The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 278

By THE EDITOR said he was thing wrong somewhere' Such words will ring hollow in the ears unemployed youth and adult workers Exchanges over Christmas.

taking place in Britain.

Real nature of crisis Precisely! of tens of thousands of signing on at Labour ¡HE new 'Workers' Charter', claimed by government s workers security of employment, is actually aimed at stre Tory reformist legislation has a common feature. Whilst it is really introduced to enrich the few. Under the Contracts the employer but the worker, too, must give batween two and on length of service, if he intends to terminate his employment The keynote of the Bill is the clause which states that 14 days' notice of strike action is obligatory, else men will forfeit their rights to termination pay.

The strike notice provision is directed at any legitimate withdrawal of labour, whatever the reason.

It means, concretely, that speedup, new time schedules, lack of adequate heating in a factory, lack of sufficient safety provisions and similar provocations that can sometimes only be challenged by strikes, can all be introduced by the bosses to an ever-greater degree, without fear of action by the employees.

The basis of future employment will be a written contract and any breach can be taken before the courts. Though either employer or worker may sue, it is hardly likely that the latter will find any protection there.

He will be obliged, in fact, under the contract to do a 'reasonable amount of work'. If a worker refuses overtime or arrives late for work, this may be considered a breach of contract, since it is, of course, the VICTORY FOR WELSH BRICKIES THE strike of 320 bricklayers at the Steel Company of Wales Port Talbot plant ended on Wednesday after talks lasting for 22 hours.

A formula was reached for an early resumption of work and the suspension of the bricklayer—which caused the stoppage-was simultaneously lifted.

A company spokesman said:

• Difficulties of interpretation of some parts of the original agreement were satisfactorily resolved.' The employers had threatemed to close the plant and sack 8,500 men, but the bricklayers maintained their stand and won notable victory.

CHRISTMAS BREAK The Newsletter will not be published week ending December 29. The Editorial Board 'end warmest seasonal greefings to all their readers and supporters.

employer who decides what is 'reasonable'® The employers make no sacrifices by this charter. Their longterm, key employees with five years' service will be obliged to give a minimum notice of four weeks if they want to change jobs.

Today many firms are working short time-and the workers are consequently getting short money. Yet the four weeks' compulsory paid notice will be based on these lower rates.

This is no golden handshake for the workers. They will have to work out their notice time, and when they get their pay it will be taxed in the usual way.

The bill does not provide for any additional redundancy payments or 'severance pay' which, at least, puts a sum into the workers' hands to mitigate, perhaps, a bleak period of unemployment ahead.

For the security of labour which the employer will now possess, nothing is really given in return. So far as the larger firms are concerned, they plan production schedules not one month ahead, ipporters as a move to give ngthening the employers. All appearing to benefit the many, of Employment Bill, not only four weeks' notice, depending but for much longer periods, that they can always ascertain good time when to give notice their workers.

The legislation will tend to worsen the present unemployment situation. Now that employers will have to give minimum periods of notice, the slightest sign of a decline in orders will immediately set in motion the procedure for sacking men.

At its best, this bill will do little to prevent sudden dismissals; at its worst it will attempt to limit the rights for which workers have fought long and hard.

It is a Bill to intensify wage-slavery, the first of many measures to smash the militancy of workers, place them firmly under the thumbs of the employing class and, ultimately, make all strike action illegal.

The labour movement must oppose it with all the strength at their comman 1 and make sure that a Labour g overnment scraps it with all other Tory class legislation.

duction by the new techniques.

more quickly by these new techniques. great distressed area.

If, as still seems likely, Britain does join the Common will do so by sacrificing British agriculture and throwing industries into sharp competition with their well equipped rivals. There will be a tendency for a boor 1 to grow • aro industries and for others to decline. amongst the Tories no matter how they Market, it the major continental ind certain 1. 2, col. 2 By ALAN WEST, Our BUILDING workers throughout Britain hit back sharply at government interference, through its National Incomes Commission, into their recent 40-hour week victory over the employers.

Nick's officers, under chairman Geoffrey Lawrence, QC, last week began an investigation into the Scottish builders' pay and hours award. In a statement, Mr. Maudling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, showed that he is clearly worried that such demands would be taken up throughout industry.

Representatives of all the building unions met in London this week at the general council of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives and considerable anger was expressed at the government moves.

The Federation's general secretary, Mr. Harry Weaver, said that the Chancellor's action was an attack 'not only on the building unions, but on the whole trade union movement' to Nick Labour Correspondent Mr. Weaver said that the Fede ration intended to contact thé General Council of the TUC. He said he felt sure that the NFBTO would get the full support of the TUC and its affiliated unions if the government attempted to interfere with agreements.

Mr. Weaver declared that the council would be happy to put its case to the National Incomes Commission. 'We are confident that we will confound the Chancellor. A 40-hour week would help to ease the unemployment situation?

Answering the charge that the builders' award would have a bad effect on costs in the industry, Mr. Weaver said that any increase would be 'almost infinitesimal compared to the steep increases in costs due to rocketing land prices and interest rates for building loans'.

It was announced on Tuesday that the chairman of NIC, Mr. Lawrence, will receive a salary of €12,500 a year—£250 a week.

V times of crisis a bureaucracy may be forced to change from a position on The British ruling class prepared carefully for the 1926 General Strike, setting up their

THE Chinese leadership have now brought their split with the Khrushchevites further out into the open. A 5,000-word editorial in the Peking People's Daily of December 15 states their criticisms of Russian policy quite bluntly. though it refrains from actually naming Khrushchev, it accuses his tendency of defeatism, adventurism and capitulation. n the question of the shambles over the missiles in Cuba it attacks him for 'over-rating the importance of nuclear arms' instead of 'having confidence in the power of the popular masses'.

Replying to allegations that Chinese policy in Cuba would have plunged the world into nuclear war, it says: 'As for nuclear war, China has always been opposed to it and has foreseen the elimination of nuclear armament and the solution of this problem by negotiation. 1l the same it is necessary to prove to the imperialists that Marxist-Leninists will never allow themselves to be paralysed by the fear of such a war.' The People's Daily pulls no punches over the Sino-Indian border dispute: "Those who criticise us have failed to analyse the policy of the Nehru clique from a class point of view. They call us brothers, but in fact they consider the Indian reactionaries as their true kinsmen.' enying charges that Chinese policy is an attempt to split the world communist movement, it discloses the fact that they have already approached the Czech CP with proposals to hold a conference of all the extreme right over to the centre or even left of centre. It depends on how serious the crisis and upon the strength of the working class. But one thing it will never do-that is to change itself from a parasitic caste into a genuine socialist leadership.

There have been times in the past where even the leadership of the Labour Party has been forced in a left-ward direction only to betray the working class as soon, as they felt confident of success. The last GERRY analysis trends in strike-breaking services and (right) using scabs as policemen. But the labour bureauстасу was totally unprepared and helped engineer the defeat.

ticle in EALY's the lates USSR

Communist parties in order to find out 'what is right and what is wrong'.

US CP convicted THE Newsletter Editorial Board protests most strongly at the McCarthyite witch-hunt against the Communist Party of the United States and calls upon the British labour movement to stand by the party and demand the conviction be lifted.

The party was convicted by a Federal jury in Washington on Monday of failing to register as an agent of the Soviet Union. US district court judge Alexander Holtzoff fined the party £43,000the maximum penalty. Party lawyers said they would appeal against the verdict.

The true nature of the Kennedy administration is now revealed. Its aim is to smash and shackle the organised American labour movement which is coming into sharper conflict every day with the ruling class of the 60 families and their employers.

The conviction of the Communist Party is only the beginning of a calculated drive against all militants and socialists. American workers must be on their guard and prepare to fight back; the British labour movement must pledge its full support. between speeding up Britain's decline into a distressed area by not joining the Common Market or more slowly becoming a distressed area through entry.

Behind the Skybolt controversy is not so much the military significance of the weapon, but the fact that American big business is forcing British capitalism to cut i'self down to its economic size. Between it and the spokesmen for American capital investment in Europe, Macmillan and company have no real independence.

This new crisis cannot be answered except by socialist policies. It is not a temporary affair, but the first real effect, since the end of the Second World War, of the chronic crisis of British capitalism, first spoken of by Marxists as early as 1914.

British capitalism cannot cure the unemployment problem and it has no intention of doing so. To arrest the fall in the rate of profit from high investment means to make the working class work faster and for longer hours. The continuous shrinkage of the world's markets, and the intensified competitive relations between the big monopolies have shown more and more that socialism is the

The problem for Marxists is to understand that it is precisely when bureaucracy moves to the left that it must be dealt the most powerful blows in order to expose its treacherous role.

This is where the activity of the revolutionary party comes in. An exposure of the bureaucracy can only be carried out by a leadership trained to understand all the developments associated with its centrist nature.

The Khrushchev bureaucracy is no exception to this rule. Like the Stalinist bureaucracy it pursues a centrist role.

In Hungary it reacted violently to crush the revolution. In the Soviet Union it has been forced to give concessions to the working class and at the same time allow more freedom to intellectuals and others.

All these events are extremely important, but they have not arrived on the scene because of the benevolence of the bureaucracy; they are a symptom of its crisis, not its liberalisation.

The construction of a Marxist party in the Soviet Union, which will be forced at first to work illegally within the trade unions, the factories, the Komsomols and the Communist Party itself, is essential if the bureaucracy is to be replaced by organs of genuine socialist democracy.

Revisionists who want to paint a picture of, the Khrushchev regime liberalising itself, are constanily talking about the dual nature of the Soviet bureaucracy. Trotsky stressed that insofar as the bureaucracy defends the Soviet Union and develops the Soviet economy it should enjoy the In other words, the choice is critical support of the Fourth International.

But he stressed equally emphatically that the bureaucracy would do so by its own methods which, he said, would weaken the Soviet Union in relation to the international working class.

There are many cases in Britain where the bureaucratic leaderships of the trade unions have gone into action against employers because they felt they were being challenged as well as their members. But the manner in which they engaged in this action-lack of preparation and so on-actually engineered the defeat of their unions. The most important example is, of course, the 1925 general strike.

Trotskyists have no confidence in bureaucracy either in the social-democra ic movement or in the Soviet Union.

That is why we criticise the Soviet bureaucracy for its handiing of the Cuban crisis. The revisionists on the other hand adopt a pacifist role. They say that by removing the missile bases and the jet bombers, Khrushchev saved iS: page one only alternaiive to capitalist degradation and nuclear barbarism.

A Labour government under Gaitskell which has no policy to meet such a crisis will result in a catastrophe far greater than the MacDonald government of 1931. Trade union leaders who make big noises about Foras, but who do nothing in practice, will betray their members when faced with the type of sharp industrial struggle which will be posed in the future.

No industrial action, no matter how stubborn and wellfought, can really answer the crisis. Preparation for strikes must be made alongside a continuous campaign inside the Labour Party and the trade unions for the nationalisation of the basic industries, under workers' control, and the institution of a planned economy along socialist lines.

Either Labour adopts this programme for power, or the working class runs the risk of losing all they have gained during the boom since the second world war and returning to conditions much worse than the misery of the 1930s. the peace. In making this point they strive to exploit pacifist sentiment.

The defence of the Cuban revolution can only be considered within the framework of the revolutionary movements first of all in North and South America and the building up of constant support in the ranks of the international working class.

This is something which the Khrushchev bureaucracy cannot and will not do. The policy of the Communist Party in the United States was to support the Democratic Party in the recent elections. The policies of the Communist parties in other places strive for Popular Fronts with capitalist politicians.

The leaderships of even the most left-wing of the Communist parties are so confused by their political relations with Stalinism that they are utterly incapable of developing an internationalist Marxist policy towards the defence of Cuba.

Military weapons cannot be a substitute for socialist internationalism. In sending misCuban CP? Not necessary' siles and jet bombers to Cuba, Khrushchev was using this military intervention as an extension of his false policy of peaceful co-existence.

He betrayed and weakened the Cuban revolution politically. Those who talk about his 'great statesmanship' speak as pacifists and ignore the facts.

The internationalist defence of the Cuban revolution lies in the extension of the class struggle and not through military assistance as a replacement for that struggle.

It is equally foolish to accept Kennedy's word that he will not invade Cuba in the future. Those who claim that Khrushchey got a concession from Kennedy are doing nothing more than building up illusions in Kennedy.

Only the constant vigilance and struggle of the international working class can defend Cuba in the very difficult period ahead. In this struggle, the Soviet youth and militant workers will play a prominent role as they fight tooth and nail against the narrow, nationalist policies of the bureaucracy.

In this way the Soviet people will come to the aid of the Cuban revolution; they are in the forefront of the fight against bureaucracy which is the mortal enemy of that revolution.

Says Communist Party is neces sary in Cuba, said Daily Worker correspondent Sam Russell at Friends House, Euston, on Tuesday, December 18 at a meeting called by the London District of the Communist Party to hear an account of Russell's recent experiences in Cuba. He was replying to a questioner who asked what the strength of the Cuban Communist Party was.

Russell explained that there was only one party in Cuba formed out of the original July 26 Movement, the old Communist Party and a student organisation. Since this party was doing the job 'there is no need for a separate Communist Party'.

In answer to another question he said, "The proportion of Marxist-Leninists in the Cuban government is 100 per cent.?

He went on to say that Fidel Castro had begun as an anticommunist but had come to accept Marxism-Leninism and was building the socialist revolution in Cuba. When that was completed he would build communism.

One old communist leader, Escalante, had been found to be sectarian and had been publicly reproved. (Russell made no attempt to explain Escalante's sectarianism or the policy he had supported.)

It was a great thing that a former anti-communist who was now a communist was able to give lessons to someone who was communist long before he was, but who had 'strayed'. 'I think this is a great credit to Fidel Castro and to the Cuban people, said Russell.

Replying to questions about the Soviet action over its missile bases, he said that the Cuban people were 'disappointed at first' with Khrushchev's decision, but now accepted it.

He did not agree that this withdrawal had weakened Cuba's defences. Rather he thought it made Cuba safer because Kennedy had promised not to invade Cuba or let anyone else invade.

If the bases had not been withdrawn the United States would have wiped out Cuba, so it was better to defend the revolution by dismantling the defences!

the of the Southwark South Ion Rhodesian openly and unashamedly the party of white racialist oppression. It has the MHE menace martial year. Last August suppol hite farmers, businessmen, clerks, _ is threatening the workers some men lost their right to they declared their determinacivil servants, skilled artisans of Eastern Kentucky, USA. medical i care when their company tion to continue the fight for the and their wives and families The little town of Hazard has refused to pay any further royalty. demolition of their 102-year-old who make country's up the been aflame with sabotage, Now the bitter struggle in 'homes'. 88,000 white population. bombings and arson. Hazard has reached the point of violence. The pickets flatly deny The tenants accepted a number They have voted in this way to Local collieries have responsibility for the bombings of proposals, including one from to them, going to the same schools prevent Africans, living next door blown up with dynamite and point out that it often the Southwark Trades Council, as their children or using the saboteurs been active on their own houses and cars which meeting in the New Year to draw that they should organise a public the railways. Private homes suffered. same maternity hospitals. and cars have also suffered. They accuse the bosses of the the support of local trade unionweighted franchise which gave full voting rights to all Europeans and The election was fought on a to this tale of violence. Perry There is a tragic backgreund these men know that such an act sabotage on the railway, because might give grounds for a Federal ists, Labour Party members and tenants of both slum properties and borough council estates.

enabled only 12,000 Africans of a County, where the incidents injunction or the establishment of Correspondent total of 2 million to qualify for took place, relies completely on martial law, which could effecti- EFFECTIVE AT a recent meeting in Leicester votes-—of those only 3,000 in fact used their votes. the coal industry for its liveli- hood. In the United States this vely smash any opposition of the workers their plans. Labour League also proposed that A member of the Socialist 800 members of the National It is quite out of question industry is in a very bad way. tenants should join the Labour ployers' mously Union of Hosierv Workers unani- reiected the hosiery em- proposal that a 3-shift, main Nationalist Party supported to regard Whitehead as any kind of a liberal. He had banned the employment in Perry County have reached such a pitch that out of As a result, poverty and un- When the bosses demanded Party as the most effective way of winning support from the rank and file of the labour movement, 24-hour of the dav be introduced existing 2-shift, in place 18-hour the Zimbabwe People's Union, and by the masses of the population, its 36,000 inhabitants over 14,000 are on the Federal food dole. injunction to stop the local judge, C. the picketing C. Wells, re- socialist housing policy. both for their case and for a real day. he had sent leaders the party of The flare-up centres around fused to grant it without a proper This was opposed by a leading r1.- by the hosiery into detention. picketing of mines where em- hearing. This should not be taken member of the Communist Party shifts, to cut out empioyers and to pay oil surplus labour, is directly linked up with the Tory introauce three 'inefficient' units 'fake quar styled For this by el between reason the the natio nalists a whites'. election with the United Mine Workers. ployers have broken agreements ROYALTY and order' was not designed to to mean that he is on the side of the miners; the machinery of "law the interests of the working Party policy was not their job and were only concerned with Blendon Row and that changing Labour on the grounds that the tenants government's preparations for Up to now the coal bosses paid would not help them. entry into the Common Market. royalty of 40 cents a ton, which especially true this in Meanwhile, the landlord The British hosiery industry, According to the Financial was used by the union to run case, when we consider that the even completed the minor which is centred on Leicester and Times the policy of Winston hospitals and welfare services. high sheriff of Hazard happens (by provements which he agreed Hinckley, is faced with Field, the tobacco farmer who Before the union established these sheer coincidence) to own some do. Paint which was put on competition from Italian owns thousands of acres of rich services there was no specialised of the mines that being are of the staircases two or farming land and who medical attention available to picketed. ago is already peeling. EXCUSE Prime Minister, will be to open workers in the area. The Hazard workers growing threat of Italian up new areas under community Lately the bosses have been contend not only with the police competition is being used by the development schemes, as sources cuting down on these royalties; but also with the union leadership One block still without stair employers as an excuse to intro- of raw materials for export. many have refused to pay them which will not have anything to lighting and one tenant compl ained duce heavier work loads for The Land Apportionment altogetner. InIs, coupied This witn do with the picketing. This has that her toilet loor, which machine operatives. This is par- which prevents Africans from pur- the fall in coal production, has given the police the chance to off a week had still ticularly so in the switch from chasing land in 'white areas and seriously affected the union's wel- claim that they are not dealing replaced.

fully-fashioned stockings to the production of the more expensive, abolish will now be retained. which Whitehead had promised to to announce the closure of fare fund. Already they have four had an unruly mob of 'trouble-makers'. with a respectable union but with ary, the tenants will have to draw IT T TIATTA At their grindin, in nine cheaper, circular-seamless variety. Field does not like the word of their ten hospitals in the New Kentucky has been hit for a up detailed plans for contacting A machine producing fully- apartheid used to describe his Year. long time by economic depression rank and file members of the fashioned stockings costs £20,000 policies. He said at a recent This has drawn the women and now the situation is worsen- trade union and labour movement to buy. At the moment an opera- press conference he would prefer the fight. Many of them ing. The miners are obviously in and other tenants in the area. tive looks after two of these to call it 'separate development'. acuve in ine mobile picket bands 11a - 1. a militant frame of mind, but they Without such support, the tenants machines and can produce 520 According to The Times, the which tour the local collieries. have no clear objectives in view could go on for years in a dogdozen stockings per week. These Rhodesian Front is 'pledged to In addition to this, miners are and the union leadership is deter- fight with the landlord every stockings sell at from 4/11 to 10/11 delay African government'. cut in pensions mined to stamp on their militancy. minor repair. a pair. This group of British 'colons' A machine producing circular- might well precipitate open and seamless stockings costs £850 to violent conflict with the force of buy. At present an operative African nationalism. looks after 20 of these machines This would wreck the policy QUIET but most signifi- boundless potentiality and can produce 1,800 dozen conciliating the African petty- L cant development in is if only we have a planned ings stock ings sell per week. These stock- at between 7/1 bourgeois leaders by granting them fake independence, a policy Japan has been the astound- economy based on nationalisation of the industries. At the moment 8/11 which has been followed with ingly rapid growth of Soka- socialist propaganda dwells only such conspicuous success in gakki, a new militant group discipline rigid; they taught on the misery of the people.

The falling demand for fully- EXTENSIVE and other territories. Norihern Rhodesia, Nyasaland which has grown Nichiren-shu, an old ultra- from that they are the only true patriots and their mission is to save the munity is viewed here only The European Economic fashioned stockings has already right chauvinistic of country. an economic angle. We resulted in extensive short-time Buddhists. They are not yet armed, but at emphasise the fact that it is working and rising redundancies. This is why there is such Starting in the quarters as an action corps. the last general election they acted negation of the national state Bear Brand have already closed amount of agitation going on of Tokyo, it has spr ead like Kishi and Eisaku the the capitalists themselves.

redundant in their fully-fashioned down their fully-fashioned section. Pex have just declared 40 workers the City just now. They fear for their investments and in particular and is now the largest wild fire into the whole country, political leaders of the Japanese right wing, are secretly trying to frater- private property and the national The two bases of capitalism, employing 400 workers, is to be rumours that the whole section, secion and there are well-founded for the mines and other forms of capital in the area. The British labour movement organization, with 7 or fanatic devotees. So many people 8 million highly disciplined and drilled that the basis is being laid for a nise with Sokagakki. It is clear state, are thus ultimately proved to be historically anachronistic, one by the workers' countries and held over the heads of the circular- seamless knitters in order to force them to double their present work. closed down. fully-fashioned knitters is being The threat of unemployment sia the holding of elections on the territory. basis of compleie adult franchise. These elections should with complete must demand in Southern Rhode- National Constituent set up a over the Assembly ing ing the alarm, tor its all enough. Sohyo (TUC) nave been L.... 1- :. C1e..- 1-. 1... over the country membership that organise them the leaders quickly sound- unions unable and students, are turning to the fascist movement for Japanese and and their youth organisations. The numbers are much smaller American imperialism. Communist and Socialist parties Other young people, workers the of advanced capitalism. Its dead end is being proved before oar eyes. opposed with Leon Trotsky's pro- Japan is the last national state The EEC has to be more clearly other by EEC.

• Most of the 30,000 hosiery The labour movement should gakki. but still notable. gramme of a United Socialist workers in Leicester, Hinckley and also demand the disarming of the The movement getting mas- When the government relaxed States of Europe. The growing to take ten-day Christmas Loughborough are being forced white troops which exist to defend the interests of the capitalist class, national or local. Youths, not sive support at every election, its financial control for a few years, Japanese industry developed Russia, reflecting the mood of the boldness of young writers in 'holiday', but will get only two and the setting up of working only poor and ignorant, but many dynamically throughout the coun- workers and also the vacillation days' pay (from £2 to £3). The class militias to maintain order. graduates of big universities, are try. This development was of the top bureaucras, will emlocal secretary of the Hosiery Workers' Union commented, "The socialist policy for Southern Nothing less than this is a turning to the sect. It is estimated that 700,000 800,000 youths arrested last year when government re-imposed controls. the and workers in Russia and bolden broad masses of youths situation extre nely black.' Rhodesia organised its ranks. The Socialists show the throughout the

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tri stop in the if need be, The firm claims that These w that work on the Bunker depot have to rephase the job THE employers have opened a new the work made harder. Every effort to take advantage of the being field, where stewards Walker, will restart early in January. The stewards' committee at stage of their offensive against tion and situation working conditions. The to attack shop organisa- have Nine Elms are convinced that this the labour movement. In a period of deepening economic offensive must be met by uniting three is a thin disguise for a further and political crisis, the capitalist all sectic of the labour moveattempt to destroy the strict con- ment. Mr. Steve Baker, director and trol on working conditions which class is determined to drive general manager of the firm, said THE December issue they have imposed since the con- down costs of production in last week that a few troublePlatform, the rank and tract started in February. order order maintain the rate of The National Committee of makers were responsible. bus workers' paper in London, Monday after a 3 week strike The men returned to work last profit on its investments. This means intensified attacks on the the maximum unity between Socialist Labour League calls he went on. ' This strike does not "There will be no climb-down," sharply criticises Frank Cousins which had forced the reinstate- conditions and organisation of employed and unemployed wor- have union backing. The men and the Transport and General ment of nine sacked men, includ- the workers. kers. This is the only way that have been advised to return to Workers' Union for their lack ing one of the stewards. the threat of unemployment work by their unions have not of leadership in the fight for This strike was the culmination be defeated. Unions must ensure done so? better wages and working of several months' constant that unemployed workers are not ditions. struggle during which the stewards Spurred by a por group verful. cut off from the trade union In the front page leader 'All had maintained a ban on overtime of extreme right-wing bench back movement. Those out of work increase Talk-No the new Cousins, for Do, it maintains that claim, presented by cover for accepting a substantial wage and secured employment for 15 extra workers at the site: Works would really like to The committee claims that legislation against unofficial so-called 'Workers' Charter giving strikes. Under the guise of a MPs, the government is preparing must ship until In they are re-employed. every locality threatened with be given associate member- of the appropriate union dismissal notices to all the kers and then re-engage only he wanted if the strike continues. Baker has threatened to workers a 6 per already been won by underground in London. increase which has fewer men working unli heads. overtin thus saving tees to a section of the working very modest employment guaran- class, a clause stipulates that those organisations to reduce working unemployment, trade unionists must mobilise themselves in their name the trouble-makers,' he said. challenge to Mr. Baker. ' Let him committee, Bill Walker issued a Speaking on behalf of the strike 'We shall have gone cap in who go on strike without two hours by cutting out all overtime, hand to our employers to ask for weeks' notice will lose and actively campaign for the full Bill Walker himself has something already negotiated for return to work last Monday benefits a Bill. employment of those who out working for the firm for 25 years us in advance by another union.' was an unqualified victory for the The p surpose of this legislation of work. and was on top merit money.

It goes on to condemn Cousins workers. But during Monday first of all to divide the had worked at Davy's for 27 years One of those made 'redundant' for his refusal to link the struggle afternoon, while shop stewards working class and feel out the of busmen with that of railway were attending a conference of ground for the possibility of call upon workers every- and had received a medal and £25. workers. employers and unions to discuss introducing more definite anti- where to support the Confedera- The executives of two unions, section honestly tried to act jointly 'Twice in 1962 the London bus working on the bunkering service progress at Nine Elms, the 21 men strike legislation at later building Unions' demand for the tion of Engineering and ship- the Heating Domestic Engineers the Electrical Trades Union and with underground railwaymen in were called off by the foreman and 40-hour week. Workers in the Union, have recognised the strike the two protest strikes that were given one day's notice. engineering unions should back as official. staged. Claims by West Works this that legislation comes at time up the demands of their leaders by When members the strike On both occasions we were section of the contract not when speed-up in the factories is preparing for all-out strike action committee went York last thwarted by the direct intervention urgent are rejected by the sacked growing and unemployment figures if the 40-hour week is not granted. Thursday they met the AEU of Frank Cousins and the General men. Already coke from the new are rising to a post-war record. The fight of the engineers is Executive Committee delegates to Executive Council' plant they have built is being Fearful of the consequences which directly connected to the fight the Confederation of Shipbuilding It condemns the incessant talks dumped on the ground at exces- these issues might have on the against unemployment. and Engineering Unions meeting. on the 'package deal' which have sive cost because the bunkering working conditions of their Workers fighting against redun- Four of them contributed to the lasted for 12 months between the services are not completed. members, the Confederation of dancy and in defence of victimised strike fund. busmen and the LTE, during The construction workers have Engineering and Shipbuilding shop stewards must be backed by which time have been called on their union, the Con- Unions have decided to open solidarity action wherever possdemanding action. structional. Engineering Union, to immediate negotiations for a 40- ible. The union organisation at The strikers are hopeful This criticism of Cousins, by secure the re-employment of the hour week. This is correct, and every place of work must be kept Boilermakers' Union will a rank and file paper which in the sacked men on the contract when the unions concerned should enjoy intact, and the policy of oppo- the strike official before long.

'letts' still look past has too often apologised him, should be noted by .1 s., 11. 1n the for the employ constructional workers it reopens in the New Year. West Works are insisting that they can from other sites whom they intend the fullest support from the trade union movement as a whole. But it is impossible to se arate' sition to all sackings, sharing the to achieve this. available work, is the only the following conditions, the chairman of the strike committee ' We are ready to go back under Messiah. to transfer to Nine Elms. this fight for the 40-hour week' said: 'that while the recognised from industrial action to bring procedure is being followed, either the stewards' committee This is clearly designed to break and open and hostile intervention of down the Tory government. The dundancy is inevitable because Employers who pretend that engaged or that the firm should the dismissed men should be reweaken the fight against which they have Tory ministers in the case of the 40-hour week negotiated by on the payroll must be forced to they cannot afford to keep workers continue to pay their wages in full until the procedure is exScottish building workers indicates open their accounts to scrutiny by hausted. We are also ready to AT December meeting of the the that right from the start the trade unionists and their repre- submit this matter to arbitration, Leeds No. 2 branch of the government will stand with the sentatives. In nationalised indus- again provided that the notices are Garment Workers, the following National Union of Tailor and employers in resisting the demands tries, like the railways, this should withdrawn.' of the trade unions. You cannot be linked with the demand that the In the men's present mood and resolution was passed: fight for the 40-hour week without inflated compensation and interest with the support they are receiving 'When unemployment threatens challenging Tory payments be stopped if the indus- from other engineering firms in clothing workers the policy of THE Executive Council of the try is in economic difficulties. different parts of the country, work-sharing must be put into AEU, at its meeting on Tuesday, Public work schemes, financed will carry on for a long time. practice, not only in single fac- took strong action against four by the government and by local Their only fear is factories. This policy must tories but amongst groups propagated industry' throughout the be of militant shop stewards, who were the recent Massey-Ferguson re- charged with breach of rule during unions. They will now resist every ment in order to weaken the trade The Tories wanted unemploy- areas authorities, must be started in high. In particular, Labour-con- where unemployment is at the in and Carron repeat the tactics and his friends BLSP dispute last they may annual conference of Another resolution This will going be was passed to the the union. Bi- Johnson of Coventry were dundancy strikes. The credentials of Mr. with- that would make more jobs avail- able for the unemployed workers. effort to reduce hours, in a way direct trolled building workers and pro- labour schemes to employ councils must extend their strike. which effectively smassed shed drawn for 3 years and those of council faster calling for a f2 wage increase and Messrs. T. Gregory, H. Thompson Meanwhile, the employers for a 40-hour week. and R. Stewart from Manchester tinue their offensive. The an- The Davy's United strike for one nouncement that the steel vital importance for engineering They were charged with of the Steel Company of workers and for all workers everyaddressing a meeting at Kilmar- are threatening a shutdown The National Committee where. If the employing class are nock, encouraging workers to walk than make concessions to the Socialist Labo ir League urges helped to get away with a policy out and pledging full support of genuine grievances of the brick- trade unionists to demand a clear of 'selective sacking', wages and Coventry and Manchester layers is another crack of the whip statement of policy from the conditions everywhere will be gineers. designed to have the same effect Labour Party, that upon being lowered.

The stewards denied that as that of the Ford bosses in returned to power at the next The cause the Davy United knew a settlement had Dagenham. election it will immediately pre- strikers is the cause of the working reached when they addressed Faced growing with competi- pare legislation for the nationali- class as a whole. The committee workers. tion, the employers ar working sation of the basic industries, the needs urgently donations and The executive also refused to might and to help the introduction of workers' contro! s of support.

Legistered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, this page) in Sheffield back the Davy United and called strike (see government build ment and at the same up time force unemploy- socialist in Britain. and the establishment of a planned Walker, They should be Chairman Davy sent to: 186л Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 upon their members the workers who are employed to Strike Committee, AEL 'rinted by Plouch Press Ltd. (TU). ro. 30 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 work. Stanley Street, Sheff Id, 1.