The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 401

Vol. 9, No. 401 members expelled in N. Ireland HREE leading Young Socialists have been expelled from the Northern Ireland Labour Party for supporting the policies of the Socialist Labour League. This comes when the Northern Ireland Labour Party is in a deep crisis with a threatened split within the right wing and the resignation of its secretary and only fulltime official, Mr. S. Napier.

Cromac Divisional Labour Party decided on June 15 to expel Bill McElroy, chairman, Northern Ireland Young Socialists, Rory Quinn, vice-chairman, Northern Ireland Young Socialists and secretary of the South Belfast Federation of Labour Parties, and Irene Barkley, secretary, Cromac Young Socialists and vice-chairman Cromac Labour Party.

The expulsions took place with the usual lies about YS members threatening violence and breaking doors of the Labour rooms.

They follow an intense fight in Cromac Labour Party between the right wing and the Young Socialists, which resulted in the secretary and chairman of the branch resigning. The chairman was allowed to resume in order to carry through the expulsions.

YS HAVE SUPPORT

Young Socialists, through their constant campaigning and exposing of the Wilson government, are building an alternative leadership and gaining large support from the working class.

This is in complete contrast to the Northern Ireland Labour Party who are, daily, held up to ridicule by the local press and in permanent financial crisis. Without an annual grant from the British Labour Party, they would be unable to continue.

Napier's resignation is being seen as a death-blow to the party. It came after he failed to get elected to the Senate, the upper house of the Northern Ireland Parliament, because the Parliamentary Labour Party split their votes between him and a trade union candidate, Kennedy, Irish Secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union.

HEAD OF STRUGGLES But the crisis of the Northern Ireland Labour Party is not the responsibility of individuals.

It highlights the impossibility of social democracy gaining mass support in a country where the class-struggle is at a high and violent point.

The role of the Northern Ireland Labour Party is to head off the struggles of the workers into parliamentary questions, and discredit socialism by its pettywrangling and internal strife.

Since the General Election, when Labour lost four deposits and their vote fell in every constituency which they had preFOR some time U.S. imperialism has been in grave difficulties in South Vietnam. Politically it is in a quandary. Fourteen governcostly 'police action' or take the road to World War III.

President Johnson and his advisers know very well that there is no prospect of winning the war short of annihilating the entire Vietnamese nation. The problem of supplementing its military actions by diplomatic deception viously contested, they have become more and more isolated from the big struggles of the working class.

At that time the YS issued a statement predicting. that the Election failures would lead to demoralisation in the Party. This was loudly condemned by the right wing living in their own little world of self-importance.

Although the press have made great capital out of the right wing's disarray, they have completely avoided the statements of the expelled Young Socialists which linked their expulsions with the sell-out of the Wilson government and called for an emergency conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

YOUTH DEDICATED The statement continued: It would be foolish of the right wing to think that by expelling us they have stopped the building of a mass socialist youth movement. Twenty-five years after the assassination of Trotsky, working-class youth are again discussing the theories of class struggle and dedicating their lives to the achievement of a socialist world.' This is the only way forward for the working class in Ireland —North and South. Out of the present big struggles and crisis of the right wing must be built the revolutionary party.

The Young Socialists are showing the way. All rank and file members of the Labour Party must fight for their reinstatement and demand an emergency conference to expel the right wing. Fund set up for Eire strikers THE National Busmen's Union has suspended the strike (reported on page 4), which nearly paralysed the Eire transport system for two weeks, so that the Labour Court can hold an investigation into the busmen's claims.

Support for the strike has come not only from unions in Eire, but from Irish workers in Britain, who have set up a Support the Irish Strikers' fund.

The struggle of the busten is, by no means, over. They still need financial support.

Members of the British labour movement must give their backing to the fund. A dance is to be held on Friday, July 2, at the King's Head, Fulham Road, near Fulham Broadway Tube. Tickets, which are 3s. each, can be obtained from the fund's provisional secretary, Sean Lynch, 32 Winchendon Road, Fulham, S.W.6.

The Editor preferably carried out by its allies-has become mandatory on the State department.

Thus, a week before the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, "The Guardian' under a front-page headline called: 'US looking for way out of Vietnam •• Washington ready to listen to proposals', made the following comment:

.. the Administration here [Washington] is anxious that America's allies, and Britain in particular, should give all the thought and energy they car o thinking up possible ways f getting the US off the mili.

tary hook on which it has become impaled in Vietnam.' Note well the last sentence!

Mr. Wilson responded promptly to the pressure of Washington. On Thursday (June 17) he got the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference to endorse what ostensibly seemed his own brainchild of sending a 'peace' mission to ranoi and Peking.

JOHNSON HAPPY Naturally enough, Johnson, it was reported, was 'very happy' but, just in case the mission exceeded its mandate or presumably got too enthusiastic about its role as 'honest broker, he warned that the U.S. government would not negotiate with the National Liberation Front.

Mr. Wilson's plan was greeted with a fanfare of editorial trumpets. "This great Commonwealth initiative' said the 'Daily Express' That was on Friday. On Saturday Wilson and his four stooges realised that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Factional strife broke out between the Commonwealth prime ministers.

Robert Menzies rejected Nkrumah's appeal for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam. Mr. Senanayake of Ceylon declined, on grounds of health, to join the team. Shastri and President Ayub Khan declined to take the place of the Ceylonese PM. President Nyerere of Tanzania attacked the 'Peace Mission' as a plan to put China in the dock.

The conference then went into a three-day hustle at Chequers. In the meantime President Johnson decided to give his own form of backing to the Wilson mission by ordering one of the biggest and costliest raids on the Vietcong. 'ERRAND RUNNING' Peking and Hanoi let out a blast against the ulterior motives of the Mission and dismissed it as 'errand running' for U.S. imperialism.

On Sunday, to make it more explicit, Chou Em-lai denounced the mission as la manoeuvre in support of the United States peace talks hoax'.

Significant, if not sinister, was the revelation of Patrick Keatley in "The Guardian' that Wilson had chosen Menzies—an arch-reactionary hated by Australian labour and the Asian peoples —as his chief confidant and had revealed the substance of his plan to Sir Robert 24 hours before he announced it to the Marlborough House conference!

This embarrassed not only the Afro-Asians but even Lester Pearson, the Canadian PM. Wilson's role as a stalking horse for Johnson was now made abundantly clear.

China emphasized its opposition to the mission on Monday by describing Wilson as a 'nitwit' 'Nhan Dan', a leading North Vietnamese paper, also rejected Mr. Wilson's spurious olive Price branch as a 'vicious scheme'. As Wilson talked U.S. bombers attacked targets 100 miles from the Chinese border.

On Thursday came another humiliating No! This time from the Soviet government already smarting under the continued taunts of the Chinese for its inactivity on Vietnam. Even Home who, together with the fake lefts in the Parliamentary Labour Party, welcomed the mission, now began to doubt the feasibility of the mission.

CHEERFUL IDIOCY In Marlborough House, however, a spirit of undaunted and cheerful idiocy prevailed: One official spokesman said: '... it is not just a straight "No". It leaves the door partly open.' Finally, what Saigon thought of Mr. Wilson's mission was revealed by the brutal public execution of 20-year-old Tran Van Dang in Saigon on Tuesday.

Dang's last words: 'I will die but others will, come against you' speaks a thousand times more eloquently for the cause of peace than all the homilies of the Labour lefts.

It is gratifying to know that Dang by his actions helped, incidentally, to bury for good and all, the Wilson peace mission.

The best homage we can pay to Tran Van Dang, and thousands of other martyrs like him in Vietnam, is to get rid of Wilson. Statement by the international Committee of the Fourth International on Algeria Ben Bella and Boumedienne after Evian See pag

INHE trade figures for May have L closer to the devaluation abyss.

The £24 million rise in imports was excused by government spokesmen on the grounds that it was inflated by the 5 per cent cut in the imports surcharge.

But there was also an f8 million drop in exports to be considered. This is the fourth consecutive month to show a fall in exports. It reflects a slowing down in industrial activity in several countries.

No foreign confidence Despite considerable support from the Bank of England, sterling has continued to fall. The great rise in foreign confidence, promised after Callaghan's anti-working-class Budget, is nowhere to be seen. All the protestations of Wilson have failed to convince anyone that devaluation will not take place.

Nor have industrialists at home much optimism for the tuture. The Federation of British Industries' quarterly survey shows that plans for future expansion are being cut, and a drop in fixed investment must be expected.

Knocking incomes policy Big business hoped that the Labour government would be able to hold back wage demands. But trade unionists have been knocking some large holes in George Brown's incomes policy recently. At a time of full employment, which is not going to last the year out, and as the cost of living soars, this is not surprising. Last month, grocery prices shot up by over 2 per cent.

The stagnation of the British economy must be seen against a background of danger signals from world capitalism as a whole.

Japan is in the midst of a full-scale recession.

France and Italy, part of the booming European Common Market, are hardly recovered from their setbacks last year.

World commodity prices have fallen, notably non-ferrous metals, sugar and cocoa.

Wall Street itself is so jittery that the mention by the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the number '1929' was enough to send the stock market into a decline.

Subservience to bankers Wilson, Brown and Callaghan took over the running of British capitalism in a period of acute crisis. They have already demonstrated their complete subservience to the bankers and monopolists.

Demands will be placed on them by their masters at home and abroad for renewed attacks on the working class and for the creation of a pool of unemployment. And, beneath all these tendencies, the technical changes towards increasing automation prepare huge upheavals in industry.

The labour movement must prepare for these changes by throwing out the Wilsons, Browns and other errand-boys for the employers. A new leadership is needed, which will fight for the nationalization of the basic sectors of the economy.

Business economist John Wood in an article 'Can we stop Britain going broke?' in last Sunday's 'Observer' said:

'... And another worrying thing is that our difficulties are taking place in quite a new context. There are now signs of a major crisis in the international currency field, with many other important countries getting into difficulties at the same time?

Alan Day, a professor of economics at London University in the same article:

'Our official reserves are now £1,021 million, but we owe £900 million— mainly to the International Monetary Fund. If we run a f300 million deficit this year, as seems likely, and a substantial one next year as well, as seems possible, our reserves may be down to half of what they are at the moment. It's a pretty horrible prospect? Successful symposium held in Leeds SUCCESSFUL symposium on 'Marxism in the Modern World' was held in Leeds this week. It was organised by the Leeds University Marxist Society.

Opening the first session, Jane Morris, Society chairman, said: We do not believe that Marxism can be developed or be understood 'without confronting and taking 'on the challenge of other ideologies and theories. This means that Marxists must grapple with all 'major ideas in science and 'thought?

Over 70 students, lecturers, and research workers from 13 univer'sities attended.

They discussed papers on subjects ranging from 'Marxism and International Science' to 'Recent Developments in Imperialism'. Papers were submitted by Professor Peter Worsley on "Social Evolution' and by David Caute 'on Marxism and the Novel'. • The final session was devoted to a discussion on the Algerian and Vietnam situations.

Many points of view represented and discussion high level took place

Paso Two

ments in 14 months (and one military junta), and the total collapse of civil administration, provide no basis for any political stability. Militarily the U.S. is impaled on a dilemma: either to continue to wage WHITHER ALGERIA? DESPITE the lack of news from Algiers since the coup, certain important facts are now becoming clear. Firstly, the Algerian Army of today is vastly different from the heroic rebels who waged the war for national liberation against French imperialism. le present army was trained mainly in Tunisia by reactionary military instructors. Right from the beginning it was intended to be what it is today—an instrument of the counterrevolution. ere is little doubt also, that the high rate of unemployment drove a large number of people to join this army because it provided them with some kind of employment. This counterrevolution was unable to develop immediately after the liberation because it needed time to strengthen the reactionary forces in the army from the most opportunist elements in Algeria itself.

The argument of Boumedienne that Ben Bella was a dictator, even if one takes it on its merits, is a lot of nonsense.

He must surely be the most peculiar dictator in history, since it was relatively easy for the real dictator, the army, to remove him in the middle of the night and transport him to a distant outpost in the desert.

The only resistance that those who organised the coup met, was "from a handful ot policemen.

To say that he squandered funds appears to be just as threadbare.

If the balance sheet is published then it will be seen, as in most other countries, that the lion's share has been used to maintain the army. le truth is that Ben Bella was by IllI associated with the policy of concessions to the masses, despite his limitations as a nationalist leader. these masses are beginning to stir in revolt now, it is not so much because of Ben Bella the individual but because they instinctively fear that the new rulers are going to impose fresh hardships and take away whatever concessions they have gained. ere we have the development of an important political climate for the building of the revolutionary party. There must be no more illusions about nationalist leaders completing the revolution in Algeria. Social revolution can only be completed under the leadership of the revolutionary Marxist party. istory has once more powerfully vindicated the struggle of the International Committee of the Fourth Interuational against the Pabloite liquidators.

We will eriticize EVERAL right-wing leaders in the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, are angry with The Newsletter. It appears that we have criticised them too much. One would imagine that these gentlemen live in some kind of trade union glass house.

Only a few weeks ago they announced their intention of supporting George Brown's infamous incomes commission.

They certainly are perfectly right to conclude that The Newsletter is hostile to them, for very good reason. e are entirely opposed to trade union leaders who sell out their members' rights to any government, Labour or Tory. We are critical of the way in which the Foyle's strike has been handled. But every effort which the leadership makes to gain a decisive victory will have our unstinted support. On the other hand, if such an effort is not made, the USDAW will continue to be criticised by The Newsletter.

IN last week's News- 1act WAAle New letter, our reporter told of the 'growing pains' of the comparatively new industry of air transport.

The most recurrent 'pain' felt in the industry, particularly at London Airport, is the class struggle. This is a consiant ight by the workers to maintain and improve their uving and working conditions.

The latest expression of this struggle was the action by Britisn European Airways' porters.

BLA porters are just one secuon of many thousands of workers employed at the airport, wno dislike and distrust we managements.

Une worker told our reporter that the managements work hand in glove. They nad an agreement not to 'poach' each otner's employees, but tnis is also used as an excuse for controlling the movement of mulitants.

Yet the majority of workers strive to express themselves through militancy and organisation.

Dispersed

Union membersnip runs into thousands. But, said one steward, "unionisation is difficult due to the tragmentary nature of the sections'-each company or airline on the airport has its own staff of engineers, refuellers, baggage porters and loaders, clerks, drivers, etc. along with Ministry of Aviation and Ministry of Building and Public Works' employees.

All are separated and dispersed over the vast area of the airport in different buildings and engineering shops.

Even then, out of the 50 or 60 airlines operating from the airport, less than 20 are not organised.

The task of organising will become more difficult, as the airport grows, to accommodate the increasing number of freight lines and passenger services and subsidiary services such as catering (almost exclusively operated by fortes).

This will be further complicated by the setting up of the Airport Authority in the next year. This Authority, which was envisaged in a government White Paper, will almost certainly centralise the organisation of the employers.

Chairman of the Authority is almost likely to be Peter Masefield, one-time colleague of Anthony Milward, the present BEA chairman, who took such a tough attitude with the porters at Whitsun. Masefield worked with Milward when BEA first made workers in dispute sign a 'good conduct' agreement ten years ago.

With these new developments, the need for strong union organisation is extremely urgent.

Most workers on the airport are members of the Transport and General Workers' Union, including those in the engineering bases. There are numerous TGWU branches representing the various trade groups.

'Streamline'

Until recently, there were eight full-time union officers, each working for the individual groups.

It was decided to 'streamline' the union and appoint two full-time officials. At a regional conference, the "platform attempted to put forward their scheme, but came up against opposition from a section which was calling for an official shop stewards' committee.

It became obvious to the platform that they would not get their way unless they accepted the idea from the rank and file, and delegates left the conference confident they would have such a comby Robert James mittte.

Some months later the TGWU sent out a circular setting up this committee. Each branch was to elect its own delegate, not necessarily a shop steward. Thirteen clerical branches and eight industrial branches would be represented on the committee.

Later, through various manoeuvres, the three most militant sections - refuelling and two engineering branches -were removed.

The committee should have had a chance to prove itself in the porters' strike, but union officials refused to convene a meeting.

The only support for the porters strike was rallied around the 'unofficial' liaison committee of shop stewards on the The Age of Per A Trotsky Anthology Edited with an introduction the assistance of George Novak). Published by Dell Publishing Co. Inc. Distributed in Britain by New Park Publications Ltd.

Price 9s. 6d.

\HE production of this pocket-size selection from Trotsky's writings by an American publisher of paperbacks is a sure sign of growing interest in one of the outstanding political figures of this century.

It is to be hoped that this book will be widely read and studied, not because as an anthology and as an introduction to Trotsky it could not be bettered, but because it does, at a reasonable price, what no other book does.

Next to Lenin, Trotsky was the leading Marxist of the first half of the twentieth century. He served his revolutionary apprenticeship in the hard school of Czarist Russia, which exiled and imprisoned him twice.

He took part in the theoretical discussions of the International and Russia Marxist movement in the period before the First World War.

His reputation at this time rested on his part in evolving the theory of Permanent Revolution, which gives its title to this book, and his revolutionary role as Chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet at a critical period in the 'dress rehearsal' of 1905.

With the theory of Permanent Revolution, Trotsky answered, first of all, the great question confronting Russian Marxists: what would be the nature of the coming Russian Revolution?

But he was, as he was always to remain, profoundly conscious of the world nature of capitalism and the interdependence of its component parts.

He saw that a backward country, like Russia, did not have to repeat all the stages of the more advanced countries. Nor did the most advanced country necessarily provide the ripest conditions for the socialist revolution as most of the theorists of the Second International assumed.

He thus broke from the Menshevik conception that Russia would have to pass through a more or less prolonged period of capitalist development under bourgeois rule.

Instead, the revolution could be carried straight through to the rule of the working class and the undertaking of socialist basks. But, at the same time, the problem would be thrown back into the international arena of the struggle between classes and the necessity for revolution in the advanced countries.

airport.

Fuelling, transport and other sections promised full support and many others were joining them when the National Joint Council for the Air Industry met to discuss the porters' dispute. It was after this meeting that the TGWU officials managed to get the porters back to work.

Important unity

The liaison committee is only a year old, but it is mainly through its activities that many sections have become unionised and closed shops.

This same committee has representatives at its meetings from other airports, gained through actions of solidarity London Airport workers 'blacked' British United Airways when they were in dispute at Gatwick.

Such unity is important in the coming era of mass passenger and freight ARURKY ANTHOLOGY As he presented the theory, however, it remained incomplete because it left unclear how these revolutions were to be carried out.

The answer, to which Trotsky was eventually to rally, was being given by Lenin in the construction of the Bolshevik Party. It was not enough to say that revolutions would be made by the working class; it was also necessary to endow it with a conscious leadership precisely for that purpose.

This was what Lenin was doing, although he remained, as yet, uncertain of the nature of the regime which would supercede Czarism. Experience proved the great teacher.

Between support for the Provisional Government which issued from the February revolution, and thus support for the war, and endorsement, in practice, of the theory of the permanent revolution, Lenin did not hesitate.

Likewise, Trotsky abandoned his opposition to Lenin's conception of the party, and its relationship to the working class, and joined the Bolshevik Party.

Trotsky's important work "The Lessons of October', in which he dealt with the vacillations of many of the 'old guard' in 1917, is unfortunately not represented in this anthology (it is available, however, in The Essential Trotsky' published by Allen and Unwin).

The successful Bolshevik Revolution in backward Russia required, ' for its defence, the extension of revolution to the advanced countries. For this purpose it was necessary to re-build the international Marxist movement, which had been shattered by the betrayals of its principal leaders in 1914.

During his periods of exile, Trostky had acquired an understanding of the problems of many European countries, as well as of the USA. This equipped him both for leadership in the Third International and for continuing to analyse events in many parts of the world.

This accounts for the wide range of countries covered in this anthology, on which Trotsky was able to write with a penetrating understanding of transport when there could be a string of airports in the London area and even bigger struggles to defend working conditions.

It is at this time that the rade union bureaucrats reduce the number of officials and condemn the 'unofficial' committee.

These bureaucrats, who are so isolated from the rank and file, continue to sit on the National Joint Council and ludge the feelings and actions of their members.

They continue to hold back any struggle against the package deal' being discussed with BEA and any fight for a real wage increase. At the same time, BEA announce an increase in profits.

he Joint Council has loc ad national panels made u of union and management representatives, and 'indepenBOOK the dynamics of class struggle and especially the problems of leadership.

Indeed, capitalism survived the disorganisation and crises in the period following the First World War because the problems of building a new leadership in the working class movement were not overcome.

The continuity in Trostky's work from 1917 to his assassination by one of Stalin's agents in 1940 is to be found in the way in which he geared himself to this task. This began in the early Congresses of the Third International with the effort to hammer out parties of a Bolshevik type in time to take advantage of the revolutionary opportunities presented in the aftermath of war.

This task was not carried through before the Soviet regime, isolated in a backward country, underwent that process of degeneration which Trotsky fought against and analysed in many writings represented in this book.

He had to defend Marxism against Stalin's justifications for the newly emerging ruling stratum in the theory of 'socialism in one country. In the name of this theory the world communist movement was led from defeat to defeat until the crushing of the largest Communist Party outside Russia by the Nazis in 1933.

Through the period after Lenin's death in 1924 Trotsky became the principal leader of Bolshevism against Stalin's revisions and distortions of Marxism. The continuity from Marx and Engels, through Lenin, runs clearly through the selections in this book. Trotsky was able to explain in terms of Marxist theory what was happening in Russia and put forward an alternative programme.

In the bitter struggles which took place in the 1920s, he and his followers were persecuted and driven into deportation and exile.

The Stalinist bureaucrats hoped, by driving Trotsky abroad, to be able to pass him off as an ally of reaction. This was the tireless theme of Stalin's propaganda, backed up by the show trials of the 1930s and by the unpublicised arrests and liquidations intended to stamp out the whole Bolshevik opposition.

Trotsky's role in 1917, his place in the history of the Civil War and his contributions to Marxism were expunged from the record.

The struggle, which continued from exile was not, for Trotsky, at all a question of personal vindication.

Deutscher, in his 26-page introduction to this book, says much about Trotsky's brilliance and the range and validity of his thought. There is no need to compete with Deutscher in finding words to describe Trotsky's 'greatness'.

It suffices to say that he was the leading Marxist of his time and that he understood Marxism in the sense of its founder, as something which had no existence apart from a living month is the latest attempt to convince the trades unions and the working class that it is in their interests to sign an incomes policy with the employers and the state.

That the final draft of the pamphlet was written by John Hughes, tutor in industrial relations and économics at Ruskin College, Oxford, and Ken Alexander, Professor of Economics in the University of Strathclyde, former member of the Communist Party, and prominent members of the 'New Left' movement, which arose after Hungary, make it of some interest to readers of this paper.

REVIEW movement.

The degeneration of the Soviet regime, and with it the Communist International, revealed in their full counterrevolutionary colours after 1933, left Trotsky with • only one consistent option: to rebuild the Marxist movement in opposition to social democracy and Stalinism.

History had placed Trotsky, with his roots in revolutionary Russia, with his experience of the first successful revolution against capitalism, with "his deep knowledge and experience of Stalinism and of the international labour movement, in the position of being the only man who could carry on this task. . This, in short, was the historical responsibility of Trotsky as an individual, a responsibility from which he did not shrink.

The extracts in this book, selected by George Novak of the American Socialist Workers' Party, do, it is true, include passages from the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International. But both Novak and Deutscher pass rather hurriedly over this period.

It is more acceptable to consider Trotsky as the insufficiently recognised great man, who made brilliant or anticipatory remarks about a wide variety of subjects, than to discuss his work in assembling painfully, and with many disappointments, the cadres of the new international party. Deutscher prefers to dwell on a favourite theme.

'Trotskyism is,' he writes, 'in a sense, having its comeback, but its elements appear disparately in strange combinations with elements of Stalinism.' For Deutscher "Trotskyism' has become a set of disembodied, 'correct' ideas found in the works of the master, which now crop up in the most unexpected places to confirm his greatness.

It has, he declares, 'been surging up in the communist world, not in its old recognisable form so far, not even under its own name, but as if it were split up into its elements and broken up into diverse currents'. The same thing could be said about Marxism as a whole which has also exercised an influence in many unexpected places; but Marxists waste no time in selfcongratulation about that.

However, for Deutscher the highest praise he can find for "Trotskyism' is that it found unconscious expression • in Khrushchev's or Mao's policies. He sees Khrushchev's deStalinisation as Trotsky's posthumous triumph and Mao as an expounder of permanent revolution: "both carry out, unwittingly and perhaps even unknowingly (!), Trotsky's political testament-but each carries out a different part of it'.

On the basis of this loose thinking, the appraisal of

Page Trotsky's contribution to Marxism is bound to be deformed and his efforts to build establishment of political democracy. the Fourth International in the last decade of his life become meaningless; Trotsky is made *a harmless ikon' before which people cross themselves from time to time.

The reader should therefore be alerted to the misleading tenor of some of Deutscher's remarks in his introduction.

Deutscher's position is that independent revolutionary parties. of a commentator, an assessor who gives marks for a correct prophecy here and finds reasons to explain why another went astray. Actually now in jeopardy. Trotsky was not a prophet at all.

Deutscher ranges himself in the class of the worshippers of the accomplished fact for whom 'the underdeveloped and backward East has become the main theatre of revolution'.

He agrees that the workers of the industrially advanced for the overthrow of the capitalist state. nations — and these include now the USSR as well as the the harvest. 21/6/1965. West-must recover from the apathy, confusion and resignation to which Stalinism has driven them; they must reassert themselves as the chief agents of socialism. But he does not know that this will happen; he just hopes that it will.

It is for the reader to understand that this was not Trotsky's message; for him, in the words of the Transitional Programme: 'the crisis of the proletarian leadership, having become the crisis in mankind's culture, can be resolved only by the Fourth International'. 6, 196

failed last Sunday. dent' representatives from private enterprise. Each panel deals with different sections such as engineering and maintenance, clerical, catering, technical, radio officers and pilots, etc. The chairmanship of the Council alternates each year between the management and union sides.

There is a complete lack of faith in any of the negotiating machineries and the managements.

This has been expressed for a number of years during disputes.

One union leader complained in his organisation's magazine that BEA executives were anti-union, and persisted in altering regulations without consulting the unions first.

He also maintained that Corporation airlines had refused to accept recommendations of the National Joint Council, but were still protected 'in theory' by an agreement which excludes strikes and lockouts.

Set-up

The unions, of course, face a strong management set-up, backed by the state.

In the highly competitive air transport industry, where financial survival is linked to the deepening crisis of world imperialism, companies are bound to take tough attitudes to workers, and go through deals like the 1962 merger between BOAC and Cunard, the shipping and airline company• Following this merger, which was contrived to save Cunard, who were in financial difficulties, shares shot up. But since then, workers have gained little from the company.

BOAC recently pushed through a 'package deal' on hours and conditions for its workers, and BEA are attempting to do the same.

Here, too, lack of faith is expressed in the national officers - the porters' strike at the London Air Terminal occurred when workers heard a rumour that TGWU officials were signing a 'deal, which the men are opposing.

The greatest danger is that these workers are relying on local officers, like John Cousins, and the leading Communist Party stewards on the airport.

"Saviour"

As reported last week, Cousins appeared as a 'saviour' with militant-sounding phrases in the long drawn-out negotiations over the "package deal'.

But he, and the Stalinist stewards allowed the porters' strike to be sold out.

an for Incomes', Fabian pamphlet published last POLICY by PETER The extent to which these two authors have departed from any acceptance of MarxLet poice econome or des theoretical disintegration of this revisionist grouping, members of which now find themselves happily writing Fabian tracts.

They first of all outline the distribution of income under the Tories since 1951. They show that there has. been a significant switch away from labour and the lower income groups In THIS period and towards profit and rent.

But their concern is that the Conservatives "misyears: that they it they dictated an handled' these incomes policy to the working class, rather than getting agreement about one with the trades unions.

For example, the Conservative policy of 'stop-go' damaged both labour and capital. In the 'stop' phase of the cycle, both profit rates fell and earnings stagnated. They are unable to see the stagnation of British capitalism in these years as conditioned by historic decline and weakened position in relation to the world market.

GROWTH RATE

After this review, our erstwhile communist, proceed to explain why an incomes policy needed. They are quite open:

"It is urgent for the British economy (i.e., British capitalism, P.J.) extricate itself from persistently generated inflation.' What is needed is a faster te of growth.

"The solution to the problem of combining growth and a favourable trade balance depends technical innovation, design and salemanship, etc. But it is clear that the government •cano hope succeed without the aid of an incomes pólicy' Of course they add the usual phrases about the need TOT more social control over industry: but throughout, they confuse greater state intervention with socialism. Their plan, they argue, 'must be seen in the context of a significant ex the state in the economy. of the economic role In any case, they argue, the monopolists are edge of national planning with their 'plans' for investment, pricing ra manpowe vote Tanson will not be too difficul 'SOCIAL CONTROL' State control will have its rewards they add, as if to reassure any worried monopolist: 'capital has to swallow the pill of increased social obtain the benefits that can flow for them from a plan for incomes'.

agree with George Brown incomes can please everers and spent the 'class war'.

What are the main elements of this incomes policy advanced Hughes and (st bety, then the rice leaders will be able to curb their demands for wage increases.

the technical improvement of the economy which can raise productivity. An important aspect of this will be more efficient use greater exploitation, P.1.)

of labour so all dice ne stabe thf sidie tax reforms must cried and income stributed to the los paid.

Their main criticism 01 Brown's Declaration of Intent is that it does not make these objectives explicit enough, but even so it is a good start and its proposals are a more hopeful step towards an incomes policy than anything that has gone before.

The pamphlet then goes on to outline the necessary tax and price policies that a successful incomes policy would require. They praise Callaghan's Corporation Tax-despite its placid acceptance by the capitalist class.

This, together with a higher rate of income tax has, they assert, redistributed income away from the rentier class.

Like Brown, Hughes and Alexander have absolutely no concrete proposals for an effective control over prices beyond the usual waffle about the need for price review boards, etc. They have no comment to make on the fact that prices have continued to rise rapidly since Labour came into power.

SUGGESTIONS

How will the Labour government manage to get the trades unions and the working class to accept a policy of wage restraint?

Hughes and Alexander suggest:

There must be legislalation on severance pay to „soften the blow of redundancy which will grow in a period of rapid technical change. Special treatment for lower paid workers. They praise the engineering "package deal' in this respect! It gives greater increases to the unskilled worker and to women, they argue. These gentlemen fail to mention that this deal amounts to a wage freeze over the next three years and has met with rank-and-file opposition from engineers throughout the country. Fair comparison of earnings between different groups and industries. In this way they accept the hoary old idea of a • 'fair day's wage' which has long been a weapon of the reformists in Britain. In their view, 'fair' and 'comparable' wages are apparently to be fixed by economists, sociologists and the like. No regard is paid to the exploitation of labour or the fact that all workers, highly or lowly paid, produce surplus value for their employers.

National Wage Bargaining. This is necessary from the point of view of the 'national economic interest': 'in the absence of a bargained wage structure, anomolies and invidious comparisons multiply, and this is the raw material for industrial dispute, for conflict that perpetuates itself.' MARXISM ABANDONED The aim of this argument is clear. It is to cover up for the sell-out policies of the right wing in the labour movement; to pretend that an incomes policy can take the working • class forward to socialism.

They have, in fact, in this pamphlet, abandoned any pretence of Marxism.

But, of course, their writings will be of little use.

To think that wages can be held down in a capitalist society by the devices of 'planners' and 'experts' is an illusion.

There has, in fact, been no acceptance of any 'wages plan' by the ranks of the working class. The conferences which have supported Brown represent nothing of the true position among the rank and file.

In a capitalist society, wages and the share of total income going to labour will be determined by the two classes in struggle against each other.

The task of the working class, as Marx pointed out a century ago, is not the improvement of the wages slaves' lot but the abolition of wage slavery altogether.

the 'United Secretariat', which has t, later printed in the June issue of i national', summarising its views on the 26, On February 17, 1964, Paris, issued a sta temen magazine, 'Fourth Inter the Algerian government. Page Th its centre in ts theoretical character of

The struggle between these two tendencies within the coalition he Intern ended in the reinforcement of the Ben Bella wing, the promulFourth gation of the decrees of March 1963 and the successful ousting of Khider, Ferhat Abbas and other bourgeois leaders although some rightist elements AHMED BEN BELLA, President of Algeria, was still remain in the government. None of these problems can be permanently settled by These changes marked the end removed from power in the middle of the night of the national bourgeoisie and their state. They will proceed to bureaucratic and dictatorial solutions, and the of the coalition and the estabJune 19-20. His arrest, and the reorganisation of the removal of Ben Bella is intended to smooth the way for lishment of a workers and peasants' government. ..: government, were the work of his Deience Minister and new repressions of the workers and peasants. This does not mean, of course, that the new regime will not make The question that remains to leader of the Army, Colonel Boumedienne. demagogic promises in the next few weeks. be answered is "whether this Characteristically, Ben Bella was deposed without any government can establish a prior open political preparation either by the masses or workers' state. The movement even by organised trends within the National Liberation in this direction is evident and Front (FLN) party, which has the monopoly of political bears many resemblances to the life in Algeria. It was a matter of a highly organised plot Cuban pattern. ..: by Boumedienne and top military leaders to impose a In late 1964 and early 1965 the workers in the towns 'As a whole, Algeria, as we conducted a number of strikes for higher wages and for change on the masses of Algeria. ¡have noted many times, has workers' management of the factories. The government entered a process of permanent In this fundamental sense, therefore, there is no change of Ben Bella, having in the previous year intervened to revolution of highly transitional whatsoever in the character of the state in Algeria. The abolish the independence of the trade unions, was forced character in which all the basic country remains capitalist. As well as the considerable to make certain gestures to this mass protest while in economic, social and political properties retained by Algerian bourgeois, 80 per cent fact tightening the grip of the government party in the structures are being shaken up of the country's economy remains in French hands. unions. The new regime will be especially concerned to and given new forms. This Boumedienne's first public statement was to guarantee repress the workers' movement, fearing above all the these holdings and to promise adherence to all existing possibility of an alliance of these town workers with the agreements. The fundamental land reforms to begin the poor peasantry, who grow more bitter and impatient liberation of the Algerian poor masses have not yet begun. against the delay in the land reform. The powerful state and military bureaucracy will be consolidated rather than 'democratised' by the recent events. In such a situation, with the bourgeoisie divided, finding it necessary to depose a figurehead whom they had needed to mislead the masses with talk of national unity, the opportunities for the working class are evident. A revolutionary workers' party would gain an enormous following for a programme of workers' control, leading Not even a single word of appeal to the masses came to workers' state power, expropriation of the landlords, from Boumedienne. When students and workers demon- confiscation of the vineyards and the formation of peasant strated against Ben Bella's arrest on June 21, they were soviets, and the expropriation of foreign holdings. dispersed by troops and police. This persistence of capitalist property relations in Algeria, with the economy still rigidly controlled by the relation to the world market, particularly through agreements with France, is the source of dire poverty and economic chaos in Algeria, Where over one million are registered unemployed. The Fourth International and the international workers' Boumedienne and other bourgeois-nationalist leaders movement must pay particular attention to the absence of are likely to denounce the corruption' and economic such a party and the urgency of beginning its construction experimenting' of Ben Bella, hoping to divert the attention immediately. The neglect of this task, flowing from the revisionist capitulation in the national bourgeoisie conof the masses from their real problems. The oniy solution is a break from imperialism. For this to happen, tained in Pabloism and the policies of the 'United Secretariat', has played a vital role in creating the present there would have to be built an independent revolutionary Marxist party to lead the workers to power. No section situation, where the immediate questions of the fate of the of the national bourgeoisie can accomplish this task. Algerian masses is settled by military coup and counterIn Algeria, as in all the 'newly independent' bourgeois These Algerian workers and peasants have not said states, the crisis of world imperialism is exposing the real class nature of the regimes. These have hitherto their last word; it is their strength and pressure which claimed to be 'revolutionary' or 'socialist, but are now brings to a head the crisis of the bourgeois state, unable faced with the impossibility of an independent or national to adjust its relation to world imperialism without changpath of capitalist development. In Algeria, the problem of ing the delicate balance of class forces within Algerian the national bourgeoisie, a very weak class depending on Algeria, but only if the lessons of the struggle against politics. A revolutionary party can and will be built in French capitalism and needing a strong state apparatus to organise the economy and discipline the working class, is facing all the majority questions in the immediate The International Committee condemned the Evian future, and the quarrel between Ben Bella and Boume- agreement with de Gaulle as a sell-out. We insisted dienne reflects the struggle between differing bourgeois against the revisionists that Algeria remained a bourgeois state. The revisionists apologised for Evian; they insisted The national-liberation movements have to solve in the that Ben Bella represented a powerful trend towards the first place the problems of the bourgeois-democratic left, and even towards a workers' state in Algeria. All criticism of the Algerian state, all insistence on starting revolution, national liberation and unification land reform from its class basis, was condemned as 'sectarian' and the (liberation of the peasants from the landlords) and the establishment of bourgeois forms of political sovereignty revisionists staked everything on pushing left' bourgeois in the state in some kind of bourgeois-democratic regime.

In the epoch of imperialism, the bourgeoisie, neither in Algeria nor in Cuba, nor in India, nor anywhere else, can achieve these tasks. The bourgeoisie is too weak; it is tied closely both to the foreign exploiters and to the landlords, it fears the peasantry, and especially the When Boudiaf and other socialist leaders were imworking class, too much to accomplish land reform or the prisoned, the sections of the International Committee protested. Once again these repressions were supported by the revisionists. Their role has been to disarm the working class, leaving the national bourgeoisie free to dominate the state and repress the working class whenever that became necessary. All this was done in the name Instead, as in Algeria, they have compromised with of "Trotskyism' and the 'Permanent Revolution'. The French imperialism, halting of land reform at an elemen- results are now there for all to see, just as they were in tary stage and the imposition of a one-party state and Ceylon. The emanicipation of the working class is the abolition of independent workers' and students' unions. task of the working class itself' was a principle abandoned It is in this context that one ruler replaces another by Pabloism through their rejection of the need to build under circumstances like the present. The next few weeks will bring all these problems to a head. The foreign policy of the government and the consolidation of Ben In a whole number of colonial and semi-colonial Bella's personal reputation and power were at stake in countries, the national bourgeois governments are underthe Afro-Asian conference in Algiers next week, which is going political changes in their form of rule and political domination over the masses, in response to the squeeze which is put on them by the currently developing economic Negotiations for changes in the oil and gas agreements crisis. Where the state takes a bonapartist form on behalf with the French imperialists are due to begin this week. of a weak bourgeoisie, as in Algeria, or Cuba, then the No doubt there are differences within the FLN about type of 'revolt' occurring on June 19-20 in Algiers is on how to drive a bargain which will strengthen the Algerian the agenda. The role of the Fourth International is not bourgeoisie and its state against the masses. Ben Bella to take sides and campaign for mass support for one or himself was due to enter France on a state visit. Last, another wing of the bourgeoisie, but to build independent but by no means least, Ben Bella had been forced by parties of the working class which can utilise such crises peasants' and workers' struggles to promise that the basic land reform would begin this summer immediately after Algerian guerrillas—absence of revolutionary Marxist party in Algerian independence struggle enabled FLN leaders to deceive and betray them by accepting the terms of Evian agreement In the same issue of the 'United Secretariat's magazine the following letter was printed:

"To the Congress of the Front de Liberation Nationale, Algiers.

Brothers, Comrades, The Fourth International sends you its warmest greetings. Through you "it salutes the

theory JEAN SIMON is quite right to point out the way the Communist Parties are playing up the Catholic Church.

However, his comments the Russian publication "The Phenomenon of Man' Teilhard de Chardin might misleading.

This danger is made worse by the headline 'Jesuits' book published in USSR'.

De Chardin was not only a coup. Jesuit. He also made an important contribution to the study of man's evolution.

While a missionary in China, he discovered the so-called 'Pekin man'.

His philosophical work was banned by the Vatican and revisionism are learned. was only published after his death in 1955.

It is an attempt to combine mystical pantheism with science. Nonetheless, there is groups on how to handle the situation. considerable interest for MarxLists in the book "The Phenomenon of Man', especially in its account of man's evolution.

elements further to the left. Book review

Below we print extracts from that ment:

'An essentially bourgeois state apparatus was bequeathed to Algeria. A crisis in the leadership of the FLN càme to a head on July 1, 1962, ending after a few days in the establishment of a de facto coalition government in which Ferhat Abbas and Ben Bella represented the two opposing wings of neo-colonialand popular revolution. process certain 'The appearance of a workers' and peasants government in Algeria is concrete evidence of the depth of the revolutionary process occurring there. It is of historic importance not only for Algeria and North Africa but for the whole African continent and the rest of the world! British Alexander Committee Algerian Revolution, its magnificent example, its militants and its glorious martyrs. The Fourth International wishes the most complete success to the work of your congress which will constitute a memorable date in the construction of Socialist Algeria.

Long live the Algerian Revolution!

Long live socialist Algeria!

For the United Secretariat of the Fourth International!

assistance South Atrican political prisoners have been received by the British Alexander Committee.

The Newsletter reported two weeks ago that the AllAfrican Convention and Unity Movement had written from their Lusaka headquarters, informing the Alexander Committee that former Unity president, Leo Linda Siblali, and Louis Leo Mtshizana, had been arrested by the South African government.

Sihlali was forced to resign as Unity movement president when the government imposed a five-year ban on him. He was placed under house arrest, prohibited from membership of any of the affiliates of the Unity movement, not allowed to receive visitors and compelled to make regular reports to the police.

During his teaching career, this former graduate of the University of South Africa had been elected President of the Cape African Teachers' Association. This organisation was banned by the government, and all its executives members dismissed from the teaching profession.

DENIED RIGHTS

Denied the right to teach, Sihlali was forced to move his home and find work as a labourer. His wife, also a qualified teacher, had to take work as a domestic servant. After a police visit to his employers, he was instantly dismissed.

From 1960 until 1964 he was engaged • in political activity around Johannesburg, living in hiding. In 1964 he was placed under house-arrest, thus denied political and social contact with his fellow men.

At this time his eldest child was due to enter the higher primary school. All the principals refused to enrol the child. Only by Become a subscriber to IN the fight for socialism, The Newsletter is playing a vital role. Do you get it regularly? Don't leave it to the chance encounter, fill in this form and send it to: Subscription Department, The Newsletter, 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4. 9s. Od. for 12 issues Name Address sending his children to the remotest parts of Transkei, was he able to get them into schools. -This persecution made Sihlali decide to flee. Now he is in Verwoerd's jail. His children will be evicted from their schools as there will be no one to pay their fees.

Mtshizana, ex-chairman of the East London branch of the Society of Young Africa, one of the organisations attiliated to The Unity Movement, is a lawyer.

His real crime is the prominent role that he has played in the defence of the victims of racial terror.

ARRESTED TWICE

He has been arrested twice on trumped-up charges, once for unlawful possession of a firearm, the other for failing to produce a pass when demanded by the police.

The Supreme Court set aside the conviction awarded by a local magistrate on the first charge, the magistrate dismissed the second charge.

But Verwoerd's police are persistent. When Mtshizana was briefed to defend some young boys charged under the Anti-Communism Act, he was accused of weakening the state case, Advice he had given to his clients was considered tantamount to attempting to defeat the ends of justice. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

While his appeal was pending he was allowed out on bail of £500.

Before the division of the Supreme Court met, he was arrested along with Sihlali and jailed.

Anyone prepared to help with the work of the committee should write to The Secretary, Alexander Committee, 27 Thursley House, Holmewood Gardens, London,

A witch-hunting emergency resolution moved by Christopher Norwood MP, one of the union's most prominent members, 'deplored the activities of and statements made in the publication, Newsletter, criticising the work of the union's officials in respect of the strike at Foyle's' Introduced immediately after the report of Divisional Officer, Callinan, the resolution was aimed at preventing any discussion of the conduct of the strike and of its future.

Its purpose was to give a free hand to officials to conduct the strike in any way they chose, even if this led to demoralisation and defeat.

So anxious were the platform to prevent discussion that the newly-elected President, Hanes, intervened in an attempt to prevent a delegate from the South-east London branch from taking part in the debate. He was overruled by the chairman of the conference.

Reference

Callinan's report included scarcely any reference to the activities during the strike. He gave no details of the finance collected from union branches and other unions, and made no mention of the solidarity action of post office workers and transport drivers. He did not speak of a rejection by the strikers last week of a return-to-work proposal on the basis of an exchange of letters with Foyle's management. Direct questions on these and other points, received no reply.

The criticisms of The Newsletter, that union officials were dragging their feet, had struck home.

One union official admitted that he and others concerned were inexperienced in the organisation of strikes, but he gave the conference an unequivocal undertaking that the strike would not be sold out and that he would stand with the strikers, until they had won their wage increase and the right of trade union representation.

Speaking against the resolution, delegates from South-east London said that a workers' paper had a duty to warn against the mistakes and hesitations of a strike.

The Newsletter had given and continued to give its full support to the strikers and this was the way in which to judge the criticisms made.

Articles in The Newsletter were aimed at helping the determination of the strikers with a clear understanding of what was involved.

Key dispute

The strike was a key dispute for young and for underpaid workers all over London. Its victory could bring about a great strengthening of union organisation in many trades.

By putting forward this resolution and by attempting to stifle proper discussion on the strike, the people responsible for any weakening in the spirit of the strike were the right wing.

Called on by the platform to waiting to see the union executive fulfil its promise to back the strike to the hilt.

Statements of the President, the Divisional Officer, and the area organisers, promising that money and organisational support will be poured into the strike to secure victory are to be welcomed.

The launching of a national appeal to all USDAW members, the drawing into action of union branches throughout London and the even more complete blocking of all supplies to Foyle's, remain to be carried out. promises from Labour's Deputy Prime Minister, George Brown.

Standing beneath a fluttering Union Jack, this loyal servant of Her Majesty told the miners—who face constant danger from accidents and disasters (due to the relentless pressure of production) as well as threats to their jobs from mechanisation, that they had to get rid of 'old fears' and 'face the challenge of change.

This Labour leader, who appointed the Tory, Aubrey Jones, at £15,000 a year to hold down wages, blandly stated: 'We did not say "elect us and we'll do the job"! With more truth than he intended, he declared: 'October was the month when the kidding had to stop' Despite his sugary-and vague-phrases about 'an integrated fuel policy' and a 'firm place for coal', this man has nothing for the miners but an attack on their living standards.

'We must stop borrowing money, he declared virtuously, 'to maintain a standard of living we aren't earning.' He did not explain how this fitted in with Labour's exhorbitant compensation payments to the steel bosses, with their generosity to the Ferranti profiteers, and with his own repeated assurances to big businessmen that they can make their money under Labour.

SIGNIFICANT

More significant than Brown's speech, however, was the large number of policemen who stood at the back of the crowd while he was speaking. Plain clothes men mingled with the crowd and pointed out where the Young Socialists were sitting.

More policemen were in a tent behind the speakers' platform and two vans belonging to a security firm were parked near the gates.

George Brown must go in fear of the Young Socialists if Labour Party officials have to call in police reinforcements whenever their leaders speak.

This blatant attempt to try and provoke the youth, however, failed.

The only political intervention at this gala was made by the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists.

There was no sign at all of the Young Communist League, which, a few year's ago, had a branch over 100 strong in Barnsley.

issues

to work By our Dublin THE lockout of 1,700 busmen • of the National Busmen's aiter it entered its second week.

This lock-out action was ir strike of the busmen in support Scottish teachers demand higher wages LEACHERS orgamised in the Educational Institute of Scotland have put forward a claim for a 50 per cent increase in salaries From April 1966.

The demand comes after two years of a three-year pay pause-the condition of a 10 per cent award in 1963.

At the annual general meeting of the EIS on June Il and 12 the Council of the Institute was instructed to press for biennial reviews of salary, and to assert their right to make interim claims.

The policy resolution, never again to accept a wage-pause as the condition of an award, was passed against the strongest executive opposition.

Scheme

The executive has agreed to a superannuation scheme, which will force all new entrants to contribute 8 per cent of their salaries-better terms are available from private insurance schemes.

Glasgow teachers called a special general meeting in a vain at empt to stop the scheme.

By a narrow majority, the meeting accepted an executive proposal to raise from 500 to 2,000 the number of signatures required to convene special meetings.

The EIS council has been instructed to investigate affiliation to the Scottish Trades Union Congress. Only concerted action with other workers can secure a good pay rise.

There was opposition to the resolution on the STUC on lapolitical' grounds. But to separate educational issues from politics is to avoid the real issue, which is, that whilst the Labour government is allowed to continue to prop up capitalism, the whole problem of education will not be solved.

London carpenters AN instruction was given The carpenter was sacked this week by a commis- under the notorious six-day sion of building employers and rule, which enables employers to trades unions to a London firm weed out known militants during to reinstate 30 employees. The commission's action fol- that they are 'unsuitable', withInwed a month-lone dispute at Bernard Sunley's site in Horseferry road, after a carpenter was dismissed.

The men—all carpenters-were sacked on Friday, June 11, during a meeting called to discuss the low bonus payments and to elect stewards to look after their interests.

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Printed by l 186л Clanhem High Street. London. S.W.4 Correspondent in the Irish Republic, members Union, ended on Wednesday reply to the second one-day of their demands for a 40-hour week and a weekly increase of up to f3.

Solidarity amongst other sections of the working class was increasing. The Marine, Port and General Workers' Union sent f500 to the strikers.

Most unions, however, including the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, to which the majority of busmen belong, were bitterly opposed to the NBU, although this did not prevent those busmen not belonging to the NBU from refusing • to pass the picket line.

Many railwaymen defied their official leadership and supported the busmen.

Normal train services were disrupted throughout the Republic.

It became clear that the Irish government was intent on seeking a showdown.

PROPOSAL

In a move designed to split the workers, the government Labour Court transmitted to the NBU a proposal of the right-wing Irish Congress of Trades Unions.

This proposal was to call off the one-day strikes, also to submerge and in effect to substantially water down the NBU's demands amidst a mass of minor claims. The NBU quite rightly rejected this proposal.

In order to win this dispute the busmen have to realise that this lockout was part of a deliberate government policy of keeping wages low and hours long.

As stated in last week's Newsletter, the government of the Irish Republic, seeking desperately to entice foreign capital into the country, must guarantee potential foreign investors a cheap and disciplined labour force.

In this context any reliance on a government body such as the Labour Court (the government is the employer in this dispute) is ludicrous.

The lockout must be seen as an all-out attack by the government on an important section of the workers.

reinstated Newsletter Correspondent their first week on the excuse out giving any other reason.

The fact that the commission stated that the 30 carpenters should be reinstated, however, certainly does not mean that building workers can have illusions about committees of that kind.

A joint board of employers and trade union officials can only serve one interest-to make things easy for the managements so that they can put up more and more buildings for profit. speak in the discussion, the Chairman of the Strike Committee said that the strikers did not want to take a position on the resolution.

They welcomed and wanted help from all sections of the movement.

They felt that as they were inexperienced in this sort of fight that advice and criticism were needed, provided the criticism was constructive.

He urged all the delegates to give their full support to the strike in the days ahead.

The carrying of this witch-hunting resolution, even with a large majority, cannot be hailed as a victory by the right wing.

They know that there are many union members dissatisfied with the conduct of this strike and many more who are

an opportunist LAST week Bric Hefter, MP for Walton, Liverpool, leaped forward to detend the award of the MBE to the Beatles.

Defence of youth? Certainly not. His action shows once again his deep respect for the ruling class, their institutions and their bureaucratic agency in the labour movement.

Merseyside Young Socialists would never think of describing Heffer as a champion of youth. In fact, in Liverpool, this man has joined in the attacks on the Young Socialists.

Recently, down on Liverpool's Pier Head he was asked where he stood on the cancellation of the May Day march through Liverpool (see picture above).

CONTEMPTUOUS

'I wouldn't march with a bunch of kids,' was his remark, referring contemptuously to 150 young people who carried socialist slogans.

Heffer's motion for the House of Commons declares that the *House strongly appreciates the action of Her Majesty awarding the Beatles the MBE How happy he must have been to show that the respectful "rebel' appreciated feudal relics.

When Heffer tabled his motion for the House of Commons, he was reported in 'The Times' as saying: Whilst there may still be outmoded awards or recognitions, the fact is that nowadays honours are being given on a much wider and more demo'Atomic workers reject pay award REPRESENTATIVES of ten unions in the Atomic Energy Authority firmly rejected an 11 per cent increase offer made by the industries' representatives.

Although strike action was not decided upon by the union leadership, it has been reported that there is a lot of unrest amongst workers.

The unions are demanding an increase of fl 19s. 6d. whereas the Authority is only prepared to go as far as 15s.

This latest smack-in-the-eye for the Labour government's incomes policy is likely to cause further alarm to Wilson and company, who are already faced with many such wage demands. From Bill Hunter cratic scale than before.' This reference to 'outmoded awards' is not to arouse contempt among the working class for the whole corrupt 'honours' system but to emphasise that there is a wider and more democratic' process at work.

And who knows? The scale may widen to take in Mr. Heffer. After all, Lord Brockway has got recognition.

But now conditions don't offer the same opportunities. Issues are sharp and the 'flannel' wears thin.

SQUEAK

What a record, since he went to Westminster'. Heffer made a squeak when the old age pension increase was pushed of to March, but organised nothing in the way of a fight. His excuse to the pensions lobby was reported to be that the Tories might have supported him and brought the government down.

When the American Embassy in Saigon was bombed he could not wait to express his condolences to the representatives of American imperialism in London.

It is interesting to note that some of the articles Heffer wrote only a few years ago in 'Revolt', later re-named 'Socialist Revolt' had the following headlines: "The strike is mightier than the vote'. "Workers' power - which way forward?' FORGOTTEN But Heffer's words of ten years ago have obviously been forgotten by him.

Ultra-left phrases of the past were a cover for a refusal to discipline himself in a revolutionary movement and subordinate himself to the needs of the working class.

All revolutionary words were so much verbal frothing. There is hostility to the Young Socialists because fighting alongside them means conflicting with capitalist institutions and capitalist ideology.

This man could rush to defend the 'honour' of the Beatles, but he would not rush to defend a Young Socialist arrested by the police on May Day.

But then, quite respectable people support the Beatles. Young Socialists are not bringing "commercial advantage in dollar earnings' as Heffer's motion about the Beatles says. They don't get his support because they are seriously fighting for socialist policies.

LAST Saturday a demonstration of over a hundred people marched through Bradford in protest against U.S. aggression in Vietnam. But it was only the banners and slogans of the Young Socialists contingent which raised the real issues.

At first Young Socialists were told by a CND official (CND organised the march) that they could not take their posters on the march because the YS slogans 'USSR & China -Defend Vietcong!' 'No Phoney Peace Talks', 'Workers must defend Vietnam Revolution' and 'Arm the Vietcong' were 'unsuitable'.

As soon as the march started, the Young Socialists began slogan shouting. The calls 'Vietcong in! Yankees out!' and 'Imperialism out! Socialism in!' rang out clearly.

CND officials immediately moved in. They threatened to stop the demonstration unless the Young Socialists gave up their slogans, but the march carried on.

After the demonstration over, the CNDers and Stalinists went round with a petition which said that the Labour government should be neutral in the Vietnam war.

When the YS members pointed out that workers should support the Vietcong some of the Stalinists said yes, they supported the Vietcong, but that they would 'get more support by putting forward the demand for neutrality. When asked what was the point of putting forward a demand, they had no answer.

The role of the Stalinists was further exposed at the meeting where the men decided to return to work.

Cousins, who was received well when he opened the meeting was heckled when he spoke of a return.

Then Fred Gore, a BEA engineering shop steward, spoke of the 'great victory' the men had achieved. After equally eloquent phrases, he received a tremendous ovation, and the men voted to return to work.

This sell-out is even more blatant when one considers that the porters could have won if the BEA engineers had joined in the growing support for the strike. Gore could quite easily have brought his men out, but instead he helped John Cousins send the porters back to work.

Reliance

Complete reliance on these people and their 'militant unionism' could lead to another rout of all militants, like that experienced at the Ford Motor Company in Dagenham in 1962. The airport bosses are as organised, if not more so; than the motor employers.

Workers must come to the unions. But they must come prepared and organised to carry on a political struggle against syndicalism and sell-outs by men like Cousins and Communist Party "militants, and their so-called leaders.

They must join the Young Socialists and Socialist Labour League in a fight against the employers and their friends like Gunter in the Labour government for socialist polii of nationalization with workers' control.