The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 352

WCommons bated Lat commons bour's nationalization plans on June 19, the Tories, by allowing the proceedings to degenerate into a farce, showed the contempt they hold for the Labour leaders as a threat to big business interests.

With a maximum of noise and a minimum of content, George Brown pretended to answer Tory jeers at the Labour leaders' failure to reveal what nationalization plans, if any, they intend to carry out after the election.

Brown mentioned first the public ownership of the freehold interest in urban land as it becomes ripe for development'.

Steel came only second on Brown's list.

'If we are to make a planned economy,' said Brown, 'if we are to have our basic industries answering to that economy, there is every case for the steel industry being responsive to the plan which we make.' (Opposition cheers and Ministerial cries of 'What plan?')

No proposals The vagueness of this speech indicates that despite all of Wilson's statements, the Labour Party has not prepared any detailed proposals for re-nationalizing the steel monopolies.

Some compromise will probably emerge in a few years, behind which Wilson will attempt to evade the issue.

Gaitskell's programme 'Signposts for the Sixties' included the re-nationalization of road haulage. Brown showed that Wilson has retreated from this proposal when he said: 'We shall expand the operation of British Road Services.' However, Brown's speech did contain one definite statement which shows the real foundation of Wilson's programme. It was as follows: 'And we shall have a publicly-owned national water supply.' ' About 70 years ago, Fabian proposals for taking over public utilities were described as 'gas and water socialism'. Mr. Brown gave the phrase a new meaning in his gaseous and liquid speech.

Trusted an rebels have bied, their homes destroyed their crops burnt.

In the wake of British troops and bombers there now comes the spectre of famine. This is Pax Britannica for the tribesmen in South Arabia.

Any fool knows why Britain wants to force Federation down the throats of the unwilling population of South Arabia and why Butler, Sandys and Home are prepared to go to the 'brink' in order to do it.

ae answer is: Aden and the lucrative oil supplies in the Middle East. The Tories don't give a rap about the feelings of the Adeni socialists or the Radfan tribesmen so long as they can secure these two objectives.

But what is Mr. Wilson's excuse?

Doesn't he care about the pathos of a people?

The truth is that he does NOT -and neither does the shabby opposition of Mr. Ian Mikardo and his centrist friends.

Speakinesday Pane me Mr.

Wilson, after talking about war 'hawks' and peace 'doves' in the Kremlin, had this to the craftsmen's pay claim. Far from recommending rise, the report, published this week, advocates a weakening of union structure in the plant.

Members of the working party, which included two trade unionists, H. Thornton (Amalgamated Engineering Union) and K. G. Griffin (Electrical Trades Union), came out clearly against unions fighting for the interests of their members.

"There is urgent need,' the report says, 'for radical changes in the present set-up whereby individual organisations concern themselves with the interests of their own members, regardless of the overall interests of the Steel Company of Wales community?

All this talk of community interest is mere humbug.

Warning

What interest is there between the management, which merely wants to increase its profits, and the workers of SCOW? Those who work in the plant and are threatened with redundancy through the introduction of the 'massive technological change' that the report talks about, know there is no ideal community.

At the time of the craftsmen's strike late last year and early this year, The Newsletter warned that the management would be introducing new processes and sacking men in order to face the increased competition from foreign steel firms.

Conclusions

The report makes this point clear too. Explaining why it considers a pay rise to be impossible, it says: "The company could not pay significantly higher costs than home competitors, and when the importance of the export market was considered, conditions had become much more difficult in recent years.' In other words, the main conclusions of the report are:

1. The company must compete and so must cut costs.

2. Hence no pay rise possible.

EDITORIAL Imperialist buzzards say about Aden:

'hich bases were needed?

Until an Opposition becomes a government it is not in possession of the secret military information required in order to say. But on the information available to us l reckon we do need Aden as an essential centre. (Ministerial cheers.) [Our emphasis.] —Times, June 18, 1964.

order to salve the conscience of some of his less enthusiastic colleagues, Mr. Wilson then went on to mutter a few banalities about oil imperialism, elections and a new constitution in Aden.

But all this cannot hide the odious role that Mr. Wilson and his shadow cabinet play in the crisis of British imperialism.

Mr. Wilson's betrayal is doubly reactionary. He not only supports the strategic and military interests of British imperialism in South Arabia, but in doing so he implicitly condones the pre-feudal and La pay further 3. Unions and other organisations that put 'the interests of their members' before the interests of SCOW (i.e., of the management) will be fought.

There is nothing impartial about this document. It expresses the terms of a vicious management offered to a defeated working class; a management, moreover, that knows it can count on the aid of the trade union leadership to impose these terms.

The various AEU officials, Sir William Carron, Danny Lewis and Tal Lloyd have all expressed their shock and disappointment with the report. 'If only we had known,' they all cry, 'we could have done something about it.?

But, why didn't they know? The Newsletter warned that a return to work and an enquiry would only lead to defeat. This feeling was shared by many workers at Port Talbot.

False

If Carron and company had wanted w know, why din't they ask the rank and file?

The protestations of Carron and company are as false as those of the 'Daily Worker' Wise after the event (how reminiscent of Fords), this paper takes Carron to task.

But at the time of the return to work, there was not a peep out of the 'Worker' to warn the steelworkers of the coming betrayal. News of the return appeared on page three under the headline Full Production by Thursday..?

The defeat at Port Talbot, combined with the betrayals of Wilson, who wanted a committee of enquiry, the trade union leaders, who staffed it and helped to draw up its humiliating conclusions and the Communist Party, which covers up for this activity until it is too late, show the need to build an organisation in Port Talbot to fight for the real interests of the workers.

barbaric regimes Arabia.

These regimes have nothing whatever in common with the interests and aims of the British labour movement. It is precisely in these states of South Arabia that slavery as a practised and legal institution, persists to this day—encouraged and tolerated by the Tory government.

Even Yemen and Saudi Arabia have abolished slavery.

This alone should make any socialist hesitate and think twice before committing himself to supporting the SandysHome policy in this part of the world.

We may not be ruled by slavedrivers — but only by their friends!

Mr. Wilson, Brown and Walker have shown once again (and categorically!) where their real sympathies lie. This is all to the good.

But before Mr. Wilson talks about Kremlin 'hawks' and 'doves' he should take a good look at himself and his Front Bench.

They are neither hawks nor doves-just a bunch of imperialist buzzards.

We shall keep a wary them. forward to becoming Britain's first Marxist daily newspaper.

As our old readers will see, the format of The Newsletter has been enlarged by two inches in depth. This, along with the phenomenal rise in costs in the printing trade and the requirements of The Newsletter to present more news with more pictures and colour, has meant an increase in the price of the paper to 6d.

We are sure that all sections of the working class will endorse our action.

Dockers have confirmed this confidence by writing to us this week. The letter comes from the leaders of the victorious strike on Merseyside where over 11,000 men walked out in support of 40 men in dispute over a special loading rate.

On behalf of Box 5 Committee I would like to convey to The Newsletter the men's appreciation of the way in which their case was presented by the paper and also for the assistance while the dispute was on.

Dockers know that they can look only to The Newsletter for reliable news from other ports. The uricles irrecent monins which The Newsletter has featured, revealing the intentions of the port employers in relation to the 'new deal' and the strings attached to the 40-hour week proposals, as well as the items of news from all ports, have helped to arm us for the struggles to defend and improve our conditions of work.

Only The Newsletter has stood by us.

It has given dockers the real assistance they need to prepare for the critical struggles which we will face in the coming months.

In asking all dockers to support your paper we would also like to appeal to dockers in other ports who read The Newsletter to write reports on conditions and struggles in which they are engaged.

We know from our experiences on Merseyside that if

No. 352 B/OSL FILE June 27, nothing 'xamine Price Join our now!

HIS week The Newslette • takes another great ste RECENT meeting of the so-called 'United Secretariat' in Paris decided to suspend from membership of its leading committees, Pablo, the Australian Anderson, and three French supporters Lenoir, ' Maurel and Simonne.

The charge against them was that they published a magazine called Sous Le Drapeau du Socialisme', which expounded publicly a line contrary to the 'United Secretariat'. Apparently it tended to give wholehearted support to the Khrushchevite wing of the Soviet bureaucracy as against the policy of the majority of the Secretariat which inclines more towards support for the Chinese. There is, in fact, no basic difference in revisionist method between the two groups. A communique issued by Pablo after the suspension says:

The United Secretariat majority has obtained the suspension of the undersigned comrades from their positions as members of the International Executive Committee and the United Secretariat.

At the same time it has in reality not only officialised through the I.E.C. Plenum, its sanctions taken against 'Sous Le Drapeau Du Socialisme', but has aggravated them by deciding the dissolution in fact of the African Commission. Thus it has unleashed the fatal mechanism of a process which could lead to the factual split of the whole of the International.

During the two days the United Secretariat and the I.E.C. Minority was submitted to the furious pressures and attempts of the U.S. Majority MRS. BANDARANAIKE AND HER LSSP HOSTAGES Mrs. Bandaranaike is seen here with her Coalition Cabinet which includes LSSP members Anil Moonesinghe (far left), Chalmondely Goonewardene (second from left) and Dr. N. M. Perera (fourth from left). A A full report from our correspondent, G. Healy, who has now returned from Ceylon, will appear in the next issue of The Newsletter. This will deal with the background to the developments behind the recent coalition between the Lanka Sama Samaja Party majority and the Bandaranaike government and the role of the Pabloites in Europe in relation to the coalition. The report will clearly show that the degeneration of the LSSP was an integral part of the international revisionism and degeneration of the Fourth International under Pablo's leadership. It is not as some might suggest, a Ceylon question, but an international issue.

Ample factual material on this will be supplied from a lengthy file of communications between the Pabloite centre in Paris and those renegades who have now deserted the LSSP. Healy will also provide new information as to why the proposals of the Socialist Labour League made during 1963 for prior discussion before an international unification conference were turned down. From documents in his possession he will show that this was done in order to avoid a real discussion on the role of the Parliamentary revisionism inside the LSSP. It was done, in fact, in order to provide a cover for what has taken place.

Right up to the day of the split, the Paris Pabloite centre maintained fraternal relations with those who split. These developments in the LSSP must be understood by all international Marxists. We plan to send several thousand copies of The Newsletter overseas and if any reader of the paper wants further copies they will be made available.

and of its partisans in the I.E.C. to push it outside of the International.

During two days a Majority of Europeans and New Zealanders (3 Belgians, 3 Italians, 2 Germans, 4 New Zealanders, Peng, Frank, 1 Canadian, 1 Austrian presently in the minority in his Section) have coalesced to obtain our suspension at any cost.

The I.E.C. was transformed from the very beginning into an Inquisition, refusing the most elementary rights to the Minority, and in particular, to submit without preliminary any of its proposals to the vote of the I.E.C.

Anderson, Lenoir, Maurel, Pablo, Simonne 9 Pablo claims to have strong support, in some cases majorities, in the Australian, Dutch, Austrian, French and Greek groups. If the split occurs it could involve one-third of their international organisation.

Taken in conjunction with the Posadas split in 1961, which besides involving some of their European members, particularly in France, Belgium and Italy, as well as almost their entire Latin American sections, this could almost finish them as an international organisation.

In addition there is the recent split in Ceylon where approximately 600 delegates out of 750 supported the capitalist coalition government of Mrs. Bandaranaike.

Truly, there has never in the history of the workers' movement been a unification like that they achieved last June. Immediately it was proclaimed split after split took place.

We will shortly be publishing a balance sheet of these developments.

dockers have to take action in the coming months to defend their conditions and establish a decent basic wage that we can count on the support of your paper.

Once again thanks for your support.

Signed J. CUBBINS (Chairman, Box 5 Committee)

W. McGINTY (Committee member) behalf of Box 5 Strike Committee We ask all readers of The Newsletter become regular to become regular subscribers.

For the next four weeks we are making the following special offer to new subscribers.

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Increase your order now and help us on the way to the daily. YOUNG people who tried to lobby their Labour Party National Executive Committee representatives on Wednesday at Transport House met with violent opposition from nearly 100 policemen.

As over 300 members of the Young Socialists lined up outside Transport House's two entrances to talk to NEC members as they went in, police reinforcements moved into Smith Square.

BECKONED POLICE

Whenever the young people tried to stop NEC representatives to ask them questions-mainly about the suspension of the Streatham YS branch, the threatened expulsion of John Robertson, ex-chairman of the National Committee of Young Socialists, and the possible reintroduction of conscription by the next Labour government— police forcibly broke up the groups.

Reg Underhill, the National Youth Officer was so anxious to avoid being asked awkward questions or having to give any answers, that he beckoned a group of policemen over to escort him into the building when several YS members approached him.

Mr. Frank Cousins, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union was heard to ask the police to move lobbying Young Socialists away from one entrance.

Policemen readily complied with his request and youngsters were thrown down the steps, several of them falling to the ground.

At a press conference after the NEC meeting Len Williams, the Labour Party General Secretary, lined himself up with the actions of the police by describing the young Labour Party members outside as 'thugs'.

YS SLANDERED

This is a complețe lie and a slander against the Young Socialists. The only force was that used by the police when they intervened against the demonstrators.

He announced that the NEC had expelled two Scottish Young Socialists John Robertson (Kilmarnock) and Peter Clark (Rutherglen) at the meeting.

Without any opposition being put up by the so-called lefts and Tribunites on the NEC-Jenny Lee, Ian Mikardo, Wedgewood Benn, Anthony Greenwood— the expulsions were passed.

The suspension of Streatham and the re-convening of the National Committee of the Young Socialists, which was closed down at its last meeting, were never discussed.

APPEAL

Young Socialist members involved in the expulsion are going to find it very difficult to appeal since there will only be a two-day conference at Brighton in December this year, after the general election.

These moves by the NEC are further evidence that the Transport House bureaucrats are opposed to the active and militant Young Socialist movement.

After the Brighton conference this year, where Labour's youth passed a socialist programme, the leaders in the Labour Party have made every possible attempt to silence the voice of the Young Socialists.

Three

leaving behind them as much confusion and violence as there was when they first moved in.

The idea that the United Nations is a peace-keeping force Is laughable since, before pulling out altogether, various western countries are making sure there are enough arms for Prime Minister Adoula's pro-American government to stay in power.

Recently the American Central Intelligence Agency flew Congolese National Army troops (ANC) to suppress the left-wing rebels in Bukavu.

EQUIP

The ANC now has a Belgian military mission of senior officers and technicians.

America has agreed to equip four battalions, to provide transport aircraft and pilots, Israel is training paratroopers and Italy will train the Congo air force.

The British government is still negotiating the supply of helicopters.

All this military force is being built up to ensure that the leftwing exiled National Council of Liberation does not gain power.

FOOTHOLD

Based on Brazzaville, this pro-Lumumbist organisation already has a foothold in Kwilu province.

The American government and the rest of the western world sees this as a probable threat of Communist infiltration in the Congo since it is rumoured that China is backing the left-wing forces.

In an attempt to stop the spread of the Lumumbist revolt, negotiations are taking place for coalition parties to take over the next government.

The Lumumbist forces have stated that they will not take part in any conciliation moves unless President Kasavubu resigns his post.

THE emergence of Senator almost enough votes to carry the Republican Party nomination with the Republican Party Convention only three weeks off has caused a great shock both inside the United States and throughout the world.

Will the man who would have used U.S. troops in Cuba to turn on the water' , who advocates atomic warfare in Vietnam and who votes against even a watered down Civil Rights Bill actually get a chance of becoming president of the most powerful capitalist country in the world?

What accounts for the very real strength of this man? Who stands behind him and what does he mean as far as the real policies of American imperialism are concerned? These are the questions on everybody's mind.

THREAT

There is a tendency among all kinds of 'radicals' from the social-democrats and Stalinists, through petty - bourgeois radicals like Castro, to sce Goldwater as the major threat in the United States.

To these people Goldwater is pictured as the reincarnation of reaction who must be stopped at all costs by 'moderate' and "reasonable forces inside the two capitalist panties in the United States.

Such a position completely misunderstands exactly where Goldwater stands in relation to the American ruling class.

His support does not come from the capitalists who control basic industry in the USA but comes primarily from the petty-bourgeoisie and the occasional small manufacturer who likes to dabble in conservative and reactionary causes.

ANXIETY

The big corporations steer clear of Goldwater and, on occasion, executives who have supported him have come under fire from top management.

He represents, in a similar way as McCarthy did in his timethough in a more respectable form'-the deep anxiety of the petty-bourgeois forces in a world situation which constantly forces the United States to beat the retreat or to manoeuvre in order to maintain imperialist control.

He also represents the fear of such conservative petty-bourgcois forces of the growing internal crisis and confliots in the United States, expressed so profoundly in the growth of the Negro mass movement.

This conservative and reactionary petty-bourgeois strata represents a vast layer in the United States with deep influence on a rank and file level in the. Republican party. It is this rank and file Republican conservatism, joined with seotional interests, which make up Goldwater's strong base.

SUPPORT

These sectional interests are largely the Republican machine in the south which is dominated by the race question just as the Democratic Party is in certain isolated Western states.

However, in the key industrial states of the North and Mid-west, Goldwater has only rank and file support—not the support of the Republican Party machine which directly tied to the large corporations.

With this in mind the last minute bid for the nomination begins to make sense.

This is a last-ditch effort by the real powers in the Republican Party to prevent Goldwater's nomination, which could very well destroy the Republican Party as an effective instrument for the capitalists in the United States. Only the disunity of these 'moderate' forces allowed Goldwater to gain the strength he did gain.

DESTROY

Nixon recently summed up the situation when he said Goldwater would lose the key industrial states in the United States and thus destroy the Republican Party. Scranton echoed the same sentiment when he declared that Goldwater would transform the Republican party into a sectional permanent minority panty.

No one in the Republican Party believes Lyndon Johnson can be beaten. What they fear is that if the Democratic Party's victory is too great the strength of Republicans in Congress and in many state governments will be irreparably damaged.

The capitalists wish trate in the United States a two party system whereby each party claims to represent all sections of the population and vies with the other party over only secondary and tertiary questions.

DISINTEGRATION

If the Republican Party were to emerge under Goldwater as an open consciously rightist formation, this could only further the disintegration of the Democratic Party and the transformation of American politics in a direction where class and intra-class issues would find a clearer open expression.

This is not in the interests of the ruling class which wants other sections of the population—particularly the working class—to feel that they too are 'sharing' in the rule of the country.

Governor Scranton himself is in reality an extremely conservative man. His regime in Pennsylvania has been noted for its emphasis on 'economy' and by his crusade to trim down unemployment benefits in a state with extremely high unemployment. Scranton comes from a real patrician 'old family' with direct ties to the leading corporate interests of the East.

Despite the great odds against him, there is a very good chance that Scranton will get the nomination in July. Goldwater is on the louts' , both with the power struoture in the United States and its direct representatives who control the Republican Party.

MANOEUVRE

The gravity with which these forces view the present situation is expressed with the quiokness with which Cabot Lodge and Nelson Rockefeller have announced support to Scranton, despite the considerable financial efforts made on their own behalf for the nomination. Romney and Nixon can be expected to follow suit with Nixon manoeuvring to the end for himself.

These feverish efforts in the Republican Party camp are important only to save the Republican Party as a competitor to the Democratic Party. Serious politicians in the Republican Party long ago conceded the election to Johnson.

It is clear that Johnson is the ideal candidate for the capitalists. He represents more closely their real outlook and policies than any Democratic candidate since Roosevelt. They trust him completely.

Best of all, in their eyes, labour continues to support him. Thus he is the ideal instrument both to further the policies of the ruling class and to corral the working class behind those policies.

Thus the most significant event of the Spring was the announcement of Henry Ford, president of the immense Ford Motor Company, that he was endorsing Johnson for president and that, for the first time in his life, he would vote Democratic.

Where does this put Walter Reuther, that 'great liberal' who heads the United Auto Workers Union which has also endorsed Johnson? Ford undoubtedly rèpresents the sentiments of the more astute and politically adept section of the capitalists.

NO CHARGES It is unlikely that following the election there will be any sharp changes in American foreign policy no matter who wins.

One can expect a good deal of bellicose talk and the 'waving the "bloody shirt' over Cuba and Vietnam. But it will be talk. The United States will continue to carry out its imperialist policies' through a combination of military threats, rather than action where it can avoid it and diplomatic dealings with Khrushcher in particular.

In fact, we can expeot even more emphasis on 'wheeling and dealing' with the Kremlin after the elections. Not only the 'neutralisation' of Vietnam and perhaps even the 'neutralisation' of Cuba will be on the agenda.

DISSENT

At the same time we must note the increasing polarisation along class lines in the United States. While the ruling class seeks to cover up everything through its two immense political parties, dissent, both of the right and left, are more in evidence.

This is the significance not only of Goldwater, but also of the surprising strength of the racist Wallace in Northern Democratic Party primaries. This is also the significance of the growing Negro struggle.

It is very important that A. Philip Randolph, a Negro trade union bureaucrat who has played a very conservative role, came out for a labour party at the recent convention of the Negro American Labour Council-today an organisation dominated by union bureaucrats.

Also significant is the growth of independent political tendencies within the Negro movement.

CRIME

Some of these, like the Freedom Now Party in Michigan, are totally nationalist in outlook and deeply hostile to the working class. What a crime it is that in Detroit, one of the most important industrial centres in the U.S., where a good 25 per cent of the auto workers are Negroes, the Freedom Now Party should reject a working class approach and take a hostile attitude towards the trade union movement.

What an important force for struggle against the union bureaucrats, who perpetrate a racist policy, these Negro unionists could be if given some leadership. The uncritical support of the Socialist Workers' Party, which claims to be Trotskyist, for the Freedom Now Party in Michigan is a criminal action.

MOTION

In New York City, however, a spokesman of the local Freedom Now Party put forward a motion which called both for a Freedom Now Party and a Labour Party at a recent conference called by the Labour and Industry Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

This committee, made up of Negro union militants, unanimously passed the motion. There are growing signs that among the more advanced Negro militants such a class approach will find a receptive audience.

It is felt that there will be no serious working class break from the two parties in this eluction. But the election will be another step in the education of the advanced militants in the trade unions and Negro movement and will pave the way for a class party of the working class as a whole in the not too distant future.

Page 27,1964

HE hot war threat to left-wing forces in South-east AS is a bold bluft called by the Johnsor : Administration this, the U.S. presidential election year.

More troops and arms are being sent into Thailand (Siam), which borders Laos. This is intended as a warning to China and the courageous Pathet Lao and Vietcong fighters that if they do not abide by the 1954 and 1962 Geneva agreements on Southeast Asia, they will suffer the consequences.

But such agreements are only tactical weapons used by the U.S. in their frantic moves to preserve imperialism.

This latest action, which recognises the wars in Vietnam and Laos as a . joint campaign, is, by no means, a confident one.

In the light of Johnson's apparent agreement with President de Gaulle's solation of the 'neutralisation' of South-east Asia, the 'tough' line can be seen as a bluft.

Johnson also wants to give the impression of being on top of this unpopular war as the U.S. elections draw near.

'Neutralisation'

He hopes to achieve 'neutralisation' through the Polish proposal that Britain and Russia, co-chairmen of the previous Geneva conferences, India, Poland, Canada and Laos, meet again in Switzerland.

But he also feels the U.S. cannot enforce this solution until it is in a militarily superior position in Laos and Vietnam.

Here the trouble begins, for, as reported in "The Times' (June 19), many officers i are reluctant to serve in Vietnam, despite offers of promotion, "because they do not want to be held responsible for what they regard as • unavoidable disaster'.

There is a great deal of pessimism among U.S. forces. One senior officer has said that the Vietcong are better equipped and more competant than the South Vietnam forces. Meanwhile, as The Newsletter has maintained previously, many South Vietnamese peasants are aiding the Vietcong fighters.

Bombings

In Laos, the U.S. continues to manipulate puppet ruler Prince Souvanna Phouma and send fighters to bomb certain Pathet Lao targets. But still the left wing forces dominate the Plain of Jars.

As Johnson issued his war threat, a Pravda' commentator said that the Chinese should not count on Soviet aid in any crisis if they continued their "anti-Soviet campaign'.

In fact, although the Soviet Union has said it has disagreements with the Polish plan for a Geneva meeting, Johnson will eventually find in the Soviet Union a useful ally to back his 'neutralisation' solution.

'Neutralism' is no answer to the problems in South-east Asia. The only present solution is the withdrawal of all U.S. troops, arms and advisers from the area. "Trotskyists' arrested in Spain arrested nearly 100 people said to be engaged in "subversive activities.

The police say they have proof that the people had been in contact with • "agitators' in France and Belgium and had produced leaflets in several provincial capitals.

Several foreign students are among those arrested It is alleged that some of the detainees worked on orders from a member of the 'International Secretariat of the Trotsky Organisation' while in Seville, police investigated the activities of the so-called regional committee of the Trotsky Revolutionary Workers Party' In Valencia the Regional Committee of the Levant has been established by the Communist Party.

All those arrested will be tried by the Tribunal of Public Order.

Meanwhile, the Franco regime seems to be relaxing its attitude towards the Soviet Union. The Soviet film 'Don Quixote' was given a good reception at the San Sebastian Film Festival and there was great excitement over the Spain v. Soviet Union European Nations' Cup football match in Madrid last Sunday.

Trade talks have now opened between the Spanish and Rumanian governments.

This 'relaxing' by the Franco regime would not prevent it from passing the severest sentences on those arrested.

The Newsletter protests against the arrests and demands the immediate release of all those concerned.

H19i Commissioner in London this week that the country is in an explosive situation, Ian Smith and his extreme right-wing white minority government flounder deeper and deeper into a crisis.

After several anti- British government speeches and rallying calls for unilateral independence (independence with a continuation of the white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia) Smith and his supporters have now met with some opposition from Sir Edgar Whitehead, leader of the opposition Rhodesian National Party.

Afraid that there might be a serious split in the Tory ranks, the beginning of which has already, very obviously, led to chaos amongst the white minority, Whitehead decided to come out in open opposition to Smith.

HEAD-ON CLASH

In 'The Times' on Friday, June 19, Whitehead is reported to have said: 'In my opinion, the country is in imminent danger of drifting into a head-on clash between the white extremists and the African extremists?

Realising that the simmering hatred of the African workers is reaching boiling point Whitehead knows that trade with the rest of the world could be seriously affected should a revolt occur against the repressive measures of the Smith government.

But Whitehead himself has met with opposition amongst the Tories within the Rhodesian National Party who feel that he is not taking a tough enough line with Smith.

Sir Roy Welensky, one-time leader of the federation between Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, is attempting to use this opposition to Whitehead to get back into Southern Rhodesian politics.

In his rallies throughout the country Smith has gained considerable suppor from white Farmer han fraid on one Larmers, wilo are amara or losing cheap Alrican labour on thel farms.

The statement by the Hig ommissioner emphasised tha he constitution commits South rn Rhodesia to work toward. • fully democratic governmen n which the majority wi prevail".

The white minority see this as a threat to their hitherto secure position as a supreme section in the country dominating the African workers and using them as cheap labour: Bomb blasts follow trial JUST week after Verwoerd's south African regime Nelson Mandela and seven others to life imprisonment and the Minister of Justice Vad tranced back ice announced unal had Mandela's 'Spear of the Nation' organisation, four explosions damaged important Instanatons mn widel separated parts of the country.

The explosions were directed at identical targets early last Saturday morning. Similar home-made bombs were used.

A government newspaper said giant pylons were blown up near Cape Town and the explosions were 'the biggest yet experienced in the Western Cape'.

The vicious sentences passed at the Rivonia trial will not, i seems, deter the African people from struggling against the apartheid policies of the extreme right-wing regime.

CORRECTION

The line of the confidential letter sent by the Pabloite International Executive Committee to members of the Ceylon Lanka Sama Samaja Party on May 25, 1964, which called for a government of the United Left Front was not, as reported in last week's Newsletter defeated at the LSSP conference. It was the centrist resolution for a coalition government of the ULF and Mrs. Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party which was defeated by 579 votes to 75.

in British Guiana has declared a state of emergency and arrested 30 of the country's leading politicians, the crisis there remains unsolved But Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who was very nearly forced to resign as Prime Minister, has done nothing to organise against these further repressive measures by the British Tory government.

Instead, his party has raised points about the qualifications for recruits into the special service unit. Since a height of five feet eight inches is required, Jagan's People's Progressive Party states that this will exclude many Amerindians, Chinese and East Indians.

Jagan and his supporters are doing exactly what the British monopolists want them to do. Instead of turning the struggle towards those directly responsible for aill the misery and poverty in Guiana--the British Tory government-he is continuing the division of the country on racialist lines.

His so-called strong protest to Duncan Sandys, the colonial secretary, who allegedly linked the detention of Guianese government ministers with the death of a leading civil servant and his children, does not mean much either.

Influence

Jagan's protests are mere flea bites as far as Home and his cabinet are concerned. British imperialism is determined keep its influence in Guiana even if this means forcing Jagan to resign or suspending the constitution.

In an article entitled 'Off With Their Heads', the 'Economist' stated that the governor of British Guiana 'seems to have found the technically correct solution'.

This, the Tories hope, will keep the country reasonably peaceful so that the sugar manufacturers can make up the loss in profits that they suffered during the recent racial crisis.

Jagan and the opposition leader Forbes Burnham merely bow before these manoeuvres by the imperialists, playing the part of puppets in a country which is now, as a result of their weak policies, fiercely divided.

Oxford students chase S.A. ambassador A part in a demonstration BOUT 300 students took against the visit of Dr. Carel de Wet, South African ambassador, to a meeting in Oxford on Wednesday, June 19.

The meeting was organised by the Oxford University Conservative Association, and had been postponed from the previous Friday, the day on which the sentences were announced at the Mandela trial, to prevent 'damage to persons, cars and buildings'.

The strength of student feeling against the racialist policy of the South African government was demonstrated by scuffles with the police when de Wet entered and left the meeting.

For two and a half hours during the meeting the students kept up a constant barrage of singing and shouting such slogans as 'Go Home de Wet' and "Free Mandela', beneath the windows of the hall.

Students who surged forward against a police cordon when de Wet finally emerged from the meeting, and who chased his car out of the street, were met with the vicious attacks of the police. Four students were arrested and charged and later banned from the university.

Students in Oxford and elsewhere must realise that this attack is part of a general campaign to keep students politically docile.

This attack calls clearly for a new leadership in all universities, linked to the struggle of the working class, against the system which has no use for students except as loyal servants of the capitalist state and industry.

The witch-hunt of militant students will continue unless this leadership is forged.

A short, masterly and topical analysis of capitalism and the prospects for the trade ward and advanced capitalist countries.

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS LTD., 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, S.W.4 trends in monopoly unions in the backPrice 3d. thus reached is called the participating payroll and is sum of the factory earnings eligible for bonus.

The following figures can best illustrate the way in which the Emerson plan works. They are taken from the operation of the plan at the Pressed Steel Company Ltd., Linwood, and represent typical figures for two fiveweek months at the beginning of the scheme in October 1963 and the figures for April 1964 (see Table above).

The scheme operates

Industrial ATTACK ON TWO STEWARDS THE WSLETTER 27,

HE Steel Company of Wales, it is believed, may introduce a version of the 'Emerson' bonus plan. In this way the company could obtain union and shopfloor co-operation in tying all future increases in wages to an intensified drive for productivity.

Under the scheme, piecework and tonnage rates are abolished and replaced by flat rate wage earnings and a company bonus scheme assessed each month on the total sales of the firm's products.

There is no doubt that the SCOW learned a lot from its conflict with the craft workers earlier this year. It has also been studying methods of production in the American steel mills where collaboration with the unions has been in full operation for many years.

Following the strike

February of this year the company sent its chief personnel officer, Mr. Gerald Dennis, to the USA for several months to study American methods of handling labour. He would be able to make a close study of the type of bonus plan used by Emerson.

The fact that SCOW probably intends to take up this plan is a warning to all factory militants at Port Talibot.

The defeat of the craft workers in February at the hands of Carron and other right-wing officials seriously weakened their capacity to resist plans for increased speed-up in the factory.

Unity damaged The spread of illusions amongst production workers of big increases in earnings from bonus plans could further damage the unity of workers required to resist new demands for redundancy and sweeping modernisation proposals being prepared by the steel monopolies.

Heading the field in spreading the idea that co-operation wis the monopolies can pay off for workers is Harold Wilson, Labour's future premier.

In the Port Talbot dispute he called for an enquiry and he has advocated that a Labour government sponsor the modernisation of British industry to make it more competitive.

Whilst the steel combines make ready to extract huge profits in the form of compensation for any future nationalization measures under Labour, they will not be loath to use Wilson and other right-wing leaders in telling workers that to co-operate is best. What is good for SCOW is good for Britain, will be the slogan used by the employers and right-wing Labour alike in Port Talbot.

The originators of the proposed bonus plan are Emerson Consultants Ltd., an American firm of business experts whose intervention in Britain has already benefited such firms as ¡Esso (Fawley), and Pressed Steel (Linwood, nr. Glasgow).

Scientific exploitation Emerson base their plan on the work of Joe Scanlon, American ex-steel worker who became 'research director' for the American steel workers' union and later worked as a specialist at the Massachussets Institute of Technology.

His accomplishment was to pioneer for American big business the linking of scientific exploitation of labour with union collaboration.

The leaders of the steel workers' union became openly allied with the steel bosses of America and the mills were able to put through extensive Sweeping modernisation is the only answer for many employers who want to rejoin the highly competitive world market in an effort to boost their profits. Many of Britain's vast combines hope to achieve this through schemes like that put forward by the American firm, Emerson Consultants Ltd. —efficiency drives linked with 'incentives' for the labour force. The Emerson plan has already been used successfully in the United States at the expense of the working class. The Pressed Steel Company at Linwood in Scotland has also introduced the Emerson bonus scheme and it is likely that the Steel Company of Wales will embrace a similar scheme. In this article, the Socialist Labour League's Scottish organiser analyses the Emerson Plan and, with the experience of Linwood, what it would mean for the modernisation plans which slashed labour costs and saved them from bankruptcy during the depression days.

The authors of the Emerson plan say that its methods are particularly useful in industries where an expansion of production is expected. It would also be particularly useful for the plans of the steel companies in boosting production during the first 12 months of a Labour government.

Through extensive replanning of production techniques, coupled with an intensive drive to force each worker to produce his maximum on each shift, the Steel Company of Wales expects to be in a position to demand a high price for its products.

Amongst these techniques is the production of steel houses in expectation of a ready market under a Labour minister. A variant of the Emerson bonus plan would be especially suited to step up the daily output of pre-fabricated units where labour costs are relatively high.

Emerson depends for its functioning on selling to workers the idea that automatic wage benefits are gained for each individual by increased output provided this is also accompanied by lowered labour costs.

Maximum effort The drive is therefore created to cut labour costs and the whole machinery of union, shop floor organisation and joint consultation in the factory is turned in the direction of forcing each worker to make a maximum effort during each shift. Strikes, labour disturbances, limitation of production, go-slows, reduce the bonus at the end of the month.

Schemes for increasing production at the expense of labour are welcomed and the shop floor is to compete in sending these in. The factory is 'rewarded', provided the firm's products continue to sell, at the end of each month by a percentage bonus calculated on total sales.

Special production committees are set up with union collaboration. Overall there is the bonus "steering committee which in effect acts as the 'planning' committee for the productive effort in the factory.

Of course, the management give up nothing. All plans for production remain in their hands, the workers have no more say in deciding the level of their own earnings than they have in deciding the yearly dividends to the shareholders.

steelworkers of Port Talbot.

There is no doubt, however, that for the union leaders the scheme offers a means to further discipline the rank and file by pointing to the harm done by strikes to the 'common good'.

For the big monopolies it means pushing through expansion schemes and boosting production at low cost. For Emerson Consultants Ltd., it means a good income in percentage of results obtained.

But for the factory worker it means adding to the foreman's scrutiny of his effort that of the shop steward and production committee, with very little to show for it in the wage packet Workers' organisation in the factory is entirely geared to production and support for schemes to reduce labour costs. The For SCOW the Emerson plan would mean a tremendous speed-up in mills such as this. Workers would be forced to make maximum effort in grinding shifts only to be told that any militancy against such conditions would upset the 'bonus'.

production worker is thrown into conflict with maintenance workers and prospects of a united struggle in a future crisis are severely damaged.

The Labour leaders will no doubt see it as a big step in the fight to "modernise' industry and will give it their blessing.

Labour costs The basis of earnings under the Emerson plan is the bonus pool. A pool is created when actual labour costs for a particular month drop below the figure of allowed labour costs made by the company and calculated as a percentage of total sales for that month.

The percentage used is known as the bonus ratio and is arrived at by taking into account the costing of the company's various products.

From the actual payroll deductions are made for sick time and other non-productive time, holiday pay, etc. The figure the factory's wage and workers, some 4,500.

From the figures it is clear who gains from the Emerson plan.

In the seven months since its introduction the total sales have increased by £164,204 per month. The amount the company allow for wages during this time has dropped £78,034. Recruitment to the factory has been virtually at a standstill. The actual wages total plus bonus payment for any one month can never equal the allowed payroll, since 25 per cent of the bonus pool is deducted for the reserve and a further 25 per cent of the remainder is deducted for the employers' share of the saving in labour costs.

During the time that the [read collaboration] to promote increased productive efficiency.' In February, the management's monthly bulletin complained that only 47 per cent of the productivity committees put in suggestions. In January the sales dropped by 4 per cent. 'When ideas were needed most," said the management, 'we reached a new low in participation.' During the month of February, the coldest and wettest month of the year in Scotland, the bulletin pointed out that absenteeism from all causes had adversely affected production and therefore the bonus.

On reading this some of the shop stewards began some "participation' on their own account -they began an inspection of the men's time cards to sort out the defaulters.

Conditions justified In March the management complained that 57 women had walked off the 'Apex' trim line because of draughty conditions. They said this had lost enough time 'to make 350 complete sets of trim pads and covers'.

Enough information is fed into the factory to cause confusion and dis.

sension and create conditions where nobody dare protest against anything.

The most vile conditions of employment and the fastest possible speed of production are justified in the interests of the bonus'.

The job of the steering comnittee which is made up of presentatives of the manageMonthly Sales To Calculated bonus ratio Total allowed payroll Total actual payrol Improvement in labour costs = bonus pool Set aside for Company's reserve —25% of pool Distributed bonus 75% of pool From bonus distributed deduct company's share Employees' share ‹ bonus distributed Bonus percentage Bonus payment on month's wages These figures show how the Emerst from the October 1963 and April Company, Lir ment meeting with the shop stewards, is that of deciding on the means for increasing production and on the monthly bonus payment.

In fact, its sessions consist of recitals by the management of its decisions to which the shop stewards listen. They are then expected to go into the factory to sell the plan to the men who elect them.

At one such meeting the representative of the management exploded with a complaint of the action of a section of workers who had fixed their production target at what he considered was too low a figure. Stabbing his finger at the convenor and his deputy he demanded that they 'get down there' and tell the men that much greater effort was required.

Driven out Assembly line speed-up is what makes or breaks manufacturers of mass production cars and the worker has to work to the speed of the fastest and most automated line in existence. An employer who lags behind in the race for speed-up and automation is soon driven out of business.

Pressed Steel workers must keep pace with the turn-out of cars at Rootes and other car factories and the assembly track is the master. The bonus plan creates the impression that the speed-up benefits the worker also.

Factory militancy is destroyed by the manipulation of Emerson and the production worker begins to turn his hatred not against the employer but against craft and other workers who exhort him to greater effort in the interest of the monthly bonus.

The craft and staff workers do gain temporarily from the October 1963 :1,256,250 49.1% £617,949 £512,128 €105,821 €26,454 £79,366 €19,842 €59,524 14.58% 2s. 11d. in April 1964 Comment 31,420,45. Increase of 12t% approx.

Decrease due to 38.01% ncreased productivity Decrease of 12% €5.39,915 approx. £511,810 £28,105 To be ssued month bonu: was €7,026 deficit Reserve shared Reser shared out a year £21,079 £5,270 £15,809 3.58% 8td. in f bonus plan works. They are taken 54 calculations at the Pressed Steel ood, Scotland.

scheme, although at Pressed Steel its introduction was preceeded by drastic pruning of the toolroom and other jobs and the dispersal of many craftsmen onto the assembly lines.

The implications of the scheme for unemployed workers and the youth are obvious. Any increase in employment at the factory would automatically reduce the bonus rate through increasing the participating payroll.

Apprentice training becomes an unnecessary overhead to be kept down to a minimum or to be used simply as cheap labour.

Class collaboration It is not surprising that after the introduction of the Emerson plan, the management at Pressed Steel put forward a suggestion for the training of workers in welding and blue-print reading in their own spare time.

Applications to increase wages would be a threat to the bonus since any improvement in basic wage rates would send up the participating payroll.

For all its pseudo-scientific talk, the Emerson plan is straight-forward class collaboration.

The SCOW workers should have no hesitation in throwing it out lock, stock and barrel. Production workers and craft workers must unite to block all attempts to create divisions in the factory which would give the management an excuse to put the plan into operation.

All productivity and steering committees — so-called — should be boycotted and shop stewards instructed to take no part in consultations aimed at 'fixing' earnings.

Steel workers can then clear the way for a united attack on the wage freeze and for all-round improvements in pay and conditions.

bonus has been in operation the Pressed Steel Company has introduced its new 'Apex' line, producing car bodies for Rootes Motors who have built a €20,000,000 factory over the road.

The 'Apex' line now constitutes the most profitabe part of the firm at Linwood and its introduction 'is reflected in the drop of the bonus ratio from 49.1 per cent in October 1963 to 38.01 per cent in April 1964. It enabled Pressed Steel to turn company profits from a loss of £1,500,000 in 1962 to a profit of £1,500,000 million in 1963. Dividend in 1963 was declared at 20 per cent for the shareholders.

Ratio rectified The bonus ratio was 'stabilised' at this figure for April onwards but further changes are provided for by the memorandum of agreement covering the scheme which says:

'Substantial changes in the conditions which prevailed in establishing this ratio of payroll costs to production value could necessitate changing the ratio for the purpose of preserving equity of any part in the benefits of the plan."

(Should the firm find that the bonus plan is giving workers too much of the cream then this can easily be rectified by changing the bonus ratio.)

'The heart of the plant-wide incentive plan,' says Emerson, *is wholehearted participation ECENILY a carefully selected group of journalists was admitted into Porton, the germ and chemical warfare centre.

It was at Porton that Mr. Bacon, a reseanch scientist, died from the germ producing the bubonic plague.

The government did its best to hush up this tragedy. The exact nature of Mr. Bacon's work was never explained to the public. A reasonable conclusion was that he was working on producing new strains of plague germs.

Some of these might be very useful as biological weapons for the mass destruction of humanity.

NOT OFFENSIVE The journalists were told by Dr. W. Henderson, the director of the Microbiological Research Establishment, that the work on germs at Porton was not intended for offensive purposes.

Dr. E. E. Hadden, director of the Chemical Defence Experimental Centre has the same thing to say on the chemical work at Porton.

This, of course, does not explain the fact that the Porton establishment is surrounded by top secrecy and controlled not by the Ministry of Health, but by the Ministry of Defence.

By our Science Correspondent It was explained to the journalists that research into the germs causing Malta fever, plague and anthrax was in progress. Knowledge from this work, while being useful in controlling these diseases, would have important application for use in germ warfare.

DISADVANTAGE

Another germ, botulinum, produces the most powerful poison known to man. As a biological weapon the poison has a disadvantage of being unstable. The chemists at Porton are attempting to overcome this problem.

Capitalism organises germ warfare preparations on an international scale. At Porton an American liaison officer is present to coordinate the work with that in the USA.

The Americans are actively engaged in developing the means of delivering these new poisons and germs. Biological weapons are an attractive proposition to the capitalist class. They do not destroy property only human life.

Dr. Hadden reported progress in the field of poisonous chemicals. A new substance, superior to tear gas has been issued to the British army. Journalists were too diplomatic to ask what effects this chemical would have when used on colonial workers.

No doubt, this new chemical will be made available to the South African forces and the British police, eventually.

Other chemicals being developed are capable of removing the enemy's desire to fight.

Capitalism in decay is a barrier to the further progress of humanity. Science and technology are distorted by property relations.

WEAPONS

New techniques which have the potential of assisting mankind are developed in order to make the most hideous weapons of mass destruction.

Previously, scientists like Pasteur, Koch and Lister studied germs in order to free man from disease.

Today, some of the finest research workers are employed in developing germs and diseases to be used against humanity. Labour's Shadow Minister of bour s snacow yinister Health, recently asked the Tory government some questions on the typhoid outbreak at Aberdeen. He should have found time to state Labour's position on Porton.

MONDAY'S Coin Wist Pay ounced the publication this • week of a Communist Party four-page pamphlet on the motor car industry—which warns British car workers of the dangers of American domination of the 'British' car industry.

It warns that the greatest ever employers' offensive is being prepared against the car workers.

Lenin once wrote with disdain about politicians who trail behind events. They reminded him, he said, of the man who goes to a funeral and wishes all the guests many happy returns of the day.

It is an insult to the workers of Fords and other factories to be told to prepare for an attack when the people who tell them are Kevin Halpin. Sam Aaronovitch and the Communist Party.

All the speed-up measures described in the pamphlet exist and the trend has been obvious for some time.

What was essential to the Ford management in 1962 was to smash the shop stewards' orgarisation and intimidate union members in order that this speed-up could go through without a hitch.

A pamphlet on the motor car industry which ignores a defeat already inflicted on the workers in this respect is worse than useless.

RELUCTANT

It is especially since the famous sackings of 1962 that Fords have increased their production and profits.

No steward or anyone else can leave his job without the foreman's permission and men are reluctant to stand as shop stewards for fear of victimisation.

This is because the unions and the Communist Party made only a sham fight against the 1962 sackings and allowed the Ford Motor Co. to carry through their policy of discipline preparatory to speed-up.

After the sackings, in evidence submitted to the Court of Inquiry into the dispute, a Company spokesman boasted of the new regime:

"The number of grievances being raised had been reduced considerably, although the facilities for raising grievances were still freely available to employees.' Fords now considered themIves in a very strong position:

"The Company stated that they had in any case not terminated the seventeen men's employment for taking part in an unofficial stoppage;

some of them had in fact not taken part in the stoppage concerned. Their employment had been terminated because the Management—in a matter in which they have to be the ultimate judges-had concluded over a period that these were not men with goodwill towards the Company or prepared to give them good service.' NO DISCUSSIONS It is little wonder that there were few complications and that the management felt satisfied. One of the trade union representatives at the Inquiry pointed out that "... shop stewards were not allowed to discuss merit pay, line speeds or labour content, work standards and movement of labour'. • Nor could they hold any meetings of their members within the works without specific permission from the management.

All through the dispute the 'Daily Worker' refused to Registered at the G.P O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 Pro Cape His Sure London. S. Wi Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (IU), lead a campaign against the obvious betrayals of the trade union leaders, always calling for 'pressure' to make them do their work properly.

At the hearings of the Court of Inquiry (Cameron Report) the character of these leaders was revealed.

For example, Mr. W. B. Beard, O.B.E., Chairman of the trade union side of the Ford National Joint Negotiating Committee, concluded his remarks to the Commission with this fighting statement.

"The Unions deprecated persons who made it their business to make trouble, and if the present dispute were settled satisfactorily, the Unions would do their utmost to eliminate unofficial stoppages, but in this they would require the assistance and understanding of Management at all levels.' Another sentence in the report uminates the attitude of Mr.

O'Hagan (also an O.B.E.)

om the trade union side:

'Mr. O'Hagan emphasised that he was not, and never had been concerned to defend the seventeen dismissed men, but to argue that the attitude of the Company's Management had got to change if industrial relations were to be restored.' LONE CAMPAIGN The Communist Party had clear alternatives before it. They refused even to campaign for a meeting of shop stewards from all the big car firms in response to Ford's direct attack, relying instead on pressure through official channels.

The seventeen sacked men, including a number of Communist Party members, were left to campaign alone and without Party support. Their case is shamefully dropped.

Claude Berridge, a life-long Party member, was AEU representative in the negotiations over the sacked men.

Acting on behalf of his executive committee he fell in with other full-time officials in abandoning the sacked men without a fight. If he had been a Communist he would have resigned and campaigned for re-election against the executive committee on this very issue.

CONCEAL

What does the Communist Party mean by a fight against US domination of the British car industry? They conceal a very important point in the

THE argument of embarrassed Communist Party members that Will Paynter's recent speeches were forced upon him by the right wing majority on the Executive Committee of the National Union of Mineworkers, has been refuted by Paynter himself.

The right-wing Lancashire Area • Committee has issued a transcript of Paynter's recent speech at the Lancashire Gala (reported in The Newsletter two weeks ago) to every NUM branch in the area and has asked branch officers to use it in the discussion on the daywage claim.

In this speech Paynter urges acceptance of the Coal Board offer and rejects every possible form of activity. He concludes: I put these facts and arguments before you today, as my own contribution to the discussion that must take place and precede the ballot vote.' No alternative The ballot paper being issued to miners leaves out any alternative form of action to accepting the offer. It is a straight vote 'Yes' or 'No' on accepting the NEC's recommendation to accept the Coal Board offer. The leadership is determined to avoid any action whatever, no matter how the vote goes.

If the vote goes against them, they will call another delegate conference to decide on what action to take. If that conference decides on a strike, union rules call for yet another ballot.

Feeble record Meanwhile, militant miners are sick of the feeble record of this union leadership on wages.

In October 1958 the union claimed 15s. increase on the minimum wage and accepted 7s. 6d. In January 1960 they claimed 12s. and accepted 5s. awarded by the National Reference Tribunal. In January 1961 they claimed 18s. but accepted 8s. 6d. In April 1962 they claimed f1 and accepted. 7s. 6d. In April 1963 they claimed £l and accepted 9s.

Now Paynter, in his 'own contribution' urges acceptance of this year's offer because it is 'better than the offers accepted by the union in the last five settlements'. In other words, there have been bigger sell-outs in the past so why worry now? reinstate over sacking O Nomhohe Ld as Comakins from the Lucas combine in Birmingham are out on strike against the sacking of Amalgamated Engineering Union steward, George Gelf, from the Shaftsmoor Lane factory.

Workers are agreed that the sacking of Gelf for alleged misconduct in the car park is yet another attempt by the management, as in the sackings at Ford and Remington Rand, to single out a militant steward and weaken union organisation.

It is no accident that the press stress the fact that Gelf is a member of the Communist Party.

The Birmingham District committee of the AEU gave full backing to the strike at their meeting on Tuesday. They demanded that the AEU executive immediately declare the strike official.

'Pushed'

In a statement in answer to the allegation by Lucas that he drove his car at a works policeman Gelf says:

"The car park attendant would not let me enter the park although others were entering the car park. After a few words between us he asked me for my name and works number, which I gave. I then moved the car into bottom gear and slowly moved forward. The patrolman immediately ran from the side of the car to the front and was pushed slowly backwards. I stopped. He came back to the side and grabbed my clothes and was pulled off by another car park attendant.

I was then told to park in the very spot I had been previously rofused. I have worked 19 years at Lucas. I was oalled up in the office and sacked immediately?

Other Lucas stewards feel that if this sacking is not fought through, the company will feel confident enough to come down on the whole shop stewards' organisation. Poverty in S. Yorks "IT would appear there is a strata of young people growing up who are not being properly fed or clothed. It could be there is a strong

mining industry. At Bradford colliery, Manchester, there is now trouble over a piece-rate claim in the '40's face.

The men claimed 10s. per cubic yard on this face which is 272 yards long and five feet wide. The web (ie., the width of the shearing disc) is two foot three inches. There are 93 men on the face, which has one roadway.

The men say that the maximum that could be done is ten shears a week (i.e., 22} foot advance). The Coal Board offered 8s. per cubic yard with the same manpower, but said the men could do 14.8 shears a week.

The inclination in the seam is 1 in 1.6 and the men say 14.8 shears are too many. It would not be safe because the men would not be able to pack and support the width of roof exposed.

The machine would be going too fast, but the Coal Board says the men should keep up with it.

The last offer the Coal Board too much of the cake. (Mr. made was 8s. 3d. The men Webber is an ex-Transport rejected this. The conciliation Salaried Staffs Association procedure consists first of a official and Industrial Relations Disputes Committee with two Officer of the Coal Board.) representatives from each side. Messrs. Paynter and Ford are If they disagree, as they usually just as incapable of defending do, the claim goes before a the piece-workers from these referee. attacks as they are of fighting In Lancashire one of these on behalf of the day-wage men. referees is a woman called Enid Both these sections of workers Hesling, who once 'found must unite and construct a new against miners, who lost wages leadership in their industry. when they could not get to work because of thick fog which disrupted all the bus services.

At a meeting on June 21 of the men on the '40's face, NUM area secretary, Joe Gormley, and Agent, Mr. Crossley, attended. The Newsletter understands that Mr. Crossley asked for a 'free hand' to negotiate and intimated that he would accept 8s. 6d. to 9s.

The men' refused to go below I0s. but offered to prove their case on the face over two weeks before observers from the union and the Coal Board.

It is clear that this attempt both to hold down piece rates and demand more work is going to be the pattern not only throughout Lancashire, but in all the other coalfields.

This is the application of Mr. W. J. P. Webber's argument that piece workers are getting

history of the Dagenham shop stewards.

In 1960, long before the employers' victory of November 1962, the Dagenham shop stewards received a letter from the Detroit branch of the United Automobile Workers Union of the USA. This letter called for an international representative conference of Ford workers to discuss joint campaigns on wage rates.

The American Ford workers were worried by the diversion of production to European branches with lower labour costs. The Joint Shop Stewards' Committee, including Communists, turned down this proposal, despite the opposition of some Party members, on the grounds that it was premature and too advanced a proposal for the workers to accept. It was not even put to the men.

It is in actions and not in words that political parties are put to the test.

INION leaders of London's busmen have accepted a package deal offer by the London Transport Board which is an attack on the conditions of the workers.

After a 10-hour negotiation, Sam Henderson accepted the offer of a f1 a week increase and a further 18s. for co-operation in efficiency proposals which are to be put forward by the LTB.

It is the efficiency proposals which the rank and file busmen are so opposed to.

To earn their extra 18s., they will be expected to operate standee-buses, larger vehicles and one-man buses.

A delegate conference busmen from all London and district garages will be recommended to accept the increase next week.

Henderson probably hopes that by offering the wage increase with shorter hours and better holidays, the men will overlook the hardships of future increased efficiency.

But "The Times' last week gave fair warning to Henderson of the kind of reception he will probably receive from his members.

The recommendation, it said, would not get an easy passage, but 'pressure by union leaders, including Mr. Cousins, should be suflicient to enable the men to accept.

In other words, along with the union leaders and the London Transport Board are hoping that Cousins' one-time 'left' reputation will stand him in good stead when he goes to sell the agreement to busmen.

The LTB workers may have received a wage increase, but no one should be hoodwinked by the strings attached to that offer.

One-man operated and standee buses, plus larger vehicles will make life even more nervewracking for the already overworked busmen who continue to work for the LTB.

Many drivers and conductors have left the LTB because of bad conditions and those still employed have to make up for what the Board says is a tremendous staff shortage. show that the number of families below the poverty line on this scale has more than doubled in the Don Valley area in recent years.

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T a meeting held in last shop stewards appealed to the Amalgamated Engineering Union to call an official strike at the Hillington factory of Remington Rand in protest against the dismissal of Calum McKay, convenor of shop stewards.

The 700 workers at the factory had the previous week taken a decision to leave the question of a fight for the reinstatement of Mckay to the Executive of the ABU.

The decision was a result of the failure of the leadership in the district to do anything more than give token support to the fight to gain the reinstatement of McKay.

Whilst the Remington factory in Hillington stuck it out for five weeks, the Paisley district of the AEU did very little more than make militant noises.

STOPPAGE

An hour's stoppage on the Hillington estate and a half-day token stoppage of some factories in the Clyde area was the sum total.

A large proportion of the workers at the Remington factory are women who staunchly stood by their convenor. Now they have been told that no public assistance benefits are payable for hardship caused by the strike. No strike pay was given by the union during the dispute.

McKay's case was put through the engineering procedure and arrival at the York meeting two weeks ago. The employers refused to recommend his reinstatement.

There is no possibility of the AEU fighting against this decision. Any further fight to reinstate McKay would have to be led by the rank and file.

The McKay case proves that a new leadership has to be built for engineering workers on the Clyde. It cannot be left in the hands of people who refuse to take up a struggle against the union bureaucrats.

One by one the convenors are being broken, by on the one hand being made part of the management (through Emerson and other plans), or on the other hand they are being got rid of.

for 40-hour week IN

THE conference of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions decided at Scarborough on Wednesday to instruct its executive to press for a 40-hour week and an immediate pay rise. The Confederation would impose a national overtime ban if necessary to press home the demands.

But rank and file members of the Confederation should be warned that such a move may also be seen by some union leaders as the go-ahead for the Confederation to accept the package deal recently proposed by the employers. element of sickness which is destroying the family incomes, or more unemployment in the area. Certainly there is more distress in families in the area than ever before?

This was said recently by Mr. H. Holmes, education officer for the Don Valley area of South Yorkshire, when he announced that since 1958, the number of applications from parents for help with clothing : for their children had risen from around 200 to around 500. Far more parents were also having to apply for free school dinners for their children.

Education authorities have a national scale for assistance with clothing and meals, based on the applicant's income.

Mr. Holmes' figures clearly

Lucas derks unloaded fruit and vegetables at five of London's markets this week, clashes occurred between sacked porters on the picket lines and the police when lorry drivers tried to deliver goods.

The dispute started when 400 men at the Spitalfields market went on strike for a 40-hour week. Now a further 600 men are involved after having been given the sack by Tenants' Associations at the Borough, Brentford, King's Cross and Stratford markets.

An enquiry has been opened between government representatives and Robert " Davies, national secretary of the general workers group of the Transport and General Workers' Union, where it was stated that negotiations for a 40-hour week had been going on for 18 months.

Porters claim that it is not necessary to work on Saturdays since most of the buying is done on Fridays.

So far the dispute has not included Covent Garden workers and fruit and vegetables are being diverted to that market at the request of the union.

SPLIT

By doing so they are giving in to the market employers, who rely on the fact that the Cent Garden workers will deal with any produce.

Covent Garden porters have already got a 40-hour week and the bosses no doubt hope to split the porters amongst themselves by giving one section a five-day week and withholding it from the other.

As in the strike of some Covent Garden workers a month ago, when the Tenants' Association gave the whole market the sack, the employers have taken similar action in this dispute in the hope of bringing the porters to heel.

Those workers on strike and the men who have been given the sack should call for support from their fellow union members at Covent Garden and demand that goods going there be "blacked' not only by the market but by dockers as well.

The chairman of the government committee of inquiry into the market dispute appealed on Wednesday for the men to return 'so that the committee can conduct its investigation in a different atmosphere. Mr. Davis thought this was a 'helpful move' (!) The men will hear the proposal on Friday.

Continual

struggles at Rover AS predicted in a recent Newsletter article, the Rover Company at Solihull, Birmingham, is rapidly becoming the scene of big struggles.

Thirty-four panel workers walked out last week claiming that the management was restricting their piece-work earnings on the Rover 2000 and asked for increased payment for gaps caused by shortages on the assembly line.

The shop stewards failed to call for immediate support for the panel workers on what is a common issue and allowed the management to act tough by laying off most of the workers in the P6 factory.

As a result of their isolation, the panel workers returned to work the next day, but 48 assembly line workers walked out shortly afterwards when they were told they would not be paid waiting time for production lost through the panels dispute.

Workers claim that the wage rates at Rover are amongst the lowest in the Midland car industry, but their actions show they are not prepared to accept them under speed-up conditions much longer.