Workers Press no. 938

workers press THE STRENGTH and sections of the Tory P despair. As a result Hea Powellite wing. Heath is being hammered on the anvil of contradiction as he attempts to appease his own backbench reactionaries on the one hand and talk to the TUC on the other. Most workers will correctly regard the Heath government as the most reactionary Tory administration since the war.

But because of the rapidly worsening economic crisis, it is not reactionary enough for many high Tories and their big business supporters. They want a Tory leader who will cease pussyfooting with the union leaders. They want a Tory Powell: Poll favourite leader who will immediately launch the inevitable confronta- tion with the British working class. To many of these Tory skin- heads such a leader is Enoch Powell. A National Opinion Poll survey has just shown that from a list of 12 well-known politi-

POWELLITES RUN AMOK

WIDENS

THE STRENGTH and unity of the working class is driving sections of the Tory Party into paroxysms of frustration and despair. As a result Heath is facing the resurgence of the party's

BY ALEX MITCHELL

cians from the three major par- selected as the Powell ties was most promising leadel. He had the best understand- ing of the problems facing Bri- cost of liv- tain today' strikes, ing, unemployment Common Market. All of Powell's "solutions' to these questions anti-union On and anti-working class. strikes, for instance, ne recents called for more vigorous use of the law against pickets. "Powellism' has been loosely described meanine anu® immigrant and anti-Common Market. But its real meaning is anu-working class. First defeat The strength of the Powellite wing demonstrated two was weeks ago when it combined to defeat government's regulations the first de- TeaT The ones nave SuTered since taking office. Today the government faces another right-wing rebellion over VAT. The Labour Oppo- sition's motion calling on the government to defer its intro- duction is likely to be sup- ported by a number of Tory who MPs are opposed to entry into the Common Mar- ket and see the new tax as un- necessary and inflationary.

Powell made clear in a speech arune weekene tnat ne intends tea destin. continue to press the Heath *Next week it will be some- thing and something else else. the week after that. Dairy prices,

HE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY DECEMBER 5,

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

Heath: Under pressure orking class is driving sms of frustration and surgence of the party's or VAT, or rates of exchange, or heaven knows what.' The contradictions in the Tory ranks are seen most glar- ingly in the two important by- elections on Thursday at Sutton and Cheam and Uxbridge. In Uxbridge, apart from the candidates, there official Tory are candidates representing three right wing organizationsthe National Independence Party, the National Front and the Union Movement. Members of the West Middle- sex branch of the Monday Club, an official Tory ginger group, are not supporting the Tory candi- date. They are backing the Nat- ional Front nominee. The strength of the right-wing

TURN TO BACK PAGE

TUESDAY DECEMBE

MBER 5, 1972• No. 938• 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY A WORKERS PRESS REPORTER

ANOTHER MAJOR crisis between the unions and the National Industrial Relations Court loomed yes- terday after news that the giant Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers faced another contempt charge for ignoring court orders.

Union followed a similar path Orders to initiate contempt of defiance to the court over proceedings will be laid be- the blacking of lorries. fore the court today and the Like the

AUEW,

it was case is likely to be decided first fined £5,000 and then a further £50,000 for contempt.

on Friday or early next week.

After this the union changed its policy. Its officials cam- action is brought by The paigned for the lifting of the James Goad, a Suffolk engineer- black and the union went be- ing worker who has been kept fore the court to plead its case.

Sudbury out of the union's This he worked was after court presi branch because Sir Donaldson dent John during a strike. warned that the contempt in calling for the lifting of The court has already con- not £6,000 and the black had been aggravated fiscated in fines for be from the union by the union's refusal to costs ignoring its order to instruct represented in the case. branch officials Sudbury The AUEW leadership so far to give Goad full rights. Many has steadfastly stuck to the top AUEW leaders now fear fine of £50,000 or more for further contempt. Mr Goad swore an affidavit Colchester solicitors at his events yesterday concerning last Friday night, when he was branch again barred from at the Bear Hotel, meeting Sudbury. After the refusal, Mr Goad, Baptist preacher, former exclaimed: "The only help I get is from the knowledge that I go to the Lord Jesus Christ for guidance -and rely on and wisdom that all the time.' Goad: Affidavit The Goad case mious cash national committee decision the serious into most not to appear before the court.

unions and so far between the These latest moves in the the court. It will also jeopar- highlight the extreme case dize the tentative moves tween the TUC right wing and of leadership the crISIs in

AUEW.

So far the national Tories to re-open negotia- the executive has recommended no tions on state control of wages action whatsoever defend so-called freeze. after the Bigger fines members funds. Earlier this year the Trans- will make this crisis more Workers' and General acute. port EMBER 5, New Inn, Market Street, 7.30 p.m.

workers press THE STRENGTH and sections of the Tory P: despair. As a result Hea Powellite wing. Heath is being hammered on the anvil of contradiction as he attempts to appease his own backbench reactionaries on the one hand and talk to the TUC on the other. Most workers will correctly regard the Heath government as the most reactionary Tory administration since the war.

But because of the rapidly worsening economic crisis, it is not reactionary enough for many high Tories and their big business supporters. They want a Tory leader who will cease pussyfooting with the union leaders. They want a Tory Powell: Poll favourite immediately leader who will launch the inevitable confronta- tion with the British working class. To many of these Tory_skin- heads such a leader is Enoch Powell. A National Opinion Poll survey has just shown that from a list of 12 well-known politi-

POWELLITES RUN AMOK

WIDENS

THE STRENGTH and unity of the working class is driving sections of the Tory Party into paroxysms of frustration and despair. As a result Heath is facing the resurgence of the party's

BY ALEX MITCHELL

cians from the three major par- selected as the ties Powell was most promisilig icadel. He had the best understand- ing of the problems facing Bri- cost of liv- tain today' strikes, and the Common Market. 'solutions' to All of Powell's these questions are anti-union On anti-working class. strikes, Tor instance me recemy called for more vigorous use of the law against pickets. 'Powellism' has been loosely described means aull- immigrant and anti-Common Market. But its real meaning is anti-working class. First defeat The strength of the Powellite wing demonstrated two WaS deekt the germen em to defeat government's immi- the first de- Callul Ichulallulls TeAT The l nave Sumered since taking office. government faces Today the another right-wing rebellion over VAT. The Labour Oppo- sition's motion calling on the government to defer its intro- duction is likely to be sup- a number of Tory ported by MPs who are opposed to entry into the Common Mar- ket and see the new tax as un inflationary. necessary alla Powell made clear in a speech weekend unar de mcenas continue to press the Heath leadership. will be some- 'Next week it thing and something esc. the week after that. Dairy prices,

HE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY DECEMBER 5,

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

Heath: Under pressure orking class is driving sms of frustration and surgence of the party's or VAT, or rates of exchange, or knows what.' heaven The contradictions in the Tory ranks are seen most glar- ingly in the two important by- elections on Thursday at Sutton and Cheam and Uxbridge. In Uxbridge, apart from the candidates, there official Tory are candidates representing three right wing organizations-the Independence National Party, the National Front and the Union Movement. Members of the West Middle- sex branch of the Monday Club, an official Tory ginger group, are not supporting the Tory candi- date. They are backing the Nat- ional Front nominee. The strength of the right-wing

TURN TO BACK PAGE

TUESDAY DECEMBE

MBER 5, 1972 • No. 938 • 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

BY A WORKERS PRESS REPORTER

ANOTHER MAJOR crisis between the unions and the National Industrial Relations Court loomed yes- terday after news that the giant Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers faced another contempt charge for ignoring court orders.

Union followed a similar path Orders to initiate contempt the court over of defiance to proceedings will be laid be- the blacking of lorries. fore the court today and the Like the AUEW, it was case is likely to be decided first fined £5,000 and then a further £50,000 for contempt. on Friday or early next week.

After this the union changed its policy. Its officials cam- is brought by The action paigned for the lifting of the James Goad, a Suffolk engineer- black and the went be- union ing worker who has been kept fore the court to plead its case.

out of the union's Sudbury This was after court branch because he worked presi- Donaldson dent Sir John during a strike. warned that the contempt in calling for the lifting has already con- of The court not and the black had ien aggravated fiscated £6,000 in fines for by the union's refusal to be from the union costs represented in the case. its order to instruct ignoring branch officials the Sudbury The AUEW leadership so far Goad full rights. Many to give has steadfastly stuck the to top AUEW leaders now fear a of €50,000 or more for fine further contempt. affidavit Mr Goad swore an Colchester solicitors at his concerning events yesterday last Friday night, when he was branch barred from again at the Bear Hotel, meeting Sudbury. refusal, Mr Goad, After the Baptist preacher, former exclaimed: "The only help I get is from the knowledge that I go to the Lord Jesus Christ for guidance I rely wisdom-and on and that all the time.' Goad: Affidavit The Goad case may blow up national committee decision clash serious into the most not to appear before the court.

the unions and so far between These latest moves in the It will also jeopar- the court. highlight the be- case extreme dize the tentative moves leadership in the tween the TUC right wing and crisis of

AUEW.

So far the national the Tories to re-open negotia- executive has recommended no tions on state control of wages whatsoever to defend after the so-called freeze.

aculon members' funds. Bigger fines Earlier this year the Trans- will make this crisis more General Workers' and acute. port

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Tuesday Decen

BY A FOREIGN

CORRESPONDENT

UNITED STATES presidential aide Henry Kissinger yester- day reopened secret talks in Paris with Le Duc Tho of the North Vietnamese Communist Party's politburo. The talks were suspended 11 days ago amid accusations from Hanoi that the Americans were engaged in a treacherous manoeuvre aimed at prolonging the war. The United States has refused to ratify the nine-point agree- ment drawn up at the end of October, just prior to the US election. It has intensified the bomb- ing of the north, stepped up the sending of supplies to the puppet regime in Saigon and thousands of sent civilian 'advisers' to the South Viet- namese army. About 5,000 US civilians are due to arrive in South Vietnam in the next few weeks under confidential contracts the to Saigon regime. They join 5,000 'advisers' already in the country.

They will do everything from running the South Vietnamese army's military personnel and logistics computers, to teaching the Air Force how to fly and maintain newly provided planes, to repairing the complex military communications network left behind by the US army. Fox Butterfield, reporting the influx of 'civilians' in the 'New York Times', quotes a western official as saying, 'It's like 1961 or 1965 all over again.' It is abundantly clear that the Us government is planning not peace but an escalation of the war behind a thin smokescreen of negotiation. Socialist Labour League

3RD ANNIVERSARY

OF WORKERS

PRESS

BUILD THE

REVOLUTIONARY

PARTY

SUNDAY

7 p.m. County Hotel

NEWCASTLE

Speakers : MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Committe DAVID JONES (YS national committe BOB MAINS (Unemployed) VINCENT FOY (Jarrow Trades Co 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- nittee. In personal capacity.)

day December 5, 1972

IRA

THE BITTER

fruit of union leaders alike claimed the terrorism in Ireland has been explosions had tied their hands.

the the In one night Lynch had achieved to open door for capitalist class adopt the help of his to the with own or bomb instrument of Heath's special service as an units what could ONLY government. be done by But twin-bomb blasts for the unleashing state terror on the which rocked Dublin on Friday working class. night at a crucial stage in the But without political atmo- the the debate i on Lynch govern- sphere created by four years ment's so-called anti-IRA Bill, of IRA bombings and shootings, there would be laws such would provocation and a General Election. never have been possible. Political opposition Throughout the 32 to the legis- counties Re- lation sufficient to defeat and publican terror state Fianna Fail. Some trade union have broken

COUNTS TAMIN

support leaders were calling for from the

IRA

General Strike and groups of and prepared the ground for a workers organized at shop-floor right-wing, centrist develop- the level were marching on Leinster ment in organizations of House. the working class. The bombs stampeded the Devoid of and consciously shun- middle class and even sections policies capable of offer- of the working class behind ing workers genuine and the government, wiping out all revolutionary socialist alter- effective opposition in the capitalism, the

IRA

nauve lo inevitably space of a few minutes. has become isolated Next day Labour Party and trade and beaten.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

TOMORROW'S National Economic Development Council meeting will bring together the trade union leaders, the Confederation of British Industry and the government for talks on the world trade situation.

It is the first meeting between the three sides since the breakdown of the tripartite talks on the introduction of the Tory state wage control plan a month ago.

The TUC has prepared a 27-page document which urges the Tories to use the Industry Act to subsidize the electronics and industries been hit Japanese components which have by competition. The document also calls on the government to aid the textile and clothing industries which are in deep recession and unable to compete with foreign imports.

Resolutions calling for covern- ment action to protect these industries were passed by the TUC Congress in September.

The TUC leaders' policy is

SARY

based on a supposed community of interest between British manu- The facturers and their workers.

THREE

demand for protection from foreign competition originates

YEARS

with the manufacturers them- selves, who have for many months been clamouring for the Tories OF take action the against Tapanese.

• WORKERS

On the basis of this chauvin- istic and reactionary alliance, the

PRESS

Tories undoubtedly hope to draw the TUC chiefs into further col Showing the laboration the against taork ing But danglonmonte and class. behind the talk gains since the class-collaboration against first issue of foreign threat, the employers are Mintore brace 1060 enormous preparing attacks on their workers. Shipbuilding barons are threat- ening to sack to 30.000 up workers unless they get new orders within the next six weeks.

They blame the huge expansion of japan's shipyards which are Committee) able to undercut British prices (committee) by a large margin. Two delegations of European shipbuilders visited Tapan last rades Council secretary. In a

BIRMINGHAM

SPANISH police arrested 27 SUNDAY DECEMBER 17, 7 p.m.

workers and students in San Assembly Hall Sebastian at the weekend on Digbeth Civic Hall 'subversion' charges. Speakers: They are accused of causing G. HEALY (SLL National Secre- factories strikes in and schools tary) and organizing student meetings WILLIE AITKIN (YS national do with which had nothing to committee) university life. examinations or

PETER

SMITH

(Rover shop While more anti-Franco wor- steward. In personal capacity.)

kers imprisoned, Spanish •

INATA

Lopez CORIN REDGRAVE (Equity. in Industry Minister de Letona discussed a personal capacity.) the economic future of Spain on the national the In Ulster over 100 IRA 'officers' have been arrested in the past month and Belfast battalion commanders are now said to be 14-year-old boys. In Dublin the IRA has been forced underground. Meetings and demonstrations have ceased and their offices stand un- marked and empty. All those groups, including the International Marxist and Inter- national Socialist groups and the Anti-Internment League, members marched whose through the streets clapping their hands and shouting 'Victory to the IRA', bear a heavy burden of political res- ponsibility for allowing the essentially weak Lynch govern- ment to take the offensive.

Lynch has seized the chance to rush onto the statute books at Leinster House laws which, when the time is ripe, will be used against the trade unions • plead their month to with Japanese competitors to show restraint. The Japanese refused to take any steps to limit the build-up of their capacity.

The • orders number of new placed in British yards between June and September this year was the lowest for any three months for 30 years. The ship- owners are now declaring that their workers can best defend the national interest from the dole queues. TUC's policy of pleading The with the Tories for protectionist neasures disarms the working class in the face of great class struggles and represents in reality the shortest road to unemploy- ment for tens of thousands of workers. At the same time it panders directly to the nationalist and patriotic agitation of the extreme right. There is no community of working interest between the class and the employers faced with a mounting international trade war. The main enemy in this bandit conflict of rival imperialisms is at home. The task in front of British workers is to force the resignation of the Tory govern- ment and the election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. Talk of common interest through a programme for 'pro- tecting' British capitalism is a reactionary diversion. television network with José Luis Rodriguez Pomata, head of Fasa-Renault, and Pedro Gon- zalez Bueno, chairman of Citröen in Spain. Letona made ademagogic appeal: It is much more im- portant to create jobs in our country than for factories to build in other countries which . to the only function thanks workers sent there' said that this was He the decisive argument for welcoming Ford and others into Spain.

The Citröen and Renault rep- and all the fighting organiza- tions of the working class.

Ironically the revisionists have been among the first to suffer from Lynch's crack-down with police harassment all but forcing their literature sellers off the streets. Last Friday's events have revealed naked terror as no alternative to the building of the revolu- tionary party. They have also given the final lie to all the réformists' and revisionists' claims as well. in Britain, re- In Ireland and cession and the severe pressure on profif margins are rapidly forcing bourgeois parliamentary democracy to shed its sheep's clothing and reveal its essence as a body of men not only armed, but willing to use those arms to maintain its rule with- out regard to cost or lives.

The capitalist class is in its most crisis. has serious reforms to give. The class war is on. Workers in Ireland and Britain face a common enemy, which, from January I, 1973, will act in concert with seven other European governments in at- tempting to ride out slump by brutal repression of the work- ing class. Dublin proves conclusively that terror alone cannot defeat them, but positively can assist them. This bitter lesson cannot be evaded.

FROM OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

TWO THOUSAND steel workers at Thionville, Lor- raine, are threatened with the sack under rationalization plans prepared by the Usinor combine. This is part of the French industry's efforts to meet the British entry into the Common switching investment Market, from the traditional Lorraine steel works to new complexes on the coast. Usinor has a modern steel at Dunkirk and is plant a partner with the other big French company, Wendel-side- lor, in the massive steel project at Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseilles.

The enormous capital sums required for these projects have placed both companies' finances under great strain, though the government and the banks have forward with substantial come loans to help get the Fos pro- ject under way. The Thionville sackings fol- low a series of pit closures in the district and there are threats also that Wendel-Sidelor will close some of its factories.

Usinor is also planning sack- ings at Valenciennes, close to the Belgian border in north-east France. The unions at Valen- ciennes are planning a one-day demonstration strike and on December 19, when President Pompidou is due to visit the town. Large sections of the Fos site are currently strike-bound as a result of construction workers' demands for higher wages. Many of the workers are immigrants living in extremely bad condi- tions. resentatives were told they would have to change their views and understand that Spain had to measure up to Common Market requirements. He accused some of 'our' manufacturers of having too many models and told them to concentrate on producing more rather than on diversification.

The whole broadcast was a nationalist propaganda exercise, with Letona playing the role of learned adviser to Citröen and Renault who fear Ford will drive them out of the European market.

Fighting the Tories' rent Act Beware of 'left'talk in

ALTRINCHAM

tenants, Manchester, will demon- strate outside the town hall tonight as the Tory- Liberal council meets to orders prepare court against rent strikers. • Rather than evict any of the 300 rent strikers, the council wants court orders to confiscate property to pay off the arrears or deduct the money out of wage packets.

Eight tenants have been selected at random as the victims of this new on- Slaught under the 'fair rents' Act. Tenants' leaders claim that the decision not to evict but move against property has come from the Tory govern- ment in Whitehall. MORE THAN 1,200 ancillary hour strike yesterday over the by drivers, cleaners, catering st threatened throughout the c Tory clamp on a f4-a-week it National Union of Public Empl 'Voluntary workers' cooked and served meals during the strike. A national half-day strike of hospital ancillary workers Decem- is due to take place on ber 13. Strikers claimed yester- also day that clerical members of hos- pital staffs manned switchboards during the strike. Many hospital workers are stronger action than demanding their leaders are proposing.

NUPE hospital workers in Manchester have called for a full finished

PRODUCTION

of vehicles at Ford's Halewood, Liverpool, factory was halted again yesterday when 50 men em- ployed in a section of the paint shop walked out demanding the sacked reinstatement of a colleague. Over 2,000 production workers were laid off after union-manage- ment talks broke down. A man- agement spokesman said workers were demanding that the man— sacked for alleged vandalism- should be reinstated pending a hearing tomorrow of his appeal under the normal dispute pro- cedure.

BY PHILIP WADE

CLAY CROSS workers will strate again on Thursday i when the district auditor co town to see the Labour councill refuse to put up the rents.

The councillors are not try- ing to disguise the fact that their unanimous decision not to impiement the Tories' Housing Finance Act has led to a £7,000 deficit on the housing account. The fight by this small Derbyshire council against the full weight of the Tory govern- ment is thus reaching a new Not only do the 11 point. councillors face the £7,000 bill, but they could find them- selves automatically disqualified from holding their elected positions for five years.

What is directly posed, there- fore, is the removal of the Tories from power. As council leader Arthur Wellon has already said: 'Nothing can be solved while this Tory government remains in office. Unless the whole of the trade union and working-class movement takes up the lead from us, then all we've done is prove a point.' This means that the whole ncillary workers from nine Liverpoo ver the government's wage control le ering staff, telephonists and porters : the country because of the week increase claimed by the ic Employees. day's strike and a mass demon- stration. According to Colin Barnett, the union's divisional officer, they 'are very angry and prepared to contemplate long-term industrial action'. About 400 of the workers meeting at attended the a Engineer's Hall,, Liverpool, to hear a by Barnett report on plans for a national strike on December 13. The meeting voted to decide what further action to take within the United Liverpool Hospital Group at a branch meeting on Friday. BUSINESS on the London stock market went up by more than £1,000m during November, figures showed yesterday. All the dealings were said to be worth about £4,157m, com- pared with £3,15lm in October.

Turnover increased by more than £400m to £1,690m. But all the levels reached in November were reported to be way behind those reached during well down early summer and compared with this time last year. rs will demon- rsday morning litor comes to councillors who MP Frank Allaun working class must be mobilized behind Clay Cross with the per- spective of making the Tories Such a fight needs resign. leadership. In that sense, 'left' MP Frank Allaun's intervention at Sunday's Clay Cross rally was deception of the first order. This was the man who, at the Labour Party conference, did the dirty work for the right-wing on iverpool hospitals were on 24- ontrol legislation. The stoppage porters was the first in a series 1933-1934 £1.43 1934-1935 £1.43 1935-1936 £1.25 £1.25 1937-1938 1938-1939 £1.25 1939-1940 £1.05 These extremely vital years 1929 and 1940- Union-are now availal

BOOKS • PERIC

Workers Press, Tuesdi by the national executive declaring that no Labour govern- ment could be placed in a posi- tion where it had to back coun- cillors who fought the Housing Finance Act and were sub- sequently surcharged. Although conference later reversed this policy, it was clear the leader- ship would ignore it. What pledges did he bring to Clay Cross? 'We are now fighting round two " Co of the fight. It is clear that rent increases are an unnecessary bur- den on the people,' he declared.

His proposal? Only a pathetic suggestion that a deputation from the trade union movement crawl round to Downing Street to ask the Tories not only to withdraw the present increases, but stop any future ones! The Tory government is set on a course of destroying the basic Engineers say: Free MacStiofain COVENTRY 73 branch of the Amalgamated Union of Engineer- ing Workers has passed a re-' solution which 'calls on executive council to start a campaign of action alongside the Irish trade unions for the release of Sean MacStiofain. We believe the laws worked out between Heath and Lynch for the Irish Republic will be used by the Tory government along with the National Industrial Relations Court against the labour movement in Britain'

TITICS OF

HI TROTSKY

935-36] 1253-58) WRITINGS Or

LEON

TROTSKY

11933-341 y vital writings by Leon Troi 1940—his third and final exile available in Britain from the P (see advert below).

• PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

a8, Tuesday December 5, 1972 PAGE 3 right to council housing, defaulted several rebel Labour councils and plans surcharges against them, and all Allaun can come forward with is a deputa- Such fighting talk will be met with applause in the Cabinet room. Providing the cover for the wo - Communist Party Stalinists who are also opposed to bringing down the Tory government.

Yesterday's 'Morning Star' made Clay Cross the lead story and an editorial was devoted to • the situation. The last paragraph made clear the Stalinists' role on the ques- tion of rents and all other ques- tions facing the working class.

No call was made to force the Tories out. Instead we had the following: 'The trade union and Labour movement is strong to stay the government's hand, and in doing so can stop the rent increases.

But it must accompany words of with protest strong enough deeds.' (My emphasis.) In other words, do not in any circumstances make the govern- ment resign. Better to 'stay its hand'. Allaun and the 'Star' end up in the same camp; collaborat- ing with the Tories. The question now is to reject 'protest' and call for the mobil- ization of the working class to throw out the Tories and put back Labour government a pledged by the mass movement to socialist policies, including the repeal of the Housing Finance Act and all anti-working class legislation. That is the only way forward at Clay Cross. (1939-40) Writings of (1838-8)

WRITINGS OF

LEON

TROTEN

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

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 8 гіт.-6 р.т. Fri 2 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.- -5 p.m.

PAGE 4 Workers Press. Tuerday December 5, 1972 How successful have the policies of Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army been since the first civil unrest in Ulster in 1968? IAN YEATS reports in a series of articles based on interviews with leading Republicans, revisionists and reformists on both sides of the border.

Throughout the sixties the Official Republican move- ment turned to the policies of the Communist Party for inspiration and here we examine the outcome of this relationship. Popular Front the Spanish translated into Irish. Stewart's acknowledge- Mrs ment of the growing slump appears to have been more personal foible than the Party line. In their 'Manifesto' not only made of is no mention the recession, but they claim: 'Our country has the neces- sary resources, labour, skill and The reformism of the capital develop an indepen- to Irish Communist Party dent and thriving economy.

reached a high point of •Pro- And their 1971 gramme, heading under the farce when after Tory 'Root of problems, they say: troops and tanks had Ireland's 'At the root 'no-go' rolled into the and prob- political economic lems that are crystallized in the areas their northern present violent situation in the 'Unity' paper pro- north is the historic and con- British imperialist claimed: temporary political, economic and military 'We say. No tanks Whitelaw.

interference in Ireland.'

We demand end repression and on June 3, And in 'Unity' a Bill of rights for the entire 1972: 'Above all the workers Northern Ireland. people and their families must realize United behind these objectives of today that the crisis 1S democratic the labour and British imperialism's respon- forces can win. sibility.' If it were not so serious that 'Manifesto' goes The to on statement is almost as farcical, outline its belief in the build- as Mrs Edwina Stewart's reply ing of 'national democracy' as question about what would happen if recession re- basis for a free socialist the Ireland. they vented the rights were 'It believes that such an Ire- demanding having any concrete land can be achieved in stages meaning. and that there exists at present Stewart is the wife of Mrs potential for the replace- the Mr Stewart, leading James of the present ruling ment Ulster communist and is also parties of the Unionists and the on the Northern Ireland execu- Fianna Fail by progressive gov- Ireland of the Northern tive north and south ernments Civil Rights Association which can be pressed to for-

(NICRA).

interests of the ward the She told me: 'It is going to people' be unfortunate for the very These perspectives were British government if it is try- doubly poisonous. They under- ing to get a solution in tradi- pinned the reactionary light of the recession because tional nationalism of the IRA our experience is that Northern and Sinn Fein and at the same Ireland been that has always time channelled the search of much worse hit than Britain Officials and others for herself.' the ideology into back to the revolutionary In other words, harmless reformist paths.

streets. For four years the CP The extent of the effect of warned first Stormont and then their two-stage formula, plus Westminster that they should their attribution of all blame do what they then pro- not to Britain, must be measured ceeded to do -unhindered. in part by the fact that leading Although its protest-politics have manifestly failed and pub- members of the Officials like MacGiolla, Cathal has fallen Thomas lic away, support Garland Goulding and Sean many NICRA and Official IRA members remain loyal to the their own. what is in put as CP line-in some effect Party line. the The CP-inspired theory cases word for word. Throughout the four years, the struggle in two stages to The the only major point on which the north is widespread. the Officials their first stage is the achievement went own way was on the question of of a Bill of rights and a demo- Stormont. cratic assembly in the north, the second a united, socialist They rejected direct rule said it bound Ireland. because they James Stewart's account of them still more closely to CP the Party's aims could just as Britain while the wel- found in the IRA's comed it, telling Westminster: well be Heath policy documents. 'If is genuine and 1971, he said in wants peace let him fulfill the In May creating conditions for 'Unity': 'Our fight must be for task of talks,' What the had democracy for the entire work- ing people of Ireland. We must mind was the promise of free elections under proportional build political alliances the pro-British representation (PR). opposition to In December 1971, "Unity' monopoly capitalist ments in Dublin and Belfast.

said: To bring peace and pro- gress means that Westminster 'In all Ireland we must build an anti-imperialist alliance enact legislation which on must will end the basis for sectarian- for democracy, a programme ism, establish fair boundaries the language of for elections under PR-call it This is The tanks rolled into the 'no-go' areas a Bill of rights, call it what you like, but win it and the Stor- mont Unionists will never again hold dominance over our daily lives.' The CP also foresaw • that direct rule could unite Protes- tants and Catholics and 'Unity' said in April: 'Workers of the Shankill and the Falls [areas of Belfast] must now raise the common demand on the British government for the enactment by Westminster of a Bill of rights for Northern Ireland and the complete rejec- tion of all brands of unionism.'

The Officials always favoured unity, of course. They simply didn't agree with the demise of Stormont. On the question of unity there is now no difference be- last tween them, and only week Cathal Goulding hailed united working-class action as forward to a the only road democratic, socialist Ireland.

'Unity' summed up this view after the British docks strike 'United said: when they strength beat working-class them in Britain. With the ex- periences of our struggle here to work on, united working- class action can win a demo- cratic solution in the interests of all the working people of Ireland.' It must be pointed out that in Republican terms, working people means everyone except foreign capitalists and social- ism covers virtually all forms of native Irish industry.

Pressure had freed the Lon- don dockers so, said 'Unity': 'Pressure must be brought to bear on Westminster to enact a Bill of rights for the working people of Northern Ireland which will guarantee equal democracy to that in Britain.

'The weapon to achieve it, the most militant, the most revolutionary, is through the ' areas earlier this your and the barrendez mar mass movement for civil dis- obedience led by NICRA. The CP not only did nothing to break Catholics from the idea that all would be well if only they could have a say in the running of their lives, but actively reinforced it. the corrupt Writing after Unionist-dominated Derry cor- poration had met for the last Betty Sinclair wrote in time, 'Unity': 'Changes are taking place in Derry. The people there have fought for them. What they need now is for the government to give them the legislation to elect a corporation that will democratically represent them and have the will and the ability to take the city into a happy and prosperous future.'

When it did not happen and when, NICRA's indeed, demands were met with brutal repression, the CP's_answer was demonstrations, which, of course, attracted more repres- sion, to which the CP replied demands for further with demonstrations. Thus the spontaneous anger of men and women labouring under the jackboot were sub- stituted for serious polítical policies. After internment on August 'Unity' demanded: 9, 'No rent, No rates. No arrears.

The cry echoes throughout the length and breadth of Northern Ireland.' For good measure they added, 'sending a shiver of fear down many a Unionist spine'. 'The British Tories and Stormont Unionists fear mass action more than the terror bomb or bullet. They could not deal with it on October 5, 1968, and they have tailed to contain it since. The simple truth is that conscious mass action by the working people ades more bulldozed down demands and obtains solu- tions.' When the Tory government showed just how cowed it was this year by passing if in July legislation to take back rent and rates out of pay and Social advised Security, the CP weakly: 'Whitelaw should declare a rents and rates amnesty across the board.' He has not and the ludicrous position has developed where many of the 20,000 tenants who took part in the campaign are still refusing to pay volun- tarily, even though the money is being taken forcibly, to keep up the pretence of a fight.

A rent and rates strike within the context of a cam- paign throughout the labour and the working movement class to bring down the Tory government which . is at root • responsible for the conditions Ulster and throughout Britain could have worked and would have had revolutionary implications. But a rent and rates strike organized as mere pressure was doomed to failure and in the becomes final analysis a demand which is downright reactionary — and strengthens sectarianism. The Tories are by no means averse to changing the political forms of government in Northern Ireland to give Catholics rights. But the giving of rights will by itself leave workers where they were in 1968. Any new structure in Northern Ireland will be capitalist and any capi- talist structure will share the reflected in growing crisis rising prices and falling em- ployment. Only by overturning capitalism could the problems of Ulster workers be solved and this the CP never set out to do-and never will.

Mrs Edwina Stewart • (above member and secretary of the Rights Association, explains ho prospects in Ulster. We have been working for an end to repression and an end to discrimination.

The old system of govern- ment has been scrapped, but Britain has not yet been able to provide a viable alternative.

We are determined that in any settlement the civil rights demands must be granted. I think that Whitelaw is en- deavouring to build up some sort of centre grouping which would be basically conservative — a local assembly with less powers than Stormont perhaps based on the Labour, Alliance and Unionist Parties and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Provided we get the legisla- tion guaranteeing democracy and smash the old corrupt Orange administration a new government would have to be prepared to adopt really radical measures to end unemployment and the housing shortage.

It is going to be very un- fortunate on the British gov- ernment if it is trying to get a solution in the light of the recession because our experi- ence is that Northern Ireland has always been that much worse hit than Britain itself.

Unfortunately right-wing forces have used the demand for democracy to raise the monster of sectarianism. In the past this has obscured the bread-and-butter issues. You can generally manage to get some sort of alleviation, but instead they were at each others throats. Speaking personally I think the enemy of the British and (above), a Communist Party of the Northern Ireland Civil lains how she sees the political for Irish worker is the same. Co- operation between British and Irish workers against the Heath government is im- portant. In Ireland the main demand remains the demand for demo- cracy. This is something we can and will win. This can remove the basis for sectarianism and lead to a peaceful and democratic ad- vance. How can you have a united working class while sec- tarianism exists? Hopefully once sectarian have been healed, divisions have the working you would houses and jobs. Derry was one of the worst housing areas, but they reckon now it will be solved soon because cash is being poured in. Even a Tory government providing houses and jobs will keeping the be cheaper than army in the north. Generally it will be very difficult for these problems to be solved in the present climate of recession. Regarding the independent is revolutionary party this probably a difference in tactics.

We have always believed the working class learns and ad- vances by winning victories that are possible to win. It is such a rotten situation here that we have to create one more favourable to work. The Communist Party has been trying to explain the eco- nomic crisis, but it is not a and sectarianism large party makes normal working- class politics difficult.

BY JOHN SPENCER

After 15 years of French membership in the Common Market the Communist Party is not in favour of pulling out because this would adversely affect the national economy. Georges Marchais, the acting general secretary of the French CP, in London last week for talks with British Stalinist leaders, made this clear at a conference in the CP's Press Covent Garden headquarters.

'With our socialist allies we have agreed to act within the Common Market to democrat- ize it and defend the interests of the workers.' Following Soviet leader Brezhnev's Leonid decision earlier this year to 'recognize the reality' of the reactionary EEC alliance of monopolists, the French CP has abandoned all pretence of opposition.

This appears to put them in the British opposition to Stalinists, who are still form- proclaiming their opposition to the EEC. But the difference is more apparent than real, as Marchais made clear. 'There are between our two parties differences which come from our different situations.

But this does not mean there are divergencies, he said.

Marchais claimed that the Common programme drawn up by the French CP with the Socialist Party and the Left Radicals does not accept the Common Market 'as it is now'.

'We do not accept its ob- which the jectives serve interests of the monopolies and not those of the workers.'

However, the Stalinist chief- tain did not explain how the EEC is to be democratized' and converted from an instru- ment of the monopolies into an instrument for the working class.

CO-OPERATION

WITHOUT

PROGRAMME

He simply said the two parties would co-operate after British entry into the EEC to combat the multi-national firms whose harmful effects the British and French workers have experienced. Naturally, neither Marchais nor British CP leader John Gollan have any programme for carrying this policy into effect. The common programme of the 'left' in France envisages the nationalization of less than 1 per cent of all industrial enterprises. But, according to are the key' Marchais, these 13 businesses in France. In addition, the government which Marchais hopes to form Pompidou) (under President the March National after Assembly elections in France would: • Try 1 and ensure more effective workers' represent- ation within the Common sign that Market (a clear French CP deputies-unlike Labour even the British Party—will take part in the European parliament). Reserve the freedom to carry out its programme re- gardless of the measures taken by the Common Market as a whole (which indicates that the common front does not en- Workers Press, Tue visage basic clashes with rest of the capitalist EEC).

• And not treat participation in the EEC as an obstacle to with other collaboration countries, 'without distinction of any kind as to their regime'. In other words, France under this new-style Popular Front is explicitly committed collaboration with fascist Spain colonels' and the Greece, though Marchais claims the CP opposes Spanish, guese and Greek entry into the Common Market. As far as relations eastern Europe and the USSR are concerned, Marchais gave implicit approval the to Gaullist policy, while claiming that a Popular Front govern- ment would go even further.

BLUEPRINT FOR

CONTINUED

CAPITALISM

certain "The fact that policies of co-operation were set in motion by General de Gaulle does not mean that we should abandon our efforts.

We support all efforts in that direction,' he said. The policy outlined by Marchais is a blueprint for the continuation of French capital- ism under conditions where the working class is duped into thinking that the EEC can be reformed. It is advanced at a time when the Common Market monopolists are openly pre- paring for war on the working class through the establishment dictatorial Bonapartist regimes all over western Europe. Nowhere is this process more marked than in France, where the Pompidou govern- ment rules through a presi- dential system which deprives 4th COMMUNIST UNIVERSITY 4th COMMUNIST UNIVERSITY

OF LONDON

OF LONDON

4th COMMUNIST UN 4th COMMUNIST UNIVERSITY

OF LONDCA

Marchais and Gollan (right) at last week 088, Tuesday December 5, 1972 PAGE 5 he the elected Assembly of any independent significance.

Only last week the regime began the trial in Lyons of nine workers under the so- called anti-riot laws which have previously been used only against students and left-wing groups. The British Communist Party, which is plainly heading towards acceptance of the Common Market, despite its formal 'opposition', intends to participate as much as it can in this reformist line-up.

However, the movement of the working class throughout Europe is throwing both parties considerable crisis. into The French Stalinist Press is in serious difficulties, and there is talk of reducing the size of its daily, 'L'Humanité' Marchais attributed these difficulties to the general crisis of the Press in France-an explanation that will fool no- body who reads 'L'Humanité" itself. The paper is full of appeals to readers emphasizing the necessity to carry out element- ary tasks like selling it.

The British Stalinists are in an even more serious crisis.

According to the paper's editor, George Matthews, the 'Morning Star' faces a loss of over £35,000 by the end of next year.. The price is to be raised to 5p in the new year. According to the 'Daily Telegraph' it has 'faced growing competition from more militant journals including Trotskyist the Workers Press' Matthews talked in terms of a reduction of the paper's size from six pages to four. It may well be that these questions were among the 'other questions of common interest discussed between the two parties' leaders at their meeting in London.

PENCE FOR THE DLD

FOR

RICH

FORY P

BRITISH"

WILL

AN

TO SLAP

CI A WEEK

ON RENTS

to change all this

BRITAIN

NEEDS

SOCIALISM

YOU PAY

MORE

AND EAT

LESS

1,023,585

JOBS BUTCHERED TO MAKE

STOCK EXCHANGE BOOM

I last week's Press conference

BY JUAN GARCIA

The Castilian city of Valladolid was a fitting scene for a car-plant opening ceremony. Its medieval walls, convents and religious seminaries gave a cheerful welcome to the approaching en- tourage, led by the Prince of Spain, Juan Carlos The Prince was greeted by Lieutenant-General Emilio Villaescusa Quilis, captain- general of the 7th Military Region, and reviewed a divi- sion of his Infantry. The band played a triumphal air and red and yellow flags of the fascist fatherland were draped over balconies. Local Archbishop Romero Mengibar was there to give his blessing and complete the triad of the Sword, Cross and the Throne — the feudal symbols of Franco's fascist rule., The medieval charade was for the benefit of the opening of the latest extension to the Fasa-Renault car-plant which stretches 7km on the outskirts of the old city and is anything but medieval. Jose María López de Letona, Minister Industry, ended the day's celebrations, Left: After inaugurating a new container port in Barcelona, Prince Juan Carlos strolls round the latest piece of foreign invest- ment in Spain, with the usual dignitaries and entourage of military. Above: It was all smiles as Tory Foreign Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, shook hands with General Franco last week. Spain's Foreign Minister, Lopez Bravo, looks on, smirking with satisfac.

tion-Sir Alec had just told them that the Tories would welcome Spain in the Common Market.

after the bishop had blessed the production-line with a cup full of holy water, with ful- some praise of this European enterprise: 'The future of this labour with an eye on Europe requires production for broad a national market, but it is also a platform for focusing on the conquest of new markets. This factory has European status, much and we can see how "Fasa-Renault" is contributing, to the development of Spain.

The Pope's water and Euro- dream were for the pean benefit of a second assembly plant which will now enable 580 cars to be produced a day by 12,000 workers. Renault was, with Fiat, one of the first European car monopolies to take advantage labour and of the cheap illegality of workers' organiza- tions under the Franco regime.

The first Renault factory was built in Valladolid in 1951.

After 20 years, Renault has a total investment in its Spanish of 200 million francs branch alongside a 25-per-cent stake of the Banco Iberico and 25 per cent from public shares.

The shares are doing well on the Spanish stock exchange a dividend of 12 million francs paid out for 1971. In the first this year, nine months of 140,000 vehicles have rolled off the production lines. Fellow pioneer in Spain was the Italian monopoly, Fiat, which began business in Bar- celona in 1950 with the active support of the state National Institute for Industry, whose initial 70-per-cent participation has been cut down to 25 per cent. Seat is now the main manu- facturer in Spain. From its massive plant in Barcelona, where 24,000 workers are em- ployed, 225,000 cars have emerged this year. that Spanish Remember workers labour for six days week for a wage of some £10.

In last year's strike in Seat, one worker was shot dead by police with machine-guns who charged demonstrating workers.

The Citröen plant in Vigo, scene of the recent prolonged strike which is still being pro- longed in the courtrooms of Vigo in trials of workers and their representatives, also began in the early 1950s. It Spanish market per cent of the Simca-Chrysler (8 per cent) and British-Leyland (6.5 per cent) only began to cultivate their patch in Spain from 1965 and 1967 respectively. However, they were just in time to take advantage of the of the Spanish growth car market, which was to quad- ruple from 1964 to 1972. The foreign investment in the 'Spanish' car industry had, until November 16, to guaran- of locally- tee that the level produced components would be no lower than 70 per cent.

The entry of Spain into the Common Market and the in- creasing attractiveness to international capital of the Spanish police state has meant some revision of trading laws.

Sanchez-Bella, Franco's Minister of Information and Tourism, noted this at a Press conference after the weekly Ministerial Council meeting: . the present economic situation in Europe, the scar- city of labour in many coun- tries, the relative increase in costs provoked by the latest readjustments in the parity of many currencies, are objective incline circumstances which Workers Prose, Tuaaday De many world-wide firms in the sector to consider the advan- tages of establishing in Spain their new production... especially in the intermediary situation before Spain's full integration in the Common Market, aspects which must not be ignored by our economy' He was referring to the new Decree which Franco had sıgned relating to the invest- ment in production car in Spain which followed on the decision of Henry Ford to launch production in Spain.

The new Decree reduces the percentage of nationally-pro- duced components used by car manufacturers to 50 per cent and demands that investment shall not be less than 10,000 million pesetas (£66m), and that at least two-thirds of the units produced must be exported. added softener to As an companies in those existing Spain, the new arrivals may not sell on the Spanish market more than 10 per cent of the total number of new cars registered in Spain in the pre- ceding year. Henry Ford Il is well-known for his partiality to the family tradition of hatred of trade unions and was naturally thrilled by the illegality of all independent working - class organizations in Spain. After three trips to Spain in under a year, which took him from the Basque provinces to Catalonia and to Madrid to confer with Industry Minisier de Letona, Prince ; ma Carlos, and the doddery diciator him- self, Ford tool: a vital decision on a report which had been drawn up by Ford experts on investment in Europe. The experts opted for an exten- 8 Prose, Tuesday Decembor 5, 1972 PAGE 7 sion of production in Germany or a new factory in Spain.

The predictable outcome is that Ford will establish a fac- tory in the region of Valencia, 200 miles to the south of Barcelona. Investment to the tune of £90m will create 15,000 jobs in a factory with an annual production target of 300,000 cars. 90 per cent of this output will flood the European market from 1974-1975. was in Britain When Ford in 1971 on a tour of his fac- tories he snorted angrily: 'Labour problems are be- coming increasingly difficult. I wasn't bluffing either when I said Ford's would re-invest elsewhere. We can't recom- mend any more capital invest- ment in a country constantly dogged with labour problems.'

His reactions to the sunny climes of Valencia, where cheap labour is abundant since the closure of the local shoe- making industry - following from protectionist measures Nixon — are clearly entirely favourable. In the footsteps of Ford...

the vice-president of General Motors, who was in Madrid recently, and the Japanese car- "Toyota', which manufacturer has just registered a Spanish company "Toyota Motor SA'.

The essential factor which monopolies' will upset the plans for Spain, their spring- board into the EEC, is the of the revolutionary action Spanish working class. In repeated strike actions in which the huge plants now border the roads leading out of Franco's Spanish cities, workers have shown. their determination to put an end to the Franco regime.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Tuesday Decem A new series of articles by Jack with the situation in Ceylon.

Today we publish the minority report of the member of the Indian Unified Secretariat's Commission on Ceylon. This reveals a totally un- principled attempt to bury all political questions emerging from this political scandal.

INDIAN

DELEGATE'S

REPORT

vited both Comrade Bala Tampoe as General Secretary the official of the ISSP(R), section of the Fourth Inter- national in Ceylon, and Com- rade Edmund Samarakkody, leader of the RSP which has broken with the section, to explain their respective posi- tions in connection with the split of April 1968 following a special Conference of the Party. The Commission had before it a written representation sub- mitted by the Provisional Committee of the RSP entitled 'Events leading to the split in LSSP(R) in April 1968' de- manding that the LSSP(R) be disaffiliated as a section of the Fourth International on the grounds that the latter was following bourgeois politics alien to Marxism-Leninism and further suggests that the RSP be recognized as a section in its place. The RSP has also made some charges of a personal nature against Comrade Bala as the leader of the LSSP(R). These charges relate to a trip made by Comrade Bala to the US of America on an invitation and financed by the Asia Founda- tion and also to the unusually friendly relations maintained by him with the British and German diplomatic West missions in Colombo. Comrade Bala on the other hand made a separate repre- sentation in a statement on behalf of the CC of the LSSP(R) challenging the right of Comrade Edmund, a former member of the IEC, to be present at the World Congress as a representative of a split away group. He had accused Comrade Edmund of splitting the Party in defiance of a specific directive given by the Fourth International leadership for maintaining unity, and of now trying to cover it up with various baseless charges.

Commission sought The clarification from both com- rades on the charges and counter-charges made by them against each other. It is indeed regrettable that the split in the in the LSSP(R) took place manner in which it did with- out giving proper opportunity to the International leadership to intervene and avert it if possible. Comrade Edmund justified the split on the grounds that the differences between his tendency and the majority of the LSSP(R) had Feached a stage where they could not be resolved within a single or- ganization He also maintained that he kept the Unified Secre- tariat informed of the devel- opments. He claimed the sup- port of 40 out of 110 members who constituted the LSSP(R) :.

in 1964 after they broke away from the reformist LSSP led ay December 5, 1972 by Jack Gale dealing especially he by N. M. Perera as a protest against the class collaboration- politics of the ist coalition leadership of the united LSSP.

The LSSP(R) which was re- cognized as an official section of the Fourth International in 1964 had to contend with the secession of a pro-coalition by Comrade led tendency Karlo which has since entered the reformist LSSP. It had then to face the disruptionist activities of the Healyites in- side its organizational fold.

After the April 1968 split the Healyites have left the Party to form their own separate group. It has been contended that some of the Healyites are still in the LSSP(R) led by Comrade Bala. The latest split has not only seriously undermined the pres- tige of the Fourth International in Ceylon where the Trotskyist movement had once a mass party in the LSSP which has since degenerated. On the basis of some reports : before the Commission there is no guarantee that the ISSP(R) as constituted at present after April 1968 will not further split especially in the context of the Healy tendency in the fold. Therefore it is necessary for World Congress to re- the examine the entire strategy of constructing a section of the Fourth International in Ceylon by regrouping the best ele- ments of the Trotskyist move- ment. It must be said that the Commission did not have any evidence to substantiate the charge made by Comrade Edmund that Comrade Bala is an agent of the CIA, because he accepted a trip to the USA on a project sponsored by the Asia Foundation. The Commis- sion rejects the charge as irresponsible and motivated by factional considerations.

But at the same time the Commission cannot but take a dim view of the manner in which Comrade Bala got him- self invited to the USA ostensibly under a project the Harvard sponsored by University. Although Comrade Bala maintains that he had kept the Unified Secretariat and SWP informed about his trip, some of his activities in Wash- ington like his interview with McNamara have not been fully explained. Also the unusually friendly relations he maintains with of diplomatic missions the West Germany (he was invited to a dinner party by West Ger- man Chancellor Kiesinger) and UK (he and his wife were in- vited to a luncheon by the British High Commissioner in the midst of a strike of plan- tation workers) all these do befit a militant trade not unionist and a revolutionary Marxist belonging to the Fourth International. More important, however, is the fact that the political posi- tions adopted by the LSSP(R) leadership on a number of questions during the last two years and the trade or three union tacties pursued by Com- rade Bala as lender of the CMU "s. give scope for a great deal of misunderstanding.

There is enough documentary evidence to show that the LSSP(R) has been pursuing a line on issues like united fronts with other working-class or- Banner of the rade Bala [ls] to si ganizations which, least, does not con general strategy of International move The during some strikes in Ceylon li ernment employees workers' strike devaluation UNP government, sistent refusal with parties has b place the party enemy workers in action. alleged recent strike some units on specitic from the strike-breaking nor a come the ment for national movement Further, the by Comrade Bala t Minister of the ment during the strike and t

LON

treatment given to public meeung ings by others wer Colombo-along other incidents- Bala Comrade eyes of the mi the ing-class movement Comrade Bala's that the charges ha rowed from the lished by the pro-Peking and not minimize does of the situation There is enough show that the CMI led bureaucraticall Bala. rade important paid fu the CMU. So are other colleagues LSSP(R). The fact controls a big tion

CMU

sain. But ered that the mostly ployees known for servative especially in Ceylor an unfortunate the part of Comr subordinate the po LSSP(R) to the

CMU.

This perhaps large exten tactics pursued by several trade unio Whatever be the fi of the World Cor status of the LSSP [Is] to subordinate the politi not conform to the rategy of the Fourth nal movement. the

LSSP(R)

of the recent Ceylon like the gov- strike and mployees' action measures rnment, and its con- joint to have working- other been he party in the camp s opposed to 1 action. It has bee that instructions leadership resorted breaking activities— develop- uplimentary Fourth Inter- lovement. letter written de Bala to the Prime of the UNP ng the anti-devalua- and the privileged given to him to hold when meet- hers were banned in with some cidents-have made suspect in if the militant work- novement in Ceylon. contenco harges had been bor-

LSSP,

group, minimize toe gravit. enough evidence to the CMU is control- ucratically by Com- His wife is an So are some eagues of his in the The fact that a sec- a big union like witn a membership is indeed a positive be remem- consists white collar nown for their con- political outlook in Ceylon. And there ortunate tendency on of Comrade Bala te the politics of the to the needs of the rhaps explains to the opportunist rsued by the party on ade union question: be the final decision orld Congress on the the LSSP(R) there is •. an unfortunate in delegate's report says, '.

the politics of the LSSP(R) to the needs of t certainly a need for separating .the leadership of the LSSP(R) of the CMU. In from that other words the top func- tionary of the CMU should not be the chief executive of the Party especially when the CMU represents the only mass [base] of the Party in Ceylon.

There are several charges against the leadership of the LSSP(R) which could not be verified on the basis of the documents placed before the Commission. But there are enough grounds to feel that there is something rotten about the functioning of the Ceylon section as it stands. It has been alleged by a member of the LSSP(R), Com- rade T. M. Perera for example, that the leadership denied any representation to the minority represented by Edmund on even the CC of the LSSP(R).

Even if some of the charges are exaggerated the repercus- sions of unseemly controversy now raging in Ceylon in other countries can be far reaching.

Under the circumstances, the Commission feels that would seriously undermine the prestige of the Fourth Inter- national as an international party of the revolutionary pro- letariat if the LSSP(R) as con- stituted today • is continued as an official section of the Fourth International. Its bona fides are in doubt, even if there is no slur on the character of the individual leaders of the Party. The Commission therefore recommends that the LSSP(R) should be disaffiliated as a sec- tion to create the proper poli- tical conditions and facilitate the regrouping of genuine Trotskyist elements in Ceylon as a new section of the Fourth International. At the same time the Com- mission rejects the claim of the RSP to be granted recog- nition as an official section of Fourth International as the the behaviour of its leadership in precipitating a split has been far from being respons- ible. The Commission deeply regrets to recommend such steps in a country where the Trotskyist movement has had a long tradition. It would have favoured a course whereby the two tendencies that have split from each other could brought together into a single party. Such a possibility does not exist for the present.

fortunate tendency on the part of Com- leeds of the CMU.' The Commission suggests that the World Congress should set up a special Com- mission with powers to visit Ceylon at an early date and explore the possibility of a the Fourth new section International being built in that country.

SECRETARIAT

WAS

INFORMED

It is particularly significant that, according to this state- ment by the Indian delegate- who was Chairman of the Commission-Tampoe claimed that he had kept the Unified Secretariat and the SWP fully informed about his trip to the Neither of United States. these bodies raised the slightest objection. This calls to mind an earlier collaboration with the avowed enemies of Trotskyism by Colvin R. de Silva, a leader of the LSSP when that party was the official Ceylonese section of the Unified Secretariat.

In 1957 Covin R. de Silva, a leading member of the LSSP, visited the Soviet Union and broadcast greetings over Mos- cow Radio on the anniversary of Lenin's death. This was the same radio over which Stalin had broadcast the murder of the Old Bolsheviks in the purge trials of the 1930s.

The so-called Trotskyist leader made no mention of Trotsky nor of the fact that the Stalinist jails were still full of political prisoners. Nor did he mention the recent brutal crushing of the revolu- tion of the Hungarian working class. Challenged about this broad- cast when he visited London, de Silva justified it by saying it was done with the full know- ledge and approval of the Uni- fied Secretariat - Mandel, Frank, and (at that time) Pablo. This confirms once more that the Unified Secretariat is collaborating with the LSSP(R) in exactly the same unprin- cipled way that it collaborated with the LSSP right up until that party's leaders joined Mrs Bandaranaike's govern- ment in 1964. • Tomorrow we publish ex- tracts from the minutes of the Secretariat's Third World Con- gress since the 1964 reunifica- tion.

Lord Beeching, the man who information 'in complete con- did the hatchet fidence' work British Rail during the 1960s, It is straight public relations for the police. (And, brother, is now doing a handsome job in private enterprise. don't they need it right now!)

years ago he Continuing his active role as couple of became chairman of Redland Taylor recently Limited, the building materials went to the At Centre in south London, near company. that time it as if Redland would looked where he lives. fall the takeover The idea was to teach the victim to Ready ambitions of Mixed young ruffians in the area to Concrete. Not any longer. have for the respect The company has just an- forces of law and order. nounced of pre-tax profits He casually asked if any of £10m for the first six months them involved had been in of this year. This represents bad experiences with the police.

of no less He was regaled with horrific an increase than 76 The cent paprevious years.

stories. One youth said that while company's overseas operations are doing splendidly.

he was walking home he was The American stopped by police and interests are the back in the black after losses thrown over the bonnet of of £500,000 last and Panda car to be searched. They year and Germany Australia are accused him of robbing an old also booming. lady and took him to the police There further bonuses When he got there it are station. for Redland was found that he did not fit shareholders around the The description of the robber corner. com- the pany has already let it be so he was allowed to go home.

known that it will be raising "The that point is was 15 per brick prices by cent manhandled by the police for in April, when Phase One of no reason whatsoever.' he said Heath's legislation is over.

Another youth told of the The City pundits are busy time he was taken to a police telling share punters to rush and, because he did station to the Beeching bandwagon.

call 'Sir', he not the officer was beaten up. 'There was nothing I could do and when I said that I was going to report them, they all there and laughed stood at me.' One said he was in youth a club in the West End when it was raided by the police.

I was searched by them for drugs but I was clean. On my way out I was searched again, but this time I had some drugs on me. I explained that it must have been planted on me and said that I was searched by policeman little another He believed me time before. 80.' so let me The naïve Mr Taylor then asked the question: 'Should I help the police?' The majority of the youthful said One audience No. girl Heard of Shaw Taylor? He does replied: 'I wouldn't inform to a weekly television programme the police because the person which is 'Grass of nicknamed might not get treated properly.'

Weeks There the It gives details of were two policemen thefts. robberies and assaults from Brixton throughout the in the London area and he It is not known what meeting. conclusion they or Mr Taylor invites people to phone their friendly police force to reveal drew from the lively discussion!

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25 cloth £1.877 Where Is Britain Going ? Paperback 37tp Revolution Betrayed Paperback 624p-cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.124—cloth £1.87} Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 750 In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG.

TV REVIEW BY ANNE BLAKEMAN

Monday November 27, 9.25 p.m.

"The Bankrupt' Play for Today: by David Mercer. Directed by Christopher Morahan. Produced by Graeme MacDonald. Monday November 27, 8.00 p.m.

Granada 'World In Action' series.

Producer Allan Segal. Executive Producer, Gus MacDonald. A middle-aged man greets a worm in his gar- den. 'You and your mates are going to have a fine time with me one day, says Ellis Cripper-the bankrupt—morally, phy- sically and emotionally, as he painstakingly ob- serves. There is little Ellis Cripper misses as an observer of his own degeneration - the bones of his mental decay rattle through their failing flesh. David Mercer has a devast- ating grip on the quality of any circumstances decay in - decaying relationships, societies, bodies — all matter staggers past his merciless eye and makes for the exit. His new play, perfectly com- Christopher plemented by Morahan's direction, had the chill and compelling impact of a refrigerated razor nicking back tissue after tissue human despair and desolation.

The trio of critics in 'Late Up', obviously Night Line struck with mortal panic both by the piece and their task of defining their reactions, tee- tered on the brink and finally fell thankfully • into banalities about 'symbolism' and what it all really meant'. Their panic was well-placed -Mercer is capable of engen- dering a rare discomfort at least in much of his work and here : Joss Ackland, in a re- markable performance, gave the portrait of the man Cripper as one human being epito- mizing everything the title suggests: besieged by the fear of one who has lost all con- tact with his measure of reality (meagre as it may have been extracting from one bent on his slice of cake in corrupt construction business). Severed from his history by amnesia, isolated within his miserable carcass, which even his doctor cannot bring to heel or find with as anything wrong Cripper is appalled to find), earth in his comes to father's home. Dad, a figure seen before in Mercer's plays, _here strength- ened by David Waller's baleful portrayal, is both the menacing phantom in Cripper's dreams and by day the dogged intoler- ant, who withdraws all under- standing except for a trussed- working-class intuition up, which launches its beady eye at moments, on the truth.

Cripper's stupid sister Charlton) (Althea and her statuesque lawyer husband, all teeth and artificial repose, Workers Press, Tues

AKEMAN

upbraid him in civilized fashion and Cabinet sort out Minister's daughter for his revival. Only she is in fact a bio- logist, steadfastly played by Sheila Allen, who takes Cripper over for an illusory affair.

'Now you've got me in your laboratory' , he rightly observes with pleasurable alarm. Interwoven with the bland ploys of daily existence fall Ellis's dreams and his subter- ranean preoccupation. These take him further and further from the real world, particu- larly, for him, into the realm ot the occult and the pentangle -that rigid formula across whose boundaries no other being may step and within which Ellis fears and longs to see the figure with its head representing downwards demon-and madness. Other selves make tasteful with him in encounters the form of Alexander the Great, Tacitus, Aristotle and Oscar Wilde. Each tells him irritating truths which lead nowhere: 'Woman is the triumph of matter over mind; man is the triumph of mind over morals,' Wilde says. Finally there is nowhere to turn, none of his 'loved ones' resurrect him from the can death he seeks. The play is profoundly skil- ful on all levels—it illuminates a plane seldom scaled in tele- vision drama and no one is more of a master at ferreting in the darkness with such lucidity and wit than Mercer. It is a highly-conscious crystallization of all the crude essays into this territory made by commercial cinema and on the television screen-and is also a profoundly accurate worm's eye view of the grave into which bourgeois capitalism imminently to be top- seems pling. The writer has the extra- ordinary ability of being able to grasp our senses and nail them to the wall—the sight, smell, sound and taste destruction is vivid and serves to underline that this is only one half of the truly terrible story which is all about us at this very moment. There is an alternative to Cripper's route and it is there for us to choose. There are forces which can move against They this wasteland. are moving now. The dying world which David Mercer evokes and describes so memorably has its living opposite struggl- ing as a contradiction within and around us. And 'World in Action's' ex- cellent half-hour film on the construction industry gave us some of the essentials of that very opposite: a run down on the hair-raising*• exploits of British Steel and its Anchor Project - the £235m construc- site near Scunthorpe tion which is not only the biggest ress, Tuesday December 5, 1972 PAGE 9 Davld Mercer. Above: a scene from his play, 'The Bankrupt'.

in the UK, but one of the biggest in the world. Within 18 months, six wor- kers have been killed and 313 injured on this particular battleground. Seventeen - year - old Larry Leonard's death in a fall from his work as a scaffolder's apprentice recently put the lid things. The on men are threatening serious industrial action and have fought for, and very recently gained, rep- resentation from their shop stewards' committee on the National Committee for In- dustrial Safety. Although British Steel re- fused Granada's cameras the right of entry, they went in on risk and the workers took them round the site. We saw the wastelands of unused steel waiting to be cleared away (they never will be or have been except when Lord Mel- chett himself came for a visit and the requisite areas were cleaned up!). We saw the hundreds of scaffolding erections with no handrails, the piano wire that can chop a man's hand off with no warning signs and some of the other countless hazards that face an enormous labour force there every day. Yet the death of a man is apparently only worth £100 imposed the maximum fine recently on a firm which was proved guilty over lack of safety measures. A nervous and defensive representative of the Inspec- tors' organization admitted that with 60,000 sites, on average each year in Britain there are only 100 inspectors available to cover them. Facts like these are bringing the workers face to face not only with the basic questions of their rights in working con- ditions but, as British Steel ignores their anger and calls for increased production, with the fact that action will have to be taken: "The only time we can ever get any response from British Steel is when we back up our demands with industrial action, one worker said. And there'll be further to go than that very soon for men like these.

An IMG s that back PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday December 5, 1972 OVER THE past two weeks, Chapeltown, a dilapidated immigrant area near the centre of has been racked Leeds, by a bitter controversy. The centre of the storm is children's centre amshackl called Studley Grange. ant to take control of th uilding from the whit largely middle-class executive committee that controls it.

highlighting But apart from the legitimate-if very modest West Indians and Asians of demands of the black population Leeds. Grange of Leeds, the Studley present warden is Joss The affair revealed political has Browning who learned his social alliance between the International Leeds Polytech- work theory at Group Marxist and leading nic. He has held the post for 18 called Maureen Leeds Liberal months. Before that he was Baker. assistant warden, but won pro- One of the first fruits of this no one applied for motion when unprincipled 'tactical totally the job when the original vacancy marriage' has been a false and occurred. slanderous attack on the Socialist faction on the committee Studley Labour League and Mr have always wanted to get Browning. Grange's warden, Joss They little Browning out. made The story begins in 1966 when secret of their desire for a neatly a group of local mothers, mainly certificated social turned out, West Indian, premises found at would develop the worker, who Chapeltown, for 55 Louis Street, centre. and pre-school play group Mrs One their leaders, appointed a West Indian super- why Doreen Hamilton, told me visor. she considered Joss Browning un- Gradually, as the centre attrac- suitable: ted from charities more money 'First of all his main interest and from the Leeds council, con- the over-ll age group. trol of the premises fell into the Secondly he did not do the things hands of white, middle- largely For we asked him to do. people who lived outside class we asked him manner to raise the Chapeltown The area. the and he money centre Grange's present executive com- came up with no ideas to develop mittee reflects this development. the work there. It contains a doctor, an education Browning replies that the officer, bank Mr manager, really made minister and a Labour councillor committee never minds up about the role lives in comfortable their who Was he to be 'an of the warden. detached house miles from the The daily peper that ada the fight agalnat the Tories. £20.28 for 12 months (312 lazues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 issues)' 25.07 for 3 months (78 issubs) If you want 1o take Workers Press twice a mook the ratas are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: 186a Clapham High 3l., Circulation Depl., Workers Press, Londan, SWÁ TUG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

MONDAY

THURSDAY

Days required

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

(Please tick)

WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY

Or months. Full subscription (six days) for Name Address Amount enclosed I I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

SECRETARY,

186a CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON SW4 7UG.

Name. Address.. enabler' organizing people who run the various activities at the centre, or was he to do every- from running the youth thing, to keeping the books. It club turned out to be the latter for Joss Browning.

FACTION

Even so, the mothers I talked to whose children went to Studley Grange for a tiny fee of 8p a day spoke warmly of the warden and the atmosphere of the youth club, held in a shed at the back of the Grange, which was friendly and free. The West chatted to Mr Indian youth Browning and played table tennis beneath the black power slogan on the walls. The 'sack-Joss' faction, after secret meetings, gained a majority on September 20 when a vote on executive committee with the eight of the Il members present went against him. Eventually Joss struck back on Wednesday, November 22, when he put out a leaflet in Chapel- town signed by his supporters calling for the executive commit- tee to be controlled by local people. The leafiet was aimed at in- fluencing a meeting to be held two days later on Friday, Novem- Studley Grange ber 24 when would hold its annual general meeting and elect a new com- mittee. People have accused Joss Browning of jumping on a popu- lar bandwagon and using local control of the centre as an issue to get a committee which would reverse the decision to sack him.

'I would say it was a mixture of both,' he told me. 'I certainly wanted to stay on at the centre.

I think I can do the job and under the right circumstances be a good warden. But I also feel that local people should control the centre. They established it; it's for them and their children.

CONTROL

It was at this point that a new element made a dramatic entry Studley the battle for Into Grange. The scene was a meeting organized by the International Marxist Group at Chapeltown.

Speakers included Tariq All, a leader of the IMG, and a repre- from the Afro-West sentative Indian Brotherhood, a long- standing Chapeltown society which runs educational and other activities among the Chapeltown people. The meeting was interrupted two women. One was Mrs by Maureen_Baker, a Leeds officer for the United Kingdom Immi- Advisory Service, and grants. Veryl Harriot, who runs the local Citizen's Advice Bureau. handed Mrs Baker over a leaflet prepared by a rather nebu- lous body called the Chapeltown Parents' and Friends' Association.

'white This who controlled the Studley Grange committee, but also condemned 'a faction of the Committee supported Executive Chapeltown Community by the who were 'desper- Association' ately seeking your support.

The leaflet called on the black community to take control of Studley Grange: with these words: It ended 'For years the white liberals have been voicing their support of the black community. This is their chance to show what they mean by moving out of their jobs and and giving positions of power "live" the people who rather than "reside" in Chapeltown, the oportunity to control their affairs.' ended: However, expert- It ence, both national and inter- national, shows that this usually happens, and that control of a school or, as in this country, case, a children's centre, has got to be TAKEN.' It encouraged people to 'take control' of Studley Grange at the AGM in two days on Friday.

One can only speculate whether the intervention was pre-arranged between Mrs Baker and the IMG.

But what certainly happened was that the IMG immediately spotted yet another chance of a public adventure, with all the attendant publicity and the added bonus of an attack on the

SLL.

From the platform Ali wished his "black comrades' good speed in their struggle and after the meeting Mrs Baker and the IMG pub The retired to the -local Hayfield'.

STUDLEY GHANGE

CHILDRENS ASSOCIATION

1972

ANNUAL REPORT

The upshot was an extra- ordinary article in the

IMG

weekly newsheet 'Red Mole' The article (already dealt with in detail in last Friday's Workers • charged the League with Press) demonstrating its 'reactionary attitude' the black question. on The allegation was based on a series of false that Wednesday from night. The article decided that the black militants of Chapeltown • Studley were going to occupy Grange on the Friday. Organizers of the protest deny this. Occupa- • is not mentioned in their tion leaflet, nor was it mooted at the meeting. Rick Hatcher, IMG member in this issue: Leeds, I says on don't think I have anything to say about that except that was the way we understood it.?

They all decided Joss Browning was a member of the Socialist Labour League. This conclusion, which, of course, is totally false, Mr Hatcher, on was based, said 'sources' he would not name.

They also reached the astonish- ing conclusion that Mr Browning had resisted 'repeated requests' from black people to resign.

As we have seen, Mr Browning fact in no position was in to resign that Wednesday because he was serving his notice!

As for 'repeated requests' ', this denied black by was every inhabitant I spoke to in Chapel- 'resisting', Joss As for town. Browning says: 'I would be quite happy to be sacked by people from round here, but I was not happy when I was sacked by a group outside the middle-class area.' The gross inaccuracies of the 'Red Mole' report not only high- light the completely casual way members of the IMG approach the production of their paper and their contempt for fact and truth, but it also reveals their deep, middle-class hostility to revolu- tionary politics.

DIATRIBE

The article ended up with a vile diatribe against the League based on loss Browning's alleged membership. We were accused of being 'reactionary' on the 'black question'. In the light of this allegation it is instructive to examine the IMG's allies in their own 'fight' on the black question in Leeds.

in the move to The catalyst 'take control' of Studley Grange is Mrs Maureen Baker. Mrs Baker has had a very varied political background.

She first came to the notice of the members and supporters of the Socialist Labour League in Leeds in about 1963 when she was a Labour Party member.

Mrs Baker approached the Trotskyist expressing movement an interest in its organization and politics. The discussions were, however, unfruitful. The Leeds SLL felt Mrs Baker had nothing politically to offer to the revolu- tionary movement. In 1968 she left the Labour Party over the 1968 Immigration Act. But last year she popped up in the Liberal Party as a can- didate in the local elections. She was annoyed over some issue of redevelopment, she says, SO decided to stand as a Liberal.

Leader of the Leeds Liberals, Michael Meadowcraft,_is most enthusiastic about Mrs Baker. He admits she was not a member of the Liberal Party until a little time before the May by-elections.

'We don't worry unduly about membership. What we look for is someone who has our. flair and style. Maureen had this. I have known her for some time. We were delighted when she decided to stand as a candidate,' said Mr Meadowcraft. He says she is still a member and that he agrees with every- thing she says. During all this time Mrs Baker had close connections with the black community in Chapeltown, particularly people in the Chapel- town Parents' and Friends' Asso- ciation, of which she is a mem- ber, and the Afro-West Indian Brotherhood, which attracts many of the area's young militants to black history. its Classes on (While I was in Mrs Veryl Harriot's house, Mrs Baker appeared to be taking part in one class in the next room.) She fits all this round of activity in with her job as an officer for the United Kingdom Service Immigrants Advisory (salary £1,600 to £2,500 a year).

This is a body largely financed government through the Home Office. The job of the local officers is to represent immigrants before an adjudicator appointed by the Home Office and before an appeals tribunal under the Immigrants Appeals Act of 1969 which deals with any objection arising from a refusal entry permit to to grant an Britain.

with a baCK ssue от Ene Temusal consider it a Home Office inev Ise ana best nerore attie tne 101 d Drilal y allll. arisen. I think it is essential if munILy WIll aeveloo She savs the IMG report was exaculy misinterpretation England organizatons Gatives. and Alistair 4 ДО Leiahton. Morocer Comed seven wives. Marshal Hallwy. one s ooks morass Atro-West Indian brothernood. 1700l1 4.29 hennenn more. nurse now living in

LINC

Nicholas Partitt

NOON

way. ness upon temselves and Dulla you must know vour history and bad to worse.

LOOK

Studley Grange Committee would Chapeltown have no aris wer

MITS

Contusca mlass ponlucal bankrupts s orr can venture alc Wynter. husband of Mrs Lucid: told … me the workers in Leeds. working class is treated _oncon. NeWS unuckieneads. Ice. Gontani. 00-019 voastelares. liberate themselves from this Mrs Baker first says, next Collic

IMG

say Of course not. un- employment and poverty. white run and control it is an important stitute for building the movement can Labour and the Press will it is which can only be stamped out in Ihat Is why we devote ourselves to building revolutionary party for the revo- but stand these on talist This means this and hate the Socialist Labour their middle-class television when predict that glamour town the the Socialist Labour to unite black and white workers room. 10.50 Bush boy. 11.15 4.25 5.20 James: farm. 3.00 London. 5.20 6.00 day. Cartoon. umbo. 11.15 heroes. small change. party. London. Date- 6.35 7.00 roads. 12.15 8.30 Weather. London. 11.10

GRAMPIAN:

12.05 country. 2.30 at 6.00 Put it in 6.00 7.00 6.35 court. Worth. 7.30 7.35 7.30

TYNE TEES:

9.30 Swansea, Deal and Southampton

AEU

Coventry credentials vote under fire PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday Der

FUND

DECEMBER

TOTAL IS

NOW £245.79

THIS MONTH we are determined to try and raise a record amount.

We face the Christmas holidays soon, so everything you can raise will certainly be needed earlier than usual. faces this A growing crisis Tory government. In spite of legislation on the statute book to curb trade unionism and keep down wages, the Torles still have to tackle the working class.

All over the country there is a huge movement, growing all the time, against the Tories. No one will accept the enormous price increases and rent rises.

political situation, in this is decisive in Workers Press giving a lead to all those taking up the fight today. Help us with a very special effort for our £1,750 December Fund. Let's go all out now to raise a record amount. Post all donatlons Immediately to: Workers Press December. Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London, SW4 7UG

ITHE

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

SW4 7UG.

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

SWA 7UG.

Corn Exch Leed: All Trades Unions Alliance

MEETINGS

Fight Rising Prices Force the Tories to Resign WANDSWORTH: Tuesday Decem- ber 5, 8 p.m. Selkirk Hotel, Sel- Tooting kirk Road, Broadway. 'Fight Rising Prices'. CLAPHAM: Tuesday December 5, 8 p.m. Small Hall, Clapham Manor Baths, pepression in Ire- Clapham Manor Street, SW4. land—State Pay Laws in Britain: Preparation for the Common Market'. SOUTHAMPTON: Wednesday December 6, 7.30 p.m. 'Bay Tree Inn', , New Road: TOTTENHAM: Thursday Decem- ber 7, 8 p.m. Bricklayers Arms, Tottenham High Road (near White Hart Lane). MANCHESTER: Friday December 8, 7.30 p.m. Milton Road, Deans- gate. 'Force the Tories to resign!'

BIRKENHEAD: Sunday Decem- ber 10, 7.30 p.m. Pier Hotel.

esday December 5, 1972 And Worth,

THREE

Amalgamated was night. Right-wing a shop steward and deputy and Union of Engineering Chrysler's member Workers' branches in Stoke plant, has appealed his casting Coventry have slammed the issue. against decision Tao Chrsyler the district committee through his branch to the AUEW executive council. had sacked Wort decision withdraw to The after a five-day s district committee shop steward credentials decision to withdraw back- 4,000 back but refused 1 from John Worth. ing came last Tuesday ASIAN hosiery workers on strike for five and a half weeks at Mansfield Hosiery, Loughborough, Leicestershire, yesterday occupied the local office of their union-the National Union of Hosiery: and Knitwear Workers. The numker of strikers occupying the union offices was said to be over 200. They sang a song, which, they said, was a prayer for the strike to be made official. and women The 500 manding that these men be redeployed. returned to work last week They rejected the advice of after winning an eight-point union's their general secretary, agreement which included a £1 Mr Harold Gibson, who assured increase for bar-loaders and a them that job opportunities would of management pledge in- be given to any person who had creased job opportunities for the ability to take the necessary Asians. training. They also turned down the But inside the factory they appeal of the union's national discovered 41 white workers had organizer, Mr Albert Green, who been taken on during the strike said the offer was the best they as trainee-knitters. were likely to get and the longer decided they strike •to on They walked out again, de- 'the harder it would be to find a solution'. Now they say they will not office until their leave the union strike is made official. Meanwhile, national union leaders are today having talks with Victor Feather, TUC general secretary. officials at Union the Lough- borough office yesterday denied that occupation had an taken place. Mr R. Cater, the union's district said: "There is secretary, no occupation. There union sag on. I have nothing meeting going further to

TRANSPORT

and General Workers' Union leaders to are collaborate with big business in a study scheme "the to promote improvement of industrial rela- tions. TOMORROW we examine the scheme. Y DECEMBER g

FROM PAGE 1

Exchange grip on the party can be gauged the fact that from the official eeds Tory candidate at the crucial Lincoln by-election is none other than Jonathan Guinness, the Monday Club's new chairman.

WATFORD :

Monday December 11, 8 Upstairs Room, Wat- p.m. Nor should the election of Trade Watford ford Union Hall, Edward du Cann as chairman of Road Watford Junction (opp. the powerful 1922 Committee be Station). overlooked. Monday, Decem-

WIGAN:

Lancs. The committee, which is ber 11, 7.30 The Market the p.m. 'Wages voice of backbench Tory Hotel. and laws against main Speaker: Mike MPs, is now in the hands of a the trade unions'. Farley (Building trade worker).

former chairman of the party and a noted Heath rival.

HULL:

Monday December 11, 'White Hart', Alfred Chelder 'No Waged campaign state control of wages.'

ACTON:

Monday December 11, Du Cann was not given a job Hall, Road, Co-op High p.m. Heath Cabinet in • the ex- W3. 'Free Sean MacStiofain'. has since waged pected) and he WEST LONDON: Tuesday Decem- behind-the-scenes campaign ber Prince Albert, p.m. Heath's leadership. against Wharfdale Road, Cross. Kings 'No State Control of Wages'. He is chairman of Keyser

LIVERPOOL:

Tuesday December Ullman, the merchant banking p.m. The firm which had connections with 12, 7.30 Mitre, Dale Street. Rolls the Razor group and Vehicle and General, and he EAST LONDON : Tuesday Decem- ber 12, 8 p.m. Build a dunc Crisp at take to oresent necouaung Street, E14. Councils British subsidiary 'Build over the of Action'.

TOS.

CROYDON:

Wednesday Decem- Had the Labour government ber 13. Ruskin House, p.m. lost an important vote par- Coombe Road, Croydon. 'Free liament and its backbenchers Sean MacStiofain'. promised rebellion, the capitalist ght-wing chairman nize him as a steward committee They then produced a 22 Jim Griffin used page dossier on Worth. ng vote to swing Coventry No. Worth's branch, and No 27 AUEW have deplore management decision. red Worth. Then, the five-day strike by No. 73 has accused th en, they took him committee of weakenin refused to recog- the union at a time 'whe THE 'ANGRY BRIGADE' jury last night went to an undis- closed destination in the Home Counties after failing to reach an early verdict following the longest trial of the century.

Concluding his seven-day sum- ming up Mr Justice James told the jury to reach a unanimous verdict. There would be no question of a majority verdict unless and until he gave them further instructions. He also told them to consider evidence against each of the eight defendants individually although the case against four 'ANTI-SUBVERSIVE' laws in line with those passed by the Lynch government in Eire are now to be considered by the Tory government in Britain.

It was learned in London yes- terday afternoon that Tory Home Secretary Robert Carr is to con- sider taking more power to act against members of the IRA 'and organizations' similar terror following the outlawing of the IRA in the Irish Republic.

This is in line with • earlier statements from Unionist and Tory back-bench MPs demanding 'subversives' laws against new and IRA members. Ulster Unionist MP for East Belfast, Mr Stanley McMaster, had already stated he would ask Carr on Thursday to introduce legislation making it unlawful for anyone living in Britain to be an

IRA

member or any branch of it. He also wants to see the Tories re-introduce the death penalty for political murder. Mr Philip Goodhart, Tory MP for Beckenham, had tabled a question to the Home Secretary asking what plans he had to amend the laws relating to sub- versive organizations which sup- port terrorism in Britain.

Press would have splashed the news day after day. But despite the deep divi- sions in the Tory ranks, the Fleet Street Press remains as quiet as it possibly can and dares not draw attention to the weaknesses of the gov- ernment. The Press lords know that Heath is shaky. They also know he must get into the Common Market. Hence the uneasy calm in the Tory Press. The fact remains that Heath and his government are weak.

The working class is undefeated and undivided. There must be no renewed talks with the government and the CBI, as suggested by Heath in a private letter to Victor Feather. FARMWORKERS' leaders appealed to 1 Macmillan yesterday to have their pa Tories' freeze. Today union president Bottini will meet Agriculture Minister | which brought farmworkers' minimum • steward. the whole AUEW is under uced a 22- attack by the National Industrial Relations Court'.

73, The executive council is and No. asked to annul the district • deplored instruct decision and Coventry Chrysler stewards not to cused the with negotiate manage- ment until Worth is recog- weakening time 'when nized as a steward. of the accused, James Greenfield, Mendleson, Anna John Barker and Hilary Creek, substantially coincided. 'Don't let minds be your clouded by issues and considera- tions which do not concern you,' the judge continued. 'Concentrate on the evidence and don't let prejudice or sym- pathy affect your judgement. Decide on the evidence and not on suggestions or inferences.'

The eight accused are charged with a bombs and arms cons- piracy which included the bomb- ing of the home of Tory Minister Mr Robert Carr in early 1971.

The jury will continue consider- ing its verdict today. • Police and immigration officers throughout Britain yesterday in- creased watches on ports and airports for known IRA members.

New names are reported to have been added to Special Branch lists following latest intelligence reports from the 26 counties.

• In Belfast last night Ulster Secretary William Whitelaw again Social Democratic and met Labour Party leaders whose main suggestion was that the north should be governed jointly by London and Dublin! Reserves up? BRITAIN'S official reserves rose by $36m during November to stand at $5,895m. The Bank of England has not been support- the pound since it was floated in July. There has thus been little or no drain on the reserves for nearly four months.

In any case the figures should be read with great caution. In his memoirs, Cecil King refers to the fabrication of the April 1968 reserve figures. The pub- lished figure showed an increase of £2lm, when the real figure was in fact a loss of £80m!

By talking with the Tories the trade union leaders help give the government credibility and thus help it to remain in office.

As the crisis worsens the Tory leadership-under Heath or Powell-will become blind force of repression against the working class.

The urgent task of the labour and trade union movement is to mobilize its full strength to see that the government with all its is brought reactionary plans down. CATERING staff, porters, clean- ers and boilermen at Nottingham University staged a one-day strike yesterday in protest against a university decision not to pay a rise granted to local wage authority workers just before the Tory state pay law. ealed to Employment Secretary Maurice • their pay award exempted from the president Bert Hazel and secretary Reg Minister Joseph Godber over the award minimum to £19.50.