The Newsletter, vol. 5 no. 176

LAST Monday was signing-on day for the 2,000 Standard workers sacked At the Coventry Labour Exchange the scene was reminiscent of the '30s. queues crawled slowly to the counters. I found the car workers anxious Christmas and their future was uncertain.

W. Morris, an electrical finisher at Standards, had 19 years' service at the company. Because this service was broken in 1956 when he was sacked, his name had been placed on the list of those to go. I asked him what prospects he had of employment in the car industry. 'No chance', , he said.

T. Cochran, press operator, had also been sacked in 1956, breaking his 10} years' service. For some time now he has been working only two days a week. With the sack he received the princely sum of f5 for one week's pay, plus f15 'compensation'. He also thought the future was "grim"

Many of the workers alleged that the redundancy procedure at Standards has been 'chaotic'. Some had not been on the list at first, but their names had been added at the last minute. •There had been no lead from the trade unions. No mass meetings were called I spoke to R. Banks who had worked at the Standard factory on the Vanguard axles. He had received his notice at 1.40 p,m. on the previous Thursday. There was no chance, he said, for a job in the motor industry. He anticipated at least four months' unemployment, and with a wife and two children to keep was expecting a "rough time' Three Times Redundant F. Duckworth, a finisher, had started at Standards in 1936; had been called up in 1940 and had returned to the company at the end of the war only to be made redundant in 1953 and again in 1956. He is now forced to start afresh for the fourth time. He is bitter about the neglect by the industry of its workers in the "slack' times. "The government should take action' , he said. "The motor industry should be nationalized.' At the factory of Massey Ferguson Ltd., I spoke to many workers who had been at the Standard factories in 1956.

C. McCarthy, the metal mechanics convenor at Massey Ferguson, said, 'leadership and a clear, positive policy is the essential factor in the present crisis. J. Twigg of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, interjected to say, "The industry should be taken over in the same way as the people of Cuba have nationalized their industry. He went on to explain, 'not only the car industry but all big engineering firms and other big enterprises should be nationalized".

J. Clerkson, a shop steward in the machine shop, said: "The whole situation in the industry smells. Workers who are "redundant" should be kept in employment until found other jobs. The trade union leaders he added, 'are out of touch with the rank and file'. He thought that there were too many careerists in top positions in the labour movement.

Calls for Nationalization Coventry is a Labour town and the turn towards more [-lite solutions to the car industries' problems is spreading fast. The support for nationalization is universal by all car workers except a few supporters of Right-wing interests such as Moral Rearmament and similar bodies which are occasionally noisily active. But their propaganda, and that of the Tory press, which has tried to raise a barrier around the idea of nationalization, has fallen flat. Is there any wonder when Tory policies lead direct to the 'bureau' and four months out of work?

The way in which motor workers are beginning to throw their weight into the fight for a policy of nationalization in the Labour movement is shown by the reactions of two militants active in the Labour Party.

Councillor Jack Sprung works at the Canley factory of Standards. He is working in the Labour Party, he said, to defeat the Right wing and for the implementing of the Scarborough conference decisions. Asked what action he would advocate now, he said: We must fight and for those on short time.

From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. long and bitter. Four weeks to harder for the implementing of Clause Four of the Labour Party constitution."

Eric Harrison, a Transport and General Workers' Union member and sacked from the Standard company after 7} years' service, summed the situation up well when he said: The situation is much worse than 1956. Nationalization of the motor industry is the only answer. We must back up even more the fight to implement Clause Four of the Labour constitution which calls for nationalization of industry! Short Time at Dunlops By OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE Car Covers' section in the Dunlop factory at Speke, Liverpool, is now working short-time. This section makes tyres for the car industry.

So far the workers are only losing two shifts out of every 30. However, militant trade unionists in this factory are pointing to the growing crisis in the motor industry and arguing that it must have an increasing effect on Dunlops.

They feel the union should take a stand now. An elementary step would be to ban overtime throughout the factory. Overtime is still being worked by workers in other sections such as those on remoulding and giant tyres.

Further to your report in The Newsletter on November 5 in regard to the 100 per cent. membership campaign at the English Electric Co. factory, East Lancs. Road, Liverpool, 10, the following action has taken place. B SHOP. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 One hundred and forty-six women withdrew their labour because of the refusal of nine of their workmates to join a trade union. At the time of writing these women and girls are still on strike.

A SHOP. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 Twenty-eight inspectors, men and women, 5,000-odd demonstrators marched to Glasgow's George Square last Saturday to protest against the establishment of the Polaris zubmarine base in the Holy Loch. Demonstrators came from Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newsactlerupon Tyne, Ayr and East Kilbride, as well as from Glasgow.

Especially noticeable was the large number of trade unionists present, among whom the Boilermakers, the Mineworkers, the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen, and workers from the Remington Rand factory displayed banners. There were contingents from the Young Socialists, and the Scottish Peace Committee Speakers at the George Square meeting included Emrys Hughes, MP, who was cheered when he said, 'I hope the noise of this demonstration is heard by Macmillan'. He was|cheered even more when he added, I hope Gaitskell hears it, too. withdrew their labour because of the continued refusal of the staff inspector (who was the original cause of the trouble) to join a trade union.

On Tuesday last, November 15, they returned to work after he had made application to join ASSET. Result, A2 department is now 100 per cent trade union membership.

Because the unions have not yet recognized this strike, would be obliged if you would appeal for financial support to be sent to me.

WALTER J. BROWN (Cllr.), Slimm -English- Electric Company Joint Shop Stewards Committee 33 Sephton Drive, Scott Estate, Orinskirk, Lancs RUE OUT POLARIS NEARS SUICIDE

Bluff and Blunder in Central Africa Page

One thousand five hundred men walked out of the Acton Vale and Park Royal factories of Napiers, part of the English Electric company, on Wednesday afternoon. The men struck work after a shop steward at the Park Royal factory was sacked on the spot for carrying out a decision of the shop that they should refuse to use a cutting machine which had caused an accident on Monday. The management have made several previous attempts to get rid of this steward.

The Working Class Votes Unilateralist THE election of Michael Foot as Member of Parliament for Ebbw Vale with a very substantial majority is an outstanding endorsement of the Scarborough decisions. Thanks to the propaganda of the capitalist press, the activities of the Right wing of the Labour Party, and principles on which Michael Foot fought the election, no Ebbw Vale voter could be in any doubt about the issues.

It is nonsense, therefore, for the Right wing to claim that the Scarborough decisions will isolate the party from the electorate. Labour has traditionally based itself on its following in the working class. The fortunes of the party depend upon the attitude of this following and not upon floating voters. Provided this great working-class movement is given a determined lead then it is possible to retrieve, in time, any ground lost through Tory election scaremongering amongst the superficial-thinking voters.

Michael Foot described very well the feeling in the working-class movement when he wrote in the Daily Herald of November 22:

*But in South Wales the spirit of class-consciousness suffuses the whole community. Men and women still believe that it is better to live in a real community than to set before themselves the idea of rising out of their class, spurning their great ancestry and kicking away the ladder."

Here is the answer to those fainthearts who, disguising themselves as New Lefts, spend most of their time trying to justify Fabian theories. The working class as a class are the backbone of the Labour Party. Ebbw Vale has shown that they stand behind the Scarborough decisions. Now that Michael Foot is back in Parliament we may rest assured that he will receive the whole-hearted support not only of Left-wing members of the Labour Party, but the entire working class if he proceeds to sharpen up the fight against the Gaitskellites.

There can be no compromise. Gaitskell and his cronies must go. That is the message of Ebbw Vale.

Dangerous

THE November meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party has settled nothing. Dominated by Gaitskellites, it has, in fact, retreated

By JAMES THE NEWSLETTER iS I agreement with the courageous young members of the Malawai ConParty of Nyasaland. According to The Times correspondent, 40 of them surrounded Welensky gress when he was sitting in his car last Sunday afternoon in a Blantyre street. To hell with Federation, On hank Walancky_vou killed our men!' the voung patriots hooted and jeered at the blustering, blundering 'savage' who has been the Prime Minister of : other slogans shouted, too, but The Times does not And while all this was going on round him Welensky sat in his car and smiled. According to The Times he actually smiled. This is so unlike Welensky's usual behaviour that it is 'news'. . Only a few months ago Welensky would have lashed out with fists, clubs and police, he would have declared a state of emergency, several Africans would have been shot. But now he sits back and smiles. (He probably dislocated his jaw in doing so.)

What is the reason for this change? Has Welensky changed his mind about Africans? This is most unlikely. Only a short time ago Welensky expressed the view that most Africans were 'primitive' and 'easily turned to violence to settle matters which elsewhere are more naturally dealt with in the framework of law and order'. He maintained that 'until the coming of Europeans the whole history of Africa was one of violence and pillage. Respect for law and order is still something of a veneer and the primitive African can be easily influenced... All of this is a complete distortion of the facts as far as the African people is concerned, it is however, reasonably accurate as a description of the behaviour of the Europeans in Central Africa. There has never been more than a few thousands of Europeans living among a population of millions of Africans. In spite of the fact that these Africans had been robbed of their lands, subjected to discriminatory legislation and heavily exploited, there was never until recently, any violence shown to Europeans.

AFRICANS UNITED

Members of the small European minority, on the other hand, have never hesitated to take the strongest action against individual Africans and they have had the full support of the law in doing so. It has been the aim of white policy to prevent the development of any corporate sense among Africans and to maintain the myth of African inferiority. a police state for the last seven years. There were tell us what they were.

The African peoples have succeeded in overcoming both of these difficulties. The various nationalist parties have succeeded in uniting urban dwellers and peasants, members of different "tribes', both educated and illiterate. They are determined to overthrow the systems which have maintained them in permanent positions of inferiority, unable to acquire land or a house in the towns and unable to get a skilled job, or indeed work of any kind. They are campaigning for new governments elected on the basis of a universal adult franchise.

BLUFF CALLED

The white savages' are in a difficult position. They will have to reverse their former policy. It is impossible for them to 'go it alone. They are all well aware of the fact; they tried to bluff Macmillan and the magnates but they failed. They will have to do what they are told. If the Tory Government were to give its support to the Federation this would mean the complete dismemberment of the Commonwealth and this is not a feasible policy.

The Constitutional Review Conference opens in London on December 5. There is only one issue to be settled: how little can the Africans be persuaded to accept? There will be keen negotiations between the leaders of the nationalist parties and the representatives of the city during the next few weeks. Welensky no longer matters. He may stay on as Prime Minister until the next elections, after that he will be finished.

This does not mean, however, that white capitalist exploitation of Central Africa is ended. Far from it; they are looking for the most advantageous solution from their point of view. This, necessarily, will be the least advantageous from the point of view of the African people. It will, however, mark an important stage in their progress towards complete emancipation.

from a defence of the Scarborough decisions. A vague two-faced statement from the so-called Shadow Cabinet and the NEC is to be its substitute. Meanwhile, Mr. Zilliacus is to be disciplined for defending the Scarborough decisions.

Left-wing MPs must come off the fence and start organizing. If they don't, then this dangerous situation may in the long run mean that Gaitskell can do terrible harm to the Labour Party.

Not Forgotten WE are pleased to see that St. Pancras Tenants* Association is organizing a demonstration to Brixton Prison this Sunday, calling for the release of John Lawrence and those who are imprisoned with him. The Socialist Labour League pledges its full support for this demonstration and calls upon all readers and sympathizers to participate in the march. The demonstration will start from Russell Square at 10 a.m., picking up the main body of marchers at the Oval at 11.45 a.m. and continuing on to Brixton Prison.

get The Newsletter regularly? Do you Become a subscriber and make sure of your copy each week To: Subscription Dept., THE NEWSLETTER, 186 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4. I wish to subscribe to The Newsletter, and enclose 5s. for 12 issues, post free or €1 per year subscription. Name (Block letters please)

Address (Block letters please Send I Don't leave it to that chance encounter. this form and become a subscriber NOW! CUBA: Members and sympathizers of the Socialist Labour League who helped to make the recent 'Support the Cuban Revolution' demonstration a success, will be glad to learn that the daily paper Revolucion, published in Havana, carried front-page photographs of the marchers in its issue of November 16. OVENTRY BRANCH: The car crisis in the Midlands continues to grow almost daily and so does the activity of the Coventry branch of the Socialist Labour League. Last week, members of the League produced three leaflets on various aspects of the car crisis and one leaflet directed to the Carbodies strikers concluded: 'Brothers! this strike can be won. Stand firm on your principles now. Fight for your right to work!' The leaflet distributed at Standard Motors said:

*Standards can afford to keep all men on the books and can pay them trade union rates. In the Financial Times of November 8, Standards say that this present crisis will be resolved shortly after Christmas. They have made enough profits over the past few years (7 million pounds last year and more to come this year) to retain all men on the books until they find alternative work for them. If the company refuse to do this and say that they cannot afford it, then the trade unions must demand the right to inspect the records and books of Standards to ascertain for themselves the true state of affairs.

There is no doubt but the Coventry branch of the Socialist Labour League is assured of a steady growth in its numbers over the next few months. HE NORTH-WEST AREA COMMITTEE: Held its monthly meeting in Manchester last Sunday. The League is recruiting throughout the north-west area, from young people and active Labour Party mer ibers.

One of the items for discussion was the el: boration of a plan to educate new cadres in the area. It was decided to hold four week-end training schools in the new year. Three local discussion classes are now being organized in Urmston, Bury and Manchester Central.

The Newsletter has opened Queen Street, Manchester.

EWSLETTER FUND: Rose to £940 by the closing date of November 21. We appealed for f400 and we received f540 more. Students at Leeds University alone donated £20. Once again our warmest thanks to all who helped to make the fund such a tremendous success.

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE T LAB presents PUBLIC LECTURES SIX MARXISM & BRITISH LABOUR MOVEMENT All timed for 7.30 p.m. on Sundays only DECEMBER 4th—Labour and the Colonial Revolution Frank Girling 18th—British Capitalism in the '60s Tom Kemp JANUARY Ist—A Socialist Foreign Policy Banda 15th—The Left in British Labour Brian Pearce 29th—The Coming English Revolution Cliff Slaughter FEBRUARY 12th—The Working Class in British Politics Gerry Healy Class in British At 186 CLAPHAM HIGH STREET, S.W.4 (Nr. Clapham Common Underground Stn.—Northern Line)

Sarah Horn INEW Arab Students Want ab Students

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights; Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.' HOW often, since Michael Foot's nomination as Labour candidate in the Ebbw Vale by-election, must Hugh Gaitskell's thoughts have run along these lines. For he knew that Foot was not only in the habit of thinking but had a disconcerting way of speaking his thoughts out loud. He would go down to the Welsh constituency and fight the election on a policy of more socialism and, worst of all, in support of unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Hugh Gaitskell and his friends have said that to put a unilateralist policy before the country would be electoral suicide. Again and again they have declared that the mass of Labour supporters were not in sympathy with the Scarborough decision on defence. The latest to say so was Mr. Woodrow Wyatt. 'We are saddled', he declared, with a ridiculous unilateralism • • which is anathema to the voters'. • Ebbw Vale gave its answer loud and clear, and the lie was killed stone dead.

What happened ought to have been a sharp lesson to the enemies of socialism. When the people really know what they want, no flood of hostile propaganda can turn them from it. For a fortnight before the by-election the full blast of Tory publicity was turned upon Ebbw Vale. No effort was spared by the press to bludgeon the voters into rejecting Foot and his policies.

First we were told that his campaign wasn't going too well; his manner was donnish and dry and made no appeal to voters who had been accustomed to Aneurin Bevan's exuberant personality. Then we heard that Ebbw Vale was not really Left wing; they had voted for Bevan out of a dogged loyalty, nothing DO MARXISTS OPPOSE THE ONLY FOR CAPITALISM?

A couple of weeks ago you published a letter from Student' dealing with Gaitskell's gibe about nuclear disarmers not asking for Russia to give up the bomb.

Although I agree with the general points made by "Student' (that Gaitskell was talking nonsense and that no socialist could advocate unilateral abandonment by the Soviet Union, in present circumstances, I am not clear about the reasons for his remarks. He or she seemed to suggest that (a) we advocate unilateral action by this country only because it is capitalist and (b) the only reason why we do not advocate similar action by Russia is because she is a workers state.

At the same time as this letter appeared, another was published in Tribune accusing the Socialist Labour League of wanting to 'not abolish the Nuclear Research Establishment but sanctify it with the Red Flag'. Now this is a stupid lie but Marxists must be able to say why it is a lie. What worried me about the comrades letter was that it was capable of being misinterpreted in such a way as to lend support to the lie.

It is obvious that genuine socialists are committed to the defence of Soviet Union, a workers' state achieved by proletarian revolution, but this in itselt does not prove the need for nuclear defence. This need arises from the world situation (imperialist H-bombs and rocket bases' in 'Student's' words). Secondly, socialists do not advocate nuclear disarmament for Britain just because she is a capitalist country (although this might be one good reason but because we believe that this country cannot be defended at all by the H-bomb.

Of course, Gaitskell can't see this any more than he can tell the difference between a capitalist and a workers' state!

Oxford. ANOTHER STUDENT.

ER PAMPHLET After Scarborough THE BATTLE BEGINS PECTS AND TASKS FOR THE THE LABOUR PARTY By G. Healy Price 2d.--From Clapham more. When Bevan renounced unilateralism they had been solidly behind him; now they would show their dislike of it by staying away from the polls.

Crossbencher of the Sunday Express came right out in the open and told Labour voters to 'demonstrate their loyalty' to Gaitskell by 'plumping for Mr Emrys Roberts', the Welsh Nationalist candidate. In spite of it all, however, the fact had by-and-by to be faced that Michael was going to win.

When matters got desperate James Callaghan went down to the Vale to throw a last-minute spanner in the work by trying to whip up feeling against unilateralism. According to a Daily Telegraph reporter he turned a Labour mass meeting 'into a bear garden'. Said one Ebbw Vale man after this performance 'Gaitskell doesn't want to see Michael Foot in the House of Commons; he used Callaghan to do his dirty work for him."

Then, as a last forlorn eve-of-poll hope, Mr. Peter Thorneycroft took a hand at Tredegar. The Tory Minister of Aviation condemned Foot's unilateralist line and urged Labour voters either to 'vote for someone else on this occasion or abstain'. Ebbw Vale showed what they thought of all these shabby manoeuvres.

Among the men and women about Hugh Gaitskell there are many who are fat and sleek-headed. No doubt they sleep pretty well o' nights. And if they never alarm anybody by thinking too much, certainly they are dangerous-to the cause of socialism and human survival. Last week Ebbw Vale gave the whole pack of them a swift kick in the pants with a vigorous Foot.

BIRIIAIN PEIARICE

Rour Bv R. PERRY

Let me have men about me that are fat, THE proposal of a Pan-African Catholic university at Douala constitutes a counter-revolutionary centre, and therefore a danger for all the African peoples.' I quote from 'Voice of Kamerun', the meaty and well-produced journal of the Union of the Population of the Cameroons, which is published from 200 Gower Street, London, N.W.1. This publication gives a comprehensive picture of the situation in the Cameroons, where a Katanga-style puppet regime, upheld by French Imperialism, is being fought by a growing body of partisans, the Kamerunian maquis.

"Voice of Kamerun' ranges also over the wider African scene. From an article on the ex-Belgian Congo I was interested to learn that although the Congolese 'had no officers, no university graduates, there was in contrast one of the most numerous and Africanized clergies of Africa, with four native Bishops at its head.

The important role played by the Roman church hierarchy in Central Africa is probably not without some bearing on the Archbishop of Canterbury's projected tête-à-tête with the Pope. Not only the civil and military but also the ecclesiastical forces of world imperialism have to get co-ordinated in face of the volcanic upheaval of the African masses.

Lenin and Thorez

Another very welcome bit of reader-reaction' provokes this paragraph. A close follower of my column has protested that in the piece headed 'Paris in Revolt, 1934 and 1960', I made two mistakes. First, I am wrong to blame the French Communist Party for having called 'murderers" the Paris police who fired on a Fascist mob who were trying to get at Radical MPs in order to lynch them: one ought, it seems, never to side with policemen, in any circumstances, against anybody, but always to run them down. Secondly, I suggest, it seems, that the French Communists ought to have made a 'popular front' with the Radicals against the Fascists.

The French Trotskyists said at the time, and I think now they were right, that the situation in Paris in February, 1934, was essentially similar to that in Petrograd in August, 1917, when Kornilov made his attempt to seize power from the 'radical' government of Kerensky. As we can read in Lenin's writings of that period, and in Trotsky's classic History of the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks did not call those Kerensky troops who shot at Kornilov 'murderers'-on the contrary, they too shot at Kornilov, and they criticized Kerensky, not for shooting, but for not acting earlier, bolder and on a larger scale against this forerunner of Fascism.

It was not, of course, a question of making any sort of political front, with Kerensky, but neither was it one of "a plague on both your houses', and still less one of "down -FROM A CORRESPONDENT SHOUTING 'Freedom for Algeria; Stop the dirty war, 120 Arab students marched through Liverpool streets last Saturday.

Their banners and posters carried slogans attacking French imperialism. Leaflets were distributed to shoppers. One from the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Youth in Britain' declared: It is not only possible, but imperative for the British Labour Movement to condemn the so-called French Socialist Party for its disgraceful opportunist attitude on the Algerian question."

The Executive Committee of the Arab Society of the University of Liverpool, in another leaflet, called upon 'our British colleagues to make the Algerian cause a political issue in this country, and conduct a real effective pressure through their organizations to support, materially and morally, the Algerian case in UN and to put an end to this brutal war by stopping NATO being used against the Algerian people. It is only through the solidarity of international action against the Fascist regime in France that this cause of liberty could achieve its victory." 'SIT DOWN' AT PLAYERS By OUR NOTTINGHAM CORRESPONDENT WORKERS at the John Player factory in Nottingham began a sit-down strike on Tuesday this week. The decision was taken at a meeting of about 50 shop stewards and is in protest against the introduction of cigarette machines, six of which the management insist should be operated by two men. The union has insisted on the principle of one man, one machine.

The dispute over the manning of these machines has dragged on over the last six months. The management are claiming that they have the right to develop new machines, but the tobacco workers' shop stewards have threatened that unless the machines are worked under conditions agreed with the union, then all the workers in the cigarette-making departments would be called on to support the strike.

Vatican Over Africa with the Kerenskyite murderers'. Rather was it, in Trotsky's phrase, a matter of 'using Kerensky as a gunrest to shoot at Kornilov'. Their sober and well-considered tactics in the Kornilov crisis helped the Bolsheviks to emerge from their isolation following the July days' and to advance steadily in influence among the masses, towards October.

Perhaps my critic thinks the Bolsheviks were wrong? Or that there is no real analogy to be found between the two episodes? Or that all this is without relevance to present-day problems of tactics? A controversy around this would be valuable, think. The question interests me especially because, in 1934, being in Paris, and a hot young 'third-period" Stalinist, I strongly agreed with my critic's present view!

China v. Yugoslavia

A reader has asked for the source of the following statement: 'But it is not by means of war that the difficulties of building socialism are to be resolved, even if a country has 600 million inhabitants, a fact which certain of their public men like to underline, adding that even after a possible war there would still remain 300 million Chinese.

This was said by Tito in his speech at Labin on June 15, 1958.

The Peking Review (Chinese official English-language weekly) reprinted in its issue of July 1, 1958, an article from the People's Daily of June 26, replying to Tito. The article did not touch on this particular point ("Tito's painstakingly prepared speech consists of so many lies that they cannot be refuted'.)

Starting Next Week LABOUR'S FIFTH COLUMN SKEI AND CO.-ENEMY AGENTS CAPI LISM AND MR. CROSLAND EW THINKING and THE NATIONAL INTERE written for The Newsle

By R.

CARRYING posters saying "Six Unions gether, over a thousand strikers from Frigidaires marched round the factory gates to show their determination to win.

The dispute, now in its third week, started when a worker being timed on an assembly line was told by a foreman that he was working too slowly. When the worker protested to his steward, he was transferred to a stores job, with a consequent loss of production pay.

The management refused to negotiate with the union involved and the whole factory struck work on November 8..

The management now demand an unconditional return to work and a signed declaration that there shall be no more strikes without seven days' notice. Stewards claim that these demands mean that they are virtually locked out.

Bro. George Hill, Convenor at Frigidaires (a division By OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT of the vast General Motors Corporation of America) told me that he considers the firm's action part of the same speed-up drive which has been going on at Fords of Dagenham. "These firms in the consumer goods industry are trying desperately to cut the price of their products, he said. "We are determined that they won't break up our union organization ,and get their cheaper goods at the expense of the factory workers. It took us a long time to build the trade union strength here, and we shall not let go now."

Mrs. Lilian Timms, who cheered the marchers as they passed her home in Grove Park, told me she had worked at Frigidaires for over 15 years until she was victimized three years ago. "The management have always opposed the spread of trade unions in therethat's why I'm so pleased to see the boys taking their stand now, she said.

All the local organizers of the trade unions involved, THE PICKET STAYS TIL IF COMPAN PAYS with the exception of Bro. Hardy of the Municipal and General Workers, are recommending that the strike be made official, and many of the workers are voicing their disappointment at the slowness of their union executives in responding. There is also sharp criticism among the NUMGW members of the stalling tactics of their officials.

At a meeting of the strikers, reports of support from all the engineering factories in the Edgware Road were given, and it was announced that Hendon North Labour Party had donated £20 to the funds, and is providing a loudspeaker van and the use of a meeting hall for the strikers.

The meeting voted to join the demonstration of engineers at the Employers' Federation on November 23.

Donations and messages of support should be sent to: Mr. M. Wright, 5a Holmstall Avenue, Edgware, Middlesex.

By W. HUNTER

RAISIN DIK AND DEAL R WEEK omkiz JONUS TUESDAY marked the begining of the twelfth week of the Sunpak dispute. At the end of August, 14 girls members of the Transport and General Workers Union, walked out of the South London factory demanding a 42-hour week and decent conditions. They were locked out by the management of Sunpak, a firm making collapsible lead tubes. A week later they were followed by the workers at Bruntons, who struck work after a lorryload of lead had been sent to the Sunpak factory in the night in an attempt to break through the stoppage of supplies.

Pickets are still outside the Sunpak factory daily, and passing lorries cheer their slogans.

Several weeks ago, after the strike had been made official by the TGWU, hopes were high that there would be a quick settlement. The Sunpak and Brunton's managements approached the union for negotiations, but these have broken down. The strikers have refused the employers' offer of a return to work for all except the 'four ringleaders.

Union officials now seem to have lost interest in this dispute but support and money are coming to the strikers through the efforts of the rank and file of London trade union branches. The Brixton branch of the Electrical Trades Union is sponsoring attempts to get a demonstration of trade unionists and Labour Party members in Brixton in support of the Sunpak and Brunton strikers on December 10. A £50 donation has been sent to the strike by the Covent Garden branch of the TGWU.

The strikers are determined not to go back defeated, their hopes rest in the support of rank-and-file trade unionists.

GARSTON (LIVERPOOL) Divisional Labour Party has decided to set up a special committee to keep its members fully informed on the progress of the struggle in the national party to carry forward the decisions of the Scarborough conference.

It is making a special appeal to all members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to join the party and decided to arrange a public meeting with a national speaker to put official (unilateralist) policy on the H-bomb.

LIVERPOOL SOUTH BRANCH of the Powerworkers' section of the Transport and General Workers' Union, passed a resolution at its last meeting noting with satisfaction and appreciation' the decisions of the Scarborough conference.

The branch congratulated Frank Cousins, the TGWU, the Amalgamated Engineering Union and all other trade unions and constituency Labour Parties who took part in that great struggle for socialism and world peace' Over 50 members the branch-Mersey dredgermen-were present. vocal opponent of the resolution was Mr. Joseph Hancock, whose sudden conversion to Moral Rearmament was reported in The Newsletter some months ago.

The resolution was carried by a five to one majority. PTU, LIVERPOOL: No. 1 branch of the Plumbing Trades Union has carried the following resolution:

*This branch calls on our executive council to support the EC of the Boilermakers' Union on their recent statement calling on their members not to work on the Polaris missile base in Scotland. In view of the change of policy adopted at the Labour Party conference we ask our EC to support this resolution."

last Saturday attended a conference called by the North West Regional Committee of the CND.

John Horner, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades* Union, made it clear in his address to the meeting that there must now be a fight to win trade unionists for the Scarborough decisions. If Gaitskell doesn't like the way this working-class party of ours works, that's too bad i Iwe must see that the machine created. by the workers, the trade unions, is not used against the decisions of conference... this is a vital period ahead. The way to save the world at the end of 1960 and the beginning of 1961 is to save the Labour Party.' As to whether Scarborough meant getting out of NATO he declared, 'If it's impossible to get agreement on defence without nuclear strategy, we must get out of NATO?

Speakers from the floor were equally emphatic about the need to carry through the conference decisions, and to deal firmly with those who are attempting to frustrate the majority, opinion in the Labour Movement. The need to use the full strength of the Movement to back the political decisions of Scarborough was well received by the delegates, who were drawn from most of the industrial unions in the area.

A committee has been set up to arrange for the maximum publicity for the unilateralist case amongst trade unionists in the Manchester area.

Published by The Newsletter, 186 Clapham High St., London, SW4 Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), r.o. 180 Clapham High St, London

"NEW €15 a week deal for dockers in Liverpool read a headline in the Liverpool Daily Post last Friday.

The day before, every Merseyside docker had received in his pay packet a leaflet issued by the local Dock Labour Joint Committee. One of the co-signatories to the leaflet was Mr. P. J. O'Hare, leading Merseyside docks official of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

The leaflet told dockers of two new agréements which come into effect at noon on Saturday, November 26. One covers port working rules. The other, according to the leaflet, will mean 'attractive new rates for loading, discharge and delivery' of cargo.

The Daily Post announced that the increased rates 'will enable the Liverpool docker to earn f15 for his basic week's work of 44 hours compared to the present average of £10 16s.

BUT IS THERE A CATCH?

But as dockers opened their pay packets last Thursday afternoon and read their leaflets a large dose of scepticism was mixed with anticipation.

Rumours have been current on the docks since the beginning of this month that the new piece-work agreement provided in a number of cases for less men in the gangs.

In the past there have been many 'give and take" agreements on the docks. In order to find the catch in this deal the dockers will thoroughly scrutinize the detailed account of the new piece-work scheme which is promised for this week Certainly no one believes that the Merseyside dockers are now going to enjoy what Mr. O'Hare says he demanded from the employers— an agreement which would give the men a minimum of £15 for a 44-hour basic working week'.

Such an increase of over t4 a week would put the dockers' wages way above those general in this area.