Workers Press no. 823

workers press Dockers and transport drivers must

SAVE JOBS

INCORPORATING THE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

STATEMENT BY THE POLITICAL COMMITTEE OF

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

NO DOCKER can tolerate the loss of even a single job amongst transport drivers or container workers, no transport driver or container worker can tolerate the loss of a single job amongst dockers.

Unity of dockers and transport drivers against their common enemy-the employers— is a basic principle.

It is the key to the present tragic and dangerous situation of picketing and counter-picketing as rival groups of workers scramble of transport-industry jobs.

for a shrinking pool Responsibility for the scramble rests squarely with the worth- less reformist policies of the union leaders and their Stalinist hangers-on of the Communist Party.

More than 20,000 jobs have been lost by registered dockers over the last seven years. The non-registered labour force in the indus- try has shrunk by at least an equal amount. Yet the leaders of the Transport and General Workers' Union, which organizes the vast majority of workers in both sectors, led no fight against the ruth- less rationalization, speed-up a torrent of technical change in and breakdown of established The result? without a policy. working practices which made Picketing and counter-picketing, these massive cuts possible.

with the employers and the Tory cackling up their government They the Devlin eulogized sleeves on the sidelines.

report of 1965 dawn of as the a new age on the docks, signed Behind the dockers' Coate. behind their docks agreements ous and determined fight to members' enabling backs con- livelihoods defend their lies staff their tainer operators to situation where more than 1,600 depots on the cheap and fought nationally have been forced onto desperately to hand the port the temporarily unattached reg- the conditions employers they ister. (TUR). exploit containeriza- needed tion to the full. and above this, Over the employers say one in every seven On the roads, they led no fight dockers who are attached to an against the tachograph and other employer really are surplus to measures which helped haulage their needs. They plan to get rid firms pare their payrolls down of up to 10,000 men over the to the absolute limit. next three years. At stage did they Instead of mobilizing his win struggle seriously to the union's strength to defeat these benefits of the changes in tech- plans, Jack Jones, the

T&GWU

for their members nique secretary, sits down comfortably through full nationalization of with ex-Tory Party chairman the ports and road-haulage Lord Aldington to work out how without and compensation they can persuade his members under workers control. to disappear peacefully. Dockers, container workers or Meanwhile the Stalinists take drivers who came into conflict the heat off Jones by organizing with these policies found them- a campaign to force individual conflict with the Stal- selves in employers to give dockers jobs inists, too. which are at present done by and large by members of their All along the line the Stalin- own union. ists covered up for the T&GWU chiefs. In 1965, it was Jack Dash This can now be seen as a and his Liaison Committee that cynical diversion. helped boost the Devlin report.

was Dash and his committee The number of jobs dockers in 1967 and 1969 who guaran- can hope to win this way is teed the implementation of both pathetically small. Some reports of Devlin 'moderniza- that few 500 phases say as are aS l tion'. involved nationally. Today, with thousands more But such is the nature of the jobs in the industry threatened technical revolution in the indus-

T&GWU

try that, as at UK Cold Storage with extinction the the Stalinists have Dagenham today, employers chiefs and the struggle for like Ford are able simply again put to nationalization on the shelf.

shift their contracts out of the area altogether rather than con- Workers in every section of

TURN TO PAGE 12

the industry are thus cast adrift

NG THE NEWSLETTER

• FRIDAY JULY 21, 1972 • No.

823 • 4p

NTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Private detectives Garry Murray (left) and Eurotec William Laslett of yesterday photographed by Workers Press outside the National Industrial Relations Court. One of the gentlemen dropped his brief- case in his haste to make contact with our photographer. See report of their minute- by-minute surveillance of dockers' pickets on page 12. SIR John Donaldson, president

BY PHILIP WADE

of the National Industrial Re- lations Court, will give judge- On July 7 the court issued an ment today on whether seven order against the calling Couan London dockers should be on them to stop blacking committed to jail for contempt nationally firms crossing their of court. picket line outside the Midland The men accused of breaking Cold Storage depot in Hackney the court's Tuly 7 Vic order are Shortlv before the end ol Turner, Bernie Steer. Derek Wat- yesterday's day-long hearing Mr kins. Anthony Merrick, Cornelius Robert Alexander. on behalf of Clancy, Ronald Hedges and the Official Solicitor. said there Edward Hedges.

AIL

the was insufficient evidence to com- men refused to attend court. mit to prison four of the seven Let history judge Stalinism From next Monday Workers Press will be publishing an important series or articies on une nise ol Stalinism, the purges and repression of the Stalin era and the reason for the bureaucratic degeneration of tne soviet Union.

The articles begin with an examination in detail of the first independent analysis of Stalinism to come out of the Soviet Union, Roy Medvedev's 'Let History both how Judge' show They wnat is valo in meovedev s work confirms what Trotsky about Stalinism at the said time and how it talls short of what Is required. Make sure that you place your order for the Workers Press now.

Tel. 01-622 7029 Dock pickets judged today dockers, including Mr Turner and Mr Steer. Last month Turner and

MIT

Mr Steer narrowly missed being committed to (Pentonville when they defied court orders re- and blacking picketing Jaune te of Chobham Farm the depot. ouratord During yesterday's case evi- dence was again presented the aelecuvE agency for the Midland eurotec management • See Page 12.

workers press Dockers and transport drivers must

SAVE JOBS

INCORPORATING THE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

STATEMENT BY THE POLITICAL COMMITTEE OF

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

NO DOCKER can tolerate the loss of even a single job amongst transport drivers or container workers, no transport driver or container worker can tolerate the loss of a single job amongst dockers.

Unity of dockers and transport drivers against their common enemy-the employers— is a basic principle.

It is the key to the present tragic and dangerous situation of picketing and counter-picketing as rival groups of workers scramble for a shrinking pool of transport-industry jobs.

Responsibility for the scramble rests squarely with the worth- less reformist policies of the union leaders and their Stalinist hangers-on of the Communist Party.

More than 20,000 jobs have been lost by registered dockers over The non-registered labour force in the indus- the last seven years. try has shrunk by at least an equal amount. Yet the leaders of the Transport and General Workers' Union, which organizes the vast majority of workers in both sectors, led no fight against the ruth- less rationalization, speed-up in a torrent of technical change and breakdown of established result? without policy. The working practices which made Picketing and counter-picketing, these massive cuts possible.

with the employers and the Tory cackling their up government eulogized They the Devlin sleeves on the sidelines.

report of 1965 dawn of as the a new age on the docks, signed Behind the dockers' courage- behind their agreements docks and determined fight ous to members' backs enabling con- defend their livelihoods lies tainer operators to staff their situation where more than 1,600 depots on the cheap and fought nationally have been forced onto desperately band the port the temporarily unattached reg- the conditions they employers ister. (TUR). needed to exploit containeriza- tion to the full. Over and above this, the employers say one in every seven On the roads, they led no fight dockers who are attached to an against the tachograph and other employer are really surplus to measures which helped haulage They plan to get rid their needs. firms their payrolls down pare of up to 10,000 men over the to the absolute limit. next three years. A+ did they no stage Instead of mobilizing his struggle seriously to win the union's strength to these defeat benefits of the changes in tech- plans, Jack Jones, the

T&GWU

for their nique members secretary, sits down comfortably through full nationalization of with ex-Tory Party chairman the ports and road-haulage Lord Aldington to work out how without compensation and they persuade his members roni under workers' control. to disappear peacefully. Dockers, container workers or Meanwhile the Stalinists take conflict drivers who came into the heat off Jones by organizing with these policies found them- a campaign to force individual selves in conflict with the Stal- employers to give dockers jobs inists, too. which are at present done by and large by members of their All along the line the Stalin-

T&GWU

own union. ists covered up for the 1965. it was lack Dash chiefs. In This be seen as a can. and his Liaison Committee that cynical diversion. helped boost the Devlin report. Dash The number of jobs It and his committee dockers tart) c in 1967 and 1969 who guaran. can hope win this wav is teed the implementation of both pathetically small. Some reports phases 'moderniza- of Devlin that few 500 say as as are tion'. involved nationallv. Todav. But such is the nature of the with thousands more jobs in the industry threatened technical revolution in the indus-

T&GWU

Cold Storage try that, as with extinction the at chiefs and the Stalinists have in Dagenham today, employers the like Ford struggle for are able simply to again put nationalization on the shelf.

shift their of the contracts out area altogether rather than con- Workers in every section of

TURN TO PAGE 12

the industry are thus cast adrift NG THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY JULY 21, 1972 • No. 823 • 4p

NTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Private detectives Garry Murray (left) and William Laslett of Eurotec yesterday photographed by Workers Press outside the National Industrial Relations Court One of the gentlemen dropped his brief- case in his haste to make contact with our photographer. See report of their minute.

by-minute surveillance of dockers' pickets on page 12. SIR John Donaldson, president

BY PHILIP WADE

of the National Industrial Re- lations Court, will give judge- On July 7 the court issued an ment today on whether seven order against the seven calling London dockers shouid be them to blacking on stop committed to jail for contempt firms nationally crossing their of court. picket line outside the Midland The men accused of breaking Cold Storage depot in Hackney.

the court's luly 7 order are Vic Shortly before end Turner, Bernie Steer, Derek Wat- day-long hearing Mr vesterdav's kins, Anthony Merrick, Cornelius Alexander. Robert behalf of on Clancy, Ronald Hedges Solicitor, and the Official said there Edward Hedges. All the was insufficient evidence to com- men refused to attend court. mit to prison four of the seven From next Monday Workers Press Will be publishing an important series of articles on the rise of Stalinism, the purges and repression of the Stalin era and the reason for the bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet Union.

The articles begin with an examination in detail of the first independent analysis of Stalinism to come out of the Soviet Union, Roy Medvedev's 'Let History Judge'. They show both how what is valid in Mededev's work confirms what Trotsky said about Stalinism at the time and how it falls short of what is required Make sure that you place your order for the Workers Press now.

Tel. 01-622 7029. dockers, including Mr Turner and Mr Steer. Last month Mr Turner. and Mr Steer narrowly missed being committed to Pentonville prison when they defied court orders re- lating to picketing and blacking of the Chobham depot, Farm Stratford. During yesterday's case evi- dence was again presented by the private detective agency, Midland Eurotec, for the management. See Page 12.

US banks back the dollar PAGE 2 Workers Press, Friday July 21, WE HAVE previously commented 'Oz' man Richard Neville's on servile adulation for James Reid, Communist Party leader of the work-in. so-called upper Clyde Now he's at it again. In his £75-a-week column in the Beaverbrook 'Evening Stan- dard', the drop-out Neville says: ' have occasionally been moved by political oratory, such as by Jimmy Reid in Glasgow, but he was speaking not to me, but for me.' In a previous column in the same newspaper, Neville wrote rapturously about Stalinist Reid: 'Gone was the cheap left sectarianism and the dank rear- vision bureaucracy. No party trace of forelock wrenching, in- feriority or the mystical belief that some people were born to rule. After 16 weeks • they have claimed to have shown not only that they can run an industry as well as the govern- ment, but better... Neville went on: 'It was difficult not to be swept men and women audience. Especially as the crowd roared approval of Reid's closing declaration that it should be the intention of everyone of them to make this earth as nearer to paradise as human ingenuity will allow.' It is now 12 months since this appalling rubbish first appeared • print, and yet Neville is still touting the stained colours of Reid. Yet what is the 'paradise on earth' which Reid and his Stalinist colleagues have wrought Clydeside? The four-yard on policy has been abandoned and not-a-man-down-the-road' the policy is a cruel farce. At least 2,000 men have lost their jobs in the Tory 'reorganization' of the yards. When Tory Trade and Industry Secretary John Davies recently announced that a measly hand- out would be given to the new Govan Shipbuilders, the bare remnants of the old UCS, James Airlie, Reid's main henchman on the Clyde, declared that that was 'a statesmanlike decision' Airlie went on: 'In our opinion up to their responsibility for this industry and also for the community a whole. as Regardless of the differences we have had in the past, we have to say the government has taken the correct decision and we welcome it and congratulate them.' The aghast man from The Guardian' later said in his article that it must be one of the warmest comments ever passed by a communist on a Conservative government'. But just as Airlie's warm embrace of the, Tory government is no accident, Neville's embrace of Reid is no accident either.

Neville is consciously hostile to the working class. He regards the working class with contempt and as a bunch of 'hard hats' He identifies with Reid's views so closely because he sees Reid manipulating his audience with reformist and Utopian rubbish.

But this sort of patronage of class cannot be the working sustained. When the masses start to march, Reid and Neville, with all the pretenders, along will be swept aside. THE US central bank has to buy time intervened the foreign On exchange markets for the first time since August 15 in sup- port of the dollar. The move Wednesday came wiel US central the bank sold German marks to keep the But the high point of dollar within the limits agreed in last December's reshuffle of major currency values.

crisis is yet to come by the perral was ve undertaken Bank New York which behalf acts on Ministry spokesman said that the Nixon was forced to suspend of the Us central banking svstem convertibility of the dollar last He d lall Although the lapanese by lowering mone- more because means authorities welcomed the American exchange reserves still Sundort is see no main there.

Lal y further. still as a return to con- vertibility Americans were forced and restoration I le DOsIUon $35- Bretton Woods Loe pre-Augus

SITU

G1ICN

most ikely cause or the ation, it is of the sort. gold system because short-run change in US polic Much mark 25 of combined Washington's nearer was years reaction which deficits and betone-of-ps ments Bonn's turope s rinance US support scepticism that the denciTs eroced Ivinisters which endea in London operation could last holdings and at the same time earlier this week. of smallness of pumped mass unwanted, Faced considerable unbacked dollars into the Euro- political crisis. American monelary reserves economic ana An Economics and Finance pean banking system. is clear that Europe not Expulsions mark turn to right in Egypt Sadat, Gaddafi and Assad of Egypt, Libya and Syria, who combined with the blessing of the Stalinists

BY JOHN SPENCER

wards accommodation with

PRESIDENT

Anwar Sadat's imperialism, Sadat's complaints to the 20,000 OuSL about soviet Soviet military personnel trom supply arms advancea Egypt are the culmination of leaders of were executing smokescreen to get closer to the the the right the Sudanese working class. markea lurn United States death of Gamal since The clearest indication of this One reason for the Sudanese Nasser in September Abdul massacre was the CP's opposition is his new-found cordiality to- 1970. cards state of rabia, wards Saudi the classic reacuonary •plan the international federate Egypt, Libya, Syria and stood by The Soviet leaders the Sudan. monopores Since 1967 of left-wing stration tne war sadals Egypt, Libya and Syria like Aly Sabry and former bombastic calls for war with now federated, with the approval Israel have fooled hobody about minister General of the pro-soviet taction witnin Fawzi. une lact maar ne nas no intenuon the •Syrian Communist Party, of undertaking any such thing.

which joined The trial of these men, who the earlier this year at the Kremlin's Reuter reported yesterday that were given long prison sentences, urging. US officials in Washington saw ¡onowed Druldi Sudanese massacre com- the ousting of the soviet advisers The Soviet leaders have pur munists in July. as a golden opportunity to move consistent towards eventual peace in the Carried out by Sudanese presi- alliance nationalist Middle East'. Numeiry dent Jafaar with bourgeoisie al ine expense or the independent movement They that acuve assistance. ine consider the de- bloodbath drew only token pro- working class cision could well open the way Soviet leaders. from the tests leaders The have towaras a resumDuon _OT Aran. Top Soviet dignatories appeared maintained this alliance so long Israeli settlement talks aimed at at Egyptian state parades while as it suited their purpose territorial deal beween the two across the border Sadat's allies But they are now moving to- Ceylon revolt leaders in court

THE

TRIAL

of 41 weera, leader the staged under the Justice Maoist leaders. outlawed People's Lib- this month people accused of plot- commission

ACL

mariler cently rushed through China announced a mas- eration front (VP) and ting last year's abortive Susil Siriwardene, the parliament. The civil interest-free lUdl former April uprising in Ceylon leading deprives accustu nel government. is due to begin tomor- servant most either legal richso number the and allows the court to Meanwhile the pro- row in Colombo. have said they them Chinese sentence Communist will conduct their own without split monisonmeal Shas GOWn who possibility of appeal. those trial the middle. section erence winer The stand trial are opens at the Old Queen's Çeylon premier Mrs of its central committee will Samuel Dias Bandaran- Club, once the Sirimavo exclusive claims sandaranaıke laye aike, nephew of former secretary preserve walte Has returned to colombe venera Ban- settlers in Ceylon. after visiting China at Shunmugathasan who is nremier colomon trials in China. daranaike, Rohan Wije- The being the

MORE FOREIGN NEWS P. 11

prepared to give in immediately to American pressure for a series of revaluations of the Common Market currencies against the dollar. • The American banks also are determined to make sure that when any European revaluations take place, they will not be the ones left holding the unwanted and devalued dollars in the Euro-dollar market. The Americans are trying to buy a little time, knowing that the high point of the crisis is imminent. In the coming weeks the latest half-yearly US balance- of-trade figures will be published.

Already the financial •is press speculating nervously on the size of the deficit. Whatever its size, it can only speculation lead renewed to against the dollar and increased pressure on the Europeans for a revaluation of their currencies.

In other words, events are moving not only towards another major currency crisis, but also a series of revaluations which will mean a full-blown trade war.

university THREE Belgrade students are on trial in Yugo- slavia accused of attending the International Rally of Revolu- tionary Youth in Essen, West Germany, last July. Nikolic, The three - Milan Pavlusko Imsirovic and Jelka Kljajic-are charged with "asso- ciațion against the people and the state' and have been under arrest since January. agency dis- A Tanyug news the trial says: It is patch on alleged that they organized an and established "illegal group" links with foreign students and groups with a hostile attitude to- wards Yugoslavia and whose aim was to revive the Fourth Inter- national. The prosecutor maintains that Imsirovic, as the representative of this group, attended the so- called international Trotskyite congress in Essen last July: 'At the time of their arrest, the accused were found to be in possession of illegal docu ments, brochures, translated ex- from Trotskyite journals tracts and such like. 'According to the indictment the three intended to found in Yugoslavia an illegal Trotskyite with the aim of over- party throwing socio-political the system. The accused deny nearly all the charges.' This report gives the lie to all those revisionist tendencies which picture the Tito bureau- cracy as having broken defini- tively from Stalinism. It also makes nonsense of the book 'From Trotsky to Tito' written by British Stalinist James Klugmann as part of the Krem- lin's campaign against Yugoslavia after 1949. The Yugoslav Communist Party leaders their reserve bitterest hatred for those who fight for the political revolution in the deformed workers' states.

• JAROMIR LITTERA, former secretary of the Prague Com- Party Committee, was munist sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment on charges of subversion in Prague yester- day. Mr Littera, a leading party theoretician in the liberal era of Alexandr Dubcek in 1968 and 1969, was accused of producing a clandestine chronicle, court- room sources said. Josef Stehlik, a former Com- munist Party worker in the Cen- was sentenced to two years in Mr Rocek, a qualified worker, and a Mrs Svobodova, said to be a secretary, were both given sus- pended sentences of one year's imprisonment.

Dear Editor, it is now not affecting the The aim of the building workers' employers' pockets All at all. building sites should be picketed.

action well as fighting for the £35 claim-is to stop the No materials or machinery should lump To be or off the contract system. do brought on site. this there be You have all-out must com- to have an promise whatsoever the strike on because of the nature of the industry. claim. A man on the lump would not In the Bletchley development work for less than £50. If he got centre on a Wimpey site the job £35 and cards stamped, holiday has stopped and the site picketed.

Wimpey have simply pay and shorter bours it would But moved be their machinery to another site.

an incentive to work direct.

In the opinion my way the Now they'll wait for a settle- union is fighting for the claim then they'll have ment and by it will linger on for months. The made a fat profit on the building people who were first of houses somewhere else.

on strike be the people The union organizers at Bletch- will who suffer most. ley told us we could please our- Everything should be selves. If we didn't want to come stopped out on strike we could move to and the industry brought to halt. If of possible the sale another site. houses should be stopped on new One union official-believed to be a Communist Party member- estates. Workers in building materials said: 'We're coming out on Monday If you production should be asked strike morning. to work there's come out in sympathy. want to carry on The of bricklayers way the strike is going plenty work tor THE flm SHEPHERD'S Market Hall site in mid-Preston which would have been finished in six weeks has been hit by the building workers' selected site strike campaign.

The 46 men still working on the project began picketing the site yesterday.

Another site now on strike is the Guild Hall Construction work being conducted project. is there by John Turner and company plus other sub- contractors. Alan Moore, a picket at the Market Hall site, said: 'We should have had a national strike.

This time we're going to squash the lump.

"The Charter Group have backed down. They gave the union leadership a lead. but now thev'v dropped back to union policy. Ne've got to Tories out to get a Labour Party back. It's the the only way we'll keep jobs and get our money. We need more left wingers in the Labour Party' Another one of the pickets said: If we don't get these wage increases this time, there'll be no union left.' AFTER 18 weeks the strike of 70 tool- makers at Smiths Industries, Crickle- wood, North London, is over.

Full work will resume after the holiday period on July 31. The terms of the settle- ment are a basic increase of all day while

AUEW

officials £2.40 for tried to them that the everyone, plus a settlement was the best they merit rating for the highest- could get. paid workers of £l to £1.50.

Hints were also made that the A bonus payment of £l will district levy which been be paid immediately, with addi- sustaining the strike for several tional bonus of 50p would increases weeks not go indefi- after the first month and a fur- nitely. ther 50p after the second month.

The final vote to the accept 44 with settlement was to 16 A strike committee spokes- several abstentions. man said the maximum increase anyone could would 'Most of the lads get be are not £5.90. happy, spokesman entirely 'but we have done the best The management refused said, make any concessions on shorter possible and finally had to hours. accept the advice of our negotia- The original claim was for The settlement of course, is in domestic increase of £6, plus the AUEW national claim of £6 and line with many other recent a 35-hour week. the engineering settlements in Further negotiations on bonus industry where the employers are improvements will take prepared to make cash place minimal within two months of resuming concessions, but will not budge work. The men also agreed to a the of important question clause which they had shorter hours. rejected earlier that they use their own After 18 weeks on the picket Smiths' tools. line the toolmakers are Many of the strikers were very tasting the fruits of Scanlon's reluctant to the accept settle- abandonment of the national ment. A meeting on Tuesday of of plant-by- claim in favour all the toolmakers lasted almost plant bargaining. advise you I'll to go to SO Shanley's? It is hopeless to think that can get the wage claim you without everybody out. The unions will probably try to settle for wage increases like the last time-ls 6d an hour spread over three years! The Post Office workers had no money, but they went on strike. Our union officials think they're sitting pretty. You get a few men on strike and a few working. Even if they'd only worked to rule we'd be better off than we are now. These actions of the union leaders are in line with the sell- out of the TUC in backing down Industrial Relations over Act. They're just Tory puppets.

The building workers will be left in the cold unless they fight to build a new leadership in the unions. Bedfordshire building worker NO

BOOKS • PERI

Workers Pres! DRIVERS from Manchester, Bir- mingham, Cardiff and Stoke lobbied their union leaders yes- terday to make sure they did not accept tachographs ('spies in the cab') at their meeting of the National Trade Group at Trans- port House. When after four hours of dis- cussions the question of tacho- graphs had not come up, the lobbyists stormed into the meet- ing and put their case. They received an assurance from Trade Group Secretary Ken Jackson that it was still union policy to oppose their introduc- tion. They claim that transport employers have been putting on increasing pressure for the acceptance of these devices and they are afraid the union officials accept them for a conces- will sion on wages. But Ron Riley, shop a steward at Harold F. Ward Ltd, Birmingham and a member of the powerful T&GWU 5/35 branch said: The workers won't have them at any price. It's worse than having a foreman in the cab with you. It can check every gear-change you make and even how hard you brake. Below: A little light relief the lobby yesterday when On Japanese transport union mem- bers on a trip to Britain posed with lobbyists NO

S • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

kers Press, Friday July 21, 1972 PAGE 3

OVER

350 at workers British-Leyland's basıng- stoke heavy transmission sub- sidiary still face the sack as a result of Lord Stokes' decision to sell the company to an American firm. The 50-acre site on which Transport Equipment Thornycroft stands has been sold to a pro- company for f2tm. The perty factory itself has gone to the Eaton Corporation of Ohio.

Eaton has only taken a three- year lease on the site and plans immediately to sack 350 work- ending all non-transmission ers, work at the factory. The deal-presented as a fait accompli to the workforce — is due to come into effect on October 1. Meanwhile the revisionists of the International Marxist Group seeking the are support Basingstoke's small shopkeepers in a 'campaign' to keep the fac- tory going. That was one of the ideas dis- cussed at a local Liaison Com- mittee for the Defence of Trade Unions meeting this week. Other bankrupt proposals put forward included a petition of all Bas- ingstoke residents. • For a full report of the Thornycroft story see next page. PRODUCTION of Spanzelle is still at a standstill in Cour- taulds Main Works, Coventry.

The 44 workers on strike are refusing to work under a new agreement which requires total flexibility of labour. It forces production workers to do all forms of cleaning- from windows to toilets-during and means that waiting time eight jobs will be lost in the.

plant. The workers were prepared to return under the old agreement, but is de- the management termined to enforce the new deal. Many workers believe this is also the basis of negotiations for a deal including all Transport and General workers on the they say, has the site. This, obvious danger of more re- dundancies. Local T&GWU officials have been criticized for not making the strike official. They are using the excuse that seven days' strike notice had not been given.

Present stocks of Spanzelle have been loaded and trans- ported by T&GWU members since the strike began. Workers in the Courlose plant on the same site, who struck when a steward was sacked for smoking, returned to work when he was reinstated with a fortnight's suspension.

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 a.m.—6 p.m. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Friday July 21, '

BY PHILIP WADE

British-Leyland is going full ahead with a deal involving the sale of land to a property company, a factory to an American company and redundan- cies for hundreds of workers. shop Union officials and stewards are extremely dis- turbed about the nature of the deal at Leyland's Basingstoke heavy transmission plant of Transport Equipment Thorny- croft. Last month officials of the engineering and transport in by unions were called Thornycroft management and presented with a list of shocks.

It will double unemploy- ment in the Hampshire new town. At the same time the deal has raised about f5m in for cash the financially- troubled British Leyland The company had sold the 50-acre factory site union men were told. The buyer-a pro- perty company. The factory it- self had been sold to the Eaton Corporation of Ohio.

The American firm-speci- alists in designing and manu- facturing transmissions-would take over operations from October 1. About 350 of the 1,100-strong labour force would be 1 made redundant immediately. Procedure torn to was shreds on the spot. Last December a new agreement was reached with the com- pany on redundancy procedure following a bitter strike against sackings the previous June.

The opening paragraph had stressed that in the likelihood of further redundancies the position would first be dis- cussed at local level with the trade unions. The workers at the plant immediately struck back on hearing the news. A work-to- rule has been launched and last week one section had a sit-in strike in protest against the deal. The powerful British-Ley- land combine shop stewards' executive committee has prom- ised support for any action the Thornycroft workers may take in defence of their jobs.

The plant has been estab- lished in Basingstoke for about 25 years. It became part of British-Leyland when Lord Stokes' Leyland Motors group merged with BMC in 1968. But it is clear that virtually since the merger the company has been stepping into deeper and deeper finan- cial waters. British-Leyland's debts to Barclays Bank — its main source of working finance — have grown to the mountain- ous figure of £100m. And Barclays are getting impatient and demanding the overdraft be reduced. July 21, 1972 Last February the 1971 returns announced showed a £32.4m profit before tax. But the Stock Market wiped almost £5m off Leyland's shares when the company said it was having to raise £5lm from existing shareholders. In the first six months of the current financial year Ley- land have reported a proft drop of £2m compared with 1971. those reasons Stokes has been trying to tighten up and rationalize his scattered empire. Last year the market- ing set-up was transferred from Lausanne in Switzerland to Berkeley Square, London.

In September 1971 Leyland announced 200 redundancies at • in Gran- another subsidiary tham, Yorkshire. The workers Aveling Barford at were involved in the production of earth-moving equipment. The Thornycroft deal shows, however, that Leyland is now moving into the new field of raising finance through pro- perty deals. journal Engineer' the As put it last month: •British- Leyland, in a spate of selling companies which it no longer requires, seems to have found a way of both having the cake and eating it. This in the could well be repeated future as more companies are hived off to provide cash and boost profits.' First the land itself. The 50 for just acres have been sold £2}m to a recently formed English property company, and Continental Property, who, in turn, are owned by a hold- ing company. The majority shares in E&CP are further owned by a com- pany called Four Millbank Investments which in turn is largely controlled by the Crown Agents. The Crown Agents act on behalf of the government in the buying and selling of property all over the world. The four directors of the company include Mr A. H. Wallis, a director of finance of the Crown Agents. Two other directors have large per- in Four sonal shareholdings Millbank Investments. Not surprisingly the pur- chase of such a large slab of land-even though it is zoned for industrial use—has focused the eyes of property men all over on what E&CP might do with it. 'Possibly one of the choicest sites for redevelopment to emerge thus far along the new M3 motorway slicing through i was the the South of England,' for Business' way Property described the purchase on June 21. 'Located half a mile from the M3 and an equal distance from the Basingstoke town centre, the site could be sensi- tive planning-wise due to its improvement position at one of the town's entrances,' it added. But the real question facing the workers in Basingstoke is what is to become of Thorny- croft's, now sold to the Eaton Corporation for £2}m? The Agreement between Leyland and Eaton provides only for the employment of those workers engaged in the heavy transmission side of the Thornycroft business. It will continue to supply this com- ponent to Leyland. will be Other activities transferred to different fac- tories in the combine, with the loss of 350 jobs. The point, however, is how Corporation long will Eaton production of any maintain sort in Basingstoke? For they have only taken out a three- year lease on the site from the property company at £95,000 a year. Three years is about the time needed to run down and eventually close a plant like Thornycroft's. Will the Ameri- can firm, theretore, ever renew the lease? The firm will be remem- bered by engineering workers in London particularly as the ower of the ENV factory in Willesden which they com- pletely closed following a long and bitter strike at the plant in 1967. Phil Eynon, Transport and General Workers' Union regional officer told me earlier this week: It will double unemployment in Basingstoke from October 1. 'As far as we're concerned Leyland can unscramble this deal. We're certainly not accepting it as a fait accompli He warned that if Leyland got away with such a deal in Basingstoke, the same could happen throughout the com- bine. "They might have sold the land and the factory, but they haven't sold the bodies of The AUEW executive has demanded Stokes (ton). British-Levland chiet. to tell him. accordina to the AUEW's Reg Birch, that 'they will not tolerate' such a deal.

man Birch (above), also said he Thornycroft workers in whatever action they took 1o men. We might be forced into October where situation in we have to strike to stop the ahead,' Mr deal going said Eynon. Refusing redundancies dowry land's director industria relations, had poured scorn on the unions' allegations that Leyland had made millions out of the deal when he met offi- cials earlier this month, Mr Eynon added. But the side was unon retusing to accent anv of the proposed redundancies. 'Bas- ingstoke became just the another commuter town way it is going, he added.

The machinations around the Thornycroft plant show on the desperate one hand Leyland's financial position and on the landed an immediate meeting with Lord hief, to tell him, according to the AUEW's tolerate' such a deal. Executive council- he was in favour of officlal backing for er action they took to 'unscramble' the other their intention to unload their troubles on the backs of their 200,000 workers through sackings and closures. Posed with fierce competi- tion from the Common Market and Japan, Leyland's troubles can only escalate. Lord Stokes is now saying to Thornycroft workers that he has the right to determine that they go on to the dole queue.

Because of the crisis of British capitalism in face of the world economic recession his firm cannot guarantee jobs. What is posed, therefore, is the fight for a return of a Labour gov- ernment through the forced resignation of the Tory govern- ment. And the demand must that British-Leyland is nationalized by a future Lab- our government under workers' control and without compen- sation to guarantee the right to work.

PRISON

AND

HOSPITAL

STRIKERS

FINED

Prison guards at Attica York penitentiary, New among 7,000 State, are whose state employees wages are being docked to penalize them for illegally going on strike.

The penalties are being levied New York's under which Taylor requires Law, that any public employee who goes on strike should lose two each day of the days' pay for stoppage in addition to being placed probation year. The workers staged a strike over Easter weekend at mental training nospitals juvenile schools, prisons and other in- stitutions. The strike followed the collapse of a tentative pay deal between the state and the Civil Service Employees' Association, which represents 140,000 of the 185,000 state emoiovers Governor Rockefeller Governor Rockefeller's Office of Employee Relations announced that two days or four days pay would be taken of packets to be pay oul The United States may drop out of the Inter- Coffee national Agree- ment if the four main coffee - producing count- ries continue to disregard established b a quotas, official an- government nounced in Washington this week. The threat is the latest in series of attempts by the Us, coffee-consuming largest country, to force down prices of the The four commodity. largest producers- -Colombia, Ivory Coast Brazil, and Portugal-have agreed Ull- Above: Negotiating Inmates of Attica during a violently suppressed prison rev killed last year distributed July 19 and on July 26. The 7,000 are the largest number ever penalized under the Taylor Law. The prison guards at Attica, Elmira and Auburn jails re- fused to cross picket lines of striking members the Association. They could lose up to $180 each. The wives of Elmira prison guards asked the governor's office to postpone the fines because many families in the area are still recovering from losses due to the recent disastrous floods. But a spokesman for the Office of Employee Relations said the request could not be granted because the Taylor officially to abide by quotas consistently lower than those under effect under the Inter- national Coffee Agreement.

last Their action follows August's dollar devaluation, which slashed the prices paid rd to the producers. The prices are fixed in dollar By restricting their terms. quotas, the producing countries, some of which rely almost exclusively on the crop, are trying to force up the price. Their desperate position finds no sympathy in Washing- ton. One official commented: 'The United States is very con- cerned about the situation but there is little it can do but drop out of the agreement if of Attica penitentiary, New York state, prison revolt, in which 26 prisoners were Law stipulated that fines must be collected within 90 days of a strike. The Office spokesman said he could not estimate how much pay the average striker would lose. However, a typical mental hospital ward attendant would lose $54 for each day off the job out of a normal bi-weekly pay of $268. During , the Easter strike, the New York authorities sent state troopers and volunteer strike-breakers into prisons to maintain and hospitals essential services. Attica prison was the scene a violently suppressed of prison revolt in which over 26 prisoners were killed.

these countries continue to violate quotas set under the pact.' He said the quota violation had caused a rise in world coffee prices and could eventu- ally lead to increases in domestic coffee prices. This would interfere with President Nixon's attempts to hold down prices at home, he added hypocritically. By opting out of the Agree- ment, the US buyers obviously hope they will be able to play one producing country against another and force the price down again. Even if it means ruining some Latin American economy, the sacred American coffee-pot must be kept on the boil. Workers Pres:

BYJOHN SPENCER

Swiss banking has been severely shaken by_ the repercussions of the Tory government decision to float the pound. The scope and swiftness of the moves by the Swiss authorities have spread unaccustomed shock and dis- satisfaction in the banking community which dominates Swiss capitalism. Almost all sectors of banking have been affected by measures taken by the government and National have radically Bank which changed the basis of their affairs. The Swiss authorities' aim was to prevent a huge inflow of unwanted foreign capital into Switzerland — which has long been an open haven for foreign funds in times of inter- national monetary crisis.

The British decision to 'float' on June 23 came after a week of pressure on sterling, during which the Bank of England had its to spend heavily from reserves to keep the currency at its agreed level. The central banks of France and West Ger- many joined in this futile bid to support the pound. By suspending the pound's fixed rate against the dollar, the Tory government has been able to limit the outflow from its own reserves. However, the move immediately exposed the dollar and holders of the US currency began to unload their funds all over Europe. To maintain fixed the exchange values of their own prevent currencies and dollar devaluation, the Euro- central banks pean were forced to buy in dollars to keep the price up. Their intervention failed to the inflow of dollar stem funds, and country after coun- try has introduced or tightened exchange controls to keep out the dollar flood. For France and Germany this experience was less trau- matic than for Switzerland, which prides itselt on having avoided such controls. But to the Swiss National Bank the heavy interven- thought of tion on the foreign exchange market to prop up the dollar was anathema after its experi- ence last year. Leading capitalist nations agreed in Washington last December on substantial dollar devaluation and an all- realignment. round currency But earlier the Swiss had to take in large quantities of dollars during much of 1971 to support the exchange rate.

Cabinet ministers said on occasions following several the sterling float that a new dollar inflow would risk un- settling the franc and increas- ing inflationary pressures in Switzerland, where prices have been rising sharply over the past year. When sterling was floated, Bank initially the National reacted by withdrawing totally • Irom the foreign exchange kers Press, Friday July 21, 1972 PAGE 5 market for ten days, during which the Swiss franc in eftect floated while the dollar was almost continuously below its official Zurich floor. It then tried intervening again to support the dollar, but as dollars began to move into Switzerland the bank quickly found that this was doomed from the start. The Swiss cabinet rushed out series of controls on foreign exchange movements and in Switzerland — acting with- country's consulting the out powerful commercial banks.

In recent years the banks have come to expect that the government would consult them in advance about new arrangements affecting their activities. These have generally 'gentle- taken the form of men's agreements'. They were particularly up- about the ending set of free capital movements, which bring them in a considerable 'invis- ible' income. The Banker's Association gave grudging sup- port the government's to action, but demanded that the measures be made more flexible or removed altogether as soon as possible. It described them as 'far- reaching and severe' and said the government 'decreed them on its own responsibility and without taking advice from the banks'. It would be regret- table, the Association said, if dose of government con- this trol lasted too long and pre- judiced Switzerland's reputa- tion as a world financial centre.

Switzerland has long been used to upholding the free movement of international cur- rencies, to the great profit of the country's bankers. But when the government saw fit to move, it did so in such an all-embracing manner that Switzerland overnight had more controls than many other European countries. Government restrictions • on buying property and securities denominated in Swiss francs immediately caused a fall in stock prices. Banks were hardest hit because their areas of operation were curtailed. But engineering and chemical shares also slumped. Probably the toughest of the government's new measures is the 'negative interest charge' on foreign funds deposited in Switzerland. It means deposi- tors of funds from overseas will have to pay an 8 per cent levy every year on the tunds they bring in. Ironically, the measures which have caused so much disruption among the gnomes of Zurich have had little effect on the dollar inflow. So des- perate are dollar-holders to dispose of their funds that an 8 per cent levy is no barrier.

In any case, they now face equally stiff exchange controls if they put their funds into West Germany. France or Meanwhile, however, the Swiss banking tradition has suffered its most serious blow ever.

CZECH FRAME-UP TRIALS BEGIN

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday July 21, 197

BY JOHN SPENCER

of Thirteen opponents the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslo- vakia, among them former officials of the Communist Party, are standing trial in Prague on charges of subversion.

under Article The charges, 98 of the Penal Code, carry sentences of up to five or ten They relate allegedly committed during the November presidential election campaign last year. The defendants, of some whom have been in prison since that time, are • said to have circulated leaflets point.

ing out that citizens had the constitutional right to delete the names of candidates on the printed ballot paper. In its mention of the trial, the public is from which barred, the official news agency the Ceteka said defendants 'were accused of disseminating in 1970 leaflets and illegal 1971, especially in connection with the election, with the aim of disrupting the consolidation process of our state'. Apparently it is sedition in remind Czechoslovakia to citizens of their constitutional rights. One of the chief defendants in Prague is Jiri Mueller, a former student leader, who was , expelled from twice Prague's technical university for organ- izing student protests against the Warsaw Pact invasion.

In 1969 he chaired the Student Parliament, Prague which refused to give support of to the stooge leadership the Kremlin Gustav Husak, appointee who replaced Alexandr Dubcek when the latter was driven from office. Mueller has several times fallen foul of the Stalinist authorities, who refused him permission to take a higher degree at the university.

In the same court accused with Mueller are Jan Tesar, a young historian, and Rudolf Two Battek, a sociologist. other young men are accused with this group of defendants.

The court is also trying in her absence Mrs Jean Kavan- ova (née Edwards) the widow of a prominent Czechoslovak diplomat. She now lives retaining England, though Czechoslovak citizenship.

Another trial in the same groups together courthouse Jiri Littera, former secretary Communist of the Prague Party organization, and a number of 'associates'. Littera played a prominent part in organizing the clande- 14th of the stine congress Czechoslovak Party after the Warsaw Pact invasion. The Congress, held at Vysocany, a workers' suburb outside the capital, has been in the side of the a thorn Husak leadership. usurping It was held two days after the invasion and roundly con- demned the gross violation of our state sovereignty' by the Soviet armies. Husak and his supporters later staged another congress, after extensive purges, reverse the decisions of the 14th congress; but even with the 'expert' assistance of Soviet secret police advisers it has taken Husak four years to purge the party to his satis- faction.; The Prague trials are being held under semi-secret con- with the public ex- ditions, cluded from the court. In essence, however, they are show trials, designed to intimidate the opposition to Friday July 21, 1972 the Soviet occupation and the puppet Husak regime. The Kremlin's Czechoslovak stooges have made repeated pledges about not returning to the era of show trials. But the court process now under way in Prague makes it clear that these pledges were a sham.

first They not the are political trials to be staged in Czechoslovakia the since August invasion four years ago.

But for the first time they bring together key figures from the Dubcek period who, victimized though repeatedly by bureaucratic measures, have not so far been brought into court. Many of the defendants in the current trial were held in prison tor a period in 1969, before the government decided to release them with a warn- ing. This was the case with Battek, Rudolf who was in October originally held 1969, after his immunity as a member National Assembly had been lifted by decree. Jan Tesar was imprisoned at the same time, both though were later released. Clearly the bureaucracy at that time did not feel enough to secure move directly to show trials.

Another big wave of arrests, which led to over 300 convic- tions on charges of 'crimes against property' and 'crimes of violence' followed . mass demonstrations in January 1970 on the first anniversary of the suicide of Jan Palach.

Prague student, Palach, a burned himself to death in a protest against the terrible Warsaw Pact invasion.

SECRET

'EXPERTS'

Shortly after this demon- stration there arrived in Prague two Soviet 'advisers' who had been the centre of the at preparations for the Slansky frame-up trial of 1953. The two men, cynically described as 'party historians' Beshkanov, were Alexei who served as a leading officer in the Soviet secret police in Czechoslovakia from 1951 to 1957, and • Vladimir Bovarksi, helped direct the purges who and trials of the early 1950s.

Their first targets were the left of wing the extreme opposition. They claimed to uncovered a Trotskyist have plot involving 19 youth, mem- bers Revolutionary Socialist Party. These young revolutionaries were accused of being part of 'anti-state tendency' and an being 'anti-socialist'. But detendant, one Frolik, told the court: 'Never in our discussions did we consider the possibility of a capitalist restoration. On the contrary our only aim was to help socialism. Our criticism was not directed against the socialist system, but against and certain certain action methods.' Their trial, in March 1971, conducted was 1n great No quotations fron secrecy. the material they 'seditious' to have distri- were alleged buted was released. Peter the the 29-year-old leader group, was sentenced to four years and the others to lesser terms.

now clear the job of It is 'ex- the Soviet secret police perts' was to bring all the elements together for a major frame-up trial of the Dubcek tendency. However, such a task could not be approached head-on in 1970, unlike the 1950s when Stalin's word was absolute law.

Husak and Soviet the Stalinists still had to reckon with the Czechoslovak workers, who posed the most stubborn 'normaliz- of all obstacles to ation', However, the Soviet 'experts' set about preparing the ground, aided by their Czech stooges.

In March, 1970, Dubcek and several other leading opponents of the occupation were

SUS-

from party member- pended ship. This was accompanied by attacks in the press ominously comparing with the them oppositionists of the 1920s and 1930s who were purged by Stalin in the Moscow Trials.

In May, hardline Stalinist MP Zdena Dohnalova de- manded tough action against the opposition in parliament: 'Why have the counter-revolu- tionary and anti-socialist forces not been punished up to now?'

she asked. In a speech two months later, Husak reassured the ultra-Stalinists that the opposition would not go un- punished: 'As Gottwald [the old Czech Stalinist leader who staged the Slansky trial] used to say, "brother or not come down pear tree". The from the weight of the law will strike Top left: Jan Palach. Bottom left: the old Sta photographs—Dubcek and President Svobo in April 1968, and the same picture retouct Dubcek who was the centre of the 'liberali the invasion. Top right: tanks in Prague, Dubcek. Right: Husak. the violator of the law and this could not, as a matter of fact, be otherwise.' This led to speculation in western papers about a possible trial being prepared in Prague.

The French 'Figaro' paper named Jiri Hochmann, Jan Tesar, and chessmaster Ludek Pachmann as likeiy defendants in such a trial. The prediction was clearly all too accurate, only the timing was wrong. The bureaucracy had to wait almost two years before fulfilling 'Figaro's' prophecy. In the process it cynically 'updated' the charges against Tesar in order to make it old Stalinist method of falsifying Svoboda Wenceslas Square seem he was being tried for acts unconnected with August events. It was not until July 1971 that the first of the threatened men were actually brought to first victim trial. was Vladimir Skutina, a former commentator for Czechoslovak television. He was sentenced to two years' jail for 'slander and agitation in Prague then re- ched in a provincen ent "incitement and charges defaming the Republic'. The court provincial awarded him an additional two years and two months in prison. He was also banned from working in the mass media for a further three years after his release. He was convicted on the basis of two unpublished pamphlets against the 1968 invasion. To rub home the significance of this trial, the Czech Com- munist Party chose the same week to readmit a number of hard-line Stalinists of the Novotny including the era, Minister former of the In- terior at the time of the Slansky frame-up. Following the presidential November last elections in year, the Stalinists rearrested a number of their main 'tar- gets, including the majority of defendants in the present trial.

They joined others who were already in the cells, in- cluding Pachmann. But the bureaucracy was still biding its time before bringing them to trial. One of the most significant pointers to what it was waiting for came at the recent conference the Czechoslovak trade union organization. The secretary of this body told the hand-picked delegates hat the purge in the union.

vas over the hump. It had beer hard going, but he could finally announce that all the incor- rect' as the decisionssuch the right to restoration of strike taken in 1968-1969- had now been annulled. This, in reality, the was light for the Prague green trial. Now impossible it was for the workers to legally pro- test or lift a finger against the attacks on their former leaders.

demonstrations Strikes or against the frame-up could be treated with the 'full rigour of the law, , as Husak had re- warned. peatedly On the basis of the indict- ment against the present defendants it is not possible to judge whether they actually carried out the acts they are charged with.

AID OF

The secrecy of the trial and the flimsy character of the however, makes it charges, extremely likely that charges are a fabrication, no doubt built up with the aid of provocateurs. The accused are said to have distributed over 70,000 leaf- task for lets-not an easy people who must have been constant police super- under vision in view of their previous spells in jail. They must also have known that the police were simply waiting for the least indis- cretion to bring them before the courts. The Prague Stalinist press is already condemning the defend- ants before the trial is over.

'Rude Pravo', , the Communist Party newspaper, published the following dispatch earlier this week after the trial's opening: "The remnants of the de- feated right have not come to terms with the fact that our society under the leadership of successfully the party has the unfavourable overcome results of the crisis years of 1968-1969. 'Several defeated rightist exponents . .. are continuing activities aimed against the basic principles on which we building our socialist are « society', It added: "The leading repre- of our party and sentatives state have several times stated that nobody in Czechoslovakia will be persecuted for their political opinions and con- victions. "They have, however, several times stressed that differing political opinions and con- victions do not authorize any- body to undermine with im- punity the laws for which entire generations of the best representatives of our nations fought and died. "Those who are blind to the success which our people have convincingly ever more achieved under the leadership of our party, and who are deaf to the demands of the Workers Press, Friday of majority citizens to our establish a firm legal order, and who with blind incorrigi- bility wish to harm our society, must count on the fact that they will come into conflict with our laws and will also be held fully responsible for their criminal activities.' Right down to the invocation 'ever of convincing more successes' achieved under the muzzles of Soviet guns this is the authentic language of the secret judicial frame-up.

The trial has already pro- voked protests both inside and outside Czechoslovakia. open letter from the Citizens' Freedom Movement in Prague Communist calls upon Party member Angela Davis, who was recently the victim of attempted frame-up in an California, the to attend trials and use her Prague authority demand entry to visas for foreign journalists to attend them as well. It says: 'Your victory over a seemingly all-powerful bureaucratic machine • is to us a source of inspiration in our own struggle! And it ends: 'Unlike you, the defendants cannot hope for moral or material support from their countrymen because any public expression of sympathy with their cause would auto- in police matically result such sym- measures rkers Press, Friday July 21, 1972 PAGE 7 Miss Davis' reaction is not defendants recorded, but the can certainly expect no assist- ance from the leaders of the British Communist Party, who claim to oppose the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

On Tuesday the 'Morning Star' simply printed a full Reuter report of the trial without comment of any kind.

The paper made no demand for the release of the prisoners or for an end to the frame-up.

This is in line with the CP leaders' attitude during the Slansky frame-up of 1953.

At that time, for example, Monty Johnstone, now party's leading 'liberal' wrote: •Slansky, former general secretary of the Czech CP, and associates were found guilty of spying and sabotage for the US and its satellites. Many people were shown to as spies in the have acted labour movement since the pre-war days . . . Such activ- ities can and must be rooted out in this and other countries takes place; whenever this through the vigilance of the workers the movement is ren- dered stronger and healthier.'

shamefaced British Stalinists of today, preter to hide behind the 'objectivity' of press agency reports. However much they try to hide, they remain accomplices in the crushing of the Czech opposition.

LET THE RECORD SPEAK

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Friday July 21, By David Maude Part two Socialist Labour League policy following the May 1962 docks pay settle- ment was to step up the campaign for nationaliza- tion of the docks without compensation and under workers' control. The 9 per increase cent from wrung the employers after threats of an indefinite national strike might have blown a hold in the Tory gov- ernment's pay pause, but the Tories remained in power, determined to claw back their money in terms of friends' profits. In the Rochdale report pub- lished in September bid to smash the 1947 Dock Labour Scheme, which gave dockers an at least partial statutory title to their jobs, a strengthening of the employers' disciplinary powers and the replacement of casual labour by something even more un- acceptable. All this, the paper stressed, was merely a prelude to large-scale mechanization on the employers' terms. Lord Rochdale proposed the formation of a National Ports Authority to co-ordinate the plans of the port employers their big-combine and cus- in the tomers, a reduction number of employers, perma- nent employment on a weekly contract basis, shiftwork and of the 1947 the restriction Scheme to merely keeping the register of those employed in the industry. These proposals lay in the background of all the struggles of the following year, until, in October 1963, Transport and General Workers' Union dele- gates gave the employers their first strategic loophole.

On October 29 a docks delegate conference, called to review a strike threat issued the previous month, accepted the employers' proposals for a '40-hour basis' for pay-rates. The deal was to come into pointed out that the deal was accepted against advice that it gave the employers a definite advantage to introduce unfavourable con- ditions. (The union's claim had been a straight one for a 40- hour week. This had adamantly refused by the em- been ployers.) One effect of the agreement was to lift the previous ban Saturday working after on 10 a.m. Another was to pre- pare the ground for separate, "mutually satisfactory' 40-hour agreements in each port, with in the background the men- acing proviso that there should be greater mobility of labour.

"The News- • Commented letter": "The port employers grant the 40-hour week with one 1 July 21, 1972 MiNT Coachloads of dockers from northern p hand. The other holds the axe which can ruthlessly chop off the jobs of thousands of dockers.' By January 12, 1964, Liver- pool dockers were reading in their Sunday papers that after secret talks an agreement was likely to be concluded between T&GWU leaders and their em- ployers that week which would decasualize the port in • line with the Rochdale plan. This proposed deal was rejected by the dockers at a mass meeting early in Feb- ruary. But little more than three months later, 'The Newsletter' had to sound the alarm against dangerous 'strings' on a second 40-hour week deal. Although dockers had never been con- these 'strings', sulted about the paper said, union officials appeared sympathetic to em- ployers' insistence on 'reason- able' overtime, improved time- keeping, mobility of labour and the making up of short- handed gangs. concessions Such were rapidly blocked by the rank and file as a nationwide move- ment began to build up for a £5 lls increase in the then 9s basic wage. £9 (The T&GWU had submitted claim for a 'substantial' in- crease in April.) Mass meetings in most ports declared for the £15 basic - nominally a T&GWU target since 1962-and on July 17 Merseyside, Manchester and Hull docks staged a one-day token strike in support of the demand. T&GWU officials, however, announced that the demand 'unrealistic' Eventually was the union quantified its claim at £10 14s (a rise of just £1 5s). Oni the day of the July 17 strike several coachloads of dockers travelled from the northern ports to lobby a T&GWU docks delegate con- ference, but were met in Lon- don with open hostility from docks members of the Com- munist Party. Two Merseyside dockers' leaders who went to the Royal group of docks were harassed by Party members in attempt- ing to put a resolution calling for support for the strike. The Royals men did not want to fight, the CPers claimed.

northern ports travelled to London in July However, when the resolu- tion was put the whole area of 8,000 men struck, and 3,000 more came out at the Surrey docks. During the two weeks that followed the London delegates to meetings of the national rank-and-file committee opposed every suggestion for further action. While they themselves . would like to see a f1 5s rise, they said at one meeting, most London be men , would delighted with 12s. The follow- ing week they fell back on the T&GWU leadership's argument that a strike could damage the Labour Party's chances in the forthcoming General Election.

The following month the Worker' 'Daily (now the 'Morning Star') which had remained almost silent during the T&GWU's back-door man- oeuvres with the employers on decasualization, attempted. to justify the Party's position with a scurrilous attack on the northern dockers? It was the article's central theme that dockers through- in no out the country were shape to fight the employers because of the continued existence of the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers in the north. After presenting a distorted account of the 1954 'prison break-out' we have already described, it called for a cam- paign against non-unionism (a euphemism for getting rid of the NAS&D). Meanwhile it covered up for T&GWU's attempts the to trade away hard-won condi- tions by praising 'the break- through on the 40-hour-week front'. While many weaknesses remained in the T&GWU, the article said, there were signs of a more realistic approach to dockers' needs than during authoritarian reign of the right-winger Arthur Deakin.

In the weeks preceding the General Election the T&GWU leaders continued to put off a decision on action, despite a shabby offers succession from the employers; their final bid was 12s 6d. CP The continued its splitting tactics. At the end of Dash and his August Jack Liaison Committee called a two-hour demonstration in the Royals, without notifying the

WANT

NA July 1964 to lobby a T&GWU docks delegate northern ports so that it could be a national action. The committee also issued a statement which provoked sharp disagreements. with the north, that if no satisfactory increase was granted there would be no increase in pro- ductivity that year. In other words, the CP was making its own contribution to the right-wing reformists' by helping election strategy, the T&GWU hold off strike action against the employers' provocative offer. A 'Newsletter' editorial in mid-September came out in opposition to this total approach*: and working "The wages conditions of dockers must be made an election issue and the labour movement should sup- port an immediate strike. by dock workers to enforce these conditions. 'Labour candidates should then be instructed to defend the action of the portworkers by explaining the reactionary policies of the employers.

the dockers retreat now then they will suffer a most serious setback. fight is to convince. To Without a showdown now every employer in the country will take advantage of the of the official weaknesses leadership of the trade unions, and redouble their attack after the election is over. 'These are the reasons why "The Newsletter" supports immediate action by dock workers. Far from weakening a possible Labour government it will greatly strengthen it.'

That this was no wild-eyed policy of political suicide, far removed from the real feelings the working of class, was quickly demonstrated. On October 5, just ten days before the election, T&GWU secretary Frank Cousins went to Liverpool. As he arrived to address a meeting at the city's Boxing Stadium, he was met by hundreds of dockers gathered under a banner say- ing "There are no scabs on Merseyside, Frank, they're all in Transport House.' Jeers and hoots of derision greeted him inside when he called for the negotiation of decasualization terms. With the Labour win at the polls Cousins was to disappear into the Cabinet as Minister of Technology. The port employers, how- ever, remained adamant despite change of government. the

DINAN

delegate conference for £15 basic wage Once again strike notice was handed in by the T&GWU. But this time Minister of Labour Ray Gunter, no doubt with the expert advice of his Cabinet colleague, promised a court of inquiry. This was to be with the Devlin committee, and by Newsletter' October 31 'The was already warning: 'Something is going to be cooked up for the portworkers at this court of inquiry and we are convinced that it will mean the recommendation of the proposals for decasualiza- tion under a new guise? Before the inquiry was a 32- page document from the port employers laying out detailed proposals for the reorganiza- tion of the ports. The docu- ment was spawned in discus- sions over at least two years Cousins the between and employers. And significantly, sitting next to Lord Devlin on the committee was Sidney • Ford, the right-wing miners' union president who had presided over the loss of some 100,000 jobs in the pits. By mid-November 1964 the first of the committee's jobs had been cleared out of the way: the T&GWU docks dele- gates had accepted its award of a 19s 2d increase in the basic rate, plus a 5-per-cent rise in piecework prices.

So after seven months of prevarication dockers ' had ended up over £4 10s short of what the T&GWU paper, the 'Record', had declared was not unreasonable target two- an and-a-half years earlier. And they had done so through a division of labour between the T&GWU right wing and the Stalinists of the CP The 'Daily Worker' gave credence to the inquiry by describing its award as 'high' and a 'vindication of the dockers' fight'. As the paper was saying these things there were 60,000 dockers. Today there are little more than 40,000. The Devlin inquiry paved the way for Devlin, and the CP, as we have seen, paved the way for Devlin.

'November 7, 1963. •May 16, 1964 3'The Dockers' Big Oppor- tunity', August 11, 1964.

'September 19, 1964.

Industrial Britain. Wales'. South By Graham Humphrys. David and Charles, £4.75.

REVIEWED BY

IAN YEATS

Graham Humphrys' 'South Wales' in the 'Industrial Britain' series ends on the now-familiar and therefore tedious plea for more investment in the principality. He couples it with an equally-tedious plea lor yet another 'plan' involving a complicated 'shuffle' of service out of industry personnel south-east Wales to the west to make room for other office workers lured to the area from London. Prudent, government-guided investment, mainly in light manufacturing and mainly on Severnside, would open up a 'new era of success and pros- perity for the region' There is nothing original in this. Successive governments and the Welsh lobby have been urging the same thing since Wales was first given special area status in 1946. The only difference is that this Utopian pipe-dream is being peddled in vastly different circumstances today.

It is not merely that notions of restructuring have less chance of pulling regional eco- nomies out of the mire-there is no chance. One of the few merits of Humphrys' book, which could feasibly be ended at two expanded first chapters, is that it shows, unintentionally but plainly, that in South Wales restructuring and moderniza- tion has shot its bolt. Of great significance for the character of nationalization under capitalism, 90 per cent of the rationalization of coal, steel, railways, bus services, units, fire-fighting police, schools and hospitals was ruthlessly carried out by state industries or public bodies.

Of 300 pits taken over by the Labour government after the war, in 1970 only 52 remained employing less than 40,000 of the original 100,000 miners. Of 20 small steelworks and 20 small tinplate works taken over in 1946, only five and one are left, aug- respectively mented by two new steel works turning out 75 per cent of the region's total output.

If anything, this process was intensified by the 1964 Labour government and local Labour and trade union bureaucrats have connived at massive closures and redundancies over the years almost without even a whisper. workers' Without control and outside a socialist eco- nomy, successive government's Top: Ironworks cottages and the Hoover tory at Merthyr Tydfil. Above: Alcan-Boo were forced to follow in the footsteps of private employers -themselves fending off pres- sure on profit margins — by maximizing internal economies of scale. Small firms compelled by the Board of Trade to set up in Wales rather than the Mid- lands or south east England clustered on industrial estates to reap the benefit of econo- mies of scale. Outside the estates only the moved biggest private firms into the area, attracted by gov- and cheap 'carrots' ernment labour-Alcoa, Alcan, Hoover, Ford. The process of cost-cutting through rationalization in the state-owned manufacturing in- dustries and the world mono- polies had its counterpart in Wales in publicly-run services.

Bus and train services were slashed bare minimum to a while giant schools and hos- pitals were built which entailed valley people in travelling con- siderable distances. Although he doesn't say so, Humphrys' industrial survey leaves little doubt that a point has now been reached in the principality where, unless there are to be major closures of plant and services, the pruning has to stop. The 'planners' have largely abandoned the old, obsolete, century-old iron working "top at the head of the towns' valleys. Much of the south east coalfield is in the same cate- gory and the communities are destined at the most to become forest encircled dormitory towns. • complete, Surgery Severn- side - Newport, Cardiff, Port Talbot, Swansea-is poised for

O0VE

: пр Na he Hoover Limited washing machine faci Alcan-Booth Aluminium works, Newport.

growth. Humphrys himself has some anxiety about the pros- pects. But this is quite un- related to the real cause for worry-recession. To him the problem is that Wales only accounts for 1.8 million people, or 4 per cent of the population of Britain.

Mass production industries are unlikely to be attracted by such a tiny market. In addition, out of a total of 700,000 workers, only 200,000 do not work in mining, metal manufacture and services — a labour force which would be soaked up by only a handful of large factories. His doubts emerge again in his description of the likely future of mid-Glamorgan, which includes the Rhondda and a hefty chunk of South Wales population. He notes that in the past 30 years only 4,000 new jobs have been created. Empiricism dooms such studies to the purely descrip- tive. But for Marxists able to draw their own conclusions, some chapters of the book provide a useful insight into the point of no return many sectors of the economy - in- cluding South Wales — must now have reached. Under present circum- stances, Severnside will never get off the ground. Worse, the very • forces of centralization, rationalization and modernization which put it there must now turn into their opposites. As recession tightens its grip, giant enter- prises will crashing come down with consequences far more disastrous than any tiny strip mill closing. Workers Prose, Friday Juty 21, 1872 PAGE 9 A Tory ex-councillor and lead- That'll teach the French to Midland ing Orangeman has try to undermine our civiliz- revealed that he is ation! ! arranging for guns and money to be sent Protestant to extremists 1n Ulster 'if the need should One of the features. arise'. Forster is visiting Sidney present economic crisis is the Northern Ireland to meet heads of the Ulster Defence Associa- financial writers still to main- tion to plan the operation. He tain that things aren't as bad also declared that UDA sym- pathizers could start drilling to go to the Birmingham province if necessary. certainly are not. He said one of the men who Do you realize, for example, for arms had offered money was another Birmingham ex- stock market had its quietest city councillor. trading for 16 months. It was Forster is honorary the lowest for a normal five- an deputy grand of the day trading since the despond- master Loyal Orange Institute of Eng- hit the market in and of the land treasurer institute's West Midlands Pro- Royce collapse. He made clear in vince. an interview the 'Birming- with

BREAK

that his ham Post' weapon- There have been a number of collecting activity would be from done in his capacity getaways as an mysterious Ulster Loyalist, not as an Prince George's county jail in Orangeman. Maryland,

USA.

But Sheriff said, men There Were Live all Don Ansell has just 'modern- drilling and cell. The ized' one special Gla: gow to go to Ulster if windows have been replaced on a smaller scale, steel plate. Who is the necessary; with could be organized being penned there? this in celebrity Birmingham. Bremer, the Arthur man George shooting accused of drilled in a hall I won't name Wallace. He's that the one 1912, in Carson's Maryland cops wont let get There is a movement to start out. again if the need arises.'

NEW PATTERN

And his 'solution' for Ulster?

The £320m Joseph Lucas must put an end to the no-go group is to import a compre- areas, or it must move out and hensive electrical leave it to the Protestants.'

range parts for Continental cars Britain — nearly one in four sold in Britain is cars now In many parts of the country a foreign-made. schoolchildren exchange system Chairman Sir Kenneth Cor- That ley foreshadowed these moves operates. iS to say, children from Europe come in an interview in February with the 'Birmingham Post': here to spend a term while of of the home-grown 'There is a new pattern some We shall products go of to the lycees parts replacements. for a season. The idea is to let have no inhibitions in dealing with other firms' replacement our children see how the other parts or distributing them.'

half live. What a rude introduction to and Ignition equipment English life for 14-year-old regulators are to be bought Muriel St Cyr of Lyons in from Ducellier in France 40 per cent owned by Lucas-and France. She arrived at her first secondary day at Moor End from Magneti Marelli in Italy.

The range will be extended by school, Birming- Erdington, wearing new blue jeans degrees include Fausto ham, to and a blue smock. Carello of Italy. She was promptly sent home The company hopes that by 'dress next year most foreign for irregularities. She early * dress car electrical parts will have had to change into been included in the scheme.

etc.

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Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25—cloth £1.87) Where Is Britain Going? Paperback 37½p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 624p-—cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.124-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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Hull dockers' jobs and working conditions threatened MPs committee attacks the Dock Labour Scheme PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday July 21, GENERAL and Municipal Workers' Union members at P. B. Cow Industrial Poly- mers Ltd, Streatham, South London have accused departmental managers of trying to use a white-collar union to get backing for 'racial victimization'. The accusations have risen out of a dispute this week at the Cow factory-part of the Allied Polymer Group-over the rein- statement of a coloured press- shop worker who is a G&MWU member. He had been cleared by the APG board of directors of a charge of assaulting a fore- man. Press shop workers had struck work two weeks previousiy when the director for labour relations Streatham had upheld at decision to sack the man.

According to procedure, how- ever, this was changed to suspen- full pay when the sion on G&MWU shop stewards chal- lenged the decision. The stewards were then called the directors, who to meet found that the suspended worker had no charges to answer. When this was disputed by the man- agerial staff, a government con- ciliation officer was called in. He upheld the findings of the directors. white-collar Association The of Scientific, Technical and Man- agerial Staffs threatened to strike if he was reinstated. The man returned to the fac- 6 Monday tory last at a.m. morning and when the managerial staff arrived two hours later they demanded he be sent off the shop

G&WU

premises. The stewards insisted he stay and the staff walked out. Early in the afternoon, the local ASTMS official arrived and pledged official backing for the managerial staff. Later in the day, the strikers asked to however, meet G&MWU shop stewards and called for negotiations over a new procedure in the event of victimization disputes. No agreement was reached but they returned to work. Workers at the factory are critical of ASTMS for their sup- port for the staff in this dispute.

One worker told us: "This dispute which had so- called official backing raises ques- tions for us about ASTMS and racial victimization. 'It wasn't just a union ques- tion. This is seen by the fact some staff who are not that ASTMS members walked off supporting them to have this worker kept out. 'We claim the departmental the union managers are using machinery to victimize militant workers and this is not the first time this has happened. 'Last year they wanted to sack a bloke for allegedly abusing a foreman and the union appealed to management to change dis- missal The for suspension. ASTMS union disagreed and when the decision was reversed they went on strike. 'At that time the departmental managers were not in the union and then they all joined.

'We feel they decided to join the union not to fight manage- ment, but to fight us.' Fill in the form below and

SECRETARY, SOCIALIST

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, L

Name Address у Лиу 21, 1972

BY DAVID MAUDE

Our Industrial Correspondent HULL dockers' jobs, working conditions and wages are all seriously threatened by the report of a House of Commons watchdog committee published yesterday. The Select Committee on Nationalized Industries has been investigating the running of the British Transport Docks Board, which controls 19 ports including Southampton, Hull, Newport and Garston. Disappointment It says that Hull, whose deficit worsened from £800,000 last year, nearly £lm is the Board's major disappointment.

And it recommends that troubles in the working of the 1947 Dock should Labour Scheme there receive urgent, top-level govern- ment attention. The report will clearly fit neatly into the port employers' strategy for using the present crisis in the ports jobs to attack the Scheme, which gives dockers at least a partial statu- tory title to their jobs.

information about low and send to NATIONAL

LABOUR LEAGUE,

H ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

Its timing is surely not acci- dental. With the Jones-Aldington report on the port jobs issue due in just a few days time. its con- clusions are assured of maximum publicity. Chief among these is the idea that there are 500 more dockers at Hull than are needed. 2,800 There currently are registered dockers in the port.

The committee is thus as good as recommending an 18 per cent redundancy. It is here that the attack on working conditions and wages comes in. The situation at Hull is exacerbated, the report says, 'by of the local Dock the failure Labour Board to allow the excess labour to be put on the tem- porarily unattached register. This would at least halve the un- necessary extra cost. 'At a port like Hull, already losing of its traditional part trade for reasons outside its con- trol, the increase in costs arising from overmanning in slack times and the refusal to operate a supplementary list in busy times serve to drive away yet more trade to other ports or to private wharves outside the scope of the Dock Labour Scheme. Control With one indiscriminate sweep, the MPs who staff the Select Committee are here obviously into question the princi- calling ple of joint union-employer con- trol of the Dock Labour Scheme and proposing a cut in the pay of hundreds of men. They are also opening the door for a return of the bad old days of casual labour before the Scheme came in in 1947. The dockers fought hard to conditions. escape from these They are not about to return to them on the say-so of a bunch of Westminster MPs. (The report betrays consider- able ignorance about the working of the Dock Labour Scheme. The purpose of the temporarily un- attached register, for instance, is not to provide employers with a 'supplementary list' of dockers available to their every whim, but to alleviate hardships caused by short-term fluctuations in the trading situation.) The Select Committee goes on to praise the success of South- ampton, which last year improved from a deficit of £900,000 to a and ployers, haulage operators surplus of £500,000. warehousing firms, who have been busily developing private Success there encouraged good berths along the river where they industrial relations, the report use non-Scheme labour at much Good industrial relations says. of than lower rates pay the assured a reliable service which, dockers command. in turn, bred more trade.

represents As such it yet Loss of trade at Hull, it says in attack Select another by the contrast, accentuated the need to Committee on the Scheme. reduce the numbers employed.

Among the report's recom- This led to a bad state in mendations is a suggestion that labour relations. In turn, this had British Transport Docks the to increased handling led costs Board should operate (for a man- and loss of reliability of service, agement fee) ports with no real losing the port more trade.

prospect of solvency, but which needed are in the national interest. To there some extent, are Attack similarities here with the cently-legislated Harbours (Loans) The report says: "The solution Act. may be to take Humberside and This provides for loans to the labour force as a whole and authorities port which ex- to concentrate on developing financial difficulties, periencing facilities where conditions are as a result of high capital costs most favourable. or other causes. These are to be 'The local patriotism found in administered under stringent the must accept larger ports controls the authorities' lovalties.' including their policies, labour National This last is entirely in line Ports policies, by the with the plans of many port em- Council. The dally 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 senid to: Irculation Dept., Workers Press 186a Clapham High St., ondon, SW4 7UG I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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"Timed raids catch people'

BBC 1

9.45 Camberwick Green. 10.00 Casey Jones. 10.25 Tennis. 10.50 Tin Tin. 10.55 Magic Round- about. 12.55 Eu Tyb A'u Tebyg.

1.30 Fingerbobs. 1.45 News, weather. 2.25 Racing. 4.15 Play School. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Monkees. 5.20 Ask Aspel. 5.44 Sir Prancelot. 5.50 News, weather.

6.00 LONDON THIS WEEK.

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THE KINKS AT THE RAIN-

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LOOK-MIKE YARWOOD.

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11.00 Play School. 6.05 Open University. 7.30 NEWSROOM, Weather.

8.00 GARDENERS' WORLD.

8.30

THE

ENTERTAINERS.

Series of film reports by Trevor Philpott. 9.20

THE BEETHOVEN SYM-

PHONIES. Otto Klemperer conducts the New Phil- harmonia Orchestra: Sym- phony No 1 in C major and Symphony No 2 in D major. 10.30 SPORT TWO. John Snow, poet and cricketer. 11.10 NEWS, Weather.

11.15 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

Devastation wreaked on Hung Dong villa A DOCUMENT produced by the 'Commission for the In- vestigation of US Imperialist War Crimes in Vietnam' says that hundreds of provincial and district capitals, villages and hamlets were hit con- tinuously and intensively since Nixon resumed bombing the North. And US plans resumed bomb- ing near Hanoi and Haiphong on Tuesday after a week's break due to bad weather. The report accuses the Ameri- cans of using CS gas in bombs of poisoning thousands of and people. Air-raids were timed to catch people assembling work or sleeping at night 'for maximum killing efficiency'.

3,700 It said that nearly mines were sown near North Vietnam's ports and river mouths Nixon when announced mining operation in May. Since then about 2,500 mines and mag- netic bombs have been dropped.

It says that the Americans will be held responsible for damage done to North Vietnam's

ITV

11.30 Communities. 12.25 Women.

12.50 Freud on Food. 1.15 Bell- bird. 1.30 Dan. 1.40 Bush Boy.

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3.55 Weekend. 4.00 Houseparty. 4.15 4.30 Crossroads. Paulus. 4.55 Voyage. 5.50 News. 6.00 Day by Dong village in the Nghe An province by US dykes and river system by bombing. American actress Jane Fonda has accused the US of bombing the northern textile centre of Nam Dinh, although it has no military objectives. The city's vital dyke system had also been damaged by bombs. THE National Liberation Front for South Vietnam has issued for the 18th anni- statement of the Geneva Agree- versary ments in which it says that they have been systematically violated by the United State imperialists 'with a view to turning South

HEAVY

fighting continued around Quang Tri as North Vietnamese troops made counter- tanks during the attacks with night. The South Vietnamese began a new drive into Binh Dinh province which was occu- pied by the north during the Easter offensive. Ray Davies leads The Kinks through a BBC 1 tonight, recorded at the Rainbow day. Scene south east. 6.30 Who Com do you do? 7.00 In for a penny.

7.30 Weekend. 7.35 Sale. 8.05 FBI. 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: Patient The Vanishes' 11.55 News. 12.05 Weather. Guideline.

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BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Vietnam into a neo-colony and military base of the USA and perpetuating the division of Vietnam'. The NLF calls for the US to end its aggression andits 'Vietnamization of the war' policy and to stop its support for dictatorial and bellicose regime of Nguyen Van Thieu'.

It says that the Americans should seriously negotiate at Paris and accept the seven-point proposal it has put forward.

It concludes: "Acting upon venerated President Ho Chi Minh's statement, the South Saigon admitted losing 837 killed and 2,367 wounded in last week's fighting. American • casu- alties amounted to eight killed and 26 wounded. Dr Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's special adviser, held secret talks with North Vietnam . Politburo member Le Duc ' Tho Workers Press, Friday July 21, 1972 PAGE 11 7.00 Glamour 72. 7.35 Comedians.

8.00 Combat. 9.00 London. 10.30 Probe. 11.00 Film: "Night Must Fall'. ATV Midlands: 3.10 Good after- 3.35 Horoscope. 3.45 Women. 4.40 Happy 4.10 Julia. 4.55 Lost in house. space. 5.50 News. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Cross- 7.00 In roads. for a penny. 7.30 Persuaders. 8.25 Comedians. 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: 'The Terror'. Night Holds ULSTER: 4.30 Romper room.

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camera At odds. 11.45 Late call. 11.50 111 Wales and HTV Cymru/ Marcus Welby. 4.15 Wales as above except:

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3.37 6.01 Y Dydd. News. 3.45 Cantamil. Yoga. Women. 4.40 Happy 4.10 HTV West as above except: 6.15 house. 4.55 Rumblie jumblie Report West. 5.20 Bush boy. 5.50 London. 6.00 ANGLIA: 1.40 World war I. 2.05 News. 6.05 Mr and Mrs. 6.35 Crossroads. Mad Movies. 2.30 London. 3.15 7.00 Comedians. Survival. 3.45 Yoga. 4.10 News. 7.30 8.00 Jesse James. Hawaii 4.15 Cartoons. 4.25 Romper room.

five o. 9.00 London. 10.30 Hogan's 4.50 Giants. 5.50 News. 6.00 heroes. 1.00 Job look. 11.05 Film: About Anglia. 6.35 Crossroads. *Night Creatures'. Road report. THE AFL-CIO trade union confederation will not endorse Senator George McGovern, Democratic candi- date in the presidential elec- tions. The decision, taken at a three- hour executive meeting on Wed- nesday, was announced by George Meany, AFL-CIO presi- dent. He said the organization which has 13.6 million affiliated members 'will refrain from endorsing either candidate' McGovern or President Nixon. The executive voted 27 to 3 on the decision which marks a historic break with Nevale The policy. bureaucracy union has had close ties with the Demo- Vietnamese people and the crats since the 'new deal' period People's Liberation Army are de- of the 1930s under Franklin D Roosevelt. termined to dash forward, step offensive and the general Meany said the concerted uprising, defeat all the unions' maxi- US-puppets' mum effort would be counter-offensives in to elect order to defend and enlarge the congressmen favourable to the labour movement. liberated areas and carry on the fight till the USA quits and the A minority of AFL-CIO unions puppets topple'. have already backed McGovern Different language was used by and edersed Nixon the the London district committee of Teamsters, has endorsed Communist the Party, which celebrated the occasion yester- However, the AFL-CIO execu- day by call the payıng tive decision remains of great American Embassy in Grosvenor importance-it demonstrates con- Square. clusively that building a Labour Party based on the trade unions is more than opportune. That Meany can talk of defeat- ing both bourgeois candidates without the mentioning question of the Labour Party only demon- and the chief negotiator, Xuan strates the within the Thuy, on Wednesday and further buposedra break from always which has always talks are expected to follow. opposed a The North that is insisting business parties. there can be no settlement with- out a change of government in But the decision to break with Saigon, which means that the the Democratic nominee lavs the Americans basis for a big political develop- must abandon their ally President Nguyen Van Thieu.

ment within the US trade unions.

Unions tell LP: Repeal Act PAGE 12 Workers Press, Friday Juty 2 UNEMPLOYMENT leapt by 34,105 last month to a july high of 868,196 - 40,000 greater than at the same time last year. The figures coincide with the that in the 1l announcement months ended in May this year Britain's were plunging exports downwards at the rate of 8 per cent. The total of wholly unemployed now stands at 795,210 and • the prospects for the winter, with a continuing spate of redundancies, look bleak. There are 19,266 school leavers as unemployed and registered 28,610 adult students—a rise of 26,800 respectively. 10,880 and The situation was worse in Ulster. Total unemployment rose to 45,335 or 8.7 per cent—a rise of 5.758. Tory Ministers claimed yester- day they were 'baffled' by the upward jobless trend and sug- gested the figures might be a 'freak'. BRITAIN'S balance of pay- will probably not de- ments teriorate so much as was originally forecast because of floating sterling, the Organiza- tion for Economic Co-opera- tion and Development said in a report published today.

A report supplement, taking into account the sterling float, said in view of the uncertainties no precise forecast could be made. But the balance of pay- ments would probably show a smaller deterioration than was at first thought. more significant Much were figures showing that the actual volume of exports had fallen middle of last year, since the whereas the volume and value of imports had continued to grow. The favourable effect of the 1967 sterling devaluation now seemed have completely to disappeared, says the report.

MR REGINALD MAUDLING,

who resigned as Home Secretary after the inquiries into the Poul- son bankruptcy case issued the following statement to the Press Association yesterday: 'I have seen the reports in some of today's newspapers about inquiries into the Real Estate Fund of America Group. 'I have not been in any way concerned in these inquiries and I have not been approached by the police, but understood from the Attorney-General at the end of last week that I might at some stage be asked to make a statement in the capacity of a witness?

WEATHER

England

SOUTHERN

will be rather cloudy, with isolated showers and coastal fog patches.

The Midlands, Wales. central and south Scotland, and North- dry and Ireland, will be ern sunny after the dispersal of early morning mist and fog patches.

Eastern Scotland and England will be rather cloudy with coastal fog patches, but will become dry inland during the sunny morning.

NEWS DESK. 01-720 2000

CIRCULATION 01-622 7029

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

SW4 7UG.

dary Juty 21, 1972 RESOLUTIONS before this year's Labour Party confer- ence call upon the next Labour government to im- mediately repeal the Indust- rial Relations Act and to withdraw from the Common Market. These are among 455 resolu- tions on the agenda at the annual conference in Blackpool from October 2 to October 6. The biggest voting block at the conference workers Transport the and General Union, 'welcomes pledges made on be- half of the Labour Party, by the National Executive Committee, and the Parliamentary Labour Party that the Act will be com- first pletely repealed in the session of the new Labour government'. Ominously, however, the re-

BY PHILIP WADE

PRIVATE detectives from E their notepaper as 'Investiga again gave evidence for Midlat picketing dockers in the Na tions Court yesterday. At an earlier hearing they re dockers to pubs and to their home them on the picket line. One had sa 'news researcher' he taped conversi wives. Yesterday the court heard evidence from Mr Garry Murray, the firm's principal, giving vir- tually minute-by-minute accounts of the activities of the seven dockers over a period of seven days. At one point on July 18 the detectives carried out a test , to see if dockers would run' follow them. 'We left a depot in our radio noted that R. patrol car and Hedges very quickly jumped into 'us" : BMW car and followed said Mr Murray's statement.

They were followed for two miles and after they had used their radio telephone their pur- suer left them. But it was clear that dockers knew who they were for the following day a driver was warned by dockers not to go into Midland's Security Office.

• "Don't go in there, there are police and private detectives" was what they shouted at the

FUND

A LEAP

A GREAT effort on your part yesterday raised our July Fund by £140.27 making a total now of £1,130.72. But we still have £529.28 to collect by Saturday.

We could do it-it's up to you!

We must raise our target in time. We know you are putting up magnificent struggle to collect this amount. This month we have asked you to try and raise it nine days earlier, before our summer schools begin and you are almost there. Let's therefore make a great last-minute spurt. It could be a record—£1,750 raised by July 22.

Go into action straight away.

Collect some more if you can.

Rush every donation immediately* to: Workers Press July Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG. BY OUR OWN REPOl to further solution on goes welcome' the secret discussions now going on between the Labour Party executive and the TUC 'on the clear basis of voluntary reform'. These talks are aimed resuscitating Labour's at Place of Strife' policy which was previously crushed by the trade union movement. In contrast to the equivocation of the T&GWU, is the resolution by the AUEW's technical and supervisory section. It declares total opposition to the Act and calls on the PLP 'to declare immediate and com- plete repeal of the Act and the restoration of trade union rights as a prominent part of its pro- for the next General gramme Election': THE constructional section of from Eurotec — described on nvestigators Extraordinary' — • Midland Cold Storage against the National Industrial Rela- they revealed how they followed eir homes and taken photographs of le had said that posing as a freelance conversations he had with dockers' driver. They were referring to Mr Laslett and myself, Murray's statement said. Two other detectives took part in the operations. They were Laslett and Mr Mr William Christopher Burch who has recently returned from an army training camp. On one of the days Eurotec itself sent a vehicle down to the picket line. The driver spoke to the pickets and was handed leaflet. 'This states quite clearly that anyone entering the depot will be blacked nationally,' Murray's evidence said. The Eurotec vehicle bore the 'Your Move'. "I like Mr name Murray's name for his car, re- marked • Sir John. When the hearing began Mr Marcus Edwards, counsel for Midland, produced sworn affi- davits relating to detailed alle- gations of continued picketing and threats of blacking by the seven dockers. Reports from 'The Times', 'The Guardian', the 'Sun' and the 'Morning Star' were produced.

Mr Robin Bray, a director of the firm, said in his statement that the pickets were carrying in the same way as before 0 n the order was made. Business was almost at a stand- still and few lorries were getting through. He confirmed that his business would close at the end of next week. Mr John Henry Jones, a super- visor employed by the company, gave written evidence that he had joined a rival picket line which encouraged drivers to go through. He said he had seen how the pickets were organized and noted the numbers of the lorries turned away. Steer and Turner made only short visits to the picket line.

He had not seen them take part in stopping vehicles. They were always together, he said.

Jones said he had seen two other respondents, Mr Clancy Watkins, and Mr on separate taking the lead days in the organization of the dockers' picket line.

(CASE PROCEEDING)

WN REPORTER

the AUEW produces the main anti-Common Market resolution, though it is. confined to com- pletely nationalist precepts.

It declares complete opposition to the Market 'believing that the Treaty of Rome fundamentally national independence to denies the British people'. It is a resolu- tion which Enoch Powell, were he present, would support.

Hertford and Stevenage

CLP

says simply: "This conference is resolutely opposed to entry into the Common Market on any terms' There are signs of strain in the Party over the question of the Jenkinsites and their con- tinuous support for the Tories over Market entry. No less than eight resolutions call for the resignation or ex- Picketing by container workers at Royal docks, London, yesterday

FROM PAGE 1

cede the dockers' demands.

At Dagenham the result is that both dockers and container workers lose out. Without a policy for united action here, the appearance of dockers' pickets at a container depot is it was vividly as described by one of the London men whose job is threatened: 'All we see is the dockers arriving and, bang, we're about to lose our jobs.' This is the answer to the Stal- inist smear against Workers Press that it is 'pro-container worker' rather than 'pro-docker'. What the Stalinist policy has done is the breached traditional soli- darity of dockers and other transport workers; that solidarity in which picket-lines by either group and for whatever reason were sacrosanct. But there are no grounds for complacency by drivers and depot workers; either. While they are picketing their employers are preparing to hit them with the same technological rod they have already used on the dockers.

Today a Lykes-line vessel carrying more than 30,000 tons of containers and loaded barge- units arrives in the upper reaches of the Thames at Gravesend.

The rapid development of barges and even airships as a cheap, rapid means of transport will cut out many thousands of drivers' jobs. Entry into the Common Mar- ket will bring with it further cuts non-stop Continental as pulsion of Labour MPs who defy conference or Party policy and vote with the Tories or abstain.

Party's programme there swing by constituency strong towards nationalization parties policies. Several calls are made for resuscitation of Clause IV as a guiding principle of the Party and there are 14 pages on hous- ins and public ownership of land. These resolutions, many of them demanding the expropria- tion of private landholders, are an answer to the Tory speculators and the government's proposal to double council rents. Although is the document already being characterized as the most 'left' for many years, not a single resolution calls for a political fight to force the Tories out of office. MERSEY dockers' stewards will call for a stoppage throughout the port today in support of 1,600 men in dispute with A. E.

Smith Coggins over manning.

Smith Coggins is one of the big four employers in the port currently engaged in 'exploratory' merger talks. The firm is insisting it has the right to employ Un- registered labour on clerical jobs.

Lew Lloyd, local docks sec- Transport retary of General Workers' Union, said it appeared to him Smith Coggins had been 'most bloody-minded'.

Meanwhile in • London yester- day, lorry-drivers' pickets spread out to four London docks groups • what the Port of London with Authority described as a '100 per cent' effect. Tilbury, Millwall, the India and the Royal docks were blanketed with pickets who arrival of most prevented the Iorries. Unloading was proceed- ing as normal but few shipments got away from the dock gates.

Pickets at Tilbury claimed they had drawn up a 24-hour rota for the next three weeks.

A meeting of transport drivers' stewards yesterday evening was expected to threaten an even harder line, but demand talks with the dockers' leaders as well.

lorries and cross-Channel tunnels get under way. It is dazzlingly clear that a united struggle is needed, but it is equally clear that the demand nationalization under workers' control requires the removal of the Tory gov- ernment and cannot be imple- mented immediately. The Transport and General Workers' Union must, therefore, be forced to fight for the follow- ing policy: I. No redundancies among either dockers, transport drivers or container workers. 2. A shorter working week. Maintenance of all workers whose jobs are threatened on full pay the industries until be can nationalized and planned on socialist lines. 3. Abolition of the TUR. Full of pay for all dockers. rates Work-sharing with no loss of earnings where there is insuf- ficient work. 4. Recall the T&GWU biennial delegate meeting to adopt and plan the fight for these policies.

This will mean

• FIRSTLY,

mobilizing the strength of the union, in united action with the rest of the trade union movement, to force the Tory government to resign.

SECONDLY, it will mean the placing of an emergency resolu- tion before the TUC and Labour Party conferences demanding the return of a Labour government which will immediately fully nationalize the ports and road- haulage without compensation under workers' control. July 20, ntal 1972.