Workers Press no. 831

workers press

TUC CONTINUES TO CRAWL TO NO 10

CABINET PREPARES FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY

TORIES AT CLASS

BATTLE STATIONS

INCORPORATING THI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE

What's going on here? A 'Daily Mail' photog rapher sneaks among the shrubbery surround- ing our summer camp taking photographs of people holidaying and in classes on Marxist theory. The build-up in the vicious press witch- hunt-prodded on by the ultra-right-wing Mon- day Club-began after the 'Daily Telegraph' ran a front-page story and aerial picture on Monday. Since then, hordes of pressmen have been seen lurking in the Essex countryside searching for an 'exclusive' story. This harass- ment continued at the yesterday. TV camp cameras attempted to film the campers and planes flew overhead • For an assessment of the press campaign see page 3.

ATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY AUGUST

OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE

ONLY HOURS

before meeting the TUC leaders yesterday, the Tory Cabinet met to decide on the time- table for introducing State of Emergency powers to crush the national docks strike. The emergency regula- tions will authorize the use of troops on the docks. They will be introduced no later than next Wednesday, the last day of parliament cess. With parliament out of the way the Tories will be ruling by decree through the Privy Coun cil. This is the undemocratic Feather illegal government which Victor and the TUC General Council sat down to drinks with at No. 10 Downing Street late yesterday.

To watch these trade union lead- ers slink into Heath's drawing room sticks in the throat of every work- ing man and woman in the country.

ago, five dockers Only one week were jailed by this government because they were carrying out their basic democratic rights as trade unionists. Their release from Pentonville was enough to satisfy the 'principles' of Feather and company. But in the workers' movement the TUC's collaboration is unpardonable. It is also treacherous. When he went on the BBC pro- 'Panorama' Monday gramme on night, Heath made absolutely clear that he is not prepared to make any concessions on the Industrial Relations Act. In other words, he is prepared to go on jailing.

The Tory press roared with delight yesterday because of Heath's 'smack firm government.

'HEATH WILL NOT BE MOVED'

exclaimed the front page lead in the 'Sun'. Act. Heath about the Asked answered those snivelling footmer in the trade unions who think they can do a deal when he categori- cally stated the government is not prepared to repeal or suspend it.

'We were elected on a programme for a parliament. We have carried through a great deal of it in the past two years. We want to do the rest of it and we intend to do so.

There is no ambiguity about this sort of language. It is Selsdon Man speaking again. the union leaders to be For AUGUST 2, 1972 • No. 831 4р

IF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

entering secret pacts with this man and his government is flagrant treachery. greatest hypocrisy of last The night's gathering was the presence of leaders of the Confederation of British Industry. Ostensibly they are offering a three-month extension of their so-called 'prices pledge' Yesterday's "Times' reported that 80 firms — including more than Britain's biggest car manufacturer, British-Leyland — have refused to join this prices-holding operation.

10 Tory Trade and Industry Secretary John Da for yesterday's talks These big companies are refusing to sign because they know that declining profits caused by the recession can only be answered by soaring prices and renewed attacks on their work forces through wage- cuts and more redundancies.

And this is the crux of the pre- sent situation: the pound is float- ing downwards-British industry, particularly engineering and ship- building, is losing out in the fierce international competition, invest- ment is falling and so is output. As British capital faces the collapse of its exploitative, parasitic life, does anyone think for a moment that it will die peacefully?

On the contrary, it will try to prolong its barbaric. existence by attacking the working class and its trade unions as a way of resolving its crisis. The trade unions have been told by Heath they can expect nothing be from him; the economic crisis means they can certainly get nothing from the CBI. Yet Feather is more willing to talk to the Tories, the class enemy, than he is to talk to his own rank and file. Although unions representing a majority of trade unionists want Congress recalled, the TUC stead- fastly refuses to do so. This Congress must prepare for General Strike to force the the Tories to resign. Such a Congress assumes special responsibilities if the dockers now national strike are not to be on isolated and defeated. But just as Feather is off colla- y John Davies enters No 10 Downing Street borating with Heath, so Jones turns his back on his striking members and resumes talks with merchant banker and port chief, Lord Alding- ton, who was a former deputy chair- man of the Tory Party. Jones must be deluged with resolutions from all branches of his unions seeking a special Transport and General Workers' Union bien- nial conference to meet the Tory threat. • Break off all talks with the Tories. • Recall the TUC. • Convene an emergency biennial conference of the T&GWU. • Extend the docks strike to a General Strike. • Force the Tories out. • Return a Labour government pledged to repealing the Industrial Relations Act and nationalizing docks, road transport, banks, basic industry without compensation and under workers' control.

workers press TUC CONTINUES TO CRAWL TO No 10

CABINET PREPARES FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY

TORIES AT CLASS

BATTLE STATIONS

INCORPORATING THE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE

What's going on here? A 'Daily Mail' photog- rapher sneaks among the shrubbery surround- ing our summer camp taking photographs of holidaying and in classes on Marxist people theory. The build-up in the vicious press witch- hunt-prodded on by the ultra-right-wing Mon- day Club-began after the 'Daily Telegraph' ran a front-page story and aerial picture on Monday. Since then, hordes of pressmen have been seen lurking in the Essex countryside searching for an 'exclusive' story. This harass- ment continued at the camp yesterday. TV cameras attempted to film the campers and planes flew overhead assessment of the press campaign • For an see page 3.

TING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY AUGUST

OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE

ONLY

HOURS before meeting the TUC leaders yesterday, the Tory Cabinet met to decide on the time- table for introducing State of Emergency powers to crush the national docks strike. The emergency regula- tions will authorize the use of troops on the docks. They will be introduced no later than next Wednesday, the last day of parliament before the long summer re- cess. With parliament out of the way the Tories will be ruling by decree through the Privy Coun- cil. This is the undemocratic,_illegal government which Victor Feather and the TUC General Council sat down to drinks with at No. 10 Downing Street late yesterday.

To watch these trade union • lead- ers slink into Heath's drawing room sticks in the throat of every work- ing man and woman in the country.

Only one week ago, five dockers jailed by this government were because they were carrying out their basic democratic rights as trade unionists. Their release from Pentonville was enough to satisfy the 'principles' of Feather and company. But in the workers' TUC's movement collaboration is unpardonable. It is also treacherous. When he went on the BBC pro- 'Panorama' Monday gramme on night, Heath made absolutely clear that he is not prepared to make any concessions on the Industrial Relations Act. In other words, he is prepared to go on jailing.

The Tory roared with press delight yesterday because of Heath's 'smack firm government'.

'HEATH WILL NOT BE MOVED'

exclaimed the front page lead in the 'Sun'. Asked about the Act, Heath answered those snivelling footmen in the trade unions who think they can do a deal when he categori- cally stated the government is not prepared to repeal or suspend it.

'We were elected on a programme for a parliament. We have carried through a great deal of it in the past two years. We want to do the rest of it and we intend to do so.'

There is no ambiguity about this sort of language. It is Selsdon Man speaking again. the union leaders to be For 1 AUGUST 2, 1972 • No. 831 • 4p

F THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

entering secret pacts with this man government is and flagrant treachery. greatest hypocrisy of last The night's gathering was the presence of leaders of the Confederation of British Industry. Ostensibly they are offering a three-month extension of their so-called 'prices pledge' Yesterday's "Times' reported that more than 80 firms - including Britain's biggest car manufacturer, British-Leyland - have refused to join this prices-holding operation.

Tory Trade and Industry Secretary John Da for yesterday's talks These big companies are refusing to sign because they know that declining profits caused by the recession can only be answered by soaring prices and renewed attacks on their work forces through wage- cuts and more redundancies.

And this is the crux of the pre- sent situation: the pound is float- ing-downwards-British industry, particularly engineering and ship- building, is losing out in the fierce international competition, invest- ment is falling and so is output. As British collapse capital faces the of its exploitative, parasitic life, does anyone think for a moment that it will die peacefully?

On the contrary, it will try to prolong its barbaric existence by attacking the working class and its trade unions as a way of resolving its crisis. The trade unions have been told by Heath they can expect nothing be from him; the economic crisis means they can certainly get nothing from the CBI. Yet Feather is more willing to talk to the Tories, the class enemy, than he is to talk to his own rank and file. Although unions representing a majority of trade unionists want Congress recalled, the TUC stead- fastly refuses to do so. This Congress must prepare for the General Strike to force the Tories to resign. Such a Congress assumes special responsibilities if the dockers now on national strike are not to be isolated and defeated. But just as Feather is off colla- y John Davles anters No 10 Downing Street borating with Heath, so Jones turns his back on his striking members and resumes talks with merchant banker and port chief, Lord Alding- ton, who was a former deputy chair- man of the Tory Party. Jones deluged with must resolutions from all branches of his unions seeking a special Transport and General Workers' Union bien- nial conference to meet the Tory threat. • Break off all talks with the Tories. • Recall the TUC. • Convene an emergency biennial conference of the T&GWU. • Extend the docks strike to a General Strike. • Force the Tories out. • Return a Labour government pledged to repealing the Industrial Act and nationalizing Relations docks, road transport, banks, basic industry without compensation and under workers' control.

JONES-ALDINGTON: NO COMPROMISE

PAGE 2 Workers Pross, Wednesday Aug THERE should be no shouts of victory even if docks shop stewards win their demand for a the Jones-Aldington voice at committee. In a series of legal and nego- tiating manoeuvres over the last five days, port employers, owners and union warehouse leaders have attempted to create an atmosphere of con- compromise ciliation and around the committee. But for any steward to assist this attempt in any way would be a betrayal of his mem- bers' interests. The Jones-Aldington com- mittee's job is to find ways of the labour force in the cutting docks industry with as little industrial trouble as possible.

Its interim report aims at cutting the employment register -already slashed by 20,000 over the last five years-by at least a further 8,000. And as Lord Aldington made clear on Monday night: 'There is no suggestion of any alteration to the report. With 900,000 thrown on the of scrapheap unemployment, no trade unionist worthy of the name can have any truck whatsoever with this kind of policy. For this reason alone the whole basis of the present Jones-Aldington discussions is NATIONAL Liberation Front forces Bien Hoa, near Saigon, site of a giant yesterday. The attack, made with 122mm rockets, killed one American and wounded 28 others—the highest US casual- ties since a rocket attack against Da Nang airbase in July last year. Bien Hoa airbase is just 15 from Saigon city miles centre and the attack demonstrates the continued strength of the National Liberation Front, despite the relentless US bom- bardments. Puppet president Nguyen Van Thieu now forecasts attacks on Saigon and attempts to cut off reaching supplies the South Vietnamese capital.

His contrast statements markedly with his bombastic re- of the un- marks on the eve successful South Vietnamese attempt to retake the northern provincial capital of Quang Tri.

Thieu's prediction, made in a speech to the National Defence that the com- College, was munists would concentrate their efforts on cutting food supplies to Saigon and also try to capture land and 'stir up discontent' among the city's population.

The discontent in Saigon hardly needs 'stirring' - high prices, corruption and military repression produced a situation there resembling the last days of the Chinese Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek, according journalists. Thieu remains completely re- liant on US air power to stave off defeat. He concluded his speech by saying that the United States must maintain its bombing raids against North Vietnam to 'paralyse' the country's economy and 'cause the collapse. of its political system'. saday August 2, 1972 completely unacceptable. It is absurd and dangerous to sug- some stewards are apparently doing, that the writ- ing-in of a few more 'guaran- tees by the employers will settle the jobs crisis in the industry. This crisis is an unavoidable feature of the crisis of the capitalist a world system on scale, not just of technological change within the industry.

Parasitic employers starved the industry of investment for years while raking off vast pro- finally fits. When they were forced into investment in con- tainerization and new methods by international competition, they found themselves over- taken by the gathering trade war. Abolition of the temporarily unattached register (TOR), as proposed by the report, is a for solving this smokescreen crisis at the dockers' expense.

Jack Jones and and his fel- low-trade unionists on the com- mittee accepted in the report the employers' Claim that besides the 1,600 TUR men there are more than 4,000 attached dockers who are 'sur- plus to requirements'. They hoped that this 'sur- plus' could be reduced by in- creased severance payments to older or unfit men, with any dealt with residual problem nt forces mounted a big attack on of a giant American air base, early Thieu has every interest in keeping the war going-North has refused to nego- Vietnam tiate until the Americans force him out of office.

BY JOHN SPENCER

PAUL-HENRI SPAAK, first president of the United Nations, former NATO sec- retary-general and one of the founders of the Common Market, died in Brussels on Monday aged 73. Predictably his death was mourned by capitalist spokes- all over the world. men Edward Heath described him as 'one of the principal archi- tects of European recovery after World War II'. Joseph Luns, the NATO secretary-general, said: 'All people who have known State Department in Washington described him as la towering figure on the European during many decades of scene brilliant public service'.

Born a liberal Belgian into family, Spaak began his political career on the left wing of the Belgian Socialist Party, editing the weekly 'Action Socialiste' He entered parliament in 1932.

In 1934 he visited Leon Trotsky "ask his advice' about the to situation in the Belgian party.

In his 'Diary in Exile', , Trotsky describes their discussion: through work-sharing. On the longer-term rundown of the industry, all dockers are offered is a pious hope. We will try and get more container jobs for dockers, the committee said. All this amounts to noth- ing more than a blueprint for further rundown of the indus- try with union collaboration.

amount of guarantees can alter its basic character. It is a charter for fatter profits employers who have for big continued to take millions out over the last of the industry few while destroying years thousands of men's livelihoods.

Maybe a few cheapjack firms will go to the wall well, as but the big bosses who sit on Jones-Aldington have no rea- son to worry. There good reasons are why the Tories are pushing the to sell the union leaders Jones-Aldington report, and for the massive publicity cam- paign in its favour launched by the Tory press. What is at stake in the dock . strike is control of the whole is For it transport industry jobs not just dockers' which are threatened by containeriza- but drivers' and tion, ware- housemen's as well. is a cynical Jones-Aldington diversion from this basic issue.

The key question on the GREEK premier George Papa- dopoulos has installed a new cabinet including 12 of the military chieftains who helped to bring him to power in the counter-revolutionary coup of April 1967. The move gives. the lie to claimed publicists who the Greek regime would liberalize itself. Previously, the colonels held only a few cabinet posts. It brings Papadopoulos closer to his goal of concentrating absolute power in his own hands. Among the military men appointed to important posts are 'I was amazed by his political superficiality... All through our conversation Spaak kept "agree- ing" and taking notes. But there was a little something in his agreement which made me dubious. Not that he seemed to me insincere... 'In general, he seemed to me to bel an honest "friend of the people" from an enlightened bourgeois milieu, no more than that. But honest is just the word: he was visibly disgusted by the corruption surrounding Vander- velde-Anseele Belgian social- democratic leaders].' Trotsky adds: 'And now this "revolutionary" hero has become the Minister of Transport in the "National Ministry". Shoddy little man! What was it that decided Spaak - the fear of further action on the part of the vanity masses or petty personal (to become "minister"!)? In a the end, the difference is not great since these motives so fre- quently reinforce each other!'

When Trotsky wrote these lines, Spaak was only beginning of treachery in the career service of the employers. Vanity (of the most petty sort) was cer- tainly one of his driving forces.

On the basis of a certain physical docks today is nationalization under workers' control, for- mally part of the nine-point forward by the policy put national port shop stewards' committee. lip-service to this But demand is by no means enough.

And it can certainly not be pursued by people who at the same time have their eyes turned to the possibility of a compromise through the joint committee. The Socialist Labour League believes this demand must be centre of the placed at the docks strike: • No redundancies for dock- ers, drivers or container depot workers; • A shorter working week, with workers whose jobs are threatened kept on full pay until the transport industry and nationalized can be planned on socialist lines; • Abolition of the TUR, with no loss of earnings by any docker; and registration of • Immediate outside the Dock all ports Labour Scheme. The T&GWU conference must be recalled to plan the fight to implement this policy, which can only be achieved if the Tories are forced from office and a Labour. govern- ment pledged to socialist poli- cies elected. former commander army Vassilios Tsoumbas (Minister of Public Order) and Alexandros Hadjipetrou, former director the Central Intelligence Service, who becomes deputy Minister ot Foreign Affairs. Like his predecessor in this Christos Xanthopoulos post, Palamas, Hadjipetrou will have special responsibility for im- with proving relations Stalinist states in the Balkans.

Palamas recently toured some of these regimes, where he received an enthusiastic welcome from the Stalinist rulers.

Spaak (left) seen with Harold Wilson in later resemblance he liked years to be compared to Winston Churchill! So was fear of the masses. At the Paris meeting of the UN in 1948, he spelled this out very clearly. 'Our policies are founded on fear, he told the assembled rep- resentatives of reaction.

His services to imperialism also erased every trace of the honesty Trotsky noted in 1934. By 1967 Spaak had given up most of his political posts (though not his connection with NATO) to become counsellor for Europe for the American ITT combine, now revealed to have organized

AUSTRALIA'S

Tory premier William McMahon yesterday announced he will recall parlia ment on Friday to discuss the national oil maintenance strike.

Strikes over pay and condi- country's cut the tions have petrol supply to a trickle over the last month. McMahon has demanded that the 1,500 men involved return to work. During a day of cabinet dis- had before cussions, Ministers them draft legislation providin powers to deregister some or all of the four unions on strike.

The legislation would allow the government to impose crippling fines on the unions if the strike continued. MPs making their • to Canberra for Fri- way back day's session of parliament will travel in specially-commissioned air force jets. Normal services are grounded for lack of fuel and most cars are off the road. A MASS TRIAL of 154 people of belonging to the accused banned Dev-Genc (Revolutionary Youth) organization has opened in a martial law court at a mili- tary barracks in Istanbul.

On Monday .a team of tour prosecutors taking it in turns to indictment, read the 136-page demanded sentences of from six to 36 years' jail for the accused, most of whom are students or former students and four of whom are women. The trial is the second biggest in Turkey since the military regime declared martial law in 11 provinces 15 months ago and 2,000 detained than more students and trade unionists for their opposition to the govern- ment. lists 29 The indictment charges, including murder, armed against security forces, acts possession and use of explosives, storing arms for illegal purposes, forming an illegal organization to make communist propaganda and producing illegal publica- tions. murky plot against Spaak's fellow-social democrat, president Salvador Allende of Chile.

And when Jerome D. Hoffman launched his Real Estate Fund of America in 1969, Spaak became one of his inaugural dir- ectors. He resigned about the same time Reginald Maud- as ling who was REFA's first pre- sident. Hoffman is now serving a sentence in two-year fraud the US. Spaak's The of measure treachery to the European work- ing class can be read in the ful- some tributes of the British Tories, the leaders of NATO and zed the US State Department.

The grass crawls with pressmen in Essex countryside

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

THE MALICIOUS attempt by the extreme right wing to disrupt a peaceful camp on Marxist theory organ.

ized by the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists has failed. Yesterday the press campaign of lies, distortion and rumour reached an obscene stage with wild accusa- tions of 'Nuremberg-style' rallies in the Essex country- side. Any worker who bothered to read these lurid and ludic- rous 'exposés' in the ultra- Tory press would easily dis- cern the hand of the right- wing witch-hunters. These men are the specialists -the big storm troopers of business who practise their low craft of red-baiting in every Their frantic strike. activity is fed only by their hatred of ordin- workers-and who ary anyone stands up for their rights against capitalism. This latest episode was inspired blub is knon for its hear The Monday Club members. The chotic opposition to coloured and trade unions. immigrants One of its executive committee members, Tory MP Harold Soref, orchestrated the campaign from London with the Club's Essex members adding a few absurd from toots the depths of the countryside. We refer to one Leonard Lam- bert, chairman of the Essex branch. Lambert naturally has at his the pages of the disposal 'Daily Telegraph' owned by Lady Pamela who cele- brated the return Tory the Dorchester government at with one of the most lavish eat- ing and drinking parties seen in ruling-class circles for decades.

- Lambert claimed in yesterday's "Telegraph' that there were guards with truncheons patrolling the "They camp: were wearing navy blue caps, navy blue trousers and grey shirts. I thought at first they were Essex policemen but they were guards. 'A Nuremberg-style rally was being held in the area they patrolled.' This mDoes he, Lambert is Does like many Monday Club other members, know what Nuremberg rally was really like? After all, devotees of the brag- many are Winston Churchill and they gart recall the words the master may wrote in 1936: 'If this country is defeated in war, I hope we may find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful place.' ('Great Con- temporaries'). Churchill this, When wrote Hitler was busy murdering Com- Party members, Trotsky- munist social democrats ists, and Jews Top: A 'Mirror' photographer takes for their opposition to fascism.

aim as two reporters lean against As well as being a peeping- Telegraph' by Tom for the extreme right, Lam- •Daily journalist Guy Rais. bert is a pathetically confused This was to encourage The 'policemen' he local Tories and right-wingers to person. saw for the come the camp and were actors preparing down enough A -ironically create incidents. camp play- Million', Nathanael West's Then the bankrupt Tory pro- Cool paganda machine would satire on American fascism.

have more anti-socialist items to how- and fight for gloat over the significant. illu- Marxist theory ever, was within the work- strates the main aim of the press ing-class movement would have Monday's campaign, been disrupted. started in Monday Club member Leonard Lambert happened to be skulk- ing around Essex an campsite told the 'Daily Tele- when, he graph', he saw three men.

'They blue wearing were navy caps, blue trousers and navy grey shirts. first they I thought at Essex policemen. But were they were guards! Nurem- berg-style rally was being held patrolled.' they in the area In fact the he men saw were actors who took part in Sunday "A night's production of Cool Million'-Nathanael West's satire on American fascism in the 1930s—presented to the camp. Nothing like a fertile right-wing is there? mind, takes aim from the cover of a tree. Above: gainst their car. But the yellow press failed miserably. The only attempt to provoke an incident came from carful of revellers a who shouted: 'Up the Monday Club'.

The farmer who owns the field quite rightly demanded their crédentials then sent them pack- ing. These efforts by the right-wing and their Fleet Street friends not be dismissed lightly.

must Workers Press, Wed se. Above: A 'Mail' photographer takes The Dair Mae the Idesraph, the antics of reporters 'Daily Mail', the 'Evening Stand- ard', the 'Daily Mirror' and even the very liberal "Guardian' con- an infringement of the stituted basic right to privacy. The harassment of the campers and the holidaymakers in the adjoining field began last Friday when the 'Telegraph' paid their first visit. No one would talk ress, Wednesday August 2, 1972 PAGE 3

HAROLD

BENJAMIN

SOREF, at 55, is notorious for his extreme right-wing views, his hatred of social- ism and his passionate sup- port of the white suprema- cists in Africa. He is an executive com- mittee member of the Mon- day Club-a ginger group on the right wing of the Con- servative Party with many members who also belong to the National Front. Soref was elected to par- liament by the Tories of Ormskirk in 1970. He is a powerful figure in the circles that back Rhodesia's racial- ist regime. For example, he is chairman of the Monday Club's Africa committee, on the council of the Anglo- Rhodesian Society and member of the Anglo- Zanzibar Society which sup- Zanzibar's deposed ports sheik. He is the managing direc- tor of Soref Brothers Ltd, an exporting firm heavily in- volved in trade with South Africa. Soref was educated at one of Britain's most exclusive public schools and studied at Queen's College, Oxford.

He lives in Chelsea and his London clubs are the Carlton and the Reform. During the war he served as an intelligence officer in the army. to the reporter and he was politely told to leave. After the first "Telegraph' "exposé' the horde descended.

The behaviour of the press witch- hunters only be can under- stood if one appreciates how des- perate they are. At the camp various mun- dane tricks were used. Report- ers attempted to gain access under false pretences. Planes were hired for an aerial view and the news hounds spent hours lying in uncomfortable ditches all after Finally, the 'exclusive'. one reporter was reduced to striking up a very one-sided conversation with a camper in the toilets.

Calm was restored as edition time approached, but not before the RAF had buzzed the camp a low with flying Buccaneer fighter 4.30 at p.m. Monday (Soref's Home Office inquiry?).

Eventually the field-was left to two Special Branch men who scrutinized the site through bin- oculars for confirmation of the dark stories of 'urban press guerrilla training'. All these frantic efforts by Tory MPs and newspapers, of course, are directed against the working class. The aim of the 'Daily Telegraph' is to create an atmosphere where more repres- sive laws against the unions and left-wing organizations can be introduced. This is what Soref wants when he indignantly demands a Home Office inquiry. This man offers not a scrap of evidence to support his slanderous suggestion that the being trained in campers are 'urban guerrilla warfare' — but then the truth is hardly the issue for Soref and his press pals.

The same people gloat when the British army invades Ulster and cheer when ordinary trade unionists are jailed because they fight for the right to work.

These campaigns of intimida- tion must be taken seriously within the labour movement. They are only a dress rehearsal for the kind of dictatorial pow- ers the ruling class has adopted in Ulster.

TUC RESOLUTIONS

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Wednesday Aug Defence or attack in the battle against the Indus- trial Relations Act-this is the question posed by the preliminary agenda for the September TUC in Brighton published today. In fact three lines of policy are discernible among the 13 resolutions subject on the unions have submitted for dis- cussion at the conference.

There are those who want reaffirm possibly to and strengthen the policies of non- co-operation and • deregistra- tion adopted at Croydon and Blackpool last year. There are those who want to take the offensive against the Act's Tory authors. And there are those who want to use parts of the Act they think are to their advantage. But whether last group led by the National Union of Bank Employees--will have a voice at the conference is in doubt. No decision has yet been taken by the TUC Organization Committee about whether suspended unions like NUBE will be able to move their reso- lutions at Brighton. A spokes- man yesterday thought it un- likely they would be. So the main issue before the conference will be: does it adopt the kind of policy put forward by sections of the Amalgamated Union of Engi- neering Workers, or that which appears to be favoured by unions representing film tech- nicians and print workers.

The AUEW engineers' SeC- tion will urge delegates to re- affirm their total opposition to the Act and demand 'its repeal by the next Labour govern- ment in favour of free collec- tive bargaining'. Says the resolution: 'Con- gress ... endorses the instruc- of the 1971 Congress to tions affiliated unions not to register under the Act and calls for the immediate operation of Rule 13 in the event of unions not complying with this deci- sion. 'It instructs affiliates, whilst taking all steps to defeat the operation of the Act, not to co-operate in the institutions set up to implement it. It also urges solidarity in defence of unions and individuals penal- ized by the the courts under the Act. financed by all unions to meet any penalties imposed, and to establish machinery to ensure that any union prevented from sequestration functioning by shall fully maintain its acti- vities.' The • AUEW technical and supervisory section (TASS) will call on unions to oppose implementation of the Act by both political and industrial means. 'Congress will give assist- ance including industrial action if necessary' , the TASS resolu- says, in defence of affi- tion liated unions victimized under the Act.' It goes on: 'Recognizing that the Labour Party will expect trade union support in the forthcoming election, Congress demands that the Parliamen- tary Labour Party if returned to power will remove the Indus- trial Relations Act from the Statute Book and restore the position which existed prior to the Act.' The Association of Cinema- esday August 2, 1972 tograph, Television Technicians is cor different line. While urging declare no assistance funds are hit, its on to stress: "The real attacks the ment. Television and Allied ns is committed to a urging Congress to co-operation and unions whose hit, its motion goes eal source of these is the Tory govern- nly when this govern removed from office rights can be General to organize a nation- including the industrial action, to government down ght for the return of com- ne socialist policie the Industri Act in its entirety; estoration of previous on rights.' motion is b as unequivocal, th of Operative Graphical and Media also seems to favour ive strategy. ess condemns the anti- ion activities of the ernment', its motior alls upon now against Relations Act, truggle for an imme- eral Election in order Labour govern- socialist to On the other hand the Civil • po and Public Services . Associa- tion wants the conference to agree that: taken 'Where action is against a union or its mem- bers by any body or person has the right to that union defend itself or its members before the National Industrial Relations Court or industrial tribunals.' NUBE-suspended for regis- tering under the Act-would, if given the chance, try to 'affi- persuade delegates that liated unions should utilize those parts of the Industrial Relations Act 1971 which it is in the interests of their mem- bers to do so', The National Union of Jour- nalists wants to instruct the TUC General Council to resist the use of the Act to interfere with free reporting and com- ment. Most unions are remarkably reticent in the preliminary agenda about unemployment. This is not because the issue is a dead one-last month's figure of 900,000 jobless showed it to be very much alive but because previous TUC appeals to the Tories to solve the problem have been shown utterly bankrupt. Here no union comes for- ward with an effective policy.

The Transport and General Workers' Union wants full em- ployment declared a major national priority'. It wants Con- gress to reject any idea that merely to reduce the present high levels will be enough.

Besides referring to 'neces- sary changes in government policy and the need for union action to reduce' technological and other unemployment', how- ever, the T&GWU leaves vague how this priority will be achieved. The main substance of its 'pressure for proposals is shorter working year, includ- ing the target of a 32-hour week, a four-day week, four weeks, annual and holiday additional public holidays without loss of pay'. wants dele- The T&GWU gates to declare a belief that 'in this way ... large number of jobs can be created and the technological proceeds of advance more fairly shared' The Society of Graphical and Allied Trades wants the Council to organize General and head a united effort by the organized workers of this country to obtain the 35-hour week'. For the most part, the draft- ing of the conference motions has an air of unreality height- ened by the events of the last fortnight. The sole challenge to the tri- partite talks with the Tories and the employers in which the TUC leaders are currently engaged comes from the AUEW constructional section.

In one of the briefest and most direct resolutions on the preliminary agenda, the con- struction men say: 'Congress reaffirms its oppo- sition to policies of wage re- straint in any form and instructs the General Council to refuse discussions with the government or the CBI that have this aim in view.' today's The result of mid-Cork by-election will decide the fate of the Lynch government in Eire. If he loses mid-Cork Lynch's Fianna Fail party will be in a minority in the Dail (Irish parliament). With the loss of this seat the total opposition vote would be 69 while his own party's would be 68. He would have to rely on the continued support of such capricious deputies as Neil Blaney, Foley, Brennan or possibly the Aontacht Eireann candidate in the election, Mr Sean Sherwin. As the 'Irish Times' said on Monday: 'A win in Cork is vital to continued by It is a four-cornered con- test between Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and Aontacht Eireann and the Irish Unity party, which was founded by ex-Lynch minister Kevin Boland. campaigning is also The intriguing because it is the first time that the fragile 'coalition' between the right-wing Fine Gael and the Labour Party has operated. They are giving each other preferences. campaign in the Lynch's electorate is being conducted on an unprecedented scale.

Almost every minister in the government has been on the electorate bangwagon and large sums of party funds have been spent on publicity. Voting in the by-election could well determine when Lynch will call a General Elec- tion. With mounting unemploy- ment and Common Market entry forcing huge price increases onto the working class, Lynch is fast falling from popularity. the unions with new National Wage Agreements, which is a prescription for wage-cuts.

Contrary to popular mythol- ogy, the number of killings in Ulster has increased since the Tories seized direct rule from Westminster. 24, 182 Since March people have been killed in Ulster. They include 126 civilians and 56 army per- sonnel. The civilians include 88 Catholics and 38 Protestants.

The figures for Catholic deaths are broken down in the following way: Murdered by Protestant extremists 42; killed by the • 25; killed in British army explosions 10, killed in 'crossfire' four; killed in 'other circumstances' four.

Friedrich Flick, convic- ted Nazi criminal war and West Germany's richest industrialist, died recently, aged 89. The powerful of the most Flick supplied Ruhr barons, the money which brought Adolf Hitler to power. During the war he used all slave in his plants Europe to feed the Nazi Over war acte

NEW EMPIRE

Sentenced after the war at Nuremberg, he less served than three of a seven- years year term in jail before being released to build a new in- dustrial empire with the re- mains of his old combine.

Flick's holdings now are €1,000m worth than

HOIC

They include a 40 cent per Daimler-Benz and SLaKe throughout the steel Interests Common Marker Flick's life-story shows how the men who brought Hitler to back in the power are now saddle in West Germany- -with the aid of the United States, Britain and France. Flick's rise to industrial Do were heated enter proved extremely adept taking com- over panies and banding them into trusts. established what was then the biggest coal and steel combine in Germany the Vereinigte Stahlwerke. In 1932, according to the indictment at the Nuremberg war crimes trial, Flick joined about other industrialists to form the 'little circle' that participated in effecting Hitler's rise to power' On their behalf Hitler crushed the powerful trade unions and the working-class parties, depriving the workers of all rights to fight their em- ployers. Flick himself won from the Nazis a state loan to buy iron mines in his native Siegerland and electrical works in the Rhineland. The annexation of Austria in 1938 brought him Salzburg mines and smelting plants.

Other smelters came into his possession with the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. From occu- pied Poland and Czechoslo- vakia he obtained more coal, iron and steel concerns. And as the Nazi armies ad- vanced into the Soviet Union, Flick grew rich on the looted plant and machinery. Hitler gave his combine lucrative arms contracts and his holdings were estimated at more than £200m. labourers from all Slave over occupied Europe were herded into special camps to serve the Flick mines, furnaces and foundries. They worked until they dropped dead from exhaustion and starvation under the whips of SS guards. After their trial at Nurem- berg, Flick and his son Otto- Ernst served only a short term of imprisonment before being released by the Ameri- can authorities. They handed him back con- trol of the Vereinigte Stahl- werke, stipulating only that the combine be broken up.

He was ordered to sell off either his coal or his steel interests. Astutely, he chose to sell his coal mines and the bu £20m he received formed the basis for the new expansion.

He bought 25 per cent of Daimler-Benz at a time when few people could imagine that the Germans would ever be driving Mercedes cars again.

COMMON MARKET

Forbidden to expand in West Germany, Flick made newspaper headlines in 1955 when he became the first German industrialist since 1914 to acquire a major share in a French steel company.

In April 1956, he bought a major share in a Belgian steel concern, the first German ever to make his way into Belgian basic industry. Flick was thus one of the main driving forces behind the formation of the Common Market, designed to bring to- gether most reactionary monopolies in Europe against the working class. The first steps towards the EEC involved the formation of a Coal and Steel Community dominated by Flick interests.

The Flick group now con- trols 103 companies and has major interests in France and Belgium. It holds 40 per cent of Daimler-Benz and over 80 per cent of the Nobel Dyna- mite Company. The group also has factories making synthetic fibre, a pub- lishing company and Europe's largest paper mill. Its esti- mated annual turnover is £1,250m. Several Flick companies have lucrative contracts to supply arms to the West German forces. The biggest of these is Krauss-Mafei which builds the Leopard tank. Workers Press, Wadi After the weeks of talk at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in Chile and the innum. erable reformist resolu- tions solemnly voted on, those underdeveloped countries under discus- sion find themselves in even more serious crisis.

The political powers that be turn to more vicious repres- sion of the working class.

President Bordaberry's regime in Uruguay is a case in point. After two months of a state of emergency in which trade unionists and Tupamaros guerrillas have been arrested and shot, the Uruguayan economy is in a worse state than ever. Recently the Economic Min- ister, Senor Froteza, admitted foreign that the debt had reached $673m. The cost of living in 1971 increased by 46.9 per cent and in the first six months of this year, the rate of increase is even more severe. Published figures estimate that the subsistence income for married couple with two a children has gone up from 51,000 Uruguayan pesos in January 1971 to 94,000 at the time. In fact most present wages still remain below the 1971 subsistence level. Local government workers building earn 30,000 pesos, workers 52,000 and secondary teachers 50,000 pesos a month.

repid inflation This has meant larger sections of the being Uruguayan masses are thrown into impoverishment and starvation. In the riverbank area of southern Uruguay the child population is being decimated by measles. In the past ten days, 30 fatal cases of measles been reported in the have departments of Rio Negro and Soriano where basic food items have become luxury articles.

Apart from declaring a state of emergency and step- repression, up police ping Bordaberry has begun to look to the President of Brazil, Garrastazu Medici, for help.

Brazilian firms are buying up property and land in Uruguay.

He has also imposed a four- month ban on the domestic consumption of beef in an attempt to boost exports.

The contact men who operate in the Soviet planning system are in the news again. Known as "tolkachi, their activities are as illegal as they indispensable to the are bureaucracy. They are the men who put plants with surplus supplies in touch with buyers and hunt around to find scarce materials or spare parts which enable another factory to keep going. The 'tolkach' roams the with his briefcase, country moving into the inner sanctums of Soviet industry with a nod and a wink. The pay-off for his services may be in cash or in kind and to get what he wants he has to oil palms and cut some very fine corners.

Even 'Pravda' has now to admit his existence. In fact the 'economic reform' which put more power into the hands of plant managers opened the way ross, Wednesday August 2, 1972 PAGE 5 Madlal. Boing looked to for help by Uruguay. This ban has caused wide- scale panic on the food- market. Prices of potatoes and while vegetables are soaring, dealers claim that supplies of pork, fish and poultry will run out in a month. The International Monetary Fund's response has been far removed from any reformist platitudes about helping the 'third world'. In their latest agreement with Bordaberry, he has to promise not to change his wages policy during 1972.

In other words, they condemn the Uruguayan masses to at least another 50 per cent cut in their already meagre living standards. The only people who are putting forward reformist solu- tions are the working-class leaders, the Stalinists in parti- cular. The National Labour Con- vention (CNT), the country's major trade union organization called a 24-hour General Strike last Thursday. This is the tenth General Strike since Bordaberry took over the ew presidency on March 1.

These token actions are aimed at pressurizing Borda- berry into 'observing the coun- try's constitutional guaran- tees' and into allowing wage increases. This pressure policy is one of the broad coalition of Christian Democrats and Stal- inists and has been worked out to avoid an all-out fight against a government set on of destroying path the working class and to dissipate the militancy of the working class which is ready for such a fight. for this particularly perasitic private enterprise. They find it useful to 'have someone around who can help them solve their supply Or marketing problems. It is when bureaucratic mis- management and gross dispro- portions have - thrown economy into a crisis that the 'tolkachi' really come into their own. The fact that they are now flourishing as never before is highly significant. The Soviet bureaucracy is facing growing economic diffi- culties, especially in its attempts to build up techno- logically more advanced industries and carry out new, giant projects. The 'tolkachi' are a product of the distortions and inflexi- bility which inevitably accomp- any bureaucratic methods of planning. They are one of the parasitic off-shoots of the policy of 'socialism in one country. The bureaucracy cannot do without the 'tolkachi, but the working class can do without both. Only when the political revolution has overthrown the bureaucracy can the planned economy come into its own.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Wednesday August 2, 1972

BY PHILIP WADE. PART ONE

As the British steel in- verification of the deep- going crisis throughout British dustry comes face to face capitalism. with Common Market In an industry where almost entry, it also reaches the 100,000 jobs have disappeared in ten years-and 40,000 since end of a long, historical nationalization in 1967 - the road which spells doom Tory government is planning for for it in any independent well over another 100,000 sackings. form. The vast majority of British British Steel Corpora- steel plants will be closed and The tion's annual report just pub- production concentrated in a lished shows that in few modernized units. the year ending March 1972 they made Output the over next a gigantic loss of £68m. decade will be virtually the Home sales only reached same as it is now. The Tories million have decided, 12.6 tons, and total in conjunction turnover at £1,292m with Common Market govern- was sub- stantially below the levels ments, that any future develop- ments will probably take place anticipated. home on the Continent itself. The drop in sales fall of Already burdened with over massive represented 24 cent compared to the yet on the whole per capacity 1970-1971 levels. This reflected with far more modern equip- the most severe decline in UK ment the EEC is firmly opposed to the expansion steel demand since the war and of BSC to a position where it might dominate, the rest of Europe. At the same time, of course, British capitalism does not have the financial resources to enable prolonged expansion of steel-making capacity in this country. • The end of such an industry is of tremendous historical significance for British capi- talism. that means the "workshop of the world' of the 19th century has now been reduced to the graveyard of world industry. A century ago it was Britain which dominated the world in iron and production the steel. It provided the basic raw material manufactured for goods. With no great rivals and a vast empire, Britain con- trolled the world market.

today that position is reversed. British capitalism is arguably the weakest link of the advanced economies that make up western imperialism.

And the fact that most basic of all industries-steel-is on the verge of collapse indicates the depth of that crisis.

Even aid massive state through investment loans and two bouts of 'nationalization' have been unable to stop the rot. Now the British steel indus- try finds itself in the midst of rapid technical changes which are transforming production.

The decline in British steel is long-term. Until the 1870s industry the still led the world in production. But by 1914 it had slipped into third place behind the United States and Germany. The main reason for this was the rapid switch from iron to steel production over that period. Iron production was heavily. and Ge dependent on manual labour, with highly-skilled craftsmen and a relatively large labour force. Steel production became a viable proposition on the intro- duction of the Bessemer method in the 1850s. This involved the of conversion iron steel molten pig into without the use of additional fuel. Carbon and silicon were burned out of the metal by a blast of air blown through a converter. The result was a steel much stronger than the vrought iron which had beer roduced previously

PRODUCTION

Although relatively cheap, Bessemer had disadvantages in that it was impossible to con- trol accurately the quality of finished steel. It was replaced, therefore, by the open hearth method which, although slower, did allow tests to be made in the course of manufacture.

But it was the Americans and Germans who moved into steel production quicker than Britain, employing expensive capital-equipment and highly- trained chemists and metallur- gists. In 1913 Britain's share of production world steel was It about 10 per cent. was, however, a declining share, the through- continuing process out the 1930s. By 1955 the share was 7.5 per cent and by the late 1960s only 5 per cent.

This long-term decline now coincides with the collapse of capitalism its British and investment programmes. The British capitalist class —dominated for so long by parasitical existence off long- term investments, has always been notoriously slow to take advantage of new technology the At the beginning of 1950s, British workers • were refusing to work hand-charged blast furnaces at Corby that had been replaced by the USA and Europe at the beginning of the century by mechani.

cally-charged furnaces. The universal beam mill, used roll the girders to required for construction, was invented by a British emigrant and first used in Europe in 1902 and in the USA in 1908.

The first such mill in Britain was opened by Dorman Long in 1958. A comparison with the industry will Japanese steel illustrate vividly the back- nature of its British ward counterpart and the hopeless position it now finds itself in.

In the 1950s the most important breakthrough in steel technology this century, and since Bessemer, was devel- oped in Austria. Called the Lintz and Dona- witz method, it involves blast- ing molten iron with a stream of oxygen, the metal being held in a giant cauldron.

Its main advantage over the old production methods lies in its enormous time-saving. A modern basic oxygen furnace 350 tons of raw take can material and convert it to steel within 40 minutes. By comparison, an open hearth furnace needs ten hours to produce the same quantity.

Basic oxygen furnaces have a throughput of around 200 tons per man-year; open hearth are less than half that figure.

And for certain types _of steel-principally mild steels- consider- basic-oxygen gives ably better quality control.

At Port Talbot,

BSC

has already replaced 14 old-style converters with two IDs. They of producing capable are 250,000 tons extra of steel each year. Yet the labour force has been cut from 2,500 to 500

GROWTH

As another example, a 9,000-tons-a-day furnace, using the latest techniques, can pro- duce the same steel output, but using only around one- of the labour force as sixth one installed 15 years ago.

In the last 15 years Japan has made an astonishing leap from being a minor producer of steel the third in the to world, with a capacity of over 100 million tons a year. This been growth has achieved works using building huge coastal the LD methods, relying entirely on coal and iron ore imported from the vast fields of Aus- Workers Press, Wednesda tralia, Brazil, Canada and India. The Japanese have been able to drop the price of steel they produce by about 3 per cent a year. This has given them for- midable competitiveness in world markets, not least of all in Europe. Japanese steel imports by Britain have risen 500 per cent to £20m over the last The first two years. quarter of 1972 has shown further 12 per cent increase.

The United States has 58 million tons of LD capacity for a further 16 and plans million tons. West Germany's LD capacity is 25 million tons with another 16 million scheduled for development.

But Britain only produces 11 million by tons a year the most up-to-date methods. Over 50 per cent of all steel in Britain is still produced by the open-hearth method. fact that Despite the £1,000m has been invested in British steel since 1956 and half the industry is less than a decade old, productivity per man, at 110 tons, is under half the Japanese figure. Japan has enormous plants f Aus- with a 10 million ton plus r8 Press, Wednesday August 2, 1972 PAGE 7 Left: Open hearth furnace which replaced the Bessemer method Right: Port Talbot steel works capacity. There are only three British plants with an out- than 2 million. put greater Over 30 units have an average output of 850,000 tons.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

Redundancies in British steel industry since January, 1971 January 1971: Lanarkshire and Hartlepool: 560. February: Motherwell: 130. March: Motherwell, Sheffield, Rother- ham, Bilston, Corby: 2,600.

April: Irlam, Teesside, Tipton: 7,255.

June: Huntingdon: 200. July: Hartlepool: 200; Stanton: 244.

October: Hartlepool: 250. November: Glasgow: 300. January 1972: Newport: 1,120. june: 2,400; Nottingham: Irlam: 1,300.

PAGE & Workero Preal 1 Auguel 2, 1872

LET HISTORY

JUDGE

STALINISM

The book by Roy Medvedev translated as 'Let History Judge: the Origins and Consequences of Stalinism' (Macmillan £5.75) is the first independent attempt in the Soviet Union to under- stand the Stalin era which has come out of that country. It is a of Stalin and Stalinism which confirms damning indictment everything which Trotsky wrote about the bureaucratic degeneration of the first workers' state. From the great tension under which it is written, its passion drawn from the sufferings of millions of people, is also a testimony to the fact that the of the October 1917 Revolution been conquests have not destroyed. Medyeder writes as a communist intellectual, an oppositionist who is harassed and persecuted for his struggle to tell the truth as he sees it. His book has great merits and deserves a careful study both for what it provides in the way of corroboration for the Trotskyist analysis and what it leaves some crucial questions the book is fundamentally out. Un wrong. This series of articles submit Mededer's book to scrutiny with the aim detailed pursuing the struggle against Stalinism to the end. It will deal in particular with his errors and omissions and point the way for a more rounded analysis which must begin with the works of Trotsky which are cited in the lootnotes.

BY TOM KEMP PART 6

and the commentators who revisionists scorn

SOCIALISM

the dialectic and pick up

IN ONE

the crumbs from the table of the Kremlinologists is

COUNTRY

to equate Stalinism with

AND FOREIGN

the purges and repres sion in which Stalin

POLICY

indulged. reckoning, On

LOUS

his successors no longer те- sort to such methods, or do so The most prevalent mis- in a lesser and more discreet take made by bourgeois Stalinism has either way. disappeared—to be replaced by something else-or it has become respectable enough to enter into a dialogue or even an alliance with. This is basically false and un-Marxist. Trotsky took up the political struggle against of the development bureaucracy long before Stalin pathological resorted to the liquidation of his opponents and established himself as the arbiter of that supreme bureaucracy. It was Stalin's basic revision of Marxist theory, breaking with proletarian international- ism and propounding the doc- trine of 'socialism in one which distinguished country' from Stalinism Marxism- Leninism. It is this theory, and derivations-'peaceful its •co- existence' and parliamentary and peaceful roads to social- ism - which remain the distinguishing marks of Stalin- ism to this day as embodied in the policies of the Com- munist i Party of the Soviet Union and the other self-styled communist parties faithful to the line of Moscow or of Peking. When Trotskyists use the term 'Stalinism'" they refer to this doctrine and • policy, worked out by Stalin as the ideology and practice bureaucratic rule. In this sense Stalinism re- mains a deadly canker in the working-class movement, made more insidious in some ways because the old dictator him- self is not only dead but com- pletely without honour among the Moscow, if not the Peking Stalinists themselves. They propound and adhere, in fact, to a theory and policy which appears to have specific no but is illegitimately origin, credited to Lenin and, at times, to Marx and Engels.

Whether or not Stalin was conscious of the fact, the origins of the theory can be traced back to the right wing of German social democracy.

Irotsky points this out in his detailed criticism of the draft programme of the Com- munist International drawn up by Bukharin to Stalin's order for the 6th Congress in 1928. In one form or another it appears in the thinking of all reformists who begin always the national state, their with 'own', and never with the unity of the world economy.

As far back as 1878, in the early days of the German Social Democratic Party, one Herr Vollmar put forward a isolated state' theory for an on socialist foundations. He assumed that it would be quite possible, in an advanced capi- talist country like Germany, for socialism to be established while the rest of the world re- capitalist. He mained en- Trotsky put it- visaged, as before the Stalinists patented the term!-'the perspective of the peaceful co-existence of the socialist and capitalist systems'. Socialism would triumph peacefully, in Vollmar's view, by selling goods more cheaply in the world market. What a Utopia! But Bukharin and Stalin this theory, or took over evolved it independently, and erected it into a theory for the Soviet Union and for the Communist entire Inter- national. It is the same theory which Khrushcher propounded when he spoke of the triumph of communism' as a result of the peaceful competition of the two systems. It is the same theory to which Brezhnev, Kosygin and the leadership of the Stalinist parties adhere to this day. This, then, is the theoretical Hitler's accession to In power 1933 was the greatest defeat to working movement. the class Recriminations began. Above : Bookburning. heart of Stalinism on the basis of which, by means of forced draught five-year plans and de- kulakization, Stalin claimed to have built socialism in the 1930s. Through all the zig- zags of the 'third period' and Popular Front, into the alliance with Hitler and out of it and into the agreements with America and Britain, into the Cold War and out of it, this remained Stalinism's guid- ing star. The policy of 'socialism' in a single country meant that the bureaucracy could not afford to see revolutionary movements break out, let alone triumph, anywhere else.

Lip-service was given to 'inter- nationalism', , but in practice it meant unqualified obedience to the needs of the Soviet Union as conceived by the bureaucracy. Furthermore, the Soviet Union remained a relatively backward country. This was admitted by Stalin and by his in their constant, successors repeated but ever realized, promises 'to catch up and outstrip' the advanced capital- ist countries. While Vollmar had, at least, propounded the theory for one of the most ad- vanced Stalin's countries, applied to theory was a country which remained both backward and isolated. Taken up with enthusiasm by the bureaucracy as a whole, because it so well suited its needs as a parasitic ruling stratum, the practice of social- ism in one country gave it added succour. At the same time it sapped the strength of the international communist movement, transformed the communist parties into 'border

Vollmar, who put a theory for an 'isolate guards' for the Soviet Union imposed upon and them essentially counter - revolu- tionary policies embodied in documents like the 'British Road to Socialism', • approved and edited by Stalin himself.

Like Vollmar, the Stalinists see that socialism in a single country-now joined by the states of deformed workers' Eastern Europe since 1944- 1945—has as its corollary 'peaceful co-existence' with the rest of the world, which re- mains within the sphere of capitalist economy. There is no need to recount here all the contradictions in which this involves the bureaucracy because many of them have already been dealt with. We shall be concerned its here specifically with working out in the field of foreign relations. The Stalinist policy of 'socialism in one country' re- flected itself in foreign policy in a very definite way. As Trotsky put it: "The degenera- tion of the governing stratum could not but be accompanied by a corresponding change of methods in Soviet aims and diplomacy," Instead of being subordina- ted to the aim of overthrow- ing capitalism as a world system, it was turned towards "peaceful co-existence' with the bourgeoisie. Not only did it abandon support for revolu- tionary movements in other but it expressed a countries, complete lack of confidence in and contempt for the work- ing class and even for the leadership of the other com- munist parties. Medveder's basic failure to of understand the nature Stalinism makes it impossible adequately for him to deal with its diplomatic record.

Instead, while being critical of Stalin's policy,_ he never gets to its roots. For him it consists of some correct de- cisions and many mistakes, but he blames the mistakes on the fact that the final decisions were taken by one man and that Stalin could not be in- fallible: "The system he set up made mistakes not only inevitable, numerous and grave, but ex- tremely difficult to correct.

This was one of the most dangerous consequences of the cult.' The superficiality of this approach is shown when Med- vedev turns to examine cases.

He begins with the 'third period', from 1929 to 1934, when, following the 6th Con- gress of the Communist Inter- national, under Stalin's direc- tion, the end of the period of capitalist stabilization was an 'isolato state'. said to open a new one of im- minent revolution in which the masses were deserting the social democratic organiza- tions and becoming 'radical- • ized'. Central to the new course was the definition of social democracy as a wing of fascism. 'In countries where there strong social democratic are parties, proclaimed the 10th Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee of the Comintern, 'fascism assumes the particu- lar form of social fascism, ever-increasing which to an serves the bourgeoisie extent masses in the struggle against the regime of fascist dictator- ship. By means. of this mon- strous system of political and economic oppression, the bourgeoisie, aided and abetted by international social de- mocracy, has been attempting to crush the revolutionary class movement for many years. This refrain, echoed and em- broidered over the next few years, prepared the way for accession the . to power of Hitler in 1933, the greatest defeat in the history of the workers' movement. While condemning the 'third period' policies of Stalin, Medvedev is unable to explain them. He wrongly sees the labelling of social democrats as 'social fascists' to be a con- tinuation of Bolshevik opposi- tion to Menshevism. It was nothing of the kind. The whole policy of 'social- ism in one country had led to the adoption of essentially Menshevik policies of the 'two-stage' revolution in China and other countries, while the continuators of Bolshevism in the Russian party were hounded and destroyed by Stalin. The turn towards the policy of 'social fascism' was panic reaction, taken em- a pirically, to the grave dangers confronting the Soviet Union internationally at the very when a grain crisis moment had precipitated forced collec- tivization, creating conditions of civil war in the countryside.

It was an ultra-left, adventur- ist zigzag which not only did enormous damage to the foreign communist parties and divided and disoriented the advanced workers, but also in- tensified the dangers facing the Soviet Union. Medvedev clearly sees enough the dangers of Stalin's policy in the early 1930s, especially as regards Germany.

He would have profited from a study of Trotsky's writings on the period, of which he be unaware. appears to Trotsky warned repeatedly of the suicidal dangers of a policy which saw no difference between fascism and bourgeois democracy, which he traced to philosophical roots. 'From the Marxist denial of the absolute contradiction it deduces the general negation of the contradiction, even the relative contradiction. This error is typical of vulgar radicalism. For if there be no contradiction whatsoever be- tween democracy and fascism -even in the spere, of the form of the rule of the bourgeoisie — then the two regimes obviously enough must be equivalent. Whence the con- clusion: Social Democracy = Fascism. For some reason, however, social democracy is dubbed social fascism. And meaning of the the term "social" in this connection has -been left unexplained to this very moment. Trotsky then goes on to ex- plain the difference between democracy as a form of bourgeois rule, in which par- main liament provided the arena for the operation. of social democracy supported by the workers, and fascism, in which the workers' organiza- tions are smashed and all power gathered into the hands of a dictatorship representing finance-capital and leaning on the support of the petty bourgeoisie. Stalin's policies, imposed on the communist parties, isolated them from large sections of the working class and opened the way for the victory of fascism. The alternative was not support for bourgeois de- mocracy in the abstract, not a relaxation of the struggle against social democracy, but a United Front tactic. Such a tactic could not be aimed directly and exclusively at the followers of the social democratic organizations the so-called 'United Front from below' put forward by the Stalinists. It had to be turned to the organizations having a mass basis and thus to the leadership of those organizations. With what pur- pose? Trotsky explains: 'The Communist Party proves to the masses and their organizations its readiness in action to wage battle in com- mon with them, for aims, no matter how modest, so long as they lie on the road of the historical development of the Communist proletariat; this Party in struggle takes into account the actual condi- tions of the class at each given moment; it turns not to the masses only, but also to those organizations whose leadership is recognized by the masses; it confronts the reformist organizations before the eyes of the masses with the real problems of the class of the struggle. The policy united front hastens the revo- lutionary development of the class by revealing clearly that the common struggle is under- mined not by the disruptive acts of the Communist Party but by the conscious sabotage of the leaders of social democracy." These were the principles upon which the United Front advocated in the early was years of the Comintern. It had nothing in common with defence of de- abstract an It was an active mocracy. policy of class struggle to win leadership in . the class. The crime of Stalin was that he German rendered the Com- munist Party in particular in- capable of making such a bid for leadership. This was not just 'stupidity, as Medvedev suggests, it was the result of complete break with a Marxism and internationalism.

PART 6 WILL BE

CONTINUED TOMORROW

' L. Trotsky 'The Revolution Betrayed p. 186. 2 L. Trotsky , 'Germany 1931- 1932', p. 63. 3 L. Trotsky, op. cit. p. 103.

Workers Press, Wer His Master's Voice: Introduc- ing the BBC's 'World at One' William Hard- programme castle: absentmindedly an- nounced: 'This is William Whitelaw ... I mean ... William Hardcastle in the World at One studio .. Thousands of trade unionists often wonder what goes on in- side the four walls of Congress House when the TUC is in session. Since the Tories came to power and began their offen- sive, the working class has looked-so far unsuccessfully -for leadership from the TUC.

The Monday after the five dockers were taken to Penton- ville, the TUC 'inner cabinet', finance and general pur- poses committee, met in London to consider the situ- ation. Outside hundreds of trade taking part in a unionists, lobby called by the All Trades Unions Alliance, were demand- ing , some action. The ATUA section were demanding a Ger: ral Strike to make the Tories resign while the faction led by the Communist Party remained silent. Suddenly, a man appeared at the window of the third floor of Congress House. He had an object in his hand, which he threw. The next thing lobbyists saw was an empty champagne bottle smash into pieces next to their feet. Not a beer bottle, notice, but the best champagne. Well, you always wanted to know what went on in Con- gress House. You gasped at the Jak cartoon in the 'Evening Standard' dur- ing the power strike, reeled 'Daily Telegraph' at the editorials during the miners' strike. Listen to some of these gems from this week's main article in the Lord Cowdray- owned publication, the 'Econo- mist': 'In any sensible industrial the right sanction against the likes of them [Messrs Steer, Turner etc.] is not jug, but the sack. If they persist with their unlawful Press, Wadneaday Auguet 2, 1972 PAGE 9.

industrial practices, they should be dismissed from the trade union, whose rules they will be flouting, and then from the docks where they will be steadily rendering all jobs uneconomic' In the another passage author says the past week is 'about whether Britain is to be governable under any democratically-elected admini- stration, with the courts pro- tecting the weak [the "weak" being a reference to Midland Cold Storage, the outfit owned by the multi-millionaire Lord Vestey! !] or whether the real powers of decision are to pass marauding protection to rackets ... 'If those who use mob violence to break laws they dislike are confirmed in real power, there will be three further results. First, every- body knows that they will become more violent and corrupt-and in a personal and venal sense, not merely in their power-seeking present one,' etc., etc. There is one final paragraph worthy of mention: "Mr Carr could have changed the history of the government if he had stood before parlia- and declared that he ment utterly rejected that men who had killed old people by inter- rupting electricity supplies should be rewarded in this way.' Mr Alastair Burnet, editor of the 'Economist' is shortly to become the main anchor man for the BBC programme 'Panorama'. Mr Carr

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Company returns reveal an PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday Aur

SOUTHAMPTON

docks man believes that the work- ing class has reached the crossroads in its struggle against the Tories. He told our reporter: the At moment everyone except those closest to the struggle believes that the dockers are locked in a battle with the employers over wages, conditions and jobs. majority of The dockers, despite the shouts of 'Heath out' demonstrations, on are interested only in getting guaran- tees of job security. want to be sure that time. The delegate conference deci- sion to strike at 8 a.m. Friday, July 28, after twice postponing it was a manifestation of the insecurity the dockers felt.

But the Tories are under no illusions. They see this latest resistance of the working class as a direct threat to their way of life. They believed that the Industrial Relations Act would be the instrument to silence the Labour Party, gag the TUC and unions and castrate workers. Unhappily for them, as the miners and railwaymen before them, the dockers are inno mood to fall for their gigantic confidence trick. They realize that this Act can be defeated and it is up to trade unionists everywhere to support them and it is not only the Industrial Relations Act that can be defeated here. The Tory • Party, big business and the whole rotten system is at crisis point and as the work- ers inflict more defeats, like free- ing the jailed dockers, they become aware of their more power and the Tories more hys- terical about losing theirs.

The labour movement is at the crossroads. It must not draw complete vic- back now. Only tory will be enough. Any- thing less will be a sell-out!

EQUAL PAY for women could a drastic reduction in mean female employment according to a new report from the Office of Economics. The Manpower Equal Pay Act is due to come into force at the end of 1975.

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SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, L

Name Address lesday August 2, 1972

BY PHILIP WADE

THE slide towards out- right collapse of the fundamental basis of the British con- economy tinues uninterrupted. Latest returns from motor manufacturing and machine tools are ample verification of this trend. Capital investment in manufacturing for 1972 is expected to be 3 per cent down on last year's figure. That in turn was 8 per cent down on the 1970 figure. It is in this context that Alfred Coventry, Europe's Herbert of largest machine-tool manufac- turer, has just announced a £2.28m loss for the six months to April 1972. The previous half-year resulted in losses of £3.22m. It is not that no surprising, therefore being paid interim dividend is this time. to arrest Volk-

ATTEMPTS

wagen's 1971 profits slide have led to 14,000 men losing their jobs. Last year the West German giant ended with net profits of information about low and send to NATIONAL

LABOUR LEAGUE,

TH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

The latest figures show • that the value of sales fell by f5m or almost a quarter to £15.8m.' The order intake was also down £5m to £14.4m. No account has yet been taken of the losses suffered following the collapse in June of Herbert- Ingersoll, the Daventry-based Anglo-American, advanced machine-tool venture. Alfred Herbert, which had a 44.3 per cent share in the com- pany lost about £2m in the opera- tion. The British machine-tool industry is now in its worst slump the 1930s. In real terms, since the £71.5m worth of net home orders received last year was the lowest yearly total since 1950.

Proof of the world nature of the economic crisis comes from a glance at the American machine- tool industry, the most advanced in the world. US output last year was a third down on 1970 and less than half the 1967 level. The West German and other European machine-tool industries have followed the slump in Britain.

£1.5m and was forced to cancel dividends to sharehold- World-wide group profits ers. slumped by per percent. Since last year the directors of VW, which is 40 per cent state •federal government-owned, and have moved ruthlessly to improve their trading position, beginning with the dismissal of combine chief Dr Kurt Lotz.

Rationalization has pruned the VW workforce in six factories at Wolfsburg, Brunswick, Salzgitter, Kassel, Hannover and Emden by 14,000 men. New plants are to be opened in South America and the 'underdeveloped' world where labour costs are cheaper.

Sales for the traditional VW 'Beetle' car have fallen disas- trously and the labour cut-backs are part of preparations for new which it is production hoped will be fresh range of 900 cc to two litre cars by next year. The emphasis will be on interchangeability of parts and economies of scale.

The international currency crisis, especially the effective devaluation of the dollar, coupled with intense Japanese competi- tion, has severely hit VW sales and profits. Now the world machine-tool output - which in the boom averaged an annual growth of 7 per cent - actually declined in 1971. In the past two years, Alfred Herbert has purged its workforce ruthlessly in a futile attempt to overcome the crisis. The number of sites went down from 15 to Il and they sacked over 3,000 one quarter of the workers, labour torce. Now City commentators say that unless the company picks up substantial orders within the next six months it is likely to go bankrupt. Britain's car industry—capi- talism's survival hope-is great also sliding into deeper and deeper financial trouble.

Chrysler UK, the former Rootes Motors has just group, turned in a net pre-tax loss of £1.3m for the first six months to May 1972. This compares with a profit of £3.26m at the same time last year.

Turnover for the latest period was down £5.4m at £134.4m.

The news follows last week's Vauxhall announcement of a pre- tax loss of £2.55m for a similar period. Although both companies have tried to blame domestic strikes and the miners' dispute for their losses, it is clear that something more fundamental lies behind the returns. The main reasons for the slump are devastating foreign competi- tion. Overseas competitors— especially the Japanesehave steadily been increasing their share of the British car market.

Their share now stands at about 25 per cent and was built up dur- ing the lengthy credit squeezes.

Although there has been a sub- stantial growth in demand for cars in Britain following the relaxation of credit restrictions, manufacturers like Chrysler and British-Leyland have been unable to take advantage of it. Mr George Turnbull, managing the Austin-Morris director of division of British-Leyland, says British manutacturers are in a bad position to meet the com- petition. 'None of the domestic manu- facturers, except those with mas- sive unused capacity, can hope to supply their full potential in the market,' he says. And Austin- Morris was not in that position, he explained on Monday when he launched the new Morris Marina It is for that reason that Bri- tish-Leyland is of 80 big one firms who have refused to renew their 5 per cent price restraint pledge to the Confederation of British Industry. Chrysler UK is still consider- ing the position. Other refusals have come from Courtauld's, Redland, the brick manufactur- ers, and Marley. Finally, a survey. just pub- lished shows that Britain's share of world invisible trade has con- tinued to decline. The Tories and financiers often make great play about shipping, investment and insurance earnings abroad which help to cover balance of trade deficits. The figures published yester- day for 1969 show Britain's share falling from 12 per cent to 11.6 per cent. alks A FIVE-WEEK-OLD piecéwork strike at the Jaguar car plant in Coventry continued yesterday after an attempt to settle it failed on Monday night. Both sides met for several hours, but a union spokesman said afterwards that no accept- able formula was worked out and there were no plans to meet again. The dispute is over higher piecework payments to 2,500 car- assembly men. A further 3,500 Jaguar work- ers have been laid off. So far the dispute has cost the com- pany f7m in lost production.

A dispute at Rover's main assembly plant at Solihull, War- wickshire, was settled on Mon- day, when 120 internal drivers a union recommenda- accepted tion and agreed return to to work. Their dispute, over job grading, had stopped car and Land-Rover production.

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Casey 10.25 Play tennis. 10.50 Jones. 4.55 Little Big Time. 5.20 Ace of Adventures of Tintin. 10.55 Magic 1.00 Wands. 5.50 News. 11.00 Cricket. roundabout. 1.30 Andy Pandy. Disc a dawn.

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FROM A CHAIN GANG"

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Amount enclosed £ Workers Press, Wednesday August 2, 1972 PAGE 11 Gregson (loit) Erieseon In 'Last John plays milllonaire Sven Land In BBC 1's 'No Exit' series.

Peter Graves plays JIm Phelps who deals with the James Bondish 'Mission Impossible' exploits on BBC 4.00 4.15 En-

GRANADA: 2.25

Houseparty. room. 4.55 London. 6.00 About Freud on food. chanted house Crossroads Anglia. 6.35 London. Junkin. 4.10 seaway 8.41 6.00 Day day. News. Peyton Place. 4.40 Loncon. Dy Sean. Get this. 7.00 London. 12.00 4.55 London. What's 6.35 6.00 News. ATV MIDLANDS: 3.10 Good after- News. 12.10 Weather. Guideline. 1030 Shirleys OuT. noon. 3.35 Horoscope. 3.45 London. 10.30 world. Women Mrs Muir. 40 11.00 London. Magic ball 4.55 3.45 Ugliest girl. 4.15 Tinkertainment Crossroads. 7.00 London. 10.30 Odd couple.

, 11.00 Crossroads. Wrestling. SCOTTISH: 3.35 Horoscope.

3.45 Women. 4.10 Animaland. 4.15 .30 Dave Crossroads. 6.00 don. 8.00 Hawaii five-o. 9.00 ULSTER: 4.30 Romper room.

4.50 roofs. Frighteners. 4.55 _News 6.30 Band call. 7.00 London. News London. Weather. Viewfinder. 6.35 London. At odds. 11.00 Wrestling 10.30 World War 1. 11.00 Wrest-

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3.45 afternoon. 3.37 News. Report West. Women. 4.10 Yoga. 4.40 Enchan 4.15 Crossroads. 4.40 Sean. 4.55 ted house. London. 6.00 .00 Calendar. 6.05 News. 6.10 6.20 London. _Grampian ANGLIA: 1.40 World War I. 2.05 7.00 Canadian view. 6.35 . 8.00 London London. 10.30 Blue Rovers. 2.30 London. 3.15 Licence KInG news 3.45 Yoga. 4.10 News. light 11.00 Wrestling. 11.45 9.00 London. 11.45 Scales of 4.15 4.30 Weather. justice. Cartoons. Romper This collection of articles was penned by Trotsky in reply to various critics of his then recently-published 'Where is Britain Going?' They appeared in the Soviet press of the time and con- corollary and stitute a necessary work. Trotsky sequel to that here dissects the of all the arguments brands of opponents of Marxism: re- formist, pacifist, Fabian, centrist,

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Briant men reach an agreement with firm's PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday Au

BY INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDEI

THERE are dangerous signs t unions might be willing to win selective strike campaign on t offer from the employers.

Yet the offer, which will be discussed today at the industry's joint national council, is little better than the employers' 'final offer' made before the strikes began. A two-year, two-stage deal is proposed which would raise the craftsmen's basic rate to £23 immediately from the present level of £20. From May 21, 1973, the rate would rise to £26 a week. For labourers, the rate would be raised immediately from £17 to £19.60 and to £22.20 from next May. This new deal has been worked out over the past week between the two sides sitting special N/C negotiating on a committee. Firstly, the offer falls way workers' short of the building pay and conditions claim.

This was for £30 for a 35-hour-week and another week's holiday. The employers have offered no con- cessions on hours and only two days' extra holiday over the next two years. When talks finally broke down last month after 18 months of negotiations, tortuous ployers had offered an 18-month package deal to raise the crafts- man's basic to labourer's to £2l; just fl and £1.20 less than the latest offers.

And the new offer lasts six months longer. The employers are still trying to avoid increasing the basic rate to £30 by coming forward with guaranteed bonus payments of £2 from November and £3 from next May. manoeuvre is Another 'threshold' clause giving a 20p- a-week increase in October 1973 for each 2 per cent rise in the retail price index beyond an 82 per cent increase between August this year and August next year. feeling among the 20,000 building workers out on strike, some tor six weeks on 300 sites all over Britain, is for nothing less than the full claim.

LATE NEWS

THERE WAS not sufficient evi- dence to warrant prosecutions of any members of the security forces who took part in the events in Londonderry on 'Bloody Sunday' January 30, said the Attorney-General Sir Peter Rawlinson, in a Commons writ- ten reply yesterday. He had also decided not to proceed further with charges against civilians.

nasday August 2, 1972

PONDENT

signs that the building trade to wind up their six-week-old gn on the basis of a new pay

FINE

PAPER

Work-in committee chairman Bill Freem their official strike. Ship owner €1,000 a day for each of the 5-6 The government announced that if no settle- ment is reached by the time parliament recesses a week today it will declare a state of emergency.

WEATHER

EASTERN England, eastern and northern Scotland will be mostly cloudy with some rain at times.

Wales, western Scotland, Nor- thern Ireland, central and west- ern England will have occasional showers with sunny intervals.

It will be generally cool in the east and rather cool in the west. Outlook for Thursday and Friday: Sunny intervals and scattered showers, chiefly in the east. Be- coming cloudy in the west later with occasional rain. Rather cool at first, temperatures becoming near normal later.

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THE PUBLIC examination in Mr bankruptcy of architect John Poulson will continue.

Several applications for in- definite adjournment were turned down at the hearing in Wakefield yesterday. At the same time, Mr Muir Hunter, for the trustees, re- that Poulson had given vealed Mr . T. Dan Smith, former chairman of the Northern Economic Planning Council, £155,000 in the years follow- ing 1962. For Poulson, Mr Leonard Salt- man claimed that for the exami- nation to continue might preju- dice the outcome of any possible criminal proceedings. ill Freeman speaking outside Horne's yesterda ned out from every major port yeste owners complained that they wer i the 5-600 ships strikebound by the There thought to be are about 170 ships idle in London, 100 in British Transport docks, such as Southampton, Hull and Immingham, 60 in Scotland and 49 in Liverpool. The Port of London Authority said that 43 ships were lying off Southend, the transit area for the docks. This was the highest figure so far recorded in the authority's twice-a-day count. They were mostly general cargo boats but included container vessels.

The number of ships was building up in Scottish waters.

Seven vessels lay off the Tail o the Bank, waiting to dis- THE IRISH Republic's premier of Jack Lynch said yesterday his government was committed to stamping out the IRA in the Republic and that gunmen fleeing from the North would be arrested if they had broken the law. Speaking after a two-and-a- emergency• cabinet half-hour. meeting, he said his government was ready to accept the reasons the British army's invasion He was supported by Mr Harry QC, for the Bennet, Official Receiver, instructed by the Solicitor for the Department of Trade and Industry. Also supporting the adjourn- ment application was Mr Gerald Coles for the Attorney-General, the government's chief law offi- cer. Resisting the applications, Mr Muir Hunter said in 28 years at the Bar he had never heard of such an adjournment. It is perhaps singular that a involved debtor in such notorious bankruptcy case . • • should have his application sup- ported by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and on Receiver behalf of the Official and by the Attorney-General,' he said. § yesterday ort yesterday on the fifth day of ley were losing an average of by the dispute. charge at the Clyde ports. Four more were anchored in the Firth of Forth. Pickets were on duty at unreg stered ports around Scotland's coast, but otherwise there was no movement in the main ports.

A spokesman for the Clyde Port Authority said 30 ships were berthed in the Clyde. The Forth Ports Authority said 11 ships were at Leith, seven cargo vessels were partly dis- charged at Grangemouth and two awaited unloading at Methil.

Manchester, where all At 1,000 dockers have been on strike since Monday last week, there are now 18 ships idle, with four at Ellesmere Port. of Ulster's 'no-go' areas, pro- viding it saved lives. He repeated his government's intention of cracking down on the IRA in the republic and said that, with the introduction of special courts, many people had been convicted who might other- wise have been acquitted Asked about the position of Sean MacStiofain, Provisional IRA chief of staff, now thought to be in Dublin, Lynch said he would be. arrested if he broke the laws of the state. Mr Hunter said that during the adjournment between June 13 and July 3 a list had been pre- pared showing the presents that Poulson had made since 1962.

'These came to £334,000 of which £155,000 had been re- Mr Poulson's old ceived by friend, Mr Dan Smith, former the Northern chairman of Economic Planning Council.

I asked about certain pay- ments and it was questions about Mr Dan Smith • that attracted attention. It may be that Mr Smith has an explanation for some of the enormous sums which have been paid to him.

at least one He has produced contract of service.' For these reasons, added Mr examination must Hunter, the continue. The Registrar, Mr Garside, agreed with him.

WORKERS at Briant Colour Printing, London, have reached agreement with the firm's major creditor, Robert Horne, that no lorries witl cross their picket lines while negotiations about the future of the Old Kent Road plant are in progress. Last Friday trouble flared after several hundred police dispersed a 400-strong picket of printers and dockers outside Horne's factory. There were seven arrests. Work-in committee leader Bill Freeman told a meeting of about 100 dockers and printers at the picket line yesterday: 'Horne's have finally agreed that no lorries will cross our picket line while we are negotiat- ing. We've got it in writing and we are prepared to accept that Horne's will stick to it.

think the management realized they were not just deal- ing with a bunch of printers from the Old Kent Road, but with the trade union movement as a whole. Words cannot ex- appreciation for the press our help given us by the dockers.

Mr Freeman said a token picket would be continued until the future of BCP was settled.

'We're fed up with promises. We want guarantees, he said.

Twenty police formed a line across the factory's main gate yesterday while the meeting was but 40 reinforce- in progress, ments stood by in a side street.

meeting two Throughout the cameramen took photographs an open fourth-storey from window. Yesterday afternoon BCP shop stewards were seeing solicitors to draw up documents for sign Horne's management to guaranteeing that work previously done at the factory would not be farmed out throughout the print industry. Mr Freeman described the future as 'rosy' and claimed that negotiations were in progress number of potential with a for BCP. The effect of buyers keeping orders flowing into the threatened factory will be to maintain it as a viable and going concern. JOB PROSPECTS at Palmers Tyneside ship-repair yard at Hebburn were 'according to hopes rather than plans, the Swan Hunter group said yester- day. The group takes over the yard, which has been closed for almost three years, from Vickers on August 19. It is developing plans to lengthen and widen one of its docks to take ships up to 370,000 tons. A company spokesman said: "This scheme, if it matures, would considerably increase the the employment prospect on Tyne in general and in Hebburn in particular.'