The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 368

- Organise against decasualisation?

IN the carly months of summer a scheme for decasualisavon on the docks was given great publicity the employers in the Merseyside area. It is now well known that the brains behind this scheme were none other than Frank Cousins and Sir Andrew Crichton of the Port Employers. 1.ne dockers in Merseyside rightly recognised the strings in the scheme and, led by the 'Blue' union, rejected it out of hand. The next stage the struggle came when the dockers wage demand for an increase of 25s. a week was turned down at the end of July.

The Transport and General Workers Union leaders chen embarked upon a vague campaign of militancy by threatening strike action. They were assisted by people such as Mr. Jack Dash, a Communist Party member who styles himself an unofficial leader of port workers in the Royal group of docks.

This man notorious for climbing back on the bandwagon as soon as the TGWU utters left phrases.

Early in August the burning problem for the right-wing Labour leaders was how to avoid a dock strike before the election. Enter once more Mr. Cousins.

The great chief claimed that he would meet the employers for a talk as 'reasonable men'.

This dragged on for several weeks. Then a new offer was presented by the employers and turned down by the TGWU leadership just before the election.

veryone knows that the reason why Mr. Cousins disappeared into the government directly the election results were announced was that he would no longer be 'on the spot to take responsibility for the completely unnecessary delay over the dockers' wages. He ran away, in other words.

ace again the crisis comes to a head and an official strike notice is handed to the employers. Enter Mr. Gunter, extreme right-wing Labour leader, now in charge of the Ministry of Labour.

rstly, he attacks the dockers, then he says they are 'responsible' after the TGWU leaders accepted his court of enquiry proposals. In other words, something is going to this court t ot for the enquiry and we are convinced that it will mean the recom mendation of the proposals for decasualisation under a new guise ive ti be somered oin aster tol induce the dockers to accept a package deal. In other words, port workers face a very serious threat to their future and they should be on guard as never before But what of thi 'Blue' union leadership- -many are saying.

Why have they not taken the lead during all this hanging about and waste of time? The answer is that they are also tail-ending the TGWU and if they are not careful they may lead their members into a trap which could eventually mean the elimination of the stevedores. If de-casualisation comes they will be the first to be put on the spot.

The time has certainly come for a national rank and file committee of portworkers to be set up to oppose the policies of the union leaderships Without the vigilance of such a committee fighting on the job with the rank and file port workers a serious defeat might well be inflicted the dockers in the near future.

ilson: nothing better to offer in a plan worked out by Tory chiefs.

YOUNG

SOCIALIST FINED FOR 'INSULTS' LEICESTER Young Socialist, Christopher Ash, aged 18, was fined f15 and ordered to pay eight guineas by local magistrates recently for 'using insulting words likely to cause a breach of the peace'.

Ash was alleged to have said 'down with the bloody police' during a demonstration held by the Leicester Young Socialists at a pre-election rally attended by Harold Wilson in Leicester on October 9.

Two witnesses told the court that they had not heard Ash shout anything and one alleged that no proper arrest was made. The police constable is reported to have said to Ash: 'Come over here, I want to speak to you.' Dr. Allen framed?

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT R. REGINALD MAUDLING, ex-Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, claims that the Wilson, Brown, Callaghan proposals for a 15 per cent import surcharge was, in fact, prepared by the Civil Service under his instructions.

Moreover, the Tory Party will not divide the House when the Bill authorising these charges is presented in the Commons.

Thus on the major question of economic policy, as The Newsletter pointed out continuously before the election, Labour has nothing better to offer than a plan worked out previously by the outgoing Tory chiefs.

Because it is a capitalist plan it will in the end bring capitalist results. It cannot in any way alleviate the crisis other than by placing the main financial burden for it on the backs of the working class.

Firstly, the plan proves the impossibility of introducing widespread automation under capitalism.

The surcharge will affect practically every item of automated equipment which Britain is forced, due to the stagnation of her own industries, to import from America and Western Europe. This may well immediately apply to over 30 per cent of the engineering imports.

Brake

Secondly, despite the emphasis on increasing exports, the plan may well act as a further brake upon such increases.

What right-wing Labour has done is to introduce a tariff restriction on import of goods such as motor cars and machinery of vanious kinds, which means that as their price goes up, there will be more demands for similar goods made in Britain on the home market.

Manufacturers will therefore be inclined to satisfy this demand rather than embarking on an export drive with a much more unstable remuneration.

Without the assistance of automated machinery, the technical standards of British exports will remain low. The only real profitable export I'ne today on the world's markets is, in fact, automated machinery, and the United States is undoubtedly first in the field in this connection.

Tariffs

Thirdly, this tariff measure may possibly provoke counter tariff measures, particularly in Western Europe. West Germany, which will be amongst the hardest hit of all the countries, has already described the measures as a backward step and 'a political blow' to Europe.

Recent trading figures reveal that the Western European market was responsible for absorbing a high percentage of British exports. Even though these made only a small profit, a tariff trade war waged from Western Europe could have disastrous trade results for Britain.

Fourthly, the cost of living will go up so far as commodities depending on imports are concerned.

This will intensify the conflict between the trade unions and the Labour government.

The Newsletter has always insisted that good socialist planning is impossible without the nationalization of the basic means of all the production. Wilson rejects this socialist solution in favour of operating capitalism.

In a very short while his government will be just as discredited as that of the Tories.

Those Labour lefts who are marching blindly behind him at the moment, should pause and think over the disastrous consequences this can have, so far as the struggle for socialism in Britain is concerned. "TRIBUNE) last week produced a Celebration Issue' to commemorate Labour's narrow election victory. As expected, the paper was full of joy-after all, weren't the 'left wing' getting into the Cabinet? They even published pictures of Harold Wilson, Richard Crossman, Anthony Greenwood, Barbara Castle, Fred Lee and Frank Cousins with a banner headline-_ "Tribune takes over from Eton in the Cabinet!

But already there are clear signs that "Tribune' intends to continue its pre-election retreat and to cover up for Wilson's attack on the working class.

EXCUSE

In an article called *'The Labour Government and Home Affairs', , Michael Foot excused the government in advance for not carrying out socialist measures:

'We do not claim that the Socialist society we wish to build can be achieved with a majority of four.' In fact, Foot does not talk about taking power from the capitalist class but only of 'guiding' and 'influencing' the economic situation and international affairs.

Foot then gives a clear hint at measures against the working class, clearly implying that *Tribune' will support such measures:

'No doubt the economic situation left by the Tories is extremely serious. Several difficult and unpopular decisions will be inescapable.' DISCOVERY In another article Ian Mikardo takes the same line. After describing Labour's election campaign as 'aggressive, 'hard-hitting', 'uncompromising', "forthright' and 'principled'-in fact all the wonderful things which Mr. Mikardo always discovers in Labour's programmes about election time —he then gives his opinion that 'the nation' is certainly "ready to accept some sacrifice, if the Chancellor has to 'take some first-aid measures'.

Surprisingly enough, a careful perusal of "Tribune' just before Cont. p. 4, Col. 6

Dr. Allen:

Leeds university lecturer Theonara victor* Alen - Leonard VICIOT during an alleged 'escape attempt' from Nigeria (reported last week) was, The Newsletter understands, the result of a frame-up.

It is believed that Dr. Allen, a 41-year-old Leeds university lecturer, was attempting to obtain money from sources outside the country to finance his trial.

Last week the bearded doctor was detained on the Nigerian border in the robes of a Hausa tribesman. He was jailed for making a false statement and using a false document.

The Newsletter understands, from reliable sources, that the man who travelled with Dr. Allen to the frontier, and ran off when he was arrested, was a police agent. It is also thought that the driver and 'guard' of the taxi which took him to the border were also policemen.

Houses searched

Along : with three Nigerians, trade unionists Jonas Kiomasekenagh and Sidi Kayam and teacher Olushengun Adebayo, Dr. Allen is awaiting sentence

THE. Ceylon Mercantile Union, whose General Secretary is Mr. Bala Tampoe, well-known leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary Wing), has tabled the following resolution opposing the press control measures which will shortly become law on the island. The resolution is to be debated at the annual conference of the union which will be held on November 1. 6 The CMU is strongly opposed to any and all moves on the part of the Government to enact legislation which will provide for or result in State control of the Press in general or of any particular section of it.

The CMU has consistently fought the reactionary policies advocated by or propounded through the capitalist Press in relation to the working class movement and the role and activities of the trade unions in the country.

The CMU has also constantly exposed falsehoods or distortions of facts relating to the CMU itself or the working class movement in general that have appeared in the capitalist daily newspapers and even in some weeklies of political parties alien to the interests of the working class. At the same time, the CMU has always sought to utilise and has utilised the limited opportunities available for the publication of news or views of the union in the capitalist daily newspapers. The CMU is thus fully conscious of the reactionary role of the capitalist newspapers as well as of the limited opportunities they provide for the creation of properly informed public opinion in relation to working class movement and its socialist aims. However, the CMU has had sufficient experience of State control of the Press, especially under emergency laws, to be fully aware that the evils of the capitalist press will only be intensified under the control of the capitalist State, especially in relation to working class struggles.

It is only the overthrow of the capitalist State by the working class at the head of all other sections of the toilers and the oppressed that will enable working class organisations like the CMU to achieve full freedom to propagate the interests of the working people and to build a new social order serving the interests of the working people under their direct and democratic control. The CMU accordingly rejects as false and reactionary any move under any colour whatsoever which will in any way help to strengthen the power of the capitalist State in Ceylon to control or restrict even the limited freedom of the Press now available. It is for these reasons that the CMU is in implacable opposition to the moves of the Government of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in this respect, which are intended to substitute private capitalist control of Lake House with State capitalist control through a Corporation combined with control of the entire press including the working class press through a so-called Press Council.

The CMU also calls upon the Government to desist from its moves to acquire a monopoly of the import and distribution of newsprint which will provide another and highly insidious weapon to the Government to interfere with the freedom of any section of the Press or individual Press that may print matter which the Government finds objectionable to its particular interests. The CMU at the same time calls upon all sections of the working class movement to struggle for the maximum freedom and development of the working class Press as the only proper means of fighting the power of the capitalist Press directly. on charges of attempting to overthrow the Nigerian government. They will hear their sentences at Ikeja on November 10.

Soon after Dr. Allen's arrest last week, the houses of the other accused were searched.

It is understood that money sent by the International Longshoremen of the United States to the accused to help them finance the trial was taken away.

Documents relating to the Nigerian Labour Party, formed in August, were also confiscated.

Lack of money is the greatest worry of the defendents.

This long and arduous trial is an attack by the government. of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa on the victory of Nigerian workers in the general strike early in June when they won increased wages.

The Newsletter calls on all British trade unionists to suppont the four accused by sending donations to Amnesty International, an organisation which has sent observers to Nigeria to watch the trial. Their address is 1 Mitre Court buildings, Temple, London, E.C.4.

Dockers

CEYLON

UNIONS TO PRESENT 21 DEMANDS AFTER months of obstruction by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party trade union wing who entered the Bandaranaike government and the Communist Party (Moscow wing) trade unions, eight of the main unions in Ceylon have now decided to present the 21 demands immediately.

The motion for the presentation was proposed by Mr. N. Sanmugathasan of the Ceylon Trade Union Federation. It was seconded by Mr. Bala Tampoe of the Ceylon Mercantile Union.

The resolution read as follows:

"That the Joint Committee of Trade Unions should present the 21 demands to the Government and the private sector employers immediately and afterwards meet the Minister of Finance to discuss the demands.

The eight trade union centres representing nearly two million workers of the Government sector, the mercantile and the private sector, the plantation workers and the teachers, will meet again on Thursday, October 29, to draft the letter presenting the demands to the Government and the private sector employers.' Drafting Committee A six member sub-committee to draft the Memorandum on the 21 demands to be presented was elected. The members are: Bala Tampoe, Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile Union, A. Azeez, President of the Democratic Workers Congress, Asoka Herath, Secretary of the General Clerical Service Union, N. Shanmugathasan and Prins Rajasooriya, Joint Secretaries of the JCTUO and a representative of the PSWTUF.

Bala Tampoe, Prins Rajasooniya and Asoka Herath are well-known members of the LSSP (Revolutionary Wing), N. Shanmugathasan is the leader of the pro-Chinese wing of the Communist Party. Robert MORE than 500 young workers are expected to attend the national conference of apprentices in Manchester this Saturday, where they will plan a campaign to win their demands.

The initiative in calling the conference — the first of its kind - was taken by the Manchester Direct Action Committee under the chairmanship of Mike Hughes.

The Action Committee put out its call to workers throughout the country to send delegates and observers to the conference in the Milton Hall, 244 Deansgate, Manchester (at S. p.m.), and the response so far has been immense.

In their conference leaflets the Manchester apprentices again make their demands, passed at this year's Youth Conference of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in Bournemouth:

60 per cent of skilled rate at 15 years of age.

90 per cent of the skilled rate at 20 years of age.

Four weeks' annual paid holiday.

Full negotiating rights for apprentices.

A 35-hour working week.

REJECTED

These demands, says the committee's national conference leaflet, have been presented to the employers for several years and rejected.

By calling a conference of apprentices from all over Britain, it is hoped to discuss how best to organise to win the demands.

The Newsletter fully supports the action of the apprenfices and their demands. At a time when their union leaders are still calling for unity behind Wilson and his economic programme to help in bosses, these young mut.

tail workers are uniting to form a national organisation with which to fight the bosses.

Their demands also answer the needs of older workers who should give full support to the apprentices from union branches and factory floors.

The strength and solidarity of the Manchester apprentices was illustrated a few weeks ago when 2,000 young workers staged a one-day token stoppage.

Such militancy still prevails. As the leaflet says, already many apprentices are discussing strike action.

CLEAR

The leaflet makes it quite clear that the Manchester Apprențices Direct Action Committee does not support the strike call by the National Apprentices Wages and Conditions Committee for early November.

This was called by several centrist and Stalinist elements who were expelled from the Manchester Direct Action Committee-two were expelled after it was reported that they had gone to Sheffield and disrupted a meeting called to form an apprentices committee.

'We believe,' says the Action Committee leaflet, 'that such a decision (for strike action) can only be taken by a representative meeting of apprentices from all the major factories and industrial areas throughout the British Isles.'

HAVING successfully passed the buck of Southern Rhodesia, the Tories now sit back and listen to words like 'treason' and "blackmail' bandied between the African state's prime minister Ian Smith and Harold Wilson.

Long before the election, The Newsletter said that the Tories were hanging out to avoid dealing with the crisis.

Smith, in making a unilateral declaration of independence will reflect the feelings of the 'white supremacists' — farmers, landowners — whose profits depend on their present position.

The British government big business grant independence probably when all sections had the vote and could be ruled by bourgeois nationalist leaders — at present imprisoned by Smith.

But between these two, the African workers live in pove:ty and will be served by neither.

Workers in Britain and Southern Rhodesia must not be fobbed off by Wilson's militant-sounding tough line' of 'economic consequences' if Smith declared independence The first step towards serving the Rhodesian working class and ridding the country of the "supremacists' is the nationalization of imperialist interests.

Page RMY chiefs are now demanding of the Labour government that the strength of the army should be increased from the present target of 180,000 to about October 964

the army is the minimum, if it is to discharge effectively the duties that are likely to be required of it in the foreseeable future.

The Council of the Army League is an influential organisation consisting almost entirely of high-ranking officers. Their pamphlet made plain the soldiers were to be the policemen of British imperialism, particularly in the Middle East and South-east Asia. the call-up? was to write to the Secretary-General of the Central Treaty Organisation and of the SouthEast Asia Treaty Organisation to assure them that 'Britain' was 'deeply conscious' of its commitments to these imperialist alliances against the Soviet Union and China.

He stated that the co-operation of the nations of the 'free world' for their 'defence against the Communist threat was essential for the preservation of their freedom and of world peace'.

Commitments However, imperialist needs have to be served with a declining economy. To fulfil the needs of the army means increasing expenditure in an economy rapidly going bankrupt One thing is certain. Wilson and Company have not the least intention of breaking with the imperialist commitments of the previous government.

There may be a special Minister, like Mr. Jones, who is to deal with disarmament, but that does not mean the government is thinking of disarming the bases and withdrawing the fonces from the struggle against peoples' demanding freedom.

On the contrary, they will strive hard to fulfil the demands of the army and strengthen it as an interna'For the preservation of world peace' -Gordon Walker tional imperialist police force.

There is no doubt, they are now seriously considering conscription. If imperialist interests demand more and more at the cost of straining resources, then it is the working class who will have to pay for it.

In the article by the Defence Healey: favours strong army Correspondent of 'The Times' is this instructive paragraph:

"The emphasis in the Labour Panty's election campaign and in their defence thinking generBill Hunter looks at an Army League pamphlet and the Labour Party attitude to the forçes well, that what is good for the Labour government is likely to be good for the army'!

An even more instructive piece of information — not generally known to the publicwas divulged by Mr. Woodrow Wyatt this week in the 'Birmingham Planet', of which he is managing director.

Architect

Welcoming Mr. Gwynne Jones as one of the many useful people invited into the Labour government from 'outside the Labour Panty', Wyatt reminds his readers that Jones was one of the architects of the Liberal Party's defence policy before the last General Election in 1959.

The fact that the Liberal Party accepted the idea of Brital outering a multi-lateral force was due mainly, said Wyatt, to Jones' 'creative thinking.

This 'creative thinker' once an advocate of a powerful Atlantic nuclear force now becomes Minister of Disarmament in Wilson's government!

KEMP EXAMINES GROWTH IN WORLD T ESPECIALLY THE GRO GAP BRITAIN RECENT RADE AND WING

It talked about 'peace-keeping forces, capable of operating at very short notice in almost any region of the world in anti-guerrilla operations or in a policing role'.

In other words —making Borneo, Aden, Malaysia and other areas safe for oil, rubber, tin and other profit-making companies.

The Army League concluded that there was no alternative but some form of selective conscription.

The Labour government will turn a sympathetic ear to the army chiefs. On Wednesday of last week, the Defence Correspondent of "The Times' wrote ... 'Mr.

Healey, the Secretary of State for Defence, is known to be in favour of the principle of & strong army and of providing equipment for the Cold War and other special operational tasks of the Armed Forces ...

Concern

This Defence Correspondent is Mr. Alun Gwynne Jones, formerly at the War Office, now appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs by Harold Wilson. He is obviously very well versed both in the opinions of the army and those of the Labour leaders.

Both the army and the Labour leaders share a common concern for Britain's imperialist interests. One of the first acts of Mr. Gordon Walker when he became Foreign Secretary Labour is in favour of 'providing equipment for the Cold War and other special operational tasks of the Armed Forces, says Alun Gwynne Jones, "The Times' Defence Correspondent, formerly at the War Office and now Wilson's choice for Minister for Disarmament!

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THE N EWSLETTER Three

Rally, on the importance of strong conventional forces has encouraged the services to look for great things from Mr. Healey and his team. They are expected to reinforce the belief, held since the days of Mr. ShinWyatt-Donnelly LABOUR MP for Bosworth, Leicestershire, Woodrow Wyatt, and Desmond Donnelly, Labour MP for Pembroke, both of them spokesmen for the extreme right wing of the Labour Party, have lost no time in publicising their proposals for a Lib-Lab pact.

Wilson faces no challenge to his policies from the Parliamentary fakers around "Tribune'. They have no intention of fighting for the implementation of a socialist programme.

However, the extreme right of the Parliamentary Party, who feel themselves considerably strengthened by the smallness of Wilson's majority, are already organising a frontal assault on Clause 4 of the Labour Party's constitution.

'ANACHRONISM'

Wyatt refers to Clause 4 as an 'anachronism' and states that there were, 'many compromises possible to see that the steel industry conformed to a national plan without complete nationalization'. He attempts to water down even the feeble proposals for nationalization contained in the Labour Party's Election Manifesto.

Donnelly in an article in this week's 'Spectator' claims that prepare attack on Clause 4 By A NEWSLETTER CORRESPONDENT there is, 'an almost permanent majority for a non-doctrinaire party of the left, if it can be forged. In that party there would be room-and a real home- for both Mr. Jo Grimond and the overwhelming majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party'.

The Newsletter would agree , that the great number of Labour MPs could co-exist very peacefully with Mr.

Grimond, but after all that is not very surprising-they both advocate a policy of making the working class pay for the failures of Toryism.

VOTES DOWN

Closer examination of the Election results gives a clue to the enthusiasm with which Wyatt and Donnelly propose a Lib-Lab pact. In both of their constituencies Liberal candidates stood at this Election but did not stand in 1959. In Bosworth, Wyatt's constituency, the Liberal polled 10,652 votes and in Pembroke, , Donnelly's constituency, the Liberal polled 9,961. In the case of Bosworth, the Labour vote has fallen continuously at every General Election since 1945.

The honourable gentlemen obviously fear for their Parliamentary careers.

However, the confidence with which they propose a Lib-Lab pact and the formation of a new party, reflects the considerable support for their ideas which lies inside the Parliamentary Labour Party and on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

In one Sunday paper Wyatt stated that his proposals have 'attracted a lot of support from very respectable Labour MPs and Ministers as well. I am at the disadvantage of not being able to name them, but I can assure you that it is not just Desmond Donnelly and me. Nor are we whistling in the dark' MINERS CONDEMN Woodrow Wyatt, owner of several newspapers and director of many companies, will not, however, have everything his own way.

Already the Leicestershire miners have condemned his proposals and the Bosworth constituency lies in the centre of the Leicestershire coalfield.

Many Newsletter readers at Coalville in the Bosworth constituency have stated quite clearly what they think of Wyatt and his class-collaboration.

The proposals which Wyatt and Donnelly make today could very well become the official policy of the Parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow.

There is no fundamental disagreement between Wyatt and Wilson, neither of them have any intention of carrying through socialist policies. There is only one alternative to their programme of class collaboration and betrayal, that is the building of the Socialist Labour League.

The explicit repudiation by the, Labour Party of any such intention is what ties it to the limits imposed by the continued existence of capitalism.

When the situation deteriorates even further after the exhaustion of Wilson's "temporary measures' announced on Monday, devaluation may be resorted to.

Discipline

This would be a means of boosting British exports by lowering their prices to foreigners who would now get more pounds for their dollars, marks or francs. It would be equivalent to a cut in real wages for the working class.

In time, however, capitalists would also face the consequences of the increased prices they would have to pay for imports. It would certainly have to be accompanied by other far-reaching measures to control and discipline the working class.

Only a Labour government can carry out such an operation with the prospect of success. Even so, it will bé a gamble, especially a gamble on continued pros perity in the USA and Europe.

The City of London probably Will prefer to avoid devaluation, or have as little of it as possible. That means using much more direct measures to cut costs in the short run, to restore confidence in the pound by wage freeze policies and resorting to other measures to cut imports.

These will involve the creation of a pool of unemployed, amongst otber things, which a Tory government would be best able to do.

On the other hand, if the City reacts against the Labour victory by methods of blackmail it will not be because it is afraid that Wilson will carry out socialist policies but because the Labour way to shore up British capitalism is not to its liking.

200,000.

A recent pamphlet of the Army League- 'The Army Britain Needs'-has already declared that 195,000 men in THE background to the critical balance of payments position now facing British capitalism is not a world economic slump but a prolonged period of. growth in the world market.

The continued growth in world trade, even if at a slower rate in the last few years than in the 1950s, has concealed the basic problems behind a screen of easy sales and lush profits.

British exports have risen and in some areas they have done quite well - precisely those which have enjoyed a rapid rate of growth.

The additional British goods sold in these areas have been of the kind which will be dispensed with first if economic stagnation or decline sets in. This is probably true most of all of sales to the European Common Market which will increasingly be affected, in any case, by rising tariffs.

Competition

The technological lag of key sections of British industry, the failure of the capitalists to improve their methods of organisation and production are now being exposed more sharply than ever before. So far it is the increasingly sharp edge of foreign competition which is doing that.

Rapid investment. and modernisation in the other advanced industrial • countries have enabled them to increase their exports, in the past boom years, at a faster rate than British industry and in the most modern lines where markets are expanding fastest.

crisis In 1961, therefore, British exports rose by 2 per cent, those of France by 5 per cent, of West Germany 6 per cent, of Italy 20 per cent, to mention only the European trading competitors. In 1962 British exports rose again by 2 per cent, those of West Germany by 5 per sent and Italy by 12 per cent. In these years, as since, prices have been rising, so in real terms trade has risen by less than this.

'Export or die"

Proceeds from export sales are one of the main credit items in the balance of payments. If British industry is to modernise and expand at the mythical 4 per cent per annum, if the City of London is to retain its position in the finance of international trade and investment it virtually becomes a case of 'export or die.

As was shown recently in The Newsletter, over and above the import needs corresponding to income levels and the current level of business activity, British industry has to pay for ad vanced equipment to re-equip those sectors in which it is falling behind.

In any case, over the years, imports into Britain have increased at a similar or faster rate than the growth of exports. In recent months this visible trade gap-the difference between the proceeds from exports and the payments made for imports — has widened. The following figures show the trend:

UK Exports (and re-exports)

and imports in fmn.

Monthly averages

Exports (and re-exports) Imports 1960 378 1961 366 1962 374 1963 402 1964 (1st quarter) 453 1964 (2nd quarter) 461 The growth in imports in 1964 has been affected by stockpiling and fear of later price increases. Every boom has witnessed a similar phenomenon. The trend is unmistakeable.

Limited decision

In the period after the Election, the problem of balancing accounts with the rest of the world becomes a matter for decision.

Such a decision is limited, however, for all defenders of British capitalism, including the Labour leadership, by the needs of that citadel of finance capitalism, the City of London. The outgoings resulting from its financial activities place a continuous burden on the balance of payments.

To strike a blow here, however, would be impossible on reformist lines. It requires the determination to take over the whole apparatus of finance capital and monopoly capital and reorganise it on the basis of a planned and nationalized economy.

fight 'Crocodile tears' conceal deeper interest the Communist Parties, both in Eastern Europe and in the rest of the world, have expressed their 'concern' at Khrushchev's removal and their dissatisfaction with the way in which it was done.

The Communist Parties of Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and West Berlin are all sending delegations to Moscow to enquire more closely into the happenings of the last two weeks or SO.

The Communist Parties of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic have issued statements. praising Khrushchev's 'positive contributions' in the fields of peaceful co-existence and the liquidation of the "cult of the individual.

CPGB 'concern'

Even that most servile and insignificant organisation, the Communist Party of Great Britain, has (surely for the first time since J. R. Campbel!'s replacement as panty leader for disagreeing with the "Third Period' in 1929) openly expressed its "widespread and deep' concern.

In an article in the 'Daily Worker' for October 24, John Gollan, the party's General Secretary, writes of 'Comrade Khrushchev's great services to the Communist cause'.

After conceding that the criticisms of Khrushchey 'may be true'. ', however, Gollan goes on to write: 'Would it not be better for the prestige and authority of the Soviet Union if the major facts were made public and clear?' Likewise, Gollan's tame stooge, the renegade Trotskyist ex-member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Monty Johnstone is worried lest the fact that Khrushchev's 'name has suddenly disappeared, no references made to a single positive contribution he has made, but it is implied that he was guilty of all sorts of errors and inadequacies' should play 'into the hands of enemies of the Soviet Union' It would be wrong to think that these protests are motivated by any real support for Khrushcher.

Opposed in 1956 Many of those leaders who are now so concerned, were bitterly opposed to Khrushchev's exposure of Stalin in 1956.

These Stalinist leaders are not really put out by the 'lack of democracy' in the methods of Khrushchev's removal.

These same leaders witnessed the Moscow trials of the 1930s, the liquidation of the opp.sitionists in the Soviet Union, the smashing of the East Berlin rising, the Hungarian revolution and many other similar incidents without a murmur about 'democracy.

Neither did such 'oppositionists' as the renegade Monty Johnstone raise their voices in protest against the lack of democracy in the expulsion of the members of the Young Communist League earlier this year.

Khrushchev at least faced criticisms of his policies in the Central Committee. The YCLers were expelled without discussion, many of them without charges.

In fact, the 'support' for Khrushchev is not support at all, but opposition for various economic reasons to the Soviet bureaucracy from the bureauPeter Arnold cracies of Eastern Europe and for right-wing political reasons from the Communist Parties of the capitalist world.

The reaction from Eastern Europe is the product of the economic relations between the Soviet Union and this area.

Ever since the end of the Second World War, when the Red Army occupied Eastern Europe destroying capitalist exploitation there, the economic conflict between Eastern Eurupe and the Soviet Union has existed.

For, to the Soviet bureaucracy, the aim was not so much to 'liberate' these areas from capitalism, as to use them as buffer states between the Soviet Union and the West and to use their resources for the construction of 'socialism in a single country'.

Thus, the Red Army did not immediately destroy all traces of capitalism. In Rumania a monarchy remained in existence for two years, with the Red Army in occupation. In Czechoslovakia, bourgeois parliamentary democracy also was allowed to continue.

Local working-class movements were either allowed to be smashed as when the Red Army waited until the Nazis had completely destroyed the Warsaw uprising before advancing, or smashed by the Red Army itself, as in East Germany.

USSR benefitted

A form of economic exploitation of the area, through joint enterprises which heavily favoured the Soviet partners, was then put into operation. In the case of East Germany, whole factories were removed and even railway lines uprooted as the bureaucracy made the German workers pay for the crimes of fascism.

Trade between the Soviet Union and the Easters European countries always favoured the Soviet Union and the economic plans for the area were designed to fit in with Soviet needs rather than with those of the local populations.

Moves to counter this, like the attempt to form a Balkan Federation between Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, with possibly Rumania and Hungary, were dealt with strongly.

Yugoslavia, in fact, broke with the Soviet Union over such economic problems, and the break was followed by mock trials throughout Eastern Europe. Men like Rajk, Slansky, Xoxe and, it is believed, Dimitrov himself, were murdered because of their attempts to solve the economic problems of the area.

Throughout Stalin's lifetime, these forces could be contained by the use of the army and the secret police. Since his death, opposition to the Soviet bursaucracy has grown and Khrushchey was unable to prevent the Rumanian bureaucracy from drawing up its own economic plans, in opposition to his.

No solution This week, the Czechoslovaks have announced their 'economic reforms', and the widespread "support for Khrushchev' and the other Eastern Europe bureaucracies show that more such moves are to follow.

In fact these moves will no more solve the problems of the Eastern European bureaucracies than the removal of Khrushchey will solve those of the Soviet bureaucracy.

Eastern Europe, like many parts of the Soviet Union, is an economically backward area. The same problems of the domination of the world market by imperialism, face Eastern Europe as face the Soviet Union. As the example of Yugoslavia shows, without revolution in the West, 'economic independence' can only lead to greater domination by world imperialism.

The "support for Khrushchev' in the Western Communist Parties, reflects the conflict between the interests of the local bureaucracies who want to tie themselves closer to the local bourgeoisie and the interests of the Soviet bureaucracy, whose interests often clash with those of the bourgeoisies of Italy, France, and so on.

Weakening

These conflicts will grow as the crisis in imperialism deepens with the bureaucracies clinging desperately to the Fabian theory of the peaceful road to socialism.

For this process must sharpen up the conflict between the bourgeoisie of the West, anxious to exploit the rich investment possibilities in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet bureaucracy.

It will also aggravate the situation in Eastern Europe as it is always the weaker and more backward firms and countries that suffer in capitalist crises.

These moves in the Stalinist movement, by weakening the bureaucracy are strengthening the working class in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and. can lead to a serious renewal of revolutionary activity there.

They are matched by similar developments in the West, where the same imperialist crisis has led 1o the struggle between the British working class youth and the reformist and Stalinist bureaucracies.

In both places, the new governments thrown up in the last few weeks can only be seen as temporary structures, and will change as they fail to produce the solutions demanded by the crisis.

A reply to the world Trotskyist movement left an aftermath of great confusion in many of its sections. To no small degree, people such as Cannon and Hansen have to bear considerable responsibility for these difficulties. Their attitude towards Pablo was conditioned by their struggle against his agents inside the Socialist Workers Party and not out of consideration for the development of the international movement.

The leadership of the Socialist Workers Party ever since Trotsky's death in 1940 has always started off by considering the world movement from the standpoint of its experience in the U.S.

When such a reactionary nationalist approach ran into difficulties and produced its own problems, they invariably tried to evade a serious clarification by a series of organisational manoeuvres. Thus today, they refuse to enter into a serious political discussion with the AS the election machine of • the two capitalist parties wings into top gear, the Jnited States' Presidential ampaign reveals the enornous social tensions within he most prosperous country n the world.

While the spread of autonation pushes production to ecord levels, the demand for abour remains almost stationry. Although the employnent figures show a slight ise, long-term unemployment nd part-time working are videspread.

The long, drawn-out battle beween the Auto Workers and ieneral Motors shows that the rospect is a stormy one for the imerican labour movement. But it is the Negro struggle of ourse, which most clearly ignals the deep crisis beneath le surface of prosperity. lardest hit by the growth of utomation, the younger geneation of Negro workers pushes Tar ir beyond the middle class 'aders of the Negro rights rganisations.

NEGRO STRUGGLE

Influenced by the colonial beration movements. the legro working class will not be itisfied by the token moves ›wards integration' made by ennedy and Johnson to pacify le Negro middle class.

The same crisis that brings erward the Negro struggle ffects the "poor whites' and the swer middle class.

Goldwater's campaign emagogy is aimed at the fears nd frustrations ef large secons of the lower middle class. acialism, red - baiting and ationalist hysteria are his CLIFTC Socialist | Presidential Candidate DeBE RRY Workers Part EDWARD SHAW list Workers Party Vice-Presidential Candidate against lesser-evil politics.

They deserve the support of all American socialists and trade

Socialist Labour League because they know full well that this would reveal their real weekness.

In 1953 they ran away from a real political discussion with Pablo because they were politically undecided as to where they stood internationally. All they were concerned about was clearing out his agents in the United States and winning whatever international allies they could in the course of this.

Almost immediately after the struggle was over they lost interest in the international fight and started squabbling amongst themselves.

Discussion requested

The British section of the Fourth International, which was expelled by Pablo, requested an international discussion to be reopened during 1954, but this was refused by the Socialist Workers Party, even after Pablo agreed to the discussion.

All the Socialist Workers Party leaders were clear on at the time was should they or should they not expel Cochrane and Clark from the Socialist Workers Party. Leading members such as Joseph Hansen wrote article after article denouncing Pablo as • 'a dictator' but failed miserably when it came to analysing the implications of Pablo's theories in relation to the task of building the Fourth International.

All those groups who today claim to be Trotskyist in effect suffer from a lack of serious international discussion. They find it impossible to train new cadres or to seriously recruit fresh members since their leaderships are in many cases undecided and simply follow blindly along the • revisionist road in their confusion.

A serious international discussion, today, is a principled question, not a tactical one. The Trotskyist movement must make a balance sheet of its differences and experiences, especially since Trotsky's death. This, of course, could not take place immediately, and it certainly would not be justified if it were to descend into an abstract discourse on who was right and who was wrong.

An international discussion must be organised in conjunction with the maximum joint practical activity between all groups willing to participate in (the discussion. Here is the essence of the proposals submitted by the International Committee of the Fourth International after its September 1963 international conference.

International discussion, far from being an issue for avoiding unification, is, in fact, the only real foundation stone for a serious unification. It is precisely such a discussion that Peng Shu-tse runs away from. He seizes upon any old lie to beat over the head of the Socialist Labour League, whilst failing completely to understand that the real progress made by the League precisely is on the principle of serious discussion.

Every single article and contribution to the international discussion, no matter from what source it has originated, has been reproduced for members of the Socialist Labour League. Leading Pabloites have addressed our membership on more than one occasion. Our rejection of revisionism in no way presupposes avoidance of discussion around the problems which they pose. We believe that discussion on these problems is absolutely essential, for the youth in particular, who are now coming to Trotskyism.

Castro and Messali Hadj This is one of the main reasons why we have insisted that a complete acceptance of everything that Castro does is essentially anti-Marxist.

On the other hand, we fully support the Cuban revolution in its struggle against United States imperialism. But this does not in any way mean that we accept Castro's statements or his policies where we consider them not to be in accordance with Marxist theory.

Our conditional support for the leaders of the Cuban revolution is traditional so far as the international Trotskyist movement is concerned. In a war with imperialism we would fully support the Soviet Union, but this would not in any way imply that we accept the politics of the Soviet bureaucracy.

When we question the nature of the Cuban state, this, we believe, is our right. The Pabloites have no answer to our criticisms, so they proceed to denounce us as agents of Wall Street imperialism.

Likewise, in relation to Algeria, the Algerian National Movement of Messali Hadj the same as the National Liberation Front of Ben Bella was a bourgeois nationalist organisation.

The Socialist Labour League at no time gave unqualified support to either of these organisations. Again our suppont was conditional. So far as they fought imperialism we supported them. When the National Liberation Front leaders massacred dozens of trade unionists in France, who were members of the Algerian National Movement, we condemned such terrorism and history has proved us right.

When Messali Hadj later accepted the terms of de Gaulle, just as Ben Bella eventually did, then it was because many of these leaders who were butchered by the National Liberation Front (who enjoyed the support of the Pabloites) had previously exercised a very powerful, restraining left-wing influence on Messali Hadj. After their murder, the right wing bourgeois nationalists began to dominate the Algerian National Movement. Many of them have now joined the National Liberation Front.

In conclusion we repeat once more, that if the organisations afliliated to the Pabloite centre want to prepare for reunification, then they must seriously consider our proposals for joint work and an international discussion of at least 12 months' duration before an international conference is called where the political positions can be decided.

İndustrial Page 31, 1964

means of drawing the support of small businessmen, and professional workers who are menaced by the ever-growing power of the monopolies.

This attack on corruption in the Democratic administration is in tune with this appeal.

It received an unexpected boost when Lyndon Johnson's chief assistant, Walter Jenkins, was arrested on a charge of indecent behaviour.

EXPLOIT SCANDAL

The Republicans were not slow to exploit the incident and reveal that a previous arrest of Jenkins in 1959 had been hushed up. They also recalled his implication in the Bobby Baker scandal.

Liberals throughout the world, as well as in America, are playing their usual game of picking the 'lesser evil'. Pointing to the danger of Goldwaterism, they find themselves backing, in Johnson, the open representative of the biggest of big business. Presidential candidates of the Big Business parties, Barry Goldwater (right) Republican, and Lyndon Johnson (left. Here seen with Bobby Baker) the tall, Texan Democrat blissfully ignoring the 'scandals Johnson himself is even richer than Kennedy was, and is reputed to own over 40 million dollars. This Texan politician was quite prepared only a few months ago to send U.S. warships into the Gulf of Tonkin and order the bombing of North Vietnam.

In the Democratic Party campaign, he tries to give a general impression of "progressiveness", but without offending his reactionary backers, especially the Southern Dixiecrats.

For example, while speaking in favour of a government health service, he carefully manoeuvred to avoid the issue coming to a vote in Congress.

ONLY FORCE The only force in the election campaign which has refused to line up with either of the big business parties is the Socialist Workers Party.

Their candidates for president and vice - president, Clifton DeBerry and Edward Shaw respectively, have taken a stand exploding about him. unionists.

Unfortunately, the campaign of the Socialist Workers Party has taken the form of a propaganda protest, far from the Marxist policies on which the Party was built.

The crisis of American society can only be resolved by the independent action of the labour movement, linking the trade unions with the Negro struggle.

Such action requires a revolutionary Marxist leadership, which can show the class roets of racial conflict in action and not just in words.

SWP TRAILS

While paying lip service to the demand for the formation of a Labour Party, the Socialist Workers Party is chiefly concerned with trailing behind petty-boureois nationalist movements like the Black Muslims and the Freedom Now Party.

Malcolm X, whose speeches have often been printed with approval by the Socialist Workers Party's paper, "The Militant', is reported to be in favour of Goldwater.

The Freedom Now campaign does raise some of the class issues in the Negro fight. But it seeks a solution in action by the Negroes on their own, instead of building a movement of all sections of the workers.

The coming crisis of American capital will produce big opportunities for the rebirth of the revolutionary socialist movement. The Socialist Workers Party leaders do not prepare 1o take advantage of these opportunities.

International

tenants were evicted from corporation houses in Glasgow during the three months ending August. In the same period last year 66 evictions took place.

The total number of actions brought by the corporation for arrears of rent was 2,395 and 1,976 decrees were granted; last year there were 1,570 actions and 1,279 decrees.

No serious investigation has been made as to why more tenants get evicted. The city estate agent has made a few suggestions as to the probable reasons, one of them being greater efficiency by the corporation in pursuing rent arrears.

Real struggle

Tenants in the Gorbals who are waiting to be re-housed in the new 19-storey flats, now nearing completion, feel that they will have a real struggle to meet the higher rents they will have to pay.

These flats were commenced in May 1961 and the first 120 are expected to be ready for occupation by December; the remaining 280 will not be completed until some time in the new year. Having taken over 37 years to build, the cost of the flats has naturally increased:

Originally each flat was estimated to cost £3,600 but the building firm of Cubitts claim that they have actually cost £4,600 and that they have lost £400,000 on the contract. They state that any further project of this kind would cost £5,000 per house.

Heighten crisis

The measures proposed by Harold Wilson to overcome the economic crisis will only heighten the crisis for those families now struggling to make ends meet.

This does not mean, however, that Labour should be rejected —but that the working class, through tenants associations, trade unions and Labour Parties must fight for a socialist alternative to the right-wing policies of the Labour leadership.

On the housing question this means fighting for the nationalization of the land to prevent ruthless speculators charging exorbitant prices; nationalization of the building industry to prevent building monopolies and private contractors making big profits from house building; nationalization of the finance houses so that the government can grant interest free loans to local authorities; it means fixing rents at a level which will enable the lowest paid workers to live in a decent, modern home without the fear of the local authority moving them out into the street.

From Our Midlands Correspondent employers met to discuss a "solution' to the unofficial strike of tanker drivers at the Shell Mex and BP Ltd. at the Cakemore and Oldbury depots, Worcestershire, this week.

Although the 170 men-out on strike over alleged lack of communications and to demand the removal of a managervoted to go back to work at the week-end, they decided to continue the stoppage at the beginning of this week.

This decision was taken after the management, following the return to work decision, made a reques to bring in contractors' vehicles over the week-end, to clear the work which had accumulated during the strike.

Claiming that the decision was taken in the interests of the customers', , the management said it was 'greatly shocked to learn that the misunderstanding which occurred during the weekend concerning the use of contractors had resulted in a continuation of the strike.

This stnike has, in fact, caused considerable anxiety to some of the employers in the Midlands. A glass-making firm had to close down its works and Shell Mex and BP Ltd. were no doubt worried as to the loss of profits which might result from the stoppage.

No objection But what is really important in this situation is the position taken up by the local union leadership. The management stated that a union spokesman from the branch committee had said that there would be no objection to the introduction of contractors' vehicles.

Such an action could hardly be called acting in the interests of the rank and file, since giving the go-ahead for the use of contractors' vehicles is really allowing the use of black-leg la bour.

Immediately after the men Rogistered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), I.O. 180 Clapham High Street, Loadon, S.W.4 Published by The Newsletter. 1Rar Clapham Hizh Street, Loadon. S.W.A union and the objected, the management cancelled their plan.

Now it will be interesting to see whether the union leadership are going to repeat their willingness to co-operate with the management and betray the strikers' interests, during the present talks.

So far the men have remained solid in their determination and they have refused to transport deliveries, which amount to half a million gallons of fuel and gas oil per day. Only the hospital supplies and other such priorities are being carried out.

20,000 Dublin building workers in support of a 40hour week, has ended and the terms of the settlement clearly show the extent to which they have been betrayed by their leaders.

Although the settlement provides for a 414-hour week this winter and a 40-hour week for the winter of 1965-66, during the sumer there will be no reduction in the working hours (throughout the winter workers do not usually work a full week any way because of the bad weather conditions).

ACCEPT TERMS

Thirteen of the 17 unions involved accepted the terms. However, in most of these 13 unions, the ballot of the members on the question of continuing the strike produced Dublin only small majorities in favour of accepting the employers' terms.

The fact that, after two months of determined struggle, some unions should accept the employers' terms, can be explained in two ways.

RED HERRING

Firstly, the introduction of red herrings, such as offers of pension and sick pay schemes, into the negotiations diverted attention from the main demand for a countrywide, year-round 40-hour week.

Secondly, the widespread demoralisation caused not only by the failure of the union leaders to seek positive support from other sections of the working class, but also their cynical attitude towards the rank and file. Correspondent The Newsletter was told that during a meeting of the Dublin membership to discuss the terms offered by the employers, the leaders recommended acceptance but the rank and file voted, by a large majority, to reject them.

It was then declared that provincial members (who were not involved in the strike) should have the right to vote on the issue, and since these members were not at the meeting, paid union officials should vote on their behalf.

RIOT SQUAD

• The vote was reversed and during the stormy scene that followed this decision, Dublin's newly-formed riot squad was called in.

It is obvious that the employers and the government of Southern Ireland will take advantage of the shabby actions of the union leadership betraying their members.

As The Newsletter has stated before, the government of Southern Ireland represents capitalists both at home and abroad, and it seeks to stabilise its position by enticing foreign capital into the country.

MENACING

To do this it must have a cheap and docile labour force. It is significant that two days before the end of the stoppage, the Federation of Irish Industries issued a menacing statement saying that returns to workers in higher wages and conditions must be earned by a corresponding increase in productivity.

In other words the Irish workers must submit to intensified exploitation.

The future struggles facing Irish workers can only be won if a new union leadership is built and the false leaders isolated and defeated.

Wedge to split solidarity DocK employers, afraid that their schemes ports may never see the light of day becaus of the dock workers, have found a method of with strings, by the back door.

The port employers have announced a scheme which will give permanent employment to 1,500 London tally clerks, coming into force in January, giving a minimum of £14 12s. Sd. compared with their present minimum of £7 16s. 9d.

All this may seem very generous of the dock employers but attached to the scheme is the condition that the tally clerks accept the faot that they will be moved from employer 1o employer when their labour is required.

More streamlined production 'The scheme, says the national press, 'should result in greater and more streamlined production.' This ties in perfectly with the plans of the port employers who, having got the Transport and General Workers' Union tally clerks to accept this decasualisation proposal, will no doubt use it as a wedge to get the dockers' leaders to accept the terms of the 'new deal'.

A mass meeting of the tally clerks accepted the proposals and the scheme is 'fully backed by the leadership of the Transport and General Workers' Union. The National Association of Stevedores and Dockers is circulating the plan to its branches for consideration.

David Lloyd, deputy chairman of the London port employers, showed very clearly where he and the other bosses stand on this question of the introduction of streamlined work on the docks.

He stated that there must the scheme of decasualisation if there was to be sanity on the the scheme of decasualisation docks.

The scheme was, he added, a pointer and model for future. "To provide effective decasualisation is really answer to all the dock industry's problems.' According to 'The Guardian' of Tuesday, October 27 he is reported to have said that he hoped this would be a move towards the decasualisation of dockers and stevedores too In bloyd's last remark lie the intentions of the port employers in a nutshell. By starting with London, where the Transport and General Workers' Union rank and file Communist Party leadership is very weak, they hope to split the solidarity of the dockers and so destroy their strength during the forthcoming national strike. How much part the Labour leadership has played in this is not reported but such doubt, receive the Minister of Labour, Mr. support. Tremendous militancy of dockers The port bosses along with the Labour government want to avoid a national dock strike and in the face of the tremendous militancy of the dockers they try to play one section of the union off against another.

Faced with these attacks from the port employers, the dockers need to stand firm in their aim to get a decent wage every week. They should demand that docks are fully nationalized, that there are no redundancies and that their trade union rights do not suffer.

For too long the dockers have suffered the kind of conditions which face them in the ports. Now, when there is a possibility of united action between TGWU and NASD dockers, the employers begin to show their fear of this militant force.

Rank and file dockers must not allow themselves to be pushed into accepting proposals which will only benefit theibosses.

ANN GRAY economic compulsion towards there was to be sanity on the Pointer and model in the government a move would, no Ray Gunter's, full for modernisation of the the intense solidarity ntr ducing decasualisation gets support in Surrey Docks THE NEWSLETTER was welcomed as the only paper which is giving an honest report of the dockers' struggle, when it was being sold in the Surrey Docks area last Saturday.

Robert Helm, a Deptford stevedore, member of the 'Blue' union, said:

'Dockers are sick and tired of the lies being told in the national press.' He pointed out that bad organisation in the ports led to a situation where dockers were left hanging around waiting for barges. He himself had only worked four hours in the last five days.

Confirmed

Other dockers confirmed that this was happening everywhere, and they were 'fed up to the teeth' with it. He welcomed The Newsletter's nationalization policy.

Brother Helm said that far from being opposed to the introduction of modern methods, dockers criticised the Port of London Authority

Nuclear

power workers end stoppage power plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset, agreed on Tuesday to go back to work after their union officials had asked for an end to the stoppage and a return to work under protest at the beginning of the week.

One hundred and forty workers involved in the walk-out originally decided to stage a three-day unofficial strike until they could meet officials from London on Thursday this week.

The strike began after wo men on the night shift were sent home by the management (Central Electricity Generating Board) for allegedly refusing to work in the plant blower house that feeds cooling air to the nuclear reactor.

On Wednesday it was announced that the strikers had decided to return to work pending negotiations. The management refused to take pant in talks until work was resumed.

SHIPWRIGHTS STRIKE FOR A MONTH SHIPWRIGHTS, who have been on strike for a month, decided to return to work at the Vickers- Armstrong yard, Walker-on-Tyne, this week.

Platters at the yard walked out after a dispute with the management as to who should fit aluminium bulkheads to a corvetite.

for still building the same type of sheds for timber storage as they had 20 years ago.

He recalled the Hull dock strike when dockers insisted on ending the practice of unloading grain by hand and demanded the introduction of mechanical handling.

Brother Helm supported The Newsletter's condemnation of the Labour government's policy of wage restraint, and said: 'We have no Cousins in the 'Blue' union-only brothers!' the election failed to reveal any hint of 'first-aid measures' and 'sacrifices'.

If such things are to be on the order of the day now, it vill really matter little to the workers who will be on the receiving end, whether there are 'leftwingers' in the Cabinet or not. "Tribune' has certainly made it clear that these 'left-wingers' are not going to oppose measures against the working class. In fact they give no explanation of what exactly the role of these 'left-wingers' will be.

Other journals-such as "The Times Educational Supplement' —are much more precise. This paper states the position of Frank Cousins very clearly (October 23):

EVASION 'Mr. Cousins is Minister of Technology not because he knows anything about the techniques of automation . .. (his) great contribution will be to persuade working people to submit to an automated education.' There is nothing so forthright as this in "Tribune'. In fact an article on "The Labour Government and World Affairs' by Raymond Fletcher, the new MP for Ilkeston, is a masterpiece of evasion.

He takes a lot of space praising Mr. Khrushchev ("services to mankind', , considerable achievements, etc.). And then, just to prove that being an MP has really gone to his head, he modestly declares:

'The Bomb has made no difference to China's status in my eyes! (The Chinese can relax at last!)

But he says nothing about unilateralism. He says nothing about NATO. Nothing about Aden. Nothing about Cyprus. In fact there is no mention of a socialist foreign policy at all.

the British employers' attempts to boost profits by attacking the rights of the workers, the Trades Union Congress is to consider proposals for a joint study, with members of the British Employers' Confederation, of strikes.

Under the pretext of conducting the investigation to improve industrial relations, the employers obviously want the trade union leaders to play a part in the curbing of militancy in industry.

The British Employers' Confederation proposes that both itself and the TUC should be allowed to call the investigation of up to six strikes, including not more than three cases from any one industry'.

ROLE

If the TUC agrees to take part in such investigations then its role will be quite clear. It will be acting in the interests of those employers, who, because they refuse either to pay higher wages or improve working conditions, are faced with a wave of militancy amongst their employees.

It has already been proved with the now notorious "committees of enquiry' that the workers can expect little benefit from their bosses without conducting a fierce struggle. This new set of proposals put forward by the Employers Confederation cannot be expected to be anything more than a tool in the hands of the bosses.

STAGERS RETURN TO WORK RETURNING to work on Wednesday were 30 stagers who went out on unofficial strike over a pay claim at Hawthorn Leslie (Shipbuilders), Hebburn, a week ago. Talks are to be held on their claim.

All hopes for the world rest on the Soviet bureaucracy, Mr. Wilson and-President Johnson.

One last subject must be mentioned about this deplorable issue of this so-called "left-wing' paper. One section of the working class that will certainly face an attack. from the employers is the dockers. "Tribune' has deserted these workers.

An article in last week's Newsletter described how "Tribune' which once supported the 'Blue' union, now supports the bureaucracy of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

LIMITED

This issue of 'Tribune' carries an article by one Danny Connolly, a Stepney councillor who worked on the docks for 13 years and who is now a student at the London School of Economics.

He describes the dockers as "hostile to change, 'afraid of real progress' 'worshippers of that bright shining orb, the big shilling'. He declares that the 'Blue' union is limited in membership and effectiveness and that there is only room for one union on the docks.

Another article comments on Ray Gunter's savage attacks on the dockers which, as The Guardian' pointed out, were far sharper than any attack made by any Minister during 13 years of Tory rule.

What does 'Tribune' say?

'The wisdom of his timing is highly questionable?

Thus this paper is already lined up with the right-wing against the working class. 'Sacrifices' instead of socialism. Savage attacks on those workers who intend to fight against those sacrifices. A complete abandonment of any principled fight for a socialist programme. It is necessary to be very clear about exactly where Mr. Foot and his friends stand.