Workers Press no. 275

Sackings uproar What we think Toryism and the "peaceful road' THE ULTIMATUM delivered the trade unions alongive From the davs of the Chartist moved to s working class, or at least its interruptedland itual ado the temperialism and militarisn Loped, s multiplied, and the tient di soon sive appar to monstrous pro- From this time on the ques care seace strenurs bour cois staking paratus of the Fabian today La talinists coupl Which is To is auster as that on The road of reformie shorte tochell of a corpor ate sate. against the name lea working Tories smashed.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER

RGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

NORTH-WEST employers moved swiftly yester- day in an attempt to curb the militancy and solidarity growing among Merseyside workers.

The flashpoint was again St Helens where 59 building workers have been fired without notice for marching with the victimized Pilking- ton glassworkers against the anti- trades union laws on Monday's 1,500- strong demonstration in POLICE WERE out in force yesterday in Bristol the town. as more than 1,500 of the city's 5,500 striking The men were employed workers marched the city offices by Rowlingson council to Itafter their day of demon demanding a local settlement of their claim for a £2 15s pay rise tration, workers at the com pa the shader of the Pilking It was later announced London that the on smeet gas Diant emnloved br SIX made S faced employers' side of the Le ens-ver Wester- Regional the Manchester with this note dav morning College of Art — members councils' national negotiat- ince layer mand be. managing of NUPE—will remain fully ing body is to make the clothed on trad Friday pay cam- three unions representing low herewith dismissed paign. their irresponsible Britain's 770,000 local- the from authority workers - vesterday's ambeth General men's meeting (reported Transport and 4): It's no good There then followed a list Workers, the Public Em- the gravediggers being ack of the who work!' ployees and the General emploveer you're bloody dead- shut toe site on Monday to and Municipal Workers- are you?' Pilkington's maren WitH a 'slightly improved' offer.

men and other Merseyside workers. Whatever Pickets vehicles and five swimming the leaders, this baths. union IS un- The other 16 building likelv to satisfy the rank and At the City's Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road, workers on the site have re- workers staged Some 62,000 council em- tused to work and vesterday ployees including tha wnnia lahour force sewage Liverpool Rd were picketing workers Cane oustmen-were the site gates. transport on sire nana vesterd Understandably

BROMILEY.

The BRISTOL strikers have Helens become the been out for the last 12 davs for aige said spokesman UnIor which is st Dustmen, that the strike decIsion gravediggers and school seven day davs ago care- taken takers carried contractor: entment's anti-union char- posters Enrouen Driuate anue Daton 'Where have been called in biEkSA streets reading.

SINGTON

and there's muck there's nrass

LET.

where's ours?' council to move rubbish from The class struggle in the and Stinking sewers- stinking wages!' Portobello Rd town now charnened hy th.

the Tories

LUTON

annlication deputation handed in a Industrial Relations Bill, 10,000-signature workers netition climax returned yesterday the council calling on it to the of their settle locally, unon Lord printher -the G&MWU-so that

LONDON

post- Camden borough was hit by a lightning and his Tory Doned Tunerals Cane 24-hour stoppage of 700 NUPE could take bact In MANCHESTER, Society of A immobilizing 280 to ave- biggers bare decided put camated society harr strike- workers stewara a pool Rd told the Workers for his is so that it will coin- today until tomorrow £1.250 Fund Press vesterday that they cide with a token stoppage by were attemnting to contact and cemetery staff other depostione from citac stands at Liverpool who attended Mondav's march and ask fo their support. by £238 13s 8d •We man- aging director last Thursday strike side COUnCus day intention he on uctober said, 'but there

WE STILL

long the union has caled on toe him that he G&MWU and T&GWU, which towards new the have more than ?0 ll connell was cometo take anyre target of f1.250 •month v are also mamhere hetween them in the brisals We know that van area, tol to back similar action. contacted our have raising £1,000 Special fund br Ministers Reginald unions and tney are trying October 18 to help with the We Maudling and Walker production of the paper six told local-authority at the moment consider our- But the atives selves locked out.' Workers Press now Yesterday at the Rowling centre of thi Stockport headquarters would mas make the production paper

LOODS

deal with possible health Mason refused e samake a days a week comes just Heath reply to hazards right time and government We know with our growing support that this money Can but raised. its going take an effort We still leed raise Over due E1.000 by TINEMPIOMAN l and tha arre scale pit re Notator 11 Don't soaring cost of house-buying delay. Send your donations to: in the Commission for ev problems Workers Press 4,000 Done thove seal Fund, 186a Clappen F report, pub- Towed families from Birmingham Street. to Redditch are unlikely yesterday o Durham. London, SW4. succeed because of the lack of jobs there coupled with 5.9 per cent are unemploye •

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14,

PILKINGtON

WORKERS

SACKED/

PILKI

France and USSR sign deal Soviet

FRANCE

and the Union yesterday signed an agreement on joint political consultations which, Moscow television commented, 'will be continued and raised to a higher political level'. The agreement, signed in the Kremlin between French president Georges Pompidou and Soviet president Nikolai Podgorny, was the outcome of eight days' intensive secret consultations Pom- during pidou's visit. The Moscow-Paris agree- ment follows closely on the agreement with W Germany, signed in the same hall just two months ago. Afterwards, a joint state- and the said France ment USSR both favoured the call- ing of a properly prepared European security conference.

• Further analysis of the agreement tomorrow. Uneasy calm in Reggio

REGGIO

CALABRIA

re- gained an uneasy calm vester- day after a night of bomb explosions which followed an Rome from announcement the government is pre- that pared to reconsider the city's strike demands. Workers in the S Italian remained town solidly on strike, however, despite appeals from the mayor to return to work. Overnight explosions blew up Fiat offices and hit blocks of flats outside the city.

A Communist Party coun- cillor's car was blown up.

Police claim to have found caches of fire bombs in the city. Clearly, the Italian govern- ment wants to buy off the strikers concessions, with while whipping up a witch- hunt atmosphere to prepare to repress the movement. at the

CIVIL SERVANTS

Treasury Ministry and officials of the State Finance Office began a 72-hour strike in Rome against delays in settl- ing regular overtime payments.

Hospital staffs followed their Monday one-day stoppage with an indefinite work-to- rule against staff cuts. New Towns the £3-a-week cost of com- muting to Birmingham. Commission also The • says that only 2} per cent of tenants were interested in buying their houses be- of the high cause present interest rates. The daily paper that leads the fight against the Tory government PRICE 6d.

• WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14, 1970 • NUMBER 275

War plans against USSR Tories join international onslaught on working class

HISTO

BY JOHN SPENCER

THE SOVIET UNION yesterday issued a categorical denial Cuba. In an attempt that it is building a military base in

PILKINGTONS

to placate the United States — which has been making threatening statements about a Soviet arms build-up on the island, the Soviet News Agency Tass yesterday stated:

RANK AND FILE

TAME

*The Soviet Union has not built and is not building a military base in Cuba and is not doing anvthing that would

TOM-

contradict the understanding reached between the governments of the USSR and the United States in 1962:

CATS

and Kennedy's threats

NYERERE

nda Tortich enter after Glassworkers systematic or thales welling, but in the Midle East and Asia a appeal at bour i Bristin naval base. nalist counterparts East Soviet Embassy

DRIVE

cuite ineaningless gestures.

The Tory govern to the S African whi MEMBERS of the Pilking- British emperialise, hostat is upremacists is not simply rank-and-ule commit® acressive apartheid ree

CLYDE

outside the private the Soviet Dousis Home has

RETREAT

Africa ten seas arman we Embassy in London yester- pat mothere To Pe Commonwealth day. still justify the to pre

GUIDED BY

Sovie McGARVEY not a happy one ... favour hon tha

BOILERMAKERS

president Important IcGarvey statement by frigates and aircraft is to Inderialist strong- shipbuilders at Sunday mer Il fácilities et uld stop their 13-day- ossibin onstown meeting to stay our they wo Guerrillas Soviet Indian Ocean flee Tries, ne ready to settle'r Pit Miser catch boy -claim Central Pose for on

PALESTINIAN

LEADERS-

INFLUENCE

That can told leng As nage in no nam lauring Ocean to establish 3, Year: Toryism

PAGE FOUR COL. 9

MEETING

exiley olutio plan announced Hands off the unions!

-IS/ LABOUR LEAC

the Israelis nove into Jerusalen

FORWARD WITH THE

GREET

raeli occupa

WORKERS'

dition thaovernment on

PRESS

THE SIX-DAY

be independent of other Aral

13. TROTSKIS

governments. workers press government's

SUNDAY.

OCTOBER 18

Poplar Civic Hall, Bow Road, E.3 Informed added 7.30 p.m. Adm 2s

SPEAKERS

G. Healy (oLL National secretary ) Caughey (Chairman Pilkington's Rank Rov Battersby The evacuad emote John Simmance (YS National Secretary) Chairman: C. Slaughter (SLL Central Committee member)

PAGE FOUR COL. S

workers press Sackings uproar

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14,

THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE we Toryism and the 'peaceful road' THE the TAT Marl cred ference to , unions nar the ana 1810 rom the days of the Charti

WORKERS

SACRED,

ever the material and spiritual dominion

RANK

A demeries and minces

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

NORTH-WEST employers moved swiftly yester- day in an attempt to curb the militancy and drew solidarity growing among Merseyside workers.

grew to monstrous pro portions. The flashpoint was again st Helens where hit moon in es. have been hired witkers building after itself it the esolved notice for marching with France ine: vicumizea ruking ton glassworkers against + and USSR ant - Trades union laws on Monday's 1,500- power, Fat state sign deal strone aemonstrauon in POLICE WERE out in force yesterday in Bristol the town. as more than 1,500 of the city's 5,500 striking working pass Rowlingson Constructi signed en council workers marched to city: offices, the politica The dal largely che demanding a local settlement of their claim for Stalinists a £2 15s pay rise. no Fabian servility was ater announced higher political capitalist London that

SIX

side of union employers' the councis national necocat ing body is to make the anything Pom- three unions representing Britain's 770,000 local- sesterday's Lamust dust autnority worKers - Int d betrayal because and General Transport Workers. the Public Em back ployees and the General are younor joint and Municipal Workers- a 'slightly improved' offer.

Pickets Utopianter- vy Hatever lne reachon this agree munt tomalysis of the Ho workers staged a similar Uneasy oldwere pickerin and tra sporte use i collectors calm in been oF or one tikes days.

e strike desman said headquarters that it defeat vil ared orted 10,000-sputation handed in in use t, to neil calling ton it to * this arch-Stalinist that onis successful move- member stoppe , Mr Heath £1,250 Fund movement anywhere, at any stands at The n road of deformie shorts. £238 13s 8d the hell of a corpor cut to ession. Bories against the worker. Those Tory soker ment acci dundao large-scale pit re nute to elming on s that only 24 per cer ta which the Plans no, pub nterester 6. percent are Co putand si lees Tories smashed. interest rates. The daily paper that leads the fight against the PRICE 6d.

OCTOBER 14, 1970 • NUMBER 275

BY JOHN SPENCER

THE SOVIET UNION yesterday issued a categorical denial that it is building a military base in Cuba. In an attempt United States - which has been making to placale une threatening statements about a Soviet arms build-up on the island, the Soviet News Agency Tass yesterday stated:

TAME

Soviet Union has not built and "ine is not building a militarv base in Cuba and is not doing anything that would

TOM-

contradict understanding reachea between the governments of the USSR and the United slates in 1yoz.

as igo, refer nder a Cuban pressure years American pressure Moray night one lanzania ondon forego any military build-up there in the futut seems that the Soviet denial will do little Heath he protested to placate the Glassworkers confrontation with the Sovie it of ser appeal at with from recent Like Simonstown naval base. Soviet Embassy

DRIVE

imperialemin les gestures."

The Tory govern to the Se African W arms to African MISMBERS of the Piking- 1 Ivyerere Is so nosul ton's rank-and-file With or a act of solidarity

CLYDE

heardo anyway the Common- private repressive apartheid regime.

Outsic entrance soviet Behind it - Africa, he peelds, can we Embassy in London yester.

RETREAT

Dos a concerted drive e le pleads, part of imperial atmosphere

GUIDED BY

Soviet against The lot of British Brim-cats i: cr Tories, McGARVEY perial not a happy one... illusions on that Important fut Home's main considera clearest present me sovie statement i else an Tories had in thi Stenor at Sunday process. meeting sung the game had the Guerrillas • sunday% ready to Now it is clear that the Suez unlikely to settle' * Hearth By a bese tor, protecting Bitin Prime -claim

INFLUENCE

president C told Tanzanian Union ere political

PAGE FOUR COL. 9

Toryism

MEETING

angered mary Hands off the unions! asraeli occupation ended.

THE SIX-DAY

Inaependent or owner dial workers press Poplar Civic Hall, Bow Road, E.3 Informed General 7.30 p.m. Adm 2s Nixon, Pompidou,

SPSAKERS

G. Healy (SLL National Secretary) i ComiChairman Pikington's Rank and bastard Fates ian sate* nuy bauereby Jonn Simmance (Yo national secretary) the his could be nothing more Chairman: C. Sauchter (suL Central Committee member.

existing tnan

PAGE FOUR COL. 8

PRODUCTIVITY DEALS: ERSSINE

PAGE TWO

IN HIS book on produc- PBR as if it is the world's gift to the working class. tivity deals Tony Cliff of the International Social- It is simply that PBR gives an advantage to the working submits ism to group class under prevailing objective confusion by complete while fixed-rate conditions, introducing 'insecurity' systems give the advantage to the employer. The employers as something exclusive are clear on this if Cliff is not.

to payments - by - results Cliff then goes on to draw systems. his conclusion from it which He reveals his true position.

He then goes on to say: that differentials says lead to a 'fragmented' struggle, 'In addition to this very the lack of an 'overall working- desire for a more reasonable class strategy'. "rational" ordered and earn- ings structure there the 1S that it must follow From traditional socialist opposition that a uniform wage system is to pieceworking. For over a the way towards such an over- century it has been condemned all strategy. This is his policy.

as being the root of in- In other words the employers creased exploitation, bad work- ing conditions and a low level are after a uniform wage struc- of safety at work. ture in order to cut wages exploitation. Cliff and increase 'One S Wales miner wrote wants a uniform wages struc- to me: ture in order to create an overall strategy. "Certain face workers had a wage average of above £22 10s Such a position of course is per week and to some extent absolutely nonsense. they did oppose the abolition In fact industries which have of piecework, but the vote in favour of the agreement. was a uniform wage system are generally poorly organized and solid. It was an acceptance of a principle adopted in the old have no strategy at all. miners' federation of Great Those that have the most Britain 60 years - the ago differentials wage generally of abolition the piecework have the best organization be- system in the interests of health cause their strength is gener- and safety. ated by the differentials "Under piecework many themselves. miner was in such a hurry to living that life was earn Differentials quite a risk. There were those in the far off days as there are We are not saying here that today who consider the wage differentials will bring abolition of piecework today about united action or as necessary in the interests of overall the strategy against working class — remove tne employers any more than fixed distinctions and differ- wage rates. This is a political ques- entials-equality of wages".

tion which we take up later 'And a docker wrote to me on. regarding piecework: Cliff's position is completely divorced from actual "Never again. To anybody that had to deal with hoof and working-class struggle, which place horn, fish meal, chillies or takes with employers cement, the thought of going over surplus value not over back to piecework is simply abstract notions. appalling" The job of Marxists is not to advocate a policy which is Beyond belief directly in line with the re- quirements of the employers, Cliff does, as but to All this is quoted without a leadership in this struggle, take word of explanation. the of Marxism theory into It reads like an employers' the workers' and movement iob evaluation. build the instrument of leader- hand book on ship-the. revolutionary Marx- It is almost beyond belief that this can be said in the same ist party. book in which he attacks One thing which Measured-Day Work (MDW) through the whole book for breaking is down shop-floor Cliff's position on mutuality. organization, re-establishing the He forward puts the pro- power of the foreman, etc.

position that "mutual agree- ment' under the One would almost think that piecework Cliff was advocating com- agreement can simply be trans- a ferred but there to productivity agree- pletely. new system, nothing else ments. He says: advocate,

PBR

since there exists only 'Again and again in the and fixed-rate systems. following of de- programme It is not that we set out mands we will find the ques- tion of "mutuality"-or "the here to uncritically support

JUST OUT

• NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

A TROTSKYIST ANALYSIS

BY ROBERT BLACK

Available from New Park Publications 186A Clapham High St.. SWs.

Price 24s post incl - I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

LEAGUE,

SECRETARY, SOCIALIST

LABOUR

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4.

Name Address

PART T

right to bargain"-coming to the fore. Whether it be mobility of labour, job evaluation, over- time or safety, the demand for "mutuality" strikes a dagger at the heart of a productivity deal. By establishing the right to bargain on these questions we gain a limited degree of workers' control over the pro- ductive process-and this is exactly what productivity deals are aimed at eliminating.

• 2,7 AS MENTIONED in gratula Workers Press last week, 'The Times' celebrated the 50th anniversary of the foun- dation of the Communist Party of Great Britain with a couple of very sympathetic feature articles. Whatever image CP leaders may once have had among 'The Times' readership, the ruling- explains that class mouthpiece nowadays they are nice English democrats. In the days when the Party was being formed as the British section of Lenin's Third Inter- The Times' was less national, friendly. At that time, it refected unbounded the terror of capitalist class at the spread of Bolshevism. January 31, 1921, "The On Times' correspondent's report on the Leeds Fusion Conference was headed 'Orders From Moscow'.

His annoyance at being denied to the Conference even entry showed through his virulent hatred of communism. Later that year, the paper was fighting to stop the negotiations agreement between for a trade Britain and the Soviet Union.

The leader on September 21, headed 'The Government and the Bolshevists', fumed at these con- tacts with 'Lenin's agents'.

* Next day a report appeared: 'Bolshevist Agents at Work. In- citing Unemployed in London.'

This was followed on September 23 with: 'Communist Plotters.

How the Unemployed are Ex- ploited, dealing with the work of the newly-formed CP. The report said, 'Readers' flesh "The Times* has received confirmation the news that crept of the report that the turbulent of the unemployed in minority this country is being deliberately exploited by the Third (Red) International of Moscow (which is practically identical with the Soviet Government), through the agency of a small though very active group of agitators, whose known to the names are now police authorities in London.

The body is well financed and it is understood that the sum of £1,000 has been available for the railway fares and accommodation expenses of the trouble-makers.'

the correspondence which In followed, several letters con-

WORKERS PRESS

'As we earlier, the employers' —we expose the employers'. aim in replacing motives in introducing MDW.

pieceworking with Measured- In fact, MDW with mutuality Day Work is to re-assert is of no value to the boss and "managerial authority" in the he would almost certainly factory. rather methods than this, Piecework have They cannot do this and

THIS IS DANGEROUS

at the same time agree

STUFF!

of mutuality. In the case Measured-Day Work this is The employers are now using particularly important. By the term 'mutuality' (previously raising the demand for the name for the struggle for mutuality - of speeds, work piece rates, where the rate standards, manning scales, etc be put in cannot unless the Cliff the and his employers' book offensive doct Workers Dress.

SEPARAT

THE

Quebec Liberation Front, gratulated Times' "he ex- which has kidnapped two diplo- flow 'Moscow posing' this of in attempt free mats to Gold' into Britain. What particu- 'political prisoners', is an under- larly incensed one 'Times' reader ground салатанс movement was the thought that such money founded in 1963. might have derived from wealth British firms in The FLO (Front de Liberation confiscated from Quebecois) 1917. now represents only component of How different from the atti- one bene bourgeois movement to separate tude of "The Times' today.

There the largely French-speaking prov- can one of two explanations. Quebec from the rest of Either 'The Times' has moved Canada. sharply to the left at some stage in the past half century. Or the Stalinized CP now is recognized as a vital part of the ruling class movement's to tie the trade unions The 'nationalist' strategy fragmented factions agreed at a to the state machine. No are offered for the prizes recent secret meeting in Montreal correct solution. that their strongest common link

LOOKING

"The Times' through He said: 'While opposed to for 1921, my eye fell on an item repressive legislation, think which seemed bang up-to-date. that. before a strike is called. Headed 'Lord Inchcape on Con- the of a trade members union trol of Terrorists', it reported a should decide for themselves by speech to a meeting of Glasgow ballot, conducted secret under businessmen. impartial auspices, what they The noble Lord was convinced wanted to do. (Our emphasis.) that «he control of the labour organizations was Half a century later, the Tory Dassing Into the hands of men who were ex- preparing to put government is perts in térrorism'. Lord Inchcape's anti-union DrO- But he had the answer ready. posal into action. AN ITEM in the latest 'Private National Front was reported to Eye' is worth noting. It reports a have been there. gathering in Brighton last month But the most interesting aspect the League. called by Northern of the 'Private Eve' report is the This organizatton. run from Hol- information that Mr Tohn land, 'exists primarily to interest Ormowe took a prominent part Nazi pròfessional people in and discussions. This gentle- says the Eye' the racist ideology, the chairman of the man is Brighton Monday Club and The Brighton i meeting was leading Brighton Tory. Rally'. 'Pan-Nordic Summer It attended several British was by racialists, but the ex-SS man who speak could was due to Together with other Tories nAmA he argued A big delegation from the with the present. individual operator agrees) in the same way as Cliff-as the name for any agreement at any level between workers and employers. It is used as the 'militant' word to cover up every be- trayal cooked up after weeks of compromise and ending in 'mutual agreement. The IS group supports the introduction of productivity deals on the basis that oppo- sition to them might split sections of workers. •When management comes to workers and offers them a relatively large wage rise as part of a productivity deal, if rank-and-file leaders simply say "no" they run the risk of becoming isolated. They pro- vide the most backward workers with a very dangerous weapon: "We'd have been €5 better off if only those shop stewards had accepted that deal": (p.216.) The fact that many sections of workers have rejected even bigger offers than this where firm leadership has been given is ignored by Cliff. Adapts Again the method is ex- posed. Instead of fighting for leadership, Cliff adapts to backwardness. Following this he says that a fight from within can be taken up on the basis of 'mutual agreement. This again leads straight to a trap. What happens in a factory is this: 1. Workers decide that in order to maintain their standard of living they want more money. 2. The employer says: 'Well maybe, but only in terms of a productivity deal'. 3. The workers say: No, we want a straight rise without strings'. 4. The employer then joins forces with Cliff and says: 'But you have nothing to worry about, just listen to what we have to say, there must be mutual agreement before anything is accepted'.

In reality this is no more than a series of unprincipled • • Press notebook

ARATISM

Front, was a hatred of United States "colonial domination'. The FLQ forced itself to pub- lic notice seven years ago when it tried unsuccessfully to derail a special train carrying former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on April Fools Day in 1963. Since then FLQ members have been convicted for numerous bomb attacks. In 1963 the Front was respon- sible for a wave of bombings, including 15 devices placed in Montreal letter boxes. The latest blast, according to was one at National the Head- quarters in Ottawa, killing a 50- year-old woman. * A policy explanation broadcast on a French-language radio sta- tion in 1963 said: 'Suicide commandos of the FLQ have as their mission to destroy through systematic sabo- tage all the colonial symbols and institutions, the particularly Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the armed forces, all the news media of the colonial English language, which hold us in con- and all business and tempt, industrial establishments which practise discrimination against the people of Quebec.' Though French-speaking work- ers may get the rough end of job discrimination and face many other problems, these will only be solved in unity with all Cana- dian and US workers in a revo- lutionary struggle against French- and English-speaking capitalist class. National Front leaders about the best way for the right to get power in Britain. His opinion was that it should be through the official Conservative Party machine. Workers Press, and before it 'The Newsletter', has constantly warned that the Tory government is a step toward right-wing dic- tatorship in Britain. We must watch carefully all developments like the Brighton rally and the dangers they imply for the work- ing class if a revolutionary leader- ship is not constructed. concessions on every aspect of work and wages and the term 'mutual agreement' acts as little more than a face-saver for the workers' representatives as a sell-out occurs. What Cliff puts forward as an opposition strategy turns out to be a policy of com- plete collaboration with the employers' aims. A large num- ber of firms are putting forward similar demands in their agree- linked-up and ments are to discussions on 'workers' par- ticipation' industry with in this in order to get workers' involvement in speeding them- selves up and putting them- selves out of work. Exposure In fact the fight to oppose a productivity deal begins with a total exposure of its systems and aims before it is intro- duced. If it is accepted, the politically - conscious shop steward, far from being isol- ated by his stand against the agreement, becomes the centre of the struggles against its every aspect as the bosses set about the implementation of its real aims. In some cases, employers have taken years to get round to the agreement's real measures. In other cases, the confid- ence trickery lasts barely long enough to get the deal signed before the screws are tightened.

But in every case, the IN THE week when the Tories' anti-union laws were published, the capitalist press performed as expected in re- lation to the council workers' strike. 'Children, old-age pensioners, Fight On Monday, October 5, 'Ex- press' readers were told: 'Thames Peril Grows' Like most other papers, the 'Express' quoted GLC leader Plummer to increase the panic. "The possibility of sewage go- ing backwards up drains is not just a question of flooding. There is a real danger of people drown- ing' This his was charming thought for your breakfast table.

The "Telegraph' on the same day led •Volunteers Stop with London Floods. Untreated sewage pours into rivers.' The 'Sun' headlined: *500,000 Face Health Threat Fears as Mount Over Sewage, followed next day with 'The Army on 15- Minute Strike Alert'. After that, the 'Sun' was sub- merged in its own exclusive form of effluent-a classic work en- titled 'The Sensuous Woman'.

And so it went on, with stories of dying fish and uncremated piling rubbish and corpses, plagues of rats and maggots.

But millions of workers know that the struggle of the local government workers against star- vation wages is a major battle to stop the attack of the Tories on the whole working class. Despite the nasty smell on the barons' landing, trade press unionists will back the council men in their fight. Wednesday, October 14, 1970 BY

BERNARD

FRANKS

worker who has fought through every aspect of the deal, while at all times maintaining a principled opposition to the whole concept of productivity bargaining, has laid the found- on which the entire ation swindle can be replaced by a policy of basic wage increases —without strings and with all being 'productivity' methods assigned to the dustbin. Cliff develops his position like this: 'We must always start by opposing the productivity deal completely, and then later if necessary retreat to a position where we try and get the best out of the deal we can.' But as he explains for rank-and-file leaders in this situation: It is better for such a leadership to choose their own time for making such a change so that the offensive strategy can be maintained and demands put forward that will under- mine and expose the deal from • within. "The alternative of maintain- ing an inflexible rejection of any productivity deal can lead to a catastrophic division be- tween the stewards and their membership which will be eagerly exploited by the employer and may lead in the end to the acceptance of a far worse deal than was necessary' So it is those who continue to oppose the deals who play into the employers' hands.

The real treachery of Cliff's position is that he starts from the point that you can't fight ınd ends up with a list of ninimum demands These are probably the most dangerous single aspects of the book. They require first that all principles are dropped.

Opportunist Productivity and related systems are then 'opposed' in a purely opportunist way. A series of slit trenches are then constructed so that a retreat can be made swiftly • every time the employer digs his heels in. In the section on how to fight MDW on page 223 he says: When the employer pro- the introduction of poses MDW this should be opposed to the hilt. While MDW is being opposed, and/or after this resistance is broken, the following demands should be put forward.' (My emphasis.)

This is fantastic stuff. We are told not only to start fron a position of predeterminea compromise under which con- ditions no fight could possibly take place, but while MDW Is being 'opposed' we should pro- pose a list of compromise demands to the company. In other words we should say to the company-we will not have MDW at any price, but if we do, we want the following demands! The main point about com- promise demands, of course, Is that there is no shortage of them. Everyone who wants avoid a fight has a list in his pocket. In fact a list of corn- promise demands is the quickest way to head off a struggle and bring about a deteat. Cliff's list gives every right winger and employers' agent exactly what he needs.

Every worker who has been involved in this kind of struggle knows that when the attack comes and an attempt is made to split the ranks, it rarely takes the form of a proposal to accept the em- ployers' terms such, it as comes in the form of com- promise demands. Cliff's demands therefore are a series of pre-packed blackleg's charters available to the right wing and backward sections of workers for all occasions.

Wednesday, October 14, 1970

KENT STATE

'MARX WAS HERE,

BBC-2's Saturday-night pro- gramme about Marx's exile in London, emerged as a crude and heavily vulgarized attempt to draw a parallel between the Vietnam Soli- darity Campaign the Grosvenor Square _cemon- strations, and the First Inter- national the Reform and agitation of 1867. of the Hyde Park Shots which half demonstrations a mion workers umed

OUL

to nght tor universal sultrade were intercut with filmed foot-

WEDNESDAY'S

age of Vietnam demonstra- mass Cons allu SiULs lobby of parlament ovel

LAC

anti nicn aws during Tine Labour government. Kent niversity pundit David McLellan pattered away with Marx's about how ideas the never canent pragmatic anish with -theit gift for compromise. Maryicm might have hepn heeded backward Russia English first

COLUMN

of all English and in any case the most dourgeos workers in the wordl This patronizing liberal dis-

'MAN

ALIVE' returned to missal Marxism was BBC-2 last week with the paralleled by an equally patron- zing account of Marv'c first programme in a four- oWn part series called 'The Mood hite Havn ai eyy Słrec ‚n of America'. his German-Jewish origins, the film went on to his ca he usual This one dealt with Kent about carbuncles, starles where four students his drinking. his relations with and nine wounded Hnoelc and eo on the National Guard after The idea was, no doubt, dismiss Marx simul- demonstranons aca10ST taneously boosting present-day Cambodia loaded invasin only issue American troops last May.

law to enforcemen Delns nis lol revisionists as weabons officers in the case dowers. Also last week annec OW1 Was Marx's writings the resistance' that trained sniner tha • snecial renort Th6 teams can't handle. Reform shootings by President potatin Were AiS. Kent torted to make it appear that Nixon's commission on cam- practice that „ mens ho tron simp ao advocate Carry on as before. pus unrest. the In the television programme workers and the police. the viewer s, most oid with Lethal force Whv then. one is temnted to the students, whom the report and ask. did he an to all tha tronhie Roth the expressed deep disillusionment studying capitalism and television were with canitasm unev wert writing Cil apparently liberal. not developed nolitic y nut he organize the groped for some understand- Vixon's commission con- First International Working- cluded the ing. danger. men's Accociation? faced uarosmen wasnot struggle for Whu danger which called for lethal Priorities diel ecticos materia i she against was no frnno nnd fra the chas philosophy of justification for the 61 shots enemy girl said the done cinca they fired. shootings she saw it as a ques- The crude vulgarizations of The killings were 'Unneces- of -which was thic tune ni na amme wand and inex- cusab un warranted lifer She porusht property scarcely be worth taking up sary were they not of a part ffort certed occuthe ce to stevet i- Another thought that uni- boost L( revisionists and denigrate groomed …the re-occurrence such In CI. versitv stucents. run the country, are exposed dents, according to the report, sıgnıncance of Marxist theory.

TV вВс 1 12.25-12.55 p.m. Nai inavan. 1.00- 9.15 am. Schools nad 1.30 Watch with mother 2.05 200 diid: 730 Eondon. i Racing Cheltenham Play 4.40 school Jackanory. 4.55 Ondra fights for freedom. 5.15 Tom Tom. 5.44 Maaic roundabout 5 50 News and weather 6.00

THE DOCTORS.

6.45

TOMAND ISOOYI

1 on. 8.0 Boil bne 000* 9 00 @TAD TOCY IC dow nbld 8.10 SOFTLY, SOFTLY-TASK FORCE. 'Time Explred'.

THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and 9.20

SPORTSNIGHT

COLEMAN.

International football: Eng- Germany land v International boxina Scotland v Denmark.

international skating 10 16 THE ISKY AT NIGHT. 'Rockets to the Planets'.

11.35 Weather.

REGIONAL BBC

вВС 2 11 N1 H A m DIAM CHA 7.05 o.m. SQUARE TWO. 'Networks' 720 NEWSROOM and wasther. 8.00 8.10 'The Mood of America'. Clarkesville, Pennsylvania murdered. where 9.00

FANNY AND

JOHNNIE CRADOCK INVITE vou to a hoi . nn OUT OF THE UNKNOWN. 'Immortality Inc'.

10|

FACE THE MUSIC.

10.50 NEWS ON 2 and weather.

10.55 LATE NIGHT LINE.UP

ITV

12 midnight Epilogue and Tucker club. 4.30 11.00 a.m.-3.00 Schools. 4.17 Tingha 5 50 New9 6 25 TUC CAINT IA Ruklo ln Dlomandos

CORONATION STREET.

THE CHAMPIONS. 'Operation Deep-Freeze'.

BRANCH. Sorrv is Just a Word'

NEWS

AT TEN.

10.00

SCOTTISH: 11.00.3.00

with Judith Durham, Aimi MacDonald. 10 2

MAY

AAay Ruaravac

DDARPOCIANAI

WDCCTI INe Crom Coirfiold Halie Crovdon 11 45

WUAT CUC DADCDO CAY

12.00 midniaht

THE GLORY OF LOVE.

REGIONAL ITV

don. 11.45 Epilogue. News, weather.

4.00 sroa s: 00 :re9.00 Lon.

WORKERS PRESS

somebody', said one and, 'they asked for it', another said of the four murdered students.

The Mayor who called in the National Guard said he had studied all the factors before he made a move, but felt it was necessary' at the time and still feels that it was. It was possible to get some glimpses into small-town from American life the pro- all its institutions and to gramme and the effect of the 'they're rotten to the core...

polarization of class forces on We're supposed to be evaluat- that life. and we did'. ing them. But the deep crisis of Ameri- can imperialism at the bottom Implacable of the break-up of traditional relationships which was So The townspeople, many of obvious in the programme was whom commute to office jobs not alluded to even indirectly.

in Akron, were seen as implac- able enemies of the students.

Despair Some members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and The war in Cambodia got no the Rotary Club, traditionally nor did Team- mention. the rabidly right-wing organiza- sters' "strike -which the same tions, talked about what they National Guard had been sent would have if the done to break just before going National Guard hadn't been to Kent State. called in. And so the viewer was left Vigilante committees had in total despair with the already been organized and, students outnumbered and the according to man, bitter che

JUST

'working in about everybody in the town according to the was armed. interviewer and therefore, by "If they throw a bomb. blame implication, partly to or a torch, I'm going to kill for the shootings. THE ACTIVITIES of Moral

BY A WORKERS PRESS

Re-Armament have once

CORRESPONDENT

more been brought to light this time at Luton's Vauxhall Motors plant. One of the two stewards removed from the executive was worker in the trim Under the auspices of MRA, repair Gilmore. shop stewards and sometimes shop, Mr He told reporters that he saw himself as their wives, have been meeting a link between the management Vauxhall management social and the shop-floor workers, occasions attended among believing others, Mrs Dagmar that he establishing relationships' wife of the firm's former chair- nATA between the two. man and managing director.

He is reported as Iwo AEF shop stewards who saying Re- were involved in these gather- have found that Moral provides ground ings were removed recently from Armament to meet all sorts of workers in the stewards' committee execu- tive at a 50-strong shop stewards' the motor industry. meeting. He is also said to have met both Vauxhall's personnel direc- Mr Glyn Morgan, Amalga- director in mated Union of Engineering and tor and financial Foundrvworkers said 'non-union circumstances'.

Convenor. of the two men that 'they had been acting dangerously by meet- Meeting ing directors. "These the elected He said: 'At men are one stage my representatives of the shop floor.

wife wrote to Mr Herland about If they want to see any manage- the industry and we met him and should have done the Westminster ment they his wife at in the company of fellow trade Theatre the production during unionists. not behind their of an MRA play'. backs.' Several Vauxball stewards accepted this invitations to Admirer One shoD steward who meeting. Moral Re-Armament was said the attend

PATHICA?

founded American theo- by an invitation had been presented as Frank logian Dr Buchman who an exercise in "participation'. was a fervent admirer of SS Reichsfuhrer Mrs Heeland apparently found and a friend -Himmler. Buchman for- that Messrs Hopper and Gilmore Dut ward four basic ideas by which were, like herself, only interested to live: honesty, purity, unselfish- other's problems. in each ness and love. She explained: 'I felt that so Which of these ideas appealed much of the misunderstanding, to the two Vauxhall stewards is mistrust and suspicion came up not known, certainly instill- because people from different ing the last two into shop-floor ranks did not get to know each militants has more purpose than other and discuss i their prob- obeying abstract principles.

lems'.

PAGE THAT

FOUR DOCUMENTS

received recently from Spain reveal the enormous growth of the of the combatvill Spanish working class and its acute need for a prin- cipled Marxist leadership.

They Obrero' Murdo •Workers People's Madrid, rid Popular No. MiS (undated but cion (ed inter from CM-1)) (splinter from No. 1, produced this year heir pages is open )hrero' is that of 4.000 agri cauton concludes Decembel worters l vineyards their war of extermination 1Y09 trom The of our and civil ball Terez for 300 Deselas ()0S) 101 € organized the ties direct aid Yal sons Hitler Mussolini, the in inside reed immediate t keepers an France there are Dutaln These stake pla treacherv collections, workin vicious painted walls, police will slogans. The white wals or the know little sevillan ore is workers Granada in coatheld still unsettied.

entir give rich The Maolst Journals of the s protests and Obrera'. and village barracks significant ent Guardia Civil, but as a pre- quarters an Perhaps the reported centre sinke These are aimedi against scan. dals and swindles, largely related involving i de las Now, still not fully fitted with installations, they have occupied ov the righttu owners were forced inable to paint them

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

enough A GROUP of Soviet oppositionists have hailed the award of the Nobel Prize to Alexander Solzhenitsyn and have called his treatment by the bureaucracy 'a national shame'.

Thirty-sever demoralized soman and completely discredited. Which 1e historian son of Army and to murdered ed in. adopted con- smash the orkrevolutionary defence of them. persecution. class, as solzhenitsun. a tormer teacher 1937. successfully se hured at and ked Army man, spent many vears in Drison camps arter criti call for wrote a etter mend alliance to accept the prize in Stockholm. cizing stalin at the end of th forces, an alliance cap- *Fis novels Contai lovels deal with political, demo- the car campse and in national philosophical treated cancer after they release from prison. Refused which, Sused to bow has encompassing the freedom-lovin the retused to in the USSR literary censorship the -The army and together church. with a number of its The crisis in the Spanish Com- whom tronames (none come Solzhenitsyn's knees literary stature) has attacked hin get Stalinist hack issued a well-publicised stateveryone 'Mundo how endignant the Soviet peopl said, contradic- tions- call on and our entire society, has been -on one nage Polish Government Sive Solzhenitsyn's behaviour' to ne to reports tnat the break First Circle •Cancer and Vauxhall worker strike com. mented nave whe Heglands main that the the would

LION

problem With men from the from nothing for Russian Stalinist parties and about phere of fraternd co-operations.

around his works, which we may then traternal co-oneration' of tingso he is a whing tool in that objectively by the logic intention This nave fighting literary-political game of the Logic example. The develonment of the Man.

groupings, amongst arge v student literary renresents does not need the official impri- attempt develop alterna Harpenden with their wives matur of the Soviet bureaucracy bankrupt Cr to sustain it Sobolev's Return he Yankee 1 tibera in Back into the USER national ments had to be ture compli- struggle, thus unable to counter *out feelers in this direc diplomats chauvinism demagogic fascist against the Americans ney approach the struggles ir on her birthday. for tal onnositionists are prepared struggres nized warns: another of the se Drize becomt regular intends 'Liberación' idealizes the s siads for th continu con persist in trying to bridge the taneously workers and man- against Jone of the documente chowe that against fascism (tolinict the struggle He lent tue to an ana-com Star' reports without the civil liberties it sup- •Mamina munist witch-hunt in the comment the state- Luton press by claiming that the Writers' ment mmunist among Union. effec- shon This is hardly tively leader- removed us omer Mandelstam These events are timev he. the cause emplover are the dest can be Ising Communist Party must be forced can Spanisi With to say International where they ctand latest Stalinist theoretical Stalin- the round connict ilusions in the clasho-syndicalist huregnerve terry nolce sur- mysticism. veillance

WORKERS PRESS

Wednesday, October 14, 1970

PAGE FOUR

Coalition shelves nationalization Lambeth dustmen Thai guerrillas War plans down bomber

• FROM PAGE

COMMUNIST

guerrillas thought the imperialists still breaking halland have snot down a disadvantage. bomber over town Ceylon workers tar it was effort Khao-Klao, in Petchabon pro- was safe vince about 200 north This contrasts sharply with ot the capita., bangkok Navy Minister Peer LAMBETH DUSTMEN split three strike to two yesterday against support- about the Soviet Navy: is the council unions' rolling Ing murdered presence ike strike. the last few days.

ALL TRADES

A number or multants rerused sio

UNIONS ALLIANCE

However, they are still har work and joined strike pickets from

MEETINGS

holds on i the borders Hackney, southwark. Kensington anc

BY DAVID MAUDE

the The Pouch tobert and outside the gates chersed * It this is the mister is borough's Shakespeare Rd depot.

Banda, Editor Workers P. 4 the qour Feting by police 8 bat file dustments lead rank. London Terable tainly going 'How to defeat the most stansand che Soviet Fleet.

1 orles

ALERTED

THE COALITION of renegade Trotskyists, Barther meing mere Monday.

the Unitec alerte an placed Tr and Trades Hail States illesden Higher Stalinists and Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike's prepared, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which came to power

ALL OUT

war in Sidelle se in the General Election of May 1970, has lost no stead, falcon made onalso all us into be time in showing its real class nature to the that and in ee colonels Co or Hair. Seven working class in Ceylon. right Two Indian belligerence estalt

PUBLIC LECTURES

workers were shot dead $775 a i sis intimately i ned the serious-y these American • there are still only Elements of wounded when an armed year more no ding dias in Brain police fired unions" strike striking workers in the for police selective plans. Im Keenakalay tea planta- Marxism tion in the first week of chief the maior September. • ago SIR ARTHUR YOUNG, who The importance of Marxist philosophy in the Council workers from other days boseth m listen for a dels below the windows of yester- has mand ne building of the revolutionary party.

£775-a-year pay increase.

Three lectures by Workers bear brunt of gas price the City"

HEALY

sfied with of / Common (National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League)

PLEDGE

HOUSEWIVES will face a rises moron, wit rome liter age and meet wold

ONSLAUGHT

OXFORD

DAGONHAMI

comes berr a ine prepa But

BY A MOSPORDERTSS

Lamber me Monday October 19 exclude Thursday October 42 Monday October 26 traffic wardens. against Soviet report Thursday October 29 Thursday November 5 Dare Monday November 2 edentediy high level little suc- boards sho from as in the face Northgate Hall nay's nestaurant warns could 56 per make the During last few BE cas Board, despite a prote Huge strike Three lectures by Docks idle ormance was the

M. BANDA

or mine charged incent earn to or (Editor of Workers Press) idle rester eyes cocker were

BLACKFRIARS

ACION

to back demandin miran See Miners scapegoat Thursday October 29 Monday October 26 Monday November 2 retirement age regulations.

October, the Thursdav November 4 that made a loss comments Thursday November 12 Guerrillas Monday November 9 relations paper no be 'Kings Head' posingan me done by Friars Hall Cause capitalist High Street Surface workers and

• FROM PAGE ONE

Blackfriars Road Acton. 8 p.m SEI. 8 p.m. with the good grace Hastente in Huse repression Heath's Two lectures by Sunday October 25 Sunday November 1 the miners pay claim

G. HEALY

Palests out fet sell-out of the (he Mick and st table) egitimize the Zionist state in Glasgow

WEATHER

the Palestinie me of the a sit bout theresth with workers SURFACE workers have nese the typifies the Capitulation are Help the Young Socialists trade Ween elicials coreser established but if strike + en tre trom Humen air agreemen ion the list are just the weeks they wil Cairo agreemen will follow make their sus the paper sell the men capitulation to Hussein sickness for integrati onions a since were bed i suare re and imperialismion to Zionism com-

GRAND XMAS

in entire " surface Sean engager ma the prevent the andy harder. the areas. be warm and humid in al

LETTERS

e coal a i y from the is is for n in the Middle Lastus betrayal Lite Change. Thursday and Friday: de union federations

BAZAARS

i Commune landear cal. anc issues acti leadersh

NEW SUBSCRIPTION RATES

change living a great success

FOR 6-DAY WORKERS PRESS

resistance. soon all " working et Answer men boost If you are able to sew, knit, paint and can make someti The only effective workers Think that good or our boo von can ces be as a arder to or the or i ne gifts, tins of grocery. Please contact Young Socialists is the le parties and file would Pollo the e

THE BAZAARS ARE AT:

this scar a

LONDON

LEEDS

credited - a reason mar the Saturday, November 28 Saturday, December 12 to smash Corn Exchange The new rate for six days will be: Mer mon leaders at i wo winning the bet-a 3 10s for six months Doors open 12 noon 56 issues) c3 5s for three months (78 issues Augustpo if we S a milita sup- i you want to take Workeri Dess twice a week the rates making aes S. H., Glasshoughton Con because they want it to appea Colliery, Yorks. 24 or 120m m0s 138493) parliament on October 27.

supporte ent in

ROVERS STOP AGAIN

Our wages fight is anther oss

LATE NEWS

11 1,500 carworkers forces of delon socialist Fill in 'the form below NOW and send to :

DEARER SCOTTISH GAS

Bolihuller Warwickshire Circulation Dept., Workeon fon, swa.

186a Clapham High St., a political fight power shortage. Gas is likely to 2000 accidents eases Pimenov - - second welk I would like to take out a suoscription/ extena/change m trial starts те, то в employers and present subscription/to Workers Press.

preparing Davs required

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HURSDAY

or internal tran (Please tick)

TUESDAY

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WEDNESDAY

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port drivers. I musicase a searcate or Full subscription (six days) for months for coming wages strugsle That he tria Katey Repent Name in leningrad fou it is one-sided modernization, Address o work eigh The 30 minimum for face workers with Coller, shoutine area. bade conditio under through Amount enclose t in recent years.