Workers Press no. 867

workers press

AS SHARE PRICES PLUNGE DOWNWARDS

ECONOMIC STORM

CLOUDS GATHER

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 1972 • No. 867 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY DAVID MAUDE

MASS LAY-OFFS and huge price increases-this is the grim prospect facing the working class during the next few months as British capitalism fights for its life.

Suddenly the most sober of economic commentators a r e talking darkly, as the •Financial Times' did yesterday, about the possible 'collapse of the present economic system'. Faces are longest among those who

HELP

formerly laughed most hysterically when Workers Press- -the only news- paper to do so - maintained consist- ently that the crisis of capitalism is in- soluble without the severest deteats being inflicted on the working class.

ДЕКК

AKE CO

S Some of the gloom generated in the Fleet Street press over the last few days is doubtless

GKS. L

calculated: its purpose is to put pressure on the leaders-who meet Tory premier UHOl

AKINCTI

Heath tomorrow- government and -to aid the the employers in holding down wages.

But the Tories' shrewdest advisers know from last week's

TUC

that the General Council needs Dersudalne. Tear the economy will suffer a major crisis before reach- ing the imagined haven of the Common Market.

The London Stock Market refuelled these fears yesterday, with the share-price index down again 12.9-point fall on Monday.

after its shock There is now every indication "bull'

IN SECURE

That Thi market which started early March 1970 finally over. (A bull market is one in which aggres- sive buying or snares predominates because vestors believe company profits are on the

ARE TO WREA

increase.) The market reached its peak of 534.6 on the index on May 19, 1972

WON BY

But confidence sagged ce spared despite the 55,000 dep as dockers their 'blacking' th industrial Relations Counte were intimidated National By the end of June, after a bad forecast from the National Institute for Economic and

SOC12 |

Research - and the intervention Official Sockers, the index stipped below the 500 mard.

Solicitor London The

NIESR

forecast brought none tne LOaT Tne March Budget, which had ostensibly aimed at a 3-per-cent from the TUC on ing funds abroad-one example wages tomor- Slater Walker, had not was which has growth row, it can provide no investment. more wal worked out like that. up property in- opened temporary nup to the market.

vestment firm in Hong Kong The growing trade war and the Figures from the Department relentless militancy of the work- of Trade and Industry on June The main question facing the class be halted bi Cannot Tory government it tries 14 investment gentlemen's agreement. connemed whip the leaders this looked like 971. Thẻ heel unlon LO is that, 19r1 fires cent less than in 1971. as the 'Financial Times' The employers no longer have let slip yesterday, 'the real rate itself 7per percent the remaining was resource capital invested Empire with which they held onto below that tor 19/0. has dropping been in the 1920s and 1930s: power Then September 9 came sharply. hard BTi figures for today is all or noting. April and In fact the pre-tax rate of pro- Tune of this year, which showed As all the conditions for the fit of Exchanges gil bed balt Stock worst crisis since World War I that total investment, at t334m.

romE percent to was 10 per ent lower than th are prepared, the working class and 1970 cent must prepare also This is the vorst fears of the NIESF All -between 1964 the efforts of the purpose of our call for the Tory govern Con *The Sunday Times' quoted ment have not reversed this struction or Councils of Acton five leading brokers, who all pre- Tories trie lead the fight to force trend dicted an end to the bull market. office. And this wil It noted that hese are me ana death ques.

brokerage central theme of the All many oe une tions for British capitalism.

were out Trades Unions Alliance national

HOMS

getting London Exchange and chanell- Whatever deal: Heath wrings conference on October 22. • 4p BER 13, 1972• No. 867

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

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Pits rescue at a price INCREASED efficiency and pro- ductivity will be one of the con- ditions imposed by the govern- ment for rescuing the National Coal Board from its financial ditticulties, Industry Minister Tom Boardman said during a visit to Bedwas colliery, Caer- philly, yesterday. Boardman, who is on a three- day visit to Wales, said that ulti- mately the government expected the industry to stand on its own feet. He claimed that the unions had already accepted that future wage claims could be related to increased productivity.

ITS AIDSURMER

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LOUTRY

MARCH

-JRONAEN

358.

MHAT ABOUT

FUTURE

OUR

APPRENTICES

SIXTY workers from the Stanton and Staveley Iron- works, likeston, Derby- shire, picketed the British Steel Corporation yester- day in protest against the closure of the iron-making department involving 1,500 redundancies. Yesterday afternoon a delegation from the picket was in talks with a BSC spokesman. The redund- ancies are due in about a week and stewards said that a sit-in is on at the works. The sit-in would in- maintaining volve the ovens ticking over, but nothing would be produced at the factory.

workers press

AS SHARE PRICES PLUNGE DOWNWARDS

ECONOMIC STORM

CLOUDS CATHER

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 1972 • No. 867 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY DAVID MAUDE

MASS LAY-OFFS and huge price increases—this is the grim prospect facing the working class during the next few months as British capitalism fights for its life.

Suddenly the most sober of economic commentators a re talking darkly, as the 'Financial Times' did yesterday, about the possible 'collapse of the present economic system'® Faces are longest among those who formerly laughed most hysterically when Workers Press—the only news- SHrE paper to do so - maintained consist- ently that the crisis of capitalism is in- soluble without the defeats severest being inflicted on the working class.

AKE CO

S Some of the gloom generated in the Fleet Street press over the last few days is doubtless calculated: its purpose is to put

OL CODULC UNI

Tory premier the leaders—who meet

ANTO

AKINCINN

Heath ald the government and the employers in holding down wages.

But the Tories' shrewdest advisers know from last week's

TUC

that the General Council needs besides, red. the economy will suffer a major crisis before reach- ing the imagined haven of the Common Market.

The London Stock Market refuelled these fears yesterday, with the share-price index down again 12.9-point fall on Monday.

ater Its shock There is "bull' now every indication that the

"TA SECURE

marke over A burearket es one in which aggress started March of shares

SLYC

orcuonales because believe company profits are on the vestors increase.) he market reached its peak of 534.6 on th

ARE

ndex on May 19, 197 But confidence sagged as dockers stepped campaign despite the 55,0p0 fiel their blacking imposed on their union, and the railwaymen made National Industrial Relations Count.

intimidated by the a bad forecast from the National Institute for Social anol Research intervention the Official Solicitor to the jailing of London stop three dockers, the index slipped below the 500 mark.

The

NIESR

forecast brought home Tre March Budget, which had ostensibly aimed at a 3-per-cent ing funds abroad-one from the TUC on example wages tomor- Slater Walker, was which growth row, it can provide no more thar investmeat. nad las worked out like that. property opened tenoorary lo to me marker vestment firm in Hong Kong.

The growing trade war and the Figures from the Department relentless militancy of the work. The main question facing the and Industry on June Trade be halted Class Callul Tory government gentlemen's agreement. investonen whip like the leaders this year looked bi: Thể heel cent less than 1971. is that. Financia Times' The employers no longer have 197 eigure was itself 7 per cent as une 'the real let slip yesterday, rate the remanine resourcer capital invested Empire with which they held onto below that Tor yu. been dropping nas in the 1920s and 1930s: wer po September 9 came sharply. it is all or notning. today Tane of this year, which sil wed figures for April In fact the pre-tax rate of pro- As all the conditions for the fit of companies Balf Stock worst crisis since World War tnat total investment, at 2354m Exchange was 10 per cent lower than the are prepared, the working class irom ll Der 1970. worst fears of the NIESR.

must also This the prepare -between and for the the efforts of the Tory purpose of our call Con- 'The Sunday Times' five leading brokers, who all pee.

this struction of Councils of Action ment have not Tories trot lead the fight to force the Lena. dicted an end to the bull market office. And this will life-and-death ques- that many rese are central theme of the tions for British capitalism.

were national getting out « races unions Amance London Exchange and chanell: Whatever deal Heath wrings conference on October 22. IBER 13, 1972 • No. 867 • 4p

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He STING. 15013 Pits rescue at a price INCREASED efficiency and pro- ductivity will be one of the con- ditions imposed by the govern- ment for rescuing the National Coal Board from its financial Industry Minister difficulties, said during a Tom Boardman visit to Bedwas colliery, Caer- philly, yesterday. Boardman, who is on a three- day visit to Wales, said that ulti- mately the government expected the industry to stand on its own feet. He claimed that the unions had already accepted that future wage claims could be related to increased productivity. S

TS AIDSA

TAY APILLIC

MARCH

SRONAIN

IT ABOUT

FUTURE

OUR.

APPLENCES

SIXTY workers from the Stanton and Staveley Iron- works, Derby- Ilkeston, shire, picketed the British Steel Corporation yester- day in protest against the closure of the iron-making department involving 1,500 redundancies. Yesterday afternoon a delegation from the picket was in talks with a BSC spokesman. The redund- ancies are due in about a week and stewards said that a sit-in is on at the works. The sit-in would in- maintaining volve the ovens ticking over, but nothing would be produced at the factory.

-US tries to starve Vietnam- PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednesday Septe THE UNITED STATES is following a deliberate policy of starving out North Viet- nam by blocking military ports supplies. This is revealed in an Associated Press report for September 3, which states: "The Seventh Fleet disclosed that one of its vessels had in- tercepted and seized 2t tons of rice that it said the Chinese had tried to float ashore from waterproof freighter in plastic and burlap sacks.'

IN A WILL written a few launched hours before they their Olympic raid last week, Arab guerrillas said the the world respected only the strong and we will not be strong enough through words, propaganda and publicity, but when we put death in the place of life. 'We are neither killers nor bandits ... we are persecuted people who have no , land and no homeland', went on the will, released by the Black September organization this week. The raiders had not expected the Israeli government to agree of 200 Arab to the release prisoners, but declared we are serious and will carry out our operation'. The commandos said they had nothing against the German people and apologized to the world's youth taking part in the Olympics. asking them to know 'We are that there is a people with a 24-year-old case ... it would do harm to the youth of the no world to learn of our plight only in a few hours? They, said they. did not want.

to kill innocent people but would 'do everything for the sake of the persecuted'. They had not wanted to write a will, they said, because .

'we want to live'. They urged fellow commandos to continue the fight.

'We do not want to destroy the world, but to make the world understand the reality of the horrible rule represented by the Zionist occupation of our home- land'. League Foreign Mini- • Arab sters met for three days in Cairo to discuss the Munich affair and air strikes Israeli against the Syria and Lebanon. The Foreign Ministers are setting up a ten- nation committee to decide on whether to call on an Arab summit to map • out a joint strategy against Israel.

FROM OUR OWN CORRE

ANOTHER ISRAELI demand: against the Arab guerrillas came Meir, the country's premier, spe Jerusalem. She said: 'We cannot exon- erate justice-seeking states from their responsibility to act against the terrorists within their borders and it is possible to take measures which have not so far been taken to silence Arab terrorism.' Meir confirmed that Israeli security men were present at the shoot-out on Munich's Fursten- feldbruck airfield in which 1l Israeli hostages and five guer- sday September 13, 1972 from An- intelligence b analysed After inquiries experts Lewis the 'New North Vietnamese imports thony OI York Times', the Pentagon and concluded: the US importance The of food confirmed that navy imports can hardly be under orders to stop •was else dis- stated; with them, food and North Vietnam. North Vietnam has been "The policy to inderdict forced to strictly ration food- IS Viet- stuffs.' all supplies ses oi no, into before a top Pentagon In fact, even the nam by blockade imposed--ac- official said. was Nixon for the Prior to the blockade in cording to keeping of out May, 38 per cent of total sea- purpose Vietnamese 'tanks, artillery and other ad- North borne im- vanced offensive ports consisted of food. weapons of supplied to Hanoi by the opening In the weeks Nixon's his Soviet Union and other com- administration,

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

WITH his envoy Dr Henry Kissinger in Moscow for talks with Soviet lead.

ers, President Nixon has ağain intensi- fied the bombardment of North Viet- nam. US jets over Hanoi destroyed a key rail- and road bridge lines to cut supply way linking the North Vietnamese capital with The bridge over the Red River was China. hit by laser-guided bombs on May 10, but had since been repaired. entrenched at In the south, liberation forces Quang Tri have stopped a South Vietnamese task force advancing on the city with a barrage of artil- lery shells and mortar bombs. The puppet troops came to a halt several hundred yards short of their objectivę, despite heavy bombardment of the libera- Kissinger: Vietnam fion, forces by be bombers. The brobet troobs are vainly involved. in serious food were Ngüyen riots. Three days ago, an entire trying to fulfil President battalion of 400 simply dis- Van Thieu's June men pledge last to appeared and may well have gone recapture all territory lost to the September over to the liberation side. liberation forces by Vietnam is high the agenda on 19. Vietnam of Kissinger's talks in Moscow, Elsewhere South which take up where the Nixon- Tien Phouc there were battles at Brezhnev talks left off. of Da Nang, which south LuWi, Vietnamese have The North captured last Friday in was repeatedly denounced liberation the these con- daring assault by the of tacts and fear prospect. troops. In neighbouring Cambodia, the enforced settlement being an imposed as a result of Soviet and forces •lost Penh government Chinese pressure. further ground to the liberation Tho, the North Viet- Le Duc yesterday. They. . were -troops namese chief representative at forced to abandon. three. "stra- road linking Paris talks Vietnam, thẹ the on tegic points returned from Moscow on Mon- the Cambodian capital with Sal- Kis- day without having seen gon. Penh is running des- singer. But he left open the pos- Phnom of with the sibility meeting perately short. of food as the US envoy in the next few days.

government defence line crumbles His Paris coincided Friday troops return to and last many

IN CORRESPONDENT

for international measures s came yesterday from Mrs Golda nier, speaking in the Knesset in Golda Meir rillas died. But she claimed they had taken no part. in the opera- beyond appealing in Arabic tion, guerrillas the lay down to to their arms. She hinted strongly at further action against retugee camps in Lebanon in Syria, saying: It is our duty to combat terrorism and strike at it every- PORTWORKERS belonging to Italy's 1 where where hand can reach our 'erations voted in Genoa yesterday to it. We will fulfil this duty with week as a gesture of solidarity with !

all the. have.' power we Israeli forces massed boycott was given immediate effect and Lebanon along the Syrian and two newly-docked Spanish boats-—the frontiers and the Arab states are of kaolin, and the 'Cabo Santa Maria', v expecting a massive attack.

munist countries'-the bulk of this equipment was being shipped overland China. via Vietnam- Since the North ese ports were mined, US an- alysts have admitted that the action has had only marginal effect on the influx of military supplies. The main purpose of the action, clearly is to starve the Vietnamese into sub- North mission though for obvious reasons the US war criminals are extremely reluctant to ad- mit this openly. Vietnam on agenda with a lengthy statement from Provisional Revolutionary the government setting out the PRG's terms for ending the war. This has been interpreted by some indicating western reporters as a basic change of policy.

This specuation is based largely the alleged omission of the on demand for Thieu's resignation.

But the full text of the state- the ment clearly states that three-cornered provisional admin- istration which the PRG seeks as interim 'government of an concord' national should not include the puppet president.

The US government analysts in Saigon said the statement repre- sented 'absolutely change' no from previous policy, adding that the PRG had simply rephrased its demands less harshly than previous declarations. FRANCO'S Minister of Educa- tion Villar Palasi has accepted the resignation of the rector of Madrid University, José Botella, who was unable to act with the necessary stringency during the student upsurge against Franco last year.

Under. decree signed by a Franco during the university holi- days, academic life was placed under the direct supervision of Palasi who now appoints rectors and is in charge of a new dis- • Italy's three main trade union confed- terday to boycott all Spanish ships this ity with Spanish political prisoners. The effect and portworkers refused to unload ats—the Valle De Orozco', with a cargo i Maria', with a mixed cargo.

BY OUR OWN

REPORTERS

LAST-MINUTE efforts ap- pear to have saved the Euro- pean summit meeting of the Market, enlarged Common which has been in doubt for some weeks. This follows parallel meetings the Foreign and in Rome of Finance Ministers of the full and prospective members of the European Common Market. French Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann said after the Rome meeting of Finance Ministers, at which a measure of was. reached, that a agreement final decision would be made at the cabinet meeting on Friday.

The main obstacle to the sum- mit has been the tough French line on economic and monetary union and opposition to the float- ing of the pound. Other countries have been more ready to seek a with the United compromise States. The unchecked growth of in-' flation, behind which is the strength of the working class, has forced governments Europe, despite their deep-seated antagonisms, to reach a certain measure of agreement about how to proceed. They cannot afford an open split at a time when the working class is pressing forward and the US government is hard at work shovelling its economic crisis into their backyard. Even sọ, the agreement reach- ed at Rome is mainly of a tech- nical kind which enables talks to go on. It consists of no more than a project for a European Monetary Co-operation Fund to co-ordinate central bank action, support countries with balance- of-payments difficulties and keep currencies within a special system of narrow margins. Its inspiration is obviously the International Fund. Monetary The big question is how far it can support the monetary sys- tems of Europe against the dollar.

Italy and Belgium as well as France, want a body with much wider powers than those sketch- ed. out at Rome. President Nixon was holding a council-of-war in the White House on the trade issue while European countries were trying to sort out their differences.

Presidential spokesman Ronald Ziegler said that there had been an overall review of the trade talks with European countries, but claimed that here had been no shift in policy. He denied reports that the President: was running out patience and was ready to_back protectionist measures. ciplinary council with power to ted expel any rebellious students.

In this way Franco is prepar- ing for student opposition which will break out when the uni- versity term starts in October.

The preputation of the pre- Stalinist dominantly student leadership has been to champion the entry of Spain into the Com- mon Market as the best way to get democratic reforms in Spain.

The nature of these 'reforms' can be seen from the latest attack on the Basque nationalist movement. The Bayonne head- quarters of the Basque nation- alists, Anei Artea, have issued a statement of concern over the fate 25-year-old Eustakio of Mendizabal. A leader of the clandestine Basque movement, he was sen- tenced to a month's imprison- ment on August 24 for illegally entering France. Mendizabal was taken from his cell in a French jail near Bayonne in the early morning of Septem- ber 7 and has not been • seen likely

No retreat on our claim' The hollcopter being used by Essex bullding contractor Bill Regan to fly non-unionists over a builders' picket line at Basildon.

Shipbuilding gloom

BY PHILIP WADE

BUILDING WORKERS

yesterday slammed the proposed new wages deal which would only give a £26 basic immediately, last for 26 months -and offer nothing on a cut in the working week. Delegations from London sites lobbied a meeting of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians' executive meeting yesterday demanding no retreat on the full claim for a £30, 35-hour week and a third week's holiday. Tomorrow there will be a mass lobby of builders-many in their 12th week of strike action-at the employers' London head- quarters in Cavendish Street when union leaders meet to discuss the proposals.

The employers met yesterday discuss their to attitude to deal fixed up at several informal meetings-mostly at last week's TUC--between the sides. Chief. union negotiators met on Monday and the Transport and General Workers' Union leaders meet today.

Under the proposed deal. a guaranteed bonus of f3 would be paid from May The holicopter being. 1973, although the basic rate See story p.12. would stay £26 until at the Öctober when it would following rise to £28. Also in October 1973, a cost- be of-living clause would lntro- duced. Then in. June 1974 a new minimum guaranteed earnings level of £31 would be introduced.

Finally, the deal would expire in November 1974. 26 months from now. IN ITS DYING breath On the key question of hours, nothing at all is conceded, except the Labour - inspired talks at the end of 1973!

Shipbuilding Industry Clearly builders will move to throw out this rotten compromise Board warns the Tories for what it is. There is no sub- that British shipbuilding stantial the claim on novemen for an immediate £30 basic rate.

In 26 months time, in fact, the rate will still be £2 short of the Lamenting the end of its demand. And the proposed length four-year existence, the last of the deal is completely

SIB

annual report issued as acceptable in conditions of rapid a White Paper- -says: 'It seems inflation Common Market and a pity that this accumulated entry. On August 8, Union of Con- will no longer experience be struction, Allied Trades and available.' Technicians' officials failed to Chairman Sir William Swallow turn up to sign deal only £23 of office giving and which ends with basic his term contained no-strike clause aid in Strong government relation to the guaranteed bonus.

declining shipbuilding The of the movement rank- industry. and-file building workers pre- 'The immediate future is one vented such compromise going of financial stress while contracts will ahead and undoubtedly do involving losses, mainly due the same this time. inflation, are worked through.

The demand out to must go "This industry is going the union leaders, led by George to continue require to Smith, the to access to stop retreat and capital it can reasonably afford to call an all-out national strike for if it is to service maintain the full claim. competitive position and im- prove its scope for employment.'

But Swallow is whistling in the dark. has completely mis- understood the intentions of the

LECT

CHENG TZU-TAI, the state- less architect taken unconse- ious from airliner at Heathrow airport, London, last week, was remanded in custody for Bow week at Street yesterday. Chenßyork of conspiring to who convicted was in New assassinate Gen Kai- Chiang shek's son, appeared in con- nection with extradition pro- ceedings initiated by the United States. solicitor, Benedict Cheng's no application Birnberg, made for bail. but asked for legal aid. Cheng fled to Sweden while on bail in America and back to the on his way Wus US from Stockholm when he taken off the plane was at

BOOKS • PERIC

Heathrow. or being used by Essex building contractor Bill

BY ALEX MITCHELL

Tory government in regard to Britain's outmoded shipbuilding industry. One of their first acts on coming to office was to axe the SIB and thereby off cut government grants to private and semi- private shipyards. The Tories know what they are doing. They're going into Common Market. And to achieve this paramount political objective on behalf of the big capitalist they are willing to run class, down shipbuilding. if

3 • PERIODICALS ‹

• NEWSPAPERS

Workers Press, Wednesd ractor Bill Regan to fly non-unionists over a bi Sir William Swallow: Whistling in the dark In just the same way as steel- works are being shut down one after the other to integrate steel production the Common Market iron and steel policy, so shipbuilding is being 'rationalized' too. The Tories' hostility to the feather-bedding role of the SIB was made dramatically clear when the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee issued its annual report on August 31.

The committee, a watchdog

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday September 13, 1972 PAGE 3 over a builders' picket line at Basildon.

body, over, public expenditure, sharply criticized the SIB's spending programme. The committee said that the many millions distributed by the SIB had been wasteful and had not assisted in making the country's shipbuilding industry competitive. By December 1971 grants and oans made by the sib to Ucs £21.2m. totalled Harland and Wolff had received £22.5m plus £7.5m from the Northern Ireland government. Commenting on these monu- mental reformist policies Swallow suggests that SIB needed the more time before the loan-giving would take effect. • A fresh warning on the bleak future facing British shipbuilding has been made recently by the head of the European Council of Large Ships. Dr Jurgen Krackow told 'The Times' that growing world com- petition made a reduction in the European shipbuilding industry inescapable. He added: 'There will be no room for lame ducks.' The Council hopes to negotiate an agreement with Japan early next year to limit west European and Japanese shipbuilding, but Dr Krackow warned that they were facing competition not only from Japan, but from America as well. German shipbuilders have insistently demanded heavier subsidies, but in return the government is demanding drastic rationalization maximize to ethciency and eliminate dupli- cation of facilities. The formulation of common shipbuilding : policies within the Market is certain to Common hit Britain hard with its small and largely out-of-date yards.

POST

OFFICE Engineering Union is inviting applications for the £7,215 a year post of general secretary, after the death of Lord Delacourt-Smith.

The appointment is expected to be made by the national ex- ecutive council in December. It will be subject to endorsement by the union's annual confer- ence next year.

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Wednesday Sep Part 13 of a series on Picketin The 1926 General Strike betrayed by its was leadership. The

TUC

leaders backed down when they realized they must either du so or contest capitalism's right to rule. And the Communist Party, under the dictates of Stalin, failed to expose the inevit- ability of the TUC's leaders' betrayal, and to build an alternative leadership to con- test capital's right to own, never mind operate the means of production and exchange.

Inevitably, such a basic deficiency meant a total lack of organizational preparation and centralized planning to win the strike. Instead, it was left to the workers, on a trial-and- basis, to set up strike error committees and Councils of Action, defence squads against and violence by blacklegs systems of communication and after the strike had control started. The way these tasks were being successfully carried out and improved right up to when it was called off, testifies to the huge reservoirs of skill and ingenuity within the working class. Those who are impressed by the turn-out of police, troops and blacklegs in the General Strike tend to forget the major boost to morale of these forces wholesale the given defection of the workers' leaders. Wholly different is the situ- ation where the working class has a decisive, theoretically and practically trained and tested Marxist leadership. In that case, as the Russian Revolution showed, it is the forces of capital which can face defeat— in will and spirit as well as conflict-whatever physical their apparent invincibility in terms of military establish- ment and armour. • But only in one or two isolated demands did the British Communist Party bring of the Russian the lessons Revolution into the General Strike. 1he capitalist class, however, had already formed its strike- by organization breaking September 1925, nine months before the strike! This was the Organization for the Mainten- ance of Supplies (OMS). The probably chosen name was because of its similarity to On His Majesty's Service so as to engender the right patriotic favour. The development of the organization had gone on for some time in secret when the first public announcement to the press noted the movement towards a strike situation and added 'numerous suggestions have since been made from various quarters for organizing those citizens who would be prepared to volunteer to main- services tain supplies and in the event of a General Strike.

It seems therefore, that the time has come to announce publicly that such an organiz- ation has already been con- esday September 13, 1972 Picketing by Bernard Franks stituted and is at work in many metropolitan boroughs while steps are being taken to create corresponding organizations in the principle centres of the kingdom. "The OMS immediately began drawing up a register of potential strikebreakers. Fives categories were called for: Special constables (under 45 years of age); workers to maintain public services; trans- port drivers; messengers and cyclists; and an unclassified group who would do clerical work or anything else not requiring technical skill.' ('The Strike'. By Julian General Symons.) Created as a body allegedly from separate government control, the OMS was headed 'independent' figures by such as Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Jellicoe and ex-Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge. It was also claimed to be 'non-party and non-political', but in view of number of known the fascists who eventually joined, had to deny any connection with the British fascisti.

On April 30, 1926, the King declared a State of Emergency and the first day of the on Strike, May 3, the OMS began recruiting and formally handed control and its scabs' register to the government. Sections of the middle and upper classes signed on as blacklegs and got themselves photographed at least in the proximity of goods and transport, though as often as not-by their own later admissions-they inadvertently wrecked more operations than they effectively carried out.

The aristocrat and writer Osbert Sitwell wrote: 'As day situation grew by day the worse, I found myself utterly out of sympathy with the selt- "Aren't we all congratulatory splendid!" attitude of the exasperated and now embattled bourgeoisie. To be a porter for a time, would be easy, I con- sidered: For a TIME, but not a LIFETIME. Only as a holiday romp did it afford the contrast that might make it seem pleasant.' When considering the "volunteers' from his own class he wrote of 'The thug- militia of St James' Street, the young, steel-helmeted bands of : club-men. Throughout the Strike the OMS received the protection of • the police and armed forces often with a massive show of Even where armour. So, Councils of Action and strike committees were properly organized, the OMS was effectively countered and all work and movement of trans- port brought to a halt. The 'Specials' -We were some 2,000 at the Inns of Court off the Strand.

Each of us was given a yellow truncheon, and the sergeant of police then gave us instructions on how to use it in case of "You must need. He said: thrust the point of it into the pit of the opponent's stomach is with a bayonet. This will bring the victim's head forward and you will crack him over the back of sun bie briefing The stabulary formed to breaking up ing class. rioters, Fenians, employed strike. Made up volunteers class, weapons, local many with their assuming they Winchester, all men. une citizens who could be time to tumult' This Act for For VCald. constables were created. wide they required. were issued other ally them to have'. For and meant anyone strike or a In keepers, men when Ine IPs vote the igh society helping to feed was that!' (Report constables 1889 docks strike.) Con- Special specifically support regular s in containing and demonstrations actions by the work- ts history is one of ted violent Chartists, uffragettes, the workers of part-time considered respon- ns by the capitalist members are given uniforms, training powers at times national emergency. imes they may have ice duties, doing so s a week to fit in normal occupation, have one. under the Statute of 'Hue and Cry' was they were bound to ever they were doing ase to any offender. would mean with the wrongdoer, as 1643 an Act of authorized Justices constables riot and the peace. as the basis for over 200 example, I assaulting speakers the modern specials JPs were given rs to nominate and the situation he constables were police powers, d with staves and such articles hich the authorities ider it expedient for first they time lyment for expenses loss'. 'Nomin. compulsion and service could In theory this was cription and anyone break up a to political meeting mainly shop- gentlemen's sons. oners and business- called on. In times orking man had no Ps often found the g to feed the scabs mannin swear 1n electoral register. ensure a superior t stable properly about the rights anc principle was ensuring an even m force. In 1839 a citizens duties Chartist agitation up. Cutlasses and mades vailab also magistrates ...useq to equip the largest recruitment 1848 for the Charti ing of parliament wl specials were sworn For all major force was called often did not simple the 1889 made hated by the out 'special' rioters. Many times have had to entirely in forces At 1837 and at Dewsb they turned and ran ments Police were them up. Mann Tom Liverpool strike 'Backed by over 7,0 special authorities were provoke disorder. foot police we many peaceful them men resented and this caused.' Ronald Seth, book from the taken also states th the General Stri on 'Members and Hurlingham were also sworn in sports jackets, ridir spurs and s boots, swinging business- crops they could of mounted on making their way to to help restore orde He adds that Rifle Club formed constabulary at and St Bartholomer Union sigr students patrol Hyde a manning the OMS food d was nine to a all thos the on This would uperior type of con- concerned rights and protection the voluntary introduced as • even more reliable available for and reformists was drawn ses and pistols available by the which on could decision The the force. ruitment ever was in nartist pellion- ament when 170,000 ere sworn in major strikes the called on. But they not find things constable out. Especially the working class s were often singled pecial' treatment by withdraw them of regula favour Huddersfiel at Dewsbury in 183 1 and ran from although detach- Metropolitan there to back wrote of the of 1911: over 7,000 military police the local determined to Mounted olice were sent out imbers to the centre and these made on riding peatstilals and clubbing any people retaliated, is how riots were from whose Specials' the quot 1889 docks strike i states the following eral Strike of 1926: of the Ranelagh Polo Clubs sworn in. Dressed in ets, riding-breeches, rs and solar topees, riding business-like could often be seen Their pontes ir way to an incident tore order.' the London formed the special Bunhill Row Tholomew's Hospital signed en bloc Park milk IS food depot In Hyde Park.

depot. The Harleg Club joined the was selectea to ser Special Branch •Some attended stri ings-mostly taking notes. Another descripti a special with others in rushed 'Upstairs in furnished only with a few upright chair "workers" pathetic-looking seated table running literature" on an the walls were dec communist posters mantelpiece was a l of We Lenin. Roneo, disconnecte and phone, into lorries en rou Yard. Happy days!' Similar schemes ing additional part- exist in countries. In example, Pinkertons pany Security Police private gunmen hav to sworn-in get deputies, so putting seal of the law on capital to carry out. specials work closel regular police force and crowd practical experience work. In Ireland tl and bloody ong indictive suppressi Irish working their role was long a Form stables'.

NEW FORM

SWEARING

CONSTABI

thou 'Dost creed England, In tried and true? Dost thou regard with aversion, And hate her nam thou 'Wilt the venerate Whate'er they see good or ill pass, Wilt thou molest the masses In word and deed! 'Swear'st thou to truncheon for th and To. smale and over wound, Then with lying story Some injured swear?

CONTINUED TOM

carry out. England the ork closely with the history suppression of th ing class. In general as long ago exempli- nry Salt in his 'Nev Con- Swearing-in

V FORM OI

EARING-IN

ONSTABLES

accept the old coercion as in Ireland, regard all freedom her name?'-'I do" court, respect, they seek to com- od or ill? molest and vilify nd deed?'—I will. wield thy n for the and curse, and overbear? persecute and wretch?'-|

ED TOMORROW

An opposition group has been formed within the United Steelworkers of America. The group, known as Rank and File Team (RAFT) is critical of United Steelworkers' President, I. W. Abel who, it has changed nothing says, during his years in office. Abel has been union president for eight years. Before that he was secretary-treasurer for 12 years.

Support is growing among American trade unionists for Juan Farinas, jailed for opposing the Vietnam war. Farinas is at present con- fined in the Federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he has been for six months, for violation of the Selective Service Act. issue of the The latest 'Bulletin', weekly paper of the Workers League, contains a number of letters from trade union organizations support- ing Farinas' appeal for parole.

These include: The Joint Board Fur, Leather Machine Workers' Union; the Lakes States District Council No. 4 of the United Shoe Workers of America, AFL- CIO; Local 1199 Drug and Workers' Hospital Union (Farinas' wife, Helena, is a member of this union); The Retail Clerks' and Store Em- ployees' Union, Local 1361; American Federation of the State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 981; International Longshore- men's and Warehousemen's Union, Local 10. Leon Sverdlove, General President of the International Jewellery Workers' Union, has also written to the 'Bulletin' declaring his support for Farinas. Farinas' opposition to the Vietnam war was not based on pacifist grounds. He did not refuse to serve in the army, but distributed political litera- ture against the war. This was why he was jailed for two years, when over 60 per cent of men convicted of draft violations last year were given probation rather than prison sentences. Right: Farinas' family - wife Hel- ena and daughter Mariana.

In an interview in 'Bulletin', weekly paper of the Workers League, the chairnian and secretary-treasurer of RAFT, Bill Litch and Ed Mann, say issue facing. union the main members is preservation of jobs. More efficient production jobs methods are sweeping away. furnaces can produce tons of steel in one hour, com- pared with 280 tons in four or five hours in the new furnaces.

In Lackawanna, Bethlehem, 18,000 jobs have dropped to 8,000 since these new fur- naces were introduced. Litch and Mann are scepti- cal of Abel's statement at the Convention in Democratic favour of the formation of a Labour Party. Abel, say the Rank and File leaders, is 'part of the system and he doesn't want anything to change' •They go on: "The company can't make a penny of profit if they don't have the labourer's hands there to make that profit. Let's face it. If you had a brand new piece of machinery sitting there on the floor, it couldn't do any- thing by itself. Workers Press, Wedness 'Then why are we made to believe that the industry has to have everything and the working man nothing?' international trade As the war hots up, the whole world economy is threatened and American workers, like their brothers everywhere, face massive recession. The only way to fight back is through the construction of a Labour Party pledged to nationalize basic industry and solve the jobs crisis by reduc- ing the working week and pro- ducing jobs for everyone at a living wage. Opposition groups within the American unions can only progress along this road.

Increasing pressure from the employer to reduce jobs , Wednesday September 13, 1972 PAGE 5 Top left: Abel. Right: Bill Litch, chairman, and I Ed Mann secretary -treasurer of RAFT. and squeeze more profit from those left in work can now only be resisted through a political programme. The RAFT spokesmen de- scribed what was happening: 'A lot of people are con- fused. They think they're talk- ing about production. But they're not, they're talking about productivity. In other words, get more out of the hired worker. 'But you've got to remember most of us in basic steel are in old plants, we're older and the equipment we work with is junk, worn out, and now they want us to produce more' The British crown col ony of Hong Kong on China's southern coast- line provides America with facilities for one of its largest bases in south- east Asia. And of all the countries which maintain spy rings in the cosmopolitan international crossroads, the network of the Central Intelligence Agency is the biggest. None of this is altogether surprising, but perhaps the news that the British authori- ties keep a look out for clandestine activities directed at China is. In return for Chinese co- operation in nipping in the bud anything likely to disrupt Hong Kong's banking and commerce, the British govern- ment keeps careful track of Chinese nationalist activities hostile to the Peking govern- ment. Diplomatic sources allege there is an unspoken agree- between the two sides ment which amounts to If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours'. not only Chinese It is nationalists the British authori- ties keep under surveillance.

give They, naturally, also short shrift to Soviet or eastern European spy rings trying to use the colony as a base. Two Russians were arrested on July 23 for suspected anti- Chinese activities and ordered to leave the country along with a Chinese businessman.

And while controlling Chinese nationalist activity so as not to upset the current detente between China and America, the colony is used as a base for imperialist espion- age work throughout south- east Asia.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Wednesday September 13, 1972

BY PHILIP WADE

Over a year ago the Tory tearing the heart out of British of capitalism at the expense introduced government the working class. its White Paper 'Fair The £500m in rents extra Deal for Housing. It they hope to net will be used marked the beginning of -they hope-to help refinance the and restructure ailing their attempts to change British economy which does the course of history not have the resources nor the as incentive to reinvest from its far council housing as own capital funds. was concerned. Tories' As as the intentions became clear, ten- Today it has become law form ants all over the country in the of the Housing formed associa- Finance Act and the first spontaneously tions and revitalized old ones increases are due on for October 2. torms of organization the fight. The so-called opposition to These associations developed the legislation by the Labour could, in the only way they Party turned out to be a fraud given their nature and limita- from finish. Only to stall began of A campaign handful of Labour councils say petitioning, lobbying and agita- they will not implement it, tion to build up the associa- while 340 say they will. Their tions. collapse the Tories before But the first time in the life represents a gross betrayal of of any of these associations, the tenants. they were facing political 1919 there has been Since question national scale. some form of municipal hous- And it was not simply a hous- ing in Britain. The basis of it question as such, but one ing always has been subsidies to which involved whole the local councils to build houses of the Tory govern- strategy and cushion from the tenants ment since it took power in full effects of a market rent.

June 1970. As such it was gain for the working class, one that was developed rapidly in the infla- tionary boom years following 1945. In the last of century, some 4.4 million coun- cil houses were built in Britain, But at this point the Com- munist Party and the revision- four many as were Socialists built between the wars. ist International Out stepped that stock of 19 the total housing ensure the movement did not go be- million dwellings in Britain, up to 30 per cent yond protest at the Tory Bill.

This perspective was, of course, are council or new town pro- doomed to And it is perties. failure. In essence, the rents of now necessary to draw some these properties, as far as the this campaign in lessons from working class was concerned, order to draw out a real per- spective for tenants. were giveaway levels. Exactly 100 Nevertheless, they were cheap years ago, the co-founder Marxist enough to be affordable. More the Engels important, however, the ten- movement, were fairly and reformists and ancies secure condemned There revisionists for misleading the evictions were rare. were no Rachmans chasing ten- working class on the question of housing. ants around demanding rents In a series of three articles with menaces. The Housing Finance Act is written against retormists in designed to put an end to all the German labour movement this. Subsidies to local coun- he said: •Whoever declares that the cils will be withdrawn and capitalist mode of production, market rents established for "iron laws" of present-day the every single tenant. When next month the first bourgeois society, inviol- increases have to be paid it able, and yet at the same time would like to abolish their un- will only be the beginning of a but which will end when pleasant necessary con-

VIOLESS

the 'fair has rent, double the sequences, no other present one, is reached. but to deliver moral recourse Many forecast that sermons to the capitalists.'

Have will be He pointed out that many thousands of tenants driven out of council property, with pretensions as socialists seized upon the 'housing ques- unable to afford the new rents tion' in order to sidetrack and which will rise as wages rise, acting therefore in conjunction avoid the main question to be with the Industrial Relations resolved in order to settle this Act. issue all: the once ana lor Like all their other measures, overthrow of capitalism and the Tories the establishing of socialism.

have been driven forward in this attack on hous- Engels showed how there their need to could never be any solution to ing by resolve the world economic crisis now housing shortages, high

TO SUPPORT YOUR

and squalid overcrowding quicker rate than dwellings under capitalism. As far as come into existence for them the Marxists were concerned under the prevailing condi- 'settled' these ques- capitalism tions; in which, therefore, tions by 'the gradual economic there must always be tenants levelling of demand and sup- for the infamous most the ply, settlement which pig sties; and which 1n reproduces the question itself house-owner in his capacity as again and is therefore capitalist has the right... also no settlement. the duty of ruthlessly making In its drive for much of his property as out profit, capitalism could in house he possibly rent as

RIC VEI

satisty fully any wants as far can. as the working class was con- 'The housing shortage is no cerned. Profit-seeking accident; it is a necessary insti- meant destruction of working- the tution and can be abolished class housing to make way for together with all its effects on And commercial development. health, only if the whole social from the rate of construction of new order which it springs dwellings never kept pace with fundamentally refashioned.

IS this loss. That, however, bourgeois Says Engels: socialism dare not know. It 'Whence the housing short- dare not explain the housing age then? How did it arise? shortage from arısing the as (Emphasis It is a necessary product existing conditions. of the bourgeois social order in original). it cannot fail to be pres- This being the case, the duty ent in a society in which the of all socialists in the fight 'fair rents' labouring great masses are against the Bill has exclusively dependent been and still is upon to unite ten- which improve- ants with the rest of the work- Wakes of the ment machinery con- ing class around a fighting per- tinually throw masses of work- spective of bringing down the ers out of employment.' Tories and returning a Labour In a society where workers government pledged to social- 'are crowded together ist policies in order to open the masses in the big towns at a road to the taking of power.

The Communist Party, which presumably would claim to follow Engels, and the Inter- national have Socialists, been deeply involved in ten- ants' associations during this campaign. Yet far from struggling for a development of a revolution- ary consciousness among ten- tendencies these have ants, proven once more how hostile they are to Marxism and to the fight for socialism. And it is their responsi- bility that most tenants' asso- ciations still remain isolated and the Labour bureaucracy has not been challenged poli- tically for its gross betrayal of the movement. Hostile to the conception of revolutionary party, building a Stalinists, from the covered the IS, the left usual by as have attempted to deliver a the tenants' mortal blow to movement on the altar of pro- test, protest and more protest.

The Stalinists, with their

ST MARYS

iOMM self - created, self - appointed of Ten- National Association ants and Residents, have for many years been deeply in- volved in the tenants' move- ment. From the beginning, they attempted to resurrect the dis- credited and treacherous per- of 'Kill the Bill'. It specti - was an attempt to limit the the Housing Finance fight to Bill and to put pressure on the Tories to drop it. It the same methods was the Stalinists - backed by IS -employed in the campaign Industrial against the Rela- tions Bill when they all at times opposed Socialist the Labour League's demands for the TUC to lead a General Strike down to bring the Tories as the only way to defeat the Bill. In their pamphlet 'Homes before Profits' the Stalinists elaborated their pernicious, reformist line. 'The Communist Party says the Tory Rent Bill can and must be smashed. If the 300 Labour councils take this (defying the Act), then stand backed by the trade unions, the tenants and the labour this Tory legisla- movement, tion can be defeated.' Like the Communist Party, the centrists in the Interna- tional Socialists have played a role of preventing the develop- nent of independent working.

class action. Protest politics will always serve to keep the bureaucracies of the labour and trade union movement intact because no challenge is offered to their existence. Their pamphlet on the 'fair rents' Bill was full of militant- sounding noises about rent strikes, direct action, solidarity and so on and so forth. however, Nowhere, was there a strategy for a fight to bring down the Tory govern- ment. In fact, the IS, as is well known, opposed this to perspective. It would involve the mobi- lization of the working class to secure the return of a Lab- government pledged our to socialist policies and present the revolutionary movement

ENT

with an opportunity to break the class from social democ- racy. IS prefers the working class to be a force which can be around pushed in order to achieve reforms, in a situation where the Tories are actually destroying the reforms of the past. That is why the IS end up in their pamphlet with a demand that the objective should be one of forcing the Tories to retreat on the Hous- ing Finance Bill by united action.' (My emphasis.) No amount of protest will this Tory government, move which has its own historic task of destroying every basic right of the working class won over centuries of struggle.

As the Act comes into force, thousands of will tenants undoubtedly refuse to pay the increases launch rent and strikes instead. But there is a grave danger that these forms of action will be isolated and smashed by the Tories, encour- aged by the feeble gestures made against the Act by the Labour Party. The central question still remains the downfall of the Tory government. While the Workers Press, Wednesday Se Coltharbour Terores Ass soy- NO

ENT

LL Tories are in power there can be no successful defence of basic rights. The same government has shown, over Northern Ireland and Bloody Sunday and the jailing of the five dockers by the National Industrial Rela- tions Court, that it is pre- pared to establish a Bonapart- ist dictatorship in Britain to maintain its offensive against the working class. No one can doubt the deter- mination of the tenants to pre- serve their rights. But they cannot win this battle alone.

Councils of Action must be built in every now in area order to mobilize the tenants, trade unionists and all sec- tions of the class in a cam- paign to force the Tories to resign. With the miners, railwaymen and dockers, the conditions were developing where this government could have been made resign. Only the to cowardice of the trade union and Labour leaders - backed up by the Stalinists and revi- sionists — prevented such a process developing. Preparation must go ahead now to bring all tenants' associations into these Coun- Press, Wednesday September 13, 1972 PAGE 7 Tenants have shown no lack of determination in fighting the Bill.

Left: tenants lobby at the House of Commons. Right: march support Greenwich council who decided first, not to implement the Bill, but later retreated.

cils of Action in order that a unity in struggle against the common enemy can be forged.

Protest must go. In a year of struggle against the rents Bill it has proved nothing more than a blind-alley form of struggle. The Councils of Action must fight for the TUC to call a General Strike when the rent increases are imposed which will not end until the Tories resign. A Labour government must be returned committed by the organized mass movement around the Councils of Action to socialist policies of expro- priation. Of necessity this must in- clude: the nationalization without compensation of the land, building industry, build- societies and insurance companies. With the repeal of the Housing Finance Act these measures would lay the basis for true socialist housing programme.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday September 13, 1972 Leicester is a city with a Lord Mayor and lifelong Labour Party and trade union Labour - controlled coun- bureaucrat Edward Marston is cil — but one which has the leader of the keep Asians out of Leicester campaign.

agreed to implement the His comments to the press Tory 'fair rents' Act and last week were indistinguish- is currently putting all its able from those of his Tory energies into keeping out counterparts. 'We would like to see some as many Ugandan Asians form of direction. This is the as possible. only hope of a solution to the It is also a city where the situation. Tory Alderman Kenneth National Front claims to have one of its Bowder said: 'We think that largest branches power of direction is the only with over 100 members. realistic way of this Council leader Edward solving problem. Marston is a typical Labour product of the post-war boom 'We are going to every means of persuasion and but radically- years, in possibly some degree of con- changed world his brand of trol.' politics has become fuel. to Resettlement Board officials movements like the National a semi-detached were shown Front. house where it was claimed 14 threatened influx With the Asians would be living shortly.

of large numbers of Ugandan the council has gone Afterwards Sir Charles Asians, sur- prised no one by saying: 'From to the lengths of taking space what we have seen today it in all major Ugandan Asian newspapers explaining to im- would that everything seem should be done to discourage migrants that the city is a far from the land of their as many [Asians] as possible cry from coming to Leicester' dreams. Labour and Tory councillors Leaving elementary school at 14 to become an joined forces to impress upon apprentice officials of the Ugandan Asian bricklayer, Marston became Board self-made man at a time when Resettlement who visited the city last week that capitalism's. opportunities for appeared to be their town was bursting at the all really on offer in seeming perpetuity.

seams. councillors told Board The boom took the edge off The chairman Sir Charles Cunning- the class and Marston war went into these years firmly ham that any great influx of Asians could heighten -as a foreman bricklayer with only Leicester's social problems and the Co-op. called for of they compulsory His public sense as direction of refugees. opposed to class responsibility Top: In Kampala, Uganda's capital, Asia ruler, who issued the expulsion order.

carried him through every office locally in his union, the Amalgamated Union of Build- ing Trade Workers, until, in 1950, he wound up as district at president. His performance in the union was repeated in the local Labour Party of which he is now the leader. The same high sense of public duty took him onto the Building Trades Advisory Council, onto the local river authority, to boards of school governors and the executive of the British Market Authorities.

The trust and regard in Top: In Kampala, Uganda's capital, Asian people walt for news of their future. Above: Amin, Uganda's mllitary held him which officialdom was most marked in 1966 after the Home Office when, recommended local councils to set up 'war committees' sisting of not more than three was one of members, Marston those chosen at Leicester.

It was not a regard univer- sally shared by workers in the town and during his term as chairman of the housing com- mittee tenants meeting at a the Mowmacre Estate shouted him down he wnen tried to justify high rents with the excuse that there was a deficit in the housing heavy subsidy. 1970, half And in January way through his first term of office as Lord Mayor, the city bought Marston neW, £13,800 Rolls-Royce. There was a public outcry at this, but not only did Mars- ton keep the car: in a speech thetail Credit Association ye Retail Credit Association 'Many complained: thousands of people are living beyond their means. After his telong career in the Labour and trade union bureaucracy he has become an outspoken advocate of policies which might make even some Tories quake.

Trotsky (left) who explains the need to

REVIEW BY SARAH HANNIGAN

'The Position of the Republic and the tasks of young workers'. By Leon Trotsky. Report to the 5th All-Russian Congress of the Russian Communist League of Youth 1922. A Young Socialists Pamphlet. Price: 15p. distinguishes What Marxism very clearly from the revisionist and reformist tendencies in the working class today is the understanding that the fight for state power is central to the workers' struggle to protect their basic rights and living standards. It was this understanding which characterized Lenin and Trotsky and the Bol- sheviks during the revolu- tionary upheavals which led to Revolution in October the Russia in 1917. But the fight against revi- sionism, as exemplified in particular by the Mensheviks, did not end with the taking of state power in 1917. As Trotsky explains in his speech to the Fifth All- Russian Congress of the Russian Communist League of Youth in 1922, the need to educate young workers in an understanding of state power was, if anything, more im- portant after the revolution than before it. Because after the revolution a young worker in the factory could no longer depend on a primitive, instinctive almost understanding of his role in society, but had to become aware of the building of the whole soviet society in order to grasp his position in the factory or workshop' And he explained: 'While previously he passed along a tested road from the particular to the general now this road alone is insufficient for even the first for on this steps, empirical road the Menshevik mimics of socialism can catch e need to educate young workers, with Lenin

NNIGAN

him, those people who repeat a supposedly old formula, but do so in a new situation where it acquires a directly contrary meaning' For the Young Socialists who have just published this pamphlet for distribution to workers, unemployed young immigrant youth and and school students, the struggle against today's 'Mensheviks' is to drive home the need for a fight to force the Tory govern- ment to resign as part of the preparation for building a revolutionary party to take the power. Trotsky goes on: It must, however, be said that the Mensheviks have taken a great step (which can be called a step forward in as much as it is a step towards clarity) in their latest plat- form. The Mensheviks openly state: "The salvation of Russia only in capitalism, the lies development of the productive forces can be only on capitalist lines." "They therefore demand the handing over of it not all then at least the majority of fac- tories and works to the capi- talists. They of course promise for all that, that they will defend for the proletarians the eight-hour working day against future capitalists, whose go- betweens they represent. 'But in order to give them the opportunity of fulfilling their "socialist" role, just one small detail must be permitted: we must hand back the works, factories and mines to the capitalists.' Just as today's revisionists in order to perform their must above all refuse to chal- lenge the Tory government and allow the reins of state power to remain in the hands of the most reactionary Tory govern- ment workers in this country have aver experienced. The Mensheviks in 1922 called for young Russian workers to strike against the ith Lenin and Kamenev harsh factory conditions which, the Soviet state was then passing through. But they did this in a situa- tion where, of course, the whole relationship of class forces had changed completely.

passing 'In through now the stage of primitive socialist accumulation-and we are only just hardly beginning to leave behind the devastation of the civil war, when scarcely a glimmer of hope for accumula- could be observed-the tion working class is compelled to strain its energies. 'Here there is, of course, no class exploitation inasmuch as we are talking about enter- prises belonging to the work- ing class, that is our principal enterprises. But there is here the straining of energies by the working class and by its youth, maybe an excessive energies, but directed level of its own well-being.'

The speech takes up many other points which are of vital interest to all workers, young and ola, who are coming for- ward today to carry on the revolutionary struggle working-class power which was begun 55 years ago in the October Revolution. It is a 'must' for all Young Socialists fighting today to build and establish Councils of Action for the fight to remove the Tories and return a Labour pledged government to so- cialist policies. As Trotsky says: 'The coming years will be the years of learning. They must become the years of in- tensive work of young workers as the vanguard of the work- ing class, both in education and self-education. This struggle which lies before us is ex- tremely hard • Let me • • appeal to you all the most sensitive layers of the young proletariat and advanced peas- antry: learn, . get yourself granite of teethed on the science, get tempered and pre- pare to take over!' Workers Press, Wednes

QUALITY

After the Festival of Light, more good news for God. Piet Koornhof, South African Minister of Immigration, has reaffirmed the country's ban on atheist immigrants. I will not admit anybody who says he is an atheist,' he said during ceremony to mark the naturalization of 47 recent arrivals in the bastion of white supremacy. 'South Africa is a Christian country. We are seeking quality, not quantity,' the Minister added. He's keeping God's Own Country safe for God.'

UNDERPAID?

Britain's managers are com- plaining they are bottom of the European wages scale. David Young, of International Business Consultants who have just published a survey of salaries of top men, said: I am convinced and have be- come steadily more convinced that as a country we are un- derpaid. 'We are a low-wage economy and low wages breed low pro- duc 'ivity and low ambition.'

The survey shows that last year there was virtually no growth in the real incomes of executives. Since they came to power in 1970 the Tories have tried to push the wages ceiling down from 15 per cent to 12, 10 and finally 6 and 7 per cent.

Led by the miners, a number of major unions successfully undermined • these efforts and won substantial pay increases.

But although the executives are complaining about their cash rises, in fact they figured among the highest at 10 per cent. The INBUCON survey says that inflation wiped away the immediately, increases almost leaving a residual growth of only a t per cent. It follows that anyone who received less than a 10 per cent rise last year took a cut in living stan- dards because prices continued to rise at more than that amount. To men on £20 or even £30 a week, such a rise has posed serious difficulties. The effect , anyone earning less than on £20 or on a pension will have been catastrophic. But Britain's top men don't fall into any of these wage categories. A middle-range 3, Wednesday September 13, 1972 PAGE 9 executive can earn £4,420 a year or about £90 a week and those above him will be earn- ing anything up to about £10,000 a year-£200 a week.

Yet they're still griping.

DITHERING

IN BRIGHTON

One of the stories going the rounds at Brighton last week concerned the delegation of the National Union of Jour- nalists, whose right-wing lead- was defeated recently ership in its bid to get the union registered and the NUJ ex- pelled from the TUC. Far from having learned anything from the drubbing it received at the re-call annual conference, the right wingers continued their brazen con- tempt for the union's rules and proper procedures by refusing to cast the NUI's 27,000 votes in favour of composite five. The delegation had left its decision on the motion advo- cating non-payment of fines and non-use of the facilities set up under the Industrial Relations Act until after the speeches had been made ex- involved. plaining what was Hugh Scanlon Having listened to Hugh Scanlon, Harry Urwin and the rest, the delegation split three to two in favour of the motion.

General secretary Ken Morgan, however, promptly began to find reasons for not casting the card vote, despite the clear majority. Observers heard the clear demand of 'vote, vote' being urged on the general secretary as Morgan continued to dither and protest. Before the situa- tion was resolved, the voting was over. The NUJ had abstained.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25-Cloth £1.87} Where Is Britain Going ? Paperback 37}p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 62}p—Cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.12}—cloth £1.87} Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60р Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order trom:

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday September 13, 1972 Glenn Ford and Anne Francis

SPECIAL ATUA

1955 film 'Blackboard the In Jungle' on BBC 2 tonight. Ford teacher Richard plays

MEETINGS

Dadier who finds he is battling tough teenage pupils against and cynical colleagues when

CENTRAL LONDON :

he takes up a post in a New York Quite stum school. an Inaugural meeting of the outspoken piece of social com- ment when it was made. And entertainments and press it launched rock 'n roll with its unions. theme song 'Rock Around the Clock'

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

17, 7 p.m. 'The crisis of technology and unemployment.'

SHAFTESBURY HOTEL

MONMOUTH STREET,

WC2. Speakers: Roy Battersby

(ACTT.

In a personal capacity): A London docker.

KENT:

WEDNESDAY

SEPTEMBER 13, 8 p.m. 'Victory to the Creffield workers. Defeat the anti-union laws. Make the Tories resign.'

THE GEORGE AND

DRAGON

SHIPBOURNE ROAD

TONBRIDGE, KENT.

REGIONAL TV -

LIVERPOOL:

CHANNEL: 1.45-2.35 Racing. 3.20

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

Racing. 4.05 Puffin's birthday 4.10 Paulus. 4.25 17,10.30 a.m. greetings. Lon- 6.10 F don. 6.00 News, weather. 'Crisis in the car indus- Troop. 6.35 London. 7.00 Sounds try. Fight for the right to great._7.30 London. 11.25 News, work.' weather.

WESTWARD: 1.45

Racing. 2.35 3.10 Open house. Racing. 4.06

STORK HOTEL

News. 4.08 Gus Honeybun. 4.10

QUEEN'S SQUARE

6.00 Diary. Paulus. 4.25 London. 7.00 Sounds great. 6.35 London. Speakers: Alan Thornett 11.28 7.30 London. News, Faith for life. weather. (deputy senior steward ANGLIA: 1.45 Racing. 3.40 House- Morris Motors, Oxford. In 3.55 Romper 4.20 party. room. a personal capacity). News. 4.25 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 London. 7.00 Protec- Mike Banda (SLL Cen- tors. 7.30 London. 8.55 Politics. tral Committee). 9.00 London. 11.30 UFO. SOUTHERN: 12.55 News, weather.

1.00 Let them live! 1.25 Hot dog.

SWINDON:

1.50 Common Market cookbook. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Good after-

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

3.00 Danger 3.55 noon. man. 17,7.30 p.m. 'Join the fight to force the Tories to resign'

LOCOMOTIVE INN,

FLEET STREET

Speakers: Tim O'Sullivan steward, (senior night Morris Motors, Oxford, in a personal capacity). Member of the Swindon building strike commit- tee. Representative from SUPPORT is mounting in the camp the Thornycroft (Basing- ation for the Workers Press, 'Mornir stoke) occupation. class papers in the event of strike a newspapers. The dally paper that loads the fight against the Tories. £20.28 for 12 months (312 lasuas) {10.14 for 6 months (156 lasues) {5.07 lor 3 months (78 l89u0s) If you want to take Workers Proes twice a wook the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues).

£6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and sand 1o: 186a Clapham High 3t., irculation Depi., workers Preal ondon, SWA TUC I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

THURSDAY

Days required

MONDAY

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(Please tick)

FRIDAY

WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY

Or Full subscription (six days) for months. Name Address Amount enclosad f BBC has prepared special new sub-titles for Kurosawa's classic 'The Seven Sumurai' on BBC 2 tomorrow night. The print is minutes longer than 45 any other version shown in Britain.

Toshiro Mifune plays the crazy professional who warrior hired by villagers to defend their crops and women against bandits. He is maurauding able to recruit only six more Samurai men because the village is so poor. In Western terms, this theme later became Magnificent Seven' with "The Yul Brynner and company. 3.20 Houseparty. 4.10 Enchanted day house. 4.25 London. 5.20 Road Lon- runner. 5.25 Crossroads.

5.50 O F News. 6.00 Day by day. 6.30 Sur- nds vival. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 Lon- don. 11.30 What the papers say. 11.45 News. 12.00 Shirley's world.

2.35 • 12.30 Weather. ATV: 1.45 Racing. 3.10 Horo- 3.15 Women today. 3.40 scope. Shirley's world. 4.10 Rupert bear.

6.00 Today. 6.35 4.25 London. London. 7.00 Best of Please sir!

7.30 London. 10.30 Julia. 11.00 London. 11.30 Stories worth tell- ing. 11.35 O'Hara, US Treasury.

Weather. ULSTER: 1.45-3.45 Racing. 4.00 Romper room. 4.20 News. 4.25 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Dick Van Dyke. 7.30 London. 10.30 Songs remem- fter- bered. 11.00 London. 11.30 World 3.55 War 1. the campaign for a special dispens- 'Morning Star' and other working- strike action stopping the national Members of the Park Royal No. 2 Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers engine ring section have unanimously sup- ported this campaign. Their resolution states: In the event of strike action resulting in the stopping of the newspapers, we 'ask to ensure and the views of the. that news working class can be circulated communications and can maintained. that special dispen- 'We ask sation be given to the Workers "Morning Star" and other Press, papers in the labour movement.'

Copies have been sent to the •Morning Star'. the executive the print unions, committees of the electricians' unions as well as the AUEW executive and the Workers Press. Engineers in both the Coventry Nos 25 and 73 AUEW branches have passed resolutions to the executive council urging them to approach the print unions for a dispensation special for the Workers Press and 'Morning Star' in the event of a future print strike. • building workers in Coventry the city's Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians central branch have also called for the dispensation of the two papers recognizing the role of class papers in com- working bating the lies of the Fleet Street press.

BBC 1

9.45 Mr Benn. 12.30 Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan. 1.00 O Gwmpas y Byd. 1.30 Andy Pandy. 1.45-1.53 News. 3.35 Mastermind. 4.00 The Mole. 4.10 Play School. 4.35 Adventures of Parsley. 4.40 Dawg. Jackanory. 4.50 Deputy 4.55 Laurel and Hardy. 5.20 Joe and the Gladiator. 5.45 National news.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.50 TOM AND JERRY.

7.00 ANIMAL STARS.

7.25 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

8.10

SOFTLY, SOFTLY: TASK

FORCE.

9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS.

9.25

TILL DEATH US DO PART.

New Series. 9.55

EUROPEAN

SOCCER

SPECIAL.

10.45 MIDWEEK.

11.30 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.35 Weather, regional news.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.35-7.00 Open University.

7.30 NEWSROOM.

8.00 TIMES REMEMBERED.

8.10 MAN ALIVE.

9.00 BETJEMAN IN AUSTRA-

nted YORKSHIRE: 1.45 Dr Simon Locke. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Good don afternoon. 3.00 Saint. 4.00 Car- toon. 4.10 Sean the leprechaun.

4.25 London. 5.20 Primus. 5.50 Calendar. 6.35 Lon- News. 6.00 don. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 London.

10.30 Blue light. 11.00 London. Wor 11.30 Spyforce. 12.25 Weather.

GRANADA: 12.20

Grasshopper island. 12.35 Galloping gourmet.

Supercar. 1.30 Audubon 1.05 wildlife theatre. 1.55 Racing. 3.45 Crossroads. 4.10 News. Sean the 4.25 London. 5.15 leprechaun. Peyton Place. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.30 Survival 1972.

7.00 London. 10.30 Chicago Teddy Bears. 11.00 London. 11.30 What the paper say. 11.45 Kreskin.

Dr Simon

TYNE

TEES:

1.45 | Locke. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Good afternoon. 2.59 News. 3.00 Saint.

4.00 Cartoon time. 4.10 Make a wish. 4.25 London. 5.20 Primus.

crisis AS ULSTER'S power continued, a government Mini- ster warned yesterday that the electricity workers 'could do more harm than the IRA'. Dar-secretawell, paState tary State under-secretary Northern Ireland, said that if station strike by power continued, it could workers bring widespread economic dis- to Ulster, which ruption was 'something which the IRA, with and guns, had all its bombs never achieved'. men's walk out The power began on Monday in protest at paratroopers guarding one Belfast's main power stations.

Meanwhile, Captain Austin Ardill, deputy leader of Van- claims there is complete guard, unanimity within the newly- 'Loyalist Council' and formed that this will mean "closer co- with the security operation forces from now on'. The 'Loyalist Council', headed by William Craig, includes the Ulster Defence Association, Van- guard and the Loyalist Associa- tion of Workers. Yesterday talks began at Chequers between Tory premier Heath and leaders of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Party. Labour Heath countered the SDLP's threatened boycott of the Whitelaw 'all- party' talks scheduled for Sep- tember 25-27, unless internment is ended. He is suggesting a pre- arranged timetable for a 'gradual phasing out' of internment while of special retaining a system courts to try 'hard-core extrem- held under the Special Powers Act.

ITV

11.00 The ghost train. 12.25 Women today. 12.50 Freud on food. 1.15 Bellbird. 1.25 Sean the 1.40 leprechaun. Woobinda- animal doctor. 2.05 Castle haven.

2.30 Good afternoon! 3.00 Tales of Edgar Wallace. 4.10 Hatty town. 4.25 Little big time. 4.50 Ace of wands. 5.20 Survival. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY.

6.35 CROSSROADS.

7.00 THE SMITH FAMILY.

7.30 CORONATION_STREET.

BRITAIN

8.00 MISS

GREAT

1972.

9.00 VAN DER VALK.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 TONY BENNETT. At the Talk of the Town.

11.00 A CLASS BY HIMSELF.

New Series. 'A Rolls is a Rolls is a Rolls'.

11.30 FILM: 'FIVE DESPERATE

WOMEN'.

12.50 OVERCOMING LONEL!-

NESS.

LIA. The Land of the Golden Fleece.

9.25 FILM: 'THE BLACKBOARD

JUNGLE'. Glenn Ford.

11.10 NEWS ON 2.

RA- 11.15 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

5.50 News. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 Lon- Car- don. 10.30 Hogan's heroes. 11.00 London. 11.45 Mod Squad. 12.40 Epilogue. SCOTTISH: 1.45 Racing. 3.10 3.15 Tomorrow's horoscope. today. 3.40 Shirley's Women world. 4.20 Rupert Bear. 4.25 London. 5.20 Cartoon. 5.25 Cross- roads. 5.50 News. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Survival. 7.00 Whicker. 7.30 London. 11.30 What the papers say. 11.49 Late call. 11.55 Sounds like McEvoy. GRAMPIAN: 2.30 Good afternoon.

3.00 News. 3.03 Dangerman. 3.55 Cartoon time. 4.10 Rupert Bear.

4.25 London. 6.00 News, weather.

6.10 Grampian week. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Me and the Chimp. 7.30 London. 11.30 Police news.

11.35 Hawaii five-o. 12.30 Medita- tion.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE MEETINGS

COVENTRY: Wednesday, Septem- ber 13, 7.30 p.m. Hertford Tavern, Junction St, off the Butts. "The Crisis of leadership in the trade unions.' Speakers : Alan Wilkins, and Rolis-Royce shop steward builders' Des McCarthy, shop in a steward (both personal capacity) . GLASGOW: Wednesday Septem- ber 13, 7.30 p.m. Partick Burgh Hall. 'Stalinism, UCS and fighting the industrial Relations Act.'

MEDWAY: Wednesday September 13, 8 p.m. 'The Greyhound', Rochester Avenue, Rochester. 'Defeat the anti-union laws. Force the Tories to resign.' PRESTON: Wednesday Septem- ber 13, 8 p.m. 'Railway and Com- mercial, Butler Street, near rail- way station. Victory to the builders'. WANDSWORTH: Wednesday Sep- tember 13, 8 p.m. Selkirk Hotel, Selkirk Road,. Tooting Broadway.

'Fight racialism. Force the Tories to resign.' ABERDEEN: Thursday September p.m. Trades Hall, 14, 8 The Adelphi. Victory to the builders. Fight the Rent Act.' SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thursday September 14, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers' Club,_opposite New Station. 'For the Tories Cross to resign.' TOTTENHAM: Thursday Septem- ber 14, 8_p.m. St Anne's Hall, Road, off St Anne's Lissbury 'Lessons of Street. WILLESDEN: Thursday Septem- ber 14, 8 p.m. Trades and Labour Hall, High Road, NW10. 'Withdraw troops from Ulster.' SWINDON: Sunday September 17, 7.30 p.m. 'Locomotive Inn' , Fleet 'Join the fight to force Street. the Tories to resign.'

BY IAN YEATS

THE

METICULOUSLY

aged ...marches against - organized by the National Fi other extreme right-wing grou at least pleased Enoch Powell champion. Speaking at Ramsgate yest tried to bask in some reflect that at last his anti-immigrant ing had found a response. 'Eve still inner chambers of governn claimed, 'public anger and alar themselves too audible to be i Audibility was, of course, t marchers sole aim. National Front Martin Webster told Smithfield m Ron Taylor that low numbers on joint march did not matter.

"There are enough to make a show, he said. These were the people Powell almost certainly had in mind yesterday when he described hundreds of thousands of our island population quaking with dread and fear at the alien in- vasion. How the few. hundred on the London marches came to be transformed into hundreds of thousands is considerable arithmetical feat especially from the man who persistently claims to be setting new stand- * ards in truthfulness. He said: 'Hundreds of thousands of Britons live in perpetual dread, they dread for themselves, or they dread for ASLEF, the footplatemen's union, pay for its members working on F super train. The ASLEF men, ess train are to continue, are demanding ing rates. Boclalist Labour League

LECTURES

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

given by

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary)

LONDON

Marxism as the theory of know- ledge Sunday September 17 Development of Marxism through working-class struggle *Sunday September 24 Nature of the • capitallst crisis Sunday October 1 Historical materialism today Sunday October 8

EAST HAM

TOWN HALL

Lister Room Barking Rd, 7 p.m.

LIVERPOOL

Nature of the capitalist crisis Tuesday September 19 Historical materialism today Tuesday September 26

AEU HOUSE

Mount Pleasant Liverpool 1, 7.30 p.m. stage-man- immigration ional Front and ng groups have • Powell - their te yesterday he reflected glory migrant crusad- se. 'Even in the government, he and alarm made : to be ignored.' the racist al Front organizer hfield meat porter bers on their first. the future or they dread for Numerous people "live in actual physical fear, fear of the conditions around immediately them and of the oppression of discomfort and intimidation in-

WHEN

ANGELA DAVIS

flicted upon them either heed- was arrested on framed-up lessly or deliberatelv' The only people who live in charges of murder, kidnap dread and fear in Britain today and conspiracy, an Angela the ruling class. are And their Davis Defence Committee anguish is directed at hanging on grimly to their profits and privi- was set up in Britain to leges. raise money for her de- Challenging this minority of fence and to arouse public and hoarders speculators the 1S When Powell working • class. support for her release. tries to spread his anti-immigrant policy in the working class, he As was her own defence com- does it from the standpoint of mittee in the United States, the preserving Toryism. London-based group was a tool of the Communist Party. It did not fight for the re- lease of Davis the working 1n class or the trade unions. Indeed, politics were erased from the campaign so as not to offend the middle which was drafted on a purely liberal protest basis.

• union, yesterday demanded higher Throughout her long trial Davis British Rail's new neither her lawvers 125 mph …nOT raised the political charac- essential if trials of the new once ter of the judicial attack on her emanding higher manning and train- Republican by the administra- tions in Washington and Cali- The fornia.

ASLEF

members are demanding the money extra because of the extra responsi- In the event, the prosecution and bility dropped productivity brought also tried red-baiting about by the introduction of the strategy and to convince high speed train. the jury that she caught up was the Yesterday the in Marin County Court union's execu- escape attempt through her love tive agreed not to unanimous v of George Jackson. continue trials on the Derby- based project. frame-up failed Their and General secretary Ray Buckton Davis was released. As she left 'The main said: our court she pledged herself to fight the pro- lifting the ban is not for the liberation of all political crastination in getting the agreed prisoners. meeting on the pay question.

The union now wants to see Such a declaration was 'some positive offer'

ATY.

before again titled to be taken at face value.

considering the ban. Pelikan, And last month Tiri British Rail had been counting director of Czech television in on a quick settlement of the pay the Dubcek and Central era and conditions claim so that high Committee member at the time speed passenger services between of the Russian invasion, wrote Leeds and Edinburgh could be letter to Davis asking an open introduced early next vear.

her to honour her declaration. He was appealing on behalf of the Communist Party members who have been framed and jailed the Husak puppet regime. They include Milan Hubl, Cen-

PLESSEY.

Committee member and rec- the electronic and tral communications tor of the party university; Jaros- giant. yesterday announced a £20.7m pre-tax Sabata. Central lav Committee pro fit. Chairman Sir Clark member and psychologist; Alfred that Plessev Cerny, regional secretary was Party recommending a final dividend to in Brno, member of the Central shareholders Committee and worker; Taroslav per cent, making a total for the vear of 10 Litera, secretary of the Prague per cent. the same last year. city Party as committee and worker; General Vaclav a big contributor to the Prchlik. has suffered a slieht the Central Tory member Com- 3 per cent drop in profits on the mittee and of parliament: Karel This previous years. was due to Bartosek. historian: Peter Uhi. poor trading in many areas. Clark teacher; Jiri Lederer and Vladi- said. Nepras. mir journalists; Ota Workers Press, Wednesda

BY OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

Davis flaunting I in Moscow with Valentina Teresh- spacewoman kova Krizanovski, teacher in the party school. In his letter Pelikan asks: Do you, Angela, consider this situation normal country ina itself "socialist"? I that calls read have about and seen on television the many messages of solidarity you received in prison and after vour release. | was proud to think that there were people who were not indifferent at the to the fate of others; same time I had to think with sadness and bitterness about my in Prague imprisoned friends who cannot receive expressions of solidarity and are deprived of moral encouragement. It is not only a revolt of intellectuals or young people as sometimes asserted by to justify left-wingers western their silence or hesitation. Four weeks ago in Prague the congress of the "normalized" trade unions (purged of more than 50,000 cadres since 1969) annulled the decisions of the preceding con- gress, including the right to strike. 'The workers are not allowed to have independent trade unions Ce Wednesday September 13, 1972 PAGE 11

AND

FINALLY. THE

DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN THEM

AND US IS THAT

AN ENGLISHMAN'S

WORD IS HIS

BOND

or to fight for their demands or to protest against the dismissal of comrades, against production schedules and bad working con- ditions. The Workers' Councils, formed in 1968 and dissolved in 1969, have been defined by the party leadership as "instruments of counter-revolution" • Isn't that absurd for a so-called "working- class" state?' In his final appeal to Davis, Pelikan says: 'That is precisely why you, Angela, and the mil- lions of people who supported you and believe in a more just socialist society with more free- dom, can no longer be silent about the violation of human rights in the countries that call "socialist" and by themselves their behaviour discredit socialism more than any reac- tionary propaganda. 'I assure you, Angela, that not only 1 but many other people are waiting for a reply, or better still for you to act.' It is now a month since Peli- kan's letter was published. Has Davis acted? Has she denounced the Czech Stalinists and their mentors in the Kremlin for their policy of jailing and terrorizing 'dissidents' Not only has she refused to condemn the trials, but she has gone of to Moscow to flaunt herself with the jailers and exe- cutioners. Last week she was granted a doctorate at a Moscow University. This week she's in ks: East Germany being paraded around, It comes as no surprise to find in yesterday's 'Morning Star' an item regarding the Angela Davis Defence Committee buried in two paragraphs on page 3.

The article (in full) says: "The Angela Davis Defence Com- mittee, founded in Britain in is to be retitled "The 1970, Angela Davis Committee for the Defence of Political Prisoners".

'Any funds left over after the approval of the final accounts for the former, will be used, sub- ject to the wishes of Miss Davis and her advisers, for the new committee.' This is a nauseating and cruel stab for the Czech working class and for the Party members now harassed by Stalinist terror.

This newly-constituted com- mittee is a fraud. It should be retitled, for the Communist Party's benefit, 'The Angela Davis Committee for Defence of Certain Political Prisoners'.

We'll throw deal out PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday Sel

GLOBE CONSTRUC.

TION company is con- tinuing to airlift non- unionists over a building workers' picket line in Basildon, Essex. (See pic- ture p. 3.) At 7.40 a.m. the helicopter yesterday flew in over the hous- ing estate at Laindon Links and landed in the middle of the site where 172 private houses being built. Four men are jumped out and the machine took off, making three more trips. Bill Regan, ex-RAF pilot, managing director chairman and of the firm, first used the heli- Friday and it is cost- copter on ing him • £100 a day to avoid the strikers in this way. The 12-strong picket line yes- terday was again powerless to prevent the operation and could only voice open wishes that the machine would fall out of the sky. Transport and General Work- ers' Union militant Brian Sander- son spoke to Workers Press

BUILDING

strikers in the Merseyside area yesterday voted meeting in Liverpool at a mass boxing stadium not to return to work until their full demands are met. 8,000 strikers More than staged a demonstration march through central Liverpool before the two-hour meeting. There widespread traffic was chaos in the city as the marchers —accompanied by a girls' pipe band and a brass band—made their way to the stadium.

A loudspeaker relayed speeches to several hundred who could not get inside.

LATENEWS

01-622 7029 01-720 2000 Fill in the form below and

SECRETARY, SOCIALIST

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, L

Name Address resday September 13, 1972 about the strike and the pro- posed new deal offered by the employers. The only weak link in our fight has been the leadership.

Building workers have given their they have rallied tre- all and mendously throughout. Our leaders have secretly thrown in the towel and they will come back and say 'We tried our best lads'. On Thursday I think they'll try to accept whatever's going.

But the building workers will throw the whole thing out again.

We will not be dictated to by our negotiators. They have never seen pounds given to building workers. The employers have always slung bags of pennies across the table and Smith [UCATT general secretary] and Kemp [T&GWU national

WEATHER

and

NORTHERN

eastern England and north Wales will be rather cloudy with some showers. Southern England, the Midlands and south Wales will be cloudy at times but mostly dry. Scotland and Northern Ire- land will become cloudy with occasional rain or drizzle.

In north east Scotland the rain is likely to be moderate and continuous for several hours be- fore brighter, showery weather spreads from the north. It will be rather cool. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press. Clapham High Street, London, 186a

SW4 7UG.

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

SW4 7UG.

low and send to NATIONAL

ALIST LABOUR LEAGUE,

H ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

building officer] have jumped on it and said: 'Sort it out lads'.

These men will have to be shaken up and made to conform to our wishes, or we must have complete change of leader- a ship. Perhaps the Tories will use the Industrial Relations Act against us because they are the same people stopping getting the us £30 claim. But builders will rise to the occasion like the dockers and the railwaymen. We must win the fight for trade unionism in the building industry.

Nationalization? It's about time that happened. And 15 years and it needs a good shake-up so that plans can laid for those who work in it.

Although I've never been Some of the bullders who cornered thall GEORGE SMITH, general secre- tary of the Union of Construc- tion, Allied Trades and Tech- nicians, was forced into an un- precedented face-to-face confron- tation with some of his members yesterday. About 40 building workers turned up at the union's Clapham headquarters to demand no sell- out of their £30, 35-hour week claim at Thursday's pay talks.

After 45 minutes kicking their heels outside their own union office, Smith appeared on the was immediately sur- steps and rounded by hostile builders.

'We've been kicked out of our building and we're not having it ' one shouted any more, at Smith, amid repeated cries of 'sell-out'.

Smith then read out an agreed executive statement on Monday's meeting of the union side of the joint national council which explained nothing. But he refused to reveal any TWO BELFAST civilians shot by British troops last week were 'completely innocent, a Shank- ill councillor said yesterday at the start of an unofficial public inquiry. Councillor Hugh Smith said statements would • be collected from about 200 local residents.

He said he hoped the inquiry would force Ulster Secretary William Whitelaw to initiate an Brian Sanderson politically, this Tory strong government must go. But it would be no use having a Labour gov- ernment like the last one which laid the lines down for the Tories' Industrial Relations Act.

We have to form ourselves into committees and see a Labour doesn't government overstep the lines and stays responsible to the men who them in put power. • See new deal story p. 3.

nored their union secretary yesterday details of the latest offer and added heatedly: I've not been in any discussions with the Tories about wage norms.' In another angry exchange he shouted: "I situation as it is nationally, the have to assess 'You've which the retort was: never been near a picket line.

We're not going back without the £30 for 35 hours.' Many builders yesterday expressed bitterness at the way the lobby was organized. Some men only knew about it 30 min- utes before the scheduled time and said many more could have turned up if they knew about it.

The Stalinist-led London action committee seems to be trying to wind the militancy down. Although a lobby of Thursday's talks has been called for 1.30 p.m. at New Cavendish Street, demonstration through the no streets has been fixed. official inquiry. The people of this area have demanded an inquiry to clear these civilians names. I think I can get enough evidence, I am state that both sure, these men were innocent? It was gunning down of these men which has led to the first open hostilities between the army and the Ulster Defence Assoc- iation. OVER 100 Bransholme ten- ants brimming with hostility to the Tory Housing Finance Act and to the Labour leaders who refuse to fight it crowded into a Hull All Trades Unions Alliance meeting on Monday night. They supported a resolu- tion condemning the imple- mentation of the Act by the Labour council and demanding the expulsion from the Labour Party of councillors who con- tinued to collaborate with it.

The meeting called on • the TUC to mobilize the working class to defeat the Tories and Labour government elect ple sed and nationaline al nationalizing the Act land, building firms and building compensation societies without and under workers' and tenants' control. It demanded a pledge from all trade unions in the city that it any tenants were evicted for non-payment of rent a strike would be called. Speakers condemned the shelv- ing by the Trades Council of the call for a Council of Action.

They also attacked the execu- tive for postponing mass tenants' meeting, which the full Trades Council meeting had sup- ported, until October 3. a 14- The meeting elected strong committee of tenants and housewives to carry forward the meeting fight. A rents and demonstration will be held next week and campaigns are planned on other estates. A VOTE of no confidence in the Port Talbot Labour council was carried at a meeting of over 500 tenants on Monday. The council has voted to im- plement the Tories' Rent Act.

Leaders of the Port Talbot Tenants' Association , reported meeting Labour that with mayor Jim Warren had resulted only in evasions on how to fight the Act. But the Tenants' Association : itself failed to put Committee any proposals for action to the meeting. Vice-chairman Trevor Copely merely stated that the Act could be defeated by "soli- darity and militancy'

SEPTEMBER

FUND HAS

REACHED

THE FIGHT Is on for our Sept- ember £1,750 Fund. We are de- termined to raise as much as possible now and not leave It to a last minute rush. The Inflationary enormous crisis throughout the capitalist world is coming to a head. The only solution for the capitalist class is to fight back In the most brutal way against the working class. Workers Press Is determined to prepare workers everywhere for these onslaughts. More un- employment, wage-cuts and the end to all trade union rights is just a small slice of what this Tory government has in store.

Such a situation propels us for- ward to fight even harder for our monthly Fund. Our paper alone can provide the leadership to "de attacks. We feat these vicious urge you all-don't waste a moment. Raise all you can and post Immediately to:

WORKERS PRESS SEPTEMBER

APPEAL FUND

186a CLAPHAM HIGH STREET

LONDON, SWA TUG

HINI