The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 447

Vol. 9, No. 447 SEAMEN AND DOCKERS NO WAGE FREEZE HERE!

AMONG SOME switches in the Civil Service announced on Thursday were:

Mr. D. C. Barnes, 51, noW a deputy secretary, Ministry of Labour, will be promoted permanent secretary in succession to Sir James Dunnett. His salary goes up from £6,330 to £8,600.

Mr. A. R. W. Bavin, 49, an under secretary at the Ministry of Health will become a deputy secretary and his salary will increase from £5,250 to £6,300. Vietnamese disrupt U.S.

war effort THE plight of U.S. imperialism in Vietnam i of the man stuck in a treacherous bog: the he struggles, the deeper he sinks.

The latest attempt to assassinate the deputy leader Buddhists in Saigon shows only too clearly the depth to Johnson has sunk in the Vietnam morass.

No amount of promises from Air Marshal Ky can retrieve the position or hide the crisis of imperialism now.

What the B-52s have failed to do, the assassin's bomb has done, completely and irrevocably.

It is not accidental either that the American occupation forces in Vietnam have suffered their heaviest casualties in the same week that the political situation be I d, Perioratis and Sa dete has rating rapidly.

In the Hué and Da Nang the South Vietnamese army has disintegrated to the point where no ordinated offensive operations have been possible for a number of weeks, leaving the initiative on the ground to the Vietcong.

The poor morale, bad logistics U.S. forces have series of thrashing tactical defeats on the U.S. and puppet forces: Van Tuong, Chu Lai, Da Nang, Dat Cuoc, Bau Bang, Plei Me, Dong Duong and la Drang are only a few.

STUBBORN RESISTANCE In addition to the military defeats inflicted on U.S. imperialisın, there is now the stubborn resistance of the Vietnamese workers who, by their heroic actions and strikes, are disrupting and slowing down the U.S. effort to construct a complex communications network, as well as military bases in South Vietnam.

Now that the monsoon season has arrived, and with it the prospect of a massive offensive in the Central and Western highlands by the Vietcong, the U.S. high command is desperate to combete the vast one billion dollar It includes 40 bases from Saigon to Cam Ranh bay and employs over 38,000 Vietnamese workers.

In the last month there have been 11 major strikes which resulted in 23,000 man-days being lost. The U.S. contractors, accustomed to a docile labour force, were baffled by the high degree of organisation and militancy of the workers. MUST WIN Says SLL conference policies.

decided to impose this le paid workers in Britain workers ; that more of the which The labour relations chief of R.M.K.-B.R.J. (the main contractor) complained in the case of one strike that "strike committee representatives simultaneously called on us here and on the Labour ministry. Another fantastic thing, every worker you spoke to had exactly the same story, word for word'.

According to the company spokesman, the Vietnamese allegations against their U.S. supervisor were unfounded, but two things compelled ..the company to accede to the strikers' demand and transfer the supervisor: one being the fact that more reluctant strikers refused to "blackleg' because of Vietcong 'persuasion'.

INFLATION SPIRAL

The U.S. companies would like to blame the Vietcong for the strike, but the tact is that the war has led to such a fantastic inflationary spiral (700 per cent increase in prices in eight years that wages "are worth little or nothing.

The longer the war goes on the greater the inflation and the greater the resistance of labour. damaging to the U.S. war effort And this will than five North Vietnamese divisions in South Vietnam.

it will be a defeat working class.' whole of the working class.

seamen. seamen or the employers and the state.

They represent decisions of the Tory Party carried out through Wilson and company inside the labour movement.

Our message is centred on the need for the working class to fight back. The Devlin Commission, the anti-trade union legislation and the seamen's strike are part of the same process. Unless the first two are defeated and the strike won, the working class will go down to defeat and further losses in the purchasing power of its wages.

Have no illusions Nobody should have any illusions in the Labour government. It is not a real Labour government but a government of the big employers carrying on the same policy as the Tories before them. Despite the fact that they claim to be representatives of labour, this is a capitalist government carrying out capitalist policies.

These policies will not be defeated unless the working class is prepared to fight back with all its strength.

The Communist Party supports Wilson. They do not want a Save agreed with the right wing of de ational Union of eaten showdown in which he would be defeated. that ships should be moved in the docks.

That is why they have opposed the dockers coming._out strike in defence of the seamen. Jack Dash, Gordon Norris and the other leaders of the Communist Party in King Street are traitors to the working class. They are, in fact, helping the Labour government to defeat the working class. Nobody should have any illusions on this score. The May 25 lobby organised by the Young Socialists exposed both Norris decisively. Now the Communist Party calls another lobby on June 22.

We will not boycott this as they boycotted that of the Your Socialists on May 25. We will fight with rank-and-file members the Communist Party and all trade unionists against the government's anti-trade union legislation, but the question of the hour is how this can be defeated.

A lobby by itself will achieve nothing. It can, in fact, be an obstacle unless it is related to an all-out struggle against the governThis struggle can only be entertained when those who sponsor it fight for the mobilisation of the entire working class and a one-day Such a strike would today force the government to reconsider position against the unions.

The SLL, therefore, says:

All out in support of the June 22 lobby For a one-day general strike to force the government For the victory of the Seamen and the Dockers Price 6d.

Beckton Road,Canning Town, E.16 FOURTH INTERNATIONAL. GO FORWARD"

THIS MEANS - FORWARD TO THE DAILY TROTSKYIST NEW PAPER National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League, Gerry Healy, introduces the British Perspectives document (reported on pages 2 and 3) at last week-end's SLL 8th Congress. Also see are Jack Gale and Cliff Slaughter, SLL Central Committee Members.

Tribute paid to murdered socialist Newsletter Cor MESSAGES of sympathy and support from all over the world and the United States were read at a meeting in the Debs Hall headquarters of the Socialist Workers' Party in Detroit on May 20, called to pay tribute to murdered Party member, 27-year-old Leo Bernard.

Bernard, along with 22-yearold Jan Garrett and 19-yearold Walter Graham, was shot by an anti-Communist who had walked into Debs Hall on May 16 with the intention of 'killing some communists'threats he had made to his wife and the South African Consul in New York, and threats that were known to the Secret Service and local special investigation bureau.

Bernard died, and the other two were seriously injuredGraham is still critical, Garrett may be released from hospital soon.

The May 20 audience in Debs Hall included many student and adult workers from OUT NOW LENIN ANTI-TRADE UNION LEGISLATION Young Socialists invite all seamen, dockers and trade unionists to a meeting at Keir Hardie School Wednesday, June 8, 7.30 p.m. the socialist, anti-war and movements of America.

Frank Lovell, Michigan state chairman of the SWP, said there had been a heartening and immediate response from students the Wayne university — where the three victims studied-and the University of Michigan after the news of the murderous attack broke on the campuses. Many students had offered blood donations to the hospital where injured youths were operated on.

Experiences

Marilyn Levin, Young Socialist Alliance Detroit chairman, described Bernard's life. He had come from the middle class but through his experiences in jobs his view had been widened.

'Modest about himself, he had a high opinion about the capacities of the human race. He did not believe wars or racism or exploitation or poverty or regimentation are the result of human nature, but result of the control of society being in the hands of a minority that benefits from these social evils.

'From reason and from instinct, he believed all this could be changed, and would be changed, and he held this belief so strongly that he was willing to give his life to it,? she said.

Lew Jones, national chairman of the Young Socialist Alliance, said the political causes of the assassination were the policies of the Johnson government in killing communists in Vietnam, and announcing daily killcounts of communists.

Responsibility

Who can doubt where the responsibility lies; who can when you have a government that carries its violence out on such a wide scale throughout the world, he said.

Farrell Dobbs, national secretary of the SWP, asked why the assassin had been allowed to walk about free after he had made his intentions clear to so many people.

I think it is fair to assume that if that man had said he was out to kill police or he was out to kill bankers and auto corporation heads in the city of Detroit, he would not have been at large 24 hours.?

Many speakers emphasised the need to continue struggle for socialism to which Bernard had given his bfe. Speaker: Gerry Healy Buses: 106, 175, 5, 13, 23, 40, 33, 58 to Trinity Church, Barking Road, then two minutes walk along Beckton Road.

By Newsletter Reporter NINE Liverpool seamen have signed the following statement:

'We understand that there are statements circulating that the coach booked by Merseyside Young Socialists which took seamen down to London, returned from London on May 25 leaving seamen behind.

'We are satisfied that this is false and that there is no foundation for the accusation that the Young Socialists refused to bring these seamen back' This statement follows the attempts by the right wing of the seamen's union and Communist Party members to split and disrupt the 2,000-strong lobby of parliameni on May 25 in support of the seamen, and against the anti-union legislation and the Devlin Report.

WORKERS UNITED

Many sections of workers, including the seamen and dockers, united on this lobby behind the political slogans of the Young Socialists for a magnificent demonstration.

Before the demonstration began inveigled away from the were march by CPers, who promised food and a possible lobby Wilson along with their union secretary, Bill Hogarth.

Later these seamen were sent back to Liverpool on a coach hired by the disrupters at a cost of £60. This was to keep them separate from the youth and adult trade unionists from the same city.

'STRANDED' RUMOUR The Newsletter understands that the same people who booked the coach have been circulating rumours that the Liverpool seamen were left stranded by the Young Socialists.

This statement, to be signed by more seamen, completely refutes these lies and slanders.

The NUS disputes committee in Liverpool has returned the £60 bill for the coach back to the hirers and have said that it was totally unnecessary to book it in the first place.

NEXORABLY the leader-ship of the National Union of Railwaymen moves a step nearer to the de-nationalization of British Railways.

Reports state that they have 'indicated' a willingness to grant to the private haulage companies a large measure of 'open access' to the liner-train terminals.

This position has apparently been made informally to the British Railways Board and the Ministry of Transport. There is to be a 'broad interpretation' LINER TRAIN TERMINALS placed on the statement.

Nominal hiring provisions will be written into the contracts of companies using the terminals at places where there is no objection from the local NUR branches.

Everyone concerned, both on the management side and in the leadership of the union, has attempted to get round the opposition to liner trains from the NUR rank and file by stating that technically the lorries would be on hire to British Railways, who will actually pay for their hire.

In other words, British Railways, with the agreement presumably of the NUR leadership, is going to pay for the introduction of liner-trains so that the private contractors can come in to the terminals.

The union is to discuss the matter at its annual conference in June in secret—it is not difficult to see why.

GREGORY ZINOVLET TO TH CLEBRATING CHAE This remarkable biographical speech is now available in pamphlet form. Well illustrated and pocket size, it costs 3s.

It is available from: The Socialist Labour League, 186A Clapham High Street, London,

Pare Iwo NEW Tune 4,

Introducing the perspectives docu lent, Gerry Healy. Na onal Secretary of the SLL, said:

EVER since the Labour government of Harold Wilson was elected in October 1964 its course has been unmistakeable.

This government is a thoroughly capitalist government led by bourgeois leaders in the Labour Party whose main desire and only objective is to pursue a course of policy in line with the big monopoly capitalists and the most reactionary sections of finance capital throughout the world.

It willingly inherited this capitalist crisis from the Tory government. In no matter what field of this crisis to which we turn the problems remain unresolved: automation, overseas investments, the necessity for British capital to maintain a high standard of investment.

Crisis

In the field of loans, now at an all-time high, military expenditure at an all-time high, or in the balance of payments, all these main fields of capital have a fundamental and deepgoing crisis, and this government continuously develops in its own way policies to overcome this crisis at the expense of the working class. -it profited considers its small majority in Parliament in the period between October 1964 and the - dissolution last February. It utilised this narrow majority to whip the 'lefts' into submission.

It even convinced a number of so-called Marxists that the most important task. they had to face was the maintenance of this government, a government Which gave every indication that immediately it was returned to parliament it would follow policies to discipline the working class and take back hard-earned gains won in the course of struggle since the end of the Second World War.

Revealed

Now we have arrived at point where the full-scale policies of the government are revealed for all to see.

Support for Johnson in Vietnam; military expenditure on the increase; the appointment of an arms salesman to make profits as a merchant of death. It pursues policies in the colonial and semi-colonial countries in line with the previous Tory governments. It proceeds from the point of view of the defence of capital.

Now the bill for all this defence of capital has to be paid, and unmistakeably Wilson says working class must pay.

We are on the threshold of enormous increases in the cost of living. The pay-roll tax will undoubtedly" increase considerably the cost of living for every single wage worker in this country.

For the big bourgeois there is no cost of living problem; it is essentially a problem of the working class, a problem which the working class and only the working class have to face.

And there is no solution for the middle-class in the break-up of its salaried positions without the struggle of the working class.

This pay-roll tax is designed to foist on the backs of wage workers and small salaried employees the full impact of the expenditures incurred by the government to defend capitalism in this country. The 8th National Congress of the Socialist Labour League was held in London on 29, 30. The discussion on the May 28, British Perspectives was introduced League's National Secretary, Gerry Healy. National Secretary, Gerry and the full text of the and the full text of the document discussed by the The issues are now posed sharply. They have disregarded the balance of payments problem in their attitude to the seamen's strike. One paper after another has said that at all costs they must defeat the seamen.

So far as the struggle against the working class is concerned it is necessary to begin their attack by destroying the seamen, to drive them back to work under conditions where the attack on wages can go forward.

Essence

If the seamen are defeated it will be a defeat for the entire working class, a defeat for all workers with wages problems.

The essence of the struggle is the compulsory legislation against the trade unions.

Long before the legislation is passed the goverament is taking steps against the seamen to defeat them. The seamen are the victims of a policy designed to take back from the working class the gains won since the end of the Second World War.

This determination of the ruling class does not arise because of an emotional whim. For a considerable period they have retreated and compromised.

Why then is there now change in the policy of the ruling Celts when we are told by the that we have entered a new era of expanding capitalism?

It has been said that the ruling class would not fight because it was too weakened. "To answer this is is necessary to review briefly some past events.

Next stage There have been over the last 50 years only two previous occasions where the working class has increased its wages. One was during the First World War when Lloyd George introduced the Munitions Acts, and the second was in 1925 when it became necessary for the whole force of the state to be mobilised in order to precipitate the 1926 General Strike and after the defeat of the strike reduce the value of wages.

Now comes the next stage of the struggle. Over the past year Here we print extracts that we understand it so that we do not continue to think in terms of the past.

If the seamen's strike is defeated, even on a rotten compromise, this will not alter a single policy of the Wilson government.

He has the backing of the bourgeoisie and the state. If in the end there might be such a rotten compromise — and we cannot exclude it-that will tend to step up the offensive against the working class. We can see enough in the anti-trade union legislation to reinforce this point.

There is the Devlin Commission Report, which was written by, among others, one of the people now sitting on the Court of Enquiry on the seamen.

The government see their anti-trade union legislation, the Devlin Commission and the struggle against the seamen as part and parcel of the same offensive. All these struggles are brought together.

They have a policy centred on certain types of enquiries. Committee of Enquiry could have been set up at any time before the strike. from his introducti certain setbacks.

Wilson presents this 'man of the people' facade and it temporarily unites sections of the middle class and sections of the bourgeois and the bureaucratic sections of the labour movement and their hangers-on.

Within the Labour Party he trades under the banner of a Bevanite of the old school. He has taken many Bevanites from obscurity and thrust them into the cubbyholes of Ministerial positions. The appointment of these people is deliberate and is endorsed completely by the ruling class.

Revisionists

Then there are those who argue that when all is said and done the Labour government is better than the Tories and therefore we must shut our mouths. You mustn't rock the boat.

This shameless revisionist element who advance such argument serve the ruling class in the same way as Wilson.

In the forefront of this are the small groups of Pabloites.

They call the Labour government workers' government. But it is a bourgeois leadership of the Labour Party and there is nothing working class about the present government.

These people try to use the instinctive loyalty of the working class to dampen down the struggles of the class. They deliberately deceive the working class and mislead the rank and file of the Labour Party.

Division

There is also a very carefully hought-out division of labour, particularly between Wilson and George Woodcock, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

The TUC is heavily committed to the government's policies. All the major unions have gone on record for the compulsory legislation against the trade unions.

At the TUC last September Woodcock argued for a voluntary incomes policy. This was done on the grounds that we must not have state intervention, and yet those trade union leaders who voted for Woodcock then have since gone on record for the government's policies.

Woodcock tries to turn workers away from politics, while other trade union bureaucrats move continuously into the government's camp.

Explain

We must explain this division of labour in the course of our discussions with workers. We have to take up constantly the way in which the political life and policies of the labour movement are developing.

It is a division of labour in which Wilson compliments Eric Heiler, MP for Walton, on the role that he played in the 1960 seamen's strike, when in fact, behind the scenes, Heffer was responsible for weakening the strike.

Heffer is hoping that among those 'lefts' now leading the present strike are many like himself and that in the coming days after the enquiry they can join hands with the Communist Party and the right wing of the NUS to sell the seamen down the lipe.

Stalinists

There is also the role of the Stalinists. The 'East London Observer' quoted Gordon Norris, a leading Stalinist seaman, as saying that he was not opposed to the movement of all vessels in the port. If a good case can be put,' he said, 'we are prepared to let a ship be moved and we have seamen standing by to do the job.' Now you can see the division of labour. You have in their own way the Communist Party, Heffer and Woodcock backing Wilson, together with Quintin Hogg and the Tory Party. We must grasp this relationship of forces. We need to explain why this line up is so clearly in

So far as the ruling class is concerned they stand completely behind the government. The declaration last Friday in the House of Commons by Quintin Hogg when he endorsed the Emergency Powers taken by the government was in these terms:

On behalf of the Conservative back and front benches we have complete support in this government. We have complete confidence that you will utilise these powers as you think fit, because these are the same powers that we introduced in 1926 for the General Strike and we are happy and delighted to see that a Labour government is following in our footsteps in its attack on the working class. possible the Labour leaders to break down such working-class standards of wages under conditions in which they would be able to avoid a General Strike.

But a General Strike cannot be excluded because the moment the state begins to intervene on wages all major strikes tend to become political strikes.

We are in the era of the political strike.

But although the political strike poses the problem of power, that does not mean that the question of political power is on the agenda.

Political strikes are necessary for the education of the working class. This whole gamut of experience is part of that process. We have entered a decisive stage of this process and it is important

Next week: Int SOCIALIST IEWSLETTER June 4, 196 THE NEWSLE

The only purpose of setting it up now is in order to devise propaganda against the seamen to demonstrate that they are unreasonable, to try to isolate the seamen, while at the same time the policy of the right wing 1s proceeding in order to split the working class. SoVernment means the finity the the working class in action, unity in struggle, in opposition to these measures.

We now have to look very closely at the policies of the stand their role. Labour 'lefts'. We must underWilson does not claim to be socialist. At least he differs in that respect from his predecessors in the Labour Party.

Wilson says he is a man of the future. For the benefit of the technical revolution, he argues, it is necessary to suffer evidence today.

The crisis of British imperialism is the crisis of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy. If

workers have increased their wages by between 8 and 9 per cent and state intervention is now needed.

We are not living in a period of liberal-bourgeois rule any more. The problems of the bourgeoisie are enormously aggravated. It becomes essential now for the Labour Party to embark ruthlessly to drive down wages and working conditions. That is why they were elected.

The Tories decided that since a confrontation between the state and the working class was necessary it would be better if they had a Labour government because they might be able to do what Lloyd George was able to do in the First World War.

Using everyone They think that through this government they stand a better chance to effect the driving down of wages and at the same time achieve a split in the trade union movement by the muffling of militancy of the rank and file. They are using everyone from the leaders of the Labour Party down to the renegade Stalinists in King Street to prepare the ground for this.

The determination of the working class which won 8 to 9 per cent increase in wages over the past year was reflected in the General Election. The bourgeoisie want to use as far as MERSEY SA TEKERE JE NE Dockers' leader, Larry Cavanagh (above), addressed the meeting in the Porchester Hall after the lobby of MPs at Westminster. On page three some of the 2,000 lobbyists are seen entering St. Stephen's entrance. NAI A I a meeting in Porchester Hall, West London, after Wednesday 25's mighty demonstration and lobby in support of the seamen and against the anti-union legislation and Devlin Report. two seamen thanked the Young Socialists for organising the event.

The meeting was attended by seamen, Young Socialists, dockers, students and trade unionists who had marched 1,100 strong from Tower Hill to Waterloo and then to lobby parliament where their numbers swelled to 2,000. Other workers, unable to take time off during the day, came to the meeting from their factories and building sites.

APPRECIATION

A Liverpool seaman told the meeting: I have been on shore for three weeks and am staying at the sailors' home in London. I wish to show my appreciation of the Young Socialists today. The only thing I got from parliament today, from Mr. Heffer, was sympathy. We don't want sympathy, we want the shipowners to give us a 40hour week.

I believe that the major seamen won't go back to

tion of the workers' movement. The labour and trade union bureaucracy in this country have prostituted socialism and the desire of the working class for better conditions. They serve the bourgeoisie.

But the desire of the working class to fight back is disrupting both the Stalinists and the labour bureaucracy. Today Stalinism is the main prop of the bourgeoisie in Western Europe, in particular in France and Italy. OF

the working class fight back they will break this bureaucracy from stem to stern, just as the heroic Hungarian workers did to the Stalinist bureaucracy 10 years ago.

Settle accounts The time is coming in this country to settle accounts. with the labour and trade union bureaucracy. That is why they maintain a screen of silence against us, because we come on the scene now with fresh forces. with many young militants and potential forces, not as little groups with duplicators, but as a real force.

We have always said that it is not the bureaucrats who will have the last say.

The bureaucracy degeneraIf the Communist Party today fights our people they now have not only the cracy, but also behinc them. They teel strong now, because they are getting a little help from the Labour bureaucracy..

The goal of the British Communist Party leadership is no different from the goal of the Communist Party leadership in any part of the world.

The British Communist Party is a political gangster at the beck and call of the ruling class and the labour leaders.

But when we say this we must distinguish between the rank and file and the leadership. Marxists must learn separate all potential communists from the we don't get the 40-hour week and a rise in pay.' Another seaman said simply: 'On behalf of all seamen, I want to say thank you all very much.

Both seamen had a tremendous reception from the audience, and their speeches received thunderous applause.

Earlier Dave Ashby, national chairman of the Young Socialists, had opened the meeting. He said: 'We were told that the prices and incomes policy is designed to bring benefits to this country, but no Bill which can fine workers, or jail them for going on strike, is in the interests of the working class.

ACTION

'As soon as the terms of this Bill were announced, we immediately pushed Young Socialist branches into action and circularised trade union branches.

We also tied it up with the dockers who are also struggling against the Devlin Report.

He explained how the Young Socialists had worked for big contingents on May Day marches, and how the London May Day demonstration was far more successful than that organised by the Communist Party. On May Day the Young Socialists had put forward the need to struggle against the Prices and Incomes Bill and the Devlin Report.

SUPPORT

The day before May Day, 2,000 dockers on Merseyside decided to support this lobby today. Therefore, all the stories which have come from Jack Dash and others all around the country about the premature way this demonstration was organised

Communist Party leadership.

Our programme is open for everyone to see. Our policies are explained constantly in our press.

The struggle to win away the rank and file of the Communist Party. means joining them in united action where possible, and at the same time engaging in constant educational discussion with them.

That was the importance of the demonstration of May 25.

The Communist Party immediately proposed a diversionary counter - demonstration several weeks away while the date which we had chosen coincided with the real crisis of the working class. The demonstration on May 25 was a day before ste Emergency Powers debate and the high point of the struggle against Devlin by the dockers and by the seamen.

Political issues It is no use thinking that we can win from the Communiseople away simply by talking about unity. In all discussions with the Communist Party, the political issues have to be taken up Moscow, and, on The Communist behalf of Moscow, serves British capitalism.

They want are slanders,' said Ashby.

The dockers voted to support the lobby on April 30. On May 9, the 'Morning Star" announced for the first time that Jack Dash and others were calling a lobby for June 22.

Said Ashby: 'We regarded this as a very dangerous attempt to split the efforts for May 25, but we said we were in favour of any attempt to defeat the anti-trade union legislation. We said we would support June 22' TIMELY Considerable gains had been made on the lobby because it was absolutely timely.

'We chose May 25, said Ashby, 'but in the meantime we did not know that a strike of seamen would occur. However, because we discussed the serious situation facing the working class at our conference, we were able to choose this timely date.' Conclusions could be drawn from the actions of Jack Dash and the MPs in parliament, but important lessons could only be learned in the building of a political party.

ENCOURAGE

A new generation was coming forward to take over the struggle.

'We would appeal to older workers to encourage these young workers coming into politics today,' he said.

Portworkers, Of the Merseyside Committee Larry Cavanagh told the meeting that since the dockers had taken their decision on April 30 to come to London and fight the anti-trade union laws and amendments to the Dock Labour Scheme, they had been visiting factories and building sites for support.

res jocialist I on the by the Healy.

troducti Jacks. presents this "man of facade and it temnites sections of the ss and sections of the and the bureaucratic the labour movement angers-on. the Labour Party he ler the banner of a f the old school. He many Bevanites from and thrust them i into holes of Ministerial The appointment of le is deliberate and is completely by the visionists tere are those who when all is said and Labour government is the Tories and thereust shut our mouths. 't rock the boat. ¡hameless revisionist 'ho advance such an serve the ruling class : way as Wilson. vrefront of this are the ›s of Pabloites.

Il the Labour governworkers' government. a bourgeois leadership bour Party and there working class about government. ople try to use the in›yalty of the working dampen down the of the class. They • deceive the working mislead the rank and abour Party.

Division also a very carefully t division of labour • between Wilson and odcock, General Secree Trades Union Con- is heavily committed ernment's policies. All unions have gone on the compulsory legisist the trade unions. TUC last September argued for a volunsve), addressed the he lobby of MPs at the 2,000 lobbyists s entrance. tary incomes policy. This was done on the grounds that we must not have state intervention, and yet those trade union leaders who voted for Woodcock then have since gone on record for the government's policies.

Woodcock tries to turn workers away from politics, while other trade union bureaucrats move continuously into the government's camp.

Explain

We must explain this division of labour in the course of our discussions with workers. We have to take up constantly the way in which the political life and policies of the labour movement are developing.

It is a division of labour in which Wilson compliments Eric Helter, MP for Walton, on the role that he played in the 1960 seamen's strike, when in fact, behind the scenes, Heffer was responsible for weakening the strike.

Heffer is hoping that among those 'lefts' now leading the present strike are many like himself and that in the coming days after the enquiry they can join hands with the Communist Party and the right wing of the NUS to sell the seamen down the lige.

Stalinists

There is also the role of the Stalinists. The 'East London Observer' quoted Gordon Norris, a leading Stalinist seaman, as saying that he was not opposed to the movement of all vessels in the port. If a good case can be put,' he said, 'we are prepared to let a ship be moved and we have seamen standing by to do the job.' Now you can see the division of labour. You have in their own way the Communist Party, Heffer and Woodcock backing Wilson, together with Quintin Hogg and the Tory Party. We must grasp this relationship of forces. we need to explain why this line up • is so clearly in evidence today.

The crisis of British imperialism is the crisis of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy. If the working class fight back they will break this bureaucracy from stem to stern, just as the heroic Hungarian workers did to the Stalinist bureaucracy 10 years ago.

Settle accounts The time is coming in this country to settle accounts. with the labour and trade union bureaucracy. That is why they maintain a screen of silence against us, because we come on the scene now with fresh forces with many young militants and potential forces, not as little groups with duplicators, but as a real force.

We have always said that it is not the bureaucrats who will have the last say.

The bureaucracy is a degeneraT a meeting in Porchester Hall, West London, after Wednesday 25's mighty demonstration and lobby in support of the seamen and against the anti-union legislation and Devlin Report. two seamen thanked the Young Socialists for organising the event.

The meeting was attended by seamen, Young Socialists, dockers, students and trade unionists who had marched 1,100 strong from Tower Hill to Waterloo and then to lobby parliament where their numbers swelled to 2,000. Other workers, unable to take time off during the day, came to the meeting from their factories and building sites.

APPRECIATION

A Liverpool seaman told the meeting: 'I have been on shore for three weeks and am staying at the sailors' home in London. I wish to show my appreciation of the Young Socialists today. The only thing I got from parliament today, from Mr. Heffer, was sympathy. We don't want sympathy, we want the shipowners to give us a 40hour week.

I believe that the major seamen won't go back to tion of the workers' movement. The labour and • trade union bureaucracy in this country have prostituted socialism and the desire of the working class for better conditions. They serve the bourgeoisie.

But the desire of the working class to fight back is disrupting both the Stalinists and the labour bureaucracy. Today Stalinism is the main prop of the bourgeoisie in Western Europe, in particular in France and Italy.

Feel strong

If the Communist Party today fights our people they now have not only the Moscow bureaucracy, but also Wilson behind them. They feel strong now, because they are getting a little help from the Labour bureaucracy..

The goal of the British Communist Party leadership is no different from the goal of the Communist Party leadership in any part of the world.

The British Communist Party is a political gangster at the beck and call of the ruling class and the labour leaders.

But when we say this we must distinguish between the rank and file and the leadership. Marxists must learn to separate potential communists from the we don't get the 40-hour week and a rise in pay.' Another seaman said simply: 'On behaif of all seamen, I want to say thank you all very much.' Both seamen had a tremendous recept speeches heaven, and derous applause.

Earlier Dave Ashby, national chairman of the Young Socialists, had opened the meeting. said: 'We were told that the prices and incomes policy is designed to bring benefits to this country, but no Bill which can fine workers, or jail them for going on strike, is in the interests of the working class.

ACTION

'As soon as the terms of this Bill were announced, we immediately pushed Young Socialist branches into action and circularised trade union branches.

We also tied it up with the dockers who are also struggling against the Devlin Report.

He explained how the Young Socialists had worked for big contingents on May Day marches, and how the London May Day demonstration was more successful than that organised by the Communist Party. On May Day the Young Socialists had put forward the need to struggle against the Prices and Incomes Bill and the Devlin Report.

SUPPORT

"The day before May Day, 2,000 dockers on Merseyside decided to support this lobby today. Therefore, all the stories which have come from _Jack Dash and others all around the country about the premature way this demonstration was organised under conditions where we can smash the centrists before they develop as a movement.

We must consistently expose people like Heffer, "Tribune', the Pabloites, and the state capitalists.

The political life of the labour movement in this country is becoming crystal clear. It now depends entirely on the work and the struggle of the Socialist Labour League what will happen so far as the future of working class is concerned. of several thousand members, everyone is a member of his or her trade union.

What nonsense it is to say that the Young Socialists have no right to intervene in the trade unions when one trade union after another accepts Committees of Enquiry composed of Judges as 'impartial' men-—reactionary elements who are completely outside the movement.

The Transport and General Workers' Union accepted Judge Devlin. They attacked the YS as being outside the trade union movement while it's Yes judge, No judge, Here's what you want, judge.' The attack on the Young Socialists is hypocritical and groundless.

Active inside

At the same time we must make a serious approach to the problem of trade union work as our resolution attempts to do. Nobody at any time in our organisation has suggested that you can lead the trade unions from the outside, just by propaganda alone. We have got to be inside and active.

Trade union militancy and syndicalism must be distinguished from what we believe to be the duty of a Marxist trade unionist.

A Marxist goes to work for the purpose of winning members to his party and influencing the unions along the line of its policies. The possibilities for real, serious work in the trade unions are considerable. We must insist with all our comrades about this fact.

Things are very different from last year in the period when we first began to turn towards the trade unions. We then had to contend with conservative leaderships and shop stewards.

Now there is complete change in the situation.

Leader

One comrade today in a big factory, able to explain to workers the meaning of the political strike, the meaning of the anti-trade union legislation and the type of strikes which have to be led, can become a leader in a unions and industry a our people in key positi must win over the best today and teach them t Marxists.

We don't want a sit the Socialist Labour where we win trade un our ranks and then go our hands and knees t them.

The recruitment c unionists gives added bie. to te past not i them. We must them as trade unionists Party does not try to te Marxism, they will not organisation of codon remain in a permanent theoretical backwardne long as members do i the history of our move the international moven they cannot help trade How is it possible comrades today wit thorough knowledge of tory of the working class They do not just know that the gover against them, they want trained unt set they trained unless we necessary understandi selves.

Study Ler A study of Lenin is essential in order to te kers why they need a r ary party that brings theory into the fatco into the trade unions all sections of industry.

We must reject compl syndicalist or trade ur tendencies and insist on for an all-round Marxi tion.

Our job is to arm with a knowledge of h think over problems faced with and then t this history to see how to present conditions.

For example, we can describe the political this country as the same because the crisis of i is much worse.

Our job is not a preachers, preaching t

Communist Party leadership.

Our programme is open for everyone to see. Our policies are explained constantly in our press.

The struggle to win away the rank and file of the Communist Party means joining them in united action where possible, and at the same time engaging in constant educational discussion with them.

That was the importance of the demonstration of May 25.

The Communist Party immediately proposed a diversionary counter - demonstration several weeks away while the date which we had chosen coincided with the real crisis of the working class. The demonstration on May 25 was a day before ca Emergency Powers debate and the high point of the struggle against Devlin by the dockers and by the seamen.

Political issues It is no use thinking that we can from the Communis eople away simply by talking about unity. In all discussions with the Communist Party, the political issues have to be taken up. The Communist Party serves Moscow, and, on behalf of Moscow, serves British capitalism.

They want to win are slanders,' said Ashby.

The dockers voted to support the lobby on April 30. On May 9, the 'Morning Star' announced for the first time that Jack Dash and_ others were calling a lobby for June 22.

Said Ashby: 'We regarded this as a very dangerous attempt to split the efforts for May 25, but we said we were in favour of any attempt to defeat the anti-trade union • legislation. We said we would support June 22?

TIMELY

Considerable gains had been made on the lobby because it was absolutely timely.

'We chose May 25, said Ashby, 'but in the meantime we did not know that a strike of seamen would occur. However, because we discussed the serious situation facing the working class at our conference, we were able to choose this timely date.' Conclusions could be drawn from the actions of Jack Dash and the MPs in parliament, but important lessons could only be learned in the building of a political party.

ENCOURAGE

A new generation was coming forward to take over the struggle.

'We would appeal to older workers to encourage these young workers coming into politics today, he said.

Portworkers, Of the Merseyside Secretary Committee Cavanagh told the meeting that since the dockers had taken their decision on April 30 to come to London and fight the anti-trade union laws and amendments to the i Dock Labour Scheme, they had been visiting factories and building sites for support. government away from Washington towards Moscow. To do this they seek to make British capitalism work, to repay loans with interest, to make more profit so that the capitalists become enthusiastic about moving closer to Moscow.

That is why they will collaborate in the breaking up of any attempt by the working class to move forward along an independent class path.

We think that in the present Deriod it is necessary that we should understand the class lines of the Communist Party, the fake lefts' and the right-wing Labour government as part of a whole development. Of course, this development cannot continue we its present form Split When the working class moves forward into activity and action, the struggle will go on and the more stubbornly we fight, the more we shall split the centrists and Stalinists when this time comes.

It is not our purpose to wait until centrists become force in the Labour Party. It is our purpose to move in now with our organisation with its forces, discussing and struggling in the working-class movement

Mersey dockers had approached the Port of London liaison committee.

'Most of you have heard what the reaction of that committee was. They ignored our appeal and called another lobby for June 22, said Cavanagh.

Young Socialists had worked hard to raise money for coaches to bring them to London, he said.

QUICK LOBBY

'We came down here "this morning-dockers, building wurkers, seamen, Young Socialists so on-to find one of the quickest lobbies ever being organised'-the Communist Party and right wing of the National Union of Seamen had decided to split the seamen from the dockers.

They offered them free food and laid on a special coach which cost £60 to make sure the seamen did not march in support of the lobby, said Cavanagh.

CROSS LINE

He claimed that the right wing if the seamen's union had agreed in principle with the last offer of the shipowners.

'This is not surprising when we see the way they have demoralised pickets by telling their own members to cross the picket line and strip hatches.' There was also an agreement with the Transport and General Workers' Union to discharge certain ships that came into the ports.

NO EXCUSE 'Some very young people, not yet even members of a trade union, have come a long way and paid their own fares because they have seen the seriousness of the situation facing the working class. There is no excuse for people Who are supposed to be in the leadership of the working class

1966 age Th

Wilson has declared his politics in a book of his speeches in which he said: 'We have always rejected the revolutionary approach, equally we oppose the use of industrial action for political objectives.

The policy of Wilson is today clear for all to see and those who serve Wilson follow his policy.

One of the arguments put forward by our opponents is that the Young Socialists is an organisation outside the trade unions and as such has no right to intervene in trade union struggles.

We have carried out over the past year a serious attempt to turn our youth comrades towards the trade unions. As far as we can ascertain, in an organisation going around strike-breaking,' commented Cavanagh.

He also claimed that the fake 'lefts' in parliament were also preventing a struggle by saying that the seamen's official leaders should not be criticised.

A Sheffield shop steward also explained the role of Communist Party supporters in holding back the class struggle.

TWO LOBBIES 'On the January 26 lobby when correspondence was stewards, read out on our shop committee we were told we could not support it as it was only organised by "young Trots" to stab the Labour government in the back. This was from a Communist Party steward For the March I lobby [called by organisations sympathetic to the Communist Partyl, we got the correspondence on the Thursday and the lobby was on the following Tuesday. But they supported it, because it was being, organised by people they wanted.

REPORT BACK

He had reported back to a meeting of clerical workers where he said that in all these movements there were people fighting against the anti-trade union legislation.

Because of the urgency of the situation he had promised his committee's support for both the May 25 and the June 22 lobbies.

'Our convenor, a CP member, did not know what to say and finally said he agreed. But he said we did not have much time to organise. The treasurer said we did not have the money to support both, so we should support the lobby on June 22.:' LACK OF UNITY It was put to the vote and the convenor's amendment was carried by Il votes to 7.

'But there are 20 members on the committee, 10 of them are CP members, and they could only get Il votes! One of their own members gave them a roasting about their lack of unity,' he said.

'A lot of CP members are very short space of time.

There is opening up now the opportunity for real serious Marxist activity inside the trade unions and we must grasp this with all hands. Wemust not think that work outside the factory gates is a substitute for penetration of trade union branches and factories and for giving leadership on the spot.

We have examples where our comrades have been able to do considerable work in their factories and industries. Because we had party members in a particular industry it has been possible to make important successes.

Whilst we do not accept the argument of being outside the trade unions, nevertheless we understand and recognise that we have to penetrate the trade becoming disillusioned. A lot of us have been in the CP and got out for various reasons. For them any lie will do to smash this YS lobby?

WONDERFUL JOB He had agreed with the CP members on his committee that there was a time limit. They were waiting for five weeks time while the seamen could be defeated, while the Devlin Report was going through, and while scabs could easily appear in the engineering industry.

'Nevertheless, in spite of the dirty tactics, and seeing the size of the lobby, 1 think you nave done a wonderful job, he told the audience. It gives some idea of what it could have been without these splitting tactics' The collection taken by the chairman, Dave Ashby, raised a total of £93 17s. Od. and was greeted by tremendous_applause. D. Davis (Newcastle East YS) the abstract. If that is will wall ourselves off working class. We mus to connect up positi struggles of today witt periences which they at Therefore the develop theory is a living questio Sensitivit This requires a • COl education and a great : in the organisation education.

Are we going to take in Britain decisively to1 building of the party no we going to be anoth ganda sect, or another opportunist sect, or looking for a place i centrist party? said: 'I want to say a fe in support of all those Socialists who stood out Houses of Parliament pouring rain and who dic get a look in.

'The Young Socialists to wait in the wet al pushed and provoked police, are Young Social worked day and night policy which they firmly can and will unite the class at a time when e attacks are being against it.

SACRIFICE 'Young Socialists ha leatletting the docks, and the seamen's pick seeking support for thi They have made con: sacrifices to be able y down on the lobby, some taking as much as 10 work at a stretch.

"They were kept ou

government away from Washington towards Moscow. To do this they seek to make British capitalism work, to repay loans with interest, to make more profit so that the capitalists become enthusiastic about moving closer to Moscow.

That is why they will collaborate in the breaking up of any attempt by the working class to move forward along an independent class path.

We think that in the present period it is necessary that we should understand the class lines of the Communist Party, the fake 'lefts' and the right-wing Labour government as part of a whole development. Of course, this development cannot continue -its present form Split When the working class moves forward into activity and action, the struggle will go on and the more stubbornly.. we fight, the more we shall split the centrists and Stalinists when this time comes.

It is not our purpose to wait until the centrists become a force in the Labour Party. It is our purpose to move in now with our organisation with its forces, discussing and struggling in the working-class movement under conditions where we can smash the centrists before they develop as a movement.

We must consistently expose people like Heffer, 'Tribune', the Pabloites, and the state capitalists.

The political life of the labour movement in this country is becoming crystal clear. It now depends entirely on the work and the struggle of the Socialist Labour League what will happen so far as the future of working class is concerned.

Mersey dockers had approached the Port of London liaison committee.

'Most of you have heard what the reaction of that committee was. They ignored our appeal and called another lobby June 22 , said Cavanagh.

Young Socialists had worked hard to raise money for coaches to bring them to London, he said.

QUICK LOBBY

'We came down here this morning-dockers, building, wor= kers, seamen, Young Socialists and so onto find one of the quickest lobbies ever being organised'—the Communist Party and right wing of the National Union of Seamen had decided to split the seamen from the dockers.

They offered them free food and laid on a special coach which cost f60 to make sure the seamen did not march in support of the lobby, said Cavanagh.

CROSS LINE

He claimed that the right wing of the seamen's union had agreed in principle with the last offer of the shipowners.

'This is not surprising when we see the way they have demoralised pickets by telling their own members to cross the picket line and strip hatches.' There was also an agreement with the Transport and General Workers' Union to discharge certain ships that came into the ports.

NO EXCUSE Some very young peopletrade yet even members of a union, have come a long way and paid their own fares because they have seen the seriousness of the situation facing the working class. There is no excuse tor people who are supposed to be in the leadership of the working class

bUSMEN REJECT INQUIRY Industrial Northern Ireland YS age Fo

Wilson has declared his politics in a book of his speeches in which he said: 'We have always rejected the revolutionary approach, equally we oppose the use of industrial action for political objectives.' The policy of Wilson is today clear for all to see and those who serve Wilson follow his policy.

One of the arguments put forward by our opponents is that the Young Socialists is an organisation outside the trade unions and as such has no right to intervene in trade union struggles.

We have carried out over the past year a serious attempt to turn our youth comrades towards the trade unions. As far as we can ascertain, in an organisation going around strike-breaking,' commented Cavanagh.

He also claimed that the fake 'lefts' in parliament were also preventing a struggle by saying that the seamen's official leaders should not be criticised.

A Sheffield shop steward also explained the role of Communist Party supporters in holding back the class struggle.

TWO LOBBIES 'On the January 26 lobby when correspondence was read out on our shop stewards' committee we were told we could not support it as it was only organised by "young Trots" to stab the Labour government in the back. This was from a Communist Party steward.

'For the Mareh 1 Jobby [called by organisations sympathetic to the Communist Party], we got the correspondence on the Thursday and the lobby was on the following Tuesday. But they supported it, because it was being organised by people they wanted.' REPORT BACK He had reported back to a meeting of clerical workers where he said that in all these movements there were people fighting against the anti-trade union legislation.

Because of the urgency of the situation he had promised his committee's support for both the May 25 and the June 22 lobbies.

'Our convenor, a CP member, did not know what to say and finally said he agreed. But he said we did not have much time to organise. The treasurer said we did not have the money to support both, so we should support the lobby on June 22?

LACK OF UNITY It was put to the vote and the convenor's amendment was carried by 1l votes to 7.

'But there are 20 members on the committee, 10 of them are CP members, and they could only get Il votes! One of their own members gave them roasting about their lack of unity, he said.

'A lot CP very short space of time.

There is opening up now the opportunity for real serious Marxist activity inside the trade unions and we must grasp this with ali hands. We must not think that work outside the factory gates is a substitute for penetration of trade union branches and factories and for giving leadership on the spot.

We have examples where our comrades have been able to do considerable work in their factories and industries. Because we had party members in a particular industry it has been possible to make important successes.

Whilst we do not accept the argument of being outside the trade unions, nevertheless we understand and recognise that we have to penetrate the trade becoming disillusioned. A lot of us have been in the CP and got out for various reasons. For them any lie will do to smash this YS lobby' WONDERFUL JOB He had agreed with the CP members on his committee that there was a time limit. They were waiting for five weeks time while the seamen could be defeated, while the Devlin Report was going . through, and while scabs could easily appear in the engineering industry.

'Nevertheless, in spite of the dirty tactics, and seeing the size done a wonderful job you have of the lobby, 1 think the audience. It gives some idea of what it could have been without these splitting tactics.' The collection taken by the chairman, Dave Ashby, raised a total of f93 17s. Od. and was greeted by tremendous applause. D. Davis (Newcastle East YS)

of several thousand members, everyone is a member of his or her trade union.

What nonsense it is to say that the Young Socialists have no right to intervene in the trade unions when one trade union after another accepts Committees of Enquiry composed of Judges as 'impartial' men-reactionary elements who are completely outside the movement.

The Transport and General Workers' Union accepted Judge Devlin. They attacked the YS as being outside the trade union movement while it's 'Yes judge, No judge, Here's what you want, judge.' The attack on the Young Socialists is hypocritical and groundless.

Active inside

At the same time we must make a serious approach to the problem of trade union work as our resolution attempts to do. Nobody at any time in our organisation has suggested that you can lead the trade unions from the outside, just by propaganda alone. We have got to be inside and active.

Trade union militancy and syndicalism must be distinguished from what we believe to be the duty of a Marxist trade unionist.

A Marxist goes to work for the purpose of Winning members to his party and influencing the unions along the line of its policies. The possibilities for real, serious work in the trade unions are considerable. must insist with all our comrades about this fact.

Things are very different from last year in the period when we first began to turn towards the trade unions. We then had to contend with conservative leaderships and shop stewards.

Now there is complete change in the situation.

Leader

One comrade today in a big factory, able to explain to workers the meaning of the political strike, the meaning of the anti-trade union legislation and the type of strikes which have to be led, can become a leader in a unions and industry and place our people in key positions. We must win over the best militants today and teach them to become Marxists.

We don't want a situation in the Socialist Labour League where we win trade unionists to our ranks and then go down on our hands and knees to idolise them.

The recruitment of trade unionists gives added responsibility to the party for educating them. We must not just leave them as trade unionists. If the Party does not try to teach them Marxism, they will not develop.

This cannot be done by an organisation of comrades who remain in a permanent state of theoretical backwardness. As long as members do not study the history of our movement and the international movement then they cannot help trade unionists.

How is it possible to train comrades today without thorough knowledge of the history of the working class.

They do not just want to know that the government is against them, they want to know how to fight, but they cannot be trained unless we have the necessary understanding ourselves.

Study Lenin A study of Lenin is therefore essential in order to teach workers why they need a revolutionary party that brings Marxist theory into the fatcories and into the trade unions and into all sections of industry.

We must reject completely any syndicalist or trade union only tendencies and insist on the need for an all-round Marxist education.

Our job is to arm ourselves with a knowledge of history, to think over • problems we are faced with and then to explain this history to see how it relates to present conditions.

For example, we cannot today describe the political strike in this country as the same as 1926, because the crisis of capitalism is much worse.

Our job is not a job of preachers, preaching theory in the abstract. If that is done, we will wall ourselves off from the working class. We must be able to connect up positively the struggles of today with the experiences which they are making. Therefore the development of theory is a living question.

Sensitivity

This requires a considerable education and a great sensitivity in the organisation towards education.

Are we going to take the road in Britain decisively towards the building of the party now, or are we going to be another propaganda sect, or another militant opportunist sect, or are we looking for a place in . a new centrist party? said: 'I want to say a few words in support of all those Young Socialists who stood outside the Houses of Parliament in the pouring rain and who didn't even get a look in.

"The Young Socialists who had to wait in the wet and rain, pushed and provoked by the police, are Young Socialists who worked day and night for a policy which they firmly believe can and will unite the working class at a time when enormous attacks are being mounted against it.

SACRIFICES

'Young. Socialists have been leafietting the docks, tactories and the seamen's picket lines seeking support for this policy. They have made considerable sacrifices to be able to come down on the lobby, some of them taking as much as 10 days off work at a stretch.

"They were kept outside in We must give the answer in this conference.

Everyone who waited on Tower Hill last Wednesday must have felt proud of the work of the Young Socialists who brought in coach after coach of young people and trade unionists to come on a vitally important demonstration.

How proud we feel of those adult workers who joined in, because this was not a demonstration of an ordinary kind. It was a bringing together of young and old workers.

The break of the Young Socialists from reformism and the stand they have taken to establish an independent revolutionary youth movement is a great conquest for the future of the Trotskyist movement in this country.

We see 'HE intensification of the class struggle in Britain under the Wilson government will inevitably continue under the impact of the worsening crisis of the British capitalist economy, beset by the historically inescapable problems of the decline of British capitalism as well as the general crisis of international capitalism.

International financecapital granted the British capitalists and the pound a breathing-space, in the shape of unprecedented loans, which now fall due.

These loans were given because of the importance of the pound to the stability of the international monetary system, and because of the central importance of any break in the class struggle in an advanced country like Britain.

The crisis of the British economy has • been partially concealed also by the continuing expansion in general order to demoralise them. But it was worthwhile on the eve of House of Commons the Emergency Powers to be lobbying MPs and we were able to show the role of all those who worked against this lobby.

FIGHT CONTINUES "Those who worked to isolate the youth also made a serious mistake. The Young Socialists have proved themselves to be a serious organisation. Only a serious organisation could have organised a lobby such as we have had today.' In closing the meeting the chairman said: 'We have made it absolutely clear that this fight is going to continue. When we get back we must have report back meetings everywhere we can. The National Committee of the Young Socialists intends to announce the next stage of this struggle shortly. tuture. We have in this country today, 1,000 comrades who are leaders in the Young Socialists. They have organised thousands of youth around them; and are the great force of the future.

This is a period of the mass party. We can build a mass party • because we know we can win large numbers of recruits. The task is to assimilate them politically and politically develop them.

Marxism's pull Last Wednesday showed that there is a definite current of people prepared to make the sacrifices that go into organising a demonstration.

Why do you think that these sacrifices are made? They come from the pull which Marxism has for youth. The youth are in RESOLUTION international trade, and by the turn in the terms of trade against primary products in favour of the advanced countries; the latter was one of the factors which slowed down the effects of the international liquidity crisis in the economies of the advanced countries. This particular crisis, a reflection of the basic contradiction between expansion of the productive forces and capitalist ownership and the national state, is no nearer solution.

Since November 1964 the Labour government has been the open agent of the international banks who have carried out this salvage operation. In foreign policy as well as economic policy at home, they have unswervingly obeyed the wishes of the banks. Above all they gained further relief in a critical period for the pound in October 1965, only on condition that they pressed ahead with state intervention against the trade unions.

The proposed legislation against trade unions was-intended as a guarantee to the banks that the long-term, fundamental obstacle to the capitalist transformation of moribund British industry, ie., organised working class, would be dealt with, and that the British Labour Party would follow the path of German social democracy at Bad Godesberg in 1959 in renouncing every shred of its past commitment to the working class and socialism.

THE BALANCE of payments crisis is just as serious as it was at the time of Wilson's election G Major General ront in Nigeria exploded into riots • ROWING discontent with the military regime of last week-end in which 66 people were killed and hundreds injured. The riots, in the Northern Region, followed the General's announcement that the country would be governed centrally instead of through regional governments. The main fear is that of the civil servants who their jobs.

But the demonstrations have included workers and peasants discontented with the military regime and its failure to solve the problems of unemployment, food shortages, rents, wages and conditions.

Also underlying the riots were reports of members of the Hausa tribe, which dominates the tribes in the Northern Region, attacking bos.

It was through these tribal differences and antagonisms that the British were able divide the masses to rule Nigeria.

In this present situation, after a military coup against a pro-imperialist Federal state, perialist agents are again attempting to weaken the workers and peasants, and the the forefront today, but they are hesitant and need strength, they need our political leadership. The youth is the great vehicle of the future to go into the factories to supply the trade unions with the political power and will to struggle, to show that it is possible to go out and challenge the government.

More and more as the older trade unionists get into action, so more and more they Will applaud the youth, that 1s why the whole campaign of the Stalinists and • the Labour Party is turned against the Young Socialists..

We have been able to keep the youth and win them away from the Labour Party, but we must not be complacent-our task is to build a party to take power. That is the kind of challenge which the Young Socialists applaud to power in 1964. No impression has been made on the importexport problem, symptomatic of Britain's historical crisis. While industrial production stagnates, making nonsense of the growth plans and 'incomes policy' put forward by Brown and the Labour government, the capitalists do not even have the advantage of a recession to discipline the workers.

Full employment has persisted and working-class strength has kept up an intolerable pressure on wages, particularly in the engineering and other manufacturing industries. The flimsy basis of controlled growth plus disciplined wages • increases handled by a co-operative trade union bureaucracy, Which lay behina Brown's 'Plan', has vanished without trace.

The immediate internal and external problems of the economy demand in fact deflation and restraint in expansion, a policy which can only exacerbate the long-term problems. The contradictions underlying the balance of payments crisis have thus become more severe.

THEREFORE, the Labour government is even more than before a government of crisis. This must be emphasised against the parliamentary illusions of those who regard a larger numerical majority in the House of Commons as a guarantee of the stability of Wilson's regime. Neither this, nor the 'integration' of the 'left' MPs will provide this stability.

The future of the Labour government will be decided by the interests of the imperialists whom this government serves, on the one hand, and by the sucNEWSLETTER REPORTER government, for a return to Federalism under civilian government.

The tribal differences, says a Nigerian correspondent, did not exist before the regionalisation ot Nigeria. But the situation has arisen where imperialists are able to use certain differences to the detriment of the masses.

Ibo_tribesmen, originally from the Eastern Region, accepted British education and became more enterprising. In business and civil servant circles they have a great influence throughout country because of their willingness to travel and adapt themselves.

The Hausas are traditionally Muslim. They resisted Englishtype schools and methods. Numerically they are a larger

cessful struggle of the working class in resisting it and building a new leadership, on the other.

The Wilson government will either do what the banks consider necessary against the workers, and consequently face the determined resistance of the working class, or else they • will fall, and the capitalists will try to proceed by other means.

These alternatives are not, of course, mutually exclusive: they express the objective tendencies in the situation.

IMMEDIATELY, the Labour government " proceeds to deflationary measures, the main purpose of which is to curb spending power and to create a measure of unemployment, particularly in the manufacturing industry.

At the same time they will press ahead in this parliament with the anti-trade union legislation, to provide a weapon to break the workers' resistance.

The economic position of the British capitalist economy is preparing an inevitable upsurge of struggle on economic problems such as wages, cost of living and housing and rents for very wide sections of the working class.

It is, therefore, urgent for the capitalist state to have weapons against the most organised workers in the early stages of this development.

THE STRUGGLE on legis lation against the unions, and the fight of a decisive section workers, dockers, against similar state intervention through the Devlin Report, are, however, already quite advanced, and the fundamental questions of alternative leadership have already come forward in action.

From the very start of the struggle against the legislation, it has been recognised by more and more adult workers that the initiative of the revolutionary youth is a necessary challenge to both the reformists and the Stalinists.

Just as the initiative of the Young Socialists and Socialist

Labour League on the legislation campaign began to strike roots in the trade union movement, the right turn of, the Communist Party accelerated with the General Election campaign and the change in the 'Daily Worker'.

Similarly on the docks: the Communist Party hesitated with policies of 'getting something out of Devlin' when militant dockers turned to fight against the Devlin Report and all that it involved in a fight against the Labour government.

Our campaigns are not just one spurt of activity after another, to 'show the flag' , but part of a strategy to unite the working class behind a new leadership through every struggle which can be broadened out to take up the main issues confronting the whole movement.

The struggle of the dockers against decasualisation of the type proposed by the Devlin Report is precisely such an issue. The Devlin recommendations represent an attempt to break trade union resistance to a full capitalist programme of monopolisation, speed-up, redundancy and 'mobility of labour', with the abolition all the practices established by the docker for his own protection.

This is the model of what the legislation prepares for all sections of workers.

In preparing to fight against the Devlin Report, the dockers have had to go through experiences which are indispensable to the whole class: union bureaucracy, 'White' and 'Blue' has sold out and must be defeated by a new leadership; nationalization with workers' control is the necessary alternative to monopolisation plus capitalist state discipline; finally, it is not possible to fight on this question without a perspective of a fight against the state and the government, a Labour government.

THIS IDENTITY between the issues facing the dockers and those facing the class as a whole is not just a general question for propaganda. It now becomes necessary and possible to combine in action the campaign against the legislation, representing all the gains made in uniting the revolutionary youth with the adult movement, with the resistance of the dockers to Devlin.

The dockers need the support of the movement as a whole to defeat the decasualisation proposals.

A massive campaign for support for the actions of the dockers can defeat the Devlin proposals and take us to a qualitatively higher level of class action and class consciousness against the legislation.

In this concrete way the inevitable breaking of the British working class from social democracy will be carried through as a conscious process in which a revolutionary leadership is built in the fighting of campaigns on the most decisive issues facing the workers in struggle.

THE TENACIOUS carrying through of campaigns of this kınd, against the opposition of reformists and Stalinists, is the test of our political leadership, and it must be accompanied by a determined struggle against sectarianism. Our fight against propaganda methods has prepared us for the present situation, which we have the responsibility of giving actual political leadership against the Labour government.

It is necessary to pay attention to the different, often contradictory phases of the growth class-consciousness of the working class. After the initial response to the January 26 lobby against trade union legislation, many adult workers fell back from further immediate action during the General Election period. It would have been a mistake to press ahead with another similar lobby, not taking this into account.

Initiatives must be taken by the party in such a way that they mobilise the advanced workers around the struggles of definite sections of the class who are moving into struggle.

Thus the most effective step forward in the legislation campaign after the YS Morecambe conference was to blend this campaign with the fundamentally linked problem of the dockers' resistance to the Devlin Report, the government and the trade union bureaucracy.

While many workers no doubt remain under the illusion that Wilson will be able to provide an alternative to the openly capitalist policies of the lories, many others express these illusions in a form which can be transformed very quickly, given correct policies on our part.

Their hesitation is a questioning of the possibility of a new leadership, pondering of whether the time has yet arrived to fully identify themselves with the revolutionary alternative.

'Our correct policies and campaigns are the only key to development from this position. There will be no automatic exposure of the social democrats, only a conscious exposure by a party which leads the class in action.

ONLY WHEN we start in this way from the building of the revolutionary party struggle can we grasp the full implications of the legislation brought by the Labour government against the trade unions.

This involves a historic change the relations between the capitalist state and the working class as a class in imperialist Britain. It undermines the fundamental basis for the 'stability' of British class relations, mediated primarily by the labour aristocracy and bureaucracy, working for concessions in bargaining with the state and employers.

The need to make this turn is the surest indicator of the depth of the crisis of British imperialism. There is no return possible to the old reformism and the old trade unionism, as Trotsky insisted in 1938.

As this system breaks up under the blows of the economic crisis and the measures of the Labour government, the alternative is posed: either capitalist state control of the working class, or revolutionary trade unions and a revolutionary party based on the Transitional Programme.

In the present economic position of the British employers, they are bound to provoke a

WALTHAM, LONDON upwards-for a month.

Confederation officials claim that by then the Council will recognise the strength of the tenants. By striking, the tenants will cost the council €5,000 a week.

In a letter to the tenants, Confederation officials explain that they have always pursued a policy of negotiation.

"This we intend to continue, but we feel that the time has come to demonstrate the unity and determination of tenants to resist the injustices of these increases.' By next year under the three-stage increase, some tenants will be paying more than £2 more than they were last year.

One mother, on one of the council's tower block estates, told reporters that she was paying f4 5s. a week where she lived previously.

Not paying *Now it's f4 Is. 6d. a week, including 10s. for a garage. And in July we're supposed to pay even more Was not going to pay the increase.

An elderly tenant in the same block said she was not going to pay the increase. Before she had been moved to the block she was paying 22s. 7d. a week. Her rent now stands at £3 14s. 5d. a week.

The council ordered the three-stage rise last year to cover maintenance and building costs.

Councils up and down the country face the same problems and, whether they are Labour or Tory-controlled, they all pass the buck on to the tenants.

Thousands made

They ignore the fact that big business and the bankers are making thousands of pounds profit out of land, building, building materials and the interest payments on loans to councils.

Young Socialists and Socialist Labour League members who have aided many rent struggles in the last few years continually pose the socialist policies of the nationalization of the businesses and banks as the only answer to the crippling rises being imposed on thousands whose standard of living is under attack on all fronts.

They have also maintained that any rent struggle is strengthened when linked with the struggle of workers in the factories against bad conditions and wage freezing, which the Labour government hopes to legalise with their proposed anti-trade union legislation. NEWSLETTER REPORTER • kers' Union has rejected the Prices and Incomes Board report on busmen's pay and conditions, more basic problems face the rank and file.

The Board's inquiry, which, said the union, had been an 'unwarranted interference' with the normal collective bargaining, gave its approval to a 6.6 per cent pay rise for 28,000 London busmen, but rejected a similar increase for 128,000 provincial busmen. The 6.6 per cent increase-amounting to about £1 a week-for London busmen with London Transport, and force on June 24.

But the Board says the provincial men should not get anything above the 3z per cent norm unless there are largescale concessions on manning.

Their argument for this attack on the busmen is that higher wages is not an answer to staff shortages. The most effective answer for this shortage is to make better use of existing stafi, says their report. - This is the real basis of the Board's inquiry-led by Hugh Clegg, the Oxford don now on the seaman's inquiry - and probably of the settlement in London.

Tough Conditions Concessions on single-manmethods of the buses are slowly being granted by union officials in return for wage rises.

But these concessions are undermining present conditions, which are tough enough anyway, where crews are forced to work overtime to keep a service running, where fewer buses pick up more and more passengers (following concessions on standing passengers), where drivers take the fares. All the presert strains and stresses will be doubled and trebled within a short period if a real fight is not taken up now.

It is in these conditions that the union must not simply reject government interference in negotiations, but must take a tough stand, uniting the provincial and London forces in demands for the nationalization of the industry under workers' control, linked up with an integrated and nationalized transport system — to include shipping. had been virtually agreed is expected to come into GLASGOW Solidarity meeting fails to call for world S tish trade unionist I EVERAL hundred : icotFi including the striking seamen, took part in a solidarity demonstration in Glasgow on Sunday.

Organised by the National Union of Seamen, the demonstration marched from the seamen's headquarters to the Cenotaph at George Square and then to Glasgow Green, where a meeting was held.

In sharp contrast to the determination of the rank-and-file seamen to win their demands was the hesitancy and complacency of their leaders and other union officials on. the platform.

Against bosses

Mr. Bill Marshall, an assistant general secretary of the Seaman's Union, repeated the general line that the strike was solely against the shipping bosses, and not against the state.

Stalinist seaman Gordon Norris emphasised, like Marshall, the potential support quicker than in Britain itself.

support from seamen and dockers in different parts of the world who had offered to black any British ship.

But he failed to call for this support immediately and also for the widening of support in Britain from dockers and other workers-action which would bring a victory much closer.

Other speakers were NIGERIA official of the Scottish National Union of Mineworkers, who donated £1,000 to the seamen's strike fund, and the secretary of the Glasgow Trades Council.

Although these speakers made it plain that the seamen were up against the government's incomes policy and were therefore striking a blow on behalf of all workers, they made no specific call for supporting action through strikes or further demonstrations on a mass scale.

The NUS has organised a similar demonstration in London this Sunday.

favour the Southern parties and big business. In fact, it is mostly in the south where the farmer politicians have been put on trial By a Newsletter correspondent Four hundred drivers at Northern Ireland carriers were paid of recently.

All of the province's coal is imported, and stocks will soon be exhausted. Dockers on the coal quay will then join their brothers from the CrossChannel ferries on the dole (the Dock Labour Scheme does not operate in Belfast).

Northern Ireland Young Socialists have been campaigning among the seamen.

At one recent meeting of 200 seamen and trade unionists they were not allowed to speak. Mr. Tom Boyd, a Northern Ireland Labour MP and Mr. William Blease, northern officer of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions expressed their sympathy with the seamen, but managed to avoid saying that they supported the strike Mr. Gerry Fitt, Republican Labour MP and an ex-seaman, spoke of his own experiences as a militant and gave wholehearted support.

DISAGREED

Young Socialist representatives asked the Belfast Strike Committee to support their call for a lobby of the Stor-

tribe than the Ibos, and had more say in Federal government affairs-Abubakar, prime minister before the coup, was, in fact, a . Hausa. Their feudal leaders now fear they will lose all power and their feudal interests.

When the coup was carried out, all civil servants throughout the country's five regions supported it, and there were no disputes over tribal domination in any sector. But on the same dallabel.

foreign-owned newspapers led the coup an Ibo uprising to struggle with the unions, and since the severity of the crisis necessitates state interyentionbe critical situation builds up tween the unions and the Labour government. As on the docks, this will immediately raise not only wages questions, but the issue of nationalization.

Either state assistance to the monopolies to impose speed-up and wage freeze, or a fight for working-class power, nationalization and socialism.

This will take the form in the first place of revival, at a qualitatively higher torm, of the nationalization issue in the Labour Party. The pressure on the Labour Cabinet for policies of nationalization of the basic industries will grow from the trade unions, and is a central element in our alternative policies for the crisis.

Attention must be paid to the possibility of those who fight inside the Labour Party in the coming period since many opposition elements will come forward.

As on the docks and in the struggle against the legislation, many rank-and-file militants from the Communist Party can be won revolutionary politics, but only on the basis of a principled combination of united front campaigns on class issues and ruthless opposition and exposure of the Stalinist leadership of Gollan, Dutt, Matthews and Co.

IN THIS PERIOD, when opposition to the capitalist state, and the defeat of the reformists by a revolutionary leadership, are thrust to the front of struggle of the class, the most essential question is the winning and training of new forces for the revolutionary party.

In Britain, as internationally.

the basis for this is more and more shown to lie in the working-class youth.

The Young Socialists as a definite political campaigning force, with independent policies on all the major issues confronting the class, 1s the key to our perspectives in the class struggles It is with this force that we bring together in action different sections of the class, and confront the reformists and Stalinists.

Time and again our campaigns have enabled us to take sections of workers through : the experience that the Stalinists are the main obstacles, conscious obstacles, to the building of an and placed in detention. in the Feudal chiefs and landlords north have not been touched.

It is these people that imperialism would prefer to rule the country and that, says our correspondent, is why there has been so much play on tribal differences.

But not even a military government will be able to wipe out these differences.

Only when the workers and poor farmers in the country take over the power and build socialism in the country will tribalism and imperialist strength in the country be crushed.

alternative leadership, in the apprentice struggle, the campaign legislation, rents struggles, etc.

In a period when the radicalisation of the working class will encourage propagandist tendencies in the revolutionary party, it becomes necessary specifically against a retreat from our perspectives on the building of a revolutionary youth movement.

The building of the YS as a mass revolutionary youth movement is the political question for the working class; it is the principal responsibility and task of the Socialist Labour League to build a genuinely mass revolutionary youth movement. constant struggle must be waged to study and develop this process of building the mass revolutionmovement, against those who lapse into a view the YS as a new propaganda milieu for our 'left' policies.

Such a lapse is, fact, rejection of all our fundamental perspectives, 110 matter how much it hides behind talk of "politicalisation' or 'consolidation of gains'.

It is a way of retreating to a view of the Trotskyist movement as just the most principled and extreme 'oppositional' group on the left. We have left that far behind, and we must build new forces for the revolutionary party in the fight to build the YS as a mass movement, against those who want to settle down to a propaganda and paternalist life in the established YS branches.

In the fight for these spectives, and to actively learn from the problems seeking new ways of building the mass movement, and the same time working for the closest guidance by the revolutionary party of the work of the youth in the trade unions and labour movement, we can take advantage of new conditions in which a real theoretical development can be made in the British movement.

This means in the first place an intensive campaign of education on the struggle of the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism,. and the history of the British labour movement.

These are the basic historical problems which must be tackled as part of the programme of defeating empiricism and opportunism in the British movement.

Only a theoretical struggle against these tendencies consciously undertaken at all levels in the SLL can adequately prepare comrades for the problems which will be raised in the coming struggles. mont (Northern Ireland parliament) on the. same day_as the Westminster lobby → May 25.

Strike committee members said they disagreed with the Young Socialists because they had been present when Prime Minister Harold Wilson had told the National Union of Seamen's executive that they had a just cause. They could not agree that their strike was against the Prices and Incomes policy.

This is not, however, the feeling of the rank and file.

Although very few pickets could be found along the docks, most of those with whom the Young Socialists discussed were disgusted with the Labour government.

Morale among the men is very high, but is often based on a dangerous illusion about the inevitability of success and support from other trade unions because of the State of Emergency.

The attitude of the Northern Ireland Communist Party was made clear by a leading Party member lobbied by Young Socialists at the Northern Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

NOT ALLOWED He said he could not move an emergency motion in support of the seamen, nor move the suspension of standing orders, because this was not allowed. He failed to mention that he was, in fact, chairman of the conference in the absence of the usual chairman.

In leaflets distributed by the Young Socialists they call for full solidarity with the seamen and support for their demands, the withdrawal of the anti-trade union legislation and the freezing of all food prices at the level of the first day of the strike (May 16).

In the case of small shopkeepers, traders and producers, they call for price reviews to be made by elected representatives of the trade unions, housewives and small traders, and . state aid for any small trader threatened with bankruptcy because of the eftects of the strike.

They also say that no worker should be held responsible for the strike, therefore there should be no redundancies. The books of firms should be opened and examined and there should be work-sharing without loss of pay.

Where there is no work possible, unemployment pay should be provided at an average weekly wage for the last year.

They also call for the nationalization of merchant shipping and the docks. Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, s.W.4 180a CaPon rest Lu iao Claphar High Street, Lomdon, S. W.4 Printed by Plough Press