Workers Press no. 921

workers press

WHAT THE TORY

'PAY LAW' MEANS

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 1972• No. 921 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

ONCE AGAIN WE EXAMINE

Militant South Wales shopworkers yester- union day pay

BY ALEX MITCHELL

oooled berween leaders and the Multiple Grocers Asso- ciation in London. placards declaring Carrying ray In IT IS HIGH TIME the political pygmies in the left of frozen for too long! rate! and Shopworkers alwavs pay the price!

the trade unions and labour movement buried the they crowded across the entrance to the Department of Employment in St James's idea that the Heath government is today implement- put their case square Detore going Do the nee negotiators. The Union

OTTOO

ing a wages 'freeze' IT IS NOTHING OF THE and Allied Workers is claiming £3.50 a week for shop assistants rises

SORT.

and 25 for managers. workers are involved. Yesterday's 60-strong delegation was Heath is talking about a permanent, legal structure in which the capitalist state will decide your wages.

These new laws will be backed up by the legal machinery of the criminal courts and 20 the National Industrial Relations Court, the

THE

legal offspring of the Industrial Relations Act.

Defiance of these laws will mean limited fines and, in the event of non- payment, could mean severe jail sentences.

When the communist rar ana re so-caved International Socialists prattle about a "freeze', English of talking about the hander den they time-honoured tHey tradition can't think anything sensible The 'freeze' and the 'thaw' up images of a temporary, passing aberration in the economy.

But what Heath is planning is a permanent departure from all previous relations between the the employers and the government Trade unlons. not a 'freeze', but state intervention into It Is wage-bargaining in an unprecedented way.

Mayor's When Heath addressed the Lord Guildhall on Monday night he banquet at the made perectv dear mane state pay plan is to be a ermanent feature of his 'new Britain'. H his audience o told bankers and businessmen mat me next onase or mis economic bondy WaS 'to change the expectations' of wage and salary earners. The 90-day legislation was onlv a beginning which would be replaced by more embracing state ay regulation nake unese steps. neat Already there is evidence that Socialist Labour League has, speak, drawn the so to Ulster's notorious Greater London Rally sword on the working class. And Powers Act may be revised to he is now going to war cover the whole of Britain.

CELEBRATE

-PREMIERE

Heatn s attack on the working law will have a Heath's pay class question. It is the price tor entry simply British profounder on I pack

3RD ANNIVERSARY

wages and salaried workers than into the common Market.

SHOWING OF A

anything experienced in the past.

It is part of a concentrated

OF WORKERS

NEW FILM

It unites them in the most funda- by the and attempt bankrupt mental way in a common struggle corrupt leaders of west European

PRESS

against the exploiter-the capi-

THREE

capitalism to foist the economic the backs of the talist system. crisis on

BUILD THE

In the course of their struggle working class.

YEARS

decent wages and against for And ¡te tnese measures 121l

REVOLUTIONARY

the they have advanced plans impoverishments mass OF experience fascist-style sections

PARTY

Hunpose workers will be raised in the dictatorships.

WORKERS

dramatic way. best in the developments in France where special political ain. Heath's he the

SUNDAY

again. corporatist-

PRESS

Donce are now Dickinsuo made style legislation, his rule by

NOVEMBER 19

unionists and interrogating them about, their relatives, friends, accree wi revocably clanke the relations between class 7 p.m. political associations and back- forces in Britain. ground (see p.ll). The regroupment of the The requirement of the hour Porchester Hall is the political and industrial monopolists in the cacuonal y conditions which will force this Queensway, W2 Market and the flight of capital from Britain means further government out of office attacks on the democratic rights And all those conditions are Details of provincial meetings-see p. 12 maturing for tne WorkIns Cassin unIS Lndl happen.

COUHLEY.

4p

UR LEAGUE

mainly of women composed and girl workers from Tesco stores in Neath and Port Taibot. A member of the delegation from Neath told Workers Press that all shopworkers needed a rise: At the moment the best-paid girls on the shop floor only get £14.50 a week before deduc- tions', she said. 'That's for 41 hours and doesn't include the time taken opening and closing the store particularly for get- ting customers out.' Price increases had made their jobs particularly difficult recently, said another.

But this cut little ice with the grocers, who she thought showed little sympathy for their case. Wirer de.

ITS THE

STOP THE

SHOP ARE

URE ALLAYS

VAMP

PReE Speakers:

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary)

CONNIE FAHEY

(Wilmslow tenants' leader)

CORIN REDGRAVE

(Equity)

ROY BATTERSBY

(ACTT)

ALAN THORNETT

(Deputy senior steward Morris Motors Assembly, Cowley, Oxford) •

GARY GURMEET

• (Editor Keep Left) Chairman:

MIKE BANDA

(SLL Central Committee) • (Union and tenant speakers appear in a personal capacity) Lina Admission 15p meetings-see p. 12

workers press

WHAT THE TORY

PAY LAW' MEANS

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15, 1972 • No. 921 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

ONCE AGAIN WE EXAMINE

Mila no Died Wa saks between sion.

BY ALEX MITCHELL

betweel leaders and the Multiple Grocers Asso- ciation in London. 'Pay the placards declaring Carrying IT IS HIGH TIME the political pygmies in the left of frozen for too long!' rate! Shopworkers pay the price!', aways the trade unions and labour movement buried the they crowded across the entrance to me Department of Employment in St James's idea that the Heath government is today implement- in to put their case square Delore going Do the ner negotiators. Union ing a wages 'freeze'. IT IS NOTHING OF THE and Allied Workers is claiming assistants £3.50 a week for aises

SORT.

A total of 120,000 and £5 managers.

TOP

workers are involved. 60-strong Yesterday's delegation was Heath is talking about a permanent, legal structure in which the capitalist state will decide your wages.

These new laws will be backed up by the legal machinery of the criminal courts and the National Industrial Relations Court, the

THE

legal offspring of the Industrial Relations Act.

of these laws will mean Defiance limited fines and, in event of non- Ine payment, could mean severe jail sentences.

When the Communist Partv and the so-called International Socialists prattle about 'freeze', English guilty the time-honoured Lucy al e tradition о lake our e wermer wuen tiey can't think of anything sensible say. The 'freeze' and the conjure up images of a temporary, passing aberration in the economy.

Hitwaters is permanen departure from all previous relations between the the employers and the government.

trade unions, not into

I IS

à treeze , our state intervendon wage-bargaining in an unprecedented way.

When Heath addressed the Lord Mayor's the Guildhall Monday night he banquet at on made perfectv clear that the state nav man is to bold permanen e or bad bis and Busines Mee bankers and businessmen that the next phase of his economic policy WaS 'to change the expectations' of wage and salary earners. The 90-day legislation was 'onlv a beginning' which would be replaced by more embracing state pay regulations these steps, Heath In taking Already there is evidence that Socialist Labour League has, sO speak, drawn the Special ster C

DOLOROUS

Greater London Rally sword on the working class. And Powers Act may be revised to he is now going to war. cover the whole of Britain.

CELEBRATE

-PREMIERE

neatn s altack on tne working law will have a Heath's pay class is not simply British profounder impact on question. It is the price for entry much

3RD ANNIVERSARY

wages and salaried workers than into me common Marker

HOWING OF A

anything experienced in the past.

It is part the bankrupt concentrated

OF WORKERS

NEW FILM

It unites them in the most funda- by the and attempt menta wave a common sudecre corrupt leaders of west European

PRESS

against the exploiter-the capi-

THREE

capitalism to foist the economic talist system. crisis on the backs of the

BUILD THE

In the course of their struggle working class.

YEARS

decent wages and against for And if these measures fail.

REVOLUTIONARY

impoverishments, the they have advanced plans to Illass OF fascist-style experience mist. The twin aims are sectors

PARTY

workers will be raised in the actatorsnips.

WORKERS

dramatic way. best seen in the developments 1110SL

SUNDAY

France where special political be the same again. corporatist-

PRESS

once de now ockme uo udde style legislation, his rule by

NOVEMBER 19

unionists and interrogating them decree, will irrevocably change about their relatives, friends, relations between class 7 p.m. political associations and back- the forces in Britain. grouna (see p.Il). The regroupment of the The reauirement of the hour Porchester Hall is the political and industrial reactionary monopolists in the conditions which will force this Queensway, W2 Market and the flight of capital from Britain means further government out of office attacks on the democratic rights And all those conditions are Details of provincial meetings-see p. 12 rapidly that to the for Class in unis Maturis happen.

OUR LEAGUE

composed mainly of women and girl workers from Tesco stores in Neath and Port Talbot. A member of the delegation from Neath told Workers Press that all shopworkers needed a rise: At the moment the best-paid girls on the shop floor only get £14.50 a week before deduc- tions', she said. 'That's for 41 hours and doesn't include the time taken opening and closing the store particularly for get- ting customers out.' had made their jobs Price increases particularly difficult recently, said another.

But this cut little ice with the grocers, who she thought showed little sympathy for their case. 1D THi SHOP ARGe VRe ALLAN Pay THE PerE Speakers:

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary)

CONNIE FAHEY

(Wilmslow tenants' leader)

CORIN REDGRAVE

(Equity)

ROY BATTERSBY

(ACTT)

ALAN THORNETT

(Deputy senior steward Morris Motors Assembly, Cowley, Oxford)

GARY GURMEET

(Editor Keep Left) Chairman:

MIKE BANDA

(SLL Central Committee) (Union tenant speakers appear in a personal capacity) Admission 15p meetings-see p. 12

SLEZSE

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednesday November 15, 1972 THE COSY CORRIDORS of Thomson butchers a complete sur- •The prise to the rail union leaders who House, the headquarters of Sunday Times', will shortly be ring- had been busily negotiating redun- some 26,000 British Rail ing with the clomp, clomp of heavy dancy for feet. The heavy mob from Cl de- workers. On top of this figure, the partment at Scotland Yard will be 'Blue Book' further envisages paying a visit. 25,000 sackings. The six-page booklet called for the re- They will be asking how a confidential government report on the future of duction of the present rail network the from 11,600 7,000 British Rail found its way into There was even a call for a paper's columns. The investigation miles. has been ordered by the Director of be undertaken of a net- study to work based on a 3,800-mile system.

Public Prosecutions, though it is likely that he was prompted by other In the new Tory British Rail's plan, people like the Metropolitan Police network will be slashed to main Commissioner, Robert Mark, or the main inter-city lines plus commuter Mr. John Pey- Transport Minister, services around the major industrial ton, a member of the Monday Club.

conurbations. The articles based on the report were Behind this Tory thinking is a clear Times' 'The Sunday written in on decision to hive-off lucrative freight- October 8 by John Whale, a senior to the private road haul- handling correspondent, and Tony political Book' iers. the imple- 1S Dawe, a newsroom reporter.

of oz milion tons Their articles included large extracts British Rail's 196 million ton freight by will switched the from a Blue book drawn up business be to officials of the Department of the roads. Environment. Members of the 200,000-strong Nat- News of the secret report by the Tory ional Union of Railwaymen and the

BY JOHN SPENCER

SOVIET Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhner has publicly wel- comed the re-election of Richard Nixon as President of the United States. At a Kremlin dinner for visiting Bulgarian Stalinist leader Todor Zhivkov, he said the result of the US election had shown sup- port for 'a peace-loving, realistic foreign policy.

'The election results indicate, as it seems to us, support for precisely such a policy,' he said. The Moscow leaders made clear long before the election that they were in favour of Nixon's return to the White House.

They fêted the US imperialist chieftain in the Kremlin, signed trade deals worth billions of dollars and, above all, put a brutal squeeze on North Vietnam to force the leaders of the Vietnamese revolution come a rotten compromise with the United States.

THE CHAIRMAN of the Brezhnev's frank statement exposes the position United States Pay Board, of British and the Americar Stalinists. Woode George has Boldt, recom- denunciations of Nixon are nothing more than a cheap Williamson, mended that state wage con- fraud. John the Stalinist, wrote in Monday's 'Morning Star': trols should continue beyond 'The election results... open an April 30 next when they ex- era of great concern for the American people, who-as a result pire unless renewed. of great deception- - returned Richard the White The Pay Board was established trade union leaders House, a man Whose encar dis- last year following in November to support McGover reeks polluca. all wage a three-month ban on honesty, reaction, anti-trade phoney imposed by President increases unionism and racism. "neutrality"'. Nixon on August 15. the five trade union represent- finally, Williamson added: "The con- And the board resigned tooth and 1 not nailed ... Car early this year. endanger the entire world.'

building of a Lab When Nixon introduced these the United described round and blame measures tepsre But tney temporary Boldt, steps. class. Workers blamed who Nixon's on the board, clearly intends they "Sad as it is to should become permanent. the self-righteous of piece 1 nis 1S 'the cultivation of Stalinist double-book-keeping He told a joint congressional and racism, ism that committee that in the first year Wiliamson Wel ideological corrupt Nixon's re-election was ensured pay the board's operations. by his own masters in Moscow.

increases or ser smilin per cent million workers The American Stalinists lined ployed by firms with annual sales behind the of more than $50m. up McGovern. Call" didate of the big business Demo- cratic Party. The 'Star' cites the Congress. election of Democrat

WORKERS

woman Bella Abzug as 'outstand- suburbs yesterday he More foreign ing'. means protest strike agains but in really inis support for the two-party system of two people in a cl news the working cass of and Wadi roos seculaurel all independent political expres- tory strikers over the see p. 11 Son. A spokesman for That the Stalinists Labour Federation, why called the strike inv condemned ot thi train drivers' union, 30,000-strong

ASLEF,

were delighted with the publication of the secret Tory plans to smash their fore- jobs. Being warned is being forearmed.

And it was right of the National Union of Journalists members to give the 'Blue Book' the widest publication.

The use of the police to track down those who gave the 'Blue Book' to "The Sunday Times' is an ominous attack. It is designed not only to frighten civil servants who maintain relations with the Press, but also to intimidate those exposé-minded sec- tions of the Tory Press. This is not the first time in recent weeks that "The Sunday Times' jour- nalists have found themselves in the firing line. Following investigations by the INSIGHT team, the Tory Attorney-General, Sir Peter Rawlin- son, acting on behalf of Distillers Limited, took action against the paper over some unpublished mate- rial on the thalidomide scandal.

The same team also wrote the article on the curious drugs smuggling case which involved the activities of the Nixon signing yet another deal in Moscow-Bre looks on. where on leaders who refused background sections : McGovern's candidacy of workers relatively well off-paid of 'phoney policy far as Nixon was concerned Having betrayed the A inally, having fought working class and co against can nail the for Moscow's suppor of a Labour Party in Nixon, these despicable Sta they ed States, turn throw the responsibility o d blame the working workers for Nixon's victory The responsibility is it is to say it,' says and with squarely Williamson, Stalinism, which is a co ration of super patriot- revolutionary force servin racism, together with of requirements 1 corruption - on a perialism. said that • IN Beirut and its 150,000 workers, sterday held a general stoppage was total. ike against the death The strike covered se ple in a clash between public services, including v en and suburban fac- and electricity administrat s over the weekend. bus, port and petroleum wor as well as bank clerks. sman for the General which Airport sources, however, has that air traffic was not affec strike involving about head of the Drugs Squad, Detective Chief Inspector Victor Kelaher. Two days after its publication Kelaher and four other detectives were sus- pended from duty and summonsed on conspiracy and perjury charges.

It was a week after this article appeared-and six weeks after the 'Blue Book' revelations - that the police decided to start snooping at Thomson House. These attacks on journalists who at- tempt to write about the underside of the system occur in a climate of increasing suppression of news.

News of the situation in Ulster is ruthlessly censored in the Press and the Younger and on television; Franks Reports both recommended more stringent controls over publication of private and official documents. For journalists who object to becom- ing nothing more than public rela- tions men for the Tories and their friends, the political fight must now be taken up. There must be a campaign in the media without alization of the compensation and under workers' control. Whether they like it or not, the privi- leged professional workers in the newspaper, television and film in- dustries are being forcibly unblin- kered. Instead of commentating on the surface of events, they are now compelled to look hard at the real- ities of today's political situation.

THE COMMON market is planning to draw the military dictatorships Tur- key into a close Mediter- ranean free trade area to- gether • with Israel and the countries of North Africa.

The plan has drawn • bitter opposition from United the which its own States, sees economic interests in the Mediterranean threatened by an exclusive relationship between the EEC and the Mediterranean states. The Market chiefs had origin- ally planned a series of partial trade deals with the Mediter- ranean countries. It already has preferential with agreements Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Malta, Morrocco, Cyprus, Algeria, Spain Israel, Egypt, the Lebanon and Portugal. It also has a trade treaty with Yugoslavia which is now in the of renegotiated. being process Proposals to build up a closer relationship were put before the Council of Ministers in Luxem- burg last month where they -Brezhnev received 'a generally favourable response'. proposals include The the ere substantial gradual creation of an

EEC-

Mediterranean free trade are still area would be ff-paid off as within which tariffs concerned.' progressively abolished; a start financial and technical aid; on économic ed the Ameri- co-operation on and is and covered development, manpower protection of the environment.

's support for Behind these moves is the icable Stalinists desire of the European monopo- sibility on the to move their capital to the lies n's victory. of Europe and low-wage areas the Middle East not only in order ility is taırly to make higher profits, but also world is a counter- Britain and other BEd countries unemployment ce serving the world im- as part of the political struggle against the working class.

Students of the American and said that the Lebanese universities and several schools observed the strike.

several The strike was originally in- cluding water cover the of whole tended to dministrations, union Lebanon, but a trade leum workers, spokesman said that Tripoli, Lebanon's second main town, had however, said already stopped in protest against not affected. the incident.

Fighting the Tories' rent Act JUNIOR hospital doctors plan a march through London today to back demands for reform of the General Medi- cal Council. •Dr Francis Pigott, president of the Junior Hospital Doctors' Association, said a public in- quiry into the GMC was being demanded. They would lobby the Sec.

for Health and Social retary Security, Sir Keith Joseph.

•Pigott pointed out, however, that the association does not want to abolish the GMC but 'merely to reform it'. He said they wanted the council to 'act more in the public interest'. Last week the council threat- ened to strike 5,300 doctors off the register for refusing to pay the £5 annual registration fee. The junior doctors' association has 5,500 members from the 16,000 working in hospitals in Britain. COUNCILS holding out in SCOT- LAND are: Glasgow; Lanark; Dundee; | Midlothian; Falkirk; Clydebank; Kilmarnock; Fife; Kirkcaldy; Rutherglen; Dunferm- line; Saltcoats; Renfrew; Whit- burn; Alloa; Barrhead; Buck- haven and Methil; Cowdenbeath; Cumbernauld; Dalkeith; Denny and Dunnipace and Lochgelly.

. WALES the IN ENGLAND and nine defiant councils are: Camden; Barrow - in - Furness; Halstead; Conisborough; Eccles; Clay Cross; Bedworth; Merthyr and Bedwas and Machen. BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) has successfully gob- bled up one chain of High Street grocers-it is now hunting for others. BAT has increased its offer for by about International Stores £2m to a total of £68.8m. Imme- diately the International Stores board met and decided to accept. which International Stores, operates more than 900 grocery shops and supermarkets, made a £4.4m pre-tax profit last year.

The BAT organization is buy- ing into the retail business in order to diversify its interests. said yesterday: 'The Guardian' 'BATs was anxious to gain con- trol of International Stores be- cause it wants to build up its earnings in Britain.' BAT is earning too much of its profits abroad , which is now leading to prohibitive taxation. It has gained control of Horten, German department stores group in America's mid-west.

Stores is too International small an operation to affect the £155m pre-tax profit made by BAT last year. In order to bulld • earnings in Britain it will devour more than International Further takeovers Stores. are imminent by the giant tobacco group ... -Engineering bosses stick together|

EMPLOYERS

in the previously nationally engineering unions' One of the • reason negotiated multi national pay claim, to a the powerful engineering in. federation dustry have out companies. not undermining rial Relations they powertal that inquiry. strongly against employers' solidarity there be The inquiry may their that it is likely undermining central

EEF

incentives'. for cribed by through the will have solidarity the Ing One bering Employers Engin- play 'an increasingly tiate pay and other scope, if not the widest Fed- issues plant level. the

CIR

significant part in ensur- undertaken by at All these the func. that

COURS

LOOKS

They also oppose sug- the evid- tioning and development telations standards set contained " In the EEF, gestions for ence of which of industrial - relations the Indistrial Re- this year lishment earlier and separate institutions Act lations their company frameworks for multi-plant cecures mannered determining conditions ing resistance the firms. constituent plants'. to ' cyKT 30 9U10

TENDS

lobbying Camden councillor Brian Loughran who is one of those leading the north London council's Fall in line warning to rebel councils

THE

TWO LABOUR

in Scotland, where 22

BY PHILIP WADE

led councils in Wales refus- Councis. Corporation, will not ing to implement the 'fair implement (see list). should have been collected fro represent rents' Act have been Between them they from tenants. about 400,000 council tenants.

given two weeks to fall in Scotland the Tories have England and Wales there line or face action by the aireday taken some acuon against Labour ai c Oilly

CONCHS

the defiant authorities. Last week The biggest Tory government. have ned out. withheld of f9m payment is the London borough of Cam. of housing den with Merthyr subsues uncause about 22,000 borough council tenants have councus relusea to imple and Bedwas and Machen urban mother 25000 two a ne ourer ment the legislation. have another was. council have been told that The biggest area of resistance tenants between them. 16 days they witnin Illot le pare for operating 'fair rents' by January Writings Both councils have already had one month's notice from Welsh Office asking to fall them in line. These have been ignored.

of Leon M, when aold of the news: We said, when told of the news: have rebate scheme operation which we feel is a just Trotsky ana lal one. imposed two annual rent increases each the scheme was Let Horsiy introduced in 1968. (057-3 1933-1934. ...... £1.43 It we make another increase 1934-1935: .. £1.43 unce in one financial year would mean Under moe 1935-1936 .. £1.25 Their honour Merthy staenants at stake, he added, 1937-1938. ... £1.25 because had been promised a measure of 1938-1939 .. £1.25 stability. 1939-1940 .. .. £1.05 Bedwas council met in emer- night to con- gency session last sider the lory order. But council Richards vice-chairman These extremely vital writings by Leon Trotsky between the seemed firm on previous policy: years 1929 and 1940—his third and final exile from the Soviet and put in a nave been one snce August. I personally don't think Union-are now available in Britain from the Paperbacks Centre the will change its mind council because of this. he said (see advert below). The 31 Labour councils still implement the lor relusine lo 'fair rents' Act now owe a stag- gering f3m in lost revenue.

in ust over

SIX

weeks „since the Tory rent-doubling legisla- tion came into operation, councils

PAPERBACKS ECENTRE

450,000 tenants nave dened the govern- ment. When the government does decide to act against inem, 28 Charlotte St the councils involved could lose their housing powers to a govern- ment-appointea commissionel.

London W1 And every single councillor Housing who voted Finance

BOOKS • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

and Scotland could be made to pay between them the f3m and , Wednesday November 15, 1972 PAGE 3 As the Tories seek to impose ar corporate state and smash down the living conditions of the working class, the Labour and trade union leaders-assisted by the Gommunist Party-refuse to lead any struggle. The central task, therefore, remains the building of a revolutionary leadership in the working This raises the key class. question of the fight for Marx- ism in the trade unions. Political tendencies such as the International Socialism group oppose the develop- ment of Marxist consciousness in the unions and instead substitute a worship of spon- taneous rank-and-file mili- tancy. In practice they line up behind the Communist Party to keep revolutionary politics out of the unions. In a vital series of Workers Press articles, Mike Banda, a member of Socialist the Labour League Central Com- mittee, examines the tactics and strategy of the Interna- tional Socialism group. This important series-beginning on Saturday, November 18— must be studied by every trade unionist. Tom Kemp resumes his re- views of the books adver- tised below. Starting to- morrow and running until Saturday is the 1937-1938 period of Trotsky's life his exile to Mexico and as- sessment of the Moscow Trials

WRITINGS OF

(1939-40) Writings of Leon Trotsky (1938-9) 82 85.

WRITINGS OF

FUL

• Trotsky between the I exile from the Soviet the Paperbacks Centre

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 aim.-6 p.m. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

HAPPY HUNTING GROUND

ONLY FOR THE PROFITEERS

PAGE & Workers Press, Wednesday Nov About 12 million people in Britain live in 4 mil- lion slum and obsolete houses. This represents nearly a quarter of the entire housing stock. By virtue of their situation mainly in the centre of in- dustrial towns—-the people liv- ing in these towns get the worst schools, the worst public services and the worst ameni- ties. Living in decaying en- their job oppor- vironments, tunities are also poor-most of them are out of work or in dead-end, low-paid jobs. In one area-west Yorkshire -there are 635,000 dwellings of which 110,000 are slums or sub-standard houses. Some 63,000 houses in this area are statutorily unfit—that is, legally condemned as unfit for human habitation. But this classification is arrived at on the basis of minimum and out- of-date standards. Many houses not in this category are in fact well below satisfactory modern standards. Clearance Of the 110,000 west York- shire slum houses, 77,000 are rented. The rest are owner- occupied and a quarter of these are still under mortgage. Most the occupiers of of these houses are elderly people with no hope. of being able to buy another house. Frequently, slum clearance one set of pro- has replaced blems with another. It has re- sulted in re-housing in huge estates lacking essential ser- vices such as shops. Often working-class families are placed in high-density tower- asday November 15, 1972 blocks of flats. Elderly and infirm people in the higher storeys are virtually impri- soned. It is also now known that there is a high correlation be- tween living in high flats and nervous disorders among housewives and children. Schools built in these areas a few years even ago are grossly over-crowded. High are matched by heavy rents expenditure on fares to work, and the bus services are invari- ably inadequate. The Labour Party's propo- sals for dealing with these housing problems are totally inadequate.. Outlined at the Yorkshire Regional Conference of the Labour Party last Satur- day by Opposition housing spokesman Reginald Freeson, they are: • Expand investment in hous- ing and urban renewal and re- form the methods of housing finance. • Integrate local and national government departments con- cerned with all aspects of urban renewal. • Create an Urban Renewal Agency to serve local and na- tional government in remodel- ling our cities comprehensively.

• Study more closely to pro- vide for people's needs and de- mands for different kinds of tenure-municipal lettings, housing associations, co-ope- ratives and owner-occupation.

• Act on subsidies, rents and prices of land and property. • Bring urban land into public ownership. In so far as any of these proposals, apart from the last, mean anything at all, they Modern slums tower blocks in Liverp There are no amenities. Top: Children little chance of even getting a job.

amount to bureaucratic and reformist tinkering. Housing and land are happy hunting grounds for every type of profiteer and speculator. What is needed is to put an end to their activities. A Labour government must be forced to nationalize all land, all the building and building supply industries, the banks and the finance houses.

And this must be done with- out compensation and under workers' control. The Labour proposal to take over urban Menan In Liverpool surrounded by wasteland.

: Children on an old estate. They face land does not include this vital clause. Yet every worker knows that to pay compensation to the owners who have sucked profit out of the land for de- rades will simply mean crush- interest payments which would result in sky-high rents for working-class families.

A Labour government must be forced to act on behalf of those who vote it in, and not on behalf of the profiteers who finance the Tory Party. Socia- lism is the only way to solve the housing problem. Clothing workers now face an extremely rapid development of specia- lized machinery in their industry. In some cases, there is full automation--as with the new infra-red 'cyclo-steamer' , which finish man-made fibre can fabric garments at a rate of between 300 to 15,000 a day, according to the size of the unit. The garments are put on hangers and travel on a con- veyor system into the unit chamber where they are saturated with steam and then infra-red passed through heaters. The series of environmental changes which they undergo results in a crisp, pressed finish without affecting any of the surface texture. For the shirt trade, there is a new body press capable of a throughput of around 20 an hour, and dozen shirts suitable for all types of fabrics and finishes with the exception of permanent press. Only is operator one required to dress the shirts in condition. Inflatable an open air bags in the shoulders and side seam areas compensate for different sizes, enabling the entire shoulder and yoke areas and the body of the garment, including the side seams, to be pressed in the one opera- tion. machine The be can operated either manually or automatically and the pressing areas are quickly interchange- able for different sizes and styles. The rapid rate of develop- ment in sewing equipment means that clothing machine engineers must keep their technical know-how constantly up-to-date. new equipment is acquired, or if the engineer is machine he has Maintain called on a not worked on before, he needs to know just how it works, and how it can be adjusted-and it is not always possible to undergo formalized training. A new approach to this tape recorded probiem is a instruction system. Using the tapes, together with the illustrated service manual which is supplied for each of them, the engineer is led through the programme of maintenance and adjustments in stages, with a check made at the end of each step. The tapes run for between two and three hours, and the engineer can at any time stop and play back as required. The system is claimed to be unique in that it saves con travel time and expense, gives individual tuition, an immedi- ate check on results, and can be used over and over again for reference or for training others.

Andrei Vishinsky is as- sured of a place in history for his role as State Pro- secutor in the Moscow frame-up trials in the 1930s. In this capacity he was responsible for send.

ing most of the Bolshevik old guard to their deaths on completely false charges. As a former Menshevik with no political convictions he was chosen by Stalin as a pliant tool in his campaign to wipe out the opposition. Vishinsky was a specialist in anti-Trotskyism and won the the Communist applause of Parties throughout the world who followed his example and imitated his gutter language.

For this clever bourgeois lawyer and careerist who had never had anything to do with the struggle of the working class, the Trotskyists were a 'storm detachment of fascism'.

In the trials he heaped abuse on the heads of men who had led the October Revolution and fought in the Civil War while he had been sheltering in the camp of the White Guards.

After his services in exter- minating the opposition, Stalin appointed Vishinsky to other high offices and he became Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs and spokesman for a the Soviet Union at the United Nations. In this capacity he rubbed shoulders with capitalist states- men and shared many a good story with them over a cigar and a glass of old brandy.

On one such occassion he made a confidence to Harold Macmillan, who duly recorded andrel Vishinsky, a former wen shevik, and Stalin's prosecutor of hundreds of Bolsheviks in the trials of the 1930s. it in a minute to Churchill on January 23, 1944, which a student lately researching on the papers for that period re- cently made available in the Public Records Office came across. Macmillan reported that 'Vishinsky had told him that when he was a professor, he had tried to read Croce's works [an Italian idealist philosopher and historian], but had found lin them "as tedious and obscure Karl Marx-and as those of l that was saying a good deal"'.

We can be sure that the State Prosecutor who had sent so many Marxists to their deaths was not only expressing his own philistine prejudices.

Rather did he reflect the cyni- cism of the bureaucracy as a whole which combines a ruth- struggle to maintain its less own interests with a complete contempt for Marxist prin- ciples. When Cultural Affairs Minister, Jacques Duha- mel opened his budget speech in the National Assembly last Wednes- day by describing his policy as 'liberal and socially-minded, all wor- kers in the French theatre industry must have feared the worst. The real meaning of this glib phrase, soon became apparent.

Duhamel announced that the Comédie Française, supposedly the cultural pride of the French bourgeoisie, would close inde- finitely from November 15.

It was a decision taken with the agreement of Pierre Dux, manager of the the general French Theatre Company. It is an attack on all technical and administrative staffs in their national union, SNETAS, who have been demanding a fair deal. SNETAS members are wor- ried by two developments: the growth of unemployment and low wage levels. The financial budgets of French theatres have been hit by Value-Added Tax. It has been estimated that VAT eats up all government theatre sub- sidies. In some cases, they only pay 68 per cent of VAT. VAT and general inflation has meant that managements prefer to run short seasons and have cut down on staff. Many theatres have closed down for 'repairs' ', never to be opened again. Jacques Duhamel At the moment, the National Theatre has been closed 15 months, the Opéra is scheduled to be closed for three months next year and 1975 both the Comédie Française and the Theatre de l'Est are to be 're- novated'. While these government- financed theatres face a very precarious future, the seasons at private theatres are getting shorter and shorter.

SNETAS

members should have received the. same wage rises as category C and D civil Workers Preca, Wodnesda servants following January negotiations, but there has been no pay-out yet. On November 8, the Opéra staff and performers staged a day of action for a proper Workers there are also wage. incensed by the sacking of whole group of singers and the postponement of the opening of the Opéra-Studio, which is suposed to replace the already closed Opéra-Comique. They have been promised that it will open 'towards the end of 1973'—it was scheduled to open on January 1. The Comédie Française has been hit by one-day strikes since October 13. The seventh strike on November 5 silenced a production of Shakespeare's 'Richard III'. The union-secre- tary said it would not be the last action. this Communist However, Party-dominated leadership is practising the same policy in the theatres as in the factories —one-day strikes which lead the membership nowhere ex- cept to disillusion. The French bourgeoisie has more important matters to de- vote its attention to than Moli- ère or Shakespeare-the pre- paration of a police state to ensure French capital survives in the Common Market re- organization inter- for the national trade war. On the day that same Duhamel announced the clo- sure of the Comédie Française —a lock-out retaliation against the series of strikes-Interiore Minister Marcellin was spelling out the details of his vastly- increased budget expenditure. He is intending to create, among other things, 18 special anti-terrorist groups through- out France available on 24- hour call, specially trained in combat fighting. The French Stalinists have tried deliberately to turn the attention of theatre workers France. One-day strikes given weak-kneed been sup- port from a liaison committee to get 1 per cent of the nat- ional budget spent on cultural affairs. In the National Assembly, deputy Roland communist countered Duhamel's Leroy proposals by demanding a 're- newal with the long traditions of cultural life in this country, the participation of intellec- tuals in popular aspirations and their global conception of cul- ture. Whatever that might mean, the he assured his audience that the joint Socialist Party- Communist Party programme guaranteed its realization.

This empty clamour and the strike called in all Paris thea- tres on November 16 against the closure of the Comédie Française and for a proper wage will have no impact on the ruthless French Minister of Culture. Wednesday November 15, 1972 PAGE 5

BUSINESS

INTERNATIONAL

PROTEGES

IN PERU

Behind closed doors, in the comfortable, palatial Hotel of the Crillon in Lima, Peru, the Business International Corporation recently held a question-and- answer session with various ministers of Latin American governments. Velasco The Corporation, which is a big-business syndicate, repre- sents monopolies ranging from GEC to the Pilkington Brothers.

INVESTMENT

Particular interest was shown in investment in Peru and the Peruvian Ministers, present Jiménez de Lucio and Barandirán, were given a sheet of questions to answer: 'Would it not be opportune for foreign firms to be en- couraged to buy shares in new firms with the capital they get from the sale of shares result- their progressive ing from nationalization? 'Can you describe what is ideal foreign investment from the point of view of the Peru- vian government?' The answers have not been recorded, but it is unlikely that they were very unfavour- able. Peruvian dictator Juan Velasco is continuing with his policy of repressing workers and peasants, which is an in- dispensable aid to imperialist investment. One victim of this persecu- tion was Hermilio Hermosa, a peasants' leader living in the community Chocco near Cuzco. The corporatist body, Sinamos, and the local land- lord Miguel Luna Orbitas, have threatened to bring a 'co-operative' to Chocco as part of President Velasco's 'socialist' agrarian reform, which would threaten the existence of the 300 Chocco families.

MURDER

Hermosa led the campaign against this new measure. But he 'disappeared' in July after participating in a mass meet- ing of peasants. His body has just been found at the bottom of a ravine near Chocco. •Doctors who examined his body on behalf of the local Peasant Federation say he murdered. Clearly, he is was the latest victim of the mili- tary junta's attack on peasants workers. Business International must pleased be well with their protégés in Peru.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Wednesday November 15, 1972

BY JOHN SPENCER

of South ation recently rejected a wage The basis demand from workers earning racialist Africa's apar- about £2 a week. theid regime is the pro- were asking for a 60- They per-cent rise, which would still vision for the 3z-million- keep well below the them strong white elite of an poverty level. Employers endless supply of cheap insisted that women should be paid 25 per cent less than men.

labour for both industry Johannesburg, the bus In and agriculture. drivers employed by the town the The majority of pop- council recently went on a ulation—13R million black four-day strike which was put Africans, 500,000 Asians and 2 down by the police with con- 'coloured' classed as siderable brutality. A total million forced 318 drivers were arrested after (mixed -are to work for wages which keep the a sit-in at a bus depot. well below the succeeded in smashing vast majority This the strike and the workers poverty line. of current Some indication were forced to return without for Africans The bus levels any pay rise at all. wage Republic of South Africa manager said their the company can be gleaned from reports of demands for were ridiculous, recent agreements under which 'totally unreason- able and unjustified'. wages have been raised. African trade The drivers had complained Although illegal, many that they worked up to an unions are of and a half day workers- particu- every sections hour old-established trades without overtime pay and were larly in the docks and transport fined if passengers were found like been able to without a ticket. industries-have of organ- municipal workers in preserve some form Other been Johannesburg have ization Ten workers in Durban more fortunate. Dock slightly doctors strike de- African employed by recently

WANT

be the council at Soweto that their wage town- manding the 62$-hour walked out doubled and ship recently week recently demanding equal with working intro- pay duced be cut back. white doctors. was forced to The 2,000 strikers were The council, working 12} hours a day for concede their demand. But its decision set off an an intense week (with com- five days a for overtime from apartheid pulsory on reaction £4.25. They also leader of Press. Nationalist a wage out against living con- Frikkie de Wet attacked the spoke ditions in because barrack-style It com- council decision pounds provided by the dock will set off a chain reaction labour company. which will have very serious described the beds as They effects on the whole economy ridden with bugs, the being of the country'. food uneatable and the beer De Wet's anxiety was some- The council ration diluted with water. They what exaggerated. safety have to buy their own had no intention of establish- helmets and boots out of their precedents. When ing any black nurses demanded the as their white same pay counterparts, they were smartly exceptional. means council Pretoria management put in their place. recommended Dr A. D. Benusan, speaking committee £317,000 on behalf of the increase in the city's Health Department, 350 council's annual budget to said the for black employed increase provide a wage nurses in African municipal employees.

Soweto clinics would not get envisaged The equal pay because, unlike the of would bring the earnings doctors' there was no case, shortage of nurses. African labourers up to about £18 a month. This is just over 'Parents are very proud of half the poverty datum line for their daughters when they a family of five. become nurses- -SO where is The datum line iş lift wages?' he poverty the need to officially fixed by the National- asked. White nurses currently ist government as the level earn up to 160 per cent more below which it is impossible to than black nurses with exactly sustain life for a family same qualifications. of the five. The of doctors is shortage The recommended wage in- of deliberate policy the for Pretoria council which trains one creases government workers would bring only 143 1f doctor a year for every million of the council's 8,300 African potential (black) of employees over the datum line Only one the patients. involved The sum in country's six medical schools wage. paying the recommended accepts black students and one wage one-sixth the black doctor trained increase is every 23 white doctors. city's budgeted loss on its The whites-only bus services.

combination of restric- and by tive racialist legislation Council workers are no African •greed for profits produce the worst off can means contradictions. In the textile in- some bizarre Workero. In the Transvaal, private white dustry, the employers' associ- "hospitals have been warned to employing black nurses stop to nurse whites. Dr A. H. Grove said that the hospital system provincial faces collapse' because of the drain of non-white nurses to private hospitals. 'It appears that profiteering managements of private hospitals are using trained black labour and pay- ing slightly over the odds because this is still cheaper than employing white nurses.

Dr Grove claimed to have received many complaints from "members of the public' about non-whites nursing whites. He added: 'Government policy is very clear. Non-white nurses are specifically not allowed to nurse white patients. 'Not only are some hospitals blatantly this, but ignoring what is worse they have done so without consulting my de- partment. What is more they staff whom have WA trained at great expense.' A spokesman for the private 'He hospitals commented: won't find one hospital in the Transvaal. other- private wise, which does not use non- white nurses for some form of nursing. spokesman The on health for phoney parliamentary Tho Dr Davis Epstein, 'opposition', laid the blame on the govern- ment for having refused to face the crisis in the overall supply of nurses. 'When we wrote to the Minister of Health about it, the he even not It may courtesy to reply well come to a point where it black between choice nurses and dead patients, he said. Such economics of is the apartheid. The South African Govern. ment recently carried out first national survey of African -no doubt wages. It discovered- its satisfaction- -that to great Above: African miners who get 80 per cent of all African wage Whites playing bowls. less than the earn poverty datum figure. The demand for higher wages comes at a time of un- precedented the in Cerease cost of living for Africans in According the cities. to the 'Rand Daily Mail, the mini- monthly budget for mum man tricans has risen by 93 per cent in the six months up to the end of August. Calculated Non- by the European Affairs Committee of the johannesburg Chamber of Commerce-hardly ultra- liberal body- -the minimum monthly budget is put at about £41 a month. Chamber's calculations The have been strongly criticized for leaving out many essential items and one critic has calculated that a family needs at least half as much income again live ordel 'efficiently and decently'.

White earnings, by com- parison, are on a very different The University of Wit- plane. watersrand has prepared of white living comparison standards in South Africa with those of building, manu- facturing, mining and railway workers in Australia, Italy, Britain and the United States.

According to this survey the average real earnings of white South Africans are rearly three in times those Italy, nearly twice those in Britain and 15 per cent higher than those in Australia. Only in the United States are real earnings higher: there they are 10 per cent to 50 per cent up on the South African levels. manufacturing industry In worker the average white earns six times as much as an In construction the African. ratio of wage rates is 6.6:l.

But the worst payers of all are the mining companies, which include a big slice of British capital. There the white employees Workers Press, Wednesday Nov earn almost 20 times as much the blacks. Monthly cash as earnings of black workers in mines the average out at about £10 a month—-way below rate in other industrial the sections. industry In manufacturing cash earnings of black workers are £28 a month on average still way below the miserly poverty datum official line, while the average black con- struction worker takes home about £27 a month. The buying power of African wages in the mines has not in- creased since 1911—and may well be going down as a result of the rapid inflation of prices.

These figures put into pers- pective recert wage increases awarded by two of the largest mining groups. Johannesburg Consolidated Investments re- vealed on November 9 that it 'given' had (the company's phrase) its 50,000 black mine- workers average rises of 30 per cent during the past year.

Earlier this year the Cham- 188, Wednesday November 15, 1972 PAGE 7 ber of Mines raised the mini- mum shift payment from 21p to 25p. Mr Bill Wilson, a of Anglo- deputy chairman American Corporation, pointed out that neighbouring African states (usually disparaged as backward by white racists) paid better rates in their mines.

The wage issue in the pits brought forth the following immortal piece of prose from Sir Albert Robinson, head of Johannesburg Consolidated Investments: 'A challenge that still con- fronts the country is how to improve the wages and salaries of the less privileged to the maximum that extent economically feasible. Even with their rise, the miners will get less than half the pay of black workers in other indust- ries! Just to make sure that none of the extra money goes on sinful pürsuits, Anglo are making a careful survey of how Africans spend their money prior to raising wages.

Last week, the Soviet shipping delegation and eastern European representatives in Spain held a cocktail reception party in Madrid to cele- The reception had official authorization from the fascist authorities and was the first ceremony of its kind in Spain since the trade unions and parties of the working class were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. The 'Morning Star' and British Communist Party remained absolutely silent on this crime against the working class as they have been on the whole develop- ment of the counter-revolutionary pact between the Kremlin and Franco. Today our special writer on Spanish affairs, Juan Garcia, continues

THE SPANISH FASCISTS

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday No Last week, the Soviet shipping brate the anniversary of the B ceremony of its kind in Spain s Star' and British Communist Pa ment of the counter-revolution his series of articles exposing St The treatment of Spain by the editorial board of the 'Morning Star' and the leadership of the British Communist Party is characterized by its studied avoidance of principle. Foreign editor Sam Russell's occasional feature articles on 'heroic struggle against the Fascism for democracy' are complemented by short news items on day-to-day strikes. The 'Star' has printed one or two luke-warm protesta- tions on trade between the Stalinist bureaucracies and Spain, tucked away at the end of general statements by the Spanish CP. There was a straight Reuter news agency report on the Moscow-Madrid pact. Since then, two letters have been published: one con- demned the deals; the reply, headed 'Leninist , de- VieW' fended the deals and the Hitler-Stalin pact and opposed Trotskyists. There has all never been any independent editorial statement. As a matter of urgency, Bri- tish Communist Party members should demand a statement in the 'Star' condemning these deals with Franco's Fascist re- gime and calling for their ter- mination immediately. As we have seen, they threaten the future of the wor- ing class in Europe and the property relations established as a result of the 1917 Bol- shevik Revolution. If there are still any doubts about these dangers, then ser- ious consideration should be given to the military position of Falangist Spain. During May, a contingent of Italian Admirals and teachers the Italian School of from Naval Warfare spent a week visiting their Spanish counter- parts. As part of the get-together 12 boats and 1,000 men from the Italian and Spanish navies were involved in joint manoeu- vres in the Mediterranean.

This was the first of a series.

In June there were manoeuvres with the French navy and they have also taken place with the Portuguese. It was hardly surprising then that Admiral Richard Colbert, new commander-in-chief of the

NATO

forces in southern Europe should have made the following statement at his first Press conference at the general barracks in Naples: 'Without doubt there would be advantages for all the coun- tries of the alliance if Spain and other countries played a bigger part in the defence of this territory..? Spain has recently renewed with military agreements France and the United States.

The US has bases in Spain. The French forces have been in- volved in frequent joint train- ing activity in 'anti-subversion' exercises. In fact, General Maurin, esday November 15, 1972 hipping delegation and eastern Euro of the Bolshevik revolution. The re Spain since the trade unions and pa unist Party remained absolutely silen volutionary pact between the Kremli osing Stalinism's friendship with the López Bravo, who wants 'order' in Eur order, Nixon. Both are in favour of the Conference. Above: Juan Carlos shake head of French armed forces, during h background, Diaz Alegria, Franco's top g head of the French armed forces, has just spent a week in high-level discussions with the Spanish military and gov- ernment. He also visited many Spanish military installations.

On October 24 the generals converged on Madrid. In an atmosphere of 'great rn European representatives in Spai The reception had official authoriz › and parties of the working class we ely silent on this crime against the w Kremlin and Franco. Today our spe ith the fascists. er' in Europe, chats with follow 'man of ur of the forthcoming European Security 'los shakes hands with General Maurin, , during his recent visit to Spain. In the co's top general. cordiality and camaraderie' Maurin met his Spanish oppo- site number Diaz Alegria. Hav- ing discussed 'matters of great interest for both countries, they heard a lecture on the 'Military and Political situation in Spain' at the National De- fence Centre. in Spain held a cocktail reception p ruthorization from the fascist autho lass were destroyed in the Spanish ( st the working class as they have bee our special writer on Spanish affairs, Also in Madrid on October 24 were General Goodpaster, head of the United States in Europe, and his Forces second-in-command, General Burchinal. They had talks with Lopez Bravo and Diaz Alegria under the auspices of the 'Joint Committee for Spanish-North- American Defence'. That so much military top- brass were in Madrid at the same time was surely no coin- cidence! They were preparing for civil war in Europe to destroy a strong and undefeated work- ing class which fights to de- fend its rights. The next round of prepara- will be the European tion Security Conference on Nov- ember 22 in Helsinki, called mainly on the initiative of the Soviet Union. The Stalinist bureaucracy has made it quite plain that it wants both Spain and Greece to participate. In May, in relation to Nixon's visit to Moscow, Lopez Bravo stated: "The European Conference of Secu- rity and Co-operation can be the means of ratifying some principles of order in the life of Europe accepted by every- one, with no dangers of devia- tions. . ? These 'principles of order' are the principles of the coun ter-revolution. The Stalinists in Moscow taking responsibility for are getting the military accord necessary to defend capitalist private property in the Euro- pean Common Market. This is a continuation of the same policies of peaceful co- ption party in Madrid to cele- it authorities and was the first ›anish Civil War. The 'Morning ave been on the whole develop- 1 affairs, Juan Garcia, continues existence with the bourgeoisie which led to the defeat of the Spanish revolution, and re- storation of capitalism in France, Italy and Greece at the end of World War II. The bureaucracy hopes that by serving the European bour- geoisie in western Europe, it will get some help in dealing with the working class in east- ern Europe and preserve its existence as a privileged bur- eaucracy through crushing the working class in Europe. The Lopez Bravos and Pom- pidous of Europe will accept their assistance with arrogance and contempt. Their real as- piration however, is to re- establish capitalist rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The greatest obstacle to this conspiracy is the strength of the working class and the rapid growth of the Trotskyist movement. The Fourth International de- veloped its struggle for Marx- ist principle in the years of working class defeat in isola- tion and under physical attacks from the Stalinists. Only the Fourth Interna- tional calls for an end to col- laboration with the Common Market and European Security Conference, joint conspiracies against the working class and for Lenin's demand for the United Socialist States of Europe. That is why only the Work- ers Press condemned the break- ing of the Asturian miners' strike by the Polish govern- ment and the Moscow-Madrid pact.

CONCLUDED.

Sotheby's, the pukka Victoriar saleroom in Maytair, was the scene of a neat piece of 'beat- the-freeze' last Tuesday.

Here is how the Press Asso- ciation described the event: 'A Meissen coffee pot and cover, part of a tea and coffee service discovered in a house fetched in Dumiriesshire, £40,000 at Sotheby's today.'

No freeze here. £40,000 is a world auction record for any piece of European porcelain, the previous highest price being 28,000 gns tor a Chan- tilly clock at Christie's in 1966. Careful scrutiny of the Tories' eight-page counter- inflation (Temporary Pro- visions) Bill reveals no refer- ence to such transactions.

Which could be a consider- able loophole. If you have that sort of gear lying around, that IS. The day after the Palestinian guerrillas' attack on the Israeli Olympic Games team in Munich, French Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin called in the Police Prefect of Paris and asked him: 'If that happened here, what would you have done?' Prefect Jacques Lenoir has anti-commando created an consisting of 40 brigade carefully- highly-trained and selected policemen. They are all physical-fitness instructors and the best marksmen in the force. They are armed with revolvers and rifles which can fire normal and anaesthetizing bullets.

They are on call round the clock and eight of them at any time can reach any point in Paris in 15 minutes by following carefully-studied The remainder routes. can become operational in less than an hour, though the time has to be doubled if they have to reach the airports of Orly or Le Bourget. little series has A nasty in the right-wing started comic, 'Titbits'. . It has revived those carboard parodies first brought to the screen by the Boulting I'm Brothers Alright Jack', the anti-working class film of the early 1960s.

The star of the series is Fred shop steward in the Kite, the original 'I'm Alright Jack'. Kite then combined everything that was worst in the working class; phoney militancy, stupidity, racism and greed. It was deliberate propaganda designed to undermine trade unionism.

is 'Titbits' series The no better. Kite is now the chief of his union. The story opens with him in Spain; we have the expected racial slurs and the cheap chauvinism. The first instalment concerns a factory closure. The workers backward portrayed as are and incapable of breaking free and his corrupt from Kite bureaucratic control. kind Thankfully this of tawdry propaganda has less and less impact. Workers are rejecting the fantasy world of created by the Mr Kite, film and press in- capitalist dustry, for the real world of struggle with Tory class government. After making their speeches the second reading on Heath's Inflation Bill last week, Reginald Maudling and Roy Jenkins left the House.

Complained Arthur Lewis, Labour MP for West Ham North: 'There are certain company and certain directors ex- Ministers on both sides of the House who, as soon as they leave office, rush around getting dozens of director- getting thousands of ships, pounds for part-time work, then they have the audacity, the hypocrisy, to come into the House and say "if only the their workers would control excessive wage demands"?

LEON TROTSKY:

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186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG.

TORY PRESS BY ALEX MITCHE

If you've been following the newspapers from the Murdoch stable over the past few days you would end up with a strange view of what is the most important news in the world today. Have Rupert Murdoch's newspapers been concentrat- ing on Heath's state pay plan?

Have they examining been events in Vietnam? The mean- ing of the US election? The takeover mania in the City of The big factory London? closures? These appear small beer 'Sun' down at the and the World'. The 'News of the Murdoch 'scoop' first appeared last Friday. The : front page of 'Sun' carried the his erotic banner headline: TV CEN-

SORS CHOP

CHRISTMAS

FUN SHOWS'.

Curiously, the article did by-line. That is to not carry a say, it was not signed in the traditional way by one of the 'Sun's' journalists. It was sim- ply signed 'by "Sun" reporter'.

The 'scoop' read: 'Christ- mas this year has been can- on commercial televi- celled sion—by order of the ITV's own "censors" For the Independent Broad- casting Authority has scrap- ped all ITV's traditional holi- day fun shows.' 'Christmas cancelled on commercial television', 'fun shows censored off the air'- these are diabolical infringe- ments of the Yuletide spirit!

On Saturday, the 'Sun' re- turned to the theme in its main editorial. "The censors of the Independent Broad- casting Authority really are funny people. Funny peculiar, that is They threw back the programme companies' Christ- schedules because the mas schedules are too entertaining.

Don't they know what tele- vision is all about? Or don't they care?' stinging This attack was followed on Sunday in another front-page, leading article in the 'News of the World', the largest selling Sunday news- the world. 'WE paper

DON'T LIKE IT! WE WON'T

LUMP IT!'

Lambasting the IBA, the 'News of the World' said: 'The stuck-up chaps who run ITV are clearly out of their tiny minds. They are going to give you a 2t-hour dose of Verdi's the Macbeth, opera, over Christmas holidays - whether you like or not. "The attitude of the Inde- pendent Broadcasting Author- ity (run by ex-public school headmaster Brian Young) is: Like it or lump it. Well, we don't we won't like it-and we speak lump it. We reckon for almost all our 154 million readers when we say that Macbeth-minded men are the wrong people to dictate what goes on our screens. What we want is entertainment first.'

The 'News of the World' as the defender of the interests of the average viewer gets laughable: For even more heaven's sake,' the paper went on, 'we all work hard enough to deserve some fun on the box when day is done, don't we?' The article ended with competition. Readers were in- Workers Press, Wednesday

MITCHELL

THE

GO INTH THE PEOPLE 30

Frlday, Novordeer 10, 1972 CHRISTMAS this celled order of the ITV's For the Independent ity lins serapped all IT full shows The 'Sun's' front page last Friday. Abe vited to send letters setting what they wanted for out Christmas viewing. The prize?

A colour television for Christ- mas. What, might you innocently ask, is the purpose of all this ballyhoo in the Press owned by this Australian media tycoon? What neither the 'Sun' nor the 'News of the World' tells you is that Murdoch has a large personal stake in Lon- | Television, the don Weekend David Frost-owned channel.

Murdoch and his friends in the banking world are scream- ing way because their abysmal Christmas schedules are under attack. Remember last year's? Sev- enty-two hours of re-runs of re-runs. The commercial channels scarcely spent a penny making special holiday shows and yet they cleaned up handsomely with prime Christmas adver- tising. It was this media scan- dal which forced the tame-cat IBA-for the first time-to gently wrap a knuckle or two and ask for some decent pro- gramming. The suggestion that the IBA wants to overload Christmas - /ednesday November 15, 1972 PAGE 9

SPECIAL TODAY IN

THE NON-STOP SUN

A message of hope for women everywhere -Page 13 By SUN REPORTER HRISTMAS this year has been can- 5,000 reb elled on commercial television-by rder of the TV's own "censors.

For the Independent Broadcasting Author- doctors mi y line serapped all ITV's traditional holiday anera Macheth riday. Above: Rupert Murdoch. viewing with high brow operas is nonsense. The ballyhoo in the Mur- doch Press is a clearcut ex- ample of how newspapers are used as vehicles for the per- interests sonal business of their proprietors. Sir Max Aitkin, head of the Beaverbrook group (the 'Daily Express' and the London 'Eve- ning Standard') was a great champion of the Tory plan to introduce commercial radio. It was later discovered his com- pany was floating a subsidiary to snap up as many licences as they could. Lord Thomson and his Times Newspapers were the most fervent commentators on travel schemes abroad and the North Sea oil industry. This editorial line had to be seen against Thomson's heavy financial involvement in the world and his stake in travel the oil boom. The editor of 'Scotsman' went off to the head his oil interests. The overriding consideration of the Tory press is to pre- serve capitalism and the per- sonal stake in that system which all the proprietors en- joy. Real 'news' is relegated accordingly.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday November 15, 1972 Socialist Labour League

LECTURES

Thursday November 16 A theory of knowledge Thursday November 23 Opponents of Marxism

BBC 1

Thursday November 30 Marxiam the science of 9.15 Schools. 12.30 Nai zindagi porspective 1.00 naya jeevan. 12.55 News.

SOUTH OXFORD

Pebble Mill at one. 1.30 Mary. Mungo and Midge. 1.45 Made in

COMMUNITY CENTRE

Britain. 2.05 Schools. 2.50 Flying Lake Street, 8 p.m. 3.30 Master- through 50 years 4.00 4.10 Play mind. The mole. 4.35 Magic roundabout. school. 4.55 The 4.40 Jackanory. aero- 5.20 Search. 5.45 News nauts. and weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.50 TOM AND JERRY.

f Marxist

SAFARI.

7.00 WILDLIFE

sunday December I theory of knowledge Andes.

IMPOSSIBLE.

unday December 1

7.25 MISSION

pponents of Marxisn The Bunker.

SOFTLY: TASK

BEAVER HALL

at Mansion House tube

O'CLOCK

NEWS.

9.00 NINE

7.30 p.m. Weather. National

9.25 SPORTSNIGHT.

Lectures given by G. Healy five-a-side soccer Cham- European pionship and SLL national secretary boxing light-heavyweiaht championship.

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE?

10.00

LIVERPOOL

Conservative and Unionist Party political broadcast. 10.15 SPORTSNIGHT continued.

Wednesday November 15

11.00 MIDWEEK.

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1919-1924

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12.15 Weather. Dale Street, 7.30 p.m. Wednesday November 22 The Third International 1924-1929 Wednesday November 29 11.00-11.25 Play school. Stalinism 1932-1938 7.05 MAN AT WORK. I'd like to Work with Babies. Wednesday December 6

7.30 NEWSROOM.

Trotskylsm and the founding of Weather. the Fourth International

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Joan Bakewell talks to

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ON 2. Music (1922-1972). Scrapbook off Dale Street, 7.30 p.m.

Some of those associated Lectures given by with the growth of radio Tom Kemp (SLL Central and 1922 televison since Committee) talk to David Franklin. I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SECRETARY,

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Name. Address. The dally paper that leads the flght against the Torles. {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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ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 Yoga. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Adventures of Rupert Bear. 12.40 First report.

1.00 Scotch corner. 1.30 Crown court. 2.00 Harriet's back in town. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Looks familiar. 3.30 Danger man.

NY. 4.25 Lift off. 4.50 Ace of wands.

od. 5.20 University challenge. 5.50 News. 9.10 MAN ALIVE. What Shall We Do With Granny?

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE?

10.00 Conservative and Unionist Party poltical broadcast.

10.15

IN PRAISE OF WATER-

COLOUR. Recording Bri- tain. 10.30 FILM: 'CONVICT 99'. Will Hay. By mistake a head- master is appointed gover- nor of a tough prison. 11.55 NEWS ON 2. Weather. WORKERS up and down the country are incensed by the treatment of their wage claims impending and the Tory government's attitude to them. Noel Linstead, chairman of the cokemen's branch of the Nat- ional Union of Mineworkers at the Homefire plant at Keres- ley, Yorkshire told Workers Press: I believe the recent talks at Chequers have wasted vital time for us. Whatever agree- ment they came to, nobody can tell us what to accept on wages-and worse, by taking part the TUC helped the Tories to stay in office.

"The proposed freeze could easily lead to a General Strike which, to my mind, should be the government, resignation of to demand the Noel, who is a Labour Party member and one of the lead- ers in the Bedworth council fight against the rents Act, thought for a moment on the outcome of such an election: *If the Tories got back on an anti-union platform I think they would really crack the whip and go to town on us. But if Labour get in, and I think they will, then we have to demand socialist policies.

"The first thing they would have to get rid of is the Industrial Relations Act, then the rent Act and a full programme of nationalization, banks, the lot.'

He added: 'And if they don't do these things, we will have to form a workers' government.' by mistake and mes a prison governor Mole' (played by Moore Marriott) in Illl Hay films being shown on BBC 2.

6.00 TODAY.

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7.30 CORONATION STREET.

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10.00 WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE?

Conservative and Unionist Party political broadcast.

10.15 NEWS AT TEN.

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Wales v. England.

LATE NIGHT THEATRE:

11.50

'THE

CARRIER

BAG'.

Brendan Price, Carrie Lee Baker. 12.20

SCOTLAND

YARD MYS-

TERIES. Wall of Death. 12.50

PRISONERS

OF

CON-

SCIENCE. Paul Oestreicher talks to journalist Peter Schumacher about prison- ers in Indonesia. This miner, who has many bitter memories of past Tory govern- ments, then said: 'I accept such 1 government would be revolutionary because these demands in this situation are revolutionary. If the Socialist Labour League has pledged it- self to launch such a party, it has my support and I would join it.' When asked about the miners' claim, Noel said: 'I don't think the NUM executive will dare accept statutory control to being imposed on the claim, but I am annoyed at them Febru- holding it back until ary. 'I think this is playing into the hands of the government. Put it this way. We would have led the way, but it is because of our strength and the sup- port we could have had that we have been held back. 'The Tories couldn't have with- stood another major defeat.

Everybody knows that. And successful because we were last time, they pulled us out of the front line.' The Journal of Internationat Marxism Committee of the Fou

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WINTER 1972-1973 EDITION

apham High Street, London, SW4 7UG Price 25p international class struggle - workers' states and political revolution sition to Fourth International..

Navy 'riddled with fraud'

A JUDGE

yesterday handed out jail sentences and fines to 80 defen- dants in the navy fraud Winchester trial at Crown Court. Among the 17 defendants jailed for terms ranging up to four years were a lieutenant commander, sub-lieutenant a and seven chief petty officers.

They were stationed at south coast ports. In passing sentence the judge described the case as 'a blatant and downright fraud. During the trial the prosecution stated that THE LOWER house of the Japanese parliament has been dissolved, opening the way for a General Election which will probably be held on December 10. It will be the first General Election since premier Kakuei Tanaka took over the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democrat Party last July. The decision to hold an elec- tion reflects deep crisis within Japanese employing class which is fighting hard to stave off a revaluation of the yen.

The Japanese currency been at its parity ceiling since July and the central bank has been forced to impose stringent foreign exchange controls.

The yen was revalued by 16 per cent in last year's Washing- ton currency realignment agree- But Japan's ment. capitalist competitors,_ notably the United States and Europe, are demand- ing further measures to cut the Japanese export drive. Tanaka is hoping to achieve an increased majority in the elec- tions following his conclusion of a peace treaty and diplomatic relations with Peking. The two countries signed a commercial treaty allowing considerable expansion of Japan's trade with China. A WIDE range of essential consumer gonds and luxury items leapt in price by 5 to 30 per cent at the weekend as the Sri Lanka government imposed increases in busi- ness turnover tax. Amons 73 items affected and listed in the Government Gazette are jewellery, choco- perfumes, lates, electrical goods, ready-made garments, rootwear and umbrellas. Finance Minister Dr N. M.

Perera told the parliament in his budget speech the tax increase would bring in an extra 20 million rupees (£1.25m) a year to the treasury. Perera is leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, formerly the Pabloite revision- ist section in Ceylon. The LSSP is part of a coalition government headed by Mrs sirimavo Bandaranaike. more than . 90 defendants-two had been cleared and others are yet to appear-were involved in offences covering 57 ships and 26 shore establishments through- out Britain. Between 1966 and 1971 the total amount involved was in the region of £110,000. More than 80 of those charged were Navy personnel. The trial had revealed la horri- fying picture of catering depart- ments and naval establishments which for long years, it seems, have been riddled with corrup-

GEORGES

SEGUY,

Communist Party gen- eral secretary of the

CGT

written a letter to French Interior Min- ister Marcellin protest- ing against what he police practices which are completely inad- missible'. Séguy describes how for some trade union officials and militants have been summonsed to their local police station and in- - terrogated. The police have asked about their the wages, names their previous employers, their trade union political and Georges Seguy: Lotters 1o In.

terior Minister. activity as well as the activities of their relatives. This protest from Séguy, to- gether with the big boost given to the police budget by Mar- cellin last week, reveals that the French bourgeoisie's corp- orate state plans are at an advanced stage. Stalinists' The actions smooth the path for such developments by consciously dissipating the struggle of the French working class. Only yesterday, French rail- wayworkers began a four-day series of selective strikes for a new wage agreement, during which each region will be called out separately. The government has said that it will begin negotiations tion and dishonsety, Mr Justice Bridge said. He went on: 'I am concerned with a blatant and downright frauda fraud on the public which has been persistent and widespread.' He said the practice of provi- sion suppliers paying a cent commission to naval cater- ing officers had been an accepted thing. 'But I want to say in unmis- takable terms there can't be the slightest doubt that the giving and receiving of these bribes in-

BY A FOREIGN

CORRESPONDENT

December 1, but railway- on workers demanded immediate action from their union leaders, who have responded with the time-honoured weapon French Stalinists-the selective strike. be Railwayworkers wil joined in their sporadic action this week by public employees who are being called out in the following rota: town hall employees yesterday, postmen today and dustmen and hospital workers on Thursday.

The French Communist Party and Socialist Party, through the trade-union feder- ations they dominate-the CGT and CPDT-have deliberately isolated any prolonged strikes.

Potash miners in Alsace Lorraine, now in the fourth week of their strike have no contact with any sectors on strike this week. Yet on Monday, the CGT Federation in Alsace con- government's demned the 'conscious wish to prolong the strike' This position was supported by the editorial in yesterday's 'L'Humanité' on the present strike wave. The Stalinist daily explained the reasonable demands being put forward and the reason- able attitude of the trade union leaders: •A hundred times they pleaded, explained and demon- their case. A hundred strated times, they have taken at their woo talked of dialogue tors negotiators agreement. They fomented dialogue and sought for agree- ment. Workers Press, Wednesd volves criminal oftences.'

If anyone in the past had been in doubt about that, there could be no such doubt in future.

It must be made clear by the sentences passed that when such activities came to light, they attract punishment in a way which certainly demonstrates that fraud doesn't pay.' He said there were mitigating factors applicable to nearly all the defendants. 'But it is clear that the kind of frauds involved in this case are no novelty-they have been going on at least since 1965, probably a great deal longer.

And they have been very wide- spread.' This prostration before premier Pierre Messmer and President Pompidou ends on for 'responsible call a government' which will avoid all conflicts-the joint CP-SP government which they are campaigning for. So whilst the Stalinists and CGT leadership call for more and more dialogue, Marcellin's police interrogate trade union- ists and train their special 'anti-terrorist' 'public and order' squads. That is a loyal continuation of the betrayal of the May- June 1968 General Strike.

re-s

ELEVEN GYPSIES

were manded on bail yesterday after a demonstration outside Buck- ingham Palace. They all pleaded not guilty to obstructing police, not having Department of the permission Environment in the Queen's Gardens, camp failing to remove their caravans and staying in St James's Park against the orders of the police.

They remanded until were December 22. C. T. BOWRING, the big insur- ance group, which also owns hire purchase firm Bowmaker, is going into the Common Market stock exchanges. It is arranging for its shares to be listed on the Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels and Milan exchanges.

The date for the first dealings is November 28. Bowring's are the first company to attempt simultaneous international quotes. Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62}p

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186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG. Wednesday November 15, 1972 PAGE 11 PROVISIONAL Sinn Fein vice- president Mrs Maire Drumm (42), has been sent for trial to the Republic's Special Criminal Court.

She is on three charges arising out of a speech she made at Navan last St Patrick's Day.

Detained last Sunday, she was charged with inciting people to inciting procure arms, persons to become members of an un- lawful organization and with being a member of an unlawful organization, the IRA. A 50-strong picket of Sinn Fein supporters gathered outside Monday the court at Lucan on shouting: 'Release Maire.'

PILKINGTON

management union officials today meet over the threatened closure of the firm's sheet glass- works on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. The glass monopoly says the plant has to close, throwing 400 men on the dole, in six months' time. Pilkington say the glass made at the Queensborough plant on the Isle of Sheppey can be sup- plied from Pontypool, South Wales, and St Helens, Lancashire.

The 400 workers threatened with the sack have formed an action committee to fight for their jobs. Officials and shop stewards of the General and Municipal Wor- kers' Union make up most of the committee which is enlisting the support of local MPs and the council. JOSEPH LUCAS profits rose last year to a record £21.5m- £6.4m up on 1970-1971. Sales in the 12 months to July 1972 rose from £319m to £340m. After-tax profits work out at £13.4m, as against £9.2m the year pre- viously. The rise in profits is reported to have come from a £4.8m turnaround from loss into profits in aircraft equipment at the trading level and the absence of the previous year's £1.8m provision against Rolls-Royce debt. LORD MOUNTBATTEN'S grand- daughter, one of six students suspended from college after a drugs inquiry, will not be charged. Headmaster David Sut- cliffe of Atlantic College, St Donats, Glamorgan, said he understood police action might be taken against one girl, but not against Joanna Knatchbull, daughter of Lord and Lady Brabourne and grand-daughter of Lord Mountbatten. All Trades Unions Alliance

MEETINGS

LEICESTER: Thursday • Novem- ber 16, 8 p.m. Southfields Library. Saffron Lane. SWANSEA: Thursday November 16, 7 p.m. Council of Social Ser- vices, Mount Pleasant Hill (nr fire station). BIRKENHEAD: Sunday Novem- ber 19, 7.30 p.m. Pier Hotel, Woodside. CORBY: Sunday November 19, 7.30 p.m. Nag's Head. Old Vil- lage. BASINGSTOKE: Sunday, Novem- ber 19, 7 p.m. The Hop Leaf, Church Street. BRACKNELL: Monday November 20, 8 p.m. Priestwood Community Centre. WEALDSTONE: Tuesday, Movem- ber 21, 8 p.m. Labour Hall. Station Road.

AUEW chiefs wait and see PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday November 15, 1972

WE ARE

now almost half face constant rising Fund is vital in way our moninly the production of Workers Press the but we are an month, Everything there- you can raise, still long way from their standaro or livina target of £1,750. Help us step needed. col- 1018, Only Workers Press shows the away and turn lect as much as you possibly can. the fight right this way Try and raise extra amounts Post situation. Workers all over the all donations immediately to: that the No one will lind themselves Toled law is not just a "pay Workers Press struggles into is state control over freeze'. Tory against the government. November Addeal Fund wages leaving unions redundant. Our paper, alone, must provide 186a Clapham High • Street London SW4 7UG. the leadership to make It resign.

Meanwhile workers everywhere how the in reality nothing they But the NEITHER of the dispute present which from lawyers was en cineers two Relations Act could do. section leaders were in a Industrial would bring it into conflict big issues facing far more conciliatory mood with the law. and the workers Yesterday's operate. спасешь meeting was westerody the engineers 'lefts' was considered by their Some were work- wait-and-see leaders time No one, Scanlon said, spent some hard at hard. ing union leaders yesterday. mooa on tne suoject yesterday speculating about had so much as mentioned £5,000 contempt fine im- the possibility of contempt exact Hugh Scanlon, president Tne Tecal stans posed by the National playing actions or sequest- strikes for an court Amalgamated Union find "ways the Industrial Relations Court. for implementation (the Engineering Workers, said one. callarlull law from us' _ine position Was

LACT

after the 90-day Ines De conmiss oes we Sallasull. however said said atter a the union was in contempt, Scan on. seize the union's entire had ing of said. Presumably The executive amal- the executive The encimeers NO1 scanion assets). section executive that the gamated union's discussed the implications steps LaKel clash posibility of a they for the section to collect the money. engineers Consenca

(TASS)

declared clash between TASS the Tories pav-control law Both Scanlon and had gone to all kinds of had not been discussed. trouble to set up 'protected meeting that the law. He would secretary engineers section ahead funds', which they thought As far as the executive im conway relerica satep- declare he said, the ishly to 'all the wonderful could not strikes the engineers migh Tonened Was had received the Act, only to find there Tory law. their position on the law.

advice' they union was involved in no NO IS

• SUPPORTAN

BY DAVID MAUDE

A THREAT of widespread pit closures was James Midlothian yesterday issued in National Scottish director of the Cowan, Coal Board. people 'Unless we get better output from the presently least pits, economic from shedding Cowan told a conterence ordelecales tron evely pit in Scotland. Mick Scottish area president of the McGahey Communist of Mineworkers and a National Union Party executive member, said he was conndent of improved productivity. The mining industry Scotland could look forward to a future based on South Africa.

MEMBERS

of the Anti- Karane furs sales In 1971-1972 the karakul Apartheid movement, the Tulr productivity for the benefit of the industry and for National Union of Stu- South African government, fur trade earned £18m those who were employed in it.

said, defiance farms Namibia. demon- are dens ouners of The conference endorsed programme strated of a United Nations motion in thA City measures to speed up 'the industry's recovery'.

London yesterday in pro- against the demand andam Namibian people for €10 month, including In the latest issue of the NCB's 'Coal News', sales

LESL

payment in kind. from national chairman Derek Ezra boasts of a 'virtual South-West African se f-determination between the board and the miners' Besides putting off its claim on all major decisions apart from have alreadv twice but off sub- for increases of up to £5.50 and unions. mitting their latest pay claim, wages and conditions. will round the table with £7, which will now not even be The unions are already par- get attempts These are pelo discuss precisely board to spurred along by properly formulated next Lue until mittee with their employers, that. the NUM is locked in threats not month, will be • On, mutual oints out. It of the Coal At a meeting available to the industrv discussions with the Coal Board uniess benefit active loint Industry National Consultative the unions, particularly the about a wide-ranging new pro co-operation to cover every pos- 21, NUM, toe the line. Pit closures, November Council ductivity scheme for the indus- sible sphere. attempts will be as Cowan made clear vesterday.

nace o eran try. week the unions, who union leaders into policy-making are the whip. Next CELEBRATE 3rd ANNIVERSARY OF WORKERS PRESS (See p. 1)

LIVERPOOL

Speakers: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Committee) SUNDAY DECEMBER 3, 7 p.m.

JOHN HOWE (Deputy AUEW convenor, CAV) CONNIE FAHEY (Wilmslow tenants' leader) Everyman Theatre ALAN PEERS (Young Socialists' national committee) (Union and tenant speakers in a personal capacity.)

NEWCASTLE

Speakers: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central committee) DAVID JONES (YS national committee) BOB MAINS (Unemployed) County Hotel VINCENT FOY (secretary Jarrow Trades Council.

In personal capacity.)

GLASGOW

Speakers : MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Committee) JOHN BARRIE (YS national committee) Woodside Halls WILLIE DOCHERTY (chairman Tenants' Paisley Action Committee. In personal capacity.)

St George's Cross

BIRMINGHAM

Speakers :

SATURDAY NOI

G. HEALY (SLL National Secretary) SUNDAY DECEMBER 17.7 p.m.

WILLIE AITKIN (YS national committee) East India Assembly Hall PETER SMITH (Rover shop steward. In personal tast india DOc capacity.) Digbeth Civic Hall Dobra open 12 noon LORD KEARTON, chairman of Courtauld's, yesterday held a surprise meeting with shop stewards at the Skelmersdale factory, Lancashire, where 1,000 jobs are at risk. The stewards put forward their formula to save the jobs of employees become redundant if the firm carries out last week's threat to close the £7m plant. Lord Kearton met the stewards last Friday and told them the works was doomed • because of continuing industrial troubles.

But he gave them a week to bring forward a solution to save the jobs. THE STRIKE by Southampton lorry drivers has ended follow- ing the reinstatement of a sacked shop steward. But the drivers, who had stopped all road haulage move- ment within the Southampton docks, decided to ban the use ot chains as a method of securing container loads. This was the issue over which steward Norman Phillips was dismissed by Southampton Road Transport. • Gurnsey dockers yesterday continued their strike for better pay and conditions, also blocking the export of tomatoes from the island by air. NORTH VIETNAM's chief negotiator Le Duc Tho flew to Paris yesterday to continue talks with the United States to show what Radio Hanoi called 'the goodwill and serious approach to negotiations by the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam'. Also en route to more peace talks in Paris were Nixon's adviser Henry Kissinger and negotiator, South Vietnam's Pham Dang Lam. Lam confirmed reports that the North Vietnamese had agreed to withdraw troops from the northern area of Quang Tri and that the visit of Kissinger's man General Haig had brought the United States and South Vietnam closer together. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London,

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