The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 237

this retreat Carry the struggle FRANCE In next w report from situation.

EDITORIAL Towards another 1926?

PHE right-wing leaders of the railway unions have dangerously split the trade union movement in its opposition to the Tory pay pause. Unions with pay claims pending have now to face the 3 per cent precedent created by Sidney Greene and company. Here is the real price of cowardly leadership. reene and company are not alone. There are Matthews, Carron and Anne Godwin who are only waiting for the chance to sell out the engineers and they will do so if they are not stopped.

is by no means too late to put an end to this retreat. The trade union movement includes millions of the most important people in the country. These people can, if they choose, organize the most powerful industrial action in the history of British labour.

But there must not under any circumstances be the slightest trust in the present leadership. If another 1926 is to be avoided then it will be necessary to look for new leaders in the ranks. This leadership will not be hard to find. It is only a matter of active trade unionists in every locality seeking ways and means to unite all those, irrespective of union, who have wage claims in a powerful anti-Tory body.

would then be possible to bring the district official bodies of the unions under control and from there carry the struggle against the right wing into the trade union machine itself. struggle organized along these lines will soon throw up a new type of leader who will rapidly replace those who have sold out to the Tories before the fight has really begun. le defeat of 1926 need not be repeated. All that has to be done is to learn the bitter lesson of a defeat which was betrayed by the same type of men who are still in the leadership of the British trade unions.

, & ALGERIA eek's issue of THE Tom Kemp will Paris on the latest Monday, February 5. Engineering and shipbuilding workers demonstrate against the pay pause in the biggest stoppage since 1926. Now right-wing leaders are trying to stamp on this militancy by calling for a return to negotiations with the employers. stop further strike action and sell out the unions' demands. Approriately enough his recommendations were only supported by the Screw, Nut, Bolt and Rivet Trade Society.

But that is not the end of the matter. Miss Anne Godwin also called for the reopening of negotiations in preference to strike action and weakened the whole basis of further stoppages by getting support to allow her union, the Clerical Workers' , to stay at work and not to take part in the ballot.

Miss Godwin is this year's chairman of the TUC and carries some weight on the General Council. She will add her support to Jim Matthews' in an attempt to sell out the engineering strike.

The only way to avoin sell-outs, betrayals and defeats is for the labour movement to build a united front against the pay pause of all industries with wage claims.

This is what frightens the Tories and right-wing trade union leaders alike.

Contain

They both can comfortably contain stoppages in individual industries. Even Mr. William Carron, the architect of countless betrayals, is now not opposed to one-day strikes by the Confederation unions.

But what he would oppose, he said at York two weeks ago, is united, political action against the government.

And the TUC General Council has turned down a suggestion from the miners that the unions should come together to fight the pay pause.

In the forthcoming ballot, engineering and shipbuilding workers must call for more than just an isolated strike.

They cannot defeat the combined forces of the Tories and the TUC knights alone. Only a united action of all industries, of miners and railwaymen, engineers and busmen, shipbuilders and white collar' workers can hope to do that.

The task of the labour movement is to build this unity as the Tory attack becomes more ruthless and the treachery of Messrs. Greene, Gunter, Matthews, Carron and company more blatantly clear.

Our Labour Correspondent \HREE million workers in the engineering and shipbuilding industries will down tools in a second official one - day stoppage called by the leaders of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions for Monday, March 5.

A ballot will also be held to decide whether or not the Confederation should call a full-scale strike to press home their claim for a wage increase and a shorter working week.

This growing militancy and determination to fight the government's pay pause will be welcomed by all sections of the labour movement.

The first great stoppage in February led to a revitalizing of the rank and file and a strengthening of union organization.

Power

The latent power and determination of the wor •kers came to the fore as they responded almost unanimously throughout the country to the call for a stoppage.

And in the days that followed many of them struck again against non-strikers and scabs who had crossed the picket lines.

The rank and file are ready to fight to smash the pay pause.

And certain of their leaders are ready to sell them out.

At the meeting of Confederation union leaders in York on February 15, Mr. Jim Matthews, the extreme right-wing spokesman for the National Union of General and Municipal Workers said that they would commit industrial suicide if they went ahead with their plans for another stoppage and a ballot for a more widespread strike.

Notify

He went on to say that although his executive would abide by the decisions of the meeting, it intended to notify the TUC of the dispute under TUC standing orders, clause 11.

This is an attempt to get the TUC to intervene in the strike and open negotiations with the employers.

But Mr. Matthews knows full well that the employers have turned down the Confederation claim and will only negotiate again if the unions have 'new submissions'. , meaning milder claims for hours and wages.

Matthews is clearly trying

Wednesday, February 21 THE Old Bailey trial of the six members of the Committee of 100 is an impressive example of class justice. The sentence of 18 months imprisonment on the five male members of the Committee and l2 months on 1 Mrs. Helen Allegranza is a vicious reminder that the judicial system serves the state. In preparation for nuclear destruction the state is all-important so far as the capitalist class is concerned.

The Socialist Labour League and The Newsletter call upon all their readers and supporters to wholeheartedly support all demonstrations and protests designed to obtain their speedy release from imprisonment. The Committee of 100 made a special effort to carry the struggle against war on to the airfields. This was done in the belief that such shock tactics would gain press publicity in a way that would win further support for the cause.

We cannot agree with this contention. Even if several hundred members of the Committee were to go to jail, the Tory government, with the support of Gaitskell and company, would continue its mad race towards war.

They can only a mass movement against the Tories is developed inside the working class. Mere passive resistance on the part of a group of people is inadequate for such a purpose.

The great struggle against the government's wage pause which is Wethersfield, December 1961 now drawing millions of workers into action, provides a firm base on which to develop an anti-war campaign.

The publication of the government White Paper on Defence indicates that the ex! enditure on war preparation will continue to increase whilst the attack on wages goes on. 1.1. - TL -C_LL 11. _' The fight against the pay pause is, in fact, directly related to the struggle against nuclear arms. Instead of prominent members of the Committee of 100 demonstrating their sincerity by going to jail, it would be better if they directed their efforts towards an attempt to relate their fight against nuclear war to the struggle of the working class on the wages front. Every victory against the Tories is a victory against war preparations. There is no short cut in the preparation of such victories. Some leading members of the Committee of 100 are, in fact, very sympathetic towards work in the trade union field.

But such activity cannot be carried out in an impatient way. It is not simply a question of propaganda appeals to trade unionists; the Committee must find ways and means to relate the present problems of the working class with the struggle against nuciear war.

In 1958 The Newsletter led the campaign to 'Black the Bomb and Black the Bases'. We urged a turn to the trade union movement. There were many pacifists who scoffed at us on that occasion but who later found it necessary to attempt such an approach. We feel sure that if those who support the Committee of 100 were to redouble their efforts in a turn towards industrial workers and the trade unions they would receive considerable support.

to submit their questions and we shall do our best to reply in the paper if space February, 24, 1962

Y calling British troops back to British Guiana, while his police shot down demonstrating strikers, Cheddi Jagan has shown once again that there can be no half-way house between imperialism and the working class.

In 1953, British Marxists were in the forefront of the campaign against the despatch of troops when Jagan was deposed and arrested. Now it is our duty to denounce the opportunist policies he follows and his anti- working class actions.

In 1953, the Tories, utilizing a clause in the constitution carefully put there by its Fabian authors, took action against the overwhelmingly elected government of the People's Progressive Party.

Nine years later, they come to the aid of the PPP against the Guianese workers.

The argument put up by many apologists for Jagan is: ' What else could he do?' The real meaning of this question is: • What else could he do without coming into conflict with imperialism? • For the Guianese workers, too, threatened with increased income tax, forced savings and a 10-20 per cent tax on foodstuffs and other necessities, there was no alternative but to resist.

Their general strike, which SIR, let us not mince words here... we must condemn the resumption of nuclear tests ... no matter who resumed them. The British public must know, and the world public must know, that in these respects British democratic socialists do not change their course according to whom they have to speak out against?

So said Mr. George Brown at the Blackpool Conference of the Labour Party last October. This seemed, to many rank-andfla mamhers of the Labour Party, a guarantee that the leadership would condemn the resumption of nuclear tests by any country, and not just the Soviet Union.

But right-wing guarantees frequently prove to be as fraudi lent as those given by some seci indhand car dealers.

Last year Brown, Gaitskell and received widespread support, forced the mitigation of some of these attacks on their living standards. Postal and transport workers refused to go back when instructed to do so by their leaders.

The working class of British Guiana is still exploited by imperialism. Booker Brothers, McConnell and Co. control many of the industries. The bauxite and other mineral wealth go to swell the dividends of British and Canadian firms.

Jagan thus acts as an agency of imperialism in South America. Some business interests, frightened of Jagan's reputation as a 'Marxist', withdrew their capital. Instead of following the Cuban example, and nationalizing foreign concerns, Jagan tries to 'develop the economy within the imperialist framework.

GOODWILL

Nationalization would scare away foreign capital and stop the prospect of a US loan. ' Independence' for the colony, by agreement with Her Majesty's Government, depends on the goodwill of the City of London.

And so Jagan's budget had to be directed against the workers. In drawing up his financial policy, he called in Nicholas Kaldor.

This Cambridge e conomist had already been respo isible for the economic measures operated company worked themselves into a highly emotional state over the resumption of nuclear tests by the USSR.

Last week Brown, Gaitskell and company heavily defeated a p. " posal by a few left wingers that a Commons debate should be held on a motion opposing nuclear tests by America and Britain.

With this 95-26 victory in his pocket, Mr. Gaitskell trots off to tell President Kennedy that the Labour Party will not oppose a resumption of atmospheric tests if they were necessary to preserve the West's deterrent.

SORDID HISTORY

All this adds nothing new to the sordid history of the great advocates of 'democratic' socialism.

What is of particular interest is the vote taken by the Parliamentary Party: 95-26. 121 Labour MPs voted, that is approximately half the strength of the Opposition.

This means that a large number of so-called lefts and unilateralists were absent from this most important discussion and vote. The cold-war warriors and NATOlovers had a field day.

Labour Party members should ask a couple of simple questions of their MPs at General Management Committees:

"If you voted, how did vote, and if not, why not?' in Ceylon before Bandaranaike's assassination, and the budget of Nkrumah which led to the strikes in Ghana last year. Clearly, Kaldor knows his job.

But no economist's gimmicks can overcome the contradictions inherent in imperialism. No one, however smart he may appear, can eliminate the conflict between international capital and international labour.

DIRTY WORK

The world Stalinist press has excelled itself in covering up Jagan's dirty work. The 'Daily Worker' has not told its readers about the workers killed by Jagan's police, nor have they referred directly to the fact that the troops were called in by Jagan.

Instead, they have presented the strike as a right-wing plot. The budget was, they tell us, aimed against the middle class and the capitalists. The demonstrations were apparently worked up by imperialist agents on racialist grounds.

Without doubt Burnham and D'Aguiar, leaders of the opposition parties, are also opportunists. But the responsibility for the racial divisions among the Guianese people rests with Jagan and the PPP. Instead of leading a united struggle against imperialism, they have tried to work within the rules laid down by capitalism.

Every politician who attempts to do this will end by betraying the working class. This inexorable law of modern politics has been again confirmed in British Guiana. Workers in the West Indies and throughout the world should learn the lesson.

MAYAKOVSKY was • futurist poet who wanted permits

BRITISH GUIANA QUESTION:

Now the agreement has been reached between Macmillan and the right-wing • trade union leaders over the 3 per cent wage increase for the railways, what are the prospects of the Tories convincing the engineering unions to accept a similar award?

T.S., London, ANSWER:

We should bear in mind that the acceptance by the right-wing leadership of the National Union of Railwaymen of the 3 per cent was done in the teeth of extremely stiff opposition on their executive committee. The voting was 14 for and 10 against. This is a good indication that had the matter been referred to the local district councils of the NUR, it would have been decisively rejected.

We can be sure, therefore, that the present agreement is only temporary and it cannot in any way resolve the wage crisis so far as the railwaymen are concerned.

Nobody expects the fortunes of the railways to , improve during the next six months, so we can anticipate that in a short while the demand for more wages will again come forward inside the railway unions.

In this respect the railwaymen have not been decisively defeated. They have been sold out without a fight, but their capacity to fight still remains and will grow stronger.

This is the background to the engineers' pay claim.

Macmillan is well aware During few weeks we the next few weeks we shall be publishing a series of questions and answers concerning the problems in the fight against the pay pause.

We invite readers of THe NEWSLETTER We shall correspond with in questions.

if the decision is left to Carron and his cronies then the result will be the same as with the railway unions.

However, rank-and-file engineering workers are also aware of the nature of the sell-out that has taken place on the railways and they will be watching the behaviour of Mr. Carron very closely.

The engineers can profit from the bitter experience of the railwaymen. They are in some respects a more tightly-knit group of workers, many of whom have considerable experience in day-to-day struggle against the employers in different branches of the industry.

In motors, shipbuilding and general engineering, trade union organization is strong. It only remains for the engineers to link up their own industry into a tightly-knit group of rank-and-file committees spreading from the localities to a regional and national basis.

Then the right wing can be prevented from a repeat performance of the railway sell-out. Already there are plans ahead for massive demonstrations on March 5. These demonstrations will draw on to the streets tens of thousands of engineering workers.

From such actions it should not be very difficult to establish local rank-and-file bodies which will fight tooth and nail for the ballot of engineering workers to give a resounding call for a national strike.

This would be a good start in the establishment of more permanent rank-and-file relations if and when the strike takes places.

desperately to be a communist, to serve the working class.

" I want a commissar with a decree to lean over the thought of the age.

I want the heart to earn its love wage at a specialist's rate. want the factory committee to lock when the work is done' But as Trotsky wrote, ' Mayakovsky's revolutionary individualism 1 poured itself into the proletarian Revolution, but did not blend with it. His subconscious feeling for the city, for nature, for the whole world, is not that of a worker, but of a Bohemian.' The tension between the individual artist and the collective could not be resolved in a Russia in which the dead hand of bureaucracy increasingly tightened its grip round the throat of cultural life.

In 1930, Mayakovsky self. •The Bey-ars was produced. by Meyerhold. It was not very successful. Stalin's approval of the author led to his canonisation, but the play was not seen often until 1955. Meyerhold died in the purges in 1939.

By Our Theatre Critic Written when the New Economic Policy, which allowed some return to private trading, was being replaced by the 5-year plan and collectivisation, 'The Bedbug' was an attack on the corruption of Soviet life which had developed in the previous seven years and was now allegedly going to disappear.

The 'hero' is a worker who is using his trade union position to move up the social scale. He discards his former associates and marries into a middle-class family.

Miraculously preserved after a fire at his drunken orgy of a wedding, he awakes with a 50-year hangover in the communist society of the future.

Together with a bed-bug, he is exhibited as a specimen of drinking, smoking, swearing, servile, bug-ridden, pre-socialist man. 1 At the end, he looks at the audience and greets them with joy: 'You're just the same as me!' But this is not just a satirical attack on the remnants of capitalism. In the 1929 production, the chief actor was instructed by the author to imitate his mannerisms.

The loneliness of the individual in his new-found hygenic, democratic, efficient but inhuman world Vladimir Mayakovsky displays Mayakovsky's ambiguous attitude to communism.

The production at The Mermaid by Bernard Miles tends inevitably to over-emphasize the anticommunist undertone in the play. However, the distortion does not, I think, destroy the whole point of the work.

The production is a bit rough in places, but it has the right bawdy, music-hall atmosphere. in the first part and the performance of Joss Ackland gives a good mixture of preposterous vulgarity and repulsive sympathy as the hero.

Something the author did not bargain for is the jazz band, whose members are labelled Carlo Marks, Freddie, Lennie and Joe.

After the interval, a shot is heard and Joe is replaced Leon.

February, 24, 1962 co-existence' has a navictanna' powerful appeal in a world overshadowed by the the imperialists to the graveyard which Soviet propagandists which Soviet propagandists equate broadly with the Com- equate broadly with the Communist parties, is regarded as a useful auxiliary, not as the only force for building socialism.

threat of nuclear destruction. To oppose it gives the impression of favouring war or, at least, to believe in the inevitability of a war of mutual annihilation between the two contending camps.

Of course, unmasking talk of co-existence as part of the Soviet conspiracy for world domination is a favourite exercise of professional anti-communists of one kind or another. The question for us, however, is does this dogma disarm the working class or prepare it for struggle, does it contribute to the overthrow of capitalism or serve to prolong its life?

The fact that the question of peaceful co-existence is now being pushed by the Khrushchevite propagandists in a big way is attributable to a number of factors.

A big build up for renewed summit talks is now under way. At the same time, the split with China consummated at the 22nd Congress makes it imperative to meet criticism in the world communist movement and within the USSR.

Peaceful co-existence has, therefore, to be decked out as a basic principle of Leninism and shown to be an instrument of class struggle-though not in such a way as to justify the bourgeois critics who all along have considered it a tactical weapon to spread 'communism'!

To square this circle and serve up these insipid ingredients in some palatable dish taxes the ingenuity of the best theoreticians of the Khrushchev school.

For example, Inozentsev, in a Pravda' article, has to begin with Stalin's basic principle of "socialism in one country', give it a dressing of Leninism and show how really world socialism will come about through the decomposition of imperialism and the force of the USSR's example.

According to this 'theorist'. 'peace' and revolution' are practically synonymous terms. Strong doses of the former will more or less quickly despatch 'It was not accidental that for tecades we had 10 works volitical economy history of any what Is thou philosophy worthwhile significance.' The g b i com 3963 Ilyichov, at 22nd Congress Revolution 24,1961 CPSU Betrayed Read Trotsky's classic analysis of Soviet Union, its origins, betrayal, its future.

Available from:

New Park Publications Ltd.

186a Clapham High St., S.W.4 Price 11s. 6d. (soft cover), l6s. (hard cover), postage paid of history. He proclaims that 'the struggle for peace is the most important practical task.

This means that the world Communist parties are to harness themselves to this 'practical task'— finding allies among the 'peace-loving' bourgeoisie to assist in curbing the war-like tendencies of imperialism.

The insistence with which Inozentsev asserts that this does not mean the rejection of the class struggle indicates a sensitivity to criticism not only from China, but also from within the USSR and the general theoretical weakness of Khrushchev's position.

The main point which emerges from such articles is the fact that the present rulers of the USSR are under pressure to do a deal with the Western leaders.

They are in no mood for adventures and they have enough to do at home in coping with pressing practical problems. They seriously desire to reduce the terrific burden of arms expenditure on the economy in order that resources can be released for other purposes.

To achieve this aim they are quite ready for compromises, but they have to impose them on the Communist movement and provide them with a theoretical justification.

The fear of nuclear war is cynically used in this manoeuvre.

The principal theoretical flaw lies in what is claimed as 'a very exact assessment . . . of the correlation of class forces' The acceptance of the dogma of peaceful co-existence actually prevents it from getting rid of the cause of war by struggle against imperialism. It disarms the workers by telling them that imperialism is automatically becoming weaker, that union of 'peace-loving' forces is more important than independeat class action and that whatever they do is less important than international economic competition between 'socialism' and capitalism.

The term "class struggle' is positively degraded in this context. It has become a bureaucrat's ritual word; it represents either self-delusion or a transparent attempt to deceive honest workers under the cover of Leninism.

It leads to double-talk worthy of an anthology in such sentences as: 'Peaceful co-existence is a dialectical process organically combining the most acute class struggle between socialism and capitalism with co-operation between the states of the two opposing systems in order to preserve peace?

In fact, whenever the slightest concrete step to 'preserve peace' is taken the conflict of interest rises up to confound the ideologist: Korea, Berlin, Laos, Formosa, Cuba, the Congo-all the unresolved questions of recent years show the hollowness of the case.

The answer to the 'peaceful co-existence' slogan is not to be found in the acceptance of the inevitability of war, nor in illusions about 'positive neutralism' and a third camp. By its nature the bureaucracy cannot carry forward the struggle for socialism, whether it speaks Russian or Chinese.

Nor can peace be won by hopes and good intentions, but only by the action of the international working class.

in the world today. By this they mean that imperialism is crumbling, losing position after position and that, by force of example, the USSR is winning the minds of the working people in the capitalist world.

This view is wrong on every count: it fails to say how cleverly the imperialists are adapting themselves to colonial nationalism and it underestimates their willingness to fight back — even at the risk of nuclear war — whenever what looks like a substantial inroad is made into their world position.

Most serious of all is its acceptance of the working class as a passive force: to be impressed by Soviet achievements, to support peace movements and go along with any old bourgeois politician who says a good word for the Soviet Union.

The world class, ' The possibility of a dangerous situation exists and has been reinforced by the news that the unions may be planning a general strategy against the pay pause under the auspices of the T.U.C? 'Financial Times', February 10.

"The Government yesterday won its poker game with the railway unions—-but only just'-'Financial Times', , February 16.

In less than a week the situation had been completely transformed. In that time it had become clear that the TUC were to remain inactive and the railwaymen's leaders had accepted Macmillan's meaningless promises.

Anxious warnings from the press — in which the obvious course of action for the workers to follow were considered to lead to their victory-have now been superseded by crowing satisfaction.

The union leaders have shown themselves frightened of the power of their rank and file. They agree workers could win. So they refuse to 'plan a general strategy against the pay pause' which could only succeed in breaking it. Instead they join the National Economic Development Council whose role is to plan future wage freezes.

In the three years to December 31, 1961, dividends increased four times as fast as wages. But Selwyn Lloyd does not think 'there is any need for corrective action at the present time'. After all, he says, some £10,000 million of profits were ploughed back into industry during the last 10 years.

How charitable of the ruling class to invest their profits in industry. No doubt NEDC will encourage industrialists to continue this process at an increasing rate.

The surplus value derived from past labour continually accrues to the benefit of the shareholders. As profitability increases, so does the value of the shares.

The wage earner, whose pay packet rose by 87 per cent in the 10 vears between 1950 and 1960, simply kept pace with the increased cost of living. Where, miraculously, he was able to save money, he did so from his weekly pay.

Not so the dividend clipper. His income increased by 145 per cent over the same period. But at the same time his capital or savings increased by at least the same amount, keeping pace as it does with higher dividend yields. No effort or sacrifice by him is required to save. It's an automatic process.

Mr. James Callaghan, that eminent Labour MP, proposes in 'The Statist, a right-wing financial journal, that a 'National Plan worked out with the aid of both sides of industry to decide the final choice of objectives and targets' is desirable, probably under the aegis of NEDC.

This 'Plan for Growth' as Callaghan calls it, does not explain what is going to happen to the inevitable further growth of capital. But the best laid plans of mice and men

February, 24, 1962

OVER 600 workers and students from Pakistan together with representatives of the British Labour movement attended a public meeting at St. Pancras Town Hall on February 18.

The meeting was organized by the Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Pakistan. An attempt to disrupt the meeting was firmly dealt with.

The meeting carried unanimously a resolution condemning Ayub Khan's military regime and expressing solidarity with the masses of Pakistan.

The main speech was made 'Pakistan Today'.

During the last year, he said, the opposition to the regime has been building up and coming out more and more into the open. Workers and students have played a major role in this.

The first major opposition movement was the civil disobedience movement launched by the Pathan people against the military regime at the end of 1960. Altogether more than 4,000 persons were arrested in the course of this movement which was in full swing throughout 1961.

This present phase of struggle is concerned directly with political issues. Major political groaps have now united behind the demand for:

1) Restoration of a democratic system of government with an elected Parliament based on universal adult franchise. Restoration of civil liberties. Dismemberment of one unit in West Pakistan.

Full autonomy for Pakistan.

The demonstrations which started with the students of the Dacca University have been followed up by mass demonstrations throughout East Pakistan, and a General Strike in early February.

The occasion which sparked off this new upsurge was the decision of the Ayub regime to resort to general and total repression after its failure to win support of any significant section of public with the capitalist press that the opinion for its plans to impose an authoritarian constitution.

On February 5 there was a general strike and there were many demonstrations and clashes between the people and the police. On the 6th • a large number of political leaders were arrested.

This sparked off the biggest demonstration of all on the 7th, when there were big clashes with the police who resorted to tear gas and firing.

By now the movement had spread all over East Pakistan, and news started coming through of demonstrations everywhere.

According to the 'New York Times' on February 14, the number of arrests are officially stated to be close to 400. A 'New York Times' report on February 17 described the situation as 'A potentially explosive political crisis in East Pakistan (which) confronts the regime.' Mr. Alavi spoke of the role of the Americans, always a major factor in Pakistani internal politics since the forging of the alliance. On the one hand, Kennedy is obviously embarrassed by the government's anti - Indian postures, even though it is appreciated all round that these postures have been adopted by Ayub simply to whip up some hysterical political support for himself.

The Americans are also. perturbed by the growing strength of the democratic movement.

They seem to be playing several cards at once. One of these is to seize upon the just demands of the Bengali people for full regional autonomy, and to project it in such a way that the democratic movement in East Pakistan divided and isolated from that in West Pakistan. This would at once undermine and disrupt the democratic movement in West Pakistan, give the Ayub regime a measure of political support, which it would not otherwise have, in order to engage in a ruthless suppression of the East Pakistani movement, and, finally place the East Pakistani movement at the mercy of the Americans.

The meeting was concluded by a passionate appeal for action by Mr. Mah Gulque, secretary of the Committee.

busmen, faces a big test on the wages front. The acceptRance of 3 per cent by the railway leaders places the London busmen, once again, in an isolated position with their claim, which the London Transport Executive has rejected at all levels. award.

Cliff Prospects for Ticket 1/- (for The CBC leaders will no doubt press for an immediate award of 3 per cent like the railways when they hear the report of the Frank CousinsLTE meeting held this month.

The LTE, though, is not in a weak position and will undoubtedly utilize the relative isolation of the busmen to press some conditions upon any such In its new year message to the staff the LTE spoke of coming "technical developments' on the buses. These so-called 'technical developments' have not yet been agreed to by the Central Bus Committee.

First on the list is the one-man bus which is running in country sheds but not in central (red) garages yet. A development of the OMO (one-man-operation) bus is the standee bus which has 37 standing passengers and pay-asyou-enter machines. The trolley conversion is almost completed and 64-seater Routemasters are running alongside 56-seater buses all over London. On one route, the 104 from Finchley garage, the newer 72-seater RML is running.

Two years ago, we warned in The Newsletter (28.5.60) when the Routemaster bus was put on the roads to replace trolleys that any failure to recognize what the LTE was doing would cause trouble in 1962.

The LTE intends to convert all its 56-seaters to 64 and 72-seaters. A deal is probably in the offing League Notebook PUBLIC MEETINGS Leeds All on Sundays at 7.30 p.m. Room 'C' Leeds Trades Hall, Upper Fountaine Street, Leeds 2 February 25 Gerry Healy Marxism and the Working March 4 Slaughter World Socialism all three meetings)

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, 1864 Clapham High Street, Lid. (TU, S.W. 4 180 • Clapham High Street. London, S.W.4 by a London Busman to keep technical improvements in step with wage claims.

Irrespective of whether the programme of "technical developments' is tied to the present claim or to later demands, the CBC has a difficult period ahead.

Consider the claim for higher wages that will be made in garages which begin to operate the 64 and 72-seaters in place of the standard buses. The LTE already have nearly 8,000 busmen operating the new buses from ex-trolley sheds for no extra pay.

Even more dangerous would be the precedent that some busmen have higher wages than others. The bitterness and hostility between drivers in some country sheds over who is to drive the OMO buses and between displaced conductors could spread into all sheds.

Some technical improvements are inevitable and they must be judged from the interests of the crews and none other.

Other so-called 'improvements' are aimed at increasing the exploitation of the busmen. One man operation and standee buses must never run in London. Bigger buses like the Routemasters are here now and the Central Bus Committee must extract the best possible terms for them.

One thing must be clear. Any wage award must go on the basic rate for all staff, not in the exchange of conditions for money. A whole number of claims are pending regarding shorter hours, longer holidays and other improvements to conditions.

These matters can be pressed by the CBC after the increase on the basic rate is settled, when the 'technical developments' come up for discussion.

The lesson of the recent tube strike must also be learned. No claims can be successful unless the CBC sees that all busmen are aware of what is being done.

Special meetings in every garage should be held to report on the claim. The CBC members should visit branches and put the case for struggles for wages. Every means of propaganda should be used to keep busmen in touch with the negotiations.

No matter how militant the CBC is, unless it is backed by an active member ship the LTE will not be awed.

| HE latest moves being made by the right-wing Executive Committee of the Electrical Trades Union to strengthen its position expose the hypocrisy of its claim that it intends to democratize the union.

The ballot papers now circulating to members to vote on the proposal put forward by the EC that an amendment be made to the rules giving the EC the powers to call a special delegate conference of one representative per branch, are prefaced with a statement by Byrne, the general secretary installed by the High Court.

In the preface, Byrne urges members to vote FOR the proposal.

Byrne claims that a conference of one delegate per branch, totalling 700 delegates, is more democratic than a conference of 50 delegates based on proportional representation.

This is misleading and false. Many London branches of the ETU, angered by this manipulation of the ballot forms, are including circulars of their own urging members to vote AGAINST the proposals.

They point out that such a conference would give delegates of small branches the ability to control delegates from larger industrial branches.

The right wing could confidently expect this to work in their favour. A comparison of branch membership shows this quite clearly.

COMPARISON

In area no. 42, Wetherly branch with 19 members would have the same vote as Leeds Central with 1,360.

Middlesbrough Technical & Supervisory with 26 members would have one vote; Middlesbrough Central with 1,380 members, one vote.

London Electrical No. 2 with 1,355 members is confronted by Maidenhead from the same area with 39 members.

In area 27, Central Liverpool 1,789; supervisors branch 27 members. In Blackpool, 1,320 members in the central branch would have no more say than 16 members of the Radio & Telecommunications branch.

While 19 delegates from Liverpool area would represent 12,286 members, 17 delegates from Devon would only represent 2,700.

Such activities as this 'demoatic ballot should convince more Newsletter pamphlet PLAN TO BEAT THE TORIES Secretar ry of the Labour League) and more electrical trades union members of the real aims of Byrne, Cannon and Chapple.

It is significant that while Byrne can devote his third editorial in 'The Electron' to another attack against the left wing of the union and complain about being called a 'right winger', not one mention is made about the fight against the pay pause, the one-day strike of the Confederation or about the retreat of the TUC in joining the National Economic Development Council.

MR. GUNTER DISCIPLINE Speaking to the Lancashire and Cheshire Regional Council of the Labour Party on February 17, Mr. Ray Gunter, one of the railway union leaders responsible for the acceptance of the 3 per cent increase following a conducted tour of Admiralty House, said that unless the British people quickly appreciate that there is still virtue and necessity in work and thrift 'we' are going to be in real trouble.

He said that the real problem was how to restore discipline.

UNION LEADERS FRANCO'S SPAIN Three senior members of the AEU, with the backing of their executive, will shortly visit Spain to explore the possibilities of closer relations between the Spanish and British trades union movements.

The party will comprise two Labour MPs, Cyril Bence and William Small and John Boyd, a member of the AEU executive and the Labour Party NEC.

They will leave for Barcelona on Sunday and spend a week visiting factories and trade union offices as the guests of the government.

The important article which appeared in last week's Newsletter is now available as a pamphlet.

It is invaluable reading for all trade unionists.

3d. per copy (plus from The Newslet 186A Clapham Hi London, S.W.4. ballot stage). (pam] Street SCC "TISH CI

By Our Industrial Correspondent OVER a thousand Scottish trade union delegates heard a stirring call for the defeat of the Tory government from W. Ballantyne, the assistant general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, at a conference organized by the scottish TUC leaders in Glasgow on February 18 to discuss industry and employment in Scotland.

le platform speakers consisted of five Scottish trade union leaders-Alex Moffat, NUM, J. Servin of the AEU, a steelworkers' leader, J. Irvine, W. Ballantyne of the NUR and the secretary of the general council of the STUC, George Middleton.

le speakers dealt with the economic situation confronting the Scottish workers and revealed the picture of growing unemployment and attacks by the employers and their government.

In the steel industry, despite the present slump when many workers are on short time, new techniques are being introduced which will create more pay-offs. With the exception of Bro. Ballantyne, all the leaders failed to give a fighting lead.

Alex Moffat, the CP miners' leader, did not mention socialism, but pinned his hopes on the miners' lobby of parliament and 'mass pressure' to compel the government to direct industry to Scotland and develop the mines.

illantyne called for the industrial might of the workers to be used on all occasions to defeat the Tory government and bring about the possibility of planning the economy.

There was great applause when he asked delegates to reaffirm their faith in socialism and nationalization.

He stated that the annual compensation payments of £42 million made by the Labour government to the railway shareholders were a mistake. He disclosed that compensation payments are still being made for 700,000 wagons destroyed since 1947 and for branch lines which have been closed down. Amongst the speakers from the floor, Bro. McLarty of the AEU called for a united front of the unions to smash through the pay pause, militant action around the policy of work-sharing and for the unions to campaign for the downfall of the Tories, the removal of Gaitskell and the return of a Labour government committed to nationalization under workers' control.

GO HOME COCKNEY!

The owner of a King's Lynn, Norfolk, factory has told the local Ministry of Labour not to send any more Londoners to him for jobs.

Londoners could be troublemakers, he thinks. "This is a country district and we have excellent labour relati ons. We've had no strikes?