workers press

The daily paper of the Socialist Labour League, 1969–1973: a searchable archive of the scans

Workers Press no. 720

22 March 1972 · 12 scanned pages · about 15,697 words of machine-read text

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Scan page 1

workers press

TORY CRISIS

Lift Trafalgar Square ban INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY MARCH 22, 1972• No. 7

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST L

BY OUR OWN REPORTER

STILL REELING from their defeat at the hands of the miners and facing a stiff battle with the country's 3 million engineering workers the Tories have mapped out what could be a General Election Budget to meet their political and economic crisis. measures was 'to stimulate invest- The Budget announced by not a sufficient stock of reserve assets at present to restore the ment and modernization and help Barber in Chancelor ARMORY general convertibility of US industry to equip itself to com- Commons yesterday The dollars the effectively the by monetary

POLO

aimed at assisting Dig bustess authorities, he said. common Marker. on the eve of Common Market Barber attacked wage increases entry while flinging a few sops cent (75p for stated the working class in €1.20 that the out' pensioners ane

TOT

Shake form of modest pensions couple) the National married inausay stemmed IrOm Une increase in comparison to the flat contribution Insurance rate rapid rise in wage costs.

in the cost-of- up by 10p will be DuL He congratulated the Con- from 88p to 98p. living. federation British Industry This measure, Barber said, is Barber claimed his 'freeze' measures

TOI

ILS

э-Der-cent once will give a growth rate of 5 per aimed ar a yeal and claimed that the miners' to for the pensions strike prevented Tories cent. bring CoWn unemployment Graduated National Insurance and make industry more able to realizing their aim ot a 4s

DCI

will from competition contribugons diso rise and cent growth rate. the maximum level for graduated on entry into the EEC To Conservative cheers he contributions been His attempts said: particular previous groups from £42 to f48 a week. Budget reflation - both the - In pricing

INSISE

unemselves OUl Another gift to industrv is fre out ane me min buccer last veal ot Jobs and the nation depreciation for all plant had no effect on joblessness business, government can aimed encouraging galloping inflation which the secure full employment.

HEY COUCHE

accorus to barocE As part of the preparation for arivine astronomical turnover will under heights. British into the Common

CHUN

£5,000 year will be exempt There is every indication that Market, Barber took the brakes from added tax (VAT), a his latest Budget will fail just as off

EEC

export CaDilal the to small businessman SOp countries and other parts of the

IPMONTOUSVA

NOW

Puronase tax at the rates o4 fiscal or monetary escape for the world and per applying British capitalist from class The first Elm of investment in many household goods and other the Common CHecks items will be brought down to 125 monetary crisis. totally from exchange

CACH PL

percent-putting something like Barber forced to admit controls and regulations £75m into circulation. that the December 18 agreement develop-

VAT,

the Common coverine mayesument ma Market countries have also been internadona currency realer 1n9 levy, is to be imposed at 10 per ment had not solved the basic eased. *The US authorities have The object of these and other

SEE LATE NEWS

STATEMENT BY THE SLL LONDON AREA COMMITTEE

THE DECISION by the League has continually radical when in there is protest, case

LUSE I

that what is hap- from realization confusion the Devartment Ulster the depended vironment ban the Stalinist and upon me united sources unal bourgeois reactionary role action the working 'defence •Ene League Tory government in Britain Ulster is the same as democracy' rally at Trafalgar Square Tory and the same thing. Britain the defence democratic asalist next Sunday, MaTCH CO let government.

DOLO

cases Ene main us sav immedi is a major blow by the enemy is the Tory govern- Our differences ately that it is nothing of political government against Tory ment. with the sort. the Anti-Internment democratic rights of the League in no way detract Bourgeois parliamentary the working class. have from that democracy a system unable follows close on the participate the has every right rule, whereas CaDilalist hold a rally in Trafalgar rights, neels un warranted demonstadons ortanized сетостанс

SUCH

early-morning raids on the by te, because the Anti-Internment Square. We stand four- free speech, assembly and homes members of League, organ- with them in trade organization, square union demands International Socialists, the defence of this basic demo- those gained by davanced

TICALS

International Marxist such as ending internment cratic right. and others. and the withdrawal of Irrespective of our funda- history Group political differences banning the rally, the troops something mental parliamentary Done cal separate om me sausale with suca groups as te is, system of capitanst demo internment without trial mobilize the working

IMG

and the Communist cracy. the brutal role of the class the Tory and any other group Indeed the to make Party it con- the labour army in Ulster has spirac - reacuondly unequivocally intro- this way we will fight Toryism within been correc shoulder organized duced into demands were transformed shoulder alongside them to such Labour into symbols defend democratic rights.

HICEC

JOIN THE SLL

• No. 720 • 4p

ALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

the Trafalgar Square ban.

Bourgeois democracy constitutes the rule of the capitalist class. Democratic rights constitute the gains of the working class in struggle against the capi- talist These two class. irreconcilably hostile class forces cannot and must not be lumped together. It was such class •com- promise that constituted the rotten theoretical foundations of the Stalinist Popular Frontism in the 1930s, which opened the door to one defeat after another for the working class. The London Area Com- mittee of the Socialist Labour League at its meet- ing on March 20, 1972, decided to participate in Sunday's demonstration

FORMS P.

Queuing for flats a time See p.3 because it stands in solid- arity with the AIl and all the groups on the march against the Tory ban. We will march behind the demands. • End internment. • Withdraw the troops from Ulster. • Defend democratic rights. • Make the Tory govern- ment resign. Readers of the Workers Press, members of the SLI and Young Socialists are sked to assemble belina assemble behind Area Committee, Clapham Common, on Sunday, March 26, at 1 p.m. March 20, 1972.

IS P. 11

Scan page 2

workers press

TORY CRISIS

Lift Trafalgar Square ban INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY MARCH 22, 1972 • No. 720 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Gigantic concessions to big business

BUDGET

BY OUR OWN REPORTER

STILL REELING from their defeat at the hands of the miners and facing a stiff battle with the country's 3 million engineering workers the Tories have mapped out what could be a General Election Budget to meet their political and economic crisis. measures was 'to stimulate invest- The Budget by not a sufficient stock of reserve announced assets at present to restore the ment and modernization and help Chancellor Anthony Barber in general convertibility of US industry to equip itself to com- Commons yesterday is dollars held the monetary effectively the aimed at assisting big business pcit authorities, he said. common waker. on the eve of Common Market To. pay for a pensions increase Barber attacked wage increases entry while flinging a few sops for for caus shake inflation of 12.5 per cent (75p class in the to the working £1.20 out' pensioners and for that jobs form of modest married couple) the National pensIons mausory "stemmes

HONE

increase in comparison to the Insurance flat rate contribution rapid rise in wage costs.

by real increase in the cost-of-

WILL

LUD

a week He congratulated the Con- from 88p to 98p. living. federation British Industry This measure, Barber said, is Barber claimed his mcasul co 5-per-cent freeze

LOT

DICE

will give a growth rate of 5 year per raising 240UN and claimed that the miners' for the pensions rises. strike had prevented Tories Drine unemployuenl Graduated Nationa Insurance and make industry more able to realizing their aim of a will from abroad meet competition disc rise. cent crowns rare the maximum level for graduated entry into the EEC. To Conservative cheers he has been raised His said: previous particular groups allellois from £42 to £48 a week the reflation both Budget themselves

OUL

Anourer am to meustry is tree nation out last year Jobs and the depreciation for all plant had no effect on joblessness business government aimed according encouraging galloping secure full employment. astronomical LU DaLUCI of the preparation for

OLICCO

oarL turnover under rIms Will heights. British entry into the Common year will be exempt is every indication that Market, Barber brakes from value added

(VAT),

will fail just as his latest Budget cabila. the businessman Dillali countries and other parts of the here s Purchase tax at the rates of 45 fiscal or monetary escape for the world. and per cent, to British capitalist from the The first flm of investment in many household goods and other the Common.

LUC

Will ¡cus will be broucal aown to totally. exempt from exchange monetarv crisis. per cent-putting something like Barber was forced admit controls and regulations LO €75m into circulation. that the December 18 agreement covering investment in 'develop.

VAT

the Common Market countries have been internauona currency reallen alSO levy, is to be imposed at 10 per ment had not basic eased. solved the US have The object of these and other

SEE LATE NEWS

STATEMENT BY THE SLL LONDON AREA COMMITTEE

THE DECISION by the League has continually radical protest, when the er in is insisted that what is hap- fact of the En- realization confusion Department and the vironment ban the Ulster depended upon the to united sources moal reactionary action the working 'defence bourgeois role The League Tory government in Britain classes Ulster and is the same democracy' rally at Trafalgar Square and the same thing. Britain against the Tory defence democratic 1s one next Sunday, LO. rights', cases tne government. let us say immedi blow by the is a major enemy is the Tory govern- Our differences ately that it is nothing political government against Tory ment. with the sort. the Anti-Internment the democratic rights of way detract Bourgeois pa hastem ry ants was on brevious League in no the working class. occasions, have felt from our that democracy is a system It follows unable

AIL

close on the participate the has every right to whereas capitalist Luic Trafalgar neers or mne unwarranted demonsuanons orcanized

HOTO

democratic ronts. early-morning raids on the the Anti-Internment Square. stand four- free speech, assembly and WA homes members League, because the with them in organ- square trade union organization, International Socialists, the demands advanced defence of this basic demo- are those rights gained by the working class in a long Internatona such as enolne inter ent Group and others. and the withdrawal of Irrespective of our funda- history class By something mental political differences banning the rally, the troops the parliamentary as the Is separate

SLURRIC

WIls SUCE COUDS system or capitalst aemo- internment without mobilize the working

IMG

and the Communist trial cracy. and th the brutal role of the class make the Tory Party and any other Indeed group the the in Ulster has movement, labour solide rcacuular y way shoulder Toryism within been unequivocally

JOLTO-

LOIS

correct we wil nont organize. dured into citisin. demands were transformed shoulder alongside them to the such behind Socialist parliament that lies Labour into mere symbols defend democratic rights.

JOIN THE SLL

SUBSCRIBE TO WORKERS PRESS

No. 720 • 4p

ALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

the Trafalgar Square ban.

Bourgeois democracy constitutes the rule of the capitalist class. Democratic rights constitute the gains of the working class in struggle against the capi- talist class. These two irreconcilably hostile class forces cannot and must not be lumped together. It was such class com- promise that constituted the rotten theoretical foundations of the Stalinist Popular Frontism in the 1930s, which opened the door to one defeat after another for the working class. The London Area Com- Socialist mittee of the Labour League at its meet- ing on March 20, 1972, decided to participate in Sunday's demonstration

FORMS P.

Queuing for flats a time See p.3 because it stands in solid- arity with the AIL and all the groups on the march against the Tory ban. We will march behind the demands. • End internment. • Withdraw the troops from Ulster. • Defend democratic rights. • Make the Tory govern- ment resign. Readers of the Workers Press, members of the SLL Young Socialists are and ase dannasemble bondod Area Committee, Clapham Common, on • Sunday, March 26, at 1 p.m. March 20, 1972.

IS P. 11

Scan page 3

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednesday March 22, 1972

SEVEN

MILLION

Italian ing for a minimum of £1.85 a downed tools security for day WOrKErS veste • 10 0 day the country's biggest labourers worked ever labour protest. more than 180 days in a year running They struck for periods agricultural enterprises.

between two in The strike after five

GERMAN

farm minister solidarity with million Josef

MOLLAS OI

Ertl walked Common who were workers tiations Italy's big three staging day strike in meeting of the trade a 15 per support of cent pay Council of Market Ministers food, workers

IISC.

yesterday atter a row with his textile and construc- Cienes French The farm labourers are ask- tion industries. counterpart Mirenel Cointat. Ertl hurried out of the EEC's Brussels headquarters and left talks for Munich with Chancellor Willy Brandt.

The dispute blew Cointat Monday night when called for time Hall TOr (Tre W Germany would compensation pay her farmers to offset the loss of earnings caused by the revalua- tion of the mark. This is contrary to kaby agree-

EEC

week ment reached last farm austers wace unosed W Germany to pay border taxes

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

protect farmers without DR LEOPOLDO LEON, a lawyer and member of the setting anv time limit. left-wing 'Committee for Defence and Struggle against Private meetings on Monday night failed to res olve the dispute Repression', was detained in Milan yesterday in con- and trti later told journalists he with the death of publisher Giangiacomo government nection tougnt the rrenco were engaged in 'Oriental carpet Feltrinelli. trading'. detention was Leon' s ordered by a public prose-

AROUND THE WORLD

cutor following a 90-minute Earlier interrogation. his house had been searched by police, who gave no reason for Leon's detention. reitrinel was louna dead in a field Milan last Wednes- day. had been blown apart Dy a Domo. He was Italy's leading left- publisher and and wing are 0COm- plicity in his death. COMMUNIST troops launched a major 90-minute rocket and mortar bomb attack on the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh Douglas Smith,

ALLAANDEA

on Monday killing 62 people and causing extensive damage.

Smith, 22-year-old son Rhodesia's supremacist been isolated for The city has premier, pleaded guilty Salis- been but has not seve modus possessing subjected to large-scale allacks since December. said have hạd wils oifen- almost drug latest communist hib of the on hini 1 ne half miles wnen ne was scarchea al d Dor- der post with Mozambique about from Phnom renos city centre, from sharply reveals the growing weak- miles Salisbury on the Cambodian December Z0. regime. Jess Smith, who is not Sentenco on Marshan coun• will be pronounced try's new strong-man President, on Friday. went on the radio calling on the

SCAB

labour organized by wing students from neighbouring right-wing extreme groups campuses. dock The 'Santos Vega's' 25,000-ton #ser

LON NOL

workers' strike in New Orleans.

cargo was the first consignment Members of the International Rhodesian the chrome since people to redouble their efforts Us lited the embargo on chrome iowaras a military victory.

Rhodesia to imports from two He said that reillsed nandie imports Rhodesian chrome made posible subversive being shipped defiance • sanctions-breakers are elements inside the capital. but did not elaborate. United cations cancaons. organzeona cuo known as tae Most of the dockers are black.

Club. linking white Meanwhile. the country's Monday. Rhodesians, Con- crisis continued On Argentine conservative day-old political Santos Vega' gressmen. and the Union Carbide vesse the Burnside terminal, and Foote Mineral corporations. to serve under the Marshal's new 30 miles from New Orleans and Their marching includes were shelved for up river song

ILA

refused the words: We love the name disappeared from tue nicilloels touch her cargo. cabinet put we are wilh and raise a glass tor Drovicional list lan Smith.' the George Radio members another union. centre the National Union of Operating Engineers, had shot also casual opera- the five states he carried in the forces down five US tives', some of whom were right- 1968 presidential election.

planes over Laos on Sunday.

PRESIDENT

Pom- unity between the two Soviet CP leader. said With the enlargement Monday parties against it. of the Common Market on that the pidou's forthcoming could no bovier. 11s colner revolorv referendum on British indicate what the basis longer ignore the exist- plans for European entry the Com. of such 'unity" should of Common

INCO

ence the security conference must mon Market is proving The Socialist [ally IvialAcl. involve comine o terms leaders are enthusiastic with alliance a serious embarrass- the Soviet relations with advocates of British European monopolists. the French

EEC

ment to the countries and also the Are rrench di C Communist Party. would depend on placed in a difficult posi- Stalinists going to drop far they recognized 'the tion by the referendum their opposition to the Its leaders realities existing the now are Common Market and proposal. seeking talks socialist part of turope Stalinists The are entry «noer me with counterparts particularly the interests their angry Pompidou threadbare cover with in the Socialist Party to of Comecon member because he has called 'unity with the social- work 'common states'. VUl bluff their democrats? stand' on the issue. This oppositon to ine Ecu ma10l Ano IT Thev do. wa2i Party time when departure in Soviet secretary Marchais has have Georges policy the Kremlin united ing has hitherto right …lne rereresoum Markel Teluseo lo Ine exteme an 'internal political leaders. recognize the existence oppose entry, going to of the EEC. say? manoeuvre' and urged Leonid Brezhnev, LEADERS of all the major United States trade unions meet in Washington today to discuss action against the dockers' pay cut. The Nixon Pay Board has slashed by 30 per cent the pay rise awarded to Pacific coast dockers after their 135-day strike and both docks unions are committed to strike action against this move. If this pledge is honoured the dockers will face the full power of the US state machine. Nixon has already taken powers to drive the dockers back to work if they defy the Pay Board ruling.

In election year, with mounting recession and un- employment close to the 6 million mark, Nixon is on a collision course with the working class. This clash poses directly all the main political questions facing the American workers. The crisis in the United States is shaking all the traditional relations of class com- promise between the employing class and the trade union bureaucrats. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Democratic Party, which is breaking up under the impact of the economic crisis and the growing militancy of the working class.

The union chiefs have a long-standing deal with the Democratic representatives of big business in the United States. In return for vague promises of a few crumbs from the table of US imperialism, they have backed a succession of multi-millionaire Democrats on the road to the White House. Their man this time is Hubert Humphrey, once vice-President to Lyndon Johnson, the butcher of Vietnam.

The candidature of George Wallace, Alabama's segregationist governor has the backing of every fas- cist and racialist in the US. Wallace won an over- whelming vote at the Democratic primary in Florida and plans to mount a serious challenge to Humphrey at the Democrats' convention in June.

As a third-party candidate in the 1968 election, Wallace won 13 per cent of the vote, drawing support from frustrated sections of backward workers as well as the middle class. The union leaders bear direct responsibility for the rise of Wallace. They have long opposed the demand for an independent working- class party based on the unions and a break with the political representatives of big business.

With the aid of the US Communist Party and centrist leaders like the Walter Reuther late of the Auto Workers, they succeeded in the 1930s in postponing the Labour Party question for more than a generation.

In this way they prevented the working class from realizing the full gains of the great sit-in strike struggles of 1936 and 1937 which gave rise to the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Today, the building of a Labour Party based on the trade unions is the central question facing US workers as they confront the Nixon government. The essence of this demand is to break the unions from the policies of class-collaboration with the employers and the Democratic Party. Such a Party, based on a programme for power involving the expropriation of big business under workers' control, will be very different from the British Labour Party.

It means a ruthless purge of the corrupted and treacherous leadership in the unions and the relent- less political struggle against Stalinism and revisionism which want to keep US workers under the Democratic thumb. This programme is the programme of the Workers' League, the American Trotskyist organization. It is the only way in which the US workers can oust the Nixon smash the racialist threat from Wallace and regime, his fascist supporters and prepare for the socialist revolution in the citadel of world imperialism.

Scan page 4

LUXURY FLAT SCRAMBLE

THE ARDUOUS search for people in the elegant area of S1 A tiny wooden gate swung op consciously to the inquiry offi brand new luxury flats. Self-conscious because the television and photographed b building workers. At the inquiry office out flashed their cheque books; a quick signature — four- figure sums-and they were all but installed in a new gaff. For the past five days this strange middle-class group has been squatting outside the build- ing site waiting to seek a flat builders had the as soon completed their labours. It was on Monday that I first heard some flats were going for sale. The area was fashionable enough—sleek St John's Wood- and the view was acceptable, overlooking Regents Park.

When I arrived to have a look, it was a bitter disappointment.

The flats weré there, all 66 of them. But the prices! Well, the range £14,000 for a 'was from one- bedroom flat on the lower floor to £32,000 for the best of them all on the 11th floor overlooking the park. As the deposit went from £700 to £1,600 it made the f5 a week I was prepared to pay look a little sick. Worse than that I had com- petition. The London rich were actually sitting in the sun queue- ing to grab one of the flats.

What's more they'd been there since the previous Friday.

In fact it was an incredible on the unmade There, scene. pavement, was a group of some of the richest people in London, or anywhere else for that matter, camped out with beds, blankets certainly food. They were and dignified about having to queue commodities, probably for the first time in their lives.

danger of There was little Lunch or starvation. isolation was delivered by Mercedes and Interceptors and other Jensen sophisticated vehicles. And while the sun continued to shine,.

was always possible to imagine - you were on the beaches of St Tropez. But why, I asked myself, did class have to resort the upper to such non-u behaviour? Didn't money speak as loud as it used must admit it is a little I to get shocking to do this just a flat, but there you are,' said a most charming woman in her late 40s as she peered over her sunglasses. It turned out. that there were no less than 600 people on the waiting list. The rolling in names had started Wates, builders, when the started work just two years ago.

THE PRESS IS POISED IN FULL FORCE AS, THE FIRST OF THE RICH

FLAT-BUYERS IS LET THROUGH TO MAKE A DEPOSIT

ch for somewhere decent to live came to an end for 50 ea of St John's Wood in N London at 9.30 a.m. yesterday.

ung open and a queue of well-heeled citizens walked self- uiry office of the building contractors to pay deposits on se the flat-seekers were being himed by men trom the aphed by the press and stared at by a group of bemused The flash of a cheque-book, pay for the flat. 'I always leave those questions to my husband.

That's best, don't you think? should 'And anyway you see the finish in the flats. For the money we're paying it's. not up to standard, she added. But why the pandemonium to Wood? St John's The live second the elderly woman in have always wanted It is a nice district. here. hippies parking don't meters: e Quite. the Not unnaturally queuers were a little shy of publicity. When a photographer appeared, they either wandered off hid or behind their 'Daily Mail' (which front-page the appropriate had headline: 'Work when banner you want to). Whether the idle rich knew it there is another waiting or not, list besides their own very of special one. For tens have of Londoners thousands council their names down for And have been houses. many waiting years for a decent roof their head, let alone over luxury flat. I talked to some of the build- ing workers putting the finishing touches to London's latest luxury block. about think did they. What flats which workers building in? How did could live never the they feel about group queuing round the corner?

'These stupid. people are They're making it bad for people like us. What they're doing 1S high putting. prices up as as West Indian mountain,' one

BEMUSED BUILDERS WATCH

plasterer told me.

THE SCRAMBLE

'I wouldn't like to live in one, though they luxury even are announced Then Wates who had flats,' said a labourer, would be first come first served.

Croydon bedsitter, as he So, whether they liked it or shovelled gravel into a hopper.

not, those with money just had His 55-year-old mate com- to get up and stake a claim. And mented: down to earth they came with I live in a council flat and a bang. the Tories are going to double de- "This is undignified and £14 week. about my rent to It's_like being a caged grading. We'll have to go in for another Z00,' emphasizing animal in wage rise. her with pouting of point 'But it's always the As the lips and the lifting of a wrist.

same. fares and almost soon as we get a rise dropped a discreet, brice to be done about it al!.

Something whispered inquiry about where prices the money would come from to Workers Press, Wednesday March 22, 1972 PAGE 3 O'Kane remanded: Deception charge

SEAMUS O'KANE,

arrested in London last week during a series raids on homes of members of Socialists, the International N Ireland until tomorrow.

O'Kane (25), was accused in a Belfast magistrates court of deception. He obtaining unemploved and Sale o se his address was given as Brandy- well Avenue, aken don Adershot was taken after his arrest and from there to Ireland by members Royal Ulster Constabulary to face the deception charge.

V&G inquiry 'whitewash' Liberal MP FINDINGS of the Vehicle and General inquiry were •esculoed whitewash 'bucket Open meetings mixed by a star chamber court, : Common: In tre yesterud £150,000

PRESS

all local 'We are asked to pay be arent ana ine local for convenient finding that admitted to are under-secretary was authority meeungs, retired Opposition plea during the com-

-WIC

all cau of the Gov- from the Department,' mittee stage sale biD. eral MP Pardoe. Bill the Commons. emanent speaking He during Graham Page une Minister Was conceded its so hild in desi bie Consolidated Bill the runO councils should expenditure for the Announci sel through to inquire into government their work the imminent leaks about open committee meetnes. only d majority vote will bar the public.

YOUNG SOCIALISTS'

NATIONAL RIGHT-TO-WORK ÇAMFAIGN

PRESENTS

'The English Revolution Written by Tom Kempinski Directed by Corin Redgrave

AT THE

YOUNG VIC

THEATRE

The Cut, off Waterloo Rd, London SW1 SUNDAY MARCH 26 7p.m. ADMISSION 25p (YS MEMBERS) & 50p Followed by a lecture: 'The English Revolution todaw' given by G. Healy, SIL national secretary

Scan page 5

THE

MARCH

GOES ON

The five Right-to-Work marches organized by the Young Socialists have climaxed their fight against the Tory government by a massive rally at the Empire Pool, Wembley. Now a new stage of the fight opens up. All the determination and political consciousness raised during the nationwide marches is today turned towards making a huge success of the conference at Scarborough on April 8 and 9. Scar- borough becomes the next signpost on the march to build the revolutionary party in 1972.

An American woman turned her nose at Gary Jenner up outside parliament on Monday March 13 and told him that the working class was too stupid to make a revolution. It was then his feelings about three-week kaleidoscope of the the Right-to-Work from marci Swansea London len into site be main lesson the pains. What Compan what she said', he explains.

I learnt on the road is that the can now Icvululiunlal y wally this country. reav Dull in We can smash capitalism.'

tourist while waiting Gary supercilious with fellow-marchers. to lobby his MP about the Young samuently treated by the leas lobby that campaign: nress "s " near-ol He told Workers Press why lobby was somewhat heated. the 'After weeks marching three and talking to all sorts or peopie, we had all sorts of questions.

wanted answers, but all the MPs doing was beating around were the bush. 'A definite was yes asked for: are KOy experios Nicol-winters Jenkins who keep the Tories in power? went on They and on all arouno me nouses. do everyone started shouting for an answer. Then the MPs started running •'That's the of leadership SOrT the working class is up against Unemployed for three months betore came march. 22 and secretary of the Right-to-Work campaign in •wallsea. he nas never found it easy 10 find work as a general labourer.

But before- -during only once of the hirst vear ment-has he been out for this time ength of When I first heard about the dole', Swansea une *I thought it he says, was use a demonstration for jobs three weeks. But in the preparatorv work for it I came up against opposition from the Labour Party, the Com- Party and the Inter- munist national socialists. 'It was clear to me that what they doing. just explaining were what was happening, with perhaps just a lew relormist ideas lacked on- -wasn't anywhere near what required Weren so, I was still convinced even when we cor on road that talking about our about revolutionary people wno naa been illough cul 1930s would be very difficult.

The tremendous reception in fact got really surprised me.

what the "unese DeoDe Know Tory government is and what the working class has do. They Labour leaders are the KnOW selling them out all the time.

"They may be a bit dubious Trotskyism "looking tor but about they're dehnitely saday March 22, 1972 k marches organized by the climaxed their fight against the , massive rally at the Empire • new stage of the fight opens on and political consciousness nwide marches is today turned ge success of the YS annual ugh on April 8 and 9. Scar- next signpost on the march to party in 1972. new leadership. is a big thing. 'Revolution After all, workers spent many, many years building the Labour Party on the idea they could get reforms. They want to exhaust that possibility. 'But what we saw on the road was that once we get a realization that the working class can hold the power without the Labour and trade leaders the union Tories will be out for ever' Dear Editor, With reference to the corres- between the Inter- pondence national Socialists and Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League as regards the Right-to-Work campaign, I would like to draw the attention of Workers Press readers to series of incidents in W Scotland to illustrate the issues involvea.

Several weeks before IS wrote to join to the League offering the march, they showed the sort of support they intended by attempting to sabotage the efforts of the Young Socialists to extend for the support campaign throughout the trade unions.

At a committee meeting of the Linwood branch of the National Union of Vehicle Builders, the issue of support for the march was raised by a member of the branch. Two of the 'Socialist supporters Worker' the present. opposed motion of support on the grounds sectarian that the march was a diversion'. The motion was de- feated by three votes to two.

A few weeks later, with the march successfully on the road, the IS applied to support and join this 'sectarian diversion' A second incident occurred on the evening of February 4 at a meeting organized by the IS and addressed • by • Bernadette Devlin in the Woodside Halls, Glasgow.

At this meeting repeated attempts were made by a mem- ber of the SLL to speak on the subject of the first Right-to-Work march which began from Glas- the very next day. gow on Permission to speak was refused.

Yet in the discussion, mem- bers of the Communist Party and the 'Militant' group were allowed to address the audience.

Eventually at the end of the meeting, as everyone was leaving their seats, the chairman made a series of announcements. The details of the beginning of the out rapidly march were read after a number of announcement: folk and sundr on concerts meetings in the area. At the same meeting, another SLL member who was selling Press in Workers the where 'Socialist and other literature was being sold, was told that he could not do so and would have to leave the hall and sell in the street.

If this is the kind of 'support' the IS intended to give the Right-to-Work campaign, we thankful that must be their offer to join the march was rejected. Yours fraternally, 1 Ian McCalman.

Scan page 6

BRANDT'S COALITION

STARTS TO CRACK

BY IAN YEATS

THE split in the W German bourgeoisie over the non- aggression treaties with and Warsaw Moscow threatens to cut the ground from under the Social Demo- cratic Party's feet. When Chancellor Willy Brandt initialled the last agreement year he claimed that the majority of the W German electorate sup- ported his Ostpolitik. Just how is wrong this assumption was shown by a recent poll carried out by the Wickert Institute.

a sample survey of 1,477 In voters, 50 per cent indicated sup- port for the Opposition Christian and Democratic Party Bavarian the counterpart Christian Social Union. The ruling coalition received only 47 per cent of their votes- 44 per cent for the Social Demo- cratic Party and 3 per cent for the Free Democrats. Far more serious from an immediate political point of is the way this change or view misestimation has been mirrored in the W German parliament. Up to a fortnight the ago coalition held 251 of the 496 Bundestag seats, giving them an absolute majority of two and a simple majority of six. But on February • 28 Herbert Hupka who, as chairman of the Silesian refugees' association, has Top: Willy Brandt, German Chancellor. Above: Barzel consistently rejected the treaties with Russia and Poland, started the defection's ball rolling when he joined the Christian Demo- crats. A few days later a lead- ing Free Democrat, Baron Knut Kuhlmannstumm indicated von that he too could not vote for the ratification of the treaties.

And on March 6 another Free Democrat, Wilhelm Helms, joined the growing chorus of dissent Free Democrats. among According to 'Der Spiegel, two more, Georg Gallus and Richard Wurbs, are also poised to voice their opposition. Taken together dissensions would be these approaching enough to wipe out Brandt's slender majority and bring down the government.

W Germany's upper house- the Bundesrat-is already divided 21 to 20 against ratification of the treaties. Basically the treaties, due for final ratification in June, provide for the acceptance of post-war frontiers central Europe and the permanent existence of two Germanies.

The split in the bourgeoisie rests on the arguments of those who believe there are economic gains to be had from opening up relations with the E and those who fear this can only open the door to unbridled Soviet expan- sion. The issue has become very much one of national sovereignty and it is significant that when the Bundesrat threw out the treaties, it demanded replies to Above : Herbert Hupka, lolned the Christlan Democrats questions from the Bundestag all Germany's right related of to self-determination. As Christian Democratic op- position to the treaties gathered momentum, the Soviet and Polish press have stepped up their attacks on the opposition warn the Social Democrats about what will happen if they are not ratified. Agreement on post-war fron- tiers and on Berlin is now vital to the Stalinist bureaucracies if they are to break out of their mounting economic and social through expanded trade crisIs with the W. Poland is in the midst of a bitter campaign against Germany's opposition to the Stalinists' treaties and the desperation is reflected in their increase promise to to try economic ties with France, Italy, Britain and Scandinavia should ratification founder. Polish attacks reached a new peak when the Communist Party "Trybuna Ludu' daily warned that W Germany was in danger 'certificate of losing of morality' for which Chancellor Brandt had worked for years.

High-ranking Polish officials, who were openly confident in February about ratification of the treaties, now admit privately they underestimated the strength of Christian Democratic opposition.

In the Bonn-Warsaw treaty the two nations declare their agree- ment that the Oder-Neisse line, which puts nearly 40,000 square miles of pre-war German territory inside Poland, represents Poland's western-frontier. They also agree to renounce in force interna- mutual and tional relations and to expand their relations in the economic, scientific and cultural fields.

Polish officials who were dis- mayed by the defection of Ger- man government supporters over the issue, say they now do not rule out' possibility of defeat, although this would shat- ter for several years the prospects of detente in Europe. Non-ratification would mean four-power agreement on Berlin resumed last year would not be implemented Soviet by the Union. Government sources said they had not expected the Christian Democ:ats, whose leader Rainer Barzel visited Warsaw a year ago, to show such unity in oppos- Workers Pross, Wedi ing ratification of the treaties in their present form. Poland has ruled out com- pletely the possibility of renego- tiating the treaties if the Bundes- tag rejects them Dr Barzel has described the treaties 'incomplete, un - as balanced and ambiguous'. Prime Minister Piotr Jaros- zewicz plans to start Polish rati- fication proceedings after general elections on March 19, 'sources said. The present campaign against the Christian Democrats mean- while would continue in speeches by Polish leaders and in the official press. "Trybuna Ludu' commented in a lengthy editorial that non- 'the ratification would mean capital of confidence whole accumulated over many years would be dissipated and wasted overnight. It asked what had happened to the 'realistic, serious and re- sponsible leaders' of the Christian Democrats who had earlier come out in favour of improving re- lations with Poland and other E European countries. Their it said, support, was needed 'for the reputation of their own party and for the political image of the Federal Republic (W Germany), whose political face we now see twisted in a re- pulsive grimace'. said Germany's Jaroszewicz conservative opposition forces were 'supported by militaristic and revenge-seeking forces' Polish leaders consistently ex- press confidence in Brandt's poli- cies. But the government-allied daily 'Slowo Powszechne' recently criticized the 'ill-preparedness of the government and coalition for offensive action in defence of the government's programme'. But it is not a simple question of preparedness. The Christian Democrats are cashing in on widespread public disappointment with the coalition's policies and would welcome a snap General Election. The ending of W Germany's economic miracle by world slump has seen to it that Brandt bas been unable to fultill electoral expectations, particularly in the fields of tax cuts and education.

Events in W Germany in the next few weeks will be crucial not only for the Germans, but for the whole course of European politics. Workers Pross, Wednesday March 22, 1972 PAGE 5

WHERE

THE

NAME

OF THE

GAME

IS GOLD

S Korea has become one of the LUsC alliantve place WOrd men ora gOld muhe demand for gold has been steadily increasing in this coun- try's growing economy in recent But produc- years. has sharp

OCCL

decrease con- paratively mild punishment for gold smuggling have also been cited as a laciol the lllegal innux or gold one month alone, two large-scale gold smuggling cases were uncovered. averedy volving the crew of a Panamanian freighter tramcking ring. Them customs office said it had confirmed 1573 lb) but esti total mated that amount tha the colntry milt have stood at gold illegally brought into This tomountin bly have This amount could covered nearly the entire demand in S Korea's gold market, according to Seoul jewellers S Korea's 75 gold mines pro- duced 896 kg (1,975 lb) during 1971, less than half compared with three years before and nearly a fourth of a record high in 1962. With domestic production declining, the gold price has far sur passed oune] once ancreases reach the present 880 won (about 8p). gold price in Hong Kong which is known to be the maior source of smuggled gold in Korea, now stands around at $1.58 (about 60p) per gram.

This means any gold smuggler from Hong Kong c3720 (araly) make (£280) much as tron every 1 kg (2.2 lb) gold bar he carries into the country.

But customs officials people who were bringing gold were mostly paid couriers and the men behind them not detected despite mena ona movedove efforts. Among Ceralisery men were Germans who arrested airport in Seoul in May 1970, they staggering of out the building • cilial Decisio 30 kg (68 Ib) of gold bars some their specially designed yests. They were convicted under special law concerning are serving two-year jail terms Customs that say the special law with penaltv of three vears' imorison.

ment and fine up to twice the smuggled amount cannot be CAce to love any one ene on the illegal gold erect traffickers There is a law providing for harsher unsonert man norma for specific crimes, under which large-scale smuggling bring the death penalty. But application + my ting Ol Unis law tor gold has been ruled supreme court on the grounds that special aw gold supersedes it This supreme court decision also excluded gold smuggling system caser NOnl Tene under customs law (f3,300) won reward for a tip-off Uncials Tear that the customs clearance procedures, drastically eased for foreign tourists recently earnings, 1C Cae prompt further

Scan page 7

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Wednesday March 22, 1972 As General Franco's regime reels under a wave of strikes and anti-fascist demonstrations, memories of the Spanish Civil War are revived. In this article, A. ROA, Secretary of the revolutionary youth com- mittee in Barcelona during the fighting, describes some of his experiences. In particular he discusses Die in Madrid' just shown on BBC the film 'To Television. Mr Roa is former secretary of the Spanish Con- federation of Labour (CNT) in England and an active member of the National Graphical Association.

At present he represents the London region of the NGA on the London Trades Council.

To Die in Madrid' is a vivid went towards the Madrid district film of the oi Moncloa wnere tne enemy was documentary entering the city. Civil War. It was Spanish news that Durruti hadi in France reached Madrid built up morale first shown ten years ago-two decades after and the enemy began lose and More positions weapons. that compelling cry of the than half the column fell there. people: "They shall not pass'.

of Madrid The heroic defence BBC 2 transmitted the film on lasted from November 13 to 9 with English com- November March 19. On the following mentary spoken by John Geilgud day the revolutionary leader of Worth. Madrid fell shot in the chest by rene of film The first reel the a bullet from the University City.

captures the harshest phases of It of this glaring because the war. omission and the preponderance 'La As this immense epic unfolded, of of Pasionaria'.

SAOES

it brought back immense pride. while Federica Montseny, who appears addressing the workers in n nr manico ment a urolo longed exile, nostalgia accompan- Monumental Bar- in arena. of having ies the consolation celona, is not pven mentonec- fulfilled our moral duty. define the tendency that we can the film. One saw arain the struggles of al work in the heroic people who confronted People died in Madrid, people and fought fascism. For this very every part of Spain, died in difficult not to hear the names of the com- we only reason. It Is 'To Madrid' Spanish Communist Party: Rojo, ment Die 1n Modesto, Lister. We even see although comprises Decause. of absolutely authentic film shots, it glimpse the defeat only shows one aspect of the war.

Mussolini's troops in the Guadala- think that the film-maker, jara, without mention his facts the Cipriano Mera, the leader of the Rossif, from got Communist Party. Otherwise one division which defented the explain the choice of the Italians. cannot title 'To Die in Madrid' and the One gets the impression from shown the what Rossif shows us that only fact University City and other parts the CP was struggling against of the Spanish capital besieged by when the realitv is com. TaSCism. General Mola's troops, but do not pletely different. see Buenaventura Durruti once on Much of the nonular heroism belongs certain and the screen. to areas In the battle sequences one can Any natachar perioas. nTO. see the militia men of the Durruti taronist observer of that or column in the trenches movement knows what Laiciin. historio revolution guished by leather chamois the civil war and in the George caps which the anarchist leader Spain meant Orwell, Koestler and the that wore himself). rest of of intellectuals: Hem- To talk about the defence generation Malraux, Regler Madrid without showing us the and ingway. who renounced 'everything others. died in the •To Die in Madrid' lacks the except and VICTOry University City on November 20, revolutionary objectivity that of historic other graphic records of the war and Revolution in Spain/ have. alarming proportions. History cannot and must not refer concretelv to the social andi disfigured. political aspects of the be period. On November 18, Fascist Italy YOuT Wi wonder wheiner the recognized factories were closed and if work and Germany Spanish Burgos junta stopped in the hields. as the This coincided with No. the Spanish Odyssev was ZOVeNC ROI While the rebel plans to besiege enormous proportions the battle against the Madrid. ( The Republican govern- was on ment itself abandoned the capital rebel army at the front. the establish the Revolution being November rear was itself in Valencia. carried through. 'To Die in Madrid' it is not The machines and the ploughs In said, but it should be remembered were in the hands of the working by the younger generations. that class and the produce was for the when the news reached Catalonia working Committees of Cass. Madrid Workers Control were in and Aragon charge be occupied the in the centres of production in about by Diaz brought the the fascists, (Canding War Incuctried anor together all the leaders of the land in Castile, Aoui S paid columns told them the and Andalucia. seriousness of the situation.

people felt that defeating atter that Then was decided fascism, the Revolution would be should join the defence Durruti example to the rest or the Madrid. installed He was at world. Street with It was clear that the Workers' Michael Angelo 27 his column audy 35 inchesterd column 35,000 hand- Control in factories and work- shops of proof the amnie Followine with social and political correctness of an agreement General Miaia. column the Spanish Revolution. Tae The people fought enthusiastic. fronts two or three militia-men democracies, ally. We that this had Front him one gun between only Lucill of non-Interven

DUL

ПОТ

LOIC

Lidl Connecte causest commutice entousiasm wanee as ine waned at the iront and the rear SnOWI weet tae to strangle the revolutionary Already the programme interned thousangs of ant fascist conquests of the people who had Stalin published concentration camps when themselves into 17, showing they the frontier for struggle against fascism.

teeth: 'As Anarchist- s also the indifference Lister destroyed the collective English of the Valentin elements has farm in Aragon. Gomez IrOLSKVISI ancad confronted with begun were soon to be (the will be canned Peasant) did with the same energy as in the one provens racine me exactly same tne working class immeclale workers'

UGT

the unions. the • for the world and months later the and the yielded came events of May Fied pe. the

PSUC3

or the Telephone Exchange his nominal material contribution!

office while the under

CNT-UGT

continued Barcelona struggle at estered by unleashed yorkers sne nevolution the police led …Koomeuer counter revolution ine counter revolution. Salas, a known Stalinist agent That is the part which the 'Late the "and tha treasury, thanks to the policies militant and Prime Minister, Juan . Negrin. N120t Line-vo ascussion trea Lo oựt Ing. workers bring through TOUr _partie- continued. Dullicialis the civil war who were Revolution anunusiasin their respective une wane decause histories. some, hetraval The Inked Don't Peter Kerrigan understanding others and of the malostv Do pulation Was William British apathy throughout world suffering severe deprivation.

helpec Hence the demoralization Brigaders' International Catalonia and the painful international fascism and don t rememoer unty women pilgrimage about une Kussian boal capitalisin and children, participated directly arrived in of Barcelona the port urSt through 1936 with the guns that were with men arms snow older 80 so the of the Spanish people CaoDeo mountails while Thẻ face so-called Pyrenees. on real The film captures this event lost his Lepant, ( magnificently. It is a real pity that the sole Millan purpose of such a striking docu- of the S ment, in all its human and social the for certain losing h iS record aspects, to which would have been is inexp names better kept silent. Miguel I think that Rossif puts the say son Catholic Church into perspective 'Death t and it is an excellent example of death'. Vatican participation with fascism The those years; facts which Unamun in should be forgotten, excellent not especially by those who put their the N alliances. Guernic: conventional trust in historical the That wa The truth of Spanish Civil War reveals those fascism with real responsibility for the the Vati tre aristocriergy, the arme and While aristocracy, on all t Madrid' fulfils its mission in this fascist I the Stali respect-and very vividly.

Also in the film we are shown the bat the confinement of Don Miguel de and of the certain Unamuno. This part documentary film is extraordinary.

go unno The English commentary follows in the p the events truthfully. Don Miguel, time. author of the work (pro- In the the The Tragic militia-m hibited in Spain) of Life' found an exact they we Sense comparison with the two victims army sir of war-Cervantes and Millan were wi Astray. The first, although he the stru

*DURRUT

Above of Mar tended funera 1936. 'dignit attle of first year of the before war militarization, and intact. before even repulsive the events of May 3, 1937, in head of Catalonia. irt from Without Revolution and the anity. It solidarity which international Don were so necessary, the war had ore. • should professional character- more istics-it was less of a popular aric as: ong live war. And for the youth and their of the political alternative parents is was difficult during the Spanish gion Many ences of anti-fascists itself. war were in prison. Others had been ent of eliminated and many more were arcelona. in hiding. rational pitalism, At the front the struggle con- tinued against fascism and in the dvancing rear against the counter-revolu- he anti- tion. This is not covered by 'To ictim of Die in Madrid'. However, to see s reason, a film on the Spanish civil war ffensives on TV is a tonic for those who fought in it historical -present and a ust not experience for the generations of terested today. I at this 1. UGT-Workers General s of the Union (Social-Democrats).

2 CNT-National Confederation ear that not the Labour (Anarcho-Syndi- of fighters calists). lothes— 3. PSUC—Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (Stalinists).

• in the

Scan page 8

McCARTHY: WITCH-HUNTER IN CHIEF Part four of a five part series by John Spencer on the rise of the right wing in America PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday Mar Part four of a five part series l Senator Joseph McCarthy's name has become a by-word for witch-hunting and bigoted anti-communism. He rose to prominence quite abruptly in 1950 and for three exercised a virtual reign years of against Communist terror Party members, left-wing acade- mics and government employees.

The Republican senator from Wisconsin was able to prosper during he these years because fulfilled a need for the US ruling class. His witch-hunts served to purge the state apparatus, the universities and the media of left-wingers and liberals, leaving the field clear for the military and the hard-line anti-com- munists to exercise untrammelled sway. Through his control of the Un-American Activities Com- mission, McCarthy was able to anti-communist whip up an hysteria whose effects are still in evidence today. The early 1950s marked a major change in US policy. It was the period when its forces began to take on the role of world gendarme against the threat of revolution, particularly in Asia. The Chinese revolution and War were danger the Korean signals which set American capitalism on this course - a course which has led to inter- in Vietnam and vention the strengthening of right-wing action throughout the world.

McCarthy relied on a watered- down version of the old con- esday March 22, 1972 series by John Spencer on the rise spiracy theory in order to carry through his witch-hunting attacks.

In February 1950 he began his crusade with the announcement that there were 205 communists in the State Department. It was a figure that was to prove remarkedly flexible in the years to follow. He was backed by powerful people, including Senator Taft infamous Taft- (author of the Hartley Act and then leader of Senate majority), the General Korean MacArthur, the war chief of staff, and the bulk of the Republican establishment. Democratic He attacked the Truman administration as part of a communist conspiracy. In 1952 he said: 'There is only one real issue for the farmer, labourer, and the businessman— of communism in the issue government.' no other programme He had to speak of. As one of his sup- porters later put it: 'Few Wis- consin farmers have ever seen Joe's Commie communist. is purely academic. search The price of milk isn't academic prepared the ground Having to entrench the Republican right, the same establishment neatly rid itself of him when he be- came an embarrassment. Richard Nixon, then Eisenhower's vice- president and a former McCarthy supporter, engineered a collision witch - hunting between the Senator and the military, which down. the hands army won 'condemned' by McCarthy was Senate resolution and faded out.

McCarthy appealed to some of the same forces which made he rise of the right wing in America up the fascist movements of the In protest against his 1930s. by the Senate Ten censure an organization calling itself Million Americans for Justice in Madison Square rallied Garden, New York. Among its supporters were Admiral Crom- melein, described as a vitriolic anti-Semite' and General del Valle, another of the same type.

That some of McCarthy's most solid support should come from these sections of • the military was no accident. They were to reappear behind the even more sinister John Birch Society later in the decade. This organization was founded in 1968 by Robert Welch, retired Massachusetts business- man. It is bitterly hostile to welfare legislation and civil rights, stressing rugged individu- alism and inveighing against the underground 'Insiders' (the who are Illuminati) bent on leadership through world a 'gigantic and deep-rooted con- spiracy. The Korean and Vietnam wars, it described as 'phoney wars' against communism, because the various US presidents were be- ing manipulated by the Illuminati.

Welch is on record to the effect 'same that the breed of con- spirators for almost identically the same purpose' planned both of the Bastille in the storming 1789 and the 'Poor Man's March' on Washington in 1968. On one occasion, Welch des- cribed Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, as 'the most protected and untouchable supporter of com- munism, to Eisenhower next himself, in Washington'. Among the influential sup- of the Birch Society porters were such people as Cardinal MacIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles Lt-Gen until 1969, Charles Stone III, who was commander of the 14th Air Force in China, and Gen Douglas MacArthur's personal aide de camp, Col Lawrence E. Bunker.

The Birch Society has wide- spread support among the police in the US. It set up a special tront organization, the Police Benevolent Association support cam- paigning on the slogan your local police'. The Associa- tion is active in the campaign for of the death restoration penalty and law and order.

include the former Others police chief of Los , Angeles, William H. Parker, and the sheriff of Selma, Alabama, James Clark. (Clark was elected pre- sident of the national organiza- tion of sheriffs in 1966.) It also considerable backing from has business circles, especially in like southern California areas and Texas, and from heads of second-level businesses. The Birch Society's spokesman in the Senate is Strom Thur- has who been mond, long associated with the segregational- rights states movement. Thurmond campaign against the government in 1961 for the right of military officers to make political statements. His campaign followed the banning by the Defence Depart- ment of a campaign inside lavy under the name of Project Alert. Ihis began under govern- Above: planning a new offensive against the communist heresy McCarthy (right) and his first lieutenant Cohn. ment auspices in 1958 to 'make use of military personnel and facilities to arouse the public to the menace of communism'.

It soon became a stamping ground for the radical right, including Birchites E. Merrill Root and Glenn Green, Dr Fred Schwartz of the Christian Anti- Communist Crusade and president of the Freedoms Foundation, Dr Kenneth D. Wells. They spoke at Alert meetings set up by Admiral Goldthwaite, another military rightist. The Birchites worked closely with the Christian Crusaders, whose organization, headed by the Rev Billy James Hargis, is the suc- cessor to the pro-Nazi outfit of the Rev Gerald Winrod in the 1930s. Before the government wound it up, Project Alert had dis- hefty tonnage of tributed a Birchite , and other rightist literature with the official imprimatur of the army. The Birchites campaigned to- gether with other similar groups, like the Minutemen, in support of Arizona senator Barry Gold- water. Since 1968, however, they have tended to coalesce around the campaign to make George Alabama, Wallace, governor of the President. In the final article of this examine series, we will the what it Wallace movement, stands for and how it operates.

Scan page 9

censorship must never of industrial be the object action. And this would be in accordance with the long tradition of the British press.

The idea that we have a 'free' and 'independent' press in Britain, uncluttered by class or sectional interests is fought for very hard by the newspaper proprietors. They claim that the columns of their papers merely reflect "public interest' the so-called which they, of course, find impos- sible to define. But every so often workers smash straight through the myth- ology surrounding the news- paper industry and see clearly class interests behind the inches of newsprint. That was one of the lessons, for example, the miners_ learnt during , their six-week strike. In from the very first days, as determinations win quickly set in, the press on the was with distorted backs miners' stories of 'violence on the picket lines' and so on. Throughout the strike, report- ers were treated with some jus- tified suspicion by strikers. Because whatever they told men, these the end-product, having passed through editorial was completely dif- surgery, ferent. The • Press Council was formed in 1953 under the title General Council of the Press. It has just published its 18th annual report "The Press called and People' A glance at the council's con- stitution will show you what sort of role it is supposed to per- form. "To preserve the established freedom of the British press', reads number one. Others talk of maintaining the 'character of the British press', of reviewing developments likely 'the supply of intor- to restrict mation of public interest and importance' and so on. All this sounds very fine and noble. But what are the results of this august body's work?

Well, the main theme of this year's report taken up by the chairman Lord Pearce (the man who headed the team in Rho-

BY PHILIP WADE

desia which 'assessed' African workers' opinions of a racialist sell-out deal) is censorship.

by Censorship government state agencies? departments or No, wrong again. It is the print- who are deemed ing workers guilty. A whole chapter of the report is devoted to lambasting work- ers in the industry for stopping the presses when they objected to certain material being printed.

The most famous stoppage, of occurred during course, powermen's in work-to-rule Décember 1970. 'Evening Stand- ard' printers objected to a Jak depicting the cartoon power- men as murderers. Publication was held up and several issues missed until an agreement was reached with the management to publish a state- from the printworkers ment alongside the cartoon, explaining their opposition to it and their support for the powermen.

Thrée more stoppages are explained in detail, together with Above: Lord Pearce, Press Coun.

cil Chairman, talking about an abuse of privilege. the Press Council's condemna- tion on each occasion. It is a principal objective of the council to defend the free- dom of the press from attack from whatever quarter it comes and when it comes from withir it is doubly deplorable,' mur- murs Lord Pearce in his fore- word to the report. As far as he is concerned. strikes by workers in detence oi their rights does not count as an act of freedom. And that is because it hits capitalism where it hurts hard-the centre of its propaganda machine. An abuse of privilege is what Lord Pearce calls such actions by printworkers. So the myth about a 'free' press is once again crushed. To 'freedom' means the Tories this attack they must be able to wherever workers when and see fit. If they workers reply in the only way they can, that is an abuse of freedom. Further proof, if any was needed, of the council's role as St's lame poodle, Fleet comes headed on page 73 of the report, 'the watch on legislation' The main issue was the here clause in the Industrial Rela- tions Bill later embodied in the Act, which made it an unfair in con- practice for any persons nection with an industrial dis- pute to induce or threaten to induce another person to break a contract. To anyone who knew anything, it was clear that this clause would embrace by comment socialist newspapers on strikes.

"The Press Council did not make any representations on the clause,' the states. So report much for the protagonists of press freedom. Finally,. and without really knowing it, the council, in its statistical analysis of the indus- try, makes clear the monopolis- by a stranglehold exerted few people on the production of newspapers. For just five companies con- trol 93.7 per cent of all the circulation of national morning Here's real newspapers. meaning of Tory 'freedom' for you. Workers Press, Wednesday March 22, 1972 PAGE 9 New names for old. The latest Drunkenness Soviet in the fancy titles for ordinary jobs Union is a chronic problem which raises much public inter- include: glass maintenance (window - cleaner); est. Radio programmes con- engineer information retrieval adminis- stantly revert to the theme.

(filing grief Listeners' letters referred to trator clerk); therapist (undertaker); road in a recent Moscow broadcast craftsman (road called for measures to reduce labourer); sanitor (official charwoman) the sale of especially vodka, which can and lady beer dispenser (bar- bought in every grocery store. Man- maid). agers depend on liquor sales to fulfil and overfulfil their plans, so that, as far as they concerned the are more Just for the record... William there drunkenness is the Craig was a senior minister in better. the of Captain governments Rejecting prohibition Major or Terrence O'Neill and strict control of over sales James Chichester Clark. The spirits, the station's speaker ex-Stormont premiers are now also brushed off the claim of are described both peers and some listeners that the cause as 'doves'. should be sought in the of his At a mass meeting 'I can't environment. agree new Ulster Vanguard in Bel- It is not that', he said. with fast the other day, Craig said: the vodka that's to blame, but the who, pardon the man, expression, chokes himself with their accursed vodka.' But it was the listeners who How it that were right. is 'Soviet man' self-pro- in claimed "socialist society', and Soviet youth, especially many turn to alcohol to drown their sorrows? The answer must be sought in the actual conditions of Soviet society and the ter- rible strains and tensions pro- duced the of by rule the bureaucracy. William Craig Right trade wing unionists 'We are going to do more than failed to enough sup- muster just talk. Whatever the call of port to hold their TRU-AIM duty requires we shall do. We (Trade Unionists Against Immi- must build up dossiers on men Bration near Manationer ast and who women are enemies Manchester, near of this because country one weekend. day, ladies if and gentlemen, Prominent in the organiza- the politicians fail, it would be tion of TRU-AIM was Danny our job to liquidate the enemy.'

Harmstone, organizer of the pro-Powell march parlia- on of London dockers in ment 1969, and an ex-Mosley sup- The Labour Party leadership in Harmstone porter. works as London's local authorities porter in Smithfield meat seems to be falling into some meat market. measure of disrepute. Among those attending the Labour A week ago the inaugural meeting in November leader on the GLC Sir Reginald 1970 was Colin Jordan, organ- Goodwin was billed to speak at izer of the British Movement, a public meeting at Battersea.

National successor to the The meeting, to discuss Socialist Movement. Jordan is aspects of GLC policy on land, reported to have said that at roads and public transport, was least a thousand workers would advertised in the newspaper be on the streets behind TRU- and thousands of leaflets were AlM's banners. distributed. Chairman of the right-wing Come the great night National Front John O'Brien not member of the public another interested one was party turned up. at TRU-AIM's first meeting.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25- -cloth £1.871 Where Is Britain Going ? Paperback 37}p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 624pcloth £1.50 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.124- cloth £1.87% Permanent Revolution : Resulte and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxiem Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

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Scan page 10

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday March 22, 1972

BY ALEX MITCHELL

'INK', the underground newspaper, has informed financi company now owes about £7,000. Taking into account cost tising, the directors conclude that 'Ink' is 'not able to ma on the total outstanding debt to keep the company solve The directors then outline three possible courses of action. The first is quite blunt: should "That the Osie suggest one which tick is company considering is the liquidation cease trading forthwith and the and the company launching of a new communica- The newspaper "Ink' would which would be tions operation dis- registered as a charity. cease But with a £7,000 debt hang- ing over their heads, the new staff In tracing the brief but embat- find diffi- and directors will it lled history of 'Ink' the directors" raise capital whether the cult to paper had statement says: 'The new outfit is a charity or not. The been losing money at an average directors plan that the new rate of £1,300 per sno during operation should raise money in of weekly publica- period the the interests of furthering radical tion and by mid-july capital had communications generally'.

reached dangerously low point. But if 'Ink' thinks it can pro- fit from the radical communica-

CIRCULATION

tions industry it is mistaken.

It is an industry that is dead.

It has been 'lame-ducked' by the

IS LOW

The world- government. wide economic recession ends the old class relationships when 'The expenditure of canital was could middle-class young men less as outlined in the "do their thing' and be frightfully more company's original prospectus, radical. and advertising but circulation Today major classes were far below expectations.. tho two poised for combat truly a situation which, it would scent.

The 'Ink' is sadly repeated in other under- titanic proportions. better choose what radical publications men simply ground and in the country at the moment.'

side they're on. At the time of its demisc, 'of pro- the editorial policy was gressively greater comment lo The activities of "libertarian left" behind The assumption groups. the that the stories IS readers are interested in the pro- gress of those groups in society who are seeking its reform.

The document is signed by the directors: Felix Dennis, Andrew Fisher, John lloyd, Richard Neville, Ed Victor and Cassandra Wedd.

STATESMAN'

general

'NEW

and chief executive manager resigned Derek Dyerson has told he would be after being 'superseded' by a business con- sultant as managing director.

of It follows the resignation former Labour Min- the editor, Crossman, last Richard ister week. Dyerson said today that board chairman Lord Campbell of Eskan Whitehall had called him to his

GASWORKERS ON PICKET

Tuesday the day after office last

DUTY OUTSIDE THE

Crossman's The resignation.

STOCKPORT WORKS. RIGHT:

Hugh de business consultant

SHOP STEWARD RONNIE

appointed Quetteville is now

JONES: ON 24 HOUR CALL

managing director. Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62}p

MAX SHACHTMAN :

Behind The Moscow Trial Paperback 75p

ROBERT BLACK :

Stalinism In Britain Paperback £1.124—cloth £2

LEON TROTSKY :

Death Agony of Capitalism (The Transitional Programme) Pamphlet 50 Class Nature of the Soviet State Pamphlet 20p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p The Theory and Practice of Revisionism Pamphlet 15p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

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186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG. financial subscribers that the int costs, overheads and adver- • to make enough repayments ly solvent. organized by the A

• LOBBY

Council Lambeth Trades proposals . against Tory for rents received no housing and promises from Lambeth Lab- our councillors at their group meeting on Monday night. Trades Council representa- demanding that tives were the councillors give a real lead campaign against the in the Housing Finance Bill, which and that will double rents, they link this with a political the Tory force campaign to government to resign. Present council policy is to refuse to implement the rent only if other increases, boroughs take similar action.

Support will be measured at a meeting of all London Lab- our councillors on Saturday.

Alfred Goodliffe, chairman of the Stockwell Community Association, representing 1,000 tenants, said of the councillors after the lobby: North Western Gas Board D

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

OVER 1,000 gas workers in N Cheshire are on un- official strike in support of a group of Stockport gas board employees who say they have been victimized. has halted The dispute normal repairs and servicing over a wide area which in- Stock- cludes S Manchester, port, Hyde, Macclesfield and Glossop. board Now gas workers as far as Liverpool and Blackpool, Lancashire, threaten sympathetic action.

started when The trouble at Stockport gas management works began suspending men part of a new get-tough polic!.

Frank Stafford, employee an with 21 rears' service, was sus- pended after refusing to work overtime. He was also told that he after his week's suspension would be re-employed as

STOCKWELL TENAN®

GOODLIFFE (CENTRE) C

"They haven't said enough to satisfy me. They are all waiting for somebody else to stick their necks out. Are the going Council Lambeth to refuse to implement this Bill or are they just evading it? That's what we want to know? labourer and therefore lose job status and at least £2 a week off his wages. Mr Stafford has always made it clear that he cannot work family overtime because of reasons and in fact has not done so for the past four years.

Another worker, Dave Daven- has been suspended for port, •being late on a job-a delay partially caused because he was ordered to attend a works meet- ing called by the district engineer.

work in the These two men distribution department which on strike against the has been victimizations for over a week.

Workers at gas plants through- Cheshire have taken out sympathetic action and gas re- pairs in the area are now being handled by an emergency squad and teams of scabs organized by the gas board. Other suspensions occurred in when the servicing department 16 men were ordered out of the works after being found in nearb cafes. workers were refused The hearing by management and in- breach formed that one more of discipline would lead to dis-.

LL TENANTS REPRESENTATIVE ALFRED

ENTRE) CHALLENGES A COUNCILLOR

DUNLOP tyres are to cost more from April 3. Dunlop, India, John Bull and Regent brands will rise by 2} per cent on cross- ply tyres to per centon radials. missal without appeal. for the 16 told A spokesman .....м. me: 'Business is slack and I think they are trying to use this in- cident as an excuse to get rid We don't mind dis- of men. cipline, but men have the right to speak up for themselves— this is not the 18th century and we are not going to be treated like serfs.' Ronnie Jones, shop steward in the distribution department, talked about the conditions the repair squads have to work under. 'We are on 24-hour call. Some- times you can be out on a job all night and the firm never let's your wife know. So she's up all night worrying about you. You the continual live with worry of having your domestic life by the job - it's interrupted difficult to have a family life at all' Supplies have been stopped entering the works. Management has struck back by employing scab repair teams, but many gas leaks in the town left unattended for have been over a week.

Scan page 11

BECAUSE

shipbuilders' shipowners and that the to the cost of labour. Ustde aban. Vessels norm. owners' 1971 was a bad year for yards are also putting in

UNCERTAINTY

After listening to making forthcoming legislation .a statement on the complaints that com- aid to the shipbuilding apply

ULL

GOYÜI

Upper Clyde Ship- Shipbuilders industry. DOLLUrO or to bulders way because they the whole industry? uSTese Would it include lifted by John Davies, didn't aid Davies told Labour Secretary for Trade would approval £12m for and given Anthons SMOKeSHRn Marathon Clyde, take Com- said he would soon Davier Wedgwood Benn he hau LIGUdL,

LAC

IVCK

mons on Monday night. be Clydebank? Would! better wait and see.

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT DAVID MAUDE

VAUXHALL shop stewards at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside are up in arms against a new lay-off, pay

LABORATORY

engine testers agreement agreed by their national union officials.

and fitters at CAV (Acton), W They fear that a new wage- London, have won a nine-month- plan makes no scheduled pro security deal-approved in long battle against management vision for payment in the case of by the principle unions on a national circum- emergency, the and their own representatives for.

28- -will give the January are impossible salilao of their position reStOraLOn company the right to lay off to forecast. the site's wages sonenine workers and take them back "The however, is. company at will. prepared to have regard to the In 1970, a works conference national pattern in such an event fixed the laboratory men's posi- and 7,0 n workers is mass meting of the factory's discretion, make on the lilay . at No. Z LI0n Watc ocalt to be beld soon alnle odunci -after strike lock-out, ana First operated days TeW ending in a walk-out of the entire A Vauxhall spokesman claimec before the huge shut-down of labour force industry caused by the recent workers would receive terms 'not But with the 1971 site deal, less favourable than the rest that has specific men found themselves at No. industry' the the obligation to pay workers during in such situations •n ere suucuue. a national emergency. That is not what it says, how- And The relevant clause reads: 'The the wording, Before the new deal (1971) cver clearly open to other had sanes. le ocen anece. interpretations. stewards submitted claim to maintain their No. 2 position.

Broadly speaking, the company undertakes provide laid-off convenor Acton

AUEW

John per cent of thei attacked the claim strike off Paxman rate for persona oh-sutt 'un- total of 25 days each year.

that justified' and was presented order to 'wreck the 1971 deal".

ONE

HUNDRED

fifty During any one period of lay- workers at Kaymet off, the total time during which engineering Now, after and woths nine will made Co factory. Peckham. called ofi a' be paylilcill Is SCve. token stoppages works-to- threatened strike yesterday days. Paxman has been forced to the employer agreed to reinstate Tule will only admit the men have a good case.

cancelled pay and conditions Payment however, cases of company in •erec ic l. And management has indicated equipment services failure; Company chief Sydney that they were failure of essential services Schreiber earlier charged four licl sucu ds cecucl. workers with unfair industrial short-time transport; working; to ") to ori mem in le wı calling the strike and their former position. failures of outside suppliers.

action for ne adosa nosoa neacons celses trom Jill ,set their in- The Court banned any further action Illcil until yesterday. 88869 The daily apar ads the The agreement excludes pay- fight against the Torles. supply InCNE failures-due to a national rail strike, for instance-industrial £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) Vauxhall action at any plant {10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues)

COLLLY

reaundancy £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) situations. If you want to take Workers Press twice a wook the rates are: Stewards Port, al kulesmere £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues).

who obtained copies of the full some difficulty, £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) terms only with say that they are a clear violation Fill in the form below NOW and senid to: oI taelr own decision last septem- ber not to accept lay-offs, short- Clapham High St., Circulation Dept., Workers Press, 186a time working or redundancy.

London, SW4 7UG. And they feel the that I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

exclusions from Dayncat amoal unacceptable comm erey

THURSDAY

MONDAY

Days required penalty clause. The national pay claim of the Amalgamated Union

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

(Please tick) ot Engineering Workers. which Is

WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY

being pursued locally, calls for the abolition of penalty Or clauses. Full subscription (six days) for monas. There is also a fear that the working towards company Is be- could STIaO sanere ( Trey come virtually casual labour.

With a sharp eye on the economic prospects in industry, Mersey steward told Workers Press the agreement Amount enclosed £ could become 'the pea-pickers' charter'. Workers Pross, Wednesday March 22, 1972 PAGE 11

BBC-1

35 Schools. 10.45 Boomph with Becker. 11.05-11.55 Schoo 2.25-12.50 Nai zindagi naya jeevan. 12.55 Disc a dawn. 1.30-1.

Chigley. 1.45-1.53 News and weather. 2.05-2.50 Schools.

school. 4.40 Jackanory. 6.00 NATIONWIDE Your region tonight.

6.50 TOM AND JERRY.

7.00 SPY TRÄP. 'The Defector' 7.25 STAR TREK. 'The Galileo Seven' 8.00 SOFTLY, SOFTLY: TASK FORCE. 'The Easy Job'.

9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather.

9.20 THE BUDGET. Rt Hon Roy Jenkins, MP, for the Opposition.

9.30. SPORTSNIGHT WITH COLEMAN. European Soccer.

10.50 24 HOURS.

11.25 DOCUMENTARY: LONG LIVE OUR ENGLAND. 'A Tale of Black Families'. 11.55 Weather.

BBC-2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.35-7.00 Open University.

7.30 NEWSROOM and weather.

8.00 TIMES REMEMBERED.

8.10 MAN ALIVE. Landlord and tenant. 'What Price a Fair Deal?'.

9.00 LOOK, STRANGER. 'He's Not ia Bad Old Dog'.

9.20 FILM: 'BATHING BEAUTY'. Esther Williams. A song writer talls in love with a swimming instructress.

10.55 NEWS ON 2 and weather.

11.00 THE BUDGET. Rt Hon Roy Jenkins, MP for the Opposition.

11.10 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

ITV

10.20 Schools. 2.32 All our yesterdays. 3.00 Houseparty, 3,10 Tea break. 3.40 Edgar Wallace. 4.40 Paulus. 4.55 Get this! 5.20 Tight- rope. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY.

6.35 CROSSROADS.

7.00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE.

7.30 CORONATION STREET.

8.00 THE BENNY HILL SHOW.

9.00 CALLAN. "Rules of the Game'.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 THE BUDGET. Rt Hon Roy Jenkins, MP, for the Opposition.

10.40 MAN AT THE TOP. 'It's All Perfectly True.'

11.40 PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

12.10 WHAT THE PAPERS SAY. Richard Ingrams.

12.25 MUSIC MATTERS.

REGIONAL TV

AHS PaVELS. 4:20 Pumin? 4125 Tea

ULSTER:

10.20-2.32 London. 4.30 Romper 4.50 room. News. 4.55 break. News. London. 6.00

UTV

6.15 reports. Towards the year What's on? Weather 6.35 10.40 London 2000. London. 7.00 Treasure Tommy Cooper. 11.10 Wrestling.

hunt. 8.00 10.32 Life ondon 10.40 Han Wrestling. Both hends meet. 11.10 Epilogue.

YORKSHIRE:

10.20 London. 2.33 News, weather. 3.00 World action. Pied piper. 3.05 Jobs in the and garden house

WESTWARD.

As Channel .35 News. Women 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.00. 4.15 Crossroads. 4.40 4.55 6.00 Calendar, 11.40 London nit 6.00 1.43 Faith News. for life. 11. 48 ersity challenge. 11.10 Weather. London. Alexander. Wrestling. 11.55 Weather.

SOUTHERN:

London. 3.30 Tea break. 4.15 Enchanted house. 10.18-2.30

GRANADA 05

London. 6.00 Day roads. 3.40 Yoga Se indon. Odd couple. 6.30 University challenge 4.40 Paulus. 4.55 6.00 London 10.40 Dick News. What's Perton Pike Weath Westisco er. News.

Place. 7.00 London. 10.40 Alex- Weather. Discoverers. ander. 11.10 Wrestling. 11.40 What the

HARLECH:

Awa0--.15 London. Katie 15. 4.55 4.30

TEES:

tainment.

TYNE

10.20 London. 2.32 ReP 5:30 6.01 3.00 6.15 World action. Pied Wales. Report 3.05 House and Cooper. 7.00 London 10.40 Alex- 3.45 Women. Crossroads. 1.10 ander. Wrestling. 11.40 Paulus. 4.55 Today ool. Weath West 6.30 challenge. 7.00

HTV

above except: 6.01- London. 10.40 Wrestine. that bit 6.30 Report West. 11.10 11.45 News. 12.00 Epilogue. News. HTy and Wales above except: 3.50 Hamm- 4.15-4.30 Miri 10.20-2.20 London. mawr. 6.01- Perky. 3.45 6.15 Y dudd. 3.30 Pinky Cross- Dateline: 4.10 4.55 roads. Lon- Dateline. 6.20 Popeye

ANGLIA: 10.20-2.320

10d30 Rom 7.00 London 6.30 Plus 111. To Laze 10.41 4. break. break Sport. call. 11.35 Uni- per 8700. 0.35 6.00 About challenge. 12.05 Wrestling. Anglia. 10.40 Alex- ander. 11.10 Wrestling. 11.00-2.32 London.

ATV

MIDLANDS:

10.20-2.32 Lon .38 News 3.40 Smith family. 4.10 3.10 3.35 Yora don. lay. 4.10 Ghost and Mirs Enchanted house. 4.55 London. 6.00 News, 6.10 6.yeather island. Grampian week. ,.6.3 London. Today. eris London. 10.40 Branded Wrestling, Today 6.35 10.40 11.40 Highlanders. 12.00 Epi Alexander. 11.10 Wrestling.

logue. would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

Name Address

Scan page 12

Bank raid Maoist jailed PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday Mar

A NEW

• I-per-cent pay offer to Britain's 200,000 rail- waymen met with a cool response from union leaders yesterday. Made in resumed talks with the unions yesterday morning, the offer was described by loco- men's leader Ray Buckton as "juggling with figures' British Railways Board The improve- claims the proposed ment in its earlier £27.4m, 9.84- per-cent offer would cost it an- other £3.4m in a full year, bring- ing the rise in average earnings up to Il per cent. The unions denied this. Mr Buckton said members of his the Associated union of Locomotive Society En- gineers and Firemen would get only 9.68 per cent on basic rates and less than y per cent earnings. biggest of the three The unions involved, the National Union of Railwaymen. has asked for a new minimum basic rate of E20 i week, 12.7 per cent up on the present £17.20 basic. ASLEF is claiming i 16 per cent 'nego- tiable' rise. unions made it clear Both vesterday that they earlier wanted an improved offer on basic rates before they were prepared to talk about con- bonus solidated rates and sistenis. Consolidation the transfer of payments into the basic bonus rate. which affects overtime pre- was at the root of yes- niums terday's big argument.

LATENEWS

BUDGET

cent, with certain exceptions.

This tax will be imposed on all products and is expected to lead to a massive rise in the cost of living on Common Market entry.

It comes into operation in il year's time. Food is among the items which will be 'zero rated" from VAT. together with newspapers, new construction, rents and export goods. The Family Incomes Supple- ment. Sir Keith Joseph's much- help vaunted scheme to poverty-stricken families, is to be abandoned. None of these measures will reduce unemployment though incentives to industry are the aimed at encouraging still more productivity by rationalization at the expense of jobs. pensions increase was The described as 'Welcome' by en- gineers' leader Hugh Scanlon. but Jack Jones of the Transport and General Workers Union said it was 'disgracefully low" "The old folk have been left to scrimp again and are going to have to wait for months before the! get anything at all.' Jones said. PROMPT US recognition Bangladesh was yesterday called for by the senate. already The resolution, approved by the foreign relations committee, passed the senate by voice vote with no opposition heard. Recession was blamed yesterday for British Oxygen's first quarter of drop £300,000 profits to £4,343,000 on last year's figure.

ABOUT 450 building workers at the John Laing Isle of Grain power station who have been on strike for over a week demanding a 50p fall-back bonus are holding a mass meeting this morning.

Area organizers from the unions

G&MWU

involved - T&GWU, and the joiners' and builders' union—will be present to decide whether the strike will continue and whether it will be made official. esday March 22, 1972 THE FORMER chairman of the Workers' Party of Scot- land, which claimed to be a Maoist organization, has been jailed for 24 years for taking part in three bank raids involving more than BACKING for the six-day-old Mills steelworks at Bredbury, : day from the executive counc Union of Engineering Worker Engineering orders down THE STEEP decline in engineer- has. without doubt, ing orders stiffened the determination of the industry's employers to resist the current round of wage claims.

Figures out yesterday showed il 21-per-cent drop in new orders from overseas during the last three months of 1971, with a 6 per cent fall in orders from the British market. Throughout 1971 total Tell engineering orders 81 per cent compared with 1970 falling to their lowest level for four vears, according to the Depart- ment of Trade and Industry.

Some employers are looking to an autumn upturn in orders, but if the slump worsens they will add almost certainly to industry's already heavy redun- dancies. existing labour force is The operating at between 15 and 20 per cent below capacity. Erest Scragg the Macclesfield textile machine manufacturers who have broken the engineering employers tough line on wages have been told they will be expelled from the NW Regional Engineering Employers' Associ- ation and the EEF if they go ahead.

WEATHER

ENGLAND.

Wales, N Ireland and S Scotland will be dry with In N clear periods. sunny or Scotland it will be cloudy with rain at first becoming sone brighter. It will be warm. or rather warm except in N Scotland where normal temperatures are expected. Outlook for Thursday and Friday: Showers in N districts at first.

otherwise generally dry. but cooler in S. Clapham Street, £13,700. He was Matthew Lygate (34), who in 1969 stood as a parlia- mentary candidate at a Gorbals by-election. Another of the accused, William McPherson (31) received 26 years for his part in the raids.

Ian Doran (23), who was found

PLAYING CARDS TO PASS TH

lay-old occupation of the James dbury, Stockport, came yester- e council of the Amalgamated Workers. 'We're bound to support it', Bob Wright, the executive member responsible for the district, told Stockport Workers Press in London. Earlier Hugh Scanlon, AUEW president, said action was covered by an 'umbrella' decision of the union's national committee to support local action in pursuit of the union's national pay policy.

Meanwhile about 5,000 workers in the Stockport area continued their work-to-rule and ban on in support of this piecework in solidarity with policy and Bredbury workers. Workers at the nearby Davis who have and Metcalf plant, been banning piecework since the end of last week, have been offered a deal by management, but this is understood to be un- satisfactory on both hours and wages. The Metcalf men will meet further today to decide on action. They have made it qiute lear that they too will occupy if management attempt to break work-to-rule by suspending men. The AUEW executive is asking all its districts for a factual, up- to-date report on their progress in pursuing the national pay claim at local level. On January 4-five days before the miners began their national leaders voted to action-union national-level pressure abandon for the claim. Meeting in London yesterday, the seven-man executive asked to be notified of any settlements which have been achieved. They also called for information about reach settlement any failures to for which official approval has not been sought. Both Scanlon and union secre- tary Jim Conway ruled out any change in the present pay policy.

The union was ready for talks with the EEF on pay if asked, said Conway. 'But it would have to come from them. They turned us down.'

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE

WILLESDEN: Monday March 27, 8 p.m. Trades and Labour Hall. High Rd., NW1. 'Right- Campaign and the to-Work fight to force the Tories out'.

CROYDON: Thursday March • House, 23, 8 p.m. Ruskin Coombe Road, E Croydon. Re- port back from Empire Pool, Wembley, rally. guilty of four charges of assault All four had pleaded not and robbery, including three guilty to various charges, in- bank raids, was sentenced 25 cluding four armed raids to on years in prison. banks between June and Decem- ber last year during which A fourth man, Colin Lawson £18,000 was stolen. (34) was found guilty of being involved in one raid and of All the the were sentences offences such as car theft and was longest in Scotland for this type sent to prison for six years.

of crime.

£754.67 STILL

DUE FOR

MARCH FUND

OUR DAYS are running out. It becoming a is tough struggle our Fund. this month to raise total stands £495.33, Our at leaving ten more days to com.

plete our targot of €1,250.

We know that you, our readers, have given magnificently to the Right-to-Work campalgn and Sociallat maintalned the Young marches on the road. But the Tory government leaves us no Each day more time to rest. our baslc rights come under at- tack. We must fight back now wịth Workers Press rlght In the fore- front of this struggle. Go all out today. Leave no stone unturned.

Collect as much as you can to- Post wards this month's Fund. all your donations Immedlately to: Workers Press March Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High St London, SW4 7UG.

• PASS THE TIME DURING THE SIT-IN

Socialist Labour League

ULSTER AND BRITAIN

Defend Right of Assembly !

Against Internment ! Withdraw British Troops !

DEMONSTRATE

Force Tory Government to Resign !

SUNDAY MARCH 26

Assemble: 1 pm Clapham Common March with Young Socialists and Socialist Labour League contingent.

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

WE DEMAND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

SWANSEA TO LONDON

1972

TUNG SOCIALISTS

RICATO WORK

WITH TO WORK

BLASGONTO LONDC

YOUNG SOCIALISTS 12th ANNUAL CONFERENCE Saturday & Sunday April 8/9 Grand Hall, The Spa Dance to 'BRAVE NEW WORLD' Saturday night 8 pm also see a star-studded show Cost approximately £4.50. For tickete apply to John Simmance, National Secretary, 186a Clapham High Street, London, SWA JUG Please send me details/tickets of the Scarborough Conference.

I enclose

NAME

ADDRESS

← no. 719, 21 March 1972no. 721, 23 March 1972 →