Coal Board offer withdrawn Tories declare war on miners

WIe 21 vears principles THE General Metrong or Real Meeting Left' in London on Saturday is eloquent testimony to the Trotskyist youth paper's indomitable 2i-year fight revolutionary principles.

Begun monthly of Wembley duplicated Young serialists, i 'Keep Left' has defied attempts by Labour's right wing and the revisionists to choke and sune une volce orevoll• tionary youth.

Now lication keep Lett newspaper, circulation 21,000 twice circulation eight years ago.

It is in the forefront of the struggle to force the Tory heyeing ent Yesig, Socialhencine ists' national igam of the the basic right the working class-the Right to Work.

Retiring editor Aileen Jennings stressed at Saturday's meeting the struggle waged by 'Keep Left' the treachery of the Labour She the Pointed out that from leadersmip.

che aigned against the paer ment told coal baration by the Attleef their right were handsomely rewarded for the loss to exploit miners directly. The demand for workers' of the mines and end to the £600m interest payments laid on the miners' backs by the Labour leaders is right at the heart of today's miners' strike.

The Tory is government of Heath stripping the miners of everything , they gained nationalization in 1947 The Coal Board bureaucracy of the hated coal-owners of now taken the place it was the leaders whose reformist policies opened the or this attack From 1951 to 1964, 'Keep fought. inside Labour Party to change its tion un se under workers' contro nationaliza would becomi official Labour policy.

For this struggle, the paper witch-hunted and its supporters finally expelled Harold Wilson's leadership.

Then in 1964, with the aid police and the suport of the revisionists, the bureaucratically expelled trotskyist majority from the Party. 'Keep Left's' 'crime' was to say that the Labour governwould betray just as betrayed is gears be a merl the Attlee The Left Correctness of record can now séen by hundreds of thousands of workers locked. in struggle against the Tory government.

The enthusiasmer down 7 towards the launching md a pledge of the futur rictory of the working clas over capitalism and bureauWenccess in this fast eva to the miners in their struggle to defend their wages and conditions against the political onslaught of the Tory government and its minions in the National Coal Board. The Tory government BY MICHAEL BANDA is determined to starve beat this government on its the miners back to work own'. and defeat them rather hardly needs repetition. In than concede their just Hugh claim to a living wage. the Amalgamated Union of As the 'Daily Mail'-no he addressed his union's friend of the miners today or women's conference in March in 1926-explained: last year.

'The tactics of Mr Heath Yet when the crunch comes and his Cabinet will be to let and the engineers' leaders are the 280,000 miners sweat it faced with the prospect of out . . . standing by the miners in a "If the strike develops into united struggle against the the bitter struggle now feared by both sides, the government tion that can be laid on last will take powers to move the 10 millions tons of coal already mined and stocked at the pitheads and to ship subported bv leaders of the coal and oil supplies from overseas.' This is not the language of people seeking a compromise on wages. It is the language of civil war.

Hatrea

The government's arrogance and hatred for the miners is also clearly expressed in the decision of Coal Board chairman Derek Ezra to withdraw his miserable wage offer once the strike began.

The reactionary bureaucrats of the NCB obviously base their pipe-dreams on the precedent of 1926, when the miners were isolated and defeated after a terrific resistance lasting over six months.

The miners were defeated then principally because the TUC leaders sold out the General Strike and left the miners on their own.

After the postmen's strike last year, Tom Jackson, general secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers, revealed that the postmen's strike was sabotaged the TUC.

His allegation should be There must be no illusion in the TUC this time.

The greatest mistake of the Miners' Federation in 1926 was to place its case unreservedly in the hands of the 1UC General Council.

That is the surest road to defeat.

Political

In October NUM president Joe Gormley refused to commit himself when asked by our correspondent about whether the NCB's decision was influenced by the governNow he tries to draw an invidious distinction between the government and the NCB:

'We are convinced that the board are inhibited by the inflexible government directive to conform to the norm • which prevents the board claim, dealing fairly with our Let us recall that a similar tactic of trying to play off the government against the Post Office management by Jackson in 1971 led to the disastrous retreat and the acceptance of arbitration. Is this what Gormley wants?

The miners must and can win this strike against the Tories, but only on the condition that they treat it as a political strike which requires the active co-operation and support of the entire trade union movement.

The only way it can be won is by creating the political conditions for the resignation of the government and the election of a Labour government pledged to introduce workers' control in the mines, the immediate cessation of interest payments and the dismantling of the reactionary coal boards.

Gormley has said that 'no one section of workers can This is a truism which fact it was the theme of Scanlon, president of Engineering Workers, when Tories-they quit.

This is the only construcUnion's other three sections -to accept plant bargaining and abandon national struggle on their wage claim.

If this decision is endorsed by the section's policymaking national committee at its meeting today it will be a black day for engineers and mintab in the back for the We urge the whole trade union movement to rally to the miners and build the maximum unity against the Tories now.

The only guarantee against a return to 1926 is to expose the traitors in the TUC and build the alternative Trotskyist leadership in the unions.

See page 4 for coalfield reports.

Bendix

blacked BRITAIN'S dockers have blacked Thorn electrical products as a solidarity gesture with workers occupying the group's Fisher-Bendix plant at Kirkby, near Liverpool.

The black was imposed on Saturday when the national port stewards committee met in London.

On Wednesday, shop stewards throughout Merseyside will be asked to call a one-day strike and demonstration throughout the Liverpool area on January 19.

The call, from the Kirkby stewards' liaison committee, includes a demand that the TUC and the union leaders especially those of the miners and the engineers—come together in one industrial acion to force the Tory government to resign.

• See page four for an investigation of the Thorn empire. New dangers face UCS STALINIST leaders at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders are likely to face a new test this week when the liquidator demands delivery of a ship from the Clydebank yard.

In December, James Reid, leading Stalinist on the UCS shop stewards' coordinating committee, let three ships out of the yards. He claimed these would be the last to be released in the absence of any firm guarantee over the future of the consortium's four divisions and their entire labour force.

According to the liquidator's office, the next ship -a Clyde-class carrier-is due for delivery from Clydebank around the middle of this week.

Meanwhile there is no TWELVE HUNDRED Young Socialists and supporters of 'Keep Left' meeting in London on Saturday unanimously approved plans for weekly production of the Trotskyist youth paper from March this year.

The new paper's editor, elected at its Annual General Meeting in Poplar Civic Hall, is Gary Gurmeet, a 20-year-old Workers Press stafi reporter.

The record crowd at the AGM heard Aileen Jennings, retiring after eight years in the editorial chair, outline the plans to continue 'Keep Left's' expansion.

After summarizing the paper's consistent struggle for socialist principles against the Tories and the Labour and trade union leaders, she went on:

'As we enter 1972, the Young Socialists are more than ever part of the vanguard in preparing the revo lutionary leadership of the working class.

'The Young Socialists are first in the field to organıze agreement on the future of Clydebank. And a feasibility study, which will give a verdict on the Scotstoun yard, is unlikely to be published until next week.

Don Tonner, secretary of the Clydeside Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said yesterday that union officials including Danny McGarvey would meet shop stewards on Friday.

"They will have to take • very responsible attitude,' warned Tonner. At some time the executives of the unions will have to be involved at UCS!

This was a reference to statement made by McGarvey, president of the Boilermakers' Society, last Friday after a meeting with UCS stewards.

He warned that if his 1,200 vote for new weekly 'Keep Left' YOUNU SULTALISIS SAY ONLY A GENERAL STRIKE CAN MAKE READ ANA: THE TORIES RESIGN THE ONLY REVOLUTIONARY AGM delegates vote for the expansion. the great national campaign for the right to work.

'Arrangements are now going ahead for three great marches. We will be marching in the middle of a miners' strike and possibly the engineers also.

"These marches will be the central point of the struggle to make the Tory government resign.' Comrade Jenning's report led to an enthusiastic discussion of the Right-to-Work campaign, with a number of young unemployed workers taking part.

A collection at the AGM paised a magnificent £118 towards the campaign.

Bringing fraternal greetings from the Socialist Labour jobs fight negotiations with Breaksea Tanksbips, which begin today in Houston, Texas, did not solve the Clydebank problem, discussion with Govan Shipbuilders on wages and conditions would have to begin.

If the stewards agree to this it would be a break from their own stated position that "meaningful discussions can start until the future of all the division and jobs is guaranteed.

The only comment from the stewards after Friday's meeting came from James Reid. He said things 'looked good, MeGarvey's return await from Texas.

• See tomorrow's Workers Press for an analysis of the present stage of the struggle at UCS.

£1,250 Fund now £202.61 AS MINERS give their answer to the Tories, they speak out for thousands of workers everywhere.

out to miners and all those involved in this struggle. Help us expand our circulation, particularly amongst the coalfields. Take copies yourself to sell.

Immediately let's have a big effort to raise as much as possible of January's Fund. Post all donations to:

186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4.

DAILY PAPER League, Central Committee member Mike Banda drew attention to the chaos and anarchy into which the capitalist system found itself plunged.

'Millions of people are going to be condemned to unemployment and starvation because of this crisis', comrade Banda warned the meeting.

The other side of this, he said, was reflected in the victories of the Pathet Lao, the Cambodian freedom fighters, the National Liberation Front of Vietnam and the Bangla Desh people.

Commending the election of Gary •Gurmeet as 'Keep Left' editor, comrade Banda added that the best guarantee of working-class victory lay in the expansion of the paper and of Workers Press.

After the meeting, the Young Socialists' film of last year's 4,000-strong, Alexandra Palace rally was shown, and visitors attended a dance in the evening with music from the Pete Banks Sound and Watford police in death probe SENIOR . police officers are investigating the death of a man taken to hospital from a Hertfordshire police station.

• police statement sai esterday that early on New Year's Day, after an emerg: ency call had been received by the police about a disturbance, in Watford town arrested centre.

They were taken to Watford police station. While being taken to the cells one of the men fell, received injuries to his head, and was taken to hospital.

He died Saturday. government?