"A collision course with Tories' --says 'UNITED WE WIN DIVIDED WE FALL'

Royston Bull joins ROYSTON BULL today takes over as Industrial Correspondent of the Workers Press. He formerly worked as Industrial Correspondent In London for the "Scotsman', the Thomsonowned daily newspaper in Scotland.

Royston Bull in a well known and experienced journalist in the Industrial field. His appointment to the editorial board will strengthen the paper's coverage of trade union affairs at a time when It is clear there Is going to be enormous workIng-class resistance to the Torles' dictatorial policles.

In the National Union of Journalists he has played leading role in the fight for trade union principles: opposition to the Industrial Relations Act, against Tory censorship and for better wages and conditions. For the past two years he has been chairman of the Central London branch of the NUJ which represents all of Fleet Street's journalists.

In our enlarged industrial department Royston Bull will join David Maude who becomes Labour Correspondent.

Soeialist Labour League

Public Meeting IN ACTION TO DEFEND BASIC RIGHTS SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11, 7.30 p.m.

Govan South Town Langland Road arest station Govan GLASGOW Speaker :

national secre THE ENGINEERING union's general secretary is about the working class being on a 'collision coursi government. Writing in the February issue of the he adds... and this time it could be really nasty' He is right, too, when he The trade union movement has been under sustained and bitter attack in the interests of finance and property.

The economic crisis is the fault of the profiteers and financiers and not of the workers who have only their labour to sell.

The history of Germany in the 1920s carries grave warnings for British workers today.

But it is inadequate to conclude merely that the AUEW will not co-operate with a Tory government which attacks the unions.

The question is: will the working class be united now to end Tory rule or will the leaders be permitted to fritter away the strength of the class in isolated piece-meal battles? Do we fight now, or permit our enemies to weaken us section by section and fight later on their terms?

Last year the miners brought the Tories to their knees in a sevenweek strike. Yet they were left to fight alone. While the miners were locked in struggle with the government, the leaders of the power workers, gas workers and water workers all accepted pay rises within the Tory norm.

This government must be brought down. It can be brought down-but only by the united . action of the working class fighting on wages, jobs, rents, prices and democratic And Mr Conway, together with his 'left' colleague Mr Hugh Scanlon, refused to fight on a national wage claim tor engineers, dividing and weakening their members by a series of isolated, local disputes.

It was this, together with the treachery of the Labour right wing over the Common Market, which permitted the Tory government to survive into 1973 and to intensify its attacks on basic working-class rights.

These rights are not abstractions, but real achievements of the working class won in bitter struggle over many generations. What are they and how are the Tories seeking to destroy them?

THE RIGHT to trade union organization has been undermined by the Industrial Relations Act which uses Natic again uniox right wage absolutely with the in giant AUEW jo pay rally force of the state and its nal Industrial Relations Court it the closed shop, the right of s to exclude scabs and the to picket.

RIGHT to strike for a decent has been taken away by the state pay law, now in its Phase These measures tie the unions to the bourgeois state and deny them any right independent action. DISTRI THE RIGHT to a home at a reasonable rent has been denied by the Tories' Housing Finance Act which also permits elected representatives to be surcharged and jailed for carrying out the policies on which they were elected.

THE RIGHT to a job. Over 800,000 working-class men and women are unemployed. 50,000 steelworkers and 30,000 engineers employed on Concorde live under the shadow of the dole. Every week more factories close down and more workers are flung onto the streets.

THE RIGHT to health and welfare benefits is being systematically undermined by Tory cuts.

THE RIGHT to free expression is under organized attack from sinister forces of the right who, under the guise of 'morality' and 'decency", seek to repress all views in the arts and communications media with which they disagree.

AND, as we pointed out in Monday's Workers Press, the Phase Two legislation can close down entire sections of the Press by imposing unlimited fines.

Today 26 trade unions representing 4 million workers in the public sector are meeting to discuss conABOUT 2,000 militant shopworkers from all over Britain certed action against the governmarched to parliament yesterday to protest against the ment's pay policies. This is a step government decision to hold down their wages under its in the right direction. pay control laws. Among the lowest-paid workers in the But the powerful leaders of the country, the shopworkers bitterly attacked the laws and labour movement are allowing such demanded all-out opposition to them, both from Labour actions to be taken in isolation. MPs and their own union leaders. Steelworkers. Steve up of their industry by theme Boisterous chants of 'Heath out!' and 'No Tory law!' came from the marchers, many of whom were young girl workers selves. Gasworkers and Civil Serwho had travelled hundreds of miles to take part. Frances vants are allowed to go it alone. Andrews (17), an assistant from a Liverpool chainstore, exWorkers like those involved in plained: 'Most girls my age take home less than £10 a week, she the Briant Colour struggle for jobs said. 'And the pay's just as bad till you're 18 or 19. How do and the Fine Tubes battle do not we manage? We don't, that's why me and my friends are have the strength of the entire here. It's up to the union to make them pay-we want movement brought in behind Heath out as well! them. Delegations on yesterday's march came from as far afield Instead, as the basic rights of as Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, South Wales and Plymouth. orkers come under increasing There were also banners from the north-west, Yorkshire, the 'URN TO BACK PAGE Midlands and London.