Workers Press no. 778

workers press

NO RETREAT:

THE FIGHT

LENINI

MEANS J

SOCIALS

AGHE

Singing the Internationale' at the packed public meeting on Sunday & RAIL AND DOCKS union chiefs may be planning their most ignominious retreat yet in front of the Tories' arro- gantly outspoken prepara- tions for industrial war.

The railmen's leaders appear to have dropped plans to re- start their work-to-rule, while the Transport and General Workers' Union has called together its docks officials to- day prior to discussing 'peace' proposals with the port employers. Heath's weekend warning that there will be no surrender by the government on either front will have intensified the danger of capitulation by the union top brass. Counting in the rail ballot is now unlikely to be completed before Wednesday. A written report on the 82- per-cent poll - in which the predict unions a six-to-one majority for further industrial action-will then be handed to an official of the National Indus- trial Relations Court. All three have arranged meetings unions for that day to discuss their next move. It has already been intimated, however, that a further work-to- probably off: rule the next round of industrial action could consist merely of a relatively ineffective overtime ban and ban on rest-day working. Two excuses are being put forward — the legal dangers of a work-to-rule and the fact new that it would be unpopular with the middle class. One union leader got himself quoted in the mass-circulation 'Sun' newspaper yesterday morn- ing as saying: 'We want to avoid the provocation of commuters seeing a railwayman walking slowly down a inflames feelings, Platform. That This is exactly the sort of bleating Tory Ministers want to hear. With Heath they are

INCORPORATING THE NEW:

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

HE FIGHT FOR

ENINISM

MEANS JOINING TE

OCIALST LABOUR

' at the end of the SLL's Sunday • See report p. 12 By DAVID MAUDE Our Industrial Correspondent poised like vultures for a pos- sible meeting to announce emer- gency powers. Similar dangers exist on the docks, where national strike is threatened from Friday over demands for more pay, better holidays and the right to pack and unpack cargo-containers.

Today's gathering of officials is expected to take place at Trans- port House before a key meeting of the port industry's National Joint Council. There, the employers will table proposals arrived at in secret talks with T&GWU gen- eral secretary Jack Jones for a scheme which could temporarily transfer the present redundancy crisis out of the docks. The plan would involve the setting up of a joint working party between port authorities, shipowners and stevedoring firms to try and bring new work into ports. • Men. would be to find jobs in out- encouraged side industry while keeping their registration as dockers as a fall- back. By themselves, such proposals would clearly carry little weight with the T&GWU rank and file in the docks. Jones and docks secretary Tim O'Leary, however. expected are to lay two arguments before their officials. Friday, they will point out, is the expiry date for the industrial court's ultimatum to the union to control its docks stewards. The union could be paralysed if is no sign of this being there complied with. They will also point to the dangers of a split in the union.

A meeting of T&GWU drivers Sunday defeated a move to on 'hive-off the road-transport sec- but urged that containers tion, should be unfit drivers' work.

Turn to p. 12, Col 1 THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY MAY 30, 1972 • No 778 • 4p

ENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

THE

14th - ANNUAL

CON-

This is the fraudulent talk of

FERENCE

Socialist. preparing of the who for men are League Bonapartist dictatorship. This Labour salutes the means rule by decree. It means railwaymen all dockers, and independent action by courts, by those sections of the working and police, the Privy army by class who are in the forefront Council, without any reference to of the struggle for basic rights, parliament, and with the work- for their wages and conditions class deprived of all rights, ing of work. grounds that the state the stands above the interests of We are profoundly convinced classes, representing *the that the determination and power sumer'. of the working class in these Far from representing the struggles can make the hated they have mandate Tory government resign. We call people, no whatever for their attacks. They upon workers everywhere to fight enter the Common Market, they the for whole trade union and create a million unemployed, they labour movement to be mobilized double rents, their policies bring to achieve this aim and to return intolerable price rises all this Labour government pledged to with from no mandate the socialist policies. people. It is fear of this and Heath, conscious of the refusal resistance of the working class of the Labour and TUC leaders which Tory govern- drives the to fight, and seeing the ment to show its real face, open the betrayal of the Jenkins group, face of arrogance and hatred of calculating on a collapse by the the working class, the face of union leadership, at this crucial decided to who have dis- men stage of the railwaymen's and pense with democratic rights and dockers' struggles and the to attempt the imposition of the fight against the Industrial Rela- dictatorship open of the state, tions Court. acting in their own class His Luton Hoo speech is a repetition of his Cabinet state- This of their is the meaning National ment at the end of the miners' of the Industrial strike in February. When he told Relations Court to try and smash miners' This Court has leaders that trade unionism. 10 demand any more they would be usurped the rights of parliamen- taking on tary debate and control. It has government, these Une leaders retreated: they chosen the road to dictatorship.

settled for partial victory That is why millions of on wages when the government could have workers are coming into struggle Tory been brought down. against the government, to defend their basic rights.

The dangers of such a collapse Heath's speech at Luton Hoo of leadership are even graver last Saturday of this today. was part He ruling-class Since February : 19, the Tories strategy. challenged trade unionists to take have equipped themselves with on the government and claimed the dictatorial judgements of the stand

NIRC.

to for the consumer, the They have made prepara- tions for provoking conditions of citizen, against the organized workers. General Strike, in which whole- OPENS THURSDAY 10 a.m.

IN THE WEST END

New Park Publications Ltd is pleased to announce the opening of the Paperbacks Centre at 28 Charlotte Street, W.l. Thursday, next June 1, at 10 a.m. Mr DAVID MERCER, the well-known play- wright, has kindly agreed to open the shop.

All readers of the Workers Press are cordially invited to join him. sale arrests and the use of troops would be the order of the day.

Retreat in the face of the Tories' threats will not make them turn back. Their own crisis and fear of the working class drives them forward with their plans for dictatorship. Now is the time for every sec- tion of the working class to be united in action to force the Tory government to resign. The way forward is for Coun- cils of Action to be set up in every area of the country. These include union will trade branches, trades councils, factory committees, local Labour Parties, all working-class political parties tenants' organiza- and groups, tions, unemployed-every section of the people in struggle to make the Tories resign. It is from these Councils that the strength of the working class will be mobilized to insist on socialist policies from the Labour government which replaces the Tories. At the very centre of this great struggle is the question of build- ing the alternative working-class leadership. The Labour leaders and their Stalinist assistants do everything to prevent the work- ing class from confronting the Tory government in struggle.

Fighting on of the policy building Councils of Action, to make the Tories resign, Socialist Labour League calls upon workers everywhere to join ranks and to expand the our circulation of our daily Workers Press. In this way we will carry through, in November of this the transformation of the vear, Socialist Labour League into a revolutionary party. Passed unanimously Monday, May 2), 1972.

DAVID MERCER

workers press

NO RETREAT:

THE FIGHT

LENINE

MEANS K

SOCIALS

BAGHER

Singing the 'Internationale' at the packed public meeting on Sunday RAIL AND DOCKS union chiefs may be planning their most ignominious retreat yet in front of the Tories' arro- gantly outspoken prepara- tions for industrial war.

The railmen's leaders appear to have dropped plans to re- start their work-to-rule, while the Transport and General Workers' Union has called together its docks officials to- day prior to discussing 'peace' proposals with the port employers. Heath's weekend warning that there will be no surrender by the government on either front will have intensified the danger of capitulation by the union top brass. Counting in the rail ballot is now unlikely to be completed before Wednesday. A written report on the 82- - in which the per-cent poll unions predict a six-to-one majority for further industrial action-will then be handed to an official of the National Indus- trial Relations Court. All three unions have arranged meetings for that day to discuss their next move. It has already been intimated, however, that a further work-to- off; probably the next rule round of industrial action could relatively consist merely of a ineffective overtimé ban and ban on rest-day working. Two are being put excuses forward — the legal dangers of a new work-to-rule. and the fact that it would be unpopular with the middle class. One union leader got himself quoted in the mass-circulation 'Sun' newspaper yesterday morn- ing as saying: 'We want to avoid the provocation of commuters seeing walking a railwayman slowly down a inflames feelings. Platform. That This is exactly the sort of bleating Tory Ministers want to hear. With Heath they are

INCORPORATING THE NEW:

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

HE FIGHT FOR

ENINISM

VEANS JONING I*

OCIALIST LABOUR

' at the end of the SLL's Sunday • See report p. 12 By DAVID MAUDE Our Industrial Correspondent poised like vultures for a pos- sible meeting to announce emer- gency powers. Similar dangers exist on the docks, where a national strike is threatened from Friday over demands for better more pay, holidays and the right to pack and unpack cargo-containers.

Today's gathering of officials is expected to take place at Trans- port House before a key meeting of the port industry's National Joint Council. There, the employers will table proposals arrived at in secret talks with T&GWU gen- eral secretary Jack Jones for a scheme which could temporarily transfer the present redundancy crisis out of the docks. The plan would involve the setting up of a joint working party between port authorities, shipowners and stevedoring firms to try and bring new work into the Men would be ports. encouraged to find jobs in out- side industry while keeping their registration as dockers as a fall- back. By themselves, such proposals would clearly carry little weight with the T&GWU rank and file in the docks. Jones and docks secretary lim O'Leary, however, are expected to lay two arguments before their officials. Friday, they will point out, is the expiry date for the industrial court's ultimatum to the union to control its docks stewards.

The union could be this being complied with. the They will also point to dangers of a split in the union.

A meeting of T&GWU drivers on Sunday defeated a move to 'hive-off' the road-transport but urged that containers tion, should be unfit drivers' work.

Turn to p. 12, Col 1

THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY MAY 30, 1972 •

No 778 • 4p

ENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

14th / ANNUAL

CON-

THE

This is the fraudulent talk of

FERENCE

Socialist. of the who for are preparing men Bonapartist dictatorship. This Labour League salutes -dockers; railwaymen and all means rule by decree.

It means independent action by courts, by those sections of the working and police, army by the Privy class who are in the forefront Council, without any reference to of the struggle for basic rights, pag ass deprived to all rights.

with the work- for their wages and conditions class of work. the grounds that the state stands above the interests of We are profoundly convinced classes, representing 'the that the determination and power sumer. of the working class in these Far from representing the struggles make the hated they have no mandate people, We Tory government resign. call whatever for their attacks.

They upon workers everywhere to fight enter the Common Market, they for the whole trade union and create a million unemployed, they labour movement to be mobilized double rents, their policies bring to achieve this aim and to return intolerable price rises - all this Labour government pledged to with policies. no mandate from the socialist people. It is fear of this power and Heath, conscious of the refusal resistance of the working class of the Labour and TUC leaders Tory which drives the govern- to fight, and seeing the open ment to show its real face, the betrayal of the Jenkins group, is face of arrogance and hatred of calculating on a collapse by the the working the of class, face leadership, union at this crucial who have decided to dis- men stage of the railwaymen's and pense with democratic rights and dockers' struggles and of the to attempt the imposition of the fight against the Industrial Rela- open dictatorship of the state, tions Court. acting in their own class His Luton Hoo speech is a interests. repetition of his Cabinet This is the of their state- meaning National ment at the end of the miners' of the Industrial strike in February. When he told Relations Court to try and smash This Court has the miners' leaders that trade unionism. to demand any more they would be usurped the rights of parliamen- taking on tary debate and has the government, these control. It retreated: leaders they chosen the road to dictatorship.

settled for a partial victory That is why millions of on wages when the government could have workers are coming into struggle been brought down. against the Tory government, to The dangers of such a collapse defend their basic rights.

Heath's speech at Luton Hoo of leadership are even graver last Saturday was part of this today. He ruling-class Since February 19, the Tories same strategy. challenged trade unionists to take have equipped themselves with on the claimed the dictatorial judgements of the overnment andi to stand

NIRC.

for the consumer, the They have made prepara- citizen, against the organized tions for provoking conditions of General Strike, in which whole- workers. OPENS THURSDAY 10 a.m.

IN THE WEST END

pleased to New Park Publications Ltd is announce the opening of the Paperbacks Centre at 28 Charlotte Street, W.l. next Thursday, June 1, at 10 a.m. Mr DAVID MERCER, the well-known play- wright, has kindly agreed to open the shop.

All readers of the Workers Press are cordially invited to join him. sale arrests and the use of troops would be the order of the day.

Retreat in the face of the Tories' threats will not make •them turn back. Their own crisis and fear of the working class drives them forward with their plans for dictatorship. Now is the time for every sec- tion of the working class to be united in action to force the Tory government to resign. The way forward is for Coun cils of Action to be set up in every area of the country. These include union will trade branches, trades councils, factory committees, local Labour Parties, all working-class political parties and groups, tenants' organiza- tions, unemployed-every section of the people in struggle to make the Tories resign. It is from these Councils that the strength of the working class will be mobilized to insist on socialist policies from the Labour government which replaces the Tories. At the very centre of this great struggle is the question of build- ing the alternative working-class leadership. The Labour leaders and their Stalinist assistants do everything to prevent the work- ing class from confronting the Tory government in struggle.

Fighting on the policy of building Councils of Action, to make the Tories resign, the Socialist Labour League calls upon workers everywhere to join ranks and to expand the our circulation of our daily Workers Press. In this way we will carry through, in November of this the transformation of the year, Socialist Labnur League into a revolutionary party. Passed unanimously Monday, May 2), 1972.

DAVID MERCER

ONE SMALL BUT HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT SECTION MISSING FROM OBITUARIES PAGE 2 Workers Press, Tuesday May 30, 1972

ONE SMALL BUT HIGHLY SIGI

he succeeded to the throne THE DEATH of the in 1936, and reported that Duke of Windsor shows the King regarded an Anglo-German alliance as Fleet Street at its most "urgent necessity" and an servile, sycophantic and that he would like to meet Hitler. The Duke of Wind- hypocritical. immediately sor com- mented that these reports On the eve of un- a generally false im- gave battles paralleled class pression, saying that they in Britain the media are "absurd". were whip up a trying to However, 'The Guardian' frenzy of monarchism fails to point out that the and chauvinism among Duke did meet Hitler and the middle class. that of his closest one Every vapid cliché of the friends, who arranged the ex-King's parasitical exist- meeting, later became a leading functionary ence is vomited into print of Nazism. often by the very people him off who drove the Following his abdication, throne in 1936. the Duke of Windsor mar- Particularly nauseating is ried the twice-divorced US the myth of the people's heiress Mrs Wallis Simpson monarch', accomparii by at the Chateau de Candé, photographs ol the Duke Tours, France, near and his entourage patroniz- Bedaux' own country defeated ing starving and mansion. South Wales miners. Later that year the royal Discreetly omitted from couple went to stay with these the accounts are Bedaux his Hungarian at Duke's ties with the Nazis shooting-lodge and it was and his friendship with the from here that Charles chief protagonist of work- Bedaux personally arranged and sweated labour study for the Windsors to make --Charles Bedaux. a tour of Nazi Germany. "The In this connection, Though Windsors the Guardian' reports that: later claimed the visit had In December, 1962, an been intended as a private official British volume of they were one, met in "Documents German on Berlin by high Nazi officials Foreign Policy" was pub- and crowds shouting: 'Heil lished, which included the Edward!' 'Windsor! and view of a German emissary Windsor!' Hitler-the from Duke of Escorted by Dr Robert Coburg that the then Edward King

VIII

had Ley, the head of the Nazi Labour Front, shown a friendly attitude who had supervised the savage towards the Third Reich de- and 1936. in 1935 The struction of German trade Duke of Coburg, an Eton- they toured ian and a second cousin of mines, _ estates, Edward VIII, had conver- chemical works and fac- sations with him soon after tories. ...i The daily paper that leads the fight against the Tories. £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) {6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: Circulation Dept., Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London, SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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SIGNIFICANT SECTION MISSING FROM OBIT'

The Duke was also shown over a secret air- craft production works that visitor had been no allowed into before. During their stay Windsors were entertained Krupp, Goering, Hess and Hitler. In her memoirs, the Duchess describes the Duke's reactions to a pri- vate interview with Hitler: 'On the way back Munich, when we were momentarily ale buke! asked David [the whether he had had an interesting talk with Hitler.

"Yes, very," answered riffling through the pages magazine. His close friend, the national politics?" I asked, work-study fanatic Bedaux, curiously. "Now darling, he protested, "You took up permanent resid- know Germany in 1937 ence in my rule about politics. I'd and acted as an inter- certainly never allow my- between the Nazis mediary get into a political selt to and the Vichy regime after discussion with him!' the fall France. He • "You with him were finally committed suicide in one hour. What did you 1945 while under arrest by talk about?" most the US authorities. of talking." the •Well, It was perhaps what did he talk about?" Bedaux' instigation that "Oh, the stuff What Nazi Usual the he is trying to do for Ger- Foreign tried combat Bol- manly anato after the tall of france to shevism. "What dia lure the Duke from Portu- sHe's against it s Bolshevism?° Spain tell him gai to to So would was the Duke. When prepared Hitler the the Duke the occupied Rhine- store to land in 1936 he wrote: Inrone 'Instinctively The least that felt that can be said another great the 'people's war Europe monarch' whose death too probable; and only mourned by such figures as saw the ex-King of fascist Italy, clearly that could STREET-fighting r Umberto, only bring needless human Japan's Hirohito and President Nixon, suffering and resurgent namese city of Kon Bolshevişm that he had some extremely pouring InLO the unsavoury friends. vacuum ravaged sive day yesterday and exhausted Continent.

JOHN SPENCER

consolidated their

FOREIGN

NEWS

STRIKES and 'unfair labour practices' in nationalized indus- tries and other state enterprises of Bangla Desh have been banned by presidential order.

The order, employee of the employer, issued on Sunday to sign imprisonment of a ne or 10,000 any memorandum settlement night, prescribed or agreement'. The decree is an attempt both for by any the violation. Awami League administra- comes effect tion to strip the immediately. Bengal work- ers the rights they won "intimidation, prohibits struggle against Pakistani domi- pressure, threats, con- coercion. nation. finement to place of manage- The Bangla Desh government, ment, physical injury and discon- which was elected under Pakistan of telephones, water and rule has and yet submit to power'. genuine elections under the new It also prohibits 'compulsion rapidly turning consulution, attempts to compel an towards repression of the work. employer officer or any ing class. THE STALINIST bureaucracy in the Soviet Union hundreds Lithuanian trial of youth who fought police and demonstrators troops in street battles arrested.

TWO

The fact that the weeks bureau- has cracy had to try and cover Two days of rioting followed the of the up nature the death of a disturh political protester ances indicates the who burned himself to death. enormous Lithuania hostility to Reports said the youth in Kaunas in ano other Republics which have been were shouting 'Freedom for denied their right self-deter- Lithuania': mination by the Stalinists. Now Soviet radio broadcast Sunday has attempted to credit the protesters by claim- TURKEY'S prime minister. Ferit they were hooligans and drunks who exploited the situa- Melen said yesterday his govern- tion. ment must take adequate steps Vilnius Radio 'denied that the out political extremism suicide 20-year-old implement 'reforms' Romar Kalanta was politically-motivated.

moving toward General Elec- had October next due hv An year. Ternet commission decided that Kalanta had killed Mr Melen, 66. who named his himself in Cabinet one aft of denression week ago, was sub- The rioting began on the day mitting his government's pro- of Kalanta's funeral gramme necessary vote of Gaviar and

KGBR

units confidence by National para-troops the rushed were reinforce the Assembly. police One policeman The new premier succeded Dr garrison. killed Nihat Erim. was :and hundreds

BITUARIES

hting raged in the South Viet- of Kontum for the fifth succes- esterday and liberation forces I their hold over the town.

American military sources in nearby Pleiku had no word of casualties, but said helicopters ferrying in sup- plies and evacuating wounded troops were coming under increasingly heavy ground fire. The city is a major objective of the liberation forces' cur- rent offensive. They have than more 30,000 troops in the area and have infiltrated the city's south and south-eastern quarters.

Kontum football stadium, used as a landing-zone by government helicopters, was hit a number of times on Sunday by rocket fire from positions around the city.

The airport is out of action and: troops have, liberation dug in around it. US B-52 bombers have been the area around the pounding city, which is cut off by road from the rest of government-held.

territory. A relief column trying to open Highway 14 from Pleiku to Kon- tum was yesterday bogged down a few miles south of the city. It has been almost stationary for more than a week. PRESIDENTIAL adviser Henry Kissinger revealed yesterday that there had been 'long, sometimes difficult and very detailed' talks Vietnam during Richard on Nixon's Moscow visit. A joint communiqué pub- lished to mark the end of Nixon's visit implied that the two sides had come no nearer agreement on Vietnam despite the talks.

But they will have another opportunity for secret talks when Brezhnev, Podgorny and Kosygin visit the United States at the US Fresident's invitation on a date to be fixed later.

Part 2. By Philip Wade, Housin The Labourites' so-called Rent (Control of Increases) Act of 1969 was, like the 1965 Act, a real trick. It actually allowed councils, most of which were Tory. controlled at the time, to increase rents by 7s 6d a time and more with gov- ernment permission. Throughout that period, when 250,000 Greater London Council tenants were faced with six-monthly increases of 10s a week in their rents, the Labour government stood by.

Yet the most sordid and ab- ject capitulation to property financiers was to come with the now-notorious 1969 Hous- ing Act. It has since proved to be one of the best measures ever enacted on behalf of property speculators. Ostensibly it was an attack on dilapidated, rent-controlled property. At that time there were about It million privately- owned, rent-controlled, unfit dwellings. Of these about 1 million were scheduled for demolition as part of slum- clearance programmes which paid out large compensation sums. Of the remaining 400,000, half qualified for a free hand- out from public funds to make them 'fit to live in'. For providing minimum amenities (i.e. hot and cold water, a bath, sink and indoor toilet) the landlord got up to 50 per cent of the cost. As if wasn't good that enough for the Labourites, these self-same landlords were then able to remove their tenancies from rent control.

Rents. subsequently have soared, with increases above 300 per cent. For those unfortunate whose properties tenants already had standard amenities the position was worse. Their rents rocketed without penny being spent on their houses and flats. Labour MP Arthur Blenkin- sop, replying to a committee debate on the Housing Bill on March 4, 1969, said: prepared to accept am provisions for rent increases in spite of the anxiety of many of my hon. friends, partly because I am deeply concerned to get improvements carried out. 'Unless one uses what one might call the bride of these Housing Correspondent provisions, I do not see how this objective can be achieved.'

What had happened to the pledge made ten years earlier to municipalize all rent-con- trollec. accommodation? Like all otler Labour promises, it had been long forgotten as the government movea to the right following outright adaptation to the wishes of the inter- national banking fraternity.

It was this Act that opened the door wide for estate agents and property dealers to come smashing down on working- living in the class tenants inner-city areas. Using the provisions of the Act they have legally been able to drive thousands of tenants out of their homes.

Whole areas of London, for example, have been turned over to rich, middle-class tenants in search of a 'town flat'. Although the Act itself never gave the go-ahead for mass evictions (the 1965 Act prevented this landlords soon found a way round these restrictions. Landlords obtained what is as a 'certificate of known approval' stating that if the work was carried out, the tenancy would qualify • for a transfer from-controlled to regulated. Landlords were then able to show tenants that council- authorized building work, naturally of a disruptive character, could begin at any time. And wouldn't it be better for the tenant to accept some money to leave or take 'altern- ative accommodation' offered by the landlord? Faced with the crippling prospect of a 300-per-cent increase and a lengthy period of building work, it is not surprising that most of these tenants chose to quit instead.

That is why in central London where the worst slums used to be you now have Regency terraces with roads cluttered by sports cars. And all a present from the Labour government! Other aspects of Labour's housing programme fared no better. In a futile attempt to deal with land speculation the government set up the Land Commission. This cumbersome and bureaucratic machine was supposed to buy up surplus land and sell it to local councils cheaply. Part of the operation was the introduction of a betterment levy which aimed at heavily taxing profits made by land speculators. As an alternative to land housing (failed Wilson: Objectives In nationalization it failed miser- ably. Little land was bought and the speculators carried on.

The Tories replaced the Land Commission if only to save them paying the massive army of civil servants it embraced.

As for the house-building rate, that suffered too as big business demanded more attacks on the working class and a cut in public expenditure.

A 1965 White Paper had set a target of 500,000 houses a year and said that even this figure 'was modest in the light of housing needs .. not ... the 1970s should enough see still bigger programmes' Not once was this objective achieved in six years of Labour government under Wilson. The high-point was houses 1968 when 414,000 were built. By 1969 the number had slumped dramatically to 360,000, the lowest total for five years and 13 per cent down on 1968. In 1970 the total fell even further. Now the Tory government has proceeded to destroy on the basis of the seeds sown by Labour. The Tories' 'fair rents' Bill, as it is known, destroys the basis of municipal housing with its proposals to impose means tests, double rents, cut subsidies and strip away powers from local councils.

Council house building has been whittled down while house prices soar 25 per cent in six months. Land speculation sees no limits and Labour councils must now pay up to £200,000 an acre in central London. The building societies con- tinue to hold house buyers to Workers Press, Ing failed throughout six years.

ransom. With assets of over £9,000m they can still lend at extortionate interest rates, making it impossible for any but the rich to find the money.

The massive movement of • 'fair tenants against the Tory rents Bill, and those Labour councillors who will carry out the Tories' dirty work, shows that Labour's housing policies from 1964 to 1970 will never be tolerated again. The struggle must be taken up in the working-class move- ment for the clearing out of those 'leaders' who betray the class and for the construction of an alternative, revolutionary leadership. kera Press, Tuesday May 30, 1972 PAGE 3 The next Labour government must be forced by the mass movement to carry out a pro- gramme of socialist expropri- ation as the only way to fight slums, high rents and the property speculators. The basis of this programme must be: •The nationalization of the building societies building and subsidiary in- dustries under workers'. .control and without compensation.

•The utilization of these resources for a massive slum- clearance and council house- building programme to restore and advance the basic right of the working class to a decent home at an economic rent.

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PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday May 30,

BY PETER JEFFRIES, PART TH

In stressing the necessary nature of appearances, Marx was insisting that the laws of capitalist production cannot be modified in their oper- ation. In writing of political economy-in this case of Ricardo-he notes: "The dis- covery of the determination of the magnitude of value by labour-time, while removing all accidentality appearance from the determination of the.

magnitude of the value of pro- ducts, yet in no way alters the in which this determin- mode ation takes place.' Only the reconstitution of socialist lines society along can achieve this change: 'The life process of material pro- duction, does not strip off its mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely-associ- is consciously ated men, and regulated by them in accord- ance with a settled plan.' In the same way Marx notes a little earlier in 'Capital' (Vol. I, p. 74) the discovery by science of the component gases of air in no way altered the actual composition of air. So far we have elaborated a number of points which are implicit in the letter to Kugelmann. To state matters from a different angle: Marx he had stressing what was already announced in 1859 the publication of the with 'Critique of Political Economy' his starting -namely that point for 'Capital' was the conception of materialist history. This theory stated that the of society 'real foundation' was to be sought in the social relations of production on political, which arose a 'super- ideological, legal, etc structure' Specifically, Marx set him- 'the task in ''Capital' of self tracing out the manifold inter- connections between the social relations of production-the expression of most abstract which was to be found in the commodity-and all the other phenomena within the system, including the class struggle. Many other trends within the working-class movement may recognize this struggle. But Marxism, alone, because of its method, is able to understand the real foundation and origins of this struggle and therefore the basis for the overthrow of the capitalist class by the working class. Before proceeding to show how this task involved Marx in a thorough analysis of the method of political economy and an understanding that its were to be sought weaknesses in its empirical methoa, we must make some initial points about the distortions of Marx- ism committed in this field by у May 30, 1972

ART TWO

Stalinism. If we look at Maurice Dobb's major theoretical effort in this field ('Political Economy and Capitalism: Some Essays in Economic Tradition') we find that he opens the book with chapter entitled "The Require- ments of a Theory of Value'.

In the very title he gives to the chapter he betrays a method utterly hostile to that of Marx and one in which attempted Stalinism has to mis-educate generations of both workers and intellectuals for nearly 50 years. For what Dobb wishes to do is to separate out Marx's analysis of value from the body of 'Capital' as a whole so that he can to his academic friends that Marx's show value theory has something to be said for it, and should not be dismissed by these latter in the way it has been tradition- ally. At one point, Marx was obliged to reply to the charge of A. Wagner of 'illogicality' 'splitting the concept of in value into exchange value and use value': 'Above all I do not start from "concepts" thus not "from the concept of value" is the What I start from simplest social form in which the product of labour in the present form of society pre- sents itself; and this is "com- modity"!? Marx was pointing out to Wagner a fact which we also must keep constantly in mind: that he was a materialist who social started out from real relations and not an idealist, who must always start from concepts produced in his head.

Throughout his work, Dobb also tried to has answer another question: Why did choose labour as the Marx basis for his value theory?

Again he is at pains to try and explain that this choice perfectly reasonable' was one which has much to com- mend it: But once again his very question constitutes a betrayal of Marx's materialist method. For when Dobb tries to find out why Marx did not choose land or capital as the basis of his value analysis, he answers that this was a result of practical and technical matters associated with the latter. 'In • the case of land or capital, clearly there were ins serious practical objections to taking them as a basis: diffi- culties which would have exceeded any of those which were charged against the labour theory • • • Acres are more dissimilar than man- hours of labour. In the case of capital there was. a more crucial objection that it was Itselt a value, depending upon • other values, in particular upon profit to be earned.' by insurmountable difficulties; thus labour is chosen; thus the labour theory of value. In a sense it is impossible analyse the nature of Dobb's answer. For it is in the very posing of the question betrays his that he anti- Marxism. With good reason did Lenin on one occasion speak of the 'so-called "labour" theory of value' (Introduction to Marx's Letters to Kugel- mann, International Publishers, New York, 1934). is We must repeat, Marx concerned with an analysis of the social relations of capital- ist commodity-production and never strays outside of these limits. have said, man's As we social. relations under this mode of production can appear, or take the form of, only relations between things (com- modities). Leaving aside their particular properties as use values-that is objects of utility for their non-producers -their one common feature is their quality as products of abstract labour, the quantit- of which is i ative measure time. In other words, the category 'value' is one entirely subordin- ated, in both a logical and historical sense, to the com- : ba modity. Here is how Stalinism 'ex- plains' the matter (Dobb, op cit, p. 22): "The statement which the labour theory implied was that the exchange values bore a certain relation to the out- put and using of human energies and in so doing pro- vided a term which gave some distinction between a gross and net product and to the con- surplus, and a vas : cept of a criterion for differentiation one type of income from another' through the If we cut turgid academic prose, some key issues are raised of both practical For Dobb i Marx's that merely "tool' exploitation. In is betraying reformism of Stalinism. certainly was not ti working ploited: this indee done by many even non-socialists) 'Capital' was writte What Marx was class working under the capitalist rather that this syst from insoluble cor which alone provid for its overthrow. To put matters a Marx was that the working merely an liberals the have always recog chat it. was a class in that its increasingly threate restrictive nature o relation of product Dobb not reformist method also into Ricardiat back was Ricardo who p emphasis upon the distribution (which what of the rather than with istic relations which Ricardo, economy generally granted. As in political visionism only follo given by Mandel, leader of t Pabloite movement his 'Marxist Econo 716) "The (P. be demonstrat can ally if only even that, in the last : theoretical to uncover doing so he complete reformism aim was ex- had been socialists (and aiming to was robbed contradictions, not class class (as reformists but revolutionary the his Shows For it classes got caker of production, and political took for both matters, theoretical. Ernest writes in Economic Theory labour theory empiric sense last analysis, ali of the elements in the cost production can be reduced to labour, and to labour alone if one goes back far enough in the analysis.' Dobb takes precisely the same position when he insists theory of political that the economy 'should be capable of expression in terms of quantit- ative entities in the real world'.

But what are these quantitative entities of the 'real world'. It can only refer to such things as 'price', 'rate of profit', 'rate of interest' etc. In other. words, both Dobb and the revisionist Mandel are seeking to destroy Marx's dia- • lectical method in favour of empiricism. For how can we measure such entities as capi- tal, or socially necessary labour time. Neither of these catego- ries appears empirically within the capitalist system. If they did, there would be no need for science, the task of which, we have said, it to show as how the empirically-available appearances are contradictory their essence, which is to be production. is This ime vander Positivi he when he writes in defence of the theory of value that one of its points against its riv- strong alism is that capitalist busi- nessmen actually price their rations. Dobb takes the same position in writing: 'The ulti- mate criterion (for the test of a theory's adequacy) must be the requirements of practice: the type of question which one requires to answer, the pur- pose of inquiry in hand.'

Here we have a crude ver- sion of instrumentalism which selects its hypotheses not according to their congruence historical social with and forces, but simply by virtue of their ability to sustain predic- tions 'in the real world'.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

US PUTS SCREWS ON JAPAN

BY JOHN SPENCER

American is pressure driving Japanese capital- ism to seek new markets for its exports in Europe.

Earlier last week, Japan's Minister of International Trade, Kakuei Tanaka said that while the United States accounted for 30 per cent of Japan's foreign trade, the Common Market took only 6.8 per cent of Japanese and exports accounted for only 5.8 per cent of its imports. "This is relatively small so we see a need to expand the share, Tanaka commented. The need, in fact, is des- perate. At the top-level minis- terial meeting of the Organiza- tion for Economic Co-opera- tion and Development in Paris this week Tanaka faces strin- gent new demands from the United States for further cuts in its US export trade. The meeting comes just five months top-level after the gathering in Washington which decided, to devalue the dollar and impose a yen revaluation of 16.88 per cent. The Wash- ington agreement, heralded by President Nixon as 'the most significant monetary agreement in the history of the world', is already in tatters. It has done nothing to solve the basic questions posed by the collapse of the 1944 Bret- ton Woods agreement follow- ing Nixon's decision to stop selling US reserve gold for dol- lars on August 15 last year.

America's capitalist com- petitors have been unable to accept the so-called 'paper gold' Special Drawing Rights as a substitute for the real thing.

Their demands that the US restore convertibility have met stony resistance from Washing- ton and all the time the strug- gle for markets between. the main capitalist blocs has inten- sified. Concessions The American employers are demanding bigger and bigger concessions from their overseas competitors. Not content with the existing yen revaluation in they are already talking _terms of another revaluation to price Japanese products out of even more markets. Earlier this month, for Henry Kearns, Presi- example, dent of the official US Export- Import Bank, returned from a mission to Tokyo predicting a further yen revaluation this year. His move, only three days before the arrival in Washington of a Japanese trade delegation, was designed to _ remaining smash hopes any among the Japanese delegation.

Kearns' statement has to be seen in the light of America's trade deficit with Japan. Last $3,200m this stood at year, despite the swinging yen and revaluation it is expected to top $4,000m this year. Nixon administration offi- cials are openly charging that the December revaluation was a 'paper transaction' which failed to raise the price of Japanese exports. When the trade delegation arrived it was told in curt, firm language that anti-dump- ing laws would continue to be rigorously applied against Japanese goods; that the Japanese must begin spending their $17,000m stock of for- eign reserve currency; and that failing another yen revaluation the price of Japanese exports must immediately be raised.

This nothing was more than a curt, firm invitation to commit hara kiri. It was not by any means the last blow.

Within days, the US Treasury Department was announcing a large-scale investigation into the possible illegality of Jap- anese government subsidies on consumer electronics products exports. This rigorous application of anti-dumping legislation lowed persistent complaints from US electronics producers who want their home market protected; it produced anguished cries of horror from the Japanese competitors.

"The US charge is utterly groundless,' wailed Keiichi section chief Terada, at Tanaka's ministry. And Shigeo Yoneda, head of the Electro- nics industry Association, said the complaints filed at the by Us firms were Treasury based on a deliberate distor- tion of the facts. Terada even threatened to take the Treasury Department to the General Agreement on Tarifts and Trade-an empty threat as the US has so far shown supreme contempt for the rules of the international trade game. The implications for the electronics manufacturers are extremely serious. Their recent exports, which have been run- ning at relatively high levels, were contracted for long before the yen revaluation. But at the post-December prices there are far fewer takers and work for the Japanese factories is begin- ning to dry up. The same process is going on in other industries. The textile industry, which recently accep- ted stringent 'voluntary' curbs on its shipments to the United States, is deep in recession.

The steel industry, the most modern and capital-intensive in the world, recently slashed Workers Press, Left: Toyotas walting export. Industry work is beginning to its overseas orders for iron ore and agreed to cut back pro- duction by over 10 per cent.

The same process is going on in the copper refineries which are closely tied up with the electronics industry. This explains the ruthless drive now under way to in- crease Japan's share of the European market. The prospect of Japanese competition inten- sifying is already sending shivers down the spines of European motor manufacturers whose profits have fallen to rock bottom and whose pro- ducts are more expensive than those of their Japanese com- petitors. Japanese firms are seeking to establish reliable sales and service organizations prepara- tory to launching the most con- centrated sales drive ever seen in the European motor indus- try. There is talk of possible mergers between British and car manufacturers European and their Japanese competitors to divide the market up. Meanwhile the US presses relentlessly on with its trade offensive against Japan. The Japanese fear their markets in the US will be closed for good if they don't toe the line, so forced, however they are swallow the reluctantly, to Nixon prescription. On the eve of the OECD meeting the Japanese Cabinet council met to draw up a pro- gramme aimed at satisfying the American demands. Trade Minister Tanaka assured the press that there would be no new yen revaluation despite Washington from pressure and said he would accept full responsibility if to political avert such a step failed.

The measures announced by the Cabinet council are sweep- ing enough by any standards, but they are unlikely to satisfy Washington. ors Press, Tuaeday May 30, 1972 PAGE 5 electronics oxport. Above: workers ainning to dry up. Below Nixon, They include relaxation uf import which should quotas, chiefly benefit US manufac- turers; extension of the existing 'orderly marketing' scheme to control exports; and encourage- ment of capital exports. Whatever the outcome of the OECD meeting, it ís already clear that Washington will not satisfied by this kind of be palliative package. The Ameri- cans have insisted from the start that they are not interes- ted merely in reducing tarifis and winning trade concessions here and there. What they want is nothing less than a completely new monetary system tailored-like Bretton Woods—to the require- ments of dollar imperialism.

The essence of such a system as far as Washington is con- cerned is that it must off-load the burden of economic crisis onto its foreign competitors.

Washington's the guns: at moment are trained on Japan, but the trade war is not just a US-Japanese conflict. Other capitalist countries, especially in Europe, are next on the list.

Eugene T. Rossides, assistant US Treasury Secretary Enforcement and Trade Affairs, said that the anti-dumping investigations now being con- centrated against Japan may be extended to other countries.

The Americans made it clear in talks with the Common Mar- ket countries earlier this year that they expected serious con- cessions the coming over months. The drive for markets and the cut-throat competition between the capitalist powers is the economic background to all the attacks on the working class in Britain and throughout the world.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday May 30, 1972

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

monopolies Monopoly capitalism is Some UK will survive, either through merging the real inspiration be-

EEC

with companies or hind the Common Mar- through shifting production Europe. But many will ket, not the noble ideals into crash, and even more smaller of liberal Europeans. The Because firms will be ruined. spirit and the letter of and of growing recession the Treaty of Rome and competition, the rate sharper will bankruptcies exceed nt the philosophy which has even that of the recent Rolls- Vehicle guided the work of the Royce,

UCS,

and General period. and the Commission circles in the The ruling Council of Ministers in EEC believe that the present the last 15 years are dom- 15 West European producers, for example, will inated by the interests of lave to reduce to about five big business. big in order to monopolies if the EEC had not offered survive against the Japanese. for the ruling opportunities There are too many steel com- circles of the six countries to panies as well. More shipyards vastly increase their fortunes, close, and will aco have to from the troublesome process already the competition "harmonize' the six Japan is so fierce that a cartel trying to different nations little by little has been formed between all would never have been started.

West European yards, includ- The 'harmonization' is neces- ing Britain's, limit further to the srow harty facilitate Japanese shipping sales. sary West European Officially, Treaty the Rome strong enough to monopolies aims to remove all obstacles, and challenge the best US whether outside or inside the thể and Market, corporations, which prevent Japanese partly to act as a propaganda free and the flow of goods, smokescreen to try and deceive Commission Brussels is 'investigating' the middle and working classes dutifully the with ideas of a 'new European shipbuilding cartel in case it is community' to get them to go an interference with free trade.

along with the project. But in practice the EEC will make gure its own industries are protected. What is supposed to happen, EEC industry if an begins to decline, is that governmental investment aid can be injected to raise efficiency. What in fact shipbuilding happening, in is that straight example. for The Six - Germany, France, production subsidies are being Holland, Belgium and Italy, provided. This is against the — can never har- Luxembourg Market's philosophy, but into under capitalism monize being justified on the grounds one nation. which is the dream of 'unfair' Japanese Coln - of the pro-marketeer idealists, petition. competitive rivalry because distortion of Another com- between the different finance- which the Six have petition capital groups within the EEC turned a blind eye to is the will develop into bitter national between restrictive agreement diff- the hosility soon as cosility world economic the European and US major steel producers, which the crisis really begin to bite.

bullied the Americans have As it is, little enough pro- others into accepting. has been made towards gress It was as part of this mono- 'harmonization' despite the the Com. polistic double-dealing that the undoubted success Tories agreed to cut from 44 have Market countries mon 33 million tons capacity to had in improving their trading million tons Britain's nation- world. position alized steel industry's plans for EEC is still essentially what it 1980. Once was when it started—a customs expansion expansion B further ratione union plus a common fund for aiding one industry: farming.

alization' seems inevitable.

But however much the 'free- There are even doubts as to whether dismantling the tariffs trade' Market con- Common horse-trading, between the Six was really the nives at this international profiteers cause of their economic growth these must eventually fall out with in the 1960s, since some grew each other, partly because of faster before they joined even the development uneven the EEC and other countries, which gives them have grown much capitalism like Japan, faster outside of any customs different bargaining strengths and and diffrent ambitions, union. partly because of But the Germans the social anyway, from below in were happy to get their chance pressures Britain, for example, when the of political rehabilitation plus gets too rough for trading advantages going or ship- return for a permanent subsidy dockers. or miners, French builders, ( backward agri- to tolerate any and the 'European' further contraction of their culture and Now industries. myth to grow. to get round such Britain's rulers have been is bankrolling obstacles to the survival of conned into monopoly capitalism that the inefficient peasant farming in Tory has return for the 'opportunity' to government intro- take on European industry in duced its National Industrial without Relations Court. Inside the competition open tariff protection. EEC. there will be attempts to The European Parliament, a debating house 'harmonize' the most successful methods from each country of working discipling the class and to lend such methods the aura of 'European' status.

Consultative works' councils, on the German model, which turn trade unionists into com- pany-union men, are a certain There are even plans starter. for EEC-wide wage agreements, which would all be legally binding and would be designed to eliminate piecemeal mili- tancy among European workers by banking on the hoped-for conservative majority to keep the rest in line. Such a system of European wage rates would also protect the established monopolies from any potential low-wage area rivals. of This encouragement monopolistic development because of its alleged efficiency will bear particularly hard on 'declining' Britain with its industries. Since thev are not making the grade with the best in Europe, 'then they should be put out of business, the Six believe. All industrial sub- , a debating house for European and international affair sidies, in theory, are incom- patible with the EEC's guiding principles, and the whole range of Britain's different financial industry will aids to severely vetted during the first six months after entry. Already it is certain that a foreign investment, lot of mainly American, which used to come to Britain and which has been the only safety valve in some areas such as Scotland electronics firms Us where have replaced decaying older industries, will no longer come here. The EEC has established for its 'central regions' a limit of 20 per cent total for the various capital incentives used to draw in foreign firms. How much of Britain will fall out- 'central regions' side of this designation qualify for and special assistance rates is not vet decided but it is likely to be much less than the 40 per cent at present qualifying for regional aid. It was to avoid any charge by the Six of 'interfering with competition' that the Tory affairs. On Britain's entry into the Common Markel much despite government, opposition, changed Britain's investment allowance system regionally from direct grants, all-over free varied, to depreciation. In the eyes of the Rome Treaty, the former count as illicit aid to industru whereas the latter is merely Britain's of taxation part system. True, the eventual aim of the EEC is 'harminization' of but with business taxes too, the normal speed of Common Market decision-making, that is still some way off. The end result of all this is bound to be bad for the UK's 'grey areas. The phenomenon of the drift to the South East in Britain, which the unplanned capitalist evolution will be enlarged to include : the Common Market the parliament economy would have caused to grow even faster if it had net been deliberately checked, will now be deliberately encouraged European-wide -and on scale. It means not just a likeiy movement of the steel industry to the South East, for example, European be the to nearer but a movement of markets, some industries out of Britain altogether and into the heart.

land of West Europe. It is a repetition on a nation- wide scale of that of driving workers into the overcrowded during towns the industrial because that was revolution where the work was. Already over 2 million Euro- pean workers have had to migrate to Germany to find jobs. The Department of Em- ployment in London is already preparing plans to encourage people made redundant in the Scotland, of areas Wales and the North of Eng- land, to go and look for work in Dusseldorf, Dortmund and Essen. On top of this, the reformist nlarged to include 36 British MPs and ten from Ireland.

measures adopted in post-war Britain of nationalizing ailing industries will be officially frowned upon once inside the EEC set-up. The threat to take away the gains already made will grow and it will become very difficult to relieve other threatened industries by similar measures in the future. The Common Market does allow some aid to declining industries, but the national governments bear the cost and there are strict limits to what is permitted. There is a plan to eventually work out a Common Industrial Policy as a counter- part to the Common Agricul- tural Policy, but getting new measures adopted by the EEC governmental structure is such a painfully slow process, due to all the obstructionism, that it can be ignored for the present. The immediate prospect is that the overwhelming pro- portion of the EEC budget- more than 90 per cent at present — will continue to be subsidizing inefficient spent agriculture. The French peasantry will remain an im- portant factor in rrance and a right-wing government cannot remain in power without their support. The only way other inefficient or declining indus- be aided by the tries could Community is through a huge increase in the budget. And unless there is anything in it for them, the French are un- likely to agree. The unanimity principle still rules the Common Market gov- ernmental structure. If one Council of country on the Ministers dislikes a proposal, it cannot get through. The qualified majority rule only applies to small issues. The result is inertia. Things happen so slowly in the EEC that the best way to describe it is to say that all progress has come to a complete stop and then itemize the few exceptions.

High-technology research provides an example Ministers Council Ministers decided to overcome the tech- Workere Pross, Juaeday May 30, 1972 PAGE 7 building a real European com- nology between Europe gap and the USA by co-operating munity. They believe that pro- research. committee of badly on cedures are now SO experts was set up which spent clogged that they cannot con- thich felds to commence with first arguing about tinue in the same way much longer. They are placing a lot and whether they should start Britain's entry to of hope on Britain's without all get things moving again, par- on a Common Indus- participation. ticularly Eventually, in 1969, a report trial Policy and reform of the went back to the Council, European Parliament in Stras- which then set up another com- bourg, which is still a mere experts to appraise mittee of cipher. the report. Several more months The EEC has no democratic passed mechanism, before the report was and its control adopted, but then another long officials readily admit it. But began which the French have boycotted the wrangle non-EEC countries should be EEC before when they have way, and invited to co-operate in imple- not got their

OWI

menting the report. Eventually they will do so again. 19 countries joined in the dis- Generally speaking, nothing More passed cussions. time inside the Com- will happen finally on November 20, until Market that does not mon 1971, an agreement was signed.

suit the most powerful ruine And what emerged? The 19 circles within each country.

be- nations agreed to put up.

it help monopoly does not total of them a grand tween then it will not capitalism, of £8m to cover seven fields take place. research and to be spread over five This would years. sunn have kept the five-year Con- corde project going for just weeks! And this three even limited has not programme started yet because it still has to be ratified by the individual parliaments. however, Just as much difficulty has For the present, been encountered in trying to battle still with the main the world and harmonize regulations covering the outside countries road and rail transport between Common Market their collective face the Six. One argument that has have United years and is still turned against the gone on for unresolved is how much petrol States and increasingly against The spread of general- in a motor vehicle's tank as it Japan. frontier should be

EEC

preferences crosses ized - to Turkey and subject to taxation at the rate Portugal, Spain, infuriated the applicable in the country it is Greece - has that Americans, particularly, as well the point being enterine. if a truck is allowed to fill up other General Agree- as the and Trade and then Tariffs in a low-tax country ment on whom the ply its trade higher-tax against powers, unfair preferences are given. country, it is causing trading showdown will have to the trucks of competition to But a the US presi- the country it has entered.

till after wait dential elections in November.

Suggestions under discussion propose that the The list of American com- contents petrol Common tank be the lorry's plaints against is measured at the border and a Agricultural Policy litres be almost as long, the number of certain enormous, allowed in tax free with extra Commission says acidly, as the duty to be paid on the rest.

EEC's list of complaints against Progress has been slowest on US trade restrictions. Similar complaints are made harmonizing railway fares and tariffs Trying shake high Japanese regulations. to against and limited import quotas, but four privately-owned together in the negotiations for a treaty and 'state-owned systems has proved beyond the EEC's Common with Japan, it is the Market who They cannot countries are powers. agree nervously insisting should which social costs somewhat escape clauses, against the legitimately be borne by gov- allow subsidy and which Tapanese which ernment wishes, imports to be cut off in a crisis.

should be discontinued as un- fair interference with com- The EEC countries are also petition. get a general agree- trying to with 'orderly Japan on ment 'other words to marketing', in get the Japanese to ease up on their colossal export drive. The well proposals have not been The Six received in the East. the fearful that with are restrictions now being imposed from by America on imports Other transport arrange- Japan, Japanese will re- the The ments are Rece amusing. direct their trade offensive to EEC has iust reached a com- Europe. promise agreement after years ball-bearing industry, The of 40-ton argument to allow for example, is already coming truck juggernauts all OnTO under enormous pressure. The Common Market roads and to European 'community' the permitted axle load raise beginning to creak at the joints.

to 11 tons. This will mean Meanwhile, American cor- appreciably noiser and heavier porations continue to • add to than lorries in Britain at their already colossal invest- present. Many roads will be ments in Europe and continue unable to take them. exact f400m 400m a tribute. year net to The It main obstacles to profits by quicker progress conveniently covers their trade in adapting new measures in the EEC is deficit with Europe of £400m It a year. But the EEC's exaspera- particularly nationalism. hinders high-technology off-loaded with co- tion at being operation and fair competition billions of US dollars of in public purchasing. It is far is exchange dubious value easier for the Germans to sell mounting. electric power station Any collapse of the US eco- an to Spain than to France. Where nomy will deal a severe blow public-works contracts to the Common Market. are 'foreign' by firms, The Common Market is the won the stand of agreement often requires that last-ditch European 75 of capitalism cent and against the social parts net should be supplied revolution. If it is allowed to materials locally. it can lead continue in being American-style pork-barrel the establishment of only to politics are influential here. An fascism throughout the whole MP would he Europe. Con- very unpopular of western if he allowed his sequently the struggle for the national parliament to approve a lucra- building revolutionary tive under of public-works contract in parties the banner his region going to a the Fourth International foreign to establish firm rather than a local one.

the Socialist United The career civil servants States of Europe through the who run the Commission of in revolutionary overthrow Brussels deeply is the urgent task cynical capitalism about the lack of progress in of the hour.

PAGE 8 Workers Pross, Tuesday May 30,

OVER-POPULATION OR F

CAUSE OF WORLD HUN

FRANKS.

PART 8

The over-populationists of today follow loyally in the tradition of Malthus.

Professor Ehrlich attacks those who seek a solu- tion revolutionary in Marxism. 'Marx's anti- pathy to Malthus still influences people who ought to know better' he writes. 'What we need is "new men" who would work towards a stable world economy ... but never toward specific "isms"? The Paddocks' total pre- occupation with the needs of US imperialism has already been discussed. They show clearly enough that they under- stand that both surpluses and poverty exist side by side.

'During the coming Age of Food that nation which has the most food will be, if it uses that food as a source of power, the strongest nation. This will be, then, clearly an era which the United States can dominate —if the United States picks up the challenge.' Another outlet for US Malthusian doctrine , a CIA: financed radio station beamed to Soviet countries. A book 'Can We Survive Our Future?'

has been recently published containing 23 edited interviews on pollution, population, en- vironment, etc., previously put out over this network. People interviewed included Arnold Toynbee, capitalist historian. and one-time Foreign Office researcher, Michael Shanks, journalist and British- Leyland marketing director, Andrew Schonfield, capitalist economist and member of Labour's Royal Commission on Trade Unions, who is to give this year's Reith Lectures, and Aldiss, science-fiction Brian writer! A similar exercise had been carried out in 1963. Then it 'experts' (mainly was. 19 American professors of soci- to 85 ology) broadcasting different countries over the 'Voice of America' network. The lectures were subsequently published, in 1964, as 'Popu- lation: The Vital Revolution' The over-populationists have usually represented themselves as in some way in conflict with the establishment and business, as reformers and opposers of capitalism's worse excesses. In fact, they have always been in closest co-operation with governments. For capitalist example, Malthus' ideas were incorporated in the 1834 Poor Law. More such links are being established today. Dr Sicco Mansholt, the new President of the Common Mar- ket Cominission and master- mind behind the plans to dissi- pate Europe's surpluses and de-populate the farms, is now proposing to bring , the area's economic policies 'into line with the ideas of Professor Jay Forrester and Professor Paul Ehrlich'. This will include discrimination against large families and an emphasis away у May 30, 1972

OR PROFIT? THE REAL

HUNGER. BY BERNARD

trom material consumption.

Forrester is behind the recently-published study "The Limits of Growth' based on a global computer study of resources by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All of the computer trial runs showed that the world economic system would collapse except the one in which birth rate equalled death rate by 1975. The study was sponsored by the Club of Rome, a group of industrialists considered to be concerned about ecological problems.

The 'Club' was founded by Dr Aurelio Peccei, a director of Fiat Olivetti, and Dr Alexander King, scientific director of the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD). Ehrlich also has con- nections with the Organization.

In the USA, Nixon's Com- mission on Population has recently published reports recommending that United States population growth must be brought to a standstill.

Millions of dollars are donated by the US government every birth control and year to in sterilization programmes India and elsewhere. In Britain, the Tories have already set up Select Committee = on one Population and participated in UN and OECD conferences on the subject. At the same time, chronic housing shortages—a product of land 'and property speculation, Tory landlordism and private ownership of the building industry-are pro- claimed, via Enoch Powell's reactionary views, a result of too many immigrants. Not only food and other shortages are blamed on over- Many ecologists, • population. anti-pollutionists and con- producing servationists are volumes of literature, lectures, sermons and theses, courses, 'education films' to blame soil erosion, drug addiction, pollu- noise, illness, mental tion, suicide, crime, strikes and war, activities of a not on the minority of ruthless, profiteer- parasites, but the ing on natural weakness and destruc- all men. In this tiveness of way are the limitations of their own degraded system pro- claimed to be no more than the limitations of mankind. Enoch Powell Gross disruption to the eco-systems is 2.6 million hectares of forests in Vietnam For example, anyone made severely ill, angry and de- pressed, by the pressure of bad housing, inadequate income and the thousand and one other social evils created by capitalism, is likely to have his or her condition put down to malfunctioning of the brain.

may be in reality What a reflection of the sickness of a decaying is instead society diagnosed as an illness of the eir individual. Drugs given to the are victim in the 'case' to enable him to 'adjust' to society it is. Sometimes sections of the offending brain are mutilated or removed. After all, it can- not be admitted that it is really society itself that needs the surgeon's knife. The popu- lation controllers consider that this condition of the individual is worsened by the pressure of too many people.

The logic of this argument, as one book goes so far as to say, is that 'because there are too many of us, a man does his neighbours more harm than just by staying , alive', good Others are not willing to go quite as far, advocating instead cuts in production (particularly heavy industry), restrictions on scientific research and develop- ment, and a return to a system handicrafts and simple manual labour. So their answer to food is shortages return to a methods by which productivity and output of the farm Gross disruption to the eco-systems is caused by some 75 million litres of defollant which is spread worker not hundredth 1S part of what is possible today!

similar step backwards outlined the 'Ecologist' magazine's recent policy docu- 'Blueprint for Survival, ment middle-class diatribe on population and ecological prob- lems reflecting the terror of the right-wing protessiona. and educational intelligentsia may lose cont their privileges and good living to the working class. The usual 'evidence' of over- population and the 1S given deduction yield made that as per acre is unlikely to increase, Britain's population

HOUST

eventually be stabilized at 30 million, 'probably less' would 'decentralize' Industry and neighbourhoods would come increasingly to run their own affairs. towns, new communitie. round centred of structural remains 'villages' 'Putney, High fate of these and, at least, Hackney and Islington'. intellect- contain middle-class ual 'village' settlements.)

subsequent issue of the 'Ecologist' includer Sir Julian from scientist Huxley endorsing the Blue print' and suggesting rewards for people allowing themselves sterilized. It also of the tains a survey maga- based Tenerals replies from 924 questionnaires, which show that 23.9 per cent "The Guardian', of them read Iltres of defollant which Is spread over 'Daily 20.7 cent the per Telegraph' . and 16.6 "The Times' These pious hypocrites are always ready to pontificate about disruption of ecosystems, erosion, dangers wild to animals, pollution from chimneys and accumulations of DDT in various parts of the but they cannot find their 'Blueprint to word about the 'pollution' from 3 million kilograms of CS gas that has been used by the US army and airforce on the population of Vietnam, 'enough to cover the country 1.3' times over' ('New Scientist' March 30, 1972). 'disruption to eco- The systems' caused by the 75 million litres of defoliant spread over 2.6 million hectares of the region, or the whole- sale bulldozing of jungle areas by the US engineering com- mand is likewise not mentioned. Similarly, the 'land erosion' by an estimated 10 bomb craters is million nowhere analysed, nor is the devastation caused by the use made by the US Air Force of 15,000lb bombs fixed to ex- plode just before they hit the ground. More than 100 years ago Karl Marx showed the dialecti- cal movement and growth of the productive forces. He how capitalism showed develops entirely new means an', and relations of production;

raises the productivity of thè labourer • hundredfold in preparation for a new stage of development; yet, in a con- tradictory through its way, own limitations, comes to distort, inhibit and even destroy the foundations of what it has created. However, y also creating the working class, it brings into existence the one force capable of resolv- ing this contradiction. Marx wrote: 'In the sphere of agriculture, modern industry has a more revolutionary effect than elsewhere, for this reason, that it annihilates the peasant, bulwark of the old that society, and replaces him by wage-labourer. Thus the the desire for social changes, and antagonisms the class are brought to the same level in the country as in the town.

*The irrational, old-fashioned methods of agriculture are replaced by scientific ones.

Capitalist production com- asunder the old pletely tears of union which held bond together agriculture and manu- facture in their infancy. But at the same time it creates the material for conditions a higher synthesis in the future, the union of agriculture during their temporary separation.

by 'Capitalist production, collecting the population in great centres, and causing an preponderance ever-increasing of town population, on the one hand concentrates the histori- cal motive power of society; on the other hand, it disturbs the circulation of matter between man and the soil, i.e., prevents the return to the soil of its elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; it therefore violates the con- ditions necessary to the lasting fertility of the soil. 'By this action it destroys at the same time the health of the town labourer and the intellectual life of the rural labourer. But while upsetting the naturally-grown conditions for the maintenance of that circulation of matter, it im- periously calls for its restor- ation as a system, as a regulat- ing law of social production, and under a form appropriate to the full development of the human race' He ends the section: 'More- over, all progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in the fertility of the soil for a given time, is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility. "The more a country starts its development on the found- ation of modern industry, like the United States, for example, the more rapid is this process of destruction. Capitalist pro- duction, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes a social whole, only by into sapping the original sources of soil and the all wealth-the labourer.' (Section 10 of 'Machinery » and Modern Industry'. 'Capital' Vol. 1) Seventy years later, subsist- ence farming by poor tenant farmers dominated by their debts to banks and loan sharks had turned vast areas of the United States midwest into the semi-desert of the 'dust-bowl'.

Marx places the burden ruination guilt for such squarely on the shoulders of the capitalists. Twist and ex wriggle as they may, they can throw it off. Any never struggle against poverty, pollu- tion, ecological destruction, or any other social evil which is not insolubly linked with the struggle against capitalism is either conducted in ignorance, or in fraud. Certainly, there are many people who, through genuine concern over these questions, will be brought to socialism; to the understanding that only socialist-planned world a Top: complete disruption agricultur from US 'saturation bombing' in Vietn bomb, fixed to explode just above th within its range. economy can successtully and harmoniously utilize the produce of nature and labour of the world for the welfare of mankind. the rich And may get they find oil- fright when their favourite slicks on beaches and grouse dying of an over-dose of pesticide before they even get a chance to see a shotgun. Pollution and noise, working-class areas is too, in one thing, having it spread the beyond allotted boundaries into the protected reserves apparently shows that action is needed. A section of the class, for its ruling own pecuniary interests will always advocate action against pollu- tion and will oppose popu- lation controls. Fundamentally, however, the in time capitalist class crisis is looking for no more for its than a vindication destruction of wealth and the means of production, includ- ing first and foremost the workers and peasants; an na . excuse for turning back the productive forces from the terrible threat of abundance, of enough for all, to a stage of chronic shortages and exploitable chance of new markets and 'lucrative open- ings'. In the past this object has been achieved by fascism and war. At present, in the most advanced capitalist countries, the argument takes a polite form. A few of. the entre- preneurs previously ripping up the land for profit now see the agriculture is caused by bomb craters In Vletnam. Above: the 'daisy cutter' above the ground destroys everything 'conserv- need for discussing ation'. A number of industrial-.

ists recklessly polluting the atmosphere now form com- mittees to attack pollution. At the moment it is only the future unborn generations of producers who are to be sacri- ficed. Ehrlich has even toned down his comments somewhat since "The Population Bomb' was written and has made a few mild attacks on racialism and Ronald Reagan. However, the fact that he and his kind always add the ominous warn- ing that if peaceful methods do not succeed in restricting population, other ways will be found, show that the liberal façade only thinly conceals the existence of an outlook which is essentially a preparation for a fascist ideology. "scientific The continued ravaging of the land, the mutil- ation and murder of workers and the vain and peasants attempts to destroy the forces of the National Liberation Front in Vietnam, testify to of United the willingness States imperialism to put such 'other ways' into operation.

Here is yet another essential Socialist reason . why the Labour League considers the construction of the revolution- ary party, to lead the working class in the final life-or-death struggle with a parasitical cap- italist class, not an idea for future contemplation, but a vital and urgent activity for today.

CONCLUDED

Workers Presi lines being With the class drawn more sharply each day, it was obvious we wouldn't have to wait too long for the bourgeois - ideologists in the universities to come to the aid of capitalism. with a justifica- Rushing in tion of every reactionary aspect of capitalism and written in strident anti- most communist voice is one Pro- fessor Harry Burrows Acton, who has held the chair in "moral philosophy' at Edin- burgh University since 1964.

"The Ethics of Capitalism' is the title of a paper he has written for organization an aptly called the Foundation for Business Responsibilities.

The 64-year-old professor has absolutely fallen over him- self to glorify the decadent system which the working class all over the world is moving to smash. bourgeoisie, "The more scrupulous and more pacific than the aristocracy and less deferential than the peasantry, so improved the arts of pro- duction that the system • of warrior-lords and dependent serfs was replaced by one in which large populations of free citizens enjoy a scope of living which goes beyond what the aristocracy formerly disposed of,' he writes. Professor Acton adds …a landscape of excitement and enjoyment existing for all in the epoch of imperialism: Free speech, free movement of trade, free thought, explora- tion of the earth and oceans, an ideal of peaceful domesti- city, watercolour drawing, con- versation pieces, the novel and modern drama.' Meanwhile, as the trade war reaches new heights, the Viet- namese battle for their free- dom, and workers fight the de- struction of their rights ...

The professor is aware of this after all: 'Employers are kora Press, Tuesday May 30, 1972 PAGE 9 said to have persecuted and oppressed their workers, while the unions protected them and fought for industrial and legal justice. 'Nothing is said about union members who dynamited men considered to be blacklegs. In 1972, however, many of the unions are controlled ... by leaders who say they are adherents of the Communist Party or other left-wing bodies.

'Furthermore, the welfare state enables unions on strike save on what used to be to union-financed strike pay; and many strikes ... are intended to force the hand of the government in face of damage to the community as a whole.'

This surely must be good enough reason to wind unions up altogether and take the road of the corporate state. As you guessed, the professor is not unaware of these possibilities: • It is through the firm rather the union that than the workers are likely to obtain economic benefits ... firms are much more coherent and crea- tive than trade unions . .

large unions get their way now because they are feared rather than because there is belief in the cause they represent..

The progress of Professor Acton will have to be followed closely in the next period.

Younger readers will recall seeing older people with badly bowed legs, but they may not know that the affliction is not due to birth, but to rickets.

Rickets is caused by a lack of nutrition—in short it is a disease of working-olass com- munities who cannot afford proper food. It will send a chill down the spine of people who remember the times when this disease was čommon to learn that when a Birmingham doctor examined 600 children in five city comprehensive schools, no less than 20 to 25 per cent showed signs of rickets.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25-cloth £1:87% Where Is Britain Going ? Paperback 374p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 62}p-Cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.12;—cloth £1.87} Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday May 30 GKN Sankey workers during their bitter

BY IAN YEATS

The right-wing Economic League has circulated thousands of leaflets smearing the Young Socialists' Right-to-Work marches. They repeat an allegation levelled at the five nationwide marches made by only one other political tendency-the Stalinists of the Communist Party. Leaflet No. 10 of the 1972 series asks: Who are the Young Socialists? The support they received in some areas of indicates that a number union officials workers and came up with the obvious, but wrong, answer that they are the youth movement of the Labour Party? In other words the consider- able support from the labour movement and the working without which class, the marches would not have been obtained was all possible, under false pretences. The same slanderous argu- ment was used by the Stalinist leaders of Upper Clyde Ship- builders back in February.

But the Economic Leaguers go further. Not only do they suggest that the Young Social- ists obtained cash by 'posing' as a bona fide organization but that they represented also nothing more concrete than a band of conspiratorial, evil dis- rupters. This accords with the Eco- nomic League's conspiracy. ar theory of history in which society is classless and but for ba the activities of groups of nihil- istic wreckers all would be well. The. suggestion that work- ers and employers are merely different faces of the same coin explains their accusation that any who supported the Right- to-Work marches must have been deceived and their charge lay May 30, 1972 their bltter pay struggle of 1970. Inset: GKN C later on in the leaflet that no one would join such an organ- ization 'wittingly. Since every worker knows from the cradle on that he is on one side and the employer on the other it is hardly neces- sary to refute this particular philosophy. We say to the Economic League as we said to the Stal- inists that the Young Socialists never made any secret of their links with the Socialist Labour League. Quite the reverse in fact.

The last thing the young Social- ists wanted was to be associ- ated in any way with the ultra- reformist and entirely subser- vient youth wing of the Lab- our Party. Nor was any secret made of the fact — as the Economic League suggests — that the object of the five marches was to prepare the ground for the Trotskyist launching of the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists as a mass.

revolutionary party. the leaflet In a section of 'The Real Aim', , the headed Economic League suggests the marches had nothing at all to do with the right to work.

The leaflet says: *... the marches had nothing to do with the right to work. They did not and could not create one extra job. "The real aim was described by the leader of the Socialist Labour League when he con-' temptuously turned down an attempt by another revolution- ary group - the International Socialists — to climb on the bandwagon. 'He made it clear that the .

main object of the demonstra- tion was to build the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists' The quote is carefully left unfinished. To complete it would be to put the YS and the SLL into a social and political perspective in direct t: GKN Chairman, Sir Raymond Brookes who contradiction of the Economic League's conspiracy theory.

The full statement by Gerry 'The Right-to- Healy reads: Work marches have been organized for the purpose of building the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League as the centre of the national campaign to make the Tory government resign. In our H opinion such a campaign is an integral part of the fight against unemployment.' Only by ignoring the poli- tical and social context of the Economic marches are the League able to say: In short whole thing was a the Trot- skyist propaganda stunt.'

And only in this way are they able to conclude: 'Be clear about this, the Trotsky: ists, like other revolutionaries, not interested in helping are to boost employment or in achieving greater prosperity for their workers and families. Their business is to disrupt the production of goods and ser- vices upon which our standard of living depends'. A question to which we feel the readers of the Economic League's poisonous distortions should know the answer is 'What is the Economic League?' It was founded two years after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 to preserve personal freedom and free enterprise and to oppose all subversive forces 'that seek to undermine the security of Britain in gen- British industry in eral and particular'. One of its first acts was to launch a 'crusade for capitalism'. The Economic League has an annual income of over £65,000 and more than half the firms which donate also give money to the Tory Party. Firms which contribute up to £4,000 a year are Barclays. in Bank, Rank Hovis McDougal, nal British-Leyland and Guest Keen and Nettlefold. Firms in the £1,000-a-year bracket are Commercial Union, Legal and General, Sun Alli- and London, Vickers, ance Imperial Tate and Tobaceo, Lyle, Taylor Woodrow, Turner Newall, ICI, Whitbread and and Boots. Hard on their heels in the £700-a-year is the class Arbuthnot Lathan, Gerrard and kes who sits on the council of the right-wing Reid, Alexander's Discount Co, Lazard Bros, Union Com- mercial Investment Co, Indus- trial and General Trust and -United Dominions Trust group. This is followed in the same class by Guardian Royal Exchange, British and Com- monwealth Shipping, Swan Allied Breweries, Hunter, Courage, Barclay and Simonds, Tobacco, British American Gallaher, Wiggins Teape, Rey- rolle Parsons and Stone and Platt Industries. The Economic League has dozens of smaller contributors sums ranging sending them from £10 to £500. Its governing council includes some of the wealthiest men in Britain — many with exclusive public-school back- grounds. The President is Tory peer and William Deacons Bank director Lord Rochdale. Two of the three vice-Presidents are also directors of banks-Lord Runciman (Lloyds) and the Earl of Selborne (National Westminster). The Earl of Selborne is also a member of the right-wing Monday Club. The chairman is Eric Turner, chairman of Birmingham Small Arms, director of Alfred Her- bert and 19 other companies.

The council of the Economic League is comprised of:_Sir Harry Brittain, former Tory MP; Mr Raymond P. Brookes, chairman of Guest, Keen and Nettlefold; Sir Nicholas Cayzer, chairman of British and Com- monwealth Shipping Co and director of 59 other companies; Lieut-Gen Sir John Evetts, former chairman of Rotol; Mr D. Fraser, director of James and Partners, A. R. Stenhouse part of the big Scottish insur- ance group, Stenhouse Hold- ings; Daniel Gardner, retired; Sir Kenneth Hague, former chairman of Babcock and Wilcox and on six other companies; Mr Robert Hender- 'industrialist'; son-Tate pawdon Hoare: Col Col Robert John P. Hunt, on the Midland Bank, Philblack, Newton Chambers and four other com- panies; W. George Ibberson, 'industrialist; Mr Michael C.

Lloyd, managing director of F. H. Lloyd and on seven sub- sidiaries; Mr Alastair P. Low, right-wing Economic League.

on Lead Industries and three subsidiaries; Sir Michael Mal- colm, former coalowner; Mr Hay I. Matthey, managing director of Morgan Crucible and on Johnson Matthey; Mr Minns, former Anthony E.1 shipowner, now retired; Mr Anthony M. Mould, director of Liverpool Letterpress and two others; Sir R. Alistair Murray, chairman of London & Montrose Investment Trust and on 12 others; Mr Morton D. Oliphant, director of Tate and Lyle, Cammell Laird, Mar- tins Bank, Brown Brothers, etc.; Mr John J. Parkes, chair- of Alvis and on four man others; Mr Charles U. Peat, former Tory MP, now chair- man of Cleveland Trust and North Eastern Improved on Dwellings Co; Lieut-Col H. H.

Peile, chairman of Washington Engineering and on three others; Mr J. Murray Prain, six companies including on Royal Bank of Scotland, Alli- ance Trust, etc.; Mr Cyril G. F Pritchett, director of Chloride Electrical Storage Co and four.

Sir Halford Reddish, others; President of Rugby Conserva- tive Association, chairman of Rugby Portland Cement, and on 11 other companies includ- ing Hawker Siddeley, Alfred Herbert, Granada Group; Mr James F. Simpson, on Schol- fields Holdings and three others; Sir Eustice Smith chairman of Smith's Dock and on nine others includig Swan Hunter, Shipping Industrial Holdings, etc.; Mr J. Alan Thompson, director of Wool- combers (Holdings) and on 13 others; Mr Philip J. D. Toosey, on Cammell Laird, Martins Ocean Steam Ship Co Vines, director of Evershed and Vignoles; Mr Raymond H.

Wilkins, chairman of Francis B. Wilmott and on three others. There is no question which side the Economic League is on. Many if not all the firms which donate money to the Economic League and all those on its governing council share at least one outstanding char- acteristic - uncompromising hostility to the working class and its organizations, from the trade unions to the YS and the SLL.

Fighting the Tories' Rent Bill

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL:

1.45-3.50 London. 4.10 Enchanted 4.20 house. Puffin. 4.25 Simon Locke. 4.55 London. 6.00 News. 6.10 Police file. 6.15 Lookaround. 6.35 Lon- 7.00 don. Film: 'Stage to Tucson'. 9.30 Albert. 9.00 Lon- don. 11.40 Gazette. 11.45 News, weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News. 6.00 Diary. 11.43 News. 11.47 Faith for life.

SOUTHERN:

2.30 Good after- noon. 3.00 London. 3.50 Car- toon. 4.00 Houseparty. 4.15 Grasshopper island. 4.30 Cross- roads. 4.55 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6.30 Sky's the limit. 7.00 Film: "The Swordsman'. 8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 11.15 News.

11.25 Farm progress. 11.55 Weather. Epilogue.

ANGLIA:

1.45 London. 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. 7.00 Columbo.

8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 11.15 Hot seat.

ATV

MIDLANDS:

1.45 London. 3.35 Stars. 3.45 Women today. 4.10 Dr Simon Locke. 4.40 Story. 4.55 London. 6.00

ATV

today. 6.35 London. 7.30 Film: 'Showdown Abllene', at 8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 11.30 Who knows?

ULSTER: 1.45-3.45

London. 4.30 The late Margaret Rutherford plays Romper 4.50 room. News. 4.55 'The Importance of Ernest' Being

6.00 UTV

London. reports. 6.15 Michael Redgrave plays John Worthing Daws explores. 7.00 Film: 'The Man With a Cloak'. 8.30 Albert. 3.55 Camera in 4.10 action. 9.00 London. 11.15 White line.

News. Peyton Place. 4.40 En- chanted house. 4.55 London. YORKSHIRE: 1.00 Mel-o-toons.

6.00 Newsday. Put it in writing. 1.15. Rainbow country. 1.45 Lon- 6.25 Set of six. 7.00 Film: 'Great don 2.10 Calendar special. 2.32 Guns'. 8.20 Bugs Bunny. 8.30 afternoon. 3.00 London. Good Albert. 9.00 London. 11.15 Monty 'Leave to 3.45 Film: Die'. 4.10 Nash. News. 4.15 Crossroads. 4.40 En- chanted house. 4.55 London.

TYNE TEES: 12.25

Forest rang- 6.00 Calendar, weather. 6.30 Edgar Wallace. ers. 12.50 1.45 7.00 Hogan's heroes. Film: 'The London. 2.15 Cartoon. 2.30 Good Man Rio'. From Del 8.30 Albert. 3.00 afternoon. London. 3.40 9.00 11.15 London. Spyforce. 4.15 Room 222. 4.10 News. 12.10 Weather. 4.40 Sean the Crossroads. lepre Today. chaun. 4.55 London. 6.00

GRANADA:

Hogan's 10.50 World of life. 6.30 7.00 Film: heroes. 'Sierra'. 11.00-12.00 We need each other.

8.30 Albert. 9.00 Lon- 1.15 Scotland Yard don. 11.15 Double top. 12.00 casebook. 12.15 Epilogue. 1.45 London. 3.30 Messengers. News. THE BREAK-UP inside By PHILIP WADE Party the Labour over Our Housing Correspondent the Tory 'fair rents' Bill continues unabated. Lab- the interests of borough tenants to implement the Bill. It will be voting our councillors interesting to see how many of £l-a-week for non-implementation those facing another October will agree rent rise in are still being threatened with him. of with expulsion and are The clearest elaboration the full-scale retreat before the from their suspended Tories was still to come, how- ever, from councillor lan Gray. groups. He was sad the to oppose In Hammersmith, West for non-implementation, motion London, where he said, but the council did have rents are duty to serve the best already reported to be the of He then interests tenants. fourth highest in the country, spelled out what really frightened 1l Labour councillors have the councillors. just been suspended for lision with course govern- varying periods for defying ment'. If we do not implement the whip and voting against the Bill will keep the 1t rates Tory plans. down? Will it stop the Bill?' he asked. At the council meeting three The logic of that argument, of council- Nors wed for implementation weeks Labour is that you never do any- of thing about anything! Housing Finance the With like statements these, it the debate eventually finished at was little wonder that there was 2.20 a.m. continuous uproar throughout the in As is now commonplace debate from tenants in the pub- these debates a smokescreen was lic gallery. Silence only fell when thrown up by the right wing and the mayor ordered them out.

its supporters to try and obscure The 1l councillors who took the complete political bankruptcy a principled stand and voted for of those for implementa- voting non-implementation motion tion 'The worst parts of the Bill were called in a few days later we will attempt to slow down. and But the law is something we have given suspensions ranging from. six months to six weeks. deal with and we got to will They. are appealing the .take every legal step possible to against decisions Labour to the Party's mitigate the coun- worst parts, national cil Alf. Little told executive committee. leader the Chief target meeting. for the witch- In remarkable statement hunt Tony was Powell, vice. Little contrived to conclude chairman of the housing 'practical' and was would mittee, who moved the motion. rd plays Miss Prism in Oscar Wilde's Ernest' on BBC-1 tomorrow night. Sir Worthing.

SCOTTISH:

1.45 London. 3.15 Nuts and bones. 3.30 Origami.

3.45 Crossroads. 4.10 Dateline. 4.55 London. 6.00 Dateline. 6.15 Cartoon. 6.30 Hogan's Heroes.

7.00 Film: 'At Sword's Point. 8.30 Albert. 9.00 London. 11.13 Late call. 11.18 Drive-in, 11.40 Sound of .. The Settlers. GRAMPIAN: 1.45-3.20 ' London.

3.38 News. 3.45 Women today.

4.10 Nanny and the professor. 4.40 Once up a time. 4.55 Lon- News and weather. don. 6.00 6.05 Strictly Scottish. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Film: 'Who's Got the Action': 8.30 Albert.. 9.00 Lon- don. 11.45 Epilogue. He got six months and a warn- ing from Fulham Labour Party.

The MP for Fulham is Labour right-winger Michael Stewart, who, on several occasions, has voted with the Tories on the Common Market to help ensure them of a parliamentary majority.

"There had been so little dis- cussion inside our Labour group on the Bill that the only way we could raise the question was by motion putting a down inside the council meeting, Mr Powell told me. "They asked me to withdraw it and I refused. I had come to the conclusion that you've got to stand and fight somewhere. And this is it. In my view there is a time and need to stop the Tories here or not at all. 'You see, the Bill is really the thin end of the wedge, even from a housing point of view. The next thing you'll get from the Tories is an order to sell council houses.

"This complete whittling away of local council responsibilities— and health is next—is deliberate Tory policy. We certainly won't have much say as a local council on housing. The long-term effect of this Bill is that we won't be able to build new houses or flats. There 5,000 Hammersmith's are on waiting list. And don't forget, they're not there just for fun- they really need homes. Those in council housing now will be forced to take up the re- bates. can't They leave their flats because they'll have nowhere to go. 'As far as obeying the law is concerned-well, the law has no special mystique,' said Mr Powell, • himself a solicitor. Workers Press,

BBC 1

9.45 The herbs. 10.00 Champion.

10.25 Parsley. 10.30 Soper at large. 10.55 Magic roundabout.

11.00 Cricket. Yorkshire v Lanca- shire. 1.30 Along the trail. 1.45- 1.53 News and weather. 2.15 Cricket. 4.15 Play school. 4.40 Magic roundabout. 4.45 Jacka- nory. 4.55 Animal magic. 5.20 Scooby-doo. 5.44 Hector's house.

5.50 News and weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE TOP

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OF THE FORM. Llanelli V Slough. 7.05

TOMORROW'S WORLD.

FILM: 'SPRING IN PARK

7.30 LANE': Anna Neagle. 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather. 9.20

DOCUMENTARY:

'THE

CLANS'. The Truth Be- hind the Tartan. 10.10

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THE BITTER SANDS.

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COMPUTERS IN BUSIN-

ESS. Computer people.

7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY.

7.30 NEWSROOM and weather.

8.00 RICH MAN, POOR MAN.

Education. Solicitor Tony Powell, vice-chairman sees every justification for fighting enacted. 'You can't start obeying laws which are aimed at one section of the community. The Industrial Relations Act is one example and the Commonwealth Immigra- tion Act another. 'We have to be prepared to say it is bad law and not to the ad- vantage of the people as a whole.

These are political Acts and one can legitimately oppose them.

¡There is a fairly good history of this kind of opposition-the Chartists, the struggle for. the franchise and of Lansbury against the Poor Law Guardians. "There is certainly nothing to be said for standing back and letting them give you it.

It is important that the Labour Party should take a stand on this Bill. There hasn't been any real lead from Transport House, though. 'It's up to people at the next election to put in a Labour government and make sure it does what it should. ers Press, Tuesday May 30, 1972 PAGE 11

ITV

12.40 Outlook. 1.15 Time to re- member. 1.45 Racing from San- ut. down Park. 2.15 Houseparty.

ca- 2.30 Good afternoon; 3.00 San- down racing. 3.45 Danger man.

4.40 Once upon a time. 4.55 Junior showtime. 5.20 Magpie.

5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY.

6.30 CROSSROADS.

6.55 ALBERT: If He'd Meant us to Fly.

7.25 FILM: 'VENGEANCE VAL-

Lancaster, LEY': Burt Robert Walker, Joanne Dru. Western.

9.00 CRIME

PASSION.

Janine.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 TOO LATE TOMORROW.

Film about people waiting for kidney transplants.

11.15 THE

TWO • WHEEL

WORLD. Drive-in special.

11.45 IS IT A HANDICAP?

8.50 WHEELBASE.

9.20 THE SIX WIVES

OF HENRY VIII. Catherine • Howard. 10.50 NEWS ON 2 and weather.

10.55 THE OLD GREY WHISTLE

TEST. Focus,, Don Mac- Lean. chairman of Fulham housing committee, fighting the law when the rents Bill is 'Could a General Election come quickly? I suppose the unions could force one if they wanted it-and I think we would win.

'As far as the last Labour government's housing policies there were concerned, was nothing more disastrous than the Housing Act 1969. 'Houses we bought for £2,000- £3,000 to improve went out of our hands and are now being sold for £30,000. 'The Labour government ought to come down for the municipali- zation of rented property. As long as people make profit out of keeping tenants in bad housing conditions it'll always be the same. 'And there is a strong case for more state control of finance and the provision of low free interest rates over a long period.

Only in this way can we return to housing as a social service,' added Mr Powell.

Election ceasefire mooted in Derry PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday May 3

FARMWORKERS'

THE

demand for a 50 per cent pay rise to a minimum of £25 for a 40-hour, five-day week was not 'an extravagant pipe- dream', Reg Bottini, the gen- the eral secretary of National Union of Agricul- tural and Allied Workers said yesterday. He was speaking at a rally at Barford • in Warwickshire com- memorating the founding of the first national farmworkers' union 100 years ago. Farmworkers' wages had always been below average earnings in towns. In the past 100 years the gap had narrowed from 50 per cent to 30 per cent. 'In cash terms that gap is run- ning now at about f10 a week. Reg Bottini The cost of living is likely to join rise considerably when we the Common Market,' he said.

'Our claim would represent an increase of 50 per cent on the minimum of f16.20 a present week. If that seems an extrava- - gant claim, it merely reflects the inadequate awards we have had in recent years.' Many of Bottini's members will be puzzled by his truculent words. They will recall that only a year ago he settled a claim which amounted to less than 10 per cent. MOVES are being made to try and exclude the Com. munist Party from any say in the policy-making body of the Co-operative Party. The Co-operative Congress in Scarborough this week will be asked to endorse a call from Co- secretary Ted operative Party Graham that all delegates to his must be signed-up conference Labour Party members. The Co-operative Party spon- sors 15 Labour MPs, six of whom voted for the Common Market with the Tories. are aimed most The moves specifically at the London Co- From page 1 Meanwhile dockers in the pri- vate ports of Felixstowe, Har- wich and Ipswich may not sup- port the strike. All these a arguments are response to direct pressure from Tory Cabinet and the employers-as is the toothless attitude of the rail union chiefs.

also reflected This pressure is in the attitude of the Labour leaders on the eve of these crucial class battles. According to Reginald Pren- tice, Shadow Employment Min- summere industrial lace i summer only they would 'change course and 'seek solu- constructive tions'. The political reality, however, is that the Tories are prepar- ing for struggle. Trade unionists must stop their leaders' retreat and do likewise.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

01-622 7029 day May 30, 1972 FIVE THOUSAND demonstra- tors marched through Derry on Sunday calling for peace.

Although 4,000 IRA support- ers mounted a counter-demon- gained stration, that the Provisionals rumours ground were considering a seven-day cease-fire.

BRITAIN

was in a pre- situation revolutionary where the ruling class was not only preparing for a General Strike, but for possible civil war. SLL Central Committee member Mike Banda, gave this warning to a 750-strong public meeting of the Socialist Labour League which packed London's Beaver Hall on Sunday. The force behind this major confrontation was the world eco- nomic crisis of capitalism. This now governed all relationships between the working class and the Tory government. America's decision to with- draw gold from the dollar on year had August 15 last smashed the equilibrium estab- lished by the capitalist powers af the Bretton Woods confer?

ence in 1944. To withstand these interna- tional convulsions the Tories were desperate for entry into Europe. *Everything now is subordin- ated to entry into the Common Markei, the policy cf European construction mergers, multi-national corporations and the looming trade war with lapan operative Society. The Les board of directors is dominated by an alliance of CP members and 'left" Labourites. LCS President David Ainley, is also of the who secretary 'Morning Star' trust, will move an amendment this week which says any retail society contribut- ing to Co-operative Party funds anyone to the nominate can annual conference. the LCS political com- And mittee, in which the Communist has much influence, last Party week proposed the society, the biggest individual subscriber to

WEATHER

MIDLANDS, eastern England and East Anglia will be dry and first, but scattered sunny at showers will develop by after- Southern England and noon. Wales will have scattered show- ers and sunny periods but. over Northern North-West England, Ireland and Scotland the showers will be more frequent and also heavy at times, particularly dur- ing the morning and afternoon.

Temperatures generally near or a little below normal but never- theless a little warmer than of late. Outlook for Wednesday and Thursday: Becoming sunnier with scattered showers but probably some more general rain in the south later. Becoming warmer.

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

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), 180b Clapham High Street, London.

SWA 7UG.

It is understood the Provi- en sionals anxious that are elections in •Free 15 June Derry' should take place in an 'free- atmosphere of peace and dom from tension'. • Formal statements insist that IRA operations will only be suspended if there is an amnesty for all political prisoners, the By OUR OWN REPORTERS States,' and the United said comrade Banda. This would massive mean attacks. on the working class. To prepare for this battle the Tories had activated plans to construct a corporate state in Britain. The Workers Press and the SLL were the first to warn about They this great danger. were accused by other political groups, like • the revisionist International Socialists and the International of 'panic-mongering' Marxists, But now even the paper of the Labour Party 'left' MPs 'Tribune' recognized that the corporate state was on the agenda. To carry through this plan, said comrade Banda, the Tories • needed the co-operation and the connivance of the trade union leaders. 'Victor Feather of the TUC talks about the working class loosing a wicket but not the cricket match. In fact the Tories have taken up all the stumps, assaulted some of the leading batsmen and they are in control of the field. If the trade union they are going to leaders think win this kind of game they are.

sadly mistaken. I was never very good at cricket I don't think it has much relevance for winning the class struggle. He said that Tory Chancellor the Co-op Party, should affiliate directly to the Labour Party, Dos- sibly opening the door for a seat on the LP's national executive.

THE TORIES seem to be taking uncommon interest in the an affairs of the Co-operative Move- ment. Yesterday 'The Times' joined the chorus with a leading article on the Co-op. Most significantly it declared: ... the validity of the co- operative system cannot be secure until the principle of consumer democracy is translated into a more effective championing of shopper causes, without political bias? (Our emphasis.)

ALL TRADES

ALLIANCE A

Support the dockers and rail- waymen. Build Councils of Action

SOUTH LONDON:

Tuesday June 6, 8 p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, Clapham Manor Street, SW4. WEST LONDON: Tuesday June 6, 8 'Prince Wharfedale Road, Kings Cross.

p.m. NORTH LONDON: Thursday 8 p.m. 'Bricklayers Arms ® June Tottenham High (nr White Hart Lane). CROYDON: Thursday June 8, 8 p.m. 'The Anchor' (corner of Souhbridge Road and South End). LUTON: Thursday June 8, 8 p.m. St John Ambulance Brigade Hall, Lea Road. SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thurs- day June 8, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers' Club (opposite New Cross Station). SOUTHALL: Thursday June 8, 8 p.m. Parkway Rooms (Rent Office), Estate, Racecourse Northolt. vi- end of Stormont and the with- drawal of British troops from ree Ulster's streets. There was only one explosion in Derry on Sunday, but at Bel- fast six people died and 18 were injured in blasts and shootings.

say the six Army sources were killed while handling an IRA bomb in transit, but Bel- John Simmance, YS national secretary Anthony Barber had spelt out the real game when he warned rail leaders that the issue of who should rule Britain-the Tories or the unions-was at stake in the recent dispute. The Industrial Relations Act had a dialectic of its own. It had forced many workers to realize the issues of wages and that defence of rights require a poli- tical solution. This resistance to Tory policy had to be concentrated in one movement to force the Tory government to resign. This was what the call for Councils of Action by the League meant, said comrade Banda.

This was why the building of the revolutionary leadership to working in guide the class battle was so essential. The trans- formation of the SLL into a full there- revolutionary party was, fore, the most burning question of the day, he said. Young Socialist national secre- tary. John Simmance said the youth movement had to face up to this new situation and fight with workers to develop a political revolutionary con- sciousness. 'We base ourselves on the fighting strength of the working class and their ability to deteat the Tery government.' Al Reed, an overseas telegraph- ist, said Heath's weekend surrender' speech was a sign of 'the economic crisis speaking through Heath'. 'This is not a mad dog gov- ernment, he said. 'Heath and

ADES UNIONS

CE MEETINGS

GLASGOW: Tuesday June 6, Room 1, Partick 7.30 p.m. Burgh Hall. EAST LONDON: Tuesday May 'Aberfeldy', Aber- 30, 8 p.m. feldy St, E14. 'Fight the Tories' rent Bill'. AYLESHAM: Thursday June 1, 8 p.m. The Legion (Old Work- ing Men's Club), Burgess Road. 'Fight the Tories' rent Bill'. COALVILLE: Thursday June 8, 8 Miners' Welfare. p.m. 'Organize Councils of Action'.

ACTON: Monday June 5, 8 p.m.

Co-op Hall, High Road. 'Fight the Tories' rent Bill'. NORTH KENT: Tuesday June 6, 8 p.m. SOGAT House, 25 Essex Rd, Dartford. 'Engineers' pay claim'. DAGENHAM: Tuesday June 6, 8 р.m. Co-op Hall, Fanshawe Ave, Barking. 'Industrial Rela- tions Act' fast Provisional command says the men died after they went to investigate a car driven into the Catholic Short Strand area from another part of the city..

Protestants Ulster Defence Association spent yes- terday drilling in ranks behind token barricades due to come down at midnight last night.

Mike Banda, SLL Central Committee Nixon aren't mad dog. men. Pushing behind them is the eco- nomic crisis. 'We are now in a situation of world wide recession and trade war. Each capitalist country is going to try to resolve its own economic crisis by sorting out its is working There class. an which explosion due here soon will put the 1926 General Strike in the shade? Liverpocl docker John McGuin- nes warned cf the union leaders' role in the dock strike. 'If these leaders think they will treat the dockers like the old Duke of York treated his troops, they are mistaken. They will not lead us un a blind alley this time.' He welcomes the SLL appeal revolutionary build a party. 'This is , essential for the working class,' he said. Frank McCabe, Yorkshire a miner, said the Tories had come the miners' back after strike with the Industrial Relations Act 'to beat dockers and railwaymen over the head'. the determination Referring to of the dockers to resist the gov- said: "The dockers ernment he He said that without politics present-day fights of the the working class could not be won.

He supported the formation of Councils of Action 'dedicated to fighting the cne class enemy'.

financial appeal the A Workers Press raised the grand total of £95.16.

MAY FUND:

TWO DAYS

LEFT TO RAISE

LATEST

contributions to our Fund of £112.10 brought the this total far SO month to £1,552.36. Another and spurt we will make it. As Heath and the Tories get ready for the major fight, the strength of the working class must be mobilized. Workers Press must go forward to lead this struggle. We urge you all— we have two days left—go all out to collect as much as you can to. make sure our Fund this month is collected in time.

Rush every last-minute dona- tion to : Workers Press May Fund, 186A Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG.