PRICE CONTROL FRAUD EXPOSED

'LET THEM eat chicken' was the Tory government's arrogant advice to housewives yesinto the incredible rise in meat prices.

The beef investigation, led by Tory Dame Elizabeth Ackroyd, accepts that prices will stay at record levels. Its advice to housewives is to lower their standards and buy cheaper foods like pork, lamb and chicken. Good meat, it seems, is now food only for the rich.

But yesterday's report was just one sign of the massive cut in living standards which is on the way.

Bread, cereals, jams, meat pies, sausages and all sugar products will go up in price soon. This was admitted yesterday by a spokesman of the Food Manufacturers' Federation, which represents the big monopolies that dominate the shops and supermarkets.

I think price rises are inevitable. control the prices of raw materials we has gone up enormously on the market grain,' he said.

The spokesman was biggest ever monthly materials to the food dustry.

The index for December rose by 8.7 per cent-this would be a bad figure for a whole year, but for a month it is unknown.

The cost of living is about to go up even more. Over 800 food price rises are already under consideration by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Department of Trade and Industry is examining proposed price increases for 1,000 non-food goods. O'Brady sentenced to six months' jail O'BRADY ... Attack on organization We can't use. Sugar and so has referring to perhaps rise in the prices of raw inAn increase in the price of newsprint will be approved in the next few days and rises in timber, leather, light metal and paper and board are expected to be agreed.

These new increases will be on top of the vast rises that have already occurred since the so-called freeze on goods in the shops.

Between November December, prices of food rose by 7.5 per on average.

words RORY O'BRADY, Provisional Sinn Fein pres!dent, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment Dublin yesterday afternoon after being convicted of being an IRA member.

The whole trial was over and the sentence delivered only about two hours after O'Brady first appeared in Dublin's Green Street special court yesterday.

Two police officers and a Chief Superintendent gave evidence in the trial.

It was the first of its kind under Eire's new Offences Against the State Act, steamrollered through the Irish parliament in December.

O'Brady was charged with being a member of the IRA, being a member and fresh cent The Tories 'beef team'-(left to right) ex-union official Sid Robinson, supermarket chief James Gulliver and high Tory Dame Elizabeth Ackroyd.

earners have already been robbed of a substantial proportion of their income and they are about to be robbed of an even greater proportion.

Another basic right is in grave jeopardy-the right to fight, without fear of arrest or fines, for a decent standard of living.

The Tories are challenging this right with the power of the state.

This is the background to the talks with the TUC and the bosses of British of an illegal organization and raising or maintaining or attempting to raise or maintain an armed force contrary to the constituProsecuting counsel, Mr N. K. McDonald, said two other charges alleging IRA membership on another date would not be pressed.

'Evidence' in the trial consisted of reports from two police officers who had heard O'Brady address a Sinn Fein meeting on September 23, 1972.

Detective Sergeant John O'Maheny told the court he heard O'Brady say:

•When force was used against the people of the north they looked to the for beef price While men like Victor Feather go on talking, the Tories are given more time to push down living standards and prepare even greater attacks.

No worker can tolerate any more of this treachery. It is his livelihood and his rights that are at stake.

Now is the time to strike hard at the government.

The massive demonstrations and strikes against the plan to control wages by decree of the state clearly show the mood of the working class and even PRESS people of the help, but no forthcoming.

'Their only shield was the Provisional IRA, and it was they who did most of the work in the north.' Another police officer gave a similar account of the meeting and then Chief Superintendent John Fleming gave evidence of his 'belief' that O' Brady was BRITAIN'S trade deficit rose to £93m in December, last month before entry to the Common Market.

Exports were down

November and imports by less. Tory white-wash south for help was on fell rises PRESS MEAT prices have leaped up to Com leaped up to Market levels but no one has made any profit. This is the amazing conclusion of Tory inquiry into beef.

For half an hour, high Tory Dame Elizabeth Ackroyd, supermarket chief James Gulliver and ex-union boss Sid Robinson stone-walled their way through a Press conference.

big sections of the middle class.

This movement must be mobilized to expose the Tories and the TUC collaborators.

profiteering. wages should begin now. It is the only way to stop price increases.

The TUC must be called market'. to order and instructed to hold a special congress to prepare the campaign to remove this government- shortages. a Tory government out rob every worker of basic democratic rights a member of of an illegal O'Brady cross-examined the chief superintendent at length and challenged the impose. accuracy of the officer's information.

argument was He told the court:

'It is generally agreed that I am the elected head on prices. of the Sinn Fein organiza.

I submit that it is not just Rory O'Brady who is on trial here, but it is in fact my organization.' The Board of Trade figures show that exports were up 4 per cent in 1972 compared with 1971.

But imports rose by per cent, pushing balance seriously into non real Housewives had, they agreed, paid much much more for meat, but where the extra cash had gone remained a mystery. The Tory Dame was certain, but certain, no one was The committee instead identified a curious phenomena called the 'psychological expectation of the The suppliers 'expect' prices to rise because of The shortages do not occur, but the meat barons put prices up anyway. This, says the report, is 'the market feeding on itselfbut not profiteering.

Only farmers seemed to be enjoying higher margins on their fat cattle.

The Tory Agriculture Minister Joseph Godber said he would 'look into this', but stressed how difficult controls were to The other interesting that the entry into the Common Market has had no effect Irish beef, once destined for the British market, now flows to Europe at the rate of 100,000 tons a year.

In the first 11 months of last year continental buyers bought three times as many cattle as Britain in 1971.

Control of exports, however, would only have a short term impact.

The three (described aptly by the Tory Minister as his 'team') put forward TURN TO BACK PAGE

WHAT WE THINK TWO TORY Cabinet ministers, Robert Carr, the Home Secretary, and Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor, are proposing to bring forward legislation to end the jury system for some types of offences. This legislation will abolish the traditional right of any defendant on an indictable charge to choose trial by jury. le proposal, which is enjoying the undivided support of the capitalist Press (The Sun' centre pages on Monday, three huge columns in the editorial of 'The Times' yesterday), comes at a time when the Tory government is making an unprecedented attack upon basic democratic rights. is a further sign of the Heath government's rapid move towards establishing a corporatist legal framework in Britain. he Times' editorial clearly reveals the drift of thinking in ruling class circles. The paper states that 'over 90 per cent of those who have the right to elect trial by jury do not exercise it'. This is inserted to insinuate that if defendants don't take advantage of their rights, then they don't deserve them. also takes up the argument that there should be compulsory trial by magistrate only for 'trivial offences'. . Who is to decide what is trivial and what is not? 'The Times' decides that motoring offences are 'trivial' and are clogging up the courts of justice. o withdraw the right to trial by jury in some of these cases [motoring offences] is not likely to lead to detrimental consequences to the individual defendant, the paper says. This is an extremely dangerous argument. Penalties for motoring today include very stiff finesup to £500-and jail sentences. ›rry drivers and travellers whose livelihoods depend on their driver's licence and a clean record must continue to have the right to be judged by ordinary men and women selected by jury and not by some retired colonel or Tory women's association chairman who believe, in many should be flogged infringements. he Times' also believes that juries should be abolished from 'complicated frauds and other cases turning on intricate financial transactions'. • This is based on the spurious assumption that the man-in-the-street is unable to appreciate the ins and outs of company swindles. 1 recent experience, however, it is clear that the state is hugely reluctant to press charges in fraud cases. But in the expectation of big financial crashes which would show the financial recklessness of many City institutions, "The Times' wants a judge and 'expert assessors' to hear them. it the more insidious comment concerns trials like the Stoke Newington Eight. When the trial ended, Workers Press was the only paper to stress that the verdict-four found guilty, four aquitted —would mean further attacks on the jury system. he Times' says: "There have recently been disquieting examples of persons being excluded from serving on juries on questionable grounds.' It cites the exclusion of jurors in the Stoke Newington Eight case because they were members of the Tory Party. is point needs some close study. The defence lawyers in the bombing case decided to vet each of the jurors very carefully. As the charges related to alleged bomb attacks on the homes of three Cabinet ministers — Carr, John Davies and Sir Peter Rawlinson-they felt that Tory Party members could be reasonably expected to be biased against cases, that motorists for the most minor the Eight. All Tories were therefore excluded from the jury. he Times' raises shrill cries against this vetting of jurymen. It fails to mention, however, a far more important case on this subject. We refer to the Saor Eire case in which four Irishmen and a woman were charged with arms offences. This case collapsed at the Old Bailey on the fourth day and the accused were discharged after spending seven months in custody.

It then emerged that a Special Branch agent, John Parker, had been involved in 'planting' the Saor Eire group 'with the collusion of the Special Branch. Last week the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Norman Skelhorn, announced that no charges would be laid against Special Branch officers involved in this case. This has been well-publicized in it no mention has yet been made of another extraordinary aspect of this case. This occurred during the empanelling of the jury. The Crown objected to a number of jurors on account of their alleged political attitudes. No reason was given for challenging the potential jurymen until Detective Inspector James Pittendreigh was given his evidence. oss-examined by Mr Platts-Mills, QC, Pittendreigh said: I've only recently joined the Special Branch. I've been 22 years in the force. The Special Branch is a crime, leastways an intelligence gathering unit. Not necessarily criminal. We do a large amount of political work. here was written information from records against a number of the names of the jurors. Information from Special Branch and other police records. They did not include such things as belonging to the Labour Party.' Counsel for the Crown interrupted: "There is no question of any political party being listed against any name. Where is this leading?.

Platts-Mills pressed on: 'I intend to show that this whole case has been engineered by the Special Branch through a man, Piener, to plan these guns on my Pittendreigh: 'The word "object" that I put against these jurors had no relation to political activities. Forgive me, sir, they had not relations to convictions.' Platts-Mills: 'Only one. What were the others? Were they nothing to do with Pittendreigh: 'I didn't say "nothing to do with politics". It signified doubt about their political activities and their criminal activities.' Platts-Mills: 'It is the right of the defence to have a jury which is not picked by the Special Branch.' Pittendreigh: I was asked steps, sir.

According to 'The Times' it is a terrible attack on 'freedom' for the defence to challenge Tories on the jury, but they raise not a murmur about the secret political vetting undertaken by the state. We don't support the jury system. We are opposed to it in principle. It is one of the institutions of capitalist democratic rule. The fact that the Tories are preparing to savage this system is an indication of their increasing move towards dictatorship and repression.

hey are driven by the economic crisis to dispense with bourgeois democracy and move rapidly towards the corporatist state.