The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 384

another committee to fight fascism—it can only be fought with the strength of the working class, said Bill Dow, secretary of the recently disbanded South Paddington Labour Party, and parliamentary candidate at the last Election, speaking to a meeting of London Young Socialists last Saturday.

The meeting had been called by the West London Federation of Young Socialists, following the vicious attack by fascists on 17-year-old Young Socialist Roy Smith.

In a resolution deploring the attack, the Young Socialists agreed to hold a large demonstration against racialism and fascism through North Kensington followed by a dance on Saturday, March 13. The demonstration will begin at 3 p.m. in St. Stephen's Gardens.

POWER

I have been fighting for many years on the wrong kind of platform with the Labour Party and other political organisations, with Tory councillors and Liberals,' said Dow.

•But there is a class war in this country and in the whole world between the employing class and the working class, and it is not a bit of good forming another committee. The power is in the working class.' The bosses and Tories were frightened of the power of the working class, and would do all im their power to split it. That was the reason behind announcements about 80,000 illegal immigrants', by Sir Frank Soskice, the Home Secretary.

The attack the previous Saturday was an attempt to bead off the working class by splitting coloured and white workers.

Dow said that fascism was used in the last resort to save capitalism in crisis.

"That is why we attack the Labour leadership, because we could see these problems cropping up many months ago, he said.

He said his constituency would not accept disbandment by Transpont House officials. We have most of the members on our side, and we have the policies of nationalization of the basic inalso be sall Profits had increased since Labour came to power, 'that is why we should take these industries to use that wealth to help those who make the wealth The Young Socialists at their conference in Morecambe would also show they had policies to solve the problems of the working class.

He supported the campaign against the fascists—'we have to spread the message wherever it shows its dirty and ugly head'— and called on the Young Socialists to gain the suppont of trade unionists and Labour Party members in their campaign.

DUTY

Chairman, Dave Greenberg said it was not a mission but a duty to the working class of Britain for the Young Socialists to expose racialism and fascism.

Editor of the socialist youth paper, 'Keep Left', Aileen Jennings said that before Labour came to power last October, there was already a crisis in British capitalism, but the right wing consistently glossed over this crisis.

Last Easter Young Socialists had passed resolutions at their conference which opposed the policies of the right wing.

'One of the most important decisions at that conference was a resolution passed against the Tory Immigration Act in which we insisted that the Labour leadership was attempting to lay the blame for bad housing and poor wages on. a particular section of the working class,' she said.

The Labour leadership, she added, would not fight against racialism and had opened the door for the fascists.

The attack on Roy Smith was a blow aimed at the British labour movement and in particular the Young Socialists who were fighting to mobilise workers in struggle.

by The Editor which he was a member.

daring to build up their movement in an area where there are strong racialist and fascist tendencies.

'One can only suppose that the choice of an area, he said, 'which houses more than one fascist headquarters is a deliberate attempt to attract violent retaliation and, therefore, greater publicity for the organisers' In other words, by joining the Young Socialists, according to Mr. Keys, the victim of fascist brutality, Roy Smith, brought it ROY SMITH, the 17-years-old schoolboy seriously injured in the pick axe attack by fascists on North Kensington Young Socialists two weeks ago, regained consciousness earlier this week. He has spoken with some difficulty to his mother and friends whom he recognises. He is still in some pain following the emergency brain operation he underwent after the attack.

all on himself. This is perhaps the filthiest conclusion that an enemy of socialism such as Mr. Keys, can draw.

But it would be a mistake think that this gentleman speaking only for himself.

Open door

He, in fact, reflects the real attitude of the right wing towards the fascists. They are impressed by the racialist propaganda of the fascists. That is the reason why they could not fight them in Smethwick or in Leyton.

If it comes to a choice between the Young : Socialists and the fascists, the right wing will open the door for the latter to become more powerful.

The social-democratic traitors in Hitler's Germany even tried to get an agreement with the fascists to attack the working class after the Hitlerites came to power.

The right-winger John Keys speaks, in fact, for Wilson's government, which is entirely dominated by career politicians who care nothing for the working class or the Young Socialists.

Their one ambition is to operate capitalism in the interests of the monopolies. That is the reason why they cannot fight the fascists.

Sympathy

At the time of writing, in the Notting Hill area in West London there is enormous sympathy building up for Roy Smith. Many poor white workers who were previously affected by racialist propaganda are now supporting the preparations for a massive demonstration on March 13.

They have seen in practice what fascism means. They know the public houses frequented by these pimps and thugs.

They know that the struggle against landlordism and improvement of conditions in the area the fascists always stand on the side of the landlord and the bosses.

"Colour'

They are now coming to the conclusion that the attack on the Young Socialist, Roy Smith, was an attack on the labour movement as a whole.

This explains why Mr. Keys describes him as a "coloured schoolho. What • does shie mean? He was a member of the Young Socialists. Since when has colour become important in relation to such things?

The entire labour movement should repudiate John Keys who is one of that band of Labour agents who in our opinion not only run away from the fascists but who were in fact activelly responsible for what happened in Leyton. Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth Int national on U.S. actions in Vietnam, adopted on February:

1965.

THE International Committee of the Fourth International condemns the large-scale bombing attacks in North Vietnam by the U.S. imperialists in early February, 1965.

These actions are counterrevolutienary reprisals against the rapidly approaching complete victory of the revolution in South Vietnam.

The International Committee is in complete solidarity with the workers and peasants in Vietnam and the Viet Cong (liberation army) in their revolution against the corrupt capitalist regime in Saigon and its imperialist supporters. The interests of the working people in South-east Asia cannot be realised until the last vestige of imperialist intervention is removed.

The International Committee calls for the unrelenting support of the workers of all countries for the liberation army and for the actions of the Vietnamese workers, whose aim is to expel the American forces from South Vietnam and all imperialist forces from South-east Asia.

In this struggle for national liberation, the workers will find the road to their own power in these countries. Their struggles are part of the world socialist revolution.

The successful conclusion of the civil war in South Vietnam will complete the revolutionary victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. That victory demolished French imperialist rule over Indo-China, but the victory was cynically betrayed by the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Geneva Agreement of July 1954 which partitioned Vietnam. The pretext for this 'compromise' was that only this type of settlement could avoid nuclear war in the atomic age. in Vietnam, to save whatever be saved for imperialism.

The workers of the world and the people of Vietnam can have no confidence in any wing of the Stalinist bureaucracy.

There must be no settlement through secret diplomacy.

The revolution in Vietnam will be victorious through the struggles of the Vietnamese workers and peasants backed by the schkulty actions of workers all over the world.

Those 'socialists' who demand recall of the Geneva Conference or 'new diplomatic initiatives', particularly the Communist parties of Western Europe and the left wing of the British Labour Party, are advocating a new sell-out like Geneva in 1954.

The present situation and its dangers, the large-scale bloodletting over the last 11 years, are the results precisely of the subservience of these opportunists to imperialism and to the Stalinist bureaucracy in 1954.

Now, as then, there is no way out except through the international working-class struggle. In every country and particularly in Britain and the USA, the workers must demand:

HANDS OFF THE VIETNAM REVOLUTION!

WITHDRAW ALL U.S. AND BRITISH TROOPS, WARSHIPS AND MILITARY AIRCRAFT FROM SOUTH-EAST ASIA IMMEDIATELY!

STOP BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM!

END THE BRITISH LABOUR GOVERNMENT'S SUPPORT FOR U.S. IMPERIALISM! NO SECRET DIPLOMACY! ALL SUPPORT TO THE REVOLUTION IN SOUTH VIETNAM! MORECAMBE

The policies of right-wing Labour are today opening the gates for the growth of racialism and fascism.

We are proud to associate ourselves with the Young Socialists who stand in the forefront of a struggle against these reactionary anti-working-class elements in the north London area.

We call upon the labour movement to repudiate this statement of John Keys.

MEMBERS of the Labour Party in the Nonth-east have been receiving letters signed by the National Socialist Movement.

Mr. Barry Fitzpatrick, a member of the Gateshead Labour Party and well-known opponent of racialism, received one of the letters recently. It was addressed to 'white renegade'.

'Are you surprised to hear from us again?' it asks and goes on we have not forgotten you. We are about to launch mass offensive in the North-east'.

A Young Socialist has also been subjected to this type of letter with cards stamped: 'Jews to the ovens'.

So far the letter writers have remained underground, whitewashing racialist slogans and sending abusive letters to Jewish and coloured people.

The fact that they hope to gain from the disillusionment in the Labour government is shown by their announcement in a letter to Mr. Fitzpatrick that they are campaigning to smash the 'Jewish Wilson government'.

Subsequently the Geneva provisions for 'free elections' and national unification have been ignored by the South Vietnamese dictatorship which has received the support of U.S. imperialism: the American forces in Vietnam are now 24,000 troops, together with a large naval and air striking force.

Meanwhile, the British Conservative and Labour governments alike have built up imperialist forces in Malaysia.

Even this, however, has failed to prevent the present situation, where Saigon governments fall every few days and the Viet Cong controls 80 per cent of South Vietnam.

The counter-revolutionary reprisals of the Pentagon aim to intimidate the peoples of Southeast Asia and particularly the workers and peasants of Vietnam and of the Chinese Peoples? Republic.

Threatening • 'escalation' into a world nuclear conflict, Johnson and the U.S. ruling class hope to ensure the collaboration of Moscow and even Peking for a sell-out THE executive committee of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers & Textile Workers has decided to stop picketing at the fimm of William Denby & Sons, Baildon near Bradford.

One hundred and fourteen workers who have been locked out for 16 months have been shamelessly sold out.

In October 1963 a foreman operated a machine during a lunch break. 250 workers walked out and were sent their cards. The management announced an open shop at Denby's.

This struggle could have been won, had it not been for retreats by union leadership.

In December 1963, 800 Denby workers, trade unionists, Young Socialists and Labour Party members attended a demonstration in Shipley. There was a big demand at this time for the spreading of the dispute to other dyeworks in Bradford, but the union leadership prevented this and left the Denby workers fight on their own.

No real effort was made by them to prevent members of other unions, such as the Electrical Trades Union and Transport and General Workers' Union, from keeping the factory going.

The management, however, was not so half-hearted, as they showed in January 1964 when they hired guard dogs to patrol the premises.

Strikers became impatient and angrily attacked the leadership at the union's annual conference in June last year.

"Peacemaker' appeal

Last November the union leaders appealed to the management to agree to a neutral 'peacemaker". This crawling appeal was rejected by managing director, Philip Wright.

There was still a desire to fight among dyeworkers — only three weeks ago workers at Listers' dyeworks demanded an extension of the strike. But union secretary, Leonard Sharp, opposed this on the grounds that it would be unfair to the Listers' management.

Philip Wright, of course, is jubilant. The union leaders are anxious to forget the whole thing. The Denby strikers have not even been consulted!

In a television interview the assistant general secretary, Jack Peel, was asked if the strikers felt let down. He replied: 'We have not yet had the opportunity to report to them.' Peel admitted that this was in one sense' a defeat, but claimed that the management would now experience some problems because 'they would have no trade union machinery through which to settle their difficulties' (1)

The lesson of Denby's is the urgent need for a leadership which will replace the Sharps and Peels and really fight to win.

February

Vol. 9, No. 384 February Price 6d.

racialism Vietnam This Week MALCOLM X Conference this weekend 'Politically the Socialist Labour League and its organ, The Newsletter, continue to go from strength to strength on the basis of revolutionary Marxism, extending their influence all the time, always remain firmly at the side of the Young Socialists. They can bring into action a vast movement of workers, of new leaders, trained and tempered in political and trade union struggles. The rank and file of the Labour Party, more and more dissatisfied with the leadership and with the fake lefts are turning towards the Young Socialists, following sympathetically their activity. A way must be found to engage all of these in struggle. 'Big struggles are being prepared. As Dave Ashby (National Chairman of the Y.S.) said at the 27th September demonstration in Trafalgar Square, "What is at stake here is the future of socialism in Britain"' IST matroc 127 weeklorary , will see the Fifth Annual Conference of the Young Socialists. This time, because of the bans and proscriptions of the right wing, the conference * organised by the majority of the National Committee elected at the Brighton Conference last year but now no longer recognised by Transport House.

The fight for socialist policies consistently carried through by the Young Socialists is now receiving ever wider recognition and support. The quotation above is from the French journal 'Partisan' which has a large readership among left-wing circles in France and Algeria.

a four-page report from Britain, 'Partisan' outlines the history and policy of the Young Socialist movement, its campaign on youth unemployment, its work among working-class youth, and the struggle led by the supporters of the Young Socialists journal 'Keep Left' against the repressions of the right-wing bureaucracy in the Labour Party.

The article points out the radicalisation of youth in Western Europe has been answered most adequately big (from 'Partisan', left-wing French journal) by the building of a real leadership in the Young Socialists in Great Britain. It points out that 'Keep Left' has never ceased to improve and has spread its influence widely in all parts of the country. Among students as well as among young workers, 'Keep Left' has had to fight hard against centrist and so-called left tendencies as well as against the right wing, says 'Partisan'. le article ends with long extracts from the manifesto of the YS National Committee Majority 'Forward with the Young Socialists' on the questions of "The Problems of Working Class Youth, 'Youth and Automation', "The Police and the Courts against Youth', and 'Against the United Nations! Independence for all Colonial Peoples'. nere is no doubt that the Young Socialists movement in Britain is coming forward to give leadership at a vital historical moment for the workers of all Europe, and it is no accident that this is receiving recognition in France, where dissenters among student members of the French Communist Party herald a big radicalisation of youth there.

• it is criminal to teach man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in obeying the law?

M born Malcolm Livas ALCOLM X was in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. He was one of 10 children. At an early age he came to know the lot of the poor Negro in capitalist - segregated America.

His father was bludgeoned to death by racists and run over by a street car in Lancing, Michigan. "is mother went mad as a result of this tragic blow and became a permanent inmate of a mental home.

Malcolm's comment on this was prophetic: 'I was only six years old at the time, but I had already learned that being a Negro in this country was a liability, In 1945 he was caught doing a burglary and got 8 to 10 years in the state prison in Boston.

After six years he was paroled and went to live with his brothers. Mystical There he came into contact with and was won over to the mysticall reactionary creed of Elijah Muhammad.

To thousands of displaced and frustrated Negroes from the rural South trying to eke out an existence in the urban ghettoes of the north, the petty-bourgeois creed of the Black Moslems, cunningly combining abject political passivity of the Negroes as a whole with the promise of individual violence, . the apocalyptic doom of the white race and a separate state for the Negroes has a certain plausibility. Malcolm was not an exception.

In 1962 he featured in the with the ideology of Elijah infamous trial concerning the Muhammad. In a statement shooting of seven unarmed printed in full by 'The Militant, Black Moslems by the Los the SWP newspaper, without Angeles police, One was killed, comment on March 23, 1964, one maimed and six injured. he said: The police were exonerated This prompted Malcolm to Muslim. My religion is Islam.

OUT NOW-Order your copy-double issue Fourth International incorating (Autumn/Winter issue) RETIEW Editorials The Struggle for Marxism'in the United States The Strategy of Betrayal-Wilfred Pereira The Intelligentsia and Socialism Leon Trotsky Trends in Soviet Literature (2)—Jean Simon Book Reviews Communications Documents 68 pages (double issue). Illus. Price 4s. NEW PARK PUBLICATION: 186A Clapham High Street, Lond declare that 'Mississippi was anywhere south of the Canadian border'.

Malcolm became a trusted confidant of Elijah Muhammad. He was even chosen to negotiate an alliance with the racist Lincoln Rockwell's Nazi movement. Rockwell was an honoured guest at Black Moslem rallies.

The assassination of President Kennedy suddenly terminated the close relationship between Malcolm and Muhammad when Malcolm dismissed the President's murder as a 'case of chickens coming home to roost'.

Malcolm's break with Muhammad marked a new point in his life. It coincided with a tremendous upsurge in the Negro struggles for civil liberties and integration, an idea which he originally abhorred.

Independent

action In 1963-64 Negroes we ginning to proclaim openly ti ea of independent politic tion.

Malcolm intuitively recognised the importance of this demand: "The Negro will never be politically mature as long as he refers to himself as a Republican or Democrat,' he said.

However, Malcolm maintained an equivocal attitude to the setting up of political parties.

His opinion on the Black Moslems has been more than confirmed by recent events:

"The only thing that held the movement together was the image of morality reflected by Mr. Muhammad. The Black Moslem movement will crumble because the organisation is held together by coercion by a Gestapo-type police force within its own ranks."

It is interesting to note that the Socialist Workers Partyan uncritical supporter of Malcolm—never at any time dared to criticise this reactionary movement, its ideals or its organisational set-up.

After a trip to Mecca last year, Malcolm abandoned his racist ideas in favour of a more moderate, but just as utopian, I still believe that Mr. Muhammad's analysis of the problem is the most realistic, and that his solution is the best one. This means that I too believe the best solution is complete separation, with our people going back home, to our own African homeland.' Although this statement was made before Malcolm × set up the Organisation of Afro-American Unity, he never repudiated it.

Despite all this, Malcolm was a paradoxical figure.

Enigmatic in his attitude to institutions and unpredictable in his choice of weapons, he made many friends and created many enemies.

His uncompromising attitude towards Negro self-defence ('When our people are being bitten by dogs, they are within their rights to kill those dogs'), his forthright condemnation of police brutality all over the States and his readiness to co-operate with all civil rights groups in struggling for equality and integration earned him the undying hostility of his late friends in Muhammad's Mosques.

He became the frequent target of Black Moslem goon squads.

Bloody battles In June 1964 a bodyguard armed with nifles escorted him to the court house in New York because of a threat by Black Moslems to shoot him.

Before that, , followers of Muhammad tried to threaten him in a tunnel near Logan airport but fled when his bodyguards pulled their guns.

This was typical of a series of bloody and recurring street battles between the two groups.

Finally, his enemies-and it is not difficult to guess who did it killed him.

This must serve as an ominous warning to Negro militants and revolutionary socialists throughout North America-and in THE storm aroused by Lord Cromer's advice to Callaghan to cut government expenditure -to me has came the American Negro to fight kack in sekf-defence whenever answwherever ms i being dustly a sur weatackeds BRESERV UL ..... and its black allies against the Negro workers and urban poor.

It represents the reflex action of a desperate ruling class to repress the most oppressed and exploited section of the American people, in order to preserve its wealth and power.

The fact that a Negro was the assassin makes no difference. Whoever did it it is impossible to remain silent about the role of the Black Moslems.

The Black Moslems represent paradoxically the vanguard of reaction in the Northern States; the black equivalent of the white Ku Klux Klan.

Enemies Their policy of separatism is the obversé of the segregation policies of the Southern reactionaries.

There is nothing progressive about them. They are completely reactionary, indeed counter-revolutionary.

3 THE

Febr 27, uary party (PSB), like al He egian socialis the other parties of the Second International, has consistently served the interests of capital since 1914.

From Vandervelde's support of the capitalist war in 1914, to Spaak's position as secretary-general of NATO, the record is the same: Betrayal of the working class.

In carrying out this task, it has never hesitated to carry out brutal attacks upon the working olass.

At the end of the Second World War, its leaders, ministers in a capitalist government, helped the rebuilding of capitalism in Western Europe.

In 1944, the social-democrats, together with the Belgian Communist Party, signed the agreement with the Belgian capitalists that the partisan movement should hand its arms back to the capitalist state.

In the following year, its leadership participated in the amendment of the laws defining the right to strike which imposed on the working class the government's right to requisition strikers in those industries which were 'of vital need' to the economy.

It was the socialist minister, Van Acker, who insisted that the striking postmen SHOUlO sacked in 1948. It was the socialist minister Vermeylen who so zealously carried strengthening of the riot police, after the the monarchy in 1950. was ended.

The workers returned in Liege and Hainaut, the last outposts of militancy, and the government, The strength of the social-democrats comes from the ability of the "Belgian ruling class to grant concessions to some secRenard knew this and de. nounced this. But he came to an agreement with Major that he could have control of the SocialOnce the march on Brussels was squashed by the counterproposal, Renard began to remind the workers that letting the blast

black nationalism.

In the latter part of last year Malcolm moved further away from Muhammad when he set up a new organisation, the Organisation of Afro-American Unity.

Malcolm began to urge his followers to turn to Africa ard the African bourgeois nationalist leaders as a source of strength and dignity.

This was an evasion of the real problems facing the Negro workers and an illusion. While denouncing the Civil Rights Bill as a 'counterfeit cheque he made no attempts to organise any coherent political opposition to the ruling parties.

Reliance on UN About the 1964 elections, he did little or nothing. Instead, he began relying on the United Nations as a means for securing equality for the Negroes. This was a hopeless prospect.

He never broke completely I am and always will be a LABOUR Contents include: Cromer's advice recalls shows the deep divisions within the ruling class. There are uncertainties about how best to attack the workers as the crisis facing British capitalism intensifies.

The 'lefts", like Foot, who call for Cromer's resignation as Governor of the Bank of England, are evading their responsibility for the disaster looming over the labour movement as a result of Wilson's policies.

The Third Earl of Cromer can speak on financial matters with some authority. He represents the powerful banking house of Baring Brothers.

His grandfather was the leader of the group of financiers who grabbed control of Egypt 90 years ago. When military conquest had secured the smooth flow of profit from the Nile to the City of London, Cromer was made Viceroy.

Representative

But the present Earl does not only speak as a British banker. He also conveys the wishes of the international financial powers to the Labour leaders.

When the crisis hit sterling in November, Cromer organised the 3,000 million dollar support for the pound from his friends in Zurich, Paris and New York.

Now, he reminds Wilson that these gentlemen are not philanthropists. They were placated by the decision to delay the rise in pensions. 1931 crisis By JOHN Their loans, already three months old, have been extended another three. Between now and May the British government must renew its proof of 'reliability' if it is to keep their goodwill.

Refusing to turn to the working class and fight the monopolies and banks, Wilson pawns the Labour government. He is no longer able to decide policy on any major issue.

From the sale of Buccaneers to South Africa to the watering down of the Steel Bill, he is tied hand and foot with chains of gold.

Paid the Price

Several political commentators last week brought the date 1931 into their columns. That was the year when the second Labour government, with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister, faced its monetary crisis.

At a time of rapidly rising unemployment, the Labour leaders had to obtain a loan to support sterling. The price they had to pay was to economise on government expenditure.

An all-party committee was set up to make proposals on the items to be cut. Its chairman, Sir George May, had been secretary of Prudential Insurance.

When the May committee reported, its main recommendation was to cut unemployment benefit by. £48= million-some 10 per cent. Teachers' salaries and service pay were also to be socialism and the trade union movement.

If there is one conclusion to be drawn from this barbarous act it is this:

Only the unity of white and black workers in and through a revolutionary Marxist Party dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism can bring about the complete emanicipation of the Negro people.

On this road, black nationalism remains a major obstacle and a dangerous distraction.

Those, who, like the SWP leaders, proclaim that black nationalism is progressive ['It should also be recognised that black nationalism is definitely a progressive thing. The Militant, 23/3/64-Clifton De Berry, SWP candidate for President] are consciously deceiving and betraying the heroic struggles of the Negro workers. They are helming to perpetuate a gigantic Trad as Quantrare fraud.

PROBLEM RAWFORD chopped.

After much discussion, the Cabinet decided instead on a modified set of economies, in which a cut in the dole of £22 million was the chief item. But the Tories and the Liberals demanded that the higher figure be accepted.

New factor While arguing about whether the government, which depended on Liberal votes in Parliament, should resign, the Cabinet was informed by the Bank of England of a new factor.

This was a cable from J. P. Morgan and Co., the government's U.S. financial representatives. It told the Labour leaders that a loan would only be forthcoming if the economies were approved by the Bank of England and the rest of the City.

Later myths that MacDonald was defeated on a proposal to accept the May Report are shown to be false in R. Bassett's* book, "Nineteen Thirty-One'. In fact, a majority of the Cabinet agreed to obey the dictates of Wall Street.

In the event, MacDonald and Snowden formed a National coalition government and left the Labour Party. Labour lost more of its seats in the election which followed (although the * A reader in Political Science at the University of London. His book was published by MacMillan in 1958.

Communist Party issued a report on the declining circulation of its newspaper ''Humanité' and called for new efforts to spread its influence. At the 1964 Congress of the Party, it was decided to condemn the majority of the Party's official students section, which had called for greater freedom of expression within the Party.

In the labour movement, the Communist Party has continued to follow opportunist policies, including alliances with the vicious right wing of Guy Mollet, after his visit to Moscow.

The recent publication in France of a letter signed by nearly 100 prominent intellectuals, members of the Communist Party, addressed to General Secretary of the Party, Waldeck Rochet, marks an important stage in this crisis.

For many years, the Communist Party has enjoyed the support of a very large number ot French University teachers, scientists, research workers, writers and artists, including some very prominent ones.

DEFIANT ACT

Since the revelations of Khrushchev and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a number have drifted away, but this letter marks the biggest act of defiance so far and has been condemned by the Party leadership.

Many of these intellectuals are attracted by the relative freedom of discussion amongst Italian Communists which has accompanied the capitulation of the Italian Communist Party to reformism.

But the demand for full discussion on the position of intellectuals in the Party and particularly of the role of theory in the building of the revolutionary movement, can be the start of a new and healthy process among French Communists, and it is the duty of Marxists to immediately engage in this discussion.

We reprint below a translation of the entire text of the letter to Waldeck Rochet. 6 The situation within the Union des Etudiants Communistes, the differences that have appeared there, the polemic that has now become public, cannot leave any Communist indifferent.

Through our occupation, we Labour vote did not much).

The new government imposed the cuts demanded by the bankers. The misery and humiliation of the Means Test for the dole rolled over the lives of millions of workers.

It took 14 years for the Labour Party to recover from this betrayal. Now, after another 20, the spinit of MacDonald is once again abroad.

The Wilson government faces its financial crisis with as little intention of fighting capitalism as MacDonald. Now, as in 1931, the banks demand attacks on working-class conditions.

In 1965, the movement is on the brink of another disaster as the leaders drift towards effective coalition with the employing class.

Whatever their differences, Wilson, Callaghan and Brown are just as prepared to placate the financiers and monopolists at the expense of workers as MacDonald.

Decisive differences But there is a decisive difference between the situation today and in 1931. Five years behind MacDonald lay the smashing of the General Strike, when he joined the Tories and Liberals.

Any resistance to his betrayal which might have been possible was nullified by the lunatic leftism of the Communist Party and the confused opportunism of the Independent Labour Party leaders.

In 1965, the trade unions are powerfully organised, despite the treachery of their leaders. A confident, undefeated generation of workers confronts the MacDonalds of today.

The Socialist Labour Leagi ust organise that power ar m it with the lessons abour's history. come into close contact with the student body; it is our responsibility to transmit to them not only technical knowledge but a general culture; through this, as well as through our participation in the ideological aotivities of the party, we contribute to the diffusion of Marxism amongst them and to their theoretical and political education. This means that in problems which concern them we feel involved both as Communists and intellectuals, bearing special responsibility as Communist intellectuals.

We are not empowered to intervene in the debate developing within the Union, and between the Union and official party bodies. We make no claim at weighing responsibilities or offering a judgment as to what is at the bottom of the issues in dispute. Our initiative is concerned with something else. We consider it our duty and in the interests of the party to let you know our feelings about an essential point.

It is clear that the crisis which has broken out within the Union goes beyond purely student affairs. In its present form, it certainly concerns conditions pertaining to the student organisation; but it could only arise and develop in a more general context: the difficulties which the International Communist movesistent discussien i the per. Twentieth Congress, the way in which these problems have been made public and presented in various ways the various Communist parties.

In this sense, the crisis in the Union appears to us to be the expression among students of the malaise which the French Communist intellectuals as a whole have felt for several years, and to which some of us have already called the attention of the party leadership in asking it to take the initiative and open a wide discussion on the problem of relations between the party and the intellectuals: what is the proper role, the specific share of the Communist intellectuals in the deepening of Marxist theory, what is their place in the necessary work of inquiry, of collective thinking, whether it concerns the various aspects of the ideological battle or the political struggle; what are their responsibilities with regard to the working class and the party; what does the party have a right to demand from them, what do they have a right to expect from the party so that their participation in the general combat of the working class can be most effective and so that, on the other hand, the action of the party among intellectuals, artists, scientists, cadres and technicians can be conducted under conditions enabling the great majority of them to be won to the cause of Communism?

If this discussion had been started by the Party and in the Party some of the current difficulties would doubtlessly have been avoided.

The problems that have been posed are real; they concern, certainly, Party work among the students and intellectuals in the first place; but they also involve, in analysing French society, the place of intellectuals and the role they play, our political perspectives, both immediate and long range, some of the theoretical bases of the present strategy ol the workers' movement. No administrative measure can replace a discussion, the necessity of which appears to us more urgent than ever.

To avoid a confrontation, to label the intellectuals as good or bad according to their position in the discussion instead of according their devotion to the cause of Communism, would have grave consequences not only among the students where such an attitude would risk bringing about a noticeable decline in our influence and forces, but also among the intellectuals, where it would provoke confusion, disorder, bitterness in our ranks, distrust and disillusionment among our sympathisers and great joy to our adversaries.

Generally, in our relations with other formations and with the masses, it would make more difficult the united action of our party and its policy of rallying the people against the personal power (de Gaulle) and for genuine democracy for socialism.

The situation thus appears serious to us. To obviate the dangers it implies, it seems to us necessary to organise study sessions of Communist intellectuals where the questions we have raised could be discussed. 9

It was only after such policies led to the defeat of the social-democrats in the 1958 elections, that the party leadership once again courted the working class, notably with the 1959 conference decisions, accepting the principles of 'structural reform', i.e., nationalization of the basic industries.

But such 'leftward' swings were only for periods when the party was in opposition. These moves served merely to recapture the confidence of the workers, to enable the party to return to power, once again to strengthen monopoly capitalism.

The party's attitude to the 1960 General Strike, illustrates this manoeuvring well.

Workers hit back Belgian capitalism's turn to 'rationalisation' and automation in the mid-fifties, to solve its crisis, met with vigorous counter action from the workers. In 1957, the steel workers and engineers of Liège came out on strike, demanding double wages for both weeks of the annual holidays. They did this against This is the second in our series of articles analysing the the socialist Van Acker government and against the instructions split which has just taken place in the Belgian Socialist of the trade unions. Party. Last week, we examined the development of the This was followed by workingBelgian economy. This week, we deal with the role of the class action throughout the country, which reached a high point social-democratic bureaucracy and the centrists in the in 1959/60. labour movement. Next week, we will examine the The strike of February 1959 by the Borinage miners against relations between André Renard and Ernest Mandel, the editor of 'La Gauche' (the paper which the Socialist Party the pit closures was followed by strikes in Ghent against the proscribed last December). similar closures in the textile industry.

In January 1960 there was a one-day General Strike demanding double holiday pay. This was followed by a strike of bus and tram workers two months later and, in May, 150,000 workers turned out to demonstrate on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Parti Ouvrier Beige (Belgian Workers' Party). NDATEl RE RENARD This rising militancy was the * la For all la faire l'u working class's answer to the capitalists' throwing the burden of the automation of industry onto their shoulders. The next step of the ruling class on this road, the 'Loi Unique', (a Parliamentary Bill) was to lead to the showdown between the classes, the General Strike of December 1960-January 1961.

The 'Loi Unique' was a direct attack upon working-class conditions. It proposed an increase in purchase tax and a reduction of public spending on National Insurance, unemployment allowances and sickness benefits. GREVE GENERAILI On the day that Parliament began discussing the Bill, December 5, 1960, the public transport workers called for a General Strike to begin on December 20. They were rapidly supported by the gas, eleotricity and railway workers.

General Strike On the first day of the strike, the major industrial centres of Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, Charleroi and Liège came out.

By the third day, the strike was general in Wallonia.

In Flanders, the weak following outside the two main industrial towns was weakened even more by the intervention of Cardinal Van Roey, who condemned the strike in his Christmas message and urged all good Catholics to return to work.

This enabled the Catholic trade union leadership to come out The top picture is of Andre Renard, the trade union leader, who against the strike and to organise played such a big role in the Belgian labour movement. 'Combat' black-legging. was the paper of the 'Walloon Popular Movement' which he The betrayal of the centrist founded in 1961. The lower picture shows a mass meeting in trade union bureaucrats in Liège during the General Strike of 1960-61.

Wallonia ensured the defeat of the strike in the second and third weeks.

After after thanking the troops and riot police, which it had used liberally, proceeded to vote through the 'Loi Unique': although it was only to apply the sections affecting purchase tax.

The social-democrats had at first put up a loud opposition to the 'Loi Unique'. This had taken the form of a • 'campaign of information', or, in other words. a show of militancy, without any action, in order to win votes in the election which was due early in 1961.

Once the workers were on the streets, however, the bureaucracy became as hostile as the ruling class. Van Acker was prominent in giving assurances to the capitalists that the social-democrats did not support this kind of action.

This was amply born out by the social-democrats when, having won the election on the votes of the strikers, they formed the coalition government with the Christian party after the 1961 elections.

'Planned'

capitalism The programme that they followed was one of close cooperation with the monopolies in the now very rapid modernisation process, side by side with anti-working-class legislation.

Spinoy, the new economics minister, and a member of the Bureau of the Socialist Party, immediately went into action with a programme of planning and government help to private industry.

With his policies of directed industry, he gave government subsidies to factories set up in the areas where unemployment had been created through automation.

One of the re-equipped factories in the investment zone in the Centre combined the two aspects of the social-democrats' policy-it made the tanks that the Party had just voted through Parliament for the riot police.

The Coal Industry Directorate, set up in November 1961, organised the government subsidising of the closing down of the cal mines and the modernisation of others-which, as we saw last week, amounted to government subsidy to the transfer of capital from low-profit industry into the more modern higher profit industries. There was no question of nationalizing the mines.

This was supplemented in the following year with the reorganisation of the Bureau of Economic Planning, originally: set up in 1959, which was now given wide powers to grant government aid to new firms, or to extensions of old firms 'which had their main enterprise in Belgium' (this could apply to foreign firms as much as to Belgium ones).

All of this was tied very closely to a policy of 'planned wages' All the election promises to repeal the tax measures of the 'Loi Unique' were, of course, forgotten.

Instead, the social-democrats strengthened the state machine so as to be able to deal more effectively with any measures that the working class might take against the hardships that the economic development was undoubtedly producing.

State

strengthened The 1961 law giving light tanks to the riot police was followed in 1963 by the 'anti-strike' laws. These greatly increased state power over strikers.

Under these laws in any strike, the government can now, if it chooses, declare the industry to be a 'vital service'. The strike then becomes illegal and the strikers subject to heavy penalties.

The penalty for persons in 'hostile gatherings' during strikes has been increased to three months.

This is especially important, as an offence giving rise to a sentence of three months imprisonment enables the police to place 'suspects' in preventive detention.

The use to which this law will be put to remove strike leaders and even pickets is obvious.

Heavier penalties have been imposed for 'holding up traffic' (i.e., picketing) and "sabotage' Finally, the provincial governors have been given powers to call out the police.

Previously, the police, as opposed to the riot police, were under the control of the municipality. In the General Strike, a number of Socialist-controlled municipalities refused to call the police out against the strikers. The social-democrats have got rid of this 'weakness'.

Of course, the social-democrats have carried out a very active policy of support for Belgian capital in the Congo.

In 1964, they sent the paratroopers in to smash the antiTshombe forces in Stanleyville, and carry out the massacres that we know of.

In January of this year, Spaak once again outwitted the Congo government (this time in the person of Tshombe) in its attempt to gain some control of the Union Minière and the other large firms in the Congo. tions of the working class with the enormous profits from the Congo.

The party has consolidated this strength by building an enormous bureaucracy.

It employs a very large staff and has direct control over the employees of the socialist 'mutuelles', the social insurance companies.

To be employed in one of these, a worker has to be a paid-up member of the Socialist Party.

It also controls, by arrangement with the other political parties, a large number of state jobs in teaching, local government and so on.

As well as all this, it owns the large and very successful insurance company, the 'Prévoyance Sociale' which ensures it a good income.

Only in Flanders is its influence limited by the existence of the parallel apparatus of the Catholic trade union and Catholic party.

These maintain a large section of the Catholic working class in a trade union that has a dubious record of black-legging and cooperation with the employers and to a 'non-class' political party, which includes employers as well as trade unionists.

However, pressure from the workers can and does move the Catholic trade union to positions that are more militant than those of the Socialist trade union on individual issues.

In fact, the grip of the Catholic church in Flanders merely serves to strengthen the hold of the social-democrats and the Socialist trade union over the rest of the Belgian working class, by generally lowering the class-consciousness of Belgian workers.

Andre Renard But more important than all this in maintaining the power of the Belgian social democracy has been the role of the centrists in heading off any revolutionary currents. This is best illustrated in the career of the centrist trade ist trade unions in Flanders without interference from Renard, if Renard could remain free from any interference from Major in Wallonia.

Renard claimed that this gave the Walloon workers more strength by freeing them from the dead weight of the right wing and the backward Flemish workers.

In fact, it weakened the Walloon workers, by ensuring that they could not count on the backing of the Flemish workers in any strike action. The agreement with Major directly contributed to the defeat of the 1960 General Strike.

In his trade union action, Renard would lead the workers against the bureaucracy of the Socialist Party and against the employers only so long as this action did not actually threaten to overthrow them.

In the 1950s, he led many actions against the right-wing social-democratic government of Van Acker. In 1956, he pushed a programme through the Socialist trade union conference, calling for the control of the finance companies. In 1957, he led the Liège workers on strike against the social-democratic government.

But the defeat of the government in the 1958 elections soon brought him to heel.

In 1959, when the Borinage miners staged their strike in a desperate attempt to prevent the closures, Renard's role was one of complete collaboration the bureaucracy.

He sent Genot, his lieutenant, down to the Borinage to assure the miners that they would receive the support of the Liège steel workers, without which the strike must be lost.

On the day after Genot had been enthusiastically received by the miners, Renard co-operated with Major in the signing of the agreement with employers. Betrayed, the miners had to accept the closures. furnaces go out would mean many weeks of unemployment after the strike was over.

The furnaces remained alight and the strikers returned to work.

Renard and his supporters then proclaimed that the strike had been prevented from being complete victory because of the backwardness of the Flemish workers.

Victory, Renard said, could be achieved with Federalism. Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels would become three separate states in a Belgian federation. In this way, Wallonia could have a social-democratic government and the Socialist trade union in the area could act without the drag of the backward Flemish, Renard claimed.

Immediately after the strike, Renard founded the 'Walloon Popular Movement' as a 'movement of popular opinion' that was 'neither a party nor a trade union', to press for these ends.

Thousands of workers, frustrated with the results of the strike, the failure of which they attributed to the failure of the Flemish workers to support them, joined this movement whose programme combined radical demands like nationalization with anti-Flemish demagogy.

Flemish workers' militancy The strike of 1960-61 is a turning point in Belgian working-class history. For it marks the beginning of what could become a disastrous decline in the consciousness of the Walloon working class and it was followed by the rapid rise of militancy of the Flemish workers.

The introduction of modern industry into Flanders has transformed the Flemish workers very rapidly.

In the traditional industrial areas of the capitalist world, the working class developed very slowly and built up traditions of struggle over decades-the pro-

union bureaucrat André Renard.

André Renard dominated the Belgian labour movement from the end of the Second World War until his death in 1962.

He rose to become the second-in-command of the Socialist trade union. In the Walloon area of Belgium, he was the undisputed Jeader.

During the war he had led the trade union resistance to the Nazis, while the Belgian capitaland part of the official Socialist Party leadership under De Man had collaborated with the Gestapo.

After the war, he led the working class against the wage freeze and the compulsory conscription of labour with which the Belgian capitalists tried to rebuild their wealth.

His militant leadership and his statements that his aim was to overthrow capitalism by trade union action won him a large following among the workers, especially in Wallonia.

But his militancy only went to a certain point. He often declared his opposition to the rightwing leadership of the Socialist Party and of the Socialist trade union, but he always stopped short of overthrowing them.

After the war, he was responsible for the principle of trade union independence' being written into the statutes of the Socialist trade union. He claimed that this would free the unions from the clutches of the right wing.

He set up the unofficial 'axe commission' to enforce this rule and to discipline any trade union official or steward taking orders from an outside political party'.

In fact, 'trade union independence' was never enforced as far as the Socialist Party was consecretary of the Socialist trade union, is a member of the Socialist Party Bureau-and there has never been any question of expelling him.

The 'axe commission' was used to witch-hunt Stalinists and other militants in the union who wanted to go beyond Renard's policies. By purging the union of all these people, it had the effect of strengthening the hold of the social-democratic right wing on the trade unions.

It was the same with his altitude towards Major.

Major is a right-wing trade union bureaucrat of the worst kind. He has consistently sold out the workers, joining hands with the employers wherever possible.

After the 1959 betrayal, Renard co-operated with Major in the 'preparation' for the 1960 General Strike.

In the beginning of the year, he signed the 'planned wages' agreement, which promised the employers social peace up to the end of 1962.

Popular Movement in Liège.

In the National Committee of the Socialist trade union, called to discuss the 'Loi Unique' in December 1960, Renard's answer to the right wing's proposal for a 'day of national action' was not a General Strike, but 'a campaign information', or, in • other words, simply • a campaign to 'inform' the workers of how the 'Loi Unique' would affect them. This was precisely the Socialist Party's electioneering policy!

Renard opposed the General Strike during the first two days of its action.

On the first day of the strike in Liège, a demonstration of workers went to the local Socialist trade union headquarters chanting 'Renard to the stake' In the factories, there violent incidents as Renard's supporters tried prevent workers from coming out.

Those workers who did call the strike on the first day, passed in front of the 'axe commission' after the strike, to be suspended from the union for six months.

On the third day, as there was no alternative for him, he supported the strike and, as there was no effective challenge, he was able to take over the leadership of the movement. Here again, he was to take the movement in hand only to lead it up a blind alley.

The strike was against the employers' attempts to make the working class pay for the automation of Belgian industry.

Renard turned it into a demand for the division of the Belgian working class, by raising the slogans of 'federalism' and trade union federalism'.

The first proposal was to divide the Walloon workers from the Flemish-the second was to confirm the agreement he already had with Major of dividing the Belgian trade union movement into zones of influence.

He opposed the proposal to march on Brussels by reminding the workers that similar action in 1950 had not prevented the return of the monarchy. Instead, he said, we will let the blast furnaces go out. This was accepted. cess taking the best part of a century.

The enormous leap represented by the introduction of automation has speeded-up this process so that the Flemish workers are achieving in three or four years what the workers of Britain and Wallonia achieved over decades.

The process that began with the strike of the workers in the nuclear establishment at Olen, in 1962, has been carried on by the Ghest dockers, by the Antwerp oil workers, • December last year, and by the shipyard workers of Antwerp and the Ford workers of Genk at this very moment.

In the Antwerp shipyards, the workers are on strike against the introduction of 'anti-social' brigades by the employers. These workers are not casual labour, like the other shipyard workers, but are 'permanents', enjoying higher wages in the bargain, but who, in return, have agreed to different working conditions and greater mobility.

In Genk, the Ford workers are on strike for the 40-hour week (the steel workers in Liège work a 45-hour week, now being reduced to 43 hours!) and they are doing so despite great pressure from the social-democratic government.

Spinoy, the economics minister, has even declared that the workers are jeopardising their own livelihoods as the strike will lead to Ford 'not continuing its expansion in Belgium'.

Movement

If the new militancy of the Flemish workers is the product of automation in the area, so is the demoralisation of the Walloon workers.

The propaganda of the Walloon Popular Movement harps upon the loss of jobs in Wallonia and the rapid industrialisation of Flanders-blaming 'the Flemish' for the process.

The pamphlet that the Walloen Popular Movement put out on the Sidmar steelworks in Ghent, demanded the closure of the works in favour of an extension of those in Wallonia.

In bold letters it printed across the middle of the page 'Walloons know how to make good steel'.

The workers are led to believe that "Flemish imperialism', as opposed to 'Walloon' or any other kind of imperialism, is responsible for their hardships. They are also told that Walloons of all classes can co-operate to fight this enemy.

'Federalism is the future of Wallonia' proclaims the Walloon Popular Movement in a leaflet put out in 1963, 'because in Belgium today, Parliament and government are dominated by a Flemish majority'.

The appeal is to Walloons of all classes: 'Behind ... our flags, must march all those who, for one reason or another, suffer from Flemish imperialism and from the unitary state.' 'All' is explained to be workers by hand and by brain, shopkeepers and those with independent incomes'!

The mixture of appeals of the movement can be seen in a speech made by Renard in 1961: 'For the first time a real workers' front will take progressive Wallonia out from under the yoke (Cont. p. 4, col. 1)

car factories both in Birmingham and Coventry •HERE was a flare-up of unofficial disputes - 350 Our Scottish Correspondent HE management of the By a Newsletter Correspondent Hampstead February

Linwood, Scotland, announced last week that 350 men are to be sacked.

In a factory circular issued to foremen and supervisors details were given of the points system which will be used in drawing up a list of those who are to go.

Points are given for length of service, good record for timekeeping and a good work record, etc. Those with special skill are to receive a 10-point rating over others.

At a mass meeting of the factory workers a decision was taken to negotiate for a system of work-sharing. The establishment of a labour pool, they agreed, should be abolished and there should be a fair share-out of work between the firm's three factories.

A large proportion of those to be sacked will come from the new Glasgow overspill area of Linwood.

It will not only be a question for these workers of a change of job but of uprooting themselves and their families once again to move to new work.

Any new job that they obtain will be some distance away and to remain in Linwood where rents and costs are high is out of the question.

IMPROVED

The Pressed Steel manage: ment have advised workers in the factory that removal allowances have recently been improved and that prospects in the area are 'quite promising' But there have recently been shut-downs in Paisley and redundancies in a number of factories.

Even with the severance pay, which is promised by the management, there will be severe hardship for many.

Why should these men be sacked? Judging by the shareholders' report given last week the operations of Pressed Steel have not been as profitable for many years.

The press described the 422 per cent increase to a profit of £7,400,000 as staggering. Yet the Linwood factory received scant attention in the report.

Shop stewards have justly pointed out that some of the firm's profits should be spent in keeping the 350 men employed. last week. On Wednesday as many as 15,000 car men stopped work as a -direct or indirect result of these struggles.

Most of these strikes involved engineers and all of them (with the exception of the strike at the Coventry plant of Standard-Triumph, where the demand was for the removal of a chargehand) were in support of pay claims.

500 engine assemblers at Austin's BMC factory, Longbridge, came out in a dispute over piece-work rates. There was a second piece-work dispute in the same factory involving 100 assembly workers.

At the Tyseley factory of Wilmot Breeden, 100 workers struck for a substantial increase in pay.

This factory produces components such as door handles, door locks, bumpers, windowwinders and chromium work.

Resumed

Firms such as Rover and BMC were hit by the stoppage. Work was temporarily resumed on Thursday while negotiations took place on the claim.

300 workers struck at the Rover Company's gearbox factory at Greet, and these strikers have voted to continue the stoppage. At the Joseph Lucas factory, Aston, workers (mainly women) were also on strike over a pay issue.

These struggles, in fact, represent the reaction of militant workers against the wretched package deal agreement, under which engineering workers are to receive, at a postponed date, a minimal pay rise, the effect of which will be totally nullified by the rising cost of living.

This infamous deal, which is tantamount to a wage freeze, is an attack upon the living standards of thousands of workers involved. They will have none of it.

Demonstrate

These strikes demonstrate that whatever agreements union leaders may reach with employers over the heads of the workers, the struggle for better wages, shorter hours and improved conditions will go on.

The intention is to establish a uniform national minimum VER one thousand tenants on London, face the prospect speculative development scheme been agreed on between Hampstead's Tory Council and South Bank Properties Ltd.

The property company wants to demolish the homes to make way for seven blocks of luxury flats, 128 expensive bouses, 14 shops, two garages and two public houses.

The tenants have now organised an Association to fight for alternative housing, at rents they can afford.

A representative of the newly-formed Tenants' Association told The Newsletter last week that according to council spokesmen, the developers had given a pledge that they would cause no hardship, and that they would re-house people, where necessary.

Yet few tenants appear to have been given any concrete assurances of rehousing.

At present, controlled tenants are paying rents of around GARMENT WORKERS SUPPORT PENSIONS CAMPAIGN the February meeting of the Leeds Number Two branch of the National Union of Tailor and Garment Workers the following resolution was passed:

"That this meeting calls on the Labour government to refuse to be dictated to by the Banks, and to backdate the old age pensioners' increase to November 1, 1964, as the continuous rise in the cost of living will swallow up any increase given in March.

"Already the old people will be suffering increasing hardships through the winter months and we call upon the Labour government to ease the difficulties of these old people' During the discussion on the resolution right-wing Labour Party supporters asked that the meeting should give Harold Wilson a chance.

The question of nationalization was raised as an answer. An old age pensioner who had come to the meeting to support the resolution said that millions of pounds could be spent on Blue Streaks, etc., but pensioners were pushed to one side.

The resolution was forwarded to the Leeds Trades Council for inclusion on the agenda. before they get on a housing list alt all.

Tinkering with a problem can intensify it, and the Prevention of Evictions Act could work this way.

The Councils may refuse to apply compulsory purchase orders or take families into half-way houses, because the provisions of the Aot are supposed to keep them where they are, however wretched they may be.

In a programme for housing, the municipalisation of rented accommodation would be a first step.

Speculation in land and property should be stopped— not merely limited by a capital gains tax.

The new giant office blocks could be converted into hospitals, schools and dwellings.

Nationalization of the land, banks and insurance companies as well as steel and the building industry-this is the basic requirement for a real scheme to provide housing for the working population.

the Eyre Estate, Hampstead, of losing their homes to a which is reported to have t2 10s. a week for a flat while de-controlled rents vary-to 10s. being typical.

Few people would be able to afford the kind of rents that the company are likely to charge in the luxury housing that was planned.

Tenants complained to local Labour councillor St. John and he called a meeting at the Prince of Wales public house.

ANGRY

About 150 very angry people turned up. They all told the same thing-someone from the estate agents Jones, Laign and Wootten, had visited them and said they would be given six months' notice to quit shortly.

The Tenants' Association had issued a questionnaire to tenants to obtain more information.

Ot over 100 who replied, less than 17 had any assurance from the estate agents of re-housing, and these did not appear to have written assurances.

The rest, who include 57 controlled tenants, whom the company was legally bound to rehouse, had been given no assurance of getting homes, The Newsletter was told.

If all tenants, controlled and de-controlled, • joined the Tenants' Association, and if the Association can link up with other Tenants' Associations and trade union branches in the area, then they will be able to put up a real fight for rehousing-or alternatively, to halt the re-development soheme.

Dunlop

workers get special efficieney lop's factory at Spoke, Liverpool, has received 'a special Dunlop message' entitled: 'Our Future'.

The production of this glossy magazine is to give Dunlop workers the management's own local programme, based on the Declaration of Intent, negotiated by George Brown and hailed with such satisfaction by the employers' press.

Dunlop's message has much to say about working together for the common good, but goes on to say that increases must be earned before they can be paid, that there must be a full day's work.

'Efficiency', says point 4 of their programme, is about people and how they fill in their working day, so we must continue to make a fearless review of the use of all working time, normal and overtime, section by section, department by department, in every office, laboratory and workshop?

'Acceptance'

Point 7, entitled 'Acceptance of Change, which outlines the company's intention to automate, says: 'Some of us must be prepared to change jobs.' Point 8 states that 'even with the best forward planning there will be surplus labour on some _JODS Entitled: 'Profits for Security and Growth' point 10 states: 'We are in a competitive business. Our success is measured by the profits we make. Augment them, be proud of them and recognise them as the fund which provides our security and the tools for our future success.' So Dumiop workers must be proud of profits made by the company!

of reactionary Flemish clericalism . .. Our beautiful Wallonia will free itself from that colonisation that Flemish reaction wants to impose on it.' It is a movement born from frustration and defeat and can only lead the Walloon workers to fresh defeats.

Its militancy, and it is militant, for instance in its campaign against the anti-strike laws, serves merely to maintain its control over the workers in leading them into its blind alley.

The experience of the Borinage district offers a warning of where this can lead.

The lack of any firm revolutionary leadership in the area and the defeats of the workers, led in 1961 to the election to Parliament of Lallemand, the extremely reactionary leader of the Parti Social Independent, an extreme right-wing group.

And this in an area that has a long socialist tradition!

The defeat of the General Strike has led to the creation of a movement dividing the Belgian working class just when the ruling class wanted that division to carry out its plan for automation.

When real unity between the Flemish and Walloon workers was needed more than ever, and when industrialisation was changing the Flemish working class to make that unity more possible than ever before, the Walloon Popular Movement played into the hands of the ruling class by setting the Walloon workers against 'Flemish imperialism', thus opening up the road for far more dangerous and reactionary developments. time rate and a nationall minimum basic rate with a standard piece-work supplement by 1968 for timeworkers and payments by results workers respectively.

This means that a complete revision of all piece-work rates will have to take place by then because the agreement makes clear that: 'It is not the intention that for unchanged output, payments by results workers shall receive an increase in earnings ...and appropriate adjustments will be made... piece-work times allowed will be reduced pro rata."

Fought

Many engineering workers who have fought at factory and local level to establish better rates than those agreed at national level are now to see all these gains wiped away.

Together with this are strings which give the employers an open road to full mobility of labour and the right to order any workers to change jobs, even to the extent of skilled workers being told to sweep up floors or do other cleaning jobs.

The much applauded 'guaranteed 40-hour week' is a fraud which further limits local action by workers who in the past have been able to win concessions when affeoted by short-time working or by lay-offs through strikes.

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU). 180 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 186A Clapham High Strect, 1 ondon, S.W.4 Published by The Newsletter,

complete for the second week-end in succession. Not one bus was taken out on the road. One-and-a-quarter million people in nine counties were without their normal bus services, and it was estimated that £40,000 revenue was lost to the This was the response of disgusted orews to the previous Wednesday's alternative offer by the employers of either between 9s. 6d. and 15s. pay increases or 11s. all round. Midland 'Red' workers want parity wilth the London Transport country busmen, which a week.

From the available, Bill is not rents as a controls.

Under numerous passed company by the day's strike.

would mean an increase of 35s.

UNANIMOUS

•A unanimous decision to repeat the Saturday strike tor the sixth week, and to consider extending the struggle by a ban on overtime, was taken at a meeting of the co-ordinating committee recently set up to organise the future course of the Midland 'Red' busmen's unofficial action. A ban on overtime would hit industry severely since the bus crews work extensive overtime.

The committee also decided to write to Harold Wilson asking him to intervene in the dispute.

Though it would certainly be right that a Labour Prime Minister should interyene on behalf of a grossly underpaid section of the workers, Midland 'Red' busmen are more likely to win the increase they are demanding by their own determination and solidarity, than by any appeal to the Labour Party leadership.

NO MOVE There is no move as yet by the Transport and General Workers' Union to declare the strike official.

Leaders of the union are said to be pinning their hopes on an intervention by Ray Gunter, Minister of Labour.

There is also talk of their favouring the reference of the dispute to arbitration. They point out that municipal busmen got a 15s. pay rise at arbitration and that provincial crews might achieve the same.

This would not be much of an improvement on the employers' offer, already rejected. A 15s. rise is less than half the increase the Midland 'Red' crews are demanding. There is a difference of £3 8s. 7d. between the basic pay of a Birmingham municipal bus driver and that earned by a Midland 'Red' driver.

A NEW Rents Bill is to be introduced next month. scanty information it seems that this intended to restrict whole and restore the Tory government Housing Acts were the detriment of tenants; the Kent ACt OI 193/ brought about the gradual removal of rent control from 40 per cent of all houses controlled in 1957.

Now rents have risen to such an extent that it seems difficult to find a 'reasonable' ceiling GREATER LONDON The capital is packed so tight that homes for about a million people will be needed outside it, and plans for new towns in East Anglia are at last under consideration.

This packing-in takes the form of 'multi-occupation', of continued occupation of condemned old houses, and of SAY NO TO SAY NORTH - EAST busmen's answer to the private bus companies' pay offer was quite decisive.

The number of bus crews on one-day strike last Saturday was twice that of the previous week.

Bus companies have tried to split the busmen with their offer -15s. a week for town buses, 9s. for country or 11s, all round. The bus crews answer was a more united strike.

First garage to take a decision to stop work was Bensham, one of the biggest of the Northern and Associated depots.

Join

This depot had not stopped the previous week. Busmen at Chester-le-Street also decided to join the one-day stoppage, despite the opposition of their local officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

The militant Tynemouth garage, South Shields and Jarrow depots took a decision for strike action at their meetings.

They were joined by about 50 crews of the 'United Automobile Services' in Newcastle. Their company offered them 11s.

More busmen still are likely to take action next week. But again the question comes up sharply of the need for united coordinated national action in support of the busmen's demands.

There is an urgent need for a rank and file link-up between the various garages and the various areas who are now engaged in stoppages.

Tenants' milies squatting with relatives r an indefinite period.

All these devices are dangerous to health, so young couples are driven to mortgage their earnings for 30 years, to buy a house for €6,000.

Because, of bad housing, the Education Authorities find that teenagers have nowhere to do their homework—so they plan to keep them at school for an extra couple of hours.

Minister of Housing, Richard Crossman, sits like King Canute trying to hold back the rising tide of housing misery with stop-gap solutions.

MOBILE LABOUR

Employers and authorities talk a great deal about the need for workers to move around, but what stops them? To a great extent it is lack of accommodaItion and transport.

The employin: want

• work BUs workers in Scorland, employed by private companies last week joined with fellow bus workers throughout Britain in protest action against the long delay in obtaining a satisfactory settlement of their claim for better wages and conditions.

On Thursday, over 1,000 bus workers from six Scottish Omnibus depots staged a 24-hour strike. The areas affected were Edinburgh, Dalkeith, Broxburn, Balthgate, Biggar and Lanark.

This was followed on Saturday by a stoppage ot 4,000 west of Scotland bus workers employed by Western S.M.T., W. Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd., and other companies.

AFFECTED

Glasgow to London services which are manned by Kilmarnock crews were affected.

Ait a meeting in Kilmarnock on February 14, delegates from west of Sootland garages decided to await the outcome of talks between the employers and union officials on February 17 before taking action.

When these negotiations proved negative there was overwhelming support by the bus crews for strike action.

Kilmarnock, Ayr, Cumnock, Paisley, Newton Mearns, Inchinnan, Largs, Ardrossan, Greenock, Gourrock, Port Glasgow— all solidly supported the strike.

At Kirkaldy the crews rejected all attempts of union officials to keep the services running. In many areas the only buses on the road were manned by voluntary, unpaid crews, who agreed ito maintain hospital services.

DECLARATION

At several depots last Saturday's strike decision was accompanied by a declaration to strike every Saturday until the workers' claim has been met.

The sentiments expressed by Ardrossan crews, to strike until their case is won or until the union 'takes aggressive action' on their behalf, sum up the feelings of busmen everywhere.

Dissatisfaction at the dilatory attitude of union officials was expressed at the Kilmarnock meeting last week and is widespread.

to have it both ways-rents and profits. Sardines we may be, but not yet snails, with our homes on our backs.

In the last ten years there has been a sharp increase in the private ownership of homes, instead of paying rent.

This trend has been going on for the last 50 years, however— in 1914 about 80 per cent of the population of England and Wales was paying rent, but in 1964 it was down to 30 per cent.

Building societies and trusts lend vast sums of money on the current artificial values of land and buildings, and the owner - occupiers spend their working lives paying off the debt at 6 per cent or so.

In this situation local councils are so beset with difficulties that they confine themselves to picking up the pieces and sorting out the problems left by landlords.

Families must live miserably a borough for five years