The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 361

DURING the Trades Union Congress debate on a motion calling for an international boycott on South African goods Mr. Frank Cousins, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, told the Congress that it was not only voting that was required'.

'Almost every Union and Congress,' he said, 'had condemned apartheid for its evil suppression of the rights of people because of the colour of their skin.' Mr. Cousins went on to say that the boycott was essentially 'a problem for dockers' 'You are saying that there should be an economic blockade, a refusal to handle the goods of South Africa. This comes down to members of my union. This is a problem for the dockers,' he declared.

LISTEN TO CALL

Mr. Cousins continued: "The dockers of Britain are at present involved in a vital issue to improve their wages and conditions. "They will nor Listen to people who make suggestions to them that there should be a halt to their wage claim. But I tell you, in spite of their preoccupation with this struggle to improve their own conditions, they will listen to this call if you mean it. I stress "if you mean it" It is the easiest thing in the world to pass resolutions saying someone else should remedy a problem.

'My members will turn their backs on handling ships at any time if they are satisfied this is what the working class section of Britain thinks they should do. But if we say we will not handle cargoes, none of vou attempt to ease the situation, he added by way of warning.

('The Times', September 10)

The entire labour movement will support any action which Mr. Cousins takes on this matter. But, if he seeks to hide behind the inactivity of other right-wing trade union leaders then what appears to be a magnificent declaration of solidarity with the South African people will become nothing more than the usual double-talk, so characteristic of British trade union leaders.

The Newsletter says: 'Go ahead Mr. Cousins-call on the dockers. We know you will not be disappointed.

Soviet economist calls for increased profit motive' THE 'New York Times' News Service reports that a leading Soviet economist, Dr. Lev A. Leontyev, a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, has come out in favour of proposals to give the profit motive a bigger role in the Soviet Union's economy.

In an article in 'Pravda' he claimed that the problem was to 'combine planned centralised management with maximum scope for initiative and independence at the local level and in enterprises' 'Komsomolskaya Pravda' has called for 'more open political discussion'. These new developments now taking place coincide with the publication of Togliatti's last Testament.

On page three of this week's Newsletter, Peter Arnold analyses fully the political significance of this Testament.

"HE capitalist press reds whom they have Their recommendation is reported, been carried by 270,000 members voted.

This result will now be aimed at not only members of the Communist Party but all those who oppose the present leadership. Indeed, it is well known that the right wing clique of Cannon, Byrne, Chappel and Co. treat the Communist Party with contempt, especially since some of its leading members were convicted for ballot rigging.

This new move is designed to hamstring and cripple all threats from the left in the future. Of course, there will be no outraged protests from the press and those great democrats, who protested so sharply at the antics of the Communist Party in the past.

Replacing Communists As The Newsletter pointed out, they were only interested in replacing the Communist Party with a right wing leadership and not with a restoration of democracy for other members of the union.

Les Cannon, the union President, it is believed is interested in a higher office inside the TUC right wing.

It was felt that the announcement of the ballot result during the TUC conference would impress the extreme right on the A trade union leadership LL the talents of the Britis.

trade union were summoned up in the last three days before the Trades Union Congress for one single purpose.

From such a prodigious and united effort one might expect some powerful results, since the British working class was first in the field of union organisation and boasts more members than ever before.

it, of course, the talents of these gentlemen (a good proportion of them titled) are of a special kind. The purpose of their endeavours was to turn the TUC's deliberations into what the Tory press began to refer to as 'Happiness Week'.

La few short discussions, they managed to remove from the agenda all controversial issues.

By this they mean all resolutions which concerned the basic political and economic interests of the working class.

• this end, the leaders of the Sheet Metal Workers withdrew their resolution opposing wage restraint and supported a vague general resolution expressing confidence in a Labour government to plan the economy in the interests of the community.

milarly a resolution opposing US nuclear bases in Britain and particularly the Polaris base at Holy Loch was withdrawn. All this is in order not to embarrass the official Labour leadership before an election and during office.

ost significant was the decision of the General Council to make no recommendation to the Congress on a resolution expressing support for Labour in the election. Woodcock explained that to recommend support would make difficulties for the leaders of the 'white collar' unions who are only now coming into the TUC for the first time.

Woodcock is really driving at something much more serious in the long run. He is a convinced advocate of planned capitalism, with the trade is delig so cons that the 42,187 to hted. Those Electrical istently backed have sc union bans Communists fro 13,932 in a poll in which General Council of Cannon's anti-Communist sincerity.

It is also well known that these gentlemen have always been suspicious of Chappel and Cannon because of their previous association with the Communist Party. The latter are hoping that after this ballot they will be accepted into the more intimate circles of the top TUC hierarchy.

Great mistake

It would be a great mistake if our right-wing gentlemen thought that the fight was over inside the Electrical Trades Union.

This Union has been betrayed into the hands of the red-baiters because of the policies of the Communist Party in the past. We are confident, however, that with a worsening economic situationmend the emergence of new problems in industry arising from automation, that the members of the union will find ways and means to clear out the right wing and elect once more a genuine socialist leadership.

Only such a leadership can restore democracy to the union and fight for the political and industrial rights of all the members.

EDITORIAL Whither the TUC?

union bureaucracy as a vital part of the plan, with the special role of controlling the working class, of weakening it before the attacks of the employers.

For example, if the requirements of 'the national economy' are that labour becomes cheaper and living standards go down, then the unions would have to help bring this about.

Woodcock has made it clear many times that this subordination of the unions to the capitalist state is a higher principle than any political party loyalties. This is why he can make a recommendation which is a break with the whole history of the unions and the Labour Party, because his first loyalty is to big business and its state machine.

le Labour Party was founded precisely to represent trade union interests in Parliament;

only later was the socialist principle of Clause 4 accepted.

This insistance on a separate working-class party, despite the absence of a socialist programme, was welcomed by Marxists.

hat is required now, as there matures the most explosive crisis ever faced by British and world capitalism, is a step forward beyond the idea of simply independent working class representation in Parliament. ipitalism cannot tolerate a major programme of reform; it will use the state against the working class. Because the issues are so sharp, Labour politicians and trade union leaders either become revolutionary Marxists or else they go into direct service of the monopolists.

oodcock leads them in the latter direction. In the course of this, it becomes necessary for them to attack all the previous conquests of the Trades Union antiored another victory. ım holding office has, it only 25 per cent of the Alexander appeal fund AN appeal has now been launched for aid to be sent 1o Dr. Neville Alexander and ten other men and women, imprisoned for alleged sabotage, by the South African government.

Sponsored by several Labour MPs it aims to raise £2,500 for an appeal to the Bloemfontein Supreme •Court. The 1l were tried last November on charges of 'sabotage' and of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act.

Several of the defendants are now in the infamous concentration camp on Robben Island. Alexander himself is known to have been injured when assaulted by warders last June.

The only coloured student ever to have gone from South Africa to study in Germany, Alexander obtained his doctorate at Tubingen University. When news of his arrest was received last year, the German Students Organisation raised f4,000 which paid the legal expenses of the trial.

Any financial contribution our readers may • wish to make towards helping the imprisoned Africans fight the sentences imposed by the Verwoerd government should be sent to The Newsletter office, 186a Clapham High Street and we will send it on to the appropriate fund.

working class. Not content with being anti-Soviet-attacking the gains of the Russian Revolution-they now strike at even the most elementary gains of the British working class. That is the meaning of Woodcock's action. s for those leaders' who have withdrawn left-wing resolutions; what can be said about such courageous heroes of the standing orders room? Look at their argument closely. The resolutions are withdrawn in order not to embarrass the Labour Party leaders. it if it is so urgent to get Wilson and Co. into power, presumably this is because our trade union leaders consider a Labour government more likely to cary out the kind of policy which trade union members decide at their conferences! a Labour government is going to be 'embarrassed' by such demands, what is the point of electing it? That is the question the TUC General Council must answer.

Will not answer. It misleads the working class towards blind hopes that something better will turn up once Wilson is in No. 10. We in the Socialist Labour League will speak out right through the election campaign, just as we have done consistently in the past. nless Wilson and the Labour leaders adopt a policy of mobilising the working class to take the wealth from the capitalists and plan production for the needs of the people, then he will serve the monopolists in their attacks on the workers. We must fight on every front, industrial as well as electoral, for the defeat of the boss class and the Tories.

We must fight for a Labour government and above all we must fight for socialist policies so that the vanguard of the working class is prepared for the betrayals of Wilson, ready to continue the fight begun in the election under a leadership that will smash Toryism for ever. by united action.

It is surely now quite clear, as we have constantly warned in The Newsletter, that the Transport and General Workers' Union officials have no intention of fighting the employers for this increase.

At a mass meeting of dockers on Merseyside last week-end, it was obvious that the dockers now expect the union to call a national strike.

Despite the attempts of the TGWU lay delegates to present a face of militancy, dockers at the meeting demanded to know why a strike call had not been made.

STRONG ENOUGH

Speaking at the meeting, John Hodgkins, chairman of the Docks Delegate Conference, which rejected the offer of 12s. 6d. a week, said he felt that the employers wanted a showdown.

'We are strong enough,' he said, 'and I think we will have to strike to win a decent basic wage' John. Layden declared that Harold Wilson speaks to T. U. C. Robert HAROLD WILSON's 40-minute academic assessment of the economic situation and declaration of Labour Party policy was received coolly by the delegates. The standing ovation and weak 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' were false and much less rapturous. It was an anaemic and embarrassing affair.

In fact, he had to offer.

BEHIND THE CLICHES Behind the cliches of 'a time for action, for decisions, for exciting change this supposedly election-launching speech never went beyond saying 'we will nationalize urban building land. We will re-nationalize steel. We have the right to ask for an incomes policy'.

Following this, and the seemingly attractive offer of immediate legislation by a Labour government to ensure the right of unions to strike (following the Rookes v. Barnard case), most delegates were still not enthusiastic.

To face the facts, Wilson's only answer after attacking the weary cycle' of Tory 'stop-go' policy and assessing the balance of payments crisis was: "This does not mean that I believe we are necessarily facing an immediate financial crisis—a crippling run on sterling.' (!)

AMPLE TIME He arrived in Blackpool on Sunday evening and had ample time to discuss his speech with TUC leaders before saying:

'I want to speak with the utmost frankness today on one of the principal problems this nation is facing-the economic problem of paying our way in the world, of strengthening sterling; of breaking the sterile cycle of stop-go crisis; of unlocking the secret of steady expansion without the periodic lurches into balance of payments crisis abroad and deflation and stagnation at home; delegates, reported that part of the offer made by the employers had been kept from the delegates by Tim O'Leary, national docks group secretary of the TGWU:

"This was that the employers wanted certain agreements on manning scales and mobility, and on standardisation of overtime rates attached to the agreement. I am most disturbed by the failure of the secretary to inform us of this.' MEETING OF DOCKERS He also told the meeting that the delegates from the Scottish Transport and General Workers' Union had fought for acceptance of the employers' offer.

But what was clear from this meeting was that if the TGWU leaders think they can fool Merseyside dockers they have another think coming A meeting of dockers called by the Merseyside area committee of the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers Union is to be held this weekend to decide what steps should be taken to win the claim of £15 a week.

BLACKPOOL, MONDAY of restoring to our industry and trade the dynamic we have lost; of enabling Britain first to catch up with, and then surpass the production records of those other nations who in recent years have passed us by; of recreating a sense of purpose in our national economic life, leavened with that sense of partnership and social justice and concern for others, without which production is a meaningless technical exercise.' DID NOT CLASH The whole of Wilson's noncommital speech did not, nor even could not, clash with this year's TUC resolution on wage restraint.

Despite George Woodcock's statement about the lack of association between the TUC and the Labour Party (and the general secretary was the only one not to applaud when Wilson was welcomed as fraternal delegate), the compositing committee was almost certainly pressurised to condense eight resolutions on wage restraint into a final 'unembarrassing' formula.

AMBIGUOUS

This formula is an ambiguous and long statement calling for a 'planned co-ordinated system of economy working for the common good'-ie., real wages, removing unemployment, improved working conditions and 'a more equitable distribution of the national wealth'.

In one sentence it opposes 'the attempted imposition of an incomes policy, yet in the final two paragraphs lays down conditions for the acceptance of an incomes policy! national press during the last seven days that British imperialism is sliding into even greater chaos.

The Tonies would like to keep the matter quiet until after the election or, at the very least, have as little fuss as possible, whilst Smith is equally determined that the white minority shall have its way in Southern Rhodesia. So, apparently there has been no decision made arising from the talks.

To try and speed up matters Smith has enlisted the aid of countries such as South Africa — with Verwoerd's racialist government—and Portugal.

Position clear

By making a short stay in Portugal to see the country's prime minister, Dr. Salazar, before arriving • for talks with Sir Alec Douglas-Home in Britain, Ian Smith, head of the Southern Rhodesian government, made his position very clear.

Smith: alliance with Salazar Dr. Salazar is known for the most brutally repressive measures against socialists, militants and trade unionists in Portugal and national liberation fighters in his colonies.

Smith's obvious alliance with this man and the whole system of violent suppression that he represents indicates quite clearly what would happen in Southern Rhodesia should the white minority declare unilateral independence.

It is thought likely that Smith may have asked the Portuguese Prime Minister for military backing in the way of reinforcements near the Southern Rhodesian border in Mozambique.

In addition to this kind of aid, Smith, it is now claimed, wants to cut off all supplies of coal, electricity and rail services to Northern Rhodesia which will be a threat on his northern flank. To do this he again needs the help of Portugal.

Revealing comments

One of the most revealing comments made by Smith referred to his attitude towards a change of government in Britain from Tory to Labour. 'We have always had satisfactory relations with the Labour Party,' was his answer.

This statement is surely an indictment of the Labour leadership's policy abroad. Smith and the white racialist minority in Southern Rhodesia stand fair and square with the capitalists, they give no quarter to the African masses.

Seen in this light the state-sponsored visit by certain Labour MPs to Portugal and its colonies can only bode ill for the peoples of Central and South Africa. They have produced a white-washing report praising the work of the Portuguese army in the colonies.

Labour can have no truck with Smith's or Whitehall's plans. Only the people of Southern Rhodesia have a right to determine that nation's future.

South by The Editor a national dock strike.

Despite the fact that powers were given to them, by the last delegate conference, to call a strike, these leaders have taken evasive action in face of the Port Employers' challenge.

All their attempts to negotiate a satisfactory increase from the employers have talled. They can see now that the demand for f15 a week must be won only dockers should not be put off by talk about damaging 'Labour's image'.

'If the Labour Party leaders support us and declare their support for all the lower paid workers, it will enhance their chances of victory in the election,' he said.

Brother Blythen, one of the leaders AS the farce of the talks over independence for Southern Rhodesia drag on, it has become increasingly obvious through reports in the

Page September

Britain is engaged in a life and death struggle to maintain foothold in the world's markets. With income from overseas investments rapidly dwindling she has been forced more and more to enter into the most bitter of trade wars against her capitalist rivals.

The front line of this war centres on automation. British capitalists have long since grown parasitic because of the ease with which, in the past, they extracted wealth from their imperialist possessions, Their industries are, in many cases, inadequate and out of date.

So long as they drew a substantial income from the savage exploitation of colonial peoples, they felt no real need to develop a competitive export trade.

In this parasitic environment the growth of monopoly served in fact to restrict the technological growth of industry.

Faced with the giant strides which their competitors in the United States, Japan and Western Europe have made in the field of automation, capitalist Britain now faces an almost insoluble crisis By contrast, the rulers of the United States have developed automation mainly from the vast sums expended by the defence industries, especially in aviation and the 'field electronics.

All the costly experiments were paid for out of the pocket of the taxpayer. The giant monopolists simply infiltrated their representatives into the various departments of defence, who in turn siphoned off the results of the prototype experiments for use in their export war.

On the other hand, the paraBritain's capitalists reached its highest point in their relations with the defence industry. It was revealed during the Ferranti crisis that only fifteen mililon pounds out of two hundred million pounds of contracts, placed by the Ministry of Aviation, are competed for.

For the balance of 185 million pounds, there is only one source supply. 1 De 'Financial Times' freely admits that so far automation is concerned nothing of any significance has been achieved from such enormous expenditure.

As a result the difference in economic relations between Britain and the USA can be summed up as follows:

The United States is concentrating on the export of automated equipment, whilst Britain is trying to purchase such expensive equipment and pay for it out of the proceeds from an export drive of technologically inferior products.

The origins of the export/ import trade gap spring largely from this source. British exports in engineering have only risen by 1 per cent, whilst imports, generally of automated equipment, have risen by 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, a sizeable portion of the goods offered for sale by Britain on the world's markets are suffering acute competition from countries whose economy was relatively backward a few

FOR the fifth time in 40 years it looks as if Britain will have another Labour government. Harold Wilson, it is said, fired the opening shots for the general election during his Trades Union Congress speech at Blackpool.

From now until election day, millions of words will be written and spoken by the leaders of the Labour Party. This wordy battle will slur over the real issues by promising all things to all men. Nothing will be said or done to upset the great monopolists.

Vague promises, generalities about the possibilities of automation and the glories of the scientific age, will be utilised to imply that capitalist Britain can be transformed into some kind of paradise for the working class -provided, of course, they accept wage freezing to start with. Such talk will amount to nothing more than a mixture of lies and treachery.

If a Labour government is elected, the first thing it will have to deal with is the most serious economic crisis which has hit capitalism since the end of the Second World War. Let us take a look at this crisis and see what is involved. This is the first of a series of articles analysing the crisis of British Imperialism and itssimplications for the British trade union and labour movement.- In this first article GERRY HEALY explains how the historical crisis of British imperialism is compounded by the growth of automation, rationalisation of industry and the penetration of U.S. monopoly capital-and indicates the socialist Yoad out bf the present impasse. years ago.

The worsening balance of payments position is being masked until the election is over by loans from foreign banks, the sterling holdings of Commonwealth countries in Britain and a dwindling gold reserve. The Tory inflationary boom A further threat to this serious position comes from a worsening economic situation on the home front. The pre-election inflationary • boom has practically come to an end, leaving in its trail an all-time-high hire purchase bill of £1,059 million.

People engaging in hire purchase do so on a promise to complete payment for the goods received out of the proceeds from labour and service, which may take two or three years to fulfil.

To pay for the goods supplied on hire purchase large sums of sterling are printed for circulation, which in turn sets in motion an inflationary spiral that tends to undermine the value of the pound.

Coupled with the drop in gold reserves as a result of the growing gap between imports and exports, the economy now faces a severe crisis. This is what a Labour government will face when it is elected. Such a crisis is derived from the bankruptcy of the capitalist system, and can only be resolved by socialist policies.

U.S. capital

invades Britain The industrialists of the United States have laid longterm plans to deal with their overseas competitors. They know that for the development of automation they require vast sums for investment which their defence industries cannot completely satisfy.

In addition, labour costs in the United States are far too high, so the U.S. monopolies have skilfully taken over and built up industries, especially in Italy, France, Holland, Western Germany and Britain, where they can employ on their terms skilled and unskilled labour.

They go about this in two ways. They may build factories from scratch or make take-over bids for existing factories catering for the type of product they want to make.

Recently there has been a rapid increase of American capital investment in Britain, which now stands at the figure of 1,399 milion pounds. Out of that, 177 million pounds is invested in the manufacturing industries while the remainder is in oil, insurance and general finance.

By purchasing 45 per cent of Ford shares for 129 million pounds, the American bosses in Detroit have attained complete control of all their British company holdings.

In the field of electronics, they have considerably speeded up their rate of investment, thus the largest manufacturer of salt crystals for transistors, the Brush Crystal Company, has been taken over by the Clevite Corporation.

Control of A. C. Cossor has gone to Raytheon.

The up and coming Solartron, dealing entirely with electronic products, has been taken over by its American opposite, Schlumberger.

Forty per cent control in Ultra-Electronics has been acquired by Electronic Investment Management.

Although on the surface, British shareholdings in the United States are still greater than that enjoyed by the Americans in Britain, the economic impact of these holdings is much less. They are spread over investments scattered throughout a highly industrialised continent, many times the size of Britain.

On the other hand American investments in Britain are concentrated on buying up, outright, different companies for the purpose of strengthening their exports of automated equipment and cashing in on the valuable motor car trade.

These have a much higher specific weight within the British economy than that owned by Britons in America.

The battle of the motor car giants is -growing sharper all the time. The Vice-President of the Italian Fiat Company said recently that out of the 40 vehicle producers in Europe, half would disappear by 1970.

With Chrysler's bid for 30 per cent of the Rootes shares, American motor car monopolies will own approximately half of the British motor car industry. Only Leyland Motors and BMC remain independent of U.S. influence.

The answer is nationalization Faced with this invasion of American capital, Britain's politicians, either Tory or Labour are quite powerless. They vitally need dollars to bridge the import and export gap, and they are obliged to accept what can be earned from such take-over bids.

On this side, the capitalists reply to the American threat by speeding up monopolisation. Control of British industry is now passing into the hands of fewer and fewer key monopolies and finance houses.

At the top stands Shell, with an investment of £1,063 million. Next comes ICI, the firm that Harold Wilson has praised and refused to nationalize, with investments of f896 million. Third is British Petroleum with an invested £849 million, and fourth is Burmah Oil with investments of f302 million.

Then comes the insurance companies and the banks. the lead, of course, is the Royal Insurance with £200 million followed by Prudential with 157 million pounds. Then General Accident, Fire and Life, £127 million, followed by Legal and General with £120 million.

After that we have the banks, led by Barclays £156 million, followed by the Midlands, Lloyds and National Provincial with respectively f146 million, £119 million and £104 million investments.

These are the backbone of the most reactionary strata of British capitalism.

Harold Wilson and Labour government will be powerless to carry out the slightest advance towards socialism unless these great holdings and those owned by U.S. big business and what they represent, are nationalized without compensation and under workers' control.

We repeat what we have said many times in the past in The Newsletter. A Labour government under Wilson, which avoids these measures, must inevitably be a government of acute crisis—a crisis which will make the experiences of the MacDonald government of 1931 pale into insignificance. There can be no socialism in Britain unless all the great monopolies, banks and insurance companies are expropriated.

Trade Unions and automation Automation not only poses problems for the capitalists, it poses some very real ones for the trade unions as well. These are now chiefly centred within the manufacturing industries, owned outright by American capital.

Companies such as Fords have deliberately moved away from the old motor car manufacturing centres of Birmingham, Coventry and Dagenham. Together with Rootes and BMC they have taken the fullest advantage of the government grants in order to open new The front line of the trade war is centred on automation and in many pit faces miners have waged a fierce struggle against redundancies resulting from the work of machines such as these. factories in places such • aS Halewood, Linwood and Basildon.

These factories have been equipped with the most automated plant requiring an entirely fresh labour force who have been carefully picked to avoid employing well-known unionists and militant workers, known in Ford managerial circles as the 'Dagenham types'.

Writing about the Ford plant at Halewood, "The Times' reported on December 23, 1963:

"The company has fairly extensive knowledge of the local troublemakers. This has been largely acquired by exchanges of information with other employers, and while there is no political discrimination the chances of an agitator getting an undercover job are slight....

The most important characteristics the selectors look for in a recruit is his ability to work hard and fast under a shift system and to accept a fairly tight discipline?

(Our emphasis.)

One million pounds was spent in selecting managerial and workpeople personnel for Halewood before the factory opened.

The wages policy of such American-owned firms such as Fords is really very simple.

(Next Jeffries Policy.)

They set out to abolish all piece-work and incențive bonus systems and introduce instead higher time wages for high output. This is achieved through U.S.

methods of factory management which exert intense managerial pressure on the workers. Wages may be relatively high but the rate of exploitation and the speed of work is much higher still. The average working life of a person under such conditions may well only be in the region of 10 years.

Such bodies as the National Incomes Commission, set up by the Tories and supported by the Labour leaders, recognises the right of firms such as Fords to exploit workers more intensely in an automated industry without giving them any additional benefits and wages.

The following extract from the interim report of the Commission reveals the kind of thinking business circlis: on in top *Even where a scheme is properly related to output which is itself capable of satisfactory measurement either on a piece-work or time allowance system, increased output may not be the result

Select Committee demand by MPs LAST week we reported the curious anomaly of Dr. N, M.

Perera, leader of the reformists in the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and present Finance Minister in Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike's Ceylon coalition government.

He was accused in Parliament by Robert Gunawardene of owning a rice mill and contracting business with the government. Now seven leaders of the opposition parties in the Ceylon Parliament have tabled a resolution calling for the appointment of a Select Committee of the House of Representatives to inquire into the purchase of the mill by the Finance Minister.

The resolution revealed detailed knowledge of the business activities of Dr. Perera who, incidentally, boasted at the last conference of his party that he had devoted his entire life (sic!) to the cause of the working class.

Amongst other things the motion demands clarification on 'whether a letter of guarantee for 65,880 rupees (£4,000 plus) from the Bank of Ceylon and a guarantee bond of 65,000 rupees by the People's Bank on behalf of Mr. N. R. Vitharne (N. M. Perera's business agent) ... were given to the Commissioner of Agrarian Services for and on behalf of the government ..• ... Whether the said member ... requested the release of an additional guarantee bond for 60,000 rupees given on his behalf, and, if so, the circumstances in which such additional bond was released.

Whether the member still directly or indirectly continues to have an interest in the said Robert Gunawardene Giridara Mills and in the hulling, milling and supplying of rice therefrom to the government.

There is little doubt that the Sirimavo government will use its majority to squash any investigation into the affairs, true or imaginary, of its leading minister-but, as a fellow renegade Dr. Colvin de Silva once remarked on a similar occasion in the same House, 'what is involved is purity of public life, the honour of Ministers and the good repute of government.

'In order to ensure those things, the publicity of the investigation is essential despite the possibilities and probabilities of sometimes irreparable damage to individuals. Salus populi suprema lex'. (The well-being of the people is the highest law.)

of any increased effort by the workers, but of improved techniques, techniques of management or of new plant and equipment which automatically increases output.

In such a case, unless the piece-work or time allowance is suitably revised, the worker may be rewarded to a disproportionate extent, and thus in times of expansion and technical advance, the scheme may contain a built-in mechanism which inflates earnings and absorbs a disproportionate part of the benefit of higher productivity?

(Our emphasis.)

By supporting Nicky, the Labour government is pledged in advance to support firms like Fords against the trade unions.

In the period ahead, rightwing Labour will find itself fighting side by side with the most reactionary employers against the struggles of the rank and file of the Labour and trade union movement.

Without nationalization and a socialist planned economy the right wing will lead the working class from one defeat to the next.

week: Peter on Economic L'WO events this week show now Ben Bella's Algeria: regime is moving along the path of Bonapartism.

On Wednesday last week, five secondary leaders of opposition forces to Ben Bella were shot.

On Thursday morning, less than one hour after a military court had pronounced sentence on him, Colonel Chaabani, who once held a position of some importance in the high command of the Algerian liberation movement, and was a member of the political bureau of the National Liberation Front (FLN), was shot by a firing squad.

At the same time, Hocine Saci, member of Parliament and ex-member of the Central Committee of the FLN was sentenced to hard labour for life.

These measures coincided with the publication of the list of members to be elected to parliament on September 20.

In accordance with the new 'one party' regime, there are no candidates who are not members of the FLN. At the same time, none of the FLN members who oppose Ben Bella in any way are to stand either.

Among the members of the present parliament who do not appear on the new lists, are those who are already fighting the regime underground, like Boudiaf, Ait Ahmet, Sadok, Ben Toumi and Hassani; and those who have already come under repressive measures from the government: Fares, Khobsi, Ferhat Abbas and Hocine Saci. LSSP unions

September prison and even allowed him to visit the Pope in the Vatican.

There is naturally resistance to this move from some sections of both the Stalinists and the Catholics. Cardinal Myndzenty, in Hungary, for example has refused to accept any compromise with Kadar. However, the 'enlightened' members of both movements recognise the need for this collaboration and press forward despite the opposition of the 'dogmatic' atheists Page Thie

moves THE General Secretary of the Ceylon Workers Congress (an organisation representing the vast majority of the Estate workers and Indian workers in Ceylon) has attacked the government and the employers for the pathetic position of the Estate workers.

In his annual report to the 20th sessions of the Congress, he states that the wages of Ceylon's Estate workers have been fixed at the lowest rung of the scale, their educational facilities have been kept at a primitive level and employment opportunities outside the plantation ghettoes have been whittled away to nothing.

He also accused the government of using the campaign against illicit Indian immigrants into Ceylon as a pretext for persecuting and discriminating against the entire Indian community on the island.

CLASS STRUGGLE

Meanwhile labour - management relations on the Estates-—a useful index to the class struggle in the island-are deteriorating swiftly.

A statement issued by the Employers' Federation declared: 'Mr. D. W. Andrews, Deputy President informed the Minister (the Labour Minister) of the considerable increase recently in the cases of violence on estates, particularly in cases in which the victims were members of the managerial and supervisory staff....

'He requested the Minister to use his good offices to get the plantation workers' unions to co-operate in publicly denouncing the resort to violence' The coalition government, which has done nothing to improve the desperate plight of the estate workers, has readily agreed, through its ministry, to call a meeting of Union and Employers' representatives to discuss the problem.

CP and abandon information, it seems that the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Reformist)-led unions and the Communist Party (pro-Moscow) are preparing an undignified retreat from the 21 demands adopted by the Joint Committee of Trade Union Organisations (JCTU).

The English paper of the reformist LSSP states in its recent edition that the time has come for a 'proper reconsideration' by another delegates meeting, of the very form, the content and the perspective of the 21 demands and the struggle for them.

LAMELY HOPES

In its official journal 'Forward', the pro-Moscow CP, blames the LSSP (Reformist) and lamely hopes that the LSSP-led unions will not disrupt the campaign for the 21 demands.

It carefully steps around question of what it will do if LSSP unions sabotage struggle, as they have done.

At the resumed meeting of the JCTU, the LSSP (Reformist) suggestion, that discussions should proceed between Finance Minister, N. M. Perera and the Joint Committee, was decisively rejected and it was decided that the 21 demands should be put to the government and the employers.

The publicationom.

Italian Communist Party of the notes made by Togliatti for a discussion with Khrushchev, which was to have taken place last week, reveal a third, extreme right-wing tendency in the Stalinist movement-a tendency which is openly working for a direct agreement with imperialism, even to the extent of granting it economic concessions within the Soviet Union.

The basis for Togliatti's programme is his analysis of the crisis in imperialism. He states:

"The most serious danger * America. undergoing a deep social crisis.

racial conflict Detween Whites and Negroes Is only one factor of this crisis.

"The murder of Kennedy has shown just how far the reactionary circles can push forward their offensive. victory by the kepubiican candidate (Goldwater), who includes war in his programme and who talks like a fascist, cannot be ruled out?

The American crisis will affect Europe, too: 'American economic competition, which is becoming more intensive and Papal Nuncio Vassallo di Torregrossa tells Hitler in 1933: 'For a long time I did not understand you. Today I understand you? aggressive, helps to accelerate the process of concentration (of capital).

"This reinforces the objective bases of reactionary policies tending to liquidate or to encroach on democratic liberties, to maintain the fascist regimes, to create authoritarian regimes, to prevent any advance of the working class, and substantially to lower the standard of living.' Togliatti's forecast of the future development of capitalism is true enough, but it does not lead him to mobilise the working class, to organise it for victory in the great struggle that he sees ahead. On the contrary it leads him to attempt to stave off the fight by trying to reach agreement with the class enemy.

Communo-chauvinism In an article published in "The New International, December 1938, Trotsky analysed the social forces which gave rise to what że called 'Communo-chauvinism'.

Communo-chauvinism arises from two factors. On the one hand, the Stalinist movements depend on the subsidies of the Kremlin and subordinate themselves to the Soviet bureaucracy, on the other, they "feed from the same sources as the social-democracy, that is, the super profits of imperialism.

Super profits give these parties a certain independence from the Soviet bureaucracy. The more the bourgeoisie is able to realise super-profits, the more the Stalinist party is able to mainOUT NOW-Order your Fourth International (Summer issue) Editorials Ceylon and British Labour youth Crisis of Post-War Capitalism-Peter Jeffries Through What Stage Are We Passing? —1924 speech Medical and Veterinary Workers Germany 1921: 'The March Action'-Pierre Broué Alfred Rosmer 40 pages, Illus. Price 2/6. Available from: New Park Publications, tain its independence from the Kremlin.

Such a centrifugal tendency complements and strengthens the tendency towards nationalism in the theory of socialism in one country.

The rapid growth of Italian capitalism since the Second World War, often referred to as the Italian miracle', is the product of massive American investment.

At the same time, Italy was only saved for capitalism and for American investment by the actions of the Italian Communist Party, under Togliatti's leadership.

The super-profits realised by Italian industry, as a result of American investment, and made possible by Togliatti, created the privileged stratum in the Italian working class, which forms the basis for Togliatti's. opportunism.

At the same time, such a process intensifies the exploitation of other sectors of the Italian working class, producing the extremely sharp class conflicts that take place in that country.

The strengthening of capital The theme that runs through Togliatti's notes, the international reinforcement of imperialism, consequently follows logically from the forces that give rise to his opportunism.

His plans are: collaboration with the local representatives of American capital, the Italian bourgeoisie; collaboration with imperialism's representatives in the underdeveloped countries; and collaboration with the right wing and restorationist tendencies in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, to ease the way for the re-penetration of imperialist capital.

Inside Italy, Togliatti outlined his party's tasks as presenting alternative plans for economic development to those put forward by the capitalist class.

The history of the last few years has shown that when the vital interests of imperialism are at stake, Togliatti does not even lead the Italian Communist Party to oppose 'left' plans to those of the bourgeoisie. The Italian party was the only Stalinist party to support the formation of the Common Market.

The Common 1 Market did 'enable the Italian economy to develop', did contribute to 'solving the problem of unemployment in Italy. But it only did so by increasing the exploitation of the Italian workers, and by drafting hundreds of thousands of Italian workers to work for low wages, in bad conditions and housed in barrack blocks, in the factories of the 'advanced' members of copy incorporating LABOUR REVIEW Contents include: 186A Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4. the Common Market, France and Germany.

As the European capitalists are no longer organised primarily on nationalist lines, Togliatti demanded trade union activity to be organised internationally in the fight for these alternative plans.

Wilson's admirer

The struggle of the trade unions would remove the bourgeois character from the bourgeois state and hence bring about the 'peaceful transition to socialism' that is stressed several times in the document.

Although Togliatti proposes international organisation on syndicalist lines, to make the capitalist Common Market more humane, he explicitly opposes the reforming of any political revolutionary international. 'We are opposed ... to any proposal to create a new centralised international organisation, the document states.

Thus on the one hand he supports capitalist moves to organise internationally to strengthen their class position, whilst on the other he opposes any proposals that the working class should do the same to fight imperialism.

The activity that he envisages, and the constant referring to planning 'in the interests of the working class', to be carried out under capitalism — Togliatti stresses that he is not referring to socialist planning—-reveals his role as similar to that which Wilson intends to play in this country.

Indeed, "Tribune', September 4, published an article by Giorgio Fanti, London correspondent of 'Paese Sera'. , who, says Togliatti, told him that 'he was attracted not only by the idea of a liberal England... but specifically by the England of the labour movement.

He had followed recent developments with great interest. He felt that the Labour Party had evolved more significantly than any other Socialist ог A group of Catholic priests return war-time fascist di Social-Democratic party in Europe?

Supports class

collaboration The betrayal of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party in Ceylon, by entering the government of Mrs. Bandaranaike with the connivance of the Pabloites, at a time when imperialism had to come to an agreement with that party in order to survive, brought out very clearly to our movement both the role of the 'progressive' national bourgeois parties, and that of the working class parties which collaborate with them.

Such collaboration leads only to the strengthening of imperialism and of its lackeys that live off its super-profits.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Togliatti elevates such opportunist policies into a fundamental principle in his programme. Early in the document he states his aim for collaboration between the Western Communist Parties and representatives from the demoatic countries, of the "Thi orld" and of their progressi ovements.' Later he stresses that:

"These relations should not be established solely with the Communist Party of these countries, but with all the forces that are fighting for independence and against imperialism, and even, where that is possible, with government circles in those countries which have recently become free and have progressive governments' "Freedom' ... for capital in the USSR?

In the section dealing with the USSR, Togliatti complains of the slowness with which freedom of speech is being granted, 'especially when we take into account the present conditions in which capitalist encirclement no longer exists and the economy has achieved such grandiose successes'.

How can Togliatti speak of the end of capitalist encirclement, when the USSR is surrounded by the bases of NATO, CENTO and SEATO?

When the arms burden imposed on the Soviet economy by imperialism, and the domination of the world market by imperialism prevent the economic successes of the Soviet Union from being as grandiose as Togliatti would have us believe?

When, in fact, the crisis in imperialism leads the imperialists to increase the pressure on the Soviet Union, in the hope of solving their crisis by making it a rich new field for investment.

The freedom of speech that he demands is freedom for the right-wing neo-restorationist elements inside the USSR who also want to come to terms with imperialism and grant it economic concessions.

Togliatti has never wavered in his determination to liquidate Trotskyists. Chinese supporters may be tolerated in the Italian the fascist salute to Ante Pavelic, ctator of Croatia.

Communist Party, as Togliatti knows their limitations, but Trotskyists have always been expelled summarily.

In the same way, Togliatti may have wavered over Bukharin, but there was no question of his ever joining the fight of the Left Opposition in the Soviet Union. He supported Stalin to the end in the fight against the left.

To speak of the end of capitalist encirclement at a time when the crisis in imperialism (recognised by Togliatti) drives the imperialists to increase their pressure on the Soviet Union, can only be a gambit to strengthen those who wish to restore capitalism.

If imperialism is no longer a threat, then there can be no danger in allowing it some concessions especially if the economy has achieved such grandiose successes.

In return, the restorationists hope that this deal with imperialism will strengthen them in their struggle with the ising militancy of the Soviet wo rking class.

The role of the Catholic church The go-between in all these manoeuvres is, naturally, the Roman Catholic Church. Through the Catholic Church Togliatti was able to establish contact with American big business.

The very close working with the church was not possible in the lifetime of Pope Pius XII. He was too compromised by his previous support for fascism, and his detestation for the Communist Party prevented him from realising the possibilities for imperialism that could arise from collaboration.

With the accession of Pope John XXIII, however, full collaboration was possible. This was developed by the church in the papal encyclical 'Pacem in Terris', and by the Italian Communist Party with the policy of 'the hand stretched out to the Catholics'. . It was at this period that Gomulka, in Poland, released cardinal Wyczynski from Cardinal Gasparri signs the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini. Togliatti ratified this Treaty in 1946. on the one hand and anti-communists on the other.

The latest manifestation this alliance, was the day prayer ordered by the Pope Togliatti's death.

The vital role of the church in the plans of Togliatti and the imperialists lies behind his statement that the Stalinist movement must do away with many dogmatic policies of the past and that 'the old atheist propaganda is no longer of any use to us.

In 'The attitude of the workers' party towards religion', Lenin wrote: 'Marx said: "religion is the opium of the people"-and this postulate is the cornerstone of the whole philosophy of Marxism with regard to religion.

Marxism always regarded all modern religions and churches; and every kind of religious organisation as instruments of that bourgeois reaction whose aim is to defend exploitation by stupefying the working olass.' In fact, Togliatti's concessions to the Catholic Church are a negation of Marxism, and spring from a policy that is a negation of Marxism.

His pronouncement on religion strengthens the Italian bourgeoisie, to whom the Catholic Church is so vital, on account of the role it plays in maintaining vast masses of Italian workers and peasants in ignorance and superstition and hence unable to combat their exploiters.

Similarly, the pronouncement on religion, strengthens American imperialism by strengthening the church in Eastern Europe, and especially Poland. But this also fits in with Togliatti's anti-Marxist policy for the restoration of capitalism in these areas.

Perceives weaknesses of the Chinese The one obstacle that Togliatti saw to these plans was the Sino-Soviet dispute. It was not that he feared a direct threat from the positions taken up by the Chinese Communist Party. On the contrary, he recognises the limitations of their position very clearly.

He states that with a year's careful preparation, it should be possible to win over the Chinese to a more 'moderate' position: their opportunist tendencies are clear to him.

In the same way, he believed that the Chinese positions did not represent any great threat to the national Stalinist movements, if these latter were prepared to fight on an organised programme, as the Chinese could only deal in generalities and have no answers to the problems of the European working class.

His only fear was that the Soviet Stalinists would force the Chinese to adopt measures which would unleash revolutionary forces throughout the world.

These revolutionary forces would not necessarily be 'Chinese' supporters, but their creation would be the product of the Chinese being forced by the Soviet Stalinists to take a stand.

Such amovement would constitute a real threat to any plans for agreement with the bourgeoisie, as the strength of the Stalinist parties lies in the lack of any alternative leadership for the working class.

Togliatti's testimony, then, reveals a tendency in the Stalinist movement which will carry Stalin's — counter - revolutionary role to its logical conclusion: the reversal of the victory of October 1917 by opening the door to the restoration of capitalism within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

N last week's Newsletter it was reported that, in the face of major advances by the 'Lumumbist' rebels in the East Congo, Prime Minister Tshombe had been recruiting large numbers of white mercenaries, mainly from South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, to stiffen the army of the Leopoldville government.

That he has been driven to relying on open support from areas of Africa where imperialist exploitation is most vicious, and thus possibly alienating African nationalist leaders, shows the depth of the crisis in the Congo.

When the United Nations troops withdrew from the country, Tshombe was called back from exile in July of this year to replace the weak Adoula regime by a strong government based on a unification of the main political factions in the country.

WELCOMED

With his record of firm defence of the extremely lucrative French and Belgian mineral interests in Katanga, the imperialist powers as a whole welcomed the recall of Tshombe who was called upon to lead the national government.

They saw this as a way of guaranteeing the control of imperialist finance over the whole of this valuable area of Africa.

However, since July the faith of these foreign interests in Tshombe has been severely shaken by the great advances made by the rebels.

In July the Lumumbists controlled two rural areas in Kwilu and Kivu, and the town of Albertville. By mid-August, helped by the spontaneous uprisings of the impoverished workers and peasantry, they had occupied half the Congo in a series of advances that had met with virtually no resistance.

Even with the recall of the Katanga gendarmes by Tshombe, the hiring of mercenaries and the stepping-up of American and South African aid, the rebels still control over one-fifth of the Congo.

The leadership of the rebel forces is ostensibly concentrated in the hands of the self-styled 'new Lumumba', Soumaliot, who proclaimed himself 'head of the Fast Longer on Vergust 6.

However, besides Soumaliot, leadership is also exercised by Olenga (Soumaliot's military commander) and Mulele, who is in control of the Kwilu area, as well as by the emigre leaders of the National Liberation Committee (CNL) across the Congo River in Brazzaville, the strongest of whom, Colonel Pakassa, has been named by Tshombe as the rebels' chief strategist.

The divisions amongst the leadership, which are particularly strong amongst the members of the CNL, are undoubtedly part of the reason for the failure of the rebels to consolidate their hold in the areas won over the past two months.

ABJECT RELIANCE

Unity is only maintained amongst these leaders, in fact, through their opposition to Tshombe's abject reliance upon the imperialist powers and their reaction to his past role in Katanga.

Because of this no real fight to take the Congolese workers and peasants to power can be developed by these leaders, who represent nationalist, petty - bourgeois interests with no prepared anti-imperialist programme. • Backing for these leaders is being provided by the Chinese government via its embassies in Burundi and Brazzaville. The exact form of aid being provided by the Chinese is unclear, but with the vast experience of the Chinese Communists in guerrilla warfare, it is fairly certain that military advice is being provided for the rebels.

Tshombe has already attributed the rebels' successes to a Chinese colonel, Kin Me, working from the embassies. It is aid of this sort coupled with the spontaneous risings of the workers and peasantry throughout large areas of the Congo that constitutes a real threat to the Tshombe regime.

SPECULATING

In the face of this threat the British press is speculating whether Tshombe is any longer able to defend imperialist interests in the Congo.

"The Economist', in its August 29 issue, calls for greater aid to Tshombe from the powers with major interests in the area—the USA, Britain and Belgium and 'any other western country that could be persuaded to join in'.

Preferably this aid should be administered by Africans, but if this should prove unfeasible, "The Economist' adds, 'the West would have no alternative, in its own interests, but to do the job itself... If this is called neo-colonialism then it would have been invited by the rejection of the assistance put forward....

In short, the failure of the United Nations to guarantee imperialist control in the Congo and the potential failure of Tshombe could lead to direct imperialist intervention. The British labour movement must be prepared to resist any such moves by the British government.

Four September 12,1964

dock workers came out on strike against use of unregistered labour.

The dispute began when registered dock workers on the piece-work pool were sent back into the control on Monday afternoon to take day work. Meanwhile, unregistered workers who had been engaged on a temporary basis from the dole were allocated to a banana boat, the "Matina', normally a piece-work job where earnings are high.

Registered dockers at Garston claimed that the work at the 'Matina' should have gone to them and the unregistered labour employed, through the 1. 11...-...1. 11control, on day work.

Underlying the dispute is the growing bitterness of dockers which exists in other ports as well as Garston, at the continual engagement of temporary labour by port bosses.

At a mass meeting in the port on Tuesday morning dockers demanded that the temporary labour should be recruited on to the full register and be given the same rights as a registered docker.

Instruction

A resolution was carried that no unregistered labour should be used in the port after the next meeting of the Dock Board.

This amounts to an instruction to the Board to enroll the 200 temporary workers on the port register, or face the possibility of strikes in the port against their use.

Garston dockers made it quite clear that they are not taking action against the men from the dole. What they are fighting for is the rights of these workers as much as they are defending their own working conditions.

The use of temporary labour is a scourge of dockland today. Men from the dole get used as sweat rags by the port employers when shipping is heavy. They are then cast off back to the dole.

While they are employed by the Dock Board they have none of the rights which the registered dock worker has fought for and obtained.

Some of those at Garston have been continually employed for longer than 12 months yet get no holiday pay, no fall-back money on days when no work is available, and can be dismissed without recourse to the appeals machinery.

Full support

They were in full support of the action taken by the Garston dockers last week. The fact is that whatever they earn on dock work, is deducted from the National Assistance the following week anyway.

So they are caught in a crossfire from which there is no escape. During the summer over 1,000 have been engaged in the car delivery week ignored pleas from their union officials and came out on strike for more pay.

On Thursday, September 3 the afternoon shift at Tower No. 4 colliery, Hirwaun, South Wales, walked out in protest at the way piece work rates were being operated.

The men had previously reached an agreement with the National Coal Board on these rates, but soon found that this was not operating in their favour.

Lodge officials did their utmost to persuade the men to go through the usual procedural channels, but their well-worn pleadings went unheeded.

Piece workers on the night and morning shifts continued the Serday morning, by workers from which was - joined, Tower No. 1 colliery.

But the strike was called off with nothing gained at a mass meeting on Sunday run by National Union of Miners official Emlyn Williams. The men went back to work with. nothing apart from worthless promises of 'further negotiations' with the Coal Board.

Miners' lives are threatened by the National Coal Board produc tion drive. This grim warning comes from an interview between an NUM safety inspector and the 'South Wales Echo'.

I blame the NCB's drive for production at the lowest possible cost, for the high accident rate in the pits, said Tom Hopkins, a safety inspector of 15 years' standing from Caerphilly.

"The men are being given the choice of increasing their output or losing their jobs if the mine has to close. They are ignoring personal safety to keep their jobs and it has created a dangerous attitude of mind.

there are other jobs available in the area, he went on, 'they will take personal risks while the NCB are holding a gun to their heads.

'Where it is not possible raise output without increasing the danger to the men, the NCB should not threaten the men with closure of the pit. They should accept that the position is one which cannot be avoided.' He criticised the NUM for its 'milk and water' attitude, advising the union to adopt more militant position on safety questions.

SIX • hundred car delvery drivers employed at the Ford factory at Halewood, Liverpool, returned to work this week after their strike against the use of non-union labour.

The men, employed by the three firms who control the contracts for Ford delivery work —Silcocks and Collins, Tollmans, and Wrights-have tried unsuccessfully for months to end the use of casual non-union labour on car collection from the Halewood factory by private dealers.

POOL OF LABOUR

Drivers fear that these casuals, generally employed at lower rates, can be built up into a pool of labour which the employers will use to break conditions which the delivery drivers have fought for and won.

After the failure of their attempts to negotiate with the firms concerned, the drivers last Wednesday gave Fords an ultimatum that they were no longer prepared to continue working with non-union labour and came out on strike.

The car delivery firms immediately recruited office staff and foremen to move cars coming off the lines away from the petrol pumps to huge compounds provided at Halewood by Ford.

They confidently thought that they could continue like this for long enough to break the strike. They also sent out notices sacking the delivery drivers.

WARNING

But on Thursday night the Shop Stewards' Committee at Fords warned the management that if there was any interference with normal working, or any layoffs as a result of the delivery drivers strike, there would be an immediate stoppage of the 7,000 production workers.

With over 1,000 cars a day coming off the lines at Halewood, it would have been increasingly difficult to maintain uninterrupted production for long.

Undoubtedly it was this show of solidarity which forced the withdrawal of the non-union drivers by Sunday.

this way on the Merseyside.

This exposes the emptiness of the claims of the Port Employers who talk about their great desire to decasualise the industry, and bring more security to the docker.

There is another reason why the British Transport Commission, who own and operate Garston docks, is reluctant to transfer these men to the full register. They know that many of them, if not all, are eager to join the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers Union, but cannot do so until they are on the register.

IN the fight for socialism, The Newsletter' is playing a vital role. Do you get it regularly? Don't leave it to the chance encounter, fill in this form and send it to:

Subscription Department, The Newsletter, 186a Clapham High Street. London, S.W.4.

8s. Gd. for 12 issues Name Address A I WO-week-old strike at British Nylon Spinners, Pontypool, Wales, was called off on Monday.

Four hundred workers in the draw-twist department came out for an increase of 2$d. an hour for direct packing. They claim that men at the firm's plant in Gloucester have already been given this increase.

These key workers managed to halt production at the Pontypool works and, against a lot of pressure, with the company laying off almost 1,000 other workers because of the strike, they kept it up for a fortnight.

But then it was the same old story. Reformist union leaders were able to get the men back to work without so much as an indication of a change of mind by the company.

British Nylon Spinners have refused all along to grant the increase before the first week in November.. The decision to return to work, which provoked the anger of many strikers, came at a stormy three-hour mass meeting of the Transport and General Workers' Union, factory branch, at the Park Cinema.

The way in which officials carried through the meeting and the vote on the return to work, was highly unusual. Not only did the strikers vote on whether to carry on the stoppage, but other members of the branch also took part in the decision.

Since this vote included large number of workers who had been laid off by the management because of the strike, the result was hardly surprising.

The only assurance that the 400 men have been given, is that there will be another meeting between the management and Bob Davies, national secretary of the union's General Workers section-a previous meeting between Davies and British Nylon Spinners ended in deadlock.

So the strikers are not much nearer a solution at this stage. But one thing is certain the firm have not heard the last of this wage claim.

Our Merseyside Corresponden Port, on a standstill Merseyside's waterfi ont all LETTERS Remington Rand district.

However, the people mainly responsible tor the betrayal of the five-week Remington strike (the strike took place after a convenor was dismissed) and the subsequent demoralisation of many workers there, are the executive council of the Amalgamated Engineering Union who advised the workers to return to work, thus killing the strike.

The role of the Communist Party whose members have a controlling influence in the Paisley District Committee AEU and who, 'unofficially" guided the strike, was that of assistant executioner.

At the weekly meeting of Clyde shop stewards held during the strike, some of us repeatedly warned that if the strike was handed over to the executive council then a betrayal would result.

We quoted the experiences of British Light Steel Pressings, the Steel Company of Wales, and Fords, and urged that the strikers and the stewards be alerted, to have no reliance in Carron and Boyd, but rather to fight to extend the stoppage throughout the Paisley area.

All our proposals were opposed. Leading Communist Party members repeatedly claimed that the AEU leaders were playing a good role. They had to say this since they intended, all along, to hand over the Remington workers onto the plate of the executive com mittee and lead them into a betrayal (which, of course, they 'hoped' would not occur).

The tragedy of the matter is that these people have still learned nothing at all from the Remington experience.

About 40 stewards from different factories attended a meeting last Saturday to hear a report from Calum McKay, the sacked convenor.

His colleagues from the Communist Party also spoke in the discussion. They still entertain illusions that the employer can be defeated by the isolated action of the Remington workers, should

This is no unimportant issue. Fifty-nine miners from SouthWest division lost their lives in 1963, as against 55 in 1962.

And this is with fewer men working in the industry.

Faced with these unnerving figures miners should now be asking what the attitude of a Labour government under Wilson would be to this question.

Remember the present production drive is already presided over by 'socialist' Lord Robens.

What can Harold Wilson's scientific revolution mean for miners but a more far-reaching extension of the NCB policy, now put into practice? SELLERS of The Newsletter were turned out of the canteen in the 'Daily Mirror' building last Saturday night by the Imperial Father of the Chapel, who claimed to have been • a member of the Communist Party for over 20 years.

At a time when print workers have been in conflict with the King empire for some months over redundancies and pay claims, the role of the CP again seems to be to prevent the workers from hearing any. ideas which might lead them to victory.

When asked about the role of the CP in industry, he was completely unable to answer.

The sell-out at Ford was all very sad, he said, but in industrial affairs there are ups and downs, and that was just one of the downs. There will be ups later on. The role played by the CP in refusing an all-out fight in defence of the victimised shop stewards was completely ignored by him.

It was, apparently, also very sad about the ETU. He agreed that Peter Kerrigan, industrial organiser of the CP probably knew what was happening in the ETU, and had taken no action to stop the ballot-rigging and financial fiddling, but that again was just one of the downs. The members of the ETU would soon be up again.

As for the statements made by William Paynter, General Secretary of the Mineworkers Union, and a long-standing member of the Communist Party, when he urged miners to accept the paltry rise offered by the National Coal Board—well, The Newsletter just didn't understand tactics.

If Paynter had refused to make those statements, he might have lost his job. When asked what good he was in the job if he didn't fight for his members, and whether it would not be better to lose his job rather than sell-out the working class, the FOC was forced to play his last card.

Ill make sure you people never get inside this building again,' he said.

'Is that your only answer to political disagreements— to prevent the other workers hearing any other side of the question beside your own?' he was asked.

"Too true,' he replied.

THERE must either be a misprint in last week's Newsletter or a sad misunderstanding as to the position of the Electrical Trades Union.

Your reporter Robert James says that the ETU has submitted resolutions to the Trades Union Congress which 'reject any form of wage restraint and call for the nationalization of the monopolies' The contrary is the case. The first motion is a deliberately vaguely worded one which opens the door to wage restraint, e.g., 'an acceptable incomes policy must be based on social justice, taking into account all forms of income including rent, interest and profit. ... Congress must establish its own system of priorities to achieve these aims'.

Their second resolution deals with the nationalized industries and asks for a policy which is fair to managements and employees alike.

A union leadership, which is in the forefront of a witch-hunt against members of the Communist Party and Socialist Labour League is hardly likely to be fighting for anti-capitalist policies.

LONDON SPARK demanding that he inspect the three damaged ceilings, did he go in to do so.

At 16 Logan Street a family of six live in a ground floor single apartment - sleeping, eating, cooking, washing, etc, in one room, which is designated as a house.

Damp rises from floor to ceiling, affecting all the furniture including the studio couch on which the parents sleep. Rats can be heard scurrying under the floor.

Drains are frequently blocked, and stagnant water rises into the sink and a foul, damp smell rises from the floor.

The children suffer constantly from coughs, spots and skin rash. Their mother has heart trouble and is an ex-TB patient. The family cannot get rehoused either on health grounds or overcrowding.

In a tenement in Caledonia Road, nine apartments are empty, three are occupied by elderly people.

Just one year ago they were visited by the investigator for rehousing: They have been offered alternative accommodation—in the Gorbals-in the case of one tenant just a little further along the same road.

This is the Gorbals nobody wants to know about. The

MERSEYSIDE they respond to the strike call so stupidly and bureaucratically authorised by the Paisley District Committee of the AEU.

Only half of the Remington workers received strike benefit for the five weeks they were out. The other half were over 8 weeks in arrears and hence deprived of benefit.

This factor alone, plus the fact that the Communist Party completely refuses to offer any perspective to the Remington workers as to how the struggle can be won through extending the strike, makes it virtually certain the workers will continue to ignore the call for further strike action.

The Communist Party members again stated that 'we must not attack the AEU executive committee as they are playing a positive role': This shows the bankruptcy of their political policy of peaceful co-existence with the union bureaucrats and their cowardly defence of the Constitution and Procedure.

It is quite true to say that the AEU leaders Boyd and Carron are very happy because the Communist Party-controlled district committee of the AEU has lost a considerable amount, if not all, of its support and influence through its handling of the strike.

A group of fake left trade unionists and more open right wing elements in the Paisley AEU are building up to dislodge the Communist Party from this key area.

It must be said that the policy of the Communist Party is doing for the Paisley area what it did in the Electrical Trades Union The efforts of all militants in the Paisley area must be bent to building up an alternative leadership that can oust all those who are frightened to challenge the right-wing agents of the employers in the unions.

The choice is not between the Communist Party and • other people who collaborate with the employers but rather building a revolutionary political leadership in this area in the union. problems TN a message to the Scottish Labour Party women's annual conference last Saturday, Mr. Harold Wilson is reported as saying, 'Because of the selfishness and neglect of private landlords, thousands of Scottish houses lack modern amenities.' This must surely be the understatement of the year! It is not just modern amenities but, in some cases, even the most basie amenities which are lacking.

Mr. Wilson may not have followed the articles on the fight of the Gorbals tenants which have featured in The Newsletter over the past five months, but he could not have missed the lengthy report in the London "Times' on August 31.

The report brought the following telegram from the Civil Service Clerical Association (CSCA), Post Office Savings Bank branch to the Lord Provost of Glasgow:

'Horrified at "Times' report on Gorbals. How in God's name can Corporation talk of giving Savings Bank fami- Glasgow slum lavatory: 17 families lies priority in housing when Glasgow people are in such desperate plight?' In a letter to Mns. Josephine Collins, Chairman of the Gorbals Tenants' Association, the secretary of the CSCA Post Office Savings Bank branch, Mr. J. J. O'Brien stated: 'I assure you our members nave no wish to worsen the already terrible suffering of your people by taking priority over them on the Corporation's housing lists.' CLOSING THEIR EYES Whilst Labour councillors, Mrs. Alice Cullen, MP, and seemingly Mr. Wilson also, close their eyes and ears to what is taking place, the Gorbals battle continues.

Within the last three months three tenements have collapsed, two were empty — one, which collapsed during the Glasgow holiday fortnight, was occupied.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Collins was sitting in her top floor, single apartment with her 23year-old daughter, when part of the ceiling came down on top of them-for the second time in two years.

A sanitary inspector who was visiting a tenement opposite at the time was asked to come and look at the collapsed ceiling.

But only after Mrs. Collins had waited at the window for him to emerge from the tenement opposite and shouted down to him in the street below Tenements in Glasgow: "The Gorbals nobody wants to know'.

are expected to share this.

whole area is being left to rot and decay round the families who have nowhere else to go.

Landlords have abandoned the property, but collect the rents with great regularity.

The Corporation have a phased redevelopment plan which is about two years behind schedule. Some parts of the Gorbals are not due for redevelopment until 1980 even according to the plan.

There is a new block of flats nearing completion which is reputed to be the most expensive local authority housing project in Britain. What worries the Gorbals tenants is whether they will be able to pay the rents which will be asked for these flats. If they cannot do so, how long will it be before they are offered other accommodation?

At a meeting of the Tenants' Association last week it was decided to ask the City Assessor to revalue the property in the Gorbals in view of the rapid deterioration, and so reduce the rates payable by the tenants.

In this pre-election period, housing policy will be question number one for Gorbals voters.

They will want to know of Mrs. Alice Cullen what is Labours policy for housing? The Gorbals is one of 29 redevelopment areas in Glasgow —are the other 28 to suffer the same conditions and treatment?

Will the Labour leaders give priority to rehousing families in the Gorbals and similar areas?

Will they give powers of requisitioning to local authorities as an emergency measure to accommodate those desperately in need of rehousing?

Will Wilson's much-publicised technological advance to house building be applied? Will new homes be provided at rents which working class families can afford?

The promise to repeal the Rent Act does not answer these questions.

Tenants will continue their fight and they should demand of the Labour government that special measures be taken to demolish the Gorbals, rebuild and rehouse the entire population.

This requires immediate action by the government. It is an urgent problem which cannot be left to the doubtful working out of the local authority plan over the next 20 years.

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