The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 441

FOUR primperianism face Vietnam.

Firstly, that Marshal Ky Will resolve the crisis with General Thi and the Buddhists; secondly, that a civilian regime will take over and prosecute the war; thirdly, that a civilian regime under Buddhist pressure will negotiate with the National Liberation Front and call for withdrawal of US forces; and fourthly-and this seems the likeliest-that complete anarchy and chaos will overtake South Vietnam, leaving the US forces stranded.

Since the US stage-managed a bloody coup to eliminate their civilian puppets and install a military puppet regime, it seems highly unlikely that a reverse process will take place now.

The prospect of a saffronrobed monk representing South Vietnam is just too much for the good Christians in the Pentagon -and since the CIA has not trained any Buddhists for the job, this solution is out.

The U.S. has therefore decided to fight on with no holds barred. The more desperate the situation becomes the more desperate the counter - measures against the North.

Johnson, who only a year ago cynically announced his much publicised Mekong-Valley project for power stations and dams in Vietnam and Laos, is now devastating similar projects around Hanoi and Haiphong with B-52 bombers.

Soon he will be devastating Hanoi itself-with second-hand bombs re-purchased from West Germany.

The reluctance of the Chinese bureaucrats to intervene has encouraged the US to do this-and despite the international demonstrations they will continue.

All Johnson's B-52s though will not vanquish the unconquerable spirit and determination of the Vietnamese people to resist.

All those like the Labour 'lefts' who remain silent and inactive in this critical period will be branded by history as accomplices of the imperialist criminals in the White House.

They will fall together their imperialist masters.

S the trade gap widens to d22 million, the Labour government assembles din Parliament in an atmosphere of economic desperation. so far as the right wing is concerned there is no evading the demands of the international bankers. The attack on the trade unions and the working class must now be This is the meaning of the decision on the docks to enforce decasualisation. Wilson and his cronies hope that with the aid of the right-wing trade union leaders they can press home the findings of the Devlin Commission Report and confront the dockers with a 'fait accompli'.

The Newsletter has continuously insisted that there is no difference between the attack on the dockers through the Devlin Report and the anti-trade union legislation. Both of these measures are designed to help the employers in a period of capitalist economic crisis.

to consolidate any gains which they make.

Jack Dash, who works are happening on the docks.

a big build up.

as a supporter of painters in dockland.

proposals to end the Dock Labour Scheme.

this meeting.

Now he uses militant phrases to criticise the Then, he says, workers-—and union officials it the best in Europe!

So, just as he talks of 'tranquility' in left terms, he gets all the press nublicity.

We think that Mr. Dash should support an he has the support of The Newsletter.

But that is not enough. We warn him to be -DOCKERS MUST FIGHT THE DEVLIN REPORT MASS meetings of dockers have been called for and Merseyside to decide on action to oppose the decasualisation scheme now agreed by the National National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers" Union in these ports.

FROM

for all dockworkers should be:

All out opposition to the Devlin Report.

control.

ROBERT JAMES REPORTS But have been elised HERE, Mr. Jack Dash, chairman of the unofficial docks liaison committee, has been holding a series of meetings amending to explain the new recommendations of the Modernisation 1947 Committee.

At Tilbury last Monday he followed the pattern of pulling to Consult me as has proved the men out of work for a meeting. Almost all the 2,000 Tilbury men heard him outline the meaning of the recommendations—mobility of labour, Office. change of manning scales, tied to the employers, on top of all the dangers inherent in the job today.

He said he had been promised at a lobby of parlia- it' that Labour would ree of lie nasd b were equality nationalize the docks industry by 1968. He called for 'tranquility' on the docks until then, when workers, and union and state officials could run the industry, make it pro- SLeD duce more to become the best would in the doe dock industry in Europe.

He did not mention full that state ofeials would sait 'Now we be capitalist state officials.

Many rank-and-file members to the employers not only bound interviewed after this meeting gave similar comments to those of their brothers in the northern ports, reported on this page.

In particular they queried the role of the Labour government and were dubious about Dash's appeal by letter to Labour Minister Ray Gunter and Prime Minister Wilson calling for an inquiry into the recommendations of the Modernisation Committee.

At the headquarters of the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers' Union an official said it was too early to say what their reactions to the recommendations were.

very careful with the Fleet Street press.

not giving him publicity for clear at once.

Is he, or is he not, going to fight the port employers all the way?

very blurred meanwhile.

and we do not politically trust that Party. Manchester last week-end of delegates from the IN INTERVIEWS I had this week Jack Dash With portworkers on Merseysid dockers articularl expressed FROM silence the union leaders and employers have contrived this MARCH (from Whitehall Place, near Charing Gross tube LABOUR HAS NO EXCUSE THIS TIME Make the bosses pay for the crisis Defeat all anti-trade union laws • not the workers Defeat US imperialism in Vietnam Workers all over the world unite to end imperialism this week-end in the ports of Manchester, Hull Modernisation Committee. This was decided at a special conference in These meetings will be the first opportunity which rank-and-file portworkers will have had to LIVERPOOL REG PERRY REPORTS and trussed up, but gagged as well. We get nothing at all except the destruction of all the safeguards against the employers we have won over the years. We will definitely be worse off.

But they have not implemented this scheme yet and we shall fight Isletter Blue it right through to the end.

Nothing but the complete withdrawal of this scheme will satisfy us' Mr. Larry Cavanagh, a Birkenhead docker and branch delegate to the Area Committee supported this:

It is now abundantly clear to all dockers that the modernisation of the docks is to be carried out at the expense of the docker. "These amendments to the scheme have been worked out behind our backs by leaders of the T&GWU, NAS&D, employers and the Labour government. "Devlin proposed that opposition from dockworkers must not be allowed to stand in the way implementing this decasualisation. It has always been custom and practice in the NAS&D for decisions of this nature to be ratified by mass meetings of members before our officials reach agreement. Devlin did not like this and our leaders have listened to him and acted against our interests. "There is not one good thing about this scheme. Jack Jones, acting assistant general secretary were cuany of the T&GWU calls it a step to© Devlin Resothat be as d ward nationalization. It is nothWing of the kind.

FROM MEETING IN HYDE PARK the Labour Government returned with a decisive majority out compensation express their opinions on decasualisation.

In London the docks Liaison Committee has been holding meetings at the main dockheads where dockers have voted against the recommendations.

The mood for a fight to a finish is growing in the ports as more and more dockers begin to realise the extent to which the union leaders have gone to betray them.

Below we print reports from our reporters.

Peter Kerrigan 'Does this mean that the Modernisation Committee and the Labour government believe nationalization would be the best way of modernising the docks? If they did, then why don't they nationalize now, before the employers have created more chaos?' Mr. Tony, Burke, a T&GWU member in the No. 10 control in Liverpool, was particularly angry about the role of the Labour government:

and the Labour govern ment must have known about th he he he sinks, Docker.

under race the ne are te Fact which i - po do as ockers see the connection the It is very scheme tween the introduction of thi and the It is no accident that these two measures are introduced at the same time. Nationalize all the basic industries with• Smash the Smith regime in Rhodesiaarm the African workers "The anti-trade union legislation will be used against the docker if he should fight to oppose this scheme, which he must.

It was the solidarity of dockers which smashed Order 1305 1951 and removed it from the statute books.

'The employers know from bitter experience that dockers will resist this other attack on their conditions.

'No doubt they fondly hope that with the legislation contained in the Prices and Incomes Bill they will be better able to defeat the dockers and implement these Devlin proposals.

'But dockers have a good case to win the unity of other workers which will be essential to their struggle. If they do this, I have no doubt that this scheme can be defeated.' Mr. Peter Kerrigan, well-known militant from Merseyside, also emphasised this point:

'The dockers are to be taken on first. The Labour government intends to introduce this scheme sometime in July.

'In the meantime they are preparing the legislation on the trade unions so that they can attack the wages and conditions of all trade unionists.

I don't think there is anything accidental in the fact that the port employers have stubbornly resisted agreement on the wages which dockers are to be paid under this scheme.

'If dockers fight, and I know they will, they must think ahead and outmanoeuvre the employers.

"The Devlin proposals, as now seen in the amendments to the Dock Labour Scheme and the issue of trade union legislation, are for one and the same purpose: to reduce the standards and rights of workers. We must fight them as one issue.'

IN HULL I found dockers eager to give their views on the recommendations. Here are a number of comments from leaders and rank-and-file workers.

THE Labour government has got five years. It's got a clear mandate from the working class who voted it in. There is no other solution but nationalization. Millions of pounds are being spent on the docks through the British Transport Commissionwhy let private employers make a profit out of it?

Decasualisation shouldn't be considered at all. These proposals stink. We want the sort nationalization in which working JACK GALE REPORTS dockers control the industryactive dockers who know the industry, not people who have been in administrative jobs for 20 years but people who know the industry as it works.

Walter Stephenson (Branch 1, Hull NAS&D).

OUR area committee has not had opportunity, yet to study these proposals thoroughly, but from what we know of them they will be opposed by every docker. We personally particularly oppose the section which forces a docker to go to a particular employer whether he likes him or not. If this employer then turns this docker away, he has to re-apply to go on the pool.

What will happen to the old dockers and the C-men under this scheme? C-men are disabled or injured dockers, for instance men who have lost fingers in accidents on the dock.)

This obviously means redundancy on the docks. The answer is nationalization, not the sort of nationalization that there is in the mines, but nationalization run by the workers in the industry.

It seems that the national leaders of the unions have failed to fight, but we are sure there proposals will be fought in Hull.

Len Ludders (Chairman, Humberside Area Committee NAS&D), H. Lowthorpe.

Two

'Socialism is right back on the agenda, screamed its front-page headline on April 8. Under a new leadership and with a programme which made a clear challenge to the "You've never had it so good" society which had been created by the Tories, the Party won the election of 1964but only by a narrow margin.' Hoarse from cheering Wilson's victory, "Tribune' assured its dwindling band of readers that, with a big Labour majority, the road to socialism was open.

For 17 months of betrayal, these heroes hid behind Labour's tiny majority. Support for the Vietnam war, postponement of the old-age pension rise, retreat

OT foot on the new ing time, fares and lodging allowances in the electrical contracting industry the biggest betrayal in the history of the Electrical Trades Union is being prepared.

This will come in the shape of the new three-year agreement for the electrical contracting industry, due to be introduced by July this year. Negotiations between the ETU and the employers' organisation are in an advanced stage and agreement has been reached on the main questions of principle.

Sugar coating

The bickering over coppers, which will continue between now and July, will be no more than a charade for the benett of ElU members. The hourly rates will be hailed as great achievementsin fact they will be no more than the sugar coating (albeit thin) to sweeten the bitter pill of speedup, massive redundancy and a ceiling on wages.

The , points on Which agreement in principle have alreadv been reached are as follows:

The aim of the agreement is to increase productivity in the industry and to institute a new concept of industrial relations.

• Payment - by - results schemes cannot be extended to 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 more than 10 per cent of those in the industry.

The existing labour force has to increase its annual production.

The labour force has to become more highly skilled and adaptable.

Joint Industrial Boards have to be established to grade electricians into three categories with different rates of pay.

The employers and the union will jointly employ sanctions to prevent the manipulation of the agreement for personal gain by either party to the agreement.

The proposal to increase productivity, taken in line with the decision not to expand the existing labour force, means, of course, that every man in the industry will have to turn out more work each week.

The employers favour an overall reduction in the labour force, but this has not yet been directly agreed by the ETU executive.

The acceptance of the grading system can, however, lead only to this. It is proposed that grading should begin in at least the second year of the agreement.

The suggested grades and rates of pay are as follows:

Ind year ETU Grade proposal Technician 10s 6d Electrician Approved 9s 6d Electrician General 8s 0d of agreement NEFA offer 95 6d 8s 9d 8s 4d The ETU executive is negotiating for an additional Is 2d per hour in London and 9d per hour in Merseyside. Agreement has been reached on a proposal for three week's paid holiday per year.

No doubt some comfortable compromise can be reached between now and July on the few pence that separate the ETU and the employers. One thing is certain, under this package-deal arrangement, a ceiling is being placed on earnings for a three-year period.

Wage cuts

No provision is being made for wage increases related to the cost of living. In present conditions, with rents, fares, accommodation and food prices sky-rocketing, the quoted rates can mean wage cuts over a three-year period.

The big question, of course, is how is the grading to take place and what will happen to the thousands of mates at present employed in the industry.

It appears that the proposed Joint Industrial Boards will conduct some form of examination for grading and those who do not reach the required standards will be thrown out of the industry. If this is the case, then it is an out and out fraud on the one hand to speak of maintaining the existing labour force and on the 3rd year of agreement ETU NEFA proposal offer Ils 6d 10s od 9s 6d Od 85 4d 8s 6d other to agree to the grading system.

As to the future of the mates; the employers propose their retention, in fact they suggest an increase in the ratio of mates to electricians in the industry. This would presumably be achieved by downgrading electricians who failed to qualify for any of the three grades.

The employers propose the following working arrangements:

GRADE MATE Technician TWO Electrician Approved ONE Electrician General ONE

John

Crawford assesses th reaction o the lefts' to Labour's increased majority FTER the recent General Election, political correspondents were speculating about the future of the leftwing Labour MPs. Now that Wilson's majority has so dramatically increased, would these sleeping lions suddenly roar into ferocious attacks on the betrayal of socialism?

Anybody who can bring himself to look at recent issues of 'Tribune' will soon realise how ludicrous were such queries.

"Tribune', one-time leader of the left, lies exactly in its former state-flat on its belly. from steel nationalization, the despatch of fighters for South Africa-all were excused and accepted amid shouts for unity.

Now Wilson's alibi has been swept aside by the massive Labour vote. But 'Tribune' goes on spreading the same illusions.

'Difficulties'

'During the 17 months of the first Wilson government, we never underestimated the difficulties which faced it both economically and politically,' says the editorial of April 15.

'The argument now is about the implementation of socialism in Britain. We believe that the leaders of the government know that well. They know that the whole labour movement will support them in their efforts to establish socialism. But should they instead decide to take the path of compromise, they can expect a sharp reaction from the whole labour movement.' Collectors will cherish this gem of hypocrisy. Wilson, Brown and and Callaghan, you see, are not the lackeys of the ruling class as they appeared from their actions. All this time they have just been waiting for a chance to 'establish socialism'.

Unfortunately, their prodigious efforts encountered some 'difficulties'. But what if these problems (merely the symptoms of British imperialism's mortal crisis) do not vanish?

Then, of course, 'Tribune' will find some new excuses, even if grumbling from time to time. That is, after all, its job.

But what of the threat contained in the final sentence of the quotation? What 'sharp reaction to compromise can we expect from 222, The Strand?

It is now five and a half years since "Tribune' abandoned even the pretence of more than verbal opposition to the right-wing Labour leaders. After the 1960 defeat of Gaitskell on the issue of the H-bomb, Foot, Silverman and the like revealed their terror of any action which might topple the cosy equilibrium between right-wing actions and left-wing words.

Resolutions were in order now and then, but only if there was no danger of their implementation. 'arguments' for socialism will continue while they try to head off opposition to Wilson.

'Why do they do it?' you may ask. Why should a man barter a reputation for militancy for some minor government post? Stupidity? Greed? The worship of power? THE decision of BOAC to buy six American 490-seater Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jets' costing £60 million must mean the end of the British aircraft industry as a major contender for the construction of inter-continental aircraft.

The BOAC order follows closely on the Pan American decision to buy 25 Boeing 747s, with an option on a further 10 aircraft.

These two deals are certain to touch off a major round of Jumbo Jet'-buying by the other leading airlines such as Trans-

With the accession of Harold Wilson in 196l, these people collapsed on all tours in adoration of the Leader.

For 17 months they had the Labour . government at their mercy in parliament. While Wyatt and Donnelly were quite willing to twist Wilson's arm still further to the right over the issue of steel, the 'lefts' remained the loyal servants of the leadership.

With new economic and financial crises on the way, the Labour leaders prepare fresh attacks on those who voted them into office. Their bigger majority will bring Wim still closer to the monopolies.

And the 'lefts' of the 'Tribune' school will go on plying their trade: setting up left screens for right-wing treachery. Their

However true of individuals, these psychological explanations will not suffice. For "Tribune' continues a long and inglorious historical tradition.

As long as the labour movement has been dominated by leaders who were more or less direct agents of the ruling class, a safety valve has been necessary to prevent rank-and-file pressure from bursting through the delicate apparatus of betrayal.

Political and trade union leaders who were able to make militant noises without actually doing any damage were an essential part of the set up.

Now, with the crisis of British imperialism, and its agencies the labour movement, these political middlemen are also trouble. But they will not go out of business finally until an alternative Marxist leadership can be constructed.

Until this task is accomplished, we can expect to see every week the formulas of Clements, the empty phrases of Foot, and the pious bleatings of Soper.

Perhaps this is a minor additional incentive to carry out our work.

AND AND OR The ETU negotiators favour the abolition of the grade of mate. Whether they propose the up-grading of mates to electrician general, or their downgrading to labourer, or simply their sacking, is unclear.

Whatever the finals details of the agreement one thing is clear. The intention is to drastically reduce the total number of electrical workers in construction. Skilled men will work with more than one semi-skilled man in the future-whether he is categorised as a mate or as an electrician general.

Wages are to be fixed nationally for three years and 'sanctions' are to be imposed against those who seek loop holes in the agreement—i.e. those who at a local level use their organised strength to improve either their grading or their rate of pay. The reduced labour force will be expected to produce more than the existing labour force.

This type of agreement, so freely agreed to by the right wing, is entirely in line with the needs of British capitalism-so frantically trying to force down the standards of the working class in order to increase profits.

Traditions destroyed Wilson's 'scientific revolution'the introduction of advanced mechanisation and semi-automation within the existing capitalist set-up — is spreading from the factories to the building sites. If the rate of profit is to be maintained, let alone increased, then traditional building methods, and the craft unionism which goes with them, have to be destroyed.

Already, industrialised construction methods are being applied to household flats all over Britain. Multi-storey buildings, up to 25 storeys high, can now be assembled from factory-built units in a matter of days or APPRENTICE ONE ONE ONE weeks, not months or years as in the past.

Using John Laing's adaptation of the French Sectra system, a 15-storey block of flats (five flats per floor) can be completed in 30 working days. All services required are incorporated in the pre-fabricated assembly. All the components are handled mechanically on the site. The whole system is designed to bring factory speed and precision to the building site.

Even more advanced is the Bison Wall Frame system, owned signed for high flats. The precast load-bearing wall-panels are not only complete with external and internal decoration, but are even fitted with electric points and ducts before leaving the factory.

Labour-saving

The Building Research Station has carried out a theoretical study to assess the saving in labour likely to be achieved by the employment of such methods. The analysis was based on an assumed contract for 800 maisonettes and . the estimated saving in labour time amounted to 200 man-hours per dwelling!

The basic aim of every system is to limit site work to a minimum and ensure that the majority of work is done in the factory.

The future of the electrical contracting industry is clear. Increasingly much of the work will be carried out by semi-skilled operatives working in the most modern of factories; whether or not they will be even members of the ETU is debatable.

On site a small labour force will be employed consisting of a number of 'technicians' (charge hands?) working with 'electricians approved' and with a team of *electricians general' or 'mates' (labourers?).

Payment-by-results will be out for the simple reason that the speed of work will no longer be governed by the workers. Construction will be timed almost to the second-already Critical Path Analysis and other computerplanned construction schedules are in use extensively in Australia and elsewhere, and are now being introduced into Britain on major contracts.

Just as in a modern factory where work-speed depends upon the pace . of the belt, so in the building industry pre-fabrication will mean that increased productivity will be by compulsion, not by consent. Hence the employers' readiness to pay an improved basic rate.

Even if wages increase by, say 20 per cent, coupled with a productivity increase of say 30 per cent, then the wage bill is cut in relation to turnover. Bonus speeds and flat-rate payments— this is what the future holds in store.

The closure of ETU branches, the expulsions and suspensions from holding office of militant trade unionists, the attack on all those who raise a word of opposition to the right-wing leaders of the union; all these things have been the preparation for this kind of agreement.

When officials call for militant members of the union to be 'given their marching orders , they do so in a vain attempt to prevent ail opposition to the right-wing's policy of imposing agreements like the three-year deal.

Stalinists pave way But it was the Stalinists who, through pursuing an opportunist policy, created a situation where the present leaders of the ETU could be installed.

Members of the Communist Party were subsequently banned from holding office in the union; it was only the Socialist Labour League that fought back.

With the Communist Party's faction effectively smashed, ETU members now face the pay-off for years of the Stalinist leadership's betrayals.

The proposed agreement cannot be fought by traditional trade union methods, or even by militant syndicalism. There will be no question of seeking loopholes in the three-year agreement, of achieving a breakthrough on this site or that site.

of the International Committee of the Fourth International IN this issue we publish a summary of working class and trade unions of the advanced the main points from the Report to the countries, or in the construction of proletarian parties to lead the struggles of the workers and Third Congress of the International Committee of the Fourth International This task has to be undertaken in face of the present vicious repressions of the Stalinists in by its secretary, Cliff Slaughter. The Russia and Eastern Europe and the accompanying Congress was reported in last week's vicious onslaught of Castro against Trotskyism. issue and full documentation will appear These attacks result inevitably from the need of the bureaucracy in crisis to try and smash every in the Summer issue of the magazine sign of growth of independent working-class The lessons learned in the fight against revisionism are thus the indispensable basis of our revolutionary strategy and of the building of the (a) The need to fight always to defend and develop the method of dialectical materialism, the only scientific basis for the political independence ri

World, Air France, and Lufthansa in order not to be left out at a commercial disadvantage on the highly profitable North American route during the early 1970s.

The advantage of such large aircraft can be seen from the maker's claim that 'Jumbo Jet' is expected to replace two of the present-day big jets like the Boeing 707,. Douglas DC-8, or BAC VC-10. The 747 will also make it possible to cut North Atlantic fares by up to 50 per cent.

In gaining these two orders from Pan-Am BOAC under one Boeing has once again stolen the march on its American rival, Douglas Aircraft, as they did in the 707DC-8 race.

Douglas had been waiting to see what Boeing did before deciding whether to go ahead with its 563-passenger D592/30 aircratt, with an expected world market of around 400 aircraft. Douglas can afford to wait a little longer before making a final decision..

For the British aircraft dustry, the story is a totally different one.

DEATH BLOW

BOAC's decision to buy American also deals a death blow to British Aircraft Corporation's hopes of stretching the VC-10 into a 'Jumbo Jet' to be known as the 'Superb'.

BOAC'S order must mean the end of the 'Superb'-and Britain's last hopes of staying among the major aviation builders with the Anglo-French Concord, whose future must also be threatened by the lus boyees Britain's leading Rolls Royce, engine manufacturers, also been hit by the order. firm had hoped that its new RB 178 engine would be chosen for the 747.

Even after Pan-Am's order, using American Pratt and Whitney engines, Rolls had hoped their RB 178s would be used in any European-ordered 747s.

BOAC's decision to buy only six 747s means that Rolls RoyceBY OUR AIR CI powered 747s would be uneconomical because of the small quantity involved. Air France and Lufthansa 'Jumbo Jets' will now almost certainly be . American powered.

The decision to buy 'Jumbo Jets', which are considered to be the last generation of subsonic aircraft, is the conviction that the airlines will not be ready for supersonic aircraft until the late 1970s.

Yet both the supersonic Concord and Boeing's subsonic 'Jumbo Jets' are scheduled to be operating in the early 1970s.

FATE SEALED

On this point BOAC's chairman Sir Giles Guthrie's statement to the Sunday Times' (April 17, 1966) seems to seal the fate of the Concord.

'BOAC recognises that supersonic passenger aircraft will be coming into existence, but it is obviously vital to all airlines that they shall not equip with supersonic aircratt unless it is certain that operators will not lose a packet of money in the process.' In view of this statement seems unlikely that airlines would be prepared to introduce the Concord on the North Atlantic route at the same time as the 'Jumbo Jets' , for Concord is expected to double present air fares when it goes into operation.

So far only 50 optional orders have been placed for Concord. BOAC must decide by 1968 whether to take up its options or not.

But having already laid out £60 million for the 747s, their decision seems obvious.

On the other hand the world's airlines now seem to favour waiting until the late 1970s for the larger American supersonic rival to Concord, the SST. By then the 'Jumbo Jets' will have raised enough revenue to foot the bill.

If the Concord is cancelled then not only is the British Aircraft Corporation in deep water, but Bristol Siddeley Engines will also face trouble. Their hopes lie with the Olympus 593 series engines, specially developed for Concord.

The recommendation of the Plowden Report for the aircraft industry that there should only be one major airframe and engine manufacturer in Britain seems now to be the only way out for British manufacturers.

Their last hopes of a major aircraft project seems to be in the Anglo-French-West German 200250 seater airbus.

At present two large groups have got together to bid for this contract, one headed in Britain Siddeley, with various European partners.

The result of this contract could seal the fate of the British aircraft industry.

Plowden calls for state intervention to save the airframe industry.

BAC's two leading shareholders, Vickers and English Electric, have been trying to sell their shares of BAC for some time, but there are no takers.

If this industry is not to go into complete decay, there must be immediate action.

The labour force has already dropped from 375,000 in 1962 to 250,000 in 1965, and by 1970 Plowden calls for 150,000 workers.

But the 'Jumbo Jets' decision must mean even less than that as present contracts run out.

The demand of aircraft workers must be:

No further sackings.

Work sharing.

Nationalize without compensation with workers' planning and controlling the future of the industry in line with a nationalized co-ordinated transport system.

Agreed examined by Geofi Not only will 'sanctions' (could this mean expulsion from the union?) be applied to those who seek to challenge the agreement in this way, but the Labour government of Wilson, which works hand in glove with the employers and right-wing union leaderships, is to introduce legislation to make this illegal.

In fighting this agreement, the ETU rank-and-file will find that they face a political struggle; their resistance to the agreement will be met by the organised force of the state-the police and the law courts.

To fight the agreement effectively is to strive for the construction of revolutionary leadership in the ETU as an alternative to that of the right wing. The Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists seek to provide the basis for this alternative.

To defeat the right wing, a powerful movement must be built which can take rapid strides along the road to working-class power. The Young Socialists' conference, held recently at Morecambe, has provided the policies around which such a movement can be built.

In preparation for the coming struggle, ETU members must be out with the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League on May Day and in the subsequent one-day stoppage and lobby of Parliament to demand and fight for:

• No laws against the unions!

A sliding scale of wages and hours to meet increases in the cost of living and ensure an end to sackings!

• Nationalization — not rationalization—of the electrical industry, the building industry and the land!

3, No. 2 A Journal of Published by the of the Fourth Int EDITORS— TOM KEI Editorial Algeria Kenya-Coloniali Independence The Struggle for United States (iv) American Trotsky by Tim Wohlforth Cuban Revolution in Danger Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth Iternational Available from: 186A Clapham High Street, I International Marxism International Committee :rational P. CLIFF SLAUGHTER CONTENTS Pm and th "rotskyism

NEW ril

'Fourth International'.

1. Introduction the conference The historical setting prior to the of educating period of ti afford this tir (L. Trotsky, Leadership'.) revolution in: the cadres re me, and the "The Class, smuc] • as the pri quire: a conside revol ution does cess able not blow to the international movement in this respect, and particularly to the Socialist Workers' Party of the USA, upon whose shoulders the burden of international leadership was placed by the cirIn these circumstances, it was extremely difficult for the young sections of the Fourth International to root themselves in the living experiences and struggle of the working class, and to develop Revisionism gained ground more easily because Similarly today, the Fourth International and its programme. must develop in the actual struggle of the workers in every country; in this way Marxist theory will be developed. It is because in a number of countries this building of parties in the class struggle has begun, the building of sections who accept responsibility for the political struggle of the working class as a whole, on all fronts, that this conference is possible and can set itself the task of building a leadership.

We are putting on record at this conference, as a basis for our work in the class struggle, not just the lessons of 15 years of struggle against revisionism, but the objective responsibilities of our sections in each country: to intervene and give leadership in all struggles of the working class, whether in exile from Eastern Europe, in the organised cumstances of the War.

Marxism through this struggle. peasants in the colonial countries. leadership.

Fourth International: tendencies. of small opportunist groups.

of actual leaderships. styled "Trotskyists'.

situation. class. working-class power. of the Fourth International OUR MOVEMENT was founded in a period of to 1938. It was the very degeneration of the Soviet The physical liquidation of the Left Opposition which had had insufficient time to train its sections Marxist theory. defeats for the international proletariat, from 1926 state, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Third International, which necessitated The death of Trotsky himself was an enormous the founding of the Fourth International. in Russia and of large numbers of the leading cadres of the European sections during the Second World War, at the hands of Nazism and Stalinism alike, had severe consequences in a movement in Leninist methods of party-building and in of these difficulties. Once again - the

of leadership.

International. class struggle without this 'overhead'.

Marxism in one of his last articles: International April FIRST of all I must state my agreement with the general line of criticism of the section of my article that deals with French syndicalism. What I had attempted, and, as P.B. proves (The Newsletter balanced way, failed to do in a was to bring out the limitations of revolutionary syndicalism as an international tendency in relation to the type of party the leaders of the Third International were attempting to build in the capitalist states in the years following the end of the first world war.

In appreciating this criticism, however, we must be on our guard against 'over-correction'even if this is employed for the sake of emphasis. When comrade P.B. quotes from Trotsky on the pre-war history of French syndicalism, it is clear that Trotsky saw this as a period of 'preparation for the foundation of the communist party, only from its potential in relation to the intervention of the Communist International in the struggles of the French working class and from an appreciation of the historical limitations of revolutionary syndicalism drawn from the historical experiences acquired by the Bolshevik party in the struggle tor the leadership of the Russian working class. It was in fact this intervention, armed with this understanding, that made possible the fructifying of FROM HULL Continued from front page THE ONLY answer to this is nationalization. We've had 13 years of capitalist rule. Now it's time for the Labour government to go the other way. One proposal in the amendments that causes dockers concern is that dockers who go sick have to return to the pool and be reallocated.

What will happen to the old dockers under this system? They are going to have real difficulties in being re-allocated, and some JACK GALE ORTS the syndicalist rebellion against the class collaborationist politics of French social democracy.

Therefore I think it is vital to make central the question raised by comrade P.B.-that of the Party. When he states that It is in this, and only in this, that one could say that the role of revolutionary syndicalism has been, and remains reactionary', , he goes to the very heart of the problem. Trotsky himself said in his short article The Mistakes of the Right Elements of the League on the Trade Union question' (January, 1931) that:

'If the theoretical structure of the political economy of Marxism rests entirely upon the conception ol value as materialised labour, the revolutionary policy of Marxism rests upon the conception of the party as the vanguard of the proletariat' Thus in saying 'only in this' there lurks the possible danger of minimising the qualitative nature of the leap from the most revolutionary of syndicalist tendencies to their conscious realisation through the building of a mass communist party.. On this question, Lenin and Trotsky were able to unite with syndicalists such as Rosmer, and yet were forced to part company with many others.

Flowing from this crucial difference on the necessity of the party can be traced the development of all the social and polidockers will be branded as "trouble-makers' and won't get reallocated. This gives the employer the chance to get rid of the old docker and the militants. It will come to the point where you are frightened to go on sick.

Five million pounds have been spent on Joint Dock and £2} million on Albert Dock. Another and the profit should go to the public, but instead it is going to the employers, who are putting nothing into it.

We want nationalization run by the men in the industry. When the last Labour government nationalized road transport the men who had previously owned it were put in charge of the industry. We don't want that on the docks.

If Mr. Wilson is a true socialist he should nationalize the docks in this way-that is, with workers controlling the nationalized industry. This is our private opinion.

Terry Geraghty, Tony Fee, Ted Butler, (members of the Unofficial Portworkers' Committee, Hull). tical thinkers that have borrowed (or rather stolen) from the arsenal of syndicalism and even Marxism.

For Marxists, and today that means Trotskyists, the party is the process and means by which the working class grasps its own position in society and its unique role in history. It is the class become conscious of itself through the building of the organisation, enabling it to carry out its task.

Sorel, though not formally part of the working class movement, generalised the petty-bourgeois prejudices that still impinge on the working class in imperialist states, and formulated a whole theory of the class struggle and class action that ignored completely this self-conscious element in the revolutionary potential of the working class. His one-sided impression of the class struggle and his assimilation of only transient, superficial aspects of the working class itself enabled him to build a theoretical bridge to the most reactionary ideas when the working class failed to conform to his own subjectivist interpretation of class struggle and violence.

The going over of Sorel to monarchism and the Action Francaise was in this sense very much part of the process of degeneration at work in the Second International in the years prior WE AGREE with The Newsletter'. • There should be nationalization of the docks with workers' control over the industry. We don't want the sort of nationalization that was carried out in the mines and railways thousands of workers have lost their jobs under that sort of nationalization.

Without workers' control, nationalization is a trap for the workers.

The worst thing about these proposals is that it places discipline in the hands of the employer. The employer will have the power to return a worker to the pool. In fact, after a time the pool will become non-existent. In effect, the employer will have the power to return the docker to the Labour Exchange.

Decasualisation must be opposed and • dockers must campaign for nationalization under workers' control.

Arthur Atkinson (Sec., Branch 4 NAS&D, Hull), George Richmond (Branch 4 NAS&D), Victor Newdich (Branch 4 NAS&D), J. W. Milner (Branch 4 NAS&D), to and during the First World War.

I was not trying in this instance to prove the influence of Sorel upon the syndicalist movement in France (P.B. is right on this point) but to show (unconvincingly as it turned out) the process by which an incomplete and subjectivist approach to the workers' movement can evolve rapidly to the right in a period of war and revolution.

P.B. correctly shows that these same conditions can serve as an impetus towards a break from incomplete conceptions, and clear the way for the building of Bolshevik-type parties. What was not grasped, and therefore not brought out in my article, was the dialectical and not mechanical nature of this split in international as well as French syndicalism; that the split in the syndicalist leadership precipitated by the war and the Russian Revolution was a stage in the releasing of the revolutionary potential of the working class, which till then had found its highest possible expression in the fight against opportunism through the development of revolutionary syndicalism.

On the question of the corporate state, Italy would have served better as an example, for there many prominent syndicalists crossed over during and after the war to ultra-nationalism. Most WE WANT nationalization of the docks-but it's no good if it's nationalization which leaves the same employers in charge. Nationalization should be a partnership between the docker, who does the job, and the government.

We need unity of dockers in Hull, London and Liverpool to resist these proposals. At the moment, the docker has no say in the industry.

Under these proposals private firms will refuse militant dockers, or perhaps take them on and get rid of them later. Militants will be offered unsuitable jobssuch as in the warehouse-and if they refuse, after a time they will be put off the dock. the employer can't lose Board If these proposals go through National Dock Labour can't lose. The only loser will be the docker.

Walter Cunningham (Secretary, Unofficial Portworkers' Committee, Hull—in a personal capacity, Brian Toomey (member of the Unofficial Portworkers' Committee-in a personal capacity, Ron Fisher notable were Corridoni (killed during the war and claimed after it as a fascist martyr), De Ambris, Bianchini, Rossoni, Pasella and Rocca. Several of these syndicalist renegades in fact went into opposition after a taste of the corporate state in action, and were driven into exile by the regime they helped to create.

Comrade P.B. has correctly drawn the attention of myself as well as the readers of The Newsletter to the weaknesses in my analysis of French syndicalism and its underestimation of the class consciousness that this tendency reflected in the face of betrayals by social democracy.

1 also agree that this question of syndicalism, both in its historical and current political context, is of paramount importance for those comrades engaged in the building of a genuine communist movement in France. It is in the spirit of that struggle for political clarity, in its essence an international process, that the criticisms were made, and they have been taken in a like manner.

Robert AT THE HIGHLY successful Morecambe Conference, the unification of the Young Socialists and class-conscious militant trade unionists created nucleus around which the only alternative revolutionary leadership can be built which will sweep aside the so-called parliamentary and trade union progressives.

An outstanding example of this type is one of our local MPs who, when questioned on the proposed anti-trade union laws at a public meeting, said he would certainly vote in favour of such laws as this would disicpline the 'unruly element' in the trade unions. This same man held up the Labour Party manifesto and said: 'This is not a socialist manifesto. Socialism will not come in my lifetime.' What hypocrisy! Standing as a socialist MP but advocating anything but socialism in order to induce the Liberal element to vote Labour.

After further conflict and betrayals by Wilson, Brown, Callaghan and Gunter, the leadership started at Morecambe will win the support of the working class.

Brian Lavery, Wheldale Colliery,

M , lieries have declared their TINERS at Glamorgan colopposition to the shutdown of their pits.

Five hundred miners at Albion colliery at Cilfynydel, near Pontypridd, who àre due to get four week's notice at the end of April, are demanding an investigation into the reasons for the National Coal Board closing the pit after spending nearly £l million between 1963 and 1965.

They claim that the pit has plenty of coal reserves, but has been 'conditioned' for closure to provide labour for Cwm and Nantgarw collieries.

Glen Rhondda colliery's 350 miners, near Treherbert, have refused to transfer to Cm colliery -18 miles from Treherbert.

A spokesman said that many of the Glen Rhonda miners own their own homes and have spent a lot of money on them. Therefore, they do not want to move. He claimed that Glen Rhondda could have a further ten to 15 years' life. National Union of Students' Couneil

A 'Western Mail' on Friday, N announcement in the April 15, that the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions and the South Wales' dry dock owners were to sign an agreement came as a complete surprise to rank-and-file trade unionists and shop stewards.

No information has been received, nor any decisions taken on this alleged agreement by any workers on the docks. Yet one Cardiff steward told The Newsletter that union officials had said the members would be consulted before a final decision is taken.

Are the hard-won rights of the dry dockers being signed away behind their backs?

Or is this part of a campaign to undermine the resistance to the employers?

In either case, union officials appear to be co-operating with the bosses in a deal for which the workers will have to pay.

As if to underline the union bureaucrats' policy of support for capitalism, a union spokesman said that the agreement was ahead of the Greddes Report. This demonstrates once again that the fight to defend past working-class gains is a political fight against the employers' state, represented by the so-called Labour government.

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper The Newsletter, S.W.4 Printed by Plough Press cil of the National Union of Students began by refusing prominent student Communist Party member

waiting four weeks for official backing -HE month-old tanker strike of Esso tanker drivers in Birmingham collapsed on Tuesday in an atmosphere of inten: declared that they had been led complete For the previous fortnight they had union to make their dispute official, and that this would happen.

Instead they heard on Monday, through a leak to the press, official support. This leak quoted an official from the union's hear that 'nationally the union has already urged the drivers to return to should have been instructed to do so locally.

The dispute was a straightforward case of workers striking organisation against an attempt by the management to undermine it.

A driver was recruited to Bromford Bridge, the main Esso depot in the Midlands, from a source other than the union.

Drivers maintained that this was in contravention of a well-established verbal agreement between the union and a former local manager. The management deny this and assert the right to recruit from any source.

Had this struggle been made official from the outset and support gained from other Esso depots, there is little doubt that it could have been swiftly and decisively won.

Over a week after the strike began, a meeting of 150 tanker drivers urged that this action should be taken.

Ten days later a stormy meeting of the strikers was assured by a local official: 'your union is 100 per cent behind you' and that 'you will get your money from the start of the strike.' The reason advanced for the delay was that Mr. Harry Nicholas, acting general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, had been attempting to arrange a 'confrontation' between the former local manager and Mr. Alan Law, Midland regional commercial trade group secretary of the union, in an attempt to clear up the issue of the disputed verbal agreement.

Exasperated, the strikers at a meeting last Saturday gave Nicholas until Tuesday to say whether the strike was official or not.

It was at this stormy Tuesday meeting that the men were eventually informed there was no official backing for their struggle.

The • long delay, contradictory statements and lack of firm leadership have had the effect of splitting these workers just at a time when the maximum unity and clear cut comprehension of the strike was vital for its victory.

HIS year's Easter Coun e anger and bitterness. Many workers ly up the garden path. been pressing the leadership of their had been expecting from day to day Birmingham collapsed that there was no quarters as saying vork, and that they HERE will be no criminal proceedings following the so-called 'noose trial' at BMC's Cowley, Oxford, factory, it was announced on Tuesday.

Chief Constable of Oxford, Mr.

Frank Fuchs, reporter for the student paper 'Felix', access to the press box. It was claimed that he was not interested in reporting the conference, but would try to influence its proceedings.

The reporter for 'Keep Left', the Young Socialists' paper, was also excluded on the grounds that it was neither a student newspaper, nor a national or weekly newspaper.

It was clear that the executive was closing the doors in preparation for an attack on the 'left', consisting of Communist Party members in the leadership and the various shades of left from within the Labour Party.

Biggest retreat

Many individual 'lefts' wanted to fight the executive, but the Communist Party leadership led the biggest retreat the student movement has ever seen in Britain and paved the way for a Transport House victory.

The main issues at the conference included a draft resolution on 'The Rights and Responsibilities of Students' • This paid lip service to the idea of students managing their own affairs but set down no concrete proposals for the setting up of independent student organisations.

In fact the NUS should demand fully independent student unions which decide all questions of discipline on the basis of the workers' court at Cowley. The administration, development and expansion of universities and colleges should be run by Senates composed of students, lecturers and workers independent of any government or local councils, which today merely administrate on behalf of big business.

The fundamental principle underlying the draft resolution was that of the International Student Conference charter—'a free university in a free society'.

The right-wing, after a determined and sustained campaign, won a complete victory at the NUS elections sweeping the board for the executive positions.

The left was routed and effectively discredited by the executive as a 'Communist faction trying to take over the Council'.

This rout was possible simply because of the way the Communist Party chose to fight. They followed the line being hawked around the universities by the state capitalists of 'positive neutralism'.

In out? or While the executive, through president - elect Martin, was allowed to characterise the finances of the International Student Committee and its political affiliations as 'pheripheral issues' ', saying the NUS should be fully committed to joining ISC, Alan Hunt, the leading light of the Communist Party on the floor, appealed to the union to remain outside. He maintained that that most discredited thing, CORRESPONDENT 'the third world', was the means through which international student co-operation might be fostered.

The class war and the relentless struggle against world imperialism, least of all in Vietnam, went unmentioned in the fourhour debate.

Nor was the membership of the Stalinist International Union of Students discussed except by one confused delegate who wanted the NUS to join both IUS and ISC.

Not exposed The energies of the 'left' were dissipated in a procedural wrangle challenging the chair instead of being directed, as they should have been, in exposing the reactionary role of ISC as a front and cover for American and British foreign policy-ISC has condemned the Vietcong for blowing up an ambulance and backs Johnson's 'unconditional negotiations'.

Thus the main body of the Student Council, rightly suspicious of 'positive neutralism', were neatly hooked on the idealistic bait offered by the executive.

The right wing was able to present the view-outside the context of world imperialism and the misery and suppression it fosters —of students advancing the cause of their less fortunate brothers in colonial territories.

The fact that ISC is clearly under American dominance can be easily discovered by looking at its sources of finance. Big monopolies like Corning Glass supply money indirectly through the San Jacinto Fund and the Foundation for Youth and Student Affairs.

The commitment. of the NUS to ISC can be measured by the fact that the 'ambitious new social centre' planned for Central London, one function of which will be to provide accommodation for overseas undergraduates, was delayed pending the NUS decision to rejoin the ISC.

Internationally, the ISC holds many seminars, courses, exchange visits and sends graduates on a voluntary basis and so on. In short it is a defence weapon of world imperialism against the advancing tide of world revolution.

It is interesting to note that the Foundation for Youth and Student Affairs also contributes to the National Association of Labour Student Organisations. Will it continue to do so if the right wing fails to regain control?

Limited discussion

Later in the debate a motion amending clause 3 of the Constitution was put by the Executive. This would allow limited political discussion at Council, 'on matters essentially concerned with education.

"This would allow student demands to be considered in the light of the National Plan and the Incomes Policy, but by no means would allow full-blooded discussion of political issues outside politics out of Council was taken up eagerly by the majority of delegates who threw out this motion.

While Council reaffirmed its opposition to the binary system of loans and demanded no cutback in the building programme, the right-wing still sits in the chair.

Beyond provision

Many of the demands passed by Council could be included in a Transitional Programme-they are definitely beyond the means of capitalism to provide. But the Executive, remaining faithful to right wing policies, might well put forward motions relating grants to the incomes policy or the introduction of loans, or even support the binary system, at the next Council.

They will almost certainly back the Labour government's policy of support for American murder in Vietnam by effectively ruling out of order all motions raised in opposition to American foreign policy, thereby muffling student opposition to world imperialism.

The Labour bureaucracy, having lost the youth movement, the Young Socialists, will now try to use the universities to forge a new youth leadership. The Young Socialists must now intervene in the universities and win over the students.

All students must demonstrate their opposition to capitalism and its right wing prop, the Wilson government, by joining the Young Socialists and trade unionists who will demonstrate against the incomes policy and the early-warning legislation on May Day in London.

After pit *Run quick Ted, the noose is wearing thinner' Clement Burrows, who had sent a report on the 'trial' to the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the Director had found no evidence to warrant a court case.

A Newsletter reporter visited Oxford to find that the press, radio and television had completely distorted the happenings at a meeting held on March 4 when eight men who had worked during a one-day token stoppage against a new wage structure were asked to pay £3 each to charity.

The Newsletter also pointed out that such a scare by the employers' press was meant to prepare the way for the proposed anti-trade union legislation.

Such legislation is part of a necessary attack OD workers' wages, conditions and rights • to save the pound.

With each new announcement of a balance of payments deficit, this becomes more urgent.

Ray Gunter, Minister of Labour, may still set up an inquiry into the 'noose trial.

But the report from the Director of Public Prosecutions surely shows all those who joined in the attack on the BMC workers that the noose scare is certainly wearing thin. DAMP RUINS HOMES AND HEALTH ON NEW ESTATE -Sheflield tenants elaim Newsletter Correspondent (REEN fungus has grown in homes occupied for only nine months on a Sheffield estate, it is claimed by tenants who, at a meeting last Thursday (April 14), formed a tenants' association. the sphere of education, ecutive alleged.

Unforunately for Transport House, their concern to isolate the Communist Party by keeping The association was formed by 25 tenants from the Stannington Estate, one of Sheffield's most recent housing estates, to force the council and the contractors to repair, or, in some cases, rebuild houses.

Tenants claim that in most houses the walls are damp and a green fungus has grown. The damp makes it impossible to use some of the bedrooms and has brought on bronchitis and continual colds among many of the children. Clothes have been ruined and some storage cupboards are unusable.

The tenants at the meeting also raised the question of essential facilities on the estate, which, at the moment, has no adequate shops, children's playgrounds or entertainment facilities. "The Association pledged itself to campaign for the immediate completion of a proposed tenants' hall and shopping centre.

One of the tenants who, with the assistance of the Sheffield Young Socialists, started the campaign for the association, explained how she had written to the contractors, the local council and the local MP, Mr. George Darling, about the condition of the houses. None of them, she claimed, would take responsibility for repairs.

The tenants clearly understood from this that individual action was useless and that only through organisation could they win their demands.

HIGH RENTS

They also pointed out that their dwellings are luxury flats and maisonettes and that they are paying high rents for them.

Norman Harding from the Crossgates Tenants' Association in Leeds explained he had been invited to speak through the Young Socialists who were helping tenants in their struggles all over the country.

He stressed the need for organisation among tenants and suggested that the association, when properly formed, should organise lobbies of the local MPs and of the council to show that they mean to fight for their conditions and not be fobbed off with excuses and evasions.

A provisional committee was set up and it was decided that a full campaign would be carried out for a mass meeting. Shop workers oppose longer hours A workers went on record BOUT 1,200 Midland shop at a mass rally in Birmingham Town Hall on Monday against working longer hours. They are prepared to back this with strike action if necessary.

A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously against the government's White Paper of last December which permits trading hours between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

It was pointed out that since longer hours would involve either extra staff or overtime working, the consequence would be a rise in the price of commodities.

Shop workers were also urged at the rally to join the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.