Employers Discriminate Against Coloured Labour

The Labour Exchange clerk smiled politely at the A skilled engineer, Mr. MacKenzie has been unable to get a skilled job and is working in a store issuing electrical equipcoloured worker but said : ‘Sorry, no jobs.’ Officialdom ment. He is.a member of the Electrical Trades Union. had _ provided . another race-discriminating employer ‘There are firms who employ coloured labour. But only on with a legal cover for his dirty practices. semi-skilled and labouring jobs, even when we prove that That wasn’t in South Africa or America’s southern we are capable of doing a skilled job they won’t give us one.’

In Lambeth the local trades council has recently attempted States. It happens every day of the week right here in to get a list from the Brixton Labour Exchange of firms who London.

will not employ young coloured labour. It had been reported Across the road from Brixton Labour Exchange in Somerat a meeting of the youth employment committee that it was leyton Road, a 24-year-old coloured worker told me of his more difficult to place coloured school-leavers in jobs. experience in hunting for a job. To date the Labour Exchange has refused to answer directly ‘I was sent by the Labour Exchange to an engineering factory whether or not they have firms on their books refusing to for a job paying £9 4s. a week, plus bonus. When I met the take coloured labour. manager he told me: “The work is unsuitable for a coloured The struggle against racial discrimination is of vital importman.” He would not explain why. ance to British Labour. It exposes the insidious way in which ‘When I got back to the Exchange and told them what hapthe employers attempt to divide by colour; it exposes the pened they said: “There must have been some mistake.”

Tories as the sanctimonious enemies of coloured and white ‘Nothing was ever done about it and finally I managed to workers and it exposes the ‘impartial’ Ministry of Labour who get a worse paid job in a warehouse.’

cover up racial discrimination on the grounds that informaMr. Allen, a 48-year-old coloured worker lives in Mayall tion given by employers and employees is ‘confidential’.

Road, Norwood. A painter by trade and an active member of the National Society of Painters he doesn’t take discriminaLabour must act tion lying down.

Trades councils and Labour Parties must obtain a list of all He told me how on October 26 last year he signed on at his Exchange. They said that there were no jobs for painters. firms practicising discrimination. These firms must be ‘blacked’ Later that day he met a fellow member of his union—a white by all organized labour. The boycott of South African goods man, who had reported to the same Exchange half an hour must be turned into a boycott of British firms employing after Mr. Allen and had been sent to a job. South African policies.

The trade unions and the Labour Parties must also wage a List of firms campaign amongst white workers showing how racial discrimination acts against their interests.

‘Naturally I returned to the Exchange and complained to the If the Trade Union leaders and the National Executive of supervisor, said Mr. Allen.

the Labour Party insist in restricting opposition to racialism ‘The supervisor listened to what I had to say and then beto platonic phrases and empty gestures then the Left-wing fore I was finished he was called away. The clerk who had must take over such a campaign. Failure to fight now leaves dealt with me previously then called me over. He said he was the way open for fascist propaganda. sorry but there was no work for coloured labour since a number of firms would not employ them.

{ INDUSTRY “When he was telling me this he thumbed through a whole sheaf of papers which were obviously a list of these firms.

‘I then contacted two of the local M.P.’s, Mr. Marcus Lipton (Labour, Brixton), and Brigadier John Smythe (Conservative, RAILWORKERS PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE Norwood), asking them to investigate the matter.

‘I also raised the matter in my trade union branch.

‘Since then the Labour Exchange has denied to Mr. Lipton Railway workers stand today on the verge of the that the clerk showed me a list of such firms. most important period since the 1920’s, and the out‘Brigadier Smythe wrote me on November 9 saying: “I come of the present struggle for a decent wage can don’t think for a moment that the fact you could not be well determine the shape of more important struggles given suitable employment on October 26 was anything to do with any colour problem.” ’ in the future.

Now out of work Mr. Allen is drawing only £3 5s. a week London railworkers are to the forefront of the predole. He was drawing £4 but this was reduced because he sent fight. On Monday they will be striking in support did not have enough stamps on his insurance card. Out of of this demand. r his £3 Ss. he has to pay £2 in rent.

This strike, even though it will be confined to London, Another coloured man, Mr. MacKenzie of Leathwaite Road, Battersea, said: ‘I was told in confidence by a Labour Ex- demonstrates the tremendous feelings and pressure change clerk, “there are firms on the books who will not em- which have been built up in support of the pay claim. - ploy coloured labour.” ’ Although a one-day strike won’t break the BTC and MARXISM IN THE SIXTIES FOUR PUBLIC LECTURES February 7: Alasdair McIntyre ‘What is Marxism?’

February 21: Tom Kemp ... ‘The Future of Capitalism’

March 6: Frank Girling ... Subject to be announced March 13: Cliff Slaughter ... ‘The Socialist Revolution in Britain’ eee Leeds Trade Hall, Upper Fountaine Street Leeds, at 7.30 p.m.

force NUR secretary Sidney Greene into a real fight, it is a mistake for railway workers in other parts of the country to ignore the part it can play in preparing for an all-out struggle.

At the moment the pay claim is uppermost in railway workers’ minds, but apprehension about the future and the Transport Commission’s plans for the reorganization of the railways, still hovers in the background. This is what makes the present fight so important for the future.

The confusion which Sir Brian Robertson, the BTC spokesman, has succeeded in creating shows that he, too, has an eye for the future.

If they succeed in defeating railway workers at this stage then the next step in their reorganization plans, which involves the jobs of thousands, will be all the easier to carry out.

The role of the NUR leadership in this plan to demoralise and split is typical of the pattern which has been created in the past. Moreover, the present attitude of Sidney Greene and the Right-wing at Unity House poses quite sharply the need for rank-and-file railway workers to prepare to take over if the 3 per cent. of 1958 is repeated.

This lesson can be driven home even more forcibly once it is understood how railway workers live today at the bottom of the wages scale.

A legend The present Union leadership isn’t in fact doing anything really new, but rather they are extending the work of those who have gone before.

The legend of militancy which grew up around the late General Secretaries of the NUR, Figgins and Campbell, is used to compare Greene unfavourably. But in actual fact militancy extends much further than making rousing speeches and acting ‘on rank-and-file pressure. In the present case it can only be judged from the standpoint of what was actually achieved for railway workers in a period when the railways were the lifeblood of. an expanding economy, and big business couldn’t afford a fight with railway workers.

An example of this militant leadership can be seen from the drawn-out pay struggle in the middle of the 1950’s.

In January, 1954, an interim settlement of 6 per cent. was accepted by the NUR and other railway unions after a threatened national stoppage in support of a claim for 15 per cent. which had been lodged six months previously. In January, 1955, 12 months later, the 15 per cent. was paid in full.

In all 25 years were taken up with this claim and a national stoppage was twice threatened. Yet within months of the full ‘claim being conceded a further application for a wage increase had to be made.

The reasons that railway workers are on low pay today can ‘be found in the retreats and compromises which have taken place in the past.

Today, however, the BTC is in a position to take a much firmer stand. The entire employing class and City of London will fight with the BTC if they decide to take on the railway _ Yet in face of this Sidney Greene does nothing to unite the ranks of railway workers, but adds to the confusion by playing into the hands of Sir Brian Robertson in his manoeuvering. — Sir Brian is also responding to this attitude by making pie in the sky promises which Greene can pass along to his members and add to the confusion.

Two important factors Firstly, the recent struggle of the printworkers and the present engineering pay claim show that employers who are enjoying even bigger profits than ever are reluctant to part with a penny piece without a bit of fight.

Secondly, what is posed in this fight is the question— ‘on whose terms will the railways be reorganized—the BTC’s or those decided by railway workers?’

This is the goal the BTC have set their eyes on, and a defeat will set them back in their attempts to make railway workers pay for their reorganization. _ All railway workers have a stake in deciding the outcome of the pay claim. Members of ASLEF and TSSA who are awaiting the outcome of the ‘pay inquiry’ should take note of these present developments. Webber and Hallsworth won’t be able to keep their members out of the BTC’s reorganization plans like they have with the pay demand. These weak-kneed bureaucrats should be shaken off and their members should join other rank-and-file railway workers in the fight.

Every lesson of the past shows that the future for thousands of railway workers cannot be left in the hands of Greene, Hallsworth, Webber and Co. Rank-and-file railway workers must prepare now for when the pattern of retreat is repeated and the leadership sells out.