Camp witch-hunters change their tack

THE 'DAILY TELEGRAPH' attempted once more yesterday to prop-up its faltering campaign against the Young Socialists' summer camp in Essex. On page three the paper suggests that Tilbury dockers have visited the Essex countryside and that this is somehow 'linked' with the camp and a bid by the Socialist Labour League to 'engineer' a General Strike.

The anonymous reporter fails to present any evidence to support these wild accusations. But judging from the camp stories run • so far, a hallmark of the "Telegraph' appears to be its complete contempt for the facts.

With yesterday's feeble effort, the paper appears to have abandoned printing bizzare accusations about guerrilla warfare and Nuremberg rallies. It is concentrating on the more mundane distortions connected with any campaign to persecute the left and trade unionists.

The Home Office, claims the "Telegraph', has disclosed that the SLL is attempting to engineer a General Strike. This, of course, is a lie as anyone who bothers to read Workers Press, the daily organ of the SLL Central Committee, will readily confirm.

Every day, throughout the recent clash on the docks, the League has called for the TUC, the union leaders and the labour movement to organize a General Strike to force the government to resign.

This call has been openly published in almost every edition of the Workers Press for the last three weeks and many times since the Tories came to power in June 1970-so much for the conspiracy.

The Socialist Labour League cannot 'engineer' a General Strike. Such a strike can only be an expression of the mass movehave already brought out a Bill to proscribe and penalize organizations they consider 'hostile' to the United Kingdom.

One of the sponsors is Harold Soref, the Tory MP who led the witch-hunt of our summer camp.

The Bill received its first reading in parliament yesterday and is ostensibly aimed at preventing foreign left-wing organizations setting up headquarters in Britain.

But its wording would allow the state to take action against any socialist organization Britain. Called the Proscribed Organizations and Persons Bill, it reads:

"To proscribe the establishment of offices, depots, accommodation addresses or other locations within the United Kingdom, by any person or organization whose declared intentions may prejudice, militate against or be in any way hostile to the United Kingdom and the safety à a Laf ENEL TADE WHINK 28 Charlotte St of citizens of the United K ingdom or British Commonwe ilth, presented accordingly.' Tory MP Ronald Bray told parliament the intention of the Bill was to, "proscribe any organizations and persons involved in these hostile activities, to impose penalties on those involved and make certain types of activities illegal. Moneys collected would be impounded and refunded to donors upon suitable proof being produced. I submit that a Bill to prevent this country becoming a haven for revolutionary activities is Bray warned about 'vipers' in our bosom' and added: 'I have not time for British people who owe no allegiance to their native land.' The government is not backing But it is an indication of the drive by the extreme right for more repression against organizations within the labour moveAnd the Home Office has promised to review regulations governing the establishment of headquarters by political organizations.

After the 1968 General Strike in France, the Gaullist government introduced laws which banned nine left-wing organizations, closed down their newspapers and made membership of them illegal.

LESS / SSONS