The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 453

Vol. No. Where is Cousins going CoNs the days to betade that Met frank Cousin resignation from the Cabinet had proved a very damp squib. All the speculation about Cousins leading a revolt of socialists against the Wilson government died down almost before it met the air....

Cousins was provided with a 'left-wing' issue, the Prices and Incomes Bill, on which to resign. But it is a little late to protest, alter many months during which a struggle against the Bill was imperative. When Cousins said in his • letter of resignation that the Bill was introduced on the orders of international capitalism, he only repeated what Marxists had been saying for one and a half years about Wilson's policies.

But Cousins had been a member of that government almost since its formation. Even if it took him some time to make up his mind, why couldn't he, as a seaman asked in last week's Newsletter, resign during the seamen's strike, to strengthen the fight of these trade unionists against the incomes policy? We shall see why.

Cousins did not speak out against the government for its attack on the seamen. On the contrary he insisted that the seamen's enemies were the shipowners, and only the shipowners.

'Opposition'

Since his resignation, despite the great show of remaining an MP until the Prices and Incomes Bill has been opposed in Parliament, Cousins has in fact stated more explicitly the very severe limits of his so-called opposition. At meetings of T&GWU MPs and then of all TU MPs on Tuesday of this week, he said that he was opposed only to the second part of the Bill, with its inclusion of penalities for not notifying or failing to accept standstills on claims and settlements.

Cousins announced himself in favour of Government intervention to implement an incomes policy, but insisted that 'productivity' must be the basis of such intervention. He is simply for a more 'rational' and less 'dangerous' incomes policy than that of Wilson and Brown.

In essence then there is no difference. Cousins argues with Brown and Co. only about how to bring the state to the rescue of the employers and the trade union officialdom. If he is more sensitive to the opposition which the present Bill will arouse, it is only because of the critical struggles approaching in his own union. The Newsletter was alone in making this analysis last week, in the midst of all the shouting about Cousins' future as a leader of the left.

Diversion

Mr. Eric Heffer, the Tory press's favourite 'rebel' Labour MP, otten written up as one of the foremost opponents of the government's measure, announced in the same meeting as Cousins that he was not in favour of the Bill but he was in favour of an incomes policy.

These gentlemen try to pretend that the period we are in is one for a debate about 'a socialist incomes policy', knowing full well that in reality it is a period of political strikes which threaten the very life of social democracy and of the trade union bureaucracy. Their talk of a socialist incomes policy is a diversion from the struggle. 16, 1966 Price 6d.

¡by Cliff - Slaughter As we go to press the House of Commons is putting through the Second Reading of the Prices and Incomes Bill. The stages through which the Bill goes after that are usually regarded as only a formality. It is clearer now than at any earlier time that the anti-trade union legislation can be defeated only by the organised actions of the workers themselves. The government can impose its incomes policy only by deliberately standing out with the force of the state against workers in struggle for their wages, hours and conditions of work.

Political

The seamen's strike made inis piain for ali to see. After the seamen's strike, the struggle against the legislation is openly a political fight of workers against the employers and the Labour government, with the latter supported by the trade union bureaucracy.

Wilson made it plain that in opposing the seamen he was fighting for his capitalistinspired incomes policy. With that strike the working class entered into a period of political strikes. For such a period, a Marxist political leadership is required, a leadership prepared to lay the foundations of the struggle for workers' power.

Cousins will make his protest, but he will not and cannot lead such a struggle. On the contrary, he will very deliberately work, as General Secretary of the T&GWU, against it.

Cousins' case is that the right wing Labourites have gone too far to the right in serving the monopolists. He is not, however, for the real alternative: mobilisation of workers' action as a class, against the monopolists and the bureaucrats, in the realisation that in Solidarity with Vietnam Revolution Statement of the Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League THOUSANDS Viet- of namese men, women and children are being killed every day by U.S. bombers in raids on the cities of North Vietnam. 280,000 U.S. troops are fighting against the workers and peasants of Vietnam.

Johnson said in Omaha on June 30: 'There is only one who has been chosen to decide! He decides as always on behalf of those he serves, U.S. big business, to use the full force of U.S. arms to crush the resistance of the Viet'defending freedom' in Vietnam. namese people, with support.

In Britain, serving, the same interests, Wilson attacks working class. Imperialism's crisis forces these attacks everywhere.

The struggle for liberation in Vietnam is therefore a common struggle with the fight against Wilson's wage-freeze policies here and the anti-war movement in the USA.

Wilson's phoney, 'peace' trips to Moscow, and the talk about the Geneva agreements, are only a left cover for Johnson, to help him restrain opposition at home.

Every blow struck against the government's incomes policy is a blow for the people of Vietnam. BANK rate was increased $1,000m. of money in the consequences are curbs on designed to cut consumption ment.

"Saving the Pound', as Wilson set out to in this wholesale attack on the working class. on the Seamen's strike was a crude attempt workers for the crisis.

The June trade figures showed a deficit of £105m, largest ever recorded. This was why Callaghan the before said that Britain might achieve balance not year (as he boasted before the General Election) perhaps 'in the course of next year'.

These trade figures follow Callaghan's instruction to only a few days after the drop the banks is only a step to in gold reserves announced last make sure the tax has the week, and the consequent effect he originally wanted: to plunge in government stocks, produce unemployment and in now attecting the whole market in stocks and shares.

The inescapable crisis now faced by British capitalism will inevitably mean attacks on living standards through deflation. The only discussion in ruling class circles is about how to do it. Whether it is devaluation, as some are now advocating, or a big restriction on hire purchase and credit, it is intended that the working class shall pay.

Unemployment On Tuesday of this week Callaghan instructed the banks to refuse credit to meet firms' commitments under the payroll tax to be introduced next September. This can only mean, and it is intended to mean, that many firms will have to take immediate steps to reduce their labour force.

Every battle won by the Vietcong is a blow for the British and American working class.

When Wilson says to the Left —do you want peace, or a Vietcong victory, our answer must be clear.

The war is being escalated not, as Johnson maintains, to bring peace nearer, but to crush the workers and peasants of Vietnam and to teach a lesson to the workers of the world. Our answer is-Solidarity with the Vietnamese workers and peasants! For the victory of the National Liberation Front!

Parliamentary protests are only a sham. The test of socialists is to lead and mobilise the working class around these slogans. by THE EDITOR on Thursday of this week financial system has been spending, tax increases, and living standards, and the day this but way weaken tne organisaof those who stay in work.

Bankruptey

All Wilson's blustering in Washington is doomed to be very short-lived. Even it he and his Cabinet colleagues blame the seamen's strike, what can be concluded about their policies? They provoked the strike in order to implement the incomes policy. The incomes policy was to save the economy. The results are the June trade figures, according to Wilson's friends! No wonder leading capitalist organs in Britain and the USA alike are talking about a bankruptcy of policy on Wilson's part.

The roots of these contradictions in policy and public statements lie at the very heart of British capitalism. Those, like the Labour lefts and the Stalinists, who talk about cutting overseas military expenditure and restricting the export of capital as the solution are the victims of reformism, which betrays the workers by talk of solutions within capitalism.

It is not just this or that abuse or evil which causes the crisis, but all the accumulated problems of British and world imperialism. For this very reason only the most thoroughgoing revolutionary politics can meet the needs of the working class.

Hesitation

Already since the comin to power of the Labour gov rnment workers and t leir families have had to put up with an even worse rise in the cost of living than under the ALGERIA A SHORT NEWS item in leading French and British newspapers on Wednesday of this week announced that new courts have been set up in Algiers and other principal Algerian towns. These courts crisis level of rozen'. The inevitable HP restrictions —all to increase unemploydo on behalf of British capitalism, results Blaming the Balance of Payments deficit to get the middle classes to blame the Tories. This is one reason why some workers have hesitated to see if there is something in the claim that an incomes policy could control prices.

Trade union leadership of the old type is utterly unable to offer the working class a solution. As Trotsky pointed out 26 years ago, the trade unions will either become organs of revolutionary struggle by the workers or else become subordinate to the capitalist state. The coming unprecedented attacks on living standards will bring this lesson home to millions of workers who up to now have not gone farther than voting Labour in elections.

Nationalize

It is in this sense that the seamen's strike marked the beginning of a new stage in the industrial and political history of the British working class. • Make the employers pay for the crisis!

Nationalize the banks and basic industries, under workers' control!

Defend trade unions

state intervention! band the a Build Build the Socialist League!

this period we can get something from the capitalists only by preparing a struggle to take everything from them.

"In-between'

Cousins is working for an "in-between' solution, and this will confuse and divide those who are not clear about it from the start. When 190,000 provincial busmen and 60,000 dockers are forced to fight the government and its incomes policy in the immediate future, what will Cousins do? They are nearly all members of the T&GWU! If the T&GWU would not instruct its members to black all ships in support of the seamen, what will it do when its own members are involved in the same struggle?

Cousins resigned from the Cabinet not to fight the Labour servants of the monopolists in the Wilson government, but to NOTICE Next week's issue will be the last before our annual holidays. There will be no Newsletter for the weeks ending July 30 and August 6. After next week's Issue we shall appear again on August 13. POLICE arrested a Socialist Labour League member as she attempted to join a Communist Party march against the Vietnam war, Croydon, Surrey, magistrates were told on Monday. CP members had complained about her to the police.

Before the court was Mrs. Dorothy May Gibson, a 32-yearold housewife, charged with insulting behaviour which was likely to cause a breach of the peace and with obstructing Inspector David Mitchell in the execution of his duty.

She pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Following submissions after prosecution evidence the magistrates found her not guilty of insulting behaviour and adjourned the other case until August 15.

Three others, who had appeared in court on June : 27 charged with insulting behaviour following the same demonstration, had their case further adjourned until August 15.

They are 36-year-old sheet metal worker James Dawson McMullen, of Thomson Crescent, Waddon; Miss Patricia Margaret Leonard (19), a typist of Mersham Road, Thornton Heath; and Rex Anthony Henry (20), a student of Annsworthy Crescent, South Norwood.

By Newsletter All four were released on £10 bail.

Prosecuting counsel, Mr. Nigel Mylne, said the matter had occurred on June 25 at about 2.30 p.m., when some 50 members of the Croydon Borough Communist Party assembled in College Road, East Croydon, prior to marching on a prearranged route through the town to a meeting outside the Town Hall.

As they were forming up, police officers spoke to the organiser of the Communist Party march, Mr. Trevitt.

It appears clear that the lady charged is a political opponent of the Communists,' said Mr. Mylne. She and the pave meet people were on opposite at the time.

Then, added Mr. Mylne, the CP organiser told Insp. David Mitchell: "That other group are not part of our demonstration. We do not want them to take part as we do not agree with their extreme political views. They are only here to cause trouble.' If an officer has reasonable grounds to anticipate a breach of peace and is obstructed, then an offence is caused. The officer felt up timed the dent at his said Mr. Mylne.

Inspector Mitchell bad approached the group and spoken to Mrs. Gibson as its leader. She was carrying poster saying 'Victory to the Vietcong'. She said her group were supporters of the Socialist Labour League.

The Inspector told her what he had been told by the CP organiser, but she said she was determined to march.

'She was forcibly warned that if she did a breach of the peace might ensue, said Mr. Mylne.

He alleged that Mrs. Gibson then pushed past the Inspector and attempted to join the march, and was then arrested.

When arrested, he alleged, she said: 'What are you arresting me for? I know enough of the law. I've been about a bit.' In evidence, Inspector Mitchell said that when he approached Mrs. Gibson, she seemed surprised at what he told her because the procession had been publicly advertised by the Communist Party.

He said he had offered her the chance of having a march separate from the Communist Party procession and keeping well behind it, but she had declined this.

Just before the CP procession moved off, Mr. Sidney French, 'another organiser' had stood on page are especially to deal with 'economic crimes' and are endowed with the power to sentence offenders to death.

Here is yet another indication of the mounting crisis in the underdeveloped countries. The nationalist movements which gave even some 'Marxists' the impression that there was a middle road between imperialism and the socialist revolution are more and more going over to the direct repression of workers' movements in order to preserve their own relations with imperialism.

LABOUR LEAGUE

Page T

a box and announced to everyone that the police had told Mrs. Gibson and her group to keep off the march and advised stewards appointed by the Communist Party to see that this was carried out.

Inspector Mitchell then alleged that as the march was moving off Mrs. Gibson and some others rushed forward, and before the police could stop them, 'were mingling with the others'.

He warned Mrs. Gibson again and, as she made another attempt to join the demonstration, arrested her.

He produced a poster in court saying 'Labour Traitors Back US Imperialism' which, he alleged, she was carrying when arrested.

In cross-examination by Mr. B. Birnberg, defending, Inspector Mitchell said he had not seen either advertisements or leaflets about the demonstration prior to June 25, but accepted that they could have been distributed publicly.

INFORMED

The police had been informed about the march some days before, but had not been given advance warning that there might be others who were not wanted on the march.

Accepting that action for a breach of the peace should not be taken on the say-so of an organiser of a march, Inspector Mitchell disagreed with Mr. Birnberg's submission that he had " acted 'precipitously, prematurely and without reasonable cause'.

He agreed Mrs. Gibson had said she come on the

THROW OUT THE ANTI-TRADE LOBBY Parliament on July 20 Rally to a PUBLIC MEETING off 1 THE July/August issue of Keep Left, organ of the Young Socialists, is out this week, Its front-page story is 'YCL Exposed', a! reply by editor Aileen Jennings to an unprincipled attack on the Young Socialists in the current 'Challenge' by Barney Davis, secretary of the Young Communist League.

This reply presents a detailed account of the reactionary role of the YCL on Vietnam, in the apprentices strike of 1964, and in relation to the Labour government. The leading role of the Young Socialists on all the main political questions emerges clearly.

The middle pages contain a special feature on the thirtieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. This attractively presented interview with one of those who fought in the revolution is very important political material for the education of the YS movement.

On the front page is an appeal to Young Socialists to join the protest against the Vietnam war and against NATO, in Liege, Belgium, in October this year. Film and book reviews, letters, international news and reports of YS campaigns are featured in the other pages of this, the most attractively produced issue of Keep Left yet to appear.

UNION LEGISLATION from 6 p.m. onwards, then CAXTON HALL lictoria Street, S.W.1, 7.45 p.m. inutes from Houses of Parliament)

Speakers :

G. Healy, National Secretary, S.L.L. Healy, National Secretary, Reg Perry, Merseyside Chairman:

Banda, Editor, Newsletter Admission Is.

England was bound England was bound to lead to a stepping up lead to a stepping up of Protestant versus Catholic struggle. Its organisation in 1966 was a recipe religious for violence.

As the Royal procession turned into Sandy Row, it passed walls covered in red, white and blue slogans: 'God Bless the Queen', 'Kick the Pope, 'O'Neill Go Back to Rome', and 'God Bless Rev. Ian Paisley' were some of them.

This is a stronghold of the Paisleyites, followers of this extreme Protestant fanatic whc is building the nearest thing to a mass fascist movement in Western Europe.

Deep Already 1966 has seen three political-religious murders of Catholics. Belfast is a city in a deep social crisis.

Protestant Toryism has dominated Ulster since the Treaty of 1922 split Ireland in two.

British imperialism had long used religious division to set one section of the masses against another.

It was able to carve off the chief industrial centres of Ireland, Belfast and Londonderry, and organise them under permanent Tory majority.

Included in the newlyshaped Northern Ireland was a large group of Catholics.

In 1922, a state of siege was continued in the Falls Road district of Belfast, where the IRA held out for six months.

Belfast is a divided city, but it also has a powerful labour movement.

There is a higher percentage of trade unionists here than in any other area of the British Isles.

Tradition

Connolly and Larkin both worked to build up trade unions uniting all sections of workers.

Despite heavy unemployment, the shipyards and aircraft factories have continued this tradition.

But trade unionism has always been threatened by the priest and the parson.

Discrimination against Catholics in jobs and housing is widespread. In the 1930s, mercenaries were employed to break up united demonstrations against unemployment with religious provocation.

Organisations like the Orange Lodges and the Apprentice Boys of Derry kept alıve a crude patriotism based on Church and Throne. Last Tuesday, as always on the 'Glorious Iwelfth of July', saw blaring celebrations of the Seamen after the strike their strike are already beginning to feel the effects of the settlement.

The final agreement between the National Union of Seamen's Executive and the Employers Federation gave the seamen the 48-hour week now, and the promise of the 40hour week next year, but it replaced the present arrangement for 16 days annual paid holiday plus a day in lieu of every Sunday worked, with a guaranteed 48 days annual leave provided the seamen agreed to cooperate in 'more efficient working', and the withdrawal of the Sunday leave arrangements.

WAGE-CUT

The essence of this efficient working is that fewer seamen will do the work of others. This is being done by allowing the number of men on watch duty to be reduced at the whim of the master or officers.

But seamen are already finding that their weekly earnings can • be drastically reduced.

They claim that the handing over of the Sunday leave arrangements can mean a cut in wages over the year of £18 JOHN BULL'S POLITICAL SLUM VER The overture to the Queer's Ulster visit tomorrow has been END REVIEW July 10, 1966 gunfire, petrol bombs and an upsurge of religious bigotry.

This Sunday Times investigation plots the underlying sickness that will remain to be cured after the loyal cheers die away GOD SAVE KICK QUEEN - MAY SHE THE THE LONG The Rev, lan Palsley (far right) harangues a Protestant meting In an Dister village (contre) i the slogans on a Belfast wall (left chart the traditional loyaltiesand hatreds of Northern Ireland A match to the powder-keg?

Tomorrow at midnight the bonfires will start to burn in the Ulster back-streets. On Tuesday 100,000 Protestants march to celebrate the deteat of the Catholics over 270 years ago. political hot gospeller is whipping up anti-Catholic fury among the master race. Summing up the violent background to the Queen's visit last week COLIN McGLASHAN investigates the chances fir this 'sick, sick country' to escape from its past. Battle of the Boyne. There, in 1690, King Billy (King William of Orange) defeated the Catholic rebellion.

New forces But in 1966 new forces are at work. The deep economic problems of Ireland force the ruling classes of North and South • to come to some agreement.

In November, Prime Minister O'Neill invited Sean Lamass, Prime Minister of Eire, to come to Belfast.

Etonian Guards officer O'Neill demonstrated that the bigotry of the Orange Order to which he belongs is for the masses, not for the ruling class.

This was the chance for the Rev. Ian Paisley to step forward.

Self-appointed 'Moderator' of his own Free Presbyterian Church, this tub-thumping preacher denounced O'Neill as a stooge of the Vatican and a traitor to loyalist Protestantism.

His organised political group, the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee, and his paper, the 'Protestant Telegraph', rallied at least. Since hours worked over 48 are now classed as overtime, the officers are more reluctant to call seamen out to work over the 48 hours. So that whereas before the agreement, the ships' officers continually declared much overtime and weekend working as essential and had to pay little more for it, now they will fight shy of paying the extra overtime hours.

EXPLOSIVE

Under these conditions the frustration and bitterness amongst the seamen over the betrayal of the strike is likely to become explosive. But it must be remembered that owing to the powers of the Merchant Shipping Act it is difficult or impossible to fight these conditions in the way shore-based trade unionists would do.

Rule 225 of the Merchant Shipping Act (1894) lays down the following laws:

If a seaman lawfully engaged or an apprentice to the sea service commits any ef the following offences... he THE F POPE forces in the more backward country districts and brought them into the towns.

Here they met a big response especially in the slums of Belfast.

It is in some of the worst housing areas that Paisleyism is fiercest.

It now represents a major threat to the labour movement, as important as Catholic Action.

O'Neill has replied by denouncing Paisley and proscribing an organisation called the Ulster Volunteer Force. Now no-one knows just what this UVF really represents.

Untouched

Although the words 'Join UVF' are to be seen on the Belfast walls, the activities of this alleged organisation have never been specified.

However, Paisley's open Ulster Protestant Volunteers remains untouched by legal restriction.

O'Neill's gestures against Paisley must also be looked at in the light of the decision to send the Queen through Sandy Row.

shall be liable to be punished summarily as follows:

(a) If he quits the ship without leave after the arrival at her port of delivery, and before she is placed security, he shall be liable to forfeit out of his wages a sum not exceeding one month's pay:

(b) If he is guilty of wilful disobedience to any lawful command, he shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding four weeks, and also, at the discretion of the court, to forfeit out of his wages a sum not exceeding two days pay:

(c) If he is guilty of continued wilful disobedience to lawful commands or continued wilful neglect of duty, he shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve weeks, and also, at the discretion of the court, to forfeit for every twenty-four hours continuance of disobedience or neglect, either a sum not exceeding six days pay, or any expenses properly incurred in hiring a substitute:

This change was made as an undoubted concession, to the 'aisleyites.

Labour Party The Northern Ireland Labour Party, which avoids the issues of Irish partition like the plague, has called for further action by the government to stop Paisley.

But, however great a danger he may be to O'Neill, Paisley must be kept in store by the ruling class, for later use against the labour movement.

The Northern Ireland Labour Party is itself dominated by Protestantism. Its attack on the Young Socialists also showed its fear of an organisation which would unite both groups of workers.

The Communist Party holds many important positions in the trade unions. But its policies are even more to the right than those of its English co-thinkers.

far, it has hardly breathed a word about Paisley. Instead, its leaders try to keep an uncritical Irish nationalism for Catholic areas, while cash(d) If he assaults the master or any mate or certificated engineer of the ship, he shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve weeks:

(e) If he combines with any of the crew to disobey lawful commands, or to neglect duty, or to impede the navigation of the ship or the progress of the voyage, he shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve weeks?

URGENT NEED

As long as shipping remains in private hands these laws or similar ones will continue to exist. No reliance can be placed in the Pearson Inquiry set up by Wilson to examine the Merchant Shipping Acts.

Nor can the task be left in the hands of the Executive Committee of the National Union of Seamen, which in the end capitulated to the government. The fight for the 40-hour week, better wages and conditions, shop stewards on board ship, and the right to hold trade union discussions and meetings on ship, together with the fight to scrap the Merchant Shipping Acts, all require the building of a new leadership. This is the most urgent need of the seamen. BELFAST RAREL BON ing in on anti-Catholicism among Protestant workers.

Irish nationalism is also incapable of answering the problems of Ulster workers.

Only by building a Marxist movement, especially amongst young workers, can a real, united struggle take place against unemployment and for decent housing.

The workers of Eire have Workers' struggle mounts in Spain HE approaching thirtieth anniversary of the Spanish Civil War on July 19 has produced a spate of journalistic outpourings about the 'struggle for democracy', often by exsocialists and ex-communists looking nostalgically for a return to the days of the ill-fated but comfortable 'popular fronts' of the thirties.

But in Spain itself the content of the future struggles for liberation is being more clearly revealed, through the actions against the repressive state the workers themselves arainst machine, which functions above all to prevent the workers from organising independently in their own interests.

Throughout the last two years workers in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and many other towns have followed the example of the Asturian miners, risking imprisonment and worse in order to fight for their right to organise.

CONFLICTS

Informed observers now agree that these 'labour conflicts' are the central issue in modern Spain. It should not be concluded that this represents only an elementary stage of class-consciousness, trade union struggles without political content.

On the contrary, in the context of Fascist Spain, thirty years after the counter-revolution of Franco undertaken precisely for the purpose of breakA CUT ABOVE THE RES been involved in some important trade union struggles. The Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League must be built to unite them with the movement in Ulster.

Connolly understood that Ireland can only be freed by the action of the working class. The fight to defeat Paisleyism can become the beginning of a struggle to carry out that task.

Correspondent ing the working class as a class, the militancy and determination of these workers represents a mighty political force.

In literally hundreds of cases, workers are pressing for new wage agreements to meet rises in the cost of living. One firm in Madrid, manufacturing, refrigerators, pays_ its workers 700 pesetas (f4 5s) per week and even less. These workers are joining in the wave of strikes now sweeping Spain..

In Bilbao, workers at the Firestone Hispania Company plant are now in the second week of their strike for higher wages. After joint talks between management, workers and 'syndicate' (officially controlled union) the workers were offered a 6 per, cent wage increase backdated to last January, plus a 46-hour week. The fact that the men felt strong enough to reject this demand unless the management also agreed to negotiate a new collective agreement covering increases in the cost of living demonstrates the mood of the Spanish workers, their renewed confidence, and • their determination to share in the most advanced economic demands of the working class.

It should also be remembered that these struggles take place despite the context of impending trials of industrial and political prisoners. It is primarily against the working class and the youth that the Franco regime directs its repressions.

The latest of these cases should be met with protests from the workers' movement in all countries. On August 3, 1966, Jesus Gonzalez Quesada, Mariano Nuero, Antonio Nogues and Manuel Fernandez Montesinos, will appear in front of the Tribunal of Public Order in Madrid. Sentences will be passed at the same time against three workers who are abroad, Buiria, Pallach and Piquer.

PROTEST

Awaiting trial also is Arcadio Gonzalez Alonso, arrested in Ponferrada (Leon) for distributing ASO propaganda and calling the Asturias miners to a May Day demonstration. Among those protesting in Britain have been Bertrand Russell. As with his recent stand .. on Vietnam, Russell breaks with the sickening liberal 'appeals' to the butcher Franco to mend his ways, and simply states: 'Continued imprisonment of trade unionists in Madrid is an appalling injustice by a brutal government. I hope 'people the world over will support these brave men and demand their release immediately.

Only working-class solidarity actions can in fact put an end to the isolation of the Spanish working class, against which the Spanish workers themselves are fighting so hard. Inside Spain the best answer to the disgusting appeals of the liberals and Stalinists for "peaceful' and 'united' campaigns for the achievement of democracy without the revolutionary struggle of the working class, will be the building of a revolutionary Marxist party rooted in all sections of the working class and particularly among the militant youth.

visit to Belfast to the Queen of Queen THE SUNDAY TIMES JULX 3, 1966 IN pound THE determination shown by Wilson from the beginning of the seamen's strike was not due to any strength of character on his part. On the contrary, there are few politicians with a better record of ability to change their expressed convictions.

Wilson was clear from the start in this case that the whole economic policy of the government, i.e., its determination to make the workers pay for the crisis, on the orders of the international banks, was at stake.

These bankers, who have given unprecedented loans to the Labour government, understand very well that the crisis of Britain's economy is deadly serious and cannot be met with half measures. This week's alarm and despondency on the stock exchange is only the latest manifestation of this.

Important sections of capitalist opinion are now openly in favour of devaluing the pound as the only solution. They are thus prepared to risk the end of the international agreements monetary arrangements which they have hitherto thought necessary for general capitalist stability. They wonder if Britain can ever regain her capitalist strength without engaging in ruthless competition against all opponents.

The decline to an all-time low of gilt-edged stocks, and the almost complete absence of buyers on some days, are in fact a genuine indication of the 'stock' of the British government's economic prospects. The Times' on Monday said, 'The market needs something dramatic to stop the rot. But where is it coming from?' At very least a much higher Bank Rate is inevitable, and some 'experts' forecast it rocketing to 8 or even 9 per cent by the Autumn.

For the working class as a whole, this should be a warning. It is not a question of speculating about the forms of the economic crisis. Politics concentrated economics, Lenin once said. In Britain, the economic crisis necessitates all-out attacks on living standards, on the consuming power of workers as well as on the cost of their labour power. The political preparation for the struggles to which these attacks will give rise is the first responsibility of Marxists.

ly Three

the second biggest trade union of plantation workers, the Democratic Workers' Congress, led by Mr. Abdul Aziz, to come out on strike on a wage demand—a special living allowance of 17.50 rupees a month.

This wage increase in the form of a special living allowance was first won by the government workers through strike action in 1957. The other sections of the workers won this concession by similar action in early 1958. The plantation workers, who kept out of this series of strikes, failed to secure this wage increase.

Plantation workers are the worst paid section of the working class of Ceylon even though they are responsible for as much as half of the national income of the country. The last time their wages were increased was as far back as 1954.

They are paid on a daily basis, men receiving 2.37 rupees, women 2.16 rupees and children 1.75 rupees. In 1957 the wages board for the tea industry recommended an increase of their pay by 25 cents a day, but this recommendation was rejected by the Bandaranaike government which was in power.

The average wage of these plantation workers is 55.00 rupees a month as compared with 140.00 rupees of the urban industrial workers. As expected... No fight with Wilson's Tory policies for 21 months, these people are incapable of fighting back.

After dissociating from the US bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, Wilson's backing for US action in Vietnam is more vulnerable than ever before.

FUTILITY

But the 32 abstentions on July 7 gave no lead to Labour's rank and file whatsoever, except insofar as they exposed the futility of half-way house politics.

So closely have Michael Foot and John Mendelson followed behind their leader since 1964, that they were unable to emerge far enough even to abstain. IN the fight for socialism, The Newsletter is playing a vital role. Do you get it regularly? Don't leave it to the chance encounter, fill in this form and send it to: Subscription Department, The Newsletter, 186a High Street, London, S.W.4. 9s. Od. for 12 Name Address .... Ragala, Nuwara Eliya, Ingiriya and Matugama they came out on strike in support of the demand tor 17.50 rupees.

These developments compelled the LSSP (Reformist) and the Communist Party (Moscow) to change their attitude and join the strike. This decision of theirs cuts diametrically across their communalist politics, as a large bulk of the plantation workers are of Tamil origin.

Mr. Thondaman, the leader of the Ceylon Workers' Congress, the largest union of the plantation workers, has just returned from abroad. So far he has not endorsed or openly opposed the strike. But his henchmen have been used to intimidate and harass the strikers.

In Yatiyantota and Demmodera they were responsible for the beating up of the strikers who were performing sathyagraha.* Struggle At the same time the pressure of the strike on his union is also substantial. In a number of estates his members have been drawn into the struggle. His attitude will determine the fate of the strike to a large extent.

The issue has taken a different turn due to the enfranchisement of more than 100,000 plantation workers of Tamil origin, after their disenfranchisement in 1948. These 'new voters', who are spread out in all the plantation electorates, about a third of the total, are a deciding factor in the elections to these constituencies.

Therefore no political * Sathyagraha Sit. down demonstration. VENTARY DEBATE ON VIETNAM from the left' The question did not for Frank Cousins. He taken care to be 'paired the occasion.

TRAPPED

Mendelson was trapped by Stewart into saying that he did not advocate the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam before a peace settlement. Only then would he call for the removal of all foreign troops.

'I am glad to hear that,' said Stewart. "This is the hon. member's position, and it does not differ from the position of the United States government? No wonder the Tories laughed.

One of the few 'lefts' who spoke in the debate, Stan a subscriber to Clapham issues rise nad for BY SYDNEY WANASINGHE party having the perspective of power through parliament can afford to ignore their demand. They were mainly responsible for the victory of the governing coalition at the last general elections.

That is why the government has waited without taking action, perhaps waiting for Mr. Thondaman's return. The strike is so widespread that even if the government decided to use force, it could have adverse results.

Bonus claim

The workers have been out since June 13 and as pay day draws near they face problems. The Democratic Workers' Congress has been asked that they be paid the bonus which is due in June along with the pay for the 13 days they worked.

The workers have access to various funds, like those of religious organisations and support from the villagers with whom they are in contact, to tide over their difficulties. So far the morale of the workers is very high and they are ready for any sacrifice.

The loss suffered by the estates is very large. It is estimated that the country is losing approximately three million pounds of tea a month, l.e., a third of the total production.

As the increase in pay is only a fraction of the losses the employers are now undergoing, they may have second thoughts regarding sticking to their guns on the pay increase.

The Democratic Workers' Congress is a constitutent of the newly-formed United Committee of Ceylon Trade Unions, along with the Ceylon Mercantile Union, the Estate Staffs' Union and the Ceylon Bank Employees' Union.

Prins Rajasooriya, secretary of the UCCTU, Bala Tampoe of the Ceylon Mercantile Union, Edmund Samarakkody, Merril FerNewens, went out of his way to state that 'he respected the sincerity of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary'.

Wilson no longer even tries to hide his contempt for his 'left' critics.

At the parliamentary Labour Party meeting on July 6, he did not give them the slightest concession.

Instead, he taunted them with the Party Manifesto on which they had all been elected. This talked about 'working for a political settlement' in Vietnam.

He claimed that the government was doing just that, and that some of his critics 'seemed to be seeking the victory of the Vietcong'.

This is the nub of the tion.

NO THREAT The Labour lefts' cannot fight Wilson, precisely because, is he well knows, they do not egin with the class issues or work for the defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam.

As Wilson himself pointed out in parliament: 'You could not talk at the same time about peace in Vietnam and victory for the Vietcong'.

Since the 'lefts', strike nando, I. E. Pushparajan of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) have been very closely associated with A. Aziz of the Democratic Workers' Congress in extensive campaign of strike meetings since the 13th.

This is the biggest general strike in the history of this island. The loss In manhours and production output is of such proportions that it will seriously put out of gear the already crisis-ridden economy.

As tea is the biggest export and foreign exchange earner, the strike has already wiped out the effect of what ever 'foreign aid' the new government was able to get. This is also the first general strike of plantation workers.

Even the 1939-1940 strikes in the plantations, led by the Ceylon Indian Congress and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, were localised and were never of such magnitude.

Breakthrough Since then the plantation workers have kept out of the main stream of working class struggles. 'Their disenfranchisement in 1948 by the . D. S. Senanayake government was mainly responsible for this apathy.

This is also the first major attempt to break through the wage-freeze Policy initiated by the Sty government and thereafter maintained by the SLFP-led Coalition.

It is also the first battle of the working class against the United National Party-led Coalition.

Its outcome is awaited with interest by the rest of the working class, which, influenced by this struggle, will abandon politics of class collaboration and move over once again to politics of class struggle in the months to come. ardent admirers in the 'Morning Star , talk only in terms of negotiations, they represent no threat to Wilson's backing for the US war.

And so, gimmick by gimmick, Wilson's pro-imperialist actions can go unchallenged in parliament.

The fight to rally support in the working-class movement for the Vietnamese liberation struggle will grow stronger, but without help from Westminster. Thondaman

As the demand for increase of 17.s0 wage rupees was acceptable to all plantation workers, the attempts of the other unions to play down and sabotage the strike proved futile. Irrespective of union affiliations the workers were drawn into the struggle and the newly-formed union of Vellayan and the Federal Party-controlled union were the first to respond with token strike of 3 days in support of the Democratic Workers' Congress demand.

N. M. Perera, president of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Reformist)-controlled Lanka Estate Workers' Union, attempted to demoralise the strikers by declaring at a public meeting in Badulla, in the heart of the plantation area, that the strike is unlikely to be a success.

But what is left of his membership thought otherwise, and in Yatiyantota, THE PARLIA THE much-heralded revole of 'left' MPs on Vietnam turned out predictably to be a farce. Having compromised

Two pamphlets which contain the reports from Ceylon by the representatives of The Newsletter. G. Healy covers the dévelopments leading up to and including the formation of the Bandaranaike-LSSP coalition government and the subsequent split of the LSSP. M. Banda covers the period up to the downfall of the coalition. Together, these accounts constitute a searching analysis and a devastating exposé of revisionist politics as practised by that rump which calls itself the Unified Secretariar. Illustrated and packed full of documents-resolutions, conference CEYLON: The Great Betrayal by G. Healy. Price 1s. CEYLON: The Logic of Coalition Politics by M. Banda. decisions, statements and correspondence. The Great Betrayal by G. Healy. The Logic of Coalition Politics by Price 6d.

Obtainable from Clapham High Street, London,

ge Fo uly 16, 1966

Sing in Seattle on April 24 for expressing solidarity with the National Liberation Front " Party members attacked some of their ex-members in a public meet in Vietnam. This followed the resignations of the Seattle SWP branch and Young Socialist differences with the SWP and YSA over a period of years, particularly on civil rights questions.

A statement from the Seattle group says that 'a host of political hatchetmen from New York, California and Canada, dispatched at tremendous financial cost by the national office of the SWP and YSA failed miserably in their blitzkrieg attempts to disrupt and demoralise' the April 24 conference.

This conference had been called by socialist youth who were examining the possibility of forming a 'new independent revolutionary youth organisation'.

Nine people were sent to Seattle. They included Tom Leonard of the New York SWP, Kipp Dawson, California YSA, and John Britton of the YSA national office.

At the conference, the statement says, they attempted to throw the proceedings into chaos by heckling, demanding the floor, challenging every point of business and continually holding faction meetings openly in the middle of the conference.

'RIDICULOUS'

The main theme of their interruptions was that 'politics is bunk'. They said it was ridiculous to talk about Marxism and revolution and that the only task of radical youth was to stop the war in Vietnam.

Asher Harer, of San Francisco, an official representative of "The Militant', the SWP newspaper, attacked Larry Shumm, who has since resigned from the YSA.

Shumm was on a five-man panel speaking on political action in the anti-war movement.

Harer criticised the support for the National Liberation Front and added: 'Shumm is telling the mothers of American GIs dying in Vietnam that their sons should be driven into the sea and drowned'.

Harer announced the split between the Seattle branch and the SWP. He said that the north-west anti-war movement was bad and doomed to failure if it did not follow SWP policy of keeping politics and talk of socialism - which amounted to scabbery in the middle of a strike-out of the movement.

The conference listened to the SWP and YSA delegates, discussed what they had to say then invited them to leave if they opposed the purpose of the conference. They left.

"CRIME'

The SWP-YSA delegates had insisted that people interested in politics could join the YSA, but no other organisation.

The Seattle statement comments: "The "crime" of the local revolutionary youth was that they were setting up a genuinely independent and autonomous organisation based upon a clear revolutionary programme.

'RUTHLESS'

The invading delegates have completely alienated themselves from this revolutionary youth. This attitude has been hardened by the fact that the SWP and YSA are maintaining a group of people in Seattle whose approach and tactics, says the statement: 'are those of any ruthless trade union machine intent on obliterating an opposition. They are undertaking a political scorched earth policy and their methods have inevitably boomeranged against them'.

• of 'the British Communist Party last weekend was th issuing of a letter to the Prime Minister, asking him to receive a deputation from the Party to give its views on his statement about Communist interference in the seamen's strike.

Quite apart from the fatuousness of their request to Wilson —imagine Lenin requesting an interview with Kerensky in July 1917 to discuss the latter's slanders about the Bolsheviks!-the statement issued by the Party repeats the dangerous and confusing nonsense about the strike being nurelv an economic dispute with the shipowners.

Thus the CP organ, 'Morning Star', wrote on Monday, reporting the Executive's statement: The PM wilfully misrepresented the character of the strike, describing it as being directed against the State and the community.

'He did this although he knew perfectly well that this was a dispute with the shipowners in which the union was concerned to raise the living standards of its members to the level of comparable workers elsewhere' Opportunists Even though the statement goes on to condemn government interference in trade unions, it in fact repeats and restates the basic treachery of the opportunist trade union leaders in the strike, social democratic and Stalinist alike.

The fact is we have long ago entered a period where the "legitimate' demands of workers cannot be won without the struggle being carried forward against the governIndustrial Correspondent ment and the state.

A revolutionary leadership recognises this and tries to bring it home to workers in the course of struggle. By simply denouncing Wilson's slanders, the Stalinists encourage the persistence of the illusion that the state represents some 'national interest' and ought not to be struck against by the working class.

Diversion

Consequently the solution put foward in the Communist Party's statement is one which diverts militant workers from the main lessons of the strike and the tasks which flow from it. The Party, according to this statement, 'believes that the trade union movement needs a more progressive policy and leadership to confront the problems and conflicts in monopoly capitalist society.

What is this supposed to mean? It in fact encourages the same kind of illusion that Cousins hopes to build on— namely that there is a progressive' trade unionism which can answer the more complicated problems which are making it difficult for the older type.

There is no such in-between course. Monopoly capitalism presses inexorably for the integration of the unions into the state, and against this the responsibility of Marxists is to Continued

issued a manifesto which said: Thirteen years of Tory rule has brought near ruin to the mining industry and insecurity and distress to many mining communities'. Yet last week at the NUM Conference, Sidney Ford, the President of the Union, had to say that miners throughout the industry still feel insecure and frustrated.

While the Union rightly declared in its 1964 manifesto that Tory policy provided 'cheap coal to private industry and crippling financial burdens for the coal industry', we now have to say that the Labour government has continued these Tory policies against the miners.

One of the grounds on which the NUM urged miners to vote Labour was that the Tories wanted to abandon the annual production target of 200 million tons and reduce it to 180 million tons.

Yet the Labour government's National Fuel Plan reduces the target to 170 million tons and calls for the closure of 150 pits by 1970. The NUM pointed out in 1964 that the return of a Tory government would mean 'increased pit closures, social dislocation and unemployment. There is no doubt that the Tories had to be defeated. But Wilson, Brown and Co. will also have to be defeated, for sany policies in relation to the they are pursuing exactly the miners.

Hardship

Many miners will suffer hardship as a result of pit closures, nor will they all receive compensation under the Redundancy Payments Act, as many people think. A letter from the NCB to the NUM in April made this clear. Men affected by closures will be offered a local job or a transfer to another coalfield. The NCB letter declares :

The original instructions Paynter: 'NEC will step in' The NCB and the NUM have reached an agreement over Bevercotes in which some men will be as low as £l5, while a few will get up to £25 10s.

But this pit will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Men will work shifts covering seven days a week. As the Notts NUM President, Len Clark, pointed out, this new agreement will involve men working weekends yet getting only a few shillings extra. The Bevercotes men have thrown out this agreement. Yet Will Paynter, 'Communist' NUM

were for the letter to terminate "if you do not do so (i.e., accept the offers) your employment will terminate on account redundancy". The words "on account of redundancy" are now to be omitted as they may cause men to assume (wrongly) that they will get a redundancy compensation under the Act, even where they unreasonably reject an offer of suitable alternative employment?

Three main tasks face the miners.

1. Defence of conditions in the face of closures and rapid mechanisation.

2. A decent wage scale.

3. Defence against the attacks of the government's Prices and Incomes Bill.

How did these fare at the NUM Conference?

The pattern for the future is seen at Bevercotes Colliery, Nottinghamshire. This pit, the most technically advanced in the world, has cost to million. As "The Times' put it on July 6, 'Both the NUM and the Coal Board want to use it as an experimental ground for new working arrangements' COURT CASE AFTER MARCH TANU Parliamentary ›lobby on june z no mor has been heard on the Clyde of the Communist Party's 'campaign' against the anti-trade union legislation. The West of Scotland co-ordinating committee which organised a number of delegates on June 22 has suspended its activities.

Sam Barr, a convenor of the committee, said that the object of the June 22 lobby was to persuade the Labour government that it was in its best interest to withdraw the anti-trade union legislation.

The bankruptcy of this policy has now been clearly shown by Wilson's action in breaking the seamen's strike and by the publication of the Prices and Incomes Bill.

demonstration on Vietnam and had not come to cause trouble.

He also agreed with Mr. Birnberg that Mr. French had come ictory to the Verong sed and pointed said: 'You can see that they're not with" us. This is not our policy', and later: You can see what these Trotskyists are going to do: if we don't allow them on the march it will be stopped.' ARRESTED He disagreed that as the march moved forward French, Trevitt and other stewards from the march attempted to isolate Mrs. Gibson and her group from the march, and that stewards had forced the group back. I think before the march something like that happened,' he added.

He arrested Mrs. Gibson as her group again attempted to join the march.

Sgt. Frederick Revenhill said he was present at the march on June 25, and when Inspector Mitchell told Mrs. Gibson the feeling of the CP organisers. She said she had a leaflet about the demonstration and intended to join in.

After being warned, she had rushed forward to join the demonstration. She was told her action was an extreme provocation and attempted to push past the inspector. She was then arrested.

At that stage the chairman, Mr. B. Stills, intervened to ask if a public meeting was called was there anything to stop anyone else attending.

He was told by Mr. Mylne that if the police felt that there might be a breach of the peace, it was Since the beginning of the year the role of the CP has been to prevent a mass mobilisation of workers on the Clyde to fight the anti-trade union law.

Leading CP members have lined up with the right-wing on the Glasgow Trades Council to block any moves for strike action whilst allowing pious resolutions of protest to go through.

Stunt

In one factory where Young Socialists obtained a unanimous vote to participate in the lobby of parliament on January 26, the convenor prevented appointment of delegates.

Word went throughout the Clyde from CP head office that there could be no support for up to them to take action.

Submitting that there were no cases to answer, Mr. Birnberg said:

I accept that there is a duty on the police to decide whether a breach of the peace is likely to occur. Therefore it is obviously a difficult decision to make. The question that really arises is whether they are acting reasonably in forming that view. That is the important issue.' He submitted that the prosecution's case was that Inspector Mitchell had formed this view largely on what the organisers of had accepted their say so. and he That their participation in the narch would have caused : breach of the peace there was no evidence. No one's tempers had risen; there had been no threats by either party.

Mr. Mylne said that stewards had been appointed, and, on the evidence of the inspector, had been used at one stage to push back the demonstrators.

He also claimed that the views expressed by Mrs. Gibson and her group were insulting to the other marchers.

Like 'anti-semitics' they were insulting to another part of the community. 'Here the Communists were insulted by an extreme group who do not agree with their policies' Mr. Birnberg_submitted_that members of the Communist Party demonstration were shouting the same slogans as Mrs. Gibson and her friends.

'Had it been a right wing or fascist group forcing itself on this march, it would have been an entirely different matter,' he said. 25.

In other words as far as the CP was concerned the June 22 lobby was a stunt.

The Young Socialists. have called for a mass demonstration on Wednesday, July 20, and meetings are being conducted to explain the urgent need for action to prevent the passage of the Prices and Incomes Bill.

At the Fairfield's Shipyard the Young Socialist speaker attacked the idea that the Fairfield plan could solve the workers' problems. This plan traded the giving up of trade union practices for an hourly increase of Is Id. At the same time the separate organisation of workers to fight the management would be virtually liquidated and in its place would be trade union collaboration to ensure quality and productivity improvements.

This was a very dangerous situation for the shipyard workers, and one for which the CP shares a large portion of the blame. By such schemes as the Emerson and Fairfield plans, in which shop stewards collaborated in introducing work study and productivity drives, the employers were able to tighten up factory discipline, weed out the militants, abolish all hindrances to periodic redundancies and speed up production.

Force

What the CP and other 'lefts' have said in effect is 'why introduce an anti-union law when we will faithfully collaborate with the government and the employers in running the factories, shipyards and pits?' But the Wilson government knows that if it is to check wage increases then it cannot rely solely on its supporters in the trade unions and factories.

The sterner measures of the Prices and Incomes Bill are to be applied and these will use the full force of the state to smash workers' struggles. The Labour government's attack on the striking seamen was a clear proof of this.

The answer to Wilson's measures must be the building of an alternative leadership in the trade unions. An end to the collaboration with managements and the flexibility schemes which only weaken the working class.

Workers should join with the Young Socialists to fight along these lines and demonstrate against the anti-trade union laws on July 20.

General Secretary, told them at the Conference that if they did not accept it, the National Executive would step in and force them to take it. No fight There is also trouble over the recently concluded Power Loading Agreement. This will mean 130,000 men on mechanical faces being transferred from piece rates to time rates. There have already been many complaints that managements are basing these rates on false figures of average earnings. It is clear that without a vigorous fight mechanisation will result in lower standards for many miners. This fight is not forthcoming from Paynter and the National Executive.

Nor is the leadership fighting over wages. Despite the recent pay award, the minimum wage for a surface man is still only f12 5s a week, while a day-wage man underground can get as little as £l3 5s. The conference passed a resolution calling for a 'substantial' increase for day-wage men, but ıt ıs unlikely that the National Executive will even submit this claim before the end of the year. The leadership has not shown any fight over wages. Newsletter Correspondent the YS-sponsored lobby of During a time of fuel scarcity they failed to push up the wages of miners sufficiently. This year a decision to hold a ban on overtime in support of the last wage claim was not carried out.

The best step at the Conference was the vote against the principle of legislation to enforce the government's Prices and Incomes Bill. The right wing were defeated by 243,000 votes to 241,000. Yet it would be wrong to go overboard on this victory. The speech of Sidney Ford showed that the right wing were very determined to support the use of legislation against the workers, and even now they insist that the union is not opposed to the Prices and Incomes Bill as such.

Sets stage

This vote is not the end of the battle but sets the stage for a fight against the right wing in the unions. Without such a fight throughout the Labour movement, Wilson will introduce laws against the unions.

There will be no security of job or wages for miners withbureaucracy in the trade unions. bureaucracy in une wade umons The Communist Party, which the YS-sponsored lobby of has held powerful positions in

build a revolutionary leadership in the unions, opposed to bureaucracy, fighting against state intervention and for union democracy.

Precisely at the point where revolutionary leadership is required to bring the workers the consciousness that we have entered a period of political strikes requiring revolutionary preparation, the Stalinists lay the main emphasis on the 'nonpolitical' character: of the strike.

In France the Stalinists play the same role, dividing the polltical life of the Communist Party from the industrial struggles of the workers. This leaves them free to play the game of the Soviet bureaucracy in restraining the workers from a struggle against the Gaullist regime, and at the same time preserve their relations with the trade union bureaucracy. The British Party is treading the same path. Industrial

A East Region Young Socialists was held in New- N emergency Regional Conference of the Northcastle last Sunday to carry forward the campaign against the proposed legislation against trade unions. Sixty Young Socialists attended and the Conference was addressed by National Committee member Jean Annan and Joe Dodsworth, well-known seamen's leader from Sunderland.

Jean Annan warned that Wilson's attack on the seamen was a warning to the whole working class. Wilson would be forced to go further because of the sharp crisis of imperialism.

She warned against falling in behind Cousins, and asked why he had remained in the Cabinet for 18 months if he was interested in a socialist outcome for the big class struggles ahead. She also exposed the role of the Communist Party in the strike.

She called upon all YS members to work inside their trade unions for socialist policies of nationalization, and called for a mass mobilisation of youth to demonstrate at the Labour Party Conference on October 2.

Mr. Joe Dodsworth, chairman of the Sunderland Branch of the National Union of Seamen, said that this was the first time he had attended a Young Socialist meeting, '... And I am proud to associate with you' he continued. I understand now why the . upper-ups and Wilson are afraid of meetings of the YS, no matter where they are held.' "The Bill will go through, but you must demonstrate against it' he said. He pointed out that the seamen's fight was not over, and quoted take-home pay of f7 for four days, f9 for five days, under the new agreeNewsletter Reporter ment. The last figure included 27s 6d overtime.

'If this meeting is an example of what is coming up in the working class,' he said, 'then we have nothing to fear and they have everything to afraid of COUSINS page pay urgent attention to the situation in his own • trade union. These T&GWU trade union officials are frightened by the prospect of a showdown between the classes. They want to channel the power of their members, hundreds of thousands of whom take home wages of less than f12 per week, into entle pressure through constiutional machinery, whereas, what is above all necessary is a new, revolutionary leadership.

Division of labour

Inside the T&GWU, workers in struggle will find it necessary to fight determinedly for workers' democracy in that Union, against the large number of local, district and national officials of the Union who play the role of holding back and dividing the workers in their struggles.

Militant workers must understand the resignation of Cousins for what it is: the latest

the NUM since the war, has shown that it will not fight the right wing. The NUM Conference underlines the miners' need for a new political leadership.

CP statement For the Normathon netin)

For ine Normanton torks) Council on Tuesday, July 5, an impromptu meeting of tenants took place outside the Town Hall. Mr. T. Brown, acting secretary of the newly formed tenants' association, told about 70 tenants that the deputation had been admitted but were not allowed to say anything.

Mr. Brown went on to say that there would be a mass meeting of tenants where the forms asking the details of income of tenants would be torn up in front of the councillors.

RESOLUTION

Three thousand are expected to be at the mass meeting. As one housewife said: "there will be a few puddings burnt on Sunday': At a committee meeting on Sunday, July 10, the final plans were made for the mass meeting. A resolution will be to the meeting covering the lowing points.

Full support to the committee in its work so far.

Complete opposition to the 'means test' forms.

Pointing out that the tenants are not responsible for any wastage of money by the council and demanding that any extra money needed should be taken from the interest payments paid to the banks, and not out of the pockets of the tenants.

To go to the Town Hall in strength in Tuesday, July 19, and give support to the deputation that will be meeting the council.

Unity for the tenants is growing, local trade union branches are being approached for resolutions of support.

The local Labour Party, who will be having a meeting on the same day as the tenants, is being approached to pass a resolution of support for the tenants. All letters of support are to be read out at the meeting. The Normanton branch of the Young Socialists is fighting on the tenants' issues in this campaign by canvassing, making posters and demonstrating with the tenants. Many tenants are making their own banners.

DEMONSTRATION

Among the speakers on the platform on July 17 will be Dave Ashby, National Chairman of the Young Socialists; Norman Harding, Crossgates Tenants' Secretary; and Mr. Appleyard of the Normanton Tenants. Mr. 1. Brown (Normanton Tenants) will chair the meeting.

After the vote a demonstration will be held round Normanton with banners and posters. Tenants are saying in discussion that the councillors aren't Socialists and should remember that 'we put them there and we'll throw them off'. "There will be new faces in the Town Hall.' 'Why should we tell them our earnings; we have to work to subsidise our husbands,' say housewives.

One tenant said that the trouble is that anyone can join the Labour Party: anyone wishing to be a councillor joins the Labour Party, because 'anyone standing as a Tory doesn't stand a cat in hell's chance of getting in. What we want is some real socialists on the council.' THE MEETING IS ON SUNDAY MORNING, 1l a.m. ASSEMBLE 10.30, JULY 17, ON THE NORMAN HOTEL FIELD.

stage in a division of labour between those who take responsibility in the Cabinet for the direct assault on the working class, and those who, like Cousins, fear that the resistance of the working class to these measures will go beyond respectable' trade union and social-democratic channels.

In this respect the determined resistance of the seamen gave a fright to all trade union bureaucrats. If an established right-wing union like the NUS could be thrust into such a position, what lay in the future for other unions? Behind the 'left' talk of Cousins is this instinctive response of the trade union bureaucracy, adapted to the way of life of the middle class, fearing the decisive victory of either the working class or the capitalists, but impelled to always in the end hold back the struggle of the advanced workers to build an independent revolutionary leadership. Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter, S.W.4 180 Claban Han Sire, London. 3. 004