Workers Press no. 753

workers press May Day Manifesto of the SLL

PREPARE FOR A

GENERAL STRIKE

DAILY OR

THIS IS a call to action. The Tory government has decided to provoke a General Strike and take advantage of the treachery of the Labour and trade union leaders to crush the working class. The Tories have established a High Court - the National In- dustrial Relations Court-which has deprived the working class of its basic democratic rights.

The trade unions are today in a position where a struggle for wage claims on behalf of their members outside the law. In places them other words with the advent of the Industrial Relations Act the struggle for better wages has in fact been declared illegal in ali but name.

If trade unions cannot fight for wages and improvements-in working conditions, then what the of trade unions? is use These are the questions of the hour.

In depriving the working class of its basic rights, Tory hypocrisy knows no bounds. They howl about 'law and order', while at the same time they invite millions of working people to stand by idle and watch their legal democratic rights being taken away. Heath, who in September 1970 at the United Nations spoke about the pos- sibility of civil war, knows full well that his pavernment has gone delibe stel preparing the conditions for just an event. Should the working class refuse to their rights being taken accept away peacefully, then the millionaire press and the media will denounce those who fight back "law-breakers': and the Tories as will immediately mobilize the same kind Britain of brutal repressive forces in which have been active in Ulster.

judge's pen, With a stroke of a the old form of capitalist parliamentary democracy has been brought to an end Parliamentary institutions and those MPs who staff them have been rendered com- pletely ineffective. The Tory government rules the lives the of single worker in wage every mailed fist of the with the country National Industrial Relations Court on the one hand while the other is wielded over the cowardly trade union leaders en- deavouring to force them to discipline and expel those members who incur the displeasure of the Court.

Here is rule by decree. It is a towards Bonapartist movement a in which dictatorship, Heath will order and his save his *law and 'nation' with the help of a bureau- if cratic military police dictatorship is forced into a the working class prolonged General Strike.

Let the reformist and revisionist hired scoundrels of capitalism repudiate this analysis if they will. But what is their explanation?

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER •

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Does not every judicial decision by a law court require the backing of the police and the army? Is not the capitalist state today as in the time of Lenin 'bodies of armed men'? Are not these 'bodies of armed men' the steel teeth of the NIRC as they are of every other capitalist court? And if the unions are forced to ignore the decision of the Court, and eventually driven towards a General Strike, won't the Tory government immediately act through its non-elected Privy Council?

This is a time when Marxism is absolutely vital for working class leader- ship. Over the past six months the class struggle in Britain has enormously in- tensified. There are two reasons: FIRST the world economic crisis of capitalism has steadily deteriorated. The trade war and competition gets fiercer while the tendency towards recession and growing rearmament for imperialist war becomes more pro- nounced. SECONDLY in such a situation the plight of British capitalism, its parasitic ruling class and out-dated economy becomes more and more desperate, in the face of growing competition from its rivals.

The haste which motivates the Tory drive into the Common Market underlines their desperation. Today, more than at any other period of history, the effect of this global economic crisis on Britain tends more and more to aggravate the political crisis.

The Tory government is forced by the insoluble contradictions of the capitalist system to make war on the working class and its trade unions. It is within this context that the Industrial Relations Act makes its appearance. In a last-ditch effort the strives to reorganize government industry through speed-up and ration- alization. The threat of over 1 million unemployed and the NIRC are weapons to assist it in powerful achieving changes. In its efforts to initiate large-scale unemployment and the Act the Tories have been assisted at each stage by the reformist and Stalinist leaderships.

ABSOLUTELY MA

APRIL FUND

WHAT can we say? Each month your wonderful support is overwhelming. This month we asked you for £500 extra and A raised £780 our target. you over meeting of engineering workers on Satur- day raised £104 towards the total and support is still pouring in.

This Tory government should take a warning. The working class everywhere is fighting back with even greater determi- nation. The introduction of the Industrial Relations Act only rouses greater num- bers into action. We must thank you all over and over again. This month certainly is a great

1 • MONDAY MAY 1, 1972

• No. 753 4р

AMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAC

Instruments such as the Redundancy Payments Act, Measured-Day Work, the Devlin report on the docks and the Act itself have been legalized because the Stalinists will not fight reformists and the Tory government. UCS is the most glaring example. Here, behind the threat of unemployment the yards have been reorganized under the most intensive speed-up methods and harsh disciplinary codes, reinforced by the Industrial Relations Act.

This has been hailed by the reformists and Stalinists as a 'victory' when in fact over 2,200 jobs have been lost and there is absolutely no guarantee tat more ne employment occur as economic situation worsens.

Meanwhile, trade union conditions have been slashed and the Tories have set a precedent for similar re-organization of industry to take place at the expense of the working class. Reformism and Stalinism are counter- revolutionary forces in the present crisis.

Every as UCS rotten compromise such not only weakens the working class by depriving it of the imperative need to fight the government politically, but it immediately opens the door for further offensives by the government. This is why the capitalist press make big men' out of the Reids and Airlies.

There is only one way to meet the present crisis and that is by consciously building revolutionary leadership within the labour movement which will mobilize the working class to fight the Tory government under conditions where it is forced to resign.

This is a task which can only be under- taken by the International Committee of the Fourth International whose section in Britain is the Socialist Labour League.

We live and fight under the most favourable historic conditions. Every blow struck against capitalism in any part of the world is a blow which immediately assists the working class in Britain.

• WE HAIL the victorious offensive of the Vietnamese workers and peasants against US imperialism and its Saigon puppets.

Y MAGNIFICENT!

achievement and gives us enormous en- couragement to expand and improve our paper. We know we can win readers in new districts. Help us, therefore, to go forward. Make strength of the working sure this great class is mobilized to force the Tories to resign. Finally, if you have any last- minute donations, please send them straight away for a good start for our May Fund. Post them to: Workers Press May Fund, 186a Clapham High St London, SW4 7UG

JR LEAGUE

• WE CALL upon the US trade unions to continue this struggle by smashing the two-party electoral conspiracy and launch a socialist pro- a Labour Party with gramme. • WE HAIL the heroic illegal struggles of working the Greek and Spanish class against their militaristic and fascist dic- tatorships. • WE HAIL the struggle of the colonial semi-colonial peoples everywhere against their exploiters.

• WE HAIL the heroic resistance of the IRA to the British army of occupation in Ulster. We demand an end to internment and the withdrawal of troops. We fight for unity between the English and Ulster working class against the main enemy, the Tory government. • WE SEND our warmest greetings to all those victims of imperialism who are de- prived of their freedom in the jail houses of capitalism. We demand the uncondi- tional release of Angela Davis and our comrade Juan Farinas from the jails of US imperialism. • WE SEND our warmest greetings to those victims of Stalinist repression in E Europe, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. We promise you we will leave no stone unturned in the fight to eliminate the bureaucratic cancer of Stalinism from the international workers' movement, and to secure your release from the mental homes and concentration camps of Stalinism.

• LASTLY, WE PLEDGE our determina- tion to do everything in our power mobilize the British working class to put an end to this hated Tory government.

Immediately we urge the establishment of unity in action between all trade unions and the labour movement to defend the trade unions under Tory attack.

As in the 1926 General Strike, build Councils of Action in every locality in which all working-class organizations can participate in the event of the Tories pro- voking a General Strike. These councils must become the organs of dual power to protect the working class from physical attack from the capitalist enemy.

In company with millions of trade unionists we demand the immediate re- convening of the Trades Union Congress.

It must answer Tory provocation by making its own efforts to call a prolonged General Strike until the Tory government resigns. To bring down the master is to expose his servants amongst the Labour leaders.

We fight to elect a Labour government which will be forced to implement a pro- gramme of socialist transitional demands including nationalization of all basic in- dustries without compensation and under workers' control, repeal of all anti-union laws, with the working class being trained and mobilized to meet the counter- revolutionary attack of the disgruntled Tory militarists and neo-fascists.

On this historic day we appeal to all readers of manifesto to join the our Socialist Labour League and work with us in transforming it into a revolutionary party. SLL Central Committee, May 1, 1972

workers press May Day Manifesto of the SLL

PREPARE FOR A

GENERAL STRIKE

DAILY OR

THIS IS a call to action. The Tory government has decided to provoke a General Strike and take advantage of the treachery of the Labour and trade union leaders to crush the working class. The Tories have established a High Court - the National In- dustrial Relations Court—which has deprived the working class of its basic democratic rights.

The trade unions are today in a position where a struggle for wage claims on behalf of their members places them outside the law.

In other words with the advent of the Industrial Relations Act the struggle for better wages has in fact been declared illegal in ali but name.

If trade unions cannot fight for wages and improvements in working conditions, then what is the use of trade unions? These are the questions of the hour.

In depriving the working class of its basic rights, Tory hypocrisy knows no bounds. They howl about 'law and order' while at the same time they invite millions of working people to stand by idle and watch their legal democratic rights being taken away. Heath, who in September 1970 at the United Nations spoke about the pos- sibility of civil war, knows full well that his government has gone ahead deliberately the conditions for just such preparing an event. Should the working class refuse to their rights being taken away accept peacefully, then the millionaire press and the media will denounce those who fight 'law-breakers'; and the Tories back as will immediately mobilize the same kind of brutal forces in Britain repressive which have been active in Ulster.

With a stroke of a judge's pen, the capitalist old form of parliamentary democracy has been brought to an end.

Parliamentary institutions and those MPs who staff them have been rendered com- pletely ineffective. The Tory government rules the lives of worker in the every single wage with the mailed fist of the country National Industrial Relations Court on the one hand while the other is wielded over cowardly trade union leaders the en- discipline deavouring to force them to and expel those members who incur the displeasure of the Court.

Here is rule by decree. It is a towards Bonapartist movement a dictatorship, in which Heath will save his 'law and order' and his 'nation' with the help of a bureau- cratic military police dictatorship if is forced into a the working class prolonged General Strike.

Let the reformist and revisionist hired scoundrels of capitalism repudiate this analysis if they will. But what is their explanation?

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MON

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Does not every judicial decision by a backing of law the court require the police and the army? Is not the capitalist state today as in the time of Lenin 'bodies of armed men'? not these bodies of armed men' Are the steel teeth of the NIRC as they are of every other capitalist court? And if the unions are forced to ignore the decision of the Court, and eventually driven towards a General Strike, won't the Tory government immediately act through its non-elected Privy Council? This is a time when Marxism is absolutely vital for working class leader- ship. Over the past six months the class struggle in Britain has enormously in- There are two reasons: FIRST the world economic crisis of capitalism steadily deteriorated. The trade war and competition fiercer tendency recession and growing rearmament for imperialist becomes more pro- nounced. SECONDLY in such a situation the plight of British capitalism, its parasitic ruling class and out-dated economy becomes and more desperate, in the face more of growing competition from its rivals.

The haste which motivates the Tory drive into the Common Market underlines their desperation. Today, more than at any other period of history, the effect this global Britain tends more economic crisis on and more to aggravate the political crisis.

The Torv government is forced by the insoluble contradictions of the capitalist system to make war on the working class and its trade unions. It is within this context that the Industrial Relations Act makes its appearance. In a last-ditch effort the government strives to reorganize industry through speed-up and ration- alization. The threat of over 1 million unemployed and the

NIRC

are powerful weapons to assist it in achieving changes. In its efforts to initiate large-scale unemployment and the Act the Tories assisted at each stage by the have been reformist and Stalinist leaderships.

ABSOLUTELY MA

APRIL FUND

WHAT can we say? Each month your ac wonderful support is overwhelming. This month we asked you for £500 extra and A raised £780 over our target. you meeting of engineering workers on Satur- day raised £104 towards the total and support is still pouring in.

This Tory government should take a warning. The working class everywhere is back with even greater determi- fighting nation. The introduction of the Industrial Relations Act only rouses greater num- bers into action. We must thank you all over and over again. This month certainly is a great

1 • MONDAY MAY 1, 1972

No. 753 1 4p

MITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAG

Instruments such as the Redundancy Payments Act, Measured-Day Work, the Devlin report on the docks and the Act itself have been legalized because the reformists and Stalinists will not fight the Tory government. UCS is the most glaring example. Here, behind the threat of unemployment the yards have been reorganized under the most intensive speed-up methods and harsh disciplinary codes, reinforced by the Industrial Relations Act.

This has been hailed by the reformists and Stalinists as a 'victory' when in fact over. 2,200 jobs have been lost and there is absolutely no guarantee that more un- economic Situation worsens.

Meanwhile, trade union conditions have been slashed and the Tories have set a precedent for similar re-organization industry to take place at the expense of the working class. Reformism and Stalinism are counter- revolutionary forces in the present crisis.

Every rotten compromise such as UCS not only weakens the working class by depriving it of the imperative need to fight the government politically, but it immediately opens the door for further offensives by the government. This is why the capitalist press make 'big men' out of the Reids and Airlies.

There is only one way to meet the present crisis and that is by consciously building revolutionary leadership a within the labour movement which will mobilize the working class to fight the Tory under conditions government where it is forced to resign.

This is a task which can only be under- taken by the International Committee the Fourth International whose section in Britain is the Socialist Labour League.

We live and fight under the most favourable historic conditions. Every blow struck against capitalism in any part of the world is a blow which immediately assists the working class in Britain.

• WE HAIL the victorious offensive of the Vietnamese. workers peasants against US imperialism and its Saigon puppets.

Y MAGNIFICENT!

achievement and gives us enormous en- couragement to expand and improve our paper. We know we can win readers in new districts. Help us, therefore, to go forward. Make sure this great strength of the working class is mobilized to force the Tories to resign. Finally, if you have last- any minute donations, please send them straight away for a good start for our May Fund. Post them to: Workers Press May Fund, 186a Clapham High St London, SW4 7UG

IR LEAGUE

• WE CALL upon the US trade unions to continue this struggle by smashing the two-party electoral conspiracy and launch a Labour Party with a socialist pro- • WE HAIL the heroic illegal struggles of the Greek and Spanish working ciass against their militaristic and fascist dic- tatorships. • WE HAIL the struggle of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples everywhere against their exploiters.

• WE HAIL the heroic resistance of the IRA to the British army of occupation in Ulster. We demand an end to internment *m andthe withdrawal of troops. We fight for unity between the English and Ulster working class against the main enemy, the Tory government. • WE SEND our warmest greetings to all those victims of imperialism who are de- prived of their freedom in the jail houses of capitalism. We demand the uncondi- tional release of Angela Davis and our comrade Juan Farinas from the jails of US imperialism. • WE SEND our warmest greetings to those victims of Stalinist repression in E Europe, Czechoslovakia and the USSR.

We promise you we will leave no stone unturned * in • the fight to eliminate the bureaucratic cancer of Stalinism from the international workers' movement, and to secure your release from the mental homes and concentration camps of Stalinism.

• LASTLY, WE PLEDGE our determina- tion to do everything in our power to mobilize the British working class to put an end to this hated Tory government.

Immediately we urge the establishment of unity in action between all trade unions and the labour movement to defend the trade unions under Tory attack.

As in the 1926 General Strike, • build Councils of Action in every locality in which all working-class organizations can participate in the event of the Tories pro- voking a General Strike. These councils must become the organs of dual power to protect the working class from physical attack from the capitalist enemy.

company with millions of trade In unionists we demand the immediate re- convening of the Trades Union Congress.

It must answer Tory provocation by making its own efforts to call a prolonged General Strike until the Tory government resigns. To bring down the master is to expose his servants amongst the Labour leaders.

We fight to elect a Labour government which will be forced to implement a pro- gramme of socialist transitional demands including nationalization of all basic in- without compensation and under dustries workers' control, repeal of all anti-union laws, with the working class being trained and mobilized the to meet counter- revolutionary attack of the disgruntled Tory militarists and neo-fascists.

On this historic day we appeal to all readers of manifesto join the to our Socialist Labour League and work with us transforming it into a revolutionary in party. SLL Central Committee, May 1, 1972

PAGE 2 Workers Prods, Monday May 1, 1972 WILLIAM CRAIG, leader of the right-wing Ulster Van- extreme

KEY TALKS

at the GEC-AEI guard, told rally London a plant, Trafford Park, Manchester's on Saturday that civil biggest engineering factory, have Was 'nearer' in N Ireland. shorter broken down over Speaking to a rain-swept crowd working week. of several hundred the The 3,500 workers returned to Embankment, Craig 'We said: Tuesday on the the plant last believe that the British govern- basis that would negotiations prepared ment to negotiate cover the hours question.

with Prorists nde siye yet with

AUEW

district officials lead- terrorists. us workers involved ing the 2,400 put an end to this. Let the voice three lock-outs and in 26 sit-ins, of the people be heard" four strikes had pinned hopes on 'If we are not going to get a a breakthrough at Trafford Park.

deal United fair inside the So has Kingdom we will, as our fathers management E3 on offered and two and did 1912, grandfathers waste 1n extra days holidays, but is stick- whatever steps are take neces- ing to the employers' association sary' line that hours are a matter for Park The march from Hyde Embankment was national negotiation. to the organ- by the Liverpool-based ized British Loyalist Committee.

from Apart from contingents Belfast and Londonderry, there were groups from Glasgow and Merseyside. the Prominent among organ- was the extreme right-wing izers National Front, and editor the 'Spearhead', Tyndall, of John addressed the rally. The demonstrators wee motley collection drawn from the demoralized sections and the of the working class bourgeoisie. petty Scotland Yard Although the office said the rally was 1,500-strong, more than boosted yesterday newspapers figures to 4,000. the Vanguard And the was gIven mightier significance even hyan Saturday's 'Daily article A MEETING of over 500 women Telegraph' 10,000 Loyalists that the Ples- and junior workers at and armed were trained 1n Beeston Nottingham, works, Ulster. on Friday gave a unanimous vote unsubstantiated This story for equal pay. headline was the front-page London's afternoon as the press The demand, for equal pay boys, the bowler- apprentice for work of equal value, part Orange- hatted brigade and the of a seven-part claim put in by men marched through the streets.

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT DAVID MAUDE

POST OFFICE union leaders temporary retreat from the mas- sive cut-backs which were expec- will face a fight on two main ted earlier this not IS fronts at their annual con- once-for-all decision. ference in four weeks' time.

There is a continuing need for 'constant vigilance, it points out.

agenda, just. The conference out, clearly reveals the two areas But the report continues: 'Our conflict productivity and the of whatever task is to ensure, Industrial Relations Act. that about, our changes come members will not become part of leaders say they While union the army of the unemploved. and expect few the confer- at which: is held certain in be in ence, the full support of management' contradictions of Blackpool, the their policies are glaring. Later in the report this trust- ful attitude towards management from the special report -contrasting completely with the UPW executive on the future of call for vigilance-is reflected in the troubled postal service points recommendation continue Office's that the Post out The dally paper that loads the fight agalnst the Tories. 920.28 for 12 months (312 issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issubs) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: CIrculation Dept., Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London, SWa 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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Amount enclosed £ At Bredbury steelworks, Stock- port, where 1,000 workers began the first sit-in six weeks ago, a wages and holidays deal has been rejected. Only four men voted for acceptance. At Mather and Platt, Man- chester, where 2,000 workers last week accepted a wages-only pattern-makers who deal, 50 opposed the settlement have re- imposed sanctions. The latest sit-in began last Friday at Bason and Sons Stock- port engineering factory when 50 workers occupied the plant after a management lock-out threat.

They had turned down an offer of £2 a week. • More engineering news p.ll.

the policy • behalf committee on of the factory's manual workers.

This the second mass was meeting at the factory in a week.

meeting, night earlier an shift workers gave overwhelming support to the point in the claim calling for recognition for four 10-hour shifts on nights.

co-operation with uncritical mechanization of the postal ser- • vice. This section of the report in- sists that replacement of labour by capital can be extremely bene- ficial to union members. 'It will, in the long run, reduce the size force and thus of the labour make more easy: the aim of higher wages for a smaller work- force.' Quite how agreement to a smaller workforce squares with opposition to unemployment is not explained, but the report goes on to attack sharply union members who 'argue that the union should resist all forms of increased productivity and mechanization. 'Those who this', it argue 'are condemning postal claims, workers to a continual reduction in living standards and the postal service to a continual decline. It is an argument which the execu- tive council rejects absolutely' However, at least one section of workers who face mechaniza- intend to challenge this tion policy: Overseas telegraphists from London's Electra House cable headquarters intend to challenge a paragraph in the report of secretary. Tom Jackson. general Thev want conference to break off all productivity • negotiations with the Post Office. except where money is due for past productivity: Two other branches --Paddington No 1 and Liver- pool Amalgamated-want executive to fight for a 38-hour week: On the Industrial Relations Act, the conference will hear in private! a report on action taken the union's funds to protect against attack as an unregistered organization. The conference will take place.

however. shortly after Jackson in the expects appear to Industrial Relations National Court, whatever the TUC advises.

A bitter reaction against this is expected from several branches.

AROUND THE WORLD

FIERCE fighting was in progress yesterday around the city of Quang Tri close to the demilitarized zone between N and S Vietnam. attack to begin. Tanks for the Liberation forces broke close to the have been spotted through the S Vietnamese de- Saigon itself, the govern- In fences Friday, driving on ment's morale has slumped still southwards with a large force further as a result of its defeats in the last few days. Many of the of tanks against the puppet American advisers now admit armies. that the fall of the puppet is only a matter of time. The S Vietnamese and Ameri- stopped flying helicopters cans Tri yesterday because Quang of intense anti-aircraft fire.

They were able to bring a certain in amount by road for Hue, though hit by their convoys several ambushes. liberation On Saturday, the district troops captured a large Binh and of Dinh province forces from pushed government foothill defences of Hue, the old imperial capital. the central highlands, the In THE Black Panther Party has city of Kontum is cut off and its for announced its support Vietnamese defenders are to have little chance of Black Shirley thought congresswoman against a big push holding out Chisholm in this year's pre- from the 20,000 liberation troops sidential contest. reported in the area. The move represents a further the by the Despite daily air surveillance swing to right liberation Panthers who have now dropped planes, the by their 'revolutionary' rhetoric to forces have succeeded in conceal- the throw their weight behind ing two roads running from the Democratic Party of big business.

Laos/Cambodia border almost to Party Bobby Seale, chairman the besieged town. The roads making the announcement at the were discovered only a few days Panther's headquarters Oak- ago. land, California, said the entire difficult Kontum is extremely membership would work party it lies defend because in for her re-election. hills which basin of are noW this announcement the 'With commanded by the completely Black Panther Party forth puts The S Vietnam- liberation troops. a call to black, poor and every the have ese units in being across progressive human already taken a mauling in the unite together this country the frontier area. retreat trom and join Sister Shirley Chisholm's The S Vietnamese have begun Seale said. relatives and depend- Mrs Chisholm is seeking the evacuating ents of all military personnel in Democratic Party presidency waited the city as the command nomination. ON the eve of mass May Day rallies and demonstrations in 3,000 San Sebastian shipyard workers walked fascist Spain, Groups out in support of the anti-Franco movement. demonstrated in Barcelona and Bilbao distributing workers leaflets calling for May Day action.

Already police have arrested 20 strike leaders who will be THE Soviet body for importing charged with illegal Sojuzplodo- shortly agricultural produce, bought $1tm association. import, has worth from Spain. of oranges At a called by the meeting Party Communist British on Conway Hall, Saturday the Heath are not our business: we in Spanish Stalinists, British and only interested in Spanish are of in supposed expression émigré workers.' solidarity anti-Franco with the He refused also a showed of their movement, straight explanation sec- COs. Carrillo's latest tempt for socialist principles and Santiago retary Spanish the heroism of the relations between Franco and the Stalinist bureau- working class. member of E Europe. A central committee cracies Spanish CP outlined the For Gollan's guest speaker, of the Party's freedom pact which sup- condemnation of these relations question of Spain's the was principle- ports entry into relations Common Market by seeking an but certain economic had be taken into alliance 'with those sectors of to 40n- sideration! the big bourgeoisie. who want Spanish Stalinism's embrace more civil liberties and authority of Common Market is for the in in Spain as preparation full accord with the Kremlin entry' leaders who would like To avoid embarrassment, this to see Stalinist speech between section of his was unity the and the included the translation bureaucracy in in capitalist countries of W Europe, CP handed for British

OUT

including Franco's Spain.

members. Only recently a Barcelona daily asked whether the When the agreement CP prepared to pointed out Spanish was accept Heath and Pompidou, who tween Madrid and Moscow on were not mentioned in his speech, need for all-European the he •declared: 'Pompidou and 'security conference:

The militant centre of the American working class are the auto workers. These men, many of them black, work in the vast industrial complexes owned by the big three car producers. 'They labour under the fiercest of management regimes. The driving quest for more and more productivity summed was up recently by Joseph E. Godfrey, head of General Motor Assembly Division. He said: 'Within reason and without endangering health, if we can occupy a man for 60 minutes we've got that right.' GMAD is responsible for 19 of General Motors' plants. It is strictly an efficiency outfit and is known within the huge com- bine as the 'Gestapo of the GM.' Godfrey displays trophies of war in his plush Detroit office.

On his wall is a picket sign • from Lordstown - the plant where auto workers were recently forced to accept a bad pay deal handed to them by the leader- ship of the Unified Auto Work- ers. But Godfrey may be counting his victories This too soon. • week the policy-making confer- ence of the union begins and the • leadership, headed by Leonard Woodcock, the man who came to Britain to advise our bureau- •crats during the big Ford strike, faces an attack from the militant rank and Me. Bitter criticism of Woodcock's delay in leaving the government Pay Board comes from the key River Rouge plant in Detroit. It was here that the UAW was born when Walter Reuther and fought of militants a group bloody battles with paid Ford company scabs to establish the righi to_ organize. One Rouge workers' commit- tee member recently told 'Bulle- tin' — organ of the Workers Nat Mosley: represents the most consc League: 'Meany had the right idea about walking off the Board. And Woodcock was drag- ging his goddam foot when he didn't walk out with him.'

The Pay Board revolt came when it slashed the dockers' pay rise. Chief of the American TUC Meany George was forced to resign, but Woodcock attempted to hang on and only moved when the second-tier leadership in the union urged him to.

The other source of wide- spread discontent is the steep increase in productivity and auto- mation. American wage agreements are settled by contracts. The auto workers signed their own in one of the conditions 1970 and the should was company 'improve conditions" as much as possible. The committeeman described what this meant: 'When you they say can impreve conditions, you're saying that they can automate as much they and want as automation mr cans elimination.' American carworkers are now pitting themselves against these attacks. Many are simply milit- others can fall prey to racialism or Black Power, but a small minority are beginning to realize that the employers' offen- sive demands a radically differ- ent strategy. They cal for a Labour Party in the US to organ- ize all workers on socialist lines.

Below publish an inter- we view by 'Bulletin' Labour Editor damn friedan li Nat Mosley, task ahead with chairman of the black caucus at General Motors' St Louis plant.

Nat Mosley represents the most conscious element of the auto- workers. Bulletin: The GMAD man- agement at your plant is con- ducting the sort same attack on the workers 'through lay-offs and speed up as at What is the situa- Lordstown. ' tion now? lost conscious element of auto workers,..

Leonard Woodcock: the man who came Mosley: Well, last March ' there were 9,500 men here. Now there's 8,500. They just moved the blazer truck line out which meant 215 men were laid off.

These lay-offs and speed-up got started with GMAD (General Motors Assembly Division) which began at Fremont, California.

They came here on October 1, 1971, and immediately there were massive layofis. Paragraph 78s (speed-up grievances) piled up. Would you believe it that 5,000 grievances were settled in March and there are still 6.000 oper They produce 57 cars per hour. One thousand men were eliminated. The remaining men take up the work at no reduc- tion of line speed-it's still 57.

Sometimes they try to sneak in an extra car per hour. In my plant, on the Corvette line, the line speed is seven per hour. You have 8.4 minutes per job. But it's hell. A lot of guys think, well, ? per hour is noth- this car is almost all ing, but hand made. The work is-nothing but chaos and confusion, and can't you transfer. Plantwide transferring according to seniority is allegedly in the contract but you cannot do it. Bulletin: What have you heard about the Lordstown settlement? Mosley: They kept it hush- hush. We know there was a big rebellion there against it.

The chairman of the bargain- ing committee at Lordstown sent a letter to the bargaining com- mittee chairman and said here. had pres. that the International surized them into accepting bad deal.' Before that six plants supposed were to go out together, including Lordstown and St. Louis. The International and our local put pressure on, leadership went along. They appeared militant about a strike, but when the time came -we're still waiting. There was an 87 per cent vote in favour of a strike. Now the leadership says in the union paper: "Although bargain- ing is slow, things are much improved since the strike vote.

Our committee is trying hard to avoid a strike.' They announced that in the month of March, GM gave us $230,000 in cash settlements. Well, if a man is willing to pay $230,000, then he must think he's going to get off easy-it could cost them a lot more.

• The local leaders have caved in to the The International. International just comes in and settles the grievances over their though last March heads, even we defied the International with a wildcat strike. Bulletin: What happened last March? Mosley: We shut down the entire plant for one day in a strike against speed-up wild-cat and racialism. Ninety-three per cent of the workers participated -all.. of the, black, workers. Workers Pres

THIS PLANT

ON who came to Britain to advise our bureaucrats together with the militant white younger workers. We were demanding a 35-hour week hours (at 40 unlimited pay, transfer rights based on seniority, retirement after 30, years at any age, and a fight against work overload. This goes back to the Gen- eral Motors strike. In September, 1970 we went to Detroit to talk to Woodcock and Blue- stone. They wined us-and dined us and said they would put all these demands into the bargain- ins. But none of thish demands They came back down here in February, Bluestone, Douglas Fraser and Bill Oliver, to talk us out of trying to void our local contract. An

FEPC

(Fair Employment Practices Commission) man was sent down from Washington to meet with 13 men over the discrimination. charge of racial They tried to buy off the 13 men by offering to get them $l-an- increases-just hour wage for them, of course. They said, 'Be patient, give us time.' n't. Then, we had interference from representatives of the black bourgeoisie — the repre- sentatives of the middle class,

CORE,

parasites workers as the on struggle. During the strike, they totally disregarded the strike strike of the as a working class, but stressed the racial aspect only. Their purpose was to separate the white from the black workers. After the wildcat strike began on March 23, the top leaders of management were sent down from Detroit because we were on the verge of breaking the local management. They brought $17,000 worth in of camera equipment to identify the strike leaders. Then, after we returned they disciplined 203 men--gave them DLO's (Disciplinary Lay- offs). Twenty-three were dis- missed outright. My reinstatement was hiled as a grievance. I constantly kept on the backs of the UAW officials.

On March 10, I was reinstated with $3,000 back pay-only one- third of what was owed me.

It was part of a deal-I got back in exchange for 900 griev- ances. This is the kind of horse- trading going on. The conditions contained of reinstatement special conditions to try to shut me up. If I violate any shop rule at all, or I'm late, at any time during the next five years, I cannot only get the maximum penalty of 60 days, but even be fired. now I'm running for But Committeeman in the Corvette body shop, to represent my shift, where there are 170 men.

About 60 per cent of the men are black, and 40 per cent white in the shop. My programme is to unite all the workers. My posi- tion on unemployment is a fight for all the workers-black and white. These workers are now being forced to think and that's rkers Prosa, Monday May 1, 1972 PAGE 3 ureaucrats, head of auto workers unlon.

what I want to get them to do even if I'm defeated. Naturally the leadership doing everything to try to stop me because of the programme. I'm running on, especially against unemployment. I call for a pen- sion of $750 per month after 25 years, regardless of age; for a 35-hour week, with time and one- half after seven hours. Not this baloney about four ten-hour days, that the Interna- tional is for. Thirty-five years ago they were demanding the ight-hour day. Now they wan i nours a day with no ove time. Instead, with a 35-hour week, we can put on a third shift at seven hours per shift and have a lot more jobs. Bulletin: What do you think should be done about plants and businesses that close down and throw men out of in the auto work such as industry in Detroit and at the Ballantine brewery in Newark?

George Meany Mosley: One of the demands of all national contracts is that the workers should have control over this issue. Bulletin: But isn't the only way to do this through nation- alization of these plants and industries? Mosley: Yes. If we come to realize that we, as workers, can control the entire economy, then we can take care of unemploy- ment. Capitalism is the basis of the Vietnam war. They are there trying to indoctrinate everyone with bombs. The Stalinists are helping them. Nixon was trying to make a deal in China, while Ford wants to put a truck plant in China. Bulletin: What are your relations with the local UAW leadership? Mosley: They talk with a forked tongue. But they must be afraid of me. Two days after I came back to work there was a huge fire in the Fisher body building. They tried to blame me. They're worried about the election. They were trying to stir up racism and anti-communism in order to divide the workers.

What they were trying to say 'Mosley's been was, away one at's . year and he still ain't stopped.'

PAGE & Workors Press, Monday May 1, 11 The first in a series of articles our industrial correspondent, s leaders, official and unofficial 'modernization' scheme to desti 'Where do we go if we don't win this one?' Jimmy Symes, chairman of the Merseyside stewards, asked dockers' recently. question. For the indus- Good trial terrain through which the dockers are now battling is as uncharted as the moon-moun- tains three American astronauts were exploring as he spoke.

Since Sir John Donaldson, pre- sident of the National Industrial Relations Court, slapped his first, £5,000 fine on the Transport and General Workers' Union four weeks ago, a new period of class struggle in Britain has opened up.

Jimmy Symes' question must express the thoughts of millions of workers, in every industry.

But it is no accident that it should come first from the docks.

If the Merseysiders lose their struggle to make the packing and of cargo-containers unpacking many of Britain's their work, 41,000 dockers will very soon have no jobs at all. The reformist union leaders-- backed up and protected at every turn by the Stalinists of the Party-have British Communist presided over the destruction of 21,000 dock jobs in the last seven of further cut-back years. A 3,000 is planned by the employers in the next eight months.

On the other hand, the 'black- ing' action taken by the Mersey in support their dockers demands has been declared an industrial practice by unfair Donaldson. 'stuffy, old-fashioned, This legal Victorian' judge, as one journalist described him on BBC has already up his followed the T&GWU with further £50,000. And there is no reason to believe he would stop short of paralysing the union by seizing all its £22m funds. When Jimmy Symes asked his question in Liverpool Friday week he and the city's other docks just decided to stewards had maintain the black on the three road-hauliers who took them to the NIRC. would therefore seem There to be just three immediate next moves possible: Further action against the contempt of court, which could lead to an order sequestration for the of the union's entire assets until the blacking was stopped. 2 A union climb-down from its policy of no co-operation with the court. The T&GWU leaders could then appear before Donald- son to argue that they were not responsible for their members' actions. 3 National strike action in all the major ports, raising the Tory govern- demand that the 1 Мау 1, 1972 nofficial, allowed the Devlin to destroy jobs and conditions.

n't ment immediately resigns.

sharpness of the This is the Britain's port- situation facing workers today. They must either accept des- truction of their livelihoods, allow a virtual state take-over of their union or embark on a fight to the death with the authors of the Industrial Rela- Act. tions But if Jimmy Symes' question is to be really answered, we must first examine how it is that the industry has been decimated three times over since the publi- cation of Lord Devlin's commit- tee of inquiry report in August 1965. If reformism and Stalinism are.

bankrupt what is the alternative?

What are the lessons of the fight against redundancy on the docks?

The Devlin committee was established by the Labour govern- ment of Harold Wilson, entirely within its perspective of running capitalism better than the Tories.

Since 1945, the dock and shipping companies had amassed profits estimated at £3,000m. Yet only f200m had been spent on dock construction and mechani- zation nationally. The volume of tonnage handled had more than doubled, while slashed the labour force was from 78,000 to 63,000. Whatever was wrong with the docks could not easily be laid at the dockers' door. Nationaliza- tion proposals, however, were not brought forward by the Labour- ites until four years later.

Set up by right-wing Labour, the Devlin committee was given credence by Jack Dash, the CP leader unofficial port- an workers' liaison committee based on the Royal group of docks in London. He called for 'a public inquiry' into the industry and later boasted that some of his ideas had been adopted in the final report.' Dash's policies were in bitter hostility to those of the Socialist Labour League and its weekly paper The Newsletter', fore. runner of Workers Press. Three months before the Devlin report was published, a 'Newsletter' editorial pointed out that it was being 'prepared with the sole interest of profitability and efficiency for the big em- ployers'? And the paper gave consistent support to those elements in the industryparticularly rank the 'blue' National and file of the Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers-who wanted a straight fight whole philo- against the sophy of the report. the Labour answer to leaders' announcement that the report was to form the basis for a phased programme of legisla- tion, the SLL proposed all-out opposition behind the demand for total nationalization.

This was fought against by the CP, which wanted to avoid any breach with the 'white' T&GWU bureaucracy. Phase One of the Devlin involye fixing scheme to was dockers with a regular employer, making a start on flexibility and mobility of labour, starting to cut down manning-scales and setting up severance arrange- ments. 19,000 redundancies were The Young Socialist march and lobby of even though Dash and the CP called on expected in the first two years.

Also implied was a clampdown on trade union democracy.

Dudley Perkins, then director of the Port of London Authority, remarked towards the end of 1965 that Devlin had recom- mended very strongly that the 'blue' union's rules should be changed. It should 'be able to allow their chief officers to behave like those in any other union and negotiate confidentially, only re- back when terms have been discussed, which the general recommend secretary can On April 24, 1966, the Young Socialists' National Committee issued a call for a mass lobby of parliament against the Devlin report and the Labour govern- ment's proposed pay-restraint legislation. This was to take place a month later on May 25. The Merseyside dockers de- cided soon afterwards to stop work in support of the lobby on in question. the day On May 1, the Mersey men's leaders met Dash and his liaison a march committee after to Downing St. They moved united support for the lobby. A surprised Dash claimed they "jumping gun', but were the agreed to raise the issue on the various London bodies of which and he was a member. The CP then set to work to prevent a united strike, and the start of the seamen's strike on May 15 made them even more determined to do so. A separate lobby was called for June 22.

The morning before the lobby, Dash spoke to dockers from the Royal and warned them to have nothing to do with the Mersey men, who, he said, were being by "irrespons- led astray ible elements'. 1,

NATION

44A.

LEGIS

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

SAY

d lobby of Parliament on May 25, 1966. Mersey called on dockers to boycott it He said there should be no unofficial strikes in support of the seamen. The London 'Even- ing Standard', part of the Tory Beaverbrook empire,. thought he was 'to be congratulated on his plea for moderation'. Dash's attempts to keep the seamen isolated from the dockers were mirrored in CP activity in every port. When eventual sell-out the came on June 29, CP industrial organizer Bert Ramelson at- tempted to cover it up as la victory for trade union sover- eignty. Three weeks later the government introduced total wage-freeze. Dash's refusal to assist in the national liaison formation of a committee during the seamen's strike hit the dockers hard dur- ing their own struggle 18 months later. In the weeks before Phase One Devlin scheme was due of the to be introduced, on September 17, 1967, dockers sub- were jected to a barrage of T&GWU leaflets eulogizing the scheme.

They signed by Harry were Nicholas, now retiring secretary of the Labour Party but then a union functionary. A 'Newsletter' pamphlet,' how- ever, told a different story.

It put forward as a basis for struggle a programme of nation- alization under workers' control, the Labourites' stopping pay- freeze legislation, forcing the port employers to open the books and making the government implement socialist policies.

36. Merseyside dockers joined the march Dash's added contribution to the propaganda battle was a red- herring; all dockers wanted from Minister of Labour Ray Gunter, he said the day before decasual- was due to be imple- ization mented, was 'a written notice in every pay-packet guaranteeing no redundancy. On the Monday morning, how- ever, dockers stopped work on Manchester Merseyside, at and in London's Tooley St, Til- bury and Royal docks. But in each area there was a local issue: he fought against the development of any national strategy. On September 25, the Royal docks went back to workuntil Dash's recommendation, January 1'. There were heated arguments as he told the men he didn't want to see them 'out on a limb' with no one supporting them. The return of the London, men, and the dropping of their demand for higher fall-back pay, enabled Liverpool the committee to change the emphasis of the strike from the terms of decasualiza- tion to improved piecework and bonus rates. But on October 3, some of the Merseyside men, who had been left to fight on alone, forced a vote that the Royal support them by coming out again the follow- ing Monday. Dash waited breathlessly for the result. The strike move was carried with a big majority.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

1 'Face the Press' Tyne-Tees Television, March 5, 1968.

2 May 29, 1965. 3 'Evening Standard' May 1 24, 1966. • 'Stop Devlin Now!' August 1967.

Above : Czech CP leader Husak. Below (left to right) : Roger.

who have been lumped together with Prague's Stalinist rulers joined the Kremlin's anti- Trotskyist campaign with two in 'Rude lengthy articles Pravo' at the end of last week. The d dons aas ele belgin teg beginning line laid down at Boris Ponomar- o bo d veæ yor, secretary of the Soviet Com- Party centra! munist This not surprising, Czech Jeaders owe their positions Crechoslovakia become Soviet invasion August 1968. They notorious have even among E European Stalinist leaders for their servile attitude towards the ikt opionents of the Kremlin. As unc popular unsurge against bureau- which _en to the Sovler the Czech leaders have invasion, fear the special Acasull development revoluuonary politics, especially among the youth. 'Rude Pravo' article, u ne penned by one M. Altaiski. tries (retsayism and establish an amalgam between Maoism. Altaiski is here simply copying Ponomar- k. Below (left to right) : Roger Garaudy, Erns ler with 'extremists" and "Trotskyists' in the pri yov's earlier article in the Moscow journal 'Kommunist'.

By means of this totally un- justified amalgam, he hopes to smear Trotskyism with the Peking leaders' anti-working class policies in Bangla Desh and the Sudan. The article, like others of its genre, is entirely innocent of any material, and Altaiski source makes no attempt to justify his quotations or with assertions facts. This does not inhibit its author from emphasizing the 'consider- able ideological and political similarity between the platforms of Marism and Trotskyism'. Since his readers are deprived of the opportunity of familiarizing first hand with themselves at these 'platforms', the assertion will be hard them challenge. In vein, Altaiski the same states: It is not by mere chance that "Mao Tse-tung's ideas" suit extremists and ultra-leftists, Trotskyists as well as right-wing like opportunist [expelled French Roger] Garaudy, [expelled Ernst Fischer and Milovan Djilas in the present hander campalan.

the Austrian CP leader Ernst] Fischer and [dissident Yugoslav CP member Milovan] Djilas.' Altaiski even states: 'Trotsky and the contemporary Trotskyists had priority in working out most of the political and theoretical problems and slogans which are in being used by the Maoists their struggle against the Soviet Union and the socialist countries, in attacks on fraternal parties.'

The purpose of all this tortuous argument is to 'prove' Trotskyism that both Maoism are working hand-in White House and Czechoslovakia. In this way the Czech Stalinists to lump together the manage of irreconcilable opponents with the chief wor- Stalinism shippers of Stalin. The fact that the Trotskyists have long opposed the bureau- cratic policies of both the Soviet and Chinese bureaucrats-both of which collaborate with imperial- ism against the interests of the working class—is of no import- ance for these Czech stooges of the Kremlin. Workers Press Sir Robert Thompson, the British so-called counter- insurgency expert, now acts as adviser to the American and S Vietnamese high com- mands. - He won his reputation during the 1950s in Malaya where he elaborated the policy of 'strategic hamlets' — concentration camps into which the peasants were isolate the herded so as to guerrillas. In Vietnam, however, he appears to have more than met his match. His counter-insurgency there is in tatters, as campaign the following article, taken from the Hanoi newspaper 'Quan Doi Nhan Dan', , clearly shows: In an interview in 'US News Report' and World on November 1 1971, [Sir Robert] Thompson remarked: "The com- munists cannot launch attacks at all in 1972, because Vietnamiza- succeeded and tion has Saigon army has been so greatly improved, with the best generals in the world, that if it were necessary to put the. British Army command I would under ther not hesitate at all'. On April 12 1972, nearly two weeks after the attack by the southern armed forces and people, he explained in another interview: "The com- munists are launching the offen- clearly because they are sive aware of the results of Vietnami- zation. There has been no unit, not even a Civil Guard platoon, of the Saigon army which has gone over to the enemy? Not to be able to launch an offensive because Vietnamization is successful and to be able to launch an offensive because Viet- is successful-this is namization not a joke by a clown on a stage, but a statement which is the re- sult of analyses demonstrated on the basis of reality by Thompson, a specialist in counter-insurgency, the US President's special adviser on pacification and a principal creator of the strategy of Viet- namization. ago Thompson Four years wrote a book suggesting to the President Nixon newly-elected how to oppose the revolutionary in Vietnam. Grasping at war into bubbles after falling the praised him, Nixon water, appointed him adviser and often sent him to study the situation in Vietnam on the spot. Trusted by kors Press, Monday May 1, 1972 PAGE 5 his master, Thompson has tried and justify propagandize to Nixon's plan for Vietnamization, especially when this plan is in serious difficulties. despised the truth in finding ways to serve his master.

Thompson's. one easily to see his true nature as a strategist. In less than six months he has made two com- contradictory pletely remarks about the adversary's ability to launch an offensive. This alone is sufficient to demonstrate that Thompson's sense of strategy is only mediocre. At the most, he saw only superficial and temporary appear- ances in a few strategic hamlets and certain localities that he in- spected on his visits. He boasted that he is a counter-insurgency specialist. He regards the situa- tion in Vietnam the same as that where he in Malaysia, was Governor, and has asserted that the revolutionary war in the S is only a guerrilla war. He was asked: How guerrillas can annihilate one battle group and force another one to surrender in Loc Ninh? The southern libera- armed forces' large-scale tion offensive completely refutes Thompson's reasoning on the war in the South. Thompson is also famous as a specialist who advocates oppres- action. sion and police But oppression is the cause of in- surgency. Is he a counter- insurgency specialist, or a man who causes insurgency? More- over the fact that Thompson praised the Saigon puppet army shows that he knows nothing about this mercenary army and the latest events on the battle- field. Recently the 56th puppet regi- ment in Quang Tri mutinied; its commander even took part in the mutiny. A whole puppet battle group in Loc Ninh surrendered.

Thousands of people's self- defence men and militiamen have people after returned to the revolting against the US puppets.

The fact that Thompson has often changed his views shows the bankruptcy of the Vietnamization. strategy Thompson's inability and his habit of changing his views are proof of Nixon's difficult position, because he is Nixon's trusted adviser. Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62½р

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PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday May 1, 1972 Militant Mauricien, has been sub- Minister who favours closer ties slice of the country's industry.

Sir Williams, former Len This reactionary alliance has jected to rigorous persecution with S Africa. of general - secretary the Peking bid smash the workers' been blessed by the The formation of the coalition presides over Labour Party, in 1969, after independ- a tulsome The MMM was formed at the one year W00 have an island of fear in the Indian of welcome last week to a delega- result direct ence. was tion headed by Ramgoolam which end 1969 left-wingers pressure fro customina forance.

Ocean. the Paris studen and influenced by customers main included Luvdi s He governor - general of May-June 1968 other extreme rightists. island's movemen Mauritius, the former British Chinese CP Its policy is to try and win power leaders visited by One of its first measures was I he recently the ballot box, though through until 1976 the promised postpone resolute

SNOOTL

Queen. wale be was welcollis adherence coalition in its struggle to claim Royal Party to the sup- eneral national independence Marxism. safeguard left-wing opponents of the Mauri posed to take place in 1972. This The MMM underwent a spec- unsuccessful attempt The ollowed an

LWU

Slapped following the government weit growth governments established Laculal irresponsor polical any in- who Opposed unseat ambassador formation level as a result of the visis.

matic relations Ine political peace. the coalition. Its weekly paper, The coalition brought into the been island has became TaCl Militant', soon and To bolster the shaky coalition representatives under a state of emergency since government agreed dailv with a big circulation Peking to the tune last December, sweeping consti- of the French plantaton owners it won mass support among the made organized in the PMSD, who had provide tutional changes have beer and workers in dockers other independ- least £15m- -a vast sum for such opposed the consistently allow ruling parules small island. Port louis, the capital and other hang power and ence. 13 big towns. China's support for Ramgoolam trade unions have been banned.

These planters are closely tied Mauritius has cent un. government, betrayal of working 30 per with the African ine present Mauritian of Mauritius whose basic people workers are a coalition between the yet ment is wilco encourages investment dill employuelt, systematically led by premier Sir tourism Mauritius. African forced dorions on the island are squalid overtime. Labour Party, nave been the moved destroyed by entrepreneurs have color Seewoosagut Ramgoolam. and the unemployed The mass left-wing worker government. and Parti Mauricien Social-Democrat, Maudlius noter business Mouvement the led by Gaetan Duval, the Foreign large scale. They also own alike. members and Its supporters H month. faced a continual

DOYCIS

from the hired thugs the PMSD reasonable and leaders were repeatedly imprisoned on trivial charges. dOCKeN Yet became clear The sit it over- that the enjoyed the Wie ming support autulll. w populace-it won 75 per cent of against cones iuency Prima My-eleriso in whip the constituen 1970 and The PM in a by-election September the union. torious in Duval, in of Port The elections. dockers w lose a contest at the dolls.

Racked by financial scandals Tempor: the coalition coalition and corruption, had of its no knew Daylia. with the General tection, But with General Election post- talks wit poned to 1976, Ramgoolam could Home an proceed to use full state powers Lord Carr the working class. Finally, against to bring came to head Trad August last The the by of was rushe declared "illegal'. out-lawing was

YULACI

docks and ine ponce nor mu armca all used trained by the British-was DenaiLy I0 jail. against the strikers. Having sparked near- 1 ne revression riots in many parts of the island the gover and a number of important trade imprisoned. provoking Workers Off Finally, the strike was called and the leaders released from Genera S ¡ail to allow compulsory arbitra.

Events their clim fac The arbitrator, a High Court the strike had been municipal perfectly legal and severely Ramgoola cen- sured the Calcincils intervention the strike. threatenec clashed again arbitrator tion Salise Under with the government alter dockers struck the following propagand Workers Press, Monday May 1, 1972 PAGE 7 and the workers forced ttacked the broken em- back with the loss of all seniority.

de 'most un- as They were forced to sign under- l ordered them to MMM-backed takings that they would not re- a by the majority fuse overtime (in a country where 30 per cent of the work-force is unemployed! and had to accept n on the docks the a year's ban on strikes. simmer into Since that victory, the govern- repeated walk-outs ment has pressed home its advan- attempts to yers' ers into line. tage under the emergency powers.

than 100 MMM members urned its thugs on More its organizers, and have been jailed, some charged with having been 'about to agree capacıty as mayor threatened the to conspire with certain persons the government'. he sack. overthrow to loss, Others are held without charge.

the at a ht guidance Iwo sections of the constitu- from in London. Ram- tion protecting individual liberty and outlawing political and racial Britain for urgent have been ir Douglas discrimination Alec MMM leaders have Secretary suspended. Defence their passports withdrawn had n. government acted and during the Royal Visit all ituation to a head. without exception were rounded Ordinance up and put in prison. isputes 'Le Militant' has been closed hrough parliament the down and the government has strikes on banned a weekly paper planned sing the minimum by the MMM. Ăll gatherings of king to six months' more than five people are banned lawed the strike, on the island—a measure which applies in practice only to MMM at brought troops to unload ships, and trade union meetings.

Only a month ago, the acting MMM's General Abdul eration to call Sid Razack a premier Mohamed stated: I am sure the ed rapidly towards longer the period of emergency is extended the better it will With docks, buses, • a clear indication that and be s, electricity the government intends to con- kers out on strike stituted a state of tinue rule by decree. ested militants and This is the situation of virtual dictatorship which the Tories kers with deporta- Chinese Stalinists and the are rage of government collaborating to keep in being on the island of Mauritius.

strike was the

PAGE 8 Workers Praas. Monday May 1, 1972

BY STEPHEN JOHNS PART 1

Since it began to circulate ten years ago among Chelsea's café society, the magazine 'Private Eye' has of its apparent radicalism and anti-establishment humour. The radicalism, however, has turned out to be more apparent than real. Recently the clique who run the 'Eye' took a significant step to the right. They published a cartoon which suggested that the role of the provisional IRA in N Ireland was no better followed than that of the British army. Reaction reaction when, in a later edition, they portrayed the IRA as a group of psychopathic morons. The attacks would not have appeared out of place in the most right-wing section of the capitalist press. Some of the brand of satire and 'exposure' journalism were dis- turn. But what could turbed by the new pass as radicalism in the last days of the Macmillan administration now appears as reaction. As one ex- fellow traveller of the Eye' put it: "Today, without the swear words and the joke, "Private Eye" could be the Tory "Spectator"? In this first article we chart how this exposure has occurred and the origins of the journal. public school nurtured the first The big guns of 'Private Eye' of savage indignation have one thing in common— the breats of the young satirist, their upper middle-class back- but that was really not the case.

than ground. They received the The school was no worse and we con- most public schools same training in life even to formed along with the rest.

the extent of attending the At public school Ingrams and same public school. William Rushton both contri- Not in Shrewsbury. buted to the school magazine This was and «The In 1955 Salopian'. Eton the front ranks with called where one Ingrams left and turned over the Rugby place needed the backing of fat work to two new recruits but not academic Christopher Booker and Paul cheque book, brilliance, to gain entry.

Foot. These men were to come Richard Ingrams, editor of the together after their university days, and provide a nucleus for 'Eye' since the early days , describes the impact, of public 'Private Eye'. These are the origins of the school this It would be nice to say that 'Eye' team and heavy public a the harsh authoritarian air of school humour still characterizes No. 269 Friday 7 Aprúl '72 their journalistic out-pourings.

One 'Guardian' report com- in the pares the atmosphere 'Private Eye' office to the pre- fect's study just before a beating.

It continues: school undeniably linger Public 'The traditions of the "Private Eye". There is a tendency to refer to everyone on the paper by nickname and there search constant to blow of raspberry at one their political masters.'

The language of the magazine is still ladened with the upper- imagery of the public class Men are 'beasts' 'swots', school. "loonies', "frogs, 'wops", littlé shits'. But the connection goes deeper. A study of the writings of the 'Eye' men and their attitudes to personalities and politicians an approach the reveals • to that essentially a world is product of public school ideology.

This institution gives the off- spring of the ruling and upper middle class their training for life. They try to teach the young gentlemen to be honest, upstand- and tolerant of the masses ing The were born to rule. they 'lads' are encouraged to worship the key image of the English gent. This mythical figure is a compendium of Socrates and the Duke of Wellington-a kind of warrior, philosopher king.

myth-which has been This developed by the ruling class to perpetuate its power—is particu- potent for Ingrams and larly Booker. 'Eye's' Beneath the outrage nose-thumbing there is and a keen disappointment that mem- the ruling class and bers of politicians do not match the image so dear to their hearts.

Their so-called savagery is born out of a sense of betrayal that the modern leaders of the Tory not like the establishment are legendary characters who inhabit the public-school dream. hate whie-kids hot the tory sovere Hence most ment like Environment Minister Peter Walker and feel a nostalgic regret for patricians like Harold cultivated Macmillan who the gentleman's art of amateurism.

John Wells, a major contribu- tor to 'Private Eye', laid this bare when he made this comment on Underneath the the magazine: wreckage of good intention there

PAUL FOOT

is a core of seriousness and fundamental decency. Ours is a different sort of decency. Perhaps a better word is goodness, what it tries to stand for is individual honesty.' Ingrams characterized himself .. upper class. People as: expect me to be ghastly and embittered. I'm not. I'm a great patriot. I'm terribly British' This ingrained réspect for the England of old Tory values reveals itself time and again in the magazine. For example they have the minor public schoolboy's fear of big finance and social climbers great fortunes- who amass occasionally this almost lapses traditional into anti-Semitism and mistrust of foreigners.

The figure of Lord Gnome, created by Ingrams, represents all they hate in the world of cash and monopoly. Gnome is trans- parently corrupt; venal, a meglo- maniac and sexually depraved.

The suggestion is that, though money and profit must be made, it should be made in a clean honest fashion. Capitalism and corrupt and bankrupt is not a system in itself--only the one or two 'greedy Jews' and foreigners spoil the show. Hence their emphasis on their coverage of the Savundra case on Asian origins. swindler's the prosecution of the the After machine tycoon John washing Bloom, the 'Eye' continually spot- lighted his East-End Jewish origins. touched on Bloom in fact another nerve of prejudice nursed by the Eye' team-he was a poor boy made good. True to their training, Ingram's and Booker have a contempt for 'individuals' who rise above their 'station' in life. Booker is quite specific about his dislike social change and this will be examined in tomorrow's article but Ingrams had this to say the TV about David Frost, of middle-class impressario origins: 'There was something ungentle- manly about a man who was so His obviously the make. on astonishing industry ran counter to the public school amateurism which characterized... "Private Eye"! To the working class the 'Eye' 'plays the amused patrician.

When workers do appear in the journal they are portrayed as I work for Private Eye.... ignorant, xenophobic - a mob easily manipulated by the media politicians (shades of the or the Greek 'polis'). Thus they lampooned the working-class hero of one of the . of the British realist best films 'Saturday Night and school, Sunday Morning': bloody quid "Twenty-five week and what have you got to show for it at the bloody end but a cupboard full of filthy hangover from shirts and a Saturday night. Being alive these might well be days as you what with the bloody dead, government and the price of beer.' Their attitude towards the left is consistently hostile. passed their In 1968 they verdict on the May-June days in and when workers France, students almost brought down reactionary de Gaulle the regime. Claud Stalinist no brings pollics to Cockburn : ageing the 'Eye'. These events were, according to 'Private Eye': 'A lot of Frogs running about as per usual' and 'A lot of Frogs are setting fire to cars and ripping up sheets' is weak The humour and juvenile, but the contempt for revolutionary developments is quite obvious. 'The Observer' commented in 1962 after one year of 'Private Eye': "They are against "social ate nonsense" attached to marches and plan to attack CND in the next issue' In Oxford, Ingrams made his position quite clear. He had no interest in contributing to the

WEEKLY PAPER

A PROFOUND CRISIS is threatening the lives of Britair iest businessmen., It is a transport crisis and it is probably serious of its kind since the threat to the QE2, the I luxury liners. The problem can be stated simply: how to get to New York lunch. Even with the time advantage, it is still impossible even it Jumbo Jet or: VC10 to leave London at a decent lour in the non to the lunch table at the Waldorf Astoria.

Now, however, the businessmen's by government has come to their aid Last week, Mr John once more. Davies, Secretary of State for Trade

PAUL FO

and Industry, took a flight in the prototype of the Concorde aeroplane: Il was, he said, a Tabulous experience.

Even when C'oncorde is rer By all accounts. the flight. was so smooth there is no guarantee that the gin and tonies could be hilled fo the top of the glass without fear of spill- governitient. subsidy ing. hundreds of concordes are so It was enough to convince the Minister get a sales subsidy front the g that Concorde should go If hundreds are sold, the ef the project ahead. You have no more worries he told kind in general could be cata: only a tiny handful of rich ine Sir George Edwards, the Aircraft Corporation that makes be able Britisht Concorde's speed. Concorde. A standard joke in Brista Sir Geoge is delighted. Concorde tas only 0.00 Prototype is called Concorde always represented for him the best form *co-operation between business and will ever be able to fly in it.

government. The government pays tor all Those who live in its flig research. all development and all losses. suffer all kinds of daniage to The firm gets the prestige and the profit.

their hearing and if there is any. erty. ment. On

DOUBLED

prototype down "boom alley' west coast, the government it.

So far, nine years after the decision to forced to pay out compensat build Concorde British age which amounted to t50 f was taken, the government has spent t265m on the pro- Houses damaged, ject. One prototype is built and another is animals panicked, individuals nearly completed. ened all those horrors and m Thé sanie amount of money spent over have been experienced. building technology period in How does the government could have rebuilt all the slums in the city lucing this monster or Liverpool. It could have of Glasgow expense and so little benelit t doubled the bospital building programme.

unity at large? It boasts that t project employs 26,000 people The current annual spending on Con- corde represents more than the estimated Jammous pre-war annal saving of all the recent government Keynes, used io argue that the increases in charges lor school milk, school solve ihe lunacies of capitalis meals, Health Service prescription charges government-sponsored lunacie and council house rents. large employing Not a penny of the £265m will ever be women at high C'oncorde will recouped. Completion of ground and fill them in again.

requite another {168m research and The story of Concorde shi development costs, none of which will idiocies of modern capitalist ever be recovered. hudicrous Total estimated cost of the British and dangerous than Franch Pronardas in a rolesonal Carmin university magazine 'Isis' because it had fallen into the hands of the 'infantile left'. Instead he plumped for 'Parsons Pleasure' where he could continue his childish sniggering at 'personalities'. the early days, after the In magazine's first libel battle with Randolf Churchill Churchill), Ingrams Winston revealed: 'He [Churchill] even admitted to liking the "Private Eye" • • • The Randolf action was a matter for regret. Had it not been for the animosity created, Randoll, - am sure, would have contribu- ted to "Private Eye" ..' On one occasion they went so far as to invite Enoch Powell the staff, though they onto claimed it was only a joke.

But nothing more reveals the their 'Eye's' class position than reaction to the collapse of the in Tory the early government 1960s which precipitated a major crisis of ruling-class values.

Their attitude towards lories is in line with their disgust at 'dishonest money'. They do not hate the Tory ruling class-but become outraged and simply of afraid when members it become incompetent and corrupt, thus revealing the true nature of the class. Again, this behaviour threatens the 'Eye' man's love of 'British decency'. Hence the magazine was at its most strident during the Profumo scandal and its aftermath. The whole affair was an open betrayal Richard Ingrams

APER OF THE INTERNATIONAI

lives of Britain's wealth- id it is probably the most the QEZ, the last of the get to New York in time for impossible even in the fastest t hour in the morning and get

AUL FOOT

hen Concorde is ready for sale, o guarantee that this fantastic will end. Unleas the of Concordes are sold. BAC wil subsidy from the government.

Ireds are sold, the effect on man- neral could be catastrophic. For y handful of rich individuals will the benefit of to. afford dard joke in Bristol is that the Prototype is called 002 because per cent of the British people who live in its flight path will kinds of daniage to their ptop- r hearing and to their environ- the recent test flights of the down 'boom alley' on Britain's i, the government (taxpayer) was pay out compensation for dant- amounted to c50 for every mile broken, windows nicked, individuals partly deat- these horrors and many besides oes the government justify pro.

monster at such enormous nd so little benefit to the commi- arge? It boasts that the Concorde ploys 26,000 people. economist, lord sed to argue that the best way to iunacies of capitalism was more it-sponsored lunacies .. Such "s of and numbers men high wages to dig holes in the ory of Concorde shows that the I modern capitalist society are and very much More Keypes: himself ever of their belief that government ministers should be gentlemen and rule with an incorruptible honesty. While socialists were rubbing hands, enjoying the their spectacle of the ruling class literally caught with its pants knickers) down, Ingrams (and a note of alarm, and struck almost fear. He wrote of this period: "The pack of cards was collapsing about our ears in an and lurid unexpected manner and events themselves had over- taken satire. •. I felt a strong abusive note should be sounded and that Booker's rather more restrained approach was inadequate to cope with the horrors of 1963 ... In the ensuing months the tone became strident, abusive more and left wing.' The left wing bit was provided by a new recruit, Claude Cock- burn, a Stalinist relic from the 1930s who Ingrams had dug up in Eire. He took charge of one issue of Eye' 'Private and steered the 'lads' past a crisis that they could not manage alone. (Men like Cockburn and other 'lefts' who live in the 'Eye' milieu, like Paul Foot, are the subject of article three.)

When Wilson came to power he drew the wrath of 'Private Eye' not because he had betrayed socialist principles, any middle-class because he a was climber and politically dishonest.

Says Ingrams: 'It was not until the financial crisis of July 1966 that the real disillusionment with Wilson set in. It was then that his grandiose economic policy was seen to have been a sham. The resulting anger was more intense for the wild hopes that had preceded it ... From then on the magazines attacks were as savage as any on the Tories. out succeeded sell-out, 'Sell culminating with Mr Callaghan's bill Kenyan-Asian immigration which finally destroyed any claim might make that Wilson to moral the Now ander the most reaction- ary Tory regime of the century, confines its attack 'Private Eye' to Heath's middle-class manner- isms. admitted that John Wells

TIONAL SOCIALISTS

The current annual spending on Concarde represents more than the estimated annual saving of: increases in charges for school milk, school meals, Health Service charges, So the RosA want pier Without delay Said the Royel Ferr Our bi arefoot kic •.I alsu work for Socialist worker Alex Gl Torchlig march throug political attacks of' the old kind was now off the agenda. He told Its Private "The Guardian': Eye's] concession to the onset of regime has been Tory the "Heathco" which the sees some dreadful government as Neasden outfit. sour and 'But otherwise its spirited assault on the English political machine has been put into abeyance.' (But not apparently assaults on the Irish working class using legitimate terror against their army oppressors.) The lines of conflict are now more clearly drawn in society and the Eye' men are begging to -embrace the class to which they belong. Ingrams, who retreats each day to his olde worlde cottage and plays cricket with locals, Booker, schoolboy the public Sour turned Jesus fanatic, Wells, who writes for the Tory 'Spectator' belong all know where they when the battle begins. And this should be no real surprise to those who read the journal.

Beneath the naughty "jape' lies the good old reactionary values of the public school with a radical varnish provided by Foot.

The men of 'Private Eye' are really a disenchanted section of the upper middle class. Their journal is essentially a safety valve for the ruling class. Their rages are the rages of the public schoolboy who wants society to fit the myth taught at school.

Their real world is the world of the country squire; a world know their place where people and where the get-rich-quick boys do not disturb the order; a where leaders are clean world and honest and where the workers are happy in their squalor and do not intrude on the business of living away from the 'smell' of the town with a quiet, humble wife. There were similar individuals who inhabited society during the late 1920s and 1930s—young, Tory upper-class radicals and 'anarchists' displeased by the traditional ruling-class institu- tions. Many found their way to Oswald Mosley's_New Party. The progress of the 'Private Eye' team will also be interesting.

• Tomorrow, Christopher Booker and Malcolm Muggeridge and the philosophy of these two contributors right - wing to 'Private Eye'. Workers Pres Agents, that The Crown curious body recently under official investigation for its business connections with Vehicle and General, among other things, has a new client.

The Soviet Union has just asked the non-profit-making organization to take over the multi-million-rouble business of selling Russian stamps throughout the world. The Crown Agents already carry out this function for 56 of the 200 countries in . the world which issue stamps as well as advising former British colonies on investment. The advertisement says, In Australia ... I will' but as far as Mrs Julia Freebury is con- cerned certainly she most won't. Mrs Freebury, who has lived in Australia for two decades, has arranged for a brochure Australia's attacking • social, educational and medical ser- vices, to be distributed outside Australia House. It is called Facts About Australia That Australia House Did Not Tell You' I've become completely dis- enchanted with the quality of Australia, Mrs Free- life in bury said. 'In fields such as censorship, social services education, and Australia is behind the times.

She quoted the brochure as saying: 'The press, radio and television suffer from restric- tions, bias and external pres- sures. Censorship is still con- sidered necessary on books, films and plays.' A surprise 11th-hour candidate for the Southwark parliamen- tary by-election on May 4 is a member of the actors' union, Equity. He is Brian McDermott of Savernake Rd, Hampstead, 'Actor's standing Anti- as Heath's Union-bashing Act' candidate. Vigorously distributing of literature behalf on McDermott last week was a former member of Tariq Ali's International Marxist Group.

rkers Press, Monday May 1, 1972 PAGE 9 J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBl, has posed for halt a cen- tury as the man standing reso- lutely in defence of law and order in America. Messick. Messick accuses Hoover i. of completely failing to take on the Mafia during his service under six presidents. Top: above: David Hoover, Oluwale Jeremy Sandford, writer of 'Cathy Come Home' and 'Edna, , has the Inebriate Woman' launched • a new crusade. This time he's looking into the death of Nigerian David Oluwale in Leeds two years ago. Following Oluwale's death, two senior police officers were jailed for beating him up.

The prosecution alleged that the officers hounded two Oluwale, a local tramp, to his death in the River Aire. The real cause of his death has never been established.

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday May 1, 1 The mammoth GEC electrical engineering combine is back in gripped by the news again strikes, lock-outs and other forms of industrial unrest. This is because the old policy of sacking and steep productivity 'the mastermind by increases, chief' Sir Arnold Weinstock has been intensified recently. The great drive for redund- ancies began back in 1967 when a Labour government encouraged the mergers of GEC, AEl and English Electric with public It was all part of the money. white-hot revolution worshipped by the then Minister of Tech- nology, Anthony Wedgwood Benn. Through the ill-fated Industrial Reorganization Corporation the encouraged Labour Minister rationalization in the empire.

Not that Weinstock, originally of English Electric, needed any urging. the time of the merger At Weinstock addressed 500 major shareholders at the Dorchester Hotel, London. The unions were not, of course, invited, but he had this message for them. If we are allowed to do this and integrate successfully, the is that offer prospect we can more employment than if we are not allowed to join together.'

Weinstock proceeded to show just how much of a 'concession' this was. In 1967 the three companies had 268,000 workers between them (GEC 63,000, AEI 85,000 and English Electric 120,000). By mid-1971 the count was down to 225,000over workers 40,000 had been sacked in three and a half years. The first bombshell came in Woolwich, SE London where the

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TORIES ATTACK

THE UNEMPLOYED

The Social Security Swindle y May 1, 1972 Top: all smiles at the GEC-Electric marrlage; Lord Nelson, head of the AEIG Weinstock el English Electric. Above: 1967, Weinstock and Sir, Joseph Lathi AEl takeover was announced.

'A closure of AEI factory follower of the Arnold an 5,000 Weinstock star could have announced. pur- ploying was of

100 GEC

1960 The caused a storm chased shares in decision protest, but the plant closed and for £214. 1960 these would the area is still hit by the depres- have brought him in a dividend With free income of £l0. share sion it caused. continued shareholder Redundancies issues that lucky would now have 968 25p shares throughout the massive group worth £1,780 (184p on April 17) was left and hardly a plant un- and his dividend for 1970/1971 Merseyside badly. touched. was hit with 3,500 sackings. £36. More is promised for. 1971/1972. This cut-back has led to vastly increased profits. We quote from In December the half-year re- of the sults were published. These show the latest facts sheets Labour Research Department. massive 36 increasę per cent A YOUNG SOCIALISTS PAMPHI f'

PRICE: FIFTEEN PENCE

the AEI-GEC gives his hand to Sir Arnold seph Latham.of. AEl on the day the GEC.

in pre-tax profits from £23.3m in 1970 to £31.5m in 1971. The in- crease in sales was 7.5 per cent to £449m from £418m in 1970 in 1971. The half-year dividend was raised from 5 per cent to 5$ per cent. The Labour government policy by on the mergers was called some businessmen 'undue social- ist interference in industry'-it is thought they have noW changed their minds on this point. A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MARXISM PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATI Price 25 per Volume 7 No. 3 Editorial: Class War and the Mass Party Draft International Perspective of the Fourth Internation: Industrial employment in Eire fell last year by over 4,000 in spite of a rise of almost 4 per cent in the volume of production. Nearly all major industrial groupings in the 26 counties ex- a fall in employment perienced during the year. Total numbers in the transportable working from goods industries fell 209,500 in December 1970 to 205,700 in 1971-a drop of 3,800. Employment in textiles dropped 2,400 from 25,300; in the cloth- footwear ing and sector from 23,600 to 22,800; in metal and engineering by 600 from 39,100; in the food processing sector from 44,100 to 43,700. Figures from recently- published Quarterly Industrial Inquiry results also show the volume of industrial produc- tion in the last quarter of 1971 was 4 per cent up on 1970.

Earnings in the 26 counties rose by 13 per cent and average in December weekly earnings 1971 were £27.99 for men and £13.43 for women. Men worked average of 45 hours a week an and women 38. Highest earnings were in the brewing and fertilizer industries where wages were £36.03 and £36.04 Lowest respectively. weekly earnings were in the jams, canned products and jellies and leather industries where workers home an average £21.64 took and £21.10 respectively. Lowest wages for women were in the non-electrical machinery industry where earnings were £9.98 per week. Women took home most in the tobacco and sugar industries-an average of £18.23 weekly.

Y THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

rice 25 pence Spring 1972 Perspectives International

May Day solidarity with MAY DAY in the Lancashire of Preston town will be marked by a massive demon- stration in support of the 3,500 British Aircraft Cor- hit Preston since the war and it poration workers who today is the first time a complete divi- enter the 13th week of their sion of BAC has been completely shut by industrial action.

pay strike. Mostly AUEW members, the Some factories have answered strikers work at Preston and the Confederation Shipbuild- plants at nearby Samlesbury and ing and Engineering Union's call Walton. Between them the three for 24-hour while stoppage plants BAC's military comprise leading factories will send other division. big delegations to this morning's Throughout the bitter dispute march. the strike committee has fought Preston dockers, who on Fri- 12t-per-cent, across-the-board, day voted strike to today in cost-of-living rise without strings protest against the fines imposed with a of £20 minimum wage Transport and General on the for a 40-hour, week. Workers' Vents froill also ter will also Management, however, has there. •Students taken the of opportunity the boycotting university lectures strike to try and force through have promised support. of deal- productivity The strike is the longest to they have had in ing, aim

FROM PHILIP WADE IN THE NW

MASS meeting of Standard Triumph workers, A Liverpool, has decided to accept Measured-Day Work payments on the recommendation of a majority of shop stewards. Twice before, the 2,500 Standard workers at the two plants have rejected manage- ment's proposals to abolish piecework. But on Saturday 2,000 of over them split three-to-one in favour of acceptance. Last T&GWU stewards week voted 56 38 in favour of the package, the final embodiment of made by the company proposals ten months ago. Most production workers will 4.1.8 clause which declares: now move on to a fixed payment 'Output requirements, of £42 for a 40-hour week. schedules, line-speeds, processes and organ- Opponents at Saturday's meet- ization shall be determined by ing pointed out that in no real management. sense the principle. of was *Shob steward Bahty Body" retained mutuality in the pack- Owens told me after the meet- officials claimed. age as union 'They ing: say they've got To back up this form of mutuality, but all the notorious customs and practices established

BBC 1

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What they have in mind is the application of the sophisticated MTM and tape data techniques which would result in the aboli- tion of average earnings as guide for payment and open the door to fixed payments on a day work basis. When negotiations were re- sumed last Friday the position was the same: no increase with- out acceptance of the strings.

was resolved, Nothing but the talks will resume this afternoon.

Chief personnel man at BAC is Labour peer Lord Beswick. the chief share- And one of holders in is Sir the combine Arnold Weinstock and his GEC empire, currently involved in one battle after another at factories up and down the country. Standard-Triumph workers leave the PI in the plant have gone by the board. 'We're not taking a step ahead but going backwards. We have given management the right to • re-time us when they like. The control we had on this aspect has been taken away from the rank-and-file on the shop floor.

'If you refuse to accept these

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room. 4.55 Clap- 4.25 Romper 6.00 perboard. 5.20 London. About Anglia. 6.45 London. 10.50 Aquarius. 11.45 Theatre. 12.40 Big question. Workers Press "The men are getting more de- termined than ever, a strike committee spokesman told me at the weekend. "They have seen workers in other factories in the area win without strings large increases and they say BAC have to find out that we're not going to be pushed around. 'The wage claim is by no means large and in some ways is far too small. But management has been wanting the new wage structure for some time and have seized the opportunity to try and enforce it now. 'But like the government with the miners, management has mis- understood the situation and the mood of the men in their deter- mination to win. 'Preston has for a long time been something of a backwater as far as militancy is concerned.

A change is taking place in the feeling the working class throughout the country and this is now reflected in Preston and at BAC, he told me. ave the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, after voti timings they can move you to another section or downgrade you. And the implications of course, that a further refusal could lead to you being sacked.

Fhe In a couple of yeapa time. ag Standards will be producing more with comparatively fewer cars •men than now as a result of Measured-Day Work' ATV MIDLANDS: 11.00-2.33 Lon- don. 3.10 Yoga. 3.35 Horoscope.

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Peyton Place. 4.40 Once upon a 4.55 Clapperboard. 5.15 time. London. 6.00 News. 6.25 This is your right. 6.40 London. 10.45 1.22 Film: 'Children of the Damned'.

TYNE TEES: 11.00 London. 2.30 Film: 'Sea Cook book. 3.00 Devils'. 4.35 News. 4.40 Once upon a time. 4.55 Rainbow coun- try. 5.20 London. 6.00 Today.

6.25 Ordeal of Signalman Holmes. 6.45 London. 10.45 Times 11.15 Saint. 12.10 News. four. 12.25 Epilogue. SCOTTISH: 11.00-2.33 London.

3.30 Nuts and bones. 3.45 Simon Locke. 4.10 Dateline. 4.55 Arthur.

5.20 London. 6.00 Dateline. 6.15 Dick Van Dyke. 6.45 London.

10.50 University challenge. 11.15 loy- Late call. 11.20 Marty Feldman.

GRAMPIAN: 11.00-2.33 London.

3.38 News. 3.45 Women today.

4.10 Lucy. 4.40 Pippi longstock- ing. 4.55 Clapperboard. 5.20 Lon- don. 6.00 News, , weather. 6.05 Simon Locke. 6.35 Cartoon. 6.45 London. 10.50 University chal- lenge. 11.15 Mannix. 12.10 Epi- logue. kers Press, Monday May 1, 1972 PAGE 11 CLERKS at English Electric, Liverpool, meet this morning to decide on a pay offer aimed at ending their six-week official strike. Although no details have been released, it is understood that the cash award would amount to about f2.40-a-week 'rise. The 450 APEX (ex- CAWU) strikers have sought a £6 increase. At the beginning of the dis- pute, management offered rises of between £1.50 and £1.75.

The proposed deal came out of talks held on Friday in Rugby between Labour MP Denis Howell, president of the union, executive members Roy Grantham and Ray Edwards, and GEC's industrial director Sir Jack Scamp. after voting for MDW Said another T&GWU member Frank Vaudray: 'The have sold themselves for the sake of a few pounds.

Up to now we have had local agraemants in tho factory about manning arrangements and SO on. Now we will" go into work and the foremen will be able to say you do this and that and they will be able to move us anywhere they like. 'In my opinion the whole idea behind this is to cut shop stewards out as far as winning conditions is concerned. The next thing we can expect is a man with a movie camera filming every movement we make. And that will be part of the agree- ment.' Warned John Attrill: I've at Ford's and I know worked what it's like under Measured-• Day Work, having to ask for a relief before you can go to the toilet. 'What management will now try and do is herd us around like sheep with the foremen as The way it's going, sheepdogs. workers will need a pair of roller skates and an extra pair of arms to keep up with the line.'

THE joint shop stewards' com- mittee at CAV, Acton, London, has decided to break with plans for a new site deal this year.

Instead it will recommend to a meeting today that the mass workforce should support the national pay claim submitted on February 2. deals 'linked to a 12- Site month wage freeze have become increasingly unpopular with many year's deal CAV workers. Last concluded with a 10 per cent redundancy. Certain sections, it is claimed, have benefited from these deals, but many • other groups have fallen behind.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

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

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU).

Clapham High Street. 180b London,

SWA. 7UG.

.. .. .ii.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday May 1, WORKERS at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders are facing up to 500 more redundancies and penal- ties against strikes. These facts are emerging out of deals now nearing completion over the future of shipbuilding on the upper reaches of the Clyde. They involve: • The reduction in the UCS labour force by 2,200. The possible introduction of double-day shift working.

At the very least, binding pledges to stop unofficial strikes or disputes and possibly the fines and legally acceptance enforceable anti-strike clauses.

oil rig builders The Texan Marathon Manufacturing want a deal which includes fines on men who strike. According to yester- day's "Observer', trade unions have agreed to this, though many are understood to have pushed down the original penalty of E50 per man per strike day.

Further down the river, Govan Shipbuilders will now be pressing for the signature of the shop stewards on a deal already nego- • tiated between the two sides.

This includes procedures for outlawing what are described as 'unconstitutional' disputes and a plan for breaking down demarca- tion lines between crafts.

Both Govan Shipbuilders and Marathon intend to double pro-...

ductivity within two years.

The total jobs offer will be around 6,300-2,200 less than force employed at the labour UCS last July when the 'work- in' began under the slogan 'not a job down the road'. A condition of both deals is that the 'work-in' should end.

not present an This does problem, however, enormous because of the tiny number of workers participating. According to a count taken in mid-February, 182 men were stilt working-in' 1.600. At Clydebank. I under- stand, not one single man is working-in. The two deals were hailed by stewards' leader and shop Stalinist James Reid as a 'victory' in yesterday's Sunday Times'! He says of the Tories: 'As for the government I have never been one to describe John Davies Secretary for Trade and Industryl as an ogre. I would actions as rather describe his misguided. He would seem to have been misinformed and mis- led by either politicians or civil servants within his department.'

WEATHER

SHOWERS and sunny periods. The showers will be locally heavy with hail and will be more pre- in SW districts. velant Tem- peratures generally will be near will be rather normal, but it cold in N Ireland and W Scot- land. Outlook for Tuesday and Wed- at first with nesday: Showery sunny intervals. The showers will probably die out but more general rain may reach SW on Wednesday and temperatures will rise to near or a little above normal.

CORRECTION

THE quotation from Engels our article which headed 'Widgery and Donaldson show of law' on page 8 of meaning Saturday's Workers Press should have read: "The working man knows too well, has learned from too oft-repeated experience, that the law is the rod which the bourgeois has prepared for him?

day May 1, 1972

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

It is a measure of the counter- revolutionary nature of Stalinism that they can greet such agree- ments as a victory. new plan for the Upper The Clyde is exactly in with line Tory of intimidating strategy workers with unemploy- mass ment. It is the end result of a joint campaign the between Cơm- munist Party shop stewards and the union leaders to stop the UCS struggle developing into a political fight against the Tory government. Reid claimed in his 'Sunday Times' interview that the fact that he was a communist had little to do with the way they ran the fight in the vards. Any militant shipyard workers on the Clyde will realize how totally unfounded this claim is. At all stages in the Clydeside Stalinists struggle the manocuvred to avoid show- down or confrontation with the government and their liquidator.

Just one example of this were the reneatedly-broken promises to withhold vessels from delivery.

In all seven ships were handed the liquidator during the course of the work-in. This latest agreement is a con- tinuation this reactionary poliev and is the worst betrayal rade poet denuded massive drive for productivity. It severelv curtails the right to strike-with all this means in the context of the Industrial Relations Court.

The Marathon proposals are expected to be put to shipyard workers carly this week. It should be rejected and replaced with a policy of removing the Labour Tories and forcing to nationalize the shipbuilding in- dustry. • In tomorrow's Workers Press: UCSthe final chapter. This article and the earlier ones on UCS will. be brought out as a pamphlet soon. IF ANYONE ought to be hauled before the Industrial Relations Court for unfair practices, it was the Mrs Barbara government. Castle told a May Day rally in Trafalgar Square yesterday: She was faced with continuous shouts of of! Off!' by sections of the 2.000-strong crowd.

Mrs Castle did not mention her own industrial relations pro- embodied in 'in Place. gramme of Strife'. 'How can anyone expect any- thing but industrial unrest under a government which has wantonly created 1 million unemployed forced up prices and charges and elevated means testing into a way of life. At a meeting in Sheffield, Jack Jones called for the recall of the TUC to discuss the Industrial Newcastle Relations Act. In miners' Lawrence Daly, the leader, also demanded the TUC's recall to discuss the boycott of the Act. At a May Day rally in Cardiff.

Victor Feather, said he believed the Act would prove the down- fall of the government. The TUC's main priority was to force a General Election, he said. Feather's call for an election on the Act is in sharp contrast with every single manoeuvre he has made in the past two weeks: urging the transport union to pay its £55,000 fine and recommend- ing union co-operation with the Courts.

LI.VSU

Oli

CONTRAC

STEWARDS

OF U.

IMITTEE

Rector Reid welcomes Marathon no-strike deal BRADFORD: Tuesday, May 2, 8 p.m. The Rawson Hotel, Tory offensive against the unions.

Speakers: Trevor Houldsworth (Bradford AUEW district com- mittee, in personal capacity); Jack Gale. E LONDON: Tuesday May 2, 8 p.m. (Note change of-venue): 'Three Wheatsheaves', Upper St, N1 (nr Angel tube), N Ireland. W LONDON: Theatre 2 8 p.m. Shaw Theatre wC1. Euston Library, Force the Tories to resign.

COTGRAVE: Tuesday May 2, Cotgrave - Miners' 7.30 p.m. Welfare. The 'fair rents' Bill.

OLLERTON: Wednesday May 3, 7.30 p.m. White Hart. COALVILLE: Wednesday May 3, 8.00 p.m. Barden_Rd Work- ing Men's The 'Fair Club. Rents' Bill and the fight against the Tory government.

SLOUGH: Thursday May 11, Slough 8 p.m. Centre, Farnam Rd. Speakers, ex-convenor Frank Tomany, Omes Faulkner. Brian Bailey, AUEW (in a personal capa- city). The Industrial Relations Act. Recall the TUC Expel the traitors Make the Tories resign CROYDON: Thursday May 4, 8 p.m. 'Ruskin Hall, Coombe Pid.

SW LONDON: Tuesday May 9, 8 p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, Clapham Manor St, SW4. N KENT: Tuesday May 9, 8 p.m.

SOGAT House, Essex Rd, Dart- ford. DAGENHAM: Tuesday May 9, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Fanshawe Ave, Barking. LUTON: Thursday May 11, 8 p.m.

St John's Ambulance Hall, Lea Rd. N LONDON: Thursday May 11, 8 p.m. Bricklayers Arms, Totten-, ham High Rd (nr White Hart Lane). SE LONDON: Thursday May 11, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers' Club, New Cross Rd (opp New Cross station).

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Hands off the trade unions

LONDON

Poplar Civic Hall, Bow Rd. 7.30 p.m.

Speakers: G. HEALY (SLL national secretary) SARAH HANNIGAN (YS London region secretary) Royal Institute, READING: Trades and Labour

LIVERPOOL:

Colquitt St, 7.30 p.m. Hall, Minster St, 7.30 p.m.

Banda Mike

(SLL

Central Dany Sylveire

(SLL);

Tony Committee): Christine Smith Richardson

(T& GWU

in (YS); Larry Kavanagh (Liver. sonal capacity). pool docker). SOUTHAMPTON: Langley Hall, St Peter's Church, next LEEDS: Art Gallery, Headrow, Commerclal Rd, 7.30 p.m. Leeds 1, 7.30 p.m. Jack Gale (SLL); Ken Pearce Frank Willis

(AUEW

in per- P. O'Regan

(OTO

sonal capacity); in personal capacity;

(SLL).

Burrows (YS National Joan Committee).

MANCHESTER:

Wheatsheaf, High St, 7.30 p.m. SHEFFIELD: Montgomery Hall, Alan Stanley (Vauxhall shop Survey Hall, St, opp. Town. steward in personal capacity); 7.30 p.m. John Simmance (YS national Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central secretary). Frank Committee); McCabe AYLESHAM: The Legion, Bur-

(NUM

capacity); personal gess Rd, Aylesham, 7 p.m.

Ray Jaxson (YSNC). Lavery

(NUM

Brian in Roger Smith capacity; sonal BIRMINGHAM: Lecture Room (ACTT in personal capacity).

1, Digbeth Hall, 7.30 p.m.

Mair Davies (SLL Central Com-

NEWCASTLE:

Hotspur Hotel, mittee); Alex Mitchell (Workers Haymarket, 7.30 p.m. Press ); William Aitken (YŞNC).

Dave Temple

(SLL);

Hugh Nicol

(AUEW

in personal

NOTTINGHAM:

capacity); Co-op Educa- lan Yeats (Workers 'tion Hall, Heathcote St, 7.30 Press); Keith Radford (YSNC).

John Spencer (Workers Press): BRISTOL: Central Hall, 7.30 Aian Wilkins (AUEW in a per-

(SLL):

Steve Harry Finch Martin (YSNC). sonal capacity). ABERDEEN: Trades Hall, 24

SWINDON ::

. Brotherstone Fleet St, 7.30 p.m. Adelphi. 8 p.m.

(SLL).

(AUEW personal Ray Howells capacity.); Clive Norris (YSNC).

One PD: Cape orded Hp.e. Plain, Oxford. p.m. GLASGOW: Partick Burgh Hall, Alan Thornett (deputy senior Glasgow, 7.30 p.m. steward, Morris Motors. Stephen (Workers Johns personal capacity). Press); John Barrie (YSNC).

SWANSEA: Lecture Hall, Bishop Gore EDINBURGH: Trades Council Gore School, Bishop Club, Albany St, 7.30 p.m.

Sketty. 7.30 p.m. Roy Battersby Jim Dormer (EPTU in personal (ACTT in a personal capacity) capacity); Dave Barclay (YS).

Gary Jenner (YSNC). Socialist Labour League and Young Socialists

MAY DAY DEMONSTRATION

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, Piccadlily, 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.

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