The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 263

INYONE who thinks that peaceful relations between the imperialist powers and the Soviet Union and China is a matter of diplomatic discussion should consider the activities of the U2 spy planes.

le plane seen by the Russians over Sakhalin Island on August 30 was blown there by strong winds, according to the State Department. Perhaps someone, somewhere, will believe them.

ertainly there can be little doubt that the U2 shot down over Sverdlovsk in May 1960 went there on purpose, since its pilot Gary Powers confessed in open court to being sent to spy on Soviet territory. •third U2 incident has now been reported. A plane belonging to Chiang's Formosan clique has been shot down over the Chinese mainland.

niang's men say they bought this plane, and another like it, from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, two months after the Powers flight.

lus, either directly or through their allies, the American imperialists continue their preparations for military attack on the Soviet Union and China. High level U2 flights, some of them from Britain, are part of this preparation.

le Daily Worker lulls its readers to sleep with talk of solving international problems through top-level negotiations. But Kennedy, Macmillan and de Gaulle are concerned with the maintenance of world imperialism. They must carry on the struggle against the Soviet Union which began in 1917.

leir decisions are based on the need to continue the exploitation of the workers and peasants of the whole world. This involves diplomatic manoeuvres as well as H-bombs and spy planes.

le USSR and China have to equip themselves militarily to oppose the threat from imperialism. But their ultimate defence lies in the strength of the international labour movement.

›cialists must prepare the working class to fight the war plans of the ruling class, not to rely on the spurious ho lour of politicians.

Anti-Fascist League routs Mosleyites THREE hundred arti-fascists raced through Croydon's busy shopping area last Saturday afternoon to a small side street near the railway station where speakers from Oswald Mosley's Union Movement were trying to hold a public meeting. Police from the 100-strong cordon hastily thrown around the racialists' platform were soon diving into the crowd and making indiscriminate arrests.

Within a few minutes a stream of eggs, coins and fireworks brought the meeting te a close. As the racialists packed their loudhailers away, the crowd broke through the police cordon and chased Mosley's supporters through the back streets, administering their own justice to those they caught.

As a policeman tried to make a further arrest a crowd of hostile young workers surrounded him menacingly. 'You're on your own now copper!' they shouted. The anti-fascist was released and the policeman beat a hasty retreat.

CRUSHING DEFEAT This crushing defeat of the Mosleyites in Croydon is a tribute to the work of the newly - formed Anti- Fascist League in that area. Formed in the heat of the fascist activity over the past few months, the League has very resolutely turned to the Labour and trade union or! ganisations in the area as the only force to drive racialists out of Croydon.

When Mosley announced his intention of holding a meeting on Saturday in ine rign sireet, 1_-- 11- TT:_L the League immediately organised a mass leaflet distribution in the working class areas and appealed to the Young Socialists and trade unionists to stop the racialists.

All day long crowd sletter Reporter several hundred listened to the stream of speakers urging a campaign to answer their lies.

Unlike the Yellow Star meeting the previous Sunday in London's East End, speakers at this meeting constantly underlined the connection between the growth of racialist activity and the preparations being made by the Tories to discipline the working class.

INSECURITY

"The fascists find fertile soil for their ideas in the squalor of slum streets and amongst the frustrated professional workers and middle class confronted with declining living standards and insecurity.

"These problems become more acute as the crisis for the British employing class reaches snapping point. To destroy racialist ideas we have to destroy the social basis for them.' This was how the opened the meeting.

YOUNG WORKERS

Attempts made by he Communist Party to turn the AntiFascist League into a nonpolitical, nondescript 'popular front' .of Tories, Liberals, churchmen and others, have so far been defeated. As a consequence hundreds of young workers-including many members of the Communist Party and Young Communist League -have been attracted around the League.

By OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT N an atmosphere of Victorian pomp the Commonwealth Prime Ministers have gathered in London to preside over the funeral rites of Commonwealth preference. Like an ageing undertaker, Mr. Macmillan forces the pace in replacing Britain's sterling rights with entry into the Common Market.

This new round of feverish activity reveals the acute crisis of the United States economy. What is at issue so far as Wall Street is concerned is a desperate effort to break into the sterling preference areas and drive Britain into the European arena where she will have to compete on an equal footing with the monopolies of Western Europe. Many of these are dominated by American business interests.

Entry into the Common Market will mean cut-throat competition between the monopolies in which the weaker business units will be driven to the wall. This means catastrophe for a number of outdated and unprofitable British industries, and unemployment for the workers who depend upon them for their livelihood.

The programme of US imperialism is to dislodge Britain from the Commonwealth and embark on a large-scale monopolisation of European capital at the expense of the outdated industries. By doing this it hopes to gain a temporary advantage in its efforts to find an outlet for its own capital investment. Wall Street capital is the chief architect of the Common Market.

No choice As representative of the big sectors of British capital, Macmillan has no choice but to enter the Common Market at the behest of American imperialism. The City of London cannot hold out against Wall Street.

If the monopolists of West Germany and France seek to take advantage of Britain's economic plight, it is because they are more attuned to the requirements of Wall Street. The real pay-off for the Marshall Aid of the 1940s is now taking place.

The crisis of British capital which has for so long been masked by the advantages of Commonwealth preference is now being exposed, and the result must be an intensification of the class struggle in Britain on a scale not experienced since 1926.

Last year's pay pause and ti esent growth of unemplo Mac: ageing undertaker ment are only the beginnings of preparation for entry into the Common Market. The Trades Union Congress did not discuss unemployment, but instead pledged itself to collaborate with the Tory government's so-called development council.

In the face of a coming showdown with the Tories and the employers, the Right wing are retreating as fast as they can. Whilst they hesitate on whether or not they should support entry into the Common Market they have taken all the practical steps to betray the working class as soon as entry takes place.

Specially rigged

So far as Woodcock is concerned, talk about streamlining the trade unions means nothing more than the strengthening of a more centralised bureaucracy at a time when the monopolies will demand greater sacrifices from the working class.

In these circles the discussion on whether or not Britain should enter the Common Market is largely an academic debate, specially rigged up to divert the attention of trade unionists and Labour Party members from the struggle against the monopolies, and the fight for a socialist programme.

two,

ticle in TOM KEMP's series on the crisis of British ca ago Iwo THE world market is not September 15, 196

While this is country, it is the advanced tries such as B It finds its sion in the imports and 11. - 1. 11 PERCENTAGE SHARES OF WORLD EXPORTS 1950 1955 1959 1960 1961 IN'S PERCENTAGE SHARE OF INDUSTRIAL ODUCTION OF CAPITALIST COUNTRIES loping states. Each individual country is tied to an interconnected world economy.

true of every truest of all of capitalist counritain. clearest expresdependence on exports. It means that the keen test .- 1. --. da man d. of international competition is applied at every stage to British capitalism.

The days when Britain had a monopolistic stranglehold on that market are long past.

The manufactured commodities which it now requires are very different from those of that period. The emphasis is increasingly on the products of the most advanced technology, which requires for its application arge-scale, or at least highly efficient, business methods.

The decline of the old commodities, textiles for example, has hit sections of British industry and, more important, the workers employed in them. Other sections have adapted themselves more successfully to the changing pattern of demand. But there has always been a lag, and it continues.

MANUFACTURED GOODS USA UK W.Germany France 27.3 25.5 7.3 9.9 24.5 19.6 15.4 9.3 21.3 17.3 19.1 9.2 21.7 15.9 19.4 9.7 20.6 15.8 20.4 9.5 The Fourth international THE first meeting of a Parity - Committee was recently held by representatives of the International Committee and the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International. Following previous decisions taken by both these bodies, agreement was reached The decline of the old commodities, textiles for example, has hit sections of British industry and, more important, the workers employed in them.?

Lancashire textile workers faced with falling wages, redundancy and unemployment, demonstrated in London recently against the Tory policies for their industry.

At the same time, Britain's involvement with this market is represented by all the financial and banking interests, centred on the City of London, which have themselves become more interconnected with those in other centres. These interests require a stable pound which Japan Whers 26.6 26.1 26.4 26.4 26.9 1937 1953 1957 1961 12.5 10.1 9.5 9.0 will command the confidence of foreign capitalists. It has to meet the competition of other centres, with their own unitsdollars, marks, francs— for a growing share in lucrative transactions in world finance and trade.

As has been said, within the British ruling class a conflict frequently occurs between industrial business and the interSENIOR Aircraftman Brian CORTORSIN THANKS national financial concerns of the City. The latter want a strong pound and a safe monetary policy; industry needs cheap money and finance for expansion. The two conflict because the world position of the pound is much less strongly based than before the war.

The gold and foreign exchange reserves which back it up are relatively well below their former level. Whenever they threaten to fall below danger level, the government faces a dilemma. In fact, its choice is determiner. in the last analysis by the need to safeguard the pound.

The pressures which follow the resulting credit squeeze fall most heavily upon the smaller and weaker businesses. The big monopolistic firms which, in any case, play a disproportionate role in the export trade and have closer links with banking interests, fare better.

Nevertheless, need to 'safeguard' the pound sets a limit to internal investment and industrial expansion in general. Everybody pays lip-service to EXILES FROM TEXTILES the need to increase exports and invest more; the implications are not always spelt out. Expansion, however desirable, very soon means that demand grows -both from industry and consumers-for imported commodities.

Imports tend to outstrip exports and the pressure on the pound begins. Thus the credit tap has to be tightened up again and investment falls back.

The lag in industrial efficiency seems likely not only to persist, but also to widen precisely because of the nature of Britain's involvement with the world market. At the same time there is no easy way, within capitalist relations, to ease this involvement as is sometimes suggested by Labour Party pundits talking about exchange control, foreign trade policy and so on.

For the last decade or so, therefore, British capitalism has been in a cleft stick, having to watch its relative position as an industrial producer continue to declineand with no remedy in sight.

medical officer has stated that his

on two points: (1) to arrange a joint discussion of issues in dispute in the world Trotskyist movement, with the aim of exploring possibilities for future regroupment; (2) to begin organising common actions whereever this appears possible.

Both sides agreed that a beginning could be made in campaigning together for full public rehabilitation in the Soviet Union of Leon Trotsky and all other victims of Stalin's terror. Mutual work in defence of colonial revolutions was also considered. Additional areas where united actions can be undertaken will be considered at subsequent meetings where progress in the discussion will also be taken up.

In addition to organisations adhering to or sympathetic with the IEC and the IC, it was agreed to invite the organisations affiliated to the BLA (Posadas tendency) to participate in the projected international discussion and in the work of the Parity Committee.

McGhee is fighting bravely against the witch-hunters of the Royal Air Force. McGhee, a 20-year-old supporter of the Committee of 100, was regraded by the RAF and given orders to change camps, after frequent warnings over his ban-the-bomb activities.

McGhee refused the order to 'remuster, which would have meant a loss of pay, from a skilled trade to officers' orderly (known as a servant in civilian life). He was put under arrest pending a court-martial.

He was subsequently sentenced to 84 days' detention at Henlow RAF Camp, Bedfordshire, for 'disobeying orders', although it was perfectly clear that he was being charged for the crime of opposing the war preparations of the Tory government. This is part of the plan to clean up the armed forces of militants and those with 'doubtful' backgrounds in order that the troops can be reliably held in readiness as the Tories attack the working class.

It is now reported this week that McGhee is on hunger strike against his detention and a RAF Labour and the Common Market condition gives cause fo I worry.

The Labour moveme nt must protest vigorously against the cold-blooded victimisation of this young airman.

tion of all the basic industries. 'This would enable a Labour government to plan the economy along socialist lines and provide a powerful impetus to the working class of Western Europe to do the same.

In this way the groundwork could be laid for a socialist united states of Europe, including the countries of Eastern Europe, which would collaborate with the Soviet Union as equals. This is the socialist answer the Common Market.

Later, after the assassination of Trotsky, they were switched to the major espionage task - the secrets of the A-bomb. Their success struck a blow at the war plans of imperialism.

With the demise of Stalin, the fall of Beria, and the re-adjustments of the bureaucracy under the Khrushchev regime, heads rolled, and defections of top NKVD agents to the imperialists reached an all-time high.

: RIDDLE The real past of Soblen is shrouded in mystery. Its secrets are locked in the archives of the Soviet secret police and until they are broken open by the Soviet workers themselves, no one will know why Soblen was left to his own devices to escape the FBI; how he fell so easily into the clutches of the Israeli police and why he wasn't exchanged as was Abel for the aerial spy Powers. Why, finally, was he so deserted by those who could once spend the necessary resources of an entire state on the liquidation of the men and women who created the Soviet Union?

The first step to defeat the Common Market is to use the united strength of the Labour and trade union movement to bring down the Tory government. Here is the main political prop for monopoly in Britain today.

The second step is to counterpose to the Common Market the elimination of the monopolies through the nationalisaSeptember 15, 196

By BILL counter US Cuba plans THE US State Department

made up of a collection - of independently deveROBERT SOBLEN was a victim of the Cold War. The Tory government was responsible for his death. All the talk about rights of asylum, mercy, mitigating circumstances, etc., has proved to be hypocritical rubbish.

A dangerous precedent has been set. The Home Secretary now wields what amounts to powers of life and death over political refugees. Soblen faced the prospect of the remainder of his life in a penitentiary.

But what of those who might face a similar prospect in future of being returned to dictatorial regimes like that of, say, Trujillo? What of the rights of Ghanaian Labour militants being similarly repatriated?

The Labour movement must intervene with all its strength to defend the rights of asylum and residence,, and it must defend these as part of its own rights wrested from the class enemy.

LOST GENERATION What kind of man was Soblen, and what kind of men were those he owed his loyalties to?

He was one of a generation who joined the international communist movement in the '20s, in the flush of victory of the Revolution.

This was a devoted, selfsacrificing generation of people, who gave their all to the movement, but whose loyalties were abused and prostituted in the most monstrous fashion by Stalin and his bureaucracy, a practice that continues to this day.

The immediate post-revolutionary period witnessed in the Soviet Union the integration of some of the finest cadres of the communist movement into the state apparatus.

TERROR SQUADS

The subsequent decades witnessed their destruction, if they were partisans of the opposition, or their gradual conditioning and corruption to the cause of the bureaucracy. The survivors, highly skilled and trained men, staffed the terror squads of the NKVD, which hounded communist oppositionists and struck them down with poison, the gun and knife.

HIFT to the left at TUC' was the astounding headline in Tribune last week. Was the paper really represented at Blackpool at this right-wing congress, watching the sell-out of 'Lefts' like Mr. Cousins? Or is Tribune moving so fast to the right itself that it has no stable point from which to measure the direction of the Trades Union Congress? Perhaps they have never seen the optical illusion caused when two trains are moving fast in the same direction; seated in one train the other appears to be travelling the opposite way.

Tribune described the decision of the TUC as a 'blueprint on which the Labour Party can build a relevant, realistic programme There is no mention of the crushing defeat of unilateralism. Is opposition by the Labour movement nuclear weapons no longer part of a 'relevant socialist programme?

Militant rank and file trade unionists will not be hoodwinked like Tribune, but will see the lUC decisions as reactionary proposals for streamlining the trade union movement to suit the monopolists.

The desire of the Right wing leaders to 'reform' the unions is a necessary part of the fight to defeat the militants who struggle against the Tories and for socialism.

The General Council want 'co-ordination' of the trade union movement in order to decide who shall have the crumbs which the monopolists feel they can give after they have secured their profits.

DIVIDING THE CAKE The Right wing, aided by the centrists, in reality accept the capitalist argument that there is only a set piece of cake to be divided out in the form of wage increases.

Woodcock and company certainly have no intention of making proposals to co-ordinate the trade union movement for a struggle against the Tory government and its savage anti-labour plans.

In line with their intentions to make the TUC a more efficient and bureaucratic instrument for collaboration with the monopolists and their state, the General Council have decided to send 11 members to Sweden next month, to study the centralised wages system there.

This follows the press campaign before the congress which was enthusiastic about the smaller number of strikes in Sweden than in Britain.

'NEW PROBLEMS'

The reorganisation of the TUC is supposed to mak it better fitted to modern inpany in the past.

When Thomas and his friends betrayed the General Strike in 1926 they did so because of their fear of the power of the working class. Today, the Right wing know very well that they cannot even begin a serious fight on wages and hours without bringing powerful forces of the working class into action which will threaten capitalist society.

They do not want the workers to realise their own strength.

FEAR OF STRUGGLE Workink of confidence in the working class, implications of struggle, desire for peaceful collaboration in a world of monopoly violence and exploitation - these are not just characteristics of the Right wing today but also of fake Lefts who write their nonsense week after week in the pages of Tribune.

By ERIC BEN BELLA and his Political Bureau now seem to have won their fight against the dissident leaders of Wilaya 3 and 4. On Sunday, September 9, Colonel Boumedienne marched into Algiers at the head of 3,600 ALN troops. He was met there by Ben Bella who addressed a meeting in the city.

At this meeting he promised swift agrarian reforms, although he did not specify what kind these would be. On the problem of unemployment, his proposal for its solution was to build new factories.

This approach shows quite clearly that the Political Bureau has no intention of making any basic changes in the Algerian economic system. Its sole interest is to patch up the existing system and cannot offer any real solution to the unemployment question in Algeria.

ELECTIONS

Ben Bella also announced that elections would be held on the 20th of this month. Since all the 196 candidates for the National Assembly were chosen by the top men of the FLN, and since the Algerian Communist Party - whose candidates were excluded from the list of FLN nominations—has not had the courage to run its own candidates in opposition, the elections, if they are not postponed yet again, will be a mere formality.

Meanwhile the reactionary Political Bureau, worried by the continued presence of an army of militants and freedom fighters, is, with the support of 'WE have still to discover whether we can expect to make a Tory government not a Tory government. So said Mr. George Woodcock in defending the TUC General Council's decision to join NEDC.

In the past decade the Tories have used every possible method to strengthen and enrich their own class at the expense of the working class. But Mr. WoodSummer the Communist Party, pressing for the demilitarisation of the ALN. On September 7 Larbi Bouhali, secretary of the Algerian Communist Party, gave his official approval to the following statement by the Political Bureau:

'In order to avoid provocations and shootings and to break up the process which is leading to civil war, Algiers must be demilitarised quickly.

Order must be maintained by a civil police force under the direct authority of the central power, that is to say the Political Bureau.' Although the city is now in the hands of the police force, Bouhali conveniently forgot to mention the presence of the French troops who are now, according to the Humanité correspondent Robert Lambotte, patrolling the streets of Algiers in strength. It is, to say the least, an unfortunate ‹mission. cock still has to discover whether the leopard can change its spots.

If the NEDC could produce a comprehensive scheme of economic planning 'for genuine growth' then the TUC would discuss 'what part wages can play in this plan.

Just like Topsy

and the it i som tion this has been pressing other governments, including the British, to stop ships from taking goods to and from Cuba, in an effort to tighten the stranglehold of their economic blockade of the island.

Although the Foreign Office claims to have told the Americans that it has no powers to stop British ships trading with Cuba, there will probably be ways of bringing pressure to bear on ship owners.

The bombardment of the London merchant vessel Newlane last Tuesday, just north of Cuba, was the work of Cuban exiles. But such action cannot have been taken without the support of the US government. It points to a stepping up of efforts to cut off all Cuban trade.

PRESSURE

Republican Senator Harasha has called on the State Department to reconsider economic aid to countries like Britain, which allow the use of ships for trade with Cuba.

At the same time, pressure for US military action to overthrow the Cuban government continues to mount. Russian military aid will assist the Cubans in repelling any such action, and must be applauded.

It is hard to tell whether the call in last week's Tribune for a United Nations task force to keep the peace in Cuba is more treacherous than it is stupid.

The campaign, supported by THE NEWSLETTER, for the Labour movement to send supplies to aid the Cuban revolution, must be extended. American imperialism and its UN agency must not be allowed to starve out the Cuban workers.

insurance companies. Taking Inland Revenue annual figures s possible to estimate that e 2.5 per cent of the populaown well over 50 per cent of wealth.

I have already referred to the vast wealth of trusts, established in most cases to avoid sur-tax and estate duties but excluded from any official computations of total wealth. Many millions of pounds are tied up in these trusts. When Mr. Woodcock talks of 'genuine growth' he should remember that these are the people who will benefit by it.

Keeping wages in step with productivity is a line that has been plugged so often by economic experts, but that is no reason why we should allow our trade union leaders to accept it. Let us consider the underlying philosophy.

If Mr. Woodcock or Mr. Cousins had said to the TUC: 'We understand the need for a wages policy because it is necessary for costs to be kept down so that British merchandise can be sold in the markets of the world to enable 2.5 per cent of the population to preserve 50 per cent of the wealth of this country, we would know where we were.

But that would be so simple to understand that workers might decide to do something about such a fantastic situation.

And that would never do.

dustrial conditions, or as Tribune put it, to deal with the 'new problems arising from the changing shape of the economy'.

It is not the problems of the workers in the trade unions that are being considered here. The clearest thing about this TUC was its complete isolation from the real problems facing the movement.

It is not a 'new situation' created by the 'space age' which is behind the manoeuvres of the General Council. The problem for them is the old one which faced J. H. Thomas and comThe new issue of Labour Review is devoted to the fight against revision of Marxism. Tom Kemp analyses the theories of those who say the USSR is not a workers' state; James Baker looks at the development of Alasdair MacIntyre; and Cliff Slaughter contributes a second article about Lenin's Philosophical Notebooks.

Price 2/- (plus 6d. postage).

From: New Park Publications, 186A Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

Let us see who has reaped the benefit of past 'genuine growth' There are some 1$ million shareholders in this country, that is 3 per cent of the adult population. But of this percentage about one-third own property of £3,000 or less.

The total value of property of individuals in Great Britain is some £50,000 million. This excludes the fantastic amount of money tied up in trusts and also the investments of corporations

September 15, 196

This week standstill be and checke spokesman in London Essex were petrol.

THE • WORKER'S OMISSION Newsletter Reporter WOR ShER employed by their oil companiem of yes and Shell-Mex are adding further worries to the employers' problems of talling returns with a series or strikes for nigner wages that are hitting hard at the oil and petrol industry.

the Esso depot at cause of a stoppage rS. A company said that garages and Metropolitan running short of REPORTING the Commonwealth prime ministers' conference on the Common Market on Wednesday, the Daily Worker printed the anti-ECM views of President Ayub Khan of Pakistan.

'The Western world must decide whether it will make a viable place for the developing countries, or whether it intends to turn itself into a powerful international cartel, the Pakistan President said, If the developing countries were forced to remain producers to feed the West's factories 'it would amount to re-establishing imperialism of the worst kind, the consequences of which would be nothing short of disastrous' , the Worker reported him as saying. But here the report ended. Apparently not wishing to spoil his straight - forward anti - Common Market stand, they omitted to say that he had continued:

" I am sure this would never be tolerated by the people of underdeveloped countries. In the long run it would not benefit the advanced countries of the West. It would be just the sort of opening that communism wants and would not be slow to exploit.' 11 •. 1 . e -1..:1. C_..

at a complete Purfleet was by 375 tanker drivers, loaders In West London, 500 ShellMex and BP employers stopped work and added to the chaos in the industry. Employers have spoken of the 'guerilla' tactics of the strikers.

ANGRY

The workers are angry at what they describe as the 'unrealistic' nature of the pay offers made by the companies and that the claim has now been referred to arbitration with the blessing of employers and union leaders alike.

The men involved in the dispute belong to the Transport and General Workers' Union, which put in a claim for a minimum increase of £l a week. The employers countered with an offer of 6s. to 8s. 6d. a week.

When the TGWU officials agreed to take the matter to arbitration, workers immediately staged an unofficial strike at Avonmouth. This has been followed by a series of unofficial one- or two-day stoppages in the Greater London area.

Strikers say they intend to keep the stoppages short and sporadic so as not to inconvenience the general public, but it is clear that a complete stoppage will be the only sureand quick-way to defeat the employers.

Name Address IN the fight for socialism, The Newsletter is playing a vital role. Do you get it regularly? Don't leave it to the chance encounter, fill in this form and send it to:

Subscription Department, The 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4. 7s. for 12 issues, or £1 8s. per year Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspapor Published by The Newsletter. 86л Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), r.o. 180 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 Liverpool, Wednesday THIRTY car workers at the Liverpool factory of Standards downed tools today. They were fighting the victimisation of a Transport & General Workers Union member, who the management had claimed was inefficient, after a time-study clock had been introduced on his job.

Time-study was introduced without reference to the workers by agreement with local Amalgamated Engineering Union and Transport & General Workers' Union officials.

mass meeting of all kers will he held tomorrow. August, I think it is essential that by the E.T.U. Headquarters in the facts concerning the matter be London. This is a bla! tant and explained. unqualified lie. Neither the On Friday, 24th May, it was E.T.U. Headquarters in London reported by the Area Official then nor any National Official has responsible for negotiations on sent a single man to the job behalf of our members employed at Kincardine Power Station by A.E.I. and other contractors, that is no dispute the job, any our members had stopped work on a claim for increased payments comparable with other trades on the agreed terms and conditions the job. This dispute was brought negotiated between the Union and to a termination when the mem- the respective National Employers' hers resumed work on the 20th Association.

July.

After the resumption of work and on Wednesday, 26th July, there was a discussion by the Disputes Board composed of members of the Electrical Contractors' Association and the E.T.U. where an offer was made cannot be encouraged and in fact fo our members and which was submitted to them by Brothers Sim and Coyle, Area Officials of of the E.T.U. Executive Council the E.T.U., at a subsequent

Tidustrial FID ToUID rewsletter By OUR the electricians \ who were locked out of the power station site, 12 are still unemployed. Four members of the strike committee. These 12 have been 24 and have been refused anv pavment of victimisation Electrical Trades Union representative, Blairford, is reported to have said at a meeting of the strikers payment, the men were told by Chapple and Tuck that he would apply for that no benefit would be paid.

Nor has any unemployment meeting. At this meeting the benefit been paid to those who members decided to give a week's were on strike. Many of the notice of termination of employstrikers are now finding diffi- ment; on Friday, 3rd August, the culty in obtaining other em- members involved therefore left the employment of the firm. ployment and have received no assistance from the ETU officials in doing so. the first place and while the dispute was in progress between Overtime is being worked on 24th May and the 20th July, it the site and when the area was impossible for negotiations to committee moved to ban all proceed. The Executive Council overtime working it was in- decided that as the members were formed by the EC that overtime operating outwith the advice on the Kincardine Bridge site tendered by the Union, strike would be the responsibility of benefit should not be paid and did Head Office. No action has so not recognise the dispute as far been taken to, stop overtime official; nor have they done so since. working in spite of the fact that there are electricians unemgiving notice to leave the job was ployed in the district.

not taken in accordance with l'he Kincardine strike has Union advice and, in fact, was upened the eyes of many members intended to keep the matter outof the ETU not only in Scotland with the hands of the Union. but throughout Britain. Here Every action taken by the memwas a major industrial dispute and bers on the job has been a denial the first big test of the Byrne- of the authority of the Executive Chapple-Cannon leadership of the Council. A deputation from the union. Far from strengthening job visited the Head Office of the the movement it has greatly Union and were advised that they weakened the struggle of trade should return to work and allow unionists against the employers negotiations to be conducted by and this action can be laid the Union. While in London, it squarely on the shoulders of the is known that they visited London right-wing executive.

Press Branch and attempted to get In the middle of the strike, on support for their actions. August 13, the following letter was sent by the general secretary, J. T. Byrne, to a shop steward and chargehand on the site. We E.T.U. Executese cher men to sere were despatched by the are reproducing it in full because it explains, better than any report, do the work of electricians on the type of men who are at present strike, etc. and it should be made leading the ETU. quite clear that the action of the members in leaving the employment of the firm was not a strike and that the firm, under those I refer to your telephone call conditions, was perfectly entitled in which you indicated that a to engage labour. Our members meeting of the workers employed working on the job at present are by the contractors on site was bona fide members of the E.T.U. being held tomorrow. In the and are not in breach of any light of the misreporting which Rule of the Union. The Daily has taken place in the local papers Worker also stated that electri. in Edinburgh and particularly in cians from different parts of the the Daily Worker of Friday, 10th AL CO Executive. Despite the fact that their executive conduct of the affairs of the Union by the Executive Council and actions of this kind cannot continue to be carried out with impunity.

It must be made quite clear (1)

It should be made clear that in that there is no dispute on the job, and (2) that our members who are working and carrying out the Executive Council's instructions have the full support of the Executive Council.

The Executive Council will therefore conduct a full investigation of the actions of those people who are distorting reports about the Council to make sure the facts are known to the members of the Union.

The action of the members in All members should take note and redouble th fight the prese leadership of the all donations for men to c/o M.

Kingseat Avenue, Scotland.

The Daily Worker in their STRIKE PAY DISPUTE article of 10th August stated that ETU members employed by B.

French at the Imperial College site in London decided to come out on strike again on Tuesday.

They are demanding pay for three days during which they had been on strike in the past week.

This strike arose out of a dispute when the management sacked the shop steward, Bro. A.

O'Neill. The strike was called off after the management agreed to reinstate him. However, the payment was kept pending until the return of the manager from holiday.

On Tuesday when the managecountry had been sent to the site ment refused to pay for all three days, the men on the job decided to strike.

FOULKES SUCCESSOR AS ELECTRICITY but, equally SO, the Executive NEGOTIATOR Council is adamant that, as there MR. BILL TUDOR, general member of the E.T.U. is free to secretary of the National Union of Enginemen, Firemen, Mechanics offer himself for employment on and Electrical Workers, is to fill the post of leading union negotiator in the electricity supply industry — the post held for 16 years by Mr. Frank Foulkes until There have been alleged inci- his expulsion from the Electrical dents where the men who have Trades Union. refused to stay in employment Mr. Tudor was elected unaniwith the firm have threatened mously by the trade union side of those of our members who are the National Joint Industrial carrying out Trade Union agree- Council for the industry on ments. This form of gangsterdom Tuesday. He was formerly Mr.

Foulkes' vice-chairman on the must be stamped out. The at- council. His first job will be to tempts made to distort the attitude negotiate a new wages structure for the ndustry. His union is are designed to mis-represent the affiliated o the TGWU. Kincardine Bridge of these were off work since benefit bv the fraternally, General Secretary.

of the ETU of Kincardine eir efforts to right-wing union. Send the victimised Gillespie, 96 Grangemouth,