As morale of U.S. troops_ gets lower Heavy fighting ahead in Vietnam

HEAVY FIGHTING broke out yesterday parts of Vietnam as the National Liberati troops stepped up their preparation for spring offensive against the demoralized South Vietnamese forces. we US troops were forced to fight six major engagements during the day in areas ranging from Northern Quang Nam province to Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon.

Tanks and armoured troop carriers of the US Americal Division - the division involved in the My Lai massacre — were pinned down in a bitter six-hour battle in the foothills of Quang Tin province, 40 miles south of Danang.

NLF gunners shot down three helicopters during the battle, bringing the total lost since January 1, 1961, to 1,448.

The NLF launched overnight rocket and mortar attacks on the US base at Cam Ranh Bay, the airfield near Dalat, a hill station in the central highlands and the coastal city of Phan Thiet.

many Front US and acres carried out by US roops, morale is lower than ver and many of the troops appear to be near to mutiny.

Opposition

Open opposition to Nixon's war policy was expressed in Christmas protest in Saigon and in the television protests of two young saldiers last Sunday.

The failure of the Paris peace talks has been a further blow to the hopes of many US troops, who now realize they may be forced to continue in Vietnam for years.

Wilson's Washington visit comes at a crucial stage in the Vietnam war, when Nixon desperately needs every ounce of support he can muster to continue his genocidal campaign against the Vietnamese workers and peasants.

"A massive demonstration against Wilson's visit on the eve of the NLF's offensive will be a powerful combined blow against US imperialism and its British supporters.

ENGINEERING Procedure talks at breaking CRISIS POINT over proposals for a new engineering industry procedure agreement is expected to be reached during meetings of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions at York today.

Mr Hugh Scanlon, president of the Amalgamated Engineers and Foundryworkers, will report that the employers' demands are not acceptable to his union and—if he keeps to previous statements—-will recommend that the Confederation pulls out of the existing 47-year-old York agreement.

The Engineering Employers' Federation this week circularized union executives with a re-statement of its views on one of their main stumblingblocks-the vexed principle of 'status quo'.

The AEF and the Transport and General Workers' Union have so far stuck fast to their demand that when disputes arise over changes of any kind made by managements, the position should revert to normal National Liberation Front forces have begun to step up their activities in preparation for the Spring offensive which had so much success during Tet in 1968.

UNEMPLOYMENT HITS U.S. CAR INDUSTRY THE WORSENING economic crisis in the US is beginning Scottish socialist WORSENING economic crisis in the US is beginning to bite deep into the car industry there, bringing un- te deep into the car industry there, bringing unemployment and the prospects of a big offensive by the yment and the prospects of a big offensive by the employers against workers' conditions. ›yers against workers' conditions.

Thousands of cars are lying unsold because of the higher taxes and prices brought about by Nixon's 'controlled recession'.

Two of the 'big three' motor companies have been forced to announced further cutbacks in production this month.

Chrysler has said that all of its 37,000 assembly workers will be laid off for a week during the next fortnight. point shutting half of its factories General Motors, as well as for two days later this month, is to 'lay off indefinitely' Both firms earlier shut most of their factories over the while talks with the uni Christmas and New Year's go ahead. holiday weeks.

It has already been estimated that production in the first quarter of 1970 will Main pressure be 10 per cent lower than in the same quarter last year.

The main pressure on the This fall, coming after the union leaders is continuing disastrous decrease in profits shop-floor resistance to the in the Autumn of 1969, will KEEP LEFT WEEKEND RALLY Saturday and Sunday, January 10 and 11 1970 marks the 19th year of the Young Socialists' official newspaper. Selling at 4d for 16 three-colour pages and with a circulation of 20,000, it is the foremost youth paper in the labour movement today. KEEP LEFT INVITES ALL ITS READERS TO THE ANNUAL. GENERAL MEETING Saturday, January 10 2.30 East India Hall, East India Dock London, E.14 National

of the Second World War, in which the majority of the Soviet general staff and high proportion of the officer corps, including I. E. Yakir and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, were executed on trumped-up charges.

Wednesday's 'Morning Star' reports without comment the cynical justification given for the renaming in the decree, issued by the Communist Party Central Committee, the council of ministers and the presidium of the Supreme These bodies claim the change in name 'had been decided on at the request of numerous workers'.

In reality it represents a victory for the ultra-Stalinist faction in the Soviet leadership the same people who proposed celebrating Stalin's 90th birthday last month.

Full subscription

(Posted dally) £10 a year £2 10g. for three months I would like to subscribe tc Name Address the job, but it is often easy for the management to , get round this. In theory we have the power to make Fiat stick to the rules-but the rules are those made by Fiat itself. The result is a terrible pace of work in the factory.

The official unions-Communist, Socialist and Catholic-have done little to fight these conditions, concerning themselves mainly with increases in the basic wage.

Workers have therefore had to organize at shop and section level to defend themselves - electing 'unofficial" greatly increase the pressure on the US car workers.

In the third quarter of 1969 Chrysler's profits fell to 7 cents a share against 63 cents a share a year earlier, while Ford's earnings on • the same comparison had fallen by 25 per cent.

Even sales of foreign cars in the US have risen sharpe cause of the increasing prices of home-built cars.

By last year one in nine of the 9,600,000 new cars bought were imported.