The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 349

OVE of the monopolised sectors British industry - steel - is conducting a ferocious campaign against nationalization. In its latest statement challenges the Labour Part to define its attitude to th re-nationalization of steel. The Labour Party, however, like the provenbi sphinx, is eeping mun BUT why should me Labour Party in is tha bly bour on a question which concerns he destinies of millions o people in Britain and th Commonwealth? ilent pain, as Bevan once re 'evokes no response.

The silence of Wilson and Brown on steel, on conscrip tion and on the colonies only encourages the ottensive the employers and the Tories.

undermines Labour's pusi tion and paves the way for an early defeat of the next Labour government.

No intelligent socialist will be impressed by the British Iron and Steel Federation arguments.

Competitiveness, efficiency and profitability should not stop a _abour government from taking over steel.

The case for nationalization in any case is based on entirely different criteria: nationalization has become urgent and unpostponable because without it, it is impossible to plan production for the satisfaction of the needs of the British workers and colonial peasants. he economic and political power wielded by the, steel barons and the BISF is immense. Their ramifications go vertically and horizontally in every direction. f the 262 firms in the BISF 11 account for three-quarters of the total steel-making capacity. One of these 11 is United Steel whose Board of Directors consists of a power group linking four great combines-United Steel, John Summers, Stewart & Lloyds and Guest, Keen Nettlefold. Besides these the directors of EADERS of both the are anxious to keep tion out of the national p festos until after October Whilst Tory backbenchers mutter 'youngsters need a taste of army discipline', , there are several rumours circulating in the Labour Party that, although the present situation may not warrant it, conscription could be introduced in the event of an international crisis.

The grounds for an excuse to bring in conscription have already been made.

After Clacton and Margate, when 'Mods' and 'Rockers' were arrested, many papers encouraged their adult, middle class interviewees to advocate the call-up as a disciplinary measure.

Aden cartoon On May 19 a national paper implied, by a cartoon, that these young people should be in the army fighting in Aden rather than spending Whitsun at Margate.

The Labour Party leaders never defended the youth against the Tory press, neither have they said there should be no call-up. Could it be that they are contemplating exactly the same thing as the newspapers-conscription-in the future?

Wilson and his colleagues remain silent for a very good reason. No statement has been written and no prospective MP has been issued with the policy on the call-up because the Labour leadership do not want to fight an election on such an issue. Avoid question Excuses are made that it is difficult to commit the Labour Party on conscription at the present time.

In the House of Commons at the beginning of the week the Labour front bench spokesmen conspicuously avoided committing themselves on the question Tory and Labour parties the question of conscripress and the policy maniwhen challenged by the Tory party.

When the Young Socialists at their conference in Brighton moved a resolution condemning the possibility of call-up, no one from the Labour Party National Executive Committee spoke.

No conference By cancelling the annual conference of the Labour Party, which should have been held in October, Wilson hopes that questions on Labour's election policy, including conscription, will not be raised.

Home's military policies in Cyprus, Aden and British Guiana have the full backing of Wilson who knows that the continuation of such action will mean conscription eventually.

The Labour movement does not want a repetition of what happened under Attlee's government, which was the first to introduce conscription in peacetime.

Troops were used to suppress workers' and peasants' movements throughout the world. In 1945 Labour gurumrui ordered the army to break up the dock strike. Dirty work Although the Tories stopped conscription, they now want it brought back because of the present world situation and Wilson, as henchman of the imperialists, will be left to do the dirty work.

Wilson must be forced to come out into the open and say exactly what he is going to do on conscription.

Workers inside the labour movement must follow the lead given by the youth at their Brighton conference and wage a campaign to prevent young people being used to police the world for imperialism.

United Steel hold scores of directorships in major companies and at least four banks. These people are absolutely opposed to any form of social control or ownership. In 1950 sabotaged timid Labour government by refuslives to serve on tire Steal lives to serve on tne sieet Corporation. '1he Labour minister, Strauss, descrined Inis acmon in Wores which should be inscribed in large letters over Transport House. He called it 'a poli .: for the specific purpose of sabotaging an Act or par lament.

irresponsible and shocking Wal deprives those who have taken it of any right to own and control this great mousury.

We heartily concur with this if it was correct in 1950-it is even more so today.

KISH. nationalize the stee monopolies and introduce workers' control in the steel industry. here must be no repetition of 1945-50.

If the steel barons resist Labour should not hesitate to imprison them for violating the law tne lana.

Let Mr. Wilson speak up-or does his silence mean consent? Full text of a letter from the Editor of The Newsletter to the Editor of the 'Sunday Telegraph' Dear Sir, I wish to draw your attention to an article writen by a member of your staff, Peter Gladstone Smith, in the May 31 issue of the 'Sunday Telegraph'.

The article, called Police Guard for Young Socialists', purported to convey the impression that Trotskyists have been intimidating Young Socialists with threats of violence and, in one case, actually resorting to violence to crush opposition in the Young Socialists movement.

Referring to a 'loyalist' organisation set up to fight Trotskyist "infiltration' in the Young Socialists, your reporter remarks:

"The organisation intends to remain anonymous at present. Many of its members fear physical violence?

And again, referring to a Young Socialist who had been warned by a detective that there was a threat to stab him he comments:

"At his Worcestershire home this boy said to me: "Four weeks ago three men entered my room, held me down on the carpet and burned my arms with a hot poker because I refused to give up some documents"?

Although your reporter does not indicate which group was behind this attack, nevertheless, taken in the context of the whole The Newsletter to the article, it conveys the impression that the Trotskyists organised this attack.

As editor of the only Trotskyist weekly paper in this country-and as a member of the only authentic Trotskyist organisation-I wish to protest strongly against the allegation contained in your reporter's article.

The Trotskyist movement has never resorted to violence in order to convince or repudiate our opponents in the labour movement.

We seek to convince the majority through patient explanation, argument, discussion and debate to our point of view.

We rely-and have always relied —on the power of our ideas and the correctness of our method, to convince our opponents.

We would have no hesitation in expelling or disciplining any member of the Socialist Labour League found guilty of violence towards other members of the labour movement. That is a tradition and principle which we have always upheld.

As far as I am aware, there were no acts of violence or threats by any member of the Socialist Labour League in Brighton or Worcestershire.

The only disturbance that occurred was when supporters of Transport House attempted to assault a reporter and photographer from The Newsletter outside the Young Socialists Conference in Brighton while officials of the Labour Party complacently looked on.

The Newsletter has complained to the Labour Party about this incident on two occasions-without ever receiving an acknowledgement, In my opinion, the allegation of violence made against the Socialist Labour League and Trotskyists is not new.

It is a canard designed to smear the organisation in the eyes of workers. It is also aimed at disrupting the left wing in the Young Socialists in order to facilitate the dissolution of the Young Socialists movement after the general election.

In view of this I should like to know from your reporter the names of the people involved, when the incidents took place and where.

If your information is true and correct, I shall treat it with the utmost gravity.

I assure you that I am just as concerned about defending the integrity of my paper as you are in promoting yours.

Yours faithfully, M. BANDA

Page Tw June 1964

REMAINING true to his policy of keeping well in with the imperialist and anti- 21. - : - 1: - л Chinese powers, Harold Wilson agreed on a policy of neutralism in South-east Asia during his talks in Russia this week.

Along with the Tory and US governments and the Soviet Union, Wilson hopes to stop the spread of pro-Chinese support in Laos by maintaining the neutralist (but obviously anti-Chinese) government of Prince Souvanna Phouma.

With the US losing millions of dollars in the war in neighbouring South Vietnam the last thing they want is a trouble spot in the same area.

Khrushchev also wants to see a neutral government in power because of his big differences with the Chinese communists on the question of co-existence and he is prepared to support the imperialists on the question.

As leader of the Labour Party and prospective Prime Minister, Wilson is entering into shady deals which bolster up the US imperialists in their fight to maintain the power and influence of the Soviet bureaucracy.

POLICY

As in his 'get tough policy' on Cypric, those atatessa of Wilson on neutrality are indicative of his policy as future leader of the Labour government.

But however desperate the Johnson administration is, it is still determined that no settlement shall be detrimental to imperialist interests.

It has refused to accept proposals made by Russia and France that there should be talks between the 14 powers who took part in the 1962 Geneva conference on Laos.

Washington stated that Johnson's aides would not participate in the talks until the Pathet Lao ordered a cease fire and returned to the positions they had held before the present offensive.

In the hope of avoiding a full-scale conference, where they might not come out on top, Johnson and his colleagues met army advisers this week to try and work out some way of halting the communist advance.

/0l. 8, No. 349 B/OSL FILE Price in assurance of a substantial The ultimatum was unanimously wage increase, or we will take action to enforce our claim. agreed upon at a mass meeting of the dockers last Sunday.

AN HISTORIC BETRAYAL Nehru votes for the Mountbatten plan to partition India in For a Marxist analysis of Nehru's life see page 3 Mr. Bill Johnson, area secretary of the Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers Union (Blue Union), spoke bitterly of the battle for the basic wage.

'We are not going to the employers cap in hand this time,' he said. We don't have to prove our case, it speaks tor itself. The basic wage today of £9 9s. for a docker with a family is below the subsistence level paid to an unemployed man by the National Assistance Board.?

The meeting was called as a result of a stoppage at the Gladstone dock earlier last week over tonnage rates for men on delivery.

'We all known that the answer the Gladstone men were fighting for is what we are all after-an increase in the basic wage,' said Johnson.

Wage drop He warned that all overtime and tonnage bonuses would drop later in the year during a possible trade recession. "The majority of dockers would find themselves going home with the same as the men on delivery (£8 10s.) then,' he said.

He also warned that the employers had been 'spoiling for a fight' for 12 months.

'Let us be under no illusions. They are not going to give in without a fight.

They want a showdown and they are preparing for it.

There are big stakes involved, he commented.

The employers had not yet achieved what they had in other industries—reorganisation of the mines, railways and motor industry. which bad brought misery, unemployment and speed-ups.

Set limit The fight for a basic f15 a week for dockers was a fight with the employing class. But the 'Blue Union' had tremendous forces and would choose its time and conditions for the fight.

'We shall set a limit for the employer to answer by and tell him that if he doesn't give way, then there is going to be big trouble.

Earlier, Peter Kerrigan, a "Blue Union' member, said of the struggle: 'We do not want the situation that we had a few years ago when first Liverpool were out on strike for a week, then London came out for a week. The lack of unity weakened us.

'We must say that when one comes out, all come out!' It is hoped to call a meeting of representatives from all ports before the next meeting of the National Joint Council for the Dock Industry in June, so that the employers can be made aware of the feeling in the industry.

Lorrymen's

pay strike A NATIONAL strike of drivers, mates and packers from the Caledonia road services depots at Little Hoole (Preston), Manchester, Liverpool and Falkirk may be called by the Transpor and General Workers' Union if a wage increase for the Preston drivers, promised by the management in March, is not paid in thret weeks.

The pay rise of 1ls. a week would bring the men's wages into line with those in the nationalized British Road Services.

Another Ford? ROOTES, Linwood, announced on Wednesday that all 270 sacked men would be reinstatod (see story back page). It is understood that men transferred to the assembly line have complained about conditions on the job. At Pressed Steel pressure has been building up for action to defeat Rootes plans for speed-up and to throw out the Emerson 'efficiency' plan.

crisis OVER 50 members of Young Communist League branches in London, Leicester, Oxford, Sheffield and Scotland have issued a statement condemning the leadership of the arganisa. tion and calling for the reinstatement of many expelled and suspended members.

The statement, titled "The Young Communist League Crisis', maintains that opposition inside the organisation is being expelled before the 25th YCL congress in November, to destroy the possibility of any differences being discussed.

Thest expulsions are related to the crisis of capitalism, the brunt of which is borne by frustrated and discontented youth, it says.

Isolated

The YCL has not established itself as a leadership of this youth, but remains 'small and isolated'.

"The policies of peaceful coexistence with capitalism are leading to a transformation of the YCL into a reformist organisation,' says the statement.

'Challenge', the YCL paper, "is not in faot a youth paper. It is produced by a handful of adults whose politics are the same as they were in Stalin's lifetime.

'Any criticism of the present leadership of the YCL is immediately dubbed Trotskyist inspired, just as it was in the days of Stalin,' the statement adds.

This same leadership, it claims, has not organised a single campaign against the Tories while the Young Socialists learned to fight the right wing through struggle and passed resolutions for nationalization, workers' control, etc, it its conference.

'Unity in aclion around this policy must be realised between the YCL and the YS in the coming months,' says the statement. This is vital if an alternative communist leadership is to be posed to Wilson and the right-wing betrayers of the working class.

Dubbed

Instead of the YCL leadership applauding the YS decisions, 'they dubbed the whole thing as Trotskyist inspired 'Every time, whether it be in the YCL or the YS. , someone proposes to do something or enters into a serious discussion on the problems of youth, the word Trotskyist is immediately trotted out by Reid and company, although the last thing these people will do, is to engage in a serious discussion on what is Trotskyism.

'We believe there should be such discussion.'

Conspiracy By Thursday this week the typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen had claimed over 300 confirmed victims.

As the epidemic spread through the city the Tory government did its best to hush up the seriousness of the matter. It attempted to shield itself and centain manufacturers by denying that the outbreak was necessarily due to infected corned beef.

Many people in Aberdeen have been caused a lot of distress and those responsible for this outbreak should be made to pay out full compensation.

The city's Medical Officer for Health, Dr. MacQueen, stressed that the ttyphoid oubreak was due to an infected can of beef.

It is obvious that because of the meat shortage, supplies of meat which were not really edible were being put on the market so that big business could take advantage of a scaroity of fresh beef.

PANIC

On Tuesday Dr. MacQueen named two firms, one of which, he said, was responsible for the infedtion of the meat.

As a panic measure the government then ordered that all 6 lb. tins of corned beef produced by the two plants during the period January 1963 to March 1964 should be withdrawn from the market.

It was stated that the water which is used to cool the cans had not been chlorinated during the period mentioned above. (Chlorine kills any germs present in the water.)

To try and counteract the outbreak Aberdeen various measures have been taken. Streets are being sprayed with disinfectant and people are being urged to maintain the utmost cleanliness.

HYGIENE

But when people are packed tightly together like sardines in large cities, with only the barest hygiene facilities and when a wash and brush up costs threepence a time at the public lavatories how can the working class be expected to keep the high standard of cleanliness required to combat a disease like typhoid?

Now, when it is a bit late in the day, the Tories decide to withdraw the tins of corned beef and big campaigns for hygiene are launched.

But why was the meat infected in the first place? Why was it not inspected properly?

The fact is that food, like everything else, is geared to profit making by big monopolists who are so busy making these large sums of money from the everyday needs of people, that they do not have time to observe hygiene measures which may hold up production.

THE domination over the British labour movement of reformist politicians and reformist, empirical ideas, is no accident. The strength of reformism in this section of the international working class movement is a product of the peculiar course of historical development taken by British capitalism over the last 150 years.

It is the aim of this and another article to examine the economic basis for reformist politics in this country.

The extent of reformism was glaringly exposed in Britain, as in all the European states, in 1914 when the 'leaders' of the labour movement went over to the side of their 'own' government to wage the war against 'Germany'.

In the second article we shall examine the developments since the time when Lenin exposed such people as traitors and enemy agents within the working class movement.

Sacrifice

What is meant by reformist politics? As Lenin suggests in the passage quoted above, reformism and opportunism represent the politics of those tendencies in the labour movement who sacrifice the general, long-term interests of the class in its continual struggle with capital, for immediate, temporary, day-to-day interests of a small section of the class.

As Eduard Bernstein so famously put it: "The movement is everything, the final aim is nothing' Reformism depends, therefore, upon the ability of the Trade crisis for Labour?

recently when the April foreign trade figures were released. For the second month this year an unexpectedly high excess of imports over exports was shown.

The deficit for the month, on what is called the 'seasonally adjusted' basis, was given as £55 million.

On present showing the total deficit for " 1964 could top £200 million —twice that previously anticipated. Anything like a run on the pound, provoked by the state of the foreign exchange and gold reserves. or by the impending election of a Labour goverment, could push it much higher.

Expansion

The current deficit is the price British capitalism has to pay for the present high rate of expansion. Its precarious position in the world market imposes limits to the rate and extent of the boom periods.

At such times industry increases its demand for imported raw materials, stocks rise and machinery and equipment will be purchased abroad. Consumer spending on foreign goods also rIses.

'Opportunism was engendered in the course of decades by the peculiarities of the period of development of capitalism when the comparatively peaceful and cultured existence of a stratum of privileged workers made them 'bourgeois', gave them crumbs from the profit of their national capital, and isolated them from the sufferings, miseries and revolutionary sentiments of the ruined impoverished masses' (Lenin-'Collapse of the Second International') leaders of the labour movement to meet the needs of a small minority in the working class, a section which Lenin here calls the "bourgeois' strata in the class, at other times the 'Labour aristocracy'.

By 'Labour aristocracy' Lenin means that small section of the working class which enjoys considerable benefits compared to the majority of workers-benefits in terms of higher and more stable earnings, greater social standing, better opportunities for advancement, both for themselves and their children, better working conditions, etc.

As a privileged layer. this section sees itself as having interests distinct from those of the working class in general and tends to adopt a reformist approach to industrial and political questions.

No strategy That is, although the representatives of this layer might talk about 'socialism', they have no overall strategy and plan for achieving a revolutionary change in the structure of society and are interested only in day-to-day gradual and immediate changes.

It was in the period after 1850 that a distinct aristocracy began to emerge within the working class movement.

By this date, British capitalism had gained a position of overwhelming dominance in the world as the leading capitalist State.

Thanks to a whole number of historical factors, British capitalism was first in the field and experienced rapid industrial transformation many years before Gemany, France, the United States and Japan.

Exports do not increase fast enough to meet the increased need for foreign exchange. Reserves fall and confidence in the pound sterling declines abroad.

These tendencies have been aggravated by price increases in the kind of goods Britain imports and, no doubt, by difficulty in entering some protected foreign markets.

Restrictions

The present high growth rate, based on industrial investment, is thus in danger of being cut short by new restrictions-higher Bank Rate, new taxes on consumer spending, less government investment. The inflationary tendencies at home are meanwhile pointing in the same direction.

The last budget held off from introducing such restrictions. To dampen the boom now could end the last glimmer of Tory hope of an electoral victory in October.

By that time it would seem that a serious balance of payments problem would be about due. The Labour government would then come on the scene just in time to be landed with a major crisis.

This brought immense advantages. Britain was able to exploit an overseas Colonial Empire and establish herself as the major supplier of industrial equipment, railways, plant and machinery to the rest of the world: to become the 'workshop of the world' in the well-known phrase.

Thus 1850 ushered in a new phase in the history of British capitalism and in the history of the working class movement.

Before this date, revolutionary tendencies had been strong, culminating in the geat Chartist Movement of the 1840s. This had been a mass movement containing a definite revolutionary wing led by such people as George Julian Harney.

But, by 1850, the movement collapsed. A period of peace and prosperity, based on Britain's dominance as a capitalist power followedthe "Golden Years' as they are sometimes called.

Prosperity and expansion brought benefits, mainly to the small craft and artisan sections of the working class - the builders, shipbuilders, skilled engineers, woodworkers, cabinet makers, boilermakers, etc.

Privileged

These craft sections dominated the organised labour movement until 1890. Trade unionism meant unionism for the privileged few: the semi-skilled and unskilled remained unorganised. This was the period of 'New Model' unions when the A.S.E. (Associated Society of Engineers) and the builders, woodworkers, etc., formed unions exclusively for the skilled trade.

These unions were characterised by their high level of contributions (fixed so the unskilled could not pay them) and benefits, and by the emergence of a full-time, permanent trade union bureaucracy to organise them.

Such unions were interested, not in the affairs of the whole working class, but in their own particular sectional interests; in maintaining their own position as skilled, respectable men, enjoying a high status and having more chance of 'advancement'.

The industrial policy of these craft unions — which embraced only 10 per cent of the labour force-was one of class collaboration and peace.

They were interested in coexisting with the employers, rather than overthrowing them: in negotiating wage increases for their own section; in raising wages rather than abolishing the wages system.

Lost power

After 1880-1890 changes took place in the composition of the labour aristocracy. With the advent of increasing mechanisation in trades such as engineering, certain craft sections began to lose their former power to regulate wages. This was the period when there developed a large layer of semi-skilled machine minders, largely paid by results.

But these one-time 'aristocrats' were replaced by growing numbers of clerical workers, bank employees, school teachers, office workers in central and local government establishments.

It was this layer which gave the power to reformist politics in this country. Politically, the more skilled sections tended to be Liberal rather than Labour. In some areas, notably Lancashire, there was a tradition of conservatism among the skilled 'aristocrats' of the cotton industry.

It is interesting that the unions who affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 (the body out of which the Labour Party grew) were those with unskilled rank and file members and had been established in the 1880s.

Of the craft unions who affiliated, nearly all were engaged in some particular battle against the introduction of machinery which threatened to modernise their craft position and cast them down into ranks of the unskilled working class.

Alliance

Most of the skilled unions were quite willing (at least until the famous Taff Vale case in 1901 which threatened the whole legal basis of trade unionism) to work in alliance with the Liberal Party and had no aspirations to an independent class party of Labour.

It was on the basis of this skilled, aristocratic minority that Fabianism-Britain's parțicular brand of reformism— was based. The Fabians believed that socialism could be achieved gradually by Parliamentary means.

They were initially opposed to the creation of the Labour Party: they believed it would be possible to 'permeate' the Libe:al Party.

In the same way, Ramsay MacDonald (a reformist if not MacDonald: deal with Liberals tormally a member of the Fabian Society) negotiated a secret agreement with the Liberal Party to 'share out' available seats and avoid open clashes between Liberal and Labour candidates.

Thus, the strength of reformism in Britain today is no accident. It has deep, historical roots in the development of British capitalism. Because of its power in the world, British capital was able to "buy off' and 'bribe' a small section of the working class and thereby feed the ideas of capitalism into the class.

PUBLICITY given to the terrible housing conditions in Loscoe, South Yorkshire, is having some effect.

One tenant thanked The Newsletter for his roof being repaired. He kept a copy beside his rent book and gave it to the rent collector when he called.

Some toilets are flushing for the first time in two years and one young man told The Newsletter that a new toilet was being installed and repairs done to his house.

NOT IMPRESSED These repairs have been made since the tenants attended a Labour Party meeting last week.

But it is not enough just to patch up these dilapidated and crumbling houses. They must be pulled down and the tenants re-housed by the local council.

Most tenants were not imsays Los pressed with the reception they had at the Labour Party meeting in Featherstone and some feel it may be at least another two years before they are re-housed.

'The Labour council needs a bulldozer behind it to get it moving,' said one housewife.

'We have to live in houses that are not fit for pigs. If the councillors can't get the repairs done to my house why don't they cut the rates?' she asked.

Her two daughters, who also live in rotting Loscoe houses, pay £12 and £14 a year for rates. They have no hot water, no bath and the toilet is halfway down the street.

ROOF REPAIRS

Another tenant said her roof needed mending for the second time in two years-some cannot be repaired because they will not stand the weight of a man. Two years ago her grandchild tenant nearly died from a chill caused by a draught blowing through the roof.

A doctor said the room was not fit to have a baby in. A Labour councillor was shown the hole in the roof, but it was a year before it was repaired.

PRESS INVESTIGATE Four weeks after The Newsletter began reporting the conditions in Loscoe, a reporter from the 'Pontefract and Castleford Express' called to investigate housing defects. He was shown leaking ceilings and walls, and bedrooms filled with bowls and buckets to catch the water.

The polluted stream which runs through Loscoe is still a great danger to children. Many young mothers dare not let their children out of their sight in case they fall through the gaps in the rickety wall running alongside the stream, or bring the wall down on themselves.

Two more children have recently fallen the six feet into the stream.

When our reporter visited the village a family was just being evicted. Furniture was lying in the street.

No doubt the rent will go up when that house is re-let. In 40 years, the rents have risen from 4s. 6d. a week to 17s. 6d. a week, and by 10s. since 1956.

RENTS JUMP

But some new tenants are paying well over £l. The rent of one house jumped from 17s. '6d. to 28s. after it became vacant and only two ground floors were dry enough to use.

These houses are a tremendous danger to the health of working class families.

Loscoe tenants must join together and enrol in the Labour Party to carry out a fight to force the Labour council to help them.

NEWSLETTE Three

three weeks ago in the Oatlands area of Glasgow to fight against slum housing is increasing.

At their second meeting last Thursday, 60 people attended and brought complaints against landlords and corporation officials who ignore the conditions in which they live.

Many pledged their support for the committee and the campaign for decent housing with adequate facilities for cooking, eating, washing, sleeping and recreation.

The committee is compiling a list of the most urgent problems and intends to fight each case on its merits.

One such case is that of a young couple with a 15-monthold baby. Since he was born the baby has been in hospital six times with dysentery, enteritis and bronchial trouble.

Damp

Their home', which was shown to The Newsletter reporter, consists of a oneroom apartment on the ground floor of a tenement for which they pay a rent of £2 10s. per month. Each of the four walls is so damp that even in the present warm, dry weather the damp does not disappear.

It is possible to have only the smallest of coal fires, otherwise smoke belches back into the room and because of the condition of the flues and chimney there is the risk of fire breaking out.

This did, in fact, occur a few months ago and the firemen who putout the fire expressed amazement that anyone should be living in such an unsafe house.

There was no fire lit when our reporter visited the couple, but the smell of soot and acrid smoke began to penetrate the room either from next door or an apartment above.

The mother has been told by her doctor that unless she moves into better accommodation the baby is not likely to live more than another six months.

Re-house

Meanwhile for the sake of the infant, the couple live with the husband's mother on the top floor of the tenement during the day, coming down to their own 'home' only to sleep.

The committee intend to fight to get this family re-housed on health grounds.

• Another problem which the committee will fight, on the grounds of overcrowding, is that committee formed of a family with nine children who also live in a single tenement apartment. The children sleep in bunks.

Many of the tenants realise, however, that fighting for each individual family is going to be a long and slow business which will not get to the root of the problem of slum housing.

They are, therefore, planning to organise a mass demonstration to the City Chambers, if possible with the support of tenants in other parts of the city. This will be the prelude to a lobby of parliament and petition to the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Their campaign has the full support of Young Socialists who are helping to organise meetings, collections, distribute leaflets, etc., as well as raising the issue inside the labour movement.

Determination

The fight against Glasgow's slums will not be easy and will require great determination. Social welfare schemes and 'dogooding' are totally inadequate.

Slum housing of the magnitude which exists in Glasgow can only be solved by revolutionary measures. It is this kind of action which workers in Glasgow must demand of the future Labour government.

The number of applicants to be re-housed in Glasgow is around the 100,000 mark. A survey taken in 1958 revealed That 41 per cent of the families in Glasgow were living in either one-roomed or two-roomed houses (this does not include ¡houses which are sub-let as rooms).

Low standards

Thirty-eight per cent of the population shared toilet facilities, 51 per cent had no baths and in three of the municipal wards the total was as high as. 70 per cent.

Of 327,053 houses in 1958, only 55 per cent were regarded as an acceptable standard for habitation, 15 per cent were capable of improvement to accepted standards, and 30 per cent were regarded as totally unfit, or likely to become so by 1965, for habitation:

The Gorbals is divided into two municipal wards, Hutchesontown, which includes Oatlands, and Gorbals. In Hutchesontown 30 per cent of the population lived in one-roomed houses in 1958 and 59 per cent in two-roomed houses. In Gorbals 14 per cent lived in one-roomed houses and 45 per cent in two rooms.

Building

Between 1951 and 1958 in the whole of Glasgow there was a reduction of 2 per cent in the number of one-roomed houses occupied, in Gorbals it was reduced by 4 per cent. Not a particularly promising result for seven years of house building.

Between 1957 and 1962 the corporation planned to build 924 new houses in Hutchesontown.

In the first year of the plan 96 houses were built, in 1963 428 houses were allocated. Thus after seven years the Corporation's house building target for this area alone is 400 behind the schedule.

In the rest of the Gorbals almost no progress has been made, and some parts are mot scheduled for re-development until 1980.

It is small wonder that the nants in the Gorbals are eptical of promises and are w organising for action.

FURTHER incidents of heightened the crisis British Guiana.

Last Saturday and Sunday an African was beaten to death in an Indian community and a man and girl were seriously hurt.

Racial violence between the Indian and African sections of the community continues.

A week ago, 400 British troops were ordered into Guiana by the Tories to prevent violence, but there have been no results so far.

In fact, as is always the case when troops are sent to colonial countries, the situation in the country is aggravated further.

Jagan: co-operate with forces On May 28 a patrol of the Queen's Own Buffs were attacked by Indians, who were later arrested.

As a result of rioting in Weimar village last week, Mrs. Janet Jagan, wife of the Prime Minister of British Guiana, handed in her resignation as Home Minister.

Both Dr. Jagan and Forbes Burnham, leader of the People's National Congress, have made pleas to the people for cooperation with security forces.

They also made vague promises of a solution to the violence at the end of last week of racialism now taking place in country's problems future.

They hope to obtain this solution by sitting round the conference table with the leader of British Guiana's third political party-the United Force Party.

However, their talks will not solve the split that has taken place between the Indians and the Africans in the country.

The violence which has raged through both communities in the last few weeks is a direct result of the policies of British imperialism for decades.

COALITION

Forbes Burnham told reporters that the People's National Congress is prepared to go into coalition with Jagan's People's Progressive Party—if the PNC is given responsibility for the Ministry of Home Affairs and an equal number of other ministries and seats in the Senate.

Burnham wants the next election to run under a system of proportional representation.

But neither Jagan nor Burnham will solve the problems facing British Guiana by the policies they are putting forward at the moment.

These two men have become the puppets of the British monopolists, who have very large interests in the sugar produced The Tories are so concerned at keeping a hold on the wealth of this country that they have maintained troops there since 1953 and also have a governor to keep an eye on things.

etaji Bose—leader Army died in a a religious fanatic National Congress-the ruling

SUPPORTERS of Pierre Mulele — who advocates a unified Congo without the provinces into which the country is now divided — staged an unsuccessful revolt last week.

Although the rebels did have control over Albertville for a short period of time about 150 of them were arrested a few days ago.

Mulele was a follower of Patrice Lumumba, the country's first prime minster adter Belgium gave the Congo its independence.

Lumumba is believed to have been brutally murdered by United Nations forces because he would not accept the Belgian government's conditions that the country should be divided.

Although the imperialists, under the cover of the United Nations, managed to break up a lot of the resistance by murdering Lumumba and imprisoning Gizenga the recent revolt makes it obvious that there is still support for the kind of united country that Lumumba fought for.

Many of Mulele's supporters are believed to have been recruited from the left-wing Jeunesse (youth) bands. Some rate number of rebels as high as 1,000.

The president of the North Katanga Assembly, Mr Ilunga, has been arrested in Elizabethville, charged with leading the revolt.

Congolese army commander Colonel Bobozo confined the 14th battalion to barracks and replaced them with soldiers from Elizabethville. ›ow to the wisnes or the sugal bosses and help keep the Indian and African workers under suppression?

LAST week saw two reminders that, whatever Khrushcher may say, Ben Bella's rule is by no means universally accepted in Algeria.

In the Kabyle district, government torces, in renewed action against the outlawed Socialist Forces Front, suffered heavy losses. Ben Bella has been forced to send reinforcements, indluding, it is believed, some recently acquired Soviet tanks.

In Algiers itself, there was an explosion outside Ben Bella's house followed by a burst of machine gun fire. An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards. It is believed that these actions were carried out by the Socialist Forces Front in an attempt to spread their fight into the city of Algiers. Ben Bella, of course, has branded the SFF as 'criminal and traitorous' and has been backed in his analysis by Khrushchev.

The Algerian leader has recently signed international agreements with Britain and France concerning the Saharan oil and has received promises of large-scale Soviet aid into the bargain.

Ben Bella rose to power on the guns of the army to prevent the Algerian war against the French from turning into a class fight for workers' power. He has consistently used that army to put down any rebellion inside Algeria and to impose his policies of negotiations with the Western imperialists and Soviet bureaucracy on the Algerian working class.

That army is, in fact, equipped with Soviet arms and those policies will be increasingly backed by Soviet finance in the name of 'peaceful co-existence'.

This is yet another example of the cynicism of the bureaucracy which helps local capitalists in preference to the working class.

In Egypt, Khrushchev agreed to supply arms to Aref, the butcher of Iraqi communists. He also decorated Nasser, who imprisons communists ('Pravda' later 'justified' the decoration by publishing a news item that now there are no communists in Egyptian jails).

Khrushchev's support for Ben Bella is consistent with his policies of conciliation with capitalism everywhere.

Page June 6,1964

party of bourgeois-landlord India--was held together and led by prestige of one man—-Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru.

Now Nehru's death has left a void in the Congress which can never be filled by either Desai or Shastri-or both.

It marks the end of an epoch in India's turbulent history and the beginning of a new and more convulsive one.

It might truly be said that Nehru died in appointment with history.

What really was Nehru's impact on the world in general—and India in particular? How should Marxists appraise his role and history in world and Indian politics?

These questions immediately suggest themselves when we read the adulatory tributes of capitalist statesman and the tearful editorials of the capitalist and working class press.

Lord Mountbatten — the man who helped vivisect India and caused one of the largest and bloodiest migrations in the 20th century—has described Nehru as 'one of my greatest friends'....

President Johnson, leader of mumsm and calel Negroes and colonial peoples had this to say:

'For so long we had counted on his influence for good; it now seems impossible to believe that he is no longer with us.' 'Sincere friend' Mr. Khrushchev has described Nehru as a 'sincere friend of the Soviet Union'. Mr. Wilson hailed him as the 'father of his people' who 'adopted a neutralist posture, but when the chips were down we could see where his loyalties lay'. (Mr. Wilson should know!)

One of the most curious eulogies however is that profferred by that aged cynic R. Palme Dutt. In an article called "This Great Figure of our Times' in the Daily Worker' the author tries desperately and clumsily to reconcile Nehru's anti-communist politics at home with his pacifistic pretensions abroad.

Presuming posterity's judgment Dutt states: 'He was the leader of the great age of transition of India, of the first era of Indian Independence .. his positive achievements in the cause of India and world peace outweighed all that was negative.?

Only a master of political 'rhubarb' like Dutt could write such nonsense which omits any Nehru: last of the Holy Trinity' class analysis of Nehru's politics and treats him as if he were a dry cell battery.

Mr. Dutt talks of an 'age (!) of transition'. To what? To socialism? It could hardly be. Even Duttt bas to bmit as much. And what about India's independence?

Under Congress leadership this independence-—unlike the independence of China or Vietnam-was predicated on the partition of India by imperialism and not on its unification by national revolutionary war.

Moreover, it created a new relationship between British imperialism and the Indian capitalists who held political power. It did not imply the termination of this relationship but only: a readjustment.

It was Nehru's and Gandhi's unique abilities that enabled power the fragile figure and immense to be transferred from Whitehall to New Delhi without unleashing the gigantic social forces aroused by the post-war events in India. In this they were aided as usual by the treachery of the Indian CP.

With his aristocratic upbringing, his English public school education, his secular outlook, his close ties with the younger generation of nationalists and his reformistsocialist pretensions, Nehru was an ideal candidate for the Presidency of the INC.

Harnessed left wing Gandhi reserved for himself the role of organiser, arbiter and philosopher of the movement. It was Gandhi's ideas—first tried out in South Africa-of boycott, non-violence, home-rule (later amended to 'independence') and Swadeshi (home industry) which suited the interests of the Indian capitalists best.

But it was the charisma of Nehru-and his demagogy-which harnessed the left-wing intellectuals, the socialists and the trade unions to the Congress bandwagon.

One of the most pervasive myths about Nehru is that he was a totally committed and deeply convinced socialist. This is nonsense. Nehru was a fervent believer in capitalism - with a measure of state control and planning. Mr. Wilson calls this 'mixed coonomy' and Mr. Nehru liked to call it 'socialist pattern'.

The creation of a 'state sector' in Indian industry has not made India a socialist nation any more than Britain.

Nehru's legacy The creation of heavy and basic industries could not be undertaken by the private capitalists for lack of material resources and finances. Hence we had the intervention of the capitalist state and state ownership of a number of industries.

This has not altered basically the capitalist character of the Indian economy or the nature of the Indian state.

The legacy left by Nehru's rule LAVING boosted the 125,000,000 dollars, continuing the war there driving north.

But this is neither a definite nor confident move by the Johnson Administration.

Intervention in the area was seen originally as a rebuft to the southward thrust of the communist fighters, but the whole of Southcast Asia has boomeranged back into the faces of the imperialists.

The Vietcong make more frequent, more brazen attacks; Pathet Lao (communist) forces are routing the troops of General Kong Le in Laos; and 'neutralist' Cambodia is providing the Vietcong with a perfect springboard for occasional dives into the pool of chaos and confusion in South Vietnam and its capital, Saigon.

This week President Johnson is holding a conference of his aides on South-east Asia in Honolulu, during which, says Alistair Cooke in Monday's 'Guardian', they will 'pray for a miracle' (.) The situation has become even more pressing as the US elections are only six months away.

On Monday a Republican senator said in a radio interview that the Administration intended to move its troops north in Vietnam, but he was not sure whether the country's new puppet ruler, General Khanh, would be in favour.

SUGGESTION

The House Detence Appropriation Committee of the US Government decided against using Senator Barry Goldwater's suggestion of blasting the top off the Vietnam jungle with low yield atomic bombs to uncover the guerrillas. (Goldwater, an extreme right-wing politician, is finding support hard to come by in the primary elections for US presidency and has since denied advocating the use of atomic weapons in Vietnam.)

The US is still desperate though and continues to pour news of Vietoong attacks on Vietnamese peasants into the world's press.

The same press fails to mention the viciousness of American and South Vietnamese troops. Only the 'Daily Express', ', of Britain's press, carried a picture of a Vietcong guerrilla being keelhauled' through a river by US troops. The peasantry too, suffers from the war tactics of the troops . Villages are burned, rice economy of South Vietnam by the United States now talks of against the Vietcong guerrillas by crops are ruined.

In fact outside of Saigon, the Vietnamese have become tired of the ten-year trouble in their country and see no difference in the policies of Buddhist Khanh from those of Ngo Dinh Diem, the Catholic leader who was killed in Khanh's coup. Many are giving aid to the Vietcong.

Meanwhile the US has to fight against another idea, which is as unsavoury to them as the idea of quitting South-east Asia. That is the call by the outlawed Vietnam National Liberation Front-an anti-communist organisation-for the 'neutralisation' of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The NLF is supported by de Gaulle in this.

'VISITORS'

But 'neutralism' does not work for imperialism in South-east Asia In Laos 'neutralist troops are routed, while in Cambodia, semi-feudal Prince Sihanouk has done nothing to discourage his Vieteong 'visitors' from resting and re-arming themselves for further attacks on South Vietnam.

Sihanouk actually complained through his United Nations representative that his country had been the subject of US aggressionseven Cambodians were killed carly in May when South Vietnamese troops chased Vietcong guerrillas across the border.

Scared of 'neutralism', sickened by the thought of withdrawing altogether from Vietnam and fearful of an all-out Korean-type war, the Johnson Administration is probably trying a gigantic bluff by the dangerous talk of driving north.

It is more likely that Johnson is still hoping to shelve any decision on South-east Asia until after the American elections.

But there is nothing he, or any other reactionary representative of imperialism can do to prevent the terror and bloodshed in South-east Asia-hysterically carried out in the name of 'saving' the area from communism— except by withdrawing every single member of the American forces.

The Labour Party in Britain must press for this withdrawal now and condemn the diplomatic moves by Home and the Tories, aimed only at safeguarding their protege, Malaysia.

The question posed by the present situation in British Guiana is: will Wilson, when abour comes to power, merel PRESIDENT Sukarno of Indonesia appears to have deviated from his 'crush Malaysia' policy in accepting a summit conference on differences between the two countries. For almost 17 months official and unofficial (communist) Indonesian forces have been battling with Malaysian and British troops in Borneo.

Agreement on the talks were announced last week-end, just two days after Indonesia refused to accept the summit on condition that the country withdrew its forces from Malaysian territory in Sabah and Sarawak.

After breakdowns in several talks held since last summer, Mr. Salvador Lopez, a special envoy from the Philippines, finally clinched the summit agreement after talks with Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia and President Sukarno at the week-end.

It is expected that Indonesia, which says it will begin to withdraw its forces when the talks begin, may also call for the withdrawal of Commonwealth troops from Malaysia.

Volunteers

Meanwhile Sukarno has sent more volunteers to the border of North Borneo and Indonesia. He maintains that the formation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah ino Malaysia is a neo-colonialist plot.

British interests in Malaya are well known. They continue to use troops in the area to safeguard the big rubber business.

Denis Healey, the Shadow Defence Minister has already made clear what a Labour government's position would be on the Malaysia-Indonesia dispute. In Tokyo last week, he said there was a 'great virtue' in the Malphindo concept (Malaysia, Phillipines, Indonesia association). is succinctly summarised in a recent survey of the Indian Planning Commission: 'One-third of the entire national income of this country, it states, 'goes to 10 per (Cont. on page 4, col. 1)

His article nas been sent • The Newsletter by Foti Tofallis, a member of the Revolutionary Council of the Fourth International (Cyprus).

Tofallis joined the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1942 and since then has taken part in many militant strikes, been in jail for distributing leafiets and has written for many left-wing newspapers. He was, at one time, a member of the editorial board of 'Ergatis (Worker).

The Newsletter will comment on his article next week.

CYPRUS is located in the Eastern Mediterranean and has a population of 600,000—470.000 Greeks, 100,000 Turks, and 30,000 made up of Armenian, Maronites, British and others.

The Greeks have been in the island some 3,000 years and the Turks ever since 1571 when Cyprus was conquered by Turkey.

Britain took over Cyprus in 1878, and negotiated for the island's independence in 1960. The agreements of London and Zurich did not give full independence to the people of Cyprus as they did not allow them to decide their own future.

The British imperialists bargained with Makarios to obtain 99 square miles for their bases in return for 'independence' The agreements of London and Zurich gave excessive rights to the Turkish minority with the aim of implementing the policy of 'divide and rule' The British, through their bases on the island, cultivated the hatred between the Turks and the Greeks with the ultimate aim of dividing the island into two and establishing separate Greek and Turkish states.

Fighting broke out again in Cyprus in December 1963 and has continued. This has been aggravated by the policies of the rulers in London, Washington and Ankara.

On the one hand the GreekCypriots are calling for independence while, on the other hand, Turkish-Cypriot extremists, aided by the rulers in London, Washington and Ankara • call ' for the island's partition.

Today, the root of the real evil of' the Cyprus tragedy is the imperialist policy to continue the exploitation of their interests in the Middle East and of the people of Cyprus.

The British bases still serve as a bridge of imperialism and are a threat to countries neighbouring Cyprus.

The struggle of the Cypriot people must be turned against the imperialist bases which threaten the safety of the people of Cyprus.

British and American imperialists are now co-partners in the oil regions of the Arab world. But they only co-operate in order to protect their bases which are threatened daily by the struggles for national independence by oppressed people.

The people of Cyprus are sure that the plans of the imperialists will fail. Our epoch is not an epoch of colonialist and imperialist improvement, but an epoch of triumph of the movements for national liberation and a victory of the masses against the most shameful colonialist system.

Today the people of Cyprus are fighting with all their strength against the Anglo-American imperialists and the Turkish expansionists who support the Turkish-Cypriot extremist element in its aim for partition.

The Cypriots are fighting to break the chains of the Zurich and London agreements which deny real independence to all Cypriots.

PICKET CONFERENCE PICKETS from William Denby's, Baildon, near Bradford, dyeworks handed cut leaflets at the annual conference of the National Union of Dyers and Textile Workers last week condemning the executive's handling of the struggle against Denby's union-smashing tactics.

It is almost eight months since the management at Deby sacked all 250 workers and offered to take them back on an 'open shop' basis. • There are now only 120 workers still out. Most of the others have found work elsewhere and a few have drifted back to the dyeworks.

This is entirely due to the ineffectiveness of leaders of the union, who have refused to either spread the srike or make a real approach to other unions whose members remained at work.

Demands at conference included ont for stopping the entire indr;try—-which is the only way to win.

But delegates who were considering the suspension of standing orders so they could move an emergency resolution, allowed themselves to be talked out of this by vague promises of "fullest support' by the executive.

Mr. Sharpe declared that he wanted a 'fair, reasonable and honourable settlement'.

This is exactly what he "was saying seven and a half months ago.

Only way The Newsletter said then, and repeats now: The only way win this fight is to get every union to black Denby and to spread the dispute throughout the industry.

This means a fight against Mr. Sharpe and his friends. They showed what they are made of by opposing a resolution from Rossendale calling for a substantial pay increase.

The present minimum time-rate in the industry is a miserable £9 4s. I1d., yet the union executive declared it was quite impossible to obtain a rise.

Conference defeated the executive on the Rossendale resolution, which was carried on a show of hands.

The executive must be defeated on their handling of the Denby matter, too.

If they fight as hard for the pay increase as they have for the locked-out Denby men, the employers will just have a good belly-laugh.

There is a grim future for dyeworkers under this sort of leadership.

workers from their factory at Linwood, near Glasgow, is an indication of the ruthless determination of the car monopolies to speed up production and to check wage increases.

Directors ordered the sackings after a special meeting held in Glasgow to which Lord Rootes had flown from America.

On the same day John Boyd of the Amalgamated Engineering Union executive told the press: 'I have absolutely no reason at all to disagree with the Rootes decision."

Local officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union held a meeting of Rootes workers from other sections at which a decision was passed agreeing to transfer other men to the jobs on the assembly line. The 270 sacked men were not allowed to attend this meeting.

Only eight days previously John Boyd and Les Kealey of the TGWU visited the factory for consultations on how to end the disputes which have been going on over wage rates for the last three months.

The 270 were sacked, according to the company, for failing to reach production targets.

Stepped up

Since the factory was opened 18 months ago, output has been steadily stepped up to a peak of one car every three minutes. Wage rates have not kept pace with this. Assembly line workers are taking home no more than £14 per week.

Earnings in other parts of, the factory are only increased by overtime made necessary by the need to keep pace with the assembly line and the supplying of parts.

Immediately after the men had been told of their dismissal, foremen were sent to tell them they could reapply for their jobs individually. At the same time volunteers were being sought within the factory to transfer the assembly line.

A man who worked on the assembly line as a 'floater' had the job of serving as relief for 25 men, for surgery, toilet and tea - break purposes, in that order.

One worker injured on the track had to wait an hour and a half before being relieved. Others cannot find relief to get a brief tea break throughout the shift.

Pay The rate of pay for this work has built up from an initial training rate of 4s. 9d. per hour (now increased to 5s. Id. per hour), to a flat rate of 7s. 9d. per hour when trained and working on the track.

There is no piece work rate and the attempts of the Rootes management to introduce a bonus scheme based on total car sales was rejected by the men. The experience of the Pressed Steel workers across the road, where earnings have dwindled, has not been lost on the Rootes men.

It is the story of Ford, Dagenham, all over again.

The firm, by ruthless action, hopes to smash all militancy in the factory and to then speed up production even further with the consent of union officials.

But the fight is not yet over at Rootes, Linwood.

Boyd, Kealey and other union officials must be told to stop collaborating with the employers and to fight the car monopolies for decent wage rates.

They should demand that Labour state its intention of nationalizing the Rootes factories along with other sections of the car industry.

cent of the people? And it makes the revealing observation that 'two-thirds of the entire population of India now subsist at the starvation level'.

Profits have soared—and so have prices while real wages have risen only 5 per cent since 1939!

Under Nehru India's dependence on foreign capital increased considerably. British capital investments doubled while America pumped in more than 6,500,000,000 dollars in loans at exorbitant rates of interest.

Thus after 16 years of Nehru's 'socialism' India's foreign debt has quadrupled!

Nehru did nothing for the poor peasant. The proof: rural indebitedness between 1951-1962 increased by 35 per cent. The scope and frequency of evictions continued to grow.

The plight of the poor peasant under Nehru was probably worse than under the British. Certainly it was not any better.

The only people who profited by Nehru's policies were the rich peasants, the landlords and the money lenders in the rural areas. Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter. 186A Capham High Street, London, S. W.4 Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU).

Another myth about Nehru is that he was a 'democrat'. Nehru believed in democracy-for the rich and dictatorship. over the toilers.

Civil liberties hardly existed in Nehru's India and police firings became a regular occurrence—-even more frequent than under the British. There is little or no protection for linguistic or religious minorities as was recently seen in Orissa, Bengal, Punjab and Assam.

The lowest castes-the untouchables—have gained little or nothing from Nehru.

Threatened Now in addition to partition India is threatened by the twinheaded monster of regional particularism and linguistic fanaticism.

Mr. Nehru's version of democracy did not extend as far as the Communist Party. 'Bolshevism and fascism are really alike, he said in 1923. In 1950 he approved of the hanging of dozens of communists in Telengana and the jailing of thousands under his repressive laws.

(Why does Mr. Dutt omit to mention any of this bloody chapter of Nehru's life?)

In 1959 Nehru did not scruple at dismissing the elected and lawful Kerala Communist government and foisting a corrupt coalition regime on the people.

Mr. Nehru's 'neutralism' served definite class ends. It helped to strengthen the position of the capitalist olass at home and fool the illiterate and badly-led masses.

To his dying day Nehru remained an enthusiastic supporter of the United Nations Organisation —the tool of imperialism. His enthusiasm was tempered by the realisation that opposition to UNO might mean the end of Us aid to his five-year plans. Not neutralism but neutralism plus 5 per cent was Nehru's motto!

Pandit Nehru was a capitalist statesman — shrewd, subtle and calculating. He personified and served the interests of his class to the best of his ability. He remains paradoxical and enigmatic only to those who fail to see behind him the landlords, capitalists, retired princes, money lenders, bureaucrats, policemen and the caste, linguistic and religious fanatics who helped shape his home and foreign policy.

Those, who like Dutt look for the 'positive' and 'negative' sides of Nehru, are helping to perpetuate a dangerous and reactionary myth. Our task is to destroy it.

to what the 'Sunday Telegraph' called the "highly prized place of a job on the assembly track' Two weeks ago a vacancy advertised within the factory for the filling of a job as forklift driver with a drop of £1 in basic wage received 70 applicants from track workers!

Workers have been drawn from all parts of Scotland to work in the Linwood plant. All are agreed that 'the track is the boss', , no foreman is needed to speed production since the worker has to keep pace with UNE thing became clear at !

union are strongly opposer opposition. The speeches of N prepared the way for accepting other basic issues facing shipb Ted Hill counterposed fringe' | benefits - sick pay, unemployment pay, old age pensions-to wage increases. If funds could be built up for these benefits, then the union could forego a wage claim, he suggested. the Boilermakers Conference last 1 to a wage freeze, its leaders a 1cGarvey and Hill-general secr ; such a freeze, but took the sa vuilding workers.

MoGarvey had obviously prepared his intervention after full consultation with fellow members of the Labour Party executive.

He declared that if a Labour government put forward plans for "stabilising' incomes, increasing old age pensions and curtailing prices and profits, the union would look at it.

This is the sort of plan that Wilson and his colleagues have talked of introducing. It is the same sort of plan introduced by the late Sir Stafford Cripps in the last Labour government.

Given its right name, it is a wage freeze.

UNANIMOUS

Conference then went on to pass unanimously a resolution against 'all forms of wage restraint, irrespective of the political content of the government.

This move gives the real picture of the union. Members want to fight the employers' plans for ruthless reorganisation of their industries. But Ted Hill brought the views of the employers into the conference when he spoke about foreign competition in shipbuilding and new methods of construction.

"There may be a case to search our own consciences to see if it is not possible for us to assist in making these industries more competitive' he said.

This would mean lining British workers behind the employers : week. While members of the re determined not to lead that etary and presidentnot only me stand as the employers on for cut-throat competition in the world market and it is the way • the employers talk when demanding 'mobility of labour' and attacking strikes.

Militant members of the the union should take note of what The Times' industrial correspondent wrote.

REPUTATION

'Mr. Hill's reputation as a militant leader is so well established that delegates seemed to accept such unconventional ideas from him almost as if they were orthodox.' The important thing is not that these leaders make militant noises from time to time.

It is that they tone down, undermine and befog the militant demands of the rank and file. They sectionalise struggles and under the cover of these militant noises introduce the ideas of the right wing.

The 'Daily Worker' desperately tries to preserve the reputation of these leaders. It declared that to say Hill supported a wage freeze was 'distortion' by the press. So it helps Hill and Co. to cover up their capitulation to the right wing and the employers.

There was no one at the conference to bring out sharply the conflict between the wishes of the members and the intentions of the leaders.

Such a leadership can only be built in struggle against fake militancy. unavoidable. Amongst those delegates were men who make militant noises in front of the rank and file but who vote quite another way when the rank and file cannot see them.

QUESTION

The same question must be asked of the Yorkshire Area Council. If a majority there could reject the Coal Board offer, why could that same majority not reject the right wing manoeuvre of avoiding a mandate on their delegates?

Obviously there are many people presenting themselves as leaders in this coalfield and appearing as militants but who in reality are just as anxious to avoid a fight as the right wing are.

Communist Party miners, in particular, must ask-what sort of fight is being led by Paynter, Whitehead, Moffat, Sammy Taylor and other leading Party members who hold prominent Union posts.

Why have they not challenged the right wing? What is the point of holding union positions if they cannot do this?

T ONDON busmen last week / decided not to operate a fleet overtime and rest day ban until further negotiations with the London Transport Board over their wage claim are held. The LTB have offered 13s. The busmen are demanding 24s. 6d..

The LTB are also trying to introduce economy measures. These are for one-man operated buses (eventually 600 in the central area), up to 700 buses for two-man operation in peak periods and one-man operation with the top deck closed in off-peak periods, buses to hold 30 seated and up to 58 standing, and bigger buses with up to 72 seats.

They have offered a fares bonus of 14d. in the pound for all types of vehicle, a seat payment of 2d. per seat per duty for seats in excess of 48, and a 15 per cent increase for one-man operation.

REDUNDANCY

The LTB say their plans would reduce services by 500 buses and staff by 1,400, but busmen believe that the actual reduction in staff would be nearly 3,000, causing redundancies among conductors.

In response to the union's claim for an 80-hour, Il-day fortnight, wifa a working day of 7 hours, 16 minutes, the LTB have offered a 40-hour, 5-day week, with an average day of 8 hours, and a 'flexibility' clause to provide for duties of up to 8 hours 30 minutes.

This would also mean a greater number of spread-overs with up to 12 hours 40 minutes from start to finish. It would, in fact, be even worse than the present hours.

A claim for three weeks' annual summer holiday has been rejected by the LTB who have offered an extra three days in the winter after five years' service.

The Board's proposals are far worse than the "technical developments' which the men rejected last year.

Each garage would work under different conditions (different types of buses, and the widest wage differentials ever). This would make it much easier for the LTB to attack the busmen garage by garage, futher worsening conditions and intensifying the work.

REJECT

Busmen must press for the higher wage and reject the economy measures. The increase should be backdated to the time of the setting up of the committee of inquiry in December and the money should come from the profits made by busmen (£1,000,000 last year), not from increased fares.

If the busmen's negotiating committee fail to obtain satisfaction, Frank Cousins is to be asked to intervene, but few busmen expect the employers to give way unless strong action is taken. It was only the fleet overtime ban and the work-torule by two garages which forced the LTB to concede a small increase in December.

The overtime ban now being operated by Bromley garage and due to be started by Southall garage from next Wednesday must be extended. Only then can the full claim be won.

Mineworkers last week decided to hold a ballot of the entire membership on the Executive's recommendation to accept the Coal Board's offer of 7s. 6d.--12s. for day wage men. --ny This decision reveals the complete bankruptcy not only of the right wing in the NUM but also of the Communist Party and some others who like to pose as militants.

The resolution to accept the NCB offer and forego the original claim for 15s. was moved by 'communist' Will Paynter. The opposition to this is so strong throughout the entire industry that it was impossible to push it through the conference.

Miners from Scotland, South Wales, Derbyshire, Kent and Lancashire had already decided to reject the offer and the Yorkshire delegates, despite the manoeuvre of the Yorkshire area officials in dodging a mandate (see last week's Newsletter) also voted against.

It was because of this that the National Executive thought up the ballot dodge —a national ballot over a wage issue has never been taken before in the National Union of Mineworkers.

CLEAR

The aim is clear. First it is hoped to divide the day wage men from the rest of the miners (day wage men comprise 280,000 of the 550,000 miners in Britain). Second, the ballot will be drawn out as long as possible in the hope that the present level of militancy will die down.

No doubt, as time goes on and a possible Labour election victory draws near, there will be talk of not "damaging Labour's chances' by talk of a strike.

But militant miners must ask —why is it that a substantial majority at the conference rejected the Coal Board offer but yet did not reject the ballot proposal which is obviously designed to prevent any fight for the 15s.?

The answer is simple and Many miners are sick of the way action is constantly being postponed and responsibility shuffled off somewhere else.

STRIKE

After the recent eleven-day strike in Yorkshire, centred around Glasshoughton, it was decided to return to work for three weeks and if no satisfactory settlement was reached by then to bring the whole area out alongside the Doncaster panel. The Doncaster panel had already voted to take action by that date if the day wage claim was not settled.

When the deadline arrived both the Doncaster panel and the Glasshoughton leaders sent resolutions for a ban on overtime to the Yorkshire Council.

At the Yorkshire Council no decision was taken and the matter was left to the national conference. Now, once more, action is avoided in favour of a national ballot. All this, despite the fact that at all these levels the Coal Board offer has been rejected.

Every type of existing leadership in the coalfields is now seen to be useless. A new leadership must be built and an end put to this game of ring-aring-o'-roses before we all fall own.

¡gow MEETIN Greet The Newsletter 14, 7.30 p.m. artick Burgh Hall (Lesser Hal Burgh Hall Street (Underground to Merkland St. Station)

Speaker:

(Editor of The Newslett grows SHOPWORKERS from the Decorwall shop in Coventry have now been picketing the shop for ten weeks, following the dismissal of the former manager, Mr. Eric Black.

The dismissal of Black followed demands by the National Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers for better conditions to the management of Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd.

He joined USDAW and recruited other members of the staff to the union.

The trade union movement in Coventry regards the sacking as a flagrant case of victimisation and support has been declared by many branches and district committees. On week-ends the picket has been strengthened by other members of the labour movement.

Speakers at a meeting held last Saturday called for the blacking of all goods to the company's factories. The Coventry branch of the Electrical Trades Union has written to the Transport and General Workers' Union, asking that TGWU members should do this.

The secretary of USDAW, Mr. the girls who came out in support of Black and pledged to continue his support for pickets.

The meeting finished by demonstrators joining the picket line outside the three Coventry shops that belong to the company.