Union chiefs at Chequers as HEATH REVEALS TORY WEAKNESS

class.

Top of the agenda will be state control of wages and this affects every working man and woman in the country.

They must decide whether they want to be the pawns of the Tory state machine, or workers free to fight for the highest possible standard of living.

We have no doubts what the answer must be. The Tory plan must be rejected completely and all contact with this discredited and anti-working-class Tory government broken-off immediately.

Not fooled But the men who lead the unions have already made up their minds. They have accepted the principle of wage control and agreed to subordinate the interests of their 9 million members to the so-called 'national economy' that Heath is so fond of talking about.

Today they will go one step further and haggle over the price of this treachery. The TUC call it tactics. But no one should be fooled by this big talk.

The horse-trading and arguments over prices and 'wealth taxes' only give the Tories time to prepare the ground for the offensive against the working class, which is certain to come after entry into Europe early next year.

Let no one imagine that the Chequers meeting is just about wages.

Yesterday Peregrine Worsthorne one of the most knowledgeable Tory commentators laid it on the line in the 'Sunday Telegraph'. He asked what the latest Tory moves over the unions meant:

'How persuasive is the Tory ASTMS against agreement THE ASSOCIATION of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs yesterday went on record as being 'flatly opposed to any agreement between the TUC and government which had arbitrary wage and salary limits within it'.

ASTMS secretarý Clive Jenkins said after his 20-man executive had met: 'We decided unanimously that we would not feel ourselves bound by any agreement which limited our freedom

Feather: Leading

Chequers' delegation Party likely to prove ... is it likely to be thought more effective than Labour in pursuing what increasingly emerge as policies that should properly be called national socialist . • Older workers will recall that national socialism was the theory of the fascists like Hitler and Mussolini. In the interests of the 'national economy' , and with the initial co-operation of many German and Italian trade union leaders, they destroyed the working-class movement and murdered its militant leaders.

These issues are embodied in the Chequers talks. Heath made this clear when he spoke to the Tory Party conference on Saturday. The wages and prices plan he said, 'is an offer to the employers and the unions to share fully with the government the benefits and obligations involved in running the national economy.

Of course the ruling class and the Tories are a long way from of action in this manner? • Terry Casey, general secretary of the 55,000-strong National Association of Schoolmasters, said yesterday that he had sent an urgent telegram to Victor Feather urging him to challenge the government at today's Chequers talks over what he considered a "breach of faith' by the government, who had promised that an extra allowance would be paid to London teachers from November 1. fascism. They must smash the working class first. In fact Heath's overture to the union leaders on Saturday was a sign of weakness.

Heath knows that if there were a General Election tomorrow his government would come crashing down.

He knows also that the only orce standing between him and he verdict of the working class are the union leaders.

Time and time again these men have come forward, held back the working class and saved the government from destruction. They did it over the miners' strike, over the railwaymen's strike, over the confrontation over the dockers and now they are helping out once more.

Postponed

Already union leaders have imposed their own wage freeze. The government industrial workers have had their claim put to binding arbitration. The miners' leaders have postponed their own pay. battle until December and the electricity workers' leaders have reduced their own claim in line with the governments own state pay All this gives the Tories that crucial breathing space to get into Europe and attack the working class from a position of greater strength—it is surely no secret that bosses in every boardroom are devising their European strategy which will involve big Clive Jenkins terests of the 'national economy. SLL Central This is the plan the TUC leaders are co-operating with at Chequers Cliff Slaughter today.

To meet this challenge workers answers recent need to take the initiative. This is why the All Trades Unions articles in the Alliance is putting forward its Charter of Basic Rights and Herald' written with the organizing its annual conference next Sunday, October 22. collabor ation nor is the Charter a pious de- This is no routine meeting Communist claration. The aim will be to Party's anti-Trotskyist launch a new initiative, to break workers from the rotten and 'expert, Mrs Betty Reid corrupt union leadership of the right and the so-called : left.

The Tory government is weak. RAIL JOBS It could not stand . up to the organized strength of the working TO BE CUT class. With this conviction the All Trades Unions Alliance goes See Alex Mitchell's forward with the fight to force the government io resign as the Special Report p. 12 start towards defending basic ATUA CONFERENCE way forwa for all unionists 10-30 a.m