TGWU leader bows to right wing COUSINS' BIG RETREAT

TORIAL The blood IN recent weeks there has been a sharp renewal of racialist activity in the London area. Various do-gooders and liberals have made announcements about the need to introduce legislation to curb these demonstrations. They conveniently ignore the real culprit, the Tory government and its Immigration Act. le fascists are becoming more active because they feel strengthened by the Immigration Act. They feel that the time has come to whip up racialism and they are heartened by the number of people who are now threatened with deportation by the Home Office. The publicity given to British subjects from the 'Commonwealth' who are being deported helps the cause of fascism. s is usual on such grave matters, the Right wing of the Labour Party is silent. They are aware that many of the racialists inside the party are staunch supporters of Gaitskell, especially in the youth movement. hy is it that Gaitskell and Brown cannot take a few minutes off from their junketang firmo their disciplinary committees to give an unequivocal undertaking that one of the first acts of a Labour government will be to repeal the Immigration Act? le violence at the fascist demonstrations can be laid at the door of the Tory government. Merely to bring in legislation to curb demonstrations is to avoid the issue and take steps which will rebound against the working class. e would remind those who talk about such legislation that the Hitler movement was also illegal for a period, but that did not stop it from coming to power. is right that thousands of young people should demonstrate against the fascists. They instinctively feel that only action on their part can halt the threat of the racialists. If fascism grows and the danger becomes acute then it will be essential to mobilise the Labour movement to drive the fascists from the streets. le board of school governors in Coventry are right to sack Colin Jordan.. The National Union of Teachers instead of defending him, should immediately expel him from the union.

London Labour beats Fascists M ground, but 10,000 Londoners, many of them OSLEY Speaks' said the posters on London's UnderYCNDers and Young Socialists, proved them wrong last Sunday. The people assembled in Trafalgar Square determined to stop the Union Movement - formerly the British Union of Fascists-from holding its much-publicised rally.

The square was full long before Mosley's lieutenant Hamm opened the meting at 3 o'clock. As his first words crackled from the microphone the shouting began.

The chant of 'Mosley Out! Down with fascism!' drowned the voices from the platform shrieking about 'red rabble'.

More than 300 police held back the crowd from storming the plinth as tomatoes, shoes, pennies and abuse were hurled at the fascists. The hatred and contempt felt for fascism and racialism were expressed on all sides.

At 3.20, after the police cordon had been broken several times, the police decided to close the meeting. Fighting then broke out as fascists, shoulder to shoulder with poiicemen, tried to protect the plinth while their placards and banners were taken down.

SCUFFLING

The square was cleared, but scuffling went on in the surrounding streets for some time. Meanwhile a crowd of people demonstrated outside the Union Movement headquarters in Vauxhall Bridge Road. A large squad of police, including Mounties with long batons and sandbags, used their usual methods to disperse the demonstrators.

Inside, Mosley—who had not reached Trafalgar Square before the meeting was closed-held a press conference. He denounced the 'suppression of free speech by a communist mob' and announced his intention of holding a further meeting on September 23.

Despite this announcement, the government has made clear its intention to permit the square to be used by Mosley. The British Newsletter Reporter National Party, another racialist group has booked the square on September 2.

But the Committee of 100 were not allowed to hold a meeting there a few weeks ago, on the grounds that they intended to call for civil disobedience.

This, apparently, is more dangerous to 'free speech' than preaching racial hatred.

PLAIN

In the House of Commons on Monday, the Minister of Works, Mr. Ripon, made it quite plain whose side the government is on.

Refusing to use his powers to ban meetings in the square as a means of censorship over political opinions, he said it would be regrettable if a group of people attending a meeting for the purpose of 'making trouble' ensured that the organisers would not be allowed to hold other meetings.

" It was clear before Sunday's meeting began that there were a number of people in the square determined to break it up?

56 arrests were made in the course of the afternoon. They were all of anti-fascists. Many people were injured by the Mosleyites and their police protectors.

SERIES

This was only the start of a whole series of occasions when fascism will have to be fought by the Labour movement. It was a good beginning, but harder battles lie ahead.

To win these will require firm organisation and a clear understanding of what fascism is and how it menaces the Labour movement. No fight on H-Bomb this year ARANK COUSINS, who called on young people to carr on the fight against the H-bomb after the Labour Party conference last year, is now retreating before the rightwing attack. His decision to join the National Economic Development Council, his support for the attack on the Communist Party leaders of the ETU, his refusal to lift the ban on CP members holding office in the Transport and General Workers' Union and the announcement that he will not fight for unilateral nuclear disarmament at the TUC and the Labour Party conference this year are all decisions that have weakened the Left in the fight for socialist policies.

Today, on the eve of vital industrial struggles, Cousins finds himself discussing economic problems with the Tories and the employers on NEDC.

It is no use Mr. Cousins saying he will use this position to press forward the interests of trades unionists. Everybody knows that the Council was set up to commit the TUC to backing Tory economic measures.

The same purpose Even if it is now under new management, NEDC will still be used for the same purpose by Maudling when difficult decisions have to be made in relation to the Common Market negotiations.

Cousins' place on NEDC has helped the Right wing leaders to cover up any sell-outs they may be preparing. Instead of organising the might of the TGWU to help smash the Tories and their pay pause, Cousins finds himself aiding their protectors in the Labour movement.

Of course, all trades unionists must support the TGWU motion for September's TUC which calls for an inquiry into provisions for health and security of industrial and clerical workers. 'Fringe benefits' of this kind, if fought for, can help to protect the living standards of workers.

Evade the fight

But this will undoubtedly be used as means to evade the fight on wages in the coming months. And the decision to back down on the fight for unilateralism will weaken the struggle for socialism and demoralise many rank and file militants who, at this crucial time, may turn elsewhere for leadership.

The failure of Cousins to lift Deakin's ban on Communist Party members or to oppose the witch-hunt in the ETU and the r Political Correspondent Cousins: helping the witch-hunt Young Socialists is directly related to his retreat on the industrial front. The attack on the Left by the press, Catholic Action and the Labour Right wing is part of a campaign to disarm the working class at a time when socialist leadership is most vital.

His successful effort to maintain the ban at the Rules Revision Conference was a blow against the Left and a boost for the witch-hunters.

'Blue boast

Of course, the cringing attitude of the CP and its supporters in the union only helped the Right wing. One individual from Liverpool openly boasted of the CP's role in helping the attack on the 'Blue' union on the Mersey docks.

Now, it is announced, the TGWU is not going to raise the question of the H-bomb at the TUC and their resolution at the Labour Party conference is only concerned with the issue of tests 'by any country. This will @ cont. p. 4, col. 1 SUMMER BREAK The Newsletter is closing down for two weeks for the summer break. The paper will not be published on August 4 and 11.

"THE RISE OF FASCISM CAME AFTER A WAVE OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY BETRAYED BY THE LEADERSHIP ASCISM makes use of the misery of the most crushed sections of the working class, together with the frustrations of the middle class. It is wrong to see only its anti-Semitism and racialism. To desperate people it can appear to present a programme for real, even revolutionary, changes.

Fascism in Britain will present a so-called 'policy' for dealing with very real problems, like housing and jobs. It will present it in what looks like a militant and even a 'socialist' manner. It is no accident that Mussolini was once on the Left wing of the Italian socialist movement and Mosley on the Left of the British Labour Even the anti-Semitic propaganda of fascism is often in terms which appear to attack Big Business-attacks on Fascism thus makes an appeal to middle-class people who feel themselves crushed by the strength of the big monopolies. In these circumstances, the middle class will not be repelled by 'extremism' A few years before Hitler came to power, German workers demonbut, on the contrary, could be attracted by the apparent determination strated for the proletarian dictatorship—while the Stalinists decFlared that it would be a mistake to over-emphasize' the danger of Party.

financiers, 'Jew monopoly, for example.

of the fascists to see the job through.

One of the more effective aspects of fascist propaganda couched Ide 'Jewish best olek fascism.

two termed the ' lumpen proletariat' -this time to smash the working class.

But fascism defrauds the petty-bourgeoisie, using them against the working class for the benefit of their own worst enemies. It cannot solve their problems. It is the hired monster of monopoly capitat ism.

To stop fascism, a strong socialist movement must be built which will show the real way to fight against slums and unemployment. The middle class, being economically and politically dependent on other classes, tends to look for a ' leader', and to be attracted to 'dynamic' figures like Mussolini and Hitler.