Workers Press no. 288

workers press The daily paper that leads the fight against the Tory government PRICE 6d.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER

THURSDAY OCTOBER 29, 19F0

NUMBCH ZOC

THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Tower Hamlets October Fund: As monopolists scream for more attacks Two days to win 55s, but go and Prepare for All-out £308 1s 4d to raise

COUNT

action ARE relying very mal erined ve vital for determined paper Tory war on Torie however national €300 to find. It victory sure you it too lat unions immediately to: By the Editor

TOWER HAMLETS

council Sureel workers yesterday afternoon de- vicious in post-war history-is not to reflate the economy, cided to accept the borough's 55s but to lay the basis for the implementation of the anti- pay offer. TUC still union laws in the Spring, restore profit rates in industry But the conditions under which they holds back and enter the Common Market as soon as possible.

those other return - simlar boroughs which have conceded the par In anticipation of such an onslaught the City went union law demand — need to be very critically Mounting delirious. examined Dy sulkers. opposition Car stewards join council okesman said yesterday that spokesman yesterday that of the cuts reached the

BY DAVID MAUDE

opposition of the national nego- reations. march AUTHORITY strikers in Oxford

LOCAL

the aspect of the claim sed for plan to demonstrate through the town each night budaid, Conservative to NCB week until the Tory-controlled council settles and their 55s pay claim. business pas morale. break be con election pay offer Leered Un a letter which yesterday yesterday morning. wonder Barbed Sitory especially back-benchers Labour them SCOTTISH miners' delegates meeting at Edin- obscenities or oxford Young Socialists the Coal Board's up the danger burgh yesterday Marke ess oF increased offer, but urged the Rippon and pay Applause unomcial strike in their area to return to normal (Sle pride four strike working. opposed"

BY SEEPHEN JOHNS

"They any Inion nd the Nati coal Board an the basis of the Parite tal kig about a minimum rate Nottinghamshire recommend considers, and No date abandoned the se rower i to mam nare instructe acceptance the original oh as member stake. of the offer to the men. After this bensive Concede come oul council ben are it Scottish area miners to vote against accept- dispute workers December wind the with the Wota camp inquiroris We country come out yeter mini-budget, the Tories December nuest paid of the workin agast the natio : national Rubbing hands Not disciplined Five-power added that Lynch's future force East of Suez Presumably hangs on wage leaderre A FIVE-POWER Common- • Board's ste freeze policy wealth force for operations in vote and e2 6d in place of SE Asia is the main proposa of the Tory Defence Esti- IRELAND'S Fianna Fail government hung by nat executies NUM secretary Daly a thread yesterday as the Dail (parliament) waited tensely premier Jack to see whether December 1972-areas not would with snote from Ken Pavily Lynch would call a general election.

business

BY A

"The Backed atisfeed with

COHRESPONDENI

the size of the Barber axe Haughey may well take over Attempt to bring budget ester- day's come rouses in bi also ridion of a submarine is ism and improve output.' + was con all Croydon out Mr Daly said, however, tha ation tax cuts- demonstrato esolutior warhousands of workers have Shings Logan, Bur 130 i can I. se in the Financia pushed up their wages through realan

STRIKIN CRODON

council proposed for next yea is a demand in the pre workers marched continues apprehen- through the shopping centre yesterday.

mand indeed

• PAGE FOUR COL. 4

ce would be yesterday seems BLMC conference off paying in

PAGE FOUR COL. 6

PAGE FOUR COL.3

notes i myself German metalworkers ready for E wese pre Unresolved mache Robees MORE THAN 90 per cer all-out action offer of 10s in they yesthe unions involved aban sing Lynch ving tied to output guarantees systeril. cerity ander ost Te council Wuerttemburg doned the The 500,000 Baden- involve a toal of to milla

NPLA

further problems . strike unani mowe went back to Robens worrbitration on the wan

GENE

neans there will be n our executive still in • Reetie. of the Brigade ase of frost. rubbish paredis roused to agree to a 12 any working class • Experie of t of the TA Vol- blue levels of acedure We had until If the strike goes ahead dependent economic position.

cent compromise.

workers press

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY OCTOBER 29, '

THE DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE By the Editor THE REAL PURPOSE of Barber's budget- the most vicious in post-war history is not to reflate the economy, but to lay the basis for the implementation of the anti- union laws in the Spring, restore profit rates in industry and enter the Common Market as soon as possible.

In anticipation of such an onslaught the City went delirious. ares, said tha the diun neorial outs reached ene even after since

MGMU

Leered Wonder Beared While SCOTTISH miners' delegates meeting at Edin- burgh yesterday rejected the Coal Board's offer, urged the increased pay Dul ions and dropped unofficial strike in their area to return to normal working. page four British (See

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

their posed 1 ne also and the National chivine Coal parite talking about a minimum rate were prepared i Natio Roben seize doser it Agreement. of the offer to t acceptance rease Robens asked if th who crow area cour miners to vote against accept a great victory De postponed for an ear unde ould do: Lawrence Daly in an intervier sealed sp tonal in the bye Condent Barbers spal ident after accept the offer. Tope a ter lot be door Brat legends Rubbing hands Not disciplined stewards addresses the council workers' meeting.

The Tories Proger a masave increase union, second not be taken to take ce material and spiritual degrad hangs on wage of countless udget is bound to entail income arrints the prospective ren food prices, IRELAND'S Fianna Fail government hung by NUM secretary Dal Dail (parliament) a thread vesterdav as the waited tensely to see whether premier Jack December 1972- aMneil die Lynch would call a general election.

ten would ite official favour Far pite on to his Fianna full level a gear later пет.

BY A

uge SC to sanction

CORRESPONDSNT

asking end we agreed completely strikes ted areas and undertake to do upporters have absentee keep with me pati ali crisis economic troubles since orporation tax nine point rise in the Financia of workers have two Com militant actre

NEC

Dai continues apprehen- g wage demands in the pipe miners endears •Burke rom sivethe £60 million of Corpora- yesterday seems sancuon of working-

PAGE FOUR COL. 3

• PAGE FOUR COL. 6

wease pred Unresolved all-out action fighting Lynch the car, meat,, Baden- i a malile comination in fra based Arbitration on the wage progresse egotiations before calling a blue. *if the strike goes ahead refused promise to a 12 per We that leads the Tory government

OCTOBER 29, 1970 • NUMBER 288

Tower Hamlets Uctober Fund; win 55s, but Two days to go and

WAGE

to raise WE AKE relyll a a last-minute eNtor readers to complete sand e are to complete he den s. But dontleno mediately ol Lares High Street

TOWER

HAMLETS

council workers yesterday afternoon de- cided to accept the borough's 55s pay offer. TUC still But the conditions under which they holds back return — Similal unose ounel boroughs which have conceded the pay union law demano - - neea to de very examinea by sulkers. opposition

BY DAVID MAUDE

LOCAL

AUTHORITY strikers in Oxford 1000000-30 other But plan to demonstrate through the town each week until the Tory-controlled council settles union Let on their 55s pay claim. Unio 'We're confident they will all unofficial actior ainst th Industrial Relations BrOpos Workers favour One-day 558 at Tower Hamiets is e ma British-Leyland Hamlets ported con- This, added to the strike leader rolling confusion at the critical time No date is aban dome union vicious 1 the Anthony leader on an idente stic strikes an instructe Concede conceded, he saidiately be union the both Pional conferences sere first and of which wil en in the North De Country rest the west paid of the Cant out yesuck United Five-power force East of Suez The demotion 1 to b wealth force for operatimon- FIVE-POWER Common- SE Asia is the main proposa _ot the OrV Detence esti mates, published yesterday.

five wateries staid she town case it work pending a national see Backed we are backed by th Detora he said fully itself™ne also union consumarine is * Astraith Maloyer, Nei sWingst slower, osed for next sapore are

STRIKING

CROYDON

council workers marched

• PAGE FOUR COL. 4

through the shopping centre yesterday theon tel BLMC conference off of their ketention Royal unti e to clear carrier A9%. agreed olicers this To discuss introduc • Collaboration with France at a meeting develop Coststed ssible, guided • A halt to the run-down i procedur major de ages allow. references tement to explai • Beretin of the Brigade and 39 refe of the Morris 1000 dis siger and 1 branch • Expansion of the TA Vol- frost, no grit- levels of procedure. unteer Reserve. return-to-work formula

DEP prepares attack on telecommunications jobs

PAGE TWO

A ROUTINE meeting of Post Office Workers' Union leaders in London today is expected to discuss a 1$ per-cent pay offer which could have far-reaching mplications for telecommunications workers throughout Britain. The proposed increase, which the Post Office says is its 'final' offer, is for overseas telegraphists at London's Electra House cable head- quarters. Last year, the OTOs struck for several weeks over —among other things—the GPO's refusal to make a productivity payment for reactivation of the auto- matic message relay system OTRU.

The GPO now claims to have 'costed' OTRU, and is offering exactly the same money rejected before the strike. Meanwhile, one Electra House militant told Workers Press earlier this week, 'the produc- tivity package is going helter-skelter. BERNARD FRANKS today analyses the implications of this package.

INFA

121

FLECTRA HOUSE

ELECTRA HOUSE, LONDON

A STRING of meetings and overtime consultation, had progressed from heavy to exces. committee and reports the shortage of owing Sive organized in the form of trained May 1, operators. (On 1969, there deficiency of was a an inquiry by the Depart- 846 OTOs the in operations which had authorized ment of Employment on

TOONS

complement of 3,643.) aspects of the Overseas The report found that the Telegraphs section of the basic pay of the grade of main

OTOS

£19 3s 6d for a 43- Post Office has resulted was hour week, but could overtime in proposals for major run to many hours. Discipline is described as sim- attacks on jobs in all ilar to that used in military sections. establishments. One of the more aspects of this contemptible was This is Realizing no surprise. man's training at his job that that developments in the science could deferred punish- of communications including ment for misdemeanours. automation- - cald lead the a large winding-up of number Keep wages and of jobs, the DEP used its exam- ination of the 1969 overseas tele- graph operators' dispute as an conditions low recommend the latest excuse n productivity measures. One remark in this report is This is a first towards step significant it extremely because force reducing the work at shows why it would pay man- Electra House, the international deliberately to keep agement telegraph centre in London. wages and conditions as poor as The DEP report was published possible: and discussed in secrecy 'Managements could well be DI1- vately between management and glad of the operator unions. A leading union member shortage because it might there- published who the report for by avoid future redundancy the benefit of his members was increased problems following the management and warned by mechanization and ultimate com- disciplined by his union.

harshly puter working.' The fact that absolutely It was also considered that: nothing has been done about 'The incremental scale by the complaints workers involved 'shows that the inquiry which basic pay is his age determined by fraud, simply aimed at un- was fair. Furthermore, a time-span of getting inside information on 15 far too long working methods to enable pro- years was wait for maximum pay.' ductivity schemes to be put into operation. The report also commented on Workers' the complains to 'deficient union representation'.

DEP

of were bad conditions

DEP

However, the claimed (especially ventilation poor that many complaints have heer offices), excessive overtime, low 'overstated' and could not agree harsh discip- poor training, pay, that conditions were 'deplorable'.

line and management. Instead of rectifying the situa- The DEP was told that work- tion, a series of productivity mea- ers were on a duty system which sures was proposed. 32 dif- could give a ferent immediate bosses within

DEP

recommendations were that Electra House should be a year. divided of self Men transferred from into number were contained units and that a com- place to place with no proper

I THE SOCIALIST

Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4.

Name Address plete abolition of demarcations and grades should be brought about on the basis of job evalua- tion: We are not suggesting that jobs should be allocated to dif- ferent grades on a more logical basis; we are on the contrary suggesting a complete abolition of grades. "There would be no OTO, no P & TO, no clerical officers, no no traffic men each postmen, with their separate hierarchies.

All these we would replace with single for all category employees (both staff and man- within the overseas agement) telegraph department... This would result in 'one com- mon category of telegraph officer'.

After 16 meetings and 18 com- mittee papers of the DEP work- ing party the report of May 1970 reiterated the original findings.

It also underlined the fact that manning 'determined by special- ist studies to assess job loading' meant the introduction of time- and-motion methods. Direct implications that work- ers were lazy were made where the report says: 'We saw no evidence of exces- sive loading and there seemed an unduly high incidence of lack of work and of social activities.

From our experience of observa- tion in industry and commerce we would judge the overall level of performancè as 45 in the 80- 100 work-study scale.' As 100 in the 80-100 scale be normal working purports to and 80 is reckoned to be a mini= mum acceptable standard the workers concerned must have been doing less than no work at all to get a 45 rating.

Slanderous claim In fact, this malicious and slanderous claim contrasts dram- atically with the f130.4 million profit made by the telecommuni- cations section of the Post Office in 1968-1969. It is also in flat contradic- tion to a recent article in the 'New Scientist' on Technology in the Post Office (August 13, 1970) which explained: 'Local telephone calls and trunk traffic are growing at 8 per cent and 14 per cent per respectively. Telex is even more vigorous-15 per traffic cent expansion for inland ser- vices and even faster on over- seas routes.' It added: 'One of the great strengths of the telecommunications side of the business has been the way in which productivity has risen-at an impressive 8 per cent a year over the last five years.'

The employers are determined to boost productivity even more by setting work-study standards which will force everyone to work at a gallop. Work-study experts see switch- board work and all office routine as good subjects for time study.

They claim that every working motion can be analysed and new established, movement patterns tied to time standards, so that all "wasteful' actions can be eliminated. Even unpredictable conditions, like the length of messages can be 'rationalized' by fixing an 'average' length and basing standard hourly performance on this figure. The work-study method con- sidered by many consultants for this type of work is the methods- time-measurement (MTM) sys- tem which fixes the time stand- ards to a thousandth of a sec- ond. The system of payment advo- cated by employers and govern- ment for productivity deals is Measured-Day Work which ties a very high — and continually increasing-performance rate to a fixed level of pay. The setting of such standards planned to at Electra House is start in Spring 1971 'and spread over to the end of 1972'.

The report states: •... we are advised that the new standards will of themselves not lead to the kind of staffing economies and flexibility envis- aged in the DEP report as con- tributing towards the justifica- tion for a "substantial increase" in pay scales then obtaining.'

Gradual reduction In other words, job reductions and overtime cuts will not even be considered as allowing for a rise for those remaining.

If the employers are trying to keep up some pretence that pro- working will benefit ductivity the workers, this is only because they want to bring about gradual reduction to suit their own convenience as speed-up and automation take over. Virtually, their attitude is 'fit into our arrangements until we find it convenient to kick you out'. Why are the employers SO keen to get productivity deals in now? Over the period, 1968-1973, the Post Office is investing a massive £2,700 million in new equipment the majority of which is being spent on the telecom-

WORKERS PRESS

section. A munications pro- gramme which will replace 700 old exchanges and add 2,500 major extensions to existing exchanges is in hand. Other innovations include: • Installation of automatic test equipment which sends test signals through the circuits and prints out a docket showing which item is faulty.

• Constant improvement in design, in channels satellite particularly increase the brought about by the inven- tion of the multi-access sys- tem is enabling more and more earth stations to con- nect with each other simul- taneously through the same space station. • Use of digital computers for fully automatic circuit and message switching. • Increasing use of coaxial cables which can carry a large number of circuits in a small diameter tube. • Continued change over from manual automatic exchanges. • The building in London of a new £7 million international switching Mondial centre, House, which will connect up subscribers to numbers in all parts of the world. The equipment for Mondial House is expected to cost about THE PHYSICAL and indus- trial starvation of Egypt by British colonialism was car- ried over into education.

Educational starvation was such that any significant advance by Egypt in this field can be dated only from Britain's formal expulsion from the Canal Zone after the fall of Farouk. Attendance at school multi- plied five times within the decade following the removal of British soldiers in 1956.

Nasser's intro- government duced formal compulsory educa- tion from six to 12 years old and by 1970 over three-quarters of six-year olds were beginning to enter schools. But the system of semi- colonial cheap labour fastened on Egypt by Britain and France cut deeply into compulsory edu- cation. The need to destroy cotton- leaf worm forces some 15 per cent, of even urban children to leave school for periods in order to help their parents attend to this pest.

CHEAP LABOUR

The system of a cotton mono- culture serving imperialist inter- ests removes some 40 per cent of rural children for long periods from school for the same reasons. The total effect on education of this and other factors related directly to the cheap labour and peasant-proprietor system of cotton farming may be summed up in the fact that under 50 cent of per the children of school age are actu- ally at school. This is the 'spiritual' measure of semi-colonialism, isust asifes physical measure life- expectation of 50 per cent less 'democracy, in an than normal life-span imperialist like Britain. Because of the persistent strug- gle of Egypt's workers and fellahin, 'independence' has involved at least a considerable improvement in education-com- pared with its almost non- existent level under British rule.

This includes university edu- cation, in which expansion has been rapid, especially since 1956.

• University enrolment now approaches 100,000—by far the highest anywhere in Africa-and many times the combined total of university attendance in all British, French and Belgian ex- colonies put together.

CONTRADICTION

But even here there is a con- tradiction betwen education and the capacity of the economy to absorb graduates — a contradic- tion directly due to the indus- trial starvation of Egypt by semi- colonialism. This conflict between higher education output and industrial intake is one of the reasons for he political militancy of the un versity studen But it is militancy which is, as usual, either dissipated or abused by the regime. This will go or £10 million and will ultimately be able to connect 200,000 calls an hour using more than 20,000 international lines via cables and satellites. It is expected to be the main switching centre in Britain with, eventually, a total staff of 2,000. In external field operations greater productivity is expected from the use of prefabricated manholes and joint boxes and a variety of equipment for new handling and jointing cables.

This includes a changeover from lead-sheathed to plastic- coated A cables. team which could lay 100 yards of lead cable can now lay 600 to 800 yards of plastic cable. Three men with a mole plough can drive a tunnel and put in a cable and its plastic ducting in one operation. Eliminate jobs Research is also being con- ducted by the Post Office into microwave radio to provide a base for using higher frequency bands, use of the pulse code modulation system which trans- mits speech, vision and computer data in the form of coded trains of pulses that can be sent long distances or switched as often as may be needed without loss of strength or quality, and use of new visual telecommuni- cations systems such view- as phone and contravision. so long as the militant is iso- lated from the working class and peasant struggles against imperi- alism. Particularly fatal elements in many of the student protest movements are Arab or African nationalism, non-alignment or neutralism. The two are clearly related to each other, both being at heart expressions of the policy of a chronically-frustrated helpless, aspirant petty bourgeoisie or even bourgeoisie which cannot pos- sibly play an independent role- either in domestic or foreign policy-because of its absolute ordination to imperialism.

'NEUTRALISM'

The semi-colonial bourgeoisie tries always to make superficial deals with the bureaucracy of the USSR or China in order to raise its bargaining power vis-a- vis its real masters: the western powers. The concept of 'neutral- ism' is built up into a creed of "Third World'-ism in order to glorify this double-dealing and to mask the economic as well as political and even military dom- inance of the West. There is no Third World the coun- somewhere between tries in which there have been social revolutions and the coun- tries in which there is capital- ism. The fact that there are Stalin- ist bureaucracies in countries which have had social revolu- tions, whether these bureaucra- cies be of the Brezhnev, Maoist, Tito or Castro type, does not international that the mean working class is going to follow the petty bourgeois radicals who International call themselves Socialists and throw the revolu- with the tionary infant out Stalinist bathwater. Stalinism is not a product of the social revolutions in these countries, but of their absence in other countries. It is a con- workers' tinuation inside the states of the imperialist system surrounding, penetrating and cor- rupting these states.

BUREAUCRATIC

This bureaucratic creature of imperialist and the isolation workers' encirclement of the states prop for the Nyereres, Kaundas and other semi- colonial agents continuing the line of the late Nasser. Stalinism, these Without gentlemen would have the great- • getting their est difficulty in bogus 'Third World'-ism accepted inside their own countries.

At the same time, all Stalin- ist groups-not only that of the Kremlin but also that of Tito, an aroiculaned have expounded condemned the concept of non-alignment. They have there- by strengthened the ideological hold of the Nassers of Africa and elsewhere in side tracking anti- imperialist revolutionary also being tems and the new parcel hand- Experiments conducted into the use of light ling operations down to postmen using a cable trolléys to transmit sound, with hand being Issued of so that they can handle a greater comprising hundreds hair- thin glass fibres contained weight of mail. Every one of the proposals is tube. would glass fibre aimed not at improving the ser- Each carry making job thousands of times more infor- better one for the postmen, but than the conventional telephone wires and several times at seeing how many Jobs can be cables. eliminated. more than coaxial The Tories are intending to Telecommunications workers push ahead ruthlessly with this should have no illusions that and, if they programme these developments mean thou- will use every given the chance. sands more jobs. aspect of their anti-union, anti- To operate these systems the strike scabs charter to back Post Office needs to eliminate More and they alc 'New Scientist The jobs. article hinting that the telecommunica- previously quoted explains: uons secuon in particular should returned "The Post Office that be to 'private enter- expects the number of calls in 1973, the prise. end of its next five-year period, 50 the Unions help Will De per 27 million a day; there present will be 18 million telephones in employers 50 Britain, cent more inan now. produc- aim is to Where do leaders the union to handle all tivity again, so as stand in this situation? the work that these higures The disciplinary action against entail without taking on CAlla the OTOs' branch secretary staff. •ROn Beak for seeking to keep his This involves making informed of exchanges automatic, among which would affect the end of events their other things, and by 99 of condition and livelihoods should this year nearly per cent make this clear. will be served by

CUSLOLLCTS

automatic exchanges. In a letter to 'The Times' in year, Tom Jackson, last anuary "That does not that head of the union of Post Office will operators disappear: Workers expressed ехеси- will be needed to cope with tive's support for the employers' faults, mis-dialled calls, enquiries, plans to eliminate jobs. although the inten- ano so Part of his letter, in which he tion is to reduce their numbers refers actually the union's to to a minimum.' job-cutting support for This is the real basis for im- pro- reads as follows: ductivity deals in the Post Office.

pressive' The aim at Electra House is 'Our organization has always LO force, probably cut the labour welcomed technical developments by a half at least, with inside the services in which our a pos- sible complete shut-down when members We work for nave, Mondial House is full opera- the over years co- Instance, tion. the maximum operatea to pos- would be extremely wrong sible extent introduc- with the for OTOs this see tion Subscriber Trunk Dial- OT thing which only affects their ling, which reduced enormously own section even telecom- the need for telephone opera- munications alone. Our record in the postal

LOTS

The creation of the Post side of the business is equally Office corporation in 190 impressive. We have always as d was the onset of a Labour gov- welcomed developments sectien of the rost Office, wiry would reduce the size of the section Post Office, abour force. some of the heaviest attacks of It is the policy of our union all against the postal section.

as posts are concerned to seek a gradual These range from introduction reduction postal coding sys- the number of staff employed on of automatic the basis that those in the service will be better paid as a 'We are one of those

CLASS STRUGGLES IN

тате examples of union which prepared to face change and has

AFRICA

policies designed deliberately ' to the reduce labour-intensive of the Post Office.' Later on he makes it quite clear that he knows what the employers' plans will mean for the overseas telegraphists: 'We always have before us in remembrance what has happened to the inland telegraph service. This section of the Post Office com- OnCe posed of the of Post cream Office workers. grade was a to which many aspired. Now, however, result

INTEREST PAYMEN

struggles into pan-Arab, or pan- The interest payments on Post Office tele African, nationalist channels ing were £80.5 million in 1968-1969.

the internationalist inter- The government on mi Charge the the Egyptian risen from 5% per and other cent in 1963 to 9t per cent semi-colonial workers and toiling present the Post Office is peasants. finance its developments in TV

BBC 1

9.38 a.m.-12 noon Schools. 12.30 Representing p.m. the union. *Productivity bargaining. 1.00-1.25 Swyn 2.05-2.25C Schools glec. 1.30 Watch with mother. 1.45-1.53 News and weather. 4.20 Play Peter. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Blue 5.20 Scooby-doo, SChool! where you? 5.44 Magic roundabout.

5.50 News and weather. 6.00 NATIONWIDE. London. 6.45

THE DOCTORS.

7.05

TOP OF THE POPS.

7.45 BACHELOR FATHER. 'A Little Learning'.

MORECAMBE AND WISE SHOW. With guests Edward Chapman 8.15 and Clodagh Rodgers. 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather.

PLAY FOR TODAY. 'The Lle'. By Ingmar Bergman. With Frank 9.20 The Finlay Gemma Jones. and The story of the marriage and life of Anna and Andrew Firth.

10.50

24 HOURS.

CHILDREN GROWING UP. 'One Step At A Time'.

11.35 12.00 midnight Weather.

REGIONAL BBC

All regions as above except: Week week out. 12.02 6.00-6.45 Nation- Scotland: 2.30-2.50 scot and. East, Scotland. 12.02 Nationwide News, vy carsica North, NW. NE. Cumberland Ireland and: 6.00-6.45 Westmorland: 6.00-6.45 Look North, 12.02 weather. West: 6.00-6.45 Nationwide Nationwide Males.os dada we nes West Sout SW. wallica. ВВС 2 11.00-11.20 a.m. PLAY SCHOOL.

7.00 p.m. KNOW HOW. 7.30 NEWS ROOM and weather. 8.00 FIRST ELEVEN. 'La Femme en Chemise'.

8.15

THE MONEY PROGRAMME.

9.00

LOOK,

STRANGER.

'The Men Who Invented a Cow on the Hebridean Island of Luing'.

9.20 SHOW OF THE WEEK. Johnny Cash Show.

10.05 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. '90 Years In the Cause of Architec- ture'. 10.55 NEWS ON 2 and weather.

11.00 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

ITV

11.00 a.m. Schools. 2.55 p.m. Racing from Newmarket. 4.17 Origami.

4.30 Crossroads. 4.55 Flipper. 5.20 Magpie. 5.50 News.

6.02 TODAY.

6.35 PEYTON PLACE.

ON THE HOUSE.

'Thank You Fred Spooner and Goodbye'. 7.05| 7.35

THURSDAY

FILM.

"Night People'. With Gregory Peck and Broderick Crawford. Espionage in post-war Berlin.

9.30

THIS WEEK.

10.30

CINEMA.

11.00 THE AVENGERS. 'The Positive-Negative Man'.

POWER. Ivor Mills talks to 12.00 midnight THE CORRIDORS OF Dr Michael Winstanley, ex-Liberal MP for Cheadle.

REGIONAL ITV

CHANNEL:

11.00 States 4.30 London. Puffin's .20 London. day house grecungs. With Yendy 6.10 DCHCaLl Terry 11.25 News weather.

HARLECH:

11.00-4.10 Women today. 4.40 Hatty town. 4. 5.20 Channel except: 3.58 Report West,.00 Forest rangers. London. 6.01 & Honeyel

WEDIWAND.

Gus 6.00 Diars 6.18 6.35 ReDort wales 11.35 Movie: "The Faith Weather. Crossroads. Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart. Dutch

SOUTHERN:

415 for Lone engine. police lewish help Ivor the undertakes SDeCTOr Thursday, October 29, 1970 she dover. *one structure Post united fight is needed by al nassive attack • a tent tor ntrol of moment and many a Bit is wins co avail wrong to ri • in d the force the Tory Govern million * Babar Warace. 12 michight

HTV

don. T1.00° Prisoner. 105 of the wan

E2A2I

Thursday, October 29, 1970 HEAVY STRESS has already been laid by National Coal Board chairman Lord Robens on the produc- ivity aspects of the new NCB pay offer accepted by niners' leaders on Tuesday night proposed In return for By an Industrial correspondent increases some 18 per cent over- all below the claim submitted the National Union from and f19 underground. Mineworkers' Isle of Man July All 67,000 men working on conference, the union's executive coal faces covered mechanized has agreed to by the

NPLA

would get an operation in improving efficiency extra £2 7s 6d—bringing rates in and reducing absenteeism.

Kent and Nottinghamshire the The coal industry labour force vages districts up to £30 a week has been halved and hundreds of But the Coal Board has asked pits closed over the last ten years NUM to postpone for the 12 with the assistance of variations of months implementation an on this policy. agreement to bring NPLA rates On the strength of the with Kent pro- nanonally into Darily posed settlement, about which and Nottinghamshire by Decem- Britain's 292,000 miners will be ber 1971. ballotted within the next month, At present, in Wales, Scotland, the Coal Board now hopes and the to Durham Cumberland, maintain next year's output at its NPLA rate is up to £2 15s 6d a 1970 level-despite the-continu- week lower than in the two coun- ous rundown of pits and jobs.

ties mentioned above. Robens confidently says the And 18.500 under-21 miners Board does not plan to ask for a would, if the offer is accepted, further increase coal prices, still be In only earning between because 'we hope to ensure that £9 10s and £16 10s a week settlement this recouped the surface and £10 4s and through increased productivity'.

£17 18s underground Yet NUM general secretary Miners in S Wales 83 per cent Lawrence Daly, in what can only of whom favoured strike action be construed as a clear invita- understandably quite are tion to his supporters to accept demanding a coalfield conference the new offer, says: the situation. to discuss 'The average the miner sees "e don't think 10s is going to bird in the hand is worth more alter the mood of the Wales than two in the bush, and will miners', said Cwm colliery lodge for more later.' Bryn Williams in try secretary one What is the Coal Board's of the first reactions to Tuesday the answer to miners' night's announcement. £75,000,000-a-year claim: for £20 minimum work- for surface £22 for ers, underground day- wage men and £30 for National Power Loading Agreement face- workers? If accepted by the rank and file-55t per cent of whom recently voted to strike against an offer only 10s less on average —pay for the 92,000 surface and underground workers would rise by f3 a week from November 1. This would establish new basic of £18 minima on the surface Reminder of what arms sales may mean

THE

'SUNDAY

TIMES'

exposure of the Great Drug

BUCCANEER AIRCRAFT

Fraud-the racket in which supplied by the Wilson government to the S African chemists sell substitute ver- sions of drugs when asked to had created government prescribe proprietory brands havoc in rural areas of SW raises as many questions as a United Nations Africa, it answers. trusteeship committee was told on Tuesday. The basic mechanism of the of the SW Acting secretary operation that chemists can 1S Africa People's Organization buy cheap supplies of drugs pro- Shipanga Hun-

(SWAPO),

Andreas overseas-Italy and the aircraft told the sources-and commandee alre had bombed villages and give these to patients who attacked guerrilla fighters. prescribed more expensive ver- SWAPO's Sam sions of the same drug. Nujoma alleged that the area had The chemist then—if he can been reduced police state to wishes to defraud the National 1,000 'patriots with more than Health Service--reclaim the cost in jail. of the more expensive drug, plus People had been removed a 10 per cent commission, from from their lands and thrown into the department. Even their concentration The chemist makes illicit supplies had been profit out of the NHS, defraud- water poisoned, he alleged. ing the exchequer. And the formerly SW Africa was drug which patient gets a may grabbed by terman or may not be comparable with League of Nations Africa on a prescribed. what was originally First World mandate after the Chemists allowed are not to War. substitute one drug for another.

The United Nations has They must hand the refused to extend the mandate, over patient exactly what is written itself but confined platonic on the prescription form.

resolutions. In 1968, the UN resolved to rename the territory The big drug companies spend Namibia. millions of pounds year, every At Tuesday's session, Nujoma flooding doctors with diaries, Britain, France, Ger- accused blotters, free samples, expen- and Swit- Belgium, Italy sively printed booklets and visits many, zerland of giving suport to the S from salesmen, in order to make apartheid regime African sure that when a doctor writes aiding the SW a prescription he writes the name oppression in Africa. of their product on the form.

SWAPO, he said, was fighting Patent only against S Africa, but not indirectly the against countries. The do secretary Shipanga also drug companies can Acting of the collaboration this hecause in most cases. ther spoke between Israel and S Africa.

take pains to patent their pro- ducts and are extremely sensi- S African Jews, said, were he being encouraged to go to Israel tive to attempts at imitation.

The fact that the illicit market to fight the Arab Revolution and, "top brass' in drugs is the Israeli substitute uncon- in return, were helping S Africa. trolled and that some the this products circulating Heath's Tory government 'black market' are substandard is now preparing sell tons of arms to the S Africans. not the point. If Italian drug companies can SWAPO's revelations are make acceptable for a timely reminder of the dreadful substitutes the products of the big drug reality of oppression and murder - and i that lies behind these deals.

monopolies no one, not

MOSCOW

Send a self-addressed 186a diapham High St, swa free booklist to:

JORD

* even the drug companies, denies that many of the substitutes are sub-standard-and if these can be sold at much lower prices and still leave a profitable inargin, then there is clearly • something more fundamentally wrong with the drug situation. When the Attlee Labour gov- ernment formed the National Health Service just after the war, it left the drug manufac- posi- turers in a very privileged tion. Because of the prescribing rules and the private enterprise method of drug dispensing through chemists' shops, the drug companies flourished as never before. They could - and in many cases did - charge very high rices for their products, price vhich were paid by the NH and which had to be paid if the rules were to be observed.

Foreign firms The emergence of foreign firms which were prepared to breach the rigid patent specifications has posed a serious problem for the drug companies. Over the years they have waxed extremely fat on the pro- fits from the NHS and they are in the uniquely profitable situa- tion of supplying a captive mar- ket which is hedged about by restrictive rules. Of course, these rules do func- tion to protect the patient against sub-standard drugs.

The Dunlop Committee on Safety of Drugs tests the stand- ard proprietory preparations and passes them as fit for use. This is important safe- obviously an guard. But it is no safeguard the exorbitant prices against many of the monopolies charge for drugs. In fact, the arrangements made by the Attlee government were part of a calculated compromise which allowed the important reform of the creation of an NHS without antagonizing too much the big capitalist interests with a finger in the medical pie.

The demand for nationaliza- of the drug industry has tion Labour repeatedly gone before and has Party repeatedly been Labour governments. This is not accidental. The reformist conception of the NHS stopped short in holy awe on the threshold of private pro- perty. But the demand retains all its force. a situation where the Tories are systematically pruning in the inter-, the social services ests of the 'national economy, it becomes more and more clear that big capital is using the perfectly social services as legal means of making huge pro- fits. industry A nationalized drug serving the NHS would substan- tially reduce its cost, allow the opération of really rigid quality and standardize controls pre- scription throughout the service.

It would vastly improve and cheapen the NHS and remove all risk of abuse along the lines of the Great Drug Fraud.

WORKERS PRESS

'THE MOST dangerous mis- take we can make today is to look at things and continue 'in the old way. This was the serious warning issued by Socialist Labour League cen- tral committee member Cliff Slaughter at the Young Socialists London Area Weekend School on October 24 and 25 at Margate. Opening discussion on 'How fight the Tories to and their attacks on the working class', Cliff Slaughter made clear to a large youth audience the changes taking place in which 'millions are thrown • into the field of struggle'. Importance This was the first YS weekend school for the London area since the election of a Tory govern- ment in June and Cliff Slaughter stressed its importance in rela- tion to a struggle for a qualita- tively deeper theoretical under- workers' standing of needs in the present situation. "The worst blow you can aim is to at the working class today role of theory, said devalue the Cliff Slaughter. 'When Heath to the says assembled political forces of

ORKERS PRESS

THURSDAY'S

INTERNATKNAL

youth Socialist Labour League Central Committee ruling class that they are going to change the course of history, making that decisive means changes to the advantage of the ruling class. 'Anyone who thinks the terms Tory are the same after the victory as they were before is living in a fool's paradise, he said. Cuts Describing the Tory attacks on the health services and the cuts in public expenditure by £50 million he said: If there are basic reasons in the structure of society which makes them do this, then you cannot change their minds by an appeal or a protest. 'Our responsibility is to fight for the unity of the whole of the working class. We can do it. We are the biggest youth movement fighting with a daily paper.

"The Tories have brought into their, cabinet men taken out of the biggest businesses and given top ministerial positions.'

He said, the government depended on the working class continually led by the being bureaucracy in the reformist labour and trade union move- ment. 'We depend on breaking the working class from these leaders.

'Our task is to unite the working class in action to force leaders to fight the Tories anti- the Labour trade Playwright JOHN McGRATH addressing the school last week- end. Title picture shows Keep Left editor AILEEN

JENNINGS

chairing the meeting.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14,

ALEXANDRA

PALACE

Wood Green London, N22

BOOK THIS DATE

ntral Committee member CLIFF SLAUGHTER addresses the school. union laws. They must not be iet off the hook nor allowed to delay the fight until next year.

'Bigger things are in the wind than just another wages fight- it is a political fight. We are talking about politically organ- izing the working class in action against the anti-trade union Warning of the dangers of what the Tories had in store for the working Slaughter class, stressed that the ruling class was prepared to do away with mil- lions to defend what they had got. 'Either we allow them to do that-and they are out to lay the foundations to what Hitler and Mussolini did-or we must win.' The YS anti-Tory rally at Alexandra Palace on Februarv 14, 1971 would be a rallying call to all those in the working class who wanted to do just that.

In conclusion, he said, 'We are the most decisive movement in the working class. We made up our minds long ago, on the basis of Marxist theory and the crisis of capitalism, that in the fight against Toryism you have to go to the end.' Appeal In a special session on the Alexandra Palace rally, an appeal was made for members to come forward for YS recruiting teams to build up the London branches, especially in E London where troops had been moved in on break the the previous day to council workers' strike. Special guest speaker at the weekend school was playwright John McGrath, well known for his two recent films 'The Bofors Gun' and "The Reckoning'.

Speaking on 'Politics and the Commercial Cinema', he explained how, from his own experience, films are taken out of their context for the manipu- lation of people's thinking.

This, he said, was carried out in a more and more sophisticated more subtly by capi- way and problems increase. talism as its 'One or two people have tried to take advantage of the bit of allowed by the film liberalism industry; they rarely succeed,' he commented. Answering a number of ques- tions and opinions on his latest film 'The Reckoning', John McGrath said that the film had assess the role of attempted to acceptable within an rebel capitalist society and to show how he is used by it. John McGrath's talk at the London Weekend School is the third successful venture of this kind where top producers, writers and directors have spoken on their work. Previous guest speakers have been Kenneth Loach and Tony Garnett, Roy Battersby and David Mercer. BRUARY 14, 1971. 11 a.m. Young Socialists and All Trades Unions Alliance

GREAT NATIONAL

RALLY AGAINST

TORYISM

THIS DATE NOW!

PAGE THREE

Help the Young Socialists make their a great success If you are able to sew, knit, paint and can make goods for our bazaars. If you can give us jumble, gifts, tins of grocery. Please contact Young Socialists Bazaars, 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4.

THE BAZAARS ARE AT:

LONDON

LEEDS

Saturday, November 28 Saturday, December 12 Plashet School Corn Exchange (nr East Ham tube) Leeds Doors open 12 noon Doors open 12 noon

PUBLIC LECTURES

The importance of Marxist philosophy in the building of the revolutionary party.

Lectures by

G. HEALY

(National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League)

DAGENHAM

OXFORD

Thursday October 29 Monday November 2 Thursday November 5 Kay's Restaurant Northgate Hall 271 Ilford Lane Oxford Ilford. 8 p.m. 8 р.т. Lectures by

M. BANDA

(Editor of Workers Press)

BLACKFRIARS

ACTON

Thursday October 29 onday November onday November Thursday November 5 Thursday November 12 'Kings Head' Friars Hall Blackfriars Road High Street Acton. 8 p.m. SEI. 8 p.m. Three lectures by

C. SLAUGHTER

(Central Committee of Socialist Labour League)

BIRMINGHAM

SHEFFIELD

Sunday November 1 Monday November 2 Sunday November 15 Monday November 9 Sunday November 22 Monday November 16 Crooksmoor Vestry Hall Crooksmoor Rd, Sheffield 6.

Digbeth Hall 7.30 p.m. Birmingham. 7.30 p.m. Lecture by

LIVERPOOL

G. HEALY

Wednesday November 4 in Glasgow Wednesday November 11 Sunday November 1 Wednesday November 25 Partick Burgh Hall Royal Institution, Colquitt St (nr Merkland St tube) 7.30 p.m. (near Bold St). 7.45 p.m.

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Money outstanding present subscriptions will be credited to the new rates. When these subscriptions expire, readers will be notified and the new rate will then apply.

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PAGE FOUR

Dentists Agreement not off ground ICI 'closure' warn on rickets THE Chancellor's welfare cuts threat fied intendrown te that will increase? diseases to speed-up •We spokesmar and then e to hold the welfare state, he said.

BY A WORKERS PRESS CORRESPONDENT

Mrs A SHARP WARNING of ICI's intentions was Thatcher given by a report in the local Teesside press disagrees entitled 'Invest or Die'.

This report was based on a speech by TOS are ON ticher Mr Harvey-Jones, ICI heavy chemical division • ron the mail! chairman, who threatened that: it may disappear it something is not KnOW done'. yesterday's

CAMERA IN

THE COURT

engineering uninted m Students Weekly Staff Agreement and stages ma object to olishurther sApril 5d from Agreement tor shot hild schoolchildren ree inquiry

WEATHER

chief

STUDENTS'

DUKHAM

Union has protested at the other unions appointment of Mr Kenneth in a fight for a strings and to Uxiora, assistant cael con stable of Northumberland to breve it is already ascepted.

inquiry into photographs taken by police Durnam Magistrates Court last week. ne normal, bur rate warm

ALL TRADES

UNIONS ALLIANCE

MEETINGS

statement to her odord be cause he had 'No anti-union laws' Force lu o resign Wednesday ca hidden camera was London COrn. Nags Heday. October 29, dent inbeing held hat inci ein held consiste Mr A. G. Pucker which had ing, who has been in awes one suker old near miss Maker Be st Omiceport

ALL TRADES UNIONS ALLIANCE

CONFERENCES

Support Pikinion to steerkers and their Defeat the proposed Tory anti-union laws Oxford

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8

COVENTRY: Keith's Club, Cox Street, 3.30 p.m.

• FROM PAGE ONE

NEWCASTLE: Royal Turk's Head Hotel, Grey Street, 3 p.m.

5:30 P.MLD: Crooksmoor Vestry Hall, Crooksmoor Road, Cord Town Anticed traffic norning Objective economic and Solicies biective: the s

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15

LASGOW: Partick Burgh Lesser Hall, near Merkland Stree ductivitie Guardian' editorial LONDON: Woodlands Hall, Crown Street, Acton, 7.00 p.m.

Speakers will be from the Pilkington Rank and File Committee ine, is cy one sucket. mothe theyare he das

LATE NEWS

is only the to wake up t spires

SE ASIA WITH HEATH

worker's placard on are yester series of thrust mney more overnmen i Prime Min Barber!' ster Edward Heart centE URGE all workers Heah, Luci had inch with Steel plant cal service cut to close secretary sie 1 and echoe ing Soviet Embasse for the tory OPEN-hearth DEMAND are Teft send during works strateem delay an questions or thdo-china. employ ev which has hated thet lobs Management hon and rate a Prob capp Ltd. (TU), resign Force the Tories to

WORKERS PRESS

nursady, october so, larl Minority Mundo Obrero' published Moving Shell strikers rapidly Moscow conspires still out towards CONSTRUCTION mark Pat against Spain CP Burmah

EEC

entry

BY ORACH SORR SPONDANI

ven tho continur PARALLEL with their ever-closer collaboration with the Franco regime, the Soviet bureaucracy is also backing a Spanish Communist urged them to return to work.

BY JOHN SPENCER

group which defends Party splinter the 1968 invasion of

THE

FIRST

PHASE

of Czechoslovakia. negouanons Dritall S This pro-Moscow group is led by General Gas masks enter

NO HOPES

Common Market has enced Enrique Lister, a Stalinist military commander Luxembourg with bott

KESPIKAIUKS

answered Premier during the Civil War. Lister originally voted with the majority of the Spanish Stalinist leader- ship against the invasion of Czechoslovakia, but Houses change his wand is say chance of a settle w a s Six, he chter seotiato said th mind dur- TUC still Tave the aim ing a visit to Moscow in 1969. by end of 1971. Stubborn strike at holds back Come ale more Contra The main oldical decisio electrical firm must be

• FROM PAGE ONE

addedvance of date, Eduardo Mand

ESTE

Tory Rippor cument he leade nego- 'and it's not adori Lister called" main oficial Spanist community system. 2. The solution of problems Stamma, Britain d monetary situation. 3. Thead: fore problems the transition rectived altar mers and as early as sossib producers Medals Transition cancelled to pro. = United State accept Common Market rules never took said. thoroughl Distingu

AGITATED

Carillo group The Spanis eadership euld win the medalsenera round up for mer stry. extr friendly relations opening up Pit pay Sane dictaton General

• FROM PAGE ONE

12 monthsreement broke an years anuat contec ne else of be bad woul to com- Negotiator Rippon at's anti- year Tor their anual die sate two tires rday ajority voranization Tale mated insularded ne see pice rises to e plant, who gates at conference. All is that and backing there me not coming heteve they wor chis ofer also 1974. chal pito likely to be borne out as the Abolish and the Franco abolish the fam are st Martial law after and non-Market More join miness alone decicheel Ecuador kidnap this Yorkshine largest l intent raise that it first Brodsworth and the Frances terestin whic practical stea rew and a niece enmartial _ Common Market talks As atened police unprecedente that Cesar Rohon Cat and hid Hers dardandicine a dest em I Szechoslovakia, bu bassy in Quito only the Soviet bureaucracy' business to woo Spanish indiate. anti-union plans clearly dinapped outside chi the Tense Was been Celed on Ceylon move to abolish celebrated its 50th anniver • Presido tarz monarchist maCariers when they mee ear-old Jose inter crania Senate Thim ends coum, comers Student strike in CEYLON'S House of Repre- Tue, bay the reman our sentatives has voted by a two Venezuela

'CORDIAL'

hirds majority to abolish th ontinuing to work Bravo recounted his meetin su-member senate. 40 At Bargoed colliery betwee Andrei Gromyko, ation Sovie yesterday and a distribution University, in the Venezuelan dis Scotish me Menezes cordian deserene establishment of const Federal Party President Unio Huanuni, BOLIVIA, Tetonbalties Mediothare : ives from all to eagesenta.

workers nent to ering order-so the If the Bill is defeated in the Senate I will House after ser

BRAZIL

months e arrested over 50 peopl thirds malority it will becom people mina in to be tried io on Then are pagatta for- offer detai page 3 for pay law without