ALL OUT FOR THE LONDON ASSEMBLY!

As the time for the London Assembly of Labour comes closer, there are only eight days to March 6, the importance of the Assembly becomes ever more evident.

During the last two weeks the employers have been able to remove from the agenda three big wages and hours' claims. The railwaymen were put in cold storage for five per cent., 7s. 6d. a week hardly turns a basic wage of £7 12s. 6d. into a living wage.

At a most favourable time for a fight to secure a 40-hour week and a £1 wage advance from the engineering employers, the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions settled for a rotten compromise of 42 hours and no wage increase.

In building, where last year the men's claim was turned down flat, the unions in the National Federation of Building Trade Operatives accepted 2½d. for skilled men and 1½d. for labourers.

The employers and their Tory government no doubt consider themselves fortunate to have got away so cheaply. Once again they have been saved by their friends, the Right-wing trade union leaders.

The Communist Party, apart from deploring the fact that the Confederation did not immediately lodge a new wage claim, tamely accepts the sell-outs.

Again we have seen a most favourable situation allowed to pass by; again the need for a new leadership comes to the top of the agenda.

In Denison House next Sunday, we shall be preparing for such a leadership. Delegates from jobs, union branches, workshops and Labour Parties all over London will be attending. They will discuss how to fight for shorter hours, increased wages, how to defend shop stewards' organizations and how to carry forward the fight for socialist policies into the Labour Party.

Prominent in the discussion will be the need to struggle against bans and proscriptions inside the Labour and trade union movement. The Assembly will certainly not fail to draw the lessons of the situation inside the Electrical Trades Union. Only by adopting a programme such as that advocated by the National Assembly of Labour can members of the ETU fight against and defeat the witch-hunters.

This week, fresh delegations have continued to come in. The shop stewards' committee of Sir William Arrols, Belvedere, will be sending six of their stewards. On Thursday, two other jobs on that site will be holding meetings to discuss electing delegates. On Tuesday, electricians in Camden Town ETU elected their delegation, and last Monday one of South London's biggest bus garages decided to be represented. Students in the Socialist Societies at both University College and Imperial College have elected observers. A number of Labour youth sections will be represented.

We now appeal to every reader of The Newsletter to make sure that his or her organization is represented at Denison House on March 6. Those unable to attend as delegates we urge to attend as visitors.