The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 249

By Our Political Correspondent R. GAITSKELL and the Right wing of the Labour Party have launched a witch-hunt of unprecedented proportions against all those who oppose the H-bomb. In a moment of panic, they have seized upon the interruptions at Gaitskell's and Brown's May Day meetings as an opportunity to take action against the Young Socialists and members of CND.

'The Guardian' of May 16 announces that Mr. General Secretary of the Labour Party, and Sara B: National Agent, together with regional party officer investigate CND influence in the local Labour Parties, and also to what exent 'the campaign has been infiltrated by Communists and Trotskyites'.

Three leading members of CND, Lord Russell, Canon Collins and Lord Chorley, are to be asked to withdraw their sponsorship of a world disarmament conference in Moscow this summer.

Two Young Socialist papers, 'Keep Left' and 'Young Guard' which have consistently opposed the H-bomb and whose supporters are active in CND are to be immediately proscribed.

Into the open

Seven members of the National Committee of the Young Socialists (a majority) are to be asked to give reasons to the National Executive as to why they should not be expelled from the Labour Party for association with 'Keep Left'.

Out into the open has come the threat of revenge which Gaitskell has been hinting at since he was defeated at the Scarborough conference of 1960. The Labour Party is to be made safe for the H-bomb.

The Right wing have also decided that no resolutions against the bomb will be placed before this year's conference. Thus the debate has been closed and the witch-hunt follows automatically.

Fight back

Unless Labour's Left wing fights back now it will be completely destroyed and its most enthusiastic followers gagged or expelled.

In this situation, the allegations of Trotskyist or Communist influence are irrelevant. Large numbers of people are involved and the Right wing Williams, arker, the is, are to are simply using as an excuse.

They also feel that the limited electoral successes in the council elections provide them with an opportunity to purge the party under conditions where they feel the unions and the constituency parties will be neutralized.

Intolerance

But this is by no means certain. There are powerful influences in the trade union movement who oppose the H-bomb and who are growing more restive at the intolerance of the Right wing.

Gaitskell and company can be defeated if these forces now come forward and oppose this witch-hunt. What the Left must do is to fight back. Under no circumstances must it agree that the witch-hunt should be applied to any section of the movement.

The 'Daily Worker' concentrates on defending CND but ignores the attack on the Young Socialist movement. Such a policy plays into the hands of the witch-hunters.

Cousins' Advice

A witch-hunt against one is a witch-hunt against all. This should be the motto of the Left. The witch-hunt against CND is the same as that against the Young Socialists.

Mr. Cousins, who last year at Blackpool advised the youth to take as much notice of the conference decisions as Gaitskell had taken of Scarborough, should now speak up. If he does, he will receive tremendous support.

All Left MPs who really oppose the f I-bomb should take their stand in the struggle BHO Angry demonstrators Brown's May Day meeting in Hyde Park. against Gaitskell.

It is in this respect that the statement by Tom Driberg about Trotskyists in the last issue of ' Reynolds News' is scandalous.

In discussing possible tendencies behind the May Day disturbances in Glasgow and London he says:

• Possibly some group of Trotskyists (who seem SO often, objectively, to act as agents provocateur: for th Ise they profess most iolently to oppose?)?

Smear

No member of the Socialist Labour League had anything to do with these disturbances and we are by far the most representative Trotskyist organization in the country.

Mr. Driberg has not brought forward a scrap of proof that any Trotskyist was responsible. He simply engages in a smear campaign which is in itself part of the witch-hunt.

We publicly challenge Mr. Driberg to bring forward his evidence in 'Reynolds News'.

The reason behind such a policy may well be to provide him with an excuse to vote on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party for the proscriptions of the youth papers 'Keep Left and ' Young Guard'.

The Labour movement will be carefully watching the action of every member of the NEC next week.

No Retreat There must be no more retreat in the fight against the policies of Gaitskell which are leading us towards nuclear lestruction. Liverpool Workers' Bomb Strike Newsletter Reporter TORE than 750 engineerWing and building trade workers employed by George Wimpeys at Petro-Chemicals, Carrington, Cheshire, downed tools in a one-day token strike on Monday, May 14, in opposition to the Tory H-bomb and the resumption of tests.

Building, factory and print workers took time off to support a demonstration called for those workers in the Liverpool area working on the Carrington site.

About 100 workers marched behind banners declaring 'Out with the Tories, Out with the H-bomb'.

The demonstration was cheered on its way by. building workers on a large site along the route.

At a meeting after the demonstration, S. Howard, Chairman of the Carrington Stewards' Committee declared, ' This could be the beginning of mass industrial action against the bomb." It was reported at the committee that the local AUBTW district committee had passed a resolution calling on the NFBTO to support a similar stoppage for all building trade workers in the Mersey district.

MILOVAN DJILAS, former • Vice-President of the Peoples' Republic of Yugoslavia, was sentenced last Monday to five years' imprisonment plus three years and eight months of his previous sentence (not served since his release on parole) plus a further five years deprivation of rights to appear in the press, radio, television and at public meetings.

He is also to be deprived of all proceeds from his book (Djilas is by profession a writer and poet).

The trial took precisely six and a half hours. According to BORBA, Djilas was indicted for publishing material acquired while a senior representative of the government.

He is accused of agreeing "to become a tool of the Cold War', and having 'maliciously joined the circle of anti-Yugoslav campaigns'. This, from those who have already amnestied the blood-enemies of the Yugoslav proletariat.

This is Djilas' third trial in camera, but this time the press and public were excluded even before the reading of the indictment. Only his family permitted to be present.

The prosecution admitted that Djilas had disclosed nothing that was not already known, but said he had added 'subjective impressions'. Djilas alleged that therefore the indictment was Milovan Djilas fabricated and false, and demanded a public trial.

'I have the right to defend myself publicly because I have been publicly defamed. ... If the trial is not in public I shall not answer any question s and I will not defend myself was trial in camera would bring me trial in camera into a position into a position where I cannot defend myself?

This trial exceeds in enormity the previous prosecutions of this man who has dared to challenge the Yugoslav bureaucracy. The viciousness of the sentence reflects the growing economic crisis of the Yugoslav regime which has forced it to make one of its empirical turns to the Soviet bureaucracy.

This crisis has serious political implications for the Yugoslav bureaucracy vis-a-vis the working class. Djilas could indeed constitute a pole of attraction to opposition elements and his ideas on the privileges of the bureaucracy strike fear in its heart. This is anower reason for the amnesty or the rightwing reactionaries.

Part of the price of this compromise with the Soviet bureaucracy is Djilas' liberty. Much as we might disagree with the viewpoint of Djilas, ci socialists are called upon to condemn this bureaucratic method of solving the interna. problems of a state founded on the conquests of its working class.

Page

the strikes as 'industrial action for political ends.

'The Sunday Telegraph' of May 6 carried a headline • Nurses Condemn Token Strikes'. This referred, of course, to certain trade union officials who spoke 'on behalf' of the nurses. Not a single interview with a nurse could be quoted!

Miss Anne Godwin, chairman of the TUC, having promised a few days earlier 'full support' for the nurses' claim, accused the leaders of sympathetic actions of being either misguided or irresponsible.

'Motives of power rather than sympathy for the nurses has led to some of the strikes, she said.

Mr. W. J. Jepson, secretary of the Confederation of Health Service Employees said, 'If I had been consulted I would have tried to prevent the men at Ford's and elsewhere from striking.

Across in Dublin, the union leaders were playing a similar role, condemning the magnificent solidarity of the Dublin busdrivers against six of their brothers being sacked as 'unficial action bea Tet and our "Tribune' friends now condemn the trade union bureaucrats for what they are? Will they recognize that the workers themselves have found in action the solution to the question of 'priorities'?

This struggle against the government's wages policy providing a testing-ground for so-called 'left-wingers'.

The test is whether they start from the struggles and the power of the workers as a class.

From this standpoint, it is necessary to fight the trade union bureaucracy and the right-wing leadership as col laborators of the Tories and the employers.

LESSONS

They collaborate because they see their future in the continued existence of British capitalism, in or out of the Common Market. This is why they co-operate with the Tories in NEDC to 'solve Britain's economic problems'.

If we draw all the lessons from the present strike actions, for higher wages, against sackings, and in solidarity with sections like the nurses, we can begin the building of a new socialist leadership in the British Labour movement.

It showed that only the working class, through its organs of power, could challenge the bureaucracy and prepare its overthrow.

W one European country after another is grappling with a labour shortage TAGES have been held back here at an opportune time-just when and increasing wage demands. It would be a tragedy if this opportunity was missed in the next few months, for with Common Market competition likely next year everything must be done to keep down costs.' ('The Times' editorial, These sentences from the top ruling class newspaper express very clearly the line of the British employers. The militant demands of the workers in other countries employers their British rivals bring difficulties to their hope to profit from this.

What the British working class needs is the direct opposite: an alliance with the reviving workers' movement in Western Europe.

Only a determined struggle against wage-freezing and against redundancy together with a campaign for a socialist government can defeat the employers' plans.

LABOUR LEADERS

But our Labour and trade union leaders stand in the way of such a campaign.

Gaitskell, in the House of Commons, supports the witch-hunting recommendations of the Radcliffe Report.

The TUC leaders have joined the Tories National Economic Development Council.

Gaitskell's hope of a Labour election victory is based on capturing the middle-class vote by preventing strong working-class action.

The fight against redundancy and wage cuts is being carried out by the workers themselves. We need to understand this and Plumbers' Militant Motions THE published agenda for the Biennial Conference of the Plumbing Trades Union meeting at Whitley Bay next week shows that almost every key issue facing the Labour movement will be debated.

Resolutions include opposition to any form of pay pause, the Common Market, for withdrawal from the NATO war alliance, opposition to racialism and to bans and proscriptions in the Labour Party.

Support will be urged for unilateralism, defence of shop stewards and repeal of the government's Rent Act.

It is clear also from the agenda that the Left forces in the PTU are on the offensive and whilst some of the resolutions are ambiguous, the one on racialism indicates the presence of delegates with a clear class outlook. It reads 'Conference opposes any form of racialism and condemns legislation designed to restrict immigrants from the Commonwealth countries. Conference rejects the government's immigration bill, which is an attempt to introduce the colour bar in Britain and divide the working class.' to find the rank-and-file methods of organization, between members of different unions, which can give this movement real striking power.

In the BLSP engineers' strike, in the car factories like Jaguar after the engineers' token' strike, on the Mersey docks in April, the workers showed their determination to preserve their fighting organization.

Some trade union leaders and 'socialists' have wasted a lot of breath in recent years in talking about 'mindless militancy'.

Writers of the 'New Left' persuasion have said that rank-and-file militants, fighting for their own wages, have only made it worse for the low-paid sections and for those who are unorganized or poorly organized.

Instead, they have suggested BALAZS NAGY: 'La formation du Conseil Central Ouvrier de Budapest en 1956' (Correspondances Socialistes, 17 Av. de Paris, Vincennes [Seine] France).

THE Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was one of the most significant events of the postwar period. Many people are interested in concealing its true character and importance.

According to the official Communist Party line it was a reactionary uprising instigated by Western agents. Official propagandists in the West present it primarily as a nationalist movement against the Russians and their Hungarian underlings.

On the Left it is often seen essentially as a bid for freedom on the part of the students and intellectuals.

In fact, in a real sense, as this pamphlet, published in French, shows, it was a working class attempt to overthrow a discredited political regime while defending the social basis represented by nationalized property.

Balazs Nagy, the author of the pamphlet, took an active part in the events which he describes. A member of the Communist Party from the age of 17, he was expelled under Rakosi, forced to give up his post as university lecturer and become a worker; in 1955 he was rehabilitated.

Nagy shows that, at least in Budapest, the workers in the main factories served as the back-bone of the revolution.

As in Russia in 1917, they formed representative councils.

Slower moving than the intellectuals, the implantation of the the movement must have a system of 'priorities' in its demands. This would then prevent low-paid sections from turning away from the organized labour movement.

The sympathetic strikes by many workers in support of the nurses pay claim shed a clear light on these issues.

Lorry drivers, engineers, building workers, electricians and others have shown the way to enforce 'priorities!

The organization and militancy they have built up through workshop and shop steward committees to fight for their own conditions is now turned against the State on behalf of the nurses! Is this mindless militancy and 'selfishness?

Let us see the reactions. 'The Juardian' of May 5 condemned The Commune that Haunts Khrushchev movement in the factories enabled it to stand against the second Soviet intervention, which overthrew the Nagy government, and carry on a general strike against the Kadar regime.

By this time, no doubt, the struggle was lost, but that does not mean it was waging.

Nagy traces in detail the formation of the Central Workers' Council of Budapest, which became an embryonic type of dual power in the early stages of the Kadar government.

He shows how the intellectuals became aids and supports of this essentially working class resistance movement.

He points out how warily both Kadar and the officers of the Red Army dealt with the workers' representatives. While some of the latter were veteran communists or socialists, the remarkable thing was the prominent role played by young workers who had grown up under 'People's Democracy'.

All were steadfast on the close ties which should exist between the workers in the factory and the councils- there was even an exaggerated respect for democracy, not of course in its parliamentary sense, which reflected the complete absence of any response to popular demands under Rakosi.

All, and especially these young workers, were adamantly opposed to the restoration of private ownership of the means of production and identified themselves whole-heartedly with the cause of socialism.

They demanded for the councils, but also the establishment of workers' militias to keep order and oppose the forces of reaction.

No doubt the Hungarian workers made many mistakes, but they were understandable in the circumstances.

They were forced to submit by the overwhelming power of the Soviet forces. Isolated in a single small country and with no prior organization, the movement was driven back to seeking concessions from the ruling power.

At the same time, it effectively demolished Kadar's claim to be a workers' and peasants' government.

LABOUR REVIEW out now the Spring number contains articles on F Cuba and Lenin's Philosophical Note together with a Spring books section. 2/- (postage 6d.) from New Park Publications, 186a Clapham High St., London, S.W.4 It showed that the main struggle in 1956 in Hungary and, in the future, throughout the Soviet bloc, is a political one, and that the working class has nothing to gain by changing the social base which exists in these countries.

In fact, to enable the planned, nationalised economy to realise its full potential the political rule of the working class, organized in its councils must be established.

The central fact of the Hungarian Revolution, as this pamphlet shows, was the formation of the Central Workers' Council.

Undertaken without prior preparation, at a time of great stress and despite the Russian intervention, this was a great achievement by the Hungarian workers.

We may be sure that the Commune of Budapest still haunts Khrushchev and his satellites and that its lessons will be learned by those who understand the need for their political overthrow by the working class.

Rance, oks,

BY M. BANDA Th

1, Geneva Agreement and IGHT years after the Geneva Agreement and five years after the Vientiane Agreement (which was supposed to bring peace to Laos and Indo-China) were signed US imperialism, with the aid of its Siamese, Vietnamese and British accomplices, is threatening open aggression and full-scale war against North Viet Nam and Laos.

Already more than 1,000 marines have been landed, together with jet fighters and helicopters in Siam. Many more thousands are waiting to embark in Okinawa.

'There has been a big increase in all kinds of supplies arriving at the port of Naha for storage or trans-shipment. More helicopters are expected soon, and the numbers of paratroopers and tactical fighter bombers have been increased.

' Based on the island are some 65 F-100 fighter bombers with nuclear weapons, and the Air Force is building huge new launching sites for the Mace B, a nuclear missile whose 1,500Purge about the great strike wave which is hitting the fascist regime of Franco in Spain. What information there is is being carefully played down by the press.

But it is clear that thousands of Spanish miners throughout the country are daily coming out in support of the stoppage for a living wage which started with the miners in the Asturias provinces and has since spread to many other industries.

Worried by this spreading militancy, the ageing dictator declared a state of emergency and rushed troops to the main strike areas where they arrested hundreds of workers and beat up others.

Franco's police have also been active in the cities.

On Tuesday, 20 students were hauled from their beds in Madrid and flung into jail. Their homes were searched and their passports seized.

The arrested students were the leaders of a great demonstration planned for the city in solidarity with the 100,000 miners and industrial workers now on strike.

One student, expecting arrest at any time, said students grabbed by the police had no idea when they might be released.

Franco's favourite plan is to leave political opponents to rot in prison for years without ever coming to trial.

Feeling is running high in Spain. The Asturias miners have a proud record of combat against fascism.

Their valiant strike could be the signal for a mighty onslaught on the Franco regime that this time, with correct policies, firm leadership and no sell-outs by the Stalinists, could sweep on to victory. mile range puts it easily within striking distance of Red China.

'Defensively, the army recently added three battalions of ground-to-air Hawk missiles to the Hercules missiles already installed at eight separate sites.

'All told, the American force on Okinawa numbers more than 18,000 marines, 11,000 army men, 10,000 airmen, and 2,000 navy personnel. ('Newsweek', 5/3/62)

US involvement in the Laos war has been an 'open secret' for some time. More than 1,000 US officers with the help of Filipino, Thai and Chiang Kai-shek mercenaries have been conducting a ruthiess war against the Pathet Lao forces since the French withdrawal.

In 1956-57 the Pathet Lao was given a legal status and formed part of the coalition government set up under Prince Souvanha Phouma.

The US advisers, however, sabotaged the agreement by inciting the bucolic Boun Oum and General Nosavan to overthrow the government, drive the Pathet Lao into illegality and resume the civil war.

The Pathet Lao regrouped and fought back. In August 1960 they were joined by Capt. Kong Le who staged a coup in Vientiane and took command of some of the Royal Laotian forces.

In one year of fighting the Pathet Lao inflicted severe casualties on the puppet armies of General Nosavan and liberated more than half the territory and population.

US imperialism, however, was more concerned about the desperate plight of the Diem regime in South Viet Nam to worry overmuch about the Laos conflict.

Their strategy was to hold the Laos front while the y exterminated the Viet Cong in South Viet Nam.

The situation is not very inviting for Mr. Kennedy and his leathernecks. Despite $300 million spent on the Royal army it has proved a complete flop.

There is very little prospect of a military victory in this land-locked kingdom of primitive aborigines, innumerable rivers, wild mountains and heavy forests infested with tigers, elephants and bears.

Even Mr. Kennedy, remembering the Cuban fiasco, has described US intervention as a 'hazardous course'-hazardous, but necessary for US imperialism.

US policy has now come unstuck. The Pathet Lao victories and the collapse of the puppet armies have changed the relationship of forces in the area around Siam-which constitutes the soft under-belly of the SEATO powers.

Soon Cambodia involved.

•Miles// CHIN Phong 100/ Saly NAM THÀ NORTH Sam Neua VIET/ NAM Luang Prabargz L A iPlo iors S Mekong Khouang Xieng „..r., sco Vientian Khammouane US attempts to corral its Pacific allies into this un-pacific venture have met with little or no response. New Zealand has reluctantly agreed to send a technicall mission while Australia has donated a load of barbedwire!

The Soviet Union has rejected an international inspection of the disputed territory-and so far continues to supply the Pathet Lao with air-dropped supplies.

Now the US imperialists are faced with the prospect of enlarging the war (as they did in Korea) or abandoning their puppet allies to the revolutionary armies of Laos and North Viet Nam.

Some Pentagon officials 'think that the danger of losing Viet Nam is worth the risk of a more aggressive strategy. A few even favour a US supported attack on the Communist North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi' ('Newsweek', 26/2/62)

There is no doubt which course President Kennedy will pursue and very probably, with the support of Mr. Macmillan's government. British labour must give the Tory government an unequivocal warning that any British intervention, with or without the blessing of UNO will be met by instant and massive retaliation.

No support to perialist's war!

Laos for the Laotians!

Viet Nam for the Vietnamese!

IN a capitalist economy predictions about the future are a ' hit or miss' affair. The newly set up National Economic Development Council has so far as growth of production is concerned decided that an 'average growth' target of 4 per cent for the next five years could be achieved.

Measured in real terms, this calls for additional output of some £1,000 million a year. This sort of sustained increase is obviously dependent on the absence of trade recessions such as we have seen in recent years.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has taken a more realistic view of the future. Its prognostications, based on current figures rather than empty optimism, forecast an average rise of little more than 1 per cent this year in national output over 1961.

So far as the long-term future is concerned, it points out that to sustain a yearly increase of 8 or 9 per cent in exports (implicit in a 4 per cent growth figure) Britain must stabilise its share in world trade in manufactured goods. Troops open fire on African UNREST flared in Southern Rhodesia this week with the visit of Mr. R. A. Butler to the Central African Federation where he will discuss with the reactionary white leaders and 'reliable' Africans how best to maintain the domination of British capitalism over the area.

On Monday night Mr. Takafira, an officer of the Zimbabwe African People's Union, was arrested in Salisbury whilst addressing a large rally. : On the same day the African TUC called a strike and demanded that employers should re-engage dismissed workers.

White troops were quickly moved into the townships around Salisbury. Three Africans have died from wounds received on Monday when the troops opened fire on strikers.

NO RETREAT Employers have demanded that the workers end the strike for batter wages, but the Africans have stayed firm.

On Tuesday, troops with fixed bayonets, opened fire again, this time at Umtali. There were further ugly incidents at Harare where the Rhodesian Light Infantry followed a tear-gas attack made by police on a hostel where strikers were staying.

Officials failed to turn out the workers, so the police attacked with tear-gas bombs and the troops followed up with a roomto-room search, forcing Africans on to the street at bayonet point.

The bloodshed and brutality continue in as the ruthless drive by reactionary forces to stamp out the militancy of African workers grows.

Meanwhile, Mr. Butler has moved on to Blantyre in Nyasaland on the second stage of his tour.

He was welcomed at the by Dr. Hastings Banda.

Since British sales in the US are probably now at a peak and since German and Italian competition becomes more insistent, where are the additional markets to be found?

NEDC are to ask all sorts of questions from selected firms to enable them to produce their master plan, but although the trade union "representatives' will, no doubt, co-operate in enforcing wage freezes and ending so-called restrictive practices, big business is to be left to carry out its own policies.

For instance, decisions to float new shares, pay dividends, invest in fixed assets, and to take over other firms are the sole prerogative of capital.

THE anger of the nurses reached boiling point when the government refused to give them more than a 6d. in the f pay rise. They have forced their leaders, who have been most reluctant to take any militant action, to threaten the Tories with a show-down.

On Tuesday the General Secretary of the Confederation of Health Service Employees, William Jepson, said that his members were not prepared to accept the 6d. offer, no matter how carefully the government cared to dress it up.

FIGHT NOW

He added that his union executive would go ahead with a strike ballot of their 40,000 nurses unless there was some immediate improvement in the offer.

And, said Mr. Jepson, who has previously condemned sympathy strikes, if it came to a show-down with the government he would appeal 'to all organized labour in the country to stand by us.

Rather than wait for Mr. Jepson, however, workers in every section of industry throughout the country should organize now to fight for the nurses.

Action for the nurses against the Tories.

SOLIDARITY

The widespread sympathy for the nurses which has resulted in a number of solidarity strikes much to the surprise of those 'socialists' who view the Labour movement pessimistically as reactionary and backward and only interested in personal gain-could grow into the strongest blow yet against the Tory pay pause.

In 1960, 15 per cent of all resources of the largest companies was spent on acquiring subsidiary companies—usually former competitors.

Since any increase in output— temporary as it would be-must come from an increase in the amount of new plant available, our 'master planners' must have some control over what is invested in this asset.

Some £750 million pounds is paid out annually in dividends and interest. Is it envisaged that NEDC is to have any control over what is paid out to consumers who produce nothing? There is no doubt that the council does not have this power, since it is set up by a Tory government, pledged to maintain profits, dividends and monopolies.

Only when the people own the means of production, distribution and exchange can there be any sort of master plan.

Industrial Page Four

pay BEA Sparks Sold Out national strike threatened for midnight on Sunday, has made a major breach in the government's pay pause. Angry sections of the Tory Party are demanding the head Angry sections of of Mr. Hare, Minister of Labour, for what they consider to be an abject surrender Newsletter Industrial Reporter to the dockers. final sight of victory, an increase of 1s. 6d. per day for time Labour on flight an increase in the guaranteed minimum wage of 8s. complete grounding be reduced to 42 by the management The original offer which had ETU, ably assisted been rejected by the dockers Negotiation for an increased had awarded only Is. a day to rate of 6d. for 120 electricians tricians involved those time workers and no reduction doing instrument work as well working on ordinary mainten- in hours until January 1963. as their normal electrical and in the workshops— Taken :altnoether this work, had commenced in were locked out, leaving about an increase in the range July 1961 and had 50 electricians still work and 9 per cent. There is, however, through the negotiating about 200 out. very strong feeling in the inery without success. About 400 men docks that the award to time!

From April 8, officially sup- were also locked out. In an workers is still inadequate. ported by the new EC of the attempt to split the workers the It is quite clear that only the" ETU, the electricians worked tradesmen not in the ETU wages BEA agreed to pay the locked-out firm stand of the delegates to "The Times' has no illusions.

refused to carry out instrument on electrical duties only and made up to a 35-hour week. the Transport and General The employers had always to repair and maintenance. minimum lock-out pay of £3 a The electricians received the conference last Friday brought Workers' Union docks section bear in mind that the dockers might repudiate Mr. Cousins The locked management week from the ETU, the EC and the other leaders and take forced the employers down and Subsequently matters into their hands. The out. refusing to augment the benefit. the further concessions.

Nevertheless one of the striking That stand, together ith workers told me, 'The men were strong feeling for strike action absolutely firm.' stopped the retreat of Frank 41. other Cousins, U Leary refusal of the men's delegates union officials. to accept Mr. Cousins' advice before Easter Despite the attempt by last Friday showed how real sectional panel, which re- " Daily, Worker' to cover up this danger was.? presents all trade union officials involved in negotiations with him, the role of Cousins in There can be no doubt that negotiations MORE 400 building should be clear to Tories feared defeat if the strike than BEA, recommended that all labour all militant portworkers. His had taken place. The claims that workers have been locked out be withdrawn because of the lockattempt on Friday to postpone the government were not involved by the John Mowlem company out of the tradesmen. the strike is comparable to the in the settlement are nonsense. at the 10 Downing Street site The ETU EC refused to act on way he tried to effect a return to The desperate meetings of MacLondon bus dispute in London. the recommendations of the panel work in the millan, Selwyn Lloyd, Lord Mills although there were electricians critical time.

This vicious action has been and John Hare on Saturday were taken to smash the trade union working at London airport and at where the decision to concede His praise shop stewards' committee at the out-stations. chairman of the the extra demands were made. was the pretext for the ciation of Port Earlier they had made the site level. other right-wing unions to They intend to re-open the site should be sufficient threat of the use of troops, but without the stewards' committee act. As a consequence, his limitations. this would, they knew have been NUVB men who had come out, which has firmly defended the were instructed to return on the working conditions against constant attacks by Mowlem's since Tuesday after Easter.

The final sell-out last construction started 18 months Thursday. At a stormy meeting at the White Hart, near the airThe stand taken by the last Satı rday's edition, port, a resolution was forced ing workers at Downing Blue Union" hung ghost of the through to refer the claim must be given the support tes from Liverpool over the delega other sections of the trade. small conciliation committee. Delegate Conferat the ...KS If Mowlem's persist they must be brought to their knees by Mersevside dockers comthe extension of the strike on Blair and Chapple, right-wing ment freely that any worker all their contracts. labours under similar cond: Had there been a strike then EC members, were shouted down by the members and would not there little doubt that for less than five shillings an the No illusions should be held about union leaders like Weaver have got a hearing if Maitland dockers would have been re- is performing a form of and Scott, the • Left' wing labour. of the Federation of Building ETU luctant to have returned to work Trades Operatives or Lowthian of officials had not militancy now pleaded for them The on the basis of the week-end on the docks is played the Amalgamated Union of to be heard. settlement of a few coppers and any time Building Trade Workers. level than at Blair But Chapple and the backheeling of the 40 hour last 10 years. One of They are directly responsible not sell the decision to the angry week by the port employers. that emerged from for the lock-out. By the support speeches of men. was the they gave to McAlpine at Shell The behaviour of the Maitland and Scott which finally union leaders came under Mex, they prepared the ground solved the problem for the Right By Peter for this type of action by the criticism. wing-and then Mr titland had to Most dockers openly employers. use his position in the chair say demonstration meetings during the course of of before he could get solidarity in his way.

VIGILANCE He refused a 1 motion from a action could have won them much last few weeks has been interest of the younger docker. This lock-out must be fought more.

steward that 'we accept the EC Older dockers remark, however, leaders intend to defeat Mowlem's rank and file. If the trade union with the greatest vigilance by the to work pending ciliation but we recommendation will not return to go to con- the results of for news of what was happening. had to rely on the national press They also complain that they The present partial setback to that missing from this new surge of militancy is a National Port Workers' Committee. A national and the Employers' Federation the findings. the employers and the Tory committee with liaison on importhey must of building workers prepare now to gain the government was gained through tant policy questions means that support the pressure of the rank-and-file the rank and file from all ports throughou t London. The lesson of the BEA are constantly in touch and there dispute docker which forced its way into In the event of Mowlem's atis that the Left wing the Docks Delegate Conference. is less chance of half-cock action tempting can only to restart without the beat the employers if The demonstration of solidarity being taken by any one port on principled a mass picket must be stewards, policies are used. that existed on Merseyside over its own, as has been the frequent organized to prevent the recruitSnuggling up to the Right wing the course of the last month also experience in recent struggles. can only ease the path for them added to the heat put on both the The threatened port employers Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper employers and the trade union for 'decasualisation' which terms to continue their witch-hunt Published by The Newsletter, leadership. would 186A Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 against members of the CP, SLL split docker from docker, As 'The Guardian' virtual Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (IU). and militants in Labour Party. y abolish present manning 180 Clapham High Street, London. S.W.4 night Tory Party are to be hectic workers, 3 ] er cent for 1 3d. to bring answered by an extension strike to lightermen, lock-keepers and other sections of the waterr front and and almost certainly to petrol tanker drivers and market workers in London.

With negotiations for entry into the Common Market now at a delicate stage and with the export trade now precariously in the 2 balance, the Tories were unable to iF face a prolonged dispute at this stage. way Crichton and the But employers were talking other a 'new situation' in the about ports on Saturday should be warning to all portworkers.

The utmost vigilance will needed to stop the introduction of the measures linked to the decasualisation scheme and attacks on union organization.

The decision on the dockers' claim reinforces the point made continually in The Newsletter, that determined united action can defeat the pay Those sections who have stood firm, the powerwor kers, road workers and transport now the forced dockers, the retreat.

In each instance it cisions of rank-and-file workers in these in h halted dustries whir the union rse: and working conditions and ag the ominously over ments loom docker today.

The settlement reached last week-end could well 'mean that the port employer is prepared to who buy time in order to organise a tions show-down around the possibility hour of foisting on to the locker his scab terms for 'decasualisation' Already the employers' ms being dishave been rejected by both the at a higher TGWU and NASD dockers in the during the port of Hull. Similar action has the features been taken by members of both dock-gate unions in London. Up to the present little or nothing is known of any proposals by TGWU members, although NASD branches discussed the memorandum the and endorsed the policy agreed by the the London committee after all branches had submitted their views.

Liverpool dockers particularly should take warning. They should remember the skullduggery over the agreement that allows the present weekly worker set-up in Liverpool and its consequences. these viTy inportant questions of wages, shorter hours Dock Labour and defer ice of the Scheme that cries out for a Port Workers' National Committee so igilance that a constant r ipt in case of sell. will be kı outs by full-time officials.