Workers Press no. 962
1973 Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Columns and stories run into one another, and words are misread. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 1
workers press
TUC MUST END TALKS WITH TORIES-RECALL CONGRESS
PERMANENT PAY
LAW UNVEILED
INCORPORATING
DAILY ORGAN OF THE
BY STEPHEN JOHNS
PREMIER Edward Heath will unveil the Tory plan for a permanent system of state control of wages when he meets trade union leaders for new talks on the economy today.
The proposals will include a strict limit on the level of pay after the expected end of the 'freeze' on April 28.
Wages will be controlled by law with no guaran- tee of a return to a voluntary system. The plan will have statutory backing with penalties against workers who challenge it.
unions and The proposals-dubbed as phase two of the anti- inflation campaign-mark the most serious step to- wards the corporate state so far. They will formalize, in law, the edicts issued by the Prime Minister ban- ning free wage negotiation.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said yesterday at a voluntary policy had failed that the last attempt collapsed last November. He when the tripartite talks pointed out that the gov- ernment now had a respon- led by general secretary sibility to halt inflation.
Victor Feather is the most "The thinking is quite important. advanced. But obviously On the surface the meet- nothing will be finalized ing has been arranged until we see what the dif- to ferent bodies have to say, hear TUC protests over the law banning wage increases he said. and Heath's decision not to Senior ministers met allow wage negotiations. with the Prime Minister But government officials to discuss the yesterday said yesterday that the plan before seeing repre- discussion would quickly of the retail sentatives 'broaden' out to cover the over prices. On Fri- trade phase two proposals. will day the government proposals the A TUC spokesman admit. put its to Confederation of British ted that the delegation was prepared to hear the Heath Industry. plan. But today's meeting with a 13-man TUC delegation, 'We will see what hap- pens, he said. They [the delegationl will have to decide whether it is worth What we negotiating. Before •you talk have have something to talk a bare said in 1972 These moves represent Special pull-out the opening stages of a new round of class- pages 3 to 10 collaboration. On the agenda this time is the legal abolition of all In today's Workers Press the traditional methods we include an eight-page of negotiation and conciliation pull-out supplement of between employers, the editorials and political statements we published government and the unions.
in 1972. This is a selec- In its place the Tories tive series of articles on hope to erect an executive the major issues which machine, directly under the confronted the workers' control of the to state movement in Britain and will enforce its on the internationally: Vietnam, working class. Middle East, Nixon's the If they succeed it will re-election, Ireland, The be the most significant step Common Market, UCS and towards the corporate state inflation, Stalinism, the so far. dockers' strike, prices. Workers Press is not But the government faces afraid to let its record obstacles in its enormous speak. Readers and sym- path. pathizers should keep this While the TUC leaders special issue as a refer- prepared deliver are to ence of major policy state- themselves up as voluntary ments.
TURN TO BACK PAGE
ORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY JANUARY 4, 197
OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIA
D
BOC WORKERS
Ene
SAY NO TU
(BOG)
185 WaNTS
CLOSURE AI COMONTON
SAY
MI NO 18
WE ARE NOT REASY
CIOSUR
TO BE TOMORROWS
SP MONE
WERKERS
SAD SEDUNGANT
BEE WORKERS
MISFITS
WORKERS
SAY NO TO
WELL
fICHT
CINSURE TO EUMONT
NO TO
THIS SHUTDOWN K
WORKER
CLOSURE AT EDMONTON
OF
NORTH LUNDE
LONDON
UNITE
M.P's
COULD
BE
NEXT
WAKE UP TO
JOB
DRAIN
BY PHILIP WADE
BRITISH OXYGEN workers in Edmonton, north London, will occupy their plant if the company tries to carry out a closure plan over the next two years. About 750 workers at their welding factory yesterday staged a half day strike and demon- strated through the area against BOC. They from Sparklets, by workers sackings. The giant monopoly wants to I take the £7m grant and move to new government premises in Skelmersdale, the new town near Liverpool. It would employ only 450 workers -almost half the number at Edmonton.
Griffiths, Transport and General Elton Workers' Union convenor, told Workers Press •We fighting for
BOC
yesterday: are workers because it will be their turn next.'
Michael O'Rourke, deputy convenor of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, pledged support for occupying the plant if the crunch comes. RY 4, 1973 • No. 962 • 4p
SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
ESC WORKERS
SAY NO ID
CIRSINE AT FOMONTAN
CLOSURF AT
B.O.C THANKS TO
• WORKERS FOR
HEMLLION
THE SACK
Авс IT
ALB
YOUNG
SOCIALISTS
OFFICIAL
WEEKLY
PAPER
and National Speaking Contest
BUILD THE WEEKLY KEEP LEFT
BUILD THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS
STOP RISING PRICES
FORCE THE TORIES TO RESIGN
Next Saturday-January 6, 2.30 p.m.
East India Hall, East India Dock Road, London E1
SPEAKERS:
GARY GURMEET (Editor Keep Left) GERRY HEALY (SLL national secretary) BRIAN PRANGLE (YS Student Society) Dance 8-11 p.m.
Scan page 2
workers press
TUC MUST END TALKS WITH TORIES-RECALL CONGRESS
PERMANENT PAY
LAW UNVEILED
INCORPORATING •
DAILY ORGAN OF THE
BY STEPHEN JOHNS
PREMIER Edward Heath will unveil the Tory plan for a permanent system of state control of wages when he meets trade union The proposals will include a strict limit on the level of pay after the expected end of the 'freeze' on April 28.
Wages will be controlled by law with no guaran- The plan tee of a return to a voluntary system.
will have statutory backing with penalties against unions and workers who challenge it.
The proposals-dubbed as phase two of the anti- inflation campaign-mark the most serious step to- wards the corporate state so far. They will formalize, in law, the edicts issued by the Prime Minister ban- ning free wage negotiation.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said yesterday that the last attempt at a voluntary policy had failed when the tripartite talks collapsed last November. He pointed out that the gov- ernment now had a respon- led by general sibility to halt inflation.
secretary Victor Feather is the most "The thinking is quite important. advanced. But obviously On the surface the meet- nothing will be finalized ing has until we see what the dif- been arranged to hear TUC protests over the ferent bodies have to say,' he said. law banning wage increases and Heath's decision not to Senior ministers met allow wage negotiations. with the Prime Minister officials But government vesterday to discuss the yesterday said that the before seeing repre- plan discussion would quickly retail sentatives the 'broaden' out to cover the On Fri- trade over prices. phase two proposals. day the government will put its proposals to the A TUC spokesman admit- Confederation British ted that the delegation was of Industry. prepared to hear the Heath plan. But today's meeting with 'We will a 13-man TUC delegation, what hap- see They [the pens, he said. delegation] will have to decide whether it is worth What we negotiating. Before •you have talk to have said in 1972 something to talk about.' These moves represent Special pull-out the opening of stages round of class- new pages 3 to 10 collaboration. On the agenda this time is the legal abolition of all In today's Workers Press the traditional methods of we include an eight-page negotiation and conciliation pull-out supplement of the editorials and political between employers, government and the unions.
we published statements in 1972. This is a selec- In its place the Tories of tive series articles on hope to erect an executive the major issues which machine, directly under the confronted the workers' control of the state to movement in Britain and its will the enforce on internationally: Vietnam, working class. the Middle East, Nixon's If they succeed it will Ireland, re-election The be the most significant step Common Market. UCS anc towards the corporate state Stalinism, inflation, the so far. dockers' strike, prices. Workers Press is not But the government faces afraid to let its record obstacles in its enormous speak. Readers and sym- path. pathizers should keep this While the TUC leaders special issue as a refer- prepared deliver are to ence of major policy state- themselves up as voluntary ments.
TURN TO BACK PAGE
ORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY JANUARY 4, 197
OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIA
D B8C
SAI
CLOSIN
CASU
BOC WORKIRS
ORKERS
TO TO
WORICER
COMONDA
CLOSUR A
NOR TH
LONDON
(r). M. P'3
Y OV
COUL
NEXT
WAKE UP TO
JOB
DRAIN
BY PHILIP WADE
BRITISH OXYGEN workers in Edmonton, north London, will occupy their plant if the company tries to carry out a closure plan over the next two years. About 750 workers at their welding factory yesterday staged a half day strike and demon- strated through the area against BOC. They workers joined by from Sparklets, were Tottenham, who are also threatened with sackings. The giant monopoly wants to take the £7m government grant and move to new remises in Skelmersdale, the new town near iverpool. It would emplov only 450 workers -almost half the number at Edmonton.
Elton Griffiths, Transport and General Workers' Union convenor, told Workers Press We are fighting for all BOC yesterday: workers because it will be their turn next.'
Michael O'Rourke, deputy convenor of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers pledged support for occupying the plant if the crunch comes. RY 4, 1973 • No. 962 • 4p
SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
B.OC. THANKS TO
WORKERS FOR
13% MLION
THE SACK
Авс IT
ALB
YOUNG
SOCIALISTS
OFFICIAL
WFEKLY
PAPER
and National Speaking Contest
BUILD THE WEEKLY KEEP LEFT •
BUILD THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS
STOP RISING PRICES
FORCE THE TORIES TO RESIGN
Next Saturday-January 6, 2.30 p.m.
East India Hall, East India Dock Road, London E1.
SPEAKERS:
GARY GURMEET (Editor Keep Left) GERRY HEALY (SLL national secretary) BRIAN PRANGLE (YS Student Society) Dance 8-11 p.m.
Scan page 3
PAGE 2 Workers Press, Thursday Janua THE FIRST sailor to be • Hawk' tried for the Kitty mutiny in October was con- victed at a US Naval court- martial in San Diego, Cali- fornia, yesterday. The sailor, petty officer third-class Hiram Davis, a 21- year-old Negro of Los Angeles, convicted of 'unlawful was apprehension' of a person. He was fined £180 and reduced one pay grade in rank. The judge, Captain Bobby Bryant, said Davis had already served one month in confine- ment and that was sufficient.
He dismissed charges of as- sault and rioting. The rioting broke out on October 12 and 13 while the ircratt carrier was operatin Vietnam. More than 40 men were injured. PRESIDENT Nixon yesterday emer- created a three-men gency board to investigate a labour dispute that threatened to close the Hudson under- ground railway carrying com- muters between Newark, New City. Jersey, and New York The Brotherhood of Railway Carmen were due to go on strike against the Port Authority Trans- Hudson Corporation (PATH) at midnight on Tuesday. But the presidential order postpones the stoppage for 60 days while new efforts are made to settle the 1l-month-old dis- pute. PATH's 214 carmen are de- manding a 30-per-cent wage in- crease over two years. The em- ployers have offered them 11.5 per cent. ENGINEERING employers in the West German province of North Rhine Westphalia have offered to talk with the IG Metall trade union on an in- creased pay settlement. Their 5.6 per cent offer was : union which is rejected by the demanding an Il per cent rise.
percent of the union's 210,000 members in the region voted for strike action • from January 11. A union spokesman said that any new offer would have to be good to satisfy the militant rank and file. Socialist Labour League North Wes
FORCE THE TORY
GOVERNMENT TO RES
BUILD THE
REVOLUTIONARY
PARTY!
SUNDAY JANUARY 14, 7 p.m.
The Everyman, Hope Street,
LIVERPOOL
'RIGHT TO WORK'
G. HEALY (SLL National Secretary CHRISTINE SMITH (Young Socialis In a personal capacity: CONNIE FAHEY (Manchester Tenar ALAN STANLEY (Vauxhall Shop St
BRIAN GEENEY (U.P.W.)
WALLY FOUCHS (CAV Occupation day January 8, 1973 America will for strive rationaliz the same time at turone of the share This will entail a ste the varion or curope. among European sta of will inevitably beco vated. At the same ti pressure rom European states will to co-ordinate y inerr orces. THE ANALYSIS abov Trotsky as long has been my Britain's entry into mon Market. premier Heath's Court night revealed that factor uniting was bourgeoisie United States. This he meant by urging collaboration in a 'valid partner' for • the same tin dent of the EEC
DETAILS OF 1
force over Har bombing offen authoritative U 'Aviation Week Hanoi by surpris rs there were 1 sts) before the Vorth West Rally
ORK' FILM
• . . . . ster Tenants) Il Shop Stewards ccupation Committee) bleat about the terms of entry Into curope, but oy rignt-wins voted with Labourites Heath the Common Market on and taken agains no acuon Was them. The trade union leaders at this very moment are again with ferring Heath when the working class has shown time and again it has both the wish and the strength to force this government to resign. Yet what Lenin in 1915 Theurope Socialist United States of Dutch social democrat vice-president of the only answer will force Europe 'Socialist the point of view of the economic for ever- International. Dr Sicco Mans.
Lalk or Datan wilderaw of imperialism, i.e holt, declared that the Com- ing renegotiating ationalization terme and capital export and division of Market had failed to beloved of the Stalinists will leave "pro. and social democrats - world between conditions scally gressive" and "civilized' ever-aecreasing for the great mass dangerously misleading world market. colonial the United population. States Europe under tail a steady aggra- Mansholt repeated this week his the difficulties Lalonscien could not be renegotiated or reactionary. ('The United
SLICOSCO
competition disparities in the standard of annulled. States of Europe Slogan'.)
living became more marked.
'It ever' he Today the social democrats and treaty world market Moreover, there was growing Stalinists bolster this declared. If the Labour leaders up bly become aggra- *dissatisfaction and criticism combina- capitalist sougar to wirraw orloe aculunary. e same time, under decisions were they could be dragged Ills means that the ngoi America, the before a European court. against labour leaders mace aves ates will endeavour the people without them know- throughout and the The only way out of the capi- had taken them, who revolutionary Common Market them Would are te al ane laurs smash capitalism Europe. and how. struggle nencanie natic otine To campaign the grounds SIS above, made by against this monopolist Mansholt's call for 'an injection' of 'national independence' and 1929 said Trotsky piracy asu by conuume. pander open the dobro are entrend backwardness and into the Com- under 'The vanguard of the uropear surODe ca •ilalsil impossible. structure proletariat present tels devised in the interests of the rulers: order to Heath's speech at Capitalism in Europe is sustained Europe it is first of all Tuesday monopolists. neces the enders aled that only Mansholt himself called for a saly lu
WIESE
oul communist We the European Wil corporatist - type Europe- We will fear the participation workers hostile Lic reuca dua llallal against management regulated by law. WHaL tavour or the common Marker will by urging European the • world The reveal Cabilalisi tuli members
LWO
on in order create into enormous of Puro European parlia- weakness of militant socialism. We wil the US. capitalism and its panic it the cornerstone of the make of US and the face he EEC Commission, pIc- the Labour leaders World Federation Socialist Tapanese economic threat.
STEEL
- HELMETED
The students have ap- riot police armed with pealed to world Egypt's youth staine clubs and shields 'against
DOLLO
clashed yesterday with The Beiru newspaper 'AI marching Ivanar said it the appeal through the streets O1 Inched was addressed to the youth Cairo demanding the re- thi worla trom ЕВУР lease of dozens of their an( TalI students Geno By Foreign Editor JOHN SPENCER comrades held by the cratic youth The authorities. text of the appeal LS OF THE DEFEAT suffered by the United States air The students Hovotian vouti had been sael are being thrown into the sitting in the Cairo Unt- er Hanoi and Haiphong during the massive 12-day defeated prisons versity campus lIve days. protesting against Egyptian authorities whici month have been published in an offensive last arrests by the are further resorung to terrorist and fascism. that authorities
WALC
say ative US aviation magazine.
One the students' 45 students have now been main demands is for a real detained Week and Space Technology' blames Nixon's desire to take demonstration star- struggle against Israel I he The magazine surprise for the heavy losses of US bombers.
which has occupied the Conte ernment promise strikes (i.e. against anti-aircraft to com- sinal desert and waza sull tactical no orders Ior plete investigations since 1967 Anwar Sadat President -which it said the arICoLu keeps The North Vietnamese were made promising Wheel B52s, five three-plane formations warrants -within the next hostilities, but these never shot down 34 B52s follow closely materialize. fortnight. Fllls and 41 other each other. upon planes. The re- have admitted losing 15 fused to comment on the B52s and say another ten article, which magazine were heavily damaged. striking confirma- PrOvide
THE
BILBAO manage- atives and the management North Viet- The claims Tion Lne Pentagon this did not namese chem US to ment of a state-run ship- claiming that these losses are statistically defeated the bomber spiralling yard yesterday Combat light. suspended more than said the shipyard in The magazine Radio said after another bapad.. 2.000 workers unti nex Bilbao suburb Asua, Nixon off the :01 Monday for staging par- 320 out bombing offensive that the 408 employees aculeve Illanillull. tial strikes last week. well liberation forces were in also staged stoppages shock surprise against North 3,000 labourers position than ever, The yesterday
SITORECI
Vietnam. March the Claveaga the last yeal noto polltically yal! dockyard worker striking smaller tarily. of thic For this reason It particularly Spanish port were demand.
at the kazan naval vard 11 tactical aircraft were not congratu- anti-aircraft de- higher wages. Ferrol, north lated the westen called in to clashed with police • to accept Spain, aircraft defences and fenders of the city on their 10-per-cent increase worked Two labourers were sho courageous and successful stand. out labour represent- The B52s make their target at to the about 37,000 feet. the maxi- This is about the Soviet- mum guideline outside 5,000 people, was made
NICARAGUAN
sent from surface-to-air missiles have been diverted by • in preparation for ditch.
user General strongman by the North Vietnamese. Somoza func- ing million tons Anastasio Somoza has
COLLUDI
debris into nearby The B52s also use elec- established special tronic devices to jam Troops yesterday tribunal military to Only members of the mechanisms th onl try people accused of or autho of the missiles. centre capita The armed 1okc public disturbing with barbed wire. rized But the magazine work men were say in the 600 allowed into the centre of order earth- declared it beneves the began work missiles were fired, despite quake disaster areas. street area the jamming, commands His have been minated or disaster troops Gaelter Vietnamese Agustin Fuentes, who LOll
LUIS
with The isolation of the the "looters' the streets •oserver Te Vind
UDOI
in binoculars and an experi- of devastated capi. centre, where the city enced eyeball' December 23 quake ing corpses lying * Food supplies and aid Managua, among the debris. Vietnamese estimated were helped in Guns ecs.
Scan page 4
THE DEMAND for the recall of the TUC and for a General Strike to make the Tories re- sign has received added im- petus by the floating of the pound and TUC secretary Victor Feather's implicit sup- port for this reactionary measure. The decision to float will not solve a single problem for the working class. It will drama- tically increase the cost of living, intensify speed-up and soon lead to a huge increase in unemployment as foreign retaliatory take countries measures or slide into financial 'crisis as the German banking system did in 1929. Forty-one years British ago, workers were treated to the same reformist bromides by the TUC when Britain first devalued the pound. All that happened then was that 40 odd countries followed Britain, with Japan leading the league at a 29-per-cent devaluation.
Far from leading to 'stability and progress' these measures laid the basis for an unrestrained trade war which culminated in World War II. In essence there is no difference between then and now. Nixon's August 15, 1971, meas- ures signified that the value of all currencies would be de- termined strictly by the level of their trade and payment balances. The deterrent for 'unrealistic parities' is ruthless currency speculation which no national currency has been able to prevent or contain.
What this means is that every capitalist nation is impelled to export as much as possible- and as cheaply as possible- and import as little as pos- These are the suicidal sible. 'rules' of every trade war.
In the present case, however, applied in a world market conflict between productive forces and private property, as national state, well as the have grown to an unprece- dented extent. The repercus- sions therefore will be much more rapid and colossal. For these reasons the treachery of the TUC leaders is far more sinister than even their somer- sault 'non-co-operation' on with the Industrial Relations Act and their cowardly recog- nition of the National In- dustrial Relations Court.
They have now agreed with the Confederation British In- dustry to lend their help and prestige-or what's left of it -to a patriotic cost-cutting campaign which will seriously undermine real wages and accelerate the trend towards depression and mass unem- ployment. As the 'Scotsman's' leader writer noted: 'The floating of the pound adds to the government's urgency attempts to contain wage and rises by price voluntary means. It was significant that Mr Anthony Barber called in Mr Vic Feather, of the Trades Union Congress, and Mr Campbell Adamson, of the Confederation of British In- dustry, so soon after the free- ing of the pound was announced. 'He impressed upon them the importance of curbing inflation and of using to the maximum national advantage the period while the pound floats. "The government need the • CO- operation of both sides of in- dustry in building up confi- dence in Britain. The attempts to get an independent body to conciliate dis- in industrial receive an putes will now added impetus.' Barber's advice was well received by these collaborators. After the meeting the Treasury issued a statement which read in part: It was agreed that the action which had been taken to float sterling for the time being was the right action in the circum- It would not have stances. been acceptable either to de- flate the economy or to let reserves run down .. • to a point at which they would have been inadequate to sustain the faster growth of the economy which both sides of industry believe to be essential. According to the 'Scotsman' the Treasury statement also included a paragraph which specifically committed the TUC to a policy of 'good industrial relations and competitive costs' as a basis for reducing infla- tion. No worker should be taken in by this cynical piece of decep- tion, which is designed to secure total Labour-TUC colla- boration in entering the pro- tectionist racket called Common Market. The hypo- critical concern about the run- down and the resources necessity for 'growth' is laugh- able from this standpoint.
The whole purpose in protect- ing is to cushion reserves British entry into the Com- mon Market and has little to do with creating employment.
While it is true that floating the pound will affect Pompidou's grand strategy of creating a new monetary union against the dollar, it indicates also the of the Tories' • urgency desire to get in the Market before the Market itself dis- solves in state of mutual hatred and rivalry. The 'Scotsman's' diplomatic cor- respondent John Tilley frankly revealed what the TUC was so concerned to bury beneath Featherisms: "There is also a feeling in Brus- that Britain had to sels devalue, it is better that it before should happen we become formal members on January 1, 1973. 'After that date a devaluation, whether or not it came in the a floating period, form of would seriously disrupt the means of calculating Britain's enormous contributions to the common agricultural fund.'
The story of reformist treachery is not exhausted by the role of Feather alone. His job of selling Barber's float- ing pound to the working class 1s facilitated by the patriotic buy-British flag-wagging of the Stalinists who oppose the Com- Market on chauvinist mon grounds and who recently joined the protectionist band- wagon by supporting en. 'anti.
Asian goods' motion at the CSEU conference. They now find themselves in the odious company of the medi- eval Scottish Nationalist Party which is seeking to control the influx of Japanese companies into Scotland. Social-chauvinism which is being whipped up by these reformists is the greatest enemy of the working class. The British working class can and must give a lead to the international working class by implacably opposing • all the measures of the Tory govern- ment and its reformist agen- cies in the trade unions and the Labour Party. No support for trade war! No support for devaluation! Force the Tories to resign! These must be the rallying calls from the recalled TUC. June 26, 1972 Workers Press, Thi THE MILITANT resistance of the working class, especi- ally in Britain, is at the heart of the international currency crisis which has reached a new and decisive stage. The decision to "float' sterling, taken after the foreign exchange diminished by had reserves $6,082m, breached $883m to both the December 18 interna- tional currency realignment deal and the Common Market's own currency arrangements. It exposed the impossibility of establishing stable monetary rela- tions between the main capitalist countries without any fixed rela- tionship between gold and paper money. As a result, the gold price has now been driven for the first time over $70 an ounce. In London yesterday it fell back somewhat to $67.75, but nobody is now in any doubt that the price will rise again. The capitalist world is anxiously awaiting the opening of the Group of Ten meeting due to be held in • Washington on September 25. •President Nixon The meeting will face demands for a rise in the 'official' gold price, which governs transactions between central banks under the two-tier system set up four years ago. particular the French and In Italians are pressing for such a rise because otherwise Italy will be forced to devalue the lira and further disrupt the EEC's cur- rency system. They have even hinted broadly that unless international agree- ment can be reached in Wash- ington, the Common Market will go ahead and raise the official price unilaterally, , itself cutting adrift from the United States and forming rival international monetary bloc. International Monetary The Fund is suggesting an alternative course of action which would equally put an end to the fragile two-tier system. This involves selling gold, either from its own Press, Thursday January 4, 1973 PAGE 3 reserves or from those of other central banks, on the free market in order to bring down the 'un- official' gold price. In this way, the Fund hopes to gain a 'breathing space' dur- ing which the main capitalist powers could discuss 'calmly' the future of the monetary system.
In reality the IMF proposal is a counsel of despair. The rise in the gold price is not simply due to a shortage of gold, but to the fact that the value of currency is no longer fixed in gold terms.
The demand for gold is the other side of the lack of con- fidence in paper currency—a lack of confidence which is continu- ally fuelled from the enormous pool of paper dollars held out- side the United States. All attempts to overcome this issuing further international by credits-for example through the Special Drawing Rights scheme- can only intensify the CrISIS. This is the 'solution' advanced by the 'New York Times', which says: "To rely instead on the mining activity and sales of gold- producing countries and on the fears and hopes of gold specu lators and hoarders is both irra- tional and hazardous.' In reality, the "Times' is simply bemoaning the operation of the basic law of value, and the anar- chism which is inseparable from private ownership of the means of production. The paper adds: 'An effort by Europe to force a massive gold price increase upon the United States and the rest of the world would be extremely shortsighted and disruptive. It could upset rather than stabilize internationa!
markets and undermine money not only faith in the dollar, but in all paper currencies.'
These are not technical ques- tions from the class remote struggle. Value is created by the labour of the working class and is through onslaught an against the living standards and rights of the working class that employers the trying are to restore value to their curren- cies. The Tory government's class- war strategy is dictated by the growth of trade war and reces- sion resulting directly from the breakdown of the international In turn monetary system. the resistance of the working class intensifies international the monetry crisis. The now-defunct Bretton Woods monetary system-based on the US Treasury's guarantee to sell gold at $35 an ounce- was in reality a sign of capital- ism's weakness faced with the power of the working class.
The relations of compromise established in the post-war period are disrupted with the monetary an intensely producing system, revolutionary situation. Under discussion in Washing- ton next month is the employers' internationally to deal strategy the revolutionary danger.
with These preparations can be met only • by the building of the Fourth International to lead the working class towards state power and expropriate the self- confessed bankrupts who lead the capitalist world. • August 5, 1972
Scan page 5
PAGE 4 Workers Press, Thursday Janu
PRESIDENT
NIXON
full-scale has resumed bombardment of the towns and cities of North Vietnam, making it abundantly clear that so-called the peace negotiations Paris in were simply the pre- paration for another, even bloodier round of war. The background of these negotiations demon- strates that the talks had the sole purpose of hood- winking the American electorate and allowing Nixon and Kissinger to pose as peace-mongers while the southern puppet regime was strengthened for the next stage of war.
A key role in setting up the talks was played by the Soviet leaders, who made it clear before the presi- dential election that they favoured Nixon for another term in the White House. His foreign policy was acclaimed in Moscow as 'realistic and peace-loving' before the Three weeks election the Soviet leaders signed mammoth trade deal with the United States.
The Paris talks which made Nixon's re-election a certainty were set up by Moscow bureaucracy the with visiting American officials following Nixon's trip to the Soviet capital at the end of May. His welcome there in- dicated to the Americans that they could do just as they liked in Vietnam with- fearing. the Soviet out Union would interfere. A few days before the visit they had blockaded Haiphong and bombarded Hanoi. Throughout the secret talks in Paris the Workers Press warned of the dangers posed to" the Vietnamese revolution. The paper pointed out again and again that Nixon was planning to intensify the war as soon as the negotiations were over. We described the elec- tions as a vote-catching manoeuvre in which the Soviet and Chinese Stalin- ists had played a major Behind the scenes part. they had tried to force Hanoi to the conference table. By contrast, the 'Morning Star' of the British Com- munist Party professed to around the detect peace corner, just as did the sinister Dr Kissinger. As late as November 18, over three weeks after the refusal to sign American the nine-point drait treaty, the paper's diplomatic cor- Chris respondent Myant wrote from Hanoi: day January 4, 1973 "The possibility of peace is very close. This will show in the coming talks between the US and the Vietnamese side. This is what 1 was told when I interviewed Hoang Tung;' etc., etc.... • The Stalinists were not the only ones who saw peace round every corner.
THE Red Mole, of the International Marxist Group • further. This went even pitiful revisionist organ detected an imminent pros victory for the pect of Indo-China revolution. Under the heading 'Vic- tory in Sight, the paper wrote: 'Unfortunately many mili- tants will substitute their own moods and impressions for a clear analysis of the terms of agreement and of the balance of forces in Indo-China. This was exactly what the 'Mole' proceeded to do.
It pontificated that 'a first analysis of the agreement terms suggests that it is the Americans who have substantially modified their not the ositions and Provisional Revolutionary Government'. The only problem being that the Americans had no intention of actually sign- ing the deal. The article went on into detailed and arid specula- about the possible tion form of a coalition govern- ment in the south, con- cluding that there was 'nothing to fear' from such a government provided that 'the smashing of the • only puppet armies is temporarily delayed'. The concluded: paper 'The handling of these probi lems will decide whether Ho Chi Minh's prophecy comes true and the locust succeeds both in disem- in cleansing Indo-China of the filth it leaves behind.'
THE 'state capitalist' In- ternational Socialism group equally complacent, was though its attack of peace fever was tempered with its customary scepticism and anti-communism. Ian Birchall, writing in Worker' for 'Socialist November 4, proclaimed that 'At long last peace in Vietnam seems to be in sight. 'The news cannot fail to be welcome to those who have spent the last eight campaigning against war of the brutal US aggression. Unlike the 'Mole' writer, Birchall considered it was the North Vietnamese who had made all the con- cessions: North Vietnamese soldiers on a shot-dow Nixon during summit talks in Moscow It is clear that in recent the North Viet- weeks far have made namese more concessions than the US.' He added sceptically: 'It is clear from these con- cessions that, while North Vietnam could still hold it has no out for years, prospect war outright Winning the of The implication is that the North Vietnamese should accept what terms they can get from the imperialists and end their 'hopeless' conflict. Just so that he can be from both sides, covered warns: Socialists Birchall who have been chanting "Victory to the NLF" for the past eight years will have to look very carefully which way the rifles are pointing.' BEHIND the line of both 'Red Mole' •Socialist Workerand the is the unspoken assumption that the imperialists really desire peace in Vietnam. Nothing of course could be further from the truth.
Nixon wants peace only on hige terme with the Indo- China revolution crushed.
The breakdown of the Paris talks indicates that Nixon has been unable to get his way in the negotia- tions. But the danger remains acute for the Vietnamese While the revolution. bombs rain on Hanoi and Haiphong the Moscow and bureaucrats will Peking Paper of the International Marxist Group No. 54 Peace Plan unification and imri. torial integrity of Vietnam.
No one could disagies with that, hul we shoul understand that it doesn't mean very much in 2. Twenty-fow hours effer the agreement r ched all bambing and mining of Morth will end and a creschire will take effect in Sauth All American and Alled troops will be withdrawn within 60 days.
for the Indootinese revolutionaries as it gives The broadcast by Hanui radio on 26th Octuber shows that the fate of the as entom told a sER a shot-down plane. Above: Brezhner and Moscow last May. certainly be striving to get the talks restarted on be- half of the US. The British Stalinists are the illusion still spreading that the 'peace' talks can be made to come up with a solution. This is the essence of the "sign now' campaign which is petitioning the US Pre- sident to sign the nine-point draft agreement. The revi- sionists' confusion actually supplements that generated in the workers' movement by the CP campaign. The latest turn in this cringing and totally fraudu- lent campaign is a lobby held last weekend by the British Communist Party. Members gathered out- side No 10 Downing Street on Saturday last bearing posters with the message: 'Heath tell Nixon sign now'.
At the time of greatest danger to the Vietnamese revolution, the Stalinists and their hangers-on in the Vietnam protest industry prove to be a transmission- belt for disorientation and illusions which aid the American propaganda cam- paign to present Nixon as a peace lover. These 'friends' of the Indo-Chinese revolution are behind the all tailing Stalinists and adapting to the requirements of the bureaucracies which wanted Nixon returned to office and are still fuelling illu- sions in the US president's love of peace. December 21, 1972 No. 54 / 30th October 1972 Price Sp.
THE SECRET diplomatic man- oeuvres of the Moscow and Peking leaders with the US imperialists over the Vietnam war are the high-point of the counter-revolutionary policies of Stalinism These contacts behind the scenes the continuation of the are relations established on Nixon's the Chinese and visits to Soviet capitals. Following Nixon's visit to Mos- in May, the Communist
COW
Party's 'Morning Star' com- 'The mented: agreements reached this week in Moscow during Nixon's visit are impor- steps for creating new tant possibilities for finally ending the cold war and helping the world along the difficult road to peaceful coexistence. What has been agreed can benefit the peoples of the two countries and of the world, and damages the interests of none' (Our emphasis.) While the British CP was issuing these bland reassurances, Workers Press warned that a dirty deal was being prepared in Moscow at the expense of the Vietnamese revolution This was not our view alone. It was shared by the leaders of Vietnamese Communist the Party. While Nixon was ban- queting with Stalin's heirs in Moscow they launched a blis- tering attack on this meeting.
'By ignoring and tolerating the US imperialists' crimes,' they their aggression. By showing cannot punish weakness one their aggressiveness.' And the paper added: 'Com- munists always consider the revolution in each country as inseparable part of the an world revolution. "They never set national interests against the interests of the world revolution, nor place an individual nation's above the common interests of the world revolution, much less serve national selfishness at the ex- pense of the world revolution.'
And last week when the Nixon claiming administration was would that the Vietnamese soon be forced to swallow its terms, they again pointed the finger at Moscow and Peking: 'If out of the narrow interests of one's nation one tries to help the reactionary most avert the forces dangerous blows, just like throwing a life- belt to a drowning pirate, that is a cruel reconciliation bene- ficial to the enemy and not beneficial to the revolution.'
reality behind these The grim words is that the Moscow and Peking leaders are sacrificing the struggle of the Vietnamese workers and peasants to their own narrow bureaucratic in- terests. This is the meaning of their moneyed phrases about peace- ful coexistence with imperial-.
The reality is counter- ism. revolution and betrayal. Vietnamese The fighters have waged war continuously for 25 Whole generations of years. their best sons have died on the battlefields of Indo-China.
They are subjected to the most relentless and savage bombard- explosives with and ment chemicals known in ever human history. And behind their backs the cyni- cal Soviet and Chinese bureau- crats are cordially sitting down with their enemies to negotiate the betrayal of their struggle and the destruction of their gains. As the Hanoi newspaper 'Nhan Dan' stated last week: 'The evolution of each country is an integral part of the world revolution and the revolutions of all countries have the effect of impelling and assisting one another. "The victory of a revolution in a country is not the end but only the beginning of the long the triumph travel towards of socialism on a world scale?
August 26, 1972
Scan page 6
FrOm ar
SLL 1960
pamphlet
ALEX MITCHELL
Whit ULSTER stands on the brink of 'a Sharpeville'
PM SEES
Tory as the British army steps up its murderous think strategy of shooting down innocent working 14,000 Alliance giant a of traitors firms E Octobel 20. 1971 THE TOUCHSTONE of British politics today is the 'direct rule' plar, of the Tories for Ulster. There who welcome direct rule are those like the Tories, Wilson, Labour "lefts' and the Social Democratic and There are Labour MPs in Ulster. those who unequivocally oppose direct rule and fight to make the Tories resign, kick out Wilson and This Labour pledged to socialist policies. elect government policythe only viable socialist alternative to direct rule, the only Socialist Labour League principled opposition-is confined to the and the Young Socialists.
who look both ways; And then there are those implicitly the continuation of Tory rule and cover up their craven about the excesses of unprincipled submission with loud protests is the position the Tories. This middle-class radical, succinctly expressed SO 'Socialist Worker', of the capitalist protesters of the paper International Socialism. Direct rule, states the 'Socialist Worker' editorial, will not change that Heath or Whitelaw have done will change this 'Nothing a thing. difference is the way in which British big situation ... The only business controis. bad housing will dis. Nobody suggests that unemployment or appear or be ameliorated because of direct rule, but the revisionists To do other deliberately slur over the real objective of direct rule.
allies in the Anti- wise would mean criticizing their Republican benches of the Internment League and their friends on the back House of Commons. By imposing direct rule the Tories have secured the support of the entire Labour opposition in parliament and the tacit support of a good section of Republican-Nationalist opinion in Ireland. Thanks Mr McManus to this gigantic political manoeuvre, Miss Devlin and House. What is even found themselves a small minority in the in more significant is that this Tory political coup was followed the Trans- next day with the legal decision against the unprecedented port and General Workers' Union in the Industrial Relations Court. Contrary to 'Socialist Worker' and IS, some things have changed in Ulster as a result of direct rule. It has provided the framework for a negotiated political settlement with the Catholic middle class and the disengaging of armed forces of the state in preparation for Britain repression in and elsewhere. Whether this policy was forced on the Tories by the armed resistance of the Irish ghettos is important-but not decisive. What is decisive is that the absence in Ulster, and the reformist policies of of working-class leadership People's Democracy IS offshoot and the Stalinist-dominated (an civil rights movement, as well as the political bankruptcy of Sinn British Fein, have enabled imperialism to preserve its economic interests by sacrificing Stormont. It was a small price to pay.
In the retaliation from the Protestant working class.
cannot answer the challenge of Craig and the Vanguard because they have capitulated Hence this to bourgeois Republicanism. puerile and reactionary It is Protestant fear that they are being betrayed by their analysis: old leaders that explains the paine the massive support this week for William Craig's Vanguard Protestant working-class partly accounted for by their privileged position—a fear that neither iRA nor IS can the dispel. These feis at are also born out of of Catholic bourgeois healthy hatred Those who real feeling way out for the Protestant ignore this cannot offer workers, or for that matter the Catholic workers.
We say that the only way to break Protestant workers from , the of fetishistic cult of Orangeism and lay the basis for lasting unity Catholic and Protestant anti-Tory workers is to prosecute the struggle in Britain until the Tories are forced to resign. It is only by and through such a struggle that the Protestant workers will realize where their real salvation lies. IS consciously avoids such a policy the by calling on and struggle by transferring struggle to Ireland, to '32 Counties' Workers' Republic'. Irish workers institute a To confine the struggle to Ireland and to refuse to unite Irish and Tories to resign British workers in a joint struggle to force the to betray the working class and perpetrate capitalist rule in Britain The is reject direct rule in words only in order to and in Ireland accept it in practice. April 1, 1972
LONDONDERRY-WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 2
DAY OF DEFIANCE
AGAINST THIS
WIDGERY HAS
ORT POR
MILITARY PAST
MARCH
25p5-7 1972 February 3, THE PROVISIONAL IRA is now paying the heavy but in- evitable price of reliance on the bomb and the bullet as the principal means of advancing their political objectives.
Their terror tactics have not only alienated popular sup- port, but created the condi- ions in which the Heath and Lynch governments have been able to bring in repressive legislation. This will be used against all dissident political groups and against the work- ing class and its organizations.
We are implacably opposed to individual terror as an instru- ment of policy, but equally we are opposed to the persecution and arrest of members of poli- tical organizations, including those who have misguidedly engaged in terror. We therefore call for the imme- release of Provisional diate Chief of Staff Sean MacStio- fain arrested by Dublin police in the early hours of Sunday morning. The detention of MacStiofain marks a serious intensification of Dublin the government's collaboration with Heath in harassing the IRA. MacStiofain's arrest is only the beginning of large-scale, a anti-IRA campaign born of the collaboration between Tory governments of Leinster House and Westminster. This campaign will not end with the IRA or even Sinn • Fein. The Green and Blue Tories are in the process of setting up a counter-revolutionary partner- ship which will be used against the working class.
And as social and political un- rest in Britain the grows Special Powers Acts through which bourgeois domination of the working class is being maintained will be extended throughout the UK. As recession deepens the em- ployers' governments. on both sides of the Irish Sea are faced with the inescapable task of taking and defeating a on working class determined to fight tooth and nail to defend hard-won rights and living standards. The defeat of the working class up its fighting by breaking organizations is an indispens- able requirement of entry into the Common Market. In his haste to get into Europe, Lynch has abandoned all pre- tence of hostility to the bor- der and in collaborating with Westminster has exposed him- self as a craven lackey to British imperialism and big business. The preparations of the ruling class to ride out the slump on workers' backs must be halted.
All working-class organiza- tions must demand the release of MacStiofain and all political prisoners in the Republic and in the freeing of internees Ulster. November 21, 1972 Workers Press, Thursday January 4, 1973 PAGE 5 workers press
WHAT WE SAID IN 1972
Ireland
TERRORISM
ANDMARXISM
FOR over 300 years the British army has killed, tortured and destroyed in Ireland. The real prac- titioners of terror have always been-and still are —the armed forces of imperialism.
For this reason, Workers Press will not join the out- bursts of moral indignation over the Aldershot bombing.
We address this editorial to the Irish workers, as a matter of political principle. We are not concerned about the British press and television which, in the service of the oppressor, squeeze every drop of sentiment out of the Aldershot
WE CONDEMN THE BOMBING, AS MARXISTS,
BECAUSE IT CAN ONLY WEAKEN THE STRUGGLE
OF THE IRISH WORKING
CLASS TO
ACHIEVE ITS
EMANCIPATION.
Lenin condemned the Russian Seventy years ago, terrorists pointing out that 'their predilection for terrorism is causally most intimately linked with the fact that they have always kept and still keep, aloof from the working without even attempting to become class movement, waging its class party of the revolutionary class which is struggle'. Lenin insisted that acts of terrorism did not weaken the oppressor, but strengthened him, that only the masses could defeat him and that acts of terror did not bring the masses forward but held them back. Workers as a class are not roused by 'short-lived sensations'.
the forms of the mass movement or 'Only new awakening of new sections of the masses to independent struggle really rouses a spirit of struggle and courage in all.' holds back this type of bombing The Aldershot development in the working class as a whole.
Last week the Tory government was on the brink of beat the miners. It has failed— defeat. It had failed to class. And working despite Derry-to crush the Irish opposition to growing unemployment and entry into the their first Common Market forced the Labourites into real challenge to Heath. Above all, it was the miners' strike which, by dealing a body blow to the Tories, provided the greatest assistance class to their Irish yet given by the British working brothers. The miners' strike and the fight against unemploy- being crystallized round the Right-to-Work ment, now mark an important stage of political develop- marches, ment in Britain. Their significance is the support given to them by all layers in the working class, and not only the most conscious elements active in the trade unions.
It is this total class unity which presents the greatest source of danger to the Tories and thus the greatest strength to the Irish workers.
By substituting military action for political action, the Official IRA has not only turned its back on these not only handed a weapon to Faulkner in developments, but has provided North and O'Malley in the South, the the Tory government with the means of driving a wedge into the working class. Until now, the Official IRA has opposed the reactionary, of the Provisionals. Though its indiscriminate violence leaders were being hurled into jails and internment camps in Ulster, Officials gained support and respect by its rejec- tion of blind terrorism. Now it has thrown the gains away.
Lenin said that without revolutionary theory, there could be no revolutionary practice. The Russian Revolu- tion-the greatest revolutionary practice in history-was carried to success, not by those who threw bombs, but by those who studied Marxism and the development of the oppressed classes, and through this won their confidence.
The terror of the oppressor cannot be overcome by terror from the oppressed. The Irish workers cannot win the Socialist Republic this way.
We have said this from the beginning and we will go on saying it, without making the slightest concession to the crocodile tears of the British bourgeoisie.
February 24, 1972
Scan page 7
PAGE 6 Workers Press, Thursday Janua By Gerry Healy, national secre Labour League The determination of the Tory government to utilize the legal provisions of their Industrial Relations Act has changed the fundamentally relationship of class forces in Britain. Even the capital- ist press admit that things can never be the same again.
When Sir Iohn Donaldson pro- on the nounced judgements Transport and General Workers' the railmen's 'go- Union and slow', he shattered for all time of compromise the structure which has dominated the rela- tions between the classes since the days of Chartism. For the affairs of trade unions are no longer to be decided by their members, but by a High over by the Tory Court presided wielding judiciary enormous legal power in the interest of the capitalist class. There has been understandable and file confusion in the rank created by the open capitulation to the National Industrial Rela- tions Court by the right-wing Labour and trade union leaders.
But this effect can only be temporary. thrust forward of the The economic and political crisis Court's which motivates the rulings, will quickly act as a forcing house to push the masses into greater battle against the Tory government. The fight for wages more which embraces millions of trade unionists, as well as the resist- ance of tenants to the Tory Rent can no longer be waged in Bill, isolation from the main political Central issues of the day. to these is to mobilize the working class to make the Tory govern- ment resign. All major struggles ahead will almost immediately be transformed into political trials of strength. For revolutionary Marxists the decisive test is how to analyse and intervene within the work- ing-class, taking advantage of the considerable changes which are now taking place. Britain is the home of trade the Industrial unionism. From workmen have Revolution organized together in their craft in their societies and later general unions to protect and improve their wages and work- ing conditions. , Engels schools of war', 'As of the wrote in his 'Conditions Working Class in England', 'the unions are unexcelled. In them is developed the peculiar courage of the English.' This pioneering role of trade unionism has its negative aspects, the that it strengthened in tendency towards individualism within the working class rather than class consciousness. In those countries, where trade unions were founded by social-demo- cratic leaders, the working-class developed a much more pro- nounced class-consciousness.
with which they The zeal the brutal in- fought against rise of justices during capitalism was inter-mixed with the determination of the Puritan tradition which has imparted cer- day January 4, 1973 lal secretary of the Socialist Sir John Donaldson, president of the National Industrial Relations Trades Court. Right: The All Unions Alliance Conference held in Birmingham in October.
tain contradictory characteristics.
One of the most important of these is a conception fair justice. play? and social In appearance this takes. the form of an aggravating conservatism when contrasting with the revo- lutionary elan of, say, the French working class. find, even today, One can pockets of working-class opinion which will talk abstractly about 'fair play' even for employers. But such backwardness needs to be negated with an earlier ex- of the small land perience holders of the 16th and 17th century. It wasn't that they coveted the land owned by the aristoc- racy so much, but they fought like tigers when the same aristo- crat and his middle class kissman. ba of the towns tried to evict them from their small holdings and the common lands. Fair-play and social justice then large- became • the symbols scale peasant uprisings. Trade unionism is today vir- itself. tually the working class When they see the role of the NIRC as one which destroys the unions then, like their ancestors, workers will fight tooth and nail to resist the legal bandits of the Tory government and the c'ass it represents. Of equal importance is an understanding of the historic re- lationship between the working class and parliament. Unlike the French working class in the Revolution of 1789, its English counterpart cam- paigned in the latter part of that century for its representatives to isit in parliament. Combination Following the Laws (1800-1824) this campaign was renewed in the Chartist Movement (1837-1848). The cam- paign • was not only successful, but the main points of the itself Charter eventually were legislated by parliament.
The evil fruits of imperialism, which provided resources for initiating such reforms, now placed what seemed to be the all-powerful obstacle of approxi- mately 122 years of class com- promise before the working class.
Here lies the reason for the powerful reformist and parlia- mentary traditions which con • stantly aggravate the confusion of impressionists and idealists.
Within this reformist tradition, however, is its opposite.the age conception of rights and social justice. the Tory govern- Now that ment has dropped the parliamen- tary mask by deciding to legally destroy the trade unions, which ras. the socking class, have built, those features of reformism and class collaboration which in the past have restrained the working class from taking the revolu- tionary road, now become trans- formed into their opposite. Workers see the Tory govern- ment as their main enemy and individualism this destroys the which in the past has character- ized the sectionalism of the They see their wages struggle. democratic rights being taken away by parliament and this in- vokes the revolutionary aspects of fair play and social justice.
So the English worker is well on the way to becoming a poli- tically, class-conscious worker as distinct from his previous trade union, reformist consciousness.
Herein lies the essence of the great change ushered in by the Industrial Relations National Court, by a Tory sponsored Government, itself plunging deeper and deeper into the depths of an insoluble economic crisis. May 4, 1972
READ WORKER
TROTSKY stressed, in the "Tran- Dur sitional Programme of the Fourth International', that 'the world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat'.
This has been illustrated once again by dock the recent strike. Under capitalism new productive techniques, such as container- ization, cannot raise the level of material wealth of the working class because of the profit motive. Instead they create insecurity and un- employment for the working class. This means that the only answer to the problems facing dockers is nationalization of the entire docks and trans- port industries, without com- pensation and under workers' control. This involves bringing down the Tory government, which determined to create large- scale unemployment in order to drive down working conditions.
It must be replaced by Labour government which would be forced by the strength of the working class to nationalize all basic indus- tries without compensation and under workers' control, as a prerequisite for the establish- ment of a socialist society.
Such a struggle would create a split on the part of the right wing in the Labour Party and politically open the way for a mass revolutionary leadership.
During the entire period of the recent docks strike, the pre- of shop dominant section stewards failed to put forward such a political demand. Yet without a political programme no amount of militancy could bring victory. The release of the Pentonville Five shows that given political leadership the working class could bring down the Tory government. But as it was the strike ended with nothing gained. Lord could boast in the Aldington 'Sunday Telegraph': "The fact is that we have not made any improvement on our original offer? Above everything else, this experience poses the questior of leadership. And that is the main difference between the Socialist Labour League and anti-communist 'Inter- the national Socialism' group.
The current issue of the IS paper 'Socialist Worker' carries which article a front-page blames the dockers for the collapse of the strike. It declares: "The national shop stewards' call was outmanoeuvred and fell apart. The attitude of the men is the spirit-level of any struggle and this time the men proved themselves unworthy of their shop stewards? What actually happened, as Workers Press has shown, was that the London stewards, who include several members of
Scan page 8
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THE ONLY REVOLUTIONARY
DAILY PAPER
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THE WORKING CLASS
the Communist Party, failed to issue a clear call for the con- tinuation of the strike. This led to a reversal of the unani- strike-on decision in mous Liverpool and to the Hull shop stewards' decision not to seek to maintain the strike there. What was involved was not 'unworthiness' of the any dockers but the reformist nature of the leadership, which had not broken from the politics of class-collaboration.
Even if the strike call could not it would have been carried, have been • better to put it forward and fight for it as the Hull stewards were prepared to do. That way some lessons could have been learned. This is the essence of leadership, but the London stewards evaded the issue. A correct leadership cannot, by itself, guarantee automatic vic- tory. But without a fight for such leadership workers are left confused-as they were last week. The London stewards Bernie a Communist Party Steer, member, and Vic Turner spread illusions on Jones- Aldington. The 'Daily Tele- graph' of August 3 reported that Vic Turner had urged the committee that the recom- mendations should be con- verted into copper-bottomed guarantees'. Jack Jones was able to tell the "Telegraph' — and this was never refuted — that 'both he and Lord Aldington had told the dockers they were making efforts to get tan- strenuous gible results and the dockers seemed happy with the pro- gress being made'. Then, on the decisive Friday, August 18, Steer and Turner did not put before the London dockers the resolution of the national port shop stewards' committee which called un- ambiguously for a continua- tion of the strike. Here was an abdication of leadership.
The Communist Party did not continuation of the want a strike because that would have involved a break with Jones and a political struggle against the Tory government. 'Socialist Worker' for this covers betrayal because it persistently rejects the struggle a revolutionary leadership in the unions. It advocates instead a blind militancy, and consist- the Socialist ently attacks Labour League for maintaining principled struggle for Marxism. The 'Socialist Worker' editorial calls only for 'a network of militants can unite that workers against the employers' offensive'. '. And it concludes that 'the Liaison Committee the Defence of Trade for Unions (LCDTU) again failed to play this role'. he But the role of the LCDTU is not that it failed to build up - such a network. It is domin- ated by counter-revolutionary Stalinism and is used to hold of back the development revolutionary consciousness in the working class, in particular Tu oPposing the Call General to organize a General Strike to bring down the Tory government. As said in yesterday's we Workers Press: 'The LCDTU is the instrument through which counter-revolutionary Stalinist.
seeks to exert its pressure by holding working back class from revolutionary con- sciousness.' The IS group, like the renegade Trotskyists of the International Marxist Group, has consist- ently supported the Stalinists in the Liaison Committee since its inception. IS lines up with the Stalinists because they too want to avoid the central question of political leadership. So today these anti-communists place the responsibility for the docks defeat not on the Stalin- ists, nor even on Jack Jones but on the dockers themselves, who now face unemployment.
This has been the hallmark of the working every traitor in class for the last 150 years.
And the people they blame are the same dockers who stood out for four weeks in the face of an all-out witch-hunt by the capitalist press and television.
plus police provocation and violence. Workers Press, Thur FOLLOWING the dockers' and builders' strikes and the splitting of the upper Clyde Stalinists shipbuilders, the British Com- who lead munist Party are becoming more and more exposed in the workers' movement. Stalinism is not the product of political 'confusion', the as revisionists claim. It is a con- counter-revolutionary sciously which force, the represents reformist peaceful road-to- socialism requirements of the Soviet bureaucracy. It sets out deliberately to smash working- the Tory class resistance to because the government Moscow bureaucrats desire co-existence: with peaceful Heath and the Tories. remains This government in office only because of the sup- port it gets from the Labour and trade union leaders. in conditions of deep economic crisis, strike every major struggle becomes a conflict the government. This is with precisely • what Stalinism seeks to obscure. In every strike the Communist Party fights bitterly prevent the question of to making the Tory government resign being raised. In the recent dock strike, the Stalinists supported the Jones- talks. Aldington And Party Communist members the London stewards among avoided a clear call to continue the strike after the Transport General Workers' Union and docks delegates had voted to end it. Stalinist The stewards were determined not to mobilize the working class politically to challenge the union leadership and the Tory government. builders' the In the strike Stalinists mouthed left phrases as long strike as was strong. But at no point did By blaming them "Socialist Worker' seeks divert to workers' attention from the political leadership and the questions now posed. In the same way IS refused to blame engineers' Scanlon and the leaders for the lack of fight on the engineers' wage claim.
"Socialist Worker' declared, on "the traditional July 22, that workers' organizations are not yet up to the task of giving the bosses a real fight'.
The unions-built up by workers in over 200 years of struggle- are written off as inadequate revisionists rather by these than challenge the nature of the Scanlon leadership. Yet is was Scanlon who threw the wage claim back to district plant and level because a national strike would have meant a showdown with the Tory government. Once again anti-communists of however, poured scorn on the working class and its achieve- ments in order to protect the reformist and Stalinist leader- ship. The crisis of leadership will be resolved in struggle against the reformist and Stalinist leaders and all those - like Inter- national Socialism - who seek to protect them. Workers Press will continue this struggle to the bitter end. August 25, 1972 ress, Thursday January 4, 1973 PAGE 7 they fight the union leadership or demand an all-out national strike. And when the leader- ship's betrayal confused the rank and lle, it was the Stalinists in kev areas 1n London, Leeds and Liverpool who led the call for a return to work. At Upper Clyde Shipbuilders the Stalinist stewards' committee and Airlie, leaders, Reid im - posed the reformist 'work-in' strategy which has resulted in thousands of jobs being lost.
The Ridley 'butcher' plan and the Industrial Relations Act have been accepted by the Stalinists in deals which do not a single job. The guarantee yards have been split and the men confused. At this point, the Stalinists blame the workers, calling them "sectional 'rat-racers' pursuing interests' and wanting the stewards to carry out 'dirty work' And in blaming the workers, the Stalinists are supported by the revisionists. The International Socialists' Worker' Socialist declared on August 26 that the dockers 'un- London were worthy of their stewards'.
Yet 1972 has seen tremendous of demonstrations working- militancy involving class miners, railwaymen, dockers, builders, shipyard workers and economic others. The crisis gives such battles the character of a step in the struggle for political power. At the same time-as is demon- strated in Ulster-the ruling class for counter- prepares revolutionary dictatorship and therefore every betrayal leaves working the class to open serious dangers. Reformist trade unionism, how- ever militant, must inevitably compromise with the Tory government. Without revolu- tionary leadership, trade union struggles cannot win. The unions central task in the today is to replace Stalinist and reformist leadership with revolutionary leadership.
That is why the basis of Trotsky- ism is the insistence of the Socialist Labour League on the continual training of cadres to understand Stalinism as an counter-revolu- international tionary force. Stalinism slaughtered the leader- ship of the Russian Revolution in the Moscow Trials. betrayed the Chinese Revolu- to Chiang Kai-shek in tion 1927. It subordinated the General Strike to the Anglo- Russian Trade Union Com- mittee in 1926. It delivered the German working class to Hitler in 1933 and the Spanish workers and to peasants Franco in 1937. stalinism not changed. has Those who pay lip-service to condemning crimes of Stalin but who refuse to ex- amine the Moscow Trials and historical record of Stalinism in order to fight it and defeat it today are little more than liberals. This is the role of the anti-com- munist, centrist_ International Socialism group. By refusing to fight Stalinism, in particular by refusing to raise question of bringing down the they align Tory government, themselves with the Stalinists in practice in order to keep the working class within the limits of reformism. It is the task of a revolutionary workers' paper to fight these false policies every day. That is what Workers Press has done and will continue to do.
September 25, 1972
Scan page 10
THE POLITICS OF INFLATION
PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thursday Januar THE CAMPAIGN by the Communist Party at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders has now turned the full wheel of betrayal and destroyed almost entirely • chance of further any dancies. The 'work-in' policy is in with a large complete ruins section of the labour force refusing to pay out more money to support men who will be fired at Clydebank.
is the great Stalinist Such "victory' at UCS by mid-winter their proud record at the yards will be a 30 per cent cut in the labour force from the 8,500 men there last June who worked when the consortium went into liquidation. The whole abysmal record ot Communist the Party shop stewards is impossible to record in the space of one article. But we have some things to say on the issue of the principles by which Reid and Airlie swear faith. The principle of the right to work REID and Airlie said this could Scotland by be defended in 'pressuring' the Tory government.
They conspired persistently to confine the struggle over jobs to the yards. Meanwhile 23,000 in during Scotland lost their jobs the first seven months of the 'work-in'. The reason for this policy was quite clear-Reid and Airlie, in Party Communist line with policy, did not want to raise the question of nationalization and the removal of the Tory govern- ment. Instead they much pre- of ferred months and months negotiations with every capitalist who sniffed around the Clyde. Tory speculators and scrap merchants were all welcome.
The result of this was pre- dictable. The strength was drained out of the struggle and men began to leave the yards— 2,500 have gone already. Another example of the Stalinists' attitudes came during Socialists' the Young five-week march from Right-to-Work Glasgow to London. The co-ordinating committee originally backed this campaign with a £100 cheque after a visit from the march leader. He ex- demonstration was plained the Young being organized by the who supported the Socialists policies of the Workers Press.
But when it became clear that the main aim of the march was to build up a campaign in every area to force the Tory govern- ment to resign, the Stalinists the unemployed against swung youth. They launched a campaign of the yards and slanders through the Communist Party paper, the 'Morning Star' • accus- ing the marchers of 'misleading' the committee. This was done on instruction from the CP headquarters. The particularly Stalinists were em- barrassed by the main policy of the march-that the only way to defend the right to work was to
WHAT WE SAID IN 1972
HOW STALINISTS
McGarvey and Reid with Airlie behind them at talks with Wayne Harbin (right), chairman of Marathon.
mittee panicked and into Clydebank could not be went get rid of the Tory government made by Reid and • allower to hinder towards their _ther emergency by -confident progress season- were a General Strike and return when the Torie! AHut Ship upset that the ordinary with Govan very Labour government pledged would deal Tsel not be lurtner shipyard workers should challenged on the Clyde-threw few Airlie said, after meeting cowardly co-ordin- challenge to their own Scraps to the Shipbuilders bosses: 'We a group of boiler ating Govan A1 with the Tory Govan Ship- makers dared to insist on a wage Said Reid: 'I can only applaud that government. recognize increase before they signed builders are not rest sibe foe Eventually government's rivera they the youth-after right taking these whole and deal-surely the against the lies the initiatives. Dasil all balss responsibility lies with Marathon.'
/any Reid workers. CAre Clyde were the my pin make economic good sense.'
stalinists were Scat- openly castigated them as villains His fellow Stalinist at the the only Said Airlie: 'In opinion -another example of fighting for cipled stoun, ma that siple de F100 back to the com them they [the Tories] have lived up clear mass meeting their this responsibilly lor over the Clyde bank to fd not stop at THIS IS a brief record of some mittee. ine cryden th so per the es t Itals outstanding Stalinist of the and Gorap rene Stalinists hetravals on the Clyde We ask as a whole. Regardless of prepared to alto the cale ot The principle of fighting muni Apparently • Is it shipyard any wonder the differences we nao one the liquidator past, we have to say the govern- workers now see no more futur taken the correct more the issue chronicle of treachery fler unity than the workers. we welcome it and decision and detonalit
THE
WORK-IN
• Who has abandoned prinicples congratulate them. Tory Even zen Int press was mod The principle of defence The workers ne nec The The m allowed essential work the leaders who said they would not 'com- allaze cul of basic rights be completed and • the redundancy yards should munists moved such lavish praise for an admin- compan to be woulu istration which had devastated THE DEFENCE of basic rights is This article is not written to we al rememper the Democr over delivery vessels. It is not meant to farce Scottish class with score points working une une most incorants onese s on Reid Airlie would workers while they Each time or unemployment Friday August 4, James kick the UC and passed aws swear bv their precious principles to jail trade unionists. 'Reid made this statement are Still less is down. that this ship would be the last exercise in armchair politics.
"This is a very good agreement of the yards. Socialist Labour League out way Violates broke Press have fought But each time they Workers The principle of unity principles of trade unions.'
ana We their promise and ship atter ship Reid was emeri which, the all the wav on the Clyde.
slipped from have intervened and encouraged the contro or tie Marathon settlement workers who had built it, and, to shipyard workers who Dollermakers Beader wann 'controlled : out. For Stalinists, our policies to speak McGarvey quote the crucial principle- later,
-OIC
we have earned the hatred of the the liquidator Govan was a deal with a four year no- varas. even Airlie now accused the he said inthis report that y Stalinist leaders winer strike pledge. workers of breaking. But what 15 said in his report that the co- Stalinists ce that the record of the Stalinists?
the Marathon These had force ordinating First they abandoned their regime workers will be subject to Come eval welcome 'negative influence ove that the
UCS
a procedure of binding arbitration want to subordinate the workin earlier stand the labour force. of disputes, will have their class co-operation with labour force should be kept 'in- ruling class. They no longer fight tact under one employer, idled month bonus confiscated if thei Then Clydebank go on unofficial strike, and The principle of opposi- WtS
TOT SOCI
therefore, must the have to accept fierce productivity These leaders, the signing tion to the Tory govern. removed from all political and deal and agreeing wage be concessions connected with inter.
Marathos influence. In no other industrial rates while the future changeability ment workers Govan workers was still not flexibility. shipyard wav care August This is such a 'good deal' that win their struggle August 24, secure. Thi was poverty and unemployment.
. Workers Press published it
THE
STALINISTS
attitude at Govan Later. on wilen by to remarkable best was made clear by James and September 29, 1972 the government sold it vole that the redundancy crisis at bank yard the co-ordinating com- summed up ous state control of wages, stripping come it and that is by depriving THE FIGHT against inflation is now the working class of the basic righ the working class of its basic rights, of the preoccupation to fight for a standard of living.
destroying and organizations international capitalist Comerect are being actively forcing the masses into conditions Similar and gathering. malignant Pompid l the tines in disease inflation is afflicting of starvation. unemo ovment and every In short, the france. war. country of the capitalist world.
political. The Organization for Economic Co- But the Common Market governments and Development has Democrats led by Barzel and Strauss operanor have not yet created the political expressed disquiet about gain office on a nakedly ant conditions to carry out this pro Wednesday the question. programme in the working class gramme. The. workers of Germany Common Market parliament the Butades inflection industrialists are Finance Italy, France and Britain are an un-
EEC
and berated Italy, influential Lne defeated force of enormous power Foreign Ministers for failing Socia backing the fascist Italian blocking their path fight inflation at produce Movement in the hope that it can plans lo Under these conditions the employers their recent summit. bring back corporate Inflation is an inseparable part of the state and discipline the working conference, repre- which arrangements class. world capitalism is based The police have just had their powers capitalist of arrest, originally granted under th endemic in The world monetary after fascists, fully restored by the right system This should be done "with caution", World was wing coalition which presides ove War. which was itself convertible riddled with dollar administration Caution certainly into gold. fascist sympathizers. required, because the proposal is the The American government's refusal to For the reactionarv monopolists or tne equivalent force- economic sell gold since August 15 last year
EEC
the fight against inflation has undermined the whole edifice of reeaing an overweignl paucil as means nothing less than the prepara ure for obesity. There is no cur credit erected tion of civil war against the working money for inflation in economic juggling of during the years of boom.
class. this type. This has removed the last The great strength of the working barrier to What is required is war on the work- class must be mobilized to smash inflation which is under- ing class, and this is the essence of this reactionary conspiracy through of the purchasing power mining the reactionary allianc revolutionary every capitalist _ or mono the money in polists in the Common Market parties all over Europe to lead th Inflation has now become al for the ruling working class enormou, political question truggles that_are ahea class. November 17, 197. There is only one way they can over- followed by the imposition of rigor-
Scan page 11
signs WHEN Edward Heath the Rome Treaty today he do so with the con- will he has ful- that fidence vital filled two most con- ditions for entry: The creation of over a million and unemployed in Britain the passage of the Industrial Relations Act. THE FIRST enables him to increase consumption, cut productivity and accumulate for the necessary reserves sterling the protection of and the conduct of the trade war. THE SECOND provides him break with the means to shop-floor militancy, depress facilitate and wages formation of the multi- monopolies national to compete against the US and Tapan. the Without these steps. Edward Heath sinister ceremony going on Brussels would bea at Their successe: meaningless formality. able largely struggle For Marxists, the times tacit at against the Common Market collaboration struggle to is primarily a leadership Tories make the resign. tinuous be objective This can trade union attained by a fight against one major inc the spreading cancer after another the unemployment, for However mucl of the trade independence leaders try 1 from the capitalist unions collusion state and for a revolutionary protests in 1 reformism alternative to fancy argum and Stalinism. legality of t If the Tories have gone so the abuse far to get into the EEC it Prerogative, is not just by their own know that efforts or because of any Labour Par inherent strength in their which gave system. WORKERS PRESS hails the liberation of the three guerrilla prisoners from Munich as a victory for the jail Palestinian struggle against Zionism and imperialism. Their liberation will give new hope to the masses in the Middle East who have consistently been betrayed by the Arab bourgeoisie and the Stalin- ists who hang onto their coat-tails.
It proves once again that the Palestine liberation movement has a core of young fighters whose resolution has not been broken by the tragic defeats military inflicted by the Israeli machine and the Hashemite dynasty.
with The Palestinians are at war They are fighting a brutal Israel. militarist state which has robbed them of their homeland and driven 3 million of their people into poverty and exile. existence of the Zionist The very state is founded on a gigantic act of and violence against the robbery This state is Palestinian people. supported unanimously spearhead against the Arab revolu- tion. The hypocritical spokesmen of im- perialism are loud in their denuncia- tions of the Palestinian fighters who refuse to bow the knee to oppres- sion and exploitation. They fulminate "terrorism' and stay about Arab silent when the Israelis bomb and unprotected Palestinian strafe refugees. Nobody can claim the right to call himself a socialist and remain neutral struggle. Workers Press in this stands entirely on the side of the oppressed Palestinians against the Zionist oppressors and their im- perialist friends. Trotskyism nas always made clear its opposition to acts of individual advantage they now possess -and that they still sit in the Labour benches. of these Wilson's toleration traitors is the greatest en- that Heath couragement could possibly have. In fact, the deeper the Tories into the European jungle, the more they need this support in putting a strait-jacket on the working class. But the Tories reckon without their host-the British and European working class. As the recession worsens and as unemployment increases, not only will working-class resistance grow, but so will the hostility and distrust of ranks its the union to reformist leadership. The miners' strike is a further that reminder neither Heath nor Feather are out of the woods so far as the class is concerned. working The growing response of the attribut- esses are ely to the union branches and strike some- YS committees to the it and mostly open 'Right-to-Work' tion of the Labour campaign shows that conditions and the for con- building of the an alternative betrayals leadership to the reformist bureaucracy in class collaborators is r industrial struggle maturing rapidly. ther. By the Labour making this campaign much a ry to conceal this" shining success and, equally, by establishing the tabloid with histrionic Workers Press as the daily in parliament and paper of the about the working class, guments and and will, of the Treaty we can., ensure Royal that Heath's signature today of the signifies ve, most workers the death warrant of capitalism. it the was right-wing Party January 22, 1972 ave the Tories the terror which cannot resolve the prob- lems facing the Arab masses. The building of revolutionary parties unite with a is the only way the millions of oppressed workers and peasants can find a road to defeat imperialism and all its hangers-on and take power. But Trotskyism has never equated the terrorism of oppressed and desperate fighters against imperialism with the cold-blooded and cynical terror of their enemies. Even more despicable is the position of those Labour and trade union leaders who solidarize themselves with the Zionists against the Palestinians. Following the Munich airport shoot- out, Harold Wilson outdid even the Tory government in his rabid calls for action against the Arabs. His fellow social-democrat Willy Brandt is currently holding Palestinian stu- dent leaders in prison without trial having expelled from Germany most members of the Palestine of the Students' Union. Regretfully the Association of Scienti- fic, Technical and Managerial Staffs union support to a las promised black Libyan state airlines on following the welcome given the Tripoli. This hijackers in is dangerous confusion which weakens working class and above all the ASTMS members. ASTMS is one of the unions fighting for its life against the Tory govern- ment and its plans for state control of wages. The Arab oppressed are also fighting against the common enemy. They are the real allies of the British working class in its struggle agains the Tories and any black' should lifted them against immediately. October 31, 1972 Workers Press, Thur THE AMERICAN working class a crisis situation. now faces Richard Nixon is not wasting any time in pressing ahead with his plans to smash the trade unions and destroy the living conditions of millions of workers. Though the elections are over, the greatest political tasks lie before the labour movement.
No time can be lost in mobil- izing the full strength of the working class through a Con- gress of Labour which must build a labour party based upon socialist programmes and action now against take Nixon's attacks. The urgency of the situation is by Richard Nixon exposed himselt, who, in an interview 'Washington Star- with News' held just before election published last week, day and outlined in chilling detail his grand design for taking away every right won by the work- ing class over the past 40 years. With unequalled arrogance, this spokesman of the bankers and industrialists declared: "The average American is just like a child in the family. You him some responsibility give and he is going to amount to something. He is going to do something. "If, on the other hand, you make him completely dependent and pamper him and cater to him too much, you are going to make him soft, spoiled, and a very weak eventually individual.' Boasting that he never promised 'a whole bag full of goodies,' Nixon stated that nearly all the social welfare programmes in- stituted during the 1960s will be dropped. While deploring the decline of the work ethic,' Nixon pledged that he will personally super- vise massive job cuts through- American industry and out particularly federal among employees. •Masses of civilian employees who are getting in the way of each other,' he stated, ' ... are going to have to take a thinning down' the same malicious vein, In
'HUD,
Nixon declared that HEW, [housing and health de- partments transportation are all too fat, too bloated.' Ad- mitting that his administration has decided to eliminate thou- sands of jobs, Nixon made it clear that moral considerations would not stand in his way: 'We are going to try to do it in that will consider the a way individual, but we have to accomplish the objective' Make no mistake about it. In the full flush of his election victory, Nixon is talking about war against the working class.
In less than a week, it has become crystal clear that the second Nixon administration will be nothing like the first. His talk about creating mass unemploy- ment and slashing all social programmes are no idle threats.
The plans Nixon has for the working class are already being carried out. In Detroit, the city administ.
ration is threatening to shut down the school system in ess, Thursday January 4, 1973 PAGE 9 December, and deprive work- ing class youth of education. • In St. Louis, 25,000 are being the streets as thrown onto public housing facilities are eliminated. • In Newark, the Gibson admin- istration is on the verge of declaring the city bankrupt.
These developments prove that the Nixon administration is determined to make the United States a country where millions of workers will have no jobs, no housing, no unions, no security in their old age, and where their children have no future. The Congress of Labour must be convened immediately to take action against the attacks- unemployment, speed-ups, wage controls, cuts in social pro- grammes — and preparing the alternative by actually organ- izing a labour party pledged to socialist programmes that will meet the crisis. We propose that the Congress of Labour defeat Nixon's Pay Board and productivity drive by organizing national General Strike action. There is no other way to stop the govern- ment's open robbery of wor- kers, its stomping upon the right to negotiate a decent contract and inhuman speed- ups. The Congress must answer the threat of massive unemploy- ment by fighting for the 30- hour week for 40 hours' pay.
We must make the 30-hour week the law of the land so that everyone may work and benefit from the productive capacity of the country. There must be real job training for youth. The Congress must reject and fight any attempt to turn back the clock on the living •Con- ditions of workers. Billions must be spent for education, housing and medical care.
All the attacks on the working class flow from the character of capitalism in crisis. Under capitalism big business uses the vast productive power of industry for profit, not to serve the people. Nixon and big business are say- ing that the corporations can- not function unless they lay off millions and destroy the living conditions of the work- ing class. This means that workers can defend themselves only through the nationalization of industry under their control. Only this the economy be way can organized and de- the interests of veloped working people. By controlling the economy, the working class it that everyone will see to has a job, that schools and housing are built and decent living conditions assured.
The Congress of Labour must unite all sections of the working class in struggle against Nixon around this programme. We urge every trade unionist to take up the fight for the Con- gress of Labour in his union.
Reprinted from the November 20 'Bulletin', organ of the Wor- kers League of America. November 22, 1972
Scan page 12
PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thursday Januar
COMMUNIST PARTY
members in London's dock areas have now begun a campaign, not against the Transport and Union Workers' General leaders who called off the strike, but against dock Workers Press. They are being assisted in this by members of the anti-com- munist 'International Socialism' group, which says the Soviet 'state-capitalist' Union is a country. The Stalinists are seeking in this way to divert attention from their own total abandonment last Friday of the national port shop stewards' committee policy of continuing the strike for the four points on which it was based. They were led to this position by their uncritical support for T&GWU secretary Jack Jones.
In particular they refused to campaign for the recall of the T&GWU's biennial conference.
This permitted the behind-the- scenes dealings of the Jones- Aldington committee to con- tinue under conditions where the T&GWU leaders were not to the union's accountable membership. It enabled the T&GWU also leaders to organize a reversal of the original' strike decision at the docks delegate con- ference. this lay the shelving Behind some months ago of the key political demand of the stewards' original nine-point charter—nationalization of the docks under workers' control.
Communist Party stewards from insisted on shelving London demands- and other this against opposition from Liver- pool and Hull-on the grounds that it could not be achieved under a Tory government. The implication was the remaining four points could. fact the Tory government is In hell-bent on creating unemploy- ment in order to drive down working conditions and to smash the unions. Unemployment is the teeth of the Industrial Relations Act.
To claim, as the Communist Party does, that job security employment can be and full maintained on the docks merely by using workers' militancy, to put pressure on the Tories, sell-out and is to prepare a open the door for mass un- employment. Tory policies are determined by of the capitalist the crisis system. This crisis is so serious that the Tories cannot afford to retreat. Under such cir- no lasting gain cumstances, for the working class can be achieved simply by "pressure' out Trotsky pointed As 'Lessons of October: at first glance 'Someone may objection: Ought a raise an revolutionary party refuse day January 4, 1973 "exercise pressure" on the to bourgeoisie and its govern- • ment? Certainly not. 'The exercise of pressure on a bourgeois government is the road of reform. A revolutionary Marxist party does not reject reforms. But the road of re- form serves a useful purpose not in in subsidiary and fundamental questions. State power cannot be obtained by reforms. "Pressure" can never induce the bourgeoisie to change its policy on a question which involves its whole fate? The fact that the ruling class can concede no reforms be- cause of its crisis throws all into reformist organizations crisis also. The Communist Party would not break decisively from Jones it was not like him, because, prepared for a battle to bring down the Tory government and to solve the docks problem in the only way possible-by returning a Labour government pledged to nationalize all the transport industries under workers' control. Without leadership workers were left frustrated and-after the docks delegate conference had voted to end the strike--they could see no clear alternative.
As we point out in our diary of the docks strike (see page 3), those London stewards who • the leadership of are under the Communist Party failed even to put forward a clear call for a strike in line with the decision of the national port stewards' committee.
This was not due to any 'mis- ', or bad handling of the takes' because the meeting. It was Communist Party does not wish to de union leaded e. to break a fight against the Tory govern- ment. As every docker now knows, the London decision led to a reversal of the earlier unani- mous strike vote in Liverpool.
stewards' com- The Hull shop before motion mittee had a its Sunday night meeting to go all out for a stoppage if Hull iverpool staved out. were confident they stewards could pull out between 300- 600 on the first day. Lord Aldington himself declared, in an interview in last week's 'Sunday Telegraph', that the given no- dockers had been thing: 'No, the fact is that we have not made any improve- ment on our original offer.
'All we have done is to give clear evidence that our original could and recommendations would be implemented' Workers learn nothing from such and this can an experience, only strengthen the position of the right-wing reformist trade union leadership. It is because Workers Press has fearlessly fought to stress the political implications of these events, and to campaign tire- lessly for a fight to bring down the Tory government are now attacked by that we the Stalinists and the anti- communists of the so-called: IS group. The renegades of IS support the Stalinists in their attacks on Workers Press because they, too, refuse to call for the working class to bring down the Tory government. They, too, refuse to call for a recall of the biennial conference of the T&GWU to make the leaders accountable to the membership. The IS advocates of blind trade union 'militancy" implac- are ably opposed to the introduc- tion of principled politics into the unions. again International and Again Socialism's paper 'Socialist Worker' has merely called for 'more militancy'. have been The dockers militant as it is possible to be.
If they now appear to support Jack Jones's line of acceptance of Jones-Aldington it is not militancy because they lack nor because they have faith in Iones-Aldington. It is because the actions of the Communist . Party, supported by their Is hangers-on, have held them back politically from a fight against Jones and a fight against the Tory govern- ment. Dockers know the record of Workers Press. Our sales are • on the increase all steadily over the country. Day after day we supported the dockers' fight defended them and against the witch-hunts of the capitalist press. We intend to continue to build working class based on sociat ist principles. This means unity based on mobilizing the work- ing class to bring down the Tory government. The Communist Party and the anti - communist International Socialism group fight tooth and nail to prevent unity being established on such a pro- gramme. We are confident, however, that dockers everywhere will sup- port Workers Press against the launched attacks now being against it, even though we will never hesitate to criticize their leaders when necessary. Again as Trotsky pointed out in 'Lessons of October': "The party should and must know the whole of the past, so as to be able to estimate it cor- rectly, and to assign each event to is proper place. 'The tradition of a revolutionary party is built not on evasions but on critical clarity.'
August 23, 1972
OFGIANTS AND
PYGMIES
AT LAST the TUC has opened its mouth on the miners' strike. Its finances and general purposes committee has congratulated the NUM executive on recommending acceptance of the strike settle ment and has 'expressed appreciation' to the unions which donated to the strike and whose members refused to cross the picket lines.
miners' struggle, the TUC never Yet, throughout the came to their aid. It did not once consider mobilizing its 10 million members behind them.
It stood by while Hugh Scanlon called off the engineers' while Frank wages fight. It watched passively Chapple accepted 73 per cent for the power workers.
The TUC was prepared to leave the miners isolated in The 1972, as it had left the postmen isolated in 1971.
support for the miners throughout the ranks of organized basic class feeling, which over-rode the labour was a silence of the TUC leaders.
The miners were actively supported by thousands of Labour Party members. • This found no reflection in • the where Labour's spokesman on fuel House of commons. and power, Harold Lever, joined Carr in expressing relief that a settlement seemed to have been reached.
And Communist Party members fought with the miners While the 'Morning Star' remained silent on the shipping of scab coal into N Ireland by the Polish Stalinist government.
Trotsky once described the British working class as a 'slumbering giant', tied down by pygmies. When the giant and began to move, would be thrown aside. the eve of 1926, warned in advance of the role of the Labour and trade "The chief efforts of the official leadership of the Labour Party and of a considerable number of the official trade union leaders will not be directed towards paralysing the bourgeois state by means of the strike, but towards paralysing the General Strike with the aid of the bourgeois state' In 1972 the miners avenged 1926. In doing so, they struck terror into the hearts, not only of the Tories, but of the Labour and trade union bureaucrats as well.
These leaders stopped the movement short of bringing down the Tories altogether, but they could not prevent a substantial victory. Let the pygmies beware. The giant is stirring. February 23, 1972 Subscribe! The dally the workers press the Tories 20.28 for 8 months (156 issues) 12 months {10.14 for {5.07 for 3 months (78 lagues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a weak the rates are: 21.56 for 3 months 124 £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: Circulation Dept., Workere A Suri 7Ua.
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Scan page 13
All Trades Unions Alliance meetings Cork police link with further security A
SUSPENDED
police spy ring? alert has been ordered officer from Corkay following the disappear. be connected with the nom of Dubin army alleged British spy ring army in the kepubic barracks The FN machine gui newsren fully-auto- yesterday speculated would the Walk, Chelsea, and ser heavy, Nor spokesman confirm that and Ser- matic weapon, accurate that the man may geant Patrick Crinnion facing under civilian Mrines to a mile. the Official Secrets Act.
Cork also face special said: We are surprise spokesman court this army granted permis- week Asked to secrets commell, for that a weanon of such The Special
SON
tne police neauquarters amine Crinnion's bank bulk could be removed full- "An concer launcica from the account. suspended. We scale investigation into state security since the have nothing further to Englishman next week. say? Fighting the Tory rent Act Clay Cross hot seat for auditor By Our Housing Correspondent HUNDREDS of Clay Cross have been invited Counciuors to specify what sort support and workers tenants are want it they are unev expected to give the district and disqualified from the council auditor a hot welcome this through the action of the district morning when he resumes his Said council leader Arthur of the Labour investigation Wellon "There is only yesterday: council's housing account.
thing •ICi WallL Local council workers-who atter Inancial neip ana
ODIV
have an official holiday- dustrial action by the miners help probably turn out to make Cal. clear they support the council's will happen what today anyone's But I don't see guess. continued refusal to implement but the for Tories' 'fair rents' Act. the all Vi feel to surcharte evchl- councilors _ne ually. strengthened 1aST weeks anything like that happened unanimous their Union of I think you'd the National see uners stand by ARTHUR WELLON ... Need without direct request diLy Mineworkers Derbysmile alca miners' support. council representing 14,000 men.
trom 1 US. Private hospital take-over was discussed with Tories in 1971
BY OUR OWN
THE HARLEY STREET Clinic, one of the largest and oldest
CORRESPONDENT
private hospitals in Britain, plans to take over the private wings of National Health hospitals. The Clinic merged with the MPU's medical secretary, Sure said that any American Medical International Incorporated three years ago.
Dr Hugh Faulkner, 'cream oft doctors scheme to Dr Stanley Balfour-Lynn, chairman and managing director of resources for the benefit of the few "immoral'. was the Clinic, has revealed that discussions about such a takeover Britain short of doctors, held with regional have been said Faulkner, people who paid for private practice dic hospital boards and doctors.
Fine not necessarily get better treat And the Department of Health ment. confirmed sir Keith Social Services Tubes nd ilthp can seale for medical Secretary Sir dis- and jump queue for medical cussed the project with represent- treatment." he Sale atives of the Harlev Street Clinic appeal as early as 1971. National Sedic Goal ment 'Public Service'
UNILEVER,
the giant chemical Government and industrial yesterday The Plymouth Fine Tubes Oficers. almost-completed concunce announced scheme on £3m deal buy the Dutch Strikers. Inelr wives the arounds ThaT children have just spent their would draw off staff the Health ocolate company Bens- cocoa-ch third Christmas on strike with Service could not afford to lose.
NV. The companies al t °These little money The British still negotiating, Unilever, • Medical have car pra the sermed bion t but the on a hum fer of contditions under final men atio bitter struggle most Practitioners' basic right worker can opposed. Oscussion. right to belong -the StrIke committee members have travelled over 100,000 their fight. miles to sustain This Christmas has been the nardesi or all. It nas imposed great financial burden. Now Speakers: Connie Fahey, strikers face the rest of (Manchester tenants' Frce Fight Rising Prices leaders). strike one santanam
BRADFORD:
Sunday a difficult month to raise money Force the Tories to Resign venuele further their fight. Talbot Hotel, Support the Engineers Yet
SWINDON
Sunday January th This is a seruggle the determined are 7.30 'Locomotive Hotel' Tonion.
BRADFORD :
lose: That is cy class cannot afford to Sunday January 7
EAST
LONDON: Thurs- lose. the Socialist 7.30 p.m. Talbot Hotel, Kirkgate, day January 8 p.m Deptford Bradford and the work- Club, Lavour Ledue engineers New WATFORD: Monday January "Hali ers Pass wisnes o make 'Build Councils of Action! special to all trade 8 p.m. Watford Trade Union appeal Defend unionists to take collections in (upstairs), Woodford Road, oppo- factories site Watford Junction (nOW Trades Station 8 p.m Tubes men ine rune
COVENTRY:
laMic dan Cox Street Monday note craneed order that their heroic and 7.30 p.m. SOUTHALL: Thursday January 4, determined action can be car- 8 p.m Southall Library, Osterley (opposite Theatre One) ried forward. All money should
ICTON:
Tuesday anual Park Road be sent to: The Rocket'. MaN 5.30 p.m. The car dinals Churchfie 8 p.m. Fine Tubes Treasurer 7.30 p.m. 'The Bretonside c/o 65 Wood Street, Middleton. Plymouth, Devon. 'Fight 'Queen's Arms", Rising Prices Force Tories to Resign.' Workers Press, Thureday January 4, 1973 PAGE 11 2.15 Boomph with Beck Huckleberry hound. Out of school. 3.05 Tom and Jerry. 3.35 Cackdrory 4050 Blue Peter. 5.15 Conn Craven's newsround. 5.25 4.35 Jackanory. Yogi bear.
NATIONWIDE 6.45 TOP OF THE POPS.
6.00 7.15 Z CARS. Skinner.
8.00 COMEDY PLAYHOUSE: 'THE LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE'.
Michael Bates, Bill Owen, Peter Sallis.
8.30 HOLIDAY 73. 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS. Weather.
COLDITZ. Murder? 9.25
MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS.
10.15 10.45 MIDWEEK. 11.30 LATE NEWS. Weather.
12.05 Inigo Pipkin 1.00 Jokers wild. 1.30 Crown court. 2.00 General hospital. 2.30 Good 5.50 News. Palmer. Western. 9.15 DOCUMENTARY: SHOOTING THE COLORADO. Down the
9.15 DOCUMENTARY:
rapids. COOKING WITHOUT TEARS. Cooking For One-At Leisure.
SCOTLAND YARD MYSTERIES. The Unseeing Eye.
11.30
12.00 WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.
12.15 THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE.
RIPPLES IN THE ETHER. But Electrons aren't Coloured 7.30 NEWS. Weather. 7.35 WEB OF LIFE. The Living River.
8.05 EUROPA. Man and Magic. Part 1 The Great Illusionist.
8.30 WAR AND PEACE. Moscow.
9.15 FANATICS. Man of Letters.
9.25 HORIZON. Epidemic. The ever-present threat of epidemics of infectious disease.
FACE THE MUSIC.
10.15 IN CONCERT. Chuck Berry, Rocking Horse.
10.45 NEWS. Weather. 11.15 REAL TIME. Weekly round-up of issues concerning the world 11.45 of television.
CHANNEL:
1.15 News. Follytoor. Women 3.00 4.50 5.50
ULSTER: 12.00
ULSTER: 12.00 NewS: 12.05 On nine 12.05 London. Doctor large. London. 6.00 Now Film 6.10 Cartoon. 6.35 Crossroads. 4.23 7.00 •Man the Dark'. 8.15 40 Romper room. 3.00 London. 4.25 Elephant boy. 4.50 Phoenix London. 10.30 Smith family. 11.02 General hospital. 5.50 12.00 News, 5.20 Lon- linema lis kriantanaro. „ve 6.00 weather. don. 6.25 Crossrnads RAnners Film: Killer 7.00 •The talked
WESTWARD.
9.25 New York'. 8.15 London. 11.00 What's Channel except: about? 11.20 Champions. all them live 9.55 A Christmas caroli Rainbow country. Jackson 11.40 Katie Stewart cooks. 12.05 YORKSHIRE: 9.30 Let them live.
10.00 five. 12.37 Gus Honeybun. 12.40 We need each other. odd couple 12.57 London. Gilbert Sullivan. 1.00 11.20 10.30 10.59 News. 2.30 Farmhouse 3.00 Diary. Report. London. 12.00 Faith for life. London. Funky phantom.
•VIA
Rovers. 20 Partridge family. Man Calendar.
SOUTHERN:
10.00 Torchy. 10.15 6.00 C Weather. Loneon. of South. 10.40 Van Dyke. Ahoy' Crossroads. Film: "Mineder Tha 11.05 Gilbert and Sullivan. 11.55 Car- 8.15 London 10.30 Sport. toon 12.00 New: 12.05 1. 4.25. 2.30 Cinema. 11.35 Mod squad. 12.30 London. omen only. Weather. 5.20 5.25 Cartoon. Cross or the ointe 6.00 Day GRANADA: 11.03 Felix the 11.15 roads. 5.50 London. rs. days 12.05 6.45 Junkin 7.15 Persuaders Bush boy 11.40 Lon- i. News. News. 11.10 Guideline. 5.15 Smith Londo London m: don. Sweet Rachel'. 6.00 News. Police 6.30 11.15 file. 12.35 Weather. 8.15 «Vera London. Danger man. 2.30 Date-
HARLECH:
line. 3.00 London.
TYNE TEES:
9.25 Out where the new her. 10 vile. ick We begins. 10.00 need Van Report Whe RabBit 6.30 each other. 10.50 Dyke. "The 1.20 Gilbert and Sullivan 12.05 Lon- city 2.30 News. 3 Let's face it.
GON.
11.00 12.00 Spyforce. preserved. nhontom. 5.20 Partridge Weather. 4.50 Stingray. 5.2 family.
HTV
mader. 4.25. above 5.50 London Today. 6.35 Miri except: In 2.30 Hamdden. maw. roads. 7.00 Film error 4.50 4.50-5.20 10.30 Sport. 11.00 Police Cantami 11.35 News. 6.15 Y dydd. 10.30-11.00 Bright ones. 11.05 11.50
HTV
West above excent: 6.15-6.30 Greatest fights Sport Lectern. West.
ATV
Freedom
MIDLANDS:
11.45 10.20 - 3.00 L Die. 11.20 Гоо close for comfort. 12.05 Date- 11.35 Not much 000. 5.25 so theatre, ch a more space way life 12.05 Cartoon. Today. 3.00 Lon Todayarbados Scotch Women London. 6. of the Film: don. 5.20 corner Duest' Tulia. 5.50 London. 6. 6.00 6.35 8.15 London 11.00 Angling. 11.30 Late 7000 Crossroads. •Run, Journey to the unknown BACKET Reday anar 9, HACKNEY: Thursday January 11, Lion' 7.30 p.m. The Parlour. Hackney Street. 'Build Councils of Action.
Central Hall (opp. Town Hall).
Defend Democratic Rights.'
TONBRIDGE.
Thursday January
SOUTHALL :
Tuesday January 9. 11, 8 p.m. 'The Foresters', Quarry 8.00 p.m. Southall Library, Oster- Hill Road. ley Park Road. (Please note date change.) KINGSTON: Thursday January 11,
HARROW
AND
WEALDSTONE:
p.m. 'The Liverpool Arms' Tuesday January 9, 8 p.m. Labour and corner of Cambridge Road Approach. Hall Railway Station London Road. Road, Harrow. ROCHESTER: Tuesday January 9, SLOUGH: Thursday January 11, 8 p.m. 'The Greyhound', Roches- 7.30 Community Centre. Class Room, Farham oad. ter Avenue. Wednesday.
HULL:
January 10,
LEEDS:
Thursday January 11. 8 p.m. White Hart Hotel. Alfred 7.30 p.m. Peel Hotel, Boar Lane.
Gelder Street (near Drypool Bridge).
HOLLOWAY:
Thursday January Seven SHEFFIELD: Wednesday January 18. Co-op Hall, p.m. 10, 'The Grape Rd (near Finsbury Park p.m. Inn. Sisters Trippett Lane, Sheffield 1.
tube).
Scan page 14
1972: Most strikes since 1926 PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday January 4, 1973 more than at the end of In addition, 84 stoppages £2,050,000 average in- crease of £1.83 a week. 1972 was a record year involving 108,300 workers 1969. for Britain. Sakes li before The Nov- decrease Not since the 1926 Gen- Between November 1972, 10,855,000 January number of days lost being ember were still going on.
bership during was eral Strike have so many 13,275,000, 10 million less overall an Another big of cause workers won increases days been lost through losses in working days was
COLL
basic rates totalling Numbers men in the £27,010,000, Inaustral achion, une we- The total for the whole average unions fell by 1.3 per cent of 13,558,000 of just under £2.50 partment of Employment
WES
TISe 8,216,000 while the days lost, vehic beats for fatal weekly. Gazette reveals today. women num bers Previous year except creased 0.1 cent to per Trade union member- The Do? figures show 2,720,000. ship fell in 1971, says the that in the 1l months from 59,311 accidents were re- decade A total of 358,000 days past January to November 1972 three Gazette. corded the lost recorded in Nov- union membership has in- was a total of 1.589.300 work- Total membership at the by 10.3 cent, ever uc wowest 10r dis involved of month During the Carom ne became ent Lumber a loss of 10,935,000, costing the month November the basic weekly approximately unions gone stoppages wages of 1,115,000 workers 106,000 than due amalgama- were brought to the DEP's but 598,000 28.4 per cent. Comparative figures for attention. increased by TOO LANGTON, e the 59- year-old Chrysler, welder has won legal back- who his campaign against the closed-shop sale (vesterda vill go t on Friday He up wages is suspenco on lulay threatened to go to the National Industrial Relations Court
WULKCIS
Industrial tribunal ruling that ne does not need to be in a union. Last Friday •pulllancuus the 2,000
WORKER
on the day shift demonstrated complete rejection of Langston's Canall
BY AN INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
HUNDREDS of key workers in the vital milk industry are demanding strike action over the Tory government's block on pay negotiations, warned Britain's seventh largest union yes- terday. The warning came from the Union of Shop, Workers-the main Distributive and Allied in force the dairies-as gasworkers the 1n south-east continued their overtime ban against the Heath policy. strike action by bakery workers in Meanwhile moved following closer vanes te alco higher prices are 'inevitable' from the threat that head of Britain's biggest bread supplier.
severely hit if there is a Milk supplies could be strike over the Milk Marketing Board's refusal to continue pay negotiations.
USDAW
members employed as artificial insemi- nators, milk recorders and assistant field staff have Federation steward Tony O'Brien (foreground) with pickets demanding his reinstatement.
been expecting a rise since vcrober The union says are feeling These kev workers SAW itsel regards the block on talks wttitude.
board's attitude. strongest possible opposition'.
A statement from Manchester here. Over 50 per cent of the president of a local Union
PICKETS
out at the said that the TUC would be advised and quarters Allied Construction, Willett's Mile End building site is already out on strike Milk Marketing Board negotiating that the union s site yesterday in support for narion crane oment committee would hold meeting con- a special steward Tony and it is expected that the branch. sider the next step if the board does not budge. of federation out O'Brien yesterday: remainder will who, Iney wasn't doing said | They
GASWORKERS'
delegates been victimized by manage- unis morning. actual
LOCITOW
and next Monday to decide their official to anolen O'Brien's three-day sus- provocation to try and claim that Tory stonewalling the Ther Ine pension pending weaken the union which we notice claim. •'brien's sacking sacking was handed to strengthened since to weaken the ned have at thousands of homes in the south- Pressure cent trade union him on Monday by a fore- the end 100 per reduced for the third day running yester- national stoppage.' east was man organization on the site.
230 day by the unofficial protest action of workers at Greenwich and Croydon. Industrv minister Tom Board.
may to discuss the ders puter aes.
to discuss the dispute, and reaffirmed would be unal cacre Friday, according while BEEF CATTLE prices at mar- to the Meal control law is in force. Livestock Commission.
DEPUTATION
Wales and representing kets in England and whole last 40,000 Servants yesterday by went up This calls for Lilt again week's prices averaged £22.41 at means Environment Department will another 66p a live cwt, bring national action are almost cer- Environment Secretary current exchange rates. meet today's tain to be approved at ing them within the same price Another increase the today Geomey nippon
LCHI
and General Workers' range as the Common Market millions will of living affecting him of their 'anxiety and anger' Union delegates conference and the freezing of pay claim countries. result from the increase in bank over Monday's meeting of the major- The prices were in fact higher lending rates announced by Bat- 250,000 Civil Servants. the industry. clays and the Midland on Tues-
UNION
A spokesman for the Civil and than those in Holland General and Municipal Workers.
overdrafts Public Services Association satd Average price tor lal calle al lay, ycotclua. departmental markets England and Wales the will cost ya-14 per cent more
BILL
HARRISON,
Manchester £21.56 cwt The other banks are quickly yesterday was representing nve Civi expected to follow suit. £20.90 Service unions. as compared yesterday that frọm •aner representallyes the district would be meeting on 13 to discuss their threat January of a strike it bread prices rise.
the CAV appeals for JOSEPH LUCAS combine cessions or the sited weaken workers'
THE
concessions The union's 46,000 members support for their action, its the site.
NATC
bid to split masancheo a new have had a £2.25 rise by docks, December 3 stopped by the pay the its laid-off industrial equipment meeting of cularly mass Standard-Triumph Liverpool from strikers workers LIE has been workers in rOTO control law. for stewards. factory there -now tomorrow. IS noW
LAC
this support comes factor strengthening 5,500 members The Leaders of the Their week silling Walli quickly. against closure plans. Lucas's hand is foot-dragging on -the union's big in Manchester Combine which management, gest district-have already said token stoppage will have to close Lucas they may stage a says Industrial Equipment on lanuary 23 it threatened prici ently unless it can open within a increases are not stopped.
to discuss is refusing yesterday
WECKS,
strikers The union executive Joseph Rank, A meeting of And on Tuesday, the no-on workers from the British Steel Corpora- made the strike omcial and im- Hovis Ranks side that of the CAV men and works will mediately "suspended' it for 28 McDougall, said: Scunthorpe selling prices days. WUlliCa. inevitably be decide today to Both factories occupy. the same whetter Flintshire County Council is union recommendation to re- of higher Liverpool. under oressures razakericy, to hire a to work. raw material costs.' LIE was laid off two months ago.
business consultants to find out some LIE shop stewards The 6.000 men have been on The bread manufacturers have NoW Steel Corpora the British strike for more than a week over the combine's already several meetings are reacting the demand of the Iron and Steel tion Is to run
COWI
Trade ultimatum the Department by pressing the occu making plant at Shotton at a will is fight- races contederauon
ICOIC
and Industry in a cost of 7,000 jobs. sent middle management. jobs, for increase approved. Press
JANUARY
FUND STANDS
AT £28.62 WE NEED to press ahead a bit faster if we are to collect a record amount this month. Our target Is £1,750 but we are determined to try and go over the top. We are confident we can from the raise this support movement that is growing against this Tory government's attacks against all the basic rights of the working class. Help us step up the fight io.
day to make this government resign. Raise as much as you can. Wherever possible collect extra amounts. Fight back by posting your donation Imme diately to: Workers Press January Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London, SWA 7UG WIll
FROM PAGE 1
hostages to the new system, the working class is preparing to fight against the pay laws.
On Friday and Monday rank- and-file gasworkers' delegates meet to consider industrial action against the government decision to freeze their claim. They will be followed by of the shopworkers' members unicn USDAW, civil servants and possibly actors. Later it will be the turn of the big battalions of the car industry at Ford and British- Leyland. The government's main aim is to use new talks with the TUC over phase two to divert and deflect this movement. is It for time as playing it did in the months prior to Common Market entry and the so-called anti-inflation Act.
But now the situation is much more serious. Action against the government snowball into a general could confrontation pay within over weeks, especially if one section workers takes the lead. The Tories' only allies in this desperate are the manoeuvre
TUC
leaders - who, as ever, prefer crawling to fighting.
to mobilize the The time working class is now. The fight over pay raises the question of the Tory government. Either it is forced to resign will continue its plans to it or bring in the corporate state.
talks should be broken The off immediately and a special TUC congress recalled to dis- of mobilizing the cuss ways working class to force the Tories to resign and elect a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. SEVERAL POLICE forces in Bri- now equipped with a tain are newly-designed Police-Gun'. It is a shotgun-like weapon capable of firing CS gas, rubber bullets and plastic stunning devices at night through infra-red sights. A confidential Home Office re- port has advised all police forces to modernize their armouries.
ULSTER'S Confederation of Engineering Shipbuilding and to "mobilize' the is Unions engineering workers of the pro- vince to pressurize management and security forces for increased protection for factory employees.
It is gravely concerned about the murders and assassinations taking place. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Press, Published Workers Office. Clapham High Street, London, 186a
SW4 7UG.
Printed by Ploush Press Ltd. (TU), Street, London, 180b Clapham High
SW4 7UG.