Workers Press no. 749

workers press TUC still to see Heath and Macmillan

TORIES CRACK

LEGAL WHIP

INCORPORATIN

DAILY ORGAN OF T

BY ALEX MITCHELL

THE TORY

government is now openly intimidating the TUC with its Industrial Relations Act. On Monday National Indust- rial Relations Court secretary C. R. Seaton sent a confidential letter to Victor Feather telling him the TUC faces court action if it expels unions who register under the Act.

The meaning of this intervention is that the Tory court is not only arbitrating on wages- -as in the court action against the three rail unions last week- but also telling the TUC how to run the internal affairs• of the trade union movement.

In the face of this retreats still further. Now offensive, which threat- General the Finance and ens the very foundations Committee Purposes has of the independent trade violated the mandate of September's Congress. union movement, what last the trade union are Workers Press has been leaders doing? the only paper to warn of the danger of this type of Last night Feather and a class-collaboration.

TUC

delegation went to see Employment Secretary On April 14 our front- Maurice Macmillan at the page headline said:

"TUC

Department of Employ- retreats on anti-union fine' the TUC for cocktails! We stated that ment 'now preparing to was This convivial soiree make appearances the only in comes a week after and before the courts Macmillan the went to Commission Industrial on NIRC to get an injunction Relations (CIR). rail against the three unions who were using a The urgent need now is to get the TUC of last work - to - rule to get decent for their September recalled wage to 200.000 members. special conference to re- affirm the decision not to And today Feather will Act with the co-operate lead the same crowd on and to expel those who visit to No 10 Downing St have violated that decision.

to see Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath. They will be resuming talks, begun after the miners' strike, on how to get the economy back on its feet. The TUC's treachery is crowned, however, by the decision taken at

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPON

Finance and Monday's General Purposes Com- unions mittee to allow LEADER of

THE

before the to appear Britain's largest second

NIRC

their *to defend union yesterday used the interests'. Industrial Relations Act Does the TUC seriously his to policy- warn believe that the court. set making conference off up and staffed by the Tory a fight with the national Cabinet, will give the working class justice? engineering employers. Speaking at Eastbourne justice Do they expect Hugh Scanlon, president of has from court which a Amalgamated Union of the already fined the Transport Engineering Workers, said General Workers and that if the engineering Union €55.000 and is reopened national unions threatening to take away the negotiations with all its assets? pay they might find employers The decision to appear themselves in dispute with before the courts is the whole industry 'with all treacherous climbdown and that that implies from will onlv strengthen the legal viewpoint'. Tories emplovers* and eve of the 1.2 On the determination to prosecute million-strong AUEW en- and militants shop gineers' section debate on stewards. wages, he said that unions The reformist trade could 'keep not going to leadership todav the brink' disputes. union over stands openly serving the In what was taken as an implied of the Each time the criticism enemy class.

TUC

railmen's he Tories hit out, the leaders,

PORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WED

N OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTE

RRESPONDENT

added: It is better never to go to the brink than going to the brink and then drawing back. Of the £55,000 fines imposed on the Transport and General Workers' Union, he said: I am still certain even at this late stage somebody somewhere is going to come to their and avoid the con- senses frontation that appears to be imminent. *The present rail situa- tion may give a breathing space, but the position overall needs the utmost attention from a united trade union movement. *The movement must have respect for the law and even more respect for the courts that have to administer it. But respect does not mean one always acquiesces. It may take the form of opposition.' INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY APRIL 26, 1972• No. 749 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

ABOLISH

MEANS

TEST

Sparks' union at Court THE electricians' union has already been official with National the mausmar Keladons CoUrT. it was revealed late yester- day. The which has union, yet the not come resister. aoparenty COn- tacted the court following an application for bargain 1,000 rights Electricitv Supply SIrONg Union. The small Yorkshire- based union wants bargain- rerryonuse power station. elec. tricians' asked the court for extension answer the application and this was granted with the the hear- adjournment ing until May 5. The manoeuvres with the Frank Chample's COUrt DV union completely are against the TUC's official boycott of the poncy court and the Act. The union would make no comment. 72 • No. 749 • 4p

ALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

WITH

The housewives- -and some husbands- -converge on Redditch Development Corporation, Birmingham

TWO HUNDRED

of many them pushing angry tenants yesterday besieged or leading prams young the offices of the Redditch children. Development Corporation Many of them were in a protest against the joined by their husbands. Tory Bill and the rent either factory workers or already high rents on unemployed. homes owned by the Corperation. When Development Cor- poration officials refused Led by Mrs Ivy Jones of for the fourth time to come Tedmore Rd, Redditch, out and meet the tenants, the march wound its way they voted unanimously in up the long hill from the future to pay only what Woodrow Estate and they considered to be 'fair through the town centre. rents - £5 for three- bedroomed house, €5.50 if The of the majority the house had a garage marchers were housewives, and 50p more for every additional bedroom. Reading from a prepared Cool Mac statement Mrs Tones said: "Tenants are refusing to

EMPLOYMENT

Secretary face and the means test succumb to this wretched Maurice Macmillan. told government. Tenants will the Commons yesterday he would send an official note not be victims of this un- fair act. She said that the to the NIRC saying normal Tory work had resumed on the government was act- railwavs. He then expected ing in the interests of the cooling money lenders and pro- the 14-day off period to come into effect.

owners and the perty This sooner they called a General would allow for he Election the better it will further negotiations, be for them'. said.

workers press TUC still to see Heath and Macmillan

TORIES CRACK

LEGAL WHIP

INCORPORATIN

DAILY ORGAN OF T

BY ALEX MITCHELL

THE TORY

now openly government is intimidating the TUC with its Industrial Relations Act. On Monday National Indust- rial Relations Court secretary C. R. Seaton sent a confidential letter to Victor Feather telling him the TUC faces court action if it expels unions who register under the Act.

The meaning of this intervention is that the Tory court is not only arbitrating on wages-as in the court action against the three rail unions last week-but also telling the TUC how to run the internal affairs• of the trade union movement.

In the face of this still further. retreats Now offensive,. which threat- General the Finance and ens the very foundations Purposes Committee has of the independent trade violated the mandate of movement, what last September's Congress. union trade union the are Workers Press has been leaders doing? the only paper of to warn the danger of this type of Last night Feather and a class-collaboration.

TUC

delegation went to Secretary see Employment On April 14 our front-

«TUC

Maurice Macmillan at the headline said: page Department of Employ- retreats on anti-union fine' the TUC for cocktails! We stated ment that 'now was preparing to This convivial soiree make appearances in the only a week after comes and before the courts Macmillan the went to Commission Industrial NIRC to get an injunction Relations (CIR). the three rail against unions who were using a The urgent need now is TUC of last work - to - rule to get the to get September recalled decent for their to a wage special conference to 200,000 members. re- affirm the decision not to And today Feather will with the Act co-operate lead the same crowd on a and to expel those who visit to No 10 Downing St have violated that decision.

to see Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath. They will be resuming talks, begun after the miners' strike, on 'get the economy how to back on its feet'. The TUC's treachery is crowned, however, by the decision taken at and

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPON

Mondav's Finance General Purposes Com- mittee unions to allow

THE

LEADER of before the to appear Britain's second largest

NIRC

defend their 'to union yesterday used the interests'. Industrial Relations Act Does the TUC seriously warn his policy- to believe that the court. set up and staffed by the Tory making conference off a national fight with the Cabinet, will the give working class justice? engineering employers. Speaking at Eastbourne. "justice' Do they expect which Hugh Scanlon. president of from has a court the Amalgamated Union of already fined the Transport Engineering Workers, said Workers' and General that if the engineering Union £55.000 and is reopened unions national threatening to take away negotiations with the all its assets? pay emplovers they might find The decision to appear themselves in dispute with before the courts is the whole industry 'with all treacherous climbdown and that that implies from a the will only strengthen legal viewpoint'. Tories' and employers' the eve of the 1.2 On determination to prosecute million-strong AUEW en- militants and shop gineers' section debate on stewards. wages. he said that unions "keep The reformist trade could not going to union leadership today the brink' over disputes.

stands serving the In what was taken as an openly enemy class. Each time the implied of the criticism the TUC railmen!s leaders, he Tories hit out,

PORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WED

N OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTE

RRESPONDENT

added: It is better never then drawing back.' Of the £55,000 fines imposed on the Transport and General Workers' Union, he said: 'I am still certain even at this late stage somebody somewhere is going to come to their and avoid the con- senses frontation that appears to be imminent. "The present rail situa- tion may give a breathing space, but the position overall needs the utmost attention from a united trade union movement. "The movement must have respect for the law and even more respect for the that have to courts administer it. But respect does not mean one always acquiesces. 'It may take the form of opposition' • WEDNESDAY APRIL 26, 1972 • No.

MMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST L

ABOLISH

TEST

at Court THE electricians' union has already been in official contact with the National Industrial Relations Court, it was revealed late yester- day. The union, which has not yet come off the register, apparently con- tacted the court following.

an application for bargain- ing rights by the 1,000- Electricity Supply strong Union. The small Yorkshire- based union wants bargain- ing rights at Ferrybridge power union asked the court for an extension to answer the application and this was granted with the adjournment of the hear- ing until May 5. The manoeuvres with the court by Frank Chapple's completely union against the policy of boycott of the court and the Act. The union would make no comment. 72 • No. 749 • 4p

ALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

WITH

The housewives -and some husbands—converge on Redditch Development Corporation, Birmingham

TWO

HUNDRED

of them pushing angry many tenants yesterday besieged or leading prams young the offices of the Redditch children. Corporation Development Many of them were in a protest against the joined by their husbands, Tory Bill rent and the either factory workers or high฿ already rents on unemploved. homes owned by the Corporation. When Development Cor- poration officials refused Led by Mrs Ivy Jones of for the fourth time to come Tedmore Rd, Redditch, out and meet the tenants, the march wound its way they voted unanimously in up the long hill from the future to Day only what Woodrow Estate and they considered to be 'fair' through the town centre. rents — f5 for three- a bedroomed house, $5.50 if The majority of the the house had a garage marchers were housewives, 50p and for every more additional bedroom. Reading from a prepared Cool Mac statement Mrs Jones said: "Tenants are refusing to Secretary

EMPLOYMENT

face the and. means test Maurice succumb to this wretched Macmillan told government. Tenants the Commons yesterday he will would send an official note not be victims of this un fair act? She said that the to the NIRC saving normal work had resumed on the Tory government was act- railways. He then expected ing in the interests of the the 14-day cooling off money lenders and pro- period to come into effect.

and. the perty owners would allow sooner they called a General This further he Election 'the better it will negotiations, be for them'. said.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednosday April 2

BY JOHN SPENCER

W GERMAN chancellor Willy Brandt is facing a no-confidence vote parliament tomorrow which could end his two and a half years in power.

The opposition Christian Democrats, led by Rainer Barzel and Josef Strauss, have tabled a motion of no con- fidence for parliamentary debate on Thursday. The motion was tabled only few hours after the CDU's victory at the polls in Baden- Württemberg. It also followed the defection from Brandt's coalition of Free fourth coalition member to join Democrat Wilhelm Helms, the opposition since. Brandt took office. Free Democrats The are divided over the two crucial facing the government Issues working its relations with the its treaties with class and Poland and the USSR. Like the Weimar governments .of the 1920s, the Brandt coali- tion has been plunged into crisis by the worsening world economic situation. The German employ- ers are demanding a government which will confront the organ- ized workers and adopt a more foreign policy. aggressive In particular, they oppose the pacts signed with Poland and the Soviet Union which effectively the division • of Germany. seal

AROUND THE WORLD

LIGHTNING strikes on a score of Madrid construction sites marked the start on Monday of i week-long campaign against the fascist government. The campaign, scheduled to culminate mass rally on May Day. is a direct challenge to the official state-run sindica- Spain's sole legal union tos. organizations. guards with carbines Civil and sub-machine guns patrolled the building sites during Mon- day's strikes, but no arrests or clashes were reported. The strike call came from four organizations • the Com- munist Party, the Socialist Party: Workers Commissions the (underground trade unions) and the Pabloite revisionist Revolu- tionary Communist League. All four are illegal under fascist-law.

The workers were asked to down tools for brief site meet- ings to discuss political and in- dustrial demands. These include a 400 pesetas daily basic wage.

with 165 pesetas compared at 'present, and i 40-hour week.

The alliance between the Com- munist Party and the Pabloites is a new development in Spain.

In the wave of strikes followed demonstrations which the Burgos trial death sentences on six Basque nationalists.

the Pabloites condemned the CP as reformist and organized separate demonstrations. issue of the CP A recent paper 'Mundo Obrero' welcomed unity of action with the LCR in the following terms: "The Com- mittee of the University organi- zation in Madrid of the Com- munist Party and the Student Committeee of the Revolutionary Communist have pub- League lished a joint call for a struggle against the General Law on Education and for the May 1 "without strike that implying any ignoring of the profound and • tactical differ- strategical ences" between' the two organiza-.

tions.' day Aprll 26, 1972 The treaties come up for ratifica- tion next week. Brandt's has government a majority of only three in the Bundestag and Barzel said yes- terday he had reason to believe treaties the would not get majority. In order to cust Brandl, the Christian Democrats must get an absolute majority for a new Chancellor. INDIAN delegates left New D for Rawalpindi to open talks first time since the war last I The discussions open today at Murree, a resort not far capital. from the Pakistan They are aimed at paving the way for a summit meet- ing between Mrs Indira Gandhi, the Indian premier, and Pakistan President Zul- figar Ali Bhutto. of Mrs D. P. Dhar, one Gandhi's closest advisers, heads the Indian team. His Pakistani counterpart is Aziz. Ahmed, one of Bhutto's presidential advisers.

Bhutto has already indicated that Pakistan will adopt a flex- ible, conciliatory* posture in the ruled talks, He has out not acceptance of an Indian demand that Bangla Desh premier Sheikh Mujibur Rahman be invited to take part. Bhutto is faced with mounting crisis at home, where opposition leaders in Baluchistan and NW Frontier Province "have threat- ened armed resistance to back their demands for greater regional autonomy. Khan Wali Khan, pro-Moscow leader of the National Awami Party: threatened at the week- that force would be met end Newsmen purged THE HEAD of the Czech Asso- ciation of Journalists has dis- lost closed that 1,212 newsmen were demoted in their jobs or the purge that followed the War- of Czecho- Pact invasion saw slovakia in August 1968. The figure refers only to Bohemian and Moravian journal- ists. Slovak. journalists are organ- ized in a separate body. Moscow is becoming increas- ingly concerned about the possi- bility that the treaties will not be ratified. 'Pravda' yesterday attacked *reactionary forces' which it said were planning to defeat the Brandt coalition. If the treaties are not ratified, it puts the Soviet government's plans for a European Security conference in jeopardy. New Delhi yesterday morning n talks with Pakistan for the r last December. force if Bhutto tried to with den! the NAP's demands. •If vou resort to fist fights or batons or guns, we are equally prepared/ he warned. Wali Khan has thousands of men under arms. One issue which could bring about the breakdown of the India-Pakistan talks is the fate . of Pakistani war criminals held in Bangla Desh. The Bangla Desh government plans to put them on trial, but Bhutto has • said this would 'muck up everything' and wreck the talks. ITALIAN Communist Party general secretary Enrico Ber- linguer considers that further of the coun- nationalization try's industry is unnecessary as the public sector is extensive enough. attitude indicates His the thoroughly reformist character of as Italy campaign approaches its most critical Gen- eral Election since the war.

The Italian Stalinists' econo- , mic programme is based on , SO- called 'structural reforms. These amount to reorganizing the big monopolies with state participa- tion and reform of the banking system. It stipulates in particular that there must be a large role. for private initiative'. only The RANK-AND-FILE Communist Party members, even though critical of some of their leaders' actions, often argue that 'when the chips are down' the Party will be on the right side of the barricades. Well, the chips were very definitely down at Monday's meeting of the TUC 'inner cabinet'. But how did yesterday's 'Morning Star' react to the committee's flabby retreat before the National Industrial Relations Court?

The paper hailed it as a stance of defiance. 'TUC Backs Union in Rejecting Fine', screamed the page- The top-level Finance and General Pur- one headline. poses Committee of the TUC yesterday agreed to defy the Tory anti-union legislation', read the first para- paper's industrial of an correspondent. It was only in paragraph five that readers learnt that the committee. 'did open the way to unions beginning co-operation with the institutions established by the Act'. As we have insisted before in this column, the first duty of a revolutionary newspaper is to tell the 'Star' is embarked truth to the working class. But the on a course of consistently misinforming its readers.

There can be no doubt that the decisions the 'inner cabinet' will ask the General Council to ratify today are a retreat. By five votes to four, the com- mittee rejected a proposal that an emergency. con: gress be called to show a united front against the NIRC. A proposal for a special committee meeting to discuss a guidance document on when unions could attend the court was accepted five to three.

Union leaders who voted for the special meeting were Cyril Plant, George Lowthian, Bill Hogarth and Sir Sidney Greene.

The same group the go-ahead for today's Downing St confab with Tory premier Heath, which Hugh Scanlon, Jack Dan McGarvey Richard Briginshaw wanted to boycott. McGarvey remained neutral on the guidance-document proposal, as did Hogarth on the idea of a special conterence.

Where, then, do these line-ups place the seven- Transport and General vote to support the its refusal to pay the NIRC's Workers' Union in £55,000 fines? If the TUC leaders are against mobiliz- ing the trade union movement against the implementa- Industrial Relations Act, how can they 'defy' it as the 'Star' claims?

Even the most devoted Communist Party member çan see the complete divergence between the 'Star's' treatment of this story and that of the Fleet St press.

He will be asked to explain it in his place of work.

gives him no ammunition to answer And the 'Star' gloat: "TUC Drops its Boycott of 'The Guardian's' Disputes Court'. Workers Press has warned continuously that the would call action against the TUC leaders no Industrial Relations Act. The Socialist Labour League fought at every turn to stop the union chiefs' gestures of opposition becoming mere covers for acceptance at a later date. The policy of the Communist Party and the 'Morning Star' was the opposite.

Confident that they have succeeded in confusing sections of workers about the role of the union leaders; the Stalinist leaders of the CP are now the Act. That themselves on the brink of accepting But the work- is the meaning of yesterday's article.

ing class-and the Workers Press-will prove them wrona. We urge all CP members who seriously want to fight the Act to join with us in doing so.

re-establishment of Mussolini's measures in the nationalization Party concern the corporate state. programme The Stalinists, in fact, drug industry, sugar production appear far concerned about the and certain agricultural holdings.

more The giant motor, chemical and growth of what they term 'ultra- are left entirely leftist' tendencies. steel combines meetings, Ber- untouched by this At his election rogramme 'The at pains to dissociate According to Earle. linguer is ohn Rome: the CP from suspicion of Times' correspondent in any the offered by the com- involvement in • recurring 'The ideal street battles with the fascists.

of munists that numerous his small businessmen, shopkeepers These battles, tells who and individual peasants "living listeners, involve people 'have nothing with the harmoniously with benevolent to the Italian Communist Party or the control over major

CATA

means of production. mass of the workers'. The leaders of Italian Stalin- ism are peddling the dangerous It is with this milk-and-water fascism CP illusion that be perspective that the leaders can preparing to fight the right- defeated through the decrepit parliamentary challenge the fascist and discredited wing which itself is the seed- Social Movement, which system Italian for bed for fascist tendencies.

is campaigning openly the

JOHN BENTLEY'S £5.5m takeover bid for British Lion means that the days of Shepperton Studios, Middlesex, are numbered. Despite reassuring noises in yesterday's capitalist press that Bentley was interested in film-making, the fact is he is more keen on money-making. When asked one of 'But the will new financiers fight back. will to Bentley's business associates if the 32-year-old tycoon was turn the property into a residen.

tial estate just as Stirling Homes a fan of art, he replied, 'Art?

is doing at Boreham Wood.

Who's Art?' "The bad will win and the curtain will come down on personal Bentley, whose the old board members weeping believed fortune is to be —al the wav to the bank.'

betwéen £2m £3m, is and Slater, protégé of Jim the • The six directors involved in head of Slater Walker Securi- sale are the Bentley Goodman, John and Slater 'discovered' Bent- ties. ing, millionaire ley when he was a young and Rayne, and film team, Gilliat and inexperienced stockbroker and Launder. The Boulting Brothers his financial has acted sold believed their to have 4 re patron ever since. holdings for more than £500,000 - Sir Max Rayne, When Bentley launched his own firm, Barclay Securities, Slater who chiefly capitalized was between venture Slater owns 20 and 30 cent of the stock for British Bentley's offer Lion astonished the City of London. About a year ago when British Lion shares were worth only 25p, the company more than £2m. And yet after which profits have been a year in almost oiter is f5.4m—twice its face value.

How can Bentley make such He marc only on the basis of selling off Shepperton for property develop- ment. vesterday: «The said 'The fact that Lord chairman will as continue British Lion woe horno. indication that the company be involved will continue to 'film production.' The City reading the board quite differently. moves us that One hroker told Workers from the film and theatre industry at a recent prote 2c coon as Roy Boulting, Fran Frank Launder closure and Sidney formally takeover offer, they arrant …tha will resign from the board.

The reshuffled board will reflect the interests of the major choraholdore autohly Rentley and the triumvirate which controls 15 Slater the stock per of cenT Walker, Warburgs. the marchant bankers, and M&G unit trust.

This new management team had not the cliohtest interest THE POLICE inquiry into the film production. Their eyes are REPORTEr shows that the 60 Shepperton, Leeds police on acres at there nothing funda- Broadwick Soho, is House and What other police fo Dover with mentally another valuable site in wrong the country can boast St, Mayfair. city's police force. record of Leeds? well out of the Bentley does The investigation was carried The Chief Scotland shows Haol Dant out by two senior report Dean, British Lion's film advertis- Tohn officere complaints against Yard police his ing subsidiary, to 'media McKay and Mr James Starritt, 1963, 231 in division'. com- assistant police last vear. In the past couple years missioner. the Past *ham torm Bentley has cornered this mar- months to reach their con- than police ket: he controls Mills and Allan, prosecuted haan London Poster, and Dorlands, all criminal courts and The report will not be made poster and hoarding firms.

disciplined. public-which is extraordinary The grisly case considering done Until now Bentley's entre- was mne+ local officer emerge preneurial activity has been worried citizenry behalf of the mact when Sgt when a St act noticeable the toy industry. of Leeds and at public expense.

believed be now to the And if the report is so laudatory of stealing from biggest country's toy of the Toade habhies forgery. was after buying up publish it so that other police subsidiary the vear suspended sent Pedigree Britain throughout can orces Then the cases came embattled Lines Brothers.

fast.. tora nato af likely Asked what was their own efficiency. honesty 4a c 1969. of Shepperton, broker future and integrity? §25 for stealing fro told us: associate of Bentlev The report. could become the market. It will be like a film script. bible April 1970: Constable all police forces Thể present director will for the throughout the who to nine months' country wont to inhione the haiahta n for stealing flm protection the Dublic service attained at woman's handbag industry. eeds. Workara Prace, We no, the proporty man on the British Lion board cent protest meeting against the possible Shepperton Five officers in

• OUR OWN

August 1970: court on charges arising from

REPORTER

theft of car accessories. Sgt police force in the sent to prison for three years; in boast the sort of one constable for 27 months, and another given Constable's sentence and fined £100. Two annual constables 78 other were there were acquitted. against the police in in 1969 and 330 August 1970: Constable jailed for months for indecent nine two years no less assault on two boys and a girl.

officers have November 1970: Two officers in the jailed for nine months for mis- urts and many more conduct following death of, a 72-year-old woman in a road risly case against accident. emerged in 1969 September 1971: Two detectives, acting as and a constable, officer was convicted sergeant a from corpses and suspended from duty following allegations of misconduct (still e was given a two- unresolved). nded sentence. fined ses came thick and October 1971: Constable £50 for attempted bribery.

Geoffrey 59: Constable fined December 1971: Insp Ellerker and Sgt: Kenneth ealing from a-super- Kitching jailed for attacking and beating up David Oluwale Constable sentenced whose body was found in the onths' imprisonment River Aire. from a police- A record which Dixon of Dock police at Green would be proud of. Press, Wednosday April 26, 1972 PAGE 3 THAT 'FRESH' meat pie on your local shop counter could be ten days old-and very stale. Some shop keepers can only give 'inspired guesses' as to the exact age of your favourite steak and kidney.

Leading public health inspec- tor E. W. Kingcott told the Royal Society of Health Con- gress in Eastbourne yesterday that bakers and public health authorities had agreed pies should never be sold more than 48 hours after the delivery date. However, a survey of West- minster shops showed pies which had been on the sheives for more than ten days. Some shop- keepers did not know how old their pies were! Supermarkets fared a little • the small grocers better than with only eight out of 24 keeping their pies for longer than two days compared with 25 out of 64 small shops. Three of the smaller grocers kept their pies for more than ten days and four did not know how long they kept theirs. Pie makers also have differing ideas on how fresh a pie should be when it is delivered. Leading companies, said Mr Kingcott, do not bake over week- ends. So that pies baked on Thurs- day or Friday could be delivered on Monday or Tuesday. and still allowed two days the On: shelf. One such company has the slogan fresh daily painted on the sides of its vans... THE OFFICIAL policy of running down Britain's hospitals for the mentally handicapped could mean a return to the dark ages for some of their patients. Dr. J. Newcombe, physician superintendent of Clayberry hospital, York, said that , transferred to the patients psychiatric wards of district hospitals would inevitably become second-class citizens.

The policy of running down hospitals for the mentally handi- capped was based on a report 'Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped' and produced by a committee set up by Richard Crossman when he was Labour's Minister of Health. Dr Newcombe claimed that the committee produced its report after meeting one day a month for about a • year. Very few of the committee members had much practical experience of mentally handicapped, he said. If patients were transferred to general hospitals on the scale suggested, said Newcombe, the building costs would be over tl20m, bulldig sites would have to be found, starting them would be a major problem and the running costs would be astro- nomical. Nurses in general hospitals were not interested in handi- capped patients and the wards would be the least attractive and sight. tucked away out of Patients would have nowhere to let off steam' as they have in the present hospitals.

PAGE 4 Workers Preas, Wedneaday April :

BY DAVID MAUDE

Polling ends in just three weeks' time for the general secretaryship of the powerful engineers' section of the Amalgamated Union of En- gineering Workers. The contest is, in the main, a straight fight between the presi- dent, right-wing incumbent Jim Conway and one of the union's general secretaries, assistant Ernie Roberts, who is un- challenged on the left. With the AUEW in crisis over its wages policy and the Indus- trial Relations Act now in daily use against the unions, the poll political assumes big clearly importance. Defeat of the Tory government is placed by Roberts at the centre of his election address. "The Tory employers and their on the attack government are against the living standards of our members,' he writes. increased 'They have prices, fares and rents; created 1.25 unemployed; refused a million substantial old-age pension; kept 11 million people in slums; with- drawn free milk from school children.' leaders have a big Union responsibility in 'the struggle Tory big business', he - against says. 'It is important to elect a general secretary who will give his undivided support to this struggle' Roberts' address The union, on, needs a united leader- goes ship if it is to defeat the gov- ernment on the Industrial Rela= * of tions Act, the Common Market and other issues. We must... Labour government return a which will carry out socialist policies.' Roberts also launches a fierce attack his chief opponent's on record, particularly as editor of monthly 'AUEW Journal', the which he alone controls. 'Why,'- the address asks, 'do his journal editorial we read in (November 1971) that "only gov- ernment action can restrain both wages and prices on an equitable basis"? He should know that our union's policy is against govern- ment interference in wage nego- tiations .. 'Again, in his journal editorial (October 1971), he wrote: "Each strike, no matter how costly to workers the or the nation, is always hailed as a victory,.

regardless of the outcome.. Strikes never did and never will cure our industrial problems."

'What does he expect members to do?' Roberts asks. 'Plead and pray? Accept anything from the employers? 'The AUEW is now faced with the Industrial Relations Act and its disastrous effects on union finances', he writes. The national committee and executive 'decided not to register and fought against the Industrial Bill'. members Relations The demonstrated and loyally sup- ported the one-day strikes against the Bill. No united action Then why did the general secretary hand over the journal (December 1970) to Robert Carr, Secretary of State for Employ-.

ment, to advocate the Bill?.....

general the secretary, in editorial in that same issue, criticized those members and officials who were advocating national token stoppages against the Bill. It was because there was no united action by the whole of the trade union move- ment that the Industrial Relations Bill became law? Jim Conway himself, who will be in for life if he wins this time, takes his stand in his address firmly the preservation of on capitalişm. AUEW cardholders should be 'responsible members of the en- gineering industry, he says.

day Aprll 26, 1972 'The future of our movement depends upon our success as an nation, he writes. I industrial believe that with the right kind of leadership in government, industry and the trade unions that future will be assured.

'We will achieve for our mem- bers that which they so rightly deserve-the highest standard of living in Europe.' The kind of leadership Conway thinks 'right' is well known.

'An ardent supporter of the Common Market, he last week described as 'a tragedy' the resignation of Roy Jenkins, MP as deputy leader of the Labour Party. 'AUEW Journal' front- The paged a big portrait of-Jenkins the month after he and 68 other MPs kept the Tories in office by voting with them on the Market. Conway is also a key figure in the Trade Union Committee for "Europe, which through its con nection with the shadowy Euro- pean Movement receives finance from big business and the Tory government. He apparently sees no con- tradiction between this and the pledge in his address to do everything in my power to defeat this partisan and destructive Tory government and to work for the return of a Labour government' large part of Conway's A to address is given over a his organizational rehearsal of work as general secretary./ This features the claim: 'I have proved that the computerization * of agreements is. no longer fantasy. Greater rationalization 'It is fact, Conway writes, 'the benefits of which can be of great value to us all, provided we can: benefit. and obtain maximum efficiency from this service. This will mean a greater rationaliza- tion within the trade union move- ment? He declares that he is 'not unmindful of the unemployment affecting our members and the nation'. Then the following comes comment: 'This is why I have had an exercise carried out covering all districts. 'We now know the situation in • industry or area and can any begin to tackler the problem as it should be tackled, with com- plete knowledge of the facts, not • slogans or demonstrations.'

with It appears that this is some- thing of a pet theme since the paragraph has Conway next* refusing 'believe or accept to ind that our members want slogans or demonstrations' The only woman candidate, Mrs Nora Bance, from Chatham, makes 'no claim to fame, just hard work in a local factory' Her father was, until his retire- general secretary of the ment, Tobacco Workers' Union. Other candidates include Sam Jones, convenor of the Metal factory Box at Neath; John Llewellyn, of Farnborough; Stan Smith, from the Port Talbot steelworks: and John Wilkin- son, of Hartlepool. Tom Kidd, of Brighton, is a arr, modest man. 'Dear fellow members,' he opens, 'after much careful insistent thought, and at the persuasion of my colleagues, present myself for election with all due humility, fully appreciat- ing the diffidence that many old campaigners will entertain about • supporting the comparatively unknown.' He concludes: 'If you believe in progress and sanity I am sure you will cast your vote • for, not me, someone who thinks this way.' Also in the lists are Fred Neither of these submit any manifesto at all.

ITT

NOW

LOOKS

TOWARDS

MEXICO

Mexican President Luis Echeverria recently criticized inter- the open imperialist ference with political life in Latin America. Chilean He told Congress there should be democratic conducting system for inter- 'free affairs trom hegemonies, spheres of influence, equilibrium terror, and econo. mic subjugation'.

RESPECT

After paying his respects Chilean President Salvador Allende's 'peaceful road ¿cheverria spoke socialisill interference Collean politica life by outsiders- a reference to

CIA

the and international Tele Telegraph ano LonDone tion's conspiracy to stop Allende assuming the presidency in 1970. couple days before, Robert H. Smith,

ITT

President, told the Mexican daily country Mexico which offers great advantages the investor. That's why we nave programme.' He added that ITT owned Mexico present 50 companies in and praised the "sensitivity' with which foreign investment He handled. was accompanied in Kumstela, a White House adviser. Echeverria's pat on the back for Allende tollowed the visit Samuel Golsweig, head the Chilean Farm Planning Office, to Mexico City. Golsweig there cecaren that would be no latifundia (large privately-owned estates) left Chile witoln

TWO

peasants would be liberated.

The Mexican had agrarian reform served as an maportant changes carried out by the The Allende government. But peasants demon- recently El Palmar, near the stratea In Suzi a Mexico inad beaten against German them up and threatened to kill them. later week caravan Puebla from the ocasallls headed Mexico City to tor demand the government return lands seized by landowners.

PROMISE

stopped Heavily-armed the marchers 55 kilometres tron capital and 150-strong delegation was taken Echeverria. After agrariad had aby the Lnen action' programme end the month, they Gomez saw the directo Agrarian Affairs, who told them: 'Agricultural problems are solved in the countrvside not meetings monument aroung the to Emiliano Zapata. Hundreds : of students who had supplied peasant marcher their five-day were arrested by Echeverria's •olice. inev were released after being warned to mend their ways' Golsweig's thoughts Inese events auring nis Mexican visit s have not behalf Chilean recorded. peasants been the

DUT

woev revedi that and Allende share in 111 and the kind of future common envisaged for the peasantry.

Top: Mexican President Luis Echeverria. Right: Chilean Presl- dent Salvador Allende Workero Pre eday April 28, 1872 PACE S There has been strong reaction in Australia to US President Nixon's bombing raids against N Vietnam. At the weekend police fought Melbourne street with anti-war demonstrators many of them armed with clubs and stones. were hit hi and an officer was struck stones bottle. bv a thrown "WO DeODe were knocked unconscious in the youth melée and struck was a passing car. The street battle began after about 200 of the 1,000 protesters taking part in an anti-war march smashed windows in the offices of Pan American Airwavs. Several arrests were reported and police later charged 17- 25-year-old vear-old and man student with offensive behaviour. Meanwhile another march. it Brisbane, ended after police arrested 37 of about 1,000 youths staging a sitdown in a road near the US consulate. anarchers. students, sity carried Liberation Front flags and pro- communist niacards. The Argentine working class recently prevented a round of price increases in Men- doza province. But inflation still eats away at wages.

The cost of living rose in March after an nAr CAnT per cent January and the cost of living will increase by 96 per cent one year! The main architect of this Carlos pauperization policy is President of the When the government Roberto Levingstone granted a 7- MAr, rant In crease. demned it with the following "The least oppor banker's logic: tune moment to increase wages is when prices are rising.

thesis is that His workers and sections of the middle being class 'who are im- bread more capital will be available for investment: "In fact, many of the problems of Argentina could be solved if them in looked at people have always tried to make We should meat cheaper. con- sider whether the solution wond not be to make it more expen- sive' Brignone has revealed the real of Lanusse's avowed meaning nolicy of bringing social neace to secret of harmonious resides develonment taking those who obstacles away from want to get rich without worrv.

ing too much that some get rich quicker than others. Mendoza have given • their answer to this apostle of free enterprise.

aadary April 28, 1872 Lord ('Harry') Pilkington and I stood and gazed magnificent across the lawns and gardens. distance Some little from •us middle-aged couples stopping few yards admire flower blossoms. 'Cyril,' said her beckoning to one 'isn't spouse, beaten-looking this gorgeous! Turning to me, Lord Pilking- ton said: 'It is such a wonder- meet people and way to make friends.' We were all guests of the good peer and his wife at an his inspect gardens. throws up his gardens to the public twice part of his contribu- tion to the National Gardens Scheme. Over 1,000 gardens in are continuously coated with a Lancashire St Helens is social England and Wales belonging devastated by grime dust from the town and to some of our richest families huge glassmaking plants. But deprivation. It is also a sub- are made available to the Windle Hall, the mansion ject to the immense Pilking- public to collect a few bob to which of Lord Pilkington, there's ton glass monopoly district help. the nurses dominates the life of every no sign of poverty or filth— scielle

WADE

PHILIP

found man, woman and child. The as I dutifully paid my 10p to out when he Lady Pilkington's mother working-class housing areas the gate of Windle H ' a. d wandered in. The ma only a few minutes fi l i e centre of St Helens, ut t could be another plane The gardens are ( tair y beautiful, carefully nurt ed a veritable retinue deners. Three acres of val 1 fe gardén surrounded acres of lawns and wor lan‹ ;.

The daffodils fril were bloom. On arrival I joined th. smell knot of people queuin cup of tea and ap gâteau baked by Lady • Iking- ton herself. Pilkington rriv d Lord h d late. It turned out walked 12 miles for har..y that afternoon and his e t gone out to bring him b ik.

As the crowds mor " ir i Windle Hall, the linent the bour- representative of geoisie moved smoothly among us, chatting amiably. 'There's nothing li: tr is where I come from,' I aid to his lordship reflecting on the ulh m concrete jungle where I share a council at.

He muttered something Win soling to me and then ambled •rounes that. away with gait That me of the Duke of reminds Edinburgh hands clasped behind back, chin thrust for- ward. For almost 150 ye left Lady Pil- Over to my ton tamily nas ma Helens. The mult kington was trilling away with world monopoly of garden-lovers. I'd cluster the fifth of dates had enough. In the way he ru Driving back to lodging in tion, Lord Harry Pi the town was sobering. the traditions of Within minutes there wasn't last cent the blade of grass to be seen. active Congregatl speeches Not a playground, not a tree.

high claims Unemployment has now brother, His and reached 2.000 it shows for once Worked itself on the streets and in the society, wrote faces of the men and women entltled: the streets. against ma The town still harbours 69 1967 In …LOrO militants sacked by Pilkington's remain convinced to bal going following the bitter strike alo at a high 1970. fight on for They still forward to a thriv the right to work. this countr their Now struggle is western cou indelibly with the struggle other workers throughout the country to but we work more. this backers. garden tea party is at an end.

longer hours and

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday April Part 3 by Jack Gale on the Irish De Valera was arrested on August 15, 1923, while attempting to address an elec- tion meeting. Released after 11 months' imprisonment without trial, he was elected to the Dail of the Irish Free State while still in jail.

This involved break with some of his Sinn Fein colleagues participation who regarded such elections as recognition of Dail, institution com- the an pletely British in origin.

By March 1925, however, total of 48 Sinn Fein deputies elected to the Free had been State Parliament. absented them- All of these selves because they refused British Crown and also because the Dail as they regarded an government imposed by illegal the British. In fact, the Republican deputies constituted themselves into an 'Emergency Government', with de Valera as President. (The IRA held a separate convention and adopted a new constitution under which it became independent of the Emergency Government.)

November 1924, the By promised Boundary Commission supposed which to give was Republicans in the N a choice of Free • State (see joining the Irish first article in this series), finally collapsed. Partition was an established fact. De Valera called for 'reuniting the peonle of all parties through- in effective the country out partitioning our opposition to motherland'. By this time, he was anxious to participate in the State Dail and proposed Free that the Republicans should take their seats in it if the oath of allegiance were withdrawn. In other words, they should cease to Dail as illegal. regard the When he failed to carry this line, de Valera broke from Sinn Fein and formed a new organiza- tion. Fianna Fail. (There was also a split on the government side following the collapse of the Boundary Com- and another mission new organization, Clann Eirrean, was formed.) Fianna Fail was a purely firmly nationalist organization.

opposed to any political indepen- dence for the working class. Its laid down by de Valera, aims. were: 1. Securing the political independence of a united Ireland.

as a Republic. 2. The restoration of the Irish language, and the development of a native Irish culture. 3. The development of a social sistem in which, as far as pos- sible. equal opportunity will be •forded to every Irish citizen to live a noble and useful Christian life. 4. The distribution of the land of Ireland so the greatest number possible of Irish families would be ronted in the soil of Ireland.

5. The making of Ireland into as self-con- economic unit, an trined as nossible, with a proper balance between agriculture and other essential industries.

By now, de Valera was totally committed to parliamentary, pro- the oath of cedures, if only allegiance could be waived. At the first Ard Fheis (congress) of Fianna Fail, in November 1926, he declared: 'If the road of peaceful pro- natural evolution be gress and barred, then the road of when will tion sday April 26, 1972 he Irish Civil war the fight is over it will probably be found out once more that the problem has remained and that force is not the solution... If we cannot win an election, then we are not, in the present situa- tion,, likely to win any other way. In the Irish elections of 1927, Fianna Fail won 44 seats com- pared with the government party, Cumann Gnaedheal, which na 63 in the 46 (it had held won previous election in 1923). Sinn Fein declined from to five deputies, 22 Labour deputies were also elected. Even • if Sinn Fein boycotted the Dail, the government party was clearly in a minority, holding less than one-third of the total seats. De Valera demanded the right of the Fianna Fail deputies to take their seats without accepting the oath, and backed this with legal proceedings and a campaign for referendum. The govern- ment party, however, seized on murder of vice-President Kevin • O'Higgins (for which no Republican responsibility was ever established) to close what legal loopholes there were and to re- establish military dictatorship.

this situation, Fianna the Fail deputies, on the initiative of de Valera, decided to take the oath, announcing that it was, in only an any case, empty formality' They did not explain, however, why it had been necessary to fight a bloody civil war, which hundreds of men had died, over 'an empty formality' On August 11, 1927, de Valera and his followers signed the oath of allegiance to the British Crown and took their place in the Dail.

De Valera admitted: 'I grant that what we did was contrary to all our former actions, and to every- thing we stood for-contrary to our declared policy, and to the explicit pledges we time of our election, save at the "The scenes when de Valera took the oath bordered on the farcical. In order not to offend conscience, his religious he moved the Bible from the table containing the necessary docu- ments and placed it carefully on a couch at the other side of the room. The ceremony required the "elected deputies to sign a sheet of paper containing the oath. De Valera signed in' the appropriate place, but covered the words of the oath with his own papers so that he could not see them when he signed-though he knew per- fectly well that they were there!

• This delicate manoeuvring raises the whole question of the nature of the Irish civil war. As pointed out in an earlier article, this was to a considerable extent created by the actions of the British government. But de Valera saw it as a purely nationalist, non- class battle (though, in political content; he was conducting Above: De Valera with Churchill in late 1 bourgeoige nastenalist istruggle with forces largely recruited from the Irish petty-bourgeoisie and intelligentsia). At no point in the civil war were the class interests of the Irish workers and peasants involved. Since the class strength of the oppressed masses was never used, the battle was over once the Republicans were out - gunned.

And the Republicans were bound to be defeated by the superior strength of the Free State gov- ernment, backed by 'the British imperialists. In so far as any support was sought outside Ireland—in Britain America-it was based and on the nationalist sympathies of the many of whom Irish émigrés, part of the British and were American working class, or—in some cases — of the employing class. De Valera's class outlook, of course, made it impossible to appeal the common class to interests of British, American and Irish workers. There is, therefore, no funda- mental contradiction between the de Valera who was prepared for fratricidal conflicts over religious oaths and parliamentary legality and the de Valera who sub- sequently signed the same oath in order to enter the same parlia- ment. Once he was militarily defeated, he had no choice but to seek to forward his aims within • the state apparatus which had tortured and murdered his followers. There is no similarity between de Valera's entry into the Irish Lenin's Free State Dail and insistence that communists should parliamentary utilize bourgeois institutions in order to struggle for the overthrow. Indeed, de Valera was quite He specific this point. on declared: 'I want to reply to the suggestions now being put for- ward that our purpose in entering th the Free State Dail is to destroy it. This is a falsehood. We are entering in the hope of helping to what it to make it develop should be ultimately - the of assembly sovereign national the Irish nation 'Our purpose is not to destroy but to broaden the Free State assembly... and make it so truly whole representative of people as to secure for it the necessary authority and influence Il in late 1940s. Left: with Pope Plus XII In 195 have "fts «decisions readily OI *to accepted and its laws willingly obeyed.' De Valera was now making more and more openly right-wing declarations. He was not favour of removing state officials who had conducted the civil war (I believe in justice to every man, friend or opponent').

He explicitly denied any revo- sinister lutionary "The aims: design of aiming at bringing about a sudden revolutionary upheavel, with which our opponents choose to credit us, is altogether foreign to our pur- pose.' He granted the right of the government to "preserve. "There must charge in the community to keep order and by virtue of your de facto position you the are only people who are in a position to do it' When, in 1929 and the suc- ceeding years, the IRA again became active, de Valera openly supported the government against them: 'I do not want to or be said to give any encouragement to them [the IRA] at all. I again, say in there is no authority this country to take life except in so far as the present ruling authority is entitled to take it.' In 1931 the Cosgrove govern- the infamous ment introduced which Article 2A, set up a military tribunal of five members with power to impose the death penalty. There was no appeal from its decisions. Revulsion against Article 2A led to Fianna Fail's victory in 1932. De Valera formed a gov- ernment, with the support of the seven-strong Labour Parliamen- tary group (to which he gave no Cabinet seats). One of the results of the Fianna Fail victory was that some members of the Free State Army formed a body called the Army Comrades' Association. In this they were encouraged by General Eoin O'Duffy, the Commissioner of Police. De Valera was forced to remove O'Duffy from his post (though he offered him another of equal status and salary, which O'Duffy refused). After a few weeks, the former government party, Cumann na Gnaedheal, and the smaller Centre Party merged with O'Duffy's followers - the fascist 'Blue Shirts'-to form the United Ireland Party (Fine Gael) with XII in 1958 ily: O'Duffy as President.

the military De Valera used tribunal set up by his predeces- sors to deal with the Blue Shirts —but he also used it against the

IRA.

During World War II, Ireland neutral'. remained a 'friendly clearly hoped to De Valera pressurize the British government into ending partion. The British government, in its turn, under- took on June 26, 1940, to end pressurize N Ireland to partition immediately on con- dition that Eire entered the war British side. But the on Valera insisted on a united Ire- land first and the negotiations fell through. De Valera's opposition to entering the war was in no sense an opposition to its imperialist character. He was friendly with on . the imperialist leaders all over the world. When Roosevelt died, de Valera described him as a man who could have 'saved the world from recurring calamities' Hitler died, when German Minister in Dublin.

After the war, de Valera's gov- ernment-like every other capi- in Europe — talist government faced a social crisis. By 1948 he was out of office. In 1951 he was back again (with a parliamentary secretary called Jack Lynch), only to lose office again to a Fine Talmhan Gael-Labour-Clann • na coalition in 1954. In 1957, at the age of 74, he became Prime Minister yet again.

His Cabinet included Jack Lynch, Neal Blaney and Kevin Boland.

In June 1959, Eamon de became President of Valera Ireland, a divided bourgeois ire- land dependent, economically and politically, on British capitalism.

He was the friend and admirer Winston Churchill, John F.

of Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Harold Wilson. The one-time commander in one-time Easter Rising, the civil one-time war prisoner. fighter had devoted his life to trying to make Ireland safe for Tories and for Green the capitalism. His life's work will count for The revolutionary nothing. 'workers of Ireland, behing a party of the Fourth International, will destroy the bourgeois Ire- land which Eamon de Valera fought to construct and preserve.

. CONCLUDED

John Wayne (right) with director John F

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor, Maoists are for rejecting bour- geois culture. 'Smash the decay- ing cultural superstructure imperialism', they say, and accuse those who seek to defend what is good in that culture as 'petty- bourgeois idealists' It is true that the defence of • culture has fallen largely to the lot of middle-class intellectuals, precisely, because the capitalist denied the system has masses If, there- access to that culture. fore, part of the educational pro- gramme of a socialist government would be to open up the culture of the past to the people in order for them to understand and consciously accept or reject the good and bad, and go on to build then those socialist culture, intellectuals who middle-class write about art in socialist news.

papers must, right now, under- what, this stand context, "petty-bourgeois thinking' actually - is. A week ago last Saturday some have watched readers may western about a cavalry troop.

into leader takes them Its battle, after an exhaustive train- ing period, in which he himself dies. The film shows the irascible: right-wing redneck qualities this leader - qualities which, according to the film, raise him the rank and file of the above cavalry. After he is dead, the wallows in almost tearful film sentiment. 'Fort film is called The Apache'. It was directed by John Ford and stars John Wayne (and we all know about him!). The film is a masterpiece; among the finest the cinema has produced.

I make this statement in con- scious opposition to a small cap- in Workers Press which, tion however insignificant in itself, reveals a style of petty-bourgeois thinking not like that of attack, but of a type Maoists which Trotsky attacked time and time again. The caption appeared under a still from another John Ford film called 'The Iron Horse' , on Fri- day, March 14. It read: 'Ford's career is recalled by some of the have worked pérformers who with him in his quest to create and glamour one of the most or John Ford (centre) making 'The Man Who S brutal areas of capitalist develop- ment during the last century'.

They key word which reveals the ideology behind this caption is 'glamour'. It reveals the kind 'Marxist' sensibility which, taken to its logical conclusions, would dismiss Cromwell's way of dealing with the Levellers, or his rebellion quelling ; of the Irish (with a glib gesture of unquali- - a sensibility contempt) which is never found in Workers in some of the Press, except writings on culture. i entirely sub- It represents an jective approach to the films in question which, far from taking the working class towards a con- understanding scious virtues and defects of bourgeois culture, puts a wall between them and that understanding. It creates a situation in which bourgeois the privileged culture remains property of middle-class intellec- tuals, who then proceed to reject it 'on behalf' of the This is petty- masses. bourgeois thinking. well aware that Trotsky 1 am was writing not in a context such as ours in which the proletariat needs to be on its guard against the distortions of the press, the media and other aspects culture, but in that of an intellec- tual debate on the myth of pro- letarian art. Nevertheless, 1 quote: "Dialectical materialism can be applied to new spheres of know- by mastering them ledge only within' ('Culture and from Socialism'). 'Art has to be approached as art ... as a quite specific field of human endeavour. Of course we have a class criterion in art too, but this class criterion must refracted artistically. The bourgeoisie knows this very well and likewise approaches art from its class point of view. It knows to get from art what it how it but only because needs, approaches art as art' ('Class and Art). 'Art is one of the ways man finds his bearings in the world.

•.. Unlike science however, art is a form of cognition of world 'not as a system of laws but as groups of images. The art •centuries of past lan Who Shot Liberty Valance' enriched (man) in an all-round way. Mastery of the art of the past is, therefore, a necessary precondition not only for the creation of a new art, but also the building of the new ('Culture and society. Socialism'). I know that film, as a product, • a commodity on the open market, cannot be judged solely by artis- tic criteria. It is, however, equally true that the bourgeoisie finances films not on the basis of their but on class content, entirely, their possible profitability.

Therefore, in making clear the class content and historical posi- tion of individual films, we should beware of being blind to those other technical and aesthe- tic qualities in them from which we can learn. Far from putting down John Ford, we should be recommend- ing him to the working class as a rich and complex film-maker works should be whose approached, like any others, criti- consciously, scientifically cally, and, above all, fearlessly.

A strange word to use, perhaps, which indicates the but one source of that hostility to the first quotation I made from Trot-.

sky - a hostility which often crops up when right-wing art is the object of analysis. Let us by all means expose commodity it has the art as become. But let us also keep an eye open for those things which certain works alive will keep commodities in a long after capitalist system have ceased to - Yours sincerely, Tim Horrocks. The caption writer assures me he was not dismissing Ford in using word 'glamour" (in fact, it the should have read glamourize). He was trying to convey, in a very shortened form, what is expressed in a reader's letter, which will tomorrow: on page 9. appear. In fact the TV programme on Ford was particularly highlighted by a picture and caption in our programme schedules to encour- age people to watch it and assess Ford for themselves - be they workers or middle-class intel.

lectuals.-Ed. Workers Press, Wal Another giant stride for women's liberation was taken last week by Col Maries Louise .

Rasmusen, former head of the Women's Army American Corps (WACs). She favours making oppor- tunities for women in the army equal to those enjoyed by men. Specifically, she wants the authorities to call up in times of national women emergency and lower the age of entry for women soldiers.

What have women done to deserve this, you might well ask. 'I think the women have earned these things. They have done such a good job that the services have recognized their.

achievements,' "the colonel' says. Mrs Rasmusen is 70. Philippines President Marcos The Philippine government is investigating a complaint that nine Filipino girls were victims - 'unscrupulous- labour recruiters' in the Philippines and in England. Foreign Office The. announced that the Philippine.

Office of Consular Affairs had been asked to check the com- plaint from the girls' relatives.

In a letter to the Philippine London Embassy in relatives said the girls were promised 'good employment, good salary and better living in England with the possibility of entering the United States Pross, Wednesday April 26, 1972 PAGE 9 from England after termination of their contracts' The work which the girls, mostly college graduates, got turned out to be as 'resident domestics' and to perform the 'duties and work of slaves.

The letter said the girls were paid £ll a week from which £2 was deducted for transport, they had been although promised free fares to England.

About 5 per cent of the French population is practically destitute and living on the fringes of society according to • charitable • organization the AIDE. About 60 per cent of these are children and young nel people. • The movement's secretary, the Abee Wresinski, in an- nouncing a new appeal, said that every crisis increased the numbers of the sub-proletariat, many of who live in shacks and shanty-towns on the out- skirts of big cities. Lang Smith has returned from his sailing expedition, 50,000 miles short of his goal. Smith (27), set sail near Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 8 in a tiny plastic foam sailboat, planning to sail around the world. Fifty-five miles later he hit a submerged log near the E coast of Van- couver Island and was forced to call off his planned two-and- a-half year venture. His vessel 1l-foot was an sailboat weighing less than 40 pounds and purchased for £52.

It had a broomstick for a bow- sprit and a picture frame for a steering wheel. Back. at his mother's home he said the accident damaged his retractable centreboard and affected the steering. Smith, a bachelor, has no immediate plans to try again.

He said he needs money now and plans to drop in at the Pacific National Exhibition to șee whether he can get back his old job as a roller-coaster operator.

LEON TROTSKY:

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Fianna Fail looking for a'yes' PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday April 26, 1972 BIRMINGHAM Housing Depart- ment has been marking tenancy cards with 'C' for coloured and 'NC' for non-coloured for about contravention of four years 1N the Race Relations Act. The Tory council's official policy of 'dispersal' of immigrants decided after from was protests white tenants about the number of coloured being people allocated to their estate.

According to housing manager J. I. Atkinson, if there are two on the land- immigrant families ing of a block, another immigrant family will not be offered a flat floor. on the same Though these tenancy cards are allegedly confidential, they hands recently got into the of a Sunday newspaper. Birmingham Housing Depart- ment is investigating this situ- ation, but spokesman said it • will not change its system of markin&. London The borough of Lambeth also keeps such immigration statistics. • See Saturday's Workers Press for a special report on Birming- ham housing and rents.

ENGINEERING

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Amount enclosed £ Premier Jack Lynch whose party works in the Dail (parliament) with a minority of 70 MPs against a combined opposition of 74. He wants to recoup lost seats.

ENTRY

into the Common Market would mean an increase in the price of transport, John Elliott, president of the Freight Transport Association, warned last night. Mr Elliott told the Associ- ation's annual dinner that European controls and the tax for the transport in svstem Market countries would cause the increases. He asked: 'How are we going to increase our European market if the French and Italians refuse entry permits for our vehicles and those of our hauliers? The restrictive quota is system already prejudicing some exports and frustrating others completely.

'Will we be forced to accept a new tax system for transport • which may be the acme of theoretical perfection and equity, but which increases enormously freight costs?' BRITAIN'S right-wing National Front and the Ulster Vanguard Movement are forging an alliance of extreme-right elements in Britain. "Members' The Front in a Bulletin' dated April 1972, calls on all its members and supporters join the demonstration of to British Loyalists next Saturday, April 29, at Hyde Park Corner.

The march and rally is being Vanguard, sponsored has whose leader, William Craig, promised to field at least 1,000 supporters from N Ireland for the occasion. Two National Front leaders— ^ John Tyndall and "the Rev: Brian r r'ex Election within the next Labour Party MPs. A General Election after a successful 'Yes' two months. could possibly referendum vote Feeling in Dublin is that if recoup lost seats and strengthen Fianna Fail's hand. the ruling Fianna Fail party In the past week campaigning is successful in achieving a for the Common Market vote has majority 'Yes' vote on the been stepped The Irish up. Common Market entry refer- Labour Party and the big their endum on May 10, then its have declared opposition. leaders may immediately lay The Irish Congress of Trade plans for a June election.

Unions circulated 500,000 has Speculation was increased last copies of its 'black paper' which Thursday after the announcement warns that thousands of workers that Fine Gael-the right-wing will lose their jobs and that the opposition party in the Dail would face economic country (parliament)—has instituted the! EEC. catastrophe inside re-shufile of front- MP for Mid- Independent

NOTOR

bench spokesmen. Ulster, Miss Bernadette Devlin, on the re-shuffle Commenting has she will be announced that decision, Fine Gael leader Liam campaigning in the 26-counties in Cosgrove said it had been taken coming weeks against entry. because the present Dail With Fine Gael and the power- was within 'measurable distance of a ful Farmers' Association support- General Eleetion'. ing entry, however, it is thought The Fine Gael re-shuffle came have that Jack Lynch will the 24 Finance hours after Eire's the country's agreement when Minister George Colley votes are counted in May.

announced details of what is being hailed in Ireland. 'his . as 'give-away' Budget. Obviously Budget with the coming EEC referendum vote in mind, it gave extra money to the old, retired, disabled and unem- ployed, while at the same time increasing income tax allowance.

Farmers were also given sop in the form of increased milk prices and a £35,000 hand-out to

EEC

start implementing directives on agricultural reform.

In addition to increased the over-70s pensions, are now allowed free travel, while all old age pensioners' free electricity be trebled, from allowance will October March and doubled to for the rest of the year.

"package' Introducing his Colley referred to the current national dis- wage agreement between and unions employers. that he had 'no doubt' Stating that the discussions would take of the 'needs of the situation', current • econome Colley went on: would failing responsibilities if I did not spell out the objectives on the incomes front. 'With unemployed so many and redundancies SO many threatened it would he inexcus.

the able if community whole had to divert to serious inflationary pay money rises. which could be used directly for providing new jobs.' the Budget In this light. can be understood In the nature of a 'last-ditch stand' bý Jack Lynch's Fianna Fail government its Eire's Finance Minister George successfully attempts to / Colley manoeuvre the 26-counties recently announced into Budget the Common Market. give-away' geared to Fianna Fail is in winning extra support. At present disciplined to heart. Only mass action can now defeat the system.

'Now is the time to organize back!' and fight There are even thought to be Front afoot to join the Green- -have been asked to and the Ulster Vanguard together address the rally. in a new movement, the 'National In recently the letter to Vanguard'. Bexleyheath of edition the 'Kentish Times', Bexley National Another speaker invited is Enoch Last Front Turner, Powell. weekend Secretary annard James Powell was stroof areas cating describes as the occupation popular patriotic mass movement areas 'occupied by the enemy'. Ireland with forceful, determined and like Ulster Powell, who the courageous leadership'. Vanguard, is an opponent of the he adds: "If the United And Kingdom is to remain strong and Tory government's direct-rule free, and if the British people are described 'initiatives', has the William White- their independence and Tory supremo to retain 'not difficult, but identity, then take the law's task as we must impossible: rian: " 'example of the Ulster "Vanguard A

ABOUT 40 teaching staff at Lancaster University staged a one-day strike yesterday against attacks on lecturers and students The staff— -members of the Tech- on the campus. Association of Scientific.

nical and Managerial Staffs- Students have also voted picketed the entrance to the to reject the inquiry set up university building with plac by the university pro- ards opposing moves to dis- Chancellor, Lord Greenwood.

miss English lecturer Dr David They say its terms of Craig. reference are too narrow and At a 1,500-strong mass meet- they have not been consulted ing on Monday. night, students their voted to lift boycott of about the appointment of a This move followed lectures. conduct to the person statement by the vice-Chancellor, inquiry. Charles Carter, Professor that

BY OUR OWN

REPORTER

STRIKERS. at the newly- organized D and E Plastic Components factory, Canley; Coventry, yesterday voted to their two-week-old. continue pay dispute with the. com- pany. They will not meet again until Friday. for their rights. Jeff Brassington, the night-shift The 75 men and women in- shop steward, said the strike is volved, who joined the Trans- basically and overtime General and Workers' port rates. Union last month, made their night-shift we receive 50p Un of decision despite threat an hour and £3.50 a week night redundancy from managing allowance,' he said. director Tony Bradbury. Even on this there is a penal If anybody loses clause. a night On strike for better pay, holi- all night allow- they lose their days and overtime rates, ance. strikers, particularly the demand is for 25p 'Our are voicing a new grievance.

hour increase wages and an on They allege that people enter- allowance increase in the night the factory have made ing to f5 per week. obscene gestures and that lorries 'For the day shift, mainly have driven straight at them women, we demanded an increase they lined the gates for picket from 35p per hour to 52łp per duty. For labourers, who only hour. firm 100 The employs get 27łp per hour, we demanded altogether and limited production per hour. is in progress. of all want a revision Founded 12 ago piecework rates and fall-back pay family concern, D and E is not of 75p per hour. considered by the owners as an 'Further, this firm works seven firm. But and engineering pay days a week and yet all overtime conditions there finally led the We have and married is paid at single rate. men women. to see the need and fight demanded proper overtime rates.

to organize

BBC 1

9.20 Pogles' Wood. 9.38 For 10.45 Boomph Schools. with 12.25 Nai 11.35 Schools. Becker. Zindagi Naya 1:00 Disc Jeevan. a Dawn. 1.30 Camberwick Green.

ITV

1.45 News, weather. 2.05 Schools.

2.25 Racing from Ascot. 4.15 12.25 Ideas in Print. 1.20 House Play School. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 This No Hardy. 5.15 Garden. 1.45 is and John and Laurel Early Time for Romance. 2.10 Craven's News Round. 5.20 Be- 2.30 Good After- One Morning. Hector's fore the Event. 5.44 Houseparty. 3.15 Dr House. 5.50 News, weather.

noon. 3.00 Simon Locke. 3.45 Edgar Wallace.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

Town. 4.55 Lift Off. 4.40 Hatty 7.00 SPY TRAP. Time to Kill- Night. 5.50 5.20 Escape into episode 1. News. 6.00

TODAY.

7.25 STAR

TREK. Metamor-

CROSSROADS.

6.35 phosis.

THIS IS YOUR LIFE.

8.15 7.00

PETER

WIMSEY:

LORD

CORONATION STREET.

7.30

CLOUDS

OF

WITNESS.

One

CADE'S

COUNTY.

8.00 Part 4. Small Acceptable Death. 9.00 NEWS, Weather. CALLAN. The Carrier. 9.00.

LIBERAL

PARTY

POLITI-

WITH

10.00 9.25

SPORTSNIGHT

CAL BROADCAST.

COLEMAN.

10.15

NEWS.

10.00 LIBERAL

PARTY

POLITI-

FOOTBALL.

10.50

CAL BROADCAST.

PROFESSIONAL WREST-

11.45

10.15 TALKBACK.

LING.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

12.15

10.50 24 HOURS.

12.30 THE BISHOPS.

11.30 Weather. I would like information about Fill in the form • below and send to NATIONAL

SOCIALIST

LEAGUE,

SECRETARY,

LABOUR

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

Name Address grant cheques would be issued if there was no threat of resump- tion of the boycott and if there was no sit-im. The meeting voted to adopt tactics to deal with the new. university administration. These include selective withdrawal of students from joint committees and the withholding of residence fees from the colleges. Présent at the meeting were shop stewards from the nine BAC Preston plant, now on strike for over 1l weeks. 'The claim was put in three , weeks The management ago. turned round and said they would go bankrupt if they paid this.

"They offered a 7tp per hour increase to night workers plus 50p per week night allowance increase. For the day shift they offered nothing. 'Our members flatly refused this and came out on strike.'

Robert Harrison, the T&GWU full-time official responsible, says that while the union is backing them, it could not make the strike official because seven days' notice of strike action was not given to the firm. Kenneth Berry, the

T&GWU

convenor, told Workers Press the strikers thought the wages D and E were 'disgusting'***** He said: "The firm are always finding excuses for putting off our demands for decent wages.

They even stop workers having their holidays later in the year if they work the holiday fortnight.'

There are many complaints

REGIONAL TV

All regions as BBC 1 except: Wales: 4.55 Cadi Ha. 6.00 Wales Today. 7.00 Heddiw. 7.15 A Phleser. 7.45 Its Murder, But is it Art? 11.32 Rygbi. 12.00 News. Scotland: 6.00 Reporting Scot- 10.15 Sportsreel. 11.30 land. News, weather. N Ireland: 10.25 Schools. 6.00 Scene around six. 11.32 News, weather. England: 6.00 Look North, Mid- land, Look East, Points West, South, Spotlight West. Weather.

11.32 News, weather. CHANNEL: 2.10 Royal family. 4.05 Paulus. 4.20 Puffin. 4.25 Good 4.55 London. 6.00 afternoon. Channel news, weather. 6.10 To- wards the year 2000. 6.35 Cross- roads. 7.00 Treasure hunt. 7.30 10.00 Life in France. London. 10.15 London. 12.13 Epilogue. News, weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News.

6.00 Diary. 12.13 News, weather.

12.17 Faith for life. SOUTHERN: 2.05 Katie Stewart.

2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Dan- ger man. 4.00 Houseparty. 4.15 Enchanted house. 4.30 Cross- roads. 4.55 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6.30 Challenge. 7.00 Lon- don. 12.10 News. 12.40 Weather.

Epilogue. HTV: 12.55 Woobinda. 1.20 Cap- Scarlet. 1.45 Arthur. 2.05 tain Out of town. 2.25 Dangerous corner. 3.20 Talking hands. 3.35 3.50 Ugliest Enchanted house. girl in town. 4.15 Tinkertainment.

4.30. Crossroads. 4.55 London.

6.15 Report. 6.30 6.01 Report. London. Odd couple. 7.00 12.15 Mad movies. 12.45 Weather.

HTV Wales as above except: 3.50 Hamdden. 4.15 Miri Mawr. 6.01 Y Dydd. HTV Cymru/Wales as HTV Wales.

Workers Press, We about conditions, first aid and facilities, but management refuses to comment on these charges.

When asked for a view 'of what the strike was about, a representative said: 'You can say that these workers are overpaid and underworked, but they think it is the other way round

ISRAELI

military authorities holding 10,000 Palestinian are Arabs without charge or trial, by the according TeporT Union of Liberal Students pub lished yesterday. The report says many of a further 4,000 Palestinians con- victed since 1967 have been tortured during their imprison- ment.

BBC 2

11.00 Play School. 5.35 Open University. 7.05 Measure of Cort science. 7.30 NEWSROOM, Weather. 8.00

TIMES REMEMBERED.

James Blades. Part 1. 8.10

MAN ALIVE: GALE IS

DEAD. Film about young drug addict. 9.00 POT BLACK. Snooker competition.

9.20 VINTAGE HOLLYWOOD:

HTV West as above except: 6.15- 5.00 6.30 Report. ANGLIA: 2.30 London. 3.15 .30 Jockey club. 3.45 Yoga. 4.15 News. 4.18 Cartoons. 4.30 Rom- per room. 4.55 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 London.

ept: ATV MIDLANDS: 3.10 Yoga. 3.35 Horoscope. 3.45 Women. 4.10 her. Mrs Muir. 4.40 Grasshopper is- land. 4.55 London. 5.20 Magpie.

5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 London. ULSTER: 4.30 Romper room. 4.50 News. 4.55 London. 6.00 Reports.

6.15 What's on? 6.35 London.

YORKSHIRE: 1.00 Rainbow coun- Carl try. 1.25 Pied piper. 1.30 Sean 1.40* Corwin. 2.30 Good after- noon 3.00 The sound of ... 3.15 Hadleigh. 4.10 News. 4.15 Cross- rods. 4.40 Hatty Town. 4.55 Lon- weather. don. 6.00 Calendar, 6.30 University challenge. 7.00 London. 8.00 Cade's County. 9.00 London. 12.15 Odd couple.

12.40 Weather. TYNE TEES: 12.30 Forest ran- to remémber. gers. 1.00 Time 1.30 Corwin. 2.30 Good afternoon.

3.00 The sound of ... 3.15 Had- Epil Pross, Wednesday April 28, 1972 PAGE 11

SOUTHALL;

Wednesday April 2o, 8 p.m. community centre, Bridge Rd. Fight Tory rents policy.. ACTON: Wednesday Aprll 26, 8 p.m. Tenants' Hall, Hanbury Ra, s Acton Estate. Tory rents LUTON: Thursday. Aprll 27, 8 p.m. St John Ambulance Bri- gade Hall, Lea Rd. YS May Day rally. N LONDON: Thuraday April 27, 8 p.m. 'Bricklayers Arms', Tottenham High Rd (nr White Lane). The engineers' Hart wage claim. SE LONDON: Thursday April 27, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club, New Cross Rd (opp New Cross stn). Tory 'fair rents' LIVERPOOL: Thursday, 'April 27, 8 p.m. 'Swan Hotel', Lon- don Rd. Building an alternative revolutionary leadership.

CASTLEFORD, Friday, April 28, 6.30 p.m. "The Magnet, Airedale. The Industrial Rela- tions Act. E LONDON: Tuesday May 2, Aberteldy Ireland W LONDON: Tuesday May 2, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Wharfe- dale Rd, Kings Cross. Fight In- dustrial Relations Act. THE Birmingham Chapel Lane branch the Amalgamated of Union of Engineering Workers has sent the following letter to Workers Press: Birmingham Battery and Metal Company Ltd. About 350 AUEW members have been on strike since March 15, 1972. The Executive Council declared the dispute official on April 11.

Our members have been out for six weeks and have not had any benefit yet and they are suffering badly from lack of funds and we will be very grateful for any help.

E. S. Curtis, 34 Barnwood Rd Quinton, Birmingham 32

'CENTENNIAL SUMMER'.

Cornel Wilde, Romantic adventures and misadventures of Rogers family. 10.00

LIBERAL PARTY POLITI-

TICAL BROADCAST.

10.15

CENTENNIAL SUMMER.

Part 2. 11.15 NEWS, Weather.

11.20 LATE NIGHT LINE UP.

leigh. 4.10 News. 4.15 Cross- roads. 4.40 Make a wish. 4.55 London. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Univer- sity challenge. 7.00 London. 8.00 Cade's 9.00 London. Tommy Wrestling. 11.45 News. 12.00 Epilogue. GRANADA: 1.20 Polaris. 2.00 Mad movies. 2.25 Edgar Wallace.

3.55 Camera 3.30 Yoga. action. 4.10 News. Peyton Place.

4.40 Paulus. 4.55 London. 6.00 News. What's on? 6.30 Univer- sity challenge. 7.00 London.

SCOTTISH: 3.30 Pinky and Perky.

3.45 Crossroads. 4.10 Dateline.

4.55 London. 6.00 Dateline. 6.20 Cartoon. 6.30 More we are together. 7.00 London. 8.00 9.00 London. Cade's County. 10.45 Shine a light. 11.15 Scot- sport. 11.45 Late call. 11.50 Wrestling. GRAMPIAN: 3.38 News. 3.45 Stewart. Women. 4.10 Jimmy 4.55 Enchanted House. 4.40 | weather. London. 6.00 don. 8.00 Cade's County. 8.55 Police news. 9.00. London. 10:50 O'Hora. 11.45 Wrestling. 12.15 Epilogue.

Plant bargains cracking up PAGE 12 Workers Presa, Wednesday Apr

FROM PHILIP WADE

IN MANCHESTER

THE STRUGGLE of the greater Manchester engineers , has reached a crisis point and threatens to crumble as the strategy of plant-bargaining begins to collapse. AUEW dictrict officials are now running from one plant to another to try and prevent wages only settlements being made. A set-back the severe was rebuff handed out to district Bernard Panter by secretary 2,000 workers at the Mather & Platt plant. On Monday Panter appealed to LIBERATION forces with tar after smashing down 'S Vietna Saigon's troops to flight.

HEATONS Transport Helens has threatened to take container lorries lo Liverpool docks again today to confront the unofficial black. Late yesterday a delegation of union representatives went from Liverpool lo St Helens to meet Robert Heaton,: joint. managing director of the firm. The Transport and General Workers: Union has already been fined £55,000 in the National Industrial Relations Court for refusing to lift the black Yesterday. talks. were in pro- gress in Liverpool between repre- sentatives of another road haul- age firm, Bishon's Wharf of War- rington, who are also involved in legal action against the union.

and shop stewards. of life' on EEC

THE TORY

Lovernment has received a new lease of life from Labour's impotence over the Common Market, print-union leader John Bonfield said rester- day. • Speaking London, in the National Graphical Association secretary said that :two- pronged attack was needed the Industrial Relations Act.

•We must resist all attempts to invoke its provisions To the detriment of our members' : he said interests and wellbeing.: in his presidential address to the Printing and Kindred Trades' Federation conference. At the same time, the

TUC S

should insist that, as a condition of union co-operation [with the government] in dealing with the nation's economic prob- lems, they suspend the Act. or drastically the very least it application of its modify the until most vicious provisions, the whole issue such time as can be reopened again.'

APRIL FUND NEED‹

FIVE MORE DAYS T

THE MORE the union leaders retreat from the fight against the Industrial Relations Act, more strength and determination the Tories gain to hit out even more ferociously at the working class. This cowardly union leader- ship can and must be thrust aside. hundreds of thousands .of workers everywhere to force this government to resign. VI esday April 26, 1972 them to repudiate a wages only by •shop agreement reached stewards. He called for a fight on the district claim for shorter hours and longer holidays.

But they refused to listen to him and insisted on accepting the £5.50 rise. 'It is a set-back all right, said John Tocher, divisional organ- izer yesterday. 'They have been bought with a wages offer and it situation attractive _in was a where men were in financial dif- ficulty.' Understandably the Employ- ers' Association were jubilant at the wedge driven between work- with tanks were heading S towards ; Vietnamese defences in the centra

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

WORKERS in the transport in- dustry would pay for greater efficiency with redundancythis was the message yesterday from Lord Robers to Britain's Lans part employers. The ex-Coal Board chief said methods necessary to that new meet the fierce competition from Europe were "blurring' the dis- linction between the docker, the railwayman and the lorry driver.

People employed in the in- dustry would have lo be kept down to a minimum to cut costs, he told a lunch organized by the Centre for Physical Distribution Management. *It must surely only be a matter of time before the boundaries disappear altogether. People must realize that they are no longer in road haulage, in the docks or the railways as such but in a business called transportation.'

The changes, particularly in containerization, were leading to increasing militancy. -among workers. •Now we have the problem in the docks on containerization and this is leading up to a very nasty confrontation with the law.'

But it to trade was up unionists, the government and employers to make the transition a smooth one. No one liked to lose their job, he said, but jou can't avoid changes. •You can't reiect increased efficiency merely because it's go- ing to mean social changes because this is the - road to economic disaster.' Workers Press alone speaks : out and prepares for these de- cisive battles. Help us therefore in every way you can for our April Fund. We need to raise £1,000.85 in the next five days.

It is a tóugh assignment, but effort, with, a great last-minute we are sure you will do it. We on you. Rush all relying are donations immediately to: Workers Press April Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG 1lilI ers and district committee offi- cials. • 'Common sense will noW gather momentum and • those sitting in will now stand up'; a spokesman said. Another blow to the district claim has come from the settle-.

Simons: made at the ment Vickers plant near Warrington.

Some 500 workers have called off their three-week sit in on the basis of a f2-a-week rise and nothing on hours or holidays.

Although John Tocher man- Monday to persuade aged on 2,000 Hawker Siddeley workers at Woodford not to return with- owards Kontum City yesterday central highlands and putting Hundreds of government troops were hiding in bunkers and refusing to fight as their commanders desperately tried to cobble together a defence line against the advancing liberation units. Civilians were fleeing out of the town along a road already held in some places by libera- tion troops. Radio Hanoi yester- day called on its forces to close in on S Vietnamese troops and prevent them fleeing from the Kontum area. 'All local armed units must co-ordinate with local guerrillas to call all enemy remnants hiding in the jungle to surrender ...

it said. Saigon commanders admit that their - main units two regiments from - the Vietnamese 22nd Infantry Division and one para- battalion suffered crush- troop ing casualties as the liberation forces struck. Only five battalions of Rangers and battalion paratroop one were in good enough shape to of defence,. undertake any kind the S Vietnamese said. Kontum itself is defended only by local forces whose reliability militia in 'normal' circumstances is even doubtful. The victories in the central highlands indicate the liberation forces complete mastery of the battlefield They situation. opened up the central front just a few hours after the S Viet- namese had withdrawn units from the area to reinforce the defences of Saigon. S Vietnam's strategic reserve no longer exists and the govern- ment is clearly not capable of fighting a war on several fronts. In the area N of Saigon, the fighting has slackened over the dayst An Loc again though the past two besieged town came under heavy bombardment from liberation troops yesterday.

In neighbouring Cambodia yes- terday police and troops sur- rounded the University of Phnom Penh where rebel students who oppose the Lon Nol regime have taken refuge. The students are protecting Kvy Pech, a 32-year-old student leader facing a military trial accused of subversion and serving enemy interests.

WEATHER

Wales,

ENGLAND.

N Ireland and S Scotland will be mainly cloudy with some rain or drizzle in places. Temperatures will be near normal. Outlook for Thursday and Friday: Main!! dry over England and Wales with sunny spells, rather cloud! over Scotland with some rain at times in the E and N.

Temperatures generall! near normal.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

:01-622 7029 Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published br Workers Press. Street. London, 186a Clapham High

SW+ 7UG.

Printed. by Plough -Press Ltd. (TU).

180b Claphan Hich Street, London.

SW+ 7UG.

claim, out an offer on hours a question the district the plant-by- mark still hangs over the resump- settlements fragment- plant are of work by 3,500 workers at ing the struggle. tion And they are unable to draw AEI Trafford Park. returned from The locked-out any lessons this critical work yesterday on the basis situation. district claim. Employers are beginning talks on the now Convenor Bert Brennan said off the rank and file to play allowed district leaders and they were being to day work and a ban engineers in other plants.

return on This dangerous situation flows on overtime. This directly may be so, but it is far. from the retreat made has been by the AUEW national executive from the victory it 'Morning Star'. when it abandoned the national hailed as by the Communist Although Party claim. Tocher, and And it was a move covered members Panter Bernard Reagan are for by the 'Morning Star' trying des- up the unity of and leading CP members. perately to preserve

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

MAY 1 PUBLIC MEETINGS

Hands off the trade unions Defend the right to work Hall, Minster St, 7.30 p.m.

LONDON :

Poplar Civil Hall, Bow Ad, 7.30 p.m. Tony Dany Sylveire

(SLL);

G. Healy (SLL National Secre-

(T&GWU

in per- Richardson Sarah (YS, tary); Hannigan sonal capacity). London regional secretary).

SOUTHAMPTON: Langley Hall,

LIVERPOOL :

St Peter's Church, Royal Institute, next to Commercial Rd, 7.30 p.m. Colquitt St, 7.30 p.m. Frank Willis

(AUEW

in Mike Banda (SLL Central Com- mittee); Christine Smith (YS).

capacity); P. O'Regan sonal.

(SLL).

LEEDS :

Art Gallery, Headrow, GLASGOW: Partick Burgh Hall, Leeds 1, 7.30 p.m. Glasgow, 7.30 p.m. Jack Gale (SLL); Ken Pearce Stephen Johns Workers (OTO in personal capacity); Barrie (YSNC). Press); John Burrows (YS National Joan

EDINBURGH:

Council Committee). Trades Club, Albany St, 7.30 p.m.

SHEFFIELD: Montgomery Hall, Jim Dormer (EPTU in personal Survey St, Town Hall, opp. capacity); Dave Barclay (YS).

7.30 p.m.

MANCHESTER :

Wheatsheat, Cliff Slaughter

(SLL

Central Frank High St, 7.30 p.m. Committee); McCabe Stanley (Vauxhall Alan shop (NUM in personal capacity); Ray Jason (YSNC). steward in personal capacity); Simmance (YS national John

BIRMINGHAM :

Lecture Room secretary). 1, Digbeth Hall, 7.30 p.m.

AYLESHAM: The Legion, Bur- Mair. Davies (SLL Central Com- gess Rd, Aylesham, mittee); Alex Mitchell (Workers" , 7 p.M. Press); William Aitken (YSNC).

Brian Lavery

(NUM

in per- Smith sonal capacity); Roger NOTTINGHAM: Co-op Educa-

(ACTT

in personal capacity). St, tion Hall, Heathcote 7.30 Hotel, Hotspur

NEWCASTLE:

p.m. Haymarket, 7.30 p.m John Spencer (Workers Press); Dave Temple

(SLL);

Hugh

(SLL);

Harry Finch Steve (AUEW in Nicol personal Martin (YSNC). capacity); lan Yeats (Workers SWINDON: Locomotive Hotel, Press ): Keith Radford (YSNC).

Fleet St, 7.30 p.m. BRISTOL: Çentral Hall, 7.30 Ray Howells (AUEW personal p.m. capacity); Clive Norris (YSNC).

Alan Wilkins (AUEW in a per- READING: Trades and Labour sonal capacity). Socialist Labour League and Young Socialists Sunday May 7 We demand the Right to Work !

No retreat from the fight against the Industrial Rela- tions Act! Hands off the trade unions ! Defend democratic rights!

Withdraw troops from Ulster ! Release all internees !

Victory to the Vietnamese workers and peasants For the military defeat of US imperialism!

MAKE THE TORY GOVERNMENT RESIGN!

ASSEMBLE: 1.30 p.m. The Embankment, Charing Cross MARCH: via Trafalgar Square, Piccadllly, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Euston Road MEETING: 4 p.m. St Pancras Town Hall.

G. Healy (Socialist Labour League National Secretary) J. Simmance (Young Socialists National Secretary) M. Banda (Socialist Labour League Central Committee) In a personal capacity: Frank McCabe (NUM) Roy Battersby (ACTT) A. Thornett (Deputy Senior Steward Morris Motors)

CHAIRMAN

C. Slaughter (Socialist Labour League Central Committee) I would like to come to the May Day Demonstration

NAME

ADDRESS

Piease send me details of transport arrangements.

Complete and send to J. Simmance, 186a Clapham High form Street. London. SW4 7UG.