE ON SPRINGBOKS TORY St Albans MP Mr Viotor Goodhew failed in the House of Commons yesterday to get an emergency debate on the cancellation of the S African cricket tour.

Goodhew, who sought a debate on 'the failure of the Home Secretary to protect the right of British subjects to go about their lawful occasions' was jeered by Labour MPs when he claimed Callaghan had 'capitulated to mob rule'.

an overall wage rise of at least 12 per cent.

Technicians due to come on duty at 7 a.m. yesterday did not report for work.

The effect of the strike was to put all programmes from Granada-the NorthWest commercial television company headed by Labour Party millionaire Sir Sidney Bernstein—off the air from 1.45 p.m.

A Granada programme due to be networked nationally at 9 p.m. was also hit. attempt on President Makarios' Leaflets left by the raiders were signed by the 'National Front', an ultra right-wing terrorist organization active in Cyprus.

The raids, coming as they do on the eve of a general election in July, are the last of a series of terrorist activities and assassinations and are generally cortsidered in Cyprus as a dress rehearsal for a right-wing coup.

Following the Greek experience it looks highly probable that an attempt may be made before the election.

Document

It has been officially announced that the police have a document entitled 'Paralysis' which makes clear that the Limassol raid is part of a wider plan of operations.

'Estia', , the Athens paper serving the Greek colonels' junta, openly boasts that if the Cyprus police lay hands on any member of the 'National Front' the organization will launch an armed putsch against Makarios. -Finally thé same paper rejoices at the activity of the National Front, declaring that 'a wind of patriotic fervour has begun to agitate nationalist and unionist [union with Greece] Cypriot people'.

Undoubtedly the rejoicing of 'Estia' reflects the Greek junta's position on Cypriot events.

Imminent

The political crisis now maturing in Cyprus not only poses an imminent end to Makarios' lengthy presidency but also threatens the destruction of even the last few remaining democratic rights of the Cypriot workers and peasants.

For over a decade Makarios has been able to remain as president, appearing as thẻ guarantor of 'national unity'.

He has attempted to bring together and balance between the forces connected with the right wing in Greece and American imperialism, the forces representing British imperialist interests and the working class under the leadership of the Stalinist AKEL.

Parliamentary seats were thus distributed by common agreement betwéen the three forces on the basis of Makarios' support in a coalition named 'Patriotic Front'.

The development, however, of capitalism's world crisis, which takes a sharp form in the eastérn Mediterranean in the attack against the Arab people, has brought the working class and poor peasantry on the scene in a series of sharp struggles.

Unity

The Stalinist AKEL openly condémned every trade union or political mobilization in the name of 'national unity' Under these conditions the internal contradictions of the bourgeois groups reached their highest point, shattering the alliance between the different capitalist sections and between them and Stalinism.

Thus a question mark is placed over Makarios himself, who depended on the alliance.

The rift between the former partners created a situation of chaos and dislocation for the government machine, a classiParty hand over the notes of Dubcek's conversation with Waldeck Rochet before the Soviet invasion, but that, at the request of the Prague regime, they 'corrected' the notes.

Moreover, the rumour goes on, the Italian Party refused to do likewise with the notes on the meeting of General Secrętary Luigi Longo with Dubcek in March 1968.

'Discretion' on the one hand, contradicted by whispers on the other.

Whence the need for this balancing act?

The Italian and French Stalinist leaders are forced to stand shoulder to shoulder in a situation in which the working class all over Europe are shaking up more than two decades of class collaboration. for loans raised against stocks whose value has, on an average, dropped by over 30 per cent since 1966.

Ratio

The ratio between the debt and equity capital of the average American corporation has risen from 20 per cent to nearly 40 per cent over the last decade.

While depression is staring American capitalism in the face, inflation continués unabated, further eroding the dollar's value and still further undermining confidence.

On Monday the Nixon Administration, in income from severe cut corporate taxation, as well as escalating expenditure on the Vietnam and Cambodian war, was forced to ask Congress to allow it to raise its borrowing powers by a huge $18,000.

Intensity

Not only will a rising budget deficit unmatched by increased taxation mean even greater inflationary pressures; the Administration's growing demands for funds will send interest rates rising still more sharply and intensify the recéssionary tendencies.

It is this prospect: of a world-wide financial and. economic slump that both Heath and Wilson are determined to play down in the election. ness such divisions to further its own policies of peaceful co-existence with the capitalist world as a whole.

It pursues the so-called strategy of the 'balance of power.

This is the goal of the Warsaw Pact proposal for 'All European Collective Security'.

Played off

The capitalist classes of W Europe, the Kremlin hopes, can be played off against the US imperialists, the reward being closer trade, economic and political links with - the Soviet Union, and an even more class collaborationist line in the W European labour movements.

A break from Stalinism by W and E European workers is essential if the present crisis is to be resolved in a revolutionary way.

But they are issues which fore all its readers every day throughout the coming election campaign. spreading throughout Wall St, stimulated by the near-downfall of the three billion conglomerate, LTV.

Such firms have, for the have added to their capital by medium- or short-term fixed interest borrowings, rather than by raising equity capital on the stock exchange.

They are now faced with a growing slice of fixed interest payments which cannot be reduced while stock prices collapse.

Meanwhile the banks are demanding increased collateral