T.U.C. Vietnam resolution ANTI-COMMUNIST AGREEMENT

DISCIPLINARY measures are certain to be taken against Christopher Norwood for voting against the government in Wednesday night's incomes policy debate. Earlere steeday, possible weps were taken to mossible drawal of the Labour Whip.

Norwood took an entirely principled position on what WaS widely recognized the labour movement political matter of burning importance.

The other 'lefts', after a few disapproving noises the debate, sat tight and allowed the reactivation of legal powers against wages to go through.

Yet this could and should heated been effectivety deIf we repeat the arithmetical calculatins blasted out by every capitalist newspaper and television news broadcast it Is because they recringing the betrayal. veal extent Voting Was 289 to 26, 28 government majority stained from votinlast-ditch Far from being opponents of wage restraint, these gentlemen thus are nakedly revealed as the abject defenders of reformist treachery!

Tottenham MP Norman Atkinson's claim that this was for them a matter of principle is farcical. The ement of the confident working class in OI the Labcur leaders finds the letts' the union leaders and thi Stalinists full retreat-as usual-before Mrs course, was nothing wipe her feet on their prostrate torsos.

She confidently called on her cclleagues to vote basis • reacti Trades Union Congress statement that it would coin erate with the government changing the framework of incomes policy.

The government, she claimed Perhaps directionihe most blatant was steadily moving in this abstainer was Merseyside MP Eric Heffer. "The labour trade unior rold the commons, wave told stated almost unanimously throughout the entire wise this policy to no- country. that they do not Telegrams had poured in to him from the Merseyside them demanded a firm stand labour movement.

against reactivation Building workers, now to be made the first choppingblock for Castle's policy had been particularly vocal But Heffer abstained.

Much editorial blood had clearly been sweated in oreer find a cover for the "lefts' in esterday Morning Star' report of th debate. clearly called for. Norwood' of mind-reading was 'Mr Christopher ran the report, only Labour MP to vote against the government, but the others could not bring themselves shee elves with the tores Instead, 'defending free collective bargaining, they sat firmly upon their back. They brought themselves, in other words, to be the political saviours of those who are more openly than ever paving the way for the Tories The Leagu states unequivocally that an It is now clear that the war in Vietnam by its nature involves the civilian population, in their homeland, in the possibility of such abhorrent and inhuman incidents, by whichever side they may be initiated, whatever their own political convictions may be and wherever they may lie.

"The declaration of the US government that such incidents do not conform to their policies or intentions lead the General Council to hope that investigation and inquiry will not be limited to the proceedings which the US authorities now have in hand, but will extend to the general purpose of the war, and to the question of whether its further pursuit can serve the material ends or the ideals of the free world. ...

communist to the core.

The General Council not only equates the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people with the barbarities inflicted on them by imperialism, it even compliments Nixon on his statement that atrocities are not part of and do not arse from Us policy in Vietnam.

But the resolution goes even further than that. Its only quarrel with US imperialism is based on the doubt that the present method of conducting the war 'can serve the material ends or the ideals of the free world' (emphasis araed).

This is the crude, cold-war language of ; "ommunism at its most virulent.

The 'defence of the free world' was the si. • on lue lips of every imperialist spokesman during the years when US imperialism, willingly served by the Attlees and the Bevins, constructed a ring of atomic bases around the Soviet Union and People's China, and launched its war on the Korean workers and peasants.

Free world ideals' And now, when the embattled Vietnamese people need every ounce of solidarity the international working class can muster, the cold war warriors of the General Council declare that US imperialism has been fighting all these years for the "ideals' of the 'free world'.

Perhaps this cynical statement is intended to console the bereaved relatives of the thousands slaughtered in the recentlydisclosed atrocities.

Any militant trade unionist, faced every day with the fight to defend his wages and working conditions against the attacks of those who own and rule this "free world', will only react with disgust.

They will certainly want to know who was responsible for moving this anti-working-class, anti-communist resolution. The 'Morning Star' tells us that too:

"The resolution was moved by busmen's leader Mr Bill Jones and was passed unanimously after he explained that he wanted a statement which reflected the broadest views of the General Council members.

'Some other left-wing union eaders would have preferre more sharply-worded motio Jones' view that the resolution should reflect the overwhelming opinion of the whole of the General Council members.' Stalinism revealed Here the hand of Stalinism reveals itself. TOMORROW Playwright DAVID MERCER answers questions on the Vietnam war and the 'Stop Wilson's • visit to Washington' campaign PHONE 720-2000 FOR YOUR COPY NOW All-London Transport strike ECONOMY No room for illusions REASSURING government statements about the economic future were given some rude shocks by publication of the October production figures and the latest OECD report on the British econqmy.

Although most of the fall in the industrial production index for October can be accounted for by strikes, the most favourable interpretion still shows stagnation.

Retail sales this autumn have also been quieter.

The optimistic talk in government circles received little support from hard facts.

Even the improvement in the trade figures depends, as the OECD report suggests, upon special factors, notably rising, costs and bottlenecks in other exporting countries.

Temporary

The slight advantage gained by British industry may thus prove temporary.

In view of the expected re-' cession in the United States, more intensive competition can be expected next year, by an cconomics reponer especially from Japan and West Germany.

The pressure on Chancellor Roy Jenkins to produce 'give-away' Budget in April as a vote-catching device will no doubt continue as Labour MPs contemplate forced retirement from Westminster.

His task is rendered more delicate by the signs that unemployment will rise during the winter months, since this will provoke further demands for a relaxation of the squeeze.

Danger

To respond to these pressures would raise the danger that the improvement in the balance of payments would be Killed stone dead, resting, as it does, largely upon the ability to keep down costs and maintain confidence in the pound by a 'tough' policy.

If British capitalism wants to aim at a strong, pound and avoid a further devaluation, if it wants to maintain a balance of payments surplus and pay off some of its debts, it must necessarily strike further blows at the working class.

The illusions of the Labour "lefts' and other advocates of expansion on Keynesian lines have no basis in reality.

On the other hand, the return of the Tories will bring the whole weight of the state to bear against the working class on behalf of monopoly THE WAGES deal signed by leaders of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives is the worst kind of betrayal.

The final negotiations at the employers' London offices were continually disturbed by speeches broadcast over loudspeakers to the 1,000strong building workers' meeting outside, all of which

roundly condemned the deal and called for the rejection of all productivity strings.

All over the country sites stopped work for the day against the deal.

Immediately the deal was signed, the National Federation of Building Trade Employers announced its declaration of war, with a statement of industrial relations policy which it made clear was to be implemented by all member firms.

MDW The NFBTE's offensive is to be spearheaded by the drive for full Measured-Day Work.

The NFBTE statement outlines the employers' intention that each worker should be subject to a grading by skills.

For each grade, which is to be determined by job-evaluation, a standard wage will be decided by the National Joint Council.

This allows the specialist work-study experts to roam at will on the sites and is the prelude to the full implementation of MDW.

The standard wage means that the basic wage under the new agreement will also be the maximum wage as the job-evaluated grading scheme enables bonuses to be cut out altogether.

Now as never before the task before building workers is the construction of a new union leadership which will reject all attempts by the employers to solve their crisis at the expense of the rank and file and fight for the nationalization of the land, construction and building supplies industry under workers' control.

NOWI

political victimization of Norwood will set the seal on a lory victory at the next general election more surely than any other action of the Labour leaders. It would prove to millions of workers that the right are ticaliy to the international banks and all that remains of backbone in the so-called "lefts' is firmly nailed to the green leather of the Commons benches.

I WOULD like to comment on the article published in December 13 entitled 'Mixed reaction to new ICI deal'.

The article quotes Mr Hayes, T&G branch secretary, who considers the Pontypool workers to have done well out of the new deal as saying "My advice to all ICI workers faced with this scheme is to make sure they have the fullest shop-floor and union representation or they will find management will take advantage of this'.

As an ICI worker, at the moment ighting against the implementation of the WSA agreement on the Wilton ICI site, I feel that more is required of trade unionists in defending and improving conditions than adequate representation.

In fact the management at Wilton have offered to take all shop stewards off the tools and put all shift shop stewRegistered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

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