BIRMINGHAM WORKERS BEAT CENSORSHIP

Delegates to the annual general meeting of Birmingham Trades Council firmly rejected an attempt by an alliance of Right-wingers and Stalinists on the Trades Council executive to impose a censorship on the Council's monthly journal.

The executive had decided, by the president's casting vote, not to publish a report of the national industrial rank-and-file Conference called by The Newsletter last November 16, but to refer the matter to the editorial board, a sub-committee of the executive.

The president, G. Varnom, justified this decision by reading out the Trades Council's aims and adding: 'I gave my casting vote against our journal being used by an organization that stands condemned by the TUC.'

This was a reference to the Militant Workers' Movement, of which Coun. Harry Finch, the author of the article, is a member.

Another opponent of publication, Harold Marsh, an assistant divisional organizer of the Amalgamated Engineering Union and a member of the Communist Party, made delegates laugh when he declared:

'It was not a controversial article, but a report about a controversial conference.

'It is quite clear that Harry Finch, who wrote the report, was not an ordinary rank-and-file delegate who went to the Conference with an open mind, but was a sponsor of the Conference.'

A delegate from the National Union of Public Employees, Bro. Darraugh, made a blistering attack on the executive

'I will quote you some articles we have had in the journal,' he said, 'not one of which you have protested about.

'Interviews with Professor Bernal, Arthur Horner and Frank Haxell. Yes, and the Duke of Bedford—hardly a rank-and-file trade unionist!

'We have even had reports of the meetings of the Birmingham peace committee, an organization actually proscribed by the TUC.'

Another delegate accused the executive of 'doing a Pasternak'.

Moving the reference back Harry Finch warned Communist Party members against joining with the capitalist Press in the witch-hunt.

He asked rank-and-file members of the Communist Party 'to vote for the reference back and defend the rights of all trends to their opinions'.

The reference back was carried by a large majority.