The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 416

brutal white settlers in Rhodesia.

Wilson: rushes to the palace to confide with Queen Before the Tory conference, out to Rhodesia to negotiate Wilson committed the Lavour attorns basis. government to Tory policy over This shows how far to the Rhodesia. right is this Labour governHe declared that Labour follows the policy of the previous government. He is now bound hand and foot to the Tory Party. So he no longer acts as a representative of the Labour Party.

DEPENDENCE ON MONARCHY After each utterance by Smith, he rushes to Buckingham Palace to confide with the Queen, whose close relative, Mr. Angus Ogilvy, has powerful interests in Rhodesia.

Wilson shows the same dependence on the monarchy as Ramsay MacDonald did on George V in 1931.

Meanwhile, the natives of Rhodesia are being treated in a most brutal way.

Miss Judith Todd disclosed at the Edinburgh "teach-in' cases where Africans with their eardrums kicked in • by the police came to see her father.

But the police force Rhodesia is recruited in Britain. In the eyes of the natives of Rhodesia, the people responsible are the British, beSmith: becomes more arrogant cause they provide the brutal, fascist - minded material who are willing to work in Rhodesia to kick the natives about.

The British Labour government will pay a heavy price over Rhodesia if the lesson is not learned and a break made immediately with Tory policies of capitulation to Smith.

This impudent leader and the white settlers demand a return to the 1961 constitution. This constitution postpones any kind of voting rights for Africans for 50 years, and yet Wilson is prepared to rush by The Editor ment und how far removed it is from the working class here and in Africa.

The 1961 constitution is a fraud and a farce. It should be suspended immediately. But what is to replace it?

The 'Daily Worker' , organ of the Communist Party, calls for a constitution that will give a vote to everyone.

This is totally inadequate.

So long as the Rhodesian state is a capitalist state the vote has as little meaning as it has in Britain.

FREEDOM THROUGH REVOLUTION Real freedom for the Rhodesian people can only come through the nationalization and taking over of all the industries in their country by revolutionary action. Only in this context will the vote have any meaning for the natives.

The British capitalist government and is Labour lackeys cannot be expected to bring freedom to the peoples of Africa.

They jockey back and forth between the white settlers, the Tory Party and the working class, looking for a formula that will enable them to betray the Rhodesian people.

The real lesson of Rhodesia is the need for the British working class to step up the struggle to get rid of the Wilson-MacDonald traitors.

These men are betraying, will betray, and can only be stopped by a united movement of the working class acting in solidarity with the Rhodesian native population for full freedom and independence for Rhodesia.

A 'Peace in Vietnam' demon- Peace in Vietnam' demonstration held in Leeds and incorporating all groups from Yorkshire, supported by all the major political and religious groupings from Leeds University — excluding the Marxist Society — mustered some 150 marchers last week-end.

The absolute ineptitude of any section to give leadership was clearly reflected both in the slogans and at the meeting following the march. SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETING - LONDON, SUNDAY, OCTOBAR 17 BIG struggles will be the order of the day when the Labour government introduces legislation against the unions in the next parliament, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, Gerry Healy, told a 300-strong audience in London last week-end.

He was speaking at a SLL public meeting attended by Young Socialists, students and many trade unionists. Below we print the major points from his speech:

Never in the history of any government since the end of the Second World War has there been so much money loaned by international bankers as that loaned to the Labour government over the last year.

If the in'ernational bankers and head man Thon thic than and busine. must be very sure of the purpose for whieh it will be used. They have no illusions that the Labour government is going to introduce socialism or take away their wealth.

SUPPORT VIA CRISIS

The reason why the government enjoys so much support in the first place is because American imperialism, the largest in the world, is in a very serious economic crisis. There is no longer enough gold in the U.S. to back up the value of the dollar.

Devaluation of the pound could lead to devaluation everywhere and trade would be completely disrupted. This is in the background of all political developments in Britain.

The second reason is that the Labour Party has completely sold out to the bankers. All the policies decided at Blackpool were decided on the basis of the hard cash paid out by those bankers to the government.

The demonstration was one aimed at 'putting pressure on the Labour government to dissociate itself from U.S. policy in Vietnam'.

The major force on the demonstration was the Communist Party, whose members revealed their abysmal failure to emerge with a clear class line on Vietnam. The meeting followed the same pattern.

A member the REPORTING TEAM 1 LIRASI They decided to support legislation against the trade unions; to support the Immigration Bill and the bombing of North and South Vietnam. There has never been a conference where so many reactionary decisions have been taken.

This is not the Labour government that millions of workers thought would act in their interests. It is a caretaker government that is kept in power by the bankers until it puts down legislation against the trade unions.

This government will discredit Labour just as Ramsay THIS WEEK AGE TV NOT to Wilson e Blacklı Charter A section of the audience of last Sunday's meeting (above) listens to national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, Gerry Healy (below). Cyril Smith, SLL Central Committee member (lower page) also spoke.

MacDonald did in 1931.

The Tories will then be able to make a comeback.

Why are the polls swinging to Labour at the moment? This is part of the British parliamentary system. The Tories have the support of the big businesses. The Labour Party enjoys the support of the trade unions. In between you have a floating vote which is on the fringe of the middle-class that sometimes swings to the Tories and then swings back to Labour.

They are the people the public opinion polls represent. This section of the middle class is satisfied that the Labour government, so far, is doing a good job against the trade unions and organised lahour.

TORIES NEVER OUT

Who governs what anyway? Everyone knows that the state consists of full-time civil servants who are Tory to a man. The Tory government is out of parliament, but parliament is dominated by Tory full-time civil servants.

When the 'Daily Worker' says the Tory conference was bonkers, that is stupid. It was a conference of hard-headed businessmen who, behind the scenes, are drawing up reserve plans against the working class.

The Tories will never be out of power until the day a real socialist government takes the wealth and power and establishes clearly a working-class government on the basis of ownership and control of the PAGE World-wide protst over Vietnam war Tory conference summed up 0w:0x0xx0x0 means of production by the working class.

The most serious thing facing the working class is undoubtedly legislation against the trade unions. The trade unions, despite their reactionary leaderships, are the custodians of wages and working conditions.

STANDARDS MAINTAINED Without unions, wages and conditions would be pretty horrible. The working people could not maintain their standards of living unless it was organised in unions. We must separate the reactionary right-wing leaders from the rank and file.

Mr. Clore can offer millions of pounds for Selfridges without any protest being made-that's business. But if workers want an extra 10s. a week it will be legally impossible for them to get it.

The capitalist state will now be the main custodian of wages and working conditions.

When that happens, the whole purpose of trade unionism defeated. The working class is moved back two centuries to the middle of the 18th century when they had to fight the employers through illegal trade unions.

Aged trade union leaders are now committing millions of their members to this legislation without consulting them.

I believe the average trade unionist today has no idea of the terrible state of affairs being prepared for him.

Every struggle now becomes a political struggle. You have to fight the state and you must fight PAGE Mini-shift victory clinched 'istol dockers we out meeting PUBLIC MEETINGS NO LEGISLATION AGAINST THE TRADE UNIONS! CLEAR OUT THE WILSONMACDONALD TRAITORS!

FIGHT FOR SOCIALIST POLICIES!

LEICESTER

7.30 Up.m., Sunday, October 24 The Corn Exchange Speakers:

Cliff Slaughter, Editor, 'Fourth International ael-Cernotary:

Young Socialists Tack Gale, Central Committee Member, SLL SHEFFIELD 7.30 p.m., Sunday, October The Vestry Hall, Cemetery Road (Moor End)

Speakers:

Cliff Slaughter, Editor, 'Fourth International' Dave Ashby, National Secretary Young Socialists Gale, Central Committee Member, SLL GLASGOW 7.30 p.m., Sunday, November i Partick Burgh Hall, Lesser Hal Speakers:

Cliff Slaughter, Editor, 'Fourth International John Robertson, Young Socialist and engineering corivenor BELFAST 7.30 p.m., Sunday, Nov.

International Hotel, Donegall Square South Speaker:

Healy, National Secretary, LIVERPOOL 8 p.m., Sunday, November 21 Lecture Room, Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street Speakers:

F. Healy, National Secretary, SLL Cliff Slaughter, Editor, 'Fourth International Kerrigan, Liverpool BIRMINGHAM 7.30 p.m., Sunday November 21 Digbeth Civic Hall, Digbeth Speakers:

Aileen Jennings, Editor, 'Keep Left' Mike Banda, Editor, Newsletter Jack Gale, Central Committee Member, SLL NEWCASTLE .30 .m., Sunday, November 2 Bridge Hotel, Castle Square Speakers:

Cliff Slaughter, Editor, Fourth International' Jack Gale, Central Committee Member, SLL Chairman: J. Willamson, Youn Socialists National Committee

Council and the Labour Party, noted for his hostility to the Young Socialists, said that Vietnam was a moral issue, which involved everyone in Britain. The purpose of the march, he said, was not to support either side.

He then added: Personally, I am not concerned with who wins in Vietnam'!

A CND speaker then enthused over a world meeting of Peace in Vietnam Committee followers in Helsinki.

The last speaker, from the Communist Party, could only call for all demonstrators to join the Peace Pledge Union group.

The identity of the Communist Party with this grouping, consisting of liberals, pacifists, Tories and others openly hostile to the Vietcong, is a further indictment of the Party's role. • Report of world-wide demonstrations against Vietnam war. See page 3. to take the power. Each wage claim now becomes political.

POLITICS AND UNIONS Let us ask all the people who say, don't bring politics into the trade unions — who is bringing politics into the unions now?

The British working class is faced with the position that they will either have to fight or go the way of the working class in Germany.

Hitler abolished the trade unions even though the right wing in the German trade unions tried to Cont. page 3, col. 3 →

Two FADERS of The ber about replacing the present

now be familiar with our occasional replies to articles which appear in the duplicated periodical 'World Outlook', • Issued from Paris and associated with supporters of the revisionist group calling itself The Fourth International'.

This Paris centre, in fact, long ago abandoned Trotskyism, the traditions of which are now carried on by the Socialist Labour League and its collaborators in the International Committee of the Fourth International.

The current issue of 'World Outlook' contains an article by a correspondent called Peter Kork. His purpose is to defend Mr. Peter Price, the Nottingham delegate to the Labour Party Conference at Blackpool.

Answered

I have already answered the accusation that my Newsletter reports on the Labour Party Conference were unfair to Mr. Price (last week's Newsletter), but Mr. Kork raises the question once more.

Kork says:

"These left-wing centrists are characterised by 'The Newsletter" as having exposed their "insincerity" in that one of them "congratulated Woodrow Wyatt on his courage"! The Wilson government intends to enact • Bill against workers defending their wages and conditions, similar to the Trades Disputes Act introduced by the Tories in 19z Workers showed their contempt for this Bill it: THE proposals of the Wilson government to introduce legislation on wages is but a short step trom even more vicious attacks on the rights of trade unions. The consequences for militant dockers contained in the Devlin Report and the talk about 'trouble - shooters' in the motor industry make this quite clear.

It is, therefore, valuable to look at earlier experiences in the history of the working-class when the employers launched similar attacks.

TOOK ADVANTAGE

Following the defeat of the General Strike in 1926, the Tory government and the employers did " not hesitate to drive home their advantage. In 1927, they introduced The Trades Disputes and Trades Unions Bill.

This Bill:

1. Restricted the power to strike, without affecting the employers' right to lock-out.

Made picketing

Bible.

Deprived the unions of the right to raise political funds.

Kept civil servants away from other trade unionists.

Limited the right of local government employees to strike.

Allowed the AttorneyGeneral to interfere in the administration of union funds.

The Bill declared any sympathetic strike illegal if it was intended or likely to coerce the government or intimidate a substantial part of the community'. Anyone taking part in or 'promoting' such a strike was liable to a fine of £10 or imprisonment for two years.

He then quotes my report which, incidentally, does not question at all the 'sincerity' or otherwise of Price and his friends. We have no instruments for measuring such things, and if we had we would see little point in using them.

For my part I have no doubt that Mr. Woodrow Wyatt, for instance, is a very sincerely convinced advocate of capitalism.

Kork makes the remarkable statement that 'the Nottingham speaker, Peter Price, said no such thing as that attributed to him'.

Press report

I already quoted in last week's Newsletter the record of Price's speech as reported both in the 'Daily Telegraph' and 'The Guardian', but now I must add that I happened to The Blacklegs® Charter Any strike not directly concerned with conditions of employment within the trade could • be declared illegal. Moreover, this decision could be retrospective. That is, a worker could take part in a strike which he considered was concerned with conditions within his trade, but if this was subsequently judged to have gone beyond these limits, he became liable to prosecution.

EMPLOYERS EXEMPT Such legislation did not, of course, apply to employers. They could lock out workers without any fear of criminal prosecution.

The second clause of this Bill was concerned to defend strikebreakers. Picketing was declared illegal if 'the number of pickets or manner of picketing is such as to make the person concerned afraid of injury, loss, violence or exposure to hatred, ridicule or contempt.

In effect, this meant that pickets could only approach blacklegs who were willing to be approached!

Violation of this clause carried a penalty of a f20 fine or three months' imprisonment.

In addition, no blackleg could be expelled from his union, or be punished in any way, for refusing to take part in a strike declared illegal. He could claim substantial damages from the union if this was done. And this included subjecting the blackleg to speak to a Mr. Kork at the Labour Party Conference immediately after the speech in question.

He 'apologised' for Price's speech, and in no way attempted to defend it, hoping only that he would perform better the next day on Vietnam.

Kork enthuses I believe this is the same Kork who writes in 'World Outlook' since they display the same rapturous enthusiasm for the conference speech of another Nottingham delegate, Ken Coates.

For example, in 'World Outlook', Kork talks about this as an 'important speech', 'a trenchant attack' , and says that it was 'widely described as the most sharply critical utterance at the conference.

When I spoke 'hatred, ridicule or contempt'.

Even the use of words like "blackleg' or 'scab' was dangerous.

This legislation was made retrospective, with the specific purpose of protecting those who had scabbed in the General Strike.

No wonder the Trades Disputes Act became known amongst workers as The Blacklegs' Charter!

An important feature of the Bill was the substitution of 'contracting-out' of the political fund by 'contracting-in' Unions could raise political funds only from those members who declared individually and in writing their willingness to pay them.

FEARED WORKERS'

STRENGTH This was an attempt by the Tories to keep the unions away from politics, and was inspired by their fear of the political consequences which could have arisen from the General Strike, when the working class had shown that it had the strength to take the power but lacked the leadership. The Tories wanted to take no more chances.

Legislation against the unions always raises the question of the connection between them and the Labour Party.

The unions gave rise to the Labour Party because no existing party could serve their interests. at the conference, immediately after Coates' speech, he was similarly enthusiastic, and even appeared agitated and wiping his brow as if the speech had taken as much out of him as it did out of the speaker himself!

No, I did not write anything about Coates' speech. It explicitly confined itself to the kind of criticism which is commonplace among liberal and "humanitarian' opponents of the Vietnam war, and expressed their point of view very well.

But I had not the space to develop a critical account of it, which certainly would have been necessary• Compromise For example, Coates insisted that if the delegates were in Vietnam they would have no choice but to be with the Vietcong, 'just as, during the war, In 1927 the Tories tried to force home their advantage following the defeat of the 1926 General Strike by introducing the Trades Disputes Act. Workers actively opposed this legislation in demonstrations like the one seen above.

In 1927, it was the Tories who tried to split the unions from the Labour Party by 'contracting in'.

In 1965, it is the actions of the Labour Party leaders themselves, who, by their threatened legislation, raise anew the whole question of the permanence of this relationship.

CIVIL SERVANTS BARRED Another way in which the Tories tried to weaken the working class in 1927 was by splitting off civil servants and employees of local and public authorities.

No civil servant was allowed to be a member of a union which admitted members outside the civil service, while any employee of a public or local authority was liable to a fine of f10 or three months' imprisonment if he 'broke his contract of service' (i.e., went on strike) in such a way that the authority could not 'effectively carry out its duties'.

This Act hamstrung the unions. Practically no strike was legal, and even those that were could be prevented.

For instance, the AttorneyGeneral could apply to the courts for an interim injunction against a strike which would be granted before the action was proved illegal.

Even if the union then proved that its action was legal, it had no redress against the Attorney-General.

Of course, the employers we had no choice but to fight with the communists. against fascism'.

Again, Mr. Kork agreed with me that the latter was at best an unnecessary compromise with the reactionary conceptions of many of the delegates at the conference concerning war and the struggle against fascism.

Carve-up

After all, I pointed out to Mr. Kork (and he eventually agreed), it was a question of Labour leaders making an agreement not to oppose the British capitalist government, while they made an alliance with the Stalinists, an alliance which ended in the carve-up of Europe and the betrayals of 1945.

How is it that this same Kork has nothing to say on this Tories felt confident in 1927 to launch a direct attack on the unions, because of the defeat which the cowardice of the trade union leaders had brought on the working class in 1926.

Today, in an economic crisis far worse than that of 1927 (or even of 1931), the capitalist state desperately needs similar restrictions on working-class action.

But 1965 is not 1927.

The working class is not defeated and demoralised, but strong and confident.

TORIES LOOK TO WILSON The Tories dare not carry out such measures themselyes -that is why they allow the Wilson government to continue in power. They hope that Wilson, assisted by those trade union leaders who voted with him at Blackpool (and by those like William Carron of the Amalgamated Engineering Union who repudiated the vote of his own delegation) will place anti-strike and anti-union legislation on the statute book.

This will give the Tories the jumping-off point for a fundamental onslaught on the rights and standards of the working class.

All workers must look closely at the 1927. Act and its results, and realise now that all legislation against wages and strike rights must be thrown out, and those Labour leaders who support such legislation must be repudiated. question in the columns of even SO "revolutionary' a journal as World Outlook'? Perhaps he is only prepared to criticise Coates behind his back and not in print.

Into the same category comes the issue of 'The Week' for October 7, which contains a report from Pat Jordan.

He notes four demonstrations of workers at the Blackpool conference, but manages to ignore completely the demonstration of 2,000 Young Socialists and trade unionists behind the policies of the Young Sedialists and the Socialist Labor League, which was by far the largest and most effective demonstration of the week. Labour leadership with new leaders, but it says nothing about the political reasons for the weakness of the 'left'.

We have pointed out in The Newsletter that the 'left' is still caught in the trap of social-democracy.

They fail to recognise that a new stage has been reached in the relation between the classes in Britain, for which reformism, left or right, has no answer. Only revolutionary leadership will suffice.

Out of touch' But 'World Outlook' simply says:

"The forces of the left are weak because in the constituencies, trade unions, parliament and in intellectual circles, they are out of touch with each other. They are fighting different battles and in different ways. The left must now unite, select the issues on which it will fight, and organise the fight on a nation-wide basis throughout the Labour Party and the trade unions.' But there is no point in confused people getting together unless the confusion is cleared up. This is the essential need in the British labour movement, the need for Marxist theory, for political perspectives to guide the struggle.

'The Week' and World Outlook' thus present very similar lines. They concentrate on influencing circles of left reformists and using talk about unity which does not disturb the confusion and political prejudice of these reformists. The fact that 'World Outlook' says 'find new leaders' at next year's conference to replace Wilson

The gentlemen around this paper, for all their talk about alternative policies, are opposed above all to the building of a real alternative. This is why, earlier. in the year, they similarly ignored the 1,000-strong conference of the Young Socialists in Morecambe.

Coates and others around this paper, described by Kork in 'World Outlook' as 'left-wing centrists', are, in fact, preparing a trap for any trade unionists and Labour Party members in search of an alternative to Wilson.

Such an alternative can, be built only on the foundations of Marxism, in the actual construction of a revolutionary organisation.

Coates and company concentrate instead on 'winning friends and influencing people' without ever stating these real alternatives.

Thus Coates found himself seconding a 'moderate' resolution on Vietnam at Blackpool, and appealing for support on 'liberal, humanitarian, socialist' lines.

Frighten friends This is why "The Week' ignored the Morecambe conference and the Young Socialists demonstration in Blackpool. To mention the actual Marxist alternative might frighten the liberal, humanitarian' friends who sponsor "The Week' and consider some 'Marxists' to be harmless enough, after all.

'World Outlook, in its comment on the Labour Party Conference, admits that the conference revealed the weakness of the Left', and even talks Fourth International A journal Volume Two ements of the International Committee of the International on Algeria and Vietnam Fourth International and the Socialist Worker:

Documents covering the period 1953-1963 (Resolution of the International Committee)

Struggle for Marxism in the United States A discussion with Trotsky - Stenogra Price: Three shillings each. Obtainable from :

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS LTD., only helps perpetuate the myth that the existing forces of left reformism can make the Labour Party into an instrument for the socialist revolution. 'The Week' is still lagging behind, and calling for pressure to change the policy of the existing Labour leaders.

'Pressurize' 'The Week' for October says in its editorial: 'Mr. Wilson and his team must be made to understand that socialist principles are minkely more Tinportant than the paper victories obtained by manipulation and mesmerism. Every organisa'tion in the Labour movement must be made to realise that not to fight against the government's policies is to court disaster for socialism, for working class standards and for the Labour Party. The aim of this campaign must be to reverse Government policy? (Our emphasis.) After one year of the most gross betrayals, "The Week' still cannot bring itself to say that to avoid disaster the working class must get rid of Wilson; they want to show him the error of his ways, to explain to him the importance of socialist principles. That is why we say that "The Week' is a trap for those moving into opposition. The nature of the fight against government policies requires the most resolute class opposition to Wilson and Brown, and this will only be led to victory around the building of an alternative revolutionary leadership in the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League.

Now available: Two issues of International Marxism Numbers One and Two NO. 1 NO. 2 Rebuilding the Fourth International Cuba: Marxism and the Revolution Ill American Trotskyism with Trotsky report dated 12-15 June, 1940 186A Clapham High Street, S.W.4.

October 23 Three

to treat the Tory Party Conference as a joke.

This only demonstrated how far this paper is from Marxism and how stupid the judgment of liberals can be in the present period.

The party which conferred in Brighton was the political leadership of the ruling class. It was engaged in preparing for an all-out attack on the working-class movement.

Gathered in the conference were representatives of all the major monopoly and banking interests. Here were the leaders of British capital: men Heath: Leadership still not stabilised of power deciding how to on to that power.

It is true that, as a result of the acute crisis of British imperialism, the Tory Party is still facing a crisis of leadership.

After the collapse of the MacMillan group after the Profumo explosion, in 1963, the 14th Earl, transmuted into Sir Alec, was brought in to hold the Party and the government together.

BIG BUSINESS CONFLICTS Heath's leadership is still not comletely stabilised at the head of the ruling class. Conflicts between various sections or Dig business are sharnened by the desperate economic problems But, with the aid Wilson government, the Tories nave been able to repair some ot the damage suffered two years ago.

they can face the prospect of taking office once more, the Labour government having sanely lookea arter tne Interests of cantals in the interim the policies of a new Tory government will be far more arsh than those of the Mac Millan or Home administra tions.

Vith the way opened b Vilson and his Blackpool d cisions, Heath was able last indis to prepare for a legal and Industria assault on trade unionism.

The debate on the new policy document hardly revealed the real nature of this onslaught.

But it is clear I should like to take up a few points from the report of Tom Kemp about the meeting of the International Monetary Fund which appeared in your last issue ('World Liquidity: Problems Shelved").

In his article Kemp suggests that at this meeting no definite decisions were taken about the functioning of the world's monetary and financial system. I do not think that this is correct. That there were no proposals for a major overhaul of the present system and that no action was taken in relation to the pound as one of the two 'reserve currencies' has important implications for the development of the imperialist system, which were fully understood in Washington.

By deciding that the pound and the dollar should maintain their present role, the leading bankers and financiers of the world were, in As Aiden Crawley (once a Labour Mr and Attlees blue eyed boy) put it:

.. a few trade unions and a much larger number of trade unionists were abusing their powers.

*Examples of these abuses were railwaymen, who refused to operate liner trains ... and trade unionists who threatened to strike if a nontrade unionist was employed.

'If the message goes out from this conference that the Conservative Party has the guts to re-assert the rule of law over trade unionists, the same as everybody else, we ... shall be supported in power until we have put the country back into the leadership of civilisation.' One of the most characteristic sessions of the conference was that concerned with immigration. While rank-and-file delegates revealed the true racialist face of the Tories, the leaders were able to affect a "liberal' mask. The main job had already been done for them by Wilson!

SYMPATHY FOR SMITH The expected split on the Rhodesian question was easily covered over when the 14th Earl of Home intervened to stop the fifth Marquess of Salisbury from putting his amendment.

Nonetheless, there was a clear shift towards more open sympathy for lan Smith.

The possibility of future Splits in the Tory Party is posed by the crisis.

Wilson and the Labour government's policy of betrayals has helped the ruling class to compose itself, but only temporarily.

New right-wing forces can be seen emerging.

A failure to understand the true nature of this conference would allow them to open out still more vicious attacks against the working class, which must prepare itself against these attacks by uniting to build an alternative socialist Home: intervened in Southern Rhodesia debate IMF meeting was significant effect, attempting to solve their present difficulties at the expense of the • underdeveloped parts of the imperialist system.

Both the U.S. and Britain decided that they must balance their external payments so that they can operate from a position of strength in relation to France and the other capitalist powers who resent the privileged position which these two countries and their currencies at present enjoy.

What effect will the American efforts to balance their external position (i.e., cut back on their present high balance of payments deficit) have? It must speed up the crisis rapidly maturing in Africa, Asia and South America.

To balance its payments, America must continue to:

(a) cut back on its foreign 'aid' programme and its spending abroad, and (b) cut back its import bill. Socialists.

Crisis of leadership

La hang-over from MacMillan era Tory Party Conference quote from T. F. Lindsay, "The Daily Telegraph', October 15.

"The woman who was ejected from the hall was apparently the wife of Colin Jordan, leader of the British Fascists. Later, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Jordan enjoying tea on the veranda of the hotel which serves as the Conservative Party headquarters. There must be a moral in this somewhere, but I will not attempt to elucidate it.? egotiate with him. He simply irew them aside and got his own fficials to do the dirty work.

Legislation against the trade unions will bring the Labour Party into conflict with its own rank and file. Only a united working class fighting to build up its own revolutionary leadership, recognising they are faced with political, not just industrial tasks, can win, Now let us see what the Devlin Report is all about.

This is the thin end of the wedge for the legislation which we are talking about.

It is going to be placed on the statute book by a Labour government, but an essential part of the Devlin Report is to build up the rule of the monopoly capitalism on the docks.

Privileged monopolies Think of the power the monopolies will have. Brown says the docks are the lifelines of the country. These few monopolies are now going to be placed by the Labour government in the privileged position of being able to raise the costs of imports and exports if they think it necessary.

The growth of monopoly, far from freeing the lifelines of Britain, places them in the hands of a few businessmen. The Labour government is opposed to nationalization on the docks, because it is on the side of the bankers and big businessmen. The real traitors are not the dockers but the big monopoly men.

The bosses hate the Socialist Labour "League on the docks. That is why Devlin devoted four pages in his Report to us.

We stand for the nationalization of the docks without compensation These measures will deal a direct blow to the economtes of the colonial and ex-colonial world.

Since 1958 the prices of food exports, even accepting United Nations' estimates, from the underdeveloped countries have fallen by 11 per cent, and the downward trend dates back to 1951.

During this same period (from 1958) the 'non-food' exports from the metropolitan countries have risen by 5 per cent. If raw materials-tin, 'copper, rubber, etc. — were included along with food, the relative movements would be even greater.

This downward movement in the prices of 'primary products' is the result of economies in the use of raw materials, the growth of synthetic substitutes in the field of oil, fibres and rubber, the decelerating growth of food consumption in the metropolitan countries of North America and Western Europe and the unrealisec potential, on a world scale, of agricultural technology.

The decisions taken in Washington must make this situation worse. It will further accentuate the grindand oppression which grips ing poverty, misery, disease millions of people-workers and peasants-in these areas.

The conclusions arrived at by the world bankers, financiers, and industrialists blow sky high the fraudulent attempts by the imperialists— operating through the agency of the United Nations-to deceive the world that they are interested in the all-round development of these areas of the world. They are not.

The International Monetary Fund discussions underline once more that imperialism is a system, now in decay, which is interested in high finance and profit and not in human development.

Jeffries.

not for themselves, but for every single trade unionist who is today menaced by this act of parliament that Brown, Callaghan and Wilson propose introducing.

Now we come to that terrible chapter in the Labour government's history-the war in Vietnam.

Inside the U.S. today there is an enormous opposition to this war, even within the American armed forces itself. Men are tearing up their draft cards and disappearing, even in Corps, which is notoriously reactionary.

Listen to an extract from a letter which a marine corps corporal sent home to his mother:

'We were sweeping the jungle and all of a sudden the Cong opened up on us.

People were falling and Cong were clipping 81 mortars on us. The lieutenant had us move out toward the firing.

We killed eight Cong and about 30 got away.

'Anyway we were searching the dead Cong when a wife of the one I was checking ran out of a cave and picked up a sub-machine gun and started firing at us.

I shot her and my rifle is

'Daily Worker' tried against unofficial strikers are quite certain to be brought forward.

By John Crawford leadership around the po and activities of the Soc Labour League and Y Young UST two days after the United States Defence Department announced the conscription of over 45,000 menthe majority, no doult, bound for Vietnam -thousands of people joined world-wide demonstrations against the brutal imperialist war in south-east Asia.

In 70 American cities, in London, Toronto, Stockholm and Rome, people marched, picketed embassies and clashed with police while displaying their posters and shouting their slogans carrying the universal message:

'Americans get out of Vietnam.' In London, pacifist and Communist Party pickets, with their calls for 'Peace in Vietnam' were arrested in Grosvenor Square, outside the American Embassy after staging a sit-down on Sunday.

The conscription of 45,000 and under the control of the Workers' Union and dockers. T&GWU.

That is why they are whipping It was not the Socialist Labour up a witch-hunt against us on the League that was responsible for docks. The Devlin Report is not 10,000 Tuến leaving the T&GWU honest. It is trying to make and joining the 'Blue Union'. the Socialist Labour League and The responsibility lay in the rotten members of the Communist Party, conditions in that union and the such as Dash, responsible for the trouble on the docks.

Devlin lied about us, but you cannot sue Devlin. They can say what they like about us, but we have no comeback because his report is privileged and exempt from libel.

The answer to Devlin is nationalization. The real conspirators on the docks are the businessmen who own the docks and conspire to victimise workers. Since the end of the war every important docks leader has been pushed from pillar to post and off the docks.

In 1954 many dockers joined the union of their choice.

Wasn't it awful!

10,000, by majority vote, decided to leave the Transport and General Workers' Union and join the Stevedores and Dockers Union, the oldest union on the docks.

Dockers poached

The way in which the Transport and General Workers' Union built up its reputation on the docks has yet to be written. In Hull in the early thirties they poached and paid dockers to leave the Municipal and General Demonstrations New York, Chicago and California men, for the army and marines only, will take place during December, and has already led to the public burning and tearing-up of 'draft cards' (callup papers)-a federal offence. It is the highest call since the Korean war.

U.S. demonstrations Over the week-end in America people demonstrated over a large area-New York, Chicago, Madison (Wisconsin), Memphis (Tennessee), Salem (Oregon), Austin (Texas), Philadelphia, San Diego (California), Cincinnati, Laurence (Kansas), and Berkeley, California, where the radicalisation of students in the U.S. first stirred this layer of youth into mass demonstrations, initially behind the Free Speech Movement, and now the National Co-ordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Students from the University of California made two attempts to hold a teach-in at the near-by Oakland army base, where troops and supplies are prepared for Vietnam.

On the first, 14,000 were stopped on the border to Oakland by 1,000 heavily armed join anti-democratic practices of the late Arthur Deakin.

When Dickie Barrett decided to accept these men, he was not promoted by the Socialist Labour League. We supported the right of 10,000 men to join the union of their choice. We say now that the Devlin Commission should not be given the power to determine what unions men should be members of.

Of course, there is non-unionism on the docks. In 1954, during the recognition strike, the men were defeated because the London men were split and confused and it was the Communist Party faction who split them.

Non-unionism

The Trades Union Congress instructed the 'Blue Union' to expel 10,000 men and so created 10,000 non-unionists on the docks. The men had to take a case into the law courts in 1956 in order to get their union cards back. out of sheer disgust, refused to come back and the responsibility for non-unionism rests on the TUC.

But portworkers have stood 100 per cent together, and this unity will continue.

There is going to be a big fight in the docks against Devlin and the dockers will be fighting in London, police carrying gas masks and tear gas grenades and backed up by 700 National Guardsmen.

On the second, 2,000 demonstrators were turned back by the same police and immediately attacked by members of the notorious Hell's Angels motor cycle club.

Oakland's police chief told reporters he was worried that the demonstrators' presence in 'racially unbalanced' Oakland might touch off riots on the Los Angeles scale.

What he meant was more accurately reported by "The Times' on Monday:

'A few demonstrations were distinguished by the participation of Negro civil rights workers, who now agitate for peace as furiously as they once did for voting rights?

In fact, coloured and white students, pacifists and workers are all attempting to express, in their own terms, opposition to the Vietnam war, and this is what the Oakland authorities wanted to prevent.

In New York a magnificent 10,000 marched along Fifth Avenue after being refused a meeting place in Central Park.

automatic, so before I knew | it I had shot about six rounds. Four of them hit her and the others went in the cave and must have bounced off the rock wall and hit the baby.

•Mom, for the first time I felt really sick to my stomach. The baby was about two months old....

I swear to God this place is worse than hell. Why must I kill women and kids?

Who knows who's right?

They think they are and we think we are. Both sides are losing men. I wish to God| this was over.' i If Wilson had voted against the war and ran a nation-wide campaign against it, American imperialism could not have lasted three weeks there because mutinies in the armed forces would have been the centre of an empire, the decision by the British labour movement against the war would have strengthened the opposition in the U.S.

The only reason for the war is to murder millions of people and make money out of armaments. We say it is a crime for a party calling itself Labour to vote at its conference for this mass murder.

It strengthens racialism which is unfortunately growing very fast in Britain today. And we shall pay a price for it.

We shall also pay for having been the centre of an empire the majority of whose colonial pople have nothing. We are going to pay a big price for Vietnam.

The time has come to finish with parlour talk. The Tories and employers are going to fight the working class, and the working class will have to fight back?

CENTRAL Committee member of the Socialist Labour League, Cyril Smith, said the meeting was one of the most important held by the Socialist Labour League because of the situation facing the labour movement.

The threatened legislation against the unions, he said, 'goes back on decades of fighting in the labour and trade union movement. It is an attack on standards. It threatens to undermine all the traditional rights which have been built up over the years' The Tory conference, which had ended the same week-end, had been a preparation for this attack.

The vote on legislation at the Blackpool conference of the Labour Party was an historic vote.

The Labour Party had been set up to defend the interests of the trade union movement in the Houses of Parliament.

'In that vote, the constituencies voted against everything that the Labour Party had been built up for,' said Smith.

"Their vote was also a preparation of the monopolies to attack Madison, Wisconsin, demonstrators were arrested after attempting to make a 'citizen's arrest' of Air Force base. commander, Colonel Lester Arrowsmith, and charge him with being an 'accessory to murder, violation of international law and crimes against humanity in relation to the war in Vietnam'.

Court appearances

Seventy-eight people appeared in four courts on Tuesday in London and were either fined or remanded on bail for causing obstruction and ignoring a police order. One 70-year-old woman refused to pay her fine and was jailed for a month.

Their demonstration began as a vigil outside the U.S. embassy, organised by the British Council for Peace in Vietnam, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Committee of 100. It was supported by the Young Communist League and religious and peace organisations.

It was late on Sunday, near the end of the 36-hour vigil, when demonstrators attempted to hold a meeting from the Embassy steps, that the Police Commissioner ordered the Square be closed.

People immediately began a sit-down, 'passively resisting' the working class in this period ahead. So was the vote on the Immigration Act.' In fact, there was an affinity with that policy and the minority of whites in Southern Rhodesia.

Every policy since Wilson took office had been carried through in the interests of big business at home and the imperialist interests abroad.

Big business faced rivalry from other capitalist countries - the United States, Germany and Japan—in a period of rapid change in industry. They therefore had to turn and attack the working class by cutting wages and creating a pool of unemployment.

'So Wilson plays a role similar to that played by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929 to 1931, which ended in a complete betrayal by MacDonald,' said Smith.

'But the period we are living in is different from 1931, because that betrayal took place after a defeat of the working class in 1926, when union membership fallen and affiliation to the Labour Party had fallen.

"Today, the trade union movement is potentially tremendously strong,' he added.

'Only the building of a new leadership, drawing its strength from the younger sections of the working class, can lead this resistance to the smashing of capitalism, not only in Britain, but throughout the world' CHAIRMAN of the meeting, Aileen Jennings, editor of the Young Socialist newspaper, 'Keep Left', said that after the successful September 26 demonstration of 2,000 Young Socialists and trade unionists in Blackpool before the Labour Party Conference, the YS was now preparing its 6th annual conference in Morecambe.

"This conference will be highly significant for the labour and trade union movement.

'It will be held after the Labour Party has swung completely to the right at its annual conference, which moved to virtually close down its own 'official' youth movement,' she said.

The Labour Party had shown quite clearly that it wanted to keep youth out of the Party.

This same conference had also moved to support wage freeze and legislation against the unions.

"These were the policies that we were marching against in Blackpool on September 26. These are the policies which the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League are firmly opposed to, and certainly the September 26 demonstration was justified,' she said.

It had been the responsibility of the YS and the SLL to take banners posing alternative policies on a march before the Labour Party Conference.

'We also have before us the responsibility of building a revolutionary youth movement in this country, and we say this fight must go on.'

the 100 or so police who bundled them into vans.

The blatant and bloody war in Vietnam, which Monday's "Times' claims is supported by majority in America'Consciences do not seem to be assuaged by the wholesale shipment of artificial limbs, the call for plastic surgeons, and the dispatch of teams to care for hundreds of thousands of refugees'—is, in fact, drawing a broad section of working and middle-class layers into a limited struggle.

Headed-off

Like the Negro struggle, to which it is so closely tied in the United States, the protest against the Vietnam war could be headed off by the middle-ofthe-road, middle-class, dogooders who are, in Britain, supported to the full by the Communist Party.

The struggles in the United States, in Britain, and elsewhere, are intimately linked in that they must oppose imperialism and must fight through the building of revolutionary parties for its overthrow.

As The Newsletter and the Socialist Labour League have stated continuously in the past period: 'We are for the military overthrow of U.S. troops in calls for 'peace' in terms of a Vietnam. We are opposed re-call Geneva conference.' A victory for the Vietcong in south-east Asia would be a tremendous blow against imperialism, and a blow against imperialism is another step forward towards socialism for the world working class. Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, 1864 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 180 Clapham High Streot, London. S.W. Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), bosses and union officials, and defeated certain tactics which, it was suspected, were dragged into the struggle in a last-minute attempt to reverse the night workers' victory.

Some form of compensation will have to be sought at Longbridge for time workers in negotiations for the four-night, 38-hour week. As things stand these workers would lose the equivalent of four hour's pay for the Friday night shift.

Woolf strikes

over sackings AT a meeting of the Shop Stewards' Committee of R. Woolf and Co., rubber works, Hayes, Middlesex, on Saturday it was decided to hold a strike every Wednesday and to ban all overtime for a month.

If the dispute, which is over the dismissal of ten militant workers - including a shop steward - is not resolved by then, the workers will come out on strike.

THE fight of London busmen against the London Transport Board's new schedules continues and the busmen now find themselves also fighting Transport and General Workers' Union officials.

On Thursday, last week, two special meetings at Hanwell, London, garage voted by 66-14 to strike every Saturday until their old schedules are restored.

The next day, three full-time union officials, at a meeting called at a few hours' notice, persuaded the few present to call off the strikes and accept the London Transport Board's offer, which the larger, more representative Thursday meeting had rejected.

A leading union official has written a letter denouncing the criticisms of union leadership contained in the busmen's rank and file newspaper, "The Platform' (reported in The Newsletter, October 9).

"Libellous slander'

His letter, which calls 'The Platform' article a libellous slander' , was duplicated and given to every busman.

The original article said that only the many garages taking so-called 'unofficial' action against the schedules were really waging a fight on behalf of London busmen.

The union called three mass meetings for the three divisions for this week and next at which 'the team dedicated to improving the status, raising the wages and obtaining better conditions' of busmen (i.e., the local union leadership), would be present.

Busmen must continue in the garages to expose the officials' subservience to the employers. They must defend the rank and file, their actions and their newspaper.

Vietnam

officials.

The employers finally gave in with a bad grace. A spokesman for the Engineering Employers' Federation declared that they signed last week's agreement 'reluctantly' and 'in the interests of good industrial relations', and that the meeting with the Confederation of Shipbuildina and Enaineering Unions had been held because the Confederation 'could not He also complained that the policy passed at their conference this year'.

This victory gives the biggest slap in the eye to Sir William Carron and the leaders of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, who arranged the 'package deal' and voted at their national conference to support the Labour government's wage freeze policy.

It also strengthens those who supported the AEU delegation's vote against legislation against the unions at the Blackpool conference of the Labour Party.

At Austin's Longbridge factory, Birmingham, workers are now seeking to rupture the 'package deal' a second time by pressing a claim for a 38-hour week of 9½ hours per shift, in place of the 40-hour week for day and night-shift workers laid down in the deal.

Continued fight

This would bring their working hours into line with those of 4,000 night workers at other Midland car factories.

It would also demonstrate that no matter what deals are made between bosses and union 'leaders, workers will continue to put up an independent fight for improved pay and conditions. And that, with resolution and solidarity, such struggles can be won.

On the issue of the fournight week, car workers finally broke the resistance of their MINERS WANT 7 PER CENT RISE members of the National Union of Mineworkers the union's executive decided on Wednesday to put in for a new wage increase of up to 7 per cent.

The men are asking for 12s. a week for surface workers and 17s. a week for underground workers. At the moment the basic rate for the latter is £l2 13s. and for the surface worker £ll 13s. control their members'. it constituted 'a reversal of Slap in the eye for Sir William Carron ROBENS PITS LAST week-end Lord • Robens, £12,500 a year chairman of the National Coal Board, announced that the rate of pit closures was to be doubled over the next five years.

Closures, which were originally to take five years are to be concentrated into three, which will mean the ére-deployment of a very large number in the industry.

The aim is to make the already profitable pits more profitable, to eliminate several million tons produced at a loss and replace them by several million tons produced at a profit'.

Hardest hit will be Scotland, the North-East and South Wales-the Rhondda is 'doomed in the long run'. No advance notice could be given of the closures, said Robens-it would have to be decided on a pit-bypit basis.

Of course, every man displaced will be offered another job in the industry! But only 'if he is prepared to move?! As Robens fully realises, for a man to move several hundred miles with no guarantee of a house A full adult rate at 18 instead of 21 and increased allowances for craftsmen working at the coal face are also being asked for.

Earlier in the year, when the miners were offered increases of between 4 and 5 per cent, the mineworkers' union announced that they were not satisfied with the settlement and that they would put in for another one.

Now the claim has to go before the Trades Union Congress wage-vetting committee before it goes before the national strike threat AIRPORT workers have have again announced that they will stage a national strike over wage claims.

In face of this action by their union members, the leadership of the Transport and General Workers' Union wrote a panicky letter to George Woodcock, secretary of the Trades Union Congress, asking the new wage-vetting committee to look at the dispute at its first meeting.

This committee is the 'warning system' on wages which was proposed at the Trades Union TO SHUT FASTER for his family is impossible.

Such contempt has the National Coal Board for the leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers that they do not appear to have informed the latter of their changed plans.

So much for 'industrial democracy' in the nationalized industries. Mr. Sidney Ford, president of the NUM, when told of the plan said: I dont think there is going to be any major acceleration.' Will Paynter, "Communist' general secretary of the union, was mainly worried about the proposals from the point of view of the difficulties they would create for the Board in recruiting new labour into the industry! He called the decision 'suicide and added: I don't know of a more certain way to drive men out of the pits and dry up recruitment sources.

These men can provide no leadership for miners.

A policy to suspend all interest payments going to the ex-owners and to bring the pits under the real control of those who work in them is required. Along with this must go the development of a joint struggle between the miners and those workers in the nationalized industries-especially the railwaymen - who face similar problems.

National Coal Board.

Like many other sections of workers either putting in for or considering wage claims, miners Will have to fight their own union leadership in order to institute a struggle for increased pay.

The vetting committee is hardly likely to let the 7 per cent claim go straight through and the National Union of Mineworkers' leadership has not been well known for its militancy in pushing through wage claims, except when it is forced by the rank and file. Reporter Congress earlier this year.

The letter to Woodcock states that 'we cannot hold the position much longer'.

Reports stated that members of the T&GWU were threatening to go out on strike at Prestwick on Thursday.

The T&GWU leadership has been forced by the airport men to demand a wage increase for 2,000 government - employed airport workers to equal those granted to the British European Airways and British Overseas Corporation employees last April.

Committee's Role

If they are to fight to win parity with other airport workers they must first of all recognise The in holding back wage demands.

Brought into being at the Trades Union Congress as a so-called alternative to legislation against the trade unions by the Labour government, this committee provides the government with a convenient vehicle for continuing their present wage-freeze policy...

A fight now for parity involves much more than just getting a wage claim. It means challenging the decision of the Trades Union Congress on the question of the "wage-vetting' committee and opposing the trade union leadership. BRISTOL

Official Receiver appointed NEARLY 4,000 workers employed by the Faitted bullding and Engineering Company, Govan, been told by the managing director of the firm that can be no suggestion of the yard being closed.

This statement follows reports of the firm's sheets over the past three years showing losses of £458,339; £381,078 and £519,446 after taxation. Overdrafts and bank loans amount to over £3,000,000.

An official receiver has been appointed to manage the company's affairs.

Workers at Fairfield's, who say they are afraid for their jobs, held a mass meeting on Monday this week at which they decided to send a telegram to Harold Wilson asking for government intervention and a full-scale enquiry.

The closure of major shipbuilding yards such as SimonLobnitz, Renfrew, and Denny's, Dunbarton, in 1963 as well as the disappearance of many other shipbuilding firms are constant reminders to snipvaro worker that there is no guarantee employment the • for profits by the international shipping employers.

But the Labour government to which the workers turn to for help will not render assistance.

They are too busy appointing trouble-shooters in the car industry, setting up committees of enquiry into 'unofficial' strikes, preparing legislation against the trade unions, attacking the dockers and retreating on the question of steel nationalization.

Shiphave there Meanwhile the Scottish Trades Union Congress, which had a meeting with the Clyde shipbuilding employers only a week before Fairfield's announced the appointment of an official receiver, made no mention of any such possibility. Perhaps such unpleasant matters were not discussed.

DEALS

In other yards throughout the Clyde a drive has already been made to end 'restrictive practices, to tie wage increases to increased productivity, and to end demarcation disputes, in an attempt to attack the militancy of the shipyard workers so that bigger profits can be made.

Attempts are now being made to extend agreements for ending certain demarcation practices amongst boilermakers.

These are the kind of conditions the shipping employers want to see put into practice.

The only answer for the shipyard men is not to ask the Wilson leadership to intervene, but to demand the nationalization of the shipyard industry and an opening of the books.

This is the struggle that faces all workers on the Clyde, including those at Fairfield's.

By Sylvia LONDON AIRPORT BRISTOL dockers angrily walked out of a meeting called to get them back to work on Tuesday as their strike over loading rates for timber entered its fourth week.

The consequences of the strike by 1,500 men go deeper than the demand for a higher rate—on Monday, Minister of Labour, Ray Gunter, announced the setting up of a committee to investigate the strike.

Taken in conjunction with the Devlin Report, this section of dockers can expect little in the way of sympathy from an inquiry court set up by a government worried that the employers are losing £250,000 a week during the stoppage.

Many dockers realise this and showed their anger at the Transport and General Workers' Union-organised meeting on Tuesday.

Dispute changed * Ol The T&GWU port officer, Tom Davis, told the meeting that the pattern of the dispute had changed in view of the Ministry investigation.

There could be no discussion on the matter.

So, just ten minutes after the meeting began, he called for a vote to return to work ... and received his answer.

Dockers claimed they had been brought to the meeting on false pretences. They wanted to know what had happened in discussions between local and national union officials in London on Monday and what the terms of the Ministry investigation would be.

Local papers claimed that many of the men wanted to return to work, but they are obviously uncertain of returning under their 'official leadesship.

Albert MeGrath, leader of the 'unofficial' Bristol and Avonmouth Liaison Committee, set up ten days before the dispute, expected to be called before the court of inquiry.

He told reporters: I will pour out my heart on all the wrong done to the docker over STOP PRESS A meeting of 500 men Wednesday voted to return work on Monday.

According to the 'Daily Mail', Thursday, October 21, 'One of the first hands to be raised in favour of the return to work was that of Albert McGrath, secretary of the Liaison Committee the past 10 to 15 years, and prove that the Bristol Liaison Committee are not wreckers.' He felt that the men would have returned to work on Tuesday, 'if the meeting had been run properly.

But Mr. McGrath should not be advising the T&GWU oficials how to run their meetings. He should use the support he has in rallying the men to link up with other ports to demand the nationalization of the docks industry and the rejection of the Devlin Report.

He should also campaign among his men to tell those people organising other 'unofficial' meetings where they stand.

Their contention that the men can begin earning again while the dispute is investigated Will only weaken the struggle of the Bristol dockers.

Dockers in all other ports should stand by the Bristol men in this significant struggle in which the often-disputed issue of timber rates has developed into the vital _defence of dockers rights.

incomes board THET conditions under which a pay claim for railmen is to go before the National Board for Prices and Incomes is double-edged— one of the issues most certain to be involved in any settlement is the question of increased productivity and that most surely means liner trains.

The White Paper which will be used as a guide by the Board refers to the possibility of contributing to higher productivity by changing working practices.

At present the pay offer stands at 34 per cent, or from 8s. to Ils. 6d. a week from the beginning of this month and a reduction in hours from 42 to 40 from April next year.

Before the three main rail unions met last week with George Brown, Minister for Economic Affairs, the National Union of Railwaymen had rejected the offered terms and was planning to go to arbitration.

Into the fire

Now they have succeeded in jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Any report that the Incomes Board makes will be used as a basis for resumed talks between the British Railways Board and the unions. The final settlement is bound to have an effect on negotiations still in progress for London underground men' and for railway engineering workers.

The actions of the rail unions' leadership in letting the pay claim go before the Prices and Incomes Board— who are bound to tie up a wage increase with increased productivity and speed-up—must be challenged by the rank and file.