Workers Press no. 931 (921)

workers press MacSTIOFAIN!

DAILY OF

MERSEYSIDE dock stewards are to 'seek support' in the wider trade union movement before fighting the Tory pay control law. A 3,000-strong mass meeting yesterday morning was told that dockers alone could not defeat the law, which has blocked im- plementation of a five-hour cut in the working week agreed in May of this year.

Dockers who asked from the floor of the meeting for re-imposition of a black container the Seaforth terminal- on opened in May after the hours cut was promised-were told by stewards' chair- man Jim Symes that the hours issue could not be tackled 'in isolation'.

The stewards are to approach the Liver- council and their opposite pool trades numbers in other industries in Merseyside possibility of united to sound out the action of all those hit by the law.

Last week a five-man delegation from the port stewards' committee travelled to London, where port employers decided that law prevents them granting any in- crease in the annual pay review due on January 1. They discussed with London docks ste- wards, and met Jack Jones, Transport and and General Workers Union secretary, Tim O'Leary. T&GWU docks secretary Jones agreed to travel to Merseyside to speak both to the mittee and a docker Port stewards' com- mass meeting on the issues. But the T&GWU leaders are understood to have strongly advised against any form by dockers which of industrial action would bring them in to conflict with the pay control law. And it was evident from yesterday's meeting that a majority of stewards agreed with this line.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

SEAN MacSTIOFAIN was found g member of the IRA. He was sentence by a Special Criminal Court in Dub nounced MacStiofain banged his fist cried: 'I'll be dead in six days. I'll se I submit.' MacStiofain has been on hunger strike since he was arrested on November 19 and was being forcibly fed yesterday. The Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League calls on all workers in Britain and throughout Ireland to demand the immediate release of MacStiofain. Behind this sentence stands Heath and the Tory government. Lynch and the govern- ment and courts of Eire are the puppets of British imperialism.

The arrest of MacStiofain coincided with Lynch's visit for private talks with the The attack British Tory Prime Minister.

therefore, MacStiofain is, an attack on on the entire working-class movement.

It is not just an Irish question', but a for the British working vital question class, itself under savage attack from the Tories on wages, rents, prices and trade union freedom. Entry into the Common will Market, by both Britain and Eire, mean an enormous drop in the standard of living for the working class in both countries. In fighting its Tory rulers, the working class must declare openly that it will not permit MacStiofain to die. There can be no doubt the British and Eire authorities are willing to let this happen.

Forced feeding does not guarantee that On the contrary, will live. the victim people have died under that brutal opera- subsequently the authorities tion — and cleared of all responsibility.

If MacStiofain dies he will join the long list of Irish martyrs who have given MONDAY NOVEMBER 27, 1972 • No 921 • 4p

MITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAG

* MacSTIOFAIN: He must n ound guilty on Saturday of being a entenced to six months' imprisonment in Dublin. When sentence was pro- his fist on the bench before him and . I'll see you dead and in hell before Release O'Kelly too their lives in the struggle against British imperialism. But his death would solve nothing for the imperialists. On the con- trary, it would create more problems for them. As it is, his heroism will increase the determination of the Irish people in their fight for freedom. In this they are in marked contrast to the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

These dignitaries-so quick to condemn 'excesses' of those fighting against nothing imperialism - have said British of MacStiofain, about the jailing nor about the 20 Republican prisoners who 'A' wing strike in have been on hunger of Belfast prison for the past 13 days.

R LEAGUE

He must not be allowed to die The Catholic Church stands exposed as being on the side of imperialism and exploitation-as it has been throughout its history. The Socialist Labour League has very important political differences with Mac- Stiofain. His present action reflects the limits of terrorism and bourgeois national- ism. It can contribute nothing to solve the problems of Ireland. That requires the unity of the Irish working class, Catholic and Protestant, north and south, together with brothers in the British labour movement, around revolutionary struggle programme against capitalism in Britain and Ireland.

This means the formation of revolu- tionary parties, sections of the Fourth International, in Britain and Ireland.

But despite these differences, it must be MacStiofain said that is heroic Irish a patriot and fighter against British imperial- to die. • All trade union branches must flood their head office with demands for action to force his release. • Copies of these demands must be sent to the Embassy at 17 Grosvenor Place.

S.W.1. • Demonstrations must be organized in all parts of Britain. • Trade unionists must also demand the immediate release of Kevin O'Kelly, news features editor of Radio Telefis Eireann, who was jailed by the same court for refusing to identify the man he had inter- viewed in a radio broadcast.

The campaign for the release of Mac- Stiofain and O'Kelly is inseparable from the fight to defend basic workers rights by bringing down the Tory government.

November 26, 1972

workers press MacSTIOFAIN!

DAILY OF

MERSEYSIDE dock stewards are to 'seek support' in the wider trade union movement before fighting the Tory pay control law. A 3,000-strong mass meeting yesterday morning was told that dockers alone could not defeat the law, which has blocked im- plementation of a five-hour cut in the working week agreed in May of this year.

Dockers who asked from the floor of the meeting for re-imposition of a black the Seaforth container terminal— on opened in May after the hours cut was promised—were told by stewards' chair- man lim Symes that the hours issue could not be tackled 'in isolation'.

The stewards are to approach the Liver- and their opposite pool trades council numbers in other industries in Merseyside possibility of united to sound out the action of all those hit by the law.

Last week a five-man delegation from the port stewards' committee travelled to London, where port employers decided that law prevents them granting any in- crease in the annual pay review due on January 1. They discussed with London docks ste- wards, and met Jack Jones, Transport and and Workers Union General secretary, • Tim O'Leary. T&GWU docks secretary Iones agreed to travel to Merseyside to speak both to the port stewards' com- mittee and a dockers' mass meeting on the issues. But the T&GWU leaders are understood to have strongly advised against any form which by dockers of industrial action would bring them in to conflict with the pay control law. evident from yesterday's And it was meeting that a majority of stewards agreed with this line.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

SEAN MacSTIOFAIN was found g member of the IRA. He was sentence by a Special Criminal Court in Dul nounced MacStiofain banged his fist cried: 'I'll be dead in six days. I'll se I submit.' MacStiofain has been on hunger strike since he was arrested on November 19 and was being forcibly fed yesterday. The Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League calls on all workers in Britain and throughout Ireland to demand the immediate release of MacStiofain. Behind this sentence stands Heath and the Tory government. Lynch and the govern- of Eire are the ment and courts puppets of British imperialism.

The arrest of MacStiofain coincided with Lynch's visit for private talks with the British Tory Prime Minister. The attack therefore, MacStiofain is, an attack on on the entire working-class movement.

It is not just an 'Irish question', but a for the British working vital question class, itself under savage attack from the rents, prices and trade lories on wages, union freedom. Entry into the Commor Market, by both Britain and Eire, will mean an enormous drop in the standard of living for the working class in both countries. In fighting its Tory rulers, the working class must declare openly that it will not permit MacStiofain to die. There can be no doubt the British and Eire authorities are willing to let this happen.

Forced feeding does not guarantee that will live. On the contrary, the victim people have died under that brutal opera- subsequently tion - and the authorities cleared of all responsibility.

If MacStiofain dies he will join the long list of Irish martyrs who have given MONDAY NOVEMBER 27, 1972 • No 921 • 4p

IMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAG

* MacSTIOFAIN: He must n ound guilty on Saturday of being a entenced to six months' imprisonment in Dublin. When sentence was pro- his fist on the bench before him and . I'll see you dead and in hell before Release O'Kelly too their lives in the struggle against British imperialism. But his death would solve nothing for the imperialists. On the con- trary, it would create more problems for them. As it is, his heroism will increase the determination of the Irish people in their fight for freedom. In this they are in marked contrast to the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

These dignitaries-so quick to condemn 'excesses' of those fighting against the imperialism - have said nothing British of MacStiofain, nor jailing about the about the 20 Republican prisoners who 'A' wing have been on hunger strike in of Belfast prison for the past 13 days.

R LEAGUE

He must not be allowed to die The Catholic Church stands exposed as being on the side of imperialism and exploitation-as it has been throughout its history. The Socialist Labour League has very ism. It can contribute nothing to solve the problems of Ireland. That requires the unity of the Irish working Catholic and Protestant, class, north and south, together with brothers in the British labour movement, around a struggle programme revolutionary against capitalism in Britain and Ireland.

This means the formation of revolu- tionary parties, sections of the fourth International, in Britain and Ireland.

But despite these difterences, it must be said that Macstiofain is a heroic Irish patriot and fighter against British imperial- to die. • All trade union branches must food their head office with demands for action to force his release. • Copies of these demands must be sent to the Embassy at 17 Grosvenor Place.

S.W.l. • Demonstrations must be organized in all parts of Britain. • Trade unionists must also demand the immediate release of Kevin O'Kelly, news features editor of Radio Telefis Eireann, who was jailed by the same court for refusing to identify the man he had inter- viewed in a radio broadcast.

The campaign for the release of Mac- Stiofain and O'Kelly is inseparable from the fight to defend basic workers' rights by bringing down the Tory government.

November 26, 1972

Paris talks on brink of break-down New US demands confirm 'peace' fraud Bolivia: Workers in moves PAGE 2 Workers Prose, Monday November 27, 1972

FOREIGN NEWS

BY JOHN SPENCER

HARSH NEW DEMANDS from the United States including the withdrawal of North Vietnamese troops from the south have brought the so-called peace talks in Paris to the brink of break- down. Though another negotiating session is scheduled for the beginning of next month, reports of last week's discussions make it clear the two sides are now very far apart.

The American side, headed by Dr Henry Kissinger, has vastly revised its demands and almost the entire package of pro- supported posals put forward by the South Vietnamese puppet President Nguyen Van Thieu.

Now that President Nixon has achieved re- election, partly because of the much-advertised prospect of an imminent Vietnam peace, he is now in a strong position to continue the war at an even more intensive level.

The bombing of the north has reached un- precedented heights of barbarity with wave after of B52 bombers dropping their lethal cargo wave on the industrial cities of Vinh and Dong Hoi. At the same time, the South Vietnamese regime has been given enormous amounts of new arms and equipment to enable it to continue the ground war against the National Liberation Front and the North Vietnamese. of the Paris talks, together with The outcome Vietnam the actions of the US in itself, make of reports from 'Morning Star' nonsense corres- pondent Chris Myant in Hanoi, who claimed peace Dr Henry Kissi was just around the corner.

What is being prepared in reality is an intensification of the counter-revolutionary war in Indo-China which is being waged by US imperialism to crush the struggles of workers and peasants throughout AsIa. The Paris manoeuvres indicate that Nixon, whose election was BOLIVIAN bank employe hailed by the Moscow Stalinists ers called off their strike as a victory of 'peace-loving and realistic' foreign policy, never had forcing right-wing Presid intention compromising any release trade union leade with the Indo-Chinese revolution.

imposed a state of siege I talks Kissinger At the Paris reportedly demanded mutual US and North withdrawal of Banzer now faces a Vietnamese from the troops clash with the tin-miners refused to south, admit the pos- who are demanding the sibility of 'neutralist' participation immediate re-opening of in a future Saigon administration and indicated that the US would Bolivian Trades the force Thieu release his not to Union Federation (COB) 200,000 political prisoners.

and an amnesty for This position is in total con- workers, peasants, stud- the draft trast to nine-point ents and politicians who agreement reached in October. are either in exile or in The Americans refused to sign at the time, this deal claiming prison. there were 'points of detail' to The

COB

closed was be cleared up. down by Banzer in August It is clear that this was simply 1971 when he removed a ploy to spin out the talks past General Juan Torres in a the election date before placing coup which costs hundreds new' the 'radically and totally of workers' lives. unacceptable before proposals the North Vietnamese. The heroic resurgence of the Bolivian working class The new American proposals has been provoked by the provoked an angry reaction from massive devaluation of the the North Vietnamese delegation carried through peso, on headed by Le At one Duc Tho. from the Inter- orders point, he pounded the table with national Monetary Fund. his fist to indicate his hostility to the American turn-about.

It is one of the first of Nixon's In retaliation against the US post- rounds proposals, the North Vietnamese the election onslaught on side renewed its demand for the masses in the semi-colonial removal of President who immediate countries must now Thieu, a demand it had dropped US provide imperialism in accepting the nine-point draft.

with materials under raW slave conditions as a re- North Vietnamese The the quirement inter- opposed the withdrawal of to national trade war. their army from the south, claim- Vietnam Drastic cut-backs in jobs ing correctly that is their country and they have and sky-rocketing prices a which the faced by Bolivian right to be there, are Americans do not. workers. Chamber The National They are said to have agreed 35.000 their of Mining has declared that to withdraw 200 pits employing 30,000 120,000 from the south, troops workers will have to close, but the Hanoi newspaper Nhan indicated further if the terms of the devalu- Dan' that ation are not modified. concessions on troop withdrawal are out of the question. The Chamber clearly in- speed The paper said that unless the tends to pit- up rationalization, pioneered US accepted the independence, by Soviet and east Euro unity and territorial sovereignty, integrity of Vietnam, as laid down the in the 1954 Geneva agreement, to make most 'there can be no peace'. advantages of devaluation. enry Kissinger, (left) with Le Duc Tho (ri employees and textile work- strike at the weekend after President Hugo Banzer to n leaders arrested after he i siege last Thursday.

BY JUAN GAR

Thirty-two cotton - pro- and ducing co-operatives leaders of the Bolivian timber industry have also threatened closure. The Bolivian capital, La Paz, is full of rumours of and counter-coups. coups Banzer has arrested mem- National of the bers Revolutionary Movement (MNR) of Paz Estenssoro which is part of the ruling coalition. He has also jailed sup- of ex-President porters and accused Barrientos them of conspiracy. Opponents of the regime are making great play of THIRTY Czechoslovak oppositionists sent to prison in a series of show trials last summer have had appeals against their sentences rejected by the Supreme Court, according to sources in Prague. Another three out of the total of 46 people convicted have had sen- tences cut as a result of appeals. They are Anna Sabatova (34 years reduced to 3 years, her brother Vaclay (25) (his 2-year term was sus- pended for 3 years) and Karel Cejka (2 years reduced to 18 months). Most of the rest re- ceived suspended prison Jan uc Tho (right) in Parls last week

JUAN GARCIA

the speculation which pre- ceded the devaluation. Banzer's wife and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces made small fortunes by buying dollars.

the main However, the renewed danger workers' struble does not come from the vying right- wing forces, but the leader- ship of the working class.

The POR of Guillermo in large part Lora was responsible for Banzer's initial victory. Lora spread the illusion that the nationalist general Juan Torres would arm the working class. sentences and did not appeal, the sources said.

Among those whose sen- were confirmed tences Milan Professor are • head of Huebl, former the Communist Party College, former Central Committee member and a one-time friend of party leader Gustav Husak. He received 67 years. Another is Professor Jaroslav Sabata, former Party chief in Brno and supporter of a leading the Liberal Party leader Alexandr Dubcek in 1968 and 1969. His 67- year sentence was con- firmed as was a 2t-year term passed on his son Jan. PLANS to encourage the ex- port of capital to countries with low wages and high un- employment were laid at a of European Mini- meeting sters of Labour in Rome at the weekend. They were vigorously suppor- ted by Tory Minister of State at the Department of Employment Robin Chichester-Clark. The policy is in line with the British government's for plans invest- ment in the Common Market and Mediterranean countries. This involves up fac- setting tories in Spain, Portugal, Greece, other southern Italy and areas where wages are low and unions outlawed or weak. The invest- ment can then be used to create unemployment in Britain in order whip workers into line at to home. Proposals from the conference, which was attended by Ministers from 17 countries, will be put to the European Council of Foreign Ministers when it meets next month. LABOUR won a resounding vic- tory in the New Zealand election at the weekend, taking over office for the first time in 12 years. Led by Norman Kirk, the Labour Party has a majority of 25 seats over the Nationalists, who have ruled without interruption since 1960. The new is government pledged withdraw military to Vietnam, advisers from scale down other military commit- ments abroad and keep a tight on foreign investment. rein General Banzer After the August defeat, channel the workers' move- behind Lora proceeded to form a ment once more 'democratic' so-called Anti - imperialist the demagogy Revolutionary Front (FRA), of Torres-style generals.

Stalinists, uniting with The construction of a petty-bourgeois nationalists, section of the Fourth Inter- and Torres revisionists national in Bolivia, which supporters. can break the working class In a recent analysis pub- these from of creators French lished by the illusions by fighting for revisionists of the Organ- policies, socialist is an Communiste Inter- isation urgent necessity. nationaliste (OCI), the POR claims the gain of the GENERAL Carlos Prats, recent strike movement Chilean Minister of the In- was that 'the masses were terior, will be in control of on the streets again'. government in Chile when The POR added that the Salvador Allende and his climate was being created wife Hortensia leave next for a military coup d'etat week on a round-the-world under the of slogan tour which will take them 'democratization'. from Mexico to Moscow. officers in Many young This the President's is Banzer's army are said to third trip abroad since he call have welcomed the was elected. His first visit made recently by General was in July 1971 to Argen- Eduardo Mendez Pereira, tina to speak to President Minister of Mines under General Alejandro Lanusse.

the governments of General impressed by Obviously Ovando and Torres, for 'the statesmanlike Lanusse's installation of a national qualities, Allende now en- democratic and anti- trusts the peaceful road to imperialist government' socialism in Chile to Prats, commander in chief of the The POR and the FRA hoping armed forces. clearly to are

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

The TUC believes that the chaos and crisis in the British and European man-made fibres industry will be resolved inside the Common Market. This is the message of a TUC survey into the industry.

It notes the discussion now taking place between the UK manufacturers and the Conti- nental giants and concludes: "The Commission [of the EEC] will be in a position to regulate and control, and issue directives should changes methods of regulation be re- quired if left to private enter- prise, there is a great danger that regulation will take the form of cartelization with price-fixing and market-sharing arrangements... The TUC's hope for smooth transformation from the chaos and crisis that now charac- terizes the industry to growth is entirely fatuous-as any brief examination of the indus- try will show. The cancer of man-made fibres has always been the violent investment cycle-it- self a product of the capitalist mode of enterprise. But this has been overlaid recently by fierce foreign competition, re- presented by the flood of cheap yarn and clothing from Japan and the Far East. The prospect facing the British and European mono polies is how to fight off this competition and rationalize their own operations in Europe. This can only mean more massive redundancies on top of the wave of sackings that have already occurred over the last three years.

The. industry has always been plagued by instability and periodic overcapacity. In 1966 the world production of all textile fibres-natural and man-made-was 39,000m 1bs.

Of this 13,000m Ibs were man- made. At first production was con- If workers get the sack they are given a one-way ticket to the dole queue.

So-called government re- training is nothing more than a cruel joke. Not so for redundant man- their agers. Once they lose jobs they can either retire on their pensions or grab another lucrative managership. The British Institute of Management has produced a 30-page pamphlet to explain to these down-trodden managers that the sack for them isn't the end of the line. fact, a industry awaits them. The BIM says: 'Within the last decade several organizations and agencies have been established developed to cater for the of the redundant executive. These vary in size, range of services offered and their availability to the individual.' The booklet then lists dozens of firms in this lucrative field.

Appointments Anonymous can get you replaced Limited in a top job for as little as £15.

You a fraction more pay £15.75—for the psycho-analysis and career guidance service of fined to the British and American pioneers like Cour- taulds, ICI, Monsanto and, in Germany, Hoechst. Later Japan and the Far East came roaring into the market. As the TUC report notes, each additional manufacturer must have a minimum output of 100m lbs for most types of yarn if the fibre is to be competitive. Hence, to their preserve markets, producers are forced internally into massive capital expenditure-the result is vast overcapacity. This outcome is not, of course, due to some inhe ent feature of fibre-pro- duction, but simply the direct result of production for profit —a point the TUC pamphlet does not make. For a period the boom con- tinued unhindered. One useful section of the TUC's publica- tion shows the incredible in- crease in productivity in the British industry — dominated almost completely by Cour- taulds and ICI. Between 1963 and 1971 the UK production of all man- made fibres almost doubled from 719 to 1,35l. But the labour force remained more or less static at a little over 40,000. rise The of man-made fibres, therefore, did nothing to absorb the vast redundan- cies in the natural sectors of cotton and wool. It was classic case of technical im- provement within an industry casting thousands onto the dole lover the last three years employment in the Lancashire cotton industry has slumped by 17,000 to around 30,000 men and women). It is obvious from these figures that the textile bosses a vast productivity in- got crease for almost nothing- wages were higher in the man- made sector, but this hardly Career Analysts, Career House, Gloucester Place in west London. Or perhaps you might try the Henry Davidson Manage- Training ment Service Regent Street. This outfit "individual specializes counselling. A company • blurb says: Through Real Time Use (RTU), redundant executive helped to identify and assess potential advantages of cur- rent situation and to decide upon appropriate action.' Each session lasts an hour. And you pay Henry Davidson £7.35 for helping you to 'assess the situation and to decide upon appropriate action'. All of these organizations are detailed in the BIM book- let to help the out-of-work manager. 'Most executives are not at all prepared for the time when they might be made redun- dant. In cases where little prior warning is given the shock and problems to be faced are even more acute.'

So as you're going down to collect your next dole instal- for the ment, spare a tear shell-shocked executive who is off to Henry Davidson for a pyschotherapeutic hour cost- ing seven quid. •detracted from the advantages of three-shift working and a massive output. Courtaulds, for example, estimate that output per em- increased 200 ployee per cent between 1948 and 1965, compared with the textile in- dustry average of 60 per cent correspondingly profits rose from £17.7m in 1962 to £45m in 1972. The ultra-conservative bu- reaucrats who ran the textile unions did little or nothing to safeguard their members' jobs on the traditional textile mills, or to get some of the rewards for the vast profit bonanza in the new sectors-another fact that is curiously absent from the TUC's investigation!

But for the UK and Euro- pean producers the golden era when the yarns with a chemi- cal base meant millions seems to be over. The first tremors shook the industry in 1969 when the manufacturers caught the hangover from the investment binge of the early 1960s.

redundancies began. The The big Dutch chemicals and pharmaceuticals combine has announced a plan to slash its European labour force of 47,000 by 5,700. Courtaulds have already kicked 4,000 onto the dole, ICl wants to get rid of 1,450 from its fibres division (its head Sir Jack Callard says he's 'doing a Weinstock') and Hoechst pul- led out of nylon production in 1971. But the troubles in Europe have only just begun. One virtue of the TUC investiga- is that it does gather tion together figures which high- light the massive challenge from the East. These started when Nixon upturned the entire world eco- nomy by pulling gold backing from the dollar. One of his major worries was the mas- sive and continuing deficit on the US balance of payments particularly its trading 1933-1934 £1.43 1934-1935 £1.43 1935-1936 £1.25 1937-1938 £1.25 1938-1939 £1.25 1939-1940.. £1.05 • • These extremely vital years 1929 and 1940— Union-are now availal London W1

BOOKS • PERIC

Lord Kearton, boss of Courtaulds: 'work harder on my terms'.

debts to Japan and other Far Eastern producers. US Eventually the and the Far East came to some sort of a deal. But a main factor was a promise by the Cheap Hall' made fibre and clothing pro- aucers to curo cnel imports lo America. As a result the flood changed cheap imports OI began to swamp and course Europe and Britain. Polyester fibres provide a startling example of the effects Low-priced invasion. polyester filament yarns have been diverted to Europe caus- ing a collapse of prices.

The TO cite one crampe The NUsU denier polyester yarns fell by 40 per cent between Septem- ber 1971 (a month after the fateful decision) and INIxon 1972. April Imports now account for 45 percent of the polyester market in Britain two years they took 16 ago per cent of the market. Policy ods inner made up st goods the made-up cloth- ing sector has been even greater. In 1963 the value of imports £32.2m and in was 1971 it was £99.6m. The aim of the pre-entry Europe is to thrash in TalKS out some common policy against this offensive. A major will be effi- a ruthless laclor ciency drive throughout the involving sturopean rationalization. One the of most important topics in the Best tory These extremely vital writings by Leon Trotsky between the years 1929 and 1940—his third and final exile from the Soviet Union-are now available in Britain from the Paperbacks Centre (see advert below).

PAPERBACKS CENTRE

BOOKS • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

3, Monday November 27, 1972 PAGE 3 ds: 'work harder on my terms'.

talks, therefore, is how in- vestment plans can be integ- rated and how markets can be shared. There is a degree of anta- gonism. Britain is looked upon as a Trojan horse-since her imports from abroad are •above imports to the way Common Market countries (due to their tariff policy). The Six do not want them smug- gled into Europe. But Britain, too, is threat- ened. Her remaining cotton industry faces collapse. For the present quotas still pro- tect British cotton. But the EEC allows cotton yarns in freely after paying the 7 per cent common tarifi. Whatever the outcome of the talks, the future for tex- tile workers in the man-made 'natural' and sectors looks grim. Lancashire's cotton workers to face massive redun- seem dancies and perhaps the virtual destruction of their industry.

But the workers in man-made fibres too will face redundancy and those that remain will be pressured into speed-up and more productivity deals. Lord Kearton, the boss of Courtaulds, sounded a new he whipped his note when into Skelmersdale employees line with a threat of imme- diate closure. His cry 'work harder on my terms, or get onto the dole' will undoubt- edly be the war-cry of the textile bosses in Europe, the TUC notwithstanding. (1939-40) Writings of Leon Trotsky (1838-8)

WRITINGS

TROT

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

NOW OPEN

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

SAN QUENTIN LETTER

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Monday Novemb David Johnson is one of the San Quentin Six who has been awaiting trial for more than 12 months. The accused face charges of conspiracy to attempt to escape, conspiracy to possess firearms and conspiracy to kidnap. If found guilty the defendants will have their present sentences extended to life. The State of California has been employing continuous delaying tactics. This is because they fear any court exposure of the events which occurred in San Quentin on August 21 last year when the alleged offences are said to have occurred. It was on that day that George Jackson was shot dead during a so-called escape bid.

the shooting had When stopped • the San Quentin authorities rounded up Jack- son's six closest colleagues and charged them. They have since y November 27, 1972 been placed in separate prisons and their attempts to organize a defence have been hampered by various interferences by the state. These restrictions have even banning books extended to which the Six may read. In this letter which has come into the possession of Workers David Johnson is Press, writing to complain about the chief librarian's refusal to let him read a book by former 'Time' magazine correspon- dent, John Gerassi, who now lives in London. struggle against racialism and brutality in prisons. In 1970 he became the first prisoner to file a complaint against the San Quentin authorities. This followed the death of Fred Billingslea, a black prisoner tear-gassed and who was beaten to death. He wrote a short time ago: I have dedicated my life to exposing to the people the corruption that exists in these pig-sties. For my efforts I have been the victim of all types of persecution which has culmin- ated in my indictment on this fraud case? To: Officer J. E. McHenry— Chief Librarian, San Quentin State Prison. Subject: Book Suppression.

Officer MiHenry: I am writing you this com- munication from the prison's adjustment centre (A/C), in response to your memo of October 6, 1972, concerning the matter of the book en- titled 'Coming of the New International' authored by John Gerassi. I've acted in accordance to the strict pro- recently instituted cedures here by the fascist administra- tion of the San Quentin Prison complex in moving to secure the approval required so as to be able to receive this book, but again-as you have in the past—you've arbitrarily exer- cised your petty authority so as to obstruct and disapprove my request. I am personally aware of your prejudice towards both this book, its contents and its author, although you've omitted to reveal all this in your memo to me. It is quite obvious at this point that you have access to this book yourself and are opposed to its content (as your recent action indicates), and thus you choose to deprive me of the right to read and study this book for further political understanding and mental growth. You should now also know, by your familiarity with this book, that its contents do not pose a threat to the internal security of this prison com- Left: George Jackson, author of Eye', and Fleeta 'Blood In My Drumgo in prison at San Quen- lin before Jackson's murder in August 1971. Inset: David John- son, one of the 'San Quentin Six' awaiting trial. plex nor to the present fascist bureaucracy, thereby making your present actiou nothing more than a personal attack and attitude directed at me, a politically-held prisoner.

I recognize your disinterest in my life and my human rights, also though you and superiors project the your image of concern and con- sideration to the public, you and I know it to be false and non-existent. In your memo you cite 2600.4 Pen.C., as the legal grounds of authority by which you act, you are not only being ridiculous, but also ignorant besides, to not know (as the chief legal librarian here that this state's 2600 section has been rendered obsolete and found to be contrary to the US constitutional rights and guarantees by recent actions and decisions of both state and federal higher court findings. henceforth, please citations to your own imagina- tion and prejudiced views to yourself, for you will not con- vince anyone with a little bit of legal knowledge (inside or outside of these prison walls) correctness of your or the actions in denying us access to certain political writings.

Except for those few indivi- duals that you serve as your fascist superiors in carrying out your policy of suppressing leftist ideology and authors (such as John Gerassi and similar others) your prison policy of suppressing political diametrically materials to your views is evi- opposed dent. It is common knowledge among the prison bureaucracy that John Gerassi was a friend of our fallen comrade George whose life Jackson, was viciously taken by your psy- and chopathic henchmen, whom you are now anxious in trying to eraze from the poli- tical understanding and memory of the political prisoners, by not only denying 'Coming of the us access to , but also by New International', not letting us obtain 'Blood In My Eye' written by Comrade George Jackson. All of which you have denied to us through and illegal unfair, unjust, prison policies and practice.

The immediate conflict be- tween you-your politics and the system you help uphold— and myself are further height- ened and made more antagon- istic by your recent act of political malfeasance and injustice. I am one of many prisoners who are becoming aware of your morbid right-wing efforts, utilizing your position as the prison librarian to keep me and other prisoners in a void of political unconsciousness by denying us certain political books, periodicals, and under- ground newspapers. In doing this you hope to maintain and further create an atmosphere condúcive to propagating your own right- wing politics, hence inducing a dormant to backwards con- sciousness among the general prison population. If I had instead to obtain requested Hitler's 'Mein Kampf', it would have really received your approval because it conforms with your own political views, but because the book I requested does not espouse fascism you disapprove of it.

You have no real right, other than those exercised by the fascists in power to fill the warped egos at the given expense of us held under state oppression. Your aura of power and corruption is at an end. 'All Power to the Prisoners.'

Prisoner: David Johnson, San Quentin Prison-A/C

B-16381 I-AC-7

Tamal, California-94964.

BY OUR FOREIGN CORRESPOND

'Office block-for redevel- opment and extension- bought by the Reamhurst group. London-Paris-Brus- sels-Amsterdam' reads the notice-board in red and blue lettering on the front of a six-floor build.

ing on Avenue Kléber, almost opposite the offices of the French Nat- ional Building Federation in Paris. Similar signs throughout Paris are putting terror into the hearts of financiers at the Bourse and ministers in the Pompidou government. There is an invasion of sharp-witted property men from the City of London who threaten to take over the lucrative sector of property development in France. The old jokes about the British millionaires romping on the Cote with starlets d'Azur have now turned sour with the arrival of the new style man of business. Julian i Markham, chairman and managing director of Reamhurst Properties Ltd., at a recent conference on 'Build- ing in the EEC, spoke con- fidently of the profitable future ahead in Europe. "There are no people in the world more able to take advantage of the out-of-date conditions and land scarcity which exists in Europe than the UK developers. Weaned on the redevelopment of London and other major cities at a time when European de- velopment was fairly static, British property men know more about the problems and the solutions than any other nationality'

RUSH FOR

QUICK PROFIT

These words were not mere exhortation. Conservative estimates put the total invest- ment by British property de- velopers in the Common Market at over £500m. Reamhurst itself has just extended its interests to Eind- hoven in Holland, where it is developing a £2.25m office and shopping complex in one 12- storey block. However, back in Paris the rush is on for the quick profits. Harvey M. Soning, joint managing director of Guardian Properties (Holdings) Ltd, has described 'France, and parti- cularly Paris,' as 'the primary target of most British property companies'. returns are in The best office development • SO there is hardly an office block in Paris which does not have the expertise of the City of London behind it. :Star GB are pioneering the largest office development by a British firm in Europe, a 65,000 square metre develop- ment at La Boursidière on the outskirts of Paris. British Land Reamhurst, and Mackenzie Hill have ten office developments in pro- gress and the Heron Corpora- tion have begun their third development in Paris at Mont- parnasse. Mackenzie Hill and Guard- fro

ESPONDENT

ian Properties already are looking beyond office blocks to industrial development. 'St Mackenzie Hill and Slough Estates are pioneering a f9m industrial programme over the next three years. The speculators operate with capital loans from Bri- the tish banks, Euro-dollar market or funds from the Swiss banks. In principle, investment programmes have to be ap- proved by the Bank of France, which sometimes delays ap- proval but generally allows programmes to go ahead with finance comprising 20 per cent foreign exchange and the re- mainder loans from French banks.

VIRTUES OF

'LE FAIR-PLAY'

Paul M. Raingold, the 36- year-old chartered surveyor with a University of London diploma in urban studies, is head of the European branch of the property group, English and Continental Investment.

In his Paris office, he as- correspondent of sured the 'Le Monde' that he intended to abide by that virtue of the English middle class known in France as 'le fair-play'.

Raingold, whose is motto 'The right building in the right place' , was most adamant that his firm worked with French and preferred work- capital ing with the best specialists in the country rather than bringing a large staff with us.

'Le Monde' remained un- convinced that the men from the City really intended to play cricket and complained about the 'subtle paths taken by British penetration of the French property market. One of these paths is a very simple one. Nothing can pre- vent foreigners from opening a special non-residents account in a French bank which can than accept deposits of foreign exchange and give their foreign credit in francs.

deals The three property which British companies pro- moted in Paris last week cer- tainly give some substance to 'Le Monde's' doubts. The Heron Corporation has reached conditional agreement on the purchase of the Intra Bank site the Champs on while English Elysees, and is to undertake Continental an office scheme worth about £16m on the Rives de Seine complex near the Gare de Lyon. In the third deal, Argyle Securities, development the group led by Michael Rivkin, bought the Galeries du Louvre department store in the main shopping street of Paris for £20m. Forced with the threat of the office-block take-over of Paris by British speculators, Secretary of State Christian Bonnet recently expressed the need to limit British invest- ment at a meeting of the Senate. A counter-offensive is planned and the British mar- ket is being prospected. However, for the moment, and the Coron Market, France in particular, is real boosting ground for the Tory property men who, with the rest of their class, are the only ones who will benefit from the Market entry. Willy Brandt's election victory in West Germany has been greeted enthu- siastically in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Moscow radio said 'most West German citizens have consciously rejected the CDU/CSU and just as consciously voted for a policy of detente, co-operation and peace in Europe. 'Pravda' exulted: 'An over- whelming majority of electors supported those resolutely constructive things that have been introduced into the life and politics of the FRG in recent years.' Its Bonn corres- pondent continued: "The parties' electoral coalition triumph is . tantamount to a plebiscite in support of the Brandt-Scheel policy, and is a mandate to an active continua- tion of the realistic course.'

The Polish premier, Piotr Jaroszewski, expressed the wish, in a congratulatory tele- gram to Brandt, that the vic- tory would have a favourable influence the further on normalization of relations be- tween the two countries. The same sentiments were in Prague where echoed a radio commentator said: 'The time has come for the normal- izing of relations between the German Federal Republic and Czechoslovakia on the basis of . recognizing the Munich dictate as null and void from its very inception. (This refers to the meeting between Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier which divided up Czecho- slovakia in September 1938, handing over a large. part of the country to Germany.) The bureaucracy in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is happy that the voters have supported Brandt's Trotsky was invited to appear before the | Workers Press, Monda Brandt, German Chancellor, during the o 'Ostpolitik'. Its organs there- fore have nothing critical to say about Brandt, his own reformist party or the liberal 'Free Democrats' with whom he is allied. In fact it does not care what policy Brandt pursues at home as long as he continues the policy of improving relations between capitalist West Ger- and the Eastern many countries. It says nothing about the other reasons why German workers supported Brandt rather than the right-wing CDU and its extreme reaction- ary ally, Franz-Joseph Strauss.

efore the Dies Committee.

i8, Monday November 27, 1972 PAGE 5 iring the election campaign.

In fact, like the German Communist Party, the bureau- cracy gives unconditional sup- port to Brandt. The demand is never raised that the Social Democrats should break their alliance with the liberals and carry out socialist policies aimed at breaking the strangle- hold of the big capitalists and bankers in West Germany. If Scheel and Strauss had be sure that won we can Moscow would have done its best to woo them into con- the "Ostpolitik' tinuing and would have been prepared to make a few concessions for that purpose.

TROTSKY AND

The death of Martin Dies, who was first chairman of the witch-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee from 1938- 1945, recalls an episode in Leon Trotsky's life. In October 1939 Trotsky received a telegram from the Committee inviting him to appear as a witness before it in Austin, Texas (see p. 8). It said: "The Committee desires to have a complete record of the history of Stalinism and invites you to answer ques- tions which may be submitted to you in advance if you desire.' Trotsky replied: I accept your invitation as a political duty... His decision met some re- sistance inside the Political Committea of the Ouriuliol Workers' Party in the United States led by James Burnham who was shortly to quit the movement and go over to the red-baiters. Trotsky said it was necessary to appear before the Commit- tee, although it was reaction- ary, not in order to facilitate its work, but in order to use it to inform American workers of the truth about Stalinism.

In the event Dies withdrew the invitation on the spurious grounds that if Trotsky left Mexico he might not be re- admitted. Evidently he came to the conclusion that Trot- sky's testimony would have exposed the Committee's aims.

Later the Committee stepped up its campaign against 'sub- versives', ' ordering witnesses to appear before it, using the testimony of informers and renegades and employing char- acter-assassination and smear- tactics.

TALK, TALK, TALK. WHAT WE WANT IS ACTION

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday November:

PHOTOGRAPHS BY P. J. ARKELL

Victor Feather ended his speech to pensioners rally.

ing at the Central Halls, Westminster, last Wed- nesday on what he clearly believed was a triumph- ant note. Trade unionists, he shouted at the conclusion of a speech which had got faster and faster as the heckling got worse, would 'stand their corner ir meeting the cost' of higher pensions. Understandably the applause for this proposal was mingled shocked and strangled with cries of 'no, no'. Feather's screwed up eyes darted beams of hatred at the hundreds of young trade unionists who had turned the finale of the TUC's 'great' and Monday November 27, 1972 'historic' campaign for higher pensions into a political battle- field. friend them what Anthony Barber had told him on Wednesday afternoon: 'If the pensioners want more you will have to pay for it with higher contributions of as much as £1.60 a week.' For good measure the Tory Chancellor had added that Feather should realize the pensioners' plight was by no means unrelated to 'other sec- tions of the community trying to "grab" more than their share'. audience Feather told the that his meeting with Barber had been 'disappointing' add.

ing hastily and off the cuff: 'But don't take it to heart.

It only means we shall have to have more of this' (waving his arm round the rally).

But the young trade union- ists and some of the pensioners did take it to heart. 'Strike, Strike' strike, shouted. Industrial action and General 'they are not taking it out of our pay. T&GWU stewards rushed about the hall like harassed firemen in a burning forest struggling vainly to identify the hecklers with a view to silencing them. Sensing a need for militancy, Feather again departed from his prepared speech to shout: 'I defy anyone to live on the present pension.' He rushed on to unveil his second major plan for helping the old: "Much as it goes against the grain, I appeal to them to claim sup- Il have plementary benefits,' he said.

'I bet you don't live on it', shouted an anonymous voice, possibly with the foreknow- ledge that until recently Feather had been taking £500 a year from the 'Daily Mirror' in addition to his salary.

The Tory £10 hand-out would be a welcome help to get a little extra for Christmas or some warm winter under- he continued, barely • wear, audible above cries of 'You're joking' and '3 pence a day'?

Everyone knew that present pensions were not adequate for subsistence, but the Tories had said no to all the TUC's suggestions, said Feather.

'You're telling us' roared the reply from the floor. 'What are you going to do about it?

Change the government. We want action now! Into this charged atmosphere National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO) chief Walter Anderson rose uncertainly to his feet to de- liver a speech which all but put NATSOPA leader Richard Briginshaw to sleep and drove sections of the audience to a slow hand clap and shouts of 'sit down'. "This is really unfair, moaned Transport and the chairman, General Workers' Union sec- retary Jack Jones, who urged stewards to throw out the troublemakers, punctuated with shouts from a pensioner that 'this is the first time we've had the young people behind Jones closed the meeting.

He said nothing different from anyone else, but perhaps with the BBC cameras an eve to making a documentary of a day in his life, he remembered to wave his fists and bang the table. Jones began speaking (cheers and whistles): 'Many industrial Workers have left beers wand join (Cheers applause.) 'Further action will be taken until we get what we want.' (Cheers.) 'The 10 per cent who own 75 per cent of the wealth of this country must be made to pay! (Cheers.)

The time had come, he said, when all Labour MPs must put down a motion in the House of Commons demanding higher "There are enough pensions. Tories to back it to get it through, he added. But while he and Feather signed autographs and the Buses and faxis paid for be the trade unions, one woman Left: 'Daily Mirror' Pensioner Vic- tor Feather and on the Jones platform of the Central Hall meet- ing singing 'Keep Right on to the End of the Road'. Top and Bot- tom right: Some of the pensioners who showed they were more con- their cerned about action than demagogic leaders. said: "Taik, talk, talk, It's all With a bit of talk. practice even I could get up there and say that. What we want is action.'

TUC

estimated that The 18,000 pensioners from all over Britain had turned out with their banners on a cold winter's day fight against to conditions in which they are underfed, underclothed and underheated in their homes.

telling The union chiefs them they were 'heroes' was definitely not what they had come to London to hear.

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PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday Novem

BY JACK GALE

'THE YOUNG LENIN'

by Leon Trotsky, translated by Max East- Published by David and man. Charles. £2.95. pp 224. The future leader of the Russian Revolution was born in 1870 as Vladimir Ulyanov. He was one of seven children of a schools' inspector in the rural area of Simbirsk. His mother - Maria Alex- androvna — was half-German and the daughter of an estate owner on Kazan. Family life, in the early years, was close and comfortable. But the fate of the Ulyanov family was bound up with the revolutionary movement of the Russian intelligentsia. Russian feudal society decomposed at a faster pace than the forma- tion of the bourgeoisie. This meant that the intelligentsia increasingly found neither -a sufficient demand for its skills nor a real sphere of political influence. The state needed an intelli- gentsia, yet strangled it in the grip of Tsarism. In these cir- cumstances, the most advanced intellectuals broke with the nobility, the clergy and the ay November 27, 1972 Tsarist bureaucracy, but they could not ally themselves with which had revolutionary class. • Thus, after the end of serf- dom, the vehicle for revolu- tionary ideas became the younger generation of the in- telligentsia. That is, political life took the form of a con- flict between them and the Tsarist police—with the basic class forces largely passive.

Trotsky explains how, as a socially weak strata, the in- telligentsia's attempt to play a role a combination of was opposites. On the one hand it saw itself as the sole vehicle of critical thought and on the other tried to merge with the hopes of a spontaneous peasant uprising, • the intelligentsia turned to propaganda and in the countryside agitation and - when that failed - to individual terror. The turn of the intelligentsia to the peasants, with all the personal sacrifice that it in- volved, could not be success- ful. Since the end of serfdom the slave-like dependence upon the nobles had been lessened.

And favourable economic con- ditions enabled the upper and more influential levels of the peasantry to advance. They therefore did not regard Tsarism as their enemy but blamed their sufferings on the nobles and officials whom they thought were frustrating the Tsar's wishes. Accordingly they considered the Tsar's enemies to be their enemies - and rejected the self-sacrificing young intellec- tuals who came to live among them calling for Tsarism's downfall. It was an ironic contradic- tion that the early 'Populist' preachers of socialist ideas denied any future to Russian therefore capitalism and granted the working class no important role — but their socialist propaganda found no root in the countryside, gaining instead a response in the cities.

revolutionaries Yet these had a part in the historical development of the Russian revolution. There was, indeed, a direct link. In 1878 a young girl terrorist shot the Peters- burg chief of police. Her name Vera Zasulich — and 20 was years later she was to work with Lenin on the editorial board of 'Iskra'. In 1879 the People's Will group was formed - propa- ganda in the countryside was being abandoned for organized Party terrorism. Earlier individual acts of revenge for executed comrades had turned into now a developed system of political struggle. These the people were flower of their generation They subordinated themselves completely to the goal that they had chosen, yet, in 1881, at the time of the assassina- tion of Alexander II, the entire People's Will organiza- tion consisted of 37 persons.

The death of Alexander II unleashed a wave of counter- revolutionary terror which soon burned up this heroic but tiny group. In the 1880s its revolu- tionary implacability died out, replaced by a programme of constitutional reform in the interests of the small pro- prietor-and dependent on the goodwill of the ruling class.

The broad circles of the in- telligentsia degenerated even further. The self-sacrificing and revolutionary heritage of the 1860s and 1870s was replaced by the slogan Life for Our- selves. The collapse of People's Will opened the way to a turn to religion among the intelli- gentsia and to the influence of Tolstoy — 'Every struggle against Evil only increases it.'

The road to bourgeois indivi- dualism was opened. Lenin's elder brother Alex- ander Ulyanov, came into poli- tical activity in this period. A student in St Petersburg, he joined in minor student pro- tests and, when these were suppressed, turned to terror- heroic ism - although the period of People's Will was over. The plan was to murder Alexander III on March 1, 1887. Trotsky describes this the 'belated and attempt as declining echo' of the great movement of the intelligentsia.

The attempt was unsuccess- ful and Ulyanov was hanged.

It was a portent for the future, however, that of the six youth who drew up the programme of their group, three (includ- ing Ulyanov) considered them- selves adherants of People's Will, but three called them- selves Social Democrats--that is, they recognized that Marx- ism was valid not only for the west but for Russia also.

This dispute the split Russian revolutionary move- ment into two irreconcilable camps. The Marxists, Plek- hanov and his supporters, saw the basic force for the over- throw of the autocracy in the developing struggle of the working class. The terrorists declared that revolutionary activity by the masses was until the intelli- impossible the gentsia had overthrown autocracy by terror. The execution of Alexander Ulyanov had an enormous effect on Lenin, who had already become critical of the high-school authorities and of religion. The family of a full state councillor became over- night the family of an executed criminal. Friends and state acquaintances, without excep- tion, avoided their house.

(Lenin was also affected by the suffering of his mother and the desperate yet deter- mined efforts to save her son's life. Trotsky points out how women like this were re- educated by their experience of the repressive state machine. From perfectly con- ventional backgrounds, they found themselves spending hours in police stations, court- rooms and in prosecutors' offices. They did not become revolutionaries, but they helped to make the regime hated by their outcry against its tyrannies.) Apart from his break with religion, Lenin had a conven- tional and successful school career receiving a glowing report from his principal, Fyodor Kerensky (father of the future head of the Provisional Government). At Kazan Uni- versity, however, he was reported for being 'secretive, inattentive and impolite. As the brother of a hanged revo- lutionary he was under close police surveillance. His first arrest at the age of 17 was for participating in student disorders. He was sub- sequently expelled from the university. He was on the path to

becoming a revolutionary, but it is necessary to avoid the hagiography of later Stalinist claim, biographers. These falsely, that Lenin's father held revolutionary ideas, that Lenin himself was a political leader in his schooldays, that he con- sciously rejected the terrorist of his brother at the ideas time. It is true, that the young Lenin took a different road from his brother. But at the • beginning of the 1890s many of the younger generation of the Russian intelligentsia were turning abruptly to Marxism.

This was a result of the development of capitalism in Russia and the first stirrings of the working class, plus the dead-end at the which attempts at an independent revolutionary road for the in- telligentsia had arrived.

The central question about Lenin's early development is how he mastered Marxism and equipped himself to use it as it was intended—as a revolu- tionary tool. For one thing he retained some of the best aspects of People's Will-its centralism, Willingness to use conspira- torial tactics when necessary and its ruthlessness in struggle against the enemy. He came into contact with being Marx's works after expelled from the university and had read 'Das Kapital' and 'Anti-Duehring' before getting hold of any material from Plekhanov's Emancipa- tion of Labour Group. These years of were reaction, but at the same time the working class was begin- ning to develop as a decisive social force and Russian Social Democracy was born. Populist teachings, though based on the peasantry, found a response in the urban pro- letariat and groups of workers established by People's Will outlasted that organization.

Meanwhile Russian Social Democracy — led by Plek- hanov, Lasulich, Deutsch and Axelrod-came into existence among Populist exiles. But the decline of the revo- lutionary movement in the second half of the 1880s created an intellectual stagna- tion that prevented any broad dissemination of Marxist ideas. This was true not only in Russia but abroad. In France the working class had not recovered from the defeat of the Paris Commune; in Germany, Bismarck had driven the workers' movement under- ground; in Britain, trade unionism was saturated with conservative complacency.

In addition, communications between the emigré Emancipa- tion of Labour Group and Russia were haphazard and unreliable. But, while layers of the in- telligentsia politically were prostrate and reaction ruled, industrial workers were the awakening. The 1880s marked an upward turn in strikes and battles with the police. The Tsarist government-at the very time when its 'edu- cated' opponents were sur- rendering in droves - found itself forced to make con- cessions to a new and more for powerful foe. In 1886, example, it became mandatory for the first time for factory owners in Russia to pay wages at regular intervals. Trotsky explains how the strike wave of the early 1880s was led by workers who had been • involved in the revolu- tionary movement of the pre- ceding decade. The strikes, in their turn, stimulated the more responsive workers in the new generation.

At first, of course, they became with the Tol- contaminated stoyan ideas of the fading in- tellectuals. But whereas, for the latter, these ideas marked a renunciation of revolutionary struggle, for the workers it was a first, confused consciousness opposition to the Tsarist regime. The same ideas were fulfilling opposite functions in different strata of society.

Lenin in 1900. League of Struggle f Trotsky quotes a statement from one worker-Marxists, who points workers, the by the sought out second-hand often than acquired them enchanted intellectu Then, young by inspired the among workers. Student began spring Events outside stirred them. Dockers' Tanner England marked the of new rces class. In 1o0y the n of Second the was held in declared: revolution as a Democratic almost 1.5 million So the Marxism in Russia own development a flowed from a who material obiective To sum these make had development in intelligentsia had all alternative rou Bakuninism to To a wave of workers' to be launched; tl movement in the v become more activ Finally, the enorn caused by bare all the sores national economy. But for the idea to penetrate not enough. These distorted to which strata them-the intellige with the appearanc

SCOUS

could Marxism grov ideas Marxist purely as cause ditioned. cause of facts and Left: St Petersburg Struggle for the Emancipatiol quotes a remarkable from one of the first Shelgunov, out how the the main aban- intellectuals, books from the — who, dealers than had not, from the dis- intellectuals! layers of the were the movement workers. Marxist circles the In outside Russia also The 1888 strike arked the emergence the working in 389 the first congress International and Plek- Russian conquer llegal German Social Party received million votes. of development i Russia and Lenin's opment as a Marxist m a whole series of conditions. up: Capitalism significant the in Russia; exhaust • to routes - from Tolstoyanism; workers' strikes had the socialist in the west had to ore acuve. the enormous suffer- the famine of lay rotsky's words, le sores of Russia's the ideas of Marx- netrate Russia was n. Inese laeas were suit the social first adopted intelligentsia. Only vocalaule ul a cu vanguard xism grow in Russia. urely as ideas be- socially con- acts and events but 1897, Lenli with lancipation of the Working ( are Trotsky says: of higher court idea is itself a fact enter as a necessar chain of other facts The personal Lenin was the evolution intelligentsia of a layer of conscious workers development jective with the objective d of a revolutionary Russia. Simultaneously and the cares Democratic circles, cover of reaction, leader of the revo preparing and matu Lenin studied intently while living 1889-189 ame time he qu lawyer — externall was refused readm university. But for only one year. A legal career professional could hardly be p a choice! In 1892-1893 on of his Marxist under the influence lications of Plekhan cipation of Labour joined an Social Democrats. This step involv with the ideas of th This was the major the Russian circles of the time talism (and, working class) des Russia? of Capitalism in first major work- contributio 1lle. 'knowledge' Although 1899 (the date -1889- -is book- he had worked on six years and it w incisive. The revolution was on his way first successful Soc lution in history. members of the Norking Class them. As does above a fact like a The appeal. elf a fact which can necessary link in a ther facts.' evolution of linked with of the Russian and the forma- politically layer of His workers. elopment interacted ojective development crisis in lutionary with the • of the first Marxist • circles, under the the luture the revolution was hile living in Samara 1889-1893

TAT

unle he qualified as xternally, since he d readmittance into he practised -1893 on the basis influence of the pub f Plekhanov's Eman f Labour Group, he illegal group of p involved a break leas of the Populists. he major dispute in revolutionary the time: was capi- therefore, "The Development ism in Russia'-his work—was a pole- not to the abstract olitical fight. appeared misprint), orked on it for over and it was a model method - volutionary leader ; way to leading th ssful Socialist Revo- Workers Press, Mondi

RESISTANCE

Browsing through some ancient news cuttings the other day, we discovered an item about the fighting past of the Sheffield Council. We'll quote it in full. "The Sunday Times', June 11, 1922: 'Riot scenes in Sheffield— counciliors arrested-attacks on police. The article said: Remarkable developments followed the remand of Cllr Arthur Edward Butcher at Sheffield on Friday on bail with sureties amount- ing to £1,000 on a charge of riotous conduct disturbances there on Wednes- day. 'He had been arrested following upon an attempt to reinstate a labourer ejected from his home by a magistrate's order, when a crowd of 400 attacked 25 policemen and five civilians, who have had to be sent to hospital. 'Early yesterday morning the police made systematic raids, arresting Cilr Albert Smith and five others-Alfred Haydock, George Melia, Charles Barker, William Riley and William Goodwin. All six were later charged with riotous conduct.

"The police allegation was that Clir Butcher addressed the crowd from a window sill say- ing that his family must go back, and adding: "If it means fight, we are going to fight, and we will deal with • the author- ¡ties afterwards." The crowd then proceeded to put back furniture into the house. Stones were thrown, property was damaged and the police had to draw their staffs and clear the mob off. 'Missiles weighing 1fcwt were afterwards picked up in the neighbourhood. There was far more behind the case, said the prosecuting solicitor, than would appear from the evidence that morn- ing. The police corroborated and strongly opposed bail, particularly in the case of Cllr Smith, who was described as a leader. 'During the hearing of the case, one of the prisoners, who wore bandages round his head and seated, • partially was swooned, and was given a glass water. All the accused applied for bail, Clir Smith pro- testing that there was nothing against him but his political opinions. It was stated that, when arrested, Smith admitted that but he demonstrated taking part in denied the riot. 83, Monday November 27, 1972 PAGE 9 'All were remanded on bail till tomorrow on an under- taking to conduct themselves peaceably. Louis Newall, also charged with riotous conduct, similarly remanded. He was had just been discharged from hospital and appeared to be in a very weak condition.' It is now 50 years since the heroic resistance to the state authorities by these Sheffield councillors. It is a_ long way from the present Labourites' almost instant implementation of that other piece of state repression of tenants-the Finance Act. Will Housing today's councillors take a bold stand if tenants are evicted because they cannot afford the latest swingeing rent rises?

The council of the Industrial Society continues to flourish with new appointments. Mem- bers just elected include Mr M. A. Balfour, chairman of Scottish and Newcastle Brew- eries Limited, a Tory firm which contributes heftily to party funds; Mr L. E. H. Williams, chief general man- ager of Nationwide Building Society; Baroness Seear, reader in personnel management at • London School of Econ- omics; Mr M. A. Bains, clerk of the Kent County Council; Ron Nethercott, Bristol regional secretary of the and General Transport Workers' Union. Full-time union officials like Nethercott are now trooping after their unions leaders Scanlon, Cooper, (Jones, Chapple, etc.) in joining this emporium of Tories and em- ployers. Will they all be present at the society's next big event?

This is a day-long seminar on pensions to be held at the Connaught Rooms. Members need pay only £18, while non- members are to be charged an astonishing £27. Among those speaking will be such fighters on behalf of the pensioners as Sir Keith Joseph, the Tory Secretary for Social Security, Richard Neale, pension fund manager of the Imperial Tobacco Group. Will Jack Jones, the cloth- cap defender of the pensioners, his fellow Industrial join Society members for this expensive talk-in? It's disgust- ing that the cost of a ticket to this lunch is more than most pensioners see in a month.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25-Cloth £1.87% Where Is Britain Going ? Paperback 372p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 62}p-cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.12}—cloth £1.87½ Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

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FABIANS CALL FOR SPECIAL

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday November 27, 1972

IAN YEATS

"The Fabian Society exists to further socialist educa- tion and research. It is affiliated to the Labour Party, both nationally and locally, and embraces all shades of socialist opinion within ranks-lett, its right and centre. 'Since 1884 the Fabian Society has enrolled thought- ful socialists who are prepared to discuss the essential ques- tions of democratic socialism and relate them to practical plans for building socialism in a changing world.' Some indication of the kind of socialism the Fabian Society has in mind is given in the booklet on emergency powers which these phrases introduce. advocating Far from the of scrappıng emergency powers legislation, an informal Fabian study group based on University, Queen's Belfast, concludes that with suitable amendments they should be extended the whole to cover of the United Kingdom. The explanation for this decision is state- given in a Northern ment by Ireland's Lord Chief former Justice, Lord MacDermott. The him authors quote approvingly saying, order have recently applicable to the whole and law and any part thereof and be opera- been assailed in many ways tive only in times of crisis.

the world over and our malady may be yours tomorrow... It Working chairman, party professor L. law William would better and more Twinning, adds that the sub- effective to enact an emer- and code of public order fot the United ject gency internal security is topical and Kingdom which would be -- h I would like information about Fill in , the form below and send to NATIONAL

SOCIALIST

SECRETARY,

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

186a CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON SW4 7UG.

Name. Address.. The dally paper that leads the fight 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 sonid to: 186a Clapham High St., Circulation Dept., Workers Press, London, SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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Or Full subscription (six days) for months. Name .. Address Amount enclosed £ • urgent, but it is not just a problem in Ulster, it is also a Irish British problem, an problem and a world problem'.

The authors begin with the damning assumption that the legitimacy of the bourgeois state must not be questioned, but that the legislative tools it uses to function and survive should be as humane and fair as possible. This touching concern for "justice' alone prevents them from approving the use of common law and even martial under which law powers 'violent subversives' can in extremity be summarily executed. What is needed, say the authors of a pamphlet which is claimed at the beginning to be worthy of consideration throughout the labour move- ment, is emergency powers with a human face and adequate safeguards. They admit that their primary inspiration for pro- ducing suggestions for a new emergency and Special Powers Act was the situation in Ulster, but they add pointedly industrial unrest in that Britain was also taken into consideration.

UNSUPERVISED

Their only real complaint against vicious special the powers legislation in Ulster is that it is applied unequally in the community and that its use is virtually unsupervised by parliament. What is required to elimin- ate injustice, is they say, permanent legislation bearing equally on all citizens and authority administered by an generally regarded as 'impartial and independent'. Civil disobedience and organizations which advocate change through constitutional means should not be subject to the new laws-only those groups which 'engage in or subversive incite violent activity to accomplish political ends'. The group says that legisla- tion should be enacted cover- ing the broad range of sub- versive activity to ensure that all loopholes are closed to Fablans call for powers to deal with 'sut by the working class. They omit that repressive institutions of the capitalist picketing builders at Ellesmere Port an House Wharf. those seeking to overthrow the state. 'Subversive organizations' should first be proscribed.

Membership could be made an offence and their publications banned. Among the violent acts to be made subject to new legis- lation appears the 'forcible occupation of any premises' which could, of course, be used against factory workers fighting for higher wages or against closure. With adequate legal safe- guards against injustice the new legislation . would include all the worst features of the Ulster Special Powers Act, including forcible questioning and detention. I with 'subversives' and any 'violent acts' source of violence is the mit that the capitalist state. Here police move in on e Port and, above, on dockers at Neap The important thing, say the authors, is the rule of law on which citizens have tradi- tionally placed great emphasis as embodying sure safeguards the arbitrary use of against government power. Many workers will reflect that in the hands of employers and their political representa- tives emphasis on the rule of law has a very different pur- pose from protecting their rights. The work being done by the Tories through the Industrial Relations Act to curb and, if they could, smash the trade unions, and the thought being put into a new law on picket- ing is all in the name of the rule of law.

Bargains galore at biggest YS bazaar

FROM OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

BARGAINS from cut-price fish to kiddies shoes for 10p attracted record crowds to the Young Socialists Xmas bazaar on Saturday. Workers from the East End of London packed the Poplar baths for the five hours of hectic trading which began at 12 noon, The bazaar is an annual event in the East End attracting thousands of people. Saturday was no exception with a steady flow of families throughout the afternoon. Stalls ranged from one selling home-made cakes and pies to a women's boutique. But as always, tavourite, was the bottle stall where a 20p ticket can win anything from a bottle of vinegar to a bottle of best brandy. Special attractions included Father Christmas, an artist sell- ing on-the-spot portraits and a fish shop supplied by Billingsgate workers. Northerners will get their bargain day in a fortnight's time, on December 9, when the Young Socialists hold their second Xmas bazaar at Leeds in the Corn Exchange. Watch out for details in Workers Press every day.

• TOMORROW: See our centre pages for more pictures of the London bazaar.

BBC 1

9.38 Schools. 12.00 Profit by con- trol. 12.25 Cywain. 12.5g News.

1.00 Pebble Mill at one. 1.30 Along the trail. 1.45 Look, stranger. 2.05 Schools. 4.00 Pixie and Dixie. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 Magic roundabout. 4.40 Jacka- nory. 4.55 Blue Peter. 5.20 The long chase. 5.45 News. Weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.45 QUIZ BALL. Home Inter- national. 7.10 Z CARS. The Legacy.

8.00 PANORAMA.

9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS.

Weather.

9.25 PLAY FOR TODAY: 'THE

BANKRUPT. By David Mercer. With Joss Ack- land, Sheila Allen, David Waller.

10.40 MASTERMIND.

11.10 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.15 IRELAND. When the bough breaks. 11.40 Weather. All Trades Unions Alliance

MEETINGS

Fight Rising Prices Force the Tories to Resign READING: Monday November 27, 8 p.m. Trades and Labour Club, Minster Street. ACTON: Monday November 27, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, High Road.

LEICESTER: Tuesday November 28, 8 p.m. Southfields Library.

COVENTRY: Tuesday November 28, 7.30 p.m. Elastic Inn, Cox Street (opposite Theatre One).

WEST LONDON: Tuesday Nov- ember 28, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert", Wharfedale Road, King's Cross.

GIBRALTAR workers fear the Tory government will renege on its promises and hand the Rock and its in- habitants over to the Spanish fascists. Sir Alec Douglas-Home is meeting Spanish Foreign Minister Gregorio Lopez Bravo in Madrid this week for a fresh round of talks on Gibraltar. GEORGIA, the Soviet Republic, is facing • economic failure and general laxity. The Communist Party Central Committee reports poor crops and factories operat- ing at only 70 or 80 per cent

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 Yoga. 12.05 Rainbow. 12.25 Larry the lamb.

12.40 First report. 1.00 Mr and Mrs. 1.30 Emmerdale farm. 2.00 ther. All our yesterdays. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Film: 'Women's Prison'. Ida Lupino. 4.25 Free- wheelers. 4.55 Clapperboard. 5.20 And mother makes three. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY.

6.40 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKSI

7.30 CORONATION STREET.

8.00 WORLD IN ACTION.

8.30 LES SEZ. Les Dawson.

9.00 KATE. Back to Square One.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 LONGSTREET. Elegy in Brass. James Franciscus.

11.30 DRIVE-IN.

12.00 EDUCATION FOR WHAT?

LUTON: Wednesday November 29,8 p.m. The Recreation Centre, Old Bedford Road. 'The Tory Pay Law'. PRESTON: (Please • note date change), Thursday November 30, 7.30 p.m. Waterloo Hotel, Friar- gate. SHEFFIELD: Thursday November 30, 7.30 p.m. The Grapes, Trippet Lane. "The sell-out at Arthur Lee's and the fight against the pay laws.' BRACKNELL: Sunday December 3, 7.30 "The Hop Leaf, p.m. Church Street. or BRACKNELL: Monday December art', 4, 8.00 p.m. Priestwood Com- munity Centre. This follows the militant Trans- port and General Workers' Union strike which was broken by the army this summer. Strikers demanded £3 in- £10.05 crease in the basic labourers' rate. They gained mas- sive from the island's support workers and mobilized a huge of capacity. Industrial growth was well below that called for in the plans. Factories were turning out sub- standard products and officials had falsified statistics in order to

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school.

7.05 CHILDREN GROWING UP.

5 Plus. Here Comes the Judge. 7.30 NEWSROOM. Weather. 8.00

ALIAS SMITH AND JONES.

The Girl in Boxcar 3.

8.50 CALL MY BLUFF.

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 9.30-12.00

London. London. 2.00 1.15 News. 1.30 Schools. 2.20 Yoga. 2.50 Film: 'Petticoat Pirates'. 4.15 Puffin. 4.25 London. 6.00 News, weather.

6.15 Knockout quiz. 6.45 London.

10.30 Name of the game. 11.50 News. weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 12.05 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 London. 4.15 Gus Honeybun. 6.00 Diary. 6.35 Date with Danton. 11.55 Faith for life. Joss Ackland (left) and David Waller are in David Mercer's 'The Bankrupt'-BBC1's Play for To- day—about the breakdown of a middle-aged bankrupt. SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 12.00 News. 12.05 London. 2.30 House- party. 3.00 Film: 'Harem Holiday': 6.00 Day by day. 4.25 London. 6.45 London. 10.30 Southern scene. 11.00 News. 11.05 Theatre of stars. 12.00 Farm progress. 12.25 Weather. HARLECH: 9.30 London. 1.00 Helen McArthur show. 1.30 Lon- 2.00 Farmhouse kitchen. don. 2.30 Women only. 3.00 Film: 'Three Musketeers'. 4.25 London. Cal 5.20 Shirley's world. 5.50 London.

6.01 Report West. 6.22 Report tati Workers Press, Monda demonstration outside the gov- ernor's residence. The Gibraltarians now fear that the Tories will hand them over to Franco in order to smash the militant workers' movement and destroy the trade unions.

On the eve of Common Market with more and more entry, British firms exporting capital to Spain, the Tories may well abandon their previous promises to 'Keep the rock British'.

wth conceal weaknesses. In Soviet Armenia, Badal Muradyan, prime minister since ials 1966, has been replaced by a • to former KGB (security police) boss.

9.25 SHOW OF THE WEEK:

SCOTT ON SUCCESS.

Terry Scott. 10.10

• AMERICA.

Home from Home. Alistair Cooke looks at colonists from England.

11.00 NEWS ON 2. Weather.

11.05 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

Wales. 6.45 London. 10.30 Film: 'Love With the Proper Stranger'.

12.25 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales 7 and 41 as above except: 6.01-6.22 Y dydd.

8.00-8.30 Yr wythnos. HTV West as above except: 6.22- 6.45 This is the West this week.

ANGLIA: 9.30 London. 2.30 Houseparty. 3.00 Saint. 3.55 Rom- per room. 4.20 News. 4.25 Lon- don. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.45 London. 10.30 Unknown. 11.30 London. ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London.

12.00 Today. 12.05 London. 3.00 Film: 'Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones' 4.25 London. 6.00 Today. 6.45 London. 10.30 Name of the game.

ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.33 News. 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper 3.00 Film: 'Jet Over the room. Atlantic'. 4.22 News. 4.25 London.

YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 3.00 Film: 'The Man in the White Suit'.

4.25 London. 4.55 Skippy. 5.20 London. 6.00 Calendar, weather.

6.25 Today. 6.45 London. 10.30 Name of the game. 11.55 Yoga.

12.25 Weather.

GRANADA: 9.30

London. 2.30 Film: 'Half Angel". 4.00 Cross. roads. 4.20 London. 6.00 News.

6.25 This is your right. 6.40 Lon- don. 10.30 Appointment with fear.

SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 Film: 'Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones'. 4.25 London. 6.00 News. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Cartoon.

6.45 London. 10.30 Late call. 10.35 Name of the game. GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 2.45 Enchanted house.

3.00 News. 3.05 Film: 'The Sword of Sherwood Forest'. 4.25 Lon- don. 6.00 News. 6.05 Julia.

6.35 6.45 London. 10.30 Cartoon. Name of the game. 11.55 Medi- port tation. 8, Monday November 27, 1972 PAGE 11

OXFORD

Thursday November 30 Marxism-the sclenco of perspective

SOUTH OXFORD

COMMUNITY CENTRE

Lake Street, 8 p.m. Lectures given by G. Healy SLL national secretary

LONDON

Sunday December 3 A theory of knowledge Sunday December 10 Opponents of Marxlem

BEAVER HALL

at Mansion House tube 7.30 p.m. Lectures given by G. Healy SLL national secretary

LIVERPOOL

Wednesday November 29 Stalinism 1932-1938 Wednesday December 6 Trotskylsm and the founding of the Fourth International

COMMON HALL

HACKINS HEY

off Dale Street, 7.30 p.m.

Lectures given by Tom Kemp (SLL Central Committee

LEEDS

Monday November 27 Capitalism and the crisis Monday December 4 The struggle for power Monday December 11 Revolutionary theory and the Marxist Party

PEEL HOTEL

Boar Lane, Leeds 4 8 р. т.

BARNSLEY

Sunday December 3 Capitalism and the crisis Sunday December 10 The struggle for power Sunday December 17 Revolutionary theory and the Marxist Party

RED LION HOTEL

(Worsborough) 8 p.m. Lectures given by Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee)

SHEFFIELD

Monday November 27 Capitalist crisis Monday December 11 Stalinism and Trotskyism Monday January 8 Marxism and the revolutionary party

FORRESTERS HALL

Trippett Lane, 7.30 p.m.

TODMORDEN

Monday November 27 'Materialism versus idealism' Monday December 11 'Dialectical materialism' Monday January 8 'The economic crisis' Monday January 22 'Stalinism' Monday February 5 'Trotskyism'

THE WEAVERS'

INSTI-

TUTE, Burnley Road, 7.30 p.m.

Drivers won't break picket-1 Drivers won't break picket-2 PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday November 27, 1972 lines on a large scale. THE JOSEPH LUCAS combine Its failure considerably strength- has failed in a bid to kill On Friday the occupation. ens picketing of three Merseyside morning Lucas transport workers factories by workers from the who operate from the Fazakerley CAV occupation at Fazakerley.

who are not site and working because of the occupation, were The plan's aim was to put told of management's new Lucas combine transport workers approach. in a position where they would From the disused vacuum flask open the way to breaking picket Huyton, factory in Liverpool, By OUR OWN REP

UNION REPRESENTATIVES

and meat employers will meet in London today to try to when 300 tons of meat negotiate a lifting of the six- would be picked up. month picket on Midland Cold He said the lorry drivers had Storage Hackney, recently resolved at east not to Hoss London. the picket . lines until further This was still their posi- When the talks adjourned notice. on Friday, there no indication tion. Lord Vestey- week Last the that an agreement was near. Eric the lorry owned Midland company took drivers' Rechnitz, the Trans- leader who is officially represen- out an action against port and General Workers' Union ted on the meat joint negotiating in the National Industrial Rela- committee, said yesterday the had Court. It previous drivers not given the em- tions was by Midland at the action court ployers any encouragement to would be which led to the jailing of five think that the DICKeL London dockers. broken. dis- He Mr Rechnitz said he was was commenting on an appointed that the officials of the article in the 'Observer' that the had not organized a joint picket would be broken union FROM PHILIP WADE—Margate, Sunday A SHARP rightward turn away from politics has been revealed at the National Union of This weekend's Students annual conference.

debates have been dominated by diversionary procedural wrangling — with time spent on questions of women in society, finance and student representation. Vital issues like housing were treated as no more than for government subsidies and case help from local authorities. The scene was set by NUS president Digby Jacks, a Communist Party member, who attacked Stirling students and pledged no action against the Tories on grants. And when the revisionists of the International Socialism and International Marxist groups tried to bring in left-sounding formulations-saying no- should overthrow thing done until the capitalism-they were utterly annihilated by the voting. The only motions linking the struggle on grants, housing and autonomy to a campaign to make the Tories resign and return a Labour government was sabotaged by the Stalinists and never reached the Students at th conference floor. Two Stalinists on the South- "This Tory government is going ampton delegation combined to be with us for some time to with Liberal and reformist dele- We need reforms now. We come. have the gates to motions then further can move on to dropped, despite she fact that they Freeman demands,' said Tohn been endorsed by big majo- from Trent Polytechnic. rities at student union meetings.

'We have no adeauate policy Throughout the conference the Geoffrey said on representation,' revisionists have pandered to the Robinson from Bradford, moving Stalinists. In a plea for calling for a a two-page motion unity an IS speaker told a public meeting: 're-evaluation of the use of our 'The comrades in the Communist representatives'. Party are bigger, better and more The NUS needed to negotiate organized than us'. in a 'sonhisticated trade union So on Saturday the Stalinists way for representation and con- were able to push through with- trol of staff selection. dificulty a housingo cument motion out and 13-page policy its head "radical changes subsidies, increased calling for of society

NUS-

the organization as a government grants and were a pre-requisite for whole' Tory negotiations for more short.

term housing. representation.

SOCIALIST

8 pm Wednesday, December 13

AEU HOUSE, FLEMING WAY, SWINDON

SPECIAL SHOWING OF THE 'RIGHT TO WORK' FILM.

A film made by ACTT showing the five Right-to-Work marches Liverpool, Glasgow, Swansea. on March 12, 1972. Speaker: G. Healy, National Secretary of the Soclalist Labour Leaque at British Rail Engineering Chairman: Willis.

AEU

steward Workshop. Swindon (In a personal capacity).

We demand the right to work!

Make the Tory government resign!

• Bulld the revolutionary party!

where Lucas-CAV management is now based, came an offer of alternative work. The proposal was that the drivers should use Huyton as a base for driving wagons Lucas's could hire specially for the pur- pose. This would have spelled the end of the black imposed last week by Lucas transport workers

OWN REPORTERS

eat meeting between lorry drivers and dockers. 'deafening silence, had been a He there from their Transport House headquarters about the proposed meeting. It seems, he said, the full time off- are prepared to sit back cials and watch drivers and dockers tear each other to. pieces to satisfy Lord Vestey. He firmly believed that the on the docks could jobs crisis only be resolved by united action by both sections of workers. He said he was 'amazed' that the T&GWU leadership had not done something towards achiev- ing joint action. lents at the Margate conference They simply called for com- plete withdrawal of all students from academic bodies. They also demanded a 'trade union approach' to workers' con- trol of the university. This pompous nonsense roused no one and the amendement was CONFERENCE yesterday de cided to press for an immediate cost-of-living increase in grants.

An attempt to throw out the Communist Party's student wages policy was defeated. The execu- tive was committed, among other things, to write to the Tories and all MPs explaining the effect of inflation on grants and 'demand- ing an immediate remedy. A national 'day of action' over grants may be held next feb- ruary. Moves to get an emergency conference on in grants early 1973 were defeated after NUS president Digby. Jacks spoke against. overwhelmingly defeated, with the four Stalinists on the plat- form leading the vote against.

The Stalinists have consistently fought against a political fight with the lores, yet received backing from the revisionists, who complement them with 'left' talk. Now the revisionists have re- ceived the pay-off. They have been reduced to a disorganized rump, while the Stalinists remain firmly in control of the executive.

in the Midlands. Even if the Fazakerley drivers had refused to cross the CAV picket lines at Ford's, Standard Triumph and the Lucas Aero- space works at Broadgreen, it is unlikely that the Midland black could have been maintained for long had the offer been accepted.

In fact the Fazakerley transport drivers turned the offer down.

SIX HUNDRED Sheffeld have won their four- engineers. to get their shop week battle stewards' chairman Sylvia Green- wood reinstated. Mrs Greenwood sacked was after she led negotiations for the trade union rate for setters at the machine tool manufacturers, Easterbrook Allcard. She will be recognized as chair- man of the shop stewards but will be moved from her present department. No sanction will be taken against any party in the dispute.

This effectively prevents any action by the two unions, the

AUEW

or the Transport and General Workers' Union, against employees who worked during the strike. It also means that the setters will have to lift the sanctions they imposed in support of their pay claim while negotiations on the issue continue. George Caborn, district sec- retary of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, and a leading Communist Party mem- ber, told workers to take it easy when they returned. Socialist Labour League

3RD ANNIVERSARY

OF WORKERS

PRESS

BUILD THE

REVOLUTIONARY

PARTY

SUNDAY

DECEMBER 3

7 p.m. Everyman Theatre

LIVERPOOL

Speakers:

MIKE BANDA

(SLL Central Committee

DAVE KIRBY

(CAV, Fazakerley, shop steward.)

CONNIE FAHEY

(Wilmslow tenants' leader)

ALAN PEERS

(Young Socialists' national committee (Union and tenant speakers in a pers

NEWCASTLE

SUNDAY DECEMBER 10, 7 p.m.

County Hotel speakers: MIKE BANDA SLL Central committee) DAVID JÓNES (YS national committee) BOB MAINS (Unemployed) VINCENT FOY (secretary Jar- row Trades Council. In personal capacity.)

BIRMINGHAM

SUNDAY DECEMBER 17, 7 p.m.

Assembly Hall Digbeth Civic Hall speakers: Workers Press

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WE NEED

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WE MUST do it. We need £482.66 by Friday and we're there. Let's do everything possible to make sure we raise our £1,750 target In time. More than ever, Workers Press situation. just begun their onslaught against the working class with their In- dustrial Relations Act and their state pay plan. More is in store.

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Our paper will bulld the revolu- tionary leadership to defeat this Tory government. Back us up all the way. Make a very speclal effort and help us complete our monthly fund. It is all stops out from now and we know you will do it! Rush your donations immediately to: Workers Press November Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London, SW4 7UG. RENT protesters drove through Liverpool in a placard-carrying motorcade on Saturday. Orga- nized by the Trades Council Rents Co-ordinating Committee, the motorcade comprised about cars and was designed to appeal to weekend shoppers al- ready angry at rising prices. Pla- cards demanded the resignation of the government and its re- placement by one which would repeal the Housing Finance Act.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Workers Press, Office. Published by Clapham Street, London, 186a High

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

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SARY

THREE

YEARS

OF

WORKERS

PRESS

Showing the developments and gains since the of first issue Workers Press #irptember 25 1969 committee) in a personal capacity.)

GLASGOW

SUNDAY DECEMBER 17, 2 p.m.

Woodside Halls St George's Cross Speakers: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central committee) JOHN BARRIE (YS national committee) WILLIE DOCHERTY (chairman Paisley Tenants' Action Com- mittee. In personal capacity.)

G. HEALY (SLL National Secre- tary) WILLIE AITKIN (YS national committee) PETER SMITH (Rover shop steward. In personal capacity.)