Labour and the trade unions

to Barry Evans of the East Midlands said the Young Socialists associated themselves with the socialists and revolutionary leaders, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky because it is in their tradition that we have carried through this rally today.' Second march The marchers, some of them weary from overnight trips to London and the walk from N the 1964 General Election campaign, all the real problems which the next government will have to tackle are hidden under a thick blanket of empty verbiage.

But while the politicians chatter on about the 'New Britain', the economic crisis of the old Britain looms up behind them.

The problems facing British imperialism boil down to the main question of disciplining the workers. British industry has to re-equip itself to meet foreign competition. All the vague talk about 'planning' really refers to the need of the monopolies to use the state to tame organised labour.

Key role

The trade unions have a key role to play at this stage. Their right-wing leaders have shuwn themselves eager to co-operate with big business in carrying out their programme of planning —i.e. installation of vast automated processes, redundancy, wage freeze, etc.

A quarter of a century ago, Trotsky analysed this tendency within the unions. In his last, unfinished article, "Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay', he wrote:

'Monopoly capitalism is less and less willing to reconcile Trotsky: analysed tendency in unions itself to the independence of trade unions. It demands of the reformist bureaucracy and the labour aristocracy, who pick the crumbs from its banquet table, that they become transformed into its political police before the eyes of the working class. If that is not achieved, the labour bureaucracy is driven away and replaced by the Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay short, masterly and topical analysis of vitalism and the prospects for the trade rd and advanced capitalist countries. fascists. Incidentally, all the efforts of the labour aristocracy in the service of imperialism cannot, in the long run, save them from destruction.' The British union bosses have startlingly confirmed this description in recent years. Not only have they collaborated on the bodies like the National Economic Development Council with the Tories and the employers, but they have also moved more and more towards integration with the state machine in their attacks on militants and left-wingers in their own ranks.

In the Electrical Trades Union, for example, the right wing took office with the aid of the law courts and a big campaign in the capitalist press.

Woodcock's plans to amalgamate unions into larger The third of our General Election articles organisations, so highly approved by the Communist Party, are designed to enable the bureaucrats and the government to control the union members more closely.

Ray Gunter, soon to be Minister of Labour under Wilson, showed the line of thought of the Labour Party leaders in his infamous article last April. Writing in 'Socialist Commentary' he hinted at the possibility of state control of the unions if they did not adapt themselves to the automation era.

Together with his speeches attacking shop stewards, this idea should be remembered when considering the policies of the Wilson government.

The Labour Party leaders see themselves especially fitted to supervise the transition through which British capitalism is now passing.

Wilson's speeches about the great possibilities of automation and computers assumes that the unions are to be coaxed into "partnership' with the employers, under the benevolent eye of the state.

trends in mono] unions in the bi Price This is a reactionary and dangerous dream. Far from bringing an era of peacefully rising living standards, automation under capitalist control will mean mass unemployment for some sections of the working class and intensified exploitation of others.

Independence This critical period for British imperialism will see bitter struggles throughout industry. Only through a fight for the independence of the unions from state intervention can the bosses be stopped from cutting into the conditions of the working class.

Even the meagre reforms offered by Wilson must be seen as the bait with which the workers' movement is to be enticed into the trap.

Wilson's statement at the Trades Union Congress pledging the Labour Party to amend the legal position of the unions received much applause.

But it should be regarded with suspicion.

It is likely to result in legal backing being given to control of the bureaucrats over the rank and file of the unions.

However, the most craven treachery of the labour and trades union leaders will not be enough to solve the crisis of British capital. In the coming period, every atom of independent organisation of the workers is a potential threat to the monopolies.

New and more open forms of state authority will arise to Wilson admits election victor faces economic IN his TV broadcast on Monday, Harold Wilson referred to the approaching economic crisis for the first time in his election campaign.

'Whoever wins this election is going to be faced with very grave economic difficulties right away,' he said.

According to last Sunday's 'Observer', Wilson had been arguing against other Labour Party chiefs who wanted to bring this issue into the open.

Despite all the signs of the past few months, he has avoided using the balance of payments figures to attack Tory policies. Only a month ago. he had specifically denied the existence of a crisis.

NOT 1961 CRISIS On Saturday he mentioned the danger that the Tories would once again introduce measures to halt economic expansion. But he added: "This does not means that a financial crisis in the sense that we had them in 1957 and 1961 is impending or imminent."

As The Newsletter has been pointing out for several months, the Tories have timed the replace the union chiefs as the instruments of regimentation of the workers.

Independent trades unions will become a luxury that capital will no longer be able to afford. The labour leaders will be discarded by the monopolies after use.

rhe trade union movement grew up in the period when British capital dominated the world market. Later, in the hey-day of the British Empire the unions set up the Labour Party as their political voice.

There were always two sides to this process.

On the one hand labour leaders saw themselves as achieving improvements in the position of their members within the framework of capitalist exploitation. On the basis of the huge profits extracted from their colonial investments, the ruling class could afford to grant concessions of this kind in order to secure the smooth continuation of the system.

On the other hand, for millions of workers, the labour movement on which the leaders rested, represented an instrument through which they could unite their strength, so as to begin to control their own lives. The unions and the Labour Party were potential levers of working class power.

After the 1914-18 war, the decline of Britain as a world power began to undermine the relationship between the labour movement and imperialism. The labour leaders became less and less capable of securing even bread and butter improvements for the workers. Today, crisis From Our Special Correspondent election so that the boom would end just when Labour took office. They had deliberately avoided taking measures to deal with the balance of payments problems, so that the crisis would land in Wilson's lap at the end of the year.

BRAKE ON In practice the payments deficit and the consequent drop in gold reserves have grown faster than they expected. Cuts in government spending and other brakes on consumption will have to be applied very soon.

Wilson will explain his hesitation about raising these questions openly by saying that he had no wish to endanger the pound on the world market. This very patriotic excuse is not, however, the true one.

The veil of silence drawn over the real economic problems during the election campaign is to be explained by the absence of socialist policy in Labour's this decline become collapse.

The Wilson administration faces (with tight-shut eyes) problems which will tear apart the relations between the unions and the Labour Party.

Woodcock, already showing signs of indifference as to who wins the election, wants to remodel the movement on American, non-political lines.

On the other hand, the former Gaitskell-ite group of rightwingers in the Labour Party also wait for a chance to break away from the trades unions.

Political power As the postmen and dockers have shown, the workers will not accept Wilson's 'incomes policy' without a fight. Whatever the plans of the monopolies and their errand boys, the union rank and file will not be fitted into such a policy peacefully.

But much more is posed by Wilson's and Woodcock's treachery than militant industrial struggle. To prevent the smashing of the labour movement, the question of political power has to be faced.

The unions must be transformed under Marxist leadership into instruments of power.

Prepare

Wilson's refusal to extend the nationalization of industry will leave the Labour government at the mercy of the monopolies and the banks. Trade unionists must be prepared to fight, not only on questions of wages and conditions, but on the whole policy of the Wilson leadership.

This means the building of a Marxist leadership which prepares the working class to take the power and end capitalism throughout the world.

(Next week No. 4 in our election series: 'Socialists and Loyalty to Labour by Cliff Slaughter.) programme. Since Wilson is pledged to try to make monopoly capitalism work, he is afraid of letting anyone know that this will inevitably involve attacks on workers' living standards.

That is why the Labour Party's election campaign is a sham, not a real fight against the Tories.

The admission that the financial crisis is on the way shows just what pernicious nonsense was the argument of the Foot's, Mikardo's and the other 'Tribune'-ites — that all socialists should keep their mouths shut on policy questions until the Labour government was elected.

BROWN'S PROMISE

It also makes nonsense of George Brown's promise of cheaper interest rates for buying houses.

The labour movement must prepare now for these attacks, which will start almost immediately after October 15. The Labour Party leaders must not be allowed to get away with the excuse that they did not know how bad the situation was.

CEYLON | DEADLOCK O 'STATELESS INDIANS' IN CEYLON ATTEMPTS to 'solve' the problem of the 1,200,000 'stateless' Indians in Ceylon have reached a deadlock as a result of the refusal of the Indian government to be blackmailed by the Ceylon representatives at the informal talks held recently between India and Ceylon. Indians, Problem of The 'stateless indians only arose after the United National Party government in 1947 decided to change the citizenship laws and substitute the principle of 'descent' in place of the principle of 'birth and residence' as the criterion of aitizenship.

This gigantic political manoeuvre was designed to strike the 800,000 Indian plantation workers off the electoral register and consolidate the position of the capitalist government.

Since then, every government whether 'left' or night wing has adhered to these complex and infamous laws. Now, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party - Lanka Sama Samaja Party coalition is trying to draw a communal redherring across the path of the advancing working class movement by proposing to repatriate the Indian workers as a partial solution to the unemployment problem in Ceylon.

The Ceylon government states it is prepared to register a certain number (unspecified) of 'stateless Indians' as Ceylon citizens provided the Indian government absorbs the rest.

The talks bogged down when the Ceylon representatives attempted to pressurise the Indian government by stating that they (the Indians) had agreed to absorb the 'unassimilated' Indians as far back as 1947 and that this should be the stanting point of the discussions.

The Indian representatives rejected this as a baseless assumption and the talks ended abruptly.

Velona strikers defy Council THE three month old strike of the Velona Textile mill workers has entered a violent and bitter stage with no prospect of settlement in the foreseeable future.

Recently, the strikers, led by Merryl Fernando--a leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja (Revolutionary) defied a ban enforced by the local Urban District Council and entered a council-owned park to hold a meeting.

The gates of the park, which were padlocked, were lifted off their hinges. In the same week, a hand bomb was flung at a scab-driven car leaving the Velona factory.

21 demands struggle planned THE Demooratic Workers' Congress - embracing a substantial minonity of Indian Estate workers—has agreed to attend a conference called by the Ceylon Trade Union Federation to discuss the presentation of the 21 demands.

The Congress statement welcomes the convening of the conference and adds: 'In fact, for the plantation workers the urgency is all the greater because of the immediate need to secure the demand of the special living allowance of 17 rupees 50 cents (about 30 shillings a month) which enjoyed by most of the other workeis.' ALGERIA BOUDIAF CONDEMNS BEN BELLA M TOHAMMED Boudiat, one of the leaders of the underground opposition to Ben Bella, told the French press why he did not believe that there was socialism in Algeria, last week.

"To set up a real socialist regime, he said,' 'presupposes the creation of a vanguard party, of workers' and peasants' unions and of an administration which would correspond to the needs of these. Yet none of these elements exist in Algeria.' The present system, he continued, involved the lack of any political or economic control by the masses. Ben Bella's 'socialism' boiled down to bringing under state control ever greater sectors of the economy, or in other words, placing the economy in the hands of a petty-bourgeoisie that is eager for private gain, that is individualistic and reactionary' UNIFICATION 'This petty-bourgeoisie is the backbone of the bureaucracy, both in the party and in the administration,' he said.

Boudiaf went on to speak of the unification of the various elements that make up the opposition into the 'National Committee for the Defence of the Revolution'. • This included Chaabani, who was executed by Ben Bella recently.)

The aim of the opposition was to organise and give consciousness to the spontaneous movements of the rural masses.

'We do not consider that armed activity is the only kind that we should carry out; nonetheless, it is an indispensable adjunct to our political action.' Boudiaf stated that the opposition conceived of a socialist policy in Algeria, but that this was impossible without effective participation of the disinherited masses.

'NATIONAL INTEREST The opposition would not form any alliance with any organisations representing 'those who exploit either politically or economically'. It was not tied to any foreign power, or to any economic interests. The 'national interest' alone, guided its actions.

Asked where the opposition stronghold was, Boudiaf replied that it carried out partisan activity in the Kabyle, in North Constantine, in the Aures mountains, and in the South. 'Our partisans are strongest in the poorest regions, where the population is poorest,' he said. Algerians killed by mercenaries claim ARMED confrontation between the Ben Bella government and the opposition in Algeria has spread to Algerian workers in France.

Early in September, four Algerians armed with revolvers entered a cafe in Aulnay sous Bois in France and opened fire on a group of fellow countrymen. Three people were killed and five were wounded.

A statement made later by the Front of Socialist Forces (one of the opposition groups led by Ait Ahmet) claimed that the assassins were mercenaries of the Ben Bella government.

The statement also appealed to Algerian workers in France not to yield to provocations of this kind.

leade THE violent attac Negro workers North American been accompanied b witch-hunting and ment of several Neg Earlier this year, rent strikes and the s cotts showed the seri the Negro mover. American press began "public opinion' for 1 police attacks that follow.

Reports appeared papers, notably in York Times, of Negi and terrorism suppose a gang called th brothers'.

Reports of crimes t were deliberately pla the press and those were played down, wh it all was supposed t terrifying blood brot HYSTERIA It has never been F such an organisation fact, the gang has br dropped by the presssufficient hysteria whipped up.

But six unemploye teenagers were arre without bail, denied of their own lawye: now up for trial on of murdering a wl keeper.

The main 'eviden‹ the six seems to be were 'members' of brothers'-an organis no one now is prepa ever existed!

Likewise, Bill Eptc leader of the Progress Movement has been i charges of sedition ar anarchy.

Epton's group wi one prepared to ce fight of the Negroe city government of attempted to bu!

Negro leaders. Fr the compromise t other so-called mi cepted, Epton is ne WITCH-HUN For taking this sti has been witch-hunte by the bosses' press 1 the 'leaders' of th Negro organisations.

Roy Wilkins, the le National Associatio Advancement of People, and James the Congress of Raci have both asked the General, Robert K start an inquiry into of rioting in norther According to thes these riots must instigated by som underground organis foul housing conditio conditions and poli to which the Negro the United States ar not apparently being the minds of these of the Negro cause, 1 rioting of the last fer MALCOLM X:

Significantly, tor X, the black raci:

of the Socialist Party, the man y interview with thi Evening Post', sa would prefer Go Johnson for pre!

praised Goldwate personal courage gence, has not ber to speak up in Epton.

Paul Boutelle, of ti ow Party, has rested for trying ection rally in Harl