The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 344

THE Labour Party leaders have no policy to assist dockers who are comi • introduction of automation and mechanisation, stated Dick Barrett, g of the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers (NASD).

He was speaking to an audience of 1,000 Merseyside dockers — the St. George's Hall. Liverpool. on Sundav.

'As far as we dockers are concerned,' he added, 'it is only us who can produce such a policy that will protect our employment and give the dockers a real share of the benefits to be had under modern progress.' Barrett said that his members wanted a statement, 'in simple English', that from July 27 dockers would be granted a five-day, 40-hour week.

He cunuenied that there had been rumours that Liverpool dockers were being told the 40-hour week agreement was "signed, sealed and delivered without any strings' But he pointed out that before the workers received any benefits at all, they were being asked to make bigger concessions to their employers.

Exchange

The demands of the port employers in exchange for the 40-hour week were similar to those of the bosses at Ford, Dagenham. There, workers were expected to accept compulsory overtime in exchange for three weeks' holiday.

Barrett went on to say that considerable embarrassment was felt by officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union when the changes in working arrangements were sought by the London port employers in conjunction with the 40-hour agreement reached by local branches.

'It is a fact that one of the officials, who was present at the meeting of the National Joint Council for the Port Industry, confessed he didn't know what it was all about.

The resulting outburst of FREE FRANCISCO ABARCA NOW!

THE Socialist Labour League makes a May Day call to all workers of the labour movement to demand the release of young Spanish trade unionist and anti-fascist, Francisco Abarca.

.Abarca, aged 25, has been in a Belgian jail since October when he was arrested in Brussels on the basis of an international detention order, registered by the Swiss government.

The Swiss claim he was involved in the attempted sabotage of a Spanish plane at Geneva-the Belgian legal machine has been unable to prove his complicity.

At a large public meeting in London, organised by the Newsletter, in April, a resolution demanding Abarca's release which was put forward by A. Roa, secretary of the National Confederation of Labour of Spain in Exile, was passed.

Later Roa and G. Healy, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, took a protest letter to the Belgian Embassy in London. The SLL has also sent a letter of protest to M. Verneylen, Belgian Minister of Justice.

We call upon our readers and all working class organisations to send similar demands in telegrams addressed to: M. Pierre Verneylen, Minister of Justice, 4 Place Polart, Brussels Belgium, and ioin the National Confederation of Labour of Spain in Exile in a march of solidarity from Speakers Corner, Marble Arch, to the Spanish and Belgian Embassies at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 10.

London protest by TGWU dockers was fear closures largely responsible for a leading union spokesman informing the in Tooley Street employers at a joint meeting on January 31 that his union was rejecting outright mobility of FEARS that several Thameside labour demands in the 40-hour docks may become permanent deal.' warehouses were being exBarrett concluded by saying pressed by Tooley Street, Lonthat the Merseyside dockers don, dockers this week. were the key figures in the national arena of the docks Wharf over the unloading of industry. Canadian cheese-it can be kept in cold storage for nearly two Strength years or inore has followed the Their strength, allied with closing of Hibernia Wharf and, that of the London dockers earlier this year, the Pickford and other ports, was the only Wharf. Hibernia and Pickford means of gaining anything now employ unregistered men from the bosses. and are used for warehousing.

Mr. Dan Hurley, national secretary of the Stevedores where Danish bacon is usually stored for a short period, fear section of the NASD recalled that once the cheese is brought that the demand for the 40-hour in, the wharf will be manned by week had been on the agenda since 1945. permanent, non-registered men.

"The pet theme of the port employers is that the London of the wharves between London dockers will have to be competi- Bridge and Tower Bridge being tive with other ports. This amalgamated. means, of course, dockers will have to accept lower scales of these docks, which are owned tonnage rates and reduced man- by Hay's, one of the biggest ning scales, he said. cuncerns in the country.

Condemning the practice of competition amongst dockers, Pickford Wharf to registered where one set of workers was dockers, The Newsletter warned played off against another, Bert that this could become a pattern Aylward, Dockers' national secwhich could lead to mass reretary of the NASD commented:

dundancy.

'This is only to the advantage of the profit-greedy employers the river should meet now to "There is a way to get rid of discuss these moves by Hay's this competition between dockers and give support to the strikers in the various ports. That is to at Simon's Wharf. Only by have a national assessment of united action of the rank-andall conditions and rates, to file Transport and General draw upon the best and formu- Workers' Union and NASD late a national rate for all dockers in London, will they be cargoes and one manning scale,' able to meet the increasing he said. amount of activity of the bosses. a modern international news service. Our readers and supporters have not been slow in appreciating our efforts.

The sales of the paper have been maintained at the original 10,000 and have, on several occasions, exceeded that target. Now that the fine weather is coming it will be possible to sell more copies through canvassing. We hope that we will be able to press on to a circulation figure of 15,000 copies a week.

Financially our paper is paying its way. There is no money to spare and we could do with something extra in order to introduce more improvements.

If you have a friend who would like additional copies to sell to workmates, we shall be happy to supply them. All donations to our Fighting Fund will be gratefully received.

*Powerful groups of capitalists are forced into monopolisation in order to find the necessary capital for investment in automation. Under capitalism, automation leads to the unemployment of young people and old workers. The immediate socialist answer to capitalist automation and unemployment is the nationalization of all the inted with the basic industries under workers' eral secretary control. Workers should do everything in their power to force the Labour and trade union leaders along this road.?' more restricted and limited.

Powerful groups of capitalists are forced into monopolisation in order to find the necessary capital for investment in automated equipment. Such equipment has in many cases to be renewed almast as conn as it is installed. ao ovul do de 10 This has led to great strife between the various business groups within the Tory Party.

They are united on the need to attack wages and working conditions, but they are divided as to how it should be done.

The Labour Party, when it becomes the government, will inherit this crisis.

Under capitalism automation automation is the nationalization of all the basic industries under workers' control.

Because the Labour Party refuses to act along these lines means that it will inevitably betray the working class when it becomes the government.

Socialist planning is impossible without control over the means of production.

The Socialist Labour League calls upon all trade unionists and members of the Labour Party to do everything in their power to force the Labour and trade union leaders along this road.

Such a measure will involve League draws its strength from its internationalist approach to the struggle of working people against their class enemy in all the capitalist countries of the world.

On this May Day our thoughts are especially with the South African people who are fighting to the death against the pro-fascist government of Verwoerd.

We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners and the cessation of the frame-up trials.

In Cyprus British imperialism has constantly stirred up strife, which has today led this island's population to the brink of civil

NATIONALISE A week-old strike at Simon's Dockers on Simon's Wharf, There is also talk of several This will mean less men on When Hay's closed their Dockers from all sectors on Is your weapon.

Help to build it THIs year The Newsletter appears for the first time on May Day in its enlarged size.

Since the first number in this series we promised our readers TED 326 00 COULD war.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Cyprus.

On the continent of Africa, British imperialism through its native puppets continues its oppression over the millions of poorly-paid workers and poverty stricken peasants.

i demand the withdrawal of all British troops from Africa and S.E. Asia in order to leave the puppets of imperialism open to overthrow by the oppressed millions.

Khrushchev and the Soviet bureaucracy have been driven steadily into collaboration with the imperialist forces of Wall Street.

The collapse of their agricultural policies and the growing parasitism of the bureaucracy itself is leading more and more to capitulation to capitalism.

The Soviet Union is in mortal danger. It is this fact which is at the root of the Soviet-Chinese

leads to unemployment of young people and older workers.

Later, it will lead to congestion in the world's markets with even greater unemployment and misery which, in turn, will lead to more violent conflict between the various capitalist powers.

Automation can become a boon to mankind only on condition that capitalism is destroyed and replaced by a socialist policy under which the working class will own and control the means of production.

The Labour Party, however, has no policy for the introduction of socialism. A Labour government will operate capitalism and in doing so must inevitably face an even greater crisis than the Tory Party, almost as soon as they are elected. Release all political prisoners Defend the Soviet Union. China and E. Europe JOIN THE FIGHT the sharpest struggle against the big monopolies. Every strike and industrial dispute must become the means for mass socialist education of the working class.

Only the Socialist Labour League, which bases itself on a Marxist evaluation of the class struggle, can provide the leadership capable of organising the struggle for working class power.

We march alongside all forces within the labour movement for a labour victory in the coming election in order to demonstrate in practice the bankruptcy of the Wilson leadership.

By doing this we are more than ever convinced that we are on the threshold of the development of a mass revolutionary leadership along the lines of the party that led all political Withdraw all troops Soviet Union, China and SOCIALIST LA SOCIALIST conflict.

The Soviet Union is today in mortal danger because of the counter-revolutionary reformist policies of Khrushchev.

Peaceful co-existence fraud. There can be no peace in any country in the world while capitalism remains.

The Socialist Labour League constantly fights for the defence of the Soviet Union, China and the countries of Eastern Europe by the extension of the socialist revolutions throughout the capitalist world.

In Britain, the Socialist Labour League is the only organisation that fights for the building of the revolutionary party and for the overthrow of capitalism.

We call upon all serious fighters for socialism to join our ranks and intensify the struggle for a socialist Britain. BOUR LEA( POLICIES

Page I the exite we months N the next few months the entire resources May spontaneously as a means of carrying out their class struggle against German capitalism and

of the Labour Party-its funds, its publicity department, its full-time agents, its constituencies and ward organisations —will be concentrated on securing a majority for the party in Parliament.

But as we sought to explain last week, parliament is only a cover for a huge state machine which exists precisely to preserve the power and privileges of those responsible for problems resulting from the crisis in capitalism.

History has shown that where this power and privilege is threatened by parliament, the ruling class dispenses with parliament and not with the privileges.

The working class today is faced with the certainty of a Labour government in a situation of crisis for the ruling class. A study of historical examples of how, in practice, the working class has fared under reformist leaderships in parliament is of great importance.

We propose in the present article to take the classical example of Germany after the First World War.

Power

On August 11, 1918, the German Kaiser, who, under Germany's Imperial Constitution, had absolute power to declare war and conclude peace, heard a report from his Chancellor on the internal situation in Germany.

The workers were war-weary and were finding it difficult, even with coupons, to obtain food and clothing. He had wanted to hear, of course, that millions of workers, even after four years of pointless sacrifice and suffering, were ready to lay down their lives in the trenches.

Deep divisions existed in the ruling class. The Junker, or aristocratic element, power was based on the ownership of land, expressed readiness to fight with the Kaiser to the end and to oppose peace.

As a class the Junkers had been weakened by the developLiebknecht: popular German communist ment of industrial capitalism. Many of them had no power or privileges independent of their positions as functionaries of the German army and state.

A more enlightened section, concerned by the threat presented by workers to the survival of German capitalism, pressed the Kaiser to pursue a policy of peace. This section considered that to openly continue the war would have been suicidal.

Demonstrations Demonstrations of workers in industrial centres against the war were being joined - by soldiers returning from the front.

To these workers the Bolshevik insurrection of 1917 had opened up a new epoch. The emergence of soviets or workers councils, as organs of working class power, expressed in a most concrețe way the threat to the capitalist state.

The only possible tactic for the ruling class was to secure the broadest possible antiBolshevik front, even if this meant temporary compromise with the workers' demands.

In Berlin a number of strikes of a direct political character called for the termination of war and the abdication of the Kaiser.

They were led by militant shop stewards from the turners' section of the Metal Workers' Union. Around the factory struggles and street demonstrations the workers were forming their own councils.

At the front, soldiers were refusing to carry out the orders of their officers. They were forming soldiers' councils and were carrying out only the decisions made by these councils.

On returning to the industrial centres, they were supporting the struggle of the workers.

The role of the trade union leaders was to urge the workers to return to the factories. Having supported the war from its beginning they were busy, even at this late hour, calling on the workers to be loyal to the Fatherland.

This was the crisis facing Germany's rulers: the existence of what Trotsky called dual power.

Authority

On the one hand the old state apparatus was still in existence but it was daily threatened by the growing authority of workers' councils.

Any do-or-die effort on the part of German imperialism to continue the war would have been a provocation to the workers to smash the old state and to set up their own class rule.

Accordingly the Kaiser dismissed his old Chancellor, Count Hertling, who for four years had been associated with the war policy of German capitalism.

He was replaced by Prince Max of Baden who stood a chance of passing for a liberal democrat. He was sworn in in October.

His task was to protect the ready - made state machinery from 'a real people's revolution'. The destruction of the workers' councils was the only guarantee of this.

However, German capitalism at this stage had no independent resources of its own with which to defeat the workers.

The soldiers were openly joining the workers; the old ruling class parties were in a state of decay and dissolution; and even the police were taking their orders from Eichorn, a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party.

In fact, on his own, Prince Max was unable to stem the tide of working class militancy.

By November 9 the first stage of a workers' revolution had been completed.

Full power in Berlin was in the hands of an Executive Council elected by all the soldiers' and workers' councils of Greater Berlin.

This power was based upon a victorious revolution which had cost precisely 15 lives. The workers on the streets of Berlin met with no resistance in an openly organised form.

Prince Max planned to use the right-wing leaders of the million-strong social-democratic party to prevent the workers from attacking the state.

If the influence of these leaders could be employed to prevent any further revolutionary acts then the counter-revolution would have time to organise behind the old state.

Agitation

The requirements of the workers were that its political leaders should conduct wide agitation to prepare the soviets for the assumption of full power and the destruction of the old state.

On November 9, whilst in the streets the troops were refusing to fire on the revolutionary workers, Prince Max called a cabinet meeting at which Ebert and Scheidemann, the chief representatives in the Reichstag of the German SPD (democratic socialists) were present. Prince Max told Ebert: An enormous procession of soldiers, 'If anyone is able to save our Fatherland from disaster at this moment it is your party. You have the widest organisation and the greatest influence. Herr Ebert take over the office of Chancellor.' Finally, in the evening of November 9, a meeting of the Executive Council of the soviets confirmed an earher proclamation of the Socialist Republic. Ebert was also present at this meeting.

Vested

The Council vested its full powers and authority in a council of six People's Commissars in the Reichstag, three of them social-democrats and the others independents. The social - democratic commissars were to be Ebert, Scheidemann and Landsberg.

Thus within a few hours Ebert had been invited to take power first in the name of the old imperial state and then in the name of the workers' and soldiers' councils. At the end of the cabinet meeting, Prince Max had announced confidently:

'Herr Ebert, I commend the German Empire to your care.' The workers sincerely believed that Ebert and Scheidemann would carry out a socialist prosailors and workers proceeds along the streets of Berlin in November 1918 gramme. But how did Ebert tive Committee were transmitted act? to officials in the old government A true predecessor of all the Macdonalds and Wilsons who were to follow him, he turned not to the organised strength of the working class, or its living struggles. Instead he turned to the representatives of the old state.

In the early hour of November 10, he made a long-distance telephone call to General Groener, the Kaiser's chief of war supplies.

A secret bargain was concluded.

Groener would supply Ebert and Scheidemann with 'loyal' troops to put down the revolution at the earliest possible moment.

They would conduct a holding operation to give the old German state a breathing space.

The rest can be told quite simply. Ebert and Scheidemann spent the next two months sabotaging the work of the councils in an effort to keep in check the independent initiative of the German workers.

Confusion was spread amongst delegates to the councils who were told that Bolshevism was the greatest menace to the revolution.

All the orders of the Execurade agre ment departments where they were ignored. At the same time countless orders issued from these same departments were immediately executed, particularly when they related to the arrest and imprisonment of revolutionaries.

Protest

When the Executive Council protested, it was told not to be impatient. Ebert exploited to the full the inexperience and confusion of the workerdelegates.

Where actions were carried out against workers the social democratic People's Commissars disclaimed all responsibility, even though they had often initiated such actions.

In 'Vorwarts', press organ of the Social-Democratic Party, a smear campaign was launched against Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht-popular communist leaders.

This was in full accordance with Ebert's anti-Bolshevik front with General Groener. The reformist leaders hated Liebknecht for his principled stand, when he was a social-democratic deputy in the Reichstag, against the German war effort. away any rights which the militant rank and file building worker now possesses.

In the event of any difficulties, full-time officials must now be called in before any action is taken.

Everybody knows that these officials have one job in life—to act as a mediator between workers and employers. They will discuss, negotiate, compromise and finally capitulate rather than lead their members in any kind of struggle.

This present agreement follows hot-foot on a decision by the NFBTE and NFBTO to form a six-man committee to advise on the composition of erection gangs for the fixing of components in the new industrialised pre-fabricated building systems.

PRINCIPLE

The NJC has, following a dispute last August, already established the principle that balanced gangs' of craftsmen and non-craftsmen can be employed on the fixing of components in the new systems in order that craft unions cannot claim exclusive rights.

We can expect many more In January 1919 Luxemburg and Liebknecht were foully murdered. The murder was made possible by the collaboration of Ebert and Scheidemann with the old state. It was a mere prelude to widescale massacre of the workers.

A line of blood and violence and treachery connects Ebert and Scheidemann with the coming to power 13 years later of open fascist dictatorship over the working class.

Deceived

Herr Ebert and his followers dutifully and cynically deceived and manoeuvred the German workers whilst the German capitalists were given an essential breathing space.

When the revolutionary will of the workers had been worn down sufficiently, the counter offensive was launched. It ended early in the full assumption of power by Hitler.

Some socialists like to put forward the argument that soviets were only really suited to a backward country like Russia and that they could not succeed in advanced capitalist countries.

It is claimed that workers in these countries are only interested in securing reforms and that the bureaucratic routines of trade unions and mass labour parties are sufficient for this.

This is not the conclusion to be drawn from Germany which, even in 1918, was one of the most advanced capitalist countries.

The German workers and soldiers formed soviets quite arbetter, sirget * Von der Spai Totet Liebknecht!

Donn werdel Die Frontsoldaten tur sh op such agreements in the coming period. They are but a prelude to the introduction on a massive scale of industrialised system building.

These pre-fabricated systems require a reduced labour force, greater mobility of labour and abolition of craft unionism.

In short the problems which face building workers are the same as those facing workers in steel and engineering and also those which the dockers face under the 'new deal' proposals.

Opening a 'Speed the Houses' conference in Birmingham last week, Mr. A. G. Sheppard Fidler, Birmingham City architect said:

SAVING 'In 1964 10 per cent of the houses and flats to be built by local authorities will be built by industrialised building systems. After 1965 the proportion will undoubtedly rise steeply.

'Indications are that so far projects using industrialised systems are saving about 25 per cent to 40 per cent in building time for multi-storey flats and as much as 40 per cent to 50 per cent for house systems.' As well as redundancies and the downgrading of many workers, the increased use of its state apparatus, just as individual groups of workers form strike committees to carry out their struggles against individual employers.

The soviet is the logical extension of the factory and strike committee during a general crisis of the ruling class.

The main lesson to be drawn is that the working class has nothing to hope for from reformist politicians.

GREEMENT on the position ol shop stewards has been reached by representatives of employers and unions on the National Joint Council for the Building Industry.

The jurisdiction of the council since 1930 has concerned only England and Wales but now it has been extended to Scotland.

Mr. David Chaston, president of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, told the north-west federation at Blackpool that the joint agreements 'can only be regarded as significant moves towards the maintenance of industrial peace in building.

DETERMINATION

'At the same time, they illustrate the determination of employers and union representatives on the National Joint Council to move together in the interests of good relations' The terms of the agreement e as follows:

Full-time officers can visit sites provided there is prior arrangement with employers and that they report on arrival.

Union - appointed shop stewards employed on a job for six or more working days are recognised but not more than one for each trade, except in special circumstances.

National Federation of Building Trades Operatives stewards are recognised upon written notification of appointment by the union to the employer.

The functions of the shop stewards are clearly defined. They are to represent the workmen concerned, to investigate any complaints or difficulties arising, to approach managements thereon as necessary and generally cooperate with managements to ensure that the working rule agreement is observed by both parties'.

In the case of unresolved difficulties it is the duty of shop stewards to report to full-time union officials.

Meetings cannot be held in working hours except with the permission of the management.

Union cards cannot be inspected without permission. This new agreement undoubtedly ties the hands of the shop steward and is aimed at taking

World News Round-up May Three

OS HIS BIR Spartacusbuna, LieDknecnr. Iselow: Schlagt inre führer tot! death by the army officers who On the contrary, it was precisely the treachery of the reformist leaders which prevented the German • working class from realising its own class rule for the building of socialism.

The present policies of Brown and Wilson are at one with those pursued by Ebert and Scheidemann.

They are in no sense moderates, who do not go far enough. Their whole political perspective is țied to the continued existence of capitalism and all its political institutions.

They continue a policy which has led millions of workers to their deaths and millions more to defeat and demoralisation.

What is needed is the building of an alternative leadership which will mobilise the combined strength of the working class in all its struggles for a decisive onslaught against the capitalist apparatus of the state.

Such a leadership will only be built in a constant struggle against the reformist illusions fed into the working class by all the present-day Eberts and Scheidemanns.

Enslavement to the parliamentary form of struggle exclusively means the sell-out of every other form of struggle by the workers against capitalism.

Left: A poster calls on soldiers and workers to save the Fatherland, to kill the leader of o.the Liebknecht after he was beaten to had kidnapped him and Rosa Luxemburg.

rds' hands plant and machinery is bound to lead to further increase in the already phenomenally high accident rate.

Britain's one and a quarter million building workers must be prepared to fight the introduction of automated processes unless the increased productivity results in better wages and conditions for all those in the industry.

They must fight all proposals for streamlining or managing of their unions.

CONTROL

Such moves are designed to put all control in the hands of the few permanent trade union officials who will collaborate more and more with the employers and the government (especially if it is a Labour government) in disciplining their members.

In future The Newsletter will carry regular articles on the building industry and the attempts of the employers and union leaders through •committees and joint bodies to discipline the building workers in preparation for the further rationalisation of the industry— which they aim to carry through completely at the expense of the workers.

THE metaltic neon monstrosity which is called the World's Fair opened with picketing by Negro and white demonstrators amid controversy that threatens to split the Negro struggle.

Pickets yelling: 'Freedom Now' and 'Jim Crow Must Go' outshouted the dedication speech of President Johnson.

Demonstrators sat down, blocking off the entrances to the New York City, Ford Motor Co. and Schaefer Beer exhibits.

Trains on the underground were stopped by demonstrators pulling emergency cords, holding car doors open, and jumping on the tracks.

A 'stall-in' of cars that would have blocked off the highways near the Fair failed to develop.

During the demonstrations, the right wing of the Congress of Racial Equality organised the usual picket lines and sitdowns, while the left wing, a large part of which has been suspended from national CORE, organised the subway stoppages and 'stall-in'.

The 'stall-in' did not produce the number of cars expected, but despite that, the demonstrations cut attendance at the Fair by one third.

Negro militants demanded the closing down of all construction sites where Negroes are excluded Cyprus from the unions; a city-sanctioned rent strike in slum areas; a timetable for total desegregation of schools; and a public commission to examine police brutality.

The Negro militants have not yet been made aware that the capitalist state would have to change its class nature and also reverse its continuing economic decline to satisfy these demands.

VICTORIES

Negro protest organisations have achieved some token victories over the past ten years. These, however, have been largely in publicity, with little effect on the Negro people, who still on the average earn half as much as whites but have double the rate of unemployment.

In desperation, militant Negroes are demanding more effective action than sitdowns and picket lines and are adopting the idea of the 'monkey wrench' or direct action which they will throw into the 'society controlled by the white power structure' and thus either obtain 'freedom now' or destroy that society.

As the Negro writer, Louis E. Lomax, expressed it: 'Wild, new strange voices have moved into the leadership vacuum and we are headed into bloodshed and chaos... Roy Wilkins failed, James Farmer failed, Martin Luther King failed . : . What must we do? To what extreme Will we be pushed?

SPLITS

Splits are taking place and new, more militant organisations are being formed.

The respectable Negro protest organisations are turning into white organisations, with sprinkling of a few Negroes, mainly in the leadership.

The Socialist Workers Party, an ex-Trotskyist group, did not participate in the World's Fair demonstrations or the recent school boycotts on the grounds that it is primarily an all-white organisation and because the Negro struggle will in any case spontaneously develop socialist consciousness.

However, the Negro struggle has reached a dead-end.

EXPLOIT

The SWP has not taught the Negro people that the 'white power structure' is, in fact, capitalism which exploits white workers as well as Negroes. It does not call for a • 'Freedom Now Party' which will link up the Negro people to the other minorities and the rank-and-file white workers.

The result is that the Negro struggle is moving in the direction of anarchist adventurism which can only end in repression and defeat.

The Department of Justice announced last Thursday that it would enquire into allegations of police brutality against the demonstrators for Negro civil rights at the World's Fair.

/ANZIBAR-a country which was once under British colonial ruleis to merge with Tanganyika and become known as 'Tanzan',

troops CLASHES between British soldiers and Greek Cypriots after a goodwill pop concert for the Sherwood Foresters last week proved that the United Nations 'peace force' on the island is anything but peaceful.

Although the forces have express orders not to get involved in fighting unless they are attacked, it is obvious that under these tactical manoeuvres of the United Nations there lies a policy of suppression-brutal and violent if necessary-in order to keep the island for the interests of British and American capitalism.

Orders

Armed troops in Cyprus are not there merely to help the injured across the firing lines between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. In the name of 'peace' they carry out the orders of big business politics.

The Newsletter calls on the labour movement of this country to demand the withdrawal of all troops from Cyprus and an end to the imperialist domination of the island.

While fighting between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots goes on, the imperialists negotiate behind the scenes to find a solution that will best serve their interests.

Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the United Nations have visited Athens and Ankara to ensure that the conflict between the Greek and Turkish ruling classes does not impair the defence of the western world.

Reactionary

Although talk of the immediate return of extreme rightwing General Grivas, the former EOKA leader, has died down, he is clearly prepared to take leadership against the threat of communism at any time.

This extremely reactionary politician would undoubtedly deal a violent blow at the island's labour movement, especially the Cypriot Stalinist movement, AKEL.

But it is this party which bears a grave responsibility for the present danger to the Cypriot workers and peasants.

SPAIN: Courageous miners are again facing up to the Franco regime by striking for better working conditions for men suffering from silicosis and increased wages for all workers. The strike, which began two weeks ago, has spread and over 1,500 miners are now involved. GERMANY: Criminal proceedings have been taken in Coblenz this week against the manager of the 'Henschel' works. The prosecutions have been started because of some "irregularities' that seem to have occurred in the sale of Henschel tanks to the West Germany Army.

UNITED STATES: Speakers in the annual convention of American Newspaper Publishers concentrated on the 'impact of technology' on the newspaper industry. The labour relations committee of the Publishers' Association predicted more militancy and strikes as new processes and equipment are introduced and more men thrown out of work.

age Four NEWS LETTER May 2, 1964 1964 May

M TAURICE THOREZ, leader of the French Communist Party, and Palmiro Togliatti of the Italian CP both made statements condemning the Chinese Communist Party last week.

In a speech to the Central Committee, Togliatti accused the Chinese of placing "trumps in the imperialists' hands' and of following a policy of 'evading any view or comprehension of reality, a policy consisting of a boring and sterile repetition of general statements'.

It is unfortunate that Togliatti should find the Chinese policy "boring'. This is, doubtless, because he finds any criticism of himself "boring', so boring, in fact, that he has expelled any member of the Italian party who has had the courage to criticise.

REALITY

Which policy really evades any 'comprehension of reality"? Are the Chinese being unrealistic when they point out that the imperialists have not given up their aims in Asia, Eastern Europe and even the USSR?

Last week, President Johnson appealed to his allies to help the US capitalists in their war in Vietnam.

Last week, too, the French press reported strange incidents which point to direct US intervention in the right-wing takeover in Laos.

Soldiers manning road blocks could not speak a word of Laotian, two jeeps carrying Europeans were seen entering the headquarters of the rightwing generals and left only after a few hours.

TRUMPS

Last week, also, New York police attacked the demonstrators for civil rights at the World Fair, so brutally that one Senator in demanding an enquiry stated 'yesterday blood ran on the pavements of New York'.

Who, then is more unrealistic? Mr. Togliatti who claims that capitalism has been tamed so that peace is now possible between NATO and the Warsaw pact? Or the Chinese, who point to the constant war activity of the imperialists in all parts of the world?

As for 'placing trumps in the hands of the imperialists', what greater "trumps' did the capitalists get than the continuing supply of arms to India during the Sino-Indian dispute, or the settlement of the Cuba crisis at that time, leaving them with their hand free against China, or the disastrous policy followed in Iraq.

Thorez does not find the Chinese "boring', he finds them frightening. He thinks it extraordinary that the Chinese should want to make their own nuclear bomb when 'the military strength of the Soviet Union guarantees the inviolability of the entire socialist camp, China included'.

He, of course, ignores the supplying of arms to India while this country was at war with China. These trivial details have no effect on his powerful arguments.

"The partisans of war,' he continued, 'unfortunately, find a stimulus for their efforts in the strange agreement which, in fact, exists between de Gaulle and Mao Tse-tung to spread the arms of mass destruction, against the Treaty of Moscow and against a new step forward to disarmament' We find ourselves back to Togliatti's view that disarmament can take place while capitalism still exists. Back, too, to the line of Khrushchev.

Togliatti does disagree with the Khrushchev line at one point, though. He disagrees with the proposal to excommunicate' China.

DISCUSSION

He says that this would cause great discussion in the ranks of the parties and the creation of opposition communist parties in most places. And discussion is just what Togliatti wants to avoid.

He cannot afford too much discussion when his party has done nothing to attack, expose and overthrow the present Christian-Democrat government of Italy, and the Catholic Church that supports it. He has, in fact, gone out of his way to compromise with the church.

The attacks of these leaders on the Chinese bear no relation to the real world and are nothing more than a cover up for their own lack of leadership. CP writer's ideological gymnastics aid Khrushchev article Peaceful Transition or Chinese Blind Alley?' (Comment supplement 25.4.64) is to be reminded how far political degeneration has affected the Communist Party and the individual members of its ageing leadership. It is hard to remember that Campbell was once a communist.

In 1929 he resisted for a time the imposition of Stalin's 'social - fascist' line on the British Communist Party. Along with Inkpin and Rothstein, he was deposed and Dutt and Pollitt installed.

Mouthpiece

But he soon became a loyal mouthpiece for Stalinism. His 1939 book 'Soviet Policy and its Critics', pretending to be a reasoned discussion, contained all the standard slanders against Trotsky and defended the Moscow frame-up trials.

After the war he helped to put over Stalin's 'British Road to Socialism' to the Communist Party rank and file.

This training in the school of ideological gymnastics is now brought to the aid of Khrushchev. The present target is the Chinese Communist Party, but Campbell's old enemies are not forgotten.

'The Chinese Communist It is reported that Nyerero, President of Tanganyika, will head the new state.

After his week-end visit to Zanzibar, it has become very clear that a merger was planned to avoid the possibility of communism becoming a strong force in Zanzibar.

One of the first policies put into practice in Zanzibar by the new government—under nationalist President Karume-after a successful revolution against the British-backed government a few months ago, was the nationalization of all land.

A revolutionary council was set up and must have caused a great deal of consternation amongst both the wealthy section of Zanzibar and the British foreign office.

Civil servants in Whitehall must have been extremely busy engineering the union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika.

Alliance

Both Britain and America want to make sure that no African state, such as Zanzibar, can have an alliance with any of the communist countries.

In the case of Zanzibar there was growing feeling for communism. The Revolutionary Council turned to the Soviet bloc for economic aid and China has promised credit in exchange for 500 tons of cloves.

Although the British government will not lose much sleep over a few hundred tons of cloves, the prospect of a communist-supported state in their own colonial backyard can be far from welcome.

It has been reported also that Russian small arms were unloaded in Zanzibar and a group of technicians arrived to train the country's new youth army.

Warnings from the American Ambassador in Kenya that Zanzibar should be a source of warning to all Africans, was followed by an order from the country's Revolutionary Council that the United States spaceParty ... is encouraging the formation of breakaways which are then used by the Trotskyists to spread disruption further,' he says.

But Campbell is not indulging in an abstract exercise when he attacks Chinese arguments that revolution is the only means of getting rid of capitalism.

Along with other trends in the British labour movement, King Street is preparing to nestle closer to the right-wing Labour Party leaders.

While searching for an alliance with the Wilson government and trade union leaders like Woodcock, Cousins, Carron and Smith, the Stalinists insist that a left' majority in parliament can bring about a peaceful transition to socialism.

Criticises

Of course, Campbell criticises right-wing leaders and denies that he believes that a parliamentary majority is by itself sufficient to take away the power of the monopolies. As one of the leaders of a 'communist party he can hardly do less.

The essence of his argument is that by action outside parliament, the labour movement can exert enough 'pressure' to make the employers accept electoral decisions.

It (parliament) mantled and removed President Nyerere's own actions in Tanganyika, when the army came out in revolt a few months ago, must have proved to the British government that he was capable of taking a tough line with any communists in Zanzibar.

With the advent of union with Tanganyika, many of the communists and their supporters have been disarmed.

President Nyerere has made loud proclamations that he encouraged unity between the two countries to prevent it from being used as a 'communist springboard into Africa'.

Absent

Foreign Minister Abdoul Rahman (Babu), reputedly a communist supporter, was conveniently out of the country whilst negotiations for unity were going on.

Although his position to the left of President Karume has been given some prominence in the press, his return to Zanzibar was unhindered and so far he has made no attempt to mobilize his followers.

In fact Babu has been offered a top post as Director of Planning in the new state.

In the Sunday press, the impression was given that this move by Nyerere and Karume serves only the African nationalists tion into which the great class issues can be brought to the fore and debated and in which legislation can be enacted and emergency powers obtained by the parliamentary majority, he writes.

'The whole history of Britain is replete with instances where, by pressure inside and outside parliament, the working people have won important concessions.' Concessions But when the ruling class has granted concessions, especially in the heyday of imperialism, it was to head off revolution. The imperialists and their agents have long experience of knowing when to give away a few crumbs in order to preserve the whole cake.

Reformists have pretended that, without disturbing constitutional legality, the cake can be taken crumb by crumb. They have even been known to release a bit of "pressure'-so long' as it could be shut off again after the ruling class had been sufficiently impressed.

Such methods, of course, have never, in the whole of history, led to the workers taking power. Today, they can only pave the way for disastrous defeat.

With its back to the wall, imperialism will use against the British workers all the methods and not the imperialist countries.

But both America and Britain have shown themselves to be quite capable of making negotiations with nationalists in Africa and other countries and there can be no doubt that this swing away from communism will be seen by both governments as a sign favourable for one kind of deal or another.

And while a facade of friendly union between two countries is kept up Tanganyikan police move into Zanzibar to maintain "law and order' and an American warship moves into the area.

Strikes

in France STRIKE ACTION has been threatened in France by railwaymen, miners and the postmen.

The railmen went on a 36hour strike on Wednesday and Thursday to support a claim for a 12 per cent wage rise, a shorter working week, and better working conditions.

The miners, dissatisfied with the long delay in the opening of discussions with the management, promised in 1963, have stated that they will strike unless discussions are begun immediately.

Leaders of the postmen's union have called upon their members to protest on Monday, April 27, in support of claims for lower-paid workers.

it has learned in its fight against it has learned in its fight against colonial liberation movements. colonial liberation movements. At a time when the employers get ready to attack the working class organisations, illusion that the ballot box can take the power away from capitalism diverts the tremendous struggle of labour into channels where it cannot harm the monopolies.

Marxists take part in parliaments and elections—in order to expose them for the sham that they are. As Lenin pointed out in the days of Campbell's youth: 'the more highly democracy is developed, the more the bourgeois parliaments fall under the control of the Stock Exchange and the bankers.' Embarrassment The Communist Party of Great Britain was formed, as part of the Communist International, to fight reformist ideas.

Now, when its sole parliamentary representative sits in the House of Lords, its leaders find their revolutionary past an embarrassment and reinforce parliamentary illusions.

Many Communist Party members want to carry out the work for which the party was founded: to prepare workers to smash capitalist power on the basis of the principles of scientific socialism.

They must understand that to do this, they have first to overcome the bitter opposition of men like Campbell.

sontown, Gorbals, have signed a petition of protest to the Glasgow. Corporation against the appalling , conditions in which they are forced to live.

A deputation from the Logan Street area were unable to obtain an interview with the Lord Provost when they presented the first 1,200 signatures at the City Chambers last week.

Mrs. Collins, who led the deputation, told The Newsletter: 'It is not a question of condemning the houses-it is the people who are being condemned here.' In fact, working-class families in this area of the Gorbals are condemned to live in ratinfested tenements.

Children play in the back court where there is not a slab of paving stone or blade of grass — only earth and rubble and stagnant pools of water.

Refuse bins, without lids or covers of any kind, stand in the middle of the court and often children run screaming from their play, having disturbed rats.

A short flight of steps leads from the back court to the cellars to which there are no doors. Immediately above these are windows which cannot be opened because of the stench which rises.

APARTMENT

Whole families live in single apartment 'houses' and dwellings, consisting of a room and kitchen which cost between £350 and £450 (current prices).

There is one toilet on each stair, usually without a seat, in some cases without floorboards. Children are frequently absent from school suffering from dysentery and enteritis.

People who have lived in the neighbourhood for over 30 years say they cannot remember the place ever being painted or whitewashed.

In one building there is a structural crack which the local authority describes as 'unsafe, but not a danger' and in the same building the sanitation is described as 'a nuisance but not a danger to public health' But the worst menace to the tenants is the rats.

Mrs. Collins states that one neighbour found a rat in the sink, another tenant found one in the baby's cot;

an expectant mother dis covered that the rats had been knawing at her bed.

In Pine Street and Silver Fir Street (there are, of course, no Pine or Fir trees) the rats breed in empty buildings which are due for demolition. Here they make so much noise, the tenants say they 'can hear the rats singing.

In the locality is a corporation refuse disposal depot, a paper mill and a firm of cooked meat manufacturers.

HUNT

At night time housewives lean out of the windows of their homes with lighted torches while the men hunt the rats in the court below.

Last week, Mrs. Collins made a public appeal to anyone with a dog to come into the area and assist in an organised rat hunt.

When the police were asked to keep children away from the area, they stepped in to stop the rat hunt.

The publicity given to the plight of the Gorbals families by the petition, which also bore the signatures of local doctors, and a successful rat hunt brought forth a sudden burst of activity from the corporation.

Refuse bins were emptied, men came to fill the rat holes with smoke and to lay poisoned bait. Announcements were made that the landlords would have to carry out repairs or action would be taken against them.

Not since the Queen visited the Gorbals in 1961 has there been such a clean-up.

But, of course, no one expects

PICKETS were out last week at the Moreton, Merseyside, works of Cadbury's-the chocolate and cocoa manufacturers— after 300 night shift workers came out on strike for a revision of the bonus payments system at the factory.

They were making an appeal to the 3,500 other workers at the firm to come out on strike.

The dispute began when, after weeks of negotiations, the talks over new rates broke down.

For a number of years an individual incentive scheme has been operated, but this was changed by the management to a bonus based on overall output, after a new factory block was opened.

The strikers, who earn an average of f14 a week, claim that this has led to a decrease in wages of f2 to f3 a week.

In the course of negotiations with the management, stewards have become convinced that a complete revision of the existing payments scheme needs to be carried out.

Stewards claim that over the Best past year the night shift has been decreased from 800 men to 350 and through reorganisation and introduction of new machines production has gone up. Checkweighmen have recently been asked to look after six belts instead of two.

Last week a girl was sacked for allegedly missing part of her job on the speeded-up conveyor belts. However, prompt action by the shop stewards secured her reinstatement. Registered at the G.P O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter.

As pin ta bian, London 3% it to last. Even if it did, it wouldn't exterminate the rats or improve the living conditions.

The only solution for the workers and their families in this area is to rehouse them and demolish the rotting and insanitary tenements which are now their homes.

This means mounting a really big campaign in the Labour Party and trade unions, to demand decisive action by the Labour-controlled council.

SUPPORT

Neither Labour councillors nor the member of Parliament, Miss Alice Cullen, have done anything to help the tenants.

The only real support from any outside organisation has come from the Young Socialists who have proposed joint participation with the tenants in May Day meetings.

The Gorbals tenants must not be left to fight alone.

The future Labour government should announce now a crash programme to get rid of the slums by expropriating slum landlords; nationalizing land, building and building supply industries and giving every assistance to local authorities to build new houses at low cost.

These families want new homes now!

Defeat for Rer REMINGTON workers in Scotland, who came out on strike five weeks ago as a protest against the sacking of shop convenor Calum Mackay, went back this week.

From the beginning of the strike it has been obvious that the local leadership of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in the Paisley district (supported by the Communist Party) were going to hand the strike over to the guidance of Sir William Carron.

The defeat of the strikers was prepared by such people and the

planned for May Day.

The strike, which was still on as we went to press, against the government's scheme to close railways threatened redundancies in ICT—a computer firm-and Short and Harland aircraft factory.

There have been attempts by -union leaders to stop this one-day token stoppage.

At the same time these same leaders are showing a frenzied Northern government and a local economic development council.

This is a preparation for the splitting of the trade union movement.

The executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has approved a proposal to amend the constitution to make their Northern Ireland committee autonomous.

CONGRESS

This proposal, which goes before the national conference of the Congress in July, means that all economic, political and internal industrial matters will be settled by this committee.

Only such issues as union administration will be decided by the full Congress.

The Northern Ireland government has, up to now, refused to recognise the Congress because it is an all-Ireland body.

Recognition will now follow and the union leaders will be able to collaborate on the Ulster Economic Development Council, which could not function without them.

Whilst Tory newspapers hail these moves as progressive and 'goodwill gestures, to the working class they are the latest in a long line of betrayals.

No recognition for paperworkers DEMANDS for complete recognition of their trade union and the reinstatement of a chargehand were refused by the managers of Crofton Printers, London, this week.

The 100 bookbinders and paperworkers returned to work on Monday after striking for two weeks.

The chargehand was sacked for 'inefficiency', but it was he who made the original demand for union recognition.

Notice

The bosses told the strikers that they were sacked but trade union representatives met the employers and it was agreed that the men could return to work on the original terms-that trade union rates and the 40-hour week be given to all members of the staff at the end of July.

One worker told The Newsletter: "The workers have asked the management to put a notice up declaring their intentions but this has been refused.

We want something in black and white, and we intend to hold a meeting about it.

"The transport manager has been demoted for his support of the workers' demands,' she added. ington workers right wing executive council just had to step in and deal the death blow. The workers returned on their recommendation.

Demands that the Remington strike should be strengthened by picketing of the Remington razor factory in the Glasgow district, were rejected.

The Paisley District Committee refused to fight for a total stoppage or a work-to-rule and a ban on overtime.

Eventually these leaders ran to Carron and saw to it that the men returned to work.

was and the Hull officials booed by dockers MANY Hull dockers (according to press reports between 1,000 and 4,000) stopped work on Tuesday afternoon in an unprecedented protest against Transport and General Workers' Union officials.

Although it was pouring with rain, a large crowd gathered at Bevin House-the union offices —to show their solidarity with L. Warhurst, a leading figure in the recent overtime ban, who had been called to give account of his recent activities to the union.

The men cheered him as he arrived and later booed TGWU officials who called on them to disperse.

This action comes after news that the dockers' demands for 11-men gangs and 8d. per standard for the unloading of packaged timber had been met by the Joint Industrial Council.

It is obvious that if the TGWU officials had been left to handle the matter, this favourable outcome would not have been reacired.

If these officials hope to strengthen their position by disciplining Warhurst, who has the support of militant dockers in both the TGWU and the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers, they are making a big mistake.

Tuesday's demonstration was an indication of the growing feeling on the docks that such leaders have no intention of fighting back against the employers' offensive.

Victory at Sunderland AFTER their works convenor was reinstated, 500 members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union at Doxfords Ltd., Sunderland, returned to work last week.

The men had been on strike for seven weeks following the sacking of the convenor, who was given his cards for refusing to instruct man to operate a milling machine at a lower rate of pay.

Other workers in the area showed solidarity with Doxford men by collecting over f500 for the strike fund.

In addition to winning the reinstatement of their convenor, the strikers also forced the management to pay the full rate to the milling machine operator. Become a regular subscriber to Join the Socialist Labour League AS a member of the Socialist Labour League you can fight in the Labour and trade union movements for a real socialist policy. If you would like to join, or to know more about us, fill in the attached form and post it to:

The Socialist Labour 186a Clapham High St., meeting of

Industrial Sunday.

Over 1,000 men came to Airedale having to walk for miles. They listened to Mr. Sam Bullough and other full-time officials of the National Union of Mine Workers from Yorkshire headquarters at Barnsley, as well as their own secretary, Bill O'Brien, recommend a return to work.

But they soon realised that these leaders had nothing to offer and decided to stick to their demands.

On the previous Tuesday, the afternoon shift at Glasshoughton, once a right-wing stronghold, came out on strike over the down-grading of contract workers to day-wage jobs and rates of pay—involving cuts in wages of up to f2 a day.

By last Wednesday 10 pits in the number 8 area were on strike. They were joined by the powerful Upton Colliery, part of Doncaster panel.

Strike

At a mass meeting last Thursday the Glasshoughton men voted to stay out and demanded 70 shillings per shift fall-back rate for all contract workers together with a rise of f1 a week for day-wage men.

This was the same day that Robens refused to raise his offer of 8s. a week rise to day-wage men and the National Union of Miners decided on 'further talks'.

The powerful Doncaster delegates decided they would call a strike for the full demand of 15 shillings if these further talks proved unsuccessful.

Clearly a big struggle is building up in the coalfields.

The Barnsley officials know this and they have acted to break the local strike. Last Thursday and Friday rumours were spread at the various pits that Glasshoughton had gone back to work.

Picket

Another pit had to be picketed on Friday to tell miners that this was a lie and the men refused to go down.

On Friday the afternoon shift at Pontefract Prince of Wales came out.

Barnsley headquarters then immediately summoned the officials of all pits in the area, including Glasshoughton, to meet the full-time officials on Saturday morning.

The Glasshoughton men had already called all miners in the area to the mass meeting on Sunday morning. They were threatened with police intervention when they accompanied their officials to Barnsley.

Overtime ban by Tyneside boilermakers ABOUT 1,500 boilermakers who staged a one-day stoppage on the Tyne and Blyth ship repair yards last week are proposing to ban all overtime in support of increased wages.

Their demands for an increased district rate and an allowance for working : in confined spaces have been rejected by the North-tast coast Ship Repairers' Association.

As new shipbuilding methods have developed so the ship repair workers have had to work in more and more confined places.

A boilermakers' branch secretary told The Newsletter that the men were also demanding retention of labour. They wanted permanent Employment.

'We're sick of hire and fire. We're not even casual, we're intermittent workers,' he said.

Boilermakers consider the issue is important and there has been a sympathetic response to the strike from other workers on the Tyne. coalfield Technical College, many Their officials agreed to recommend a return to work at a separate branch meeting on Sunday. This was intended to break up the Sunday mass meeting and smash the strike.

But the men gave their answer on Sunday morning.

Some 700 Glasshoughton men and 300 from other pits completely rejected the officials recommendation.

Committees

Despite the domination of the meeting by the platform and the attempts to split the men through confusion, not a hand was raised when the chairman asked: 'Who is for work in the morning?' When someone suggested an amendment 'go back to work and meet again if there is no satisfaction in three days, he could not even get a seconder and was shouted down.

Next morning Glasshoughton men demonstrated for their demands at the Barnsley council meeting of branch delegates.

The main question in this fight is to spread the strike throughout the coalfield. The officials not only will not fight but they 'Medieval' conditions say fish porters STRIKING fish porters at North Shields claim that their working conditions are 'medieval'.

Forty fish porters are out on strike for a f1 a shift increase and as a protest against these conditions.

The men report for work at midnight and carry on until 8 o'clock in the morning.

A fish porter, who has worked on the quay for 13 years, told a Newsletter reporter that the average wage was between f8 and £10 a week.

There are no cafes open and the fish porter described the place where the men were expected to sit and rest as a 'pig sty. There are no washing facilities.

Unloading and sorting goes on in all weathers.

During the strike, office staff have been given the job of unloading. They were supplied with protective clothing which angered the porters who have to buy their own oilskins.

The men are asking for support from Aberdeen and Hull in 'blacking' any trawlers diverted from North Shields.

Rashleigh

reinstate 46 out of 51 ALL but five of the 51 electricians sacked by Rashleigh Phipps have been reinstated. This followed a two-week strike of 400 electricians employed on the London sites, including the BEA, West London, air terminal and the Associated Press building.

The men were sacked after a union meeting was held on the BEA site. This contravened a union-management agreement.

At a mass meeting on Mondry, Mr. Bert Gray, an ETU official said he expected the other five would be reinstated later this week.

May 3, Nags High Stre act consciously strike.

Strike committees must be formed in every pit calling regular meetings and organising pickets throughout Yorkshire.

All out in solidarity!

For 70 shillings fall-back rate!

For El increase for day-wage men!

STAMPING of feet and shouts of 'hear, hear' greeted Lord Robens when he stated at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Perth that some sections of the audience might object to his being called a fraternal delegate.

But he claimed that the miners had never had a better friend than Alf Robens.

He maintained that the coal industry had not been run on instructions from the Tory government, but in accordance with the Act of Parliament passed by the Labour government in 1947.

PERKS

As every miner knows, of course, nationalization under the last Labour government meant 'perks for the boys', bleeding of the industry to pay high compensation and interest to ex-mine owners.

The exploitation of the industry by private contractors supplying machinery and other materials and the burden of the losses have been borne by the mineworkers themselves in the form of long hours, low wages, speed-ups and pit closures.

In a reference to the present wage negotiations Lord Robens said the interests of the consumer had to be considered in relation to passing on the gains of increased productivity.

But in Scotland during 1963 productivity was increased by nearly 10 per cent and there has not yet been any hint that coal prices will be reduced.

In fact, later on in his speech, Robens defended the discriminatory practice where housewives in Scotland are expected to pay more for their coal than they would in England.

DILEMMA

Lord Robens knows, of course, that whatever opposition he may encounter from the rank and file, he has little to fear from the miners' leaders.

Whilst NUM officials state they will not 'accept wage restraint, they have no serious alternative policy to put before their members. At the present time their dilemma is how they can avoid a really big strike in the coalfields.

If they accept Robens' offer of 7s. 6d., they risk the certain opposition of the miners and unofficial stoppages on a large scale.

If they stick out for the full wage increase they can only defeat Robens and the National Coal Board by mobilizing all coal workers in organised struggle.

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