INCREASED WAGES AND SHORTER HOURS

' Last week, Jim Matthews of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, claimed that he alone possessed knowledge of a nationwide ‘Red plot’ aimed at crippling gas and power stations on April 8.

His ‘disclosure’ comes at the same time as the Gas Council, alarmed at the strength and determination of the shop stewards to have a wage increase, have begged the unions to do something to stop action being taken.

Matthews’ statement is part of a general witch-hunt now under way against the shop stewards’ movement. Already the ground has been well laid by films like ‘The Angry Silence’ and ‘I’m All Right Jack’, and the press campaign against the ETU. Now comes the banning of the Manchester Assembly of Labour, organized by the Socialist Labour League, by the Executive Council of the ‘Amalgamated Engineering Union, and of the Midlands Assembly by the Labour Party regional organizer.

The next stage will be the publication on April 11, of the Trades Union Congress ‘inquiry’ into unofficial disputes. According to advance press reports, the inquiry will make a number of recommendations, including the dismantling of established shop stewards’ organizations which, in the eyes of the TUC, ‘constitute an alternative leadership to the established trade unions.’

According to The Guardian, a dossier has been compiled by the TUC on the ‘activities of members of the Sociatist Labour League and the Communist Party in recent unofficial disputes.’ It is felt that the TUC will ask for the unions concerned to take disciplinary action against members _ involved, including expulsion.

Of course the TUC are right when they complain about shop stewards being an alternative leadership. The need for this alternative leadership grew because of the failure of the established leadership to fight for better wages and conditions. Workers know from their own experience in factory after factory, that the shop stewards have been able to negotiate conditions and rates of pay far in excess of those negotiated by theig national officials.

This is what the employers are anxious to end. They want to replace militancy with a tame work force which will participate in speed-up and rationalization. The drive against the Socialist Labour League and the Communist Party is because the employers recognize that it is the politically-conscious worker who is often the backbone of the shop stewards’ movement. His Marxists principles are a real aid in fighting the employers. Their attempt to divide the stewards must be resisted.

Joint action between members of the Communist Party and the Socialist Labour League to fight the witch-hunters is an urgent necessity. The Socialist Labour League is prepared to work for such unity now in order to strengthen the fight for higher wages and shorter hours.

We must remember that standing in the background is the Tory government, determined eventually to shackle the trade union movement with anti-working class legislation. drive by the TUC and right-wing trade union officials is part of the necessary preparation, and must be recognized as such.

A New Pamphlet on Clause Four From MacDonald to Gaitskell Price 3d. from 186 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4