The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 394

attack on the 'madly over-generous' compensation payments proposed in the Steel White Paper highlighted the sham of this week's parliamentary manoeuvres.

Tory opposition to the nationalization proposals at this stage is purely for the sake of keeping up appearances. The last thing the employing class wants at the moment is to defeat the Wilson administration, which is serving them so well at home and abroad.

It would take more than two years for the proposals of the White Paper to take effect, and the press reported on Tuesday that the Stock Exchange was proceeding on the assumption that it will probably never happen'.

Even if it does, the present scale of compensation, and the fact that the highly profitable engineering interests of firms like Guest, Keen and Nettlefoid remain untouched, is enough to reconcile them to state ownership of an industry which would in any case require extensive ploughing back of profits if it is to survive in the next decade.

"Can't afford pensions' The government, which is proposing to give £660 million to the steel barons, is the same government which 'could not afford' to raise pensions last winter, which prepares unemployment through the calling in of bank deposits, and which calls for wage 'restraint' from the workers.

Millions of Labour voters get this treatment, while those who spent millions in anti-Labour propaganda before the last election are presented with fortunes.

Last Friday, when the terms of compensation to the steel shareholders were announced, £80 million were added to steel share prices in a matter of minutes.

Shameful record

Ian Mikardo, though claiming the support of some 20 MPs, is the only parliamentary voice to speak out against these disgraceful proposals. Foot, Silverman and the rest of the 'left wing' have added yet FOR over five years, and especially since Easter 1964, the Young Socialists have waged a bitter political struggle against the right-wing leadership of the Labour Party. They have championed the cause of young people everywhere, and in doing so, have won widespread approval within the adult movement.

When the Labour government refused to give old age pensioners their increase over the winter months, they organised local and national demonstrations as well as a parliamentary lobby on behalf of the old people.

"The Guardian', a liberal national newspaper, had the following to say about the Young Socialists following last week-end's May Day demonstration in London:.

For the Young Socialists it was all reality. Their banners were by far the most ingenious, their floats the most picturesque, and their enthusiasm the most vociferous. They were unrivalled for colour, except perhaps by the London Cypriots, who wore scarlet Garibaldean neck scarves. Six Young Socialists dressed as undertakers, carried a coffin, with a pensioner inside: "This pensioner couldn't wait six months for his 12s. 6d."

read the lugubrious legend.

This group was escorted by a busload of policemen who could study a hastily scrawled barb:

"I think your police are wonderful' Peter Rachman"?

Of course, they have their enemies. One of these is a certain Mr. Joseph Hansen, who was one (just one) of Trotsky's secretaries in Mexico. This man now resides in a state of semi-retirement in Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly. They would oppose to the end the pro-capitalist policies of the government, inside Parliament and out, on steel as on Vietnam.

What is the purpose of loyally voting for a government which carries out capitalist policies?

In the similar nationalization move of 1950, followed by the Tory de-nationalization of 1953, the steel monopolies were able to strengthen their financial position at the state's expense. They hope, nationalization does go through, to repeat the process, using the capital accumulated from compensation payments, plus the money earned by investing this profitably in the interval, to buy back the plant they want at cheap rates.

Steel means power to conSaturday, May 8, 1965 Paris, occasionally scanning the newspapers for material which he can re-write for a small duplicated publication called World Outlook.

During the last 12 months his weekly handouts have remained silent about the activities of the British Young Socialists. Throughout the period of the most vicious right-wing witch-hunt against them, this so-called ex-secretary of Trotsky had nothing to say.

Only the Socialist Labour League defended the Young Socialists and fought by their side on every occasion.

A recent issue of Hansen's publication attacks The Newsletter for the way it reported the Young Socialists' intervention in the recent demonstration of Indian workers on behalf of their comsates wite are imprisons in Kerala.

At the Young Socialists Conference at Morecambe, which was held at the end of February, the Secretary of the Indian Workers' Association invited the Young Socialists to participate with them in this demonstration, an invitation which was gladly accepted.

In those areas where the Young Socialists had day-to-day contact with the Indian workers, they helped to organise a most successful march from Waterloo Embankment to Hammersmith Town Hall.

However, unknown to the Young Socialists, the British Communist Party were also intervening, since a large number of pro-Soviet Indian CP members were attracted.

At the outset of trol huge areas of industry which depend on this basic material. The steel owners have built their industrial empires from the sweat of millions of workers in these industries. It is time they were deprived of the power to do this.

"The Times' editorial of May 6 says, opposing steel nationalization:

Extend nationalization 'Many industries are dominant, but are not on the government's list for potential nationalization. That is true: they should be immediately added to the list.

Large companies and big blocks of shareholdings would receive only drastically reduced compensation, and all others should be settled at minimum number of full-time officials of this organisation objected to the Young Socialists carrying banners in support of the Vietnamese struggle against American imperialism.

The Indian marchers intervened and insisted that the Young Socialists should carry these banners and that they fully supported them. They understood very well that the struggle of the Vietcong is inseparable from their struggle against the agents of imperialisin in India.

At the Hammersmith Town Hall, where the main speeches were made, each speaker, including those of the Communist Party, gave at least verbal support to the struggle of the Vietcong.

Included amongst the main speakers, Dave Ashby, of the Young Socialists, received tremen. dous applause when he related the fight in Britain and India to the conflict which is now taking piace in Victram.

The Newsletter, says Hansen, was misreporting when it claimed that 3,000 had marched against the war in Vietnam. What it should have said, he claims, is: '2,000 MARCH AGAINST IMPRISONMENT OF INDIAN COMMUNISTS and 300 against Vietnam war.' This is nothing more than a public insult against the revolutionary internationalism of the Indian communists and Young Socialists who joined the march. Without the support of the Indian workers, the Young Socialists could not have marched behind their banners opposing the war in Vietnam.

Truly, the blind subjective hatred for The Newsletter which emanates from revisionists such as Hansen knows no bounds.

rates, if the Labour government were seriously proposing an attack on capitalist interests worthy of the support of the working class.

The same measures would be applied to engineering, building and building materials, chemicals, the banks, and land, as a minimum programme for a socialist government.

Workers' committees would have the responsibility of politically supervising the take-over and managing the industries.

If nationalization is carried out in any other way, as has been shown particularly in the mines and on the railways, it functions only to enrich the capitalist class and assist them in rationalising their system of exploitation.

another page to their shameful record of silence on the betrayals of the Wilson government.

But it is not enough for Mikardo to call for the scaling down of compensation payments. Mikardo and his' friends will not draw the awkward conclusion that the compensation terms express the same capitulation to the employing class that characterises all Labour's policies, from Vietnam and the Dominican Republic to the old age pensions.

Real socialist MPs would not confine their criticisms to press statements and manoeuvres to take advantage of the privileged position of MPs Police charge Liverpool Young Socialists in the May Day parade (lefl) and YS National Chairman, Mike Farley, was arrested (right) the Young Socialists, Sheila Torrance said that throughout the summer the YS would build its movement through social and political activities.

Mike Banda, editor of The Newsletter said the SLL was the only organisation in Britain that was entitled to celebrate May Day because it was an internationalist organisation. Both the Labour Party and Communist Party had betrayed the international solidarity of the working class, especially over the question of Vietnam.

Gerry Healy, national secretary of the League also spoke of the betrayal by the Labour bureaucrats. The Labour Party, he said, was not a democratic party because nobody had voted for the policies now being carried out over defence, rising prices, old age pensions and Vietnam by the right-wing 'leaders'

hetween the unions Page May 8.1965

ARM THE VIETCONG!

WEEKLY ORGAN OF*THE CENTRAL_COMMITTEE=OF-THE-SOCIALISIT ABOUR LEAGUE Vol. 9, No. 394 Price 6d.

STEEL NATIONALIZATION £660 million hand-out to steel owners CRAWFORD - B/OSL FILE Behind their banners of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, and the banner of the Socialist Labour League, over 400 Young Socialists marched through London last Sunday in a May Day march, chanting 'Arm the Vietcong'. This slogan was taken up by thousands of other Young Socialists up and down the country. End wage freeze and rising prices! THERE can be no clearer message of international working-class solidarity than that issued by Socialist Labour League - Young Socialist demonstrators up and down the country in May Day marches.

Reports from our correspondents show that the revolutionary youth and militants were the only people to seriously go ahead to demand 'Arm the Vietcong', 'Defend the Vietnamese Revolution', 'Hands off Dominican Republic!' 'End Wage Freeze', 'End High Prices', along with demands for higher pensions, facilities for youth, no police, violence and the nationalization of all the basic industries.

In London, over 400 Young Socialists, with 8 floats, marched behind their pictures of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky and the Sociali Labour tears banner saying 'U.S. Imperialism Get Out of Vietnam'.

PRAISED Leading the march were G. Healy, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League and Young Socialist National Committee secretary, Dave Ashby and treasurer, Sheila Torrance.

Hours of preparation were put in on the floats and banners, which were highly praised by even "The Guardian' (see quote in editorial).

The Labour , Party contingent left the Embankment, silent, except for one or two brass bands, while the Young Socialists waited YS national secretary, Dave Ashby SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAS LET'S GO! JOIN THE US. IMPERIALISM YOUNG SOCIALISTS CEL OUT OF AND ORGANISE OR SOCIALIS BY NEWSLETTER REPORTERS in nearby Northumberland Place.

Enthusiastic and full of energy, the youth began their chanting even before they started to march. And they kept it up for the whole length of the long demonstration to Hyde Park through dry and dusty London streets, carrying heavy, bright, demanding banners and placards.

Once or twice enthusiastic applause from the crowds on the pavement greeted the marchers. Several commented that the Labour Party had left no impression on them.

The youth, on the other hand, know the policies they are fighting for, and for the last quarter of an hour, as they marched along Oxford Street and into Hyde Park they continuously chanted: 'Arm the Vietcong' to the largest crowd of onlookers who stood in awe.

Across the Park, the smaller than usual Labour Party march had drawn a highly critical audience io its platform.

TU AUDIENCE

_Spokers Michael Stewart: Labour's Foreign Secretary, and Bessie Braddock were unable to make themselves heard above shouts against the government's policy on Vietnam.

However, this same audience of trade unionists and rank-and-file Labour Party members later walked over and quietly listened to what the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League had to say.

On the Socialist Labour League platform, speakers Dave Ashby, Sheila Torrance and Aileen Jennings, editor of 'Keep Over 1,000 attended the Socialist Labour League meeting in Hyde Park and voted overwhelmingly for a resolution supporting the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S.

aggression in South-east Asia and for the unconditional withdrawal of all troops from the area.

Left', the official paper of the Young Socialists, stressed the need to build a mass socialist youth movement.

Ashby congratulated the Young Socialists on their tremendous effort in organising such a highly successful May Day demonstration.

Trade unionists and rank-and-file members of the Labour Party could learn some very important lessons from the Young Socialists.

Aileen Jennings stated that it was working-class youth who were taking a lead in the struggle against imperialism throughout the world.

YS WILL BUILD

In Britain it was the Young Socialists, in South Vietnam the youth of the Vietcong, in American the young Negro workers and in Spain, student youth and workers.

Outlining the future plans of

LIVERPOOL

MASSIVE victory was scored for the Young Socialists on May Day when over 120 of them, together with a contingent of adult trade unionists, defied a police ban and marched through the streets of Liverpool chanting slogans in support of the Vietnamese workers and peasants.

YS national treasurer, S. Torrance Despite the arrest of Mike Farley, National Chairman of the Young Socialists, and attacks with police batons on leaders of the march, the Young Socialists carried on to a meeting at their regional headquarters.

The youth had assembled at the Pier Head, the traditional starting point, where a Liverpool Trades and Labour Council meeting was being held.

Several hundred trade unionists, Labour Party, Communist Party and Young Communist League members heard the Young Socialists expose the role of Eric Heffer, Labour MP for Walton who spoke at the meeting. He is well known as a so-called left to YS members who met him during the lobby of Parliament on the old age pensions issue, and whose attitude to the question of South Vietnam has been dealt with on more than one occasion by The Farley was released on bail on Saturday afternoon. On Monday he appeared in court charged with obstructing the police and was granted an adjournment.

He was immediately rearrested and only released three hours later after further sureties had been secured.

It soon became clear that local trade union and Labour leaders had decided to take the unprecedented step of calling off the May Day demonstration and were enlisting the support of the police in ensuring that the march did not take place, rather than allow it to be dominated by the colourful float and banners of the Young Socialists, who were by far the biggest single contingent at the meeting.

The Communist Party and Young Communist League immediately capitulated. Even before the announcement of the cancellation was made, they rolled up their banners and posters and packed them into a van.

Young Socialists immediately moved round the crowd arguing that the march must go on; a number of Young Communists who wished to march were forbidden to do so by leading members of their Party.

At the end of the meeting Mike Farley addressed the crowd explaining that the Young Socialists would lead a march, no matter what the right wing might say. Cont. on page 4 →

THE decision of the conference of union executives to support the government's incomes policy marks a significant stage in the betrayal of the working class by its reformist and Stalinist leaders.

As the crisis of British capitalism grows more and more acute, so the trade union apparatus draws closer to the capitalist state and more in opposition to its own members. This is what George Woodcock, secretary of the Trades Union Congress, meant when he said that the trade unions 'shared the government's responsibility and that they 'could not remain at arms length from governments' And it is significant that Woodcock speaks about governments and not just a Labour government. He also threatened the unions with state action when he pointed out that the government could move towards limitation of the right to strike and compulsion to observe contracts if the unions did not co-operate voluntarily.

Backs wage

freeze He revealed that he had been approached by George Brown on October 21 and told that the Labour government desperately needed an incomes and prices policy.

I told Mr. Brown,' went on Woodcock 'that if it could be shownthat the situation was desperate enough to require short-term, drastic remedies I would go myself to the General Council [of the TUC] and advise them to back a government appeal for a rigid short-term wage freeze or its equivalent.' However, it is clear that he advised Brown that it was necessary to move cautiously.

I said I would very much prefer we started at the bottom in the hope that we could gradually, patiently and over a long period work up to something that might eventually be worthwhile ... we have preferred to take one short step at a time and to see the incomes and prices policy as something which when started very modestly... would be an accepted and established fact over a period of years' (My emphasis)

At the same time that these leaders are attempting to tie their members to the capitalist state, the announcement was made that George Brown had appointed Mr. Duncan Dewdney as joint deputy chairman of the Prices and Incomes Board. 'Fawley" planner Mr. Dewdney is managing director of the Esso Petroleum Company and will be seconded to the Board for two years.

(The company will continue to pay his undisclosed salary and will receive £9,500 from the government towards it.)

Esso Petroleum was the company which negotiated the 'Fawley Agreement' by which workers at the Fawley refinery got higher pay and shorter hours in return for abandoning a number of trade union practices which safeguarded working conditions.

This left the door wide open for speed-up and intensification Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay A short, masterly and topical analysis of trends in monopoly short, masterly and topical analysis of capitalism and the prospects for the trade unions in the back- capitalism and the prospects for the trade ..1-dnanad manitalict conntries Price 3d. ward and advanced capitalist countries. "There is one common feature in the development, or more correctly the degeneration, of modern trade union organisations in the entire world: it is their drawing closely to and growing together with, the state power. (Leon Trotsky: Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay') Youth must defeat Woodcock and Brown of labour and discipline.

Now, as "The Guardian' of May 1 pointed out: It is a leading hope of the government that its incomes policy will trigger off many more such bargains, and clearly Mr. Dewdney is well-grounded in the problems?

In this connection the way in which nationalization of steel has been carried out is extremely interesting. The payment of $660 million in compensation, at rates well above the market price, shows the Labour government's tender concern for big business and has delighted the City.

But this is not the most important thing. What is more interesting is the large amount of obsolescent plant that has been taken over.

This includes two-thirds of the existing obsolescent plant in pig iron production and three-quarters of the obsolescent plant in crude steel production.

No compensation The government clearly intends a modernisation programme in steel which will involve big attacks on the standards of steel workers in the course of a drive for more productivity.

The Newsletter has consistently demanded that the Labour government extend nationalization without any form of compensation and under workers' control. We must be clear that nationalization carried out by Wilson has nothing in common with socialism.

The nationalized steel industry will remain completely dependent on the capitalist state, as any nationalization without workers' control must do. The Labour government intends to discipline the steel workers to serve the interests of monopoly capitalism and the state.

That is why there has been only limited opposition to this nationalization by big business and why the Tories have not utilised right-wingers like Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly to bring the Labour government down.

It is important to see the developments in the trade unions in relation to these problems of the capitalist state.

As Trotsky pointed out in "Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay':

"The whole task of the bourgeoisie consists in liquidating the trade unions as organs of the class struggle and substituting in their place the trade union bureaucracy as the organ of the leadership over the workers by the bourgeois state.' Collaboration It is no accident that Carron has 15 minutes on television to attack the apprentices who, of course, are given no right of reply by the 'neutral' BBC.

Neither is it a coincidence that just at this time the Amalgamated Engineering Union has called in two ICI efficiency experts to help streamline the union, nor that Jim Conway, general secretary of the union, has said that he regards Walter Reutner's United Auto Workers' Union as a model for the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

The fact is that the requirements of monopoly capital are at the moment completely in harmony with the social position and political outlook of the Labour bureaucracy. Monopoly capitalism requires the collaboration of the state power.

The trade union leaders, whose reformist political outlook commits them to private property relations while they face this centralised capitalist class, closely bound up with the state, seek themselves to adapt to the state and contend for its co-operation.

Today the objective conditions leave no room for any serious or lasting social reforms. Thus, under their present leadership, the trade unions can only become instruments of capitalism for the disciplining of the workers. Political fight The struggle now must be to turn the trade unions into organisations of the exploited workers and not of the Labour bureaucracy.

The fight for trade union democracy is, therefore, a political fight against the present union leaders. Only a clear revolutionary perspective can make this struggle for even elementary trade union democracy possible.

That is why it was the Socialist Labour League, and not the Communist Party, which was able to carry on the fight against the reactionary leaders of the Electrical Trades Union.

Only this it possible to understand the process of amalgamation and 'modernisation' of the unions as a process intended to strengthen the grip of the top bureaucracy over the membership.

These leaders have not yet imposed their policies on the working class. That is why Woodcock told the trade union executives: "We embark on this dangerous, difficult, complex task with our hearts in our mouths, fearful and trembling.' New generation But to defeat Woodcock and Co. means a political struggle inside the unions. Central to this struggle must be opposition to the incomes policy and the demand that the trade unions separate themselves from the capitalist state.

Politics cannot be kept out of the trade unions. The great crime of the Communist Party is that it strengthens the right wing, not only by the actions of the Paynters and Berridges, but because the policies of peaceful co-existence and parliamentary roads to socialism lead to the miseducation of thousands of militant workers.

Thus theré is a layer of political opportunism even amongst militant stewards and workers which is of great assistance to the union leaders and the government.

Many of these stewards, even those with a long record of militancy, are being left behind by current developments in the class struggle.

But a new generation of young workers is on the scene now. If these youth can be politically educated and trained as Marxists, they can revitalise the older workers, and defeat the Woodcocks and Browns.

Only the Socialist Labour League can carry out this task.

THE annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, held recently in Belfast, centred around the struggle of the Young Socialists to expose the Wilson government and build an alternative leadership.

On the first morning, the 'Belfast News Letter' in its leading editorial urged the Labour Party to take action against the Young Socialists.

Claiming that the youth 'preach a brand of class hatred and support for revolutionary movements everywhere that bears little resemblance to either Transport House or Waring Street (Northern Ireland Labour Party headquarters) policy, the editorial wondered why the Young Socialists had been tolerated so long'.

Mrs. Bessie Braddock, the fraternal delegate from the British Labour Party, directod half her speech to viciously slandering the Young Socialists.

DERISION

To yells of derision and laughter from the degelates, she accused the Young Socialists of not 'having minds of their own', and 'taking orders from the Trotskyists'.

She said the Young Socialists had no right to be in the Labour Party if they disagreed with the present Labour ministers.

However, despite the Belfast News Letter' and Bessie Braddock, the Northern Ireland Labour Party was in no position to carry through a witch-hunt. Our Labour Correspondent Unlike the British Labour Party who could expel Young Socialists because of the strength of the bureaucracy built up in decades and based on the skilled workers, it is a small party with no roots in the working class struggle and completely unable to unite the Protestant and Catholic workers.

The majority of workers, unskilled and living with the constant threat of unemployment and emigration, are isolated from its right-wing opportunistic policies.

In the General Election, the Labour Party contested 10 seats, losing four deposits and dropping its vote in every constituency which it had fought in 1959.

NO REMOVAL The rank and file at the conference, disgusted with the leadership, were in no mood to allow the executive to witchhunt the Young Socialists who have built up support in many branches.

The right-wing leadership, then, needed a tame conference and an ensuing period in which they think they can regroup.

This was shown when the chairman refused to allow discussion and a vote to be taken on a motion which had been seconded calling for the removal of Young Socialists who were in the visitors' chairs and who had lobbied Mrs. Braddock.

The main debate was on a Young Socialist resolution attacking Wilson's refusal to carry out his election pledges to the old age pensioners and on the boycott of arms to South Africa, and warning that further repressive actions would be taken against the working class.

Only a card vote saved the face of the right wing. Delegates representing the Electrical Trades Union, Draughtsmen's and Allied Technicians' Association and the National Union of Sheetmetal Workers, as well as many constituency parties voted for the resolution.

The inability of the right wing to fight was shown by the fact that Jackie Vance, National Committee member of the Young Socialists for Northern Ireland, was elected unopposed to the executive.

There can be no doubt that the crisis inside the Northern Ireland Labour Party will deepen. Faced with a life and death struggle to maintain profits, the employers, many of whom were enticed to Ireland on the basis of cheap labour, are preparing an onslaught on the working class.

RESOLUTE FIGHT

The role of the Labour Party as guardians of British imperialism maintaining the partition of Ireland and thus the division of the workers, means that they will be more and more cut off from the struggles.

A tremendous responsibility rests with the Young Socialists. They alone have demonstrated that a resolute fight against the bosses can unite the workers.

Only the fight for Marxism can build the party which will take the Irish working class to power. In the big struggles that lie ahead the Young Socialists can make great steps towards this.

The outcome of the strike of 550 draughtsmen at Harland and Wolff has exposed the fake-left and Stalinist leadership of the Draughtsmen's and Technicians' Association only a couple of days after the sellout by the Communist Party faction in the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

The strike, whose immediate cause was the dismissal of joint office convenor Leslie Clark, was in its fifth week.

On Wednesday, April 28, at a mass meeting, Mr. Ken Gill requested the workers to return to work so that he could negotiate the reinstatement of Clark.

When they did so, the following morning 150 were given a week's notice. A mass meeting was called on Friday. A resolution requesting the leadership of the union to call the workers out again and to refuse arbitration was passed unanimously.

However, on Monday of this week, Mr. George Doughty received the support of the annual conference of the union to take the whole national shipbuilding dispute to a court of enquiry.

Double talk

He promised that if the findings of the court are unfavourable then the union will not accept them. This is double-talk. If the union intends to stand by its demand then there is no reason to go to court in the first place.

The weakness of the national leadership after having received a clear mandate on Friday from the Belfast draughtsmen is thus exposed. The sacked workers are left in a vacuum. The local leadership must fight against the sell-out by Doughty.

If this means taking firm industrial action, then the draughtsmen's union will have to do so.

Turn page

Keep Left' publisher addresses young workers and students voung workers and students A discussi article THE struggle that has just - taken place in the Young Socialists is important not only for the British working class, but for workers all over Page Three hree leadership amongst the youth, that they were able to inflict such a decisive defeat on the Labour leadership.

The crisis in capitalism was now much more advanced,

freeze By our Northern Ireland Correspondent NORTHERN IRELAND LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE WORKERS at Pinchurst Textiles of Lurgan, Northern Ireland, in the sixth week of their strike, were arrested on Monday of this week for trying to prevent blacklegs entering the factory.

Sixty workers at Spalding's sports equipment factory are still on strike in defence of their convenor, George Craig.

One hundred and fifty draughtsmen were sacked on Wednesday night as a result of their strike action at Harland and Wolff, Britain's biggest shipyard.

Three thousand five hundred men in the shipyard were sacked on Monday night because 70 foremen came out on strike to demand negotiation rights for the Boilermaker's Society.

The Pinehurst strike was precipitated by the management's refusal to offer more than 4d. a week increase to the workers, many of whom take home only £8 15s. Od. On the first day of their unofficial strike the 350 men received their cards through the post.

Ultimatum document Behind the backs of the workers, Mr. J. Sloan, Northern Ireland Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, negotiated a settlement which was posted to all the strikers a few days before Easter, no doubt with the hope that such timing could cause confusion and splits in the rank and file.

The document reads follows:

"That the management will offer re-employment to all those members recently discharged, providing they are individually prepared to sign the written undertaking below:

It is clearly understood that I accept the conditions at present operating in the factory and the interim offer attached thereto.

I hereby undertake to cooperate with the management in a mutual endeavour to improve overall efficiency in the best ways of using Labour, Machinery and Materials.

The award which such efforts justify will be negotiated between the Union Representatives and Management. The agreement arrived at shall then be referred to the members for consideration. (sic!)

In the event of disagreement in regard to the content of the award the matter in dispute shall be referred to an Independent Arbitrator whose decision shall be binding on both parties.

I also undertake to willingly accept that all matters where differences arise, shall be dealt with through the recognised channels and that I personally will not take part in unconstitutional action.

Because of interruption in production, many orders have been cancelled, therefore the Company is not in a position immediately to re-engage everyone. Once the production flow can be planned the Company will make every effort to re-employ all those formerly employed prior to the dispute.' (My emphasis)

Abolish rights Trade unionists ought to study this portentous document very carefully bearing in mind that the Pinehurst workers are served by the 11/58 branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union which consists solely of their tactory.

In effect, therefore, the trade union bureaucrats are seeking to abolish the branch rights of the workers.

The men were being told to accept the 50 per cent increased work-load, introduced by the management, that strikes are 'unconstitutional, branch officers would cease to be trade union 'representatives' and area arbitration would become 'the recognised channel' for deciding disputes.

When asked to reject the settlement by strike leader Jack Elliott at a mass meeting on Good Friday, the workers made little balls out of their copies and showered the platform with them as a declaration of their intention to fight.

In a statement on April 29 Mr. F. C. Brown, the factory manager, announced the hiring of new labour. He also claimed that English factories have been doing Pinehurst work.

Such factories must be traced and the work 'blacked'.

Undoubtedly, the 'lock-out' tactics of the management and lack of funds will drive some workers back to work, but there is no sign that the resolution of the majority has been broken. Spalding strike The Spalding's strike, ostensibly caused by the dismissal of Transport and General Workers' Union convenor George Craig has deeper roots. The management, struggling to make the Northern Ireland factory profitable, tried to force new incentive schemes on to the workers. Under Craig's leadership these were rejected.

Support from the 11/30 branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union which, with 10,000 members, Britan's largest, is growing rapidly. This has given heart to the 60 workers who are still out despite the open alliance ot trade union leaders and management (the personnel manager, Mr. T. Telford is an ex-TGWU official) to break the strike.

On the Wednesday before Easter, Mr. J. Sloan asked the 190 strikers to go back so that he could open negotiations over the reinstatement of George Craig, although he knew that the management had announced that they would not re-employ all the workers.

On April 26, the 11/30 branch passed unanimously a resolution in support of the Spalding strikers, after hearing George Craig give a report on the dispute. When the chairman, Alec Larmour (TGWU convenor, Short & Harland's aircraft factory), refused to accept a motion of censure on Mr. J. Sloan, a special meeting was demanded so that Sloan could be given the chance to answer for himself.

When he did not appear, Larmour resigned from the chair rather than hold the meeting: At the time of writing 5,000 signatures have been collected demanding a Special Emergency Meeting of the branch. Shipyard strike

E chal 'RIC WEBSTER challenges the validity of Mao Tse-tung's theory and strategy of "protracted war' in South Vietnam in the discussion article in last week's But it was precisely because the Vietminh applied this theory in the North that the whole of Tonkin was liberated and the spectacular and historic defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu was made possible. And if the strategy was correct for the North in 1954, why should it be incorrect in the South today?

What is the 'protracted war' and what are its main operaional stages? Let me quote General Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of Dien Bien Phu:

'The imperatives of the peoples war in Vietnam required the adoption of appropriate strategy and tactics, on the basis of the enemy's characteristics and of our own, of the concrete conditions of the battlefields and balance of forces facing each other....

'First of all this strategy must be the strategy of a long-term war. It does not mean that all revolutionary wars, all peoples' wars must necessarily be long-term wars.

If from the outset, the conditions are favourable to the people and the balance of porces revolution, the revolutionary war can end victoriously in a short time. But the war of liberation of the Vietnamese people started in quite different conditions. We had to deal with a much stronger enemy..: it was impossible for us to defeat the enemy swiftly.

'... the long-term revolutionary war must include several different stages: stage of contention, stage of equilibrium and stage of counter-offensive....

... the long-term peoples' war in Vietnam also called for appropriate forms of fighting.

"The adopted form of fighting was guerilla warfare. It can be said that the war of liberation of the Vietnamese people was a long and vast guerilla war proceeding from simple to complex then to mobile war in the last years of the Resistance.

'Guerilla war is the war of the broad masses of an economically backward country standing up against a powerfully equipped and welltrained army of aggression. 'The adopted form of fighting was guerilla warfare' , involving A continuation of a discussion begun in last week's Newsletter ... To this modern armament one opposes a boundless heroism to vanquish either by harrassing or by annihilating the enemy according to circumstances, and by combining military operations with political and economic action; no fixed line of demarcation, the front being wherever the enemy is found!

'Peoples' War Peoples' Army' - General Vo Nguyen Giap This quotation does not exhaust the whole gambit of guerilla war but it does at least show that guerilla war is the most effective form of warfare for backward colonial countries with large peasant populations, fighting for national liberation and agrarian reform.

Moreover, the example of Vietnam and China proves that guerilla war can be successful only on condition that the army is controlled and led by a workers' party striving to establish a proletarian dictatorship in alliance with the poor peasants.

Webster, however, calls for the scrapping of the 'protracted war' in exchange for working-class uprisings in the cities and the adoption of socialist demands for workers.

I am entirely in favour of advocating socialist and transitional demands in the present situation in South Vietnam as a means of accelerating the class struggle in the cities. But it is unreal to imagine that workers in an occupied city will respond to insurrectionary calls and victoriously liberate the cities from imperialist occupation.

Webster's assumption that the United States will not bomb the cities is based on a dangerous illusion.

Webster himself admits that the U.S. 'is prepared to put in thousands more troops, and hundreds more planes'.

As for his assertion that Hanoi 'may yet agree to Johnson's April 7 "peace proposal" plot for the repenetration of capital into North Vietnam' I think that this is nonsense.

Hanoi turned the 'Johnson plan' down flat and stepped up the war in answer. The Mekong Valley plan has died still-born.

Moscow, of course, would like to see it implemented but without the sanction of Hanoi and Peking it just cannot be done. And there no material or political reason young fighters seen above.

The civil war in Vietnam has indeed reached its most critical stage, precisely because of the strategical and tactical advantages secured by the Vietcong as a result of waging the 'protracted guerilla war'.

In order to win the final phase of the war, Hanoi requires not only the material support of China and the USSR but — more important — the active support of the international working class—particularly the American and British working class.

U.S. imperialism can and must be defeated We in Britain can make a significant contribution to such a defeat by fighting the treacherous policies of Wilson and Stewart in South-east Asia. (official paper of the Young Socialists) publisher, David Longley, at a meeting in Paris last week.

The meeting had been organised by French youth grouped around the paper 'Revoltes', who are themselves struggling to build a revolutionary youth movement in France.

Over three hundred people, students and young workers, packed the hall from 8.30 p.m. to midnight, taking part in the discussion opened by Longley's contribution.

'All over the world, in Vietnam, the Soviet Union, the USA, Italy, Britain and elsewhere, the youth are in the forefront of the struggle for socialism,' said Longley.

This is not because the youth are more energetic or honest than other sections of the working class, or because they are more aware of what is happening.

Youth to fore

'It is because in the offensive that the capitalist class is launching on the working class, under the impact of the introduction of automation, the youth are the first layer of the working class to come under attack.

It is important to study what has taken place in Britain from this point of view and not from the entirely formal and impressionistic point of view of what organisations existed in that country, how much unemployment there was at a certain time, how much

THE miners have just lodged a claim for a wage increase for daywage men far in excess of the 32 per cent limit proposed by George Brown.

In the fight for this claim the National Coal Board will certainly raise the cry: 'But the industry can't afford it.' They will be able to produce figures and accounts designed to show that in recent years the industry has barely broken even.

To grant any wage increase they will call for greater effort, more rationalisation and pit closures with a more intensive mechanisation drive.

The aim of this article is to expose these figures as, in fact, a sham which cover up the real financial position of the coal industry in order to try to keep down the wages of miners.

The nationalization of the coal industry was carried through by a right-wing leadership in the Labour Party essentially similar to that of Wilson, Brown, Callaghan, etc.

The nationalization of the mines was in no respect a move towards socialism—it was designed to strengthen monopoly capital in the difficult post-war period. The terms under which the industry was nationalized clearly show this to be true.

COMPENSATION As in Fred Lee's • steel nationalization proposals, massive compensation payments were made to the ex-mine owners for a run-down industry in which many pits had failed to make a profit over a long period of time.

In 1947 £388 million was paid out in compensation, of The last of three articles by JACK GALE and PETER JEFFRIES which only about £50 million has been repaid, leaving over £300 million outstanding on which interest must still be paid, payments which have to be carried on the backs of the miners and the rest of the working class in the form of increased taxation.

Compensation continues

to be paid for those mines which have been closed since 1947.

MASSIVE BORROWINGS The National Coal Board has incurred a massive debt to the money-lenders since 1947. Since that date, the Board has borrowed over £600 million from the government. This, in effect, means borrowing money from the capitalist class who have the money available to put into government stock.

Why have these borrowings taken place? Only because throughout the 1950s the industry deliberately held down its prices well below market rates in order to subsidise private industry.

During this period coal prices in Europe were 25 per cent above those in Britain. In addition, many capitalist firms were able, in the early years of nationalization, to negotiate favourable long-term contracts with the National Coal Board for the supply of coal at cheap rates. As a result of these and other concessions the Board has been paying out £40 million a year in interest in recent years.

DEPRECIATION PAYMENTS Depreciation payments have been manipulated in an arbitrary way by the National Coal Board to hide the real state of the industry. Depreciation provision covers those sums set aside to cover the wear and tear of plant and equipment as it is used and out of which new capital can be purchased.

It is clear that the National Coal Board accountants have set aside massive sums far in excess of the real needs of the industry. This has given the impression that the industry has been near to ruin when in fact it has been in a strong financial position.

In recent years over f80 million a year has been set aside for 'depreciation', but it is openly admitted in the National Coal Board accounts that this figure is designed to cover an industry considerably larger than the present one.

In addition, about f10 million is set aside to guard against rising prices of capital equipment in the future.

To give an example from 1962: the accounts for that year apparently show only a tiny surplus of £1.4 million; in fact the real operating surplus was €125.5 million from which was deducted £80 million for depreciation provision and a further £40 million for interest payments.

The manipulation of the figures in this way allows Alfred. Robens, chairman of the National Coal Board, to tell the miners that there is not enough in the kitty to pay any wage increases ('arguments' which are repeated by Paynter and the other National Union of Mineworkers' bureaucrats).

PIT CLOSURES The National Coal Board accounts are also manipulated to justify pit closures.

In 1953 the Board established a Central Obsolescence Fund which was to cover losses incurred in early unexpected pit closures due to bad planning, bad geological conditions, etc.

The Fund is raised by a levy on each area. At present it contains over f10 million. Although established to cover special losses as a separate Fund, it is clear that from 1962 onwards early pit closures are being charged against normal depreciation provisions.

In other words the Central Obsolescence Fund is being built up as an additional reserve and taken out from the operating surplus.

Thus a declining field, such as Scotland has now to pay money into the Central Obsolescence Fund (perhaps at the rate of £300,000 per year in this case) and at the same time pay for losses incurred in pit closures from normal depreciation payments.

So areas like Scotland appear to be making huge losses as a result of these 'double' payments. This can be then used by the Board to justify even more closures on 'economic grounds which in turn throws an even bigger burden on the remaining pits!

DEMANDS MINERS The figures produced by Robens deliberately obscure the financial position of the coal industry. How are the miners to answer Robens?

Open the books!

Miners at the moment, in a nationalized industry, have to accept figures produced by top National Coal Board officials. These men are, in the main, faithful servants of capitalism, often having close personal and financial links with private industry.

The miners themselves, drawing on expert advice, must examine the books of the industry to determine its real financial state and decide accordingly on pricing policy, closures, etc.

Suspend interest payments!

The miners can no longer accept the yearly burden of millions of pounds in interest payments. These must be suspended while the industry is reorganised by the miners.

For workers' control!

There is no democracy in the mines at the present. The Joint Consultative Machinery is a sham. There must ke workers' control over all questions of closures, grading of labour, the introduction of machinery, safety and the deployment of labour.

Extend nationalization!

The coal industry has for too long been exploited by private capital. Oil, steel, mining machinery, chemicals, etc., must be nationalized under workers' control and integrated into a socialist plan.

For a new socialist leadership!

None of these demands can be met by the present leadership in the National Union of Mineworkers or in the Labour Party.

They can only be met by the building of a new leadership which will be constructed around the policies outlined in this article in a struggle against the existing leaderships.

The building of this new leadership must be based on the gains made in the Young Socialists.

The branches of the Young Socialists must turn towards young miners, fight to establish committees amongst them where these policies and the fight for socialism can be discussed and organised.

ATTEMPTS to streamline the freight service on the British Railways by bringing in Dr. Beeching's 'liner train' service has met with fierce opposition amongst north-west railwaymen.

Leaders of the 20,000 rail workers in the north-west of England, who met in Manchester at. the beginning of the Page

the world,' said 'Keep Left's siru NEWSLETTE violence, etc., and then to compare these mechanically with other countries.

'In this narrow sense, of course, what happened in Great Britain between the years 1960 and 1964 is peculiar to that country at that historical stage and can never be repeated anywhere else.

'If we look at it in the other way, as an intervention at the very point of contact between the opposing classes, at the sharpest point of the class struggle, then we can draw lessons that develop and enrich the theoretical knowledge of Marxism.

'Intervening on the problems of the youth immediately brought about a political struggle with the labour bureaucracy.

Explosive demands "This was because these problems were the result of the development of British capiin its urgent need to automate, and the bureaucracy was determined to defend capiggle R REPORTER talism and to help development.

"This enables us to understand why such seemingly inocuous demands like unemployment committees and leisure facilities for the youth were so explosive.' This was also the reason why the battle in the Young Socialists could only be won by turning out to the youth that was not organised politically, but which, because of its position at this stage of the development of capitalism, was being forced into the front line of the class struggle,' Longley added.

Transformation

It was because Marxists understood that the battle could not be merely a verbal one, waged within the confines of the existing organisation, but had to be undertaken by turning outwards and transforming the youth's unconscious rebellion into an organised, conscious political force, by building a Marxist many other new layers of workers were being forced into struggle.

The Labour vote last October was a different form of the same unconscious beginings of struggle as the Mods and Rockers fights amongst the youth.

It represented no more support for Wilson's policies than the breaking up of deckchairs represented a hatred of deckchairs among the youth, he said.

Thus, the youth who were trained in the four-year struggle in the Young Socialists, would now penetrate these other sections of the working class and transform their struggle into a conscious fight in their turn.

Mass recruitment

This meant the turn to building the mass revolutionary party, with the youth in the leadership.

It is this turn that the YS is now making with the struggle in the trade unions and factories combined with the mass recruitment campaign around the summer programme, Longley stated in conclusion.

A discussion followed in which speakers pointed out that although the forms of struggle would be different in France, because of the different history of the French working class, the political method that had been used in Britain was of the greatest importance to French revolutionaries.

The meeting broke at midnight after a collection had been taken, raising about £30.

SHOUTING Pensions up — Prices down — Nationalize the banks, 100 Young Socialists and old age pensioners marched through Croydon (Surrey) on Monday evening , to the Town Hall, where a Council meeting was in session.

They all went into the public gallery, but were turned out by police, when they insisted on demanding that the Council reverse the decision to withdraw the small grant made for sweets and tobacco to old age pensioners in the Council's homes.

The demonstration was called by the East Surrey Federation of Young Socialists to lobby Labour Councillors, some of whom had either failed to attend the Council meeting, or walked out, when they were fully aware that the Tories intended to move withdrawal of these grants.

REASON

The reason for their absence? They are alleged to have attended a Crystal Palace football match!

L. Pyant, Chairman of the Broad Green (Croydon) Old Age Pensioners' Association, speaking at a meeting following the demonstration, said that hundreds of old people commit suicide every year because they can no longer endure the terrible hardship; many of his own members die of malnutrition, and many others are found dead in their homes because they cannot reach help in time.

He alleged that the Councillors did not hesitate to spend £2,500 on a dinner for themselves, but they found it necessary to economise on these small grants for old people.

Although each of the three Croydon Labour Parties have carried resolutions condemning the actions of these Councillors, the Labour Group has chosen to ignore the matter.

Only Councillor V. Burgos of Waddon Ward accepted the invitation to meet the youth and old age pensioners.

SUSPENDED

Last year he was suspended from the Labour Group, because the right wing objected to the way he insisted on fighting for homeless families. The meeting pledged him every support in a fight against the right wing.

Councillor J. Walker, parliamentary candidate for Streatham in the General Election, turned up to tell the Young Socialists and old age pensioners that he represented the official Labour Party.

However, he was not prepared to answer questions, and after a few short sentences he left hurriedly, picking up his hat and rolled umbrella, and muttering that some of the Tories went to the football match as well!

He admitted he had now signed as Chief Whip of Labour Group.

SPEAKERS

Other speakers at the meeting were P. Gibson, Secretary of the Trades Council, who reported that his Council had given full support to the Young Socialists on this question, Mrs. Taylor of South Norwood Old Age Pensioners' Association, and Joe Kearney, YS National Committee member.

A resolution was carried, calling on the Labour Group and the Labour Parties to take action against the Councillors who refused to fight for old age pensioners • • • this was a reflection of the anti-working-class policies of the Wilson government.

The resolution went on: We pledge ourselves to fight for the policies of the Young Socialists to organise a movement which will not betray, but will fight for socialism to completely overthrow the bosses and their system.' Dispute at Halewood plant workers at the Ford Halewood factory, near Liverpool, is a reflection of the growing dissatisfaction in the plant with the firm's attitude to the factory committee and working conditions.

The press shop men work a two shift system, from 6.35 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 11.25 p.m. This means an 81-hour working day and for many, who travel miles to the factory, it means they are unable to get home until one or two in the morning on the late shift.

Included in this working day is half an hour meal break, which is unpaid. For 18 months the press shop workers have requested that this meal break be paid for in order that they would be able to stop work half an hour earlier and so facilitate their travelling to and from work.

This would bring them in line with all other Ford process workers who work a three shift system of 7ł hours and receive a paid meal break.

The shop stewards argue that this is provided for in the Ford 'Blue Book' on work procedures. The claim has twice been to the National Joint Negotiating Council and has been rejected by Ford on both occasions.

DEFERRED

It was due for negotiation at another meeting on April 29 but again Ford deferred discussion.

On Monday morning, the press shop convenor, Bill Bradley, requested the use of the works canteen during the official meal break for a meeting to explain this to the press shop workers.

Ford replied that no meetings were to be held on company property either then, or at any other time.

As a result a meeting outside the factory decided to take strike action since no satisfaction could be expected from further negotiations. This was endorsed by the late shift at 3 p.m.

Later 8,000 other workers were laid off despite the claim by some stewards that Ford carry a six-day supply of body pressings. • A further strike meeting was held on Thursday where it was agreed to return to work on Monday. The firm have been given until Friday to negotiate. trains unless their operating terms were met.

The Manchester district council of the National Union of Railwaymen, which is the largest outside London, passed a resolution calling on the executive of the union to 'use the full strength of the union to uphold NUR policy'.

Later a spokesman said that the resolution implied industrial action by either a strike or work-to-rule.

If liner trains are introduced on the present terms then they will be 'blacked' and the men will be asked to take no part in running them.

Plans for the introduction of liner trains have been in the pipeline for some time and the NUR has gone on record on several occasions in opposition to the scheme.

Go-ahead

However, with the actions of Transport Minister, Tom Fraser, who last week gave the go-ahead for the liner train service, matters have come to a head.

The Wilson government is backing a plan which will mean the streamlining of British Railways in order to increase the profits of the private industries that use rail services.

If the scheme were allowed to be brought into practice it would mean that depots would be open to private hauliers. The NUR stated that only threat Newsletter Correspondent railway vans, British Road Services and C-licenced lorries could use the depots.

Although the government has already claimed that operating an 'open depot' will not mean redundancies or lower earnings, it is quite obvious that any streamlining of the rail system for private business will entail loss of jobs and reduction in wages.

Demands

Railmen throughout the country will have to follow the firm line of the Manchester District Committee and call for modernisation on workers' terms.

The rank and file of the NUR must demand the calling of an emergency Labour Party Conference where the present policies of the Labour government can be refuted and where policies of nationalization with workers' control of road haulage and private contractors can be discussed and voted on.

A fight along these lines is the only way to prevent the Labour government selling the rail workers into the hands of big business.

Members of the NUR must see to it that their leadership, which is already committed to action on 'liner trains', does not attempt to backslide or evade action, should the government try to push through its streamlining policies. Industrial worker

Northern Ireland is a very accurate barometer of developments in the class struggle. The need for the bosses to discipline the working class in order • to extricate themselves from the economic crisis afflicting their system has been sharply reflected in the events of the past six weeks here. The role of the trade union bureaucracy has been exposed to hundreds of workers who have not been engaged in struggle before.

Another significant aspect of the fights has been the use of 'lock-out' tactics by the bosses, which shows their lack of confidence in their hired lackeys in the trade union movement. They realise that an open confrontation with the working class is inevitable and they have taken the initiative.

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I appeal to all members of the Communist Party, the Young Communist League and Labour Party and all trade unionists to form up now and march behind the banner of the Young Socialists,' he concluded.

Even before the march got under way, the police moved in trying to take banners from the young marchers. Although they were able to split the march into two sections, it was impossible for them to prevent the march continuing.

Such determination must have been a new experience for Liverpool police, used to the passive resistance of CND and . Communist Party members.

'Hands off the Vietnam Revolution' and 'We support the Vietcong' were the central themes of the march displayed on banners, posters, cans and a float.

So impressed with this were the trade unionists who joined the demonstration that they collected £10 to donate to the Young Socialists regional committee.

BELFAST

SIX thousand trade unionists, Labour Party members, Northern Ireland CND, Socialist Youth League, Northern Ireland Young Socialists and strikers from Spalding, Monkstown, took part in the Belfast May Day parade.

The Young Socialists, headed by a float covered with slogans 'Labour Must Nationalize, Join the Young Socialists' , and 'Ulster Youth Fight for Jobs', followed by a motor cycle rider, YS flag and placards bearing the names of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, were threatened that if they did not stop shouting slogans they would have to leave the parade.

They were accused of splitting Protestant and Catholic workers by chanting slogans against the wage freeze and Sir William Carron, president of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (and a Catholic).

Despite these threats the Young Socialists continued and left the right wing in no doubt whatsoever as to whose side the YS are on, especially with regard to the Vietnamese people.

BIRMINGHAM AT Birmingham the Young Socialists took part in the May Day march, grouped around a vehicle decorated with such slogans as 'Hands off Vietnam', 'End the Rents Racket', and 'Workers of the World; Unite!' Throughout they added vitality to the march by non-stop shouting of slogans, notably Wage freeze, out, out, out; Socialism, in, in, in!' Groups of young people intervened by neckling speakers Richard Crossman and 1om Williams during the town hall meeting which wound up the march.

When Williams claimed that the Labour government had the support of the people, they shouted: 'What about Leyton?' When he appealed to the labour movement to give the government its confidence and not criticise when it had been in office only six months, they roared out: 'How long do you want?' float supporting

Council on busmen LAST Saturday, with still no sign of the findings of Ray Gunter's court of enquiry into provincial busmen's claims being published, the first crack appeared in the darity of the six militant Black Country garages of Midland 'Red' company.

Three buses from Stourbridge and one were taken out during the sixteenth week-end strikes. No attempt was made by striking busmen to stop them.

Blackleg crews tried to justify their action by claiming that they worked in order to obey 'the decisions of our union'.

Heavy pressure by officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union has been brought to bear on the Black Country strikers.

NORMAL

When other Midland 'Red' garages returned to normal working pending the enquiry's findings, Black Country crews announced forthrightly that they considered they were being stalled and intended to maintain their solidarity until they had a satisfactory offer.

Pressure has been stepped up this week to induce the men to abandon strike action since the findings of the committee of enquiry were 'due any day'.

Busmen have protested vigorously over the delay in Ray pay solithe from Wolverhampton successive unofficial publishing the findings.

Unfortunately, the six Black Country garages, though they have shown admirable resolution and solidarity, have allowed themselves to become isolated in the struggle.

DIFFICULT

In such conditions it is very difficult to maintain 100 per cent loyalty, particularly when potential waverers have the excuse that they are complying with union decisions in returning to work.

During the long 'cooling-off period' provided by the enquiry, strikers would have been wise to break out of their isolation by linking up with other garages, where there was evidence of a will to resist any possibility of a sell-out.

Midland 'Red' busmen are claiming a substantial pay rise (35s. is the sum mentioned) and improved conditions in the form of holiday, bonus and sickness payments.

By Mickie Shaw FOUR hundred workers at the Morrison Street, Glasgow, headquarters of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, staged a walk-out on Monday, May 3 in support of their claim for £l a week increase in pay.

On Thursday last week a meeting of 600 members of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers refused to accept the recommendation of a joint negotiating committee on wages.

The recommendation of this committee, which has been accepted by the Clerical and Administrative Workers' Union, was for an increase of between 12s. and 15s. for men and between 10s. and 14s. 6d. for women.

Less than a week before the union officials made their miserable offer, a resolution was carried at the annual conference of USDAW demanding an increase of f2 for Scottish Co-op workers.

Less wages

At the Co-operative Party Conference at Easter it was stated that SCWS workers with families receive less in wages than they would get from National Assistance.

The Scottish Co-op workers are absolutely right to reject the miserable offer negotiated by their union officials. They should receive the full support of all those delegates and the workers they represented, who voted for the f2 increase at the union conference on April 28.

passed from Stalinist Trades Council secretary, Hugh Wyper, to the town council to the police and back to Wyper before their request for a place in the demonstration went before the committee.

The committee refused the request and the YS was com-

Arrests and struggles Newsletter editor, Mike Banda, on DONCASTER THE highlight of the Doncaster May Day-traditionally attended by the banners and bands of the surrounding South Yorkshire collierieswas a colourful, noisy Young Socialist contingent, 300-strong.

The youth electrified the demonstration, despite the combined efforts of the police and Labour Party officials to prevent them from taking part.

Consternation mounted amongst Labour Party and National Union of Mineworkers' branch officials as more and more youth poured from coaches into Doncaster market place.

When the banner of the South Yorkshire Federation of Young Socialists went up at the head of the youth contingent proclaiming 'Support the Vietcong Socialists must break with Wilson, Labour Party officials told the youth they could not march and called in the police.

The police disbanded a motor cycle contingent and threatened the riders with arrest. The main youth contingent, however, refused to be intimidated and took part in the march.

On banner after banner the youth proclaimed their support for the miners' pay claim and the struggles of the Spanish miners, as well as their implacable hostility to the Vietnam war and the treachery of the Wilson government.

Dozens of banners announced the support of the youth for their official paper 'Keep Left'.

Right-wingers spat abuse at the youth and at one point one attempted to haul down the Socialist Labour League banner and then screamed for the police before being gently, but firmly, led away by two stewards from the youth contingent. the SLL platform in Hyde Park.

LEICESTER

FOR many years no May Day celebrations have been held in Leicester. The City Labour Party have failed to organise a march, despite calls from constituency Labour Parties.

Consequently, the Leicestershire Federation of Young Socialists decided to organise their own demonstration and invite other sections of the local labour movement to participate.

The day before May Day, the local paper carried a statement from the secretary of the City Labour Party attacking the Young Socialists, revealing the bankruptcy of the local Labour bureaucrats.

The parade itself was highly successful. Over 80 Young Socialists took part in a colourful, noisy, but disciplined demonstration. Interspersing the marchers, who included a contingent from the Indian Workers' Association, were several decorated lorries, vans and cars.

GLASGOW

IN Glasgow over 100 youth marched behind the banners of the Young Socialists. With colourful banners from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, a horse and cart full of youth from the Drumchapel, Glasgow, branch and plenty of slogan shouting and chanting, the YS made a big impression on the May Day demonstration.

Both Stalinists and the right wing attempted to keep the YS off the march.

The organising committee of the Labour and Co-operative Parties and the Trades Council banned the YS from marching with the 'official' Labour and trade union sections.

Before May Day they pelled to march at the rear of the demonstration. The YS was also refused permission to hold a public meeting in Queen's Park near the bandstand, where George Brown spoke. They were given a meeting ground outside the main park.

Police grouped in posses around the YS contingent in George Square and at their meeting, where speakers outlined the fight of the YS and how it was now being built up as an independent youth movement.

On the march the YS contingent attracted a number of youth into the demonstration, and most of them asked to join the Young Socialists.

NOTTINGHAM ATTEMPTS to prevent Young Socialists from participating in the Nottingham May Day march failed when it was found that many Labour Party floats carried 'outspoken' slogans similar to those of the youth.

The boisterous contribution of the Young Socialists ensured that the underlying uneasiness in the local labour movement on the policies of the Wilson government, particularly in Vietnam, was stated clearly.

Colonial Secretary, Anthony Greenwood, declined to comment on his activities in Aden at the meeting but found it necessary to attack a railwaymen's union speaker-the NUR man had condemned the government for introducing liner trains and undermining the nationalized structure of the railways.

editor, Aileen