The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 351

Vol. 8, No. 351 June 20, 1964 Price vol. o, No. jol GERRY HEALY, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, travelled to Colombo, Ceylon, to cover the LSSP Congress, but he was refused entry to the proceedings.

Shortly before the conference, Healy approached the general secretary, Leslie Goonewardene, and requested admission. He conveyed his request in writing, but when it was discussed at the conference presidium, Pierre Frank, representative of the Pabloite International centre in Paris joined hands with the coalition renegades and urged that Healy's application be rejected.

Healy was able to obtain reports of the Congress and on PAGE 2 this week we print the first of his comments direct from Colombo along with the main resolutions put forward at the Congress.

D Compler. Py CapitA, set ta rot Shrima Ba ara lama a pialist sai completely capitulated to Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike's capitalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party following the formation of a coalition government of Ceylon between the two parties.

For the past two or three years Ceylon, with Mrs. Bandaranaike-and before that her late husband—as Prime Minister, has been running into deep economic and social difficulties.

The stage was reached this year where Mrs. Bandaranaike's party was in power, but had an extremely slender majority in Parliament.

In these circumstances she urgently made known her views on coalition with the ULF or the LSSP. The other alternative was the resignation of the government which most capitalists and bourgeois felt would lead to some form of extremist coup.

In recent months she made overtures to Perera • and his party, which resulted in the LSSP holding its special conference on June 6 and 7, in the New Town Hall, Colombo.

Resolutions (The Newsletter sent Comrade Gerry Healy, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, to Ceylon to cover this important event.)

As was reported in last week's Newsletter and can be seen on page 2 of this week's issue, there were three main resolutions for discussion: the Perera majority's call for coalition on a TEN-point programme; the Centrist resolution for a government of the United Left Front (made up of the LSSP the Communist Party and Mr. Philip Gunawardene's bourgeois MEP party); and the left-wing minonity resolution opposing coalition.

Walk-out This wing walked out of the conference singing the Internationale following the aoceptance of the majority resolution and has since formed the LSSP (revolutionary section) which is led by Mr. Edmund Samarakkody.

Perera, a 59-year-old doctor of Philosophy and Science, and the first LSSP MP accepted the Ministry of Finance in the new Bandaranaike Coalition Cabinet, which was sworn in on June 11, along with fellow capitulationists, Mr. Anil Moonesinghe (Minister of Communications) and Cholmondeley Goonewardene (Minister of Public Works):

Bala Tampoc and other leaders of the LSSP revolutionary section has After some haggling the LSSPers accepted a FOURTEEN-point coalition programme.

Just five days before, at the LSSP conference, Porera had said: 'Marxism will not be betrayed, but will be strengthened. In the present set-up, if we do not enter the Cabinet, the position of the proletariat will be worse than it is today. Our move is to establish socralism. he assured the con. ference Marxist principles would not be sacrificed.

Perera's assurances, as usual, were worthless, as the 14-point The programme, particularly additional 1OUI DOmI grafted on by Mrs. Bandaranaike, makes a mockery everything that Perera and the LSSP stood for It continues the policy, of making sinhalese the official language, a decision which has caused much needless suffering and divided the island on racial and linguistic lines.

It also continues to threaten more than 700,000 Indian workers as stateless helots without citizenship rights by accepting the reprevious regitizenship laws of It goes halfway towards making Ceylon a theocratic state by recognising Buddhism as the majority religion and giving it a a semi-official status.

Empty gesture Perera has threatened to expropriate reactionary interests but this is an empty gesture which has only evoked a belly laugh from the extreme right.

The 13 right-wing MPs who threatened to resign if the coalition went through have realised the weakness of Perera and decided to stay in the government These weaknesses became apparent just a week after coalition when Perera's buddy in the Ministry of Communications, Moonesinghe actually used the police to force a lock-out of 3,000 workers at the Ceylon Transport Board in dispute over differences in wages between skilled and unskilled workers.

To add insult to injury Perera has agreed to Mrs. Bandaranaike choosing the candidates from the SLFP-LSSP coalition to ensure that she is put in power at the next election in a year's time. This will completely immobilize the new Central Committee, elected at the LSSP conference.

As the revolutionary section leader Edmund Samarakkody said in a press statement after the coalition: 'Messrs. N. M.

Perera, Leslie Goonewardene, Colvin R. de Silva [leader of the 'centrists' who have swung in behind Perera] and their party have completely betrayed the working class and the toiling people.

'Rarely has treachery by leaders € the working class been so aked.' JW PM MLi SF

THE Newsletter's warning about the Wilson government were underlined the Labour front bench in this week's On every major issue the Labour Party leaders trailed sure that we will have our behind the Tories, ranging from petrol a few pence cheaper? Malaysia to the Sino-Soviet Mr. Wilson wants to cover dispute. Wilson and company naked colonialism with a condiscussed world issues from the stitutional fig leaf. If he thinks same standpoint as the Tories— this is going to placate the the international need of British 'floating' voter, he will be as capital. mistaken as Mr. Gaitskell was As Dennis Healy, Labour on Suez. defence spokesman put it: 'I Like the Attlee government of believe that the real justification 1945 the Wilson administration for the British military presence will continue to fulfil the miliin Asia, Africa and the Middle tary and diplomatic requireEast is that Britain can make an ments of the monopolies at indispensable contribution to home and abroad. stability in all these great continents.

The meaning of this is being made clear at this moment in the Radfan mountains. Here, Arab tribesmen and their families are being bombed and starved into submission because they dare to send a deputation into Aden to oppose the South Arahina Folaration FOOTHOLDS Like the Federation of Malaysia, this is just a method of using reactionary native stooges to disguise the fight for the last British imperialist footholds.

Even that staid defender of imperialism, The Observer', was forced to admit that 'the miserable food suplies of the Radfan villages are being burned primarily to make IS Ok! reveals that revoluttionary parties grow not only through fusions but also through severe internal conflicts and splits.

The ultimate cause of all major conflicts in the revolutionary movement is the class struggle and the fience pressures generated by this struggle against the revolutionary movement.

Thus faction struggles and splits, whatever bourgeois pedants and Stalinist philistines may say to the contrary, perform a necessary and vital function in helping to cleanse the movement of alien class forces and in tempering it for revolutionary struggle.

ne Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon is no exception to this universal rule. As Gerry Healy points out on page 2, the split in the LSSP has not only revealed the squalid opportunism of the right wing and the centrists but it has at the same time produced a new and hopeful portent of the future in the new party the revolutionary section of the LSSP.

itish Marxists who followed the degeneration of the LSSP into a reformist party will be neither surprised nor disappointed at the belated split. They will give it unqualified approval because it is the most encouraging event since the formation of the LSSP in 1935 and its affiliation to the Founth Initernational in 1942.

For the Pabloite revisionists who played wet-nurse to reformism in the LSSP, the split has come as a stunning shock and an unexpected calamity.

For ten years these centrist cretins in Paris and Brussels boastfully declared that they wert sowing dragon's teeth in Ceylon. But what did they in fact reap? A harvest of timid centrist fleas and chayvinist rats!

future policies of the by the performance of foreign affairs debate.

CONSCRIPTION

Desmond Donnelly, the Labour MP who backed German rearmament in 1953, brought the real situation to light when he stressed this week that the policies created by both Home and Wilson will mean the reintroduction of conscription.

No one from either side of the House denied or answered this all-important issue.

Trade union and rank and file members of the Labour Party should follow the lead of the Young Socialists who declared their opposition to such policies at their conference last Easter.

Ian Mikardo's belated reference to dissatisfaction in the party with Wilson's support for the Aden war is in no way a EDITORIAL welcome split! re same Pabloite Executive and Secretariat, which did not hesitate to expel, in the most bureaucratic fashion, the majority of the British and French sections in 1953 for prosecuting the class struggle in their coun tries has not uttered a word of condemnation nor lifted a finger to stop these rascals from dishonouring Trotskyism in Ceylon. Their silence on this issue speaks more eloquently than anything we could possibly say. ne coalition in Ceylon is the fulfillment of revisionist politics. Having abandoned the struggle for the revolutionary party and having consequently deserted the working class, Perera, Moonesinghe and Goonewardene like Millerand, MacDonald and Nenni find themselves-literally and metaphorically-in the pay of the ruling class.

The capitalist press in Ceylon and in Britain try to confound an already confused situation by calling these fakers 'Marxists' and "Trotskyists'.

They lie, of course. Those people are anything but 'Marxists' and "Trotskyists'.

For those who might doubt this we quate the following item from the Ceylon Daily News' (12/6/64). "The three LSSP ministers soon after the swearing-in ceremony... drove to Vidyalankara University (Buddhist nowers at the sharine there, offer Need we say any more?

The leader of the extreme right wing in the government has I preparation for such opposition.

For the past two months his own paper 'Tribune' has contained precisely two sentences which might be construed as vaguely critical of the leadership on this question.

The left must prepare for a real fight against Wilson's policies and reject all those who try to hide the real issues behind appeals for unity. NEXT week, The Newsletter will take a further step towards becoming a daily newspaper.

Our readers know we aim to do this within the next five years. Next week The Newsletter's format will be enlarged by two inches in depth. This, along with increased costs in the printing trade and other requirements — more colour and pictures — will mean an increase in the price to 6d.

We are sure that our readers will endorse this move by the only Marxist weekly paper that takes up the struggle of the working class.

For the next four weeks we will make the following special offer to new subscribers.

Send in a three-month subscription and receive your Newsletter in the post at the present rate of 7s. for 12 issues.

We are also launching a four weeks' sales drive to increase the circulation.

We appeal to our present subscribers and readers to participate in this drive.

Get others to take out our special introductory subscription immediately.

Take copies into your factory, office, trade union branch Or university.

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FRANCISCO ABARCA, 25year-old fighter against the Franco regime in Spain, was released from prison in Belgium last week.

Eight months ago he was imprisoned after allegations were made that he had been involved in an attempt to sabotage a Spanish plane in Geneva.

Abarca, who has continually denied the allegations, faced an extradition order.

The Newsletter has consistently called for Abarca's release ever since he was jailed.

Senor A. Roa, secretary of the National Confederation of Labour of Spain in Exile this week sent a letter to The Newsletter expressing thanks for the work this paper has done.

Although the right of asylum has not yet been granted, said Roa, and there are still many things to be solved for Abarca, now that this 'long and dangerous case is over ... may I take this opportunity to express thanks to you and your readers.

described N. M. Perera's entry into the government as a 'complete surrender. He is right— absoluely right.

As reported elsewhere Dr. Perera has abandoned his own miserable programme in order to adopt the garb of a fully fledged Buddhist-Sinhalese chauvinist. There can be no compromise with these despicable traitors to the working class.

That is why The Newsletter welcomes without hesitation or reservation the walk-out of the minority and the formation of the new LSSP.

Inspired by the same great ideals and united by the common bond of international working class solidarity, we proudly salute the action of our co-thinkers and comrades in Ceylon and pledge full material and political support to their struggles.

et the centrists and reformists snigger. Their mirth will be as short-lived as their wretched coalition. Posterity will remember them only for their shameless renegacy and their cowardly capitulation to the class enemy. The stench of their putrefying politics will certainly outlive them.

If anything is to be learnt from this crisis it is this:

Only those who break decisively from international revisionism can and will build a revolutionary international.

The Trotskyists-the genuine revolutionists who have remained loyal to the programme and principles of Trotskyism in Ceylon-are not alone. They have millions of allies in Asia and Europe.

Their struggle will be hard but their viatory is certain.

Down with revisionism and opportunism!

Long live the new Revolutionary Lanka Sama Samaja Party!

M'NERS at the annuad panic of Northumberland pit.

workers were warned last Saturday by Sidney Ford, president of the National Union of Mineworkers that they must accept the National Coal Board offer of 8s. 6d. increase for day-wage men. This offer would leave some 200,000 underground workers with less than f12 a week.

Ford, an ex-colliery clerk, is a well-known right-winger and his warning follows identical speeches by Robens, boss of the NCB, and Will Paynter, 'Communist' secretary of the NUM.

The miners' struggle against closures and for decent wages and conditions is bound to oring them up against all the forces which Ford and Paynter regard as so impregnable.

INTERFERENCE

At the Northumberland gala, Ford attacked the 'Daily Worker' for what he called 'blatant interference' in the affairs of the miners. It is interesting to look at what the 'Worker' did say, and especially at what it did not say.

After Paynter told Lancashire miners to accept the Coal Board's offer on the grounds that the industry could not afford more, some Sunday papers suggested that the Communist Party had a change of line.

The Daily Worker' replied editorially on Monday, June 8, that they were still in favour of the full increase of 15s. first demanded by the union.

However, the paper (Cont. back page, col. I)

Sunday

evades the issue Below we print the reply to a second letter sent by the editor of The Newsletter M. Banda to the Sunday Telegraph' which appeared in last week's Newsletter. The letter of Mr. Evans we think speaks for itself. Readers of The Newsletter are assured that this is not the end of the matter. We shall reserve comment for a later date.

Anything we might say on methods and motives of 'Sunday Telegraph' would superfluous at this stage. Dear Sir, With reference to your letter of June 11, I would repeat that we have complete confidence in Mr. Gladstone Smith and in the accuraoy of our report. Consideration has been given to your request that this correspondence should be published but I must tell you that, in my view, it is not suitable for publication. The offensive and derogatory nature of your comments and, in particular, your observations in the penultimate paragraph to which I take the strongest exception, renders such a course quite impracticable.

Yours faithfully, George Evans, News Editor.

arriving at the conference.

Edmund Samarakkody issued the following statement after leading the walk-out at the LSSP conference.

"The decision of the reformist majority of the ISSP to enter into a coalition with the capitalist SLFP government and thereby to become an instrument of the capitalist class in Ceylon, constitutes a complete violation of the basic principles of Trotskyism on which the revolutionary programme of the party is based.

This degeneration is the logical outcome of the Parliamentary reformist line which the majority of the leadership of the party has followed for several years and the substitution of Parliamentary and reformist struggle in place of class struggle and revolutionary perspectives, and . the systematic recruitment of non-revolutionary elements into the party

on that basis.

The revolutionaries of the LSSP have, in this situation, decided to organise themselves on the basis of the party programme. They therefore withdrew from the conference and will hereafter function as-a separate organisation under the name of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary Section)

In order to carry forward the revolutionary struggle for power, the LSSP revolutionary section calls upon all the adherents and supporters of the LSSP in the country to rally round the revolutionary banner which it refuses to surrender to the SLFP Government and the capitalist class.' (Signed) Edmund Samarakkody, Secretary, Provisional Committee of the ISSP (Revolutionary Section) ON a charge of 'managing an unlawful society for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nigeria, Dr. Victor Allen, a lecturer in the economic's department at Leeds University was remanded in custody on Wednesday in Lagos.

The prosecution claim that other Nigerian labour leaders were involved in the plot.

This action is an immediate reprisal against the Nigerian working class following the victorious general strike held in Nigeria (reported on page 3).

The Newsletter demands the immediate release of 41-year-old Dr. Allen and calls on the British labour movement to protest to the Nigerian High Commissioner.

the outstanding political event in 1963 was the formation of the ULF. Two factors helped to bring this about. On the one hand the steadily growing strength of the UNP became manifest by the victories of that party in very many local government elections throughout the country. There was also a noticeable tendency of the teenagers and others who bad formally supported the SLEP to move towards the right. On the other hand, faced with the growing strength of the UNP, there was a manifest desire on the part of the progressives to get together to struggle against the growing menace of the consolidating readtionary right. This desire of the progressives was clearly brought out, when the three left parties began a campaign over the petrol issue. IMMEDIATE PERSPECTIVES •The swing to the right in the country was a result of Such a coalition government with the SLFP as envisaged Paro Two POLITICAL RESOLUTION NEWSLETTE 20, party

UNE 7, 1964, will go down in history as the most important turning point in the history of the Fourth International. On that day, Dr.

founder members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Trotskyist Party of Ceylon openly deserted their party to support the capitalist government of Mrs. Bandaranaike .

These three men were close colleagues of M. Pablo, Pierre mounting inflation. rrank and E. Germain and they defended and endorsed every action of the Pabloites since the split of 1953 in the Fourth International.

Their desertion is a continuation of the policies of the so-called Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International in Paris which enjoys the fullest support of the Socialist Workers' Party of the USA.

On this page The Newsletter prints in full the resolutions of the majority (Political Resolution and Immediate Perspectives), passed by 507 votes to 179 (16 abstentions); the centre visible prior to the formation of the ULF. which called for a coalition government of the United Left Front and was lost 579 votes to 75 (46 abstentions); and the minority (The LSSP and Crisis of the SLEP government), which opposed coalition and was lost 515 votes to 159 (35 abstentions).

Manoeuvres

not be ignored. For several years, N. M. Perera and a small clique have been manoeuvring for power within the LSSP.

There were assisted in these moves by support from the Pabloite International Secretariat in Paris. Messrs. Frank, Germain and Pablo needed them as an international cover for their own adaptation to the Stalinist and social-democratic bureaucracies and bourgeois national movements, such as that of Ben Bella in Algeria.

The conference, held in the Colombo New Town Hall on June 6 and 7, was a farce.

There was no real discussion amongst the membership in preparation for it and the resolutions only appeared the day before it began!

The renegade party managers completely abandoned democratic centralist procedure and made it a conference of the entire membership.

As a result, there were new members, recruited by Perera and Co. on an entirely opportunist basis, voting against members with years of experience in the Trotskyist movement.

Many who supported Perera had only been members of the LSSP for two or three months.

This manoeuvre was especially organised by Anil Moonesinghe, MP, a supporter of the Tony Cliff group of state capitalists in Britain. Cliff was expelled from the British Trotskyist movement in 1951.

Break .

Dr. Colvin de Silva and Leslie Goonewardene, the general secretary of the LSSP, maintained a centre position at the conference.

They were supported by the Pabloite Unified Secretariat in Paris until, at the end of the conference, the former deserted to the right.

Pierre Frank, who represented the Unified Secretariat at the conference, then felt obliged to break from them.

Previously, both he and the Secretariat gave de Silva and Goonewardene full support behind the slogan of the United Left Front in Ceylon which advocated a government of Communist Party (Khrushchev wing), MEP (petty-bourgeois party of Philip Gunawardene and the LSSP.

In a communique dated May 25, 1964, which was distributed at the conference the International Executive Committee of the Pablo-Germain clique called on the party to 'struggle for a government of the United Left Front'. (Famous last words!) But the IEC did not tell the members of the LSSP that the programme of the ULF was a radical-democratic and not a socialist one. Thus a government of the ULF would have been no different from the The LSSP and Crisis of the SLF government (Resolution submitted to 1 Special Conference of LoSP held on June 6 and 1964, by 14 members ot 1 Central Committee nam below.)

The Sirimavo Banda ranaike government is in desperate state. It is approaching the final yr ear ot its constitutional term of ollice without any real pr Ospect of retaining its positi ion without the political col llaboration of the Lett a ind collaboration of the worki ing class, in particular, with regime. Hence the proro gation of Parliament and 1 the eftorts of the Prime Minis ter and some of her minist ers to secure the participati ion of the LSSP in the gove rnment.

To agree to accept off ice in Mrs. Bandaranaik ie's government, either sepa rately or in association w ith the other parties in the United Left Front would be to agree to join hands w ith the SLFP government in staving off the rising tide of working class and ass discontent against it, and to seek to provide worki ing class collaboration with its policy of maintaining ca pitalism in Ceylon will hin the capitalist constitutio nal framework.

The entry of the LS ISP leaders into the SL FP government will result in open class collaborati on, disorientation of the mass ies, the division of the worki ing class and the abandonmı ent of the struggle-perspecti ve, which will lead to the d lisruption of the working cl ass movement and the elimi nation of the independe ent revolutionary axis of 1 the Left. In the result, the forces of capitalist reacti‹ far from being weakened or thwarted, will be ultimati ely strengthened.

Collaboration with ! bourgeois SLFP governmı on the basis of coalition a 'minimum programme' thus a gross contraventi of the Party's Revolution: Programme and the acce ance of Portfolios by i LSSP would be treachery the proletarian revolution.

This Special Conferen Ice, therefore, categorically rejects all proposals for coalition with 'the SL FP government, on any ba Isis whatsoever, and calls up Ion the Party to rally to 1 the defence of its Revolution: ary Programme. The task of the Party today is to defi eat the attempt to divide a ind subdue the working el ass and to seek to unify all sections of the working cl ass and the toiling masses 1 for the carrying forward of 1 the class struggle against 1 the capitalist class and the SLFP government.

R. S. Baghavan Champa W. D. Dharmasena Meryl Fernando V. Karalasingham D. S. Mallawarachi S. A. Martinus Reginald Mendis T. E. Pushparajan Prins Rajasooriya Edmund Samarakkody Pelis Serasinghe Bala Tampoe above would make it possible to activise both the working class and the masses generally. Within the 12 months available to us it would be possible only to concentrate on certain lines of action. The party should concentrate on making an appreciable impression on the rising cost of living. An eflective drive should be made to smash blackmarketeering and hoarding of essential goods and thereby reduce the prices of essential commodities. It is essential that all-out youth leagues and trade union organisations should be in the forefront in helping to build up peoples' committees in various parts of the island. present coalition! These committees will be given legal status and have the assistance of the police in carrying out these tasks. The ULF provided a conThe party: should equally concentrate on minimising venient ladder for the right-wing corruption and sabotage activities in the various departand the centrists to mount the ments in the public sector. Herein our trade union coalition bandwagon. Now the organisations will have an impontant role to play. They ULF is superfluous. should take the leadership in the workers and vigilance It was this proposal which committees that is to be set up in all workplaces and paved the way for the coalition government departments. with Mrs. Bandaranaike. SymA serious effort will have to be made in building up pathy for the operation of a peasants organisations for the eflective implementation of capitalist government quickly the Paddy Lands Act. In this respect also our youth caught on and N. M. Perera, leagues will have an important role to play. By concentrating on these three lines of action we would after secret talks with Mrs. be able to bring into active participation in the process Bandaranaike, swung a number of government both the working class as well as the of' his opportunist followers into general masses. In a real sense these two mass forces, the line. This move, coupled with workers and the peasants, will have positive and creative the rigging of the conterence, funations to perform. They will be in an organised manner gave Perera a majority. ranged against their class cnemy with the necessary The CP (Khrushchevite wing) authority and power of the state machinery to back them have made a statement fully in their struggle. A new purpose and a new enthusiasm supporting the coalition prowould be generated that would carry the whole movement forward. Sterile criticism will give place to positive action, posals of Perera with the Bandaand the whole left movement will find a new purpose. The ranaike government. end of this period of 12 months would see the firm foundation laid for moving forward along socialist lines to a new society.

Accordingly this party conference request the new Central Committee of the party to negotiate with the SLFP government with a view to the formation of a coalition government between the ULF and the SLEP. If such negotiations fail the Central Committee is authorised to enter into an agreement for the formation of a coalition Such a coalition government should contain the following 1. All companies registered in Ceylon and all resident individuals should be required by law to maintain their accounts in the Bank of Ceylon and/or the People's Bank only. (N.B. the transfer of various categories of Accounts 2. Legislation should be introduced to control the activities 3. The export of capital, dividends and profits from 4. New administrative regulations should be introduced to make it possible to retire compulsorily government officers who hamper work or are inefficient or are deliberately unco-operative in pushing forward government work. 5. (a) Workers' commiutees, elected by secret ballot, should be set up in every public corporation of utility. Such committees should be associaled with the management at all levels. They should have legal powers to check waste, inefficiency and corruption and the right to make proposals (b) Vigilance committees should be set up by administrative regulations in all government departments and in the departments of semi-government institutions such as the local government service. Such committees should have powers to check inefficiency and sabotage and to make proposals to improve the work of the department (c) In every vigilance committee or local body Peoples' Committees should be established with logal powers to inspect the distributive trade, thereby helping to fight hoarding, 6. (a) The state Trading Corporation should take over all essential imports and gradually extend its activities to (b) The Co-operative Wholesale Establishment should have the monopoly of wholesale distribution. It should have a centre in every district through which textiles, building materials, motor spares and accessories, medicines (c) Retail distribution should be through the co-operatives and private retailers. Where necessary, special state retail (d) The maximum wholesale and retail price should be 7. The machinery for economic planning should be made more effective and proper ways and means devised to associate the trade unions and the people in general with the preparation and carrying out of economic plans. 8. Special courts should be established to deal expeditiously with cases of bribery, corruption, black marketeering, hoarding and other such anti-social offences. Imprisonment should be made obligatory for all found guilty of bribery or corruption and the legal punishment of profiteering and 9. The monopoly of the daily press by the private 10. (a) The GPS should be cleaned up to ensure that the (b) The services of the People's Bank should be extended to the rural areas either directly or by making certain co-operative societies their sub-agents. A scheme to relieve (c) The Paddy Lands Act should apply to all paddy lands (d) Landlords should be removed from the cultivation committees. These committees should be given enhanced powers, including the power to put ande goviya back in possession of lands while litigation regarding tenancy rights N. M. Perera, D. G. William, H. Siddhartha Thero (Rev.); D. W. Wijesooriya, J. Wanigatunga, Cyril Perera, Gilbert Pieris, Hector Fernando, B. A. U: Lewis, Alwis, G. P. Perera, Vivien Goonewardene, Jack Kotalawela, Nimal Horana, D. W. J. Perera, Chandra Gunasekera, Chalmondley Goonewardent, Wilfred Senanayake, Rajapaksa, Batu-

The conference voting for Perera's proposals was 507 for 179 against. Edmund Samarakoddy, MP, who led the revolutionary split from the conference, received 159 votes. government between the LSSP and the SLFP.

The new revolutionary party has already begun to function. in respect of the LSSP.

1. A minimum programme which will at It is called the LSSP (revolu- 10 items in the attached list. tionary wing) and has important 2. Three ministers for the LSSP. support among the youth leagues 3. These three ministers should be: and the trade unions. (a) Minister of Finance and Planning.

This tendency, which received (b) Minister of Internal and External Trade. no support from the Pabloite (c) Minister of Nationalized Services.

Measures for Implementation Secretariat prior to or during the conference, has now been given half-hearted support by Pierre Frank.

The only tendency to fully could be staggered.) support its struggle has been the International Committee of the of Agency housus. Fourth International.

Members of the revolutionary Ceylon should be restrioted still funther. wing have the most fraternal feelings for the work of the Socialist Labour League. The new party will declare its attitude towards international problems very shortly.

(Resolution submitted to the to improve the work of these institutions. •Special Conference by 8 mem•bers of the Central Committee named below)

The present political, economic and financial crisis cannot be solved along progressive concerned vis-a-vis the public. lines within the framework of capitalism. The processes necessary for a progressive solution of the orisis can be the black market, and corruption. inaugurated by a coalition government between the ULF and the SLFP on the following exports as well.

conditions:

1. There should be agreement on a series of measures to be implemented within one year. , These must include measures and foodstuffs specifically will be distributed. which are capable of enthusing the masses and of securing their active participation. shops should be opened. 2. In the present political situation, to ensure the effective fixed by law for every essential item. carrying through of these measures, the following are required.

(a) the coalition agreement should be between the SLFP and the ULF and there should be an arrangement with regard to Ministries ensuring hoarding should be enhanced. the following Ministries for the LSSP, viz. capitalist concerns should be ended. Ministry of Finance and Planning cultivator gets full value for his product. Ministry of Nationalized Services Ministry of Internal and External Trade. rural indebtedness should be prepared.

This conference empowers the Central Committee to make including those in the colonisation scheme.

arrangements for a coalition government with the SLFP on the lines indicated above.

Colvin R de Silva is pending.

Leslie Goonawardene Doric de Souza A. Siridasa Bernard Soysa N. S. E. Perera Kamini R. R. Dharmaratnam wandara Gunawardene, Anil Moonasinghe.

Three

strike NION leaders Alhaji Adebola and Wahab Goodluck were carried shoulder-high through Lagos, Nigeria, last Saturday atter clinching the first major victory gained through industrial action in Africa.

Adebola and Goodluck had just come from a six-hour meeting with Ministers of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belwar's Federal Government at which the gene: al strike, which had paralysed the country for almost 13 days, was called off on the most favourable terms.

Workers in all the country's essential services struck after the government had dillied and dallied over negotiations for a national wage rise. Delaying tactics have been used since Nigeria was declared a republic last October.

The workers are claiming a minimum wage of f12 a month, which has been recommended by the Morgan Commission.

The government finally issued the Commission's report and a White Paper-which put forward a f9 minimum wage-after May 30.

Million involved

But the delay had been so long that a Joint Action Committee, set up by the unions and led by Mr. Adebola, called the general strike. More than a million workers were involved.

The extent of the victory and strength of the workers' action may be due, in part, to the fact that Sir Abubakar's army is heavily strained by duties in the Congo.

In other circumstances, it is almost certain that troops would have been used to break the strike by running the services and may have been used against the strikers themselves.

Adebola and other union members were hurt in clashes with the police when they tried to cross the Iddo Bridge into Lagos — where political gatherings are banned-to demonstrate outside the government buildings on May 30. It troops were used, there may have been a different story to tell.

Special terms

In a communique issued by the Joint Action Committee and the government officials last Saturday it was announced the strike would be ended on special terms.

These were:

No victimisation of the strikers; The withdrawal of dismissal and warning notices sent out to strikers; The strike to be considered as leave with full pay, without affecting the normal annual holidays; and That further negotiations be conducted on the recommendations of the Morgan Commission.

As the Sunday Telegraph' points out, the Nigerian workers 'have proved themselves capable of conducting an efficient and orderly strike on a purely industrial question, and emerge far stronger than when the strike HE od methods o • Stalinism are still bein used by Khrushchev's men in the Communist Party of Great Britain.

When the London District Committee of the CP recently held a meeting to protest at the war in Aden, Palme Dutt was asked to comment on Khrushchev's forthcoming financial and military aid to the Iraqi government of Aref, a government which has murdered some 10,000 Communist Party members.

Dutt first tried to make out that it was the Ba'athists who were responsible for the brutal attack on the Iraqi CP, before Aref took control.

PROTEST

He was later asked how this squared with the news (reported in the 'Daily Worker') that all Iraqi trade unions had been suppressed - on the very day that Khrushchev was negotiating with Aref in Egypt.

Another speaker recalled that in that very same room in 1958, the Socialist Labour League had called a meeting to protest at the arrest of Egyptian and Syrian CP members. The British CP, although invited to take part, had refused even to discuss the matter.

Dutt commented: "To criticise Aret and Nasser today is to split the anti-imperialist forces. Those who do this are acting in the interests of imperialism.' Dutt is an old hand at these methods of slander and distortion-learned in the Stalin school.

For example, at the time of the 1937 'show trial' in the Soviet Union of Pyatakov and other old Bolshevik leaders, Dutt was to the fore in the campaign to silence those who dared even to question the charges against the accused.

'Consciously or unconsciously, this hesitation and confusion is nothing but an echo and surrender to the overwhelming capitalist press campaign," said Dutt in an article, "Fascism, Trotskyism and World Labour' written at the time.

'It is idle to speak of fighting the world offensive of fascism, and then fail to recognise that a main front of the world battle against fascism is being fought today in the courtroom of the Trade Union House of Moscow' CHARGES Thus, while Stalin was mutdering leading communists, on what Khrushchev has admitted were completely trumped-up charges, Dutt covered up for his crimes by slandering Trotskyism. Stalin was weakening the Soviet Union and Dutt was helping him.

Today Dutt shrugs off the murder, torture and imprisonment of sections of the working class movement, including his own comrades!

No matter how many banquets Aref attends with Khrushchev, it is his actions which aid imperialism.

And Dutt helps cover up these actions, too - with diminishing success. government buildings in case of the people.

Despite the fact that many in British Guiana think that Dr. Jagan, the country's prime minister, should resign, he decided against it at the week-end.

His reason for doing this was that to give up at this stage would make it appear as if the People's Progressive Party-the majority organisation in the government — was incapable of handling the crisis.

Such a statement can serve only as a bluff, since the truth is that the People's Progressive Party and its opposition, the People's National Congress, led by Forbes Burnham, have never had la solution to offer for the turbulent problems of the Guianese people.

The British Tory government has stated that if Dr. Jagan resigns there will be no alternative but to send even more troops from this country.

Sugar strike The Tory government have demonstrated that the troops were hardly sent in to 'keep the peace' The armed forces which were dispatched to British Guiana three months ago when the racial fighting began, have done little but aggravate an already tense situation.

British Guiana's volcanic onisis blew up after a strike of sugar workers which began four months ago. Both Africans and East Indiansexploited for many years by British imperialretaliatory action taken form a coalition government with the People's National Congress. But such manoeuvres will not solve the very basic problems of the Africans and East Indians.

Duncan Sandys, the colonial secretary indicated to the House of Commons that Britain should withdraw from the country.

But a withdrawal of arms and the Governor does not mean that the sugar monopolists will move out as well.

Booker interests The Booker Group, a British able interests in Guiana, The sugar firm which has considerpressed great concern in Times' (June 8) at the fact that their profits were being affected by the crisis in the country.

Booker's produced 254,000 tons of sugar in 1963. Since the strike started earlier this year, production has been going at half its normal rate.

With so much profit at stake Booker are not going to either stand by during general strike.

The firm hopes to raise its output by 50,000 tons a year in the future. To do this they must step up exploitation of Guianese workers.

Harold Wilson, who has not yet made a statement about Labour's official policy on British Guiana, was cabled by the United Force party asking him to urge andys to prevent a collapse of law and order.

However, a question by Harold Wilson in the House of Commons will not help the Africans and East Indians in Guiana. The labour movement has to call for the withdrawal of all troops.

Racial strife in British Guiana cannot be stopped any other way. Whilst imperialism remains in the country the frustration and anger of the Guianese workers will increase.

Pabloite attitude

began'.

The Newsletter applauds this great victory of the Nigerian workers and their leaders. Their strike should be a blueprint for action by other African workers in the more industrialised states against puppet and pro-capitalist, nationalist governments who hold back the wages and, conditions of the African working class. AS part of the United States offensive against Pathet Lao forces in Laos, American pilots attacked the left-wing headquarters at Khang Khay last week.

Prince Souvannouphong, the Pathet Lao leader, is reported to have said that two American airmen had been captured.

Souvannouphong has rejected suggestions for a 'summit' meeting of Laotian leaders outside Laos.

American planes resumed flights over Laos after the neutralist ruler Prince Souvanna Phouma tried to halt them early last week.

Four 20,1964

ism-became frustrated by the obvious inability of their party leaders to solve the pressing problems of poverty and bad working conditions.

The majority of the Indian population supports the People's Progressive Party headed by Dr. Jagan whilst the Africans follow the People's National Congress, led by Forbes Burnham.

Uncertain peace Both Jagan and Burnham became the tools of British imperialism serving to keep an uncertain peace between the two communities so that capitalism could make its profits.

Now the whole situation in the country has blown up in the face of the British Tory government.

In seeking a solution, Jagan and his colleagues offered to BELOW The Newsletter prints a confidential letter sent by the Pabloite International Executive" Committee from Paris to members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party on May 25, 1964, which reiterates their proposal, echoed at the LSSP conference by their representative Pierre Fnank, which calls for a United Left Front government. This line at the conference was defeated by 579 votes to 75.

"The International Executive Committee of the Fourth International took up at its plenum meeting the key problems which you face at present and discussed them at some length. The discussion ended with unanimous endorsement of the letter sent to you by the United Secrefariat April 23.

It is clear that throughout Asia, the equilibrium reached at the time of the Geneva agreement of 1954 has been broken and that in every country in this part of the world the class struggle is again sharpening. If the mass movement does not move boldly now, reaction will inevitably set in and the present opportunity will turn into its opposite. • In Ceylon, the SLFP government, acting as the agency of the bourgeoisie, is seeking through its proposals to disintegrate the United Left Front Congress and to associate the LSSP with its bankrupt policies and further decline. The LSSP has reached a crucial moment in its history.

Let the SLFP government appeal to you in vain!

The only real alternative is audacious action by the LSSP. It should serve as the central driving force in mobilizing the ULF, appealing to the masses to establish a United Lett Front government on the basis of a genuinely socialist programme. This would prove highly attractive to elements that have been sucked into the SLFP because of its demagogy in the past, help reorient them and open up the possibility for a powerful bloc of the left organisation.

The International Executive Committee of the Fourth International sends you its warmest comradely greetings. It hopes that the ISSP as a whole will remain faithful to its long tradition of uncompromising struggle against imperialism and national bourgeoisie, and that it will successfully resist the manoeuvres of the bourgeois government in order to open the road for genuine representatives of the masses to come to power.

No coalition at the expense of socialist principles and the possibility of a socialist victory!

Forward with the masses in struggle for a government of the United Left Front.?

DUTT aggravate between East Indians and Africans leaders.

Armed guards, most of them ted racial violence in British Guiana, measures over the prominent political British, were posted on NEARNantes, Oranceo rkers in Nantes, France, have issued an appeal to trade unionists throughout the coun try to unite against the. employers and the trade union leadership.

The Nantes workers are some of the most militant trade unionists in France. They demonstrated earlier this year against unemployment and low wages.

The appeal calls for rank and file control over the unions; the withdrawal of the unions from all state bodies and for workers to abandon tactics which have led nowhere - isolated strikes that have caused the minimum inconvenience to the bosses.

During March last year, for example, while miners were out on strike, the railwaymen were called out for a quarter of an hour on March 5, two hours on March 12, a day on March 15, and two hours on March 21 and 27. These tactics were continued throughout the year.

Yet on April 22 this year, the general secretary of the railway workers' union stated that 'although railwaymen's productivity has increased by 5.3 per cent, wages have only increased by 1.9 per cent.' "Task' At the same time conditions of work have worsened and the number of fatal accidents has increased.

Meanwhile the bosses continue their aim of 'fulfilling the task that was begun in 1958' (when de Gaulle came to power).

The 'task' is the modernisation of French industry which will involve the sacking thousands of workers and has been demonstrated by dismissals at St. Nazaire, St. Etienne, Nantes and Paris.

To aid their plans, the bosses have set up a state planning board in which the union leaders participate. The more these leaders aid the bosses plans, the less they represent the workers' interests.

So the Nantes workers issued their 'all together'. appeal for the independence of the working class organisations from the bosses and for workers' control over their leaders so they can carry out united mass action against the bosses.

The appeal has been • supported by several thousand Parisian workers.

of sabotage and plotting violent revolution, Nelson Mandela and seven of his supporters were sentenced 1o life imprisonment in Pretoria, South Africa, last week.

Although Judge President Quartus de Wet said that their 'crimes' were, in fact, ones of high treason-which carry the death penalty he had decided not to impose the 'supreme penalty.

Mandela: jail for life As police patrolled the area around the court and several hundred police stood on guard outside the building itself, the accused heard their sentences They were: Nelson Mandela 46; Walter Sisulu 52, former secretary-general of the banned African National Congress; Dennis Goldberg 33, former deader of the banned Congress of Democrats; Govan Mbeki 38; Raymond Mhlaba 44; Elias Communist Party Mr. Stanley Tillekeratne, the Communist Party MP for Kotte, Ceylon, supported the coalition in a press statement:

'The ISSP decision at the conference to coalesce with the SLFP government was a logical and correct decision. The situation demands that progres sive forces should give all assistance to the Sirima Bandaranaike government to carry through progressive policies at a time when reaction is emerging in a very organised form. We are aware of our responsibilities befalling on the Ceylon Communist Party.

Since 1956 we have consistently supported the progressive policies of the late Prime Minister and of the present Prime Minister.

If the LSSP decision to coalesce with the government takes effect, the Communist Party has to reconsider whether it will follow the policy it has followed in the past of giving support to the progressive policies of the Coalition Government : from outside, or giving closer co-operation by the entry of its parliamentary group with the ISSP for greater and closer co-operation. The Communist Party can see the dangers of reaction. I am quite confident that the leadership of our party will act realistically in this situation.' Motsoaledi 39; Andrew Mlangeni 38 (all officials of the African National Congress); and Ahmed Kathrada, former leader of the Indian National Congress.

In a speech to the court in April Mandela stated that he had come to the conclusion that violence was inevitable if the African people were to be treed from oppression.

The detence, in a mitigation plea, told the judge the accused represented the struggle of the Afnican people for equal rights.

ACTIVITY

In Britain the trial has caused great activity in both the labour movement and amongst the dogooders around the various Christian organisations.

On Sunday 3,000 protested in Trafalgar Square at the sentences passed on the South African freedom fighters.

In the 'Daily Worker' on Saturday, June 13, and Monday June 15, the paper's front pages were given over to the news of demonstrations and protests against the brutality of the sentences passed.

But while its officials hide behind reports on London's Trafalgar Square meeting, the Communist Party has done nothing to organise the working class in South Africa.

Whilst the British Tory government is busy supplying arms to the South African government the Communist Party has remained in isolation there.

Labour MPs questioned the Tory foreign secretary, Butler, on why Britain abstained on a motion at the United Nations urging. the South African government to grant an amnesty to the defendants in the Rivonia treason trial.

Their questions may have caused Butler a little embarrassment but they did little else.

British capitalism has big interests in South Africa. Cyril Lord, a textile manufacturer from Lancashire has just opened a new carpet factory in South Africa. With a large labour force at his disposal at low wages Lord will be making quite a profit.

'CHILDREN'

Lord thinks the 'natives of South Africa have got to be treated like children' 'I am not anti anybody, he stated. 'We have to work with them to see that South Africa will grow and prosper. Today they are doing more for the native than in any other coun try."

He said that he would rather the South African government was too right of right than Communist.

If Labour comes to power atter the next general election firms like that of Cyril Lord will still be in South Africa making a profit.

It is up to the rank and file of the labour movement, ,to call for an end to the shipment of arm's to • South Africa. and .. a complete boycott of all goods going to or coming from that country.

•Trade unionists must take a firm stand and refuse to unload South African goods at the dockside.

Wilson and company 1 nust be forced into supporting thi : heroic fight of the Africans aga inst the Verwoerd regime.

which started on Monday, about 600 workers at four other London markets have been given dismissal notices by their employers.

The strikers want a 40-hour week to be operated in the markets with Saturday off. They claim that it is unnecessary to keep the markets open on Saturdays. • Employers have refused to negotiate the five-day week.

In the national press dismissal notices to the workers at other markets are reponted to have said:

'The strike of market porters called by the union at Spitalfields market in support of its claim for a shorter working week and for the closing of the market on Saturdays, involves this market, since exactly the same claim has been made here by the union.

'In these circumstances, we have decided not to maintain a porterage service in this market from Monday, June 22.

'We have, therefore, to give you notice that your employment with this firm will cease at the close of business on Saturday, June 20.' Officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union have asked for private talks with the employers to try and get the CP still notices lifted but so far have been refused.

Employers from the other markets are reported to have said that they are banding together in this way because the Spitalfields market bosses are being 'victimised".

PICKET HONOURED

Supplies are belleved to have been cut by about 80 per cent on Tuesday after lorry drivers answered the call by the strikers to 'honour the picket line' Obviously the market bosses hope, by their actions, to create anger amongst the union members. When one union started the strike the employers, no doubt, believed that by sacking all the other men in four markets as a reprisal, they would create tension within the TGWU and so drive the Spitalfields men back to work.

Many of the porters maintain that there is not really any necessity to remain open on Saturday since most. of the produce that is supplied to the shops for Saturdays is dealt with on the previous day.

tion.

Not that the 'Daily Worker' said anything about how to get the full 15s. It did not come out in favour of a vote for a national strike in the forthcoming ballot.

Ford's attack must be taken seriously. The right wing in the trade unions will ask for help, and get it, from a right-wing Labour government to suppress any criticism of their betrayals.

Every miner knows that without a fight against these comfortable trade union bureaucrats there will certainly be no fight against the Coal Board on wages.

Instead of such a fight, the Communist Party adapts itself to the right wing, trying to gradually win positions of influence.

NO DEFENCE In fact, this allows the right wing to keep the initiative and results in the destruction of a whole generation of militant workers who had turned to Communism.

Thus the 'Daily Worker' of Monday this week (June 15) gives prominence to Ford's warning to the miners but tucks away beyond the headlines an identical warning by Paynter at the Cardiff gala of the Welsh miners.

It cannot defend itself against Ford's accusation because presents no clear alternative.

Its editorial of the same day half-accepts in advance that there will be no vote for action, They 'explain' that the right wing is wrong to suggest that the alternatives are industrial action or not.

If the claim is accepted, the Worker' says, thought must be given to a new claim. This is exactly what Paynter told the Lancashire miners.

This is how the Communist Party prepares for the Labour government — complete capitulation to the right wing. The first necessity for the miners and all workers is to build a new leadership around The Newsletter and the Socialist Labour League.

completely silent on Paynter, who has for many years been known as a leading Communist Party member.

Why did a life-long 'Communist speak and act for the right wing and the government? The 'Daily Worker' does not explain.

The usual argument in these cases is that such full-time officials are bound by the policy of the union executive and must act accordingly to preserve their positions.

But since the Second World War, a Communist (Arthur Horner, then Paynter) has held the post of NUM general secretary and at no time have these men spoken out in favour of strikers and against the betrayals of trade union leaders.

What 'Communist' work has been done by these men through their occupation of these important positions? Is it any wonder that Paynter was heckled when he spoke at the miners' galla at Cardiff last Saturday?

The alternative to these actions is simple. If the right wing betrays, then revolutionary trade unionists should surely refuse to carry out their policies and lead the rank and file against them.

EXAMPLES

But the Communist Party is no longer able to fight in this Communist way. The Electrical Trades Union, the AEU, and the NUM have provided very clear examples.

In each of these cases the line of the Communist Party paves the way for strengthening the right wing.

Look at Ford's attack on the 'Daily Worker'. He calls it interference for a newspaper to support the wage claim, neglecting to mention the fact that every Conservative newspaper was advising the miners which way to vote.

Ford feels on very strong ground because of the inevitable drift to the right of trade unionists like Paynter, trained foi a generation in the Stalinist tradi-

Industrial Porters strike for 40 hour week MERSEYSIDE dockers gave a clear warning to the port employers this week on the proposed new deal and the dockers' claim for increased wages, when over 11,000 joined a successful strike.

The dispute began on Monday, June 8, when 40 dockers unloading timber from the Russian ship, 'Kotlasles', › were told to alter their method of work.

The men claim that this was a double-edged attack since not only would they have lost their bonus, but the boss would have saved himself employing extra labour.

After attempting for two days to invoke the procedure of the 1960 Port Working Rules, Clause 7, which lays down the procedure for abnormal cargoes, the dockers were told to either 'do the job or go home' A Transport and General Workers' Union official who finally arrived at the ship on Wednesday told the men that the firm would not listen to their request for extra payments.

A deputation then visited district secretary of the TGWU, Mr. P. G. O'Hare and requested that a viewing committee-consisting of one representative of the employers and a trade union official-assess the job for four hours and decide on the rate. This request was turned down by O'Hare who instructed them to return to work.

Immediate response On Thursday the remaining 4,000 dockers in No. 5 area came out in support of the men's demands. After repeated refusals by O'Hare to send an official to the job, the strike committee had no alternative but to ask for the support of all dockers on Merseyside.

The immediate response by the total labour force on Merseyside shows the bitter feeling of all dockers in the port over working conditions and wages.

Attempts by the national press to blame the dispute on 'extremist elements' are nonsense. The strike committee, which consists of members of the TGWU, repeatedly advised other controls along dock road to remain at work in the hope that the union would send an official to the ship.

On Sunday a mass meeting of 5,500 dockers - the largest seen on Merseyside for years— voted unanimously to send a deputation to hand in a mandate to O'Hare 'to contact the port employers to set up a viewing committee on the disputed Job immediately upon a resumption of work'.

The chairman of the meeting on Sunday, Joe Cubbin, a docker from the No. 5 area where the dispute began, received a five-minute ovation for his speech which concluded the meeting.

Showdown He said that there had been much talk that the dispute had been deliberately provoked by the employers in order to sap the strength of dockers before the showdown on wages, the 40-hour week and the 'new deal'.

'Let us get quite clear that the employers are at it all the time now, manipulating rates, reducing gangs, increasing mobility of labour, in fact testing us out while they prepare behind the scenes to smash our conditions under the 'new deal'.

'But if we let them get away with this issue, and the men in box 5 are forced to go back on the employers' terms with their tails between their legs, then other dockers will become demoralised and the employers will continue to pick us off one alt a time.?

He said: 'Some dockers have suggested we should have confined this dispute to box 5. The boys in box 5 are not bigger than Smith Coggins Ithe employer on the timber boat] but what we have here today is twenty times bigger than them.

"The unity weh ave esablished this week will show the port employers how we will fight together on the issue of wages. Make no mistake brothers, we have got to prepare from the Clyde to the Bristol channel and from London all round the ports of Britain. When we take them on we will take them on all together.

"The dockers are the backbone of British industry, yet they are the lowest paid section of workers in the country. We issue a warning now to the whole capitalist olass. If our demands are not met then the whole country will stop.' Nationalize shipping He received the loudest applause when he said: 'We will never be able to solve the problem of the dock worker until we have secured the nationalization of shipping and the docks industry. To do that we will need the sort of unity we have shown this week extended to every port' On the Monday morning 6,000 dockers assembled outside the office of the TGWU at 9.30 a.m. shouting: 'We want O'Hare out of the Union'. When O'Hare refused to give a guarantee on a viewing committee the men marched through Liverpool to the pierhead where they voted unanimously to continue the strike.

They then marched back through the city to the TGWU office and the deputation came out for the second time with O'Hare's signature to a statement giving the assurance that he had previously refused.

Subsequently, a vate to return to work on Tuesday was taken but contained a warning that if the viewing committee did not turn up the next morning then the strike would start again.

Not only was the viewing committee there on Tuesday, but, after some discussion, it also made an award increasing the men's earnings by about £2 10s. per week. Disputes at Scots steel mills faced with stoppages of plants last week.

At a shop stewards' meeting last week-end a motion to bring out all craftsmen was narrowly defeated.

Welders at the Coatbridge plant of the British Tube Works owned by Stewart & Lloyds struck in demand that the firm recognise their union, the Boilermakers' Society.

All negotiations within the Tube Works are conducted by the non-craft unions, mainly the Transport and General Workers' Union. As a result the welders' demands are treated as unofficial.

At the Gartoosh strip steel mill of Colvilles Ltd. a machine operator is reported to have been sacked for refusing to operate a machine which was outside his normal duties.

Workers claim the firm has been trying to make the craftsmen operate . more than one machine and the men have claimed flexibility payments for this work.

One hundred and thirty-two craftsmen at the strip mill immediately stopped work in lewsletter Meeting WORKING CLASS IS CONFIDENT' THE 'Greet The Newsletter' meeting held in the Partick Burgh Hall, Glasgow, last Sunday was attended by dockers, car workers and other engineering workers, tenants, teachers, office workers and many young people who listened with great interest to the policies which The Newsletter fights for, put forward by Reg Perry, Industrial Organiser for the Socialist Labour League.

Perry spoke about the significance of the Chrysler-Rootes combine for car workers in Scotland.

This meant greater exploitation of workers. The only answer to the rat-race of the very fierce competition in car production was for the industry to be taken out of the hands of the employers, and put in the hands of the working class, added Perry.

RETREAT

This would mean a fight with Labour's future prime minister, since Wilson was retreating on the question of nationalizațion.

Declaring that the Socialist Labour League fully supported the dock workers in their demand for £15 a week, Perry pointed out that the 'new deal proposals of the Dock Labour Board, which included a basic wage of £9 9s., meant that a dock worker with three or four children would actually receive, on a flat week, less than the minimum sustenance allowance regarded as necessary by the National Assistance Board.

Referring to the slum housing which exists in every large city throughout Britain, Perry stated that the Labour Party leadership had given no indication that they will work to solve the housing problem.

"The way Wilson is treading is the road of Ramsay MacDonald and the way the trade union support of the sacked man. They were joined next day by the labourers who refused to work alongside staff men brought in to do maintenance jobs.

At a meeting of shop stewards, representing 1,400 craftsmen in the Lanarkshire steel industry, a decision was taken to recommend a strike throughout the steel mills.

However, at a later meeting at the week-end this decision was reversed by a narrow majority.

Profits of the steel combines have increased during the last six months until March 31.

Colvilles profits nose to €7,500,000, nearly three times the figure for the same period one year ago. Stewart & Lloyds showed a half-yearly profit of nearly £9,000,000.

The employers fight hard to keep maintenance and other labour costs to a bare minimum.

They aim to establish complete freedom to move workers from one machine to another and if possible break down craft traditions and rates.

would worsen conditions GLASGOW Corporation Transport Committee is to put up its fares again. They claim that due to rising costs the committee must increase its revenue or go into the red.

Another scheme, which was announced by transport convenor Alex Garrow, is the introduction of an incentive scheme for buismen.

The scheme would cut the number of buses and crews required during peak periods.

This constitutes a real threat to busmen's conditions and should be fought by all depots.

An incentive scheme for busmen would extend the changes introduced a few months ago for night buses, which forced crews to accept more night work with very little gain financially.

Included in the night schedules was the cutting down of the time spent at each destination.

Discriminate

A bonus scheme would considerably worsen the conditions of bus crewis further who would be encouraged to accept long hours of duty without relief so long as this was within the law.

A particularly bad feature of bonus schemes for busmen is the way they discriminate between drivers and conductors.

Drivers are necessarily restricted to hours on duty by the road transport acts, but conductors can be used for extended hours.

Glasgow busmen should fight the scheme and demand increases in pay without 'incentives. The Glasgow Labour councillors should be told to fight with a future Labour government : to abolish loan changes and thus reduce bus fares by integrating road and rail transport fully.

claim More join Glasgow tenants' fight GORBALS tenants fight Glasgow for the demolition of rat-infested slums and rehousing of all working class families in decent homes with the necessary modern conveniences, continues to gather momentum.

Every day more members are recruited to the newly-formed 'tenants' assodiation.

Last Thursday, 80 tenants crowded into the local school to hear Dr. A. Cowan, a medical practitioner who has agreed to assist the tenants, and Labour councillor Meiklehone.

Six local doctors who had signed the petition of protest to be presented to the City Chambers were announced to the meeting.

There is no doubt. that Dr. Cowan is sincere in his desire and determination to achieve better housing for Glasgow's slum dwellers.

But the question cannot be tackled solely on medical and sanitary grounds, however strong these grounds may be. To achieve their aims the tenants will need to use the most important weapon of all-political action.

ABANDONED

In this they may find themselves at variance with Dr. Cowan and some of their fellow tenants who do not regard the issue of oleaning up the slums as a political fight.

. Duning the course of the meeting it became clear that. there were a number of people present who wore opposed to taking the fight into the Labour Party, Gorbals tenants have shown they are prepared to fight, but they have been virtually abandoned by the Labour councillors and the member of Parliament, Alice Cullen.

The problem of the Gorbals, Springburn, Townhead, Bridgeton, Cowcaddens and other slum areas cannot be solved by local measures.

Large-scale nationalization by a future Labour government is the only way to combat high interest rates on loans and the high cost of building materials.

Tenants should now take their fight into the labour movement. Careful preparations should be made for a lobby of Parliament

leaders are going is the way of Jimmy Thomas, Snowden, Sir Walter Citrine and others.

'We are not prepared to sit idly by and watch this happen and are encouraged by the way workers, tenants and particularly the youth are fighting back. HOLIDAYS have begun at the International Harvesters fadtory in Doncaster and this situation is being used to split and dissipate any militancy in the unions on the question of wage demands.

At a meeting of the local Amalgamated Engineering Union a report was given on the recent negotiations with the management.

A member of the rank and file asked if the union officers had gone to the employers and made a definite wage claim or left the employers to make an offer.

An official replied that . the employers had asked the union what minimum offer would be acceptable. Union officers had refused to state a minimum and had asked for an offer to be made so that it could be considered.

The meeting passed a resolution recommending that the union wait until September 5, when the next set of negotiations with the employers begin. Several members, who disagreed with this method of fighting for a wage olaim, however, left the meeting.

One worker stated that the meeting had not cleared anything and that a decisive confrontation with the management at the cauliest stage was necessary. To continue to accept the pace set by the management for the negotiaitions was to play into their hands.

Len Philips, a shop stoward, has confused the issue of genuine discontent with wages by stating that the dispute is the result of communist agitation. By bringing up this time-worn bogey he is, in faat, helping the bosses to split the unified strength of the workers in the factory. after the General Election.

Approaches should be made to the Trades Council and the trade unions for support and financial assistance to build up a fund to finance the campaign. Leaflets should be distributed to tenants in other slum areas throughout the city and a massive campaign developed.

Oatlands tenants have already succeeded in stirring the labour movement. The secretary of the Glasgow Trades Council was present at their last meeting and stated to a member of the committee that he was prepared to give assistance. A delegation should now visht the Trades Council to put their case.

Teeside clerks union recognised AFTER wininng a complete victory, 50 young clerical workens ended their strike last week alt the Furness shipyard on Teeside.

The company has agreed to recognise their union - the National Association of Clerical and Supervisory Staffs-and „reinstate the branch officials.

The strikers, most of them girls, had been out on strike for nine days. Before they received the news that they had won their dispute, they' were planning a demonstration at the same time that Charles Clore, the millionaire, visited the yard to launch … a sulphur carrier.

Clore is believed to have an interest in the yard through Sears Holdings.

The meeting which ended the strike recorded its thanks to the 1,500 manual workers in the yard who had refused to oo-operate with the blacklegs which the firm had attempted to employ. Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter,