Liars and their lies

letter of December 9 and for very good reasons.

You know as well as we do that when Ramelson publicly provoked incidents with the sellers of Workers Press during the demonstration on December 8, on the grounds that the paper should not have appeared on that day and they were 'scabs' for selling it, that this was a lie from beginning As a Stalinist and one who, like Ramelson, defended the worst crimes of Stalin including the Moscow Trials, you are used to the techniques of lies and slander when attacking political opponents. For you and the other leaders of the British Communist Party, truth has no meaning.

You are also aware that our movement has continuously defended members of the Communist Party when they are attacked and victimized by the capitalist press and similar agencies. Arafat erodes Feather nervous positions THE PALESTINE guerrilla movement is now in a serious situation as its position is steadily eroded under the constant pressure of King Hussein's forces.

AIR Corporations Joint Action Committee, which speaks for BOAC and BEA workers, are to black all Caledonian/BUA aircraft diverted to Heathrow from Gatwick.

WEATHER MOST central, S and E England will be cloudy with a little rain in places and extensive hill fog accompanied by coastal fog in the SW.

N England, N Wales, N Ireland and Scotland will be rather cloudy with rain which may be moderate over high ground. There will also be extensive hill fog.

W Scotland will be rather cloudy with showers or longer periods of rain. E and N Scotland will have variable amounts of cloud with some bright intervals, but also showers. It will generally be mild. Outlook for Sunday and Monday: Colder with showers in the N. Some rain at first in the S, otherwise mostly dry, but becoming colder• than lately.

ORDER YOUR POSTERS TODAY!

oM TORYIANTI-, You talk about 'unity of the left', but in fact you mean unity with opportunists and would-be traitors. Such people always prefer a lie rather than give serious consideration to socialist principles.

By not replying to my letter you think it is possible to evade the question. On the contrary, there are thousands of people active in the working-class movement in Britain who today understand Stalinguerrillas Jerash, one of the few guerrilla-controlled N Jordan towns, fell to the Royalist army last week, leaving the guerrilla forces without a single major town under their Royalist troops even went so far as to attack commando chief Yassir Arafat while he was driving round Amman with the right-wing premier Wasfi es-Tell and Arab peace committee chief Bahi Ladgham.

The latest blow is contained in yet another 'peace' agreement signed between Arafat and Hussein. Now the people's time army in the city and the refugee camps, is to be wound "Traitors' Those who fail to turn in their arms will be treated as 'traitors'.

On paper there are similar terms for the Royalist militia, but the guerrilla leaders have no means of enforcing disarming of the Royal militia.

The Higher Arab Committee, with Bahi Ladgham at its head, is supposedly in Jordan to ensure 'fair play' In fact, it is systematically using 'salami tactics' to liquidate the Palestinian revolutionary movement, who remain the chief obstacle to a Middle East peace compromise.

Arafat, who appears to be on the most cordial terms with Hussein and Tell, is presiding over this liquidation-Hussein is forcing him to agree to each new blow against the guerrilla organization.

Conciliatory

Since the Jordan civil war four months ago, the Arab leaders have moved steadily into a conciliatory position towards Israel.

Military attacks on Israel have been at a very low level since the civil war.

Arafat's continued concessions only serve to whet the appetite of the King and his extreme right-wing supporters.

This is the danger opened up by the complete abdication of leadership during the September civil war by Arafat and other guerrilla leaders.

The leaders of all four main guerrilla organizations have since gone along with the hesistant but inexorable retreat before the King.

POLISH STRIKES AND SIT-DOWNS (See page four)

Rumours are circulating in diplomatic circles of strikes and sit-ins in Warsaw factories.

The militia guard on the capital's Communiste Party headquarters has been increased and police armed with carbines were seen at the militia HQ.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

rinted by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), 80b Clapham High Street, London, ism in a way that was not possible during the days of They are watching you and Ramelson now. They know that you will carry out the same class - collaborationist policy in Britain as the Stalinists did in France in May-June 1968.

But you are not dealing with a weak Trotskyist move. ment any more. You cannot of General Strike calls ONE-DAY strike action on January 12 would be 'premature', according to Trades Union Congress general secretary Victor Feather.

French strike wave behind national claim LEADERS of the French labour movement have done all they can to turn the wave of strikes and demonstrations in solidarity with the Burgos 16 into an expression of 'democratic' politics above Town and city have voted unanimously on common resolutions against ranco's repressions, allowin Communist representatives t link arms with the Gaullist and centre politicians.

pleased to describe itself as 'anti-fascist'.

lar Front commercial tinks of the workeis states of E Europe with Spanish fascism.

Pressure

Yet the political gymnastics cannot obscure the fact that the groundswell of opposition to the Burgos trial is a class movement, expressing also the desire of the French workers to come to grips with the police measures being prepared against them by the Pompidou government.

Nor have they brought any pause in the pressure French workers for wage increases to keep up with the inflation of prices, for security Finnish coalition economic policy crisis THE FINNISH coalition government, which involves five political parties, including the Communist Party, noW faced with an internal crisis.

Though they have kept silent on the matter since Mr Karjalainen formed his cabinet in July, the Stalinist leaders are now no longer able to go along with the government's reactionary economic policies.

Following proposals from Finance Minister Mr Tallgren —including a sharp increase in the price of petrol - the Communist MPs have refused to support the measures without a fresh negotiation covering. the whole of economic policy.

Prime Minister Karjalainen, on the other hand, has made his government's future dependent on the measures being passed. get away with lies and evasions of answers.

We shall protect our right to function as a revolutionary tendency in the working-class movement and neither you, Ramelson, nor any other leader of the Communist Party will prevent us from doing this. We did it in the days of Stalin, and we are politically much more capable of doing it now.

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT against unemployment, and for guarantees on conditions of work.

Almost a third of a million local authority workers throughout France struck on Thursday for pay rises and better promotion arrangements within the service.

On the same day a meeting of Paris firemen decided to continue their strike campaign for higher wages and better staffing to put an end to excessive hours of work.

Four-fifths of France's 60,000 tax office workers have been on strike since Tuesday against appalling conditions of work and for better grading within the service.

Thousands of metalworkers in the Lower Rhine area (near Strasbourg) staged a one-day stoppage and demonstration against threatened redundancies and for the re-opening of pay talks in 12 plants, including a General Motors factory.

At nearby Faulquemont, in the Lorraine, coal miners struck for 24 hours against pit closures threatened for 1973. They were supported by shorter stoppages in all the pits of the area as miners came out in protest against government's overall policy on the coal industry.

The majority of 12,000 electrical and communications engineers on the railways downed tools yesterday to support the talks on pay and grading which opened in Paris.

Almost 2,000 employees of the 'Coder' metalworks Marseilles have been on strike for the past week against the sacking of 350 workers.

And there have been smaller stoppages in many factories and workplaces throughout the country.

Unions pushed

He told a . Luton trades council i meeting on Thursday night that if people were only prepared to give one day — 'an emotional outlet'-the Tory anti-union Bill would still be there afterwards.

January 12 is the day of the TUC's tea-break protest against the Bill.

Challenged that the impossibility of reforming the Tories La General Strike Feather-increasingly nervous about even the mildest reference action -retorted much at stake for loose talk'.

The questioner was as misguided as Heath when he raised the same issue.