PUBLIC | AGAINST THE DEVLIN REPORT AN

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.