Workers Press no. 59

SLUMP FEARED ea The daily organ Central Committee of Socialist Labour INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY • NUMBER 59

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1969

What we think AN ANARCHIST, Pietro Valpreda, has been charged in Rome with 'complicity' in the explo- sion which killed 14 in a Milan bank last Friday.

ON FRIDAY, December 5, Together with the

BY A. WESTOBY

• aeati Tuesday morning tony richarason, SnOD early on

BY TOM KEMP

steward at ARG (southall) or anarchist railwav worker Giuseppe iransport and tenera Pinell. • atter tall DEFINITE SIGNS of a coming recession are Union the fourth floor Workers' ing trom Branch leading now visible in the United States. The dominant Milan

NEEDING WORKERS

member of the All Trades role of the US economy means there are bound Unions Alliance,

DEMAND

gated in connection with the was to be important political consequences for the sacked. scene for a despicable cam working class in Britain and in the other pai nation wording costi confuse capitalist countries. Prices on Wall Street have reached their lowest level since October 1966 and there is no sign of any factors in the economy which could reverse the falling trend. The fall in production in the union agreed sa ten sacking. November too great to was Nixon's attribulaDic mand General alecurio strike works as been standar Comrade The interes or like mon Condemnation periencing bi which has sone on for The tact that that coi fall" COnE is clear the Italian bour- are deeped to defeat the offen-

• PAGE FOUR COL. 7 →

1,000

NEAKLI

oly in the giantnac. march Londo Engineering deadlock conclus all housine 2 egod ban Dictatorial chich indu dictatorial, mit FRESH attempts to force through the second would craftsmen staged phase of Lord Devlin's docks 'modernization' in ared ment reached s be London will not now be made until the New A SHARP point has now been reached in talks or hour changing the engineering industry's 47-year-old disputes Year. mOLabour Yesterdav's planned meeting of the enclosed docks proccuure. Price rises respectively. modernizaon committee was called on ov agreemen If the By an Industrial correspondent Continued inflationary pric Detween ine emplovers and union omelais concerned toward recession. The But this gives dockers no

STOP WILSON'S VISIT TO NIXON

readers may Ion muld be to cousie action nstiga an industrial Relationnission a racke workers leaving workers worse than in last Washington is building This accounts for thisplaye Trade Young Socialiss American working a s Postponement pitching Hushi otticials agreed Was the into the fight. aftered association Engineers take phille year, cast At th made legally binding by Enginee thet sains tone trivate par esistan e to Phase two imth Forking casement

@ PAGE FOUR COL. 7

nels reported to have lon

GREET

They declare they are employees mean ile anainst them. operate quandary. Copies herald over tacks Given a month Then Members of the procedural and the ending Witne must fishtenm

SHEFFIELD

i forcible detence is the 1967 or his righ cier Decor tered issue of tops gun. the several European u also Regroup Lation, senter ab branch The policy can many pise at a public meeting Sorts demand Vietnam war nort of the or merst See the film of the first issue being prepared and the printed and the film 'Young Socialists, 1969' Mistake disposa Washingt : with the most bruta

SHEFFIELD

signature action think that the Tock ers recent yelected by Sunday December 21, 7.30 p.m.

Industries Exhibition Centre attack Carver Street (behind City Hall) come to their shed ageman.

speakers MIKE BANDA (Editor of Workers" Press) And an end to pitica SHEILA TORRANCE (National Secretary of the ollowing resolution: Young Socialists)

• PAGE FOUR COL. 5 →

of the ittee of the ur League PRICE 6d. rage increases for four hole labour and trade unio novements 1 so as not

workers press The daily organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY

• NUMBER 59 1 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1869

What Big business gloomy over future Class fight Briefly we think deepens in An injury

U.S. TRADE

to one is Italy an injury Miss beare

SLUMP FEARED EZ

AN ANARCHIST, Pietro Valpreda, has been to all charged in Rome with 'complicity' in the explo wage increases for four sion which killed 14 in a Milan bank last Friday.

Together with the death

NEC

Tuesday anarchist vo tall General DEFINITE SIGNS of a coming recession are OpposI Union tour and trade union now visible in the United States. The dominant window of a

WEEN WORKERS

Milan police station while being interro member or de Al races role of the US economy means there are bound was Unlons A lance. gatea in connection with the to be important political consequences for the Shared. same explosion. mos sers the scene for a despicable cam- was back to Themest give Richrim working class in Britain and in the other paign to cow and confusi capitalist countries. the Italian working class.

Yesterday's Prices on Wall Street have reached their lowest level since October 1966 and there is no sign of any factors in the economy which could reverse the falling the support trend. Sita Stanch The fall in production in union agreed to his sacking. November was too great to attributable Vixon's policies • san de. What is Comrade Richardson's

A• U-B-T•W

General strike oking class So demonstrated. • salutan alone. PRichardson four Comrade ycars fact many sections strike Condemnation •Sales. Big tails in ated the hichal cities of his department as a In many Itallai on for two such still a result bonne As a member of the ATUA he about the Pros the early part with Vietnam consistently fo Fall year. anticult week were postponed for there job-evaluation Yesterday the massive strike vestment, which make in ported the underground a sure sign ol strike Com, de intenational re believe apenner, rival to the superorne

• PAGE FOUR COL. 7 →

I racialism in any an a they Engineering deadlock Manion Priva London docks suit by the a casualty industrial C.I.R. threat for scouting criminamn casion at readin our re talks called off and the sovarmone, ver Productivity chane bi may follow of that. There is a RESH attempts to force through the secon 550 blastfurnacemen astfurnacemen at The chance of hase of Lord Devlin's docks 'modernization' i verred in 1957-1958 steel work. A SHARP point has now been reached in talks on London will not now be made until the New Mo ded their four-day cent ployment reached 8 per Yeat esterday's planned meeting of the enclosed docks changing the engineering industry's 47-vear-old disoutes to ko yesterday and returned proced one " The strike was in opposition Price rises? modernization committee was called off by agreement nd Tune 197. with thei Lucito desed pay o treaten! Continued inflation: by an industriar corresoonder cac between the employers and union omcials concerned.

known that the this Is a breathingers Speer

STOP WILSON'S VISIT TO NIXON

well step in. refused have More and more support Their past year have been more that eaten up ey pours in The Who want to chang the Tr Belore workers worse of than abour costs SUPPORT for our campaig in that wid rave jumpe Wilson Washington is building up.

Trade ng workers here Postponement in their favour and then pitching Hugh Scanlo Amalgamated Snion of of Measured-Day When the expected in ato the fight dersh and work and to abolish piece- the youth

COVENTRY

expectses in tachine mil coming For overment " in are tore the ar

PAGE FOUR COL. T-

TAKE overnment Asterda

GREET

go-ahead for th

WORKERS PRESS

Pokes to an ende worth against them. are to be

AEF

Given a month SacreD the Private economic re felt i serve merely St the Amal nated Socie Vitnes forcible or as rice. measurer G. Taylor lefence Painters • since Decorator: also passed a Workers steward i ele hav Duckham Regroup will ances "That maintained trim its own at a public meeting Vistan sar pore of the separate entity group its hittle down See the film of the first issue being prepared and

THE

with the most bru tee 1i3t printed and the film 'Young Socialists, 1969 branch of the Amal, Mistake

PRE USA!

SHEFFIELD

destroyed by This could more Sunday December 21, 7.30 p.m.

Industries Exhibition Contro Slee Carver Street (behind City Hall) Day Wor Speakers heir aid an MIKE bANDA (caitor ol workers Tress) SHEILA TORRANCE (National Secretary of the workers and socia govern-

@ PAGE FOUR COL. 5 →

systeil.

PAGE TWO

eave home to beg in A bover ak, Right: African miners wa means o fingerprints takel. to have na white area. work k THE GROWING crisis of world Stalinism is in- extricably linked with the political and economic upheavals that are shaking imperialism. The theories of 'de-Stalin- ization' and the 'self-liberal- ization' of the Soviet bureau- cracy, so beloved by the revisionists after Stalin's death, are revealed as com- pletely bankrupt by the events of 1968 and subse- quent developments. The Czech Communist Party has been purged from top to bottom and the attack intellectuals within the on Soviet Union itself gathers momentum. Fearful of the developments taking place within the work- ing class on an international scale, the Soviet bureaucracy out viciously against lashes those who criticize it. There is to be no room for any development in art, liter- ature or science independent of the needs of the counter- in the revolutionary caste Kremlin. Last week, a two-day con- ference was held in Moscow and attended by more than 1,000 Soviet intellectuals.

At its closing session, Mr Pyotr Demichev, the Com- munist Party Central Com- mittee secretary in charge of cultural affairs, spelt out their tasks in the period around the 100th anniversary Lenin's birth. He called for an 'uncom- struggle' promising against bourgeois ideology, i.e. against any attack on Stalinism. Previously, Sergei Mikhailov, First Secretary of the Moscow writers' organization, expressed 'sorrow' that Solz- had refused to henitsyn acknowledge his role as 'special correspondent various foreign agencies and organiza- and condemned "toler- tions' ance toward the intolerable', The threat is hardly veiled and will not be lost on those who remember the purges of the 1930s and 1940s and their impact on both culture and science.

ORANT

g towns i their only has long as two days keln order to di * legally The impact of Stalinism on scientific research was revealed most sharply in the field of genetics during the Lysenko period. This took the form of a struggle between Michurinism and neo-Mendelism as two rival theoretical systems.

The struggle came to a head when the Central in 1948 Committee of the CPSU raised Michurinism to the status of an official 'state' theory, whose T. D. main proponent was Lysenko, President of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Neo-Mendelism encomposses genetic theory as is generally accepted today. It is an extension of the work of Mendel in the light of subsequent research. The isolation of a single gene, recently carried out in the United States, is the final proof that the hereditary units postulated by Mendel do exist.

Each kind of gene may exist in a number of different forms, alleles, and these called account, for example, for the difference between tallness and shortness in Mendel's pea plants. The genes are arranged in a line within the chromosomes situated in each cell. The laws of heredity are therefore laws concerning the distribution of different genes from one generation to the and the mechanism of next cell-division and reproduction is now fairly well understood.

On this basis, we can begin to understand the visible variation of organisms for instance variation in human skin-colour). These variations can be separated into two components -those which are due to differences in the genes and modifications which are due to differences in environment (e.g. suntan) or differences in activity (e.g. muscular develop- ment). Modifications therefore affect the individual body and its organs and not the reproduc- tive cells. Variations in the hereditary constitution are due to muta- tions. Mutations may involve a change in quality of a single gene or even a whole set of chromosomes. This accounts for the differ- ence between a natural blonde and a natural brunette (even intensive sun-bathing though may modify the blonde to be- come as dark as the brunette).

Research has shown that modifications are not inherited.

In particular, the black skin of Negroes is not due to the accumulated effects of sun- tanning over many generations.

However, this does not mean that environment plays no role in heredity. The role is not direct and mechanical, as Lysenko and his followers insisted, but takes place in the evolutionary process, through natural selec- tion. Thus Negroes are dark- skinned because selection will favour mutations correspond- ing to the 'dark skin' gene.

Black pigment prevents the indue amount of ultra-violet in the tropical sunlight from skin and penetrating damaging the underlying tissue.

In other words, evolution is adaptive. In this way, heredity and

WORKERS' PRESS

THE CLASS struggle in Africa is a matter of life and death. The death rate is high and the average expectancy of life low. United Nations Demogra- phic Statistical Year Books show that the life-span of 99 per cent of Africans is below 35 almost everywhere, as low as 27 in some countries The 1964 Tanzanian Five- Year Plan had as its One obiectives the This objective has had as as the twin aim head from 624 to about 240(1) 1980. third of African babies are a vear old die hetore they Adults cie so young tha' one half of the population, working population where child-labour is not ace. use•. as it olen is. Is usuaily taken. UN internationa 'Europeans' Rank tor eve onment. "AlC Tanzania. Programmes and so on to fact income of the about 50 per cent of the total British "settler' still zania, of British, South African economic measure of the high e-span it* italians and west dermal and life-span rate

SHORT

income A ricans in Aunca Not evervone in Africa is an outnumber according the colonialist - induced racial million stil cations sed and peopend ten most 'independent' with some 20,000 whites'), bu earn only about ou per cent ol stales the national income. from Hoar 'European' capi- ist average ker most or woom are poor, mere and takes are nearly nve minion so-caled the national 'Whites' which Africa. 'African' actual this £15. AnOl Income They but there are also mostly South typical of nearly al aunca Africa, "Thie income includes noth monetary and cunsistence siderable numbers in Rhodesia.

It is an indication Kenya, Baanda. Tanzania sub-wages Ethionis West Africa and des- ploitation pite the Algerian war and peasants. of the 1950s, also workers of North Africa evolution i i ne hier income together. them "Euroneans statistics 1c an on neo-Mendelism interlocks with the same thing. *Stricans different neo-Darwinism. of Europe The one recte on the other those of genetics is Wages and profits are inversely 1 ne science

USA

differ from the and the relateda is cho cheeption, ily based on a mass ol exper carefully nourec A trica tand ASIa evidence. mental stin Americal is, if anything, a stan- extracted from nature. The average life-span of a In contrast to this, Michur- 'European Africa cara rule. had no such foundation. national per capita different from that in Britain, United vital this the western Europe come Michurin (1855-1935), ctatichire which find expressiot plant-breeder lates in other so-called Russian stanis •oue Cole horticulturalist. but as a theorv chief the which • Atricans was mainly The average yearly income of elaborated and the philosopher of Afri- in South ATMCa in their Rhodesia and hact Atrice cans. essence, they followed in a grim result of their low, sub- In (Uganda , Kenya and Tanzania) the €500, TOOLSteDs starvation wages that Statistical Rut why are wages low. why.

asserting in particular, as low as is com- are inherited to a slight degree This is Books. each mon in Africa? deneration. and that times higher than an African's they can due to lower produc- average annua income course tivity The Tanzanian figure quoted to produce generations answer to this question, abysmally The low comnared given change. which average incomes is so evoludonary and conditions of environ- bourgeois Europe,

USA

New Canada armative ment annlied at certain critical Zealand, etc., economists las Africa. many times • been given bv anti- nhacec of the groanism's lite.

and of historv. were supposed imperialist Marxists. this produce but ever and ceptive, because it includes the effect. Chilean correspond for *sun tan' theory ovo ble Negroes. of the of the counter-revolution nov Arising experimental out of al Virtualv funds had to the liquidation perspectives, opposition, both real and evidence was forthcoming allocated to develop the orac- defence of Lysenko's theories.

all layers of tical applications various imaginary. Certain effects, claimed Soviet society sti wasc research. roduced Mendelian gene- completely From 1932 and his followers, did of tics alien to the party come under attack. experi- Chetverikov, Ferry, Ephroim-

NOT

aDDeaT Marxism disregarding reduce Levitky and Agol ments wert repeated tormulae neo-Mendelians crienticte in the cientific fact in the interests of some illusory aim. disappeared just 1925, Trotsky had this Camos first two vears. the crientist the Darlington wrote in 1947. The Medico- the a difierence in the as a whole shows that and degree foresight pre- donatica Inctitute world Lysenko is making use of three famous itc mocearch cision achieved in the classical precautions needed for genetics, was attacked eriences before "success experiments •Dut it ic thranan foraciaht 'environment' was -passive some instances. decioned to nrove the inherit. Chemistry active. so ved. beginning with mixed and founder and tractor to use proper Solomon Levi, 'con- that eering. science repudiating scientific guilt and controls, and justify ession verity itse t and statistical tests. vanished ther In other words, Michurinism International Con- The 7th "An individual scientist may scheduled not at all be concerned with gress Genetics. breeding auneriments * ho hala in Macenw in which no was called off, despite the fact precautions wAre taken to isolate the system that many geneticists had sub the study from externa the freedom greater his and whose meet- contingencies mantal anarations from nrac most called after could, tical daily necessity, the better.

cults was Stalinists had considered allow- nart neo. "Rut crience ig not a fung. Mandolicm. tion of individual crientists. it Yet following the session of is a social function the Lenin Academy of Agricul- The evaluation Sciences which took it termined historical evalua- from July 31 August place 48, neo-Mendelism was increase man's and Lysenko's canacity nroscribed with the power and arm him full raion fontaciac airan namar to farace avante and conquer nature' nonsense to do with the encouraged not least of all ir leadership in the first years with implications genetics, for agriculture and the breed- atter 1917. of this ing of livestock Chiantific To c the fole theories of neo-Mendelism boost in this period. Under Within the Bolshevik Party, guidance of the. Bolshevik faction least Party, the development had International Communist the events. weanon for the extension of tha neolatarian revolution tho monitolict The 1928 saw the countries went hand in hand vArr with 'Third Period' shaking the intormationally and the forcer collectiviratior agriculture from centuries economic

TISSR

The effect and cultural backwardness.

1930 catas Soviet there Between trophic anc aniontiato thom 1932, the total harvest of grain work, inspired by the perspec- foll from 925 million hundred.

700 million sugar nroduction • half half the livestock came from Europe destroyed. and the United States to make Stalinism spelt disaster for manatont contributione to tha yent they would solve this chroni the young proletariat. attonathaning tha international workers' state. Its passing over • to the camr United States copper miners' showed, for example, wages, in the 1950s, that the produc- tivity was the same in the mines of both countries, but that US workers earned some 12 times more than the 'Latin' American workers. At the same time, because of this, profits were incom- parably higher in Chile thar in the USA. Similar studies have been made, for some time, by anti- anti-imperialist apartheid and usual combination) (not a economists for the coal mines of South Africa. Starvation wages in Africa cause the deaths babies before they are a year old.

ing it to proceed, provided that all papers on evolution genetics were and human omitted! This was the period of the rise of Lysenko to prominence.

In 1935 he published a book, in conjunction with the philosopher Prezent, attacking classical genetics and in 1936 was the main spokesman for Michurinism at the first of a number of special conferences discredit staged to neo- Mendelism. At this conference, Lysenko was in a minority and con- sequently the published report heavily expurgated was within a few months was banned. In the period of the Moscow Trials, the attack was inten- and in 1939 a second sified conference was convened at which the Mendelians were publicly denounced and the Michurinists emerged 'vic- torious. Lysenko had already been elected to the post of President collectivization' was at the root of the crisis in Sovie olve this chronic crisis.

Thursday, December 18, 1969 These mines are not less modern, to say the least, than the coal mines in Britain.

The per African output miner is higher than that of the British miner, in fact.

But the former's wages is a twelfth of the wage of his fellow-worker in Britain.

Here is a case where higher productivity goes together with lower wages and lower produc- tivity with higher wages.

Needless to as the National Coal Board in Britain knows well enough, profits are much higher in the Transvaal and Natal than in the British coalfields. In the major case of gold- productivity mining, could scarcely be higher than it is in South Africa. Yet the 400,000 African miners earn in wages, food and 'accommodation' (in virtual concentration camps) a twelfth of that earned by gold miners the advanced capitalist in countries, quite apart from and in addition to their Nazi-type regimentation and lack of free- dom and rights under apart- heid. The story of productivity related to wages can be taken further, from mining to the giant plantations which cover the economy of much producing coffee, tea, Africa cotton, sisal, cocoa and other raw material crops from the land The answer given by these and a mass of correlated facts is always the same: the cause of sub-wages in Africa is not low productivity. peatedly suse, is suve exploita- as we shall re- tion. And the basis of this lies in the property relations in Africa. cause the deaths of one in three African of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a post N. I. previously held by Vavilov, an inter- Vavilov. geneticist, nationally famous was denounced in 1938 for (among other things) 'showing a suspicious friendliness genetical ideas emanating trom fascist Germany' and died in Siberia in 1942. a creature of Lysenko was the bureaucracy. His theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics—if scientifically correct - would have provided the basis for improvements in enormous cereals and animals. The devastation of agricul- ture after 1929 called for a "miracle'. Stalinists therefore The embraced Lysenko with open arms, with or without scientific evidence. They had long since con- sidered such details as of no The lack of any significance. scientific basis for Lysenko's theories only meant that the of his opponents suppression was all the more ruthless.

MAK KIACCA.

te crisis in Soviet agriculture—Stalin thought

Thursday, December 18, 1969

LIL CHON

NON

SCIUPER

L SIAMO

CINES!

PIRELLI

VINCE!

PIRL

UNITI

UNIT

Si SI

VINCE!

VINCE

ITALY

Motor workers from the Pirelli factory in Milan join the thousands of workers engaged in one-day strikes over wage demands.

ONCE AGAIN the Com- the US antagonism between and Europe is becoming ever mon Market countries sharper. are beginning the lengthy Just as in the period follow- ing 1929, the US is seeking to process of cut-throat bar- resolve its problems at gaining Britain's over the expense of Europe. application for entry into Nixon is pursuing a defla- the European Economic tionary policy through the Community (EEC). restriction of the US domestic money supply. The foreign ministers of To circumvent this the US the Six are attempting to corporations have drawn prepare a report by February heavily on the Euro-dollar has 1970 on the possibility market which in turn of of caused starvation capital their making a joint stand and record interest rates in on Wilson's request. Europe. The implications and forces Simultaneously with the conflict with the US, making for Britain's entry stem, growing above all, from the deep-going movement of the deepening crisis of world capitalism.

the working class has upset all the calculations of European The application is being capital and has already made at a time when relations ex- ploded of the nation states are be- many agree- between ments reached in the

EEC.

ing continually disrupted and, especially, The strength and combat- when the more

I.T.V.

The Poets' Charlton Heston, Yvette 2.25 p.m. Barrow George Chakiris, Christmas Party. 3.25 More Best Mimeux, and James 3.55 Face of the Earth. Nuyen Sellers. france 4.15 News Headlines. 4.17 Diane's Darren. Crossroads. 9030 The Dave King Show. Magic Theatre. 4.30 Week: Registered Bugs 5.20 This 4.55 Bunny. Magpie. 5.50 News From ITN. heroin addict. 10.00 News At Ten. 6.03 Today. 10.30 Cinema. 6.30 Peyton Place. 11.00 I Spy. Thursday Responsibility For The 7.00 The Film: 11.55 Job. "Diamond Head' with

REGIONAL I.T.V.

London 000 6.00 ATV Today. 2.25-3.25 Greeting London. Star oyhd5.20 ACTIOn Movies Majority One' with AlAC Chiness The Flaxton Rosalind Ruse Wender. 11.05 London. Channel News Channel File Sports 7.35. Curtain _rOSSTOnOs. ULSTER: 2.25-3.25 P.M. London e30 Thursday Web' Romper Lews and Weather In Presch The London. rench, Weather. Heatner 5.20 London. 6. 0, Tee See B35 Reports. 'Break- cross ones 2y5-315 London. fast At Tiffany's' 4.55 9.00 4.00 Housepar Yondon. London. Dangerman. By SKipPY 635 Day Weather. h.Ou Haven. 7.00 The Day. Castle Thursday an Film: Woman 3.00 Play Better Onsessed o.m. 4.00 Hayward, Golf. Bova 4.15 Theodore 9.00 Houseparty. London. 4. 30 Rikell 10.30 Peyton Place. 1 Southern The Forest 5.20 London. Rangers. 11.50 News er Forecasts Papers. 6.00 Calendar and Weather 6.30 Castle 6.55 Parri Weather Happy Christmas. Haven 'Parrish' with Troy Donahue. Colbert, Karl Malden and Dean Tagger.

WESTWARD:

Headlines: 4. Westward Peyton Place Connecticut tobacco country. News 9.00 London Ever After. Show. 4.38 he Gus Honevoun •Late 12 midnight anth Bovs. 5.20 London. he waxtor Westwardi Diary. Crossroads. p.mss London. 4.25 7.05 Curtain Raisers Poneve The The Secret Web' Thursday (rooked with Frank Lovejo 1800 The YOUr 9.00 London. Prisoner 12.01 11.55 Faith For Life. a.m. Weather. Amelia News 0.05 London. 4.0% 4.30 4.50 The Flaxton 6.00 About Crossroads. Star Captain Horn. 11.00| AS talks Marcus 30 LondonD Bob Wellings. 2.25-3.25 Me: "4.26 Cane

420 LESH

Scotland Early. Haven. New Crossroads. The 6.01 Report. London. Superman. 5.20 London 6.35 Crossroads 7.00 Scotland Now. with Ladies whol The City Film: Robert Morley R 20| Curry the have king Show All and Chips. 9.30 London 19:30 Gall. s Wild. a.m. Discussion 12 ith navwriters te Call Hadleigh. miniont weather. (Wales): London. Interlude. 4.29-4.55

MIDLANDS,

4.00 News ace 4.40 Paul Survival. 4.55 Stingray.

B.B.C.-1

10.30 24 Hours. 11.40 a.m.-12 noon Schools.

1.00 11.15 Weatherman. 1.30 Watch Ryan A Ronnie. p.m. 11.45-1.53 News 11.17 Car-Wise. With Mother. Weatherman. 4.20 Play and School. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Blue Regional The 5.20 Peter. Tourney The Earth. 5.44 Of Centre and Midlands Hector's National House. 5.50 Midlands Look East, Weather, Nationwide. 11.47 News News and Weather. Norin Weat London-Nationwide. 11.45 6.00 id: 6.00-6.45 The Doctors. Headlines Weati 7.05 Playhouse: "Joint Comedy Todaye 5.00-6 Account. Pauline: 7.30 Top Of The Pops. Scotland: 8.00 Softly, Softly. 10.00-10.30 M First News and SColane. 8.50 The Main News Weather. Haac ines Ireland: 6.00-6.45 p.m. Scene Will The Real Mr Sellers Northern 9.10 Around S Date Weather. Nationwide. • portrait of Peter 0.00-10.30 Derer. Sellers. Headlineg Newc feather. 10.00 In A Class Of Their Own: South and West: 600-6.45 p.m. Points Today Spotlight. Contlight South a Wact Conth What wacher makes good 11.47 West. Weather, News Headlines, Weather.

B.B.C.-2

11.00-11.20 a.m. Play School.

Richard Johnson, Jill Bennett, Terri Stevens and 7.30 Newsroom and Wilfrid Brambell about Weather. Rembrandt's life. 8.00 Call My Blues. News Summary and 10.40 8.25 The Money Programme. Weather. 9.10 'Rembrandt': Play with 10.45 Line Up. ivity of the class working individual

EEC

within the countries strictly limits the room for manoeuvre of each ruling class. The analysis of these chang- ing relations between nation states is an integral part of the struggle for Marxism. It is necessary to combat all reformist illusions that some capitalist equilibrium new could be established by the re-aligning of nations in such an organization as the Com- mon Market. The reality is quite the opposite. The historical weakening of European capital is the driving for force closer economic integration. Economic decline As Tom Kemp wrote in the Workers Press (October 1): The wars of the 20th century.

the revolutions in Russia and eastern Europe, the challenge of the working class and the decline of Europe economic not least in relation to the US have convinced important sec- tions of the bourgeoisie that it could not survive without closer European union' However, to be convinced of this need is one thing. To carry it through is quite an- other, as even bourgeois com- have long been mentators forced to admit. Twelve years after the sign- ing of the Treaty of Rome, virtually no integration has been achieved - in economic policy, monetary systems, banking, the social services and company law. The negotiations are begin- ning to smell slightly. The EEC's whole history is of the hardest bargaining for short-term national interests. A brief outline of the crisis of the common agriculture policy shows that there can be no question of the EEC being able to overcome the straitjacket of the nation state.

In August the common price policy had to be suspended for two years. For after the franc devalua- tion the French government was unable to readjust agricul-

EEC

tural prices as the reguired because of the enormous working-class resist- ance to any further rise in the cost of living. Every time a European cur- rency changes in value, the intricate bargaining over EEC farm prices has to be begun again from scratch. The West German Farmers' Association, partially realizing the basis of the problem, called for the abandoning of common farm prices until a European currency had been established the But world monetary crisis has made such ideas Utopian. Underlying the difficulties of establishing common prices is the root of the crisis: over- production.

EEC

vice - president Dr Sicco Mansholt estimates that to overcome it five million and peasants would workers have to leave the land by 1980

FRANCE

Farmers battle with the in recent clashes in the over the lowering of go

WORKERS' PRESS

BY PETER

van GENK Antwerp vehicle builders strike in solidarity with their brothers at Genk in 1968. and 12 million acres be under the control of are private ownership, their intro- unfarmed. As a 'Financial Times' article duction brings unemployment (May 15) put it: and vicious speed-up. 'Surpluses rising fast, Already two container ship- are and the cost of disposing for the ping Concorts them storing them Europe - Australia have or even nearly 3,000 million been formed this [now dollars a year] is well beyond Scanaustral and Australia Container Service. the capacity of the Common Agricultural Fund to pay. Each has sufficient capacity to carry the whole cargo trade "The alternative to Mansholt on that route! would certainly be the dis- The life-and-death struggle integration of the Common between monopolies of this Policy Agricultural into type poses the working class, series of national arrangements led by the revolutionary party, under which each member with the task of taking the would forced country be to power in the coming period bear the responsibility for both or being crushed. the high of food on the cost The EEC's customs union home market, plus the subsidies facilitates the employers' at- needed to deal with of surpluses' tempts to play one section European workers off against another in such struggles.

Big defeats Following the threat by Containers To implement Mansholt's Overseas Ltd to "defeats plan big would have transfer its Tilbury container to be inflicted on sections of terminal to the continent, the working class and small Dutch and Belgian dockers' union leaders announced that farmers. The second alternative'- their members would resist any national- economic permanent transfer. to ism—also poses similar attacks.

The decision was absolutely This crisis in agriculture correct, but on its own com- alone indicates that the EEC pletely inadequate. This move, and essentially a customs union- others like problems cannot solve its the industry, it in except by the smashing of the being used to foster illusions working class. that the working class. the It cannot overcome through militant trade union- contradiction which lies in the ism- -can contain and control of the sharpening conflict the developing contradictions forces the of capitalism. productive with capitalist mode of production and its political expression in Diversion the nation state. This conflict can only be This acts as a dangerous resolved by the working class diversion from revolutionary taking power and establishing politics. the United Socialist States of Finally, it should be noted Europe. that Wilson's application for The chaotic development of being seen entry is by the the transport in- EEC as of container a way resolving dustry poses this very clearly. some of its own problems.

As long as these techniques The EEC is looking to this country to absorb its surpluses of farm produce at prices de- termined by the

EEC

itself. Either the guaranteed EEC farm prices would have to be paid, which in many cases are nearly double those the on world market, or levies would have to be paid on the much cheaper food imports from the Commonwealth to bring the import prices up to the

EEC

level. To give just one example, Britain consumes over 400,000 tons of imported butter at at average wholesale price of £300 per ton as against the corres- ponding EEC price of £700. The extra cost to the work- ing for class butter alone £190 works out. over million. The significance of these calculations lies, of course, not in their details, but in the political implications. For any government-Labour or Tory-to attempt to impose this colossal burden the on working would, on its class own, considerably deepen the class struggle in Britain. If the negotiations over Britain's entry on for go s battle with the police long time. it is because the at clashes in the South British ruling class hesitates e lowering of government subsidies.

before taking on this task.

PAGE THREE

GESTETNER, the office This provided for everyone bonus was being earned- receive ecla amount documentauon was made ava- equipment monopoly based on each months output able tor inspecuon which manufactures dup- from the factory. At hirst the wor the nurnoses of the new vielded scheme, the die casting shop is licators, the nOW in bonus of about £5 a month process of implementing Some have received no bonus during 1966, yeal productivity deal a new the since Wilson government was in its Tottenham factory.

its Prices and incomes mented. even The Act, the bonus dropped to only challenged times have heen Some sections of Gestetner few shillings months and new times given. nothing The Others have earned bonus in workers have received high which is 100 per cent organized not in others. some bonus payments in the first Vorkers 1 the bonus une company. demandea In- few weeks. paid bears little relation to the spection of the books. But all workers must be being pro- On tne has that it was im amount ot work how the duced. warned not to be fooled by Setters in the shop came out this and to prepare them- letion of on strike and won a full back- scheme was rejected level for selves for the dangers that lie themselves and, as a began for the introduction result. similarlv graded workers ahead. a new scheme that could be understood. throbe rest the face shop has The Daily Telegraph' of he rest of the October 14 reported 'Sales in been rule Productivity the first half (of the year) In the background, of course, show an increase of 15 per documentation was the desire of the employers made cent to £29.8 million and pre- available to check their bonus Rods to replace existing and for payment of the factory tax profits including income metooos payment average bonus for the first two Work from de- thronah and weeks of implementation. investments productivity and their posits have improved by a compensate for reliance on the trade union and of comuse ack quarter to £4.05 million.

help alm do bureaucracy payment which. thev sav. is due to the and with higher sales at 13.2 management's tailure to imnla.

A lieu bonus of £5 15s per cent they are the highest ment scheme properly while tha month introcuced during that time ever achieved in the first half the consultants were hrought paid bi dose of the year-normally the shops here the the those Though the factory bonus poorer of the two. originally ship dea was not This is more profit than for stop-watch, vet implemented •ooose une da masters head for of the he year ending the whole introduced back-payment other 30. get which Maron increase in the ben bonus to shops should also be entitled amounted to £3,689 million.

£7 15s a month. to 'Telegraph' What had produced the goes One feature of the scheme change? state : is the •Possibly more important major * he sellout of the factor setting ur committee comnricina manage.

terms of bront the doubted v. ment and unions. and various factory engineers' renraanizatior which nav claim. desired. began at Tottenham last week Three million engineers came and which hoped will yield out on the one-day strike for some tangible b terms Bureaucratic only with of productivity during the be second half. Between them and the works' Since the scheme is being whole accortment introduced gradually and strings including the latest enough bureaucratic machinery rather then equipmet, work-study techniques. to slow down and confuse the In practice, the strings were quipmen best of caims implemented 'Stainist right- production should not being The present scheme is only and the first stage. verse v antected. Anew store. wing. There must hance 401 container locina ctewards alike wel in advance inevitably be should facilitate dispatch of tha final cattlement stages ahead - - more exports' The claim was sold out the to arreements. more clauses At present there appears to moment strings were intro- tie i must also be borne in duced into negotiations earlier be a boom in office equipment, m11ct alco is denendent in the vear mind that rapidly rising prices but the market The new scheme was imple- will rocket should Britain join the other industries office equipment which mented and the bonus supplied. consolidated on to rate, mention what Would hannen the increase given for were there another devaluation.

work-study. Unmistakable K10 bonuses can be earned The present scheme is a sec- now, but these increases in the Throughout trade tion incentive scheme wage packet will be quickly world trend A fast worker is encouraged swallowed there is an unmistakable which is to 'gee up' his slower colleague.

months those few to recession. a trendi otherwise he will not receive whose work has refecter in many ot the conn.

heen con amount for his effort tries to siderably sneeded un may find which Gectetner Each is paid according to the particularly the United themselves taking home a pay States, where they hope to sell nerformance level of packet worth as little sec. tion at a rate hased on their than they their new machines. were rate of pay. before Therefore o car. arning the scheme similar trend can be seer tion which reaches a higher in the car industru which level than another With production been hac pyten. the onset smaller cut back, not only may receive cession many could dna thoma.

their rate of pay is less.

Europe. selves out of work, despite no- aim in The stage is set for divide redundancy clauses. these The employers' and rule. prospects which circumstances is not simply to The scheme was accepted by are driving the working class produce more, but to produce ballot mass more cheaply. into chon meeting at which officials could Gestetner workers have al- not answer many of the ques- ready the lower- workers such as dustmen paid category; semi-skilled men tione asked hu the members miners are striking for creases and with families have been taking Consolidation Phase home around f15 hasic over are relecting the past year Two of Devlin. even with a hig marting plenty of overtime to make One staword entar that theu because thev are would be voting in the determined to resist the pro- up. However consolidation of ducthe die As overtime has to be paid the increase at time-and-a-half, management he lieu bonus less vote in favour. equally lonk for swung the hagan to WaVe aware being in- dangers of productivity deals getting extra production more Ac thA scheme cheapiv. those troduced chan by shop, and were nrenaredi to During 1967 they brought in sections in which the cohama losing Channe normant pothor of consultants halt the averanted reneive than place themselves in the based bonus be sections average hands of the management. scheme worked where Leading shop stewards, w while on guilable production figures.

giving Doument wae to he made for scheme is onerating. assurances ner 'hours saved'. Tha chame was introduced cent hacking to the die casterd meant. for example, four weeks ago in the die cast- subsequently at tha haainning that if, including overtime ing shop, which had registered did all they could to oppose strongest vote against the were normally worked them hours deal sections are each week to nroduce a certain Many workers in the shop opposed to the agreement.

quantity work thic quantity was now produced in concider they have hapn singled i hev must see that the road 40 hours by extra effort, pay. of atruddle sonina penductivity put for soch testment from ment would made for the management. deals is the road to the work- One worker ing class taking power. six hours saved loor were entitled to challenge Under the present leadership As the payment offered was the road leads to in Gestetner, hocod the hour v any times. manace- rate in the factory and not the mant had neglerter to givA more and more nroductivity time-and-a-half re- times to a large proportion of danle ceived on overtime the workers the even though time Tladar the andingand saras.

studies year ago ment, the unions being rejected this and more strings such a5 106 The new scheme is far more and very few job: The shan decided auhtla nOt hollande ony timec until more evalation was first introduced in settle- were available. f hord'e ic anuthing to gi began in the die casing shop.

ment which The shop felt that they had be eppealed inate future.

penalty can well clauses no way of checking how much

PAGE FOUR

Thursday. December 18. 1969

WORKERS PRESS

Die-hard

BIG DRIVE

Stalinists

FOR SPEED-UP

to head Prague

IN UNIVERSITIES

C.P. By a foreign correspondent THE CONFLICT between supporters of Czech Husak party Gustav renter Stalinists of the pre-1968 Novotny regime con- Libya asks THE DEVELOPMENT of the By an education reporter retary of the Communist for oil economic crisis now makes the

SLUMP

oranization implementation revenue Night-loading Cord luis to Sertization e-up intended in deals a matter of life and death resigned for the employers. London docks re Gules The acceptance of such deals by the trade e Organization of Petroleu stated in Tripolt yesterday.

Play ood person to the rank and nie, Is une maln spearnedu Ol le univers be de vo sol pane four. came declared its intenti These deals, often baited with some immediate wage firmer line in monopolies with mutercolo an attack on working conditions.

Increase, ental creased exploitation through speed-up leading to redun- Serent of sain rague claiming that there were signs Balance of payments de many

ATUA-YS

1 ne covernment - me executive committee or tne Daly angers

PUBLIC MEETINGS

big capitalsts — has organ- ized these attacks Stop Wilson's Yorks. miners min the state and visit to opposite of the government's Educational at present re.

Washington SHOUTS of 'resign' greeted mineworkers' union Barnsley Miners' Forum on December 12 when Face of a derisor pray fer thist ideas and sat. There

NOTTINGHAM

tried to defend his role during the recent grey thousands of workers Thursday, December 18 8 p.m. Daly had the cheek to say People's Hall Heathcote Street whole conferences o that the miners strike nad

STEE

sulenion university star and

WILLESDEN

Thursday, December 18 vic chan in seated that ly 8 p.m. Willesden Trades and Labour Hal High Road, N.W.10 stages and be ounted

SOUTH-EAST LONDON

munis official Samby taylo Thursday, December 18 wait 8 p.m. Kersfield Tavern Dall he contagion Camberwell Green er men made the une a Included urove Lane rakes a unio

COVENTRY

KEEP LEFT WEEKEND RALLY

Thursday, December 18 7.30 p.m. day • Noseide 25 pet ca Saturday and Sunday, January 10 and Il Holbrooks Community Centre to prepare the wes ng Masser Road = replin d F a me local pet paper i MolDrooks the labour movement today.

NEWCASTLE

Rhodesian Sunday, December 21 An injury 7.30 p.m. briage hotel East India Hall, East India Dock Road, trial opens Saturday, January 10 Guilty to to charges under The Crescendos The Element of Truth Special appearance

TAE

LONG JOHN BALDRY

Miner doed someh

FILM MAKING AND THE

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

ORDER THEDAILY

CLASSIC CINEMA, POND STREET

Italian public

HAMPSTEAD, LONDON,

emplovees strike

STOP WILSON'S WASHINGTON

NOW

FOR THE DEFEAT OF US

two day

IMPERIALISM IN

Et for three month so, hay Man on TO

DEMONSTRATION

i would like to suoscribe to workers Fress Tor

SUNDAY JAN. 11

ASSEMBLE: Speakers' Corner (Marble Arch), Italian Centred, Sobered dand Square past Downing Street.

MEETING: Lyceum Ballroom, near Aldwych, Details from 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 Crapha gie, London Sta: 072020009 outbrea or sect or so Canal Milan Nitand,