TUC still to see Heath and Macmillan TORIES CRACK LEGAL WHIP

THE TORY government is now openly intimidating the TUC with its Industrial Relations Act. On Monday National Industrial 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 offensive,, which threatens the very foundations of the independent trade union movement, what are the trade union leaders doing?

Last night Feather and a TUC delegation went to see Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan at the Department of Employnent ... for cocktails!

This convivial soiree comes only a week after Aunt one in men to Macmilan went the unions who were using a work -to-rule to get decent wage for their 200,000 members.

And today Feather will lead the same crowd on a visit to No 10 Downing St 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 Monday's Finance and General Purposes Committee to allow unions to appear before the NIRC 'to defend their interests'.

Does the TUC seriously believe that the court, set up and staffed by the Tory Cabinet, will give the working class justice?

Do they expect 'justice' from a court which has already fined the Transport and General Workers' Union £55,000 and is threatening to take away all its assets?

The decision to appear before the courts is a treacherous climbdown and will only strengthen the Tories' and employers' determination to prosecute militants and shop The reformist trade union leadership today stands openly serving the enemy class. Each time the Tories hit out, the TUC retreats still further. Now, the Finance and General Purposes Committee has violated the mandate of last September's Congress.

the only paper to warn of the danger of this type of class-collaboration.

On April 14 our front-page headline said: "TUC retreats on anti-union fine'. We stated that the TUC was 'now preparing to make appearances in the courts and before the Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR)'.

The urgent need now is to get the TUC of last September recalled to. a special conference to affirm the decision not to co-operate with the Act and to expel those who have violated that decision. ABOLISH MEANS TEST DOWN RENTS The housewives and some husbands-converge on Redditch Development Corporation, Birmingham TWO HUNDRED angry tenants yesterday besieged the offices of the Redditch Develo protest Corpse tine Develonmeni Comortion Tory prote Bill inst the tha already high rents on homes owned by the Corporation.

Led by Mrs Ivy Jones of Tedmore Rd, Redditch, the march wound its way up the long hill from the Woodrow Estate and through the town centre.

The majority of the marchers were housewives, Cool Mac EMPLOYMENT Secretary Maurice Macmillan told the Commons yesterday he would send an official note to the NIRC saying normal work had resumed on the railways. He then expected the 14-day cooling off period to come into effect. This would allow for further negotiations, he said. housewives invade rent office