MR BRIGINSHAW AND THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE: AN OPEN LETTER Gerry Healy Nails ‘Employer-Paymasters’ Smear

The Newsletter, vol. 3 no. 112, 25 July 1959 · scan page 1

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DEAR MR BRIGINSHAW, On July 15 you addressed a letter to all members of your union, the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants, declaring that the Socialist Labour League was being ‘paid by the employers in this country’ to ‘ruin’ the struggle of the ten printing trade unions. (The full text of the letter appears below.)

By implication you linked the Socialist Labour League with the strike-breaking outfit of: Edward Martell. You did not produce one single shred of evidence for your monstrous allegations.

When you wrote that letter you must have been aware that the League had no legal redress, since by statute no action can be taken against a trade union for any libel alleged to have been committed on its behalf. Nor can any injunction be applied for restraining you from republishing your letter.

Since the law guarantees you an immunity not enjoyed by the ordinary citizen, since you cannot be challenged in the courts—which would reveal your letter to be a pack of lies— the method you have chosen to attack the Socialist Labour League can only be characterized as cowardly.

We are making this. an open letter, which we hope all members of your union and of the other printing unions will read, because it is clear that the lies to which you resort can only weaken the printworkers’ struggle.