The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 235

RE the railmen going to be sold out like the postal workers? It is now a little over a weck since Ron Smith, the General Secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers, called off the work to rule without the slightest concession from the government. It was a capitulation to the Tories and a sell-out for the postmen. show-down. By Our Industrial Correspondent Heartened by the rout of such weak-kneed leadership, the Tories have thrown down the gauntlet to the railmen. First they insult them with an offer of 25 per cent, and then they rely on their well-paid servant Dr. Beeching to pile on the insults by raising this to 3 per cent, or 7d. in the f.

When Beeching replaced Sir Brian Robertson as chief of the Transport Executive the salary for the post was raised from £10,000 to £24,000 a year.

The Tories knew what they were doing. They deliberately selected Dr. Beeching as part of the preparation for the present Money was no object as far as his salary went, provided he did what the government wanted him to do. His action in offerno better than Greene ing 3 per cent was designed to create a diversion and a split inside the rail unions.

By suggesting that his hands were tied by Macmillan he provided a temporary way out for Sidney Greene of the NUR, who is anxious to avoid at all costs what he described as a 'flipping strike'.

So another sell-out is being arranged. The appeal to the Prime Minister is nothing ADVERTISEMENT o all Trade Unionists LAMBETH (TUC RECOGNISED) Sidney Greene: "flipping strikes' more than a shabby pretext to delay industrial action.

While the NUR right wing mark time, the Tories grow more confident, as can be be seen from the new White Paper on incomes.

Just as the TUC decided to enter Selwyn Lloyd's economic council, the Tories published their policy on wages which states quite clearly that the pay pause will go on after April.

The Tories are out to defeat and split the trade unions. The right wing are helping them. Millions of workers want to fight, but there is no leadership.

Over three million engineering workers stood firm in their one-day stoppage, but William Carron, their General Secretary, is no different from Sidney Greene. He will settle for a paltry few coppers in order to avoid a conflict with the Tories.

London's tubemen displayed magnificent solidarity in their one-day strike on January 29, but the leaders of the busmen prevented their men from taking sympathetic action. They allowed the Tories to record another victory.

The bus workers have gained is holding a nothing; even after protracted negotiations with the London Transport Executive, Mr. Cousins has still to receive even an offer of 3 per cent.

It is time to take a lesson from the Tories. They stand together without budging an inch. The transport workers are divided and misled. What is needed is a transport workers' alliance which will draw together the rank and file of the three railway unions and the Transport & General Workers' Union.

If busmen and railwaymen stand firmly together, then they can stop the rot and expose the right wing. Instead of splitting the ranks, the London Central Bus Committee of the TGWU should now be having talks with similar bodies like the London District Committee of the NUR.

'United we stand, divided we fall ' is now more true than ever. There is absolutely no need for pessimism, if the rank and file take up the Tory challenge. Build a transport workers' alliance immediately! AS we go to press the death roll in the mine disaster at Saarbrucken in West Germany has risen to 260, and many more are still missing.

The Newsletter sends condolences to the families of the dead workers.

An explosion started a roaring fire that swept through the mine and caused a number of levels to collapse.

A big rescue operation swung into action to get severely injured miners to hospital.

The mining industry is continually racked by terrible disasters.

The only solution is nationalisation. While the mines remain in capitalist hands adequate safety precautions will take a back seat as the miners are driven to create greater profits for the owners. Cuba: US Plans New T government is a sign that American imperialism HE embargo placed on trade with Cuba by the continue its attempt to crush the Cuban revolution.

The labour movement in this country must stop any move by Tory government to respond to pressure from Washington to off British trading relations with Cuba.

Labour must fight for an expansion in such trade, in order to bring economic assistance to the Cuban people.

The State Department is already reported to be urging the Canadian government to cut economic links with Havana.

Canada is at present one of the best customers for Cuban Che Guevara exports outside the Soviet bloc.

The trade ban, which came into force on Wednesday, will rob Castro's government of $35 million a year.

Kennedy's 'democratic' administration announced this decision after the Punte del Este conference of American states had voted to expel Cuba from the Organization.

It is significant that even in this gathering of stooges, Kennedy had difficulty in getting his own way.

All the largest LatinAnti-Castro guerillas being trained in America Attacks US will the cut American countries, fearful of the reaction among their own workers and peasants, abstained on the expulsion vote.

Meanwhile, preparation for armed action against Cuba goes on. US-armed guerillas are continuously trained in the Panama Canal zone for at tack on the Island.

American big business is determined to eliminate this threat to its power in the Western hemisphere.

The Newsletter has often criticized the policies of Castro and his regime. We do not regard this tendency as being Marxist, whatever Castro and Che Guevara may proclaim.

PROTESTED

For this reason, we do not think it can lead the Cuban and South American revolution to completion.

We have protested vigorously against the suppression of Marxist opinion in Cuba.

But in its conflict with US imperialism the Cuban state deserves the unconditional support of the world labour movement. All socialists must fight against these attempts to throw the Cuban people back to their pre-1958 conditions.

We pledge ourselves to do everything we can to defend the Cuban revolution against military or economic attack.

We must press our demands by all possible means that the US government lifts the trade embargo and that the British government increases its trade with Cuba.

'NST 'NST FOR FOR (off Atlantic Road) 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, February The Wage Racialism The Engineers, Post Office workers and all unionists fighting for justified wage increases. a strong Trade Union Movement. Support the Meeting, Join the March, Bring your Branch Banner at KELLETT ROAD, BRIXTON, S.W.2 10, I•LI LULLLI LLL

Fascist Threat Grows in France DE GAULLE's long-awaited speech has come and gone. Its meaningless phrases and empty rhetoric indicate that no solution to the French crisis is available to the ruling class.

In Algeria, the colons continue their reign of terror against the Moslems under the leadership of the OAS.

No one knows if the Army would carry out orders from Meanwhile the secret negotiations between de Gaulle and the FLN go on. The General has to obtain sufficient 0. 1962 By

Paris if it came to a showdown.

of the Fourth Republic by de Gaulle.

RITING on the 'second front' campaign of the Communist Party during the war, Brian Pearce declares: 'Abstract observations about the "imperialist" character of the Second World War neither were nor are of any help in this connection.' But the character of a particular war is certainly no abstract question, as Lenin made plain during the First World War. It is the whole foundation of socialist policy in war-time.

Did the entry of Russia alter the character of the war? Did it alter the aims for which the imperialist governments were fighting? The Marxists in the Second World War, answered No!

Yes, as Brian Pearce says, 'in a war in which the Soviet Union is involved it is the duty of socialists everywhere to facilitate a Soviet victory' But how to do that?

Trotskyist policies were based on the Marxist principles of internationalism and furtherance of the class struggle. With these principles they had answered those who, before Russia was attacked, had declared it was necessary to have an alliance with the 'democratic' capitalists to defend the democratic rights of the working class against fascism.

Churchill and the British ruling class could no more defend the Soviet Union than they could defend against Hitler the rights which the working class in Britiain had won in struggle against their capitalist rulers.

The Michael. do THe sitrust il quests of the working class is by class struggle methods. When the Trotskyists called for "he sending of arms to Russia 'under workers' control' they were not just 'adding a tag' as Brian Pearce avers. They were expressing a class policy of defence.

In the same way they declared that the only way the working class could meet the menace of fascism was through its own independent policies.

In 'Labour Review' of April-May 1959 Brian Pearce correctly summarized the Trotskyist policy as declaring that 'Only workers' power could transform the imperialist war into genuine war in defence of the Soviet Union and against fascism.' Of course we supported the sending of arms even by the Churchill government to Russia, but we warned about the limitations of the policy — and we were right.

There was a well-founded mistrust on the part of British workers of the British ruling class which wanted to defeat German imperialism but wanted the Soviet Union to be bled white in doing so. The Second Front campaign took hold of this mistrust. It was turned not into class struggle channels, but into a pressure campaign to alter imperialist strategy.

The Communist Party's desertion from class struggle methods in defence of working class conquests inevitably meant total and complete support for imperialism.

Brian Pearce implies that the Second Front agitation in and of itself need not have been wrong. But the Communist Party's 'dangerous confusion on Reed's ' Ten Days that Shook the World ' is an important event. It makes available this exciting account of the greatest happening of the century. It also opens the door to the correction of a series of falsifications of history by the Stalinists.

Lenin wrote a foreword recommending the book to the workers of the world. Her e is a book which I should liki to see published in millions of copies and translated into all languages'.

Reed's work was indeed read by millions. But by the middle twenties Stalin and the bureaucracy he represented were busy re-writing the history of the revolution in order to discredit Trotsky and his supporters.

The English edition was published by the British Communist Party in 1926. A footnote is inserted, defending Zinoviev and Kamenev against the (true) accusation that they had opposed the insurrection. At fundamental issues, its strikebreaking, its support for the Tories, its opposition to working class struggle, together with its Second Front campaign were all a result of its opportunist degeneration. That is what led to its wholesale desertion of class methods.

There was logical consistency to its policies which doesn't exist if you try to see the last war as an imperialist war 'in patches' as Brian seems to do. As he says of the Communist Party member: 'To the simple minded it seemed that a British tank, while useful in the hands of Red Army soldiers might be even more useful to the time the edition was being prepared they were allied with Stalin against Trotsky.

For the tenth anniversary in 1927, Eisenstein directed a film version. But he was forced to revise it, playing down Trotsky and putting in some shots of Stalin. (Stalin gets two mentions only in the book.) The film, known as 'October', was not finished until 1929.

The legend of the leading role played by Stalin in the insurrection and the elimination of Trotsky's name from the histories made the book more and more embarrassing to the Stalinists.

The present edition is photographed from a 1932 production. For 30 years Reed's book was suppressed by King Street in this country.

In 1937, the "News Chronicle, then a popular front-ish journal, wanted to serialize the book on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the revolution. But this was the period of the Moscow trials and the great slander campaign against Trotsky.

these same soldiers if sent to France to force Hitler to withdraw some of his forces to the Eastern Front.' To the 'simple-minded' arguing on the hardly profound and certainly non-class maxim that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', it also appeared that any blow struck against German imperialism was an assistance to the Soviet Union. Thus, a weakening of the 'war effort' of imperialism by workers struggling against it, was something to be fiercely denounced. And an attempt had to be made to cover up the real nature of imperialism when workers felt the reality of imperialist interests'.

Hence decli

'A new generation of socialists will learn how the Russian workers overthrew capitalism'... a revolutionary sailors" -soviet in session in 1917.

So King Street's permission for the publication was made conditional on the removal of Trotsky's name. The "Chronicle' decided that there would not be much left and the project was dropped.

The Russians reprinted 'Ten Days' in 1957. For five years the British Stalinists held back. Even now, they try to avoid any admission that they had distorted history.

This was seen in the ludicrous publication of carefully extracted pieces in the 'Worker' last week, in which only Lenin's name appeared.

The false account of the October Revolution is given in the 'History of the CPSU', the English translation of which appeared in 1960. This volume is still being sold, side by side with 'Ten Days'.

A new generation of socialists will now read this great book. They will learn how the Russian workers overthrew capitalism, how the Bolsheviks led them-and how the Stalinists tried unsuccessfully to wipe out a whole period of history.

the exposure of imperialist aims in Europe to be 'scare stories of Anglo - American domination' of Europe ('How to Win the Peace').

The question is not just one of understanding the point of view of those who participated in the Second Front campaign. That can be important, just as it is necessary to understand the point of view of those among the CP rank and file who today advocate pressure policies on an imperialist government.

But the main question surely is not this but whether their policies are assisting the longterm interests of the working class or whether, in fact, they are helping to deceive them.

February 10,1962 S barrenness of the leaders ¡OME indication of the of the British Communist Party may be obtained from By JAMES BAKER write nostalgically, 'as the brilliant and lucid teacher of Leninism and Lenin's theories in Ceylon

the articles appearing in the latest issue of 'The African Communist, (No. 8, Jan.

1962). This is supposedly the journal of the illegal Communist Party of South Africa, but it is published in England and has the imprint of King Street all over it.

In the Editorial Notes, for example, it is claimed that the main business of the 22nd Congress was really the new programme, and only 'the capitalist newspapers preferred to focus the attention of their readers on other questions, particularly that of Albania and the Stalin cult' (The position adopted by the Chinese Party is nowhere mentioned.)

The Editors, whoever they are, appear to regret the sad course of events which has brought about the anti-Stalin policies.

«We remember Stalin, they Sekou Toure To the Editorial Dear Comrades, I have read with great pleasure the article 'End of an illusion' which I sent to comrade Tom Kemp for translation (Newsletter, 27.1.62). My comrades and I appreciate greatly your contribution to the struggle of colonial peoples.

We hope that in the next two years, Marxist (Trotskyist) parties will be built in Black Africa. We do our best towards realizing this urgent task. Time in this case is important insomuch as the only LETTER Stalinist party, the PAI, is still far from being rooted in the African masses. Furthermore, we have many sympathizers inside the PAI and even inside its lea ling staff.

The PAI (African Party of Independence) was founded in 1957 in Dakar (Senegal). It has acarcu some cal secuons In arantad coma Innal continmaMali, Gabon and Guinea. Its Guinean section was very influential before de Gaulle's referendum in 1958, and some of its genuine revolutionary elements played a sort of 'shadow staff' in guiding the Guinean people to make pressure on Sekou Toure and other perty-bourgeois leaders for voting 'no' in the referedum.

The leadership of the PAI nourished illusions on Sekou Toure and thought that he would break with imperialism. They were very trusting in listening to Moscow's advice! Then they on the national and colonial question; the tireless fighter against Trotsky and other renegades. ... the leader of the Soviet people in the war against Fascism, and in the tasks of peaceful reconstruction.' They have no hesitation in condemning the creator of the Red Army and the architect of its victory as 'a renegade'; the anonymous Editors are equally ready to heap praise on all the petty-bourgeois opportunist leaders that Africa has ever produced.

Jomo Kenyatta ('the staunchness, courage and vision of great man'); Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere ('outstanding spokesmen, defenders and patriots); Chief Albert Lutuli (would 'fulfil with dinstinction the office of head of state if South Africa enjoyed democratic institutions').

And lest any Marxist in Africa should have doubt about the praising of a pacifist, christian, semi-feudal bureaucrat in this way, one who, according to the Editors, "is far from sharing the philosophical views and ultimate aims of Marxism Leninism' they point out that a 'cardinaj principle' of the South African Communist Party is 'unity between Communists and nonCommunists in the national liberation struggle'.

Ghana, the state where trades union leaders are still in prison and where an agreement has just been reached with American imperialists for the exploitation of the bauxite resources, is said to be 'striding out sturdily on merely dissolved their local Guinean section for not disturbing Sekou Toure's government.

In a conversation I had two years ago with the General Secretary of the PAL, Medjmoud Diop, he told me that it had been a big mistake to dissolve the local section in Guinea. Many cadres of the party have turned completely to being merely Sekou Toure's lackeys and have been absorbed into his state apparatus.

Some of the members who tried to 'improve' Sekou Toure's party by struggling inside it were expelled and prosecuted. Some of them had been thrown in prison in 1960, had been released and had to take refuge in 'more democratic countries' like Senegal!

But the leadership of the Stalinist PAI seems till now unable to draw out lessons from the past and is committing the same mistake in the Republic of Mali headed by another 'left, Modibo Keita!

I should like to mention a slight mistake in my article. The second paragraph should read as follows: 'The local leader of the RDA (African Democratic Union), Sekou Toure ..?

The Newsletter is my paper and the paper of all revolutionary elements in Africa. That is why it has to publish very accurate information and I think that, besides the correction of the mistake contained in my article, it would be useful to give your readers this supplementary information.

I apologize for my very bad English and thank you very much once more for your help.

Yours fraternally, MAMADOU KEITA

Nkrumah

the road to true independence, national democracy, and noncapitalist methods of development'.

Palme Dutt has a signed article in this issue of 'The African Communist': he follows out the same policy as the ananymous editors. True, he goes so far as to refer to Lenin's 'Theses on the National and Colonial Question' (1920), but he carefully refrains from quoting from them and he contradicts all Lenin's main contentions.

While Lenin insisted on the necessity of maintaining the 'independence of the proletarian movement even if it is only in an embryonic stage', Dutt states that the 'immediate task before the peoples of Africa is to ... win complete political independence from Imperialism'. The building of a Communist Party is not, acording to Dutt, a priority task. The most essential is to create a united national front drawing in all the progressive elements and classes ready to play their part in the cause of national liberation' Dutt is still faithful the to teaching of his master the on 'building of Socialism one in country'. It appears that socialism can now be built in a large number of different countries separately and indepently.

Dutt claims also that Trotsky was responsible for the theory that 'the Soviet revolution could only survive if the socialist revolution conquered in all the countries of Western Europe', and that Lenin dismissed this as a "fairy tale' It is, of course, Dutt who romancing. City Slamts by colin chance Incomes policy 'Arguments derived from the increased cost of living, or from the trends of profits or productivity in a particular industry, cannot in present circumstances be regarded as providing of themselves a sound basis for an increase?

This quotation is taken from the government's White Paper, ' Incomes policy: The Next Step'. It provides clear evidence that the same economists who state that an increase in production will justify a similar increase in wages are indulging in cant of the most blatant variety.

An increase in productivity in a particular industry is to go unrewarded. 'National growth' must be main consideration, This recent LSSP Party) danger as it i: wide a many still at THE abortive coup by top military and police officers in Ceylon on January 27 is over but the spectre of a military-police take-over still stalks the country.

This has been inherent in the situation since the assassination of Mr. Bandaranaike and recurrence of 'Emergency Rule' in the last three vears.

point is underlined in a leaflet issued by the (Lanka Samasamaja after the coup. 'The of a coup is not over i clear that the plot was nd well planned and that of the conspirators are large.' DANGER It goes on to state:

"The danger of a coup from the right wing and reactionary sources, the Police, Military and top administration has been stressed over and over again by the LSSP, both inside and outside Parliament. The use of the Military in the harbour, in Radio Ceylon and in manning vital positions in the economy and the administration paved the way for these elements to attempt to overthrow the Government. The LSSP has specifically warned against the utilisation of the military and the police in this manner resulting in the penetration by them of the civil administration but the Government persisted in using these reactionary forces with the one idea of crushing the Trade Unions and paid no heed to these warnings.' BACKERS The local capitalists and their imperialist backers frightened by the wave of strikes sweeping the country in the new year have obviously planned the coup in advance. In 1958 the extreine right thought they could stop the government capitulating to working-class pressure by assassinating the PM. This time, however, they realized that the but, so far as fixing wage rates in industries such as the public services is concerned, the principle of comparability is thrown overboard.

Indeed the White Paper, which says hardly a word about profits, does not even try to appear 'reasonable' or 'fair. Its purpose is to sound the clarion call to Big Business to intensify their attacks on wages generally.

This is the sort of policy to which the trade union leaders subscribe now that they have voted to join the NEDC.

Already the wage pause is having a real effect on living standards, as the latest Treasury • Bulletin for Industry' shows. ' Rising consumer prices-largely because of cost increases earlier in the year-have more than offset the gain in money incomes, so JR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT assassin's bullet was inadequate and that nothing short of military - police dictatorship would do.

Only revolutionary struggle led by a firm Marxist leadership can thwart any more projected coups. Unfortunately this is lacking. The LSSP which claims to be Marxist has, up till the budget, followed a policy of accommodation to the SLFP government.

Now it calls upon the workers to engage in strike action and hartal (civil disobedience of a violent kind) if another coup occurs. While welcoming this belated conversion to orthodoxy it is necessary to point out to the LSSP leaders that only independent working action nownot in the event of a possible coup — can stop the drift to dictatorship.

SQUADS

A policy which gives priority to the setting up of self-defence squads and to the arming of the workers must be put into operation immediately. There must be no confidence in the government, only hostility and distrust. The government must be made to hand over the would-be assassins of labour to the people for trial.

The SLFP government is doomed. Only an anti-capitalist government, with a firm Marxist leadership, defended by a workers' militia, can banish the spectre of military dictatorship in Ceylon.

Natalia Trotsky Memorial Meeting iturday, February YORK HALL, CAXTON HALI Victoria St., S.W. there has income?

The real meaning of the wage pause is, in fact, an attack on living standards, and we can find confirmation of this in the new White Paper.

Here are some Treasury figures showing percentage increases in different types of income between 1953 and 1960:

Percentage increase Wages and salaries 574% Trading profits 593% Dividends 90% Rents 75% The shareholders, whose dividends are quoted above, are clearly the greatest producers of all! Their production of wealth rises at an ever-increasing yearly rate. Mr. Selwyn Lloyd must be proud of them.

another bob WSLE February 10, 196

solidarity.

By ALAN WEST Our Labour Correspondent FORCED by growing militancy and threats of go-slows and strikes, Lord Robens, the strikes, Lord Robens, the National Coal Board chairman, has raised his pay offer by a shilling a week for all grades of has raised his pay offer by a miners.

The original offer was 3$ per cent, which would have given day-wage miners 6s. 6d. a week more and craftsmen 9s. 6d. The new offer would give the industry's 247,000 day-wage miners an increase of 3% per cent and 46,000 craftsmen 4 to 4.3 per cent. Piece-work prices are to be pegged for the next 12 months.

This offer goes beyond the 2} per cent maximum laid down by the government during the period of 'wage restraint' but, as the Tory press has stressed, miners, unlike railwaymen, do not set the pace for wage increases and the employers are satisfied that the rise could be covered by productivity.

Selwyn Lloyd has therefore given Robens more freedom in negotiations than Dr. Beeching.

7s. 6d. a week, however, will not buy peace in the mining industry. It is certain that this offer will not meet with the approval of the miners. Already union leaders are seeking fresh talks with Robens in order to encourage him to raise the offer again.

The Coal Board chairman will be placed in an awkward position, sandwiched between the angry miners and Mr. Lloyd with his pruning fork.

Action by the miners can prove to be more effective than any jabs the Chancellor cares to any trade union participation in NEDC.

'Today will focus the attention of the public on our situation, he said. Further action will be taken if there is no response from the employers when they meet the executive later this week. We have not yet discussed what that action will be, but with the backing of the workers we will win this claim.' Many critical questions were raised from the floor. One questioner suggested that instead of joining NEDC the General Council of the TUC should unite to administer. A wave of resolutions from NUM branches calling for a national stoppage would disprove the press's story that miners do not set the pace for wage increases.

The employers' quiet satisfaction at the certainty of a 33 per cent rise being swallowed by increased productivity is a cynical snub that can only be answered by the strongest possible action.

The rank and file in all industries should press for talks between miners, railmen and engineering workers to discuss widespread and united action that could rock the very foundations of the government.

LAST week 175 of the workers at the giant excavator firm of Priestmans of Hull went on strike. The employers have tried to revise their works' rules in such a way as to tighten up discipline in the factory and to subject the workers to the most stupid and offensive indignities.

The new rules give the company the right to search the workers at any time. They can be fined or suspended for disorderly conduct.

They can impose overtime at will although there is a national agreement between unions and employers to limit this to 30 hours a month.

The new rules were presented to the workers with a notice saying that anyone who continued to work for the firm after they had been issued would be deemed to have accepted the new rules.

On the morning they were issued there was a spontaneous strike reply. Over a quarter of the day shift took action.

The Amalgamated Engineering Union is pressing that the strike be made official. The boilermakers and the electricians are also involved.

Nearly a It - that's eeds.

A meeting "Total solidarity: in the organised factories 100 per cent, with a remarkable number of non-union men from the small factories joining in and supporting the strike?

That was the verdict on the response in Birmingham, given of shop stewards at the Rover car factory, Tyseley.

He had not heard of a factory where the response was not magnificent; at the Austin and Rover factories it was total. Though token pickets were maintained they were 'hardly necessary.

"The unity and solidarity in this fight are undeniably there,' he declared. The deputy convenor at the Boulton Paul's factory gave the same report of the response in Wolverhampton.

Among shop stewards the verdict was that the unions were better organized than at the time of the strike in support of the engineers' wage claim in 1953.

About 4,000 workers marched in a demonstration, headed by union banners, pipers and a jazz band. The largest single contingent was from Austin's, from which 1,000 workers had turned out carying placards with such slogans as 'Get your dirty paws off our wages, 'Solidarity: Railwaymen, Miners, Postal Workers, Civil Servants, Engineers — All Together Smash the Pay Pause' and 'Cut Profits, not Wages'.

Bro. C. Smith (Sec., Saltley branch ETU) said: 'We should go all out, no holds barred, to organise the workers for the purpose of breaking the wage pause. The leadership of the Labour Party should come out with definite support for such action.?

Bro. A. W. Wright (Austin's) said: 'The next step, if the government is still adamant, should be a total strike of 3 million engineers. In my view, to get maximum effectiveness, the unions should have called off overtime before this token strike. The Labour Party is dragging way behind in not giving more effective support.' Bro. G. R. James (convenor of shop stewards at the BSA factory): 'This is a magnificent show of

-ONDAY, January 5, was the day when one-seventh of Britain's working population downed tools in defiance of government policies. More than three million workers employed in the shipbuilding and engineering industries came out on an official stoppage in support of their claim for higher wages and a shorter working week. It was the most widespread strike since the General Strike of 1926. Union officials reported that the response was nearly 100 per cent throughout the country.

But this must be only the beginning. One-day strikes will not cripple the united action by all the Labour movement, in every industry, can do that.

This was the greatest show from all the main centres show in 'Magnificent show of of militancy yet against the pay pause, this round-up. Here was a fine example Exchange but the attendance was poor, only about 500 strikers turning up.

Many shop stewards and convenors felt that stronger action would be needed if their claim was to be successful.

A resolution was moved from the chair at the meeting pledging support for any further action taken by the Confed.

An amendment calling for a full-scale strike was not allowed to be put.

There was strong criticism of the handling of the meeting and the officials left quickly.

OFFICIAL HOWLED

DOWN THE mass meeting of engineers in Birmingham howled down a moderate speech from Leslie Keely, TGWU official.

He began by saying that the labour movement must prepare for more strike action, for the employers would not grant the wage demand for an extra £1 a week because of this one-day stoppage.

He went on, 'this government has just granted the surtax payers £83,000,000.' When the cries of 'shame' died down he added, 'not that I begrudge them that.?

Pandemonium broke out. cede our justifiable demands'.

The march through the city, past the empty, silent factories, included women workers and apprentices and a bright array of expressive banners.

strength-the best since 1926. If it doesn't do the trick we should call a week's token strike.' Leeds ger action neede 100 per cent turnthe report from held Call for National Stopage Four thousand strikers marched behind a brass band to the City Hall where they passed a resolution calling for a complete national stoppage on Monday, February 19.

The resolution ende d: 'until such time as the empl yers con-

Mass meetings throughout capital Engineers from North and West London held street marches in support of the national stoppage and their wage claim. The West London engineers elected delegates to go to the meeting of the Confed leaders in York on Thursday.

Another mass march took place in Ilford and a number of large meetings were held in the Essex area.

In East London engineers and shipbuilders were addressed by Ted Hill of the Boilermakers' Society who stressed the need to fight against the pay pause.

The meeting, in Canning Town Hall, was held after a mass march through the streets. The engineers passed a resolution calling for further action in support of their claim and elected delegates to go to York.

Strikers yelled out 'join the Tory party! ' In the few quiet moments Keely was heard to say: 'Listen — you'll agree with the rest-I say that surtax payers have shared the burden' (more outbreaks of booing) 'but if there's money for them the government has no right to put all the burden on the workers ..?

This tame attempt to cover up his statement was met with yells for him to sit down and shut up.

The chairman appealed for order, reminding the meeting that they were in a 'house of worship'.

Razzberries and boos greeted this awesome revelation. And Keely shut up.

Birmingham engineers are in a militant mood and will not put up with officials who try to stand in the way of a showdown with the Tories.

'Fight to the end' There was a fine response to the stoppage in Scotland. Nearly 250,000 workers in all downed tools and held a series of marches and demonstrations.

After a 5,000 strong march in Glasgow, strikers heard the Boilermakers' president, Dan McGarvey, say: ' We are prepared to fight this pay pause to the bitter end. Let us retain that old slogan 'Unity is strength'. If we do, there is nothing can divide us.' There were further marches and meetings throughout the main industrial centres, including Dundee, Paisley and Renfrew.

Nottingham 'TUC should help workers, not Tories' 100 per cent support for the one-day strike was given by engineering workers at the ROF, REME, COD, R olls Royce and A. V. Roe. In the entire Nottingham district per cent were estimated to be out.

meeting at the Albert Hall was addressed by Len Green, a mem ber of the Confed NEC. He was loudly applauded when he said he was completely opposed their energies to get them back to work.

Adding to the doubts and confusion as to what further action would be taken to secure their present claim, George Cornes, acting secretary of the district Confederation said, What happens in the future is anybody's guess.' The men in the hall made it clear that they were rather tired of guessing what their leaders were going to do next. A resolution from the floor opposing the government White Paper on wages and calling for further action, with emphasis on the action, to win their pay claim was carried unanimously.

with all workers at present struggling against the pay pause and call a one-day general strike.

A worker from the Raleigh Cycle Works referred to the call from the platform for increased militancy but wanted to know why, when Raleigh workers withdrew their labour a few months ago, union officials exerted all February 18 February Marxism March 4 Ticket 1/Registered al Publist 186A Claphan Printed by f 180 Clapham PUBLIC MEETINGS Leeds All on Sundays at 7.30 p.m. Room C' Leeds Trades Hall Upper Fountaine Street, Leeds :

Reg Perry The Tories and the Gerry Healy and the Working Cliff Slaughter for World Socialism (for all three meetings)

: the G.P.O. as a newspaper led by The Newsietter, 1 High Street, London, S.W.4 lough Press Ltd. (TU), r.O.

High Street. London. S.W.4