Workers Press no. 911

workers press

WHO WILL

DRAW THE

E SWORD!

INCORPORATING THE NE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTF

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

BENEATH the words and argument at 10 Downing Street, the Tories, the unions and the top employers are trapped in an economic and political crisis that cannot be resolved by talk.

Each day as the marathon stretches into the early hours one thing is clear— the sword will have to be drawn. The Tories must do battle with the working class and the day of reckoning cannot be far away. The actors in the drama meet in separate rooms, then they meet in the same room on separate tables. They break and eat game pie, then they talk once more. But the obstacles remain. The difficulties irreconcilable. Not appear even the most servile TUC bureaucrats has the power or independence to deliver the ready goods. If concessions were made, the Tories would understand them as paper promises. The fight with the working class and over wages rights would still lie ahead But the stalemate only mirrors the exact balance of class forces within capitalist Britain today, and the delay indicates that Tories still only hesitate to resolve that balance by confrontation.

What are the real issues that dominate these talks? • On one side stand the working class, ready to fight the important wages struggle in the mines, the local government power industry and and still bitterly hostile to the National Industrial Relations Court. • On the other stand the monopolies that make up the capitalist fraternity of the country.

Two things are happening on this front. First we have the mad merger scramble. Yesterday it was P&O bidding for Bovis. Now the massive investment A malestic wave and and conglomerate property of capital movement and invest- Trafalgar Investments wants to swallow Bowaters. So big ment. the boys too are preparing for battle, All these developments mean ganging up to weather the storm one thing. The balance of forces of crisis and struggle with the tips dramatically either towards working class. the class or the working mon- The other move is to Europe. opolies. Vast capital sums flowing As the economic crisis gets are political equilibrium across the Channel to the Con- worse the maintained. That is exports tinent. Capital from cannot be why the Socialist Labour League Britain for the first six months of fights already exceeded to develop revolutionary this year have for capital /exports for all of 1971- leadership preparation ahead. itself a record year. the momentous struggles Printworkers' leader Richard This not haphazard Briginshaw the Tories development, it is quite deliber- says are The Finance Ministers of playing for a 'dirty' election.

ate. capitalist Europe are now work- In fact the situation is even running ing out a plan for joint control Time is more THE POUND fell yesterday as $230m during October to $5.859m. the odds against a deal on The pound's recent rally on wages between the Tories and markets the foreign exchange the unions hardened. petered out as dealers reported There was gloomy news too quiet trading. At lunchtime it was showing Britain's gold and con- on $2.3525 a loss of 40 points at vertible currency reserves. of by the the overnight position Figures released to S2.3565. Treasury showed they fell by

• FRIDAY NOVEMBER

THE NEWSLETTER

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

wave and a smile from Victor Feather as he out for this government. The issues must be resolved and major class struggle may only be weeks away. There is no longer the money to pay for the reforms on which 'democratic' the old so called system rested. Even if the Tory government won a snap election the major issue would still be in front.

The real frustration and anger of the government surfaced in parliament when the Minister for Employment Robin Chichester Clark made his veiled attack on the engineers' union, now facing censure from the National In- dustrial Relations Court.

Business trends also •were revealed in statistics which showed that trading last month on the London Stock Exchange fell to its lowest level for two years. The turnover for October was £3,151,479,000 compared with £3,632,313,000 the pre- vious month. /EMBER 3, 1972 • No 911 • 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

FURTHER information surfaced yesterday about Tuesday night's secret talks at Buck- ingham Palace between the Duke of Edin- burgh, TUC leaders and the CBI-revealed exclusively in yesterday's Workers Press.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman told Workers Press that the talks had not been included on Tues- day's Court Circular because they 'weren't public'. A TUC spokesman was surprised when he learned of the talk. He had not been informed that his boss, Victor Feather, had been to the palace for an hour- long discussion chaired by the Duke. Other trade union lead- ers at the palace were Hugh Scanlon, Jack Tones, George Smith, Alf Allen, Alan Fisher and Frank Chapple. None of their union headquar- ters issued a statement mention- ing that they were sitting at the royal table

CBI

with director, W. O. Campbell Adamson, and big business leaders, lord Stokes of British-Leyland, Lord Sieff of Marks and Spencer and Lord Melchett, the chairman of the British Steel Corporation.

The conference was held under the sponsorship of the Industrial Society, a body which offers ad- vice on industrial relations.

A trade union spokesman yes- terday said was 'a Baden Powell kind of outfit. He said trade union leaders knew little about its aims or function, 'ex- cept that it preaches better rela- on the shop tions floor-what- ever that means'. Ostensibly Tuesday night's meeting was called to prepare for a study conference on industrial relations to be held in Oxford in July 1974. Workers Press has been follow- ing the Society's activities with great attention, particularly since it began to hold seminars to dis- cuss industrial relations.

It regularly stages luncheons at Tory Ministers and trade which unionists give their views. These elaborate functions are staged at plush hotels like the Connaught and cost anything up to f10 to attend. he goes into 10 Downing Street The director is John Garnett The soft-talk Downing at Tories whom the invited to sit Street is one thing. But deep in the miners' arbitration panel the bowels of Whitehall the real earlier this year. The society is plans being laid. These currently raising £200,000 to pay are in- for the conversion of its sumptu- volve rule by decree on wages, a headquarters Carlton renewed legal offensive against ous in House Terrace. the unions and the destruction of of The appeals committee consists entire areas industrial Faulkner of Eric O. (Lloyds Britain after entry into Europe.

Bank), Sir Norman Kipping (Pil- The Tories postponed this kington Brothers), Maurice battle in the summer when the Laing (John Laing Construction), five dockers were released from Sir lan Lyle (Tate and Lyle), Lord iail. They cannot dodge the issue Mancroft (Cunard Line and ex- again. Tory junior minister), Lord class This means the working Robens (Vickers) and Victor Fea- be mobilized Talks ther of the TUC. must now. with the Tories only help the Among the donors to the fund prepare for battle. class enemy Sun Life Shell. are Assurance, They be broken off im- Building must

GEC,

Abbey National mediately. Ford, IBM, British Oxy- Society, Workers must press ahead with Scottish gen, and Newcastle they Valor their wage struggles and Breweries. Group, Decca, Bank of should be backed by all other Bagland, tionds Besk: Llovds Bank. Midland Bank, unions. Barclays, Marks and TUC Congress minster, The must be Spencer, Whitbread, Pilkington recalled debate the main to Imperial Tobaccoo, Watney and question-how to create the con- Whitbread. ditions to force this government to resign and elect Labour

TURN TO PAGE 12

administration pledged to social- ist policies.

workers press

WHO WILL

DRAW THE

INCORPORATING THE NEI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTF

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

BENEATH the words and argument at 10 Downing Street, the Tories, the unions and the top employers are trapped in an economic and political crisis that cannot be resolved by talk.

Each day as the marathon stretches into the early hours one thing is clear— the sword will have to be drawn. The Tories inast do battle with the working: class and the day of reckoning cannot be far away. The actors in the drama meet in separate rooms, then they meet in the same room on separate tables. They break and eat game pie, then they talk once more. But the obstacles remain. The difficulties irreconcilable. Not appear even the most servile TUC bureaucrats has the power or independence to deliver the ready goods. If concessions were made, the Tories would understand them as paper promises. The fight with the working class over wages and rights would still lie ahead But the stalemate only mirrors the exact balance of class forces within capitalist Britain today, and the delay indicates that the Tories still only hesitate to resolve that balance by confrontation.

What are the real issues that dominate these talks? • On one side stand the working class, ready to fight the important wages struggle in the mines, the industry local and power and government still bitterly hostile to the National Industrial Relations Court. • On the other stand the monopolies that make up the capitalist fraternity of the country.

Two things are happening this front. First on we have the mad merger scramble. Yesterday it was P&O bidding for Bovis. Now the massive investment A majestic wave and and property conglomerate of capital movement and invest- Trafalgar Investments wants to swallow Bowaters. So the big ment. boys too are preparing for battle, All these developments mean ganging up to weather the storm The balance of forces one thing. of crisis and struggle with the dramatically either towards tips working class. the working class the or mon- The other move is to Europe. opolies. Vast capital sums flowing As the economic crisis gets are the the equilibrium across the Channel to Con- worse political be maintained. That is Capital exports tinent. from cannot why the Socialist Labour League Britain for the first six months of fights already exceeded to develop revolutionary this year have for apital exports for all of 1971 leadership preparation itself a record year. ahead the momentous struggles haphazard Printworkers' leader Richard This not Briginshaw the Tories development. it is quite deliber- says The Finance Ministers of playing for a 'dirty" election.

ate. capitalist Europe are now work- In fact the situation even Time is ing out a plan for joint control more serious. running THE POUND fell yesterday as $230m during October to $5.859m. the odds against a deal on The pound's recent rally on Tories and wages between the markets the foreien exchange the unions hardened. petered out as dealers reported There was gloomy news too quiet trading. At lunchtime it was showing Britain's gold and con- on $2.3525 a loss of 40 points at vertible currency reserves. of released by the the overnight position Fizures to Treasury showed they fell by $2.3565. INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3, 1972 • No 911 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

SWORD!

A majestic mave and a smlle from Victor The out lor unis covernment issues must be resolved and major class struggle may only weeks away. There is no longer the money to pay for the reforms on which the old so called 'democratic system rested. Even if the Torv government won a snap election the male issue would still be in front. The real frustration and anger to e covernment sullacta parliament when the Minister for Employment Robin Chichester veiled attack on Clark made his ere from the National tacing from the In- dustrial Relations Court. also were statistics revealed in which showed that trading last the London Stock Exchange lowest

TO TO IC

level for two years. October

LUTHUYE

$3,151,479,000 £3,632,313,000 with the pre- vious month. /EMBER 3, 1972 • No 911 • 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

FURTHER information surfaced yesterday about Tuesday night's secret talks at Buck- ingham Palace between the Duke of Edin- burgh, TUC leaders and the CBI-revealed exclusively in yesterday's Workers Press.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman told Workers Press that the talks had not been included on Tues- day's Court Circular because they 'weren't public'. A TUC spokesman was surprised when he learned of the talk. He had not been informed that his boss, Victor Feather, had been to the palace for an hour- long discussion chaired by the Duke. Other trade union lead- ers at the palace were Hugh Scanlon, Jack Jones, George Smith, Alf Allen, Alan Fisher and Frank Chapple. None of their union headquar- ters issued a statement mention- ing that they were sitting at the royal table

CBI

with director, W. O. Campbell Adamson, and big Iord Stokes business leaders, of British-Leyland, Lord Sieff of Marks and Spencer and Lord Melchett, the chairman of the British Steel Corporation.

The conference was held under the sponsorship of the Industrial Society, a body which offers ad- vice on industrial relations.

A trade union spokesman ves- terday said it Baden was 'a Powell kind of outfit'. He said trade union leaders knew little about its aims" or function, 'ex- cept that it preaches better rela- tions the floor-what- on shop ever that means'. Ostensibly Tuesday night's meeting was called to prepare for a study conference on industrial relations to be held in Oxford in July 1974. Workers Press has been follow- the Society's activities ing with great attention, particularly since it began to hold seminars to dis- cuss industrial relations.

It regularly stages luncheons at Tory which Ministers and trade unionists give their views. These elaborate functions are staged at plush hotels like the Connaught and cost anything up to £10 to attend. as he goes into 10 Downing Street The director is John Garnett The soft-talk at Downing whom the Tories invited to sit Street is one thing. But deep in on the miners' arbitration panel the bowels of Whitehall the real earlier this year. The society is being laid. plans are These currently raising €200,000 to pay in- for the conversion of its sumptu- volve rule by decree on wages, a ous headquarters in Cariton renewed legal offensive against House Terrace. the unions and the destruction of of industrial The appeals committee consists entire areas of Eric O. Faulkner (Lloyds Britain after entry into Europe.

Bank), Sir Norman Kipping (Pil- The Tories postponed this kington Brothers). Maurice battle in the summer when the Laing (John Laing Construction), five dockers were released from Sir Ian Lyle (Tate and Lyle), Lord jail. They cannot dodge the issue Mancroft (Cunard Line and ex- again. Lord Tory junior minister), class This means the working Robens (Vickers) and Victor Fea- he mobilized Talks ther of the TUC. must now. with the Tories ( only help the Among the donors to the fund class enemy prepare for battle. Sun Life Assurance, gilding Shell. are be They must broken off im-

GEC.

Abbey National mediately. Society, Ford, Ford, IBM, British Oxy- Workers must press ahead with and Newcastle gen, they Breweries, Valor Group their wage struggles and Decca, should be backed by all other Bank Bagland, ationds Llovds Bank, West- Midland Bank, unions. Barclays, Marke and TUC Congress minster, The must be Spencer, Whitbread, Pilkington recalled debate the main to Watney and Imperial Tobaccoo, question-how to create the con- Whitbread. ditions to force this government to resien and elect Labour

TURN TO PAGE 12

administration pledged to social- ist policies.

A week in the life of the Socialist Labour PAGE 2 Workers Press, Friday November 3 Sunday, October 22, 7.45

IT'S

EUSTON

a.m.: station. Hundreds of people are milling around the entrance to platforms 13 and 14. There are two charter trains each able to take 500 passengers. The faces are mainly young. Some of them have been up since 4 a.m. arranging for buses to pick up visitors and get them to Euston on time.

There are shop stewards counting their delegations and handing credentials. out Older trade unionists, many with their wives and families, watch the gathering throng with quiet satisfaction. Just after 8 a.m. the two trains pulled out for Birm- ingham, on the way to the national conference of the All Trades Unions Alliance. produced London had a record contingent, but how would the other areas fare?

No doubts remained when we walked from the station up steep hill to the the town hall. Queues stretched outside.

It took over half an hour for us all to get inside and seated.

Delegates and visitors came from all over the country, from all industries. Dockers, carworkers, engineers, cleaners, railwaymen, actors, building workers, miners, students, electricians, tele- technicians, Post vision Office workers and journalists.

In the opening contribution Comrade Gerry Healy, the national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, pre- sented the conference docu- ment which called for the building of a revolutionary party in Britain. 25 other There were speakers in the debate; a further 40 applications to speak couldn't taken because of lack of time. It a free and democratic was debate. There were speakers who put the point of view of the Labour Party and the Communist Party. At the climax of the day a was taken on the docu- vote ment. It was a unanimous vote charging the ATUA and the SLL with the immediate responsibility of preparing for of the the transtormation League into a revolutionary Thus the conference party. gave a mighty vote of confi- 'in the leadership and dence political perspectives of our movement. A collection raised £537.47. Monday, October 23: IN A front-page article Workers Press warns of the trap being sprung in the Heath talks at Downing Street. Stephen Johns wrote in• his article headed, 'End all talks with the Tories': •Already union leaders have given the Tories a crucial breathing space by continuing talks and post- poning important wages struggles. If there is to be a fight now, it must be one which can unite all the workers claims in action to with pay government to force this re- sign. This is the only alter- Tory plan to native to the control wages.' 24, 8 Tuesday, October p.m.: CONWAY HALL, Red Lion Square, at ten minutes to eight there's scarcely a person there ex- cept two sellers of the Workers Press. Fifteen minutes later the place is.

packed with young wait- workers of all races ing to hear a reply to Joseph Losey's film «The Assassination of Trotsky'.

We have been the only tendency in Britain to take up the fight for historical truth in relation to this film.

Each night since it opened in the West End we have distributed our leaflet 'The ovember 3, 1972 11110

TROTSKYS LA.

I AM CONFIDEN

THE VICTORY (

FOURTH INTER

GO FORWARD

1965 THAT MEANS

THE FIRST DAILY TR

1970 THAT ME.

THE WORK

Top: A section of the 2,000-str with SLL national secretary Ger of Trotsky'. Second Assassination of Trotsky. Comrade Healy spoke to a packed audience of over 500 about the falsifications which had fought all his Trotsky life. He spoke of Trotsky's lasting struggle in defence of but against the Stalinist spoke of Trotsky's main legacy, the building of the Fourth International. Opponents of the SLL, the Party Communist and the International Socialists, came make to the platform to their points in a free debate.

A collection raised £79.67.

Wednesday, October 25, 8 p.m.: A RECEPTION was held at a private house in London to mark the publication of Trot- sky', a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King. Published by Penguin in a paperback edition at £1.50, this book is a timely and very welcome publication. It create interest among will of new tens of thousands readers whose understanding of Trotsky's life may have been arrested by a visit to the Losey film. Among those present were critics, distinguished writers, film-makers, photographers and journalists. At this point 'Private Eye' enters our life.. This gutter rag says the following in this week's issue: 'By paying for the booze the SLL hoped to give the impression that they were responsible for the book.'

Only an idiot and/or read-

PEVOLUTIONA

DAILY

JOIN THE SOCIALST LABOUR LEAS

NFIDENT OF

ORY OF THE

INTERNATIONAL

NARD....

I MEANS FORWARD TO

AILY TRPTSKYIST PAPER!

T MEANS BUILD

PRESS

• 2,000-strong ATUA conference. Above: The retary Gerry Healy answering Joseph Losey's f ers of Private Eye' could be- lieve such patent rubbish. As everyone knows, the book is produced by Allen Lane the Penguin • Press. The SLL did not pay for the reception or even make the invitations. It was handled by the Paper- backs Centre which is a new bookshop in Charlotte Street.

When these premises new were opened, the Centre held similar Play- reception. a wright David Mercer con- ducted the official opening.

Since its recent opening, the Paperbacks Centre has wide clientele built up a among people interested in books on the left. The 'Trot-.

sky' book has already proved an immensely popular seller at the Centre and the reception was called in recognition of the work of the author and art director. 'Private Eye' goes on to re- port that 'two Scottish engi- neering fitters, with an eye to booze were told lo the free 'get out' by a Workers Press reporter. It is clear that the leak to the 'Eye' came from these honourable figures. As he was leaving, one of the 'two Scottish engineering fit- ters' kept saying 'I'm in IS.

I'm in IS.' It is well known that 'Pri- vate Eye' is part of the IS milieu. Until recently Paul Foot was on the editorial board of both the 'Eye' and 'Socialist Worker'. Now he has left the 'Eye' to work full-time for 'Socialist Worker' and the 'New Statesman' and other 'left' publications. But in his place at the 'Eye Martin Tompkinson, moves the ex-LSE student rebel who IS member and is now an Worker' 'Socialist film re- viewer. ove: The Conway Hall meeting Losey's fllm "The Assassination We can safely assume, therefore, that the fitters rushed off to their Greek Street headquarters to tell of their frightful mauling at the hands of the SLI and to em- bellish their account with additional slanders. They were not told to 'get out'. They asked to leave. They were weren't invited. They are known to be absolutely hostile to the SLL, the building of a revolutionary party in Britain and to Marxism. 'Private Eye' uses this grubby little piece of gossip for very specific reasons. The 'Eye' crowd are angry about our reception. Why? Because they wish to stand in the way of building the closest possible political ties between middle- intellectuals and class the working classes. These reac- tionaries always ridicule any 'trendy' , as they call them, who takes an interest in work- ing-class politics. The SLL fights continuously to win over the best elements in the middle class to the struggle in the working class for state power. The produc- tion of the Workers Press. the staging of plays, the making of films are a testimony to the of our campaign in success the middle class. When 'Private Eye' sees this development, it rushes into print deride to attack and those who are becoming seri- ous about political questions facing the working class. In a form of bullying and black- mail, they finger journalists, actors and writers. Their ob- ject is to intimidate these men and women into ending their political associations with the working-class movement. These attacks appear in a journal whose fascist concepts are well known to Workers Press readers. We made this point in a detailed political study of 'Private Eye' in a this three-part series earlier year. Throughout this year one can detect even more venom- ous attacks on the working class. The cover of August 25 'Private Eye' made fun of the police who attacked a docker picketing in Lincolnshire. In the issue of August 11 the paper used this 'satirical' item: 'Kray Brothers released-in- tervention by Official Solici- • 'Amidst emotional scenes since D-Day, unsurpassed Ronald and Reginald Kray the popular East End knee-break- ers, were released from prison today. There was community singing as the Krays were shouldered by their work- mates and carried to a wait- ing flowered-deck tank. "The release of the Krays followed a surprise interven- tion by the Official Solicitor, E. Tharg. In the light of the Industrial Relations Act it was the court's view that the Krays had purged themselves and many others. Mr. Tharg added that the release of the "Mile End Road notorious Two" could well help to bring peace to This along- appears side a 'satirical' advertisement for gold medallions of 'The Pentonville Martyrs, Vic Turner and Derek Watkins'.

The intention of this 'fun' is clear. The jailed dockers are equated with the Kray twins who are convicted murderers.

The working class which moved en masse to secure the dockers' release are portrayed as fellow criminals. Despite these deeply re- actionary items-others have quite racialist overtones-the International Socialists still allow their members to work for this paper: Foot moves out, Tompkinson moves in.

Earlier this year we had the spectacle of 'Socialist Worker' advertising for new readers in Eye' which •Private was confirmation of the further joint milieu they had created.

It is no accident that after an IS member attempted to gate-crash the book reception, a filthy little paragraph should anonymously in appear 'Private Eye'. By denouncing the not 'Eye's' politics and not sever- ing all connections with it, the IS group helps to foster this wretched political mani- festation. Thursday, October 26, 9

THE EDITORIAL

p.m. board of the Workers Press, and members of the Young Socialists' Right-to- Work national committee given a preview were screening of the 40-minute colour film made about the national Right-to- five Work marches which were staged right across the country in February and March this year. The marchers converged on the Empire Pool, Wembley, on March 12 for a monster rally attended by 8,500 trade unionists and youth. It was the largest rally ever staged by the Trotskyist movement in Britain. Friday, October 27: THE POUND drops to its low- est value in history and the Bank of England was forced to enter the mar- kets. At 10 Downing Street talks go on. Workers Press says: 'No talks with the Tories.'

Our monthly appeal fund is low; there is £642.19 to raise in just. four days. By the Tuesday, following October 31, we had raised a magnifi- cent £1,882.97. It is this kind of success which angers the revision- ists and their dubious allies at 'Private Eye'.

Fighting the Tories' rent Act ENGLISH and Continental Property, which bought the 50-acre site at the Thornycroft plant, Basingstoke, are set to become one of Europe's biggest pro- perty groups. The Thornycroft workers—who have just ended an 11-week sit-in against the sale of the factory by British-Leyland-will remem- ber that E&CP paid £2.5m for the land earlier South Shields this year. It was the same group which leased the factory site for three years only to the Eaton Cor- of America, making poration the Thornycroft men more than ever about suspicious LUCAS WORKERS in Eaton's intentions. the north-west will be laid off today because The site has been favourably of the occupation at mentioned property journals 1n the group's CAV fac- as ripe for some form of com- mercial 'redevelopment'. Fazakerly, tory in Liverpool. Now E&CP-said to be worth Over 280 workers at arranged about £120m - has Lucas Industrial Equip- multi-million pound financing which shares the ment deals from the insurance com- same site with the occu- panies.

CAV

pied plant have there is The 51 per cent stake in E&CP been told that by the Crown Agents has been no work for them be- of a ban on sup- reduced. Crown Agents cause are plies the occupying body by semi-official government workers. mainly involved in fixing up pro.

Stewards the for former British see perty deals speed at which manage- colonies. announced the ment 1971 that E&CP It was in with into prominence sprang £8m of Cunard Jacqueline appeal? the purchase House, the shipping group's city headquarters. JAILED Jacqueline Paddon (19), wants to This year it concluded Britain's the 21- appeal against biggest deal to single property month for sentence date with the £22m purchase of taking a friend's baby House office Bush the massive 15 for minutes. Mrs complex in the Strand. Martha Paddon (54), said yesterday she would The group's immediate plans like to get her daughter are to go public and be quoted home 'so that I and my on the Stock Exchange, probably friends can help her' early next year. Mrs Paddon also wants • See p. / 4 & 5: 'Catch 22 in Jacqueline's own two- year-old child. Levland Jobs Deal'. Young Socialists

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25

East India Hall East India Dock Road, E14 doors open 12 noon

SATURDAY DECEMBER 9

Corn Exchange Leeds doors open 12 noon

GIVE US ALL YOUR SUPPORT

Can you knit — sew — do woodwork — bake — make gifts give jumble - donate tins and bottles Young Socialists Grand Xmas Bazaar 186a Clapham High Street London, SW4 7UG or phone: 01-622 7029. Workars Prass, Friday Novamber 3, 1972 PAGE 3

SOUTH SHIELDS

tenants on the north-east coast are preparing a rent strike against the Labour council which last month decided to imple- Tory Housing the ment Finance Act. They plan begin on November 20 when the first in- creases are due At stormy meeting October 4, 11 Labourites joined Tory hands with the for to torce : Inrougn molon implementation life-and-death for , had tenanls Une LaDOUI group th Shields tenants demonstrate outside the Town Hall.

seen it fit to allow a 'free vote the council. Outside hundreds tenants ot the eerer woen result secant known Those Labour council- who collaborated with the had be ONeS DrOLeCLeC from the crowd by the police Since that 12 tenants closure as a bid to split Lucas Industrial Equip- Meanwhile arendt have men ment refused to accept spread the solidarity beer up ine razakerly associations The ban on supplies the passes on orders with occupation are South Shields to support 1,000 through strike. And over coming the site from management. continuing. left The Liverpool Trades have already said they zale. Coll. LIlO

CICCI

DUTE

LHeY WELt Celalils Wednesday standing outside the Council calling wil nor bav e incre se steward Lucas gates when man- of The tenants who have Industrial promised Equipment agers accepted visitors' shop stewards already beer support that the ocal trades passes vender Liret Counci- work would have con- Others, however, in- before the one-day pro- plan a protest meeting the day to cluding the personnel test strike planned by before the increases start.

up ban. is part director for Lucas' north employees in the Lucas support of the west operations ana two areal occupation by the

CAV

other directors, refused occupation

IMPATIENT

Common pro They The

CAV

Market MP Dick Taverne yester passes. workers are now holding have also written day Labour's Chief They pressed

OLLILLY

CULLIU

Whip, Robert Mellish, to move Tane shre Enelr oit Wilh tie rest or the …vertoo mockers end. own pass system. Lucas i th va camm emat, management ers asking them to black the writ for the Lincoln by- This at British" month. In a letter led rather Lucas products and election this to farcical situation vester.

KrOUD suto ulany nicci occulanol to Mellisn ne says committee. day when foremen at Huyton. I am sure you would recog that nize the main considera TONr

SNOUSI

interest the people of Lincoln. With their problems, particu- many larlv unemplovment. it is obvi-

MIDLAND

ously desirable to possible: the Bank's 'irresponstble' election as soon as selling of its inertia resigned Labour Taverne half and returned in Midland inflict MP for the seat last month--tc

ACCESS

CICU t Calu Midland's scheme letter to piece of flagrant inertia fight the by-election as pro. favour chairman. selling me. Market 'Democratic Labour argument bank nationalization, on *1 wish to prolest canaldalt allel locar opposi says Hugh says the proper tion to his vote for Tory EEC Our MIr

TWO

arounas. oreade Jenkins. Putney, London MP. banking kicon practice policy. These same policies are The •Firstly, you Access cards have your the ui callis grossly infla- is Lincoln and sent wite aCTON brosem himself have been cut in that I bank with the tionary. nationally. (1939-40) Writin (050-38) 1933-1934 ... ... £1.43 1934-1935 .... .... £1.43

TROT

1935-1936 ... .. £1.25 . £1.25 1937-1938 ... 1938-1939 ..... .... £1.25 1939-1940... .. £1.05 These extremely vital writings This selection is now being re by Leon Trotsky between the viewed every day on page 8 years 1929 and 1940—his third by Tom Kemp. Be sure of your and final exile from the Soviet copy of Workers Press by tele- Union-are now available in phoning our circulation de Britain from the Paperbacks parment at 01-622 7029 or fill- Centre (see advert below).

ing in the form on page 11.

ray please

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 aLm.-6 p.m. Pri y a.m.-1.30 p.m Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m

BOOKS • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

LEYLAND JOBS DEAL

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Friday November

BY PHILIP WADE

The ending by union officials of the 1l-week sit-in at the British- Leyland gear-box sub- sidiary in Basingstoke, Hants, leaves the 750 workers without any real guarantees of job security. British-Leyland chiefs appear to have got what they. want, and so too have the new buyers, the Eaton Corporation of Ohio; who take over next January. For Lord Stokes, the deal with the plant and the land raised has another badly needed f5m to assist Leyland's push into Europe. They have also rid themselves of the responsibility for the Thorny- croft factory. Eaton's are con- As far as cerned the position is clear, despite all the ballyhoo con- tained in the final agreement the occupying sold to engineers. They have three years to learn about Leyland's products and will then be in a position to close the whole plant down. For the Thornycroft men who occupied the factory for 11 weeks the settlement is a set-back, but not a defeat.

Their heroic and defiant struggle inspired many workers the Leyland com- throughout bine, 23,000 workers striking in their support on August 28.

They rejected a no-strike and deal rebuffed union officials. Their fight set a pre- cedent throughout the Leyland combine which can be built on if the lessons are learned.

Although over 300 men took redundancy payments during the occupation, over 740 men are still left in the plant to take up the fight which, with a correct leadership, can win the day. And the urgency of learning the lessons can be seen when the fight opening up for the Thornycroft men and all Ley- land workers is examined.

Firstly there is the fact thạt Eaton's only have a three-year lease on the land on which the plant stands. The landlord is the English and Continental Company, which Property bought the 50-acre site for £2.5m. question of the three- The year lease is of vital import- ance. A spokesman for a lead- ing London firm of estate agents told Workers Press in itself it was an unusual phenomenon. 'The usual thing in these deals is for a 21-year lease with rent revision every seven years.

What seems to be happening here is that E&CP wants to develop the land and it will take about three years to get all the necessary permission for their plans. 'In all probability there'll be a clause to this effect in the lease. It means Eaton's won't be able to renew it even if they wanted to' English and Continental's of the site has purchase brought forth eager comments from the men in the know. 'Possibly one of the choicest sites for redevelopment to emerge thus far along the new M3 motorway slicing through the south of England, was the Business' way •Property for described the purchase. 'Located half a mile from November 3, 1972 the M3 and an equal distance from the Basingstoke town centre, the site could be sensitive planning-wise due to its improvement position at one of the town's entrances,' it added. So the first thing to say is Eaton's seem that to be moving into a position where they wanted, they could, if leave Basingstoke altogether. The factory is old—it was built in 1898—and Eaton's have a far more modern plant bought off the government at Bolton in Lancashire. addition—contrary And in to reports in the Tory Press— the Thornycroft workers have been offered no real guarantees, even for the three years being talked about. In itself the agreement that neither makes clear Eaton's nor British-Leyland are committed to anything in essence. Leaving out the parts dealing with redundancy pay- ments and hardship money for key those who sat in, the clauses in the agreement are numbers 4 and 5 together with the addendum. But before examining them, the first task is to examine British - Leyland's parlous financial state and the state of the commercial vehicle market Thornycroft for which the gear-boxes are used. With that overall picture of Leyland's present state and its future intentions, the clauses in the Thornycroft agreement will be shown for what they are really worth and not just a form of words. Towards the end of last year, the only British-owned motor manufacturer had current debts to suppliers and others of £239m. It had also bor- rowed to the tune of £88m from the banks, mainly Bar- clays. BLMC also owed another £32m in short-term loans.

The interest burden was massive, running atabout £17.5m The banks a year. were — and still are—-worried about their money and Leyland had short-term liquidity prob- lems. With the Common Market on the horizon, Leyland des- perately needed cash to finance operations inside Some Europe. £25m has almost been realized through hiving-off activities like the one at Basingstoke.. The Innocenti plant in Milan has been bought outright and plans are laid down for of the assembly development plant at Malines in Belgium, especially as far as commercial vehicles are concerned. So with rising debts and a growing loss of confidence by the banks and the stockmarket, Leyland is in a precarious posi- tion. And that is just as true far as commercial as vehicle section is concerned.

British-Leyland is the larg- est commercial vehicle pro- ducer in at about Europe 200,000 units a year, account- ing for almost 80 per cent of total output in Britain. But because of intense com- petition in foreign markets, exports of commercial vehicles from Britain are actually fall- ing. In the first seven months, sold just over 86,000 were abroad - an annual rate of about 150,000. This compares unfavourably with exports in 1971 of almost 195,000. Even in 1969 exports totalled 181,000. The existence of a 20-per- cent tariff barrier operated by the EEC countries has severely restricted exports. And as this will be the case for at least two years until the tariffs are removed, any sort of headway made in Europe will be car- ried through only by intense competition and price wars as far as the British are con- cerned. At the moment Europe has hardly been penetrated either by Leyland or any other UK commercial vehicle producer.

Most of Leyland's commercial section exports go to countries like South Africa, Australia, Nigeria and New Zealand. In a list of exporting mar- kets, Belgium only ranks, for example, in fifth place, fol- lowed by Denmark. The rest of the Common Market countries account for very little. As far as the heavy truck business is concerned, the British market slumped 14 per cent last year and in France and Germany the market has stalled for some years. Earlier this year, in I a deter- mined bid to integrate its truck division to take on Mercedes and Fiat in the EEC, Leyland introduced the new 32-ton Buffalo range. At the same time the com- bine began a ruthless ration- alization of the entire range of trucks from 16 tons to 32 The perspective is to tons. have 21 models instead of the 32 on the market at the moment. Production has been simpli- fied and streamlined. The cur- rent range now all use the basic fixed-head 500 same engine, the same cab and not than two gear-boxes, more axles or clutches. This rationalization is being carried out throughout the Ley- land truck range, that is with Albion and AEC. Yet there is still some way to go. Take Mercedes. Every one of its trucks is built at a single modern plant at Worth, close to the French border. The entire range is based single-engine design built up from four to 12 cylinders of size covering standard the power needs of trucks from trucks six to 40 tons. The share a small range of stand- ard cabs and gearboxes and are built on a single assembly line. Mercedes exports half its production and has captured 10 per cent of the French market. So competition in Europe is •going to be tough. At the moment there is already a sur- demand. plus of output over m- Until recently Leyland kept out truck markets, of European wealth. Given that context, its deter- mination to hive-off, liquidat- cash to ing assets to raise finance these operations, it will not be committed one jot by the 'guarantees' to the Thorny- croft men. Now examine the clauses 4, 5 and the addendum: •British-Leyland undertakes to place orders with Eaton for the Basingstoke plant, subject to market conditions, so that Eaton can honour a commit- ment to avoid any compulsory redundancy of employees dur- ing the period to January 14, 1976' (Clause 4.) (My empha- sis.) Then for clarification' you turn to the 'addendum to find that, apart from market condi- tions which themselves are revealed to be perilous, there is talk of redundancy again before 1976. The agreement talks of work-schedules and then warns that 'if at any time in the three the level of these years, schedules should be too low "redundancy that ensure could be avoided BLMC will meet the national trade union officials to discuss the posi- tion following domestic discus- sions between Eaton's and union representatives.' In other words, if the schedules for some curious rea- son do not live up to expecta- tions, the sound of the fac- tory gate closing on workers leaving for the last time will be as common as ever. The Eaton company only makes the vaguest statement on its future intentions at Bas- ingstoke. It only expects the Basingstoke facility could' a role in any future ex- play pansion plans. (Clause 5.)

It will give 'full considera- tion' la judicious phrase at the times) to Basingstoke best of 'possible manufacturing as a location for the potential new products'.

NO

SELL

CUT

: Beller, Lord Stokes of Britiah-Layti Top lott: to assist Leyland's push into Europe. Top | Workers at Leyland's Cowley plant vote on Au occupation. Leyland has now got rid of the subsidiary and Eaton's is in a position to learn how to make Leyland gearboxes, run the factory down and move all gear-box production to Bolton.

And as a final, overriding and objective factor in the situ- ation, there is the crisis with- in capitalism itself. As already from Britain shown, exports are falling and the move into Europe will require desperate measures by Leyland and all other sections of big business.

Leyland is undoubtedly pre- paring wholesale rationalization throughout the combine, shift- capital directly ing into Europe. This will lead to mas- attacks on every Leyland sive worker in the coming period.

In this situation, nothing but unemployment can be guaran- teed any employer Britain-let alone Leyland or Eaton's. As far as Basingstoke was concerned, national officials of Union Amalgamated of Engineering Workers led no fight to mobilize the whole Leyland combine in defence of the Thornycroft workers. The only stoppage called was by the British-Leyland combine shop stewards committee, which, although powerful, is an unofficial body. Over 23,000 workers parti- cipated on August 28, includ- ing those at Bathgate (Scot- land), Leyland (Lancs), Trac- tor Transmission (Birmingham) Com and Morris Motors, BMC Ser- right: occupation. Above: * to support Thornycrofi KD vice and the export plant rote on Augur (Cowley, Oxford). Workers Press, F

BASINCSTOKE

1898

STOP

WD: Significantly, however, fac- tories led by Communist Party stewards like the one at Longbridge (Birmingham) and others in the Midlands failed to strike because of a lack of determined fight for the a principle of the stoppage.

The reformist leadership of the AUEW only paid lip-ser- vice to the hiving-off deal and was content to force home the settlement on the basis of the vaguest 'guarantees' as the price for ending the embar- rassment of the sit-in. Without the mobilization of the whole combine in defence of their right to work, the occupation committee leader- ship finally split in favour of the deal with Leyland and Eaton's. At Basingstoke-and every- where else where workers are fighting for jobs-there was and cannot be any in-between solution in defence of the right to work. The massive hard-core un- employment which undoubt- edly will with devalua- soar tion and inflation with Com- mon Market entry is a politi- cal question posing - as the Thornycroft men did by occu- pying the plant for 11 weeks -the question of power, of who runs the country and for what purpose. The crisis of the capitalist 3 Press, Friday November 3, 1972 PAGE 5 / CE )/ WN system-and its sharp reflec- tion in the weakest link of all in Britain-can only be met by a political fight to open the road to socialism. At the centre of this struggle for the Thornycroft and all others was and men remains the continued exist- ence of the reactionary Tory government which is preparing the road to dictatorship Britain to carry through their task of trying to destroy the basic rights of the working class, its standard of living its determination and and ability to fight. While the Tories remain in power no question facing the working class can be solved.

As Basingstoke showed—des- pite the militancy and deter- mination—no amount of pres- and resultant negotia- sure tions can guarantee anything.

The no-politics lesson has to be learned. The first step now to the taking of power by the working class is the resigna- tion of the Tory government by the mass mobilization of the strength of the working class.

A Labour government must be returned, pledged by the mass movement to socialist policies at the centre of which must be the demand for the combines nationalization of like Leyland and all sections of big business under workers' control and without compensa- tion. At Basingstoke the demand must be for no more sackings empire is until the Leyland finally nationalized in this way

THIS IS THE BBC, HOME SERVICE.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday November 3, 1 Leslie Stewart looks at 50 years of t The BBC is celebrating 50 years of broadcasting. The actual anniversary- but this is not stressed in the official handouts-is that of the setting up of the British Broadcasting Company in November 1922. This original BBC was a cartel of set manufacturers.

Six main companies were Marconi being involved, the because it important most owned the bulk of the radio patents. Other members were Metro-Vickers, Western Elec- tric and Thomas Houston. The main aim of the cartel was to protect the radio indus- try in Britain from foreign competition, chiefly from America and Germany, who were importing radio parts into Britain. People who had learned about radio communications in the armed forces or were simply. interested in the possi- bilities of wireless for com- municating with each other bought these parts and made their own sets. This the manu- facturers resented. riday November 3, 1972 s at 50 years of the BBC The second aim of the cartel, therefore, was to force people to buy sets manufactured in Britain and sold under licence by the cartel. in its original The BBC, form, interested in was not broadcasting or in programmes.

Indeed it felt that too many people were already communi- cating with one another on an amateur basis. What did con- cern the Cornpany was profits, the only hope of which lay in extending a closely-controlled market for wireless receivers.

The Company duly received a licence from the Postmaster- General and government a promise that the industry would be given protection over a period of years against foreign competition. In spite of this a Company told a government spokesman committee that there was 'no business monopoly in the resulting from broadcasting for any single British firm or group of firms, and if there is any monopoly it is one for British firms as a whole as distinct from foreign firms.' As a piece of double-think this is hard to beat. The British Broadcasting acquired as its general manager a young man called John Reith.

He was a son of the manse from Glasgow who had trained as an engineer at Beardmore's, worked as a manager in Ameri- can arms factories after being in France, and wounded returned to peace with no job but an immense ambition. He was a personification of the Protestant capitalist ethic, puritanical, conformist, authoritarian and respectful of authority. In his autobiography, Reith suggests that he got the job because of divine interven- tion. The facts were simpler.

He wanted a job that offered power and public attention. He tried the political parties in turn. The Labour and Liberal Parties turned him down. A Conservative MP took him on as a personal secretary and campaign manager. Reith, who was without principles, political worked well. When the MP became a member of the board of the BBC, being himself the repre- sentative of Siemens on it, appointed general had Reith Reith then manager. pro- ceeded to use the BBC as an instrument for his ambitions.

By 1925 his desire for power and status coupled with grow- ing interest in communications had led him to decide that broadcasting should be taken out of the hands of the radio industry. This was the period 'public when the concept of service broadcasting' began to take shape in his mind and in the mind of civil servants in the Post Office. There was even talk about moving towards 'a strengthen- ing public control', with repre- public' sentatives of 'the sit- ting on a Broadcasting Board or Commission. By 'the public' they meant reliable representa- tives of the ruling class with perhaps Labourite a tame thrown in for good measure.

In other words they wanted to create a situation in which 'independent' BBC could an be given the function of see- ing that broadcasting was safe and 'balanced'. There would, if Reith had his way, be a 'contro- certain of amount versy'; but his idea of con- troversy was the harmless air- ing of pros and cons that can- celled each other The out, BBC was to become one of the main exponents of bourgeois ideology. manufacturers themselves had lost interest in protection and wish to become not involved in commercial broad- their casting, profits from the booming markets in sets being perfectly satisfactory.

They did not resist, there- fore, when a government com- mittee in July 1926, set up the British Broadcasting Cor- poration, licenced by the Post- master General and furnished with a coat-of-arms and a Royal Charter empowering it to develop broadcasting 'as a means of education and enter- tainment . . . in the national interest. It is true that the 'Westmin- ster Gazette' saw in the crea- tion of the Corporation a dangerous step towards social- ism. Indeed some Labour MPs actually saw it as a step in that direction. But 'The Economist' had a truer view of the new Corporation, believing that it and steward was trustee for the public in the mainten- and development of a ance new element in national life of great social and economic value'. "The Economist' knew what it was talking about because the old BBC had given evi- dence during General the Strike in the early summer of that same year of its reliability.

The General Strike plays an important part in the ideology of the BBC to this day. The claim is that by getting Bald- against Chur- win's support chill's attempts to take over radio and use it as he used 'The British Gazette'-that is to say as an open propaganda weapon against the strikers and the working class-and by transmitting a certain amount of news from TUC sources "provided they were objective, Reith established the principle f BBC 'independence' was not his own But this of what had happened. view When the Strike was over, he sent a confidential letter to all his heads of departments spell- ing out with remarkable clarity his view of the role of the BBC in a class society. 'Since the BBC, he wrote, 'was a national institution, and since the government in this for the crisis were acting people ... the BBC was for the government in the crisis first Director-General. At Left: Lord Reith, the BBC's Station Director broadcasting in 1923. Be 1945'talk of national interest when they

BBC

too; we had to assist in main- taining the essential services of the country, the preserva- tion of law and order and of the life and liberty of the indi- vidual and of the community.'

How Reith interpreted his impartiality is seen by the fact that throughout the strike he was in constant touch with a link-man appointed by Baldwin to oversee broadcasting, with whom Reith discussed import- ant decisions, and by the fact that no Opposition speaker- far less any representative of the strikers—was allowed near the microphone. So it was with a firm con- viction of the BBC's reliability that the government allowed it to be set up. The representa- tives of 'the public' appointed to sit on the first Board of Governors included a coal- ex-Comptroller of owner, an the Bank of England, the head- master of Winchester public school, and the wife of Philip Snowden, the right-wing and deeply reactionary Labour MP.

They would 'the protect national interest' — that is to say, the interests of the ruling class of this country. The BBC has lived up to expectations. It has consist- ently supported and operated Director-General. Above: Rex Palmer, the dcasting in 1923. Below: The BBC Victory al interest when they mean class interests'.

in terms of the parliamentary consensus through which the Labour Party functions as the reformist element supporting the capitalist system. It has been one of the main channels for the attempt to of maintain the power the church. It is one of the most important propagandists for armed the monarchy, the "pageantry, "tradition' forces, of 'nation- and the concept hood'. by its policy of It has, "impartiality' tried to prevent the viewing and listening pub- lic from making connections 'impartial' facts between the they hear and see on radio and television and their own daily lives in factories or homes, because to make connections might mean understanding the true nature of our society and beginning to wonder whether it might not be changed. Fortunately the General while it may have Strike, reassured the ruling class about the reliability of the BBC, left in the minds of the working class a residue of distrust of it as a class instrument. It was a distrust reinforced up to by the BBC accent and its patronizing towards tone perated ordinary people. larkers Pross, Frklay N Above: Churchill making one of his wartime broa giving a Christmas day broadcast. The BBC is me for the monarchy, the armed forces, and the conce The BBC tried to disarm some of this suspicion by intro- ducing speakers with regional accents or even with 'working- class' accents, which they assume when they go on the box. But the reaction of pickets to BBC camera crews and reporters show that they have seen through the 'impartiality" of reporting on industrial dis- and any political putes on movement that does not fall within the parliamentary con- and sensus that they are increasingly aware of the BBC'S role in our society. That role is clearly under- stood by the men and women who run the BBC. They do not require government direc- tives or government super- vision to make them discharge it. They do it 'independently.

Their job is to act as one of the main mouthpieces for the ideology of the ruling class.

Practically it means that in any broadcast they will try to blunt issues and to contain political discussion within the parliamentary limits of the consensus and deny expression kers Prose, Friday Nored er 3, 1972 PAGE 7 of his wartime broadcasts. Below: The Queen ast. The BBC is most important propagandist aces, and the concept of nationhood'.

to any revolutionary or even radical views. It means that news bulletins dismiss anti-imperialist will 'terror- movements as merely and pickets as ists' 'trouble- makers' or 'militants'. It means that speakers and commentators will constantly 'national interests' talk of when they mean class interests.

that they It means will to drive wedge atempt between 'the 'the trade union movement as a whole' and the active elements in the working-class movement. It is the trick that only Trotsky described in his article on 'Communism and Syndical- ism' — the trick whereby 'the bourgeois ideologists . . . set "the working class as a up the trade unionists, Party and whole" against the It is a stratagem we have and heard a lot of in seen these weeks as the Tory gov- errment has tried to impose a the unions through curb on collaboration with the reform- ists on the TUC. In a moment of class crisis the role of the BBC becomes more transpar- ent. The BBC is 'for the gov- ernment' - to quote Reith again-in this crisis too.

OF LEON TROTSKY

A review by Tom Kemp. Part three 1935-1936 PAGE 8 Workers Press, Friday November 3, 1972

WRITINGS

The volumes of Trotsky's writings so far published for the period after 1935 differ in several respects from the two already reviewed. They are printed on a large format page and mainly of facsimile reproductions of articles which consist appeared in the Trotskyist Press and other journals in the United States, together with a few items translated into English for the first time. The selections are grouped under headings according to country or subject rather than being in chrono- This makes to follow logical order. it possible through Trotsky's thought on a particular topic, such as the Moscow Trials. On the other hand, the notes do little more than indi- cate the source of the articles, thus leaving the reader to find out for himself about the many persons, organizations and events which are referred to. In addition, there is no index.

Apart from the faults of editorship, these volumes are still to be highly recommended because they bring together writings which are otherwise virtually inaccessible or, in certain cases, have never been available in English before.

1935- The volume for cured by abandoning class the struggle in capitalist period 1936 covers the countries and creating coali- from Trot- the time of tions with the radical paulics in Norway of finance capital. sky's arrival "The humiliating and truly from France in June 1935, servile dependency of the end of Decem- until the Communist international upon the Soviet upper crust is ber 1936. This was a vital ex- pressed in particularly period which included light glaring connection 1n the first Moscow show- with the recent declaration of Stalin, approving the national trial of old Bolsheviks, defence of French imperialism', the outbreak of the Trotsky 'Open Spanish Civil War and Letter for the Fouth Inter- national'. May - June the sit - in He was referring, of course, strikes in France follow- Stalin's statement approv- ing the electoral ing French re-armament after victory signing the Franco- of the Popular Front. Ta P Soviet pact in 1935. This gave Unfortunately, a number of the signal for a patriotic turn important articles on the last the of French on WalL two of these events are not in- Communist Party which over- the grounds that Cuded night adopted the tricolour they are available elsewhere. and the 'Marsaillaise' and 1935, the 7th (and dropped its activity in the di- World Congress of the last rection of the conscript army.

Communist International, the Stalinists put on formal record the rightward turn which fol- lowed after the significance of the German defeat began to become appareni. The proceedings of the Con- gress nad noting in common with those of the Third Inter- national in Lenin's day. The reports were long and dull and laid down a policy which be- came mandatory for the com- munist throughout the bartles world, which con-

DO C

formed with the interests of Soviet bureaucracy as in- terpreted by Stalin. In delineating the new turn, Trotsky pointed out that the theory and practice of the 'third period could not be en- tirely and painlessly liquida- ted. but remained alive among Stalin: approved France rearming the rank and file and in the The for which alternative working Class. He saw contradictory ten- Trotsky fought in opposition to this rightward, patriotic aencies inside the communist parties and on their periphery.

turn was spelled out in the While the official line now be- 'Open Letter' with its DallIC theme: 'Marxists at all times came opportunist, turning to- coalition wards a with the and under all conditions Second openly say what is.' He called parties of the Inter- national and the 'left' bour- for the formation of new par- working in the ties and a new International paruies, class the old slogans were still on revolutionary Marxist foun- dations. very much alive. was made This shown, for difficult only by the hold was ex- not France, ample, the which the Stalinist and re- formist parties exerted on the struggles which took place in the arsenals of Toulon and working class, but also by the Brest where strikers fought centrist which were currents pitched battles with the police.

trying to find a way between confirmed, reformism and revolution.

was agall, 1936, both in where Trotsky called France, centrism at the big occupation movement this time an inevitable transi.

took place against the wishes tional stage even for progres- of the Stalinist apparatus, and sive working-class groupings', of his in Spain, where the revolu- but many sharpest tionary upsurge was held in polemics were directed against check. their leaders, some of whom.

Trotsky vigorously attacked for a time, veered towards the of the the 7th rourth International. Criticism resoluous Congress which rested on the of and centrism warnlags socialism had been against dangers re- ne

ILS

are achieved in the Soviet Union all peated themes these and that peace could be volumes. Top: General staff of the Comintern a Togliatti (Italy), Florin (Germany), Che slovakia), Pieck (Germany) and Manı The question of centrism was closely linked with that of the 'French turn', i.e. the entry of the Bolshevik-Lenin- ists in France into the Social- Party (SFIO). This . was ist strongly opposed in Europe echoed in the United and States by those who opposed similar entry tactic. Sec- tarian trends appeared in number of Trotskyist organiza- tions, some of which split off to form separate groups. In advocating entry in the United States, Trotsky took account of its positive effects in France where the suppor- ters of a Fourth International were able to secure a strong position in the youth organi- zation and prepare the way for in 1936. the June strikes Pointing this out he wrote: section during 'Our French recent years has placed the General Strike in the centre of its propaganda. In distinction from all other parties and groups speaking in the name of the working class, the French Bolshevik - Leninists appraised the situation in time as a pre-revolutionary one, correctly understood the symptomatic significance of the strike outbursts at Brest and Toulon and despite the cease- less attacks of the opportun- mintern at its Seventh Congress in July, lany), Chen Shao-yo (China). Rear-Kuusinen Manuilsky (USSR). Above: barricades ists and social-patriots (SFIO, CP, CGT) and the opposition centrists (Marceau Pivert, etc.) prepared by their agitation for a General Strike.

On fertile soil a handful of seed gives a big yield. Thus, under the conditions of social crisis and of the indignation of the masses, a small organi- zation, poor in material re- sources, but armed with cor- rect slogans, has exercised an undoubted influence upon the course of revolutionary events.

The furious persecution of the Bolshevik-Leninists by the whole capitalist, social-demo- cratic, Stalinist and trade unionist Press, together with the représsions of the police and judges of Leon Blum, serve as an external confirma- tion of this truth? (pp. 32-33.)

Analysing the events of 1936 in France, Trotsky pointed out that their immedi- ate effect was a rapid growth of the old organizations and particularly of the trade unions. "The June strikes', he writes, 'show how false are the ultra- left, sectarian theories that the trade unions have "out- lived" their time and must be S

CDO

1935. Front-Dimitrov (Bulgaria), • (Finland), Gottwald (Czecho- cades set up by French workers, 1936.

replaced by other organiza- tions or that it is necessary to build new, "genuine" trade unions alongside the old con- servative ones.' And he sums up: 'A revo- lutionary party which is in- capable of carrying on syste- matic and successful work in the trade union organizations will be yet more incapable of creating its own trade onions.

All such attempts are doomed to failure' This is one of many ex- amples where a study of the writings yield lessons for to- day. From all these experi- ences, moments of victory, but mostly of defeats for the work- ing class, Trotsky drew im- conclusions from portant which much can be learned.

Trotsky followed so closely the development of the sec- tions of the Left Opposition that he could be said in a full sense to be participating , in their work. During the high point of the events in France, he wrote constantly about the tactical problems which they raised and corresponded with members of the French sec- tion. Represented here are, in fact, only the public articles of the period. be CONTINUED TOMORROW

Dr Smith is very worried about ing of the Economic League, of outfit pollution. It's smoke the right-wing not or businessmen who contribute chemicals that concern him, but people. There are too many housands of pounds to the of them and they are Tory Party and whose propa- 'pollut- ing' the planet, he says.

ganda is vehemently anti- Dr Alistair Smith is a lec- communist. reported that he re- Glas- It is turer in applause' University. ceived 'tumultuous gow Hull enlightened the Church of for his speech at the branch's annual dinner. Scotland Youth Fellowship on This his views on our future. is not surprising, considering called the he The conference was attack made on 'pot, porn and pollution', sub- workers. The claims of the trade jects of increasing concern to certain sections of the middle unions for a higher standard class and religious fraternity.

of living contained an ele- Dr Smith decided that per- ment of envy', he said. In ad- 2,000 vice to management in hand- haps by the we year be thinking might of steril- ling workers fighting unem- izing 60 per cent of girl babies he advised they ployment born. Another direct selected people who could more talk their way out of situa- solution might be the elimina- tion (he didn't specify how) of tions. 'How could a modest 3,000 million of the get over you earth's population. the necessitv for change or tell them they were going to 'It sounds horrific, but are not such be made redundant that means necessary to So the could be made prevent a more horrific end industry lot?' more competitive?; he asked which might be our asked Dr Smith. gathering of Hull big the You will be pleased to know business. he has already considered the political methods by which such a vast pogrom could be carried out. it will not be done under a democracy but through I do not eliminate autocracy. the idea that in the year 2000 the governments of the devel- oned nations who have grouped together decide to elim- may 3.000 of inate million the earth's population' Dr Smith ought to be care- ful. It might enter the heads of the 3,000 million 'unfortu- nates' to get together and elim- inate him instead. He said this 'revolutionary Ray Gunter, the former Mini- scene' in Britain put freedom ster of Labour under the Wil- in danger. Society had a right son government — who later to defend itself against shop went on to become a director and stewards all those who of Securicor, Britain's largest 'imperilled freedom and - has not yet There private army society. is nothing stopped travelling. with some framework wrong other night he turned of The the law to contain the up in Hull to address a meet- threat,

LEON TROTSKY:

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London SW4 7UG. Reprinted from the 'Bulletin CHICAGO - Over 325 trade unionists and youth, attending the National Conference for a Labour Party Now! on October 21-22 agreed unanimously to carry for- ward a campaign for a labour party as the only way to defend the Ameri- can working class. The following motion was passed: 'The Conference re- solves to take up a battle for the trade unions to form a labour party. This fight will be the programme in based • on The Case For A Labour Party and will be part of the de- fence of the working class as a whole? The conference also elected a Continuations Committee of 23 trade unionists including auto workers from Delco in Dayton, Local 3 in Detroit and Local 25 in St Louis. Also represented on the Continua- tions Committee were steel- workers, teamsters, members of Communications Workers of America (CWA), the In- ternational Association Machinists, Local 1199 of the workers, the Inter- Hospital national Longshoremen's Association, Letter Carriers, teachers, taxi drivers, and the Service Social Employees Union Local 371 welfare workers. Greetings were received from Rudi Sulento of Local 216 at Southgate, California and a member of the United National Caucus of the United Auto Workers. The conference opened with a report by Tim Wohlforth, national secretary of Workers League. He explained that despite the calm, the routine and the general lack of interest in the elections, it was the most critical election in recent history. "This is because it is dominated by what is to come.

The world capitalist system is in deep crisis, compelling the corporations in each country Workers Press, Fr Bulletin', weekly paper of the Wor to push back their workers as part of a worldwide trade war. At the same time, the in- flated dollar threatens to col- lapse, bringing down world trade as a whole? The collapse of the Demo- cratic Party, Wohlforth noted, is not an episode nor simply McGovern. related to started with Humphrey in 1968 and is of historic signifi- cance. 'We are witnessing an event as important as the break-up of parties on the eve of the American Civil War. This is because we face a new "irre- pressible conflict," a period when compromise between capital and labour is no longer there is no when possible, economic basis for reform, where therefore the party of reform, the Democrats, is "torn apart.' He insisted that Nixon's preparations for new intensive attacks on workers demanded a political answer. This is the labour party. Never before have workers felt so power- less, without any real weapon to defend themselves with against Nixon. This creates the conditions for building a tre- in the mendous movement trade unions for a labour party. The central problem facing the working class is the crisis leadership, Wohlforth stated. Fitzsimmons and Gleason openly endorse labour-hater Nixon, Meany is bankrupt proposing nothing in the election, while Woodcock supports McGovern and at the same time sabotages the move- ed ment for a national strike against General Motors. Wohlforth explained how the labour bureaucracy was aided by radical forces within the rank and file which sought to hold back the working class from coming to a political consciousness. 'The Communist Party is the major force" seeking to hold back the working class.

It not only has taken the lead in trying to continue the ties of the trade unions to the capitalist Democratic Party • Press, Friday November 3, 1972 PAGE 9 he Workers League. but at the same time it must act to break the movement of the ranks in the plants for union action against speed-up.

It does this by backing up the national and secondary UAW leadership and acting against a national GMAD strike. 'The traitorous role of the CP in the unions flows from Stalinism. They support the labour bureaucrats while they support the bureaucracy in the which countries, Soviet opposes the policies which led to the Russian Revolution.

The only way the interests of the workers can be defended today is through workers taking up a fight for Trot- skyism against Stalinism, and seeking to learn from the history of the workers move- ment. This is the fight carried forward only by the Workers League' Wolforth explained the role of the Socialist Workers Party in refusing to fight for a labour party, in covering for the Stalinists. Wohlforth ended his speech with a discussion of conscious- ness. He explained trade how unionists must understand that the cause of the attacks they face lies in the capitalist they system itself and that must master Marxist theory understand how these to attacks come about and how they can be fought. Marxists in the trade unions must come into conflict with the thinking of their fellow workers who recognize the attacks but do not see these attacks as rooted in capitalism itself and requiring new methods of struggle in order to be combated. He urged all those present to prepare for this new period by taking up a fight for the 'Bulletin' which will lead not only the fight for a labour for revolutionary party but leadership in the trade unions and among youth. The discussion at the Conference will be reported in tomorrow's Workers Press

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday November 3, 1972 meet. 3.05 Incredible hummin Church Street.

PANTHER

b p.m. Southfield

6.55 THE PINK

SHOW

WOLVERHAMPTON: Tuesday No.

7.15 THE

VIRGINIAN:

MEN

vember 7, 7.30 p.m. The Molyneux FROM SHILOH. Jenny. Hotel, Molyneux Street.

8.30 DAD'S

ARMY.

The Des- perate Drive of Corporal WANDSWORTH: Tuesday Novem- ber 7, 8 p.m. Balham Baths, Elms- Jones. field Road. SW12. 'Inflation-A

O'CLOCK NEWS.

9.00 NINE

deliberate Tory policy. Weather. 9.25 CANNON. Death Chain.

PRESTON: Wednesday November 8, 7.30 p.m. 'Oddfellows Arms',

10.15 ANNIVERSARY BANQUET.

Mount Street. Gathering in London's Guildhall to mark the 50th PRESTON: Wednesday, November of the

BBC

anniversary 7.30 Oddfellows Arms, Mount Street. p.m. with speeches by The Prime Minister, The Lord Mayor of London and The LIVERPOOL: Wednesday, Novem- Chairman and Director- ber 8 7.30 p.m. Mitre Hotel, Dale General of the BBC. St (near the tunnel).

11.05 FRIDAY TALK-IN.

WILLESDEN: Thursday November

11.50 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

Trades and Labour Hall, 9,8 p.m. 'Common High Road, 11.55 Weather. NW10. Market conspiracy'. SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thursday November 9, Deptford p.m.

ITV

Engineers Club, New Cross Road New Cross station). (opposite Stalinism and the fiaht to force 9.30 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow. the Tories to resign'. 12.25 Happy house. 12.40 First MANCHESTER: Thursday Novem- report. 1.00 Melody inn. 1.30 Milton Hall, ber 9, 7.30 p.m. Crown court. 2.00 General hos- Deansgate. pital. 2.30 Good afternoon: 3.00 November

CLAPHAM:

Thursday Clapham Manor Baths, Junkin. 3.25 Marcus Welby MD.

9,8 p.m. Clapham Manor St, SW4. 4.20 Adventures of Gulliver. 4.50 Magpie. 5.20 Nanny and the

WIGAN:

Sunday November 12, Partridge', 12 'Dog and noon. professor. 5.50 News. Wallgate.

6.00 TODAY.

TYNESIDE: Sunday No-

6.35 CROSSROADS.

7.30 vember 12. p.m. 7.00 THE PROTECTORS. A Kind 'Robin Hood'. Wallsend of Wild Justice High Street, WALLSEND.

HAWAII

7.30 FIVE-O. Journey Out of Limbo. 'The Crisis in Shipbuild- 8.30 DORA. The Jet Setters. Stephen ing'. Speaker:

YARD.

9.00

NEW

SCOTLAND

Johns (Workers Press). Evidence of Character.

NEWS AT TEN.

10.00 ACTON: Monday November 13,

POLICE FIVE

10.30 8 Co-op Hall. High Road. p.m.

'NIGHT OF THE

10.40

FILM:

W3. *Transform the SLL to the

DEMON'.

Dana Andrews, Revolutionary Party'. Peggy Cummins, Niall Mac- Ginnis. Black magic in the NORTH KENT: Monday November modern world. Greyhound', 13, 'The p.m.

BEYOND INSTITUTIONS.

12.10 Rochester. Rochester Avenue, SPYFORCE. The Escape. 12.15 PAISLEY: Wednesday November Paisley Town Hall. 15, 7.30 p.m. The dally paper that loads the fight against the Tories. £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) {10.14 for 6 months +156 issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: 186a Clapham High St., Circulation Dept., Workers Press, London, SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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Or months. Full subscription (six days) for Name .. Address Amount enclosed f In 'The Desperate Drive of Corporal.

Army' episode, the Corporal sets ol platoon from a dangerous situation—s as comedy goes It's fair, but there m talents of people like Clive Dunn.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 6.35-7.00 IRELAND. Green, White and Gold. 7.30 NEWSROOM. Weather.

8.00 MONEY AT WORK. A

Nation of Taxpayers. pe. 9.00 HERITAGE. HM The Queen Soclalist Labour League

PUBLIC LECTURES

OXFORD

Thursday November 9 Basic essentials of Marxism Thursday November 16 A theory of knowiedge Thursday November 23 Opponents of Marxism Thursday November 30 Marxism-the science of perspective

SOUTH OXFORD

COMMUNITY CENTRE

Lake Street, 8 p.m. Soclallat Labour Loague

LECTURES

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

Given by Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee member) Bullding the revolutlonary party Monday November 6

GUILDFORD HOTEL

The Headrow, 8 p.m. Corporal Jones', tonight's BBC 1 'Dad's the rest of the il sets out to rescue tuation-situation comedy that is. As far it there must be better vehicles for the holds an Investiture. Vhite 9.25 DOCUMENTARY: ' 1936

THE TURNING

POINT'.

French film analysing the uneasy alliance that formed the French Popular Front.

10.40 NEWS ON 2. Weather.

10.45 FILM NIGHT.

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Saturday November 4. Dialectical Materlalism.

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London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. 2.30 Let's face it. 3.00 Film: 'Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones'. 4.20 Puffin.

4.25 Pebbles and bamm bamm.

4.50 London. 5.20 Junkin. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.10 Odd couple. 6.35 London. 7.30 FBI.

8.30 London. 10.30 Report special.

11.30 News, weather. SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 2.30 only. 3.00 «Galloping Women gourmet. 3.25 Saint. 4.20 Week- end. 4.25 Funky phantom. 4.50 London. 5.20 Cartoon. 5.25 Cross- roads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Day by day. Scene SE. 6.35 Out of town.

7.05 Sky's the limit. 7.35 FBl.

8.30 London. 10.30 Weekend.

10.35 Film: 'The Criminal'. 12.25 News. 12.35 Weather. Guideline.

HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Women only. 3.00 London. 4.25 Rovers. 4.50 London. 5.20 Gustavus. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.01 Report West. 6.18 Wales. 6.35 Bonanza. Report 7.30 Film: 'Hilda Crane'.

9.00 London. 10.30 Dora. 11.00 Now it's your say. 11.30 On the run.

12.30 Weather. 3.00 ANGLIA: 9.30 London. Junkin. 3.20 Shirley's world. 3.55 Romper room. 4.20 News. 4.25 Skippy. 4.50 London. 5.20 Primus.

5.50 London. 6.00 About Anglia.

6.35 London. 7.00 Sale of the 8.30 Lon- century. 7.30 O'Hara. 11.00 Film: don. 10.30 Probe. 'Love With A Proper Stranger'. ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London.

3.30 Danger man. 4.20 Forest rangers. 4.50 London. 5.20 Flint- stones. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today.

6.35 London. 7.00 Sky's the limit.

7.30 Protectors. 8.00 Adventurer.

8.30 London. 10.30 Film: 'Rain- tree County'. 1.32

ULSTER: 11.00

London. News. 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper room. 3.00 London. 3.25 Randall News. 4.25 and Hopkirk. 4.23 phantom. 4.50 London. Funky 5.20 General hospital. 5.50 Lon- don. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 London.

7.00 Sky's the limit. 7.30 UFO.

8.30 London. 10.30 Film: 'Break- away'. YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 3.30 Merrie Danger 4.25 man. melodies show. 4.50 London.

5.20 Elephant boy. 5.50 London.

weather. 6.35 London. 7.30 Cade's county. 8.30 London.

10.30 Film: 'Blood Kin'. 12.35 Weather. GRANADA: 9.30 London. 3.25 I dream of Jeannie. 3.50 Cartoon.

Crossroads. 4.25 Funnies. 4.00 4.50 London. 5.15 Elephant boy.

5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.25 Cartoon. 6.40 Kick off. 7.00 Dora.

7.30 Protectors. 8.00 Dundee and the Culhane. 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: 'See You in Hell Darling'.

TYNE TEES: 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31 Yoga. 3.00 London.

3.25 Danger man. 4.25 Merrie melodies. 4.50 London. 5.20 Elephant boy. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 London. 7.00 Sky's 7.30 Cade's county. the limit. «Pay 8.30 London. 10.30 Film: Die'. 12.25 News. 12.40 Epilogue. GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 2.40 Cartoon. 2.50 News.

3.00 London. 3.25 Let's face it.

3.55 Katie Stewart. 4.20 Funky 4.50 London. 5.20 phantom. General hospital. 5.50 London. 6.00 News, weather. 6.05 Thomp-.

6.35 London. at teatime. son 7.00 Sky's the limit. 7.30 Hogan's heroes. 8.00 McCue's music. 8.30 London. 11.00 10.30 Partners. Job look. 11.10 Film: 'Crowhaven Farm'. 12.30 Meditation. information about elow and send to NATIONAL

MIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE,

GH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

-Rent Act: Defiant Glasgow has $500,000 arrears Higher Post Office charges forecast corporation's

GLASGOW

decision not to put up the rent last month has led to arrears totalling almost £500,000.

Because the Labour-con- trolled authority refused to im- plement the Scottish Housing Finance Act, the city's 150,000 council tenants were spared 70p a week increases. A NEW Bill published by the yesterday Tory government gives better financial assist- ance to landlords who want to modernize property. The Housing (Amendment) Bill raises the grants from maximum of €1,000 to E1,500 in development or intermediate areas and extends by one year until June 1974, the date by which the work must be com- pleted. Original grants were made under the now notorious 1969 Housing Act passed by the Labour government. In places like London, the Act has led to a field-day for big landlords and property companies who have taken as much as 80 per cent of all grants going in some areas.

The result has been that many sitting tenants have been driven out, their property modernized and sold at enormously inflated prices. Now the Tories-feeling the Act was a good thing for men of their ilk-are pressing home the advantage with new hand- outs to their friends. PLANS announced yesterday for a £4,000m investment programme by the Post Office will mean higher charges for the public and more speed- up for postal workers. Price rise forecasts were made man when outined chaire when outlined 'growth and investment' plans.

Capital debts of £200m in-.

curred by the Post Office are to be written off and borrowing limits are extended under the JAPANESE and United St making a joint bid for cont fields of natural gas in So executives from the two counti Soviet officials earlier this week The deal has already reached is planned negotiations mid-November. It involves US and Japanese finance to develop the Yakutia gas fields in return for deliveries of gas from Yakutia to Japan and across the Pacific to the west coast of the United States.

Gas deliveries are not expected to begin for at least six to eight years if the deal is concluded.

The scheme is one of three major oil and gas projeots being_con- sidered by Japan and the US in the Soviet Union. The others involve the ship- ment of Siberian crude oil to apan and a secona natural gas roiect for the US east coast, based on huge fields in north- west Siberia. All the deals re- quire the granting of thousands of millions of dollars in bank credits to the USSR. Both the US and Japan have long had an eye on the Siberian oil and gas fields-the US will And when the Tories tried to move on Wednesday that all housing projects should stop of the £500,000 because deficit, they were defeated 18 votes to five. Cilr Patrick Lally said there were 50,000 people on the council's waiting list for homes THE TORY government has no intention of putting the Industrial Relations Act 'on ice or, as the TUC now wants, making it 'non- operational' by ministers.

Moving instead on the basis of the continued retreat by the TUC on the Act, the Tories instead plan to use it to drive home attacks on the trade union movement. This much was made clear by the government in the House of Commons on Wednesday during the debate the Queen's on Speech while TUC leaders were locked in collaboration with the Tories and the CBI on how best to inflict state control of wages on their members. The Act would neither be repealed nor put on ice, Robin Chichester-Clark, Minister of State for Employment, arrogantly told the Labour benches. 'There must be a readiness on the part of the TUC...to Post Office (Borrowing) Bill published by the Tories yester- day. The present limit of £2,800m on borrowings increased to £3,800m to mainly in communications the side. oi business. Borrowing can be extended, if necessary, to £4,800m. Ryland said the increase in borrowing limits would have to be matched with a like sum profits and internally from ited States businessmen are or contracts to develop huge in Soviet Siberia. Company o countries met separately with lis week. need more fuel over the coming years and considers Soviet gas is likely to be more reliable than Middle-East oil. Japan is almost entirely de- pendent imported raw on materials and making IS efforts to strenuous corner sources of fuel and ores in Asia.

They have told the Russians they would be prepared to buy 15,000 million cubic metres of gas a year by 1978. 01-622 7029 01-720 2000 and new projects were urgent.

The housing committee decided to spend £10,000 on issuing about 30,000 leaflets ex- plaining the possible implic- ations of the council's policy.

On November 20, the Secre- tary of State for Scotland will open a public inquiry into

BY OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

look objectively at the evidence, and for it to be accepted that some framework of law is neces- sary, he said. In a scarcely hidden reference Heffer: Protest depreciation. 'On present trends this will mean that charges will have to go up, he added. But he also explained that rising costs and the financing of the expansion programme would have to be tackled by improve- ments in efficiency and productiv- ity'. For example, about £44m will be devoted to mechanizing work in sorting offices. The sorting of parcels, now done manually in over 1,000 offices, will be con- centrated in 27 centres and done mechanically. FIAT, the Italian car giant, is involved in a bitter dispute with the French tyre firm Michelin over their joint interest in Citröen, the third largest French car firm. Fiat wants to integrate its own production and that of the Citröen factories as part of a major scheme. rationalization But the Michelin management is not prepared to see this happen.

Fiat took out a 49 per cent share of the Citröen holding company four years ago, linking with Michelin which has a up slightly larger interest. But the marriage has not entirely been a happy one. STRIKING lorry owners have rejected compromise moves from President Allende. Leon Vilarin, a leader of the em- ployers' Transport Federation, walked out of talks with Allende and his Ministers on Tuesday evening announced that and talks had broken down 'just as we were on the point of sign- ing an arreement'. Workers Press, Frid Glasgow's failure to implement the Act. At the end of the day, he will be able to make a decision about taking over all the corp- oration's housing powers, putting up the rents and cutting housing subsidies in surcharging addition to councillors. to the engineers' decision not to attend the National Industrial Relations Court next week, he said 'a direct challenge to the law and the courts strikes at the basic freedoms of the country'.

Protests from Labour 'lefts' Eric Heffer and Stanley Orme hardly ruffled Tory feathers.

Since the Industrial Relations Act came into full operation last February it has been strengthened time and time again by the courts. Now the law is clear and the Taff Vale judge- ment is the starting point for the NIRC and Sir John Donald- son. Demands to put the Act 'on ice' do not frighten the Tories one bit. They see such requests from pleas craven • trade as union leaders who in the last analysis-like those in Transport General Workers' Union- and will knuckle under. And from what Chichester- Clark was saying in parliament, it is clear the engineers will either have to wage an all-out fight against the government or also recognize the Act and whole enforcement apparatus.

Speed-up and job-cutting will find strong resistance among Post Office workers. That is why Ryland, in talking about con- centrating letter - sorting at 'strategically offices' located said he would need the co- operation of Union of Post Workers' leadership to Office carry the plans through. About £4,000m is to be spent in the next five years on the telephone service, nearly half on exchange equipment and new buildings. • Fiat chief Gianni Agnelli told a Press conference in Turin on Tuesday optimistic that he could per- he was 'not suade Michelin to agree new co- operation terms. Agnelli wants to use the French connection to overcome the basic problems facing Fiat • Italy. Despite an investment in of £300m and a 25 per cent in- crease in the number of workers the past four years Fiat's over share of the world market has slumped by a fifth. Together with other Italian industrialists, Agnelli complains bitterly about workers' militancy and tighter discipline wants over the working class. At his Press conference, he fulminated about increasing absenteeism, Without stopping to elaborate, he went to meet army com- mander-in-chief, General Carlos Prats, to discuss the situation with him. 'thus Allende been cabinet including army officers to convince the right wing that ress, Friday November 3, 1972 PAGE 11 EMPLOYERS were yester- day urged to tighten the screws on productivity agree- ments with their workers.

In some trades workers have been paid more for doing less, claims an article in the maga- zine 'The Accountant'. The article is commenting on a scheme put forward by the Engineering Employers' Federa- tion earlier this week for deciding firms' ability to meet wage claims. The EEF scheme is based on the idea of determining what value is added to goods by productivity. The 'Accountant' article says that over all sections for which figures were produced by the federation, average wages and salaries rose by 22-29 per cent between 1968 and 1970. Except in the case of metal manufac- ture, it claims, this rise was not matched by increases in added values. greatest disparity was in The vehicle-building, the article says.

There and average wages salaries increased by 25.4 per Added cent over two years. values went up by only 2.2 per cent. 'Figures such as these give the lie to a number of specious "productivity ad hoc agree- ments" of recent years. cent of the tota than 83 per In 1970 more available for salaries, administrative wages, profit in expenses and ship- building wages and went on salaries alone. Within the fore- seeable future vehicle-building might be in the same situation, the percentage of added value absorbed by wages and salaries having risen from 57 per cent in 1968 to nearly 70 per cent in 1970. 'The inescapable inference is future for certain that the trades is bleak • added unless can be improved,' values says 'The Accountant'. Published in the midst of the TUC's talks Tories with the abicte tate stoos neatly the article clearly the employers' propaganda war against workers living standards and conditions. In the motor industry in par- ticular a number of big combines are already moving to turn "The Accountant's' jaw-jaw into war- war. particularly among young workers. He claimed that out of 91,000 workers 13,000 to 14,000 are absent from work each day.

This is more than three times the absentee rate 12 years ago.

• said he didn't know what He could be done to recall these "to their duty, apart workers from having a face-to-face talk with them. Agnelli said that despite Michelin's attitude, time was on Fiat's side. The future belonged only to the very big car com- panies and sooner or later they would have to go beyond mere technical collaboration and merge their production set-up to meet the challenge of foreign competition. ate, he has the 'militants' under control. He has not been able to con- vince his own Socialist Party of the correctness of such a policy. The Christian Democrats are organizing demonstrations against the shortage of food and the rapid rise in the cost of living which are likely to lead to violent clashes in Santiago.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Friday Novemb Press

FUND

THIRD DAY

TOTAL

IT LOOKS like a good start for our November Fund. We are de termined this month to raise our £1,750 target early and not leave it to a last-minute rush at the end of the month. While the union leaders hold secret talks at the Palace and continue their discussions at Downing Street with Heath and the CBI, the union members re main ignored. Thousands of workers, feeling the pinch of huge price rises and are becoming rent increases, more determined than ever to fight back and defend their stan- dard of living. Workers Press speaks out for all these workers everywhere. We have never turned our back like this cowardly reformist trade leadership. Our paper union alone continues to expose their role and instead treacherous to build a revolutionary fights alternative. We know that all your support is behind us. Let's therefore not waste a moment in the fight for our fund this month. Raise as much as you can and post to: Workers Press November Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG them

ELEVEN

men - four of be high-ranking claimed to members of the Provisional IRA -were under police interroga- in Belfast late yesterday tion afternoon after an army raid on a city drinking club. The raid, which took place late on Wednesday night, was the third in a series aimed at rounding up IRA leaders. It came just 24 hours after the so-called Ulster 'opposition' the Social Democratic and Labour Party, announced that on talking to they would go Tory supremo William Whitelaw about the release of existing detainees. Army reports said that the raid on the drinking club fol- 'information received". lowed Among those taken is the sus- of pected commanding officer the Ardoyne battalion, Leo Morgan (24). After pressure from the para- military Ulster Defence Associa- tion and the Loyalist Association of Workers, Whitelaw had the first decided not to hold local government elections in the province for five years until some time in 1973. much-vaunted border The plebiscite, which is supposed to people of Northern give the Ireland the chance to decide on whether they want to be part.

of the United Kingdom or not, is also unlikely to take place before next year. • The Ulster Vanguard move- ment yesterday afternoon issued a veiled threat of further attacks across the Eire border by mili- tant Protestants.

WEATHER

SOUTHERN England and South Wales will have fog patches in places at first, with a few bright Northern England spells later. and North Wales will be mostly cloudy but dry. Northern Ire- land and southern Scotland will be cloudy with occasional rain or drizzle. Northern Scotland will be mainly dry with a few sunny spells. Temperatures will be near normal in most areas.

Outlook for Saturday and Sun- day: Dry in most places. Fairly extensive mist or fog. Tempera- tures near normal generally.

y Noveraber 3, 1972

BY JOHN SPENCER

National

NORTH VIETNAM

and the denounced Liberation Front yesterday American delaying tactics over the draft Indo- China peace treaty. Speaking to reporters at the Paris conference their delegates accused the United States of consolidating the puppet Saigon regime and mystifying world opinion.

demanded that the United States They the immediately honour its pledge and sign which deal originally the nine-point was Tuesday. Mrs scheduled for signature on Nguyen Thi Binh, leader of the NLF delega- tion, charged Nixon with putting into question document he himself had recognized a complete and satisfactory.

Hanoi Radio on Tuesday said the US would not sign because it 'is still intent on negotiating from of strength, continuing to prolong the a position yoke of maintaining the war of aggression and South US neo-colonialist domination in Vietnam. Hanoi published the draft treaty last week when it became clear the Americans were not going to the date. Since then the United sign on agreed States has through its envoy Henry been pressing, Kissinger, for further talks. NLF negotiator The Kremlin has also advised the North Vietnamese to keep Meanwhile the talking. puppet danger to the struggle of the Nguyen Van Thieu is Indo-Chinese stomping people because South Vietnam denouncing the they the friends are of its deal as a sell-out and saying he enemies while they pose as its will have nothing to do with friends. American presidential Yet while Nixon The poses pub- election is just four days away licly as a man of peace- -while and Nixon undoubtedly calcu- carefully avoiding firm any lates that if the "peace' atmos- commitment on the question -he until be maintained phere can is privately the hawk to beat all will Tuesday night he be next hawks. White House back in the on Jeremy Campbell, writing Wednesday. from Washington in the London The Soviet leaders are making Standard' 'Evening describes effort to make this private talk between Nixon and every They favour scenario work. one of his favourite conservative the Nixon's re-election as man columnists: who came to Moscow and nego- the visitor... was sur- tiated the recent trade deal.

prised discover that to what York Mr Nixon said for The New Times' last private Soviet news- hard-nosed week quoted one sumption was tough, 'We and hawkish beyond paper reporter as saying: anything have had our talks with Nixon that those who only know the and Kissinger and we have public Nixon can imagine.

We've *Spicing made our agreements. his sentences with our man and so already picked hells and damns, vowing never we'll stick bs to "bug out" of Vietnam, talking him.' The Stalinists of the Kremlin "blue about playing his chips and their counterparts in in poker game of power Peking the Indo-China politics with the Russians, Nixon - see revolution obstacle to the that the ac an gave impression US better relations with im- central fact of his life is the perialism. the chief of world They are safety America in STRIKERS from the Robinsons and Willey gas-fire manufactur- factory, ing Liverpool, are now mounting pickets the over sacking of three shop stewards. OVER 600 white-collar workers the gate of the One is at fac-

ICI

Fibres Plant the at tory where 100 of the 400 em- Pontpool. South Wales were ployees are still working and the yesterday offered the 'chance' to other is at the Islington head- Harrogate, Yorkshire transfer to of the Transport quarters and over 200 miles away. In addi- Workers' General Union which 200 weekly-paid tion a further is refusing to make the strike plant ow workers at the fear official. will lose they their jobs under the to centralize research

TWO

HUNDRED

Liverpool plan development at Harrogate. engineering and workers at Manesty Machines off yesterday called their 19-week pay dispute. They DRIVERS strike at the Rubery will return to work on Monday Darlaston, Owen facto hit productiont after accepting management Staffordshire, of plus the Mini at the Austin-Morris bonus at group guaranteeing Birming- factory at Longbridge. least fl a week. ham, yesterday. AIRCRAFT sabotage becomes an punishable offence by life prisonment under new Bill This is published yesterday. similar penalty to that already in for The force Protection of Aircraft en- ables the UK ratify the Montreal Convention for the Unlawful Suppression of Acts the Safety of Civil Against Aviation.

CRAFTSMEN

voted yesterday morning to continue their sit-in Post strike at the International Nickel at the cristered Published WaMorkers Press Press. Offce. Publis! Corporation Clydach, plant at High Ctrept South Wales until they have won

SWA 7UG.

substantial increase in wages. withdrawn Management has Street. work-study proposals. tiator Madame Binh fraught with peril. • "His off-the-record conversa- tion," the columnist concluded, "is even more hawkish than his public remarks. He knows that talk of victory can be twisted into accusations of chauvinism and he tones down his rhetoric in an open forum. In private he is tougher than Spiro Agnew."' Campbell's article shows that Nixon's talk of an honourable peace is strictly for election-eve consumption. In the Pentagon the Air Force generals have already laid plans for four more years of air war. This is the man the British Stalinists trying are now to 'pressure' into signing the draft treaty with protest vigils outside the US embassy and appeals from Labour MPs. In this way they too sustain the illusion that Nixon will soon bring, peace in Vietnam. The diplomatic charade of Kissinger's secret talks is not only a preparation for another four years of Nixon as president, but also for another four years of bloody, counter-revolutionary war in South-East Asia.

FROM PAGE 1

Many of these firms are also staunch financial backers of the Tory Party. But the most interesting don- ors to the fund are Lord Coo- General and Municipal per's Workers' Union and the coun try's biggest union, the Trans- General Workers' and port Union. Jones sits on the Society's pre- siding council alongside people like Sir John Partridge, ex-CBI chief and chairman of Imperial Tobacco, G. A. H. Cadbury, de- puty chairman and managing dir- ector of Cadbury Schweppes, Sir Keith Joseph, the millionaire min- ister in charge of social security, Peter Laister, managing director of British Oxygen, Henry Mark- ing, CBE, chairman of BEA, and W. O. Campbell Adamson of the

CBI.

Two months ago the Society announced details of a new con- ciliation and arbitration service which would be available for small-scale disputes, particularly those at plant level. But looking at the crowd at the top of this organization few shop stewards are likely to avail them- selves of this 'independent' ser- vice! CBI cost- cutting offensive

BY PHILIP WADE

MAJOR employers are going launch to offensive both These new the British survey Their precisely- about the state une salle that „reveals made no pleas those replying questionnaire years. Undoubtedly away chance o Europe of big business 60

A DOST

that

CBI

turn new lake still working thought the level industry. it tinues, ocred. that the yesterday that prices were Wednesday 5 per cent men British follows a request from British Rail who say 125-m.p.h. 1C W held up by the ASLEF boycott.

Tro of the and Hugh Scanlon

PHILIP WADE

nployers are going cost-cutting before and in's entry into the plans for attacks class Confederation quarter v Siness trengs vas timer acciden by coincide with the Ju Calers entered ti eet for further talks ate pay plan umne. mne survey business

TUC

unemployment. he vast majority of the say they have little those dant in the last two ily the risk of run- inflation ruining any ompeting in western the thinkin ess in October. thought cent chances were would be because of that mos orders and uarter and expectec account ough many firms are ; below capacity fallen, says place manufacturing con- that the recovery level' It concludes ort-term outlook for tisfactory. Motors announced all car prices increased from mid- cased dford truck and van increased too, again On cent „Der an- ce increases of about of Railway- locomen's Tine F to lift its ban on Rail's new Their equest trom britıs, being train the ASLEF boycott. guests, jack soner