Workers Press no. 958

workers press Chrysler non-unionist threatens to go to NIRC

MASS WALK-OUT

CLOSED SHOP

Black Monday for all

INCORPORATING THE N

DAILY ORGAN OF THE C

FROM DAVID MAUDE IN BIRMINGHAM

ABOUT 2,000 car workers at Chrysler's Ryton plan in Coventry staged a spontaneous walk-out yesterday giving notice of their determination to fight the lega threat to the closed-shop.

The angry demonstration erupted when Joseph Langston, the body welder who refuses to join the engineering union, turned up at the personnel office to collect his wages. The walk-out lasted for 30 minutes. Langston was jeered and called a 'scab' for his attack on the closed-shop under the Industrial Relations Act.

On Thursday Langston went to the Industrial Tribunal in Birmingham and won a rulins under the Act that he need not belong to the , Amalga- mated Union of Engineering Workers. Away from the jeers of the Chrysler workers Langston boas- ted to the Press that he was prepared 'to go all the way.

If the stewards and the works committee stick their necks out and say they are not prepared to have me in the factory, I will go JOSEPH LANGSTON... Faced : Re- the National Industrial to lations Court. I will take them come.' to kingdom He went on grimly: I am clai- mant, I am plaintiff, t am anting counsel for the plaintiff and am conducting my own defence.

But neither Langston nor the Chrysler (UK) management had been would disclose what said at the brief meeting in the TAKE A good look at personnel department. your food bill today It is known, however, that one of the management chiefs he saw because next Saturday it Mr Leon Levy. They dis- was general position, the will be higher. cussed 'his company said. In just over 24 hours Langston has been suspended Britain will be in the ' £41.20 for two on full pay of Common Market and carworkers refused months sinc will start their prices work alongside a non- to long climb up to Euro unionist. pean levels. Within seconds of his arrival at the factory at 10.20 a.m., the The signs are already un- 2 gate No. The incredible around was mistakable. area filled with workers incensed by rise in meat prices demon- Tribunal that Europe will Thursday's Industrial strates the that Langston has attack decision mean an on right, under the Industrial Rela- 'frozen' budget of every housewife in the country.

tions Act, to refuse union membership. Rump steak at £1 a lb as much as 25 per were turned Several lorries is now away from the gates as the crowd cent above levels last year.

like Even cheaper cuts waited to if the company see braising steak has risen this would test their threat of strike the welder be week to 54p compared with action should 38 to 40p last December. taken back in. Other meats too are be- for Earlier, workers arriving coming so dear as to be the 7.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift were bevond the income range unanimous that if Langston were working- of the average taken back he could quickly class family. the become the only one in English and New Zea- factory. land lamb are up between been 'Our policy has always 20 and 25 per cent. Be- "Don't work with nonners [non- of shortages cause in unionists!" and we don't intend Denmark, bacon on the to start now, assembly line an London markets h a s worker told me. reached the all-time record price £525 a ton.

TURN TO BACK PAGE

NG THE NEWSLETTER SATURDAY DI

• THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE O

on plant sterday, he legal .. Faced angry demonstration at factory

CONSUMER R

Rises of canned food equ from Australia are also on the way because of the devaluation of the Austra- lian dollar. Increases of 2p per can of fruit are being talked about by suppliers.

But it is the Common Market that holds the big- gest threat to the workers' purses. These are the facts: The British tax-payer will be forced to pay for Europe's Common Agricul- tural Policy. Under this food prices in Europe are fixed at a far higher price than the world level. The capitalist authori- ties of the Common Mar- trac the highest Fre ket take common price proposal and Brit fix the level there. Take cereals. The Euro- am pean price for wheat, the barley and oats will be loss URDAY DECEMBER 30, 1972 • No 958 • 4p

TTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

plant, County IT IS not the first time that he took out Joseph Langston has clashed Court summonses against two with the AUEW over the closed company executives and shop shop. stewards. During the war he turned in He alleged they had caused a shop stewards card after 12 him 'nervous anxiety and fear" months on the grounds that the by operating a closed shop closed shop nasno place the British policy. curriculum trade union'. The summonses were later Langston left the Then, in 1964, when working Winerawn. as a fitter at the Standard car for 'private reasons'. In addition prices of commodities have these Europe been rising faster the cent over year. BaSE Add to this Value-Added Tax which will push up the

SUMER ROUND-UP BY STEPHEN JOHNS

prices of fares and services April and the from living enormous attack on equal to the price in Duis- But again it will be the standards that Europe berg, Germany, where working-class taxpayer who means can be guaged. foots the bill. cereal prices are highest Monday will be a black will be While Gradually this this goes on day for every housewife. cheap imports the phased out over four years from until prices Britain will of the world will be in It Test will be the beginning shut Common of Britain and become as high as they are of the great prices hike. Market on the Continent. Then the the by will directly tariffs. The labour Consumer movement shoulder the entire burden mobilize the must whole of the cost. Where prices are still working class to kick out lower even with the tariffs, the Tories and take Britain And the burden will be levies will be imposed to out of capitalist Europe. enormous. the bring them up Common Market prices. latest British and Common Mar- which will This process, rapidly reduce living stan- with these facts: ruary l. Beef and Veal prices 28 special compen- per cent higher. 01-720 2000 satory amount system will allow • Butter 179 per cent traders to sell high-priced dearer. French grain in low-priced British markets. • Cheese 62 per cent dearer. 01-622 7029 • Bread (wheat) 10 per cent dearer.

LOSS.

workers press Chrysler non-unionist threatens to go to NIRC

MASS WALK-OUT

CLOSED SHOP

Black Monday for all

INCORPORATING THE A

DAILY ORGAN OF THE O

FROM DAVID MAUDE IN BIRMINGHAM

ABOUT 2,000 car workers at Chrysler's Ryton plan in Coventry staged a spontaneous walk-out yesterday giving notice of their determination to fight the lega threat to the closed-shop.

The angry demonstration erupted when Joseph Langston, the body welder who refuses to join the engineering union, turned up at the personnel office to collect his wages. The walk-out lasted for 30 minutes. Langston was jeered and called a 'scab' for his attack on the closed-shop under the Industrial Relations Act.

On Thursday Langston went to the Industrial Tribunal in Birmingham and won a ruling the Act that he need under not belong to the, Amalga- mated Union of Engineering Workers. from the jeers of the Away Chrysler workers Langston boas- Press he ted to the that was prepared 'to go all the way'.

If the stewards and the works stick their necks committee out and say they are not prepared to have me in the factory, I will go JOSEPH LANGSTON... Faced : Re- the National Industrial to Court. I will take them lations come.' to kingdom He went on grimly: 'I am clai- 1 am acting mant, I am plaintiff, the plaintiff and counsel for am conducting my own defence?

But neither Langston nor the (UK) Chrysler management disclose what had been would brief meeting in the said at the TAKE A good look at personnel department. your food bill today It is known, however, that one of the management chiefs he saw because next Saturday it They dis- Mr Leon Levy. was cussed 'his general position', the will be higher. company said. In just over 24 hours suspended Langston has been Britain will be in the full of £41.20 for two on pay Market and Common refused months sinc carworkers their prices will start alongside a to work non- long climb up to Euro- unionist. pean levels. Within seconds of his arrival at the factory at 10.20 a.m., the The signs are already un- No. The incredible around 2 gate mistakable. was area filled with workers incensed by rise in meat prices demon- will Industrial Tribunal strates that Europe Thursday's has attack decision that Langston mrozen an, on the right, under the Industrial Rela- budget of every housewife in the country.

Act, refuse union tions to membership. Rump steak at £1 a lb as much as 25 per Several lorries turned is now were away from the gates as the crowd cent above levels last year.

Even cheaper like waited if the company cuts to see braising steak has risen this would test their threat of strike week to 54p compared with should the welder be action 38 to 40p last December. taken back in. Other meats too are be- Earlier, workers arriving for dear as to be coming SO the 7.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift were beyond the income range unanimous that if Langston were of the working- average could taken back he quickly class family. the only one in the become English and New Zea- factory. are up between land lamb 'Our policy has always been 25 Be- 20. and cent. per "Don't work with nonners [non- of shortages in cause don't intend unionists]" and we Denmark, the bacon on to start now,' an assembly line has London markets worker told me. reached the all-time record price £525 a ton.

TURN TO BACK PAGE

NG THE NEWSLETTER • SATURDAY DI

• THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE O

on plant esterday, the legal •.Faced angry demonstration al tactory

CONSUMER RI

canned food Rises of from Australia are also on • per can of fruit are being talked about by suppliers.

But it is the Common Market that holds the big- gest threat to the workers' These are the facts: The British tax-payer will forced to vith Europe's Common Agricul- tural Policy. Under this food prices in Europe are fixed at a far higher price than the world level. The capitalist authori- ties of the Common Mar- the highest ket take common price proposal and fix the level there. Take cereals. The Euro- wheat, Dean price for barley and oats will be URDAY DECEMBER 30, 1972 • No 958 • 4p

TTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

plant, County IT IS not the first time that he took out Joseph Langston has clashed Court summonses against two with the AUEW over the closed company executives and shop shop. stewards. During the war he turned in He alleged they had caused a shop stewards card after 12 him 'nervous anxiety and fear' grounds that the months on the by operating a closed shop closed shop 'has no place policy. the of British curriculum The summonses were later withdrawn. Langston left the Then, in 1964, when working as a fitter at the Standard car company for 'private reasons'. In addition prices of have these commodities been rising Europe faster cent over the last year. Add to this Value-Added Tax which will push up the

SUMER ROUND-UP BY STEPHEN JOHNS

prices of fares an and tes from April and the living enormous attack on equal to the price in Duis- But again it will be the standards that Europe Germany berg, where working-class taxpayer who means can be guaged. cereal prices are highest.

foots the bill. Monday will be a black will be While this all Gradually this goes on day for every housewife. cheap imports from the phased out over four years until prices Britain will of the will be in world It will be the Test beginning shut of Britain and become as high as they are of the great prices hike.

OUL

Common Market on the Continent. Then the the by tariffs. will directly The labour Consullici movement shoulder the entire burden mobilize the must whole of the cost. still Where prices are working class to kick out lower even with the tariffs, the Tories and take Britain And the burden will be levies will be imposed Europe. enormous. the bring Common Market prices. latest British and Common Mar- which will This process, rapidly reduce living stan- dards, with these tacts: ruary. • Beef and Veal prices 28 01-720 2000 special compen- per cent higher. amount system will satory allow 179 per cent • Butter traders to sell high-priced dearer. low-priced French grain In British markets. • Cheese 62 per cent dearer. 01-622 7029

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Saturday December 30, 1972 OVER 200,000 engin- By OUR OWN the international recession,

CORRESPONDENT

particularly in the steel in- eers and steelworkers and are pleading poverty. West Germany's in overwne ms favour of strike action The workers, however, Ruhr basin have won union ballot conducted confident that they are can official backing to begin just before Christmas. the Deal

DUSSE

alt eager for with a struggle strike action on January them. The re-election ọf million, the ship Chancellor Willy Brandt is Il in support of their demanding

TOLO NS S

Walt mialol

VICLONV

rises averaging 1l per cent.

wage claim. by the workers in the fac- But leadership is to a national stop- TOmes, opposed The strike will be the their first bare o back _Lie Clailll. expecta. stoppage lla U1 the Ruhr since 1929. The In past years it has re- calluns ill placed. government area is the heart and ot action SuriCLCa SLIIKe SLu- German heavy industry, particular regions- stance neutrality alec big strike confined particularly steel and in the dispute. But to North-Rhine-Westphalia, coal. already efforts under- out asicu ncaliy a munla.

Frankfurt Meeting in on This time, however, it on the so-called concerted Thursdav. execuve will face very firm opposi- acron commndee committee the metal- employers,

TION

TrOTN IG Metall (Klinr STrITA who have offered only mounting ten- sign of the decided to authorıze strike 5.6 derisory per cent rise the sion between from a.m. classes in the reply li. January claim. eagerness mass The its The employers are begin- workers fight the Engineers collecting executive took em- lecision in the light of ar ning to feel the effects of DvycIs. THE ENTIRE American getting hroushh to their esr gare cent their force stock of B52 air in Hanoi. bombers could be des- officer cenloT recon. said that this figure ought to troyed in less than six the Soviet alarm air defence weeks at the present it US Cobes. anon cateo mne could strike Soviet targets at rate of losses over North with B52s.

BY JOHN SPENCER

Vietnam. The boast is misplaced, how- What it does demonstrate is the low quality and quantite missies in the On their admission own expectation knocking out at the Americans have lost 14 some least Vietnam, which believed of the heavy bombers since proximity-iused une have been supplied with obsolete the North weapons. raids on were al any Tale obsolescent sAM started again President Each of the bombers_ on costs missiles. though they are of Korean $8m, Nixon's orders I1 days ago.

doubt that the There is no And the cost oi war vintage Pentagon and the White House atit the Nil o V B525 ss sar the bombers does not include are very frustrated by the deter- that B52s the expense of training the pilots higher: mined and heroic stand against.

wnO ale Kuleu or cabluica v the bombing taken by the North the North Vietnamese. Tne

CIHCOTE

rOCKel vaLle nes Vietnamese. around Hanoi and Haiphong.

The B52 is one of the delivery The rate of loss of B52s may vehicles for the US hydrogen The anti-aircraft gunners are the rumours in Saigon reported to have adopted a new bomb svstem. and administration Nixon is plannin another tactic, sending up large volleys officials are boasting that ombing 'pause' for 24 hours a the New Year. Yesterday's raids were the Socialist Labour League North West Rally most intensive since the 'neace' talks in Paris broke down before Christmas.

FORCE THE TORY

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Hanoi said large of dwellings

GOVERNMENT TO RESIGN!

workers" of the city had : t nien. aiSTTCr been destroyed. Soviet corespondent said

BUILD THE

the bombing was turning the capital into city of ruins.

REVOLUTIONARY

Similar

IEDOLLS

wele via the Swedish em- sTocknoim

PARTY!

bassy in Hanoi. All the major Swedish parties, including the Communist Party and the opposition Conservatives, SUNDAY JANUARY 14, 7 p.m.

dre ow Lake va a sana- ture campaign expected to in- The Everyman, Hope Street, the country's 6 volve a third of

LIVERPOOL

million asking bobulallon Nixon to sign a peace treaty in Vietnam. concrete workino cass action has been taken by the Australian

'RIGHT TO WORK' FILM

maritime which union A film made by ACTT showing the five Right-to-Work marches from ping in protest against the bombing. from Glasgow, Liverpool, Swansea, Deal and Southampton to London The Seamen's Union of Aus- ending with a huge Rally at Empire Pool, Wembley on March 12, 1972.

tralia, which organized the ban, Clyde Cameron, Speakers was backed . . Minister oi Labour In tae newiy- elected Labour government.

He said: "The reaction of the seamen's union reflects the G. HEALY (SLL National Secretary) thinking of people of all creeds. CHRISTINE SMITH (Young Socialists) Their decision

DOVCOLL

American shipping will come as In a personal capacity: no surprise people . who CONNIE FAHEY (Manchester Tenants) understand the facts.' ALAN STANLEY (Vauxhall Shop Stewards) The seamen's boycott has been Waterside

BRIAN GEENEY (U.P.W.)

supported Workers' Federation, which has WALLY FOUCHS (CAV Occupation Committee) oruciceu menoers nor ro s in the berthing, loading and un.

toading operations of US -ships.

collecting strike pay during last year's action. AS PRESIDENT Nicolae Ceausescu extends Rumania's ties with the capitalist coun tries, far-reaching measures are being taken to tighten in- ternal security and national defence. A new defence law presen- ted to the National Assembly on Wednesday by General Ion Ionita makes all citizens, re- gardless of sex, liable for mili- tary training. It provides for the continuous strengthening of the country's defensive capacity. The law specifies that the right to decide on problems of Ru- mania's defence is a sovereign attribute of the Rumanian state, and that the state territory is inalienable and indivisible. This is a clear intimation that Rumania does not intend to be bound by the Warsaw Pact.

Another new law extends Party and state control over social and economic life through a Central Commission of Control of Eco- nomic and Social Activity under direct Communist Party control.

This body will have extensive powers over the utilization of material and financial resources and the rational use of the labour force. It will be assisted by so-called workers' councils of control of economic and social activity in each factory intended to ensure that plan targets are met and shortcomings dealt with. These new laws were drawn up under Causescu's guidance.

keynote Their is increased control by the bureaucracy over every detail of social and eco- nomic life. No nonsense about the withering away of the state.

While trying to establish inde- pendence from the influence of the Soviet Union and the War- saw Pact, Ceausescu's Rumania displays all the hallmarks of Stalinism. • Yesterday the Thomson orga- nization was paid a considerable sum for an eight-page propa- ganda insert in "The Times'. It represents Rumania as a demo- cratic paradise undergoing 'unin- terrupted creative progress'.

• News was also released of a deal between the Rumanian Bank for Foreign Trade and Barclays Bank International and Manu- facturers' Hanover Trust for the up of a new Anglo- setting Rumanian Bank to do business in London. THE INTERNATIONAL Com- mittee of the Fourth Inter- national calls on its sections and supporters in every country to fight for the mobilization of the organized working class in defence of the Vietnamese re- volution, against the genocidal onslaught of US imperialism.

The US army and air force are engaged on the greatest operation of mass destruction of human life in the whole of history. B52 bombing raids in North Vietnam have killed more people in less than two weeks than the Atomic tombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The tonnage of bombs dropped by US imperialism in Vietnam is greater than the total dropped in the whole of World War II. The attack now going on marks a decisive new stage not only in the Vietnam war, but in the world crisis of capitalism and the international class struggle.

Early in October 1972, US President Nixon, campaigning for re-election, cyni- cally and deliberately gave the false impression that peace terms were about to be finally signed. The real meaning of that manoeuvre is clear. US imperialism played with the fate of millions of workers and peasants in Vietnam in order time and consolidate their power to win for their attack on the American working class and, through the trade war, on their rivals and on the working class throughout the world. The mass extermination in North Viet- nam today is the inevitable accompaniment of the new stage in the crisis of inter- national capitalism. The continued heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people, despite US imperialism's genocidal policies, is the foremost example of the resistance of the working class. Imperialism has no answer to the re- sistance of the masses except this mass destruction of life and of the means of production. Everywhere the capitalists turn, they need to smash the working class, an undefeated working class which resists every attack. There is now not the slightest question of an agreed solution of the monetary crisis sparked off by Nixon's scrapping of the Bretton Woods system in August 1971.

Special Drawing Rights have accelerated merely a new form of paper money, world inflation and there will be no inter- national agreement on them.

The controversy on IMF loans and Drawing Rights to 'developing' countries means only that 'aid' to these countries is at an end. The new bombing in Vietnam is the traditional capitalist "solution' to their insoluble crisis - war and mass colonial destruction. The workers and peasants must now be physically wiped out. Having in the past unloaded their crisis on to the colonial peoples, the imperialists will now turn with renewed ferocity to the repression and destruction of the working class in the advanced countries.

It is in this brutal material form that the identity of interest of the workers of the advanced and colonial • countries asserts itself. Nor will the US imperialists flinch from pursuing the trade war to the point of military conflict, involving the deaths of millions of workers and wiping out of the means of production. They know no other way out of the crisis. The revisionist advocates of a 'neo-capitalism', reputedly free of the old imperialist contradictions and not needing to solve its crises in war, are guilty of the most treacherous de- ception and betrayal of the working class.

This is the criminal responsibility of the (Pabloite) Unified Secretariat of Mandel, and of the Communist Party Stalinists.

Vietnam today is Europe and America tomorrow, unless the working class is mobilized to stop the imperialist attack and move through this struggle to the conquest of power. There is no other way. None of the 'compromise capitalist parties has any McGovern, alternative. supported by reformists, Stalinists 'protesters' of and all kinds as the 'lesser evil' against Nixon, has spoken against the new attacks only on the ground that the loss of US air crew is "excessive! In Britain and the rest of Europe, the reformist and trade union leaders play the classic role of social-democracy.

Mobilize to defend Vietnam revolution Nothing could better exemplify the death of reformism than their utter failure to organize even the slightest opposition to the US attacks. The severity of imperial- ism's crisis reveals them for what they are-its lackeys. They are indicating to role, working class the hangman's the which they will play against the working class in Europe itself in the new stage of the struggle. World Stalinism bears the main res- ponsibility for the fate of the people of Hanoi and Haiphong, and for the absolu- refusal to mobilize tely criminal internationally against the working-class new stage of imperialist attack.

Ever since Nixon's measures of August convertibility of 1971, ending the the dollar and launching the trade war, every- thing has depended on preparation of the working class to challenge for state power: possibility of reform has vanished. all alternative to the revolutionary The only for power was and remains struggle series of wars and counter-revolutionary dictatorships, the only method by which the imperialists can deal with the working class. But Stalinism, both • in Moscow and to imperialism. Peking, draws closer Having betrayed the French revolutionary the struggle of 1968 and suppressed im- Czechoslovak working with class, berialist blessing, the Stalinist bureaucracy now accelerates its plans for the European Security Pact and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, all the time continuing to encourage the secret diplomacy over Vietnam. New long-term Soviet agreements with US imperialism, together with the new the Chinese bureaucracy, approaches of Nixon free to enter the left present bombing campaign. Thus the Vietnamese workers and peasants were sacrificed to the privileged interests of the Stalinist The Socialist Labour League has consistently US policy in Indo-China. Above: a demonstratio to President Nixon In Washington.

bureaucracy, and workers all over the world were politically disarmed.

In the advanced capitalist countries, the Stalinists isolate the Vietnamese revolution by confining the working class of Europe, America and Japan to purely trade union and opportunist types of struggle. The single-minded aim of the Stalinist parties, in alliance with the corrupt trade union bureaucracy, prevent the working is to class from confronting the capitalist class and. its governments in a struggle that would lead to proletarian state power.

Successful revolutions in these countries would be the greatest blow of all against US imperialism in Vietnam. Those who hold the working class back from these revolutions are deliberately isolating the people of Vietnam and condemning them to death. The numerically powerful Com- munist Party of France epitomizes this role in its "popular front' alliance with the reformists and bourgeois radicals.

All those revisionists, and particularly the Pabloite 'Unified Secretariat', its sec- tions like the British International Marxist Group and supporters like the US Social- ist Workers Party, who accepted the ideo- logy of the 'third world' as 'epicentre of world revolution' and consequently the restricted the role of the working class in the advanced countries to that of middle- class protest, share directly' this responsi- bility of the Stalinists.

These revisionists propagated the lie that Stalinism had changed its nature and was no longer counter-revolutionary. But on the contrary, Stalinism was preparing its greatest betrayal. These Pabloite revi- sionists showed their bankruptcy by join- ing the liberals and Stalinists in announ- cing that Vietnamese 'victory' was at hand in the period of the US presidential elec- tion. Only the International Committee, starting from the insoluble nature of the international capitalist crisis, could warn and prepare the working class for the new stage of the struggle. The only force which can stop US imperialism in Viet- nam is the organized strength of the in- ternational working class in solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese workers and peasants. In every trade union, every factory, every socialist and working-class organiza- raistently demonstrated and campalgned against monstration In 1970 against Harold Wilson's visit tion, there must be a fight for immediate industrial action and mass demonstrations for total US against the bombing and withdrawal from Vietnam. against the Every working-class action US imperialist attack must be directed against the capitalist class within each country. Notwithstanding the grave inter- imperialist contradictions, the capitalists of Europe and Japan know that when Nixon attacks in Vietnam, it is the pre- Workers Pi paration against the working class every- the inevitable outcome, where. It is if left unchecked, of their Common Market imperialist strategy, their attack on demo- cratic rights, their anti-trade union laws, their counter-revolutionary preparations.

The fight against the US in Vietnam is the same fight as that to mobilize and educate the force which can lead the working class to the overthrow of capital- ist governments in every country.

To mobilize working-class action in this way will mean a thorough struggle against the reformist and Stalinist leadership.

Thus, in taking up our responsibilities of international working-class solidarity with the Vietnamese revolution, we bring for- ward those forces which will have to build the alternative revolutionary leadership in the workers' movement. On the question of how to fight against imperialist war, how to unite the revolution in the colo- nial countries and the advanced countries, and how to build alternativé leadership, the Marxist education of the youth and the most advanced workers proceeds.

The working class in the USSR, East- ern Europe and China now face an even greater threat of imperialist war to des- troy the gains of their revolutions, because of the free hand given to Nixon in Viet- nam by the betrayals of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The workers in these coun- tries are taking up the fight against the bureaucracy on many questions.

But this bureaucracy seeks strength, against its 'own' working class, from its imperialist alliances. Every step we take to weaken imperialism in Vietnam at the same time weakens the counter-revolu- tionary bureaucracy, and opens the way for the workers of the USSR, Eastern Europe and China to restore their links with the international working class.

At the centre of the struggle stands the working class of the United States.

Independent working-class action all over the world to stop the imperialist war, to bring down the capitalist governments, is the way to encourage the working class of the US to take the road of indepen- dent political struggle, independent of the capitalist parties: in the first place, the formation of an American Labour. Party.

This is what Nixon and the imperialists fear most of all. They are lying in wait, if they get away with the Vietnam out- rage, bloodily to suppress the American Workers Press, Saturday December 30, 1972 PAGE 3 working class. The anti-strike laws and the 'Pay Board' are only the beginning.

Once again! The Vietnam bombing raids mark the imperialist response to the irre- versible deepening of the crisis of their economic system. They signal the prepara- unprecedented des- tion of historically truction of the productive forces, above all of the working class itself.

There must be an end to secret diplo- macy. Just as the 1954 Geneva agreement was the formula for depriving the Viet- namese people of the fruits of military victory and the screen for US intervention to reconquer Vietnam, so today the Stalin- support for these 'peace' talks pro- ist vides Nixon and Kissinger with the cover for the bloodiest counter-revolutionary war in history-and this is only the begin- ning of the attacks they must undertake all over the world. Every revolutionary fighter in the inter- national working class, every section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, must fight for the strength of the entire working class to be used in every way-industrial action and mass demonstrations in the hrst place-to stor the imperialists in Vietnam!

The essence of this struggle is to turn the working class all over the world, in answering every imperialist attack, to the of preparation the conquest of state What is at stake is the death- power. throes of the capitalist system, lashing out in self-defence to destroy everything that stands in its way. The whole future of the working class now depends on building in time the alternative leadership which can take the working class to the smashing of capitalist state power. It is to this end that the working class every- where must rally with actions mass against the US imperialists in Vietnam.

• Trade unionists in every country must stop the movement of all US and other imperialist supplies to Vietnam!

• Strikes in every country in solidarity with the Vietnamese revolution!

• Mass workers' demonstrations in every country against the bombing!

• Stop the bombing now! Immediate withdrawal of all US land and air forces!

• Victory to the workers and peasants of Vietnam! December 29, 1972

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Saturday Decen Part two by Jack Gale on Ha key role he played in setting up One of the lesser known aspects of Harry S. Tru- man's presidency is the key role he played in the establishment of that agency of world imperial- ism-Zionist Israel. After World War II Britain held a mandate over Palestine and struggled for three years to prevent the emergence of such a state. This was not due to her promises to the Arabs —used to gain their support in two world wars—but to the desire of the British govern- ment to retain a base in the vital Middle East area. Faced with the terrorism of Zionist groups such as the Stern Gang and Irgun Tsva'i Leumi, the British army retali- with its usual vicious ated brutality. Some commanding officers made openly anti- Lieuten- Semitic statements. ant-General Sir Evelyn Barker, for instance, called for 'pun- ishing the Jews in a way the dislikes-by striking at race their pockets. And one of the principal officers of a specially-created 'counter-terrorist' unit—Major Roy Farran-fled from Pales- tine (and later gave himself up) making public a mysterious case in which he was alleged to have done a young terrorist to death. But the British were not the only ones interested in the Middle East. The Americans were also anxious to assert control in that area-and there was, in addition, a powerful Jewish vote in United the States. In October 1945 an Anglo- American Commission of In- quiry into Palestine was insti- and in December the tuted United States Congress passed a resolution calling for 'the upbuilding of Palestine as the Jewish National Home'. The Americans were calling immediately for 100,000 Euro- pean Jewish refugees to be admitted into Palestine within one year-although in that same period only 4,767 refu- gees (Jewish and non-Jewish) were admitted into the United States. There certainly some was truth in Ernest Bevin's bitter comment that the American government wanted the Euro- pean Jews in Palestine be- cause it didn't want them in New York. Many of the most enthusias- tic of Congress supporters Jewish immigration into Pales- tine were equally ardent advo- cates of limiting entry into the United States. The Arab states declared that they were not opposed to a Jewish minority in an Arab state of Palestine, but totally opposed to a Jewish state of Palestine. They pointed out—with some justification-that the plight of the Jews was not the responsibility of Moslem Arabs, but of the rulers of Christian Europe. The Anglo-American Com- mission sat on the fence. It did not recommend a Jewish state, but it called for 100,000 Jewish immigrants. day December 30, 1972 on Harry S. Truman and the ting up the state of Israel.

The Labour government, led by Clement Attlee, wanting a base in the Middle East, espe- cially since British troops were due to leave Egypt, rejected the recommendations. The American government simply declared its support for those recommendations which favoured the Zionists and re- jected those which suited the Arabs. Six weeks later Truman set up a Cabinet Committee to guide American policy on following Palestine and the he sent a 'negotiating year mission' to London. Although their interests conflicted, the Americans were a powerful position to exert pressure on the British.

As the British Prime Min- ister Attlee later confessed: 'We had to have a loan...

The Americans thought we'd over-stated the case. We had not. You can criticize the loan and the arrangements

SUT-

rounding it-and we fought inch by inch throughout the negotiations-but the fact re- mains that we could not do without it? Truman's negotiating mis- produced the Grady- sion Morrison plan for provincial autonomy for a Zionist area within Palestine, but this was Zionists insufficient for and Truman rejected it. The British Labour govern- ment was already beginning to bend. Attlee appointed Arthur Creech Jones, the strongest Zionist sympathizer among the Arms cache discovered by British secu before the outbreak of war. Above : Trum Labour leaders, as Colonial Secretary. British then proposed The Jewish 'trusteeship' of a state in boundaries were, whose similar to fact, present-day Israel. This was to last from three to ten years, preparatory to self-government. But in October, 1946, Tru- man supported a Zionist call for the partition of Palestine and the immediate entry of 100,000 European Jews. On April 2, 1947, the Bri- tish delegation at the United Nations asked for a special session, which led the to United establishment of a Nations Special Committee on Palestine. This Committee recom- mended partition on terms security forces in September 1946 ove: Truman (left) with Dr Weizmann.

favourable to the Zionists, but the latter by now wanted more and the proposal was rejected by both Zionists and Arabs.

However, on November 29, this plan was passed at the United Nations with both the United States and the Soviet Union voting for it. The fol- lowing day Arab-Jewish war erupted in Palestine. At this point Truman hesi- tated and the United States imposed a ban on arms sales to both sides. He feared a . war would en- danger valuable oil supplies.

The 1 Marshall Aid plan to Europe alone required the shipment of 200,000 barrels a day. As Vice-Admiral Robert B.

ms Carney testified to the House of Representatives Armed Ser- vices Committee: 'In the event of serious dis- turbance in the Middle East, there is cause for grave con- cern for the fortunes of Am- erican oil facilities throughout that area, and to those who might desire to deny the oil of the Middle East to us such disturbance could . afford nice opportunities for interference' But the Zionists were not inconvenienced by this. While were starved of Arabs the arms, the Zionists found an alternative source of supply— the Stalinists. Czech arms were sold to known Zionist agents with Moscow's appro- val following negotiations be- tween the Zionist representa- tive Moshe Shertok and the Russian UN leader Andrei Gromyko. The first consignment con- sisted of 10,000 rifles and 450 machine guns. In the later stages of the war, Czechoslo- vakia was, in effect, the Zion- ist arsenal. It was this which swung the tide of battle in the Stalinism Zionists' favour. made an important contribu- tion to the establishment of the Zionist state in the Middle East. It bears a direct responsi- bility for the fate of the 583,000 Arab refugees who had been driven out of Pales- tine by the end of 1948. (The fact that all this was done with the full knowiedge and co-operation of the entire Stalinist leadership in_ both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union did not prevent the • charge of 'Zionist agents' being against Rudolf Slansky used and his associates in the 1953 purge trial.) Stalinism supported Zionism at that time both by supplying arms and by voting for pro- Zionist resolutions in the March, United Nations. In . 1948, for example, the Soviet Union again voted alongside the United States for a Secu- rity Council resolution saying that UNO would do 'every- thing it could to give effect to the recommendations of the General Assembly'-that is, to the eventual establishment of a Zionist state. On March 14, 1948, Presi- dent Truman had a secret meeting with the Zionist lea- der Dr Chaim Weizmann. Following this, an American proposal at the United Nations Security Council established a 'Truce Commission' consisting of the Consuls-General of France, Belgium and the United States. transferred And Truman Palestinian policy American from the anti-Zionist Loy W Henderson to the pro-Zionist J H Hilldring. Following further contact with Truman, Weizmann sent an urgent message to Zionists in Palestine: 'Proclaim the state, no matter what ensues!'

May 14, 1948, Ben Gurion announced the estab- lishment of a Jewish state in Palestine . . . to be called Israel. President Truman, who had been told in advance what was coming, accorded de facto recognition as soon as he was 'officially' informed. American UN delegates, then arguing for a totally different policy, were called to the telephone and informed of the President's decision.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

DEFEAT FIANNA FAIL

AND BRITISH IMPERIALIST CONSPIRACY AGAINST IRISH WORKERS!

BUILD THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY IN IRELAND!

JACK THE RAT.OUT

Statement of the Internatior British imperialism in Ireland working directly through the Irish bour- geois government of Lynch and the Fianna Fail Party has secured the imposition of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act. Under this new law many basic democratic rights in the Irish Republic are wiped out.

Five-year prison sentences for membership of illegal organ- izations will be imposed the sole evidence of a police officer's opinion or of Press reports. The police have new and unprecedented powers of interrogation of charged per- sons. 'Interference with the course of justice' through public statements, meetings or pro- cessions' is now a defined offence with prescribed jail penalties. "emergency In effect, the powers' of the British govern- ment in the north are now virtually extended into the south. Lynch and the Eire bourgeoisie agree to proceed with this law while British troops terrorize the north. To hundreds political the prisoners in the north will be • more added hundreds in Dublin. After the arrest of Mac- Stiofain, in direct response to.

the demands of the British Tory government, Lynch closed TV authority down the Irish and the court sentenced Kevin O'Kelly, TV reporter, to three months' in prison for contempt of The subsequent court. events showed the real situ- ation in Ireland, the latent.

power of the working class, and the responsibilities of con- structing alternative revolu- tionary leadership. O'Kelly's im- Reacting to prisonment and the repressive character of the proposed new laws, as well as MacStiofain's sentence, workers took indust- rial action in a number of places. Within a few days it became clear that Lynch's majority in the Dail would fall. This would have created an intolerable situation for British imperialism and the Irish bour- geoisie, which could not afford to wait for a General Election, with all the attendant political risks, before having the neces- sary repressive machinery to control the working class for entry into the EEC. Passage of the Act through the Dail was assured by the deaths in explosions and Dublin's centre on the night of December 1. After this pro- parliamentary vocation the opposition collapsed. Nothing could reveal more clearly the stage reached in the preparations of the im- perialists. Facing the prospect of gigantic struggles from the British working class (as well as the Irish) on Market entry, the Tory government was des- perately anxious to clear up the 'security situation in Northern Ireland, which ties over 20,000 troops. The down Act passed in Dublin came in the same week as the repres- sive, three-pronged Tory attack in Britain-against 'restrictive practices' on the shop floor; against the unions in the National Industrial Relations Court and the sentences on the so-called 'Angry Brigade'.

In the north of Ireland the Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International.

Left: Fitt of the Socia Democratc Labour Flanna Fall. Above : Demonstrators after MacStlofain was jalled.

imperialists have been and still actively physical forces for the next stage of the class struggle Britain. They know there can no question of legislation alone settling questions the with the working class. Defeat in battle, in the factories and the is necessary. UIl It has been Clearer. in the Irish struggle, that the fight British ot the working class to force the Tory govern- ment out is a decisive question for Irish the working class. This raises the fundamental questions of the political inde- he Fourth International. ocratic Labour Party. Right: Lynch of tors after MacStlofain was jalled.

pendence of the working class and the construction of inde- pendent revolutionary leader- in ship. To the break-up of Unionism in the north is now added the final stage of Irish bourgeois collaboration with British imperialism in the south. They are going along wholeheartedly with the main political strategy of the British ruling class— entry into EEC and smashing the working class. The implementation of this strategy requires that Lynch attacks the last militant rep- resentatives of the Irish middle Workers Press, Saturda class who' cling to the bankrupt adventurist methods of in- dividual terrorism, the IRA Provisionals. Only the working class, led by a revolutionary party, can fight for the democratic revolu- and national unity in tion Ireland, and in doing so it Will have to move forward to socialist revolt, merging in this struggle with the British, European and international working class. Only those revolutionaries who base themselves on Trotsky's theory of the per- manent revolution can lead the working class out of the impasse of terrorism and re- formism and establish a revolu- workers' and farmers' tionary government in Ireland. It is because this is now posed so clearly that the re- formists reveal their bank- ruptcy so completely. British Labour and trade union leaders crawl shamefully behind the policy of the imperialists. Fitt, Cooper and the SDLP vote to go into talks with imperialist supremo Whitelaw, the on same day that MacStiofain sentenced. A week later. the new re- pressive laws in the south are signed by President De Valera, who in 1922 led the IRA intransigents into action against 8, Saturday December 30, 1972 PAGE 5 the supporters of the treaty!

Such is the bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie and its hangers on.

The Stalinist polcy of 'Bill of Rights' in the north is now utterly discredited.

This is the fruit .of de- pendence 'national on the bourgeoisie'. The immediate demands of the working-class movement, in a campaign led by the sections of the Inter- national Committee in Ireland and Britain must be: Free Sean MacStiofain and all political prisoners in the north and south! Withdraw immediately all British troops and disband and disarm the

UDR

and all anti - working - class Unionist organizations! immediately Repeal the Offences Against the State Act and the Emergency Powers in the north, as well as the Industrial Relations Act in Britain! To accomplish this, united working-class action to force the resignation of the Heath and Lynch governments! Organize demonstrations and industrial action in defence against every attack on demo- cratic rights in Ireland. Unity of the Irish and British work- ing ciass to bring down the governments of Heath and nst Lynch!

30, 1972 PAGE 6 Workers Press, Saturday Der

JANUARY

On January 1 this year Workers Press began with a front-page lead story bring which said: 1972 will even more vicious attacks on the working class by the Tory government.

'Spurred on by international eco- the nomic crisis. encouraged by unemployment, and taking confidence of the Labour and the treachery to defeat trace union deaders, uney want big sections of the working class in strikes and press home the • attack' The Tories wasted no time in launching their offensive. within Gans this the Tories staged con- warning, biggest with the miners-the montalion since the 1926 General strike-and British opened fire unarmed, paratroopers

MAY

Derry. innocent civillans in responded to this but me working Class Tory arrogance. At saltley coke depot ın were joined by en- Birmingham, miners forced which gineers in a massive picket the posite contine the patter en pattern of events social crisis the simmering throughout the year. Whenever the lories Working class the trade me with mile with working was best shown tant ceterminaton. in the To leadership and jacks Jones.

The leadership General of the fransport before Workers' caniated Tory National Industrial Relations Court.

T&GWU leadership made appear- ances before it and paid its fines.

But the dockers none were put behind bars in Pentonville prison for defending their basic rights to black 'As o picket. and to movement towards a General the Tories pro steam gathered Strike duced a mysterious legal personage called the Official Solicitor and-hey presto!

thev were released The same stolid resistance to the gov- ernment and its ant workle Class is involved in the wave of strikes Dollies the second the fines which on wed the Amalgamated Union ol Engineerin workers has repeatedly

DUT

as its not

AUGUST

warned, militancy enough to stich the Tortes are notary the host of reactonary and working on the Trade unlois class. To stop rising prices unemoioy. the anti-union laws, wage-cutting, Lically council requires of rents The massive political and industrial mobiliza- tion to force the Tories out of office.

power Tories Each day the remain measures solve preir ee mooric crisis at the expense prepare

VICIOUS

class. Already Heath has of the dratted Phase TWo f his state pay plan structure to hold down perman which will permanent ltzai Defiance of this proposed Act will mean unlimited fines in the crimina. courts Socialist Labour League has been The tendency in the workers' move- the only demanded consistently ment Has the resignation government. with campaign against the Tories our ine 1972 to prepare the we took bold steps in working dliu sets Press has dev developed from a was into broadsheet newspapel 12-page Socialist: fRight-to-Work five marches staged Scotland and Wales throughout England,

TRANSPORT

and y,000 people gathered at the Empire Pool, Wembley, March for our 1Z on October 22 the All

AND

biggest-ever rally: Trades Unions Alliance staged a nationa conference in Birmingham mously adopted a document calling for an immediate campaign to transform the SLL

UNION

into a revolutionary party.

plating for 1973 e Already far ahead in our A pageant of working- class history held at the Empire Pool on March 11. down the up and receiving support in the country. we are torm statures If the years Heath's Toryism has been vicious are compelled to warn the working cas

REGION NO

thạt the next stage will be much worse Driven the world economic crisis the ruling class will do evervthing in its power -using 'the armed bodies of men' of the state apparatus necessary-to maintain pronts and privileges Our message for 1973 is this: • Build the revolutionary party.

Force the Tories to resign. • Elect a Labour government ledged to repeal all anti-working class legislation industries and nationalize all basic without compensauon and unaer workers control.

FEBRUARY

JUNE

•SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

FICHT

RISING

PRICES

MARCH

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

WE DEMAND THI

FA WORK

024T

ANDON

JULY

NOVEMBER

COLDHARBOUR

TENANTS ASSC.

Workers Proas, Saturday December 30, 1972 PAGE 7

APRIL

Now, tell me, in your own words'

DECEMBER,

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Saturday Dact A two part article by Jane Brot Ramsay MacDonald is remembered by workers who lived through the Depression of the 1930s as the most notorious traitor to the working class the Labour Party has ever produced. But he was more than merely a treacherous individual. His degeneration was part of the political degeneration of the Labour Party leadership which has continued to the present day. After carefully studying its development, Lenin wrote in 1920: "The Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois because although it consists of workers, it is led by reaction- the worst reaction- aries and aries at that, who act fully in the spirit of the bourgeoisie.

It is an organization of the bourgeoisie which exists in order to systematically deceive the workers.' The Labour Party was estab- lished at a later date than most European socialist parties; and at the outset it was uncertain whether the Labour Represent- ation Committee would in fact become a "socialist' organiza- tion. This uncertainty was a re- flection of economic develop- ments during the 19th century.

industrial and Britain's colonial wealth had created a 'aristocracy of labour'. large Organized in powerful unions such the Amalgamated as Society of Engineers, these gentlemen had for many years rday December 30, 1972 ine Brown on Ramsay MacDonald successfully improved con- ditions for their members without organizing an indepen- dent political party or attack- ing the capitalist state.

Most workers were content to vote for the Liberal Party, until the worsening of Britain's trading position intensified the class struggle once again. In the 1890s, the employers mounted a successful campaign to restrict picketing. In 1901, the Taff Vale judgement resulted in a massive fine on the railwaymen's union, which set a precedent for the destruction of standards which trade unions had been able to win for their members in the years of prosperity. The legal protection of union funds, long since taken for granted, had been abruptly withdrawn. The response could only be a political one. Only a parlia- mentary decision could turn back the attack being success- fully mounted in the law courts. Small bodies of socialists, such as the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and the Fabian Society had been trying to politicize working-class de- mands for some years. Although among them- they disagreed selves on tactics for achieving the transition to socialism, all three organizations joined with trade union representatives to form the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. Only a TUC decision had made possible the construction Labour Representation of the Committee. So from the outset it was rooted in trade union- ism. But at the same time, the comparatively small socialist bodies had enormous oppor- tunities for winning the new mass organization to socialist politics. They had five of the 12 seats on the executive com- mittee; and the first Com- was ILP mittee secretary member, Ramsay MacDonald.

The history of the Labour Party has been the history of the failure of these 'socialists' to establish political leadership in the new, Independent Labour Party. Their socialist principles soon became sub- merged in pragmatic, com- promise decisions on all issues of programme and policy. The 'excuse', of course, was that it was necessary to adapt to the existing level of political consciousness in the trade unions in order to retain mass support. But the fact that the Labour Party was soon losing rank-and-file support from workers, who turned to syndi- calist leadership in the strikes of 1911-1914, shows that more than 'practical' considerations kept MacDonald and his socialist friends from breaking with the bourgeois Liberal Party. These men were the ancestors of our present-day reformists.

They introduce wanted to socialism by peaceful changes in the existing system. They had no conception of the need to destroy capitalism, before the foundations of a socialist economy could be laid. Instead of leading the working class forward, they held it back by using a smokescreen of socialist phrases to conceal their cow- ardly subservience to the ruling capitalist class. 'The British working class unfortunately promises to serve quite long yet, as a sad example of how the divorcement from socialism of the labour move- ment necessarily leads to its becoming petty and affected by the outlook of the bour- geoisie,' wrote Lenin, five years after the Labour Representation Committee MacDonald, bore the respon- this. sibility for Though he fully understood the historical circumstances which biased the trade unions towards the Liberal Party and from socialism, Lenin away refused to let the reformists evade their responsibility. He protested against the wording of Kautsky's resolution for acceptance of the Labour Party as an affiliated member of the Second International (1908), because it tended to absolve British socialists of their res- ponsibility for giving leadership.

While acknowledging that the Labour Party 'represents the first step on the part of tions Britain towards a conscious class policy and to- wards socialist workers' party, Lenin insisted that it "first step', only. "The was a first part of Kautsky's resolu- tion is wrong, because in fact the Labour Party is not a party really independent of the Liberals, and does not pursue fully independent class a policy.' On this occasion Lenin was overruled. But the whole sub- sequent history of the Labour Party shows the correctness of his position. The retormist Labour Party leaders rapidly abandoned any serious inten- overthrowing tion of the capitalist system. Indeed, their reformism has become an in- valuable weapon in keeping the working class tied to that system. Lenin followed the degenera- tion of the Labour Party with the closest attention. In 1912, he wrote of the Independent Labour Party: 'It is justly said that this Party is "independent" only of socialism, but very dependent upon Liberalism.'

Yet he found encouragement in the fact that the ILP con- ference of that year debated a motion calling for a clean break from Liberalism. He concluded that 'Liberal-Labour policy is maintained by the tradition, routine and agility of the opportunist leaders. But bankruptcy among its the masses of the proletariat is inevitable'. Ramsay MacDonald, son of a Scottish farmworker, was the most influential of these ILP 'socialist' leaders. First sec- retary of the LRC, he remained leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party until 1914, then resumed its leadership from 1922 until his expulsion from the Party in 1931, during the fiasco of the National Govern- From the outset, he ment. subordinated the new working- class party to the beliefs and requirements of the British ruling class. Even before 1914, as we have seen, the inertia of Labour MPs was frustration causing and disillusionment in the working class. The outbreak of World War I saw the dis- integration of the Second Inter- national. Socialist principles were drowned in a deluge of 'patriotism'. The Labour Party duly succumbed and obtained representation in Lloyd War Cabinet as a George's reward. Some sections held out briefly for the International's agreed policy of opposition to the imperialist war. As parlia- leader, MacDonald mentary was briefly one of them. As of his 'anti-war' a result position, he was removed from the Party leadership. But his 'pacifist' reputation was to stand him (and the Labour Party) in good stead, as it gave him the appearance of being a principled socialist, once the tide of working-class opinion had turned decisively against the war and had been influenced by the triumph of the Russian Revolution. In fact, MacDonald's 'paci- fism' was as much of a de- ception as his "socialism'. One month after the war broke out, he expressed the view: 'We are in it: it will work itself out now... Victory therefore, must be ours'-and agreed to help recruiting efforts in his own constituency. In 1922, he was re-elected to the leadership, having helped rescue the reformist Labour Party from its post-war crisis.

The election of that year was considerable success for Labour. MacDonald's 'pacifism' had won back support from workers who were in revolt against post-war unemployment and falling living standards. He had checked the 'communist infection' in the Party. In 1924, he became the first Labour Prime Minister. The first Labour government depended on Liberal support It lasted for its existence. barely nine months and did not attempt to introduce a single socialist measure.

Indeed, its defeat eventually occurred because of a mis- managed attempt to prosecute communist newspaper 'Workers' Weekly'! MacDonald apparently had such a guilty conscience about his Anglo- Soviet trade treaty that he made little attempt to defend Stanley Baldwin, Tory leader who successfully used the forged 'Zinoviev Letter' in a 'red scare' campaign that ousted the Labour Party in the 1924 election. Left: MacDonald in early 1900s.

his Party against the Tories' scurrilous election tactics.

They successfully used • the "Zinoviev Letter' to forged one of the biggest 'red create scares' in history. It stampeded into electing a Tory voters government. Paradoxically, this episode restored confidence among the Labour rank and file in Mac- Donald's credentials socialist leader. During his period in office, confidence had been shaken by the sight of a Labour Cabinet aping the rituals and costume of court ceremony; and still more so by 'biscuits' scandal. (Mac- the Donald had accepted a Daimler car and 30,000 shares in the McVitie and Price Company as a 'gift' from a wealthy friend —who, in turn, received a baronetcy!) No doubt to his profound relief, MacDonald was not Prime Minister during the General Strike two years later.

While he voiced sympathy from the sidelines, it was left to his political supporters in the TUC to crawl away from the Tory challenge that the logical extension of the strike would be for the unions to 'run the country •

CONTINUED TOMORROW.

These articles are based on a recently published book: 'Ramsay Writings? MacDonald's Political Edlted by Bernard Barker. Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972.

£4.

Peter Walker of DTI The Tories and the CBI are lashing out money on surveys of export and investment opportunities within the Com- mon Market. But one of the most astonish- ing of these surveys concerns the one-armed bandit industry.

It has been announced that the Amusement Trades Association has commissioned a study of potential sales in Europe. The Department of Trade and headed by Peter Walker, thirds of the cost of the £12,700 survey. The money is being made available under the export market research subsidy plan.

The research is going to be undertaken by MWS Services, the London end of the Chicago- based Middle West Services Company. The company wants to secure basic data about the main category of machines: electronically-operated one-arm mechanical bandits, fruit machines, arcade pay-out machines, non-pay-out mach- ines and football tables. The will visit the researchers Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bel- gium, Italy, West Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway studying • local market con- ditions. The survey will be handed over to the Amusement Trades Association which represents about 1,000 companies in the manufacture, distribution and operation of leisure machines.

MWS hopes to complete the analysis in March. The Nixon administration has virtually abandoned its much- publicised drive to force Federal contractors to empioy other Negroes and more minority groups. A recent survey of officials in the Office of Federal Con- tract Compliance (OFCC)-the agency charged with ensuring fair employment practices by receiving Federal companies money — indicates that the agency is now receiving vir- no support from the tually administration. Enforcement of programmes such as the Philadelphia plan, designed to stop job dis- crimination in high-paid con- struction work in Federally- financed projects, has come to a standstill and no new pro- jects are being initiated.

OFCC officials say that, although these programmes support for them from higher levels of the Labour Department nor from the White House. In fact, they claim that OFCC officers who have tried to enforce goals and time- tables for minority employment by Federal contractors have been 'quietly reprimanded'.

number of the agency's officers interviewed recently said they believed the decision to refrain from putting pres- sure on Federal contractors had come directly from the office of Mr John Ehrlichman, Pre- sident Nixon's chief adviser on domestic affairs. Below: Nixon Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62łр

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BY JOE HARPER

The revival of Chaplin's "The Great Dictator' pro- vides a timely reminder of the degenerate depths capitalism reaches under fascism. More than that, the film contains two vital messages.

First, that key sections of society, to their cost, failed take fascism sufficiently to time, seriously last which Chaplin in vain tried to warn them about in this perceptive study made in 1939. that the only secondly, answer to tascism was for the people to mobilize themselves to fight it, as the girl and Hannah and the little barber finally decide to do. Chaplin's main method of debunking fascism is to deride its sick, pretensions, its brute and treachery and arrogance its farcical incompetence, with- out ever ignoring its deadly dangerousness. Some critics have said that by making us laugh at the demented behaviour of Adenoid Hynkel, the Fooey of Napoloni, Tomainia, Benzino the Duce of Bacteria, and the stormtroopers, Chaplin com- mitted a gross error of taste and judgement. Not so. One of the fascists' major weapons bluff. was Hitler and Mussolini bullied and bluffed their way to more diplomatic victories in the early years than they could ever have achieved by force of arms, thanks, of course, to the willing connivance of the bourgeois and social-demo- cratic leaders of the time.

Chaplin exposes the bluster as consisting mainly of boast- ful vanity, and the fascists' apparent invincibility as being mostly pretence. Far from being a 'great man' as Western apologists claimed, Chaplin's dictator is a paranoid coward who banishes his inferiority by megalo- maniac ravings and by petty bullying of subordinates.

Workers Press, Saturd The undistinguished origins of the upstart Fuehrer are further underlined by making the little Jewish barber his double with an undistinguished World War I background. What the real-life Corporal Shickelgruber might have ended up as, the barber has in fact become-a nobody. Chaplin's send-up of Hitler's bombastic demagogy is masterpiece. Hynkel's party operates under the sign of the double cross. The brains of the outfit is Garbitsch, the propa- ganda minister, who tries to control the Fooey's capricious fits and orchestrate the pogroms, the threats of war, and the shooting of strike leaders in order to keep popu- lar dissent at a minimum.

The contrasting normalcy of ordinary human beings is pro- vided by life in the Jewish quarter, to which the barber just returned has after 20 years in hospital with amnesia.

He quickly and painfully becomes acquainted with the new official • of Jew- policy baiting, but his naïve resist- reduces the bullying ance swagger of the stormtroopers to the buffoonery of Keystone Cops. He befriends Hannah, a laundry girl, who also fights back, though more con- sciously. But the political backwardness of the ghetto is revealed when they begin to place hopes for some respite from persecution in a Hynkel policy switch connected with loans from Jewish bankers.

The collapse of this policy and the start of new pogroms catches the barber in the act of buying Hynkel buttons for himself and his girl-friend.

Hitler was, after all, a cult figure in Germany. The offensive renewed prompts ideas of a fight back, but the ingrained domesticity of the ghetto-and the lack of political leadership — reduces them quickly to hopelessness.

The barber goes to the con- the girl centration camp and and her family flee to Oster- 38, Saturday December 30, 1972 PAGE 9 lich. But Osterlich is invaded following a hysterical summit meeting between Hynkel and Napoloni where the two dic- tators squabble like spoilt children in trying to outsmart each other. The great speech at the vic- tory rally in conquered Oster- lich is made by the Jewish barber who gets mistaken for Hynkel while escaping over the border in an officer's uni- form and is escorted to the capital with full honours.

Garbitsch declaims that democracy, liberty, and equal- ity are words to fool the people. Only loyalty to the state matters. But the barber quietly calls the people to unite and on themselves the restore to power taken from them by the brutes who hate and fear pro- gress; to fight to restore liberty and universal brotherhood of Jew, Gentile, Black, and White, free from the system of greed which enslaves all men. His call to fight for a new decent world of reason is heard by the girl Hannah, who was the first to fight back against the stormtroopers, and whose new home has just destroyed by the ad- been vancing Hynkel armies. As the film ends, she looks up in hope and determination. The film is unforgettably funny. Chaplin, as Hynkel and the barber, and Jack Oakie, as the braggadocio Duce, are superb. The appeals to democracy and unity as the way to save mankind obviously lack poli- tical depth; and, as usual with Chaplin, the film is extremely sentimental. But the artist's scrupulous sincerity outweighs these weaknesses and survives the farcical form the plot takes. The main message of the film, both as art and as a political work, rings true. Against all lies, hypocrisy, and servility. For truthfulness, simplicity, and humanity.

A great film.

CHANNEL: 11.10 Merrie melodies.

12.30 London. 5.10 11.35 Puffin. 5.40 News. sale or the century. Film: 'Around the World in Eighty Andrews. 9.30 Upstairs, Downstairs. 10.30 Lon- ULSTER: 11.00 Thunderbirds.

don. 10.40 Aquarius. 11.30 Thea- 12.00 Woobinda. 12.30 London. tre of stars. 12.25 Weather.

5.40 Sports 5.10 Merrie melodies. 6.10 London. 6.15 Tarzan. cast. 7.10 McCloud. 8.30 Julie Andrews.

9.30 Upstairs, downstairs. 10.30 10.45 Woobinda. Merrie London. 10.40 Aquarius. 11.30 melodies. 11.35 Gus Honeybun. Journey to the unknown. 11.40 Bonanza. 12.25 Faith for life. 12.30 Weather. YORKSHIRE: 9.15 Tommy Thomp- kins. 10.10 Osmonds. 10.35 Film: 'Fantastic 12.30 Lon- 10.10 don. 5.10 Riptide. Let 10.35 6.15 Film: 'The Pride and the Africa Andrews. Passion'. 8.30 Julie 12.27 Weather Merrie melodies. Scotland Yard. 10.30 5.10 Comedians. 9.30 New 12.30 London. 10.40 11.30 London. 'Around Aquarius. Film: the World in 10.50 Filr Verewolf'. 12.3 'Curse of the Weather. Guideline. GRANADA: 11.00 Sesame street.

12.30 12.05 Clapperboard. Lon- 5.40 don. 5.10 Sky's the limit

HARLECH: 9.00

London. 9.50 Film: 'Around the News. 10.00 Bugs Bunny. Tomfoolery World In Eighty Days'. 8.25 show. 10.30 Sesame street.

11.30 don. 8.25 London. 10.40 Aquarius.

12.00 Joe 90. Farming diary 11.35 Film: Yours Truly Jack the London. 5.10

UFO.

610 12.30 Ripper. Comedians. 6.15 6.45 London. Film: 'Incident in San Francisco'. 8.30 Julie Andrews. 9.30 Upstairs, 10.40 downstairs. 10.30 London.

TYNE

TEES: 9.15

Wild life Aquarius 'Don't Talk 11.30 Film: 9.40 Minutes that theatre. to Strange Men'. changed history. 10.10 Osmonds. Film: Fantastic Voyage'. 10.35 12.30 London. 5.10 Riptide. 6.10 above ex- HTV Cymru/Wales as London. 6.15 Film: 'Fort Apache'. cept: 5.10 Turnbull's finest half Julie 9.30 New 8.30 Andrews. hour. 5.40-6.10 Sion a sian. Yard. Scotland 10.30 London. 10.40 11.30 Edgar Aquarius. Wallace. 12.25 Epilogue.

MIDLANDS:

9.15 You and

ATV

9.40 Collecting your golf. on 10.10 A place in the shoestring. You and Survival.

SCOTTISH: 9.15

your 10.35 11.00 country. golf. 9.40 Collecting shoe. on Cartoon. 11.05 Tomfoolery show 10.10 Tomfoolery 12.00 show. 11.30 Osmonds. Elephant Dave Cash. 5.15 Dick 10.35 Joe 90. 11.05 boy. 12.30 London. Osmonds. Van Dyke. 12.00 Saturday 5.40 News. 5.45 Film: 11.30 5.15 12.30 London. 'Around the World Eighty cavalcade. 8.30 9 30 Hogan's heroes. 5.40 News. 5.45 Days'. Julie Andrews. Film: "Around the World in Eighty Upstairs, downstairs. 10.30 Lon- 10.40 10.40 Aquarius. 11.30 Film: Days'. 8.30 London. don. 11.30 Late call. 11.35 Nightmare'. Aquarius. 'Companions in O'Hara. Weather.

CHANNEL:

2.13 Weather. 2.15 3.15 London. Film: Charley's Puffin. Big Hearted Aunt'. 4.30 Black 4.40 Golden shot. 5.35 7.55 Film: beauty. 6.05 London. 10.00 London. 12.15 'Will Penny'. ULSTER: 12.30 Lions New Zea- Epilogue. Weather. land tour. 1.30 HR Pufnstuf.

1.55 3.15 2.15 London. Women only. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 'Manfish'. 4.40 Golden shot.

Film: 9.30 London. 10.35 Survival. 11.05 5.35 Black beauty. 6.05 London. 'Tarzan's 7.53 results. 7.55 Film: Film: Triumphs'. 12.30 Sports today. 'Hotel'. 10.00 London. Champions. 1.25 Angling 4.30 1.55 Farm and country news.

12.15 Faith for Gus Honeybun. life. 12.20 Weather.

YORKSHIRE:

9.20 Chess master- 10.30 Film: pieces. 9.30 London. 12.30 Lions 'Sinbad the Sailor'. SOUTHERN: 9.15 Talking hands. Farming 1.55 71. 1.25 outlook. 9.30 London. 10.30 Farm Soccer. 2.50 Film: 'Easy to Wed'. pro- 10.57 Weather. 11.00 4.45 Golden shot. 5.35 Black 11.10 Name of the game 6.05 London. 7.55 Film: Torchy. beauty. 12.15 12.30 Bush boy. 1.00 Superman. 'Will Penny'. 10.00 London.

Hogan's 1.20 Primus. 1.50 Weather. 3.15 Best heroes. 2.15 London. of Lucy. 3.45 Golden 4.40 shot. 5.30 News. 5.35 Black Lions 71. 12.00 Aquarius.

GRANADA: 11.00

6.05 London. 7.55 Film: Film: 'Thunder in the Valley'. 1.50 Beauty. 10.00 London. 'The Pink Panther'. 2.20 Football Merrie melodies. 12.15 Weather. Guideline.

4.40 Film: 'Cattle Drive'. 3.20 shot. 5.35 Black beauty. Golden Film: "The 6.05 London. 7.55 Trouble With Angels'. 10.00 Lon- 9.30-10.30 London.

HARLECH:

don. 12.00 All our vesterdavs. 12.30 A 1.00 Uni- place in the country. 1.25 versity Love, TYNE TEES: 9.20 Chess master- American style. London. 10.30 Sin- 9.30 Dieces. Film: 'Assault the Wayne'. on the sailor. 12.30 Lions 71. bad Golden shot. Black outlook. 1.25 Farming 1.55 Shoot. Easy 2.50 Film: to Wed'. 4.45 Mrs. 8.25 Film: 'The Night of the Golden shot. 5.35 Black beauty 10.15 Generals'. 10.00 London. 7.55 Film: Will 6.05 London. 11.15 Hogmanay at Film contd. 12.30 A Penny'. 10.00 London. McCue's 12.25 Weather. message for New Year. ITV Cymru/Wales as above ex ept: 6.40-7.25 Serch hudol Master chefs.

SCOTTISH:

9.45 10.00 World War 1. 10.30 Women 'Clarence, the only. 11.00 Film: Cross-Eyed Lion'. 12.30 A place

ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30

London. country. 1.00 Randall and 10.30 All yesterdays. 11.00 in the our 3.00 Scotsport. Hopkirk. Lions 71. 12.00 Nanny and the Film: 'Charlie's Big Hearted Aunt'.

today. professor. 5.35 4.40 Golden shot. Flipper. 1.00 Champions. 6.05 7.25 Film. The Film: The About London. 3.00 Truth Hallelujah Trail'. 10.00 London. Spring'. 4.40 Golden shot. 5.35 7.55 10.15 Late call. 10.20 McMillan Black beauty. 6.05 London. Man in Grey'. 10.00 and wife. 11.40 A party for hog- Film: "The manay. London. 10.00 H 9.45 The herbs. and Gretel. 11.10 Whale : 11.40 Harlem slippers. 12.30 Football Newbury. 3.10 2.55 Athletics. league. 4.40 Final Lancel show Weather. 5.50 Dr. Who

DIXON OF DOCK GI

6.15

'THE

7.05

FILM:

Michael Crawford, Reed. Harry Andrews brothers plan the cri the century. 8.35 CILLA. Cilla Alfred Quest Donovan.

MAN

9.20

CALLED

The Game. NEWS. Weathe 10.10

MATCH OF

THE DA

TU.U

11.20 kinson meets The Weather. 12.20 Chlet Ironeide has a Belding, seen here with The little angels 12.05 Laurel and who loves The man 2.30 Andre Barney bear. night. 3.15 Festival 4.00 tertainment West Frontier' Kenneth auren bacal. neer Le

NEWS.

Weathe

CHURCH ANI

6.15

THEID.

THE NEW BEGINNI

SONGS OF PRAISE

ONEDIN LINE

7.25

FILM: A STAR IS

8.15 Garland, Jack Mason, Charles Bickford. A rises to fame alcoholism. Neathe

THE YE

Club 3.00 Film: 9.00 Jobs around the house. 9.30 'Cheaper by the Dozen'. Clifton Webb, Jeanne Return Peyton Crain, Myrna Loy. Comedy about Merrie street. Sesame a family with twelve children. 4.25 11.30 The melodies. The dot and the line. 4.35 Play Junior 12.00 11.50 police Under London 5.00 ex- pedition. 5.50 Man alive.

sport.

6.40 TELEVISION DOCTOR.

3.00 from 6.55 HORIZON. Navigating Europe. 3.50 Results, from 5.10

AND SPORT.

7.40

NEWS

Weather. 3.50 5.05

7.50 RUGBY

SPECIAL.

East An- All The Glamorgan Blacks. Biblical 8.30 WAR AND PEACE. Escape.

Oliver

YARD.

/ Andrews. Two 9.15 THEM AND US. Germany.

an the crime of Series about the arts in

JULIE

the other Common Market Jimmy Black with countries. Marks, 11.40 NEWS ON 2. Weather.

CALLED IRON-

Gambling pro- 11.45

FILM: 'KING

AND COUN-

TRY.

Tom set in Dirk Bogarde, the

THE DAY.

Courtenay, Leo McKern. World With N. Michael Par- court Private martial for cowardice dur- G. ets The Goons. ing World War I. now girl assistant for his new series on BBC 1. Elizabeth Bauer plays Officer Fran 9.30 Morning service. 10.35 Re- 4.15 Money at work. 5.15 Ripples Christmas turn to Peyton Place. 11.05 Film: in the ether. Annual People 'Tarzan Triumphs'. Johnny Weiss- lectures Young by Geoffrey Gouriet, chief engineer, BBC research and development.

1.00 Thunderbirds. 1.50 hour.

6.05 NEWS REVIEW.

Brian Connel interview. 2.15 Big Persuaders. 4.20

SUMMARY.

match. 3.15

7.20 NEWS

5.15 Aquarius. Fat Weather. Golden shot. Tuesday-Mardi Gras in New 11.35 I believing.

7.25 AMERICA.

Domesticating Our rela- Orleans, 1972. a Wilderness. Hardy. 1.15

8.15 THE MOISEYEV BALLET.

ves giants. 2.05

6.05 NEWS FROM ITN.

nd Midge. 2.20 Russian folk dances. O Andre Previn's

6.15 ADAM SMITH.

IT'S

SERIOUSLY

5 Festival of

HANCOCK.

With Film: 'North

6.45 THE BIG QUESTION.

Bass, Hall, Alfie Kenneth More, Ronnie lerbert Lom.

7.00 CAROLS FOR CHILDREN.

McDowell, Paul

ACH AND APAR-

THE FENN STREET GANG.

7.25 And Baby Makes Four. 9.45

BEGINNING.

Big Little

F PRAISE.

FILM: "ROBBERY'. Stanley 7.55 DIN LINE. Race Pettet, Baker, 10.35 Booth, Frank Fin- before James

STAR IS BORN'.

by lay. A gang, snatches James to haul diamonds Cameron, Kenny Carson, finance their next job. William ickford. A singer while her

10.00 NEWS FROM ITN.

band sinks into 11.00

AT LAST THE 1973 SHOW

10.15 Ford's about David Frost, Introduced by with Ethel Merman, Jimmy YEAR. The Gene South. tol- Edwards, Stubby Kaye, Awards Charley Grape- Eartha Kitt, Harve Presnell, Welcome '73 Maurice Woodruff. Forsyth, and 12.20 Rogers

12.15 RECONCILIATION.

Hosiery strikers attack union chiefs Fighting the Tol TWO MORE public in- quiries were held yesterday in Scotland into Labour councils who have refused to implement the Tory government's 'fair rents' Act. Ordered by the Secretary of State for Scotland, they were held at Dunfermline and Kilmarnock where the Labour councils are defying the Tories. A BITTER attack on the leac Union of Hosiery and Knitwear yesterday by the strike comn 500 Asian workers who have strike in Loughborough, Leicest Union leaders were of coercing and accused pressurizing for a return to work without giving assur- ances on anything'. It was also alleged that there were a 'handful of racial- ists' among the NUHKW's executive 'who will have to be dealt with very firmly' by the membership. The Asians, workers employed by Mansfield Hosiery company, went on strike in October for a rise for the lower-paid pay workers and the right to be trained for skilled knitting jobs in the plant. A return to work in November short-lived when the was strikers discovered a number of non-Asians had been taken on.

Fight Rising Prices Force the Tories to Resign Support the Engineers CENTRAL LONDON (Press and Court. 'The Common Market'. Speaker: John Spencer (Workers Press). EAST LONDON: Tuesday •Jan- uary 2, 8 p.m. 'Festival Inn', Chrisp • Street Market, E14. WEST LONDON: Tuesday Jan- 8 p.m. "Prince uary 2, Albert, Wharfedale Road, King's Cross.

BRACKNELL: Tuesday January 2, 8 p.m. Priestwood Community Centre.

HARROW AND WEALDSTONE:

tuesday January 2, 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Railway Approach, Station Road, Harrow. CLAPHAM: Tuesday January 2, 8 p.m. Clapham Baths, Clapham Manor Street. Transform the SLL into a revolutionary party.

The Plymouth Fine Tubes Strikers, their wives and 53 children have just spent their third Christmas on strike with very littie money. These men have waged a bitter struggle for the most basic right a worker can possess-the right to belong to a trade union. Strike members committee have travelled over 100,000 miles to sustain their fight.

e Tory rent Act In effect the inquiries were a formality, the only task be- ing to find out if the councils had in fact carried out their • obligations under law. The next step is for the authorities to be declared in default by the Tory govern- and then ordered to ment implement. Inquiries have already been the leadership of the National nitwear Workers was launched e committee representing the • have just ended a nine-week , Leicestershire. during the strike to be trained as knitters. The men were also bitter that the union leaders had known about the recruitment yet had not told the strikers. NUHKW leaders had already been accused by the Race Rela- tions Board of assisting racial discrimination on the question of job training by signing agree- ments with management which and CROYDON: Wednesday January 3, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Road, south Croydon. TOTTENHAM: Wednesday Jan- uary 3, 8 p.m. 'Bricklayer's Arms', Tottenham High Road. SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thurs- day January 4, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club New Cross Road. • 'Build Councils of Action!

Defend the engineers!' LETCHWORTH: Thursday January KIN 4,8 p.m. Trades Hall. (please note changed date.) SOUTHALL: Thursday January 4, 8 p.m. Southall Library, Osterley Park Road. WATFORD: Monday January 8, 8 p.m. Watford Trade Union Hall (upstairs), Woodford Road, oppo- site Watford Junction station.

WOOLWICH: Tuesday January 9, 8 p.m. 'Queen's : Arms', Burrage Road. This Christmas has been the hardest of all. It has imposed a great financial burden. Now the 37 strikers face the rest of winter with a the depleted strike fund. January is always a difficult month to raise money to further their fight. Yet they are determined to fight on. This is a struggle the working class cannot afford to lose. That is why the Socialist Labour League and the Work- held into the Midlothian and Clydebank Labour councils, although the reports are not yet ready. The other eight Labour councils in Scotland still re- fusing to put rents up are: Alloa, Barrhead, Cowdenbeath, Cumbernauld, Dalkeith, Denny and Dunipace, Saltcoats and Whitburn. THIS 15 You The Asian strikers durir had the effect of preventing Asian workers from being taken on as knitters. The decision to return to work was taken at a mass meet- ing of Asian strikers on Thurs- day night in Loughborough. It followed between negotiations strike leaders and management since the publication of the Robinson report into the dispute ten days ago. Any return will be made on the basis of several promises

HARROW AND WEALDSTONE:

Tuesday January 9, 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Railway Approach, Station Road, Harrow. ROCHESTER: Tuesday January 9, ter Avenue. Jan- HULL: Wednesday January 10, 8 p.m. White Hart Hotel, Alfred Gelder Street (near Drypool Bridge). TONBRIDGE: Thursday January 1h, B p.m. 'The Foresters', Quarry ion! Hill Road. 8 p.m. 'The Liverpool corner of Cambridge Road and London Road. SLOUGH: Thursday, January 11, 7.30 p.m. Slough Community Centre, Farnham Road. SHEFFIELD: Thursday January 11, 7.30 p.m. 'The Grape Inn', Trip- pett Lane, Sheffield 1. LEEDS: Thursday January 11, 7.30 p.m. Peel Hotel, Boar Lane.

ers Press wishes to make a special appeal to all trade unionists to take collections in their factories and branches Tubes men in for the Fine order that their heroic and determined action can be car- ried forward. All money should be sent to: Fine Tubes Treasurer c/o 65 Bretonside Plymouth, Devon. Workers Press, Saturday December 30, 1972 PAGE 11

COUNCIL

house building in and the Tories have encour- Britain has slumped to 1963 aged the fall. levels, while private building On the other hand-encour- levels are rising. aged by the prospects of infla- tion and speculation in hous- It is unlikely that many have ing-private builders than 150,000 council more started over 19,000 units houses will be completed this month this year against 17,300 lowest since 1963's year, the last year. 124,000. In fact the November And the aim of the Tory figure of 10,700 completions government's Housing Finance shows annual average of an Act has yet to be fully felt by only 125,000. local councils. They will find it The slump in council build- harder to get the necessary ing began in 1967 after a peak- cash to build estates and new level of 200,000 units in one at the same time the prospec- year. Labour's attack on public tive tenants will not be able to expenditure started afford the slide the 'fair rents. the low-paid barloaders has been accepted, from a £3 separate nationally-agreed rise. A Department of Employment representative will sit on a selec- tion panel with the Asian workers and management to decide on who is to fill knitting announced and. other vacancies by the company. In their statement, the strike committee members say they are going to 'fight' the union leaders 'to the finish'. The union had to consult its members in 'the democratic traditions... so pain- ikers during their picket fully built up over the centuries'.

Bunny strikers' made negotiations. Bensee, the during Any break them will yesterday that told Workers Press be met by renewed strike action, it yesterday they pre- weit was said yesterday. paring documents on the demo- cratization of the NUHKW.

Strikers have been told there will be 'The whole hosiery industry no redundancies among been workers and has shaken by the Asian. that up this strike. From the union everyone will get their old jobs now on back on full pay for a 40-hour must be from below -by run week. both black and white. A pledge of no victimization 'The majority of workers at by management has been given the mill and Britain In don't which has been accepted. want racialism and we must fight An immediate El increase for it all the time, he added.

The daily paper that loads the fight against the Torles. £20.28 for 12 montha (312 lasues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 lssues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a wook the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: Circulation Dept., Woikers Pross, 186a Clapham High St., London, SWa TUQ. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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PAGE 12 Workers Press, Saturday Decem

APPEAL

MAKE THIS

DECEMBER

A MONTH TO

REMEMBER:

OUR FUND

Two more days to go. Will we A great last- reach £2,500? minute spurt this weekend and you will certainly do it.

We know we are asking for a very special effort. Already, you, dear readers, have completed our £1,750 target for this month.

But as the movement is grow- ing throughout the working class for battle with the Tory govern- ment, so support is building up behind Workers Press. We are confident you will do everything you can to raise this total. Don't waste a grand this weekend. Let's moment finish this year in a really big way. Rush every donation imme- diately to : Workers Press December Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG. CHINA claims a good har- vest despite the worst drought in years with grain output at 240 million tons, about the same as in 1970.

The output of cotton, peanuts and sesame was below that in 1971, but a 10 to 20-per-cent in- crease in other industrial crops was claimed. Prices remained stable, despite local shortages, it is claimed in Peking. China exported 3 million tons of rice but imported 5 million tons of other cereals.

FROM PAGE 1

'They'll say we're breaking the law. But that's their problem.

It's their bloody law? engineers' Tom Nelan, an union shop steward in the tool- room, said: "There's got to be some demonstration of our mem- bers' feelings on this issue.

'At the moment this man is on full pay. That's suspended not what we want. We want him out.' Engineers' Ken convenor, Walton, one of the three union members named in Langston's complaint to the Industrial Tribunal, was sure that admitting Langston would lead to an all-out strike. 'This isn't just a problem for the Amalgamated Union of En- gineering Workers,' he said.

'We have a multi-union shop at Ryton. This man is a member of no union. Therefore it affects all of useven the staff. 'We will tackle it jointly' Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press. 186a Clapham High Street, London.

SW4 7UG.

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

SWA 7UG.

Cardiff plant to close Anarchist Valpreda 4,000 South Wales is freed

ITALIAN

anarchist Pietro steel jobs are Valpreda, central figure the country's biggest politi- celebre or recen years, was yesterday released from prison on provisional chopped liberty after over three years

BY A WORKERS PRESS REPORTER

in jail. Valpreda arrested fol- EAST MOORS Steel Works, Cardiff, is to lowing the explosion of a bomi at the Milan Agricultural Bank three years with the loss of close within December 1969. The 4,100 jobs it was announced at a Cardiff which killed 16 people, bomb, Press conference yesterday.

ployment disaster. Cardiff MP Mr James was certai fascists, some of whom are Callaghan has called for a public The old steelworks is to be pulled down after being now awaiting investigation. and the land cleared for industrial develop- arrested. very DclalCury of Valoreda ment under the joint aegis of Cardiff Cor- she prosecuton Lord Melchett discussed BSC chairman cion desto the le throw suspi- poration and the British Steel Corporation.

the closure with Cardiff's Lord Mayor, Mrs the left Winifred MPs and trade Mathias, local condition: stampeding The Tory government will sell a portion une the into union leaders in the city.

middle class Tie ex of the 228-acre site back to Guest, Keen Te tate it there and Nettlefold, the owners before nation- has misfired because Valpreda alization, and they will build and operate a even te THE British Steel Corporation is to begin as the authorities nave nOW modern electric-arc steel-making plant em- laying-off workers at its three Scunthorpe, tacitly ploying only 500 men and with a capacity The Valpred case reveals Lincolnshire, works where 6,000 men have of 400,000 tons of liquid steel a year.

of fascist influence The official The extent been on strike for a week.

incheat an eat are can be strike over bargaining rights could affect that innocent men can be The plant is the city's only major indus- held for years without trial.

up to another 12,500 workers.

try and its shut-down will be a major em.

Productivity Orders made to demands block pay

THAMES STEVEDORING CO. (1965) LTD.

by meat

EMPLOYMENT

Secretary Maurice Macmillan yesterday lala Delore parlament an trade firms electrical contracting stopping England, Wales irms from •couana. Warc increase due on January SHOP STEWARDS representing 850 70,000 electrical workers The from dockers met behind closed doors yes- *do rod a week were to consider the shipping lines' to be paid under the second of terday reached two-stage agreement reversing their decision terms for to „berore Ine neeze move the South American meat trade check The order, which becomes from London's Royal Group of docks to could be eftective on anuary 1, Southampton. debated in parliament if a mem.

ber, within 40 sitting days, put Stevedoring Company (1965) Ltd Thames down a resolution objecting to it.

which handles the trade has already said that Gas talks its loss will have 'a serious impact on the Thames Stevedoring's headquarters on the company's continuing viability.

on ban At a summit meeting, be. union, the Port of Biggest drive against tween the London Authority and the South

WORRIED

East Gas shipping involved Board officials hit by over- four lines in the trade on Thursday, ship.

ban and work-to-rule by Soviet opposition owners held out little hope of and Past ou men arusteenwica Croydon• -are meeting union offi- a change of heart. this weekend to Representatives the Blue etect the sanctions will have gas

BY A WORKERS PRESS REPORTER

Line, the Royal Mail Line, producuon next week The men imposed their action Holver and Elma, the Brothers the letter from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, the human rights group, said protest against they Argenuie sald Edward Heath which had the would docks it conditions there the yesterday that the Soviet Union had launched its biggest drive effect a Council Royal docks conditions or kline nego. tiations with the in years to stamp out internal dissent.

equalled those at southampton.

earler this montn. Evidence of the crackdown They are demanding big in. the Russian was reinforced by creases in productivity and

CHRYSLER CLOSED-SHOP WALK-OUT

text of the latest issue of "The disruption from that sualaulleco Chronicle of Current events, the Russian civil rights move- for the Vestey A spokesman ment's underground journal.

organization, which owns • the Amnesty publishes its English Blue Star, said yesterday that would mean the AUEW translalon costs a ine rort or London as c The convenor Which well whole had risen by 108 per cent Amnesty stated that the latest explain that Chrysler did Generan Workers Transport and workers since early 1970 - but produc- Chronicle, and covering

AUEW

Loree agree with the 25 NOTi only month period up to October tivity had gone up by others into the NIRC. district committee, which accounts wide- per cent. detailed recently voted for in Now the Act threatens change save trials, destroy the chief pillar on which political sortead arrests. The shipping

UNIOR I

DONCV CO

alow Co-Obeld- • lines are arguing further moves assidents tion with the Industrial Relations engineers' wages that increased productivity ana conclus confined to mental hospitals, loss Act. in area have been built: the reflected faster ship-working of homes and 1n 'As far as the AUEW members of Jobs. searches closed shop could will mel interrogations. here are concerned, all my shop also costs down to acceptable levels.

The district committee stewards and 95 per cent of the voted at its December 19 meet Dozens of quayside cranes at the behind Royals are silent and scores membership Allende the al e fines union in present national committee poncy of berths have been empty fol of co-operation with the Act, he said. the Goad case ment sheapcontaineration and But at sometine tees se 'cheaper' out-ports have swaps CPer's we had a mass faces week day, committee Goad ulawl laut away. meeting on the James trouble prospect issue and they voted overwhelm- Hundreds of men have been Ryton of further big fines the nationally, but of the break-up 109 V aSk execulive made recuncant and The mea Ministry pool its resources together and trade shipping lines' uncom- oralizallon levels call a national We want promising stand has put the factory. no part of the Act. dockers' union over a barre.

number tool. Already

CHILE'S

President, Salvador It was just 11 makers at Coventry's Renolds Allende, has switched Communist the the It the decision to move factory have threatened to take Party member Orlando Millas stands, 850 jobs may be trade itsell in lavour or court appear- the a aspute over representadon to Finance lost. And if is waived, shon ances by the union. it the Industrial Tribunal. TOm The right-wing Economics to stewards majority on ministry stolestes will tacec WItn 'Divine Nine, censure motion ongred. Millas the collaboration with the employers the the group are protesting at being House of Congress. the workforce and demand a recall of the union's ower jacking up productivity. policy-making national commit- accused of taking reprisals renresenter o a convenor Was Their was against tee to reconsider the present line.

servants

LOOK

claims part in the 26-day October strike The position will be no ill do perso a leader, put hen they went organized by right-wing mass oppo- meeting down a motion for the policy- similar situation exists at other Monday at 1 p.m regular April local factories. nents of the government. makers' meeting