Workers Press no. 754
1972 Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Columns and stories run into one another, and words are misread. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 1
workers press
TUC VIOLATES
INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY MAY 2, 1972 • No 754 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
CONGRESS
DECISION
BY STEPHEN JOHNS
TUC LEADERS
yesterday capitulated to the Industrial Relations Court and gave unions a free hand to appear before it. This is a blatant violation of the non co-operation policy thrashed out at the TUC Congress last September.
reverses the earlier decision under ack ones. wro accused une TÚC Sunday of being before on dis- who wanted
UHOS
loyal to carner poncy, lert tne make a court appearance meeting smiling and with no the newly formed Tele- word of criticism. Staff Associ. were instructed to see the which TUC to explain why. wants to bargair This Industrial reelati the with the cost once on penal Act Relations of telephonists. The surrender came at a opens the COOT TOr
TSA
half strength meeting of the number trade union application was leaders to rush to handed
TUC
court Finance and eneral Butt, former Purposes "justice. telephone Committee ana bicad operator Trom southampion attended by transport who is now one of two full- workers' leader Jack Jones Among those officials the Croydon time at Clive Jenkins
ASTMS
and and Sir Sidney Greene of "union. aedacuarters or te postmen's leader Tom Jackson.
the railwaymen. In yesterday's Times'- • The next in line before the The changes will have to be *before the
TUC
met- even Court certainly ratified by the General Jenkins declared in a signed Crank Ine elec are cle.
TUC
tricians' leader, who is oppos Thursday. But General ing an application for or basain Victor Secretary that if any
TIENTS
IrON the Transport and organization such based i calledit The First leader Electricity Supply Union. Workers. wished to Jeneral represent outfit appear before the court. pe power statithe Ferrybridge now had the right to do so.
in Court power station. Sir John Donaldson, head of the National These union readers con two the rout begun relatons
COULE
yesterday railmen's weeks . ago by postponed until tomorrow the leaders wen unev canca I shall be taking a major after the their work to ignoring an .rule imposed a 14 day "cool- case OT DrInCIDIe On court *blasting order
STOD
BIVCIDOO!
dismissal next Wednesday and ing-off' period on the dispute dockers container it is clear that there is going firms. Yesterday's events mea to be a massive Corous or new Donaldson said he case law established in this recall ol was Tne campaign tol Ene field.' emergency Congres! making the decision give to be intensified. The Con must By taking this the union a chance to Come action, gress should outlaw the union the court and offer an Jenkins will gain the dubious explanation for its action.
leaders who want to surrender aisuncuon ol being te mrs reaffirm the democratic trade union leader to appear He said the had decision on non co-operation.
Considered Whether before the Tory court. Jenkins serously as arabou rary member dad should not exercise
ITS
• See T&G green light' p. 12.
described as a 'left'. require the attend. power Wednesday of the ance union's principal officers.
Registration rebellion It is, however, aware that the relationship between the and the trade union had been under the intensive SLUdy last few days. In the circumn
BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER
content at this stances we of stage to leave the question representation of the DELEGATES at the shop- delegates confused and bitter tes ut the and its officers to their own lack of lead union conference at workers responsibility! the are eastbourne planning "IrOM
TUC
call a special delegates men committee itself Attary the victor meeting whichIs question divided by nine to seven on int registratien under the lon reopen Feather secretary the registration issue. was claimed the turn-about Will
TUC
policy but dustrial Relations Act. action against USDAW Vic- not change merely a 'clarification
OLPI0
himself allow union Feather cedure'. sion Sale That Tory of the vote had been taken, but that stay tne register member The decision has split the demand for a statement the consensus of opinion was- conference down the middle; registration has been made unanimous. TUESDAY MAY 2, 1972@ No 754 • 4p
TEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
THE POLITICS OF
'PRIVATE EYE'
By Stephen Johns pages 8 & 9
TERS
OCCUPATION
Workers sitting-in at the Kirkby OVER 5,000 Merseyside trade unionists yesterday fork-lift truck endorsed a call for a 24-hour General Strike as plant Wingrove and Rogers joined yester- part of a campaign to bring down the Tory gov.
days' march through Liverpool ernment. At a meeting on Liverpool Pierhead at the end of the May Day march there was a call for the recall of the TUC Congress and the breaking off of all relationships with the Tory government. Mersey• side dockers struck for the day and bout 8000l them led the march. All the main building sites came to the march. Also marching were engineers sitting in at the Kirkby fork-lift factory, Wingrove Rogers, and and clerical workers from Plessey, Edge Lane plant. by the 11,000-strong London None of the engineering factories answered Society branch. Co-operative Liverpool Trades Council call, but sent delegations resolution calling for of shop stewards instead. It march was a quiet for General punctuated only by dockers shouting "Tories out' Strike was amended. Its final Strike. Tories on contingents demanding *General young called on the
TUC
to
LEXE
launch a onmo bring for non- down Gordon McLellan, Party the Tory government and re- Communist executive member, called for the use of the united militant place it with a Labour gov- ernment pledged repeal strength of the working class to force the labour and trade union leaders to change their positions.
the Act.
Scan page 2
workers press
TUC VIOLATES
INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY MAY 2, 1972 • No 754 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
CONGRESS
DECISION
BY STEPHEN JOHNS
TUC LEADERS yesterday capitulated to the Industrial Relations Court and gave unions a free hand to appear before it. This is a blatant violation of the non co-operation policy thrashed out at the TUC Congress last September.
earlier It reverses the week Jack- decision which under Sunday of being will before the appear who wanted application left ight loval to earlier policy, the Tele- make a court appearance meeting with smlling and word of criticism. communications were instructed to see the which wants to bargain TUC to explain why. This surrender to the the Post Office on behalf with Industrial Relations Act The surrender. came at a for
IO WI
YOUT
The
TSA
application was half strength meeting of the number trade leaders to rush to the court handed into
TUC
and Court TOnn General "justice. Butt, former • telephone and plead Purposes Committee from Southampton, attended by. transport of two tul- WhO Is now one Among those first will be workers' leader Jack Jones officials at the Croydon Clive Jenkins of
ASTMS
tillic and Sir Sidney Greene of headquarters of the 'union'. postmen's leader 1om Jackson.
'Times'— yesterday's The changes will have to be
TUC
• lne next in lne belore tne *before the even met- Court Shapine, almost certainly ratified by the TUC General Jenkins declared in a signed elec. the which Frank Council TUC tS arucie. tricians' leader. who is ODDos- But General „nuisady. ing an application for bargain- Victor Secretary, Feather. from Yorkshire ing rights explained that if any union, called the the Transport and such Dastu First leader Electricity Supply Union. The Workers. wished General outfit to represent appear before the court, the Ferrybridge now had the right to do so.
in Court power station. Sir Donaldson, head John These union leaders con- Indastrial the tinue yesterday une
BOUT
LWO
Ke anons COUrT railmen's weeks by ago postponed until TomONOW leaders when they called off Tea alication against the 'I shall be taking the major after ignoring
LUIC
of principle on unfair court imposed a 14 day. "cool- Case Liverpool order
SLOD
ing-off period on the dispute. dockers blacking container it is clear that there is going of new Yesterday's to be a massive corpus events mere campaign for the recall of this the Donaldson said he was established Case aW i
TUC
Congress to give field.' the decision must be intensified. Con- Jenkins, taking this the union a chance lo Colc action. gress should outlaw the union the court and offer an will gain the dubious leaders who want to surrender explanation for its action.
being ot the nrst •usuincuon democratic and Tearings
LIC
He said the had decision on non co-operation. before the Tory court. Jenkins considered whether is a Labour Party member and senously should • See T&G 'green light' p. 12.
NOTi exercise described as a 'left'. power require the attend- Wednesday of the - Registration rebellion union's principal omcers.
aware that 'It is, however, the relationship between the court and trade had been moveilcul intensive Study last few days. In the circum-
BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER
content at this stances we of question stage to leave the confused and representation the DELEGATES at the shop- delegates and its officers to their own union conference at bitter about the lack of lead- workers' responsibility' from the executive of ership sense east oourne are itself which call a special delegates meet- After the
TUC
meeting COLLeC ing reopen the question divided by Victor Feather nine to seven on secretary under the In- claimed the turn-about Was ol rezisualion
TUC
USDAM
ake in policy but change austria keladons Acu This follows Sunday's deci- clarification of pro- allow the tor Feather himself sion ‚cedure'. Tral of the union. Tory register. member vote had been taken, but that stay the The decision demand for chas spilt the consensus of opinion was* I conference down the middle; registration has been unanimous. VESDAY MAY 2, 1972 • No 754 • 4p
SOCIALIST
LABOUR LEAGUE
EE OF THE
* THE POLITICS OF
'PRIVATE EYE'
By Stephen Johns pages 8 & 9
'ERS
DCCUPATION
OVER 5,000
Merseyside trade unionists yesterday Workers sitting-in at the Kirkby endorsed a call 24-hour General Strike fork-lift truck plant Wingrove for a as and Rogers joined yester- part of a campaign to bring down the Tory BOy- ernment. At a meeting on Liverpool Pierhead at the days' march through Liverpool.
end of the May Day march there was a call for the recall of the TUC Congress and the breaking off of all relationships with the Tory government.
the day and about 800 side dockers strict for them led the All the main building sites march. came to the march. Also marching were engineers sitting in at the Kirkby fork-lift factory, Wingrove and Rogers, and clerical workers from Plessey, Edge Lane plant. by the 11,000-strong London None of the engineering factories answered: a Co-operative Society branch. Liverpool Trades Council call, but sent delegations resolution calling for march stewards instead. of shon t was a quiet preparations for General punctuated only by dockers shouting "Tories out' final Strike was amended. Its 'General contingents demanding some
TUC
called on the to text Strike! Tories out!' launch for to bring down co-operation executive Gordon McLellan, Communist Party the Torv government and re- of the 'united militant member, called for the use place. it with a Labour gov.- strength of the working. class to force the labour• pledged to repeal ernment and trade union leaders to change their positions'.
the Act.
Scan page 3
PAGE 2 Workers Preas, Tuesday May 2, 1972
AROUND THE WORLD
BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
TRUNCHEON-SWINGING riot police charged into crow an illegal May Day rally in Madrid yesterday. First report been detained and several injured.
of about 200 One group demonstrators, mostly students, began a march down the wide Atocha St in a working-class of southern Madrid, suburb waving a red flag and shouting anti-fascist slogans. But jeep-loads of armed police who had been patrolling the area TALKS between the government force early in since and opposition leaders to try and charged into the group. Eye- break the West German parlia- of the said some mentary deadlock are due to re- marchers fought back with chains open in Bonn today. the ten-minute running during Chancellor Willy Brandt is battle with police. seeking an agreement with Rainer Christian passers-by stopped Barzel, leader the All were will and asked produce identity Democrats, which allow Students lined the documents. were ratification of controversial with the Soviet Union up against walls and taken away treaties police trucks if they had no and Poland. in them. papers on The two held four-hour men were involved in talks Friday but failed to Several with s finalize a common declaration on the grey-uniformed battles the treaties. Barzel claims that in helmeted and there were the their present treaties shouts of 'assassins' as girls were division make permanent the of police dragged screaming to Germany. vans. At the neither moment party groups had called Opposition firm absolute can command for a mass rally at Atocha yester- the Bundestag, majority in although there were day, Brandt needs such a majority to the area hundreds of people in the through. get treaties the police action prevented it.
Democrats have The Christian the Yesterday's action was of a week of strikes culmination meetings to and anti-government working of the strength show to class and student opposition General Franco's fascist regime. all demos
ALL
May Day demonstrations banned in Portugal yester- were day. The authorities said marches
BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
to and demonstrations have been led by subversive ele- PRESIDENT Nixon yesterday wa ments infiltrated from France. 'grave risks' from American Security police claimed to have offensive in S Vietnam was called o anti- discovered plans our air and naval strength against m demonstrations and government he told 200 Texas businessmen at a have arrested some of the to 'ringleaders'. 'The N Vietnamese are taking a very great risk if they continue claimed They demonstrations offensive their in the south. and 'sabotage' were to have been leave it there and let will just Communist organized by the them make their choice.? he said.
Armed Revolu- Party, and : its Group and by If he allowed a communist tionary Action takeover in the south, the office Revolutionary Brigade groups, United linked with Algerian dissidents.
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months. Amount enclosed f • crowds attempting to stage reports indicated scores had been campaigning strongly to try and bring the government down.
on Sunday that Brandt said unless the deadlock was resolved; 'We will have to take the first opportunity offered to allow the voters to decide anew'-a hint at the prospect of General Election. Divisions in parliament reflect polarization of class a growing. forces in the country as a whole.
On Sunday, 3,000 extreme right- wing demonstrators, many wear- ing jackboots and steel helmets, clashed in Bonn's Market Square Brandt's with of supporters Social-Democratic party. including right wingers, The former Nazis, were demonstrat- treaties against the demanding reunification of Ger- many under capitalist rule.
• TOMORROW'S Centre pages: brandt survive? How long can rday warned N Vietnam it faced an bombing unless the liberation called off. 'We are prepared to use gainst military targets in the North,' nen at a dinner party in Floresville.
States would lose respect throughout the world 'and I will not let that happen. With typical hypocrisy, Nixon said there had been bloodbaths in the past following communist victories in Vietnam 'and if there is a takeover now there will be a bloodbath that would stain the hands of the United States for time immemorial'. Apparently Nixon considers the US will not be 'stained' with the blood of the victims of his bombs in the north. His state- ment foreshadows an even more concentrated bombing offensive against Hanoi and Haiphong.
This is unlikely to deter the Vietnamese the eve of their on victories. Saigon The greatest government is shakier than it has ever been, its currency is spiral- ling out of control and its being defeated in troops are battle after battle. S Vietnamese forces were yes- terday driven out of the big Aitu combat base outside the besieged city of Quang Tri, which is now cut off from the rest of S Viet- nam. Convoys of trucks were unable to get through to the S Vietnamese garrison and heli- copter flights were made impos- sible by heavy ground fire.
Further south, in the coastal Dinh, liberation province of Binh forces have seized Tam Quam, a district capital and the third town in the area to fall to the communists in the past few days.
The capture of positions in the coastal area is linked with the attack on Kontum and Pleiku further west. Capture of these could. completely South sever its vulnerable • Vietnam along. 'waist'. JOHN BONFIELD, general secre- tary of the National Graphical Association, has made an attack on the executives of the three rail unions. Writing in his union journal, 'Print', Bonfield scathingly refers to the rail unions' decision to abide by the 14-day cooling off period imposed by the National Industrial Relations Court: 'But this much can be said. The three rail union executives the rest of us no have done good at all. have rejected Victor To
AUSTIN
and Pickersgill, once the jewel of British shipyards, is suffering some nasty financial setbacks. The Sunderland-based firm has just announced the loss of orders worth f8m. orders, The arranged SiX months ago, were for six of the group's standard dry cargo ves- sels. At the time of the announce- ment it was stated that the orders marked 'another milestone' in Austin and Pickersgill's history.
It has now been revealed that THE Communist Party is no longer a Stalinist party but 'stands where the lefts who refused to enter the Com- International stood munist in the 1920s', Duncan Hallas, a leading member of the International Socialist group said on Saturday. He was speaking at forum London organized by the University Communist Party alongside representatives of Party, the International the Marxist Group, 'Tribune' and pro-Chinese Communist the Federation of Britain. The purpose of the meeting 'a substantial com- was to reach chairman ground'. The mon announced in opening the meet- ing it would inaugurate a series of discussions aimed at achieving closer unity of the organizations involved. The Socialist Labour League had refused to have any part in the forum, the chairman said.
series of This unleashed attacks on the SLL from the platform speakers. representing the Sam Major, Communist Federation of Britain, said he found it 'difficult to conceive any organization calling itself socialist refusing to take part'. supporter of Chairman This Mao Tse-tung attacked the idea ism as ee cause it one grates.
as the cause of 'the greatest danger, suffering and murder'- but did not explain how with support for China's squared actions in Indonesia, the Sudan and BanglaDesh! John Jennings of the 'Tribune' editorial board launched a sustained attack on the fighting capacity of • the working class. The first thing that would hap- pen given a development of the class struggle would be 'that we would find ourselves denouncing as fascists many of the dockers who are today fighting the In- dustrial Relations Act, he said.
Bolshevism had not achieved what it set out to do, he said.
'Lenin failed to deliver the , crucial essence of what makes socialism so différeht from capi- Feather's call for a resumption of normal working to get negotia- tions going again was something they were perfectly entitled to do-as was the earlier rejection of the Jarratt formula. But to have scorned the TUC's call only immediately climb down to afterwards in face of the NIRC's edict is hardly excusable.'
Bonfield said the rail climb- down meant 'that the floodgates have been opened to the full rigours of the Industrial Rela- tions Act with very obvious and serious implications for us all'.
the agreement with Greek ship- owner Michail A. Karageorgis has collapsed. Mr Charles Longbottom, the group's chairman, has recently been in Cairo trying to drum up fresh orders. If no new orders are forthcoming, at least one of the yards will be without work in 12 months' time. STRIKERS at the D & E Plastics components hrm, Coventry, are to carry on their three-week-old strike for higher pay and proper shift and overtime rates.
talism. And don't forget that Stalin was a Bolshevik.' IMG speaker John Ross made attempt to answer these no Being reactionary remarks. British and therefore pragmatic I only want to spend a few he minutes in defence of the Tran- sitional Programme and all that,' he said. He attacked the idea that Irish workers should fight the downfall of the Tory for government. This is reformism, to say that you should not be fighting the national struggle you should be forcing the Tories to resign. It is a different from the one you are actually engaged in Ireland.'
Brian Filly, editor of the Stalinist youth paper "Challenge', defended the British road to Socialism and the Upper Clyde work-in. If the Upper Clyde workers had been sitting in in- stead of taking their wages from the liquidator, there would have been a lot more unemployed he said. Hallas, speaking last in the debate, did his best to whitewash the Stalinists. On the funda- mental questions' he agreed with the IMG and Communist the Federation of . Britain, he said. The Communist Party was not but a cover for 'the Stalinist, Labour lefts and left trade union leaders'. Though we must fight for ground, common we cannot possibly gloss over the funda- mental differences, Hallas said.
In the next breath he announced that he did not intend to take up of what happened the questions in Russia and China. 'This is no!
our primary concern,' he said.
Involved in this 'unity' fotum is the attempt to create a centrist Trotskyism alliance against which the revisionists of all shades sink their differences with the Stalinists. independent Terrified of the movement of the working class and the growth of the Sccialist Labour League, these middle- political seek class groups shelter under the wings of the Stalinists. Their search for 'com- - ground' is thoroughly mon counter-revolutionary because it involves onslaught against an principle and theory at a time class is in when _ class struggle with the enemy.
Scan page 4
An army of sordid spies AN INCREASING army of state 'spies' is now on the watch for deserted Security benefits while having affairs, an MP has claimed. Laboúr MP for Hackney Mr Stanley Clinton Davis has announced he will ask Sir Keith Joseph, Social Ser- vices Secretary in the Com- mons why the number of special investigators has in- creased from 97 in 1964 to 286 now. Said Davis: "These people snoop about getting tittle-tattle from local pubs and other places, finding out who is sleping with whom. they come across a is having deserted • wife who sexual relations with a man they make the tremendous assumption that he is providing her with financial support. TASS president Mike Cooley Homesell
MORE
20,000 than homes owned by local authorities and new towns in England and Wales were sold last year, the Depart- ment of Environment reveals today. Nearly half of these were in the south-east region- 4,900 in the Greater London Council • and London boroughs areas and about the same number outside greater London.
TORIES ATTACK
THE UNEMPLOYED
The Social Security Swindle 'The Social Security Swindle' by Bernard Franks. A useful handbook in the SLL pocket library series on state restric- security. 5p. tions on social (Post 2zp) Park Available New from. 186a Clapham Publications, High St, London, SW4 7UG.
receiving a supplementary bene- These people snoop fit.' pamphlet The 'special structions investigators' (SIs) under the Social Security secret codes says about finding out who Pa section states that it a man seen is sleeping with whom' the woman is questioned about unis. "The instructions say that of remains Sone Nothing could be further from course if they want to? questioning, "On the morn- , Lie. ing of the third day follow the the truth in the vast majority of pointed As was out in the these cases.' employment. Socialist Labour League
DOCKCL
And he added: It There tactfully check looks as Swinde library amphlet "The identity his and address with though the number of investiga- (p.7) Social Security tors has increased sub- enorover. these spies pry into the lives stantially under this 'After this. the SI "with government. thousands of people near the Illay the agreement of the Most of employer deplorable. poverty line. actions are dedicated to the task and ask him IntervicW Ilal It points out: of rooting women to sign any statement made".
out Door The pamphlet makes clear that with 'For three days and nights thought as Mr Davis men they wil watch a it is the un- says i should Why be alone, o-habiting just to make sure she is temporary perman- rightful woman disclosed perhaps, enough ser presence of man even denied her benefit by from she contributes nothing people intrude into her INTe alde in this way? And why should might live with. They don't even upkeep, the woman's prove the cash angle only cine. not who have lost their Pamphlet details see below.
her nusbanas inaulge in sexual Inter- co-nabilaliol Stop the rot by recalling Cooley
TUC-
union should be a part of this.'
A RECALLED TUC to 'stop the started by oi the unions rot' the
WELC
never established in the National Industrial Relations 'but by using our industrial Court was called for yester- strength, where accosaly day by a leader of the tech- defiance of the law' he said.
nical and supervisory section because of-the law. Amalgamated Union of the union members had Jaws existed of Engineering Workers. a responsibility to break them.
History will now condemn uS Mike merly DADA, send said that TASS, formerly | We t nOU DICaK laws which are being imposed upon a Congress should mobilize SuCh us' bley he said. the whole trade union movement reported that the to fight for the policy of no co- creatives hind met Industrial WIll Scarborough Sunday, had Relations Act. Act and . studiously ignored the 'We frequently told hor are involved members at tne Nort Britain tha fortunate we are in East factory of C. A. Parsons united TUC', he industrial action in the nave one Ltd in session of the told the opening. usual manner. TASS conference in Scarborough.
The executivę yesterday recom- mended defiance 'If having in unions movement this continuing which united trace resolunon all work together to said that it should not instruct means we for free trade members acting in dig grave stop fence of their closed-shop agree- unionism. through these courts, then I do not believe that our ment at Parsons. Builders march for £30
CUBITTS
BUILDING
EXHIBITION
WORKERS
WORKERS
OPPOSE
ANTI-UNION
UPPER-THAMES CO
LAWS
by as the marchers left Lincoln's outside leaders, told them the
ABOUT
2,000 trade unionists 'We will no longer headquarters: marched on the headquarters of Inn Fields for New Cavendish St.
building employers in Later the held a rally the tolerate the iniquitous concinon mariers a. £30- Central Hall, Westminster of this industry. He of the Union of demanded better 1 And an end to a-week basic in Henry Tile HaCK Allied Trades and present £20. They also petitioned Construction. Techhicians, of the men's 'the lump'. for a 35-hour week. Police stood one kers Press, Tuesday May 2, 1972 PAGE 3
ABOUT
2,000 dockers at Southampton yesterday staged a one-day strike against the fine on their union, the In- dustrial Relations Act and the TUC climbdown on the boy- cott of the Act. The decision was taken against the advice of a local official, who said the executive had asked them to work normally. Moving the resolution at a mass meeting, steward John Bol- lan said the men had to strike to make the TUC stand firm and show the T&GWU national exe- cutive the feeling of Southampton dockers. was a strong feeling at There the meeting that a one-day stop- page was totally inadequate. And a speaker who called for an all- out strike was cheered. The meeting also carried a resolution calling for the black- ing of all goods in and out of the Dagenham complex of Hays Wharf until such time as regi- stered labour employed was there. Dock stewards will meet today to discuss blacking local con- tainers firms which use non- registered labour. E LONDON: Tuesday May 2, 8 p.m. (Note change of venue): Upper Wheatsheaves. (nr Angel tube), N St, N1 Ireland. p.m. Shaw Theatre Library, Euston Rd, Force the Tories to resign.
COTGRAVE: Tuesday May 2, Miners' 7.30 p.m. Cotgrave Welfare. The 'fair rents' Bill.
OLLERTON: Wednesday May 3, 7.30 p.m. White Hart. COVENTRY: Wednesday May 3, 7.30 p.m. Elastic Inn, Cox St.
COALVILLE: Wednesday May 3, 8.00 p.m. Barden Rd Work- Club. The Fair ing Men's Rents' Bill and the fight against the Tory government.
SLOUGH: Thursday May 11, Community Slough Centre, Farnam Rd. Speakers, Frank Tomany, ex-convenor Faulkner. Brian Bailey, AUEW (in a personal capa- city). The Industrial Relations Recall the TUC Expel the traitors Make the Tories resign CROYDON: Thursday May 4, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Rd.
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 N LONDON: Thursday May 11, 8 p.m. Bricklayers Arms, Totten- ham High Rd (nr White Hart SE LONDON: Thursday May 11, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers' Club, New Cross Rd (opp New Cross • 'station).
Scan page 5
PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday May 2, 18 The second in a series of ar Maude, our industrial correspo dockers' leaders, official and i Devlin 'modernization' scheme conditions. Jack Dash chose to unburden his soul in early 1968 to an unexpected audience — NE television viewers. Influenced, no doubt, by the thought that few dockers from stamping-ground his London Tyne-Tees would be watching Television, he declared that he had never opposed the Devlin scheme.' What about all the agitation on the docks? asked interviewer Kennedy. Isn't the Ludovic Communist Party trying to dis- rupt the economy of the coun- try? No, no, Dash, protested , earn- I've never stopped the estly. last strike was job yet. The brought to me.' And of course this is abso- lutely true. The London docks stopped in 1967 because men from Liver- pool went up on October 3 to resolution make sure a strike was moved. They had to grab the microphone out of Dash's hand to do it. October 4, 1967, Early on Dash's portworkers' liaison com- mittee moved a resolution that the Royal group of docks strike immediately over the 'continuity rule. The employers have tried to abolish this rule-giving men the right to stay on a particular job completed-for men tem- until porarily transferred from one another. But this employer to the London men were meant now striking on different issues from their Mersey brothers.
was soon echoing DashR calls from Jack Jones and the T&GWU leadership that the government intervene to end the strike.
Labourites When the appointed Jack Scamp, a direc- tor of General Electric, to inquire into the causes of the dispute the CP supported some members of the strike committee in welcom- ing the move. Jack Jones again Yet when to persuade dockers to tried return to work on October 13, he jeered. Four booed and was thousand dockers walked out of the meeting after a few minutes of his speech. Scamp, a 'red scare' launched an all-night vigil by Gunter and by Labour premier Harold Wilson at Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel, all failed to shift the Liverpool men.
When they did vote to return, on October 27, it was only after substantial promise con- a £4-a-week guaranteed cessions: piecework minimum, plus con- sideration of their claim for an extra fl a week fall-back pay.
was a large Even then there minority against. Thirteen out of 29 members of the strike com- from mittee prevented were speaking to the crucial mass they were meeting because opposed to the back-to-work motion. ( The Monday after Liverpool's vote to return, October 30, Dash had a 40-minute interview with Cousins. Two sets of peace pro- posals were discussed and Dash agreed to put both to the men at the Royals. acceptable, Neither proved but Dash used the meeting . to emphasis of his shift the demands. He was now asking only that transferred men should be put on 'non-continuity' work like load- Continuity jobs ing lorries. would be left for men working at their home base. • On November • 13, the liaison. .
committee also began to split the May 2, 1872 s of articles in which David correspondent, shows how the l and unofficial, allowed the scheme to destroy jobs and Separate meetings were called at the Royal and West India docks.
Meetings had been held jointly right from the beginning of the strike. Two days later, with 'stabs' in meeting, a sur- full force at the prise vote showed a majority in favour of a return to work. The liaison committee called on every- accept this 'democratic one to decision'. On November 27, despite con- the siderable bitterness among younger dockers, a similar vote was taken at the Royals. But the settlements did not, as the employers had hoped, mean uninterrupted progress towards a trouble-free dockland. Towards the end of January 1968, the Fleet St press began screaming that cargo throughput in Liverpool had fallen by 10 per cent since the strike. Devlin Phase One had been costed on 20-per-cent the basis of a increase. Implementation of Phase Two was postponed. The Labour leaders, meanwhile.
began to arque that they could their election • pledge not afford docks by nationalize the to initial calculation 1970. Their that £400m would be needed to compensate the port employers was proving an underestimate.
the employers •offered scheme based on tonnage in an attempt to get things moving.
But the offered rewards were the existing f17 only £5 over basic. Later in the year in London they were to offer a new basic rate of f29 10s. were becoming The dockers anxious about the future of their jobs. Containerization began to become a visible throat tons of 13 men unloaded 4,000 tons containership from the cargo 'American Lancer' in less than 12 hours. The same tonnage would men five days taken have 130 from a conventional vessel.
same month Jack Dash The rare suspension for received ban on weekend supporting a working by 4,000 London mem- bers of the National Amalgam- Stevedores and Dockers ated 'blue' union. Yet by November his liaison committee was back to its usual opportunist stance. On November 12, the national docks modernization committee had given the go-ahead for the negotiation of local agreements on Devlin Phase Two. A leaflet issued by the liaison committee in response continued equivocation committee's the towards the Devlin report.
Most portworkers would be opposed to negotiating around a *inevitably package deal that results in drastic reductions in the labour force', , it said. But 'by all means' let the union officials sick higher basic pay, discuss pay, pensions and longer holidays.
The 'sweeping changes' pro- employers, the posed by the merited, • not 'the nationalization, full of participation every port- worker' By the end of the year, how- the clear that it was ever, implementation of Phase Two in would have to Liverpool further delayed. had exacted The dockers a high enough price in impedance and dirty-cargo awards, for Phase Onę. And most of its conditions a remained unfulelled
ANSPOR
HOUSE
Now 1967: Jack Dash addresses dockers du Labour's nationalization White Paper, which appeared early, the following year, was designed to change this situation ... in the employers' favour. Significantly, even its title was neutral: "The Re-Organization of the Ports' Not a mention of the dirty, dangerous, back-breaking work of the dockers found its way into the White Paper. Its sole concern was to stream- modernize line, rationalize and in the interests of the ports bigger and bigger profits.
"The re-organization', it 'will that there ensure central body with the responsi- power to formulate bility and and execute plans for the future which will enable the industry to meet the challenge of technologi- cal development and provide more efficient service to users.'
Although making a single nod in the 'workers' direction participation', it was clear that National Ports the proposed Authority would have been entirely on the lines of the state-industry boards, existing with the big employers who had already been handsomely_com- pensated continuing to call the shots. Lord Devlin and his committee of inquiry came in for extrava- gant praise. Their report, the White Paper noted, had 'led to a considerable reduction employers' of and provided 'an improved basis for development of better industrial relations and for in- productivity and creased • efficiency. It continued: Work has already started on the Devlin committee's recommendations for the rational- ization of the pay structure of the industry and the elimination of restrictive practices.
'It is of great importance that all these processes be continued.'
The employers' first_offer for Devlin Phase Two in London- £21.25 plus bonus-came early in January 1969 and was immedi- ately and scornfully rejected.
Union leaders let it be known October 1987: Jack Jones was booed to work.
SPORT
ockers during the October strike.
consider something in the red 00 of £29. At the end of January obligingly 1969 the employers offered a 37-hour week, £29 plus 50 per cent guaranteed bonus for shipworkers £24 plus £8 and guaranteed bonus for clerks.
Shore-working dockers were still offered only £21.25 plus bonus of up to 50 per cent. This bohus was unguaranteed based on output. The ofter was a splitting tactic-and behind it network of lurked a whole productivity strings. produced government for legislation which blueprint such strings-the could police White Paper 'In Place of Strife'.
The response of Dash and his portworkers' liaison committee in was to plan this situation a campaign of half-day strikes in economic London, purely on demands. meeting of men At a mass from the Royal group of docks on February 4, the committee won support for the campaign.
The demands were: £30 basic for 40 hours piecework, plus £10 for The first hours overtime. ten strike took place on February 6. During the two months its campaign lasted, the liaison com- mittee maintained a consistently position ambiguous towards Devlin Phase Two. Bernie Steer, a member of the National Amalgamated Stevedores Dockers, who widely and was Dash's understudy, regarded as a mass meeting on warned at March 5 against the dangers of split shifts, mobility of labour and other concessions the em- ployers wanted. Dash himself occasion, would talk darkly of 'if they get their Phase Two'. More often it was 'when'. But in an interview about his 'Good Morn- forthcoming book, ing, Brothers!' "The Port that Dash told the weekly paper advantages the trade 'all the union officials win for us Phase Two will be accepted by the men. we will make certain, 'What as booed and jeered for calling a return don't One leaflet put out by his committee said union officials should stop negotiating Phase Two until the improved con- ditions promised under Phase One were met. Communist Party members on the Liverpool docks, meanwhile, were actually sitting on modernization committee which the employers were using to plan tactics for their schemes.
Neither is the record of the so-called 'International Socialism' group any better. Terry Barrett, a Tilbury shop steward who professed IS mem- bership, said February 1969 that official inquiries had in the past agreed with union officials and militants that all dockers should in future be employed by one employer. 'Until the government agrees to this demand', he said, 'dockers should refuse to work Phase 1 wo of Devlin." Contrast the role of the Trotskyists. In a mass-distribution leaflet issued towards end of February 1969, the All Trades Unions Alliance warned that proposed National under its Ports Authority 'the government plans to ... proceed to a massive programme of rationalization and modernization' based on vastly increased use of the container.
"This', the leaflet said, 'is the The ATUA warned that neither the T&GWU leadership nor Dash were prepared to fight Phase Two. The T&GWU leaders were opposed to a fight against the Labour government, while Dash refused to break from the union chiefs. Both were hostile to a united struggle with the northern ports. The reformists' and Stalinists' vacillation served only to en- courage the employers. Realizing that Dash and CP were desperate to avoid a real clash with union Labour leaders, they began tightening the screws on the dockers.
On April 2, Hay's Wharf Ltd took the bull by the horns. They issued sack notices to 300 men.
The dockers, they said, were refusing the mobility to accept and flexibility provisions of Phase One. The following day Dash took "The the microphone outside Connaught' public house, opposite Albert dock. İt had been decided to wind committee, the liaison he said. The campaign of half-day committee had strikes the organized was suspended. All pay questions would in future be handled by the shop stewards who be elected the were to following week.
CONTINUED TOMORROW
1 'Face the Press, Tyne-Tees Television, March 5, 1968.
2 'Socialist Worker' interview, February 15, 1969.
Scan page 6
Officials of the Nixon admin- istration have indicated . to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that the US will continue military support to the Lon Nol dictatorship in Cambodia even after all American troops are withdrawn from Vietnam. detailed in This position, testimony made public last week by the committee, marks an im- portant change in the publicly- declared policy of the Nixon government. Until now the administration justify its_inter- vention and aid for Lon Not er- the grounds that it was helping to safeguard the withdrawal of from • Vietnam and US troops maintaining Cambodian 'neutrality. The new and more sweeping 'justification' for American aid to the Cambodian government was given on March 22 and 23 by Lt-Gen George Seignious II, di- rector of the US security assist- ance programme, and by Marshall Secretary of Green, assistant for E Asian Affairs. State we may have a US I think interest and policy reasons that would indicate that it was prudent and in our interest to continue some form of support to Cambodia after the US forces have withdrawn from S Vietnam,' said under Gen Seignious questioning. He also asserted: 'We do not have any formal obligation or a commitment to Cambodia that I know of.' Green echoed this position. Once all US forces are out of S think Vietnam, he said: I still we have an interest in the Cam- bodians being able to have a their own government choosing, that we could still be opposed to aggression succeeding and taking over Cambodia.'
This last statement is te-pica This last Through the Central Intelligence Agency Nixon overthrew the 1973. The present visioned previous Cambodian government, in programme is 200,00 headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in 1970. Sihanouk was the US was seeking forced out precisely because his 150,000-member Cam 'neutralist' and policies cut across American plans for establishing Nol, the army num a firm anti-communist base in Phnom Penh. 30,000. It was disclosed The statements of Seignious questioning of and Green differ from comments that the staff of May 14, 1970, by Secretary on Affairs Committee h of State William Rogers, who a draft report that said the defence of Cam- the critical of the perforn bodian government (ie the Lon Cambodian military. Nol regime) 'is not our primary Wayne L. purpose and will not be our pur- Ohio) told pose in the future'. the report found th Since then the Nixon admin- part of the 200.000 and istration has begun military are talking about is economic aid programmes which army, that they are n gave the Phnom Penh govern- Hays also ment $314m this year alone.
planned delivery to ( This is rather for a steep C-119 transport plan which controls government an of assistance to not much larger than the area government, District of Colombia. ' The rest of know how they are Cambodia is in the hands of the this stuff except as National Liberation Front under indicates, to buy M Prince Sihanouk. television sets Green disclosed in his testi- you.' mony that the US was seeking help build the Cambodian to lop: General Lon! Prince Sihanouk with army up to 220,000 men in fiscal Workers Pres Mrs Margaret Thatcher and the backwoodsmen in the Tory cabinet are attempting to deal with student mili- tancy by trying to hand over control of student financing university and college to authorities. President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, however, has other methods of dealing with the problems of student unrest.
He plans to 'diffuse' perman- ent student unrest at the univer- sity of Tunis. As a result some 400 students may soon find them- selves housed luxury in Mediterranean hotel complex.
Student unrest in Tunisia in the last four years has followed of other countries. pattern There have been strikes, disturbances and frequent boy- cotts of classes, sometimes over academic grievances and some- times over broader issues.
The detention former of a university teacher and his. wife charges of subversion and on plotting against the state also sparked off a students' protest strike early in February.
The ended strike with the and government lock-out of arts and law students eventual an return to work by scientists and medical students. President Bourguiba has now reopened the faculties. level present en- aid the military is 200,000. Last year, i seeking to support a mber Cambodian army Prince when. by Lon rmy numbered about disclosed during the Gen Seignious the Foreign nmittee had prepared ort that was severely he performance of the Hays, (Democrat, Seignious that The Nixon administration's that 'a good contempt for parliamentary e 200,000 army you about is a phantom procedure, already evident they are not there'. the International Tele- the questioned phone and Telegraph scandal, ivery to Cambodia of is underlined by the latest port planes. Speaking news from Laos. the Lon Nol There, US army officers and he added: I don't equipment are operating in direct they are going to use Loatian of anti-com- support this report munist irregular forces the in and o buy Mercedes | northern part of the country. and what-have- direct violation of US This is a congressional prohibitions on such use of American troops.
Not. Below: nouk with Mao It came to light last week after US spokesmen in Vientiane had confirmed press tentatively re- ports that a US army Flying Crane helicopter piloted by two US army officers had been shot down days in some previously 80 miles the Long Cheng area, from Vientiane. The two pilots were reported to be seriously injured the in crash and flown to a US military base in northern Thailand.
According unconfirmed to re- ports, one of the pilots died of his injuries. US spokesmen in Laos were unable to positively identify the liers as US army personnel, but said there is reason to believe so because such aircraft are normally operated in N Laos by rather the army than the air force. Specific information on the including identity of the crash, come from pilots, would have to their 'parent' organization, either kers Press, Tuesday May 2, 1972 PAGE 5 His latest decision means that the students will not after all miss classes for the remainder of the year. But the search for a permanent solution to the strikes and unrest at the university con- tinues. The latest suggestion being studied by the Tunisian authori- • ties is to divide next autumn's intake of first-year students into two halves, allotting only 1,500 places in Tunis, and moving the 1,500 students other to new university centres in the cities of Sfax, Bizerta and Sousse.
This plant would split up the first-year students and keep them away from the 'agitators' in the capital. They would be given exactly the same courses as before, with senior lecturers com- muting regularly from Tunis, and teaching staff recruited junior locally schoolteachers among with higher degrees. The plan would mean housing about 400 students in part of a luxury hotel complex at Bizerta, where they would pursue their introductory courses in law or French literature alongside tour- ists bronzing in the Mediter- ranean sunshine. This particular aspect of the plan has raised doubts among those who question the wisdom of transplanting several hundred volatile students into one of the citadels of the consumer society.
Below: Habib Bourguiba. in Thailand or Vietnam, the spokesmen said. US spokesmen have never denied the presence of Flying Crane helicopters in Laos. Their operations have frequently been observed by newspaper reporters but without knowledge there, that they were operated by army personnel. The only US army presence in Laos the acknowledged by Vientiane embassy in the past has been the normal, if bloated contingent of military attaches, believed to number about 100 men. When questioned about the possibility that the presence of the soldiers could be in violation of the Cooper-Church Amend- ment to the Foreign Assistance Act, US spokesmen suggested that Cooper-Church did not cover such activities since they are a part of the air war in Laos. The cost of such operations, however, would be covered by budget ap- propriations to the army, which are covered by Cooper-Church.
The amendment, Congress Cambodia, specifically prohibits the use of American army per- sonnel in Laos. US spokesmen suggest further that army helicopter operations do not come within the meaning of US ground combat forces in Laos since their operations are logistic, transporting material.
There is no denial, however, that the Long Cheng area where the helicopter crashed is a com- that the pilots were bat zone, being paid combat allowances their mission, or that during they were carrying militarily use- ful cargo when they crashed.
Quibbles aside, the US army is clearly violating the express wishes of Congress in its Laos operation and has once again demonstrated the impotence of the US system bourgeois of democracy faced. with a powerful military-bureaucratic machine.
Scan page 7
PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday May 2, 1972 The BBC has just published a 28-page booklet entitled 'Principles and Practice in Documentary Programmes', Wheldon, authorized by Huw the corporation's managing director. The document is the product of a senior internal committee comprising Richard Caws- programmes (who was head of documentary ton, features; chairman); Stephen Hearst, head of arts Robert Reid, head of science features; Anthony de Lotbiniere, producer, documentary programmes; and author of the recently-published 'Cor- Antony Jay, poration Man'. In his introduction Wheldon says: 'The note is not a charter, nor a book of rules, nor a set of standing believes are or orders. It represents what the group practices that guide and should be the principles for the BBC. In this article work them and their what the
LESLIE STEWART
describes 'non-book prepared by the 'group' is all about.
of rules' Huw Wheldon but naturally it is in the field of The ideas of the ruling class, current affairs and "factual' says Marx in "The German that programmes documentary Ideology', 'are in every epoch the ideology of the ruling class the ruling ideas, i.e. the class is most explicit. and ruling material Control over men which is the the who make them must. of is at the force society. WAmAn therefore, be effective. The fact same time its ruling intellec- that the BBC has recently issued tual force. The class which code for documentary pro- means of material of the anxiety has the is a sin -one of the most production at its disposal has of powerful ideological weapons control at the same time over control ruling class-lest the the means of mental produc- should not be strict enough tion.' of and economic thic mamant •Tory political crisis for the television societyhe mosti In our counts as one of im- government. of mental 'There is,' Marx goes on in the pro- portant means of duction. closely controlled by the passage, same manifests itself in and abour which ruling class used by of homes the ruling class as the division millions into of of mental material labour, that class's version current •end co that inside the class one part affairs, news, and entertainment.
the There is nothing in television, appears thinkerd as the class, its active concentive deolo- from situation comedies to quiz who make the perfecting of which is used shows. not
01CC N
Droiect a specific view of society; the illusion of tha Richard Cawston, Royal film-maker In the Queen's study at Buckingham Palace.
have illusion of the class about itself': opwed magically before him, When gates itself their chief source of live- the He unique position; in lthood. producer, who enjoys-says the It is difficult to think he does not represent 'a journalistic freedom code precise definition ernment Commis. more
KOUC
the role and function of broadcasters sion, or a commercial interest, Walen en vee organization which world', is promised the utmost any radio television, wnetner liberty: to guard
BBC
or ITV. mend cause people He must feel free to report their words, or tempt them • He make a case for this or that. what he finds without fear is simply a man from the
BBC
political consequences. But he use this freedom to ano is garnering information....
MUSI
REBELLIONS
imperil freedom itself; he has a The fact that he is from
BBC
him with a trust duty to preserve it. Thus he has credits obligations, which that is something to be cherished.
certain basic The doors of Buckingham Palace to little more that otten amount the White House, the Bank a need to fulfil the principles o of England or the Vatican, a top truth, balance and fairness Admittedly from time to time security prison or a private nome broadcasters have their out- may be opened to him. The most the rebellions, eminent or the most louly will pocket
DUTSES
and pour out their hearts to him.
which flutter the bourgeois press
FREEDOM
and make reactionary politicians Two things are teresus and editors see reds behind every about this microphone ane television but these are passing sion towards 'the lowly camera; examples to hand and, one Ke a the al ceccas. with hand, the precision quote marx again-ol a cellain The freedom he has to pre- opposition and hostility between it pinpoints not only the Points centristical power of freedom the two parts (within the ruling serve is naturally the bourgeois society the centres
CHOI
(ass) wolen. mowever, extend, for instance, to the free- practicals ollision, mystification- -the monar case of a working class naturally they will op. itself is the church. the British which has won automatically comes prisons, encangered. thation aesch anz Cars, to an In nothing'. their freedom under Hin does the BBC see the the National of Softly, and "Dixon', has d producers. one doct much to boost the irrige i; th Industrial Relations Court. the nen whe are employed The producer is expected, we ist ire:. police. 44. = thorough So is the s e told, to have nowledge of his subject, on the of James Ca which he "must make asis of Who de and editorial decisions roper Cameron ( lections and present accurate geridge will cts'. Notice question- and allowe egging word 'proper' which is to in as meaning "not be read opinion?. hallenging the political con- that the edi the ideologies of the ensus or remain firml class' aling In order to make BBC's prodi 'proper decisions he has nese board, throu • fulfil other requirements.
that tends He must develop a mature Governors. inderstanding of the personalities number of: wolved, in order that he in- chosen as ti research, ar ites the most appropriate people o take part in the programme in programn nd avoids inviting the wrong 'Objective nes through ignorance or the require aïvete. of Govern What is important to under- representativ tand is that, in terms of politics, class—with ist thrown nything that lies outside -picked by abour-Conservative consensus is unatic fringe'. However, some the day to : document as the and to see eople who, ays, 'are known to have bees in not stray bi heir bonnets about a wide range to see, abov f topics and views' are allowed does not sin (unless like Malcolm • appear — men licensed Muggeridge and James Cameron, Wa ho qualify as contributors 'with and Camer houlders broad enough to carry own views personal viewpoint'. Religious of the prog! unacy is all right expressed in To expre erms of the Festival of Light.
be a total Lord Hill, ex-Tory MP, made BBC chairman b platform he controls. There are ocialism many people, including the Prime constantly Minister, who are James denied access to such a platform, Mug- and just because a man works platform for the BBC certainly gives him space no right to it. If the producer their still feels intent on expressing .. is his views, he should leave the ns must BBC and make his name in some Is of the other field. Perhaps one day he ross the will be invited back in his own uthority right to express his views as a oard of contributor. a vast The threat behind these words Il kinds, is only slightly veiled and makes bjective a nonsense of that passage which ake part talks about the producer being free to report what he finds terprets without fear of political con- e Board sequences'. As for the theory are the that the Prime Minister is denied ruling a platform on television, that is e union- remembering something worth measure the next time Heath addresses ment of the nation on BBC TV. interests The fact is that he can get a ames do plaform any time he likes under nits and the BBC's licence, which states producer 'shall, the Corporation that ultimate requested by • list of whenever so any Minister of Her Majesty's Gov- ggeridge Corpora- 'his ing ernment . . • at tion's own expense, send from all e nature stations any its or any announcement which such s would Minister may request the Cor- powerful Workers Pres 3, Tu ade BBC chairman by Harold Wilson.
poration to broadcast.' But u If Heath is not often on telly are mor it is because he feels he doesn't that example need to use it. Ireland. the nati the taki system
PROPAGANDA
through makes i there B There anything There Clearly a producer has anything to watch his step when making a is filmed breaks. programme—he would fail, says the code, 'if he allowed a pro- realities contain concealed gramme to suggests public relations or propaganda, tionary the confidence of demi and thus betray of the audience'. So, except in the pre cases like those documentaries authors which do public relations for the because air force, there is navy or army, the church, and objectiv Royal Family, think th the political he is consensus, expected to practice self-censor- they. mi ship; if he still has doubts society 1 Head of Department or executive in term: editor, the ruli producer, or series or senior colleague, may be asked to ideas th view the programme and give a Marx and second more which opinion a detached view-both on its merit id the dominan and impact as a programme and on any policy matters arising'.
embodie
Scan page 8
Nuclaus of the 'Eye' today: (I. 10 r.) "cartoonist Barry Fantoni, Paul Foot leading member of the International Soclalist group, Intellectual Christopher Booker and editor Richard Ingrams 12, 1072
BY STEPHEN JOHNS PART 2
The second part of our investigation of 'Private Eye team-Christopher Booker. surface This turmoil the Behind 'Private Eye's' attacks on of society wis rooter in " more on anything new or 'trendy' fundamental weakening of lies a deep hatred and fear of the world Britain's position in change. and in consequence of economy Richard her political influence. Men like editor which and staff man Chris- British capitalism Ingrams existed the privilege of Booker observed the on topher Tory Empire, escaped annihilation dur- collapse of traditional ing the 1930s because World War which to values gave rise destroyed among a section of the the economies of rebellion powerful rivals like Germany and intelligentsia. Japan. But in the late 1950s these The experimentation greater the film and so-called nations began to reassert in arts, selves and Britain's declinu began life-style that gathered pace dur- afresh. the 1950s and early ing late indication that The Suez fiasco in 1956 was 1960s, an WaC the obviously corrupt values of the first proof that British capi- great and ruling class could no longer tal was no longer it the significant that this political satisfy or the creative is contain or aspirations of intelligent resulted in the first real trauma urge mass protest since the. war.
people. Nuclous of the 'Eye' today: (I. 10 r.) "cartoonist Barry Fantoni, Paui Foot leadi The 'Eye' team, and particu- larly a man like Booker, picked the impulses of this change as it appeared. It filled then with and injured their desire uncase for order. Booker, born in middle-class Eastbourne and educated Shrewsbury public school and Cambridge, devoted a book, 'The Neophiliacs', to these pheno- mena. It is a most explicit state- ment of the reaction that lies at the base of the 'Eye's' approach to events. Bopker's mentor was Malcolm Muggeridge, himself a contribu- tor to 'Private Eye'. He too had conceived a keen dislike for the progress of mankind whom he compared to the Gadarine Swine rushing over the cliff.
oot leading member of the International Soclall In his old age, Muggeridge had turned his back on earlier flirta- with socialism and tions con- vinced himself that. the "spirit' superior to man's fleshy was world. Hence he believed adultery was biologically alien to man's nature and maintained he had when he . witnessed a miracle India who visited in a nun specialized in dragging starving people into her hotel so she could watch them have a 'beau- tiful death'. Muggeridge openly embraced the reaction when he became personality in the 'Fes- leading of Light crusade. But this tival was no surprise. The man had • 'noted with some des- already pair that voting and the demo- al Soclalist group, Intellectual Christopher Boo Christopher Booker the 'brains' of the 'Eye' team who believes that 'psychlc epidemics' are a more serious threat to man than things like cancer and war.
invariably cratic process seems to throw up the worst not the best and that the wider the fran- chise the worse the result.'
And •Practically everyone, Irrespec- tive of party, recognizes of that they accept the notion some sort of restriction in Asian and immigration. Mr African Powell like any other citizen is fully entitled-indeed as an MP is duty bound - to offer his views ... knowing him as I do .. I am quite satisfied he does so not as a crazed racist, or a power hungry demagogue, opher Booker and editor Richard Ingrams
Scan page 9
but as a serious thoughtful and honest man.' And that: The catastrophe of life is oneself. being imprisoned in Christianity offers an escape from that' Booker performed true to the teaching of his master. book is attack on His an inspired change and clearly is (though Booker never admits it) by Plato's 'Republic'-one of the most powerful polemics for abso- order in society and lute an attack on change. Booker borrows' Plato's own description of political change- democracy to ultimate from tyranny — to describe the pro- gress of what he calls the mass neurosis of the 1950s and 1960s.
this he quotes with On approval C. G. Jung, the mystic and psychologist: 'It is becoming more and more obvious that it is not starvation, not microbes, not cancer, but man himself who is mankind's greatest danger, because he has no adequate pro- tection against psychic epidemics which are infinitely more devas- tating than the greatest natural catastrophes' Booker goes on to describe the "revolution' or 'psychic epidemic' that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s in "The Neophiliacs' "fantasy cycle' He divides this into an anticipation stage, dream stage, a frustration stage followed by an awakening into reality and a death wish stage.
No evidence is offered to sup- port this amazing interpretation save a totally impres- of events sionistic investigation of the and arbitrarily Romantics like selected works of art, Ravel's 'Bolero', which he claims illustrates the truth of his thesis. The whole 'analysis' descends into near lunacy when he sug- natural phenomena that gests floods, accidents and like are somehow con. plane crashes nected with the general disaster.
a hysterical 274 On page Booker writes: 'During that win- ter a violent psychosis seemed to seize the whole world. On Jan- uary 15 there took place the most concentrated first of the series of air disasters in history -15 major crashes, they were to kill nearly 750 people.'
Of 1961 he writes: 'The extra- ordinary nature of the year was heralded and heightened Britain by three months of the worst winter recorded in over 200 years bringing havoc to the of human activity. Over field like a London the fog hung shroud..: etc. etc. psychological The general the accounted for malaise increase in violent crime, venereal disease, and rise in illegitimate births and the Beatles. Everything Booker views with course, the distaste of except, death of Churchill. This event, he argues, momentarily. stopped the mad, process..... NA-40 "The nation found itself gathered up a great ritual in was much remembrance that a of its own ... distant past as it were for the career and stature of the man whose passing was its occasion ... Churchill had stood out like a Justinian in the twilight of Rome, as a man who derived his majesty from a sense imperial and military of the splendours of the past.' This is Booker's swan-song for the British Empire, its vigour and malevolence that Churchill sym- bolized. Now capitalism in this country is a squalid and declin- ing outpost of the world eco- nomy and it upsets Booker.
After a lengthy and ultimately culled from tedious narrative newspaper clippings, the author gets finally to his point.
he has two Man, or order, which impulses, one for 'automatic harmony' promotes displayed by and animals, "life' which pulls another for in an opposite direction him from his "basic core'. This away 'life impulse' is-'contrary to the harmony basic instinctive [man's] inner of true sense organic order' The 'life impulse' leads down, the path path of defiance, 'the of illusion, leads inevitably to frustration ..? back to Plato, the We are Greek philosopher, who designed society of order absolute a a dictatorial philo- ruled by sopher-king' Booker (Plato). reactionary alludes to this most "The at the end of ideology Neophiliacs'. He states: . . . ultimately, as with all great art, without per- fect order, there cannot be true pulse of life, and without the life there cannot be true organic order-this begins the supreme guiding principle of nature, and betwen the balance being When one adds that Booker For Booker, Churchlll was like a Justinla Malcolm Muggeridge (right), one of the avuncular figures around the 'Eye'. This man, who flirted with socialism during the 1930s, Is now a religlous fanatic who says he witnessed a miracle in Indla. includes the Russian Revolution as one of man's 'fantasies' can see the drift of his ideas To round off the exercise, he brings in Jesus, a man who went /" through the 'five stages' but was resurrected. The whole theory is, of course, idealist the most reactionary nonsense. All scientific inquiry is a rejection of such mysticism. Change is an absolute in society / infinite process. and nature, an Change and conflict is the origin of all knowledge, since man first began to develop his skill and primitive science by producing tools to aid his struggle with a hostile environment. But it is this very change and conflict that Booker and the men of 'Private Eye' so fear and des- pise because it jeopardizes the society they love. Their radicalism is skin deep.
Beneath it lurks the attitudes and ancient apologists of exploi- tation-from Plato to the crude braggart rhetoric of Chur- chill. This philosophy is needed by the ruling class to explain the necessity of oppression. The ruling class always need Muggeridge who those like preach that wealth in heaven is superior to wealth on earth, men like Booker who sneer at experi- ment and worship the fantasy of 'organic order'. _It's all another way of saying: 'Lie down, accept poverty, wage slavery; do not disturb our order and God will when reward hnally you we murder you.' This is the core of reaction •Private beneath the big joke at Eye'. Tomorrow. The man who gives the 'Eye' its radicalism — Paul Foot. a Justinian in the twilight of Rome.
Workers Press, Visitors to the Republic of Ireland will know that this • is the most priest- country ridden in the world. Out of a population of 2ă million, a total of 43,00 are either in the priesthood or walled up in convents. In addition, there are 7,891 clergy abroad. not bright But things are the Republic's largest for industry and the biggest drain on the common people. A report by the Research and Development Unit of the Catholic Communications Insti- tute of Ireland shows there has been a 58 per cent fall-off in entries to convents and a 30 per cent drop in male vocations since 1965. During the past five years, in fact, 37 of the religious orders not received a single have recruit—in short they are dying off. The male drop-out rate is also climbing; over the period one in ten aspiring holymen failed to stay the course.
Commenting on the steep decline, the Rev Dr Liam Ryan, Professor of Sociology at May- nooth, said the real question was not why vocations were falling, but why they were so high in Ireland in the first place! Workers in Sussex watch out!
been Your employers have warned to look out for 'sub- versives' trying to promote bankruptcy® and 'capitalist overthrow managements. The man who sounded the alarm was Edward Wells, a of the Economic director members of League. He told the Federation of Sussex . In- dustries at the Royal Pavilion Hotel Brighton: If someone drops a lighted cigarette these people will be along with a can of petrol. He urged everyone present to adopt selection techniques and to try and keep the sub- versives out of industry.
include The danger men ers Pross, Tuesday May 2, 1972 PAGE 9 members of the Communist Party, Maoists and Trotskyists and 'so-called respectable trade union officials. Some of the viciously subversives were militant and their techniques included 'sabotage machinery', go-slows, working to rule and generally exploiting economic difficulties or creating them. Victor Feather, before the rail unions were ordered to end their go slow by the Industrial Relations Court: 'Mr Macmillan [Tory Em- ployment Secretary] will find he will not have enemies inside movement provided he the 1 endeavours honestly and with integrity, as I know he will, to try and bring about concilia- processes despite the tory policies of the government in the field of industrial relations.'
Victor Feather, before the TUC decided to an about-turn and co-operate with the Indus- trial Relations Court: Macmillan, Employment Secretary Those wishful cynics or thinkers who mislead so many people about the seriousness of the movement's opposition to the Industrial Relations Act or the ability of the Act to solve industrial problems have been shown to be miserably wrong' Brave words, brave words.
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Scan page 10
PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday May 2, "The Americans are bringing new ernizing and re-equipping the ya profit and our members can get live profit.'—Danny McGarvey, lea at a Glasgow seminar on shipbuild LAST FRIDAY in one of London's plushest hotels agreement an was reached which will even- tually mean the end of the work-in at the upper Clyde shipyards. Marathon Manufacturing will become the new boss of Clydebank yard and farther down the river Govan Ship- builders will hope to begin trading at the Govan, Scots- toun and Linthouse divisions.
The agreement is hailed as a victory in the Tory • press for the Stalinist leadership of the shop stewards' •co- ordinating committee. But what does it mean for the working class of Clydeside?
In short, the two agreements redundancies and will mean ferocious increase in productivity.
The statistics tell part, but only part of the story. When UCS went into liquida- tion, there were 8,500 workers in the yards. Now the labour force is down to 6,900. employ Marathon want to 2,000 and Govan Shipbuilders 4,300. In total therefore the new will Clydeside labour force equal 6,300~2,200 less than the "work-in' began last when June beneath the banner 'not a man down the road'. This denuded labour force will be driven to meet enormously increased productivity targets.
The Maynard report on Govan Shipbuilders estimated that pro- ductivity would have to increase by 125 per cent, and the num- ber of ships built in two company was to become viable.
Archibald Gilchrist, head of the firm, intends to get just such a speed-up and he has an agree- ment already negotiated by the shop stewards and unions to prove it. But these figures only allow a glimpse of the real UCS story.
We have seen on the Clyde over the past ten months the most shameless and conscious be- of the interests of the trayal working class. A movement which mobilized 200,000 Scottish workers in strike action last vear 'Heath out' behind the slogan has now been broken down to the foulest of agreements with the Tory government. The Stalinist leadership of these yards, together with the union leaders have persistently manoeuvred over the last ten months of work-in to do two things. One was to prevent an im-.
portant section of the working class taking polit: cal up a struggle against the Tory govern- ment. The other is to get the ship- yard workers to accept a plan for their future which emb. dies the twin objectives of govern- ment strategy: • to sack thousands of workers, and • to make the rest work harder and harder to produce profit.
If this is hard to believe then observe this agreement the UCS • stewards have negotiated shop and presumably will sign, with Govan Shipbuilders. It states:
ON PRODUCTIVITY:
Stewards have agreed to imple- ment fully existing agreements on interchangeability with the steel trades. Interchangeability and flexibility will also be introduced within the finishing trades group.
The document: defines. inter- changeability as 'the transfer, of to : off journeyman of one craft a ay May 2, 1972 ing new industry. They are mod.
i the yards. If they can make a can get a share ( it, then long Irvey, leader of the boilermakers, shipbuilding. a journeyman of operate as another craft'. The extent of this change is illustrated by a comment by one Clydeside union official leading who told me: 'It is not an easy job for a fitter to do a boilermaker's work in an atmosphere of redundanc- ies. But if you have a four-year job guarantee it will be possible.'
ON WAGES:
Existing rates and bonuses will continue up until August or September this year. Then Govan want to negotiate a new agree- ment which will be signed not later than January 1973. The document states that be- tween the two dates it may be necessary to impose a 'ceiling on earnings.
ON STRIKES:
The stewards have guaranteed to deliver on time four ships for the Irish Shipping Company.
This has now been extended to cover two ships that the liquida- tor is 'expected to release from his list of orders for construction at Scotstoun. In addition unions have recog- nized the importance of avoid- ing what the document describes er- as 'unconstitutional disputes' This is a reférence to any un-" to i official strikes or work-to-rules The determination of the UCS workers and many thousands of other workers to save Clydeside jobs and safeguard basic con- ditions has been betrayed by the Communist Party stewards' sig- natures on two new deals for the yards. A
SAY
which may break out while a grievance is going through pro- cedure.
ON WAGE CLAIMS:
Negotiations will take place between management and all the work force. change from the This is a present practice when unions like the boilermakers' usually insist on going it alone-a practice which • for leap-frogging by less allows well-paid workers. The two documents have been sent to the National Confedera- tion of Shipbuilding and Engin- eering Unións for ratification.
Then it will be returned to for final the UCS stewards approval, providing the Marath on bid is successful. Stewards have also undertaken to end the 'work-in'. But they are against compulsory redundancies.
They claim that there are enough redundancy for volunteers to avoid this. This, however, is not the case.
The number of men working-ir now stands at about 180, 150 of workers. whom are hourly-paid But only 100 want to leave the yards. Latest reports indicate that the agreement negotiated so far with Marathon is even more savage tn....... Trade union leaders are re- mu ported to have agreed to a 'no- strike clause' and fierce legally- enforceable penalties on the men.
On productivity and mobility it follows closely the Govan Ship- builders deal. Dyeid hoin said National Con- ployers federation of Shipbuilding Em- long- ployers and adhere to standing procedure agreements, so would the workers. But if the company wanted different procedures, this. would have be discussed with the to UCS labour force. According to press reports i chairman Wayne Har- Marathon bin is said to have wanted fines of £50 per man per strike day.
The been proposal not abandoned, but it is believed the idea of a fine is still under consideration. It is a measure of the counter- of Stalinism revolutionary role that they can be a party to such wage-slave charters and declare them 'victories'. The trained observer, however, is not shocked or surprised. Was the head it not James Reid, Stalinist at UCS, who stated in 'The Times': 'I can only applaud the government's courage in tak- ing these initiatives. They make social and economic sense.'
••: Reid, remember, is a Com Councillor for the munist Party Clydebank-a town where Tory initiative' 'economic goud and sense' has pushed 15 per cent of the male labour force onto the dole. Reid's open support of. Tory reaction is about the measure of the Communist Party on the Clyde and throughout Britain.
and abysmal This last most chapter of the UCS story began in November. The shop • stewards had just abandoned their policy of fighting to keep the four divisions 'intact' under one owner or consortium.
they had recognized Instead Govan Shipbuilders who intended to buy the Govan and Linthouse divisions. They would add Scotstoun to their list if two feasibility studies recommended this and if the government put up the cash. This change of policy meant that the stewards were not in total accord with the unions, led Danny McGarvey of boilermakers, who had always been ready to accept separate solutions for the yard. Two major problems remained, however. First, between Novem- ber and the time Govan could trading: begin and deal some over Clydebank reached, all con- frontation had to be avoided. Pri- this marily that ships meant nearing completion in the yards had to be delivered and the promise to hold vessels somehow broken before the UCS work- ers. The second headache facing the Stalinists was how to get negotiations going with Govan Shipbuilders over future wages and conditions. Again they had pledged no "meaningful discus- sion' until the future of Scots- toun and Clydebank was secure, Somehow they had to get round this formula and begin talking.
The first betrayal happened on November 3 when Reid got a mass meeting to agree to let three ships out of the yards.
As usual the retreat was the most garbed in militant phrases. "These vessels would leave the yards, but they would be the last,' warned Reid.
Te Morning Star, proclamed 'The Morning Star', the policy as 'the mightiest UCS government confrontation since the historic work-in began five months ago.' In fact the whole manoeuvre was a fraud. At that time Govan was hoping to begin trading by January 5 and the Clydebank problem was also expected to be solved by then. The last of the three ships en. would not be out of the yard until after the New Year and the next delivery was not expected In until mid-January. other words the 'mighty confrontation' meant nothing. It would merely stave off confrontation for two months-by that time the Stal- inists hoped the deals on the would be signed and Clyde sealed. Unfortunately that turned out not to be the case. The Govan and in late issue dragged on January another ship, the 'New Westminster City' was due for delivery. This time the Stalinists had excuses. They called the no stewards together and explained the release had to be made for "tactical' reasons. They argued that if they stood firm, the Tories called them 'saboteurs' For the first time it seemed that the compromise would not shop find favour with the stewards (always a more difficult body for the Stalinists to deal with than the smaller co-ordinat- ing committee). The meeting was evenly divided for and against the retreat. What further perturbed James Airlie was that a majority of speakers from Communist the Party, spoke against delivery of for the vessels:
Scan page 11
A nest day win postponed and who two months ago man was the next greeting the Tory government as yaras "courageous'. CP called its faction together.
The more observant non-Party there was "left' Again shop stewards noticed that a day window-dressing to the recom. atter this the Stalinists who had mendation. Reid announced the deviated from 'the line' of com- committee's intention with- to promise had 'reconsidered'—'per.
Govan draw from •tülks with haps they were being too hasty because of delays over a solu- after all'. tion for Clydebank. Finally, on Thursday January But again this meant nothing, 25, James Reid was called in and certainly not perturb to report the co-ordinating that Archibald Gilchrist-negotiations committee had agreed to release on the agreement (quoted above) the ship, with only one vote had already been closed. Only against. the shop stewards' signatures Despite some bitter dissent the were needed-and those would stewards agreed and on the fol- not come before Clydebank was lowing Monday its decision was settled anyway. approved by mass meeting. Once more the UCS liquidator, Again the promise added was who had by now developed that these would be the last ships keen understanding of Stalinist out of the yards-and again the tactics, got his ships. promise was broken. This is a most important epi- Ties ur se this period sode because it shows clearly secret series meetings were that the Communist Party held oper- being between delega- ated as a conscious political force tion from the shop stewards, in the yard, with policy of officials and team of local union avoiding any intensification of the of Govan Ship- representatives UCS struggle that might upset a builders. deal with the Stalinists the government. Many Originally had militants
UCS
that talks Govan's unsuspecting at insisted on and future could only begin if there put Reid's twists turns down to 'cast-iron guarantees' more or less spontane- were over tactical considerations. the four yards and all the lab- ous This the Stalinists had a not so; our force. UCS and plan at they consist- This pledge made by was carried that plan through, ently Reid at a mass meeting on Octo- Party the powerful mem- ber 16 when he said: bership in the yards instru- 'So far as There am will Person no ments. concerned The final betrayal over ships recognition of Govan Shipbuild- April 3 when Reid per- They will not be allowed to came on suaded the work-force to release assume management responsi- two more vessels. bility in these yards until there He called one shipyard worker are cast-iron guarantees regarding who vehemently spoke up against all four divisions and all the men in them. 'a political nin- more compromise December, -fine words from the In however, the compoop -
BBC 1
9.20-9.35 The herbs. 9.38-12.30 Schools. 12.55-1.25 Fo a fe. 1.30 the Along seashore. 1.45-1.53 News and weather. 2.05 Schools.
2.25 Chester 4.15 Play races. 4.40 school. Jackanory. 4.55 Animal magic. 5.20 John Cra- 5.25 Motor ven's news round. 5.44 Hector's
ITV
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NATIONWIDE.
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TELEVISION TOP OF THE
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FORM.
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HOLLYWOOD
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MAN'S
GRATE
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Danger man. 4.40 Once upon a Dean Jones, Ann $ Harve Present, John time. 4.55 Junior showtime. 5.20 McGiver, Harve Magpie. 5.50 News. Dennis A small Weaver. 6.00
TODAY.
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CROSSROADS.
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FLIGHT'
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9.20 A MONTH
OF SUNDAYS.
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NEWS AT TEN.
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FILM 72.
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OVER
THE
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AND
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24 HOURS.
FAR AWAY.
Twelve child-
THE
BITTER
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infection. would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL
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BATTLE ON THE CLYDE-FINA
line had noticeably softened. Reid was quoted in the 'Morning Star' as saying: 'If early in the New Year people want firm agreements for two or three of the yards, there will be delays in any settlement unless there are reasonable nego- tiations and guarantees concern- ing the fourth yard' By the New Year the situation was getting desperate. There was no bidder at all for Clydebank.
To solve the problem and get the Stalinists and the unions off the hook, McGarvey led a team of negotiators to The idea Texas. was to persuade Breaksea Tank- ships—a rather mysterious organ- ization with tangible assets and un-named backers-to make a bid for the yard. As far as Breaksea was con- cerned, the trip_in mid-January a flop. Ken Arkwright, was Breaksea president, labelled Clydebank 'the worst yard in the world'. McGarvey however, flushed out new prospect- Marathon Manufacturing - a Texas firm that builds 60 per cent of the world's oil rigs.
Marathon eventually visited Clydebank, declared the yard was indeed ancient, but that they were interested in 'buying the labour force. Everyone was very pleased, most of all Wayne Harbin, the Marathon chairman, who already calling the was boilermakers leader 'Danny' and lavishing praise on Reid and Air- lie. He indicated that a four-year- no-strike contract would necessary and the stewards and local officials replied that if employment guaranteed, was this would be 'no problem'.
BBC 2
11.00-11.25 Play school. 1.15-1.40 Medicine today. 5.35-6.30 Open University.
6.35 COMPUTERS IN
BUSINESS.
Stock - Opti- mum or Problem?
7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY.
7.30 NEWSROOM and weather. 8.00
RICH MAN, POOR MAN
• Industry.
WHEELBASE.
8.50 9.20
WIVES
OF
THE
SIX
HENRY VIII. Catherine of Aragon. 10.50 NEWS ON 2 and weather. 10.55
THE OLD GREY WHISTLE
TEST. Linda Hoyle, Jack- son Browne.
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CHANNEL: 10.20-2.33 London.
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WESTWARD. As Channel except: 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News.
6.00 Diary. 11.40 News. 11.44 Faith for life. SOUTHERN: 10.20 London. 3.00 House- Man i from Uncle. 4.00 party. 4.15 Grasshopper island.
4.30 Crossroads. 4.55 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6.30 Sale of the century. 7.00 Film: 'Stage to 8.30 Albert. 9.00 Lon- Tucson. News. Farm don. 11.15 11.25 11.55 Weather. Voy- progress. age to discovery. ANGLIA: 10.20 London. 3.15 By- gones. 3.45 Women today. 4.10 News. 4.15 Mr Piper. 4.40 Enchanted house. 4.55 London.
6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 London.
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E-FINAL PART—BY STEPHEN JOHN
Marathon went back to Texas and submitted their proposals to the Department of Trade and Industry. On this basis-and after Scots- toun was included in the Govan Shipbuilders plan — negotiations wages and conditions at on Govan began on February 21.
This was the final capitulation of the shop stewards to the orıgınal plan devised by Mcuar- vey to get separate solution for the upper Clyde and break up the yards. Donald Tonner, secretary of the Clydeside Confederation of Ship- building and Engineering Unions, said the discussions had begun in a 'warm atmosphere'.-A sub- out the committee to work agreement was appointed-three of the four stewards on it were — naturally — Reid, Airlie and Sammy Barr, the Stalinist trio.
In the meantime, the crisis of work at the yards was staved off by more treacherous agreements by the co-ordinating committee leadership. At Govan Airlie and a group of shop stewards met P. H. Greer of the Irish Shipping Company to persuade him to allow four ships to be built at the Govan division where work was running out. Greer agreed, but not before Airlie had promised: 'We have given a guarantee that whatever happens they will get their ships whatever disputes take place in relation to the lab- our force. Whatever happens the Irish Shipping Company will get their ships.' No wonder the 'Daily Record' enthused that with such decisions 'there is no need for legal inter- ference in negotiations. Certainly ATV MIDLANDS: 10.20-2.33 Lon- don. 3.10 Yoga. 3.35 Horoscope.
3.45 Women today. 4.10 Simon Locke. 4.40 Once upon a time.
4.55 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 London. 7.00 Film: 'Kld Rodelo'.
8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 11.20 Opti- Who knows? Weather.
Daws London. Town'. • 8.30 6.30 Jimmy . 9.00 Lon- Stewart. Taste Master News. 4.40 7.00 Film: . logue. Cartoon. 6.30 Dateline. oy- Late call. GRAMPIAN: 11.00-2.55 London.
3.38 News. 3.45 Women today.
4.10 Nanny and the professor.
4.40 Once upon a time. 4.55 London. 6.00 News, weather. 6.05 Scottish. 6.35 London. Strictly 7.00 Film: 'East of Sudan'. 8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 12.00 Epi- logue.. cors Prosa, Tuaaday May 2, 1972 PAGE 11:
N JOHNS
if we had more deals and more decisions of this kind the need for sanctions would seldom if ever arise'. The co-ordinating committee has now extended these guaran- tees to cover two ships released for construction at Scotstoun. The serious nature of these con- cessions can be gauged by the fact that all six vessels provide work for a year—a year that will apparently strike free no matter what happens to the men at Clydebank. We are now nearing the end of this episode of struggle on the Clydeside. On May 9, Harbin will oome back to meet the stewards and unions to thrash out in detail the kind of deal he wants at Clydebank-the prospects have already been described. Govan Shipbuilders will hope to collect their signatures, pick- up the f35m from the govern- ment and begin trading. This will signal the close of the work in at the three divisions the company hopes to inherit. But whatever the outcome, the Clydesiders have suffered massive redundancies. The men in the yards will who remain face a vicious campaign for more and more productivity. While it is important to trace in detail how the Stalinist leader- ship brought about this situ- ation-a situation where only 180 1,600 of a possible men out remain in work-in-the the manoeuvres of the Reids and Airlies are only part of a broader pattern. It is the aim and intention of Communist Party the to take struggles like the Clyde and destroy all their political and revolutionary potential. They work against the objective need of the working class to get rid of this govern- ment with its strategy of sacking and more productivity. They substitute in place of such a fight for politics a long campaign workers to accept to get a Tory plan. Their method is to confuse in and demoralize workers firmly struggle and keep them wedded to the bankrupt reformist leadership of the trade union movement. This is why the Com- munist is a conscious, Party counter-revolutionary force in the labour movement-the
UCS
struggle proves this. They have done this in . the shipyards as they have done it on the docks-Reid's counterparts, like Jack Dash, were the men who got dockers to accept the Devlin proposals and container- ization and now the dockers are fighting for their jobs against such measures. The fight, however, is not over.
issues On the Clyde all the remain. There are still 6,900 workers who will not accept the dole and will fight attempts to drive them back in the yards.
They fight now in a period of extreme danger-under a Court which has dictatorial power and will use those powers against workers on the upper Clyde if they break their contracts so glibly negotiated by the yard leadership. This is why now, more than ever before, the campaign for revolutionary politics must begin in the yards. A new leadership must be built in total opposition the Stalinists. A leadership to that does not shrink in cowardice from political the great task before it a leadership that will be resist prepared to Tory plans for productivity, that will defend every established trade union right and not abandon them with a signature. But above all a leadership that will make the fight in the yards a political rallying point for everywhere-as it workers was at UCS in the early days of the work-in. The aim of this move- ment must be the central task facing the whole working class— the removal of this government by mass industrial action. This is the only future for the Clyde.
Scan page 12
T&G 'green light' to attend Court PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday May 2, 1972
BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT DAVID MAUDE
PRESIDENT of National Industrial Relations Court Sir Jo yesterday that the leadership of Britain's biggest union n legally summonsed to answer contempt charges. Dona tomorrow further contempt charges against the Transport Union.
THE
C. A. until today, when union repre- 1,400 workers at due- Newcastle, have defied sentatives are to appear Parsons, before the court. Friday's order from the Industrial Relations Court to call off their Six hundred of the men have work-to-rule, been sacked by their action and All members of the Amalgam- working-in with financial aid Union of Engineering ated from the union. Workers' technical. section they At the Reyrolle factory at are claiming exclusive negotiating Hebburn—part of Parsons' group at the rights factory and are workers have been refusing to work with members —4,000 on Friday in protest of the UK Association of Profes- strike since of two sional Engineers. against suspension welders. The
NIRC'S
injunction lasts
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
ABOUT 3,000
trade unionists yesterday marched through Preston in Lancashire in response to a one-day strike called by the local No. 30 branch of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. British-Leyland workers, told the Delegates from Brannon's in had £2,700 he brought meetne Cumberland. British-Leyland from Levland Motors saying more Goss Motors, Engincering, was lo come. dockers and English Preston He told Workers Press the Electric were present. used Preston area had not been But this to marches in the past. They were joined by delega- was the third BAC march which Young Socialists of from tions demonstrated the strength of Leyland. Lancaster. Preston and feeling behind the convenors.
Creighton-Smith, David con- venor at the Preston division of the British Aircraft Corporation said at the meeting after the march: are: not just fighting for 'We but for self-preserva- ourselves, throughout the district. tion if Management must realize that they they buy our labour, must pay for it.' George Elliott, chairman of the combine
BAC
shop stewards. said that the executive had voted CEYLON'S Finance Minister of the combine against a strike N. M. Perera has suggested of the Preston in support that the US Central Intelli- division. Brindle, of gence Agency may have been Len convenor involved in the abortive left- which revolt was wing
WEATHER
bloodily suppressed a year ago. and
INLAND
areas of central Perera, who heads the rene- England may have some eastern revisionists of the Lanka gade fog patches with some mist or Samaia Party Mrs in Sama first. ground frost in places Bandaranaike's Ceylon coalition will be dry day Otherwise the said: government, and sunny. "It difficult to believe that Scotland may have Eastern who the imperialists American first but will few showers at have been so closely connected become mainly dry with clear or with an attempt to overthrow a sunny periods. Chile progressive government in Scotland. N Ireland. Western would not have tried their hand England will Wales and western 'defeating the masses in at showers with have occasional Ceylon ' clear or sunny intervals.
Perera's belated 'discovery' is Temperatures will be near on the same level as the govern- normal in most districts, but it last year to ment's attempts in the will become rather warm North Korea for the up- blame Midlands and south east England.
These attacks were quietly rising. Outlook for Wednesday and dropped when it became obvious Thursday: Mainly dry with sunny they were a pack of lies.
periods but perhaps occasional The Ceylon government is showers in the south west.
planning to try several thousand before special tri- young fighters Registered as a newspaper at the Post Finance Mini- Published by Workers Press, Press. Office. Publist obviously ster's statement is Street. aimed at creating a witch-hunt
SW4 7UG.
. London: (TU). Printed by before the trials atmosphere 180b Clasham High Street. open. 7UG. on case t Sir John Donaldson revealed union narrowly escaped being • Donaldson adjourned until ansport and General Workers?
He told the court, however, had been that consideration given compelling the union's leaders to be present in court. (The NIRC has the legal status of a high court and has thus the power to subpoena wit- nesses.) hour before Donaldson An gave his judgement, the TUC announcement giving issued an Jack Jones the 'green light' to the Tory court before appear when it resumes on Wednesday.
Donaldson yesterday heard evidence of contempt further submitted by Heatons Transport (St Helens) Limited. The court has already fined the T&GWU a total of £55,000 for contempt and there is a perma- nent order against the union to restrain it from blacking Heatons' container lorries. the Heatons Donaldson said application appeared to reveal a continued and more extensive disobedience of the court's orders by the union and therefore raised issues of the greatest gravity.
'We say "appears" because it would be quite wrong for us to a provisional view form even unless and until the union has being opportunity of had an present and offering an had court seriously considered whether it should not exercise its power to require the attendance on Wed- nesday of the union's principal officers. 'In the circumstances, we are content at this stage to leave the question of the representation of the union and attendance by its to their own sense of officers responsibility' 15 minutes' notice Only was given of the convening of the court. Mr Richard Yorke, OC, for Heatons, said that since the fine--of £50,000 - on second April 24 the firm's lorries had Liverpool, been turned away at Docks in London Royal Albert and, last friday, a third was turned away at Liverpool.
Affidavits from the drivers con- which took cerned - one of place at a Liverpool glass firm, W. W. Glazing- were not avail- able. But the sworn statements from managing director Robert Heaton details and brief senior gave called for 'further replies as the court may see fit'. - The T&GWU had not been of the application. given notice said that Sir John the court examine the matter could not until the union had been given an opportunity to attend.
Yorke said the company had court under the 'liberty come to to apply' given by the court to all parties when the company was granted a permanent ban on all blacking on April 12. for either "liberty' The Was to have the order side to ask cancelled or altered. Yorke read a letter written by the firm Douglas Farrar, to of the regional secretary T&GWU, warning him that its escalating now losses were rapidly and that it was holding the union responsible for this.
. MANCHESTER
yesterday IN dockers turned lorries away belonging to Springfield Trans- port of Trafford Park. 'We were told were we a spokesman for the blacked, firm said. from Manchester and Apart Liverpool, blacks against con- tainer hrms, are now operating at Tilbury London, Preston, Hull, and Southampton (see p.3.)
APRIL FUND
FINAL TOTAL
A MAGNIFICENT total—£855.50 and well over over our target the extra £500 we asked you to raise. Our many, many thanks to you all for your generous support.
As we enter the month of May, the Torles step immediately Into the attack. Dockers, railmen and the T&GWU all face the Indus- trial Relations Court. The Tory government is preparing a show- down with the working class. We fight back now in must every way we can. Start the cam- May Fund today. paign for our Tories that the fight is Show the Collect donatlons wherever on. possible. Make It an early start this month. Post your donations to: Press May Appeal Fund Workers 186a Clapham High St London, SW4 7UG. Heaton, senior officials Battery The now man-
BIRMINGHAM
are dated put the revised claim to meeting workers at a mass to management and report back abandoned their yesterday The to a recalled mass meeting.
fight for every point of the has yet to make any offer firm national original engineers' to the men. pay claim. At the of local suggestion officials they decided union instead to demand £3.50 as the they would accept minimum before a return to work. According to one angry worker who walked out before the end the
AUEW
divi- CLERKS at English Electric, of meeting, work P. Cresswell Liverpool, will return to sional organizer told the men that their original today, ending their six-week pay strike. They voted yesterday to for £6-a-week increase claim à of offer 'unrealistic' and that no accept management was management would conceed such £1.80 immediately with a further 60p increase in August. The offer He made no mention of a figure. 450 the demands for improved holi- recommended the was clerks by union officials and the shorter hours on the days and strike committee. original claim. Socialist Labour League and Young Soclalists 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, Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Euston Road MEETING: 4 p.m. St Pancras Town Hail.
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.
send to J. Simmance, 186a Clapham High Complete form and Street. London, SW4 7UG.