The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 366

(EDTORAT A new Soviet crisis HATEVER may be the ummediate reasons ro Khrushchev's 'resignation' or "removal', one thing remains perfectly clear: the Soviet bureaucracy, of which he was its central figure, is a regime of crisis. Once again Trotsky's masterly analysis in his book 'Revolution Betrayed' has been more than amply confirmed. or some time it has been well known that there were major disputes in top circles in Moscow-but who was immediately involved in the struggle against Khrushchev remained a subject for speculation.

Jere was no public or party discussion around the issues involved-the background of either his 'removal' 'resignation' remains just as obscure as the secret military court proceedings associated with the execution of Beria.

he bureaucracy consists of frightened men, who wish above all, to avoid democratic control over them by the masses. Although they struggle like thieves in the darkness of the Moscow night, they are all united in the preservation of their privileges against the toilers in the cities, towns and countryside. et the capitalist press speculate about the future of the personalities, the Labour movement must turn more and more towards extending the hand of international solidarity to the Soviet worker for he is the most important personality of all. is, in fact, his demand for an improvement in his living standards through the provision of more consumer goods that lies at the bottom of the present crisis. Space ships and the monotonous but empty promises of 'good times ahead' no longer satisfy him. hrushchev was undoubtedly dragging the Soviet Union more closely to the capitalist west in order to bargain for more imports of the means of production in addition to consumer goods. His wing of the bureaucracy were closest to those elements in the bureaucracy who yearn for the restoration of capitalism.

re publication of Togliatti's last testament in the Soviet press was obviously a reflection of the intense struggle within the bureaucracy. Togliatti was for getting closer to the imperialists. Mao Tse-tung, on the other hand, favours a more tough line, essentially because of pressure from the colonial revolution. or the time being those who have overthrown Khrushchev will look for some indirect support from him. But this situation cannot last for long. The stage is being set for the development of a revolutionary party, section of the Fourth International inside the USSR. he bureaucracy's days are numbered. More and more the Soviet working class are preparing to take the Leninist road. This is, as we all know, identical with Trotskyism.

T looks as if Wilson has crept past the General Election winning post with a narrow majority. All things considered, the Tory Party, which represents wealth power and privilege has, unfortunately, done remarkably well.

This is especially so, because more than any other government since the war, the Tories have discredited themselves. Scandal after scandal, swindle after swindle, courts of enquiry after courts of enquiry, the Tory Party staggered towards this General Election in a way that no other political party has done in the history of Britain.

A simple question which will be asked by millions of Labour voters is—why did not the Labour Party do better?

Submission

The right wing have witch-hunted, brow-beaten and cajoled all their left opponents such as Anthony Greenwood into complete submission to Harold Wilson.. Only the Young Socialists fought a principled fight throughout the whole election.

Yet all the crawling and cringing achieved nothing so far as the right wing of the Labour Party was concerned. They are going to become a government with perhaps the shakiest of majorities of all governments since the war. But this is not the end of the story.

How do you explain Smeth. vick and the defeat of a mar who was to be the Foreigr GEORGE BROWNfaithful follower and certain second-in-command to Wilson.

Secretary in a Labour government, Mr. Gordon Walker? Harold Wilson and his cronies thought they were doing splendidly when they joined with the Tories in defending the Tory Immigration Act.

Defeat

By doing this they strengthened every fascist and racialist in the country. That is what happened in Smethwick when Gordon Walker was defeated.

Friday, ANTHONY GREENWOOD one of the left' in the Labour Party brow-beaten, majoled and witch-hunted into submission by the right wing.

If you try to look like the Tories politically, then you play the Tory game and if you play the Tory game politically then youw ill be defeated, since only the Tories can carry out their policy.

Distasteful

In every area where there was a racial problem, the Labour vote went down. We have no sympathy for Gordon Walker. If there ever was a distasteful right-winger, then it is he. This is not the whole story.

If we take the impending economic crisis, the narrowness of Labour's majority in Parliament and the lessons of Smethwick together, then we have a real picture of the enormous dangers that face the working - class movement in Britain today.

Right from the beginning of the campaign, The Newsletter stressed that Labour's support for the Tory Immigration Act was treachery. We were right.

Now we say that the results of the election lead us steadily along the road to a showdown with the monopolists and the fascist racialists who stand in the wings.

The era of Labour Party reformism has come to an abrupt end so far as the future of the working class is concerned. That is the meaning of the General Election.

Wilson's Cabinet are left hequer), RAY GUNTER, Minister of Defence)

Possible Minister of Labour the guide WORKERS one hand Labour with one hand tied behind their backs. The task of socialists is to free the right hand to finish with the Tories, not just for one Election, but for ever, said Cliff Slaughter, a leading member of the Socialist Labour League, at a pre-election meeting in London last Sunday.

Slaughter told a 300-strong audience that a Labour government would be elected following the longest period of Tory rule, in spite of Wilson's failure to bring down the Tories over many issues.

Both parties claimed to represent the nation. 'But there are only two nations-the bosses and the working class. We start from the needs of the working class and not the nation. Workers in this country have more in common with workers in every other country, in peace and war, he said.

The swing from the Tories was AFTER an appeal by Mrs. C.

Kirkby from the Alexander Defence and Aid Committee, members of the audience, the majority of whom were youth, raised f35 for the defence of Dr. Neville Alexander, at present a prisoner on Verwoerd's infamous Robben island jail.

Dr. Alexander and ten other men and women were put on trial last November and sentenced in April this year for alleged sabotage and conto be devalued? IN the last two wecks of the Election campaign, the financial and economic crisis rapidly overtaking British capitalism grew too big to hide. Maudling had been trying to cover up the dangerous position of the economy. Wilson, who did his best to help him, gave up the attempt a fortnight ago.

The recent disastrous figures have been followed by the revelation that the gold reserves were propped up last month by borrowing from foreign banks. The amounts involved have not been made public, but it is estimated that about £50,000,000 must have been drawn.

Since these were all short-term loans, they can only postpone the problem to early next year, when the repayments are due.

FIERCE COMPETITION Britain's exports have been running into fiercer competition, even in the recent period of expansion of world trade. Import bills have been swollen by importers fearing controls which the Labour government might impose.

The so-called 'invisible' earnings-banking, insurance, shipping - have been dwindling. Against profits on overseas investment must be set the growing drain of profit on foreign investment in Britain, mainly American.

For the past 18 months, the strength of the pound has been kept up only by an increase in Speakers at SLL meeting l. 1o r.: Healy, Banda, Slaughter, Kerrigan due mainly to the hopes of young workers and their wives for better housing, education for their children and an improved standard of living.

In spite of prosperity talk they bore the brunt of speed-up and super-exploitation in the factories.

The workers were also being asked to carry the present economic crisis on their backs. "The bills become due now—in the first few days after the Election. That is why Wilson talks of the 100 days and disciplining the trade unions,' he commented.

Earlier this year the SLL had said that to cover up the crisis, the Tories had been borrowing from foreign banks.

The economic crisis, Slaughter travening the Suppression of Communism Act. Mrs. Kirkby said that no acts had in fact been committed. Because certain statements had been opened by security police a judge granted Dr. Alexander the right to appeal against his sentence. German student organisations raised $4,000 for his defence when Dr. Alexander was arrested—he studied for some time in Germany. The British Alexander Defence and Aid Committee hopes to raise £2,500. the sterling holdings of Commonwealth countries. In fact, the bulk of this increase was the Australian holding. Due to changes in world prices, this inflow is about to dry up.

The government will have to take immediate steps to prevent an outflow from British banks as foreigners rush to take their money out of the country.

To give them confidence in the pound sterling, interest rates must be raised and government expenditure cut.

To run British capitalism today means making an all-out attack on the working class, as industrial expansion is held back and the much talked of 4 per cent growth rate thrown out of the Treasury window.

But will these measures be sufficient to stave off economic trouble? It is quite possible that the devaluation of sterling will be put on the agenda of the new government.

This would mean that while British exports would cost less in foreign currency, prices at home would soar. A big slice would be hacked off the value of every wage packet.

It would also imply jettisoning the traditional role of the City of London as a commercial and banking centre.

No attention should be paid to vehement denials of the possibility of devaluation.

These are the standard prelude to such a move-only a few hours before the pound was devalued in 1949, Sir Stafford said, was the real issue behind the Election. Neither party had made an analysis of the crisis. Home had said in January that 'not too much attention' should be paid to the balance of payments deficit. The crisis was seasonal, he had said, but the same figure of €98,000,000, had been announced in June!

Five weeks ago Wilson had said there was no crisis. Then, on television two weeks ago, George Brown said Britain was facing the biggest crisis ever. Three days later, Wilson said the same.

"There was an agreement that the economic crisis should not be brought into the election, commered Slaughter. Wilson had deceived the people because both arues were worried about th light of the pound and capit: invested in Britain. Wilson knew the severity of the crisis and the action he would have to takı One of the most remarkabl aspects of the Election campaign, said Slaughter, was the 'dynamic introduction' of youth.

This youth had expressed how bitter a fight for socialism would be and what kind of fight it would be. As none of the parties had anything to offer youth and tavoured police repression, this youth was not turning to the old (Cont. p. 3, col. S)

Cripps, Labour's very christian chancellor was proclaiming his innocence of any intention of this kind.

Speaking of possible restriction on industrial expansion, which the financial position implies, "The Sunday Times' economic correspondent wrote: 'If this is true, nothing that is being said in this election makes sense!' How right he was, especially in relation to Wilson's campaign. While Wilson prated about the great new scientific future and Brown burbled on about lower interest rates, the economic crisis rendered every word they uttered absolute nonsense.

So long as they refuse to take any action which might disturb the rights of the profiteers, they will be forced to deal with the crisis prepared for them by the Tories by attacking the working class.

New edition of Trotskyist journal BRITISH Trotskyists will be glad to know that the Revolutionary Lanka Sama Samaja Party has succeeded in bringing out a Tamil edition of its Sinhalese paper 'Samasamajaya'. This emphasises the combined struggle of the Tamil and Sinhalese workers against the common enemy. capitalism and its imperialist backers.

We wish our co-thinkers in Ceylon every success in this new journalistic venture.

Definitely lined up for seats in Wilson's Cabinet are left to right: JAMES CALLAGHAN (possible Chancellor of the Exchequer), RAY GUNTER, and DENIS HEALEY (possible By The Editor IT is no accident that the 'Daily Express' announced, just one day before the election, that Scotland Yard has formed .a 100-strong squad of London's youngest and fittest policemen to combat, among other things, teenage riots".

Today, British youth are politically more active than anywhere else in the world They understand the crisis which capitalism is imposing on the world working class and, through the Young Socialists, are fighting for policies to smash the Torie:, the bosses and their friends in the labour movement.

CONTEMPT

They recognise these people as enemies willing to use the police to throw them out of Tory striva meetings, or even Labour Party rooms.

At the election campaign meetings, such as the one held in Doncaster by Harold MacMillan on Monday, youth have expressed their complete contempt for the 13-year-old (now archaic) promises of the •Tories. At the same time they have shown their disgust of the New (capitalist) Britain' envisaged by Harold Wilson.

This is a real fighting force: a force which has been dinounced by Tories and Labour alike who have bandied around words like 'democracy.

'DEMOCRACY'

Youth have had a taste of this "democracy from both parties.

Thirteen years of Tory rule makes a farce of such a word.

So does the action of rightwing Labourites in calling the police to • viciously clear Young Socialist lobbyers from outside a Labour Party NEC meeting earlier this year.

But socialist youth will not be deterred. They will continue to fight for socialism, no matter what the odds.

The news about the "tough squad' in Wednesday's 'Daily Express' must have been a welcome sight to Wilson, whose intervention in the tube strike this week demonstrated, once again, how tough he intends to be against young and old workers, in order to run Britain for the bosses. AFTER THE ELEC

Uld News EWSLETTER "Tribune's retreat is this time more complete and more abject, not because the Labour leadership is more socialist, but because the crisis of British capitalism is more acute and Odtober 1964

Pin this series have REVIOUS articles outlined the real facts of the crisis of British capitalism and the effects which this could have on the working class. There was a pre-election conspiracy to hide these facts from the working class and the traditional 'left' in the Labour Party - that is, the group around 'Tribune' —joined in this conspiracy.

As the election drew nearer "Tribune' moved closer and closer to the right-wing Labour leadership. It launched repeated attacks on the left-wing youth who have fought for socialist policies against continual witch-hunts from Transport House; it indulged in sycophantic praise for the Labour leadership and it avoided all controversial policy questions, abändoning unilateralism, a policy for which it once campaigned, but which would clearly be embarrassing for the Labour leaders.

A clear knowledge of this development is necessary in order to understand the nature of fake-left opportunism.

Cynicism

When the Young Socialists was first formed it was greeted with tired cynicism by "Tribune'. In an article called 'Sometimes I Get Depressed' ('Tribune' January 29, 1960), Richard Clements declared that its closure by the right wing was inevitable and, of course, there was no question of fighting against it. 'Long live the Y.S., ne wrote, 'but I don't think they will.' However, the Young Socialists grew around the struggle for socialist policies amongst working-class youth. This struggle brought the youth up against the Labour leadership and the Party bureaucracy.

"Keep Left was proscribed and in 1962 three members of the YS National Committee were expelled. In spite of this, Keep Left did not fade away, but became I stronger. The drive to bring working-class youth into the Labour Party went on and the struggle for socialist policies continued successfully as the 1964 Brighton conference showed.

As a result, the chairman of the Young Socialists, John Robertson, was expelled. His successor, Dave Ashby, and the Vice-chairman, Sheila Torrance, have also been expelled. After the conference, the only meeting of the National Committee called by Transport House was closed after a few minutes, and the full-time officials refuse to call another one.

Branches and Federations have been closed up and down the country; investigations, closures and expulsions became the order of the day. In the teeth of this, the youth have fought back, refusing to be closed down and demonstrating their defiance by marching 3,000 strong behind the majority of the Young Socialists National Committee on September 27.

For a while, Tribune' deplored the organisational measures of the right wing against the youth, but at the same time it refused to support the youth on the political questions at stake.

Attacked YS

This was a contradiction which became more acute the harder the youth fought back. For it is not a question of opposition to expulsions and proscriptions 'in general' but of fighting the witch-hunters on specific instances and supporting youth in their fight for the policy decisions of their Brighton conference. It is not a question of 'protesting' against witch-hunts but of rejecting them.

The retreat of "Tribune' over policy brought them into opposition to the declared policies of the Young Socialists. This caused thèm to attack "Keep Left' and the Young Socialists. leadership and to declare that the victims of the witch-hunt had provoked the Labour leadership.

They 'protested' at the witchhunt, but attacked the people Jack Gale ends our series of Election articles who were being witch-hunted.

Very soon the columns of "Tribune' became open to an organised attack on the YS leadership; the struggle of the youth against the witch-hunt was played down; the increasing support for this leadership amongst working-class youth was ignored. Open advocacy of witch-hunts began to appear.

Following the YS conference at Easter this year, "Tribune' carried an article 'Young Socialists; What Happens Next?' by Max Madden. The conference debates and decisions were written off as 'sloganised jargon that passed for thought' • Mr. Madden's main concern was that the left had won the National Committee elections, and this had to be reversed.

There were, he said, 'six members believed to be sympathetic to Trotskyism.' He went on, Differences indeed should exist, but the field can be narrowed' (My emphasis— Accused NC When the Young Socialists National Committee meeting was closed down, because its members conveyed their support to the people who were lobbying outside Transport House against the closure of the Streatham Young Socialists branch and the expulsion of former National Chairman, John Robertson, "Tribune' supported Underhill, the Labour machine's official in charge of youth.

This question was, they said, 'ultra vires by any standard' They accused the Young Socialists National Committee of 'wanting the martyr's crown' (June 12).

On July 3 Richard Clements declared that this demonstration was inspired by bastard Trotskyists'. In an article 'Young Socialists in Crisis' he wrote that the expulsion of John Robertson 'follows a series of events in which a majority of the members of the N.C. seem to have been more intent on destroying the organisation than in helping it to flourish.

Thus, Clements says that the people who are trying to destroy the Young Socialists are not those who are closing its branches and expelling its members, but those who fight against these measures!

'Affiliate'

On July 10, in an article 'My plan for a Socialist Youth Movement,' Clements advocated affiliated status for the Young Socialists and then put a gem of political opportunism in one sentence:

"This will immediately eliminate the inevitable frictions over policy - for example, the Transport and General Workers' Union for five years had a policy at odds with Labour Party policy and no lasting damage has occurred.' For Clements, as for all opportunists, policies are not things which have to be fought out. On the contrary, a formula has to be found to enable people to have whatever policy they like without having to do anything about them. The difference between the Young Socialists and the TGWU leaders was precisely that Cousins did not fight for his policies whereas the Young Socialists did.

Having adopted a socialist programme at Brighton, they insisted on campaigning for it. In Clements' view only 'bastards do things like that.

In the same article Clements accused 'Keep Left' supporters of being in the Young Socialists *to milk it financially for other organisations'.

The correspondence columns of "Tribune' rapidly became a vehicle for a sustained attack on 'Keep Left' and the leadership of the Young Socialists. A stream of letters from people like Gavin Kennedy talked about 'saving' the Young Socialists from 'factional infighting'. The main responsibility for this 'infighting' was laid at the door of 'Keep Left'.

Abandon policy These letters boiled down to advocating that the fight for policy against Transport House should be abandoned in favour of the 'main task' of returning a Labour government.

The vital political question of the role of this Labour government, which without a socialist policy will be compelled to attack the working class in the interests of capitalism; the essential task of explaining this and exposing these leaders and building a movement to fight them-these were left out. Despite their left phrases, the writers and publishers of these letters were covering up for the Labour leaders and assisting them to disarm the working class.

The role of all left opportunists at decisive moments is to act as a political cover for the right and to attack those Die record of the La complete knowledge understand who are fighting for socialism.

Thus on September 25, "Tribune' reported fully a 'Save the YS' rally attended by 200 people, with the usual sneers at 'Keep Left' and the Young Socialists National Committee, but the following week carried no report at all about the 3,000 people who marched behind that same National Committee —although one would have thought that that was a lot of people to be saved.

• They even found flimsy grounds for refusing an advert for that demonstration, although they have a long record of publishing adverts from anti-Labour organisations, including Martell's Freedom Group. September 27 The reason Tribune' could could not print a report of the September 27 demonstration was that it brought to the fore all the political issues which will face a Labour government-wage freeze, racialism, automation, unemployment, slums, colonialism-in fact all the issues which Wilson, Foot, Cousins and Co. are trying to pretend do not exist.

For as the election has approached, "Tribune' has played down not only the policy questions inside the Labour Party, but also the struggles of the working class against the employers and the government.

They supported Wilson's intervention to break the power dispute in March. The sell-out of the TV technicians' strike in June, also made possible by Wilson's intervention, was headlined "T.V. Strike Victory. During the postmen's struggle 'Tribune' gave full, uncritical support to Ron Smith, who sold out the strike. On the docks "Tribune' opposed the dockers' claim for £15 per week. ('Such optimism is as misplaced as the employers' niggardly dealings in pennies, August 21) and instead of supporting the dockers, called for an eleventh-hour settlement.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that now, in a period of intense crisis for British capitalism, "Tribune' emerges as a supporter of the TGWU on the docks and an opponent of the 'Blue' union (National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers).

When the 'Blue' union began to spread to the northern ports (in 1954) "Tribune' supported the right of dockers to join it and to force the employers to recognise it. Now, however, with a threat of militant dockland action under a Labour government, 'Tribune' retreats from this position.

Left phrases

Their attack on the left in the Young Socialists goes alongside their abandonment of the older workers, and this is no accident.

The socialist programme of the Young Socialists reflects the interests of the entire working class. As the class struggle hots up, mere leftwing phrases become more and more inadequate, and the rottenness of opportunist politics becomes more apparent.

The position that "Tribune' advocated before the Election that all policy questions should be ignored in order to unite behind Wilson to get a Labour government, leads them to excuse the absence of any socialist policy on the part of Wilson.

On April 3, 1964, "Tribune' declared:

"The general. mood and temper in which a Labour government is elected and the consequent effect on the Parliamentary Labour leadership and Party matter more than precise commitments which may be overtaken by events and may be found inapposite to the kind of crisis which actually occurs.' However, it is precisely at his absence of policy that a real left wing must hammer. Without a clear programme of nationalization the Labour government will attempt to solve the problems of capitalism at the expense of the working class, as Ramsay MacDonald did in 1931.

To keep quiet about this and pretend that the absence of policy is a virtue, will not strengthen Labour. On the contrary, it will pave the way for the complete collapse of a Labour government and open the way for massive attacks on the unions by the employers under conditions in which the workers are demoralised and the Tories triumphant. to describe him as 'Tribune' has done at various times as prepted aura consistent i consistent to deceive the working class. No one, of course, would dream of suggesting that Mr. Wilson does not possess all these admirable qualities in abundance. One must, however, look at his record.

He boasts that he has settled four strikes this year-each of these has been a betrayal of the workers involved. He has promised the directors of ICI that the Labour government will not nationalize their industry. He has guaranteed the Building Societies that the Labour government will not harm them. He has called for bigger tanks in Cyprus. He has declared that the Labour government will keep troops in Aden.

He has avoided a clear declaration of how far renationalization of steel will go. He has refused to give a pledge that Labour will not reintroduce conscription. He supports immigration control. He has made it clear that the Labour government will introduce some form of wage freeze (disguised as a 'planned incomes policy').

Yet "Tribune' declared on the coming struggles of the working class are bound to be sharper.

These developments in the 'Tribune' tendency must be closely followed and understood by Marxists. It is not excluded that the struggles which develop as a result of the crisis of British capitalism will find some reflection in the i pages of 'Tribune'. Left' MPs like Michael Foot and Anthony Greenwood could well go part of the way with such struggles.

It is necessary now, therefore, to understand precisely the limitations of this political tendency. They do not base their politics on the need of the working class to overthrow capitalism, and as a result they inevitably retreat before every crisis. They do this even in the face of victory.

Capitulation

In 1960 'Tribune' led the left in the Labour Party. They gained a victory over the right wing when the Labour Party conference voted in favour of unilateralism then 'Tribune' policy). Yet when the right wing refused to accept this decision, the 'left' capitulated completely.

Rather than face a real fight against the right wing, they gave way. They organised not one single meeting or rally in support of what was official Party policy. They defended the right of Gaitskell and his friends to ignore the conference decisions. (The sole responsibility for permitting the right wing to reverse the unilateralist decision in 1961 rests with 'Tribune' and those 'left' MPs around it.)

Yet as a revolutionary movement, which is prepared to wage a serious fight against the right wing, develops, these left opportunists become more and more hostile to it.

Accusations of 'extremism', 'hooliganism', "sectarianism', 'desertion' become commonplace.

One of the essential tasks of this revolutionary movement is to bring to the surface all those questions of burning interest to the working class which all the opportunists are trying to conceal.

In the coming months the factor which will make the crucial difference in the struggle for socialism is the development of the Marxist Party which can understand in theory and in practice every aspect of the class struggle. This includes an understanding of the role of centrists, like "Tribune', who have now gone over to opportunism.

Denunciation

In 'Opportunism and Social Chauvinism', Lenin pointed out that the capitalist class needed *a widely ramified, systematically managed, well-equipped system of flattery, lies, fraud, juggling with popular catchwords and promising reforms and blessings to the workers right and left—as long as they renounce the revolutionary struggle' The former centrists around "Tribune' have played their part in trying to help the right wing persuade the working class to denounce the revolutionary struggle. To defeat this, the Marxists must go deeper and deeper into the real masses. This, as Engels said, is the whole meaning and the whole content of the struggle against reformism' (Engels letter to Sorge, December 7, 1889).

This penetration into the deepest masses of the working class must be accompanied by an accurate evaluation and understanding of alien political tendencies which can divert the working class and lead it to defeat.

"The nearer the revolution approaches, the more strongly it flares up and the more sudden and violent the transitions and leaps in its progress, the greater will be the part played in the labour movement by the struggle of the revolutionary mass stream against the opportunist petty-bourgeois stream." (Lenin, 'Opportunism and Social Chauvinism'.)

The Tories have prepared a post-election economic crisis precisely with this in mind--and the withdrawal of all resolutions on the wage freeze from the Trades Union Congress agenda showed that the trade union leadership is leading the working class straight into such a situation. Yet "Tribune', reporting the TUC, said "Blackpool was good for the movement.

The real way to strengthen Labour is to expose the glossy facade of the Wilson leadership and, in the course of a struggle for socialist policies, to build an alternative working-class leadership.

To cover ment possible, a movement towards a new world order under the greatly enhanced authority of the United Nations'.

On September 25 in 'Labour and a Policy for Peace' he repeated the same theme, this time calling for 'fresh impetus to drive for general disarmament.

In the same article Foot declared that Labour's election programme was better in 'temper' and 'purpose' than that of 'the 1959 defeatists'. • He did not explain why "Tribune' carried out the same sort of pre-election retreat in 1959 and published an article by Ian Mikardo which described the 1959 programme as a left-wing document which could be supported by all.

Odtober 17,1964 October EWSLETTER Page breaking role.

exposes a compete capitulation to visun aru trt rig"e wi capitulation to Wilson and the right wing. A clear knowledge of this development is necessary in order if this development is necessary in to the nature of fake-left opportunism August 21: 'Labour is a threat to speculators of all kinds' and it described Labour's election manifesto as 'inspiring' (September 18).

This retreat of "Tribune' has included an abandonment of policies for which it once campaigned-such as unilateralism. The slogan The Paper that leads the ! Anti-H-Bomb fight' has disappeared from its front tendency around 'Tribune' page, where every week.

On April 3 it pronounced:

'Neither the Labour Party nor CND is a homogeneous body capable of being forced to give single-minded allegiance to cut-and-dried policies... a Party in opposition may give a general impression of what it intends to do in government in the realm of foreign policy. But circumstances alter and what one government can do depends on what other governments do.' On March 13, 1964, a letter appeared signed by Michael Foot and John Horner. This advocated that the 1964 Easter CND March should have as its main themes, opposition to the independent nuclear deterrent and opposition to the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries. This is exactly the official Wilson policy — unilateralism is quietly dropped.

The bomb The following week in an article "The Bomb and the Election' Foot produced a formula which permits unqualified support for the foreign policy of a Wilson government: he called for 'general disarmament, the ending of the cold war which alone can make disarma-

of Ceylon is in ferment, Mrs. Bandaranaike and her coalition government, an unprincipled alliance of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Reformist), are desperately trying to divert attention to the 'stateless Indians problem'.

They want to send the bulk of the 1,200,000 Indians who work on the island back to India, in order to 'solve' the unemployment problem.

In order to protect itself against the voting power of these Indians, most of whom are plantation workers, the post(war capitalist government changed the citizenship laws, making it impossible for them to register as Ceylonese citizens.

The Indians were first brought over to Ceylon by British imperialists when they opened up their coffee plantations on the island more than 100 years ago.

UNCO-OPERATIVE

Up to now Mrs. Bandaranaike has found the Indian government distinctly uncooperative about any repatriation scheme. Recent informal talks between representatives of the two governments ended in deadlock.

Since then, Mrs. Bandaranaike has been to work on Mr. Shastri, the Indian Prime Minister, at last week's conference of the 'non-aligned' nations in Cairo.

The result is that they are to meet again this month in Delhi for talks.

The position of the coalition government on the question of "stateless' Indians is despicable and is supported by reactionary forces such as the British-controlled Planters' Association of Ceylon and Mr. R. Singleton Salmon, described by "The Times' as the man who 'represents British business interests in Ceylon's House of Representatives'.

It is the resort of a capitalist government, unsure of mass support, sinking to the depths of making economic issues racial issues, and it is proof of that government's complete inability to provide any real solution for the misery afflicting a vast section of the Ceylonese people, whether registered' citizens or not.

U.S. aid will

not halt Vietcong A GAINST heavy odds, anti-imperialist Vietcong forces made a heroic attack on South Vietnamese government troops on Sunday.

But this was a sad day for the Vietcong, who • few days earlier had scored such „resounding victory against government troops.

For they were hit by a full-scale artillery barrage and as a result about 150 of their number were slaughtered. • These losses were inflicted thanks to the vastly superior supplies of military equipment at the government's disposal.

The Vietcong could probably wipe the floor with this puppet government, were it not for the vast amount of American aid it is receiving.

But even this massive aid will not halt the Vietcong for whom this battle is at most a temporary setback amongst a series of victories. Jobless adow • OV

FIGURES on unemployment, recently released by the Ceylon Labour Department, demolish completely the squalid promises of the coalition government and the lying claims of its major apologist, Dr. Colvin de Silva.

The number of registered unemployed now stands at 160,541. This is an all-time high-and has never been exceeded since the employment exchanges were set up in 1939. This figure, it must be pointed out, is not a true index of the real extent of unemployment in the country as many rural unemployed never register at the exchanges.

Most of the unemployed are young people between 19 and 25 years.

Unemployment is highest amongst the educated youth.

The fact that a self-styled "socialist' and "peoples' government' is unable to exploit the talents, skills and enthusiasm of the country's youth is the biggest indictment yet of the coalition regime.

IMPORT RESTRICTION Unemployment, instead of going down, has actually gone up steeply since the coalitionmainly as a result of Dr. N. M. Perera's attempts to conserve foreign exchange by restricting all imports—a policy which has hit hard at many small and medium-sized businesses.

Dr. Perera's boasts about securing the 45-hour week for all employees mean little or nothing in the context of rising unemployment, cuts in overtime, short-time working and growing uncertainty about job security in large sections of the working class.

The coalition hopes to distract a restless working class by setting up a clamour about the press barons and exhorting the peasants to drink toddy (a beverage made from the flower of coconut and sago palms) instead of a deadly 'moonshine' called 'Kasippu'.

Meanwhile opposition to the Press Bill has forced the government to amend its position for the fourteenth time.

When this elaborate faroe, with its special tribunals, commissioners and what-not is over, the government will still be faced by a huge and ever-growing army of unemployed youth-an army that is demanding neither Kasippu' or "Toddy', but bread, land and houses.

CZECH YOUTH CLASH WITH POLICE THERE were 47 arrests when Czechoslovak youths clashed with police in Prague on Sunday.

Police trying to break up a crowd of some 200 young people in Vaklavske square were booed and pushed around.

They were then bombarded with pieces of metal by youths who had climbed up on to some scaffolding above the square. The police smashed into the crowd with batons.

It is not yet clear what will happen to the youths who were arrested but it is reassuring to see young people in Eastern Europe tackling the police with such obvious confidence.

of Ceylon is in ferment, Mrs. Bandaranaike and her coalition government, an unprincipled alliance of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Reformist), are desperately trying to divert attention to the "stateless Indians problem'.

They want to send the bulk of the 1,200,000 Indians who work on the island back to India, in order to "solve' the unemployment problem.

In order to protect itself against the voting power of these Indians, most of whom are plantation workers, the post(war capitalist government changed the citizenship laws, making it impossible for them to register as Ceylonese citizens.

The Indians were first brought over to Ceylon by British imperialists when they opened up their coffee plantations on the island more than 100 years ago.

UNCO-OPERATIVE

Up to now Mrs. Bandaranaike has found the Indian government distinctly. uncooperative about any repatriation scheme. Recent informal talks between representatives of the two governments ended in deadlock.

Since then, Mrs. Bandaranaike has been to work on Mr. Shastri, the Indian Prime Minister, at last week's conference of the 'non-aligned nations in Cairo.

The result is that they are to meet again this month in Delhi for talks.

The position of the coalition government on the question of "stateless' Indians is despicable and is supported by reactionary forces such as the British-controlled Planters' Association of Ceylon and Mr. R. Singleton Salmon, described by "The Times' as the man who 'represents British business interests in Ceylon's House of Representatives'.

It is the resort of a capitalist government, unsure of mass support, sinking to the depths of making economic issues racial issues, and it is proof of that government's complete inability to provide any real solution for the misery afflicting a vast section of the Ceylonese people, whether registered' citizens or not.

U.S. aid will

not halt AGAINST heavy anti-imperialist Vietcong forces made a heroic attack on South Vietnamese government troops on Sunday.

But this was a sad day for the Vietcong, who a few days earlier had scored such a resounding victory against government troops.

For they were hit by a full-scale artillery barrage and as a result about 150 of their number were slaughtered.

These losses were inflicted thanks to the vastly superior supplies of military equipment at the government's disposal.

The Vietcong could probably wipe the floor with this puppet government, were it not for the vast amount of American aid it is receiving.

But even this massive aid will not halt the Vietcong for whom this battle is at most a temporary setback amongst a series of victories.

ment, recently released by the Ceylon Labour Department, demolish completely the squalid promises of the coalition government and the lying claims of its major apologist, Dr. Colvin de Silva.

The number of registered unemployed now stands at 160,541. This is an all-time high-and has never been exceeded since the employment exchanges were set up in 1939. This figure, it must be pointed out, is not a true index of the real extent of unemployment in the country as many rural unemployed never register at the exchanges.

Most of the unemployed are young people between 19 and 25 years.

Unemployment is highest amongst the educated youth.

The fact that a self-styled "socialist' and "peoples' government' is unable to exploit the talents, skills and enthusiasm of the country's youth is the biggest indictment yet of the coalition regime.

IMPORT RESTRICTION Unemployment, instead of going down, has actually gone up steeply since the coalitionmainly as a result of Dr. N. M. Perera's attempts to conserve foreign exchange by restricting all imports—a policy which has hit hard at many small and medium-sized businesses.

Dr. Perera's boasts about securing the 45-hour week for all employees mean little or nothing in the context of rising unemployment, cuts in overtime, short-time working and growing uncertainty about job security in large sections of the working class.

The coalition hopes to distract a restless working class by setting up a clamour about the press barons and exhorting the peasants to drink toddy (a beverage made from the flower of coconut and sago palms) instead of a deadly 'moonshine' called 'Kasippu'.

Meanwhile opposition to the Press Bill has forced the government to amend its position for the fourteenth time.

When this elaborate farce, with its special tribunals, commissioners and what-not is over, the government will still be faced by a huge and ever-growing army of unemployed youth—an army that is demanding neither 'Kasippu' or "Toddy', but bread, land and houses.

CZECH YOUTH CLASH WITH POLICE THERE were 47 arrests when Czechoslovak youths clashed with police in Prague on Sunday.

Police trying to break up a crowd of some 200 young people in Vaklavske square were booed and pushed around.

They were then bombarded with pieces of metal by youths who had climbed up on to some scaffolding above the square. The police smashed into the crowd with batons.

It is not yet clear what will happen to the youths who were arrested but it is reassuring to see young people in Eastern Europe tackling the police with such obvious confidence.

a ge Four October

talks on development of the Socialist Labour League over the past four years has dealt heavy blows to the Pablo revisionists. In their magazines and news-sheets they carefully refrain from mentioning the activities and struggles of our organisation.

For example, they are always prepared to give substantial coverage, say, to a march of 20 pacifists through the streets of London, but it 3,000 young people, known supporters of the Socialist Labour League, march, then this is not news.

Desperate

Gradually, however, this wall of silence is breaking down. People such as Peng, Pablo and Cannon are becoming more and more desperate as the real news about the Socialist Labour League seeps through amongst the members of their organisation.

In September 1963 the main difference that separated us on the question of reunification was that it should be preceded by 12 months' serious international discussion.

We were confident that during that time we could reorganise the Fourth International so that the revisionists were in a minority. Cannon, Peng and Co. refused our request, with the result that their movement is now undergoing a series of quite disastrous experiences.

Pablo and a substantial group of followers have been suspended from their leading committee and are awaiting expulsion. In Ceylon, the overwhelming majority of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party has already been expelled.

Differences

In the United States the two minorities led by comrades Robertson and Wolforth have been expelled from the Socialist Workers Party on the basis of resolutions passed 25 years ago when Trotsky was opposing Shachtman. This resolution had absolutely nothing to do with the present issues in dispute inside the SWP.

The revisionists allege that prior discussion would reopen old political wounds. Our answer is that the differences involve principled questions.

The degeneration of Pablo is the product of at least 15 years active experience inside his organisation. The differences between those who support his method and the SLL are not confined to tactical or strategic questions, but cover an entire political approach to world events.

We believe, that an international discussion around these questions is essential for the training of the cadres, who would eventually lead the Fourth International.

Discussion

One can envisage, occasions, a fusion in a national section being arranged whereby it was necessary to temporarily refrain from discussion over sharply disputed tactical questions, but such a fusion cannot possibly work if the differences are of a programmatic nature.

When Cannon and Peng refused to discuss the Ceylonese events, they were, in fact, turning their backs on programmatic differences. When they refused to discuss with the Socialist Labour League, they were in effect admitting that they had no real answers to our proposals.

Discussion, therefore, of disputed programmatic questions, far from being a factional issue, is, we repeat, absolutely necessary for the training of Trotskyist leaders.

Herein lies the difference between Peng and Cannon, and Trotsky.

For over 10 years before he launched the Fourth International in 1938, Trotsky carried out a relentless polemic against the Stalinists, the right-wing social-democratic bureaucracies and the centrists. This continued even when his forces were entering the social-democracy and working in the British Independent Labour Party.

During this struggle Trotsky trained leaders. It is not so much a question of unification based on proposals to 'forgive and forget'. Trotsky realised that the international class struggle itself posed the necessity for a constant struggle against revisionism of all kinds.

What happened in Ceylon marked the end of an era so far as the Fourth International, founded by Trotsky, was concerned. It demonstrated for all who had eyes to see that the Peng and Cannon method of building an International was the direct opposite to that employed by Trotsky, especially during the latter years of his life.

The method of Cannon and Peng has more in common with the centrists like Fenner Brockway of the thirties and the London Bureau.

These, then, are the reasons why we say that Peng and Cannon are not Trotskyists.

Instead of probing the real differences in the international movement to their political roots, they avoid this responsibility and in turn strengthen the revisionists of the Perera and Pablo variety.

We say again: it is today tactically impossible to evade a principled confrontation of fundamental differences. When the revisionists say that these can be solved by commod experience, this is only a quarter of the truth. Such common experience must be based on a constant struggle for correct principles, otherwise the movement disintegrates.

Falsify

Since the Socialist Labour League has always campaigned for a real international discussion, and Cannon and Peng have opposed such discussion, it follows that they are utterly incapable of political insight when it comes to dealing with the policies and programme of the Socialist Labour League. They try to ignore us on the one hand, and the in the when pressed, they engage crudest of falsifications.

The Editorial of the Autumn issue of the Socialist Workers Party's 'International Socialist Review' has this to say about the Socialist Labour League:

'What may give rise to a lifted eyebrow is the news that a small group of ultraleftist intransigents in far-off Great Britain, who still call themselves "Trotskyists", have also come out against supporting the candidates of the SWP. Writing in the weekly Newsletter, organ of the British Socialist Labour eague, the editor takes the SWP to task for not properly conducting the fight against "Goldwaterism". Under the circumstances, declares the editor, "a vote for the SWP candidates is meaningless"

This will undoubtedly reduce the SWP vote (in Britain) to virtually nil-at least in that section of London known as Clapham Common in which the SLL resides.

'Oh, well! The SWP should feel flattered that the Newsletter would condescend to take note of its role in the American election campaign.

For there is an election campaign now going in Great Britain in which the Newsletter constantly warns its readers that the greatest calamity that could befall the British workers would be for the Labour Party to take power. This, sadly, is a manifestation political dementia praecox (defined by Webster as a form of insanity developing usually in adolescence, characterised by incoherence of thought and action) or as aptly defined by Lenin: the infantile disorder of ultra-leftism?

Everything contained in these two paragraphs is a lie from start to finish, and the authors are very conscious of this.

'Goldwaterism' We will ignore their sneering remarks about 'a small group of ultra-leftist intransigents'. Our struggles speak for themselves. In the August 29 issue of The Newsletter, we published Cannon: More in common with centrists an article on Goldwaterism in the USA where we made a number of serious criticisms of the SWP, especially on the racial question.

The purpose of the article was to draw the attention of the SWP members to the position of their leaders so that they could try to change this. We insisted that unless this happened 'a vote for the SWP candidates (in the presidential elections) is meaningless'.

The article was not discussing whether or not we woald support SWP candidates, because there is no question that were we living in the United States, despite our criticisms, we would support these candidates.

Twists

Instead of facing up to the arguments contained in this article, the SWP editorial twists the whole argument into one in which they allege that we would not support their candidates. Only downright political rogues and political twisters could stoop to such measures.

Their second paragraph is on the same level. Every reader of The Newsletter knows that it is a downright lie to suggest that our paper 'constantly warns its readers that the greatest calamity that could befall the British workers would be for the Labour Party to take power' Our members have led the fight against Toryism up and down the country, in one city after another.

We have fought, and are fighting, for the return ( Labour government, which will probably be a fact almost immediately after this article goes to print. But this does not mean that we support the policy of Wilson and the right-wing which is extremley dangerous as far as the working class is concerned.

Last week, "The Economist, weekly financial organ of the City of London, swung into support of Wilson and company.

If we did not warn the working class of the dangers of these solicies adaptation to ri be gully wing social democracy and no lesson whatsoever would be learned by the working class. Who is to warn them if we don't?

The SWP leaders know this very well. They smuggle in a number of lies to cover up a number of unpleasant facts, the main fact being that the Socialist Labour League is gaining more and more support as a result of this critical policy. This is not only true amongst the youth, but also amongst large numbers of adult workers who have evinced in recent weeks great sympathy for the Young Socialists.

Peng method

It is, of course, perfectly understandable that Peng Shu-tse should use the same method when speaking of our struggle against Bevanism during the '50s. The SWP is master and Peng is servant:

'In your own country, England, for a long time you praised Bevan, placing almost all your hopes in him. In adaptation to Bevan's politics and sowing illusions about his role, you went beyond even your efforts with regard to Messali Hadj. In spite of your praise and adaptation to his politics, Bevan followed the logic of his own opportype of politics. 'Youth will turn elsewhere and against the leaders of these parties,' said Slaughter.

Parties were the weapons of the classes: the Tories, of the bosses, banks and insurance companies; the Labour Party, of organised labour in the trade unions.

But, added Slaughter, the policy in the Labour Party depended on trade union and Party careerists and bureaucrats determined to keep in with big business and monopoly capitalism—people like Ray Gunter had attacked the trade unions by saying they were not eternal.

The Communist Party, on the other hand, had completely turned its baok on revolutionary policies in favour of a campaign for time on television.

"The only organisation that has appeal is the Socialist Labour League. This is why young workers are turning in no other direction but towards the Socialist Labour League,' he said.

LABOUR VOTE

Voting for Labour was just a small part in the big fight for socialist policies. To vote for Labour without such a fight— like those who called for loyalty to Labour_ (i.e., Wilson, Brown and Co.)-'is a deception, fraud and class betrayal'.

Is it loyalty to Labour to remain silent while these betrayals go on?' he asked.

Slaughter then made a call to socialists to 'free the right hand of the workers to finish with the Tories for ever.

One of the most amazing results of the economic crisis on the election campaign, said Gerry Healy, general secretary of the Socialist Labour League, was the tunist course and went over to Hugh Gaitskell. When your attitude of adaptation toward Bevan proved bankrupt, you immediately jumped from right opportunism to ultra-left sectarianism. As to whether or not your attitude toward Bevan was right or wrong, you never offered any explanations either to the working class or to the members of your own group!' These are all stupid lies.

During the years of Beyanism we enjoyed the close co-operation of the SWP leaders, who knew very well what was our attitude towards Bevan and supported us fully on this. Now they encourage Peng to denounce us for exactly the opposite of what happened at the time.

It is well known internationally that the Trotskyist movement in Britain was responsible for the weekly 'Socialist Outlook' which was launched in 1948 in order, amongst other things, to combat the Bevanite organ "Tribune' which was tied up with the right-wing Labour government of the day. Bevan struggle After Labour lost the 1951 election, Bevan broke from his former Cabinet colleagues. At the Morecombe Conference in 1952 the struggle came into the open, with the delegates who supported our paper, 'Socialist Outlook', leading the fight on the conference floor.

Immediately after the conference was over, Gaitskell linked the Bevanites with the Trotskyists.

As far as we were concerned, we critically supported Bevan and the Bevanites in their struggles with the right wing and we would do so again.

In January 1953, when the Trotskyists were leading preparations for a national strike to oppose road haulage denationalization, Bevan assisted Deakin, late leader of the Transport and General Workers' Union, to break the strike.

This was only three months after Morecombe, and it showed us something which we knew all along—-the opportunistic and two-faced role of Bevanite centrism. At that time we publicly condemned his strikeabou Leag meeting fact that on the Sunday before the election, "The Economist', one of the most reactionary newspapers in Britain had advised its readers to vote Labour.

As far as the ruling class was concerned, he added, the crisis was so severe, that they were willing to let Labour 'carry the can'.

As "The Economist' had given the advice to the electorate, you can be sure Wilson will not nationalize anything apart from, perhaps, steel'.

'CUDDLING UP'

He asked if there was not some connection between the attack by the right-wing Labour leaders against youth and the advice of 'The Economist'. "This is a prelude to cuddling up to big business by Wilson and Brown,' he said.

'People who refuse to recognise this and glibly attack the YS, are not they also helping big business?' The Socialist Labour League, he said, was an organisation of youth. In the next period more and more youth and trade unionists would be drawn to the revolutionary organisation to take power, not elect another set of 'fakers and scoundrels to tell the same lies.

‹We are fighting the Tories. We are voting Labour and for socialist policies' Peter Kerrigan, a leading member of the 'Blue' union (National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers' Union), outlined the various struggles Britain's dockers had had since 1945.

In order to meet the present crisis, he said, the government had to follow mechanisation of the mines and railways with mechanisation of the docks — already a company had been set up to When the split took place with Pablo in 1953, one of the issues involved was that Pablo and Lawrence, who later deserted to the Communist Party, accused us of being too critical of the Bevanites, but we did not let up.

We continued to criticise them where we thought it necessary, and support them in the main fight with the right wing, insofar as the Bevanites were prepared to fight.

Proscription

Significantly, such critical approach did not isolate us from the Bevanites. When the 'Socialist Outlook' was banned by the right wing in August 1954, they came to our assistance and joined forces with us in opposing the proscription when it was discussed at the Labour Party Conference that year.

In the winter of 1954 and the spring of 1955, Bevan and the Bevanites ran very close to being expelled from the Labour Party. Since 'Socialist Outlook' was forced to close down, we again critically supported "Tribune' in the fight against the bureaucratic right wing.

At the last moment Bevan capitulated to Attlee and on the eve of the General Election in May 1955 the Bevanites began to swing into line once again behind the right wing.

At the 1957 Labour Party Conference, the struggle against the H-bomb was posed for discussion for the first time.

At that conference Bevan supported Gaitskell. In the trade union delegations, Gaitskell had another supporter, one Sam Goldberg, who was then leader of the Stalinist-dominated Electrical Trades Union and previously a close colleague of Lawrence and Pablo.

Estimate

At the conference he was carrying out the Stalinist line which was to support the retention of the H-bomb in order to opportunistically justify Soviet retention of the H-bomb.

It was the representatives of our organisation who led the fight against the H-bomb at the 1957 conference. Vivienne Mendelson, representing Norwood Constituency Party, now a member of the Socialist Labour League, took the plattorm and opposed Bevan's line.

These are the facts for all to see. We ask our readers, how can you politically estimate such 'leaders' as those of the SWP who know all these facts, but now choose to publish downright lies for political degenerates such as Peng?

(Next week-Algeria, •Cuba and the future of the Fourth International.)

finance such work.

But a mechanisation scheme would also mean controlling the dockers.

Kerrigan was sure that in the present fight for higher wages, Frank Cousins, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, had come to some agreement with Sir Andrew Crichton, chairman of the Dock Labour Board, on wages, with many 'strings' attached.

These strings included mobility of labour and decasualisation "The question of wages is secondary here. Decasualisation is the main thing,' he commented. He felt the employers were 'playing for time' until a Labour government was elected and the claim could be the subject of an inquiry. 'A Labour government will then try to foist on the docker what the employer has been trying to foist on them for years,' he warned.

'JUGULAR VEIN'

The problems facing dockers confronted the whole working class and if the dockers are defeated, it will affect all workers.

The tremendous militancy of dockers was expressed before the last national docks delegate conference, which rejected the latest pay offer of 12s. 6d., when northern dockers struck with only two to three hours' notice.

This occurred despite the fact that Communist Party members on the London Liaison Committee failed to inform Liverpool of the token strike in London.

Docks were the 'jugular vein' of the economy, said Kerrigan. They will become the first target of the Wilson government.

"The nationalization of the port transport industry is the only means by which the dockers can gain benefits,' he concluded.

M themselves into a Direct Action Committee ANCHESTER apprentices, who formed earlier this year, have started to take big steps to organise young workers throughout the country.

With Mike Hughes as its chairman, the Manchester Direct Action Committee has called a national conference of all apprentices throughout the country on October 31, at the Milton Hall, Deansgate, Manchester. They are urging apprentices to send delegates and observers from their factories.

Starting at 5 p.m. the conference will discuss the problems faced by young workers in apprenticeships and the next steps to be taken to win their claims.

The apprentices are demanding a 35-hour week, 60 per cent of the skilled rate at 15, 90 per cent of the skilled rate at 20 and four weeks' annual paid holiday, which were decisions passed at this year's youth conference of the Amalgamated Engineering Workers Union Token stoppage Only a few weeks ago the Manchester apprentices took part in a one-day token stoppage which was supported by about 2,000 young engineering workers. From this they decided to go forward to a national organisation embodying apprentices in all parts of industry.

For many years the officials the trade unions have refused to organise the many apprentices who are not yet in the unions.

The Junior Workers' Committee of the AEU has remained a mere front for training future trade union bureaucrats. Even when, at this year's conference, the apprentices passed militant decisions to, better their conditions, the leadership just ignored them.

In Manchester the Direct Action Committee feel that only by a thorough discussion with apprentices from other areas, will they get any indication of the response they will get from a national strike call.

However, a few centrists and Stalinists who have now been expelled from the Direct Action Committee have put out a counter claim, announcing a national strike for November 2.

This decision, which was published in the Daily Worker', has been emphatically denied by the Direct Action Committee.

This group, who have absolutely no following whatsoever, took it upon themselves to call a national meeting in Manchester on September 27, the day of the big Young Socialists anti-Tory rally in London.

Expelled

Manchester Direct Action Committee expelled two of this group after it was reported that they had gone to Sheffield and disrupted apprentices' attempts to form a committee there.

If the apprentices are to show their adult fellow workers that they are really serious about fighting for their demands they can only do it by organising into a strong movement.

The first step towards doing this will be the national conference when young apprentices will be able to prove, that they are miles ahead of the trade union movement's officials in the fight for better conditions.

Readers who want more details about the conference should write to Mike Hughes, c/o 73 Lower Seedley Road, Salford, 6. Dublin union rights at Yorks site FOLLOWING the sacking of an Electrical Trades Union shop steward 1,000 workers on the Ferrybridge power station site in Yorkshire downed tools.

The shop steward, who is employed by J. Kilpatrick Electrical Engineers, was threatened with the sack a month ago when he first went to the stewards' meeting, but no action was taken at that time.

Instructions

This time under what is believed to be strict instructions, thes ite management gave the steward the sack before he went to the meeting.

Immediately all the stewards on the site called a mass meeting and the men voted unanimously to stay out until the victimised worker was reinstated.

As a result of an agreement drawn • up sby the Executive Committee of the Electrical Trades Union and the employers, stewards, are not allowed to attend meetings during working hours and that was why the steward at Ferrybridge was sacked.

Area union officials, who take the side of, the bosses on this rule, advised the stewards not to attend the union meeting.

But if the trade unions on the building sites are to an effective force in fighting for better conditions and higher wages, then workers must maintain the right to organise.

Witch-hunt

The employers have taken steps to try and smash trade unionism because they are sure that they have the help of the right wing of the Electrical Trades Union, who have just been carrying out witch-hunting methods against members inside the union by organising an antiCommunist ballot and expelling militants.

Men on the Ferrybridge site know what they are up against, but they already have support from four other power stations in the area, which have promised to take action in sympathy if the dispute is not settled soon. ROOTES AND

policies HAROLD WILSON'S Visit to Bradford as part of the Labour Party's pre-election rally began with the grand organ playing of hymns and a selection of tunes from World War I-and the speeches that followed never rose above this dreary level.

Careful attention to Wilson's speeches revealed that he really had nothing at all to say about socialism.

Phrases like 'Labour is concerned with people, 'Housing is a social service' ', 'Vote for your children', , 'A Labour goverument will accept responsibility for social welfare, sound fine to an audience of loyal Labour supporters, but they are merely a gloss to hide the complete poverty of Wilson's election programme.

Labour youth

• Meanwhile, 150 Labour youth were marching through Bradford behind the banner of Bradford North Young Socialists, some of whose members were recently ejected from a meeting of their constituency party by the police.

Organised by the banned West Yorkshire Federation of Young Socialists, this demonstration focussed attention on all the urgent working-class problems which Wilson was so skilfully evading.

With placards calling for a socialist solution to the problems of housing, racialism, colonialism and dead-end jobs, these young people—hated by the organisers of Wilson's meetings-had a real message for the working class of Bradford.

At a meeting in Bradford Mechanics Institute 180 young people-the extra numbers had joined in during the march— heard a call to fight for socialist policies.

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper 80 Clapham High Street. London. S.W.4 rinted by Plough Press Ltd. (LU), 196a Caphaned he High Street. London. S.T.e

CURRENT struggles in the Barrow shipyard of Vickers Armstrong (Shipbuilders) Limited are extremely important to engineers and shipbuilding workers.

For 14 weeks over 130 draughtsmen have been on strike and welders are in dispute over a demand for a wage rise.

The draughtsmen walked. out over a wage claim, which went through all the negotiating procedure and which was then referred back for settlement locally. • But the firm made no further offer and after the strike had lasted six weeks the workers were dismissed.

The Draughtsmen and Allied Technicians Association declares that this means their members will lose up to f3 a week in pensions.

Pressure is being brought to bear on the leaders of the engineering unions. The employers wrote to the District Committee of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions on October 1 threatening the closure of the shipyards at one week's notice.

"The basis of reopening,' said the letter would be when the firm was satisfied that it would be possible to begin operating on an economic basis.' TYPES OF LABOUR The employers said they were 'unable to recruit and hold certain types of labour' because of general unrest, provoked by disputes, 'guerrilla' strikes and overtime embargoes.

They declared that if the claims of the draughtsmen were met they would seriously lift the national wage level in an industry already operating at a loss.

Seventy draughtsmen

Vickers Armstrong naval yard on Tyneside are on strike in sympathy with Barrow.

Draughtsmen at other shipyards are now being instructed by the Executive Committee of DATA to withdraw their labour.

These attempts to fight the firm are one side of the picture But what of the leaders of the Confederation?

According to the 'Financial Times' of October 9 they feel that the Barrow dispute has all the characteristics of a 'test case'.

The Confederation called a special meeting of leaders of unions with members employed at the Barrow shipyard.

A joint committee of seven officials was set up. The report in the 'Financial Times' declares that this committee is 'now standing by to seek a peace formula with the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation or, if necessary, the Ministry Labour'.

In what is one of the biggest firms in the Employers' Federation union leaders cannot be allowed to negotiate a compromise.

And the only way to stop such a compromise will be the full support of the Vickers men at Barrow by all shipbuilding workers.

LATE NEWS VICTORY Wednesday Vickers Armstrong agreed to take back the men and reinstate them with full pension rights. As the draughtsmen return, new negotiations over wages will begin. The firm promises a 'reasonable settlement'.

The firm's retreat is certainly not due to the actions of the Confederation. It took place after the Executive Committee of DATA threatened to bring out more draughtsmen in support of the Vickers Armstrong workers. Glasgow which has 269,000 overcrowded families compared with 126,000 in London.

The property owners are on to a good racket. They buy up slum property and conceal their identity. Only the estate agent is known to the tenant and he is responsible only for managing his client's affairs—he has no responsibility to the tenants for carrying out repairs.

MAXIMUM

Landlords draw the rent, which is increased to the maximum possible if the property is decontrolled. There is no outlay for the maintenance of the property.

In due course, when the property is condemned and scheduled for demolition by the local authority, the owner will be handsomely compensated.

It is obvious that many landlords are now rushing in to raise rents to a new high before the Labour government gets around to repealing the Rent Act.

To. defeat the aims of the landlords, tenants must organise strong, militant tenants' associations. They must also demand that Labour not only repeals the Rent Act, but abolishes all increases which have taken place under the Act. ployers in their production drive and they will, of course, receive every assistance from the trade union bureaucrats.

PROGRAMME

Viewed from this perspective the Rootes and Pressed Steel workers should unite around the following programme. 1. Mutual support against any attacks by the bosses. 2. Rejection of the Emerson plan and other employers' schemes for weakening the independence of the unions. 3. Resistance to speed-ups or mobility of labour. The unions must control the speed of the line and track in relation to manpower. for shorickinworkinall wages sackings. 5. To assist in building a workers' committee embracing the whole motor industry and ancilliary factories in Scotland and to establish a liaison with workers in the industry in England. 6. Comparable wages to be paid in Scotland as those in England. No wage freeze under any circumstances. 7. To begin to struggle for the nationalization, under workers' control, of the motor industry.

DUBLIN'S 20,000 building workers, who have been on strike for a 40-hour week since mid-August, have now had ample opportunity to see the real character of their union officials who are supposed to represent them.

In a ballot involving all 42,000 building workers in Southern Ireland, the workers firmly rejected the proposals of the leaders of the 17 unions involved in the strike to accept the employers' terms.

These terms offered the men a 40-hour week in Dublin (42} hours in other areas), but only during the winter, when, very often, a full week is not worked anyway due to bad weather conditions.

There was to be no reduction in working hours during the summer and fresh negotiations for a year-round 40-hour week could not begin before 1966.

HOSTILITY

Also added to the voices of hostility towards the Dublin building workers was that of the government of Southern Ireland. On October 8 the Minister of Agriculture resigned in protest against, what he termed the conciliatory attitude of the Minister of Industry and Commerce. In announcing his resignation he denounced the trade union movement as 'not only a tyranny but dishonest and incompetent.

One might perhaps expect that, faced with a continuation of the stoppage, the leaders of the Irish trade union movement might seek positive support from other sections of the workers.

The immediate response of the Irish Congress of Trades Union officials to the strikers militant rejection of the employers' terms, was to recommend that there should be no extension of the strike.

Similarly, the leaders of the Irish National Painters and Decorators Trades Union, who had previously given strike notice to Dublin Corporation in support of the demand for a 40-hour week, instead of linking the struggle for their demands with that of those already on strike, deferred strike action indefinitely.

Perhaps the greatest significance of the stoppage is that it poses to the younger militants, many of whom are engaged in strike action for the first time, the need to construct a new leadership in the Irish labour movement.

Fight Woodside tenants, who live in homes like these, have been given notice of rent increases CASHING in on Scotland's enormous housing problem, London-based property owners and speculators threaten to bring even greater hardship and misery to working-class families.

Grenadier Properties was established three years ago as the estate agents for Scottish property owned by landlords Who are, The Newsletter was told, unknown to the tenants.

The company is controlled by Mr. John Haskins whose office is in London and who travels to Scotland to look after the interests of his property-owning clients.

As well as being boss of Grenadier Properties, Mr. Haskins also has a stake in Parakeet Properties and Etilgram Investments Ltd.

NOTICE

Directors of these two companies are Berger brothers of London whose names are also connected with 200 other small companies.

Recently Parakeet Properties and Etilgram Investments Lid. gave notice to 60 families in Dundee that their rent would be doubled. If they were not prepared to pay upthey must quit.

Dundee tenants were staggered by this order. For a family living in a room and kitchen tenement apartment, sharing an outside toilet with four other families, the new rent order would mean a jump from f4 7s. 6d. a quarter to £8 15s.

In an interview with the Glasgow 'Daily Record', Mr. Haskins said: 'We are not wringing money out of tenants. We are simply an investment concern aiming at around 7 per cent return of our capital.' Angered by the rent increases and the threat of eviction, Dundee tenants appealed to their MPs, Peter Doig and George Thomson.

They met Mr. Haskins last Friday but he did not agree to drop the question of a rent increase. He merely stated that the increases would be spread over two years, instead of demanding all the money in one lump.

In Glasgow, too, rent increases are the order of the day. Two months ago tenants in Byron Street, Partick, were informed that their rent would be increased by amounts varying from 10s. to 15s. a week. These tenants do not know who owns the property in which they live.

In Woodside, where there are slums very much like those in the Gorbals, 13 tenants in one block of tenements have been given notice of rent increases, which in some cases are almost double the present rent.

DEADLINE

The deadline for the tenants to accept the new conditions of tenancy is October 14. All eftorts to trace the actual owner of this property have so far failed but it is believed that the ownership has recently changed hands.

A survey of 6,700 working-class houses in Woodside was carried out last year. Of these only 22 were in satisfactory structural and sanitary condition. Sixty-three per cent of the houses were incapable of improvement to an acceptable standard.

One-third of the slum houses in Great Britain are to be found in Scotland. One-sixth are in

PRESSED

STEEL MEN MUST ORGANISE IN his election tour in Scotland, Sir Alec DouglasHome referred to the prosperous industries the government has conferred upon the people and he specifically mentioned Rootes of Linwood, home of the Hillman Imp.

His remarks went unchallenged by the leadership of either the Labour Party or the trade unions.

The prosperity of track workers at this factory amounts to a four-day working week since the annual holidays this year and a wage packet of £1l to f12 a week. Out of this they have to pay a monthly rent of £7 10s. for a house on the Linwood estate.

Imp cars are lying in the field next to the factory and production is averaging 800 cars per week, as compared with the original estimated potential of 2,500 to 3,000.

REDUNDANT

The management recently asked that some workers should declare themselves redundant, rather than have a pay-off and presumably 'damage' the public image of the Imp.

Organisation of the workers in the factory has been chaotic following the lock-out of the track men in June, who were sacked and later re-employed piecemeal.

Union officials encouraged other workers to man the track during the lock-out and, as a result, many of the sacked men tore up their union cards in disgust.

Toolroom men held a token stoppage last week because time and motion study men were sent into their department.

It is expected that other departments will receive the same attention in the future as the employers attempt to discipline the workers.

The fall in sales of the Imp is having its affect in the Pressed Steel factory which manufactures Imp bodies. Last week a number of workers were removed from the Imp line and re-deployed elsewhere, causing a walk-out.

SACKED

The convenor of the National Union of Vehicle Builders who came out with the men was sacked. He was re-employed after the management had asserted its right to re-deploy labour, even though it meant a speed-up for some workers.

When the shop stewards collaborated with the Pressed Steel management over the introduction of the Emerson bonus plan, with its joint production committees, they tied the workers' interests to the production requirements of the car bosses.

Such actions are completely detrimental to the car workers, since the main aim of the employers is to rationalise production in order to cheapen costs and enlarge profits.

The Labour leadership is committed to helping the em-