The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 236

Back to the Summit!

INCE again the big power statesmen begin the violent process of preparing to negotiate. The diplomatic scene seethes with activity as the Notes fly back and forth about a possible summit conference.

ow many nations should be involved? Which ones? What should be discussed? These are the kind of questions which will draw the attention of the world's press.

It are these issues on which the labour movement must concentrate? We think not.

For, as all previous experience has confirmed, not one question on the future peace of humanity can be settled in this way.

he danger of nuclear conflict is part of the antagonism that has divided the world since October 1917. While it has often been necessary for the USSR to buy time by negotiating with one or other of the imperialist powers, this can never lead to a permanent reconciliation between two irreconcilable social systems.

his view is underlined by the announcement that in addition to exploding atomic devices at the bottom of lead mines, the USA is preparing to test larger weapons, with the permission of the Tory government, on Christmas Island.

he decision of the Parliamentary Labour Party not to oppose this move shows just how hypocritical were Gaitskell's tears over the Russian tests.)

aus while talking about talks, the western powers continue their preparations for attack on the Soviet Union. Only the strength of organized labour can stop such an attack, by fighting capitalism.

hrushchev's peaceful coexistence policy, by spreading the illusion that the imperialists can be persuaded to accept the existence of the workers' state, weakens this fight.

Labour's attention must not be diverted by summit manoeuvres from the battle to get rid of the lories and their H-bomb.

What happened to happened that book?

"TO meet John Reed's book again, in its smart modern dress in these days of almost daily renewed libel and slander of the Soviet Union and the November Revolution, is like meeting an old friend. It is a reminder of the sharp and immensely powerful weapon for the cause of socialism which has been laid up unused, these many years.' (Andrew Rothstein: 'John Reed returns to thrill and inspire' 'World News', February 3, 1962) lanks rumble through the streets of Algiers to strengthen the balwarks of French imperialism against the nationalist movement. 10 means clear. They seek to ivoid show-down, restrain heir followers and prefer popular front' type alliances vith discredited politicians of he centre and right, or even vith Gaullist supporters.

The slaughter of eight worers last week must have been blow to such trusting and shame-faced supporters asser evil'. heir policy for years around the all for 'Peace in Algeria' they re now committed, objectively, » support for de Gaulle, in iew of his willingness to make deal with the Algerian Proprisoners of the Gaullist regime.

Even so, they are obliged to respond, by calling demonstrations and strikes, to the rising militant temper of the working class. They seek to confine the movement to piece-meal, token measures which do not prepare the class for the battles which lie ahead but raise false hopes and give new life to old illusions.

The French working class, which is once again showing signs of its renowned combativity, can only be spared great sacrifices and disasters if it can be rallied, by a new leadership, into a great movement to stake out its own claim to rule.

LOODSHED, violence R and workers' demonstrations in the Paris streets, only a few days after de Gaulle's speech to the nation, underline what may prove to be the mortal crisis of the Fifth Republic.

The series of demonstrations in recent months, and the extreme fear which they have provoked among supporters of the regime, shows that the real cleavage in French society is not between de Gaulle and the OAS but between the ruling class as a whole and the working class.

Determined

The government is determined to prevent the intervention of the workers at all costs. It thus gives a free hand to club-swinging and trigger-happy cops of the most brutalised police force in Europe to beat up and kill its opponents. Only a few weeks ago the victims were Algerian immigrant workers. Now they are drawn from the working population as a whole.

In principle, the anti-OAS demonstrations have been seen by the official leaders of the labour movement as an offer of help for de Gaulle, or an attempt to force him into more energetic measures against the fascist right.

But the president prefers to tackle his right-wing opponents with his own methods - which leave the way clear for a deal with them against the working class.

Opposition

It is now becoming increasingly clear to militant workers that the only effective struggle against the fascist danger begins with uncompromising opposition to the present bonapartist regime.

This lesson is being taught by harsh experience. For the official leaders, however, it is by

isional Government.

But this deal by the FLN leaders is no more than a sellout of the hopes of the Algerian people. The contemplated settlement will guarantee the rights of French capitalists and landowners in Algeria and the Sahara and provide for a smooth transition to 'independence.

Typical

There will be no land reform, no social changes and the European population will conserve many of their present privileges. Ben Kedda and his friends, sometimes thought to he tough-minded men, turn out to be typical opportunists of the national bourgeoisie, cast clearly in the mould of Bourguiba.

The Algerian nationalists do not want a real fight any more than do the official labour leaders in France. Both have blocked a link up between the Algerian national struggle and that of the French working class, and still do.

The task of flinging the weight of the French working class decisively onto the scales is not one that can be performed by its present leaders. Their long record of betrayals is becoming clearer in the light of the role which they are now playing as ON Tuesday, February 13, half a million French workers poured into the streets of Paris to take part in a demonstration to mark the funeral of the eight people killed in the battle between workers and police the previous week.

A complete and total general strike brought Paris and other major cities to a standstill as workers throughout France remembered the dead fighters against the fascist threat of the OAS.

Only buses and tubes taking workers to the funeral were running. Factories, offices, shops and transport were silent and still. Electricity and gas were cut.

The wide Paris boulevards were filled by a great sea of mourning people as they followed the funeral procession.

This was a great and staggering • show of working class strength. was a funeral procession which became a symbol of unity against the ruling class and their hired thugs.

It was marred only by the presence of Mendes - France, Radical leader, who started the Algerian war, and Maurice Thorez, French Stalinist, who supported the Mollet government when it sent Paras and arms to Algeria to fight the nationalists.

But these two hypocrites and supporters of colonialism could not detract from the power and potential of the French workers.

This clear and decisive gesture against de Gaulle and the menace that lurks behind him squashes the absurd ideas of some "socialists' that the French labour movement is weak and apathetic and oblivious to the growing threat of fascism.

The French workers on Tuesday, in this mighty, united demonstration, showed that they have the power.

Now they must

e Two THE British working class WS February 17: 1962 the vent of a major strike inc

FOURPENCE EDITORIAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1962 FUE Vol. 6, No. 236 Newsletter Correspondent 'HORSHAM Constituency Labour Party is not fighting this case on a personal basis. but to defend the right of all CLPs to choose their parliamentary candidates,' said Ernie Roberts, in an interview with the Newsletter last week-end.

He was referring to the campaign being waged against the NEC refusal to endorse him as Labour candidate, despite his selection by the Horsham party.

Over 60 CLPs have now signified their support for Horsham's protest. These include Stockport, where Ernie Roberts stood for Labour in the 1955 election.

Several Labour Parties are considering sending motions on (Cont. on page 4)

THE Italian newspaper "Avanti' has ri cently published in three cons cutive issues details given by a Foreign Legion deserter on the OAS in Algeria, France and other countries.

The most interesting of the revelations are those concerning the measures which Salan is preparing in case of a possible economic blockade of Algeria once 'he has hold of this territory'.

Agreements are said to have been signed with Belgian, Spanish, American and Italian businessmen. It is stated that two big Italian ship owners, well known for their ultra-right tendencies, have put their ships at the disposal of the DAS: Centre for Aid to the O.1S. has been set up by a certain Professor F. in Genoa.

Ports of call for ships coming from Algeria are said to have been prepared on the west coast of Sicily.

It appears that Jacques Soustelle is keeping a close watch on these preparations. Soustelle spends most of his time in a villa in a seaside resort near Rome. where it is known he has received a number of Italian politicians.

is now facing the most serious threat to. its wages and working conditions since the defeat of the 1926 general strike. As each day goes by the Tory government cynically casts aside its election promises and stands openly revealed as the executive of big business and monopoly capitalism.

The wage pause has been a success, because the right-wing trade union leaders are running away from a fight with the government. Such cowardice on the part of the Trades Union Congress, if not checked, could lead to a similar defeat as that in 1926. Never in history has so much responsibility fallen upon the shoulders of the rank and file of the British labour movement. We face several years, of intense struggle against the Tories and monopoly capitalists.

If the working class is to win, it requires a policy, a strategy and a new leadership which will fight for a socialist Britain. There is absolutely no room for compromise with capitalism.

Monopolies and the Common Market It is not difficult to understand the background to the present economic crisis. International markets are becoming more competitive and harder to capture. The forces of production in Britain are outdated in comparison to their capitalist rivals. of the United States, Japan and Western Europe.

As a result there is a tendency for the profits of the British capitalists to decline, something which the Tory government want to halt at all costs.

To bolster up the financiers and rich idlers who have never done a day's work in their lives, they propose to slash real wages and step up production by increasing the rate of exploitation of the working class.

By manipulating the bank rate and restricting investment, they hope to increase unemployment. Already the number of insured unemployed has risen to over half a million. Demonstrations have taken place in such towns as Jarrow; notorious for its unemployment in the years between the wars. "This restriction of investment and increase in the bank rate greatly assists the growth of monopoly. The tendency is for the weaker capitalists, who rely öi bank loans to run their business, toxibe driven to the wall, making it easier for the monopolies to take over: Behind these monopolies stand the most reactionary political forces in the country. It is from these forces that the threat of dictatorship and fascism directly arises.

The increase of monopoly in Britain today is alarming. The decision to enter the Common Market was in fact taken by the monopolists and not so much by the Tory government. There are divisions in the government over this issue which can be traced to the business interests of those concerned.

The policy of the big monopolies, however, has triumphed. So far as they are concerned, Secretary of the Socialist Labour Secretary of the Socialist Labour their future source of profit is to be derived by entering into cut-throat competition with their continental rivals. This conflict will not, of course, stop them from obtaining agreements to assist one another in a common onslaught upon the working class, but it does mean that the old rat race for markets is off to a flying start.

The present Tory offensive is in fact a prelude to entry into the Common Market.

The Line-up Forces The Tory plan is clear. First, they proceed to frighten the right-wing trade union leaders and force them to retreat under conditions where the working class will be split and defeated section by section. This has already happened in the civil service and postal workers' unions.

But the Tories are not fooled by such relatively easy victories. They know from bitter experience that the big battalions of labour like the miners, engineers and railwaymen are a much tougher proposition. So they are prepared to adjust their policy accordingly and agree to certain wage increases which will be entirely inadequate so far as the demands of the unions are concerned.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has said that during 1962 wage increases may rise to 4.8 per cent. In the case of the railwaymen, the government has started with Dr. Beeching's promise of 3 per cent, whilst an arbitration tribunal has granted the leatherworkers 4 per cent.

There is another and very important reason why the Tories pursue such a flexible policy. They are keenly aware that the working class is in a militant mood. They realise that although the Rootes Motor Company defeated the BLSP strike, it took many long weeks and a severe loss in trade. The stubborn retaliation of the Jaguar strikers against non-unionism is a warning sign of offensive action which the Tories cannot afford to ignore.

The policy of limited wage increases is an interim one. They rely on the possibility of representing the railwaymen, accepting say between 3 and 4½ per cent whilst the engineers and busmen force their leaders to take strike action. In this way the Tories hope to split the trade unions, and prepare the ground for wage cutting.

The application of this policy depends very much upon the acquiescence of the right-wing trade union leaders.

If the Tories are allowed to get away with it they will gradually wear down the resistance of the working class and encourage unemployment, just as they did in the early 1920s.

The one thing the Tories fear most is the united action of all those unions which have wage demands.

In this they are relying on men like William Carron, rightwing president of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, who strongly opposes such action.

White PaperDeclaration of War So. confident are the Tories that the right wing will help them defeat. the working class -now as in 1926-that they have rushed into print the White Paper boldly outlining their intentions in the next stage of the wages war.

The real purpose of this White Paper is to offer a guide to industrialists and government arbitrators over the next period. Briefly this is what it says:

(a) Basic wages and salaries must rise more slowly than production output per head.

Wage increases must not be pegged to increases in the cost of living, since such increases will be mainly due to the rise in wages secured the previous year. •There is no case at all,' it says, 'for making this rise self-perpetuating The case for more wages cannot be justified on the the grounds that profits in the industry concerned have increased. Such increases in profit are necessary in order that more capital is available for reinvestment.

If this is not a declaration of war on the working class, we would like to know what is.

There is first of all an awareness by the authors that in some industries directly connected with the export drive, production will expand. The danger they see arising in these industries is that the strength of the local shop stewards' movement may force increases far in excess of national agreements. So an attack is planned against militant shop stewards.

The cost of living can rise but wages must remain virtually frozen.

Profits may increase but not wages. In other words, by exploiting the working class more intensely on the basis of keeping down wages, the rich who do no work will become richer and the poor, who do all the work, poorer.

Every active trade unionist knows that the recent witchhunt against the militants in the Electrical Trades Union was designed to discredit trade unionism, but unfortunately not every trade unionist knows or appreciates the reasons for this attack.

In his address to the Annual General Meeting of stockholders of Barclays Bank, the chairman, Mr. A. W. Tuke, congratulated the government on 'a more courageous line' and went on to sympathise with its retreat before 'the irresponsible settlement of the ETU wage claim' (obviously referring to the recent victory of the power workers).

It is such bankers and businessmen who have oiled the propaganda machine in the Fleet Street and television lie factories in their utterly disgraceful campaign against the ETU.

Mr. Tuke knows very well that the fiddling of ballots has not only taken place in some of the most 'respectable' trade union circles, but has been known on occasions to take place in even the most respectable businesses.

He is not concerned with that. What concerns him is that the ETU negotiating team under the leadership of Frank Foulkes secured a victory against the government's pay pause.

Another device which is now coming into full play in Fleet Street is the argument that in Natalia Trotsky i ON Saturday, February 10, the Socialist Labour League held a memorial meeting to the late Natalia Trotsky, widow of Leon Trotsky, at the Caxton Hall, London.

Over a hundred people attended and heard Tony Banda give the memorial speech.

He had come, ho said. not to mourn, but to remember — to remember the contribution made by Natalia Trotsky to the battle for Marxism.

He described the Trotskys' long fight against Stalinism and how, despite their expulsion from the USSR, their hounding by the GPU across several continents and uniens will lose their investments and surplus funds. This is designed to scare and frighten the fight-wing trade union puppets who look upon their unions as some kind of business.

Of course the trade unions have not the financial resources to pay out strike money over a long strike, but history records that trade unionism emerged not through such payments but through the militant determination of the working class to fight under conditions where many of our forefathers starved for months on end in order to win a strike.

Strikes will be won on the basis of policy and militancy and not on the basis of the financial resources of a particular union.

It follows that if the Tories have a strategy for defeating the working class, then the Labour movement must have a strategy for defeating the Tories. If the basis of the Tory strategy is to split the working class then the basis of Labour strategy must be to unite the working class irrespective of trade union. Concretely this means that all unions which have wage claims should work together in the common struggle against the Tories.

The right wing who compromise with the Tories will not allow this. So an essential part of Labour strategy must be devoted to removing such rightwing trade union leaders from office.

It is necessary, therefore, to adopt a policy which establishes the maximum unity among the rank and file of all trade unions in a way that will expose the right wing and be prepared, if necessary, to appoint new leaders who will guide the struggle to victory.

In all the main industrial centres, rank -and- file Committees of Action must be established between the trade unions which have wage claims pending.

These committees could start at local factory, pit, site and depot level and be extended where possible to include the local district and area bodies of the trade unions concerned. When these committees firmly established locally, they can be linked on a regional and later on a national basis.

Such rank-and-file action must under no circumstances be taken outside the trade unions. The strength of the trade• unions resides not in the right-wing leadership but in the militancy of the rank and file.

These committees which draw the rank and file into action are eeting of Tribute the death and murder of many of their close friends and relations at the hands of Stalin, they had :ilways unreservedly stood for the defence of the Soviet Union against the threat of world imperialism.

It must never be forgotten that without the support, help and endurance of Natalia throughout years of persecution, sorrow and illness, Trotsky might never have produced many of the works which now form the basis of the worid Trotskyist movement and which provide a link with the old generation of Bolsheviks who fought for, achieved and defended the firsi workers' state.

1926: The General Strike was sold out by right-wing leaders. A new leadership is needed to a means of strengthening trade unions in a way that transform them into figh instruments of the working ( in the struggle against Tories.

Remember the great role played by the Councils of Action during the 1926 strike. Due to their alternative leadership, the strike was gaining momentum when the right wing sold it out. Had these councils risen to the occasion and supplied a national alternative leadership to that right wing then the results of 1926 might have been very different.

The 1926 defeat will not happen again if this lesson is learned.

Since the rank-and-file committees form the backbone of the campaign against the government, those who lead them must clearly understand the political nature of their task.

Industrial action cannot by itself defeat the government. It must be combined with action on the political field in a way that will lead to the establishment of a Labour government pledged to a policy of socialism There are many trade unionists who still mistakenly believe that the struggle for wages has got nothing to do with politics. How can they maintain such a mistaken position when they see the role of the present Tory government?

the will ting :lass the and the election of a Labou government pledged to carry out measures which will speedily introduce socialism in Britain.

Such a Labour government cannot function under the leadership of Gaitskell. As a right winger he is basically no different from Woodcock and his fellow right wingers on the TUC.

Right at the moment when monopoly is rapidly increasing, Mr. Gaitskell fought to get rid of Clause Four in the Labour Party constitution which pledges the party to the nationalization of the basic means of production.

The fight against the right wing in the trade unions is inseparable from the fight against the right wing in the Labour party. The struggle in the trade unions must be linked to fight inside the Labour Party in order to get rid of the present leadership. The Tories will only be really defeated when the right wing are defeated.

These tasks can only be seriously undertaken through the building of a Marxist leadership. Such a leadership is provided only by the Socialist Labour League and is based upon the fact that we believe the class struggle in Britain can only be resolved through the triumph of the working class and the establishment of socialism.

Our answer to the Common Market and the growth of monopolies is the nationalization of all the basic industries in this country and the introduction of a system of workers' control.

Our answer to the government's White Paper is that wages must rise in accordance with the real increase in the cost of living; such increases to be ascertained by committees of the trade unions who will have access to the weekly budgets of their members covering all basic esentials and not just some of them as the present government cost of living index does.

We say no to all sackings and unemployment. Such measures must be resisted union organizatio industry where t posed. We repeat solution rests only nationalization of ries.

The Socialist Labour League The Socialist Labour League is the only Marxist organization which today fights simultaneously inside the Labour Party and the trade unions for a policy which will unite all sections of the working class industrially and politically against the Tories.

The policies of the Socialist stop further defeats. by the trade Ds in every ley are prothat the final in the speedy these industLabour League are based upon the same principles which made possible the successful revolution in Russia in 1917.

The programme of action which we have outlined to defeat the Tories can only be carried out by a consistent effort to increase the membership of the Socialist Labour League, by building branches of the League in every part of the country and in all the major industries.

We appeal to all trade unionists who want to prepare politically and industrially to fight and defeat the Tories, to join the Socialist Labour League and help build the Marxist revolutionary leadership which alone can do this job.

In the past the right-wing trade union leaders used proudly to boast about the success of the arbitration machinery. This government has ruthlessly and contemptuously discarded such machinery. It has openly intervened in the railwaymen's pay claim.

Government action is political action. When the Tories took power in October 1959, they had no mandate to commence an onslaught upon the trade unions and the wages of the working class. This government attained power by fraud, just as all Tory governments have done in the past. On these grounds alone it should be evicted from office.

For trade unionists to say that the wages struggles are not political is nonsense. The fight to defend wages and working conditions today is inseparable from the political action of removing the Tory governmen League Notebook.

PUBLIC MEETINGS Liverpool Sunday, February 18 Stork Hotel, Queens 7.30 p.m.

SOCIALISTS AND UNIONS ' Speaker: Gerry Healy Leeds All on Sundays at 7.30 p.m. Room "C' Leeds Trades H: Upper Fountaine Street, Leed: February 18 Reg Perry The Tories and the February 25 Gerry Healy Marxism and the Working March 4 Cliff Slaughter Prospects for World Soci alism Ticket 1/- (for all three tings) THE article 'Non-violence or class struggle?' by Cliff Slaughter which appeared in THE NEWSLETTER on December 30, 1961, is based on a number of assumptions which prompt me to ask the following questions: 1. Does the ruling class want war, if so do they want a full-scale atomic war or a limited conventional war?

How is the ruling class be removed from power?

How will the working class become conscious of its real interests? What are those interests? How are they to be organized?

Will war be abolished under working class rule?

Why is opposition to the H-bomb automatically a threat to the British state?

How can the middle classes lead the workers out of their indifference?

Would CND lose a lot of its support if it became militant over wages; rents, etc.?

Why are revolutionary, rather than reformist, tactics needed to make our government give up the bomb?

Where is the revolutionary leadershin that is needed to swing the balance in Europe to come from?

As you can see, Mr. Slaughter's article is certainly thought-provoking. I hope these questions merit a reply.

REGINALD PARKER, Leeds Cliff Slaughter replies:

Reg Parker asks questions which, to answer properly, would require a full-length exposition of the political theory of Marxism. I will try to clear up some of outstanding points he raises.

There are sections of ruling-class opinion which, provided they see a chance of victory, will advocate military attack on the Soviet Union as the only way to preserve capitalism. Other sections certainly prefer to avoid nuclear war, since they fear their own destruction. Even a war with 'conventional weapons' is feared, because it would certainly tend to develop into nuclear warfare by either side in order to regain any lost initiative.

But this surely is not the main consideration. Naturally capitalists would prefer to go peacefully about their profit-making for the rest of their lives; but the existence of the USSR and China, the international struggles of workers and peasants against exploitation, and the natural need of capital to expand, all these are objective results of the development of the capitalist system itself which drive the capitalist class towards war.

The policies and hesitations of the imperialists are tactically important, but the decisive question Is the need to overthrow the economic conditions which drive towards war despite the intentions or desires of the ruling class. 2. The ruling class will only be removed from power by the organized action of the inter national working class, above all in the advanced countries, to smash the existing state machine. The rule of the workers, through their own councils, must dispossess the capitalists and plan the economy. The first step towards this is the organization of Marxist parties in every country which can win the confidence of the working class. 3. The real interests of the working class are international, requiring the planned use of the world's resources and the cooperation of workers all over the world. Only the interests of the capitalist class, the private ownership of these resources, stand in the way of this pros! the overthrow of this overriding immediate the workers.

Consciousness of these real interests requires two things: first, the actual struggle forced on the working class by capitalism and, second, the existence of a party based upon Marxist theory, able to develop this theory through the building of strong bonds with the mass movement.

This leadership must provide a policy capable of bringing together all the strength of the workers, industrial and political, against the employers and their government. 4. War will be abolished only when capitalism has been defeated in the world's great industrial countries. But every conquest of workers' power in any country weakens capitalism. Some socialists fear that these victories might increase the likelihood of a military gamble by the imperialists. But this fails to take into account the effect of such revolutions on the workers of the remaining capitalist countries.

International working-class action can prevent wars of intervention, and the struggle against such intervention will be the prelude to new revolutions. That is the lesson of 1917-21 and the unsuccessful wars of intervention against the young Soviet Republic. Those who calculate the effect of working-class victories only on the capitalist class show their lack of confidence in the working class, and they lack the perspective of consistent revolutionary theory and practice. 5. Opposition to the bomb is not automatically a threat to the State. But the demand for unilateral renunciation of the bomb has implications - the disarming of our ruling class, regardless of the so-called 'national interest' - which will throw anti-bomb fighters up against the State, the function of which is to defend the interests of capitalism. sect, and so class is the interest of The experience of CND and the Committee of 100 has already confirmed this analysis. It remains to draw all the conclusions, to tie up the anti-bomb fight with the struggles of the only class which can overthrow the govertiment and its policies, the working class.

i This question seems to arise from a misunderstanding of my article. Only a politically independent working class can remove the threat of war. Middle class movements and individuals will be crushed out or subordinated to big business unless they accept the leadership of the working class. 7. CND might very well lose middle class support if it turned decisively towards the struggle of industrial workers, but the experience of the movement against war will inevitably lead to a polarization of opinion inside CND. Above all, the strength and determination of working-class leadership will convince middle class people that there is a way out of the nuclea impasse. 8. The Socialist Labour League is of the opinion that the Tory government, direct defender of the interests of capital, will never give up the bomb. The present leadership of the Labour Party is just as subordinate to capital. That is why they support NATO and the bomb; such is the reality of reformist socialism. 9. We have attempted to open a discussion in the current 'Labour Review' , which contains a long resolution of the SLL on the international situation and the tasks of the working class. The new revolutionary leadership will only come out of the conscious effort, practically, of Marxists who have rejected both Social-Democracy and Stalinism. At the moment, it is in the Socialist Labour League in Britain and the Trotskyist parties associated with it in the European countries, that the elements of the future leadership are organised.

The present profound crisis of the international communist movement and the great struggles already under way in France and Britain offer great opportunities for the Marxists to sink deeper roots in the working class and to weld together the leadership of the

HE NEWSLETTEI Fobruary

Prepare JARROW and Hebburn Trades Council organized a march and meeting on Saturday, February 10, to protest against unemployment in the area, which is ihree times the national average.

The meeting, about 200 strong, was addressed by Ernie Fernyhough MP, whose stirring message that demonstrations of this should be carried out all the country to bring 'pressure' on the government which would 'do something about it'.

Brother Crooks, chairman the trades council, said what teachers. This was good record of labour relations 1962 Conference Of the London Teachers' the area had. This, he thought of the National Union of Teachers. the North-East should surely attract employers.

The conference recognised that the Paper wage White indicate that the right-wing support for trict Committee secretary of the ASW, complained Alderman A. Palmer, district increases can offer them nothing. The demands of the younger that many of the workers crititeachers, and of those the basic scale, remain unsatisfied. The on union bosses can expected stoppage. cised the trade union leadership. Cabinet and its agents the NUT leadership solved nothing last in to retreat try to sell their As with the They should, he said, concentrate October when they rammed down the teachers' throats the award right-wing leaders retreat can on building the trade union and create confusion in the ranks labour movement. of two-fifths of their previous demand, £700-£1,300.

unless the militants fight back The speakers were asked from Voting for the NUT to explore After a wage pause seve and ovide alternative leader- the floor whether, in view of the affiliation to the TUC and report 1962 and President-el years, railwaymen are going success of the engineers strike and for unity with the industrial within a year showed the feeling after a lively election This shows that campaign. the sell-out be given a rise amounting to transport the growing militancy of the workers hit by the pay pause. after the summer battles has little as 5 shillings in some workers can and must defeat workers, the TUC should with- draw from any talks on economic Two other strong motions hardened and not disillusioned the While the meeting with the Tory strategy. As the planning with the Tories and precarried with the same militants. But the left has not millan was progress, it was in London tubemen showed, rail- pare for a fight with the emunanimity. begun to sharpen the fight and announced that Greene, together way workers have the power ployers, with a view to establishThe first demanded that the make clear the difference between with five of his colleagues, is to force the employers to give ing a socialist government. NUT give notice to the govern- a left which means what it says join the Tory National Econo- but only if this is An executive member of the members to cease all duties ment that it will call upon its and the 'old guard' which accepts militant reslutions with the mic Development Council. perly harnessed. to 'control' the present govern- AEU replied that the TUC hoped nected with school meals reservation that it will prevent Railwaymen must join ment. But shula an unpopuiar them from being operated. busmen, railway workshop decision be taken by the council, Executive to give notice to The second urged the NUT the motions in quite different The two sides see the lights. same Like the NUM meeting and engineering workers to the plans the next general meeting of the TUC would castigate the leaders. Minister of Education that the The 'old guard' sees the wage the TUC - described by their TU One disgruntled listener union will advise members to demand as opening a new round ' Manchester Guardian' mented: ' Let's hope so.' refuse to take charge of classes of negotiations, indefinitely pro- 'sheer bluff'-the railway union of more than 30 in Primary and tracted. The ranks see it as a leaders' visit was an attempt to Secondary schools as spring-board. The 'old guard' wriggle out of a head-on clash tember 1, 1966. sees a struggle alongside the in- with the employers.

sharpen the fight against The conference failed to dustrial workers against the pay pause and the dismantling of the They will STATE IENT who will not wish to take LCC in terms of a committee of more could be squeezed out THE Greater London Campaign upport ballot-rigging was no militant teachers started in the decisions seriously. Though McCarthyite witch-hunt against echo of the struggles with masses of see it as symbolising officials of the WEA and the London Trades Council! Others industrial common the Transport Commission : that Macmillan's invitation mak a new claim later in should be accepted. to dissolve herewith, bears in mind that the Campaign emerged from Committee in deciding to formally the 1961 Policy Conference in capable of putting its own house in order without any assistance corrupt practices. We believe, and still believe, that the union is 'News of the World' and the workers. "Teachers' World', the left flinched Armed with the policies pro- unlikely that railway order to answer the continuous from the capitalist press or the and consistent attacks made on the Law Courts. from putting down a motion to duced at this conference, the left workers will take this advice. condemn the reactionary members has now the task of seeing to it Rank-and-file demands for mili- ETU from the capitalist press and The action of the new Executive of the NUT National Executive who use these rags to forward their electoral campaign. A Communist Party eturned as Vice-Pre: that they are pressed home at the National Conference of the reactionaries in London. NUT at Easter, without accom- modation to the hesitations of the tant action have been in all parts of the chester District Coun Resolutions passed at il and at the Man- country. growing its agents. behind which they were endea- vouring Courts enabled the Tory press to step up their anti-union campaign The decisions taken in to develop their offensive the Law the decisions of our constitution- ally-convened Rules Revision Con- ference last December, is a power- Council in declaring null and void ful blow against democracy in the union. The next stage of the against wages and working con- struggle within the union and in ditions. support of the democratic rights The first action the Campaign of our members is to fight for Committee was build . up a the following points of union united front. That is why we policy. fought for the return of the old ing by the metal workers West Germany after a threat to in South- European Common Marketeers endow their "planning' with high members of the and to defend the leadership who Executive Council against militant the Tory freeze. policy take strike action is therefore of moral qualities, so the Tories bore the brunt of the attack from For a Labour government Economists and politicians immense significance to workers must do this over here. A 'cross the Tory press. pledged to socialist policies. are supporters of the European Common Market stress the benefits everywhere. It represents a hallenge to induced to take part section of the people' must be done a considerable amount The Campaign Committee has of authority For the democratic, of the union's elected to be obtained by co-operation of all the individual member states in exploiting a market over German big business, with declining orders of boom conditions, which, faced and the end will try to tycoons, high civil servants, some out the plan. Mix together several useful work in organizing the and preparing it to fight back. no time did the Campaign Com- left At conference. For a union wing dominati 200 million people. take a tough line with labour. TU bosses, stir well and you have Hack publicists public The German court judgment that National Development Council.

convey the idea that maximum relations officers are employed to unofficial strikers are to be As part of the plan - which this subject to this mains on the efficiency, full employment and higher production and living heavily fined should this context. be viewed in of reducing costs, it will be neces- NEDC will help to implement- National Conference. The Organization Sub-com- didate: union standards will be possible. There Our "planners', sary to prune the social services. mittee, which interviewed Ro- The AEU executive, which is a great deal of propaganda the co-operative This is advocated by 'The Times' berts after his selection, gave placed him on this list which is national capitalism — see in which euphemistically states that about 'planning' resources. rise of German labour costs since the govertment have in- for their decision circulated to all Labour Parties, The social reformers are suit- opportunity for British capital. sisted that large sections of the recommend non-endorsement. has been told by Transport includes most of the Gaitskellites ably impressed. In Britain this In order to enter the Common nation must take the medicine, But, significantly, among the House tha he still remains (although not yet officially bles- Market on equal terms with one they cannot make an exception for questions asked were several it. sed). In Europe, the social demo- of the chief competitors, Ger- themselves. This, in spite of the concerning meetings at which Ernie Roberts cratic leadership co-operates fully; many, the Tory 'plan' necessitates vicious increases the health he had spoken, including some Labour the various economic planning an onslaught on costs. charges last year! organized by CND where he branches to support committees include, and the high- High costs in Germany But whether or not there is had shared the platform with paign for democratic est offices are held by, well known costs in England may be contrary co-operation on NEDC by the people like Bertrand Russell. the movement. 'socialist' leaders. to the spirit motivat ing the trade union leaders, the Tories Ernie Roberts, who is assistThe control of wages Common Market but it could be can only succeed if the rank and ant general secretary of the Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper international scale is, h one of the main purposes wever, behind good for British capital. How to implement the plan for file do not unite and organise to fight these attacks jobs and AEU, told me of the ludicrous •80 Case Han See, Lord 3 M Published by The Newsletter, E.C.M. The 6 cent rise gained lower costs? Well jus the living standards. position his