The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 340

Below we reproduce the whole R. Underhill, assistant national Sir, I would like to draw your attention to a series of incidents which prevented The Newsletter staff from reporting the final day's proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference of the Young Socialists.

Our representative, Mr. G. Healy, and a staff photographer arrived at 9.30 a.m. at the Pavilion, Brighton, where the conference was being held. Almost immediately after they parked their vehicle in a side street adjoining the building a group of conference officials approached the car in a threatening manner. This continued at regular intervals and photographs have been taken of the people concerned. It prevented Mr. Healy from interviewing conference delegates as a reporter of this paper since he was obliged to remain in the car in order to avoid what he considered would be a serious disturbance of the peace.

During the first two hours from 9.30-11.30 a.m. a procession of officials acting in an irresponsible manner proceeded to note down the registration number of the vehicle and to check the time on the traffic meter. At approximately 11.30 a.m. a group of between 30 and 40 people surrounded the car and behaved in a marcatenins foshion tong de 34. Rocly. 'The Guardian' et Tuesday, March 31, notes:

'A band of supporters of "Young Guard"

left the hall to heckle Mr. Jerry Healy.' At that stage our photographer also left the conference hall and photographed the incident. It was noticed that you were standing on the opposite side of the street apparently enjoying these proceedings, and only later interceded with those responsible and ushered them back into the hall. Since you were in charge of the conference on behalf of the National Executive Committee, at least two questions arise as a result of this strange affair.

Your conference was amply stafjed by full-time officials, who, we are informed, were aware that a disturbance was being prepared. Why did they not intervene in order to maintain order and prevent an incident which could only damage the Labour Party? Why is it that you remained watching the incident and did not immediately instruct your officials to intervene?

We are asking you to immediately institute an enquiry into this whole affair since Mr. Healy attended your conference with a press ticket from Transport House. We also want an assurance that in future staff reporters for The Newsletter will not in any way be interfered with or molested at your conferences.

text of a letter sent to Mr. agent of the Labour Party. Ist April, 1964 (left wing Marxists)

Yours faithfully, BANDA Editor the Young Socialist movement was formed four years ago by Transport House, the majority ing 25,000 members:

REJECTED the Labour Party's policy statement 'Signposts for the Sixties'; the United Nations as a world peace force; a move to censure the National Committee of the Young Socialists for not supporting the UN and any dealings by the Labour Party with the National Incomes Commission or the National Economic Development Council.

PPOSED any form of conscription (only 15 voted for it); unemployment and called for 'real measures to eradicate it'; the Tory Immigration Act and any form of immigration control devised by Labour.

VER WHELMINGLY "UK UNANIMOUSLY carried resolutions for the nationalization of the land, building and arms industries; for education reform and for nationalization of the basic industries with workers' control.

MERGENCY resolutions supporting the power workers' fight and supporting the members of the American Young Socialist Alliance, who are on trial for conspiracy to overthrow the government, were also passed. Delegates also voted for a resolution against apartheid.

Unity

In spite of splitting tactics by | extreme right wingers, some of whom sat on the platform and gained much support from the capitalist press, the unity of delegates was not broken.

Mr. Wilson was given power'ful backing by the policies laid down at the conference.

Support

rose to the rostrum to support the resolutions and echo the claim by conference chairman, John Robertson, the national committee member from Scotland, that 'we are a responsible political movement'.

Commented Robertson: The situation we face of the imminent election of a Labour government and the failure of the Tories to solve any prob lems, throws on the Youns Socialists a tremendous responsibility.

'We have shown over the past year that we are capable of shouldering that responsibility.

'Often we have been criticised that we are too interested in of the 300 delegates—-representtheorising and not being practical when it comes to politics,' he said adding that Young Socialists would show this smear was a lie.

'We are a responsible political movement and the resolutions reflect our attempt to solve the problems facing the working class?

His opening remarks set the tone of this vitally important conference and its decisions.

With these working-class policies the Young Socialists must now lead a massive fight for a Labour government pledged to the decisions of the Young Socialist conference.

In the words of the old Lahour Pariy sort the Young Socialists 'kept the Red Flag flying' at Brighton.

A section of Young Socialist delegates in the Dome, Brighton

FRANCISCO ABARCA, a you g Spaniard well known for his anti-fascist activities, is in danger of falling into the hands of the authorities he has been fighting against.

Abarca has been in jail in Belgium since last October, on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations that he was involved in the sabotage of a Spanish aircraft at Geneva.

He strenuously denied these charges and the Belgian legal machine has been unable to prove his complicity. Despite this he has been detained in prison ever since.

What makes this case all the more deplorable is that this has taken place under the government of Henri Spaak's Socialist Party, the Belgian equivalent of the Labour Party.

Abarca spent 23 days on a hunger strike in protest at this unjust treatment and he had to go into hospital as a result.

Now the Swiss government has requested an extradition order on Abarca which would place him in their hands. It is feared that the Swiss government might turn him over to Franco's fascist regime.

It takes little imagination to guess what the fate of this young anti-fascist would be under Franco.

The Newsletter, therefore, demands that Belgium's socialist minister of Justice, Pierre Verneylen, should prevent the extradition and release Abarca immediately.

If he fails to do this he will be giving direct aid to the Spanish fascists.

We call upon our readers to make similar demands in telegrams addressed to: M. Pierre Verneylen, Minister of Justice, 4 Place Poelart, Brussels, Belgium.

Through their support for the power workers and calls for nationalization and against a wage freeze, delegates lined up their movement side by side with the rank and file of trade unions to bring their support to the party.

The right wingers gained so much support from the press that many a journalist has, in the last few days, backed 'Signposts for the Sixties'.

But time after time delegates on convincing themselves that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was still But the number of people on the march Square meeting were well below previous than a quarter of last year-who were treated to ceremonious tree is a larger crowd than either planting in parks, prayers in the Wilson or Home can draw. Square and community singing; But the absence of a turn to all in all a farcical pageant.

This could only be due to the to abolish nuclear war—has failure of the Campaign to show driven the enthusiasm of the any way forward for the move- organisation into the blind alleys ment. The result has been the of respectable constitutionalism. flowering of a variety of exotic committees and groups, each with its own line in gimmickry ARRESTS The march to 'reclaim' the United States base at Ruislip on Friday and Saturday illustrated this trend.

Several hundred youngsters took part in this exercise. After the usual ritual of sitting down 300 arrests were made by 1,000 police and the rest of the marchers went home.

This is not to say that the Campaign does not still command considerable suppert among young people. 20,000 and at the Trafalgar years-probably less the working class—the only way EMBARRASSMENT The leaders have done their best to lose a movement which has become an embarrassment to their various careers.

Monday's speakers dealt with the possibility of a Labour government in two ways. Some said that it made no difference'a Labour bomb is no better than a Tory bomb'.

Others, like Mr. Michael Foot MP, tried to make out that Wilson had taken a step towards disarmament.

Foot's oratorical contortions, however, could not make us forget the consistent retreat of itent alive.

Foot: backs Wilson policy people like himself since the Scarborough conference of 1960 on unilateral disarmament and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. :

Nobody explained the connection between a Tory defeat at the next election and the possibility of throwing out the right-wing leadership of the labour movement.

It is in the development of a fight for a socialist leadership that the hope lies for ending the threat of nuclear war.

Page OUR work ice the trade April 4 workers into a struggle against

No.

By RITAIN'S Young Socialists their party elders at Easter Labour to power. gave a lead to with strong disthat could take By OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE Labour Party right wing have betrayed the power men. Harold Wilson's suggestion - that a court of inquiry be set up to investigate the causes of the dispute was accepted by the Tories and the right-wing trade union officials. Consequently the men were forced to return to work at precisely the point where they could have won an outstanding victory.

Right-wing renegades who lead the Labour Party are thus systematically preparing ; to emulate Ramsay Macdonald.

What is the use of the Labour Party to the power workers if it does not stand by their just demands for a 40-hour week? Over the past few years union after union has gone on record of members involved did not for this demand. Now, when even attend the meeting. He tha namar man mara alant ta mao tha nrace caid an haliday we power leu were avuur t make a spectacular breakthrough, the Labour leaders came down on the side of the Tories.

This capitulation before the election simply foreshadows what will be their treacherous role after the election. Wilson and company are frightened out of their lives by the monopolists.

Profit

The electricity supply industry made f42} million profit last year and could well afford the 40-hour week.

The Tories, conscious as ever of their role as members of the ruling class, knew that if the power men won the 40-hour week then it was only a matter of time before workers in the private sectors of industry would do likewise.

Consequently, they would not yield an inch on this vital class question.

Farcical

The trade union leaders have been hanging around ever since the dispute began, looking for a way to force their 131,000 members back to work.

When the decision to hold the court of inquiry was announced, Their discussions became far- now. cical. They are well aware that Mr. Les Cannon, the Presi- Wilson's government will crawl dent of the Electrical Trades on its knees when big business Union with a substantial number cracks the whip. It is necessary was, we picss salu, in Devon.

Expel

It will be recalled that it was Mr. Cannon and his clique who only recently expelled Charles Doyle for fighting in the interests of the power workers.

It is not difficult now to appreciate that such witch-hunting is part of the preparation for the present sellout in the power industry.

Mr. Tudor, from the Transport & General Workers' Union, would have liked to have carried on the dispute until the composition of the court of inquiry was announced—as if the Tories are going to stafl their courts of inquiry with anyone other than Tories.

Role

.The right-wing trade union leaders are playing the same role as they did before the 1931 collapse of Macdonald's government.

During the initial period of betrayal they marched step by step alongside Macdonald.

Then when it was too late and the betrayal had demoralised and split the working class they finally made the break.

This is what is happening Wilson: called tor the inquiry to not only fight to get rid of Wilson but also the right-wing trade union clique who collaborate with him.

The fight for Labour to win the election must be more than ever associated with the struggle within the trade unions and the Labour Party for such demands as the extension of nationalization to all the basic industries.

Hostility

Such a struggle will only be victorious if it is linked to a constant effort to improve wages and working conditions.

In this age of automation, the winning of the 40-hour week is imperative.

Labour's trade union rank and file should express in no uncertain terms their complete hostility to Wilson's proposal for a court of inquiry.

It is time to wake up before he inflicts on the labour movement the harsh lessons it was forced to learn after the Macdonald fiasco.

Viet-nam

FOLLOWING the publication in Washington of the picture of a small child badly burned by napalm, the US government has admitted the use of napalm bombs in South Viet-nam.

The defence department further admitted that napalm bombs had been dropped from aircraft with US 'instructors' on board.

However, it insisted hypocritically, the instructors had always urged their 'pupil pilots' to use extreme care in bombing or strafing villages.

The concern of the US department of defence is touching. Perhaps they mean 'extreme care' to ensure that there were no photographers around • to record their heroic deeds?

It will be remembered that napalm was used by that other defender of freedom and member of NATO, the Portuguese government, in its war in Angola. Ambatielos may be freed TONY AMBATIELOS, the Greek Seamen's Union leader, who has been in a Greek jail for the last 16 years serving a life sentence for alleged subversive activities, may be released on April 15.

Special legislation has been announced by Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, covering all political detainces in jail, which has to be passed by the Athens government.

Betty Ambatielos, a British schoolteacher, has been fighting for 16 years to get her 50-yearold husband freed.

Trade unions in the epoch the 21, are 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, S.W.4 unions proceeds always from the programme of the revolutionary party. The present epoch is one of world revolution. Either the working class is organised to take power and build socialism, or capitalism enslaves the workers, with the consequences of fascism and war.

In order to win the struggle for power, the working class must first solve the crisis of leadership by building a revolutionary Marxist party in struggle against the agents of imperialism and of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the labour movement. This building of the revolutionary party is, therefore, the key to our work in the trade unions as in every other sphere.

The continued survival of capitalism means the growth of greater monopolies and the growing intervention of the capitalist state in the regulation of economic life on behalf of the capitalist system as a whole.

The state intervenes to crush industrial action or to regulate trade union activity. Compulsory arbitration, national planning councils, long-term contracts under the control or advice of government ministries, are only one side of this. Alongside them, there is the centralisation of the bourgeois state, the growth of police-state regulations, and the concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands.

The capitalist class, acting through the state, brings into every industrial or trade union struggle the question of political power. Strikes become political questions through the intervention of the state.

This poses definite class questions to the trade unions. The concentration of capitalist power is a response to the growing militancy of the workers in the advanced countries. It is a response to a situation where united working class action can disrupt and smash the capitalist system.

Everything is poised on the question of working class leadership. Modern mass production, as well as the system as a whole, require smooth and continuous operation, and the ability to manipulate the labour force at will. For this : the capitalists require trade unions entirely subordinate to their state machine.

Thus the capitalists depend, above all, upon the Labour and trade union bureaucratic leadership to harness the organised workers to the state.

The workers, on the other nand, require a revolutionary leadership for the overthrow of the state.

All the talk about 'trade union reform' is directed at a complete victory of the bureaucrats over the members, to discipline them more effectively.

In their trade union work, therefore, members of the Socialist Labour League continue the work of the first Four Congresses of the Communist International (1919-23). They recognise that the trade union bureaucracy is a definite social organ, representing the needs of of imperialist decay short, masterly and topical analysis of vitalism and the prospects for the trade rd and advanced capitalist countries. Some past rank-and-file movements oncise history of the growth of trade union bureaucracy and struggles against it. The shop stewards' movement of 1915the Minority Movement and the Third Period experiences analysed thoroughly. Price 1/NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS LTD., the capitalist class within the movement, and fight to defeat this bureaucracy.

More than this, the work must proceed also from the founding Transitional Programme of the Fourth International (1938), recognising that above all it is a question of building, in struggle, a revolutionary party able to see the present situation as it really is—one in which every class conflict holds within it the problem of state power.

The trade unions cannot be politically neutral.

In Britain the bureaucracy is very concerned to exclude 'political questions' from trade union affairs. What they must exclude at all costs is revolutionary politics.

For their part, they take a very definite political direction when they subordinate themselves more and more to the capitalist state.

Reformists, they claim that the state is independent of class interests, that it regulates between the opposing interests. When the state takes more interest in industrial affairs, the trade union leaders, therefore, find it necessary to enter into closer relations with the state.

Whether Social-Democratic or Stalinist, they do this in every one of the advanced countries. Some justify it with the theory that capitalism has changed its character. Others, like the Stalinists, justify their actions with theories of peaceful transitions to socialism.

Reformism now serves capitalism more openly and directly than ever before, and revolutionaries must conduct a constant struggle against the reformist leadership.

The trade unions are, there'fore, a political battleground upon which the Socialist Labour League members fight for the leadership of the working class. For this purpose, to deteat the reformists, and to lead the struggles against the state which arise from strike situations today, our members must be politically organised, they must begin always from the political programme of the Fourth International.

The election of a Labour government will not change these relations between capitalism, the state, the trade union leadership, the working class and the revolutionary party.

On the contrary, the Labour government will attempt to speed up the process of complete integration of trade unions into the state, under the banner of 'modernising Britain'.

A sharpening of the political preparation of our members in trade unions is essential in the period between now and the trends in mono unions in the bi Price This sixth h 14, 15 and 16. It is a most important document for trade Marc nists to study and discuss in the light of the possible election uniol Labour government pledged to policies which will betray the of a is the full text of the trade union resolution passed at the annual conference of the Socialist Labour League held on election of a Labour government. If this is done, then the increased contradictions under a Labour government can be consciously grasped and a new leadership won in struggle.

Our basic programme for work in the trade unions is The Transitional Programme (The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International'). But this programme is often misinterpreted.

In order to bridge the gap between day-to-day struggles and the revolution, the Transitional Programme advances certain transitional demands such as a sliding scale of wages and hours, workers' inspection of company accounts, etc.

When we say that the Transitional Programme is our programme for the trade unions, we do not simply mean that we fight for acceptance of a set of such transitional demands. The essence of the Transitional Programme is that these demands are fought for in preparation for a struggle for state power, under the leadership of a revolutionary party. Only under such a leadership would transitional demands mean a decisive change in the character of trade unions.

The problem remains: no political neutrality for the trade unions. Either they remain tied to the state of the monopoly capitalists by the reformist bureaucracy, or they are mobilised behind a revolutionary working class.

Marxist leadership.

So long as they remain trade unions in the usual sense, they cannot be revolutionary but are purely defensive organisations. The only future for the trade unions as working class organisations is under revolutionary leadership.

Thus Trotsky unites against those who abandon work in the trade unions because of their closeness to the bourgeois state and says:

• wholly possible are revolutionary trade unions, which not only are not stockholders of impenialist policy but which set as their task the direct overthrow of the rule of capitalism. In the epoch of imperialist decay the trade unions can be really independent only to the extent that they are conscious of being, in action, the organs of the proletarian revolution.' Our strategy cannot, therefore, be to simply build up militant groups or to take over positions within the unions as they are now. On the contrary we build into the trade unions a vital part of the overall revolutionary leadership required by the working class, i.e., we start from the building of the Socialist Labour League.

In each union we must advance policies which can defeat the reformist bureaucracy, but we do not begin from considerations of a policy for each particular trade.

We begin instead from the consideration that the struggle for power, and the need to build a party which can lead the struggle for power is the essence of all struggles against state monopoly capitalism.

Basic to all policy struggles in the unions, therefore, is the campaign for independence of the unions from the state, and for democracy within the unions. These are slogans which express most fundamentally the opposition between the bureaucratic leadership and the working-class membership.

Keeping a tight hold on the organised strength of the working class in the unions, the top bureaucrats do not rely only upon the strength derived from the capitalist state—corruption and ideological subservience of this kind play a large part, but of great importance is the fact that the trade union bureaucratic leadership rests upon a conservative layer of skilled and relatively well-paid workers, a "labour aristocracy' in the various crafts.

As in the case of-the stevedores in the 'Blue Union' dispute, these 'privileged' workers often prefer a conservative leadership because they wish to protect their specia] position against the implication of a clash between the employers and the general interests of the working class.

mains a capitalist country and some pro-capitalist sources openly gloat over the fact that Soviet aid has not shifted India's allegiance from 'the West' Aid to India helps to strengthen the national bouigeoisie organised in the Congress government.

Indian employers and landlords who stand behind this government are among the most rapacious in the world. Two-thirds of the Indian people are suffering from under-nourishment.

FACTS

Such ugly facts are concealed in Soviet propaganda about economic aid which prates about 'India's aim to establish its independent economy on the basis of industrialisation' and speaks of a great example of 'fruitful co-operation, on a basis of equality, between countries possessing different social and economic systems' The policy of economic support for regimes like those of Kassim, Nasser and Nehru means the abandonment of the class struggle.

In fact, there is no sign of them having become more independent of imperialism as a result.

Under certain circumstances such governments can find a little room for manoeuvre between two power blocs: and they make use of this to secure more economic aid and to stabilise their position at home.

The prestige of the Russian revolution and of Soviet economic growth and planning.

The struggles of dockers and miners, the frustrated militancy of engineers, railwaymen and transport workers paralleled in every European country and against a background of growing rebellion among working class youth, show that there is a firm basis for revolutionaries to lead a struggle against the conservative bureaucracy in the union leadership, just as there exists such a basis in the struggle against the right wing in the Labour Party, as shown by the Young Socialists.

In the actual campaigns against unemployment, for nationalization, for a ban on overtime, against sackings, against bans and proscriptions, in the fight to mobilise working-class youth, the most oppressed section of the population, we begin the mobilisation of the class forces against the bureaucracy. This fight for Bolshevik methods of building the party is central.

Only if we place first and foremost this construction of the party will the working class have any way of learning the lessons of strikes and campaigns. No matter how militant, and even violent, these struggles will result only in losses unless we are building the party, training through conscious study of the workers' struggles the future leadership of the class, including the leadership of the trade unions.

When we fight for rank-andfle organisations in the tract unions, constructing these bodies in the course of industrial struggles and the fight for our policies, we must concentrate above all on giving a political direction to rank and file committees.

That means drawing the largest possible number of which is particularly high in the less developed countries, serves to strengthen the national - bourgeois regimes This is the aim of Khrushchev's policy.

Peaceful co-existence, in practice, enables the colonial bourgeoisie to share in the fruits of the exploitation of their own' workers and peasants with the assistance of the capitalist countries and the Soviet Union.

Soviet aid, which is presented as part of a struggle against imperialism, in reality serves as a barrier to the class struggle. It means support for governments which, however they may try to present themselves as 'socialist', are bound up with the capitalisi world market.

Even with Soviet aid, their hope to bulld up viable national economies turns out to be an illusion.

INCOME LEVELS

There is no room in the capitalist world market today for new industrialising countries able to raise income levels near to those prevailing in the advanced industrial countries.

The countries which the Soviet Union is aiding, though they may, thanks in part to this aid, , be able to establish some industries which would not otherwise have come into existence, remain chiefly producers of primary products, and thus dependent on the price fluctuations characteristic of the capitalist world market.

Cuba only constitutes a partial exception, because Castro was driven to take over the leadership of the reformist bureaucracy.

It is not just a matter of the widest possible range of contacts for solving particular problems in a trade union but rather a matter of giving political leadership of a kind which builds up a force for the defeat of the bureaucracy.

These rank-and-file bodies must work inside the union framework for the defeat of the official leadership. They must not be initiated only for a 'hit and run' attack on particular and temporary issues, but must be mobilised around revolutionary leadership for systematic political war on the bureaucracy.

We differ fundamentally with the syndicalist with his message of keep politics out of the unions; with his message, he opposes the primary essential, the construction of a new polltical leadership able to give continuity to the struggle against the bureaucratic agents of capitalism in the union leadership.

Syndicalist tendencies are strong where militant moods and frustrated struggles are not accompanied by the development of revolutionary leadership.

Our comrades must avoid the adventurist stress on militancy for its own sake, or 'rank-andfile-ism' separate from the construction of the party. The defeat of the right wing bureaucracy is a political task. Only the Fourth International is equipped to accomplish this task.

On the basis of these pre parations, we can move to a new kind of trade union work, the kind of work anticipated by Lenin and Trotsky in the early years of the Communist International.

Winning leadership in the unions will not be at all a question of replacing the existing bureaucrats with left-wing nominees.

The bankruptcy of that approach was best exemplified vy the Electrical Trades Union.

Because the political implicalions of a struggle against trade union reformist leadership were rejected, the electoral victories turned into their opposite, into direct reactionary control of a left-wing union, with the open support of the press and the state.

foreign-owned property and thus came into headlong collision with American imperialism.

Castro's regime had to look to Khrushchev for support, or perish.

The aid given to Cuba had, for the bureaucracy, a definite and limited political goal: the possession of a bargaining counter in the Western Hemisphere.

The value of this counter was dependent, however, upon continuing the revolution in Cuba and preventing the development of the class struggle in Latin America.

SETTLEMENT Soviet aid to Cuba is in tended, not to spread revolution, but to pave the way for an all-round settlement with the USA.

With aid mostly taking the form of specific projects which can be claimed to strengthen the industrial basis of the underdeveloped countries, Soviet propaganda makes the most out of an àmount of aid which is far from being massive.

Although over twenty countries have received Soviet economic aid, the main beneficiaries have been Egypt (the Aswan dam), India, Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan-apart from Cuba.

In the case of Yugoslavia, aid has been turned on or off according to the political needs of the bureaucracy.

Aid to Albania and China has been cut off for some years while Soviet aid helps the current Indian Five-Year Plan.

In this, the sixth of a number of articles on the economic crisis in the Soviet Union, Tom Kemp discusses foreign aid plans by the Soviet bureaucracy.

IN the last ten years the growing strength of the Soviet economy, despite continued deficiencies and mismanagement of resources, has permitted the USSR to appear as a source of economic aid to the underdeveloped countries.

Some concern has been caused in the capitalist coun tries by the capacity of the Soviet Union to furnish loans and technical aid.

PRESSURE

The planned nature of the Soviet economy means that there is no pressure to export capital, to market goods abroad or even to dispose of them as gifts, as has been happening with the American economy since 1945.

Soviet aid, which mainly takes the form of loans at favourable rates of interest negotiated in a business-like way, has been motivated by political reasons. The planned economy has permitted it to be deployed in the areas where it seemed to best serve Soviet interests as understood by the ruling bureaucracy.

The conditions of the cold war have forced the bureauracy to seek support from the nationalist governments set up in the newly-independent countries.

The Soviet rulers therefore take these governments as they are, regardless of their class nature and try to influence their policies by furnishing them with economic assistance.

It is always emphasised that such aid implies no interference with internal affairs.

When such aid is given the recipient governments are built up as anti-imperialist and peace-loving. The local communist parties are instructed accordingly.

It is ironic that a Soviet propaganda pamphlet on economic co-operation with the underdeveloped countries extols the aid given to Iraq under Kassim.

It quotes the American Senator Fulbright who bemoaned the fact that despite the lavish aid given to the Iraqi army under the preceding regime, 'it has thrown out the government which we regarded as the most reliable of the Arab States in its adherence to the West'.

DICTATORSHIP

Since then the army has thrown out Kassim and massacred the communists who tied themselves to the Kassim dictatorship!

Nehru's India has been one of the main recipients of Soviet aid in recent years. The much-publicised Bhilai steel works was built with Soviet loans. Aid has also been given to the engineering and pharmaceutical industries.

At the same time, aid to China has been cut off altogether.

Soviet aid to India has still only been about one-quarter that received from the United States. India, of course, reWorld News Round-up Three

THE LEADER of the Communist Party of Slovenia (one of the six constituent republics of Yugoslavia), Mr. Marinko, admitted last week that there had been strikes in some factories in the republic.

He claimed that there was no political significance in the strikes. But it is not possible to take him at his word and accept that"this is just a question of giving better pay to the lower paid workers.

Slovenia is the most industrially advanced part of Yugoslavia with the longest working class traditions. The standard of living there is also higher than in most other parts of the country.

Mr. Marinko was right to state that the strikes were serious warnings that the workers of Eastern Europe will not tolerate for ever the bureaucratic regimes that they are now subjected to.

The American and Norwegian Communist parties, belatedly followed by John Gollan, secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, condemned anti-Jewish caricatures contained in the book.

Gollan's message on March 23 was on the same day as the Russian news agency, 'Novosty' sent a cable to Paris in reply to the critics.

This said that Judaism Unmasked' did not represent the views of the Soviet government.

Insult

Four days later, "Tass' quoted a review of the pamphlet from a Ukrainian journal 'Radyanska Kultura': "Many drawings in the text are of low artistic standard, said the reviewer, 'and can only insult the believers.' But the book, which is more openly anti-semitic than anything which has officially appeared in the USSR since 1917, has not been withdrawn and continues to circulate.

None of its communist party critics have attempted to explain just how such a book can have appeared at this time.

Both the publication and the criticisms reflect aspects of the crisis of the Soviet bureaucracy and world Stalinism.

Anti-semitism has deep

roots in the countries of the former Tsarist Empire. It was officially encouraged as a means of diverting the attention of the masses from their poverty and oppression.

Discrimination

'Beat the Jews and save Russia' was a favourite cry of the anti-socialist Black Hundreds.

Along with all the other discrimination against national minorities, anti-semitism was consciously fought by the Bolsheviks. But just as religion could not automatically disappear after the revolution, anti-semitism was not instantaneously swept away, particularly among the peasants.

The rise of Stalinism strengthened these trends. The bureaucracy also came to use prejudice in its fight to hold on to power.

Already in 1926, Trotsky could point to undercover ways in which the Stalinists were using anti-semitic smears against the Left Opposition (see his letter to Bucharin, March 4, 1926).

Origin

In the Moscow Trials of the thirties, every opportunity was taken to emphasise the Jewish origin of men like Zinoviey and Kamenev, as well of Trotsky himself.

In his 1937 article, 'Stalinism and Anti-semitism' Trotsky also pointed out that a large number of Jews were among the urban population, especially in the Ukraine before 1917. This meant that they formed a substantial proportion of the bureaucracy, particularly in its lower levels, most hated by the workers and peasants.

At times of economic unrest, the tendency to divert attention to Jewish scapegoats is obvious. And, as Trotsky points out: If in Moscow, Stalin stages trials which accuse the Trotskyists of plotting to poison the workers, then it is not difficult to imagine to what foul lengths the bureaucracy can resort in some

Gollan: timid protest

Ukranian or Central Asiatic hovel.' In the post-war purges, antisemitism played an even more open role in Stalin's terror machine.

The 1952 trial of Slansky, Collowed by the 'Doctors' Plot' were the climax of several years of repression of Jews in the USSR, later referred to as the *Schwartze Jahren' (Black Years).

Denunciation

Khrushche's denunciation Stalin brought many changes the position of Soviet Jews.

But agricultural and economic problems have brought the same methods used by Stalin. The granting of increased 'material incentives to the peasants is accompanied by a publication like "Judaism Unmasked'.

On the other hand, the timid protests of Gollan or Thorez are only attempts to pacify liberal opinion in the interests of 'peaceful co-existence' Far from analysing the real basis of anti-semitic trends in the Soviet Union, and their essentially anti-working class nature, the rightward moving Khrushchevites cover up the role of the bureaucracy.

A new Bolshevik Party, fighting for the regeneration of working-class democracy in the USSR, is the only way to combat the tendencies revealed by 'Judaism Unmasked'. More death sentences passed in S. Africa working class, Verwoerd and against known members of the t Queenstown court last week.

A leading member of the Congress, Washington Bongco, was sentenced to death and several others were given long terms of imprisonment in this effort to bring the African people to heel.

These recent actions by the white South African government show yet again that the country's rulers are prepared to go to great lengths to keep the opposition of the African people in check.

Sabotage

Bongco, was found guilty of six counts of sabotage, of being a member of the National Congress organisation and of raising money for the party.

Another African, Malcomess Kondoti, was sentenced to a total of 33 years' imprisonment on charges of sabotage and membership of the Africa: COMMON MARKET countries are practising 'direction of workers' in the same way and for the same reasons as the Tories practise 'direction of industry'.

Hundreds of thousands of workers from Turkey, Greece, Spain and Italy leave home to find work in the 'high income area' of Western Germany. There are 300,000 Italian workers alone in Western Germany today.

Mostly they are under contract to one of the big German firms. The contract that they sign is written in German which, of course, few of these workers can speak well.

On arrival, they are put through a four-week orientation course, after which those who are 'unadaptable' are sent home.

The lucky ones are then allowed to work in the factory at lower wages than German workers doing the same job.

The workers have to come without their wives and they are housed in segregated barracks. If a wife gets a job, even in the same factory she lives in a separate, segregated barrack block.

torbidding women (including wives) to I..L: 119 Weiblichen Persoren ist das Betreten der Männerunterkünfte verbolen. Zuwiderhandlungen werden wegen Houstriedensbruch safrecilich verfolgt. EVietoto Taccesso a ersone Femminline damitoi maschil. 3i disturba die chiele fandaré sera punto penalmenle пробуатю тим субрілі H chavé inuas baropatouis ris ancycuciaus ciprums Dó diuçras novuus the militancy of the African his regine carried out a purge African National Congress in a National Congress.

Douglas Sparks, Stephen Tshwete and Lungelo Dwaba, were all acquitted of the sabotage charges but the judge found them guilty of alleged membership of the Congress.

Attack

Two men were found guilty of taking part in an attack on the house of a school secretary and of being members of the Congress.

William Mabona got a total of 16 years and Ndumiso Mbekwa 15 years.

The chairman of the Pan-African Freedom Movement, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda who is also prime minister of Northern Rhodesia, has appealed to President Swart of South Africa to commute death sentences passed on three other Africans in Port Elizabeth on March 16. MISERY At the Mann works near Munich, for example, the workers live four to a room, each man having a bunk, a cupboard and a chair. Large notices surround the block, forbidding entrance to 'female persons'.

In such circumstances, it is not surprising that these workers become easy prey for the clipjoints, clubs, pimps and prostitutes of the Munich underworld.

What little wages they have are quickly sucked into these "pleasures' making them even less able to put up a fight to try to improve their conditions.

The Social-Democratic Trade Union, the DGB, has done nothing to help these foreign workers. In fact many of the workers claim that they are deliberately being held at a distance, only those who 'give no trouble' are admitted.

Once again, the Social-Democrats are responsible for maintaining conditions which weaken, not only the foreign workers themselves, but also the Genman workers whose wages are affected by the threat of importing 'cheap labour' if they strike. 19-imported workers.

MAN Hunden police

A REPORT issued on Tuesday by the Inter-American Press Association stated that there was a 'threat to a free press' in Brazil.

The government controls those papers of which it does not approve by not releasing the necessary amount of foreign exchange for them to buy newsprint.

In this way it is able to keep the press 'healthy' without having to resort to the press laws used by other governments, which might harm the government's 'popularity.

SAILORS REBELLION 3,000 Brazilian sailors and marines surrendered to the army last week after holding out for three days in the headquarters of the metal workers' union.

They had been protesting at the arrest of marine corporal José Duarte, president of the left-wing Sailors' and Marine Association.

Duarte and other members of the organisation had been arrested for 'insubordination'.

The army surrounded the building in which the sailors had gathered and starved them out. As a last gesture of defiance they tossed their caps away as they entered the military lorries that took them to the army barracks.

STOP PRESS—Wednesday The governors of the Minas Geraes and Sao Paulo provinces are leading troops marching on the capital, Rio de Janeiro, to overthrow President Goulart. It is reported that loyal troops are standing by the President.

SHORTER HOURS ITALY IN AN EFFORT to push the price of the economic crisis onto the workers, firms in Italy have cut working hours. Fiat, the car manufacturers, Olivetti typewriters and Forence Fivre radio and electrical equipment announced cuts of up to eight hours weekly.

The state-controlled motor firm of Alpha-Romeo also announced cuts of from six to eight hours weekly.

ACCORDING to the South African national press, over 350 members of the country's police and prison departments have been convicted of charges 'involving irregular treatments of people in their custody' in the last four years-200 of these were whites.

After world-wide publicity of these actions it is hardly surprising that the Verwoerd government has had to take action against those who have become just a bit too handy at beating up the African workers.

The number of policemen convicted in 1962 was almost double that of the previous year.

During the four-year period 192 officials of the police force or prison department appeared in court in connection with theft or the 'irregular use of public money' announced the Minister of Justice Mr. Vorster.

However, Mr. Vorster did not reveal details of the number of police actually charged with 'irregular treatment of people in their custody'.

period before the Second World War so this section of the Negro middle class, in the absence of working class leadership, will turn to Malcolm X.

Another side to the wealthy American Negro population is the religious group within the movement for Negro freedom itself.

Here again they are wealthy and weli-to-do leading the fight for civil rights on pacifist lines.

DILEMMA

Recent events have landed these people, too, in dilemma.

The recent actions by the Florida police against Negro demonstrations have shown that this fight is far from peaceful.

In these demonstrations a woman was shot dead and 250 were detained.

This is what happens to those who oppose the rule of the big American bosses. The fight for better conditions amongst Negro people is going to be far from peaceful in the future.

Now that there is a big offensive against all sections of the United States' working class Negro and white workers must unite in a common fight for socialism.

shoppers in the centre of Coventry were astonished the staff of 'Decorwall' picketing their own shop

in itself criticised the book.

the book. nature a new Union WHEN Malcolm X, former organisation in America, to form a nationalist party pure in fact, leading this section of into defeat.

He and his supporters have split with the Black Muslim organisation to form this new 'nationalist' grouping. They hope to recruit large numbers of the Negro movement into its ranks.

But this party can do little to help solve the problems of the American Negro, whose frustations need to be expressed in a different kind of party to the one in which a 'black Utopia' is the ultimate aim.

The Black Muslims have so far appealed to the main force of the Negro middle class who have been able to become relatively wealthy because of the very position of the coloured people in America.

These people have gained their exalted position because segregation has meant that they are the only doctors, teachers or dentists to whom the Negro people can go.

APPALLING

To this middle class the prospect of facing up to a fight with American capitalism for their freedom in society has been, in the main, appalling.

In their dilemma many of them have already turned to the Black Muslim organisation, which promises a paradise with no white people anywhere sight.

Any member of the Negro working class who joins this organisation will soon find that even in an exclusively Negro society, exploitation is exactly the same and that the only way to solve segregation is by the unity of the working class.

Already in the tremendous struggles against rents and bad housing conditions the Negro workers have joined with Puerto Ricans in a fight against monopoly landlordism.

FIGHT

For the coloured working class this is a fight for socialism side by side with white workers, not for an idealistic one-race society.

However, the coloured middle class have much to lose if they join in this militant struggle against American big business.

Although some may have joined in the working class struggle many of them prefer to turn to the religion of Islam.

As the middle class of Germany turned to Hitler's brand of nationalism in the party leader of the Black Muslim announces that he is going ly for coloured people, he is, he United States' population

THE CONSERVATIVE government of Ontario, Canada, last week introduced into the provincial parliament a bill to extend police powers.

Clauses in this bill gave the Ontario police commission (not even a court, mind, but the police commission) power to force anyone to give evidence in private, without the help of a lawyer, and on oath.

The same police commission was empowered to imprison anyone who might 'refuse to give evidence' and leave them here for an indefinite period without either bail or, naturally, being able to see their lawyer.

Further, should anyone be fortunate enough to escape these first two. ordeals, the police commission was empowered to impose a prison sentence on any individual who discloses anything about these private' questionings.

Withdrawn

The government has withdrawn the bill and the attorneygeneral has resigned, taking full responsibility for the 'offending clauses' On the surface all is saved and for the best. But to think this would be to pass very superficial judgment - the government only withdrew the bill because its introduction caused such an uproar.

It must have considered the bill 'necessary' to be introduced into parliament at all and it must have been approved by the Cabinet.

The bill has also been defended by judges and police in the province. They claim the bill 'would not interfere with the existing rights of the citizen' In his letter of resignation, the attorney-general protested that he was a champion of justice and liberty, but unfortunately he had 'unintentionally touched upon the sensibilities of the people' Regret It is clear then, that the government has withdrawn the bill with regret.

It must now wait for such time when either the 'sensibilities of the people' will be sufficiently blunted to allow a bill of this sort to be introduced, or the government itself feels strong enough not to feel threatened by any such 'sensibilities'.

The uproar in Ontario province over the bill may have made the government feel that its introduction was untimely, but it certainly still considers it to be necessary.

PARTY BAN IN BURMA GENERAL NE WIN announced the banning of all parties except the government party, last week. The parties banned include the left-wing National United Front, the main party in which is the Burma United Workers' Party.

The two Communist parties in Burma, Red Flag and White Flag, have been banned since 1949.

DANGE BRITISH

INTELLIGENCE AGENT?

S. A. Dange, leading Stalinist trade union leader and chief spokesman for the pro-Nehru anti-Chinese wing of the Indian CP is being investigated by the leaders of the Indian CP following charges that he was at one time a British intelligence agent.

LIVERPOOL Trades Council and Labour Party are joining with the city's Royal Philharmonic Society and the Musicians' Union in what is termed "a pilot scheme, designed to 'encourage more industrial workers to attend concerts'.

Alderman A. Sivermore, chairman of the society said be hoped that the event on May 15 would demonstrate to the trade union delegates and local authority representatives the importance of the Symphony Orchestra in a modern community.

This 'modern community' of Liverpool has, amongst other things, 40,000 on its housing waiting list, 80,000 houses condemned as unfit to live in and 2,000 young people between 15 and 18 signing on at the Sir Thomas Street dole office.

The youth know about the modern up-to-date police force in Liverpool.

COMPANY

They have no money to go to concerts but the police are always there to keep them company on the streets-wet or fine the force is there in shiny black cars.

General secretary of the Musicians' Union, Mr. A. Ratcliffe, said: 'If automation were properly developed, most people could expect to have more leisure.' He never mentioned the half million unemployed in Britain who have leisure time they don't want.

"There would be time for people to spend on cultural pursuits, instead of just watching television,' he added.

Mr. Ratcliffe should go along to Ford at Halewood for a week or two on the production belt and see how automation works.

He will find that it certainly isn't music while you work at that factory.

Could we perhaps make a point to Mr. Ratcliffe and his musical friends?

At the moment the fight for a 30-hour week is much more important otherwise the working class are not going to get any leisure time in which to listen to symphony concerts . . . or anything else.

We were let down say polishers FOUR BIRMINGHAM sink polishers who have been on £7 7s. a week suspension pay since before Christmas as the result of a British Motor Corporation mobility of labour dispute, say they have been let down by their union, the National Society of Metal Mechanics.

They are the last of 16 polishers transferred from Fisher & Ludlow's to Austin's last spring, in consequence of BMC expansion plans. The polishing section at Fisher's was transferred to Merseyside, but later reopened in Birmingham.

An agreement was reached between the union and the managements at Austin's and Fisher's, whereby some of the polishers were taken back to their old jobs, but the remaining four were offered engine assembly jobs at Austin's.

They have refused these jobs because they want to go back to their former work at Fisher's.

They believe Austin's will not continue to pay their suspension money much longer, but declare they will not go back until they get their old jobs.

-0922 as a newspaper Shift workers were informed the GMWU was able to get by the superintendent that if some sort of a hearing. thev refused to work overtime The vote on the recommendaduring the holiday period then he would engage testing staff, technicians from the Electricity Board's regional headquarters and other office workers 1o maintain an output of 120 megawatts.

Mr. James Woods, a shop steward at the power station, told The Newsletter that the members of his union rejected the superintendent's contention that this supply was needed for emergency purposes.

He maintained that the normal supply for Easter was only 60 megawatts which was quite adequate to supply the whole needs of St. Helens.

Violation

Because of this the men refused to work the Easter overtime, which would have been a violation of the national union's work to rule.

The workers at Bold are critical at the failure of the union leaders at national level to make firm rulings on questions like this one of 'emergency supplies'.

They feel that it is because of this weakness that the management are able to make their arrogant demands.

Over the week-end the power workers on the Easter rota reported for work and clocked on.

The superintendent was informed that the men were only prepared to start work when the technical staff were withdrawn.

If this dispute has to continue the shop stewards intend to go to the nearby colliery and ask the miners to declare the supply of coal "black'.

Meanwhile they are demanding that those who reported for work over Easter should be paid full wages.

Glasgow strike

Two hundred men walked out of Braehead power station, Renfrew, on Tuesday of last week and 350 walked out at Dalmarnock, Glasgow, on Wednesday when technicians were brought in from the South of Scotland Electricity Board's head offices in Cathcart to run the plant following the operation of the work-to-rule and ban on overtime by the power workers.

At Braehead, contractors' men were also being employed on repair work.

The strikers anticipated that they would be joined by power workers from other stations in the area such as Yoker and Kincardine.

However, at a meeting of the action committee formed by the unions involved in the dispute to direct the work-to-rule, it was agreed by 32 votes to 31 that a return to work be recommended.

This vote is an indication of the tough struggle taking place in the unions to prevent the right-wing leadership reaching an unsatisfactory compromise with the employers.

When local officials of the Electrical Trades Union and General and Municipal Workers' Union conveyed the decision of the action committee to a meeting of strikers at Dalmarnock on Friday afternoon, they met with considerable opposition.

The tactic of the officials was to parley with the men until a number of those attending the meeting walked away in disgust.

Others continued to voice their opposition to a return to work and it was only after a steward had made an appeal to the strikers that the official of tion was taken twice and although the decision of the action committee was agreed to there remained a solid group of strikers stubbornly opposed to the decision that they should go back to work alongside scab la bour.

The resolution, which was carried, called for a return to work and a telegram to be sent to the national action committee asking them to intervene with the Electrical Power Engineers' Association to have their members removed from manning the power stations—unless this was done in 24 hours, labour to be withdrawn from all power stations.

The officials, however, knew quite well that it would take several days for the matter to be considered by their own national committee and the EPEA.

Reject

Meanwhile, the work-to-rule and ban on overtime would continue.

At Braehead the men rejected the action committee's recommendation and decided to remain outside the station.

Describing their conditions of work a number of the power workers told The Newsletter reporter that their normal working week was six days a week. Fitters working in the boiler house where the heat is intense and fumes and dust affect their health, stated that they received Id. an hour extra for working in these conditions.

An electrician remarked, looking up at the boiler house, 'Nobody who works up there ever dies of old age.' Another fitter took his wages slip out of his pocket-f17 11s. was the amount he had received and this included 23 hours' overtime on top of a 44-hour week.

di strial STE to see

MINERS at Brodsworth Collicry, South Yorkshire, donated £24 for the men involved in the lock-out at the Denby dveworks when a group of them. headed by dispute chairman. Lesley Hird, visited the pit last So far £8,000 has been donated in voluntary contributions for the dyers who have been locked out for over five months.

Many were sacked in October last year and told they could return to work only on the basis of an open shop. Since then, non-union labour has been taken on and Philip Wright, Denby's managing director claimed that production is going on as normal.

MATERIAL

The pickets, however, who have been outside Denby's throughout the dispute say that nothing like the amount of material is being taken in and out of the dyeworks.

Many still feel that victory is important and have called for a 'blacking' of Denbys. At the same time the union began to find other jobs at dyeworks for members involved in the Denby dispute.

Of the 250 originally sacked, it is now thought that no more than 160 are still solid. All others have found jobs elsewhere and many have been assisted in this by the union.

Some of the men involved find it difficult to understand what the executive are trying to week.

do. Union officials say the dispute is still on, that they will fight to the end, yet they advise their members to take other jobs.

The logic of this is that ultimately the union will be able to fight unemployment for all those involved in the strike, and then apparently, everything , will be fine except, of course, the Denby management will have won and a vital link in the chain of trade unionism will have been broken.

It is on the cards that when the union executive have managed to whittle down the number in the dispute that Denbys will agree to take the remainder back.

The only real victory which can now be achieved comes from the lessons which members of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers have learned about the role of the leaders, who have played right into the employers' hands.

It is important that members fight for rèal democracy in their union. Officials must be elected, not appointed, and must be subject to recall at any time.

The real testing time will the annual conference of union next month.

Tuesday morning. By REG PERRY and MICKIE SHAW MEN AT THE Central Tea Warehouse, St. Katherine's Dock, are still firm in their fight with the management over the laying-off of the main unloading gang for one day.

Last week the men came out on strike because the management, contrary to the usual custom, handed the men their books after laying them off because there was no work to do.

A representative of the Transport and General Workers' Union said that the union could do nothing about the dispute as the management were quite within their rights according to the Dock Labour Board regulations.

The only action the local officials contemplate is a meeting with the Wharfingers Association.

Dockers are clear that they cannot go back as long as the manager refuses to negotiate and as long as he flouts the 'custom and practice' on the docks.

Quite a large percentage of the labour force is composed of older men and it is believed that the management may use the dispute as an excuse to get rid of some workers if the strike is defeated.

Men at Oliver's Wharf have been approached to give support for the strike but no help has been forthcoming yet.

They, and all other dockers in London, should rally to support the Central Tea Warehouse men.

A victory for the employers here can only mean further attempts to ruin conditions and rates built up by rank-and-file action in the past.

ers on strike CUMBERNAULD-Toolmakers employed by Burroughs Machines Ltd. have given notice of strike action to take place on April 3 if the employers persist in their refusal to grant a 4d. an hour increase on their wage rates.

The only thing extra in the workers' wage packets last Friday was a notice from the management to their 2,000 employees, that if the toolroom workers take strike action, the rest of the factory may be laid off.

GLASGOW - When their convenor was dismissed from his job on the grounds that he was an unsatisfactory worker, 800 workers came out on strike at Remington Rand typewriter factory, Hillington, on Tuesday, March 24.

They returned on Thursday to allow talks to take place between officials of the AEU and the management.

On Friday the management stated that their evidence fully supported their earlier statement.

The 800 workers promptly went on strike again and decided to hold a further meeting on Friday, April 3, but union representatives would discuss the situation in the meantime.

MOTHERWELL - 400 craftsmen employed by Colville's Ltd., at their Ravenscraig strip mill, were on strike for two days last week. The men are opposed to a new bonus scheme now being negotiated between the unions and the employers in Scotland. They claim that under the new scheme they will earn less pay.

THE announcement by Vauxhall Motors of its plans to extend its factory at Ellesmere Port, on the Merseyside, with an investment of £30,000,000, has been greeted by the usual chorus of pious welcoming statements by local dignitaries.

At present the Ellesmere Port factory is producing mechanical units for the Vauxhall and Bedford vehicles. The extension will produce completed "Viva' cars.

Vauxhall production will be increased by 91,000 cars a year and will give the company a manufacturing potential of 450,000 cars, vans and trucks a year.

Welcome

The new buildings will consist of a press shop, passenger car body building plant and final assembly plant. This factory will supplement the existing car manufacture facilities at Luton.

Employers' organisations and local trade union and labour leaders have welcomed the announcement, but none have tried to explain the real reasons that make Merseyside such an attraction for industrial development of this sort.

Director of the Lancashire and Merseyside Industrial Development Association, Mr. E. G. W. Allen, commented: 'If Vauxhall have, within a comparatively short space of time made a success of their original venture, we regard it not only as a good thing for the area, but as an indication to those who may be thinking of coming to Merseyside what a good location it is for industry.' Potential In similar phrases, the prospective Parliamentary Labour candidate in the nearby Bebbington constituency, Mr. Edwin Brooks said: 'It shows the considerable potential for growth of industry in the North-west. All the indications are that the motor industry has been justified in coming north.

It would be of more assistance to the workers in his constituency if this gentleman had gone on to explain what he meant by justification.

Industry has not moved into the Merseyside to help the unemployed and that's for certain.

If the hopes of the car firms have been justified it means only that production is more profitable.

With its high unemployment rate the North-west offers the attraction of reduced labour costs, and, with the use of elaborate screening methods, the possibility of excluding well-known militants and active trade unionists.

Any car worker at Ford's Halewood plant or at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port factory could tell these gentlemen just what it means in terms of strain and fatigue to work under the conditions which are being introduced in these new factories.

Guard

Unemployed workers on Merseysıde should take notice of Mr. Allen's statement that Vauxhall's move should indicate to other employers 'what a good area it is for industry.

They should be on their guard against the moves of the leading car manufacturers to exploit the unemployment situation in the North-west.

Despite the movement of these industries into the area London readers are invited to GREET THE NEWSLETTER over the past two years, there are still over 28,000 unemployed.

The welcome extended by the Lord Mayor of Ellesmere Port with the comment: "The development will assure future employment prospects for the Port and, in particular, for its schoolleavers,' is an illusion.

To date Ford and Vauxhall have refused to employ anyone under the age of 21. Ford have also insisted on employing only those with a job-no one will be employed through the labour exchange.

Illusions Instead of creating illusions that the movement of industry to the Merseyside will solve the unemployment problems, labour representatives should be supporting the campaign of workers at Halewood and Ellesmere Port for the payment of rates in line with those operating at the established car manufacturing centres in Coventry, Dagenham and Luton.

The rates in Halewood are at present almost 10 per cent below those at Dagenham.

The promise that the Halewood plant would employ 6,000 workers has not materialised. To date only approximately 3,000 have been started.

The Motor Manufacturers must be warned now against trying to create a scab-alley on the Merseyside which will be used to reduce wages and working conditions in the rest of the industry in Britain.

Sunday, April 12, 7 p.m.

Cora Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, W.C.1 Speakers: ury, Socialis Labour Lea (Editor, Th

last week.

The assistants came out on strike at the shop after their manager, Mr. Eric Black, was sacked following a union dispute between the management-Wall Paper Manufacturers-and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, of which he is a member.

The management of Wall Paper Manufacturers were presented with a 14-point demand for facilities in the shop by Mr. Black.

These included better toilets; girls should not be required to scrub the premises; rates of pay should be equal to those in other shops and girls should not be required to carry heavy bales containing 30 rolls of paper to and from the stock rooms.

PRECAUTIONS

Assistants at the shop have also asked that guards should be fitted to the machinery used and have pointed out that they are not satisfied with the fire precautions. Many of these 14 points are, of course, covered in the Shops and Offices Act.

The strikers are working for the recognition of their union so that an agreement can be made on conditions in the future.

The management, who refuse to recognise the union, wrote to Mr. Black sacking him and announcing that his conduct had been prejudicial to the company. He had abused and intimidated his staft in front of customers, they claimed.

But it is believed that the real ason for the dismissal is because Mr. Black supported the cause Mr. union.

The legal department of the union will be examining the charges against him.

Mr. Black's staff joined him on the pavement last week and picketed the shop, handing out leaflets from the union ca lling for support for the strike and collecting 2,500 signatures protesting at the sacking.

FREEDOM

The leaflet states: 'Retail workers are entitled, as everyone else, to the freedom to belong to their trade union organisation and we are sure that the union's efforts to defend this principle will command general support.' Strikers have received support from British Road Services drivers who have stopped deliveries to all Wall Paper Manufacturers' shops in the city.

Recent facts in the local papers have made it obvious that the Wall Paper Manufacturers can well afford to make conditions for their staff much better.

In the first half of the 196364 year the profits of this firm shot up to f3.59 million from $2.26 million.

This kind of profit is now being made in the big distributive monopolies, but shop assistants get very little benefit from them.

A successful strike at Decorwall could pave the way to a fight for better conditions amongst many other shop workers.