Government Stewards reject 10p.c. offer More power strikes for 15p.c. increase?

From the end of the year -the statutory 3.5 per cent limitation on dividend increases will be abolished and general gövernment control over dividend levels will end.

This was made clear in the announcement at the end of last week from Mr Jack Diamond, chief secretary to the Treasury.

The Confederation of British Industry. was understandably 'relieved' that the decision, one for which it has been pressing tor several months, had been taken.

The City indicated its pleasure with the share price increase which followed the announcement.

Fraud

The policy of dividend restraint has in any case been a complete fraud.

All those 'left' Labour MPs and trade union • leaders who at first supported the Prices and Incomes Act on the grounds that it represented an 'all round' incomes policy also joined in the fraud.

Diamond, answering Commons' questions on the move, said:

"The government gladly acknowledges that on no single occasion has it been necessary to use these powers [the 3% per cent dividend limitation]'.

Not passed on What he failed to say was that the profits have not been passed on and dividends since 1966 have been reinvested and are now available for a shareholders' bonanza.

On the other hand, wage increases stopped for the last 24 years have been lost for ever, or can only be got back in bitter struggle against the employers and the governIn other words, while capitalism remains there can be no control of profits, dividends or prices.

Once more the Labour government has revealed its true face: it does everything to strengthen captalism while pressing ahead with its attacks on the working class.

offers a 'derisorv' £50 derisorv' THE BURNHAM committee management panel yesterday made what teachers will undoubtedly consider a derisory offer of a £50-a-year interim increase.

The offer, representing a 4 per. cent increase, will rejected by teachers who in recent weeks have seen big wage incerases won by deterRowthorn L.T.B. guards fight 'potential LONDON underground guards, now in the fourth week of their dispute over mileage payments, are to strike again tomorrow for 24 hours.

This will be the third one-day strike in three weeks and is expected to bring most tube lines to a total halt.

The strike call came on guards' each ol the lines - turne lown a recommendation fron Aam Mean would see ffer-which would give mos f the men an increase o Burnham mined sections of workers: 12 per cent for firemen, 9 per cent for miners, and 16 per cent for dustmen.

Teachers are demanding an interim salary award of £135 à year.

Their militancy has forced their very reluctant union executive to make plans for strike action.

The executive was considering its next move at a meeting last night.

We offered equal space in 'The Newsletter' for Rowthorn to reply, but he remained Silent, and for good reason. We have now received information which reveals that he has joined the Communist Party.

About Rowthorn, Tariq Ali remains silent—not a word has been written in the 'Black Dwarf'.

This silence is just the same as the silence of Pablo and Mandel in 1957 when their English collaborators, Lawrence and company, also joined the Communist Pabloism now in the form of Purdie and Mandel dare not say anything about Rowthorn because they have in fact opened the political door for him to go to the That was what happened in 1953 and the same process is going on today.

We await an explanation in the 'Black Dwarf from urdie and Taria Al ixplain Rowthorn's actions Better still, the door is open for Rowthorn to tell us he has not joined the Communist Party.

We will gladly publish retraction. POWER TE THE ELECTRIC OU ICIL LiTA wage cut' only Is. a day—as 'pathetically inadequate'.

Only one guard in a thousand would get the top mileage rate of 7s. 4d. a day under the offer, he said.

The guards' dispute follows the LTB's introduction of a brings LTB guards scheme in line new mileage which with those on the main line.

Wage cut

This has meant an average 10s.-a-week wage-cut for the tube guards; who cover less mileage than the main line guards.

The LTB guards want their mileage payments brought into line with motormen's mileage money.

They feel the present payment method takes no account of the responsibility and training involved in their jobs.

The new scheme was introduced by the management without the unions' consent,' Tom McCloskey told Workers Press.

'But the unions have done nothing to fight it.

With the introduction of this new scheme we've taken a potential pay cut. We feel the trade unions have gone off the rails.

'We are all amazed at the tremendous response there has been to two strikes we have already called. We expect virtually 100 per cent ofot Wednesday's strike be Management change Other committee members spoke of the low wages earned by tue weard in two I take home £15, and I have three children at home. This week for 54 hours work I took home £19,' one committee member said.

In the background to the dispute is the change in London Transport's manageThe underground has been taken over by the Tory Greater London Council and the government has written off outstanding LTB debts.

The GLC intends to run the service at a profit.

This can only be done on the basis of a big attack on the tube workers.

That is why all London Transport workers must back up the guards' fight.

CENOTAPH

FINES THREE demonstrators who admitted shouting 'Remember Biafra' during Sunday's Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in London's Whitehall were each fined £10 for using insulting words likely to cause a breach of the peace. A police inspector said he had arrested them 'for their own protection'. MOTOR Industrial action of a more prolonged nature than last Friday's 24-hour strike could well be recommended when the stewards meet again to consider the results of these meetings. They are demanding pay increases of at least 15 per cent.

The Electricity Council's offer has been described as meaning increases of up to £3 a week for the electricity supply industry's 133,000 workers-an old statistical trick.

As the power workers who lobbied last Friday's negotiations told the Workers Press, only a very small minority indeed earn enough to reach this figure.

I was shown several payslips amounting to only f16 and £l7 a week.

"This used to be a good job just after nationalization,' commented one power station maintenance electrician, but now we're far worse off than men doing exactly the same work in outside industry. This is scandalous.' Proven, rise It is not only the low wages which drive forward their The Electricity Council's 10 per cent offer is unlikely to be opposed by the government because there has been a proven increase in productivity over the last two years— 6.5 per cent more electricity has been sold while 10,000 power workers have gone out of the industry in the last year alone.

This allowed the Electricity Council to show a £100 million Workers at many power stations are also faced with local productivity deals which threaten a further cuttingdown of the labour force. • At one London station, over half the present strength is soon to be surplus to requirements.

Speed-up, of course, goes hand-in-hand with this.

There is already a considerable amount of flexibility and mobility of labour in the power stations and workers fear their union leaders will agree to more.

Feeling is rapidly building up that power workers should follow the example of the miners, the firemen and the dustmen in order to win a decent living wage.

Rents will rise says Greenwood MINISTER of Housing and Local Government, Mr Anthony Greenwood, announced at theend of last week that the government had given 'much thought' to future rent increases after his control powers expire (as part o Act) at the end of the year.

Agreement had been reached with the Local Authority Associations, he said, that 'rents will only be increased to the extent necessary to meet unavoidable increases' in costs. • Save in exceptional circumstances, in any >2-week period no general increase in standard rent will involve an average increase of more than 7s 6d a week and no Seven arrests in Danish IN THE last week the Danish police have raided two leftwing periodicals and arrested seven of their supporters.

The pretext given for this witch-hunr is alleged publication uf 'secret military information' by the journals 'Vietnam Solidarity' and the bi-weekly 'Poltisk Revy'. all MIDDLE EAST settlement UNITED STATES government officials have confirmed earlier reports that the Soviet and US diplomats are nearing agreement on a Middle-East 'settlement'.

According to the same source, final agreement hinged on Soviet acceptance of a series of US State Department proposals.

Almost certainly fearing deal at Egypt's expense, President Nasser delivered one of his most militant speeches since the June 1967 war with Israel.

Addressing deputies at the opening of the Egyptian National Assembly, Nasser dismissed any possibility of a peacetul, negotiated settlement with Zionism :

"Sea of blood' "There is absolutely no doubt that we have no alternative other than to wage the battle of destiny against Israel. We must fight our way to victory on a sea of blood and across a horizon of fire' Gorton still Tory leader JOHN GORTON, narrow victor over Labour in the recent Australian general election, held . off a double challenge to his leadership of the Liberal-Country Party on Friday.

He defeated William McMahon and David Fairbairn in the ballot for the leadership of the party's parliamentary group.

The exact voting figures are being withheld.

Yesterday Mr John McEwen, 69, the deputy prime minister, was re-elected leader of the Country Party, junior partner in Australia's coalition government with the Liberal Party. Workers' Press reporter the Prices and Incomes increase for any individual dwelling will exceed 10s a These assurances mean nothing, of course, as council housing is certainly now in 'execeptional circumstances' because of soaring interest rates.

Interest payments to the bankers, as is well known, take half to three-quarters of all councils' expenditure on On Saturday, for example, Newcastle council said that the rents of its 42,000 council houses would go up by 3s yd a week from next April to meet increased interest charges.

The chairman of the housing management committee stated that interest charges would go up next. year by £600,000 and the only way to pay this was to put up Greenwood also admitted that the Greater London Council had rejected even the very limited agreement that he sought.

GLC tenants have, however, not waited for Greenwood to tell them that he can do nothing for them.

At least 4,000 of them are determined to continue withholding rent increases imposed last year, despite the GLC's application for eviction But all the experiences of the last three years suggest that Nasser's militant talk obscures a lack of any real perspective of struggle against imperialism and its Zionist agents.

The White House and the Kremlin talk in terms of a peaceful compromise, Nasser in terms of armed struggle. Apollo 12 blast-off Friday Crisis behind U.S. moonshot TH APOLLO-I2 team has begun the countdown for the second moon - walk mission with lift-off just four days away.

From now until Friday, every system of the rocket and the two spacecraft, the Apollo command module and the lunar module, will be thoroughly checked out.

After lift-off from Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy at 5.23 p.m. BST on Friday, November 14, the schedule of main events, including TV transmissions, will be as printed below.

Undoubtedly, millions of people throughout the world will be watching their TV sets and following the progress of the three US astronauts— Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean-on their hazardous journey, although, in essence, the voyage will repeat what was carried out by the Apollo-11 team.

The lunar surface will be 'seeded' with instruments and an attempt will be made to contact the robot Surveyor ship.

NASA ROCKED

Yet behind the tremendous publicity campaign for the Apollo-ll astronauts and the build-up , to the launching of Apollo-12, a severe crisis is rocking the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

There is growing criticism by space scientists of the orientation of the US space programme towards "space spectaculars' and a number of resignations have taken place since last july.

Part of this has been the lack of preparation of the Apollo flights up to Apollo-20 in 1972.

It is felt that three flights a year does not give adequate opportunity for modifying consecutive spacecraft in the light of knowledge gained from previous flights.

In other words, too much cash and too much risk in too short a time for a relatively small gain in scientific data.

WELL AHEAD

At the same time, the Russians are known to be four years ahead in the development of re-usable space shuttles.

Such a vehicle, which could be used perhaps 100 times, would reduce the cost of transportation into Earth orbit from 1,000 dollars a pound to around 25 dollars and would cut drastically the cost of constructing space stations.

The Americaus hope that by 1977 they will be able to construct shuttles powered by the Nerva nuclear rocket engine which is estimated to Milan TV workers on Fiat demo THOUSANDS of workers clashed with Milan police after a rally protesting against poor television coverage of Italy's current strike wave.

Around 3,000 workers attacked the sales and spare parts headquarters of the Fiat company and demanded that clerical workers came out to join them in the rally.

Police hit back with a barrage of tear gas grenades followed by baton charges. 25 policemen were injured and three workers taken to hospital.

The most significant aspect of the rally was the support given by television workers and journalists, who were in agreement with the workers that the heads of the TV, radio, and the press had been operating a partial black-out on the development of the strike movement. engineering In Rome, journalists joined demonstration in front of the Italian state television headquarters. be twice as efficient as conventional chemical rockets.

This would reduce the cost of transporting 1 Ib of material from the earth's surface to the lunar surface from a fantastic 100,000 dollars to a mere 200 dollars.

While the US will have to make a major reorientation of its programme, the USSR faces considerable problems.

Unlike the Americans the Russians do not have the advantage of a world-wide satellite communications system and this may have contributed to the failure of the Luna-15 flight and the anti-climax of the recent triple Soyuz launch.

In addition, both the US ruling class and the Soviet bureaucracy know that neither DATE TIME EVENT Friday 08.10 p.m. Out of earth orbit Sunday 16 Monday 17 04.52 a.m.

Tuesday 18 01.23 a.m. 07.58 a.m. 12.08 p.m.

Thursday 06.42 a.m.

08.42 a.m. 03.27 p.m. 07.03 p.m.

Friday 09.27 p.m.

Sunday 23 Monday 24 10.03 p.m. Spashdown the capitalist nation state nor 'socialism in one country' can provide the resources for a permanent Moon colony or a viable and safe expedition to Mars.

The latter would involve an annual expenditure reaching eight billion dollars a year and an estimated cost for the expedition of up to 48 billion dollars.

'JOINT EFFORT' Many Americans are asking why space exploration cannot be carried out more economically on proper international lines.

Scientists are suggesting that a • Lunar International Laboratory should be a target for the near future, ferried out to • the Moon by both Russian and American vehicles and assembled by an international team.

Perhaps even a World Space Authority to plan and coordinate development of Moon bases, space stations and manned interplanetary expeditions might be considered. lunar orbit Entry into lunar modulı Touchdown First walk be valk begins jurveyor site activities Lift-off from Minn/ Docking Return journey More is involved in 'peaceful co-operation' in space than simply pooling resources and scientific know-how as both US imperialism and the Soviet leadership realize.

The desire of scientists to collaborate on space research will be used by the bureaucracy to further its plans for a rapid rapprochement with the Americans to block the European revolution.

This will increase the danger of the penetration of capital into the USSR - an urgent necessity for imperialism in severe economic crisis.

The development of a planned world socialist economy is essential for the scientists' plans to bear their full fruit.

Utopian This is not a question, coschemes operation' but the extension of the workers' states by revolutionary means.

TV DURATION 08.38 p.m. 70 mins. 00.53 a.m. 30 mins.

09.33 a.m. 50 mins. 05.23 a.m. 30 mins.

04.18 a.m. 20 mins. 12.03 p.m. 34 hrs.

06.52 a.m.

06.43 p.m.

10.18 p.m. 20 mins. 12.53 p.m. 30 mins.

jail terms Athens trials FOUR MEN, two of whom claimed to have been tortured by Greek police, were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 16 to 20 years by an Athens court martial on Friday.

This was the fourth day of a series of trials staged by the military regime.

Altogether, 36 people are accused of plotting to overthrow the regime in order to establish a communistdominated government.

The British and international labour movement must raise its voice against the persecution of Greek socialists and trade unionists.