SLL meeting in London

THE DOCKERS will only win their struggle when the Tory govern. ment is brought down, Gerry Healy, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, told a packed Conway Hall meeting in London on Thursday night.

The 500-strong meeting, which heard speeches from two of the five London dockers jailed by the National Industrial Relations Court and a Liverpool port steward, raised £183.83} for the strike fund of the London port shop stewards' committee.

Attended by workers from all sections of London industry it marked a major step forward in the political developments of the dockers' struggle.

"The English working class built trade unions. trade unions away from the working class class and you Hea vor king Gerry Healy told the meeting. Welcoming the two Pentonville prisoners, he said they Were do bearile the representatives of the working class in Britain.

"They do not stand alone. When the Industrial Relations Act became law over 10 million trade unionists were placed in the dock, he said. 'We are back to Taff Vale. We are back to the period when trade Chin cent jail for defending their rights?

The official leaders of the Trade Unions had goreed WIth the Tory employers of the CBI keep wages down to an 8 per cent ceiling. Ther were in a series of talks with Heath. 'You have to ask yourself: In what world do these leaders live?' million unemployed were faced with rent. rises, price increases unprecedented scale.

'Are we not on the verge of the pauperization of large TORS working Healy asked.

All the forces of the state were being mobilized to smash The dockers' strike While the TUC met Heath in a 'congenial cordial atmosphere' the of the press. a single Te Laboes MP <a101 Not had opposed Emergency Powers now being used by the …tories.

He warned: 'It is now possible for government deprive all The Tory was conspiracy property speculators. bakers ang Inanciers who carefully concealed their policans or the electorate. The working class increased risin the more the trade Was h1lt The more union leaders ran for cover.

"A protest against this govern. ment would be a protest in vain. When to the wall they have their backs to the wall fight like The only thing the respected was the working class prepared to fight it out. 'This is crisis of class-collaboration, a crisis of ilusions.' said Healy.

Jones the T&GWU lectured docker members against "brother fighting brother'. Yet ha and the T&GWU executive had signed agreements for container workers at lower wages than dockers knowing full well ah threat te locked use the The policy responsible for creating divisions within the union.

Now Jones was negotiating unemployment with Lord AldingTon. Heath's closest personal For Jones to negotiate with Aldington for Jones to negoT19TA rayith Heath, Healy id. 'You preserve jobs today by taking Tine industru over. The that you can arrive at a solution by negotiation is dangerous.

To defend ninne ne jobs and protect the standard of living are all political questions. We were the only tendency The workers movement to insist that the way to resolve the prob(aj uf,