The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 247

¡HE Socialist Labour League sends its warmest greetings to all sections of the international working class struggling against world imperialism. We especially greet the peoples of the colonial countries fighting for freedom and independence. We greet the heroic and embattled people of Cuba now being forced to go short of food by United States imperialism. We call upon all sections of the Labour movement to rally to the defence of the Cuban Revolution through the launching of an international campaign of solidarity to send food and essential medical supplies to the island.

May Day 1962 sees the launching of new and more devastating H-tests by American imperialism. Mankind moves with breath -taking speed to the brink of the abyss. Even the bourgeoisie are frightened about the outcome of this latest series of tests. But still the military monsters of Washington carry on.

No Control The imperialists, now as in the past, have no control over their system. The continuation of capitalism leaves no alternative but H-bomb tests and nuclear destruction. A fight against the H-bomb can only be won when the world is rid of capitalism.

Pacifism is no way out. Imperialist rule is maintained by means of violence. It can only be ended when the working class conquer the capitalists and introduce a socialist system of an internationally planned economy.

Monopoly Rule The Common Market is an attempt by the imperialists to resolve the problems of their economic crisis. In brief, it means the concentration of the rule of the monopolists over the working people of Britain and Western Europe.

The Common Market is A May Day Message from the National Executive Committee o lational Executive Committee ‹ the Socialist Labour League The Socialist Labour League's big May Day meeting in Hyde Park last year. Why not and hear the policies of Britain's only true Marxist party. attempt to establish economic slavery over the millions of inhabitants of West Germany, France, Italy and Britain. We are opposed to the Common Market because we are opposed to monopoly capitalism.

The answer to the monopolists must be the nationalization of all the basic industries and the introduction of a system of workers' control, together with a real working class alternative — a socialist united Europe.

The Task The immediate task before the British Labour movement and all those who want to live at peace is to understand that every struggle carried out against the Tory government is a struggle against imperialism and nuclear war.

A broad united front of all those immediately concerned with the fight against the H-bomb and the millions of workers engaged in the fight against the pay pause can deal a powerful blow against Toryism.

The leadership required for such a movement cannot be provided by the Right wing and fake Left leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions.

This leadership can only arise as the result of the development of a Marxist leadership within the Labour movement." Hère is the goal of the Socialist Labour League, which is the only Marxist organization in Britain today.

Dirty Work The Communist Party did Stalin's dirty work and helped to destroy the international communist movement in the period between the wars and after the second world war.

Its leadership follows Khrushchev just as blindly as it did Stalin. It cannot claim to be a Marxist party.

Next Step On this May Day 1962, we call upon all workers in the trade unions, Labour Party and the Communist Party to consider seriously the next step in the struggle for socialism. Join with us in building the Marxist leadership.

Join the Socialist League.

join us this yearUnited Dockers Defeat Right-wing Splitters MERSEYSIDE \HE right-wing chiefs of the Transport and General Workers' Union on Merseyside have suffered a most serious defeat in the refusal of their members to force members of the 'Blue' Union, the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers, off the docks.

A meeting of over 4,000 TGWU dockers last Sunday broke up in disorder when the notorious Mr. O'Hare urged them to show their cards to the employers when presenting themselves for work. There were only eight votes in support of Mr. O'Hare when the vote was taken on this.

The meeting followed a strike in which over half the labour force in the Liverpool port were involved. The dockers of both unions grew more united with each day of the strike.

Amongst the dockers who did show their cards to the employers was a leading member of the Communist Party, whose policy during the strike was to urge members of the 'Blue' Union to rejoin the Transport Workers. Needless to say, Communist Party members are completely discredited on Merseyside.

PROPAGANDA FORCE But it was not the Communist Party alone which misjudged the situation. Ever since the 'Blue' Union came to Merseyside at the invitation of the men in 1954, all the propaganda force of the capitalist press, the right-wing of the Labour movement and the Communist Party have been turned against it.

During the recognition strike in 1955, the Communist Party played an infamous part in weakening the struggle of the men and defeating the strike.

For over seven years, the 'Blue' Union has had no recognition from the employers in ports outside London, yet its members have in the main clung on grimly in their efforts to maintain their their organization.

Under such conditions they lost some of their original membership, but the main core of militants fight on. In this struggle they undoubtedly have the support of the TGWU rank and file, who feel that without the 'Blue' Union no progress can be made in the port.

If the 'Blue' were to achieve recognition from the employers it would win back most of the members of the TGWU who gave it full support in the recognition fight in 1955.

ESSENTIAL PART

The 'Blue' Union is not a breakaway union on the Merseyside. It is an essential part of the dockers' struggle to democratize the TGWU and to bring their organization under the control of the rank and file.

The same bureaucratic set-up on the docks exists in the Transport and General Union today as in the time of the late Arthur Deakin.

There was absolutely no other way to alter this state of affairs than through the expansion of the 'Blue' Union.

By themselves the not alter the existing machinery of the TGWU, so they joined the ' Blue' in order to improve their conditions in the ports.

Here is the reason why members of the TGWU will always stand loyally by the 'Blue' Union men. They regard them as dockers who have taken steps that are in the best interests of all those employed on the docks.

OVER 1,000 engineering and building trade workers employed by Wimpey at Petro Chemicals (Shell), Liverpool, construction site, voted to down tools in a one-day token stoppage on May 14 'against the Tory H-bomb and the resumption of tests.

The vote was taken at a meeting called primarily for support for a one-day stoppage on May Day. A number of local speakers were present, including Frank Allaun, Labour MP for Salford and a local CP member. The May Day stoppage was agreed upon.

Then Pat Arrowsmith spoke on the campaign to extend the H-bomb fight into industrial action.

"Marching to and from Aldermaston will not stop them either making or testing the bomb, she said. 'As a socialist I understand that industrial workers will see the fight against the bomb to be clearly connected with the fight on wages and against the government.?

This statement surprised a few of the workers present, as this was a complete reversal of policy on her part; at previous meetings of the CND trade union committee, she had repeatedly stated that the issue of the bomb could be separated both from political and economic issues.

Pat Arrowsmith obviously impressed the workers with her facts on radiation and disease, and when the resolution was put from the body of the meeting calling for a stoppage against the Tory H-bomb and the resumption of tests, there was an overwhelming majority in favour.

It is intended that in the next fortnight more sites in the area will be included in the stoppage.

Pag Two

fused to stand On criticisms Frank Cousins at TUC Conference.

tely as they prepare for General Election, and he But if Mr. avoided munist quite a bitterly Market opportunism Party.

Since 945.

two product as cent in the What is NEWSLETTER recently attacked Hugh Gaitskell because he retake any ositive the question of the Market these were echoed by the Scottish Gaitskell is trying desperato keep the Party united the must be hoping that Macmillan will soon give a lead on Common Ma ket which will be able to follow.

Gaitskell

the issue, the ComParty has acted in different way. It has opposed the Common arguing that Britain income in would then be tied to all the 65 per cent in reactionary powers in Europe Kingdom! in an alliance against the In these years, Soviet Union. people consumed :

Germany has been their chief portion of their focus for attention. The attacks than any other have flowed thick and fast on Wesern Europe. lne vermans and many readers 71 :. 1 . Cr might be excused for mistaking recent editorials in the 'Daily Worker' for statements by Lord Beaverbrook.

The Socialist Labour League has always stressed that the problems of the nuclear age can only be solved on an international scale and by the united action of the working class.

Such bitter nationalistic attacks as those of the Communist Party are not only wrong but highly dangerous in that as they help the capitalists of the Europe to play off one of the working class of against another.

Recent events in Germany, both economically and politically. have underlined the correctness of the internationalist outlook we have fought for, al.- and pankrupıcy anu the Communist the economy has every- hieved thing which the have Tories failed to achieve There here. has been rapid growth, price stability and huge balance of ER payments surpluses, in sharp contrast to the experiences in Britain of inflation, slow growth and continual balance of payments crises.

This contrast, despite fact the thai the countries are similar in area, in population and their dependence upon exports (in 1960 Britain exported 20 per cent of her gross national opposed to 17 per case of Germany). the hasis of this so-called. 'miracle' which has T7 11C6L 10 LIN established Western Germany as the leading capitalist power in Europe and raised living standards, productivity produc- and fall to the level that tion much faster th Britain? an in Britain. The German ruling The outstanding reason is the class, aided by American rapid capital accumulation imperialism, built up their which has been possible in economy at the expense of Germany during the 1950s. the working class. During this decade, almost 22 Against this background, per cent of the gross national German labour remained weak product was devoted to fixed and backward - a reactionary capital investment, as opposed government has been in control to a little over 16 per cent in throughout the post-war period the United Kingdom. and the Social Democrats have If investment in machinery drifted more and more to the and equipment alone is con- Right and have now all sidered, Britain has invested at formal connections only half the rate of Germany. socialist programme.

Why was this rapid accumu- But things are changing. 1..: :1.1-0 n- 11_- laton possible! basically De- the evidence shows that cause consumption was such a German economy is now low proportion of the gross ning into increasing trouble and national product. that the German working class During the 50s, this accounted will face very similar problems for about 59 per cent of national to those we are dealing with in inname in. Harmony hut arrar Dmitrin the United The increased vote received by Herr Brandt in the recent the German elections (despite the very rightsmaller pro- wing, Cold War platform which total income the SPD fought on) is a sign country in that things are once on the move in the of his let a lot ol spare resources for accumulation and because of the high demand for exports, there was no serious problem of selling the resultant increased volume of goods the market.

Consumption was held in Out of the ashes of World War II ro capitali check because wages and sala- their strength. ries took up such a low pro- Last year, wages and salaportion of national income ries rose by 10 per cent, vhile only 47 per cent during the 50s, production went up by only opposed to 58 per cent in 4 per cent.

UK. Big wage increases have This in turn flowed from been granted to chemical the weak position of labour: workers, and metal workers fascism had destroyed nearly who threatened to strike every leader of note and unless their claim was met.

experience and the influx of Substantial wage claims are labour from the East and being made by steel, building Italy kept unemployment and railway workers.

above the million mark until Externally, the position of the 1955, and the half-million German economy has weakened mark until 1960. considerably. After the Not until 1960 did the rate valuation of the currency (beof unemployment in Germany of from pressure the OY 6,000 nurses marched the pres ince the march of the through London last Satur- Fulham Trades Council, London day to Tratalgar Square to District Committee of the press their claim for a sub- NUVB and other trade union stantial wage increase. Their branches. claim for a rise comparable The Tories should be warned. with the increase in the cost they intend to take advantage of living has been rejected by of the invidious position in the Minister of Health, Enoch which hospital workers are Powell, who has offered them placed in relation to taking 21 per cent. strike action, then the Labour Behind the banner of the lent hasn't had its last Confederation of Health Service say.

Employees ca me banners of The TUC Labour the hospitals from many parts of Party would make a bigger the country. contribution to the working The strong feeling of the class in relation to the Health Labour moveme nt in s uppor Service if they stopped particithe ent fi pating NEDC and called seen polist unite class All that wages sense.

We their nurses.

The the in USA, which was suffering from balance of payments difficulties) and the internal price rises, imports have risen sharply and exports stagnated.

It is in this situation of a weakened economic position that the demands for wage increases by the German workers assume their importance.

If the government lets things get out of hand, exports may well be priced out of the market and profits reduced.

The 'Financial Times' has realised that the problems facing the two ruling classes are basically the same; German industrialists, it says (13.2.62) are facing 'the same pressures on costs that British industry has felt for the past two years'. Herr Erhard has issued grave warnings. The palmy days are now over and things will tighten What reaction of the German government? This is a question of tactics, but the 'Economist' (31.3.62) reports that Erhard 'has proposed the setting up of a representative council ... to advise industry and trade on the adjustments of wages and costs to prices'.

How like the National Economic Development Council recently established in Britain!

It clear that, facing probwhich more and more are to be the same, the monos from both countries will to deal with the working in Britain and Germany. these developments show can expect growing clashes in Germany. All suggestions that the German 'miracle' iS a result of the willingness of workers to work long hours for low will be as have tried to show the workers in Germany had to suffer low wages because of their weak bargaining position. Now their struggles will increasingly take on the forms they have done recently in Britain.

If this is correct then the chance and necessity for united working class action against the monopolists is more and more apparent. There is now a real chance for us to raise the perspectives of the British working class on to an international level.

If we can succeed then a revitalised German working class can become our strongest European ally.

strike petrol tanker drivers for three hours las it week in sympathy with the nurses and the token stoppage of 600 workers of the Ford Motor Company, were absolutely correct.

The West London branch of TGWU (Oil Tanker Section)

Fulham, has called for a conference to discuss further ways of assisting the nurses in the fight for their claim.

In South Wales, 200 representatives of 72,000 • miners passed a resolution den anding that the executive should UNREST against fascist regime of Dr. Salazar flared in Portugal on May Day when a demonstration was called by the illegal Communist Party.

Salazar's police force moved in on the demonstration in Lisbon, smashing marchers to the ground with their rifle butts. In another part of the city, demonstrators were sprayed with blue-tinted water to mark them as trouble-makers on whom the police could act later.

The fact that the whole terror regime is beginning to topple and is menaced by the workers was underlined by the news that heavily-armed troops in Lisbon and Oporto were on guard outside industrial plants, steel works, factories and offices.

In the evening of May Day two policemen and three civilians were killed when the unrest reached its peak and the police fired on the demonstrators in Lisbon.

Many others were.. woundert and arrested as they fought back against tear-gas and water hoses.

The Communist Party has issued a leaflet stating that it will create an atmosphere of insurrection on certain days during May. But without arms and correct political leadership the workers and peasants of Portugal will suffer terrible blows in the fight for

convene special conference with other trade un ion organizations in South Wales 'to mobilize support for the nurses' demand'.

This should be taken up in trade unions throughout Britain. In this way the nurses can win.

In Trafalgar Square, nurses passed a resolution demning the government "deliberate obstruction of negotiations to improve the substandard salaries paid to nurses and mid-wives and pledged to take every constitutional action possible to receive reasonable increase.

May: 5.. 6 THE capture of exGeneral Salan with the help of a double agent purportedly working for the OAS, underlines the deep differences within the French ruling class. Salan attempted, and failed, what de Gaulle succeeded in doing when he raised the banner of resistance to the Petain government in 1940.

While the Vichy government then proceeded to shoot Gaullists as 'terrorists' , its downfall was the signal for a settling of accounts in which Petainist collaborators with the Germans fell victim to the Gaullist collaborators with the British.

The upper ranks French army subsequently contained men who had been on one side or the other, perhaps on both. There were at times common tasks, at others divisions which could only be settled by bomb, machine gun or the firing squad.

Salan himself, faithful servant of French imperialism in Indo-China, found himself criticised by the Algerian colonialists and a spectacular attempt on his life was made with a bazooka before, in May 1958, he became the figure-head of the army revolt which brought de Gaulle to power.

Subsequently, like other army officers, he saw in the Fifth Republic no improvement on its predecessor and set about waging an armed struggle against it.

As it turned out, by.

TOM KEMF : conflici led man! innocent on the losing side. It that there will be any TXY:41 deless ns.

is unlikely clemency.

with regrets, and secret heart-searchings no doubt, the French Establishment has no alternative but to condemn to death one of its loyal sons.

As with Petain and de Gaulle, so with de Gaulle and Salan: demonstrators differs in no way from assassination by plastic bombs.

In Algeria, Salan and his captors inflicted all manner of horrors on a people struggling for its freedom.

It is true that the French government has decided to conThree existing leadership and takes a radical turn; if this coincides witn a revival or working class ...idh ...1 af annalina ninen militancy in France; if in the African preserves of French capital the new regimes based on the local bourgeoisie break down-then a large part of the ruling class will look with more

From An Indian Correspondent COMMUNALISM, which has bedevilled Indian politics for decades, now threatens to strangle the Indian Communist Party in its malignant embrace.

According to a report appearing in the Indian news monthly ' Link', the Tamilnad (Madras State) Council of the Communist Party of India by 110 votes to 75 adopted a resolution which sought to give political and electoral support to the DMK (Dravida Mangala Kalam, a party which aims to set up a State on racialist lines in South India) - a rank reactionary, separatist and communalist organization which allies itself with the Muslim League and Swatantra party.

According to 'Link' this will be a major issue in the CPI and there is a probability that the State Council decision will be overruled by a special State conference.

Whatever happens there will be no compromise on this vital question. The Right wing of the CP has even suppressed reports of mass meetings where Communist Party speakers denounced the DMK.

In Punjab, too, the State Committee of the party has adopted a grovelling attitude in LABOUR REVIEW out now the Spring number contains articles Cuba and Lenin's Philosophical together with a Spring books section. 2/- (postage 6d.) from New Park Publicatio 186a Clapham High St., London, S.W.4 relation to the Akali (Sikh) separatist movement led by the reactionary Tara Singh. But here too the forces against capitulation are growing. More than seven district committees have come out against the State Council policy. In Bengal - a predominantly left-wing party - the State Council session ended with a long resolution which completely evaded the question as to why the Bengal Communist Party fared so badly in the recent elections.

The general line of the CPI —which gives critical support to Nehru at home and abroad— proved more compelling than the separate left-wing manifesto of the Bengal party in turning the voters towards Congress. The record of the party contrasts sharply with the performance of the Trotskyist RCP whose candidate in the industrial suburb of Howrah was able to defeat a prominent Congress man by a handsome majority. Instead of a critical analysis of its policy which led to defeat, the Communist Party leaders are now indulging in communalism in order to preserve their electoral power. This is the surest road to ruin for Stalinism in India.

on l ance, Note oks, like faces like in irreconcilahle conflict in which what is at issue is the course most likely to preserve and strengthen a social svstem which in its writhinos has demanded many helpless and innocent victims.

The death of Jouhaud, Salan and the other army rebels will cause no regrets in the ranks of the French working class.

But to join in the cry for their heads without coupling it with a demand for a reckoning with the bonapartist regime of de Gaulle is to remain its prisoner.

For the working class de Gaulle is no less an enemy tl lan Salan; the te egal ned murder cede the form of that freedom UW WV AVII1I Us WUL LIVUVAL in order to safeguard the French capital stake in North Africa and shake off what had become the intolerahle hurden nf the LIN LVIVLUVIV VULUNH VA LUN war. Even so, the fact that many of the officer corps, if they do not wholly share the views of the OAS, are hesitant about a full-scale offensive against it, shows that Salan is not an isolated and exceptional phenomenon.

No doubt there are many among de Gaulle's supporters, even in his government, who are dubious about the course he has taken and the risks it comports.

If the Algerian revalution gathers strength, flings off its favour on the nolicies and pervas vaso ґVa. ґ -sonalities opposed to Gaullism.

Salan may become the martyr of French fascism, the OAS its legendarv hernes. the Euroneans gunnell leaven, den energonn from Algeria now settling in France, its missionaries.

The guillotine cannot wipe out memories or erase the roots of social crisis. Salan dead or Salan alive that crisis grows.

The society which produced Petain, de Gaulle and Salan— who, each in their own way, sought to uphold its property relations and yet could settle their differences only by the sword—is unable to guarantee itself any stable prospect for the future.

Common market, common factors When Mr. F. J. Erroll, President of the Board of Trade, announced that Britain was an expanding economy, mainly due to the success of the government's 'income policy'—pay pause to you and me --there was no dramatic Stock Exchange rush to buy shares.

The latest index of industrial production figures, whilst showing a rise of two points in February, do not indicate a definite upsurge in production.

Due to bad weather conditions and sickness among workers in January, abnormally low output was reflected for that month, so that February's return, to a certain extent, includes the previous month's uncompleted contracts.

Indeed, in the engineering industry new orders for February were still 10 per cent below what they were one year earlier. Export orders actually fell in February, and these will, of course, influence future production levels.

So far capital duction is concerned the contrast with a year ago is even more spectacular. Industrial building, for instance, has declined to such an extent that, whereas in the period April - June 1960, 23.9 million square feet of new building was authorised, the figure for the last three months is only 10 million square feet.

Less production has its consequences in the reduction in the demand for workers. The level of unemployment now is 2 per cent compared with 1.5 per cent a year ago. Ilhis means that nearly half a million workers are out of a job.

Normally at this time of the year vacancies rise by about 30,000 due to seasonal demands. This year there has been only a marginal fall of 3,000 in the number of unemployed. So that there has, in fact, been a further decrease in jobs available.

The number of people without work is greater than the number of jobs available in all parts of Britain. The North - Western Region has nearly 72,000 people out of work (2.4 per cent), Scotland, 80,000 (3.7 per cent) and Northern Ireland (8.3 per cent).

The decline in trade and production and incidence of unemployment are, according to our economic pundits, considered to be marginal. All the Tories' fiscal policies are aimed at 'holding the line', pending the entry into Europe.

But what of Europe? Is its future under a capitalist economy one of continued prosperity? Well, Professor Erhard, the German Minister of Economics, has only recently made some gloomy prognostications about the future of the German economy. Prices there are rising steeply and the government are obliged to take measures aimed at slowing down production.

The European boom has been due to a number of factors outside the mere existence of a cohesive trading community (for instance general post-war reconstruction, natural gas discoveries in Italy, vast State aid, etc.).

But the classic weaknesses. of capitalism are coming through to the surface at a time when British capital seeks entry to the Common Market. It must join for its own survival, but will succumb to the same pressures.

Four May 5. 1962 USDAW Conferenc

Rv OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE announcement that a number of the unioms involved in the Contederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions' ballot have voted against strike action is being greeted with joy by the national press. The ETU and NUVB, traditionally militant in the past, are rumoured to have voted heavily against strike action, as also has the National Union of General and Municipal Workers.

Claims that this proves that many engineering workers are in favour of the government's pay pause policy is sheer nonsense.

The responsibility for a vote against strike action must be laid squarely at the door of many of the union leaders on the Confederation. The two successful one-day stoppages on February 5 and March 5 gave a mandate to these union leaders which at best they have allowed to slip from their grasp.

Many of them, like Mr. Jim Matthews of the NUGMW, have conducted a ceaseless demoralizing campaign aaginst a strike decision.

Many of the other members of the Confederation's general committee obviously supported the strike ballot in order to avoid a real show-down with the employers.

Since the strike ballot began nothing has been done by the Confederation to campaign for a successful fight against the employers. -NO ENCOURAGEMENI With the exception of a few unions like the Transport Workers Union and the Constructional Engineering Union, no encouragement has been given to the membership to vote for a strike.

It is true, as the press have claimed, that John Thomas Byrne recommended strike action to the Electrical Trades Union. But the statement issued by him was so vague that many ETU members wondered whether he actually supported the pay pause.

In the face of this lack of ieadership it is hardly surprising that engineering workers feel sceptical about challenging the engineering employers.

The record of people like Carron and Matthews in industrial disputes makes the possibility of their leading any successful fight highly unlikely.

This Paper Weapon Subscription Department, Newsletter, 186a Clapham Street, London, S.W.A. 12 issues, or £l 8s. per year Address Many workers are sure to have asked themselves what the leaders who agreed to join NEDC can do to fight the pay pause.

In the Newsletter of April 7 we called for factory campaigns to be organized and leaflets to be produced. This was not done.

Having allowed the initiative to slip from their grasp, some of the Confederation leaders will no doubt now begin to talk about the 'apathy' of the rank and file. But that apathy depends upon leadership.

What has been confirmed by the ballot is the lack of leadership in the trade unions at national level.

A successful struggle to force back the engineering employers will now have to be taken up at district and branch and factory level.

The employers should be told immediately Dont count your chickens! '

THE ANNUAL conference of the AEU National Committee - policy-making body of the union — is likely to defeat their reactionary president, Mr. Bill Carron, on a number of important topics.

Opening the conference on Monday, Carron made a vicious witch - hunting attack against "Reds' who caused trouble in the union and he singled out the BLSP strike as an example and supported the executive's threat to expel the men who had refused to resume work.

On policy, he called for the raising of the standards of lower paid workers, a shorter working week and higher fringe benefits, but he made no mention of an overall wage increase for engineering workers.

This view is countered by a large number of resolutions calling for a general increase.

Carron went on to support Britain's entry into the Common Market. Eight motions oppose it.

Carron supported trade union participation on NEDC, and asked whether it was possible to justify the movement remaining aloof from a body for whose existence, he said, the trade unions had clamoured.

Seven motion on the agenda are highly critical of his accepting a seat on the council, which one motion calls a 'betrayal of the principles of the union' to 60 have already reduced the force by some 3,000 in the past Two yeara Hand in hand wih these plans has gone the persistent sniping at militant trade unionists in the ports and the squeeze on 'plus payments' and fringe benefits.

An open conflict with the LAST WEEK Alex Moffat, Secretary of the Scottish Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, and John Ford, National President of the union, were seen on the steps of the head office of the National Coal Board. They were there to press demands for a halt to the closure of pits in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the National Coal Board is going ahead with its plans. Lord Robens, chairman of the NCB announced last Saturday that out of a total of 118 pits now operating in Scotland, more than half would be closed within the next five years.

The Scottish coalfield had 'lost' £19 millions last year and Lord Robens declared that unless the government came up with a subsidy then many pits would be closed in the near future.

Robens also revealed that the Scottish coalfield had doubled pro-

HE strike notice handed representatives of 70,000 Britain has struck a note and in employers' circle IS. Th increase in wages and a reducti to 40.

An official strike on the docks would have serious repercussions for the economic plans of the ruling class, who are at a critical stage of their negotiations for entry into the Common Market.

Involved in all their calculations is the dire need to increase the efficiency of industries and transportation in order to raise productivity.

REDUCTION

It has been an open secret for some time that on the docks these plans include a big reorganization of the "Dock Labour Scheme in which the increase of mechanization and the reduction of the labour force would be two key factors.

This is what lies behind the Rochdale Committee of Inquiry's report and the subsequent scheme for decasualization being hatched between the port employers and Cousins in the Transport and General Workers' Union.

SCHEME

This scheme envisages a reduction of the labour force in London from 27,000 to 14,000. Natural wastage and the lowering of the retiring age from 65 to the port employers by dock workers throughout of fear in the national press • claim is for a substantial in in working hours from 44 dockers on the wages ques tion, therefore, could not only force a retreat on that issue, but also hold back the plans of the employers.

THRASHED

The dockers have shown that they can win. They have thrashed the employers on Merseyside in their attempt to split their ranks with the connivance of right-wing TGWU officials.

The employers face the added problems of paying f100 a day for each ship in dock at a time of year when their bankers' export credit is withdrawn and penalties for non-payment are severe.

MAINTAIN

But preparations are necessary now to make sure that the unity between the 'Blue' and ' White' unions is maintained and that the employers are not allowed to settle with one port at a time.

The liaison committees must take the responsibility for securing this unity. Events in the past have shown that to leave it to the officials of the TGWU like O'Leary and O'Hare would be to encourage a sell-out. Dockers have not had a wage increase for two years.

BREAK-THROUGH

May 13 couta mark ilit sor stage in a real break-through against the Tory pay pause.

The Labour movement should give the maximum assistance to the portworkers if no settlement is reached before that date. ductivity during the last 13 weeks. He expected this tremendous surge' to continue.

There were, he said, three categories of pits in Scotland: those with an assured future (where profits can be made); those with an uncertain future (where, if there were no industrial disputes, upgrading was possible); and those to be closed.

Jobs will not be guaranteed in Scotland. Miners who wish to remain in the industry will have io be prepared to move to other coalfields. More than 10,000 miners face redundancy.

Robens has stated the brutal facts of class warfare in the coalfields. His reference to government subsidy is merely intended to remove some of the dirt from his own iurncoat to that of the Tory government.

None of this should confuse the rank and file miner about the role of Lord Robens.

WALTER PADLEY, the once self-styled left-wing leader of 350,000 shop workers, appeared at the union's conference at Blackpool this week revealed as a fully-fledged member of Mr. Gaitskell's clique.

Following his move away from unilateralism last year, he based his support this year on his wife's demand that 'his two children should never live under a Communist dictatorship'.

Padley was forced into the open by the Croydon delegate and Bro. Milne, a union Member of Parliament, who both made the point that 'when a worker is asked to join the union, and he says he will only join when everyone else is in, then we know he is anti-union. By the same standard those who are opposed to unilateralism want to keep the bomb and stand as pro-bombers with the same policy as the Tory government'.

" OUR FRIENDS'

This position was confirmed by the mover of the Aberdeen amendment which called for multilateralism and referred to 'our friends the Tories'.

In spite of the defeat of the Croydon unilateralist resolution without a card vote on Tuesday morning, on Tuesday afternoon Padley was shouted down when he tried to raise the Red bogey in an effort to reverse last year's decision against the training of German troops and the provision of bases in Britain.

In the debate on the need for a Labour government, the responsibility for any split in the conference or the movement was placed on the shoulders of the Right wing by delegate after delegate.

The Coventry delegate said that the Labour leadership want to treat the membership like the galley slaves of old, who did all the rowing to move the boat but had no say in guiding it. The main votes at this conference, 147,619 to 79,381 for sitting on the fence on the Common Market and 148,863 to 58,344 for 'Signposts for the Sixties' and 'Policy for Peace' were of the same order as those in the recent election for general secretary, the result of which was announced a few days before the conference.

They show the increase of the grip of the ultra-right-wing Labour Progressive Group on the union machine.

FAILURE

The adverse effect this organization is having on the industrial policy of the union is shown by the reversal on Monday by 178,357 votes to 68,547 of previous policy lo aim for a minimum weekly wage for all workers, and by the failure of the union to make inroads in the new concentration of workers in the big private retail shops.

More and more USDAW members were talking at the conference of the need for another organization to fight the LPG.

There seems no doubt that such an organization will soon come into being, but it must not be just anti-LPG, it must have a positive policy to build the union. Registered at the Ci.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, 186л Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), r.o. 180 Clapham High Street London. S W a