The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 464

subscribed AS THE DELEGATES assembled for the session of the Labour Party conference on October 5, their minds were fixed, no doubt, on the economic problems conference was about to discuss. They were to hear against the working class.

Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan and Labour Minister Ray Gunter explain how necessary it was to freeze wages and cause unemployment to rise.

Át the very. moment that they took their seats the London Stock Exchange opened its doors.

tremendous flurry of activity ensued. For this was the day on which dealings began in Industries Imperial Chemical class.

per cent unsecured loan • stock. It then became possible to sell those much sought-after pieces of paper which showed ownership of this issue.

Within minutes the price of £10 worth had risen to over £16. There it has stayed, almost continuously, ever serve capitalism. since.

Applications seeking a 'new audience'.

Over the previous weeks, ICI shareholders and others had sent in their applications to the underwriters, J. Henry Schroder Wagg and Company.

ICI had announced that needed to borrow £60 million to compensate for a fall in ideological crisis. profits.

Over £2,176 million had been offered-36 times the amount required. of 'debate'.

Four hundred and forty thousand applications were colonial treceived, 241,000 from ICI stockholders. The latter got preferential treatment, being allotted amounts depending on how much they had asked for.

For example, the General and Municipal Workers' Union wanted f1 million worth. All they got was £15,000. Anyone who asked for £1,000 would have been sent f150. week, will be a political preparaThis was the importance of the struggles of the SLL since 1964. The fight for working-class policies was based on the defeat of the right-wing social democrats by the youth who had been in the Labour Party since 1960 and who were expelled in 1964.

"Events in the youth movement were an indication of what would follow in the adult movement,' said comrade Healy.

He outlined the campaigns of the League since 1964, in particular the fight against the anti-union laws now contained in the Prices and Incomes Act. The organisation had been the first to take up this fight and had made a qualitative development during the period of the campaign.

Some people, including Communist Party, had said laws would not be enacted. 'But they Labour government) have much more firmly because of the crisis,' he said.

Those people who said it would not happen do not begin from a class point of view, only from illusions,' he added.

Now there was no other organisation but the Socialist Labour League prepared for the coming struggles.

If the "left' did begin a fight against the government, because they were being pushed by the working class, this would chailenge the whole reformist paraphernalia'. It was reformism or revolution.

But the political bankruptcy of people had been revealed by Richard Clements' pessimism in the recent issue of "Tribune'. He had said (in effect) that the labour movement didn't where it was going and neither did anyone else.

"This confusion and candy-floss reformism is all leading to the break-up of social democracy, said comrade Healy.

development now was the training of youth to enter the trade unions and work in relation to adult workers.

It was even more urgent now, therefore, for a mid-week issue The Newsletter take up specific union issues and to deal politically with the emergence of purely syndicalist action.

Past experiences had shown the political power of the youth-the October 2 Brighton demonstration had been on a far higher political level than previous demonstrations.

This tied in a thousand ways with the action of the youth on European scale and the intervention at Liege and placed an internationalist emphasis on all that the SLL and YS had worked for. It would strengthen the Fourth International now represented by the International Committee.

This was the keynote of all the SLL's work in Britain and internationally in working towards the English revolution. • ICI

(ahallue fittestthe consciousness of the working class.

class in the process. lutionary party. the United States'. was in its early days.

part of November. polies.

This discussion, which begins in the organisation in the next tion for the strengthening of the League's programme of developFRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, is 'black Friday' for ing a mass revolutionary party to lead the working class to power, thousands of motor car workers. On that day they forging links with and strengthening international working will draw their last week's wages and whatever A major step in intervening redundancy pay they are entitled to and then its off with and for the workto the Labour Exchange, that capitalist scrapheap ing class in the immediate struggles against the betrayals of the re- of human misery. formist leaders of the labour movement will The vast majority of those who become unemployed will be the production of a mid-week issue of The have no jobs to go to. Ministry of Labour officials who have been visiting the large motor plants have had little or nothing to Newsletter, as a move towards the daily newspaper. offer; a few jobs in engineering miles away at much less wages, Introducing his report, which vacancies for deep-sea fishermen, and one or two jobs on the will form the basis of pre-conNorth Sea oil rigs. There are simply no jobs in any way comference discussion and the main parable to motors, either in Luton or Oxford. conference document, the League's national secretary Gerry Healy, The word 'redeployment' is rapidly becoming recognised said: 'We must be prepared i as the language of right-wing Labour scoundrels, whose main Britain for a vastly different situobject is to join hands with the employers and ation in terms of class conflict Which will produce a change in sack workers. the trade union movement and Let's cut out the phrasemongering about altergreat possibilities for the revonative jobs. Millions voted Labour, because they believed it would stand by the working class against their enemy, the Tory employers. But that illusion This estimation was based prihas been rudely shattered. The Wilson leadership marily on the growing crisis of now stands four-square in defence of profits against imperialism. A fresh economic analysis was now urgent because the working class who elected it. Behind Wilson is the ultra-right-wing clique of this was aflecting events on the trade union leaders, led by such people as Lord political field as never before. Cooper of the Municipal and General Workers' The recent meeting of the InUnion. In the background are the 'lefts' who even ternational Monetary Fund had now are hoping that nothing is going to happen. decided nothing, only 'laid, bare Their job is to sow illusions and confusion in order the old wounds between the capitalist powers and the crisis to disarm the working class, precisely at a time when of the dominant capitalist power they most need decisive leadership.

The dollar could not be No alternative but fight strengthened in the next two years he said, and the 1966-1967 balance of payments would be in If the Labour government operates Tory policy the red'. Along with high interest and attacks the working class, what other alternative rates and the gold trend away is there but to fight back? But, say the fake 'lefts' from Fort Knox was leading to this may mean letting the Tories in. Nothing of the a growth of unemployment among sort. This government is in power until 1971. the poor and semi-skilled To clear out Wilson and the right wing now workers, crisis was the main- especially the Negroes. would not jeopardise the cause of socialism. On the other hand it would probably mean that they would spring of the crisis in other capijoin the Tories just as MacDonald did in 1931, but talist countries, and the unemthat would be all to the good. The time to start ply me sin ernmen police on openly fighting Wilson is now so that the working class is prepared and ready to resist any Tory threat that he may unleash.

Substantial unemployment The policy upon which this fight must be waged would really begin in the early is as follows:

The cutback in the home marnationalization of all the basic industries under ket had led to increased costs and made industry less competi- workers' control. tive. The wage freeze was intended to bridge the gap between semi-colonial countries in the British commonrising costs and reduce the value of purchasing power in order that wealth. British capitalists could compete again with other groups of monoscrap the arms budget.

But unemployment may well These three demands if acted upon would conbe here to stay, said comrade stitute a decisive advance towards a socialist Britain Healy. 'There is a big changeand an end to unemployment and the threat of war. over taking place in the economy, Far from fighting for socialist policies the present characterised by the intensified leadership is running away from the struggle. This competition for world markets.' is done in a way that produces the utmost confusion Recent approaches by Johnson to Gromyko showed that the US in the ranks. would seek to enlist the aid of Take Dick the Soviet bureaucracy in facing Etheridge, shop the working class in the economic stewards' concrisis. The Stalinists would again venor at the play their real counter-revolu- BMC Longtionary role in world events and bridge works in the Soviet Union itself- and leading member of the The aftermath of the seamen's CP. He now strike in Britain was a rising plays the same consciousness among the working role as Jack class. It was a political strike. Dash did during the seamen's strike. At each critical turn in tionary politics, but into this strike Dash questioning of the Labour govern- held the me singour of que preine dockers back from struggle and tied them leaders in front of the working firmly behind the T&GWU.

The position of Wilson was a At the Brigholitica! continuation of Mac- ton. motor - car workers' demonstration on October 3, Etheridge Donaldism. MacDonald had deliberately misled those present about the outcome broken from the labour moveof his talks with Wilson. Speaking to 'Daily ment to find for the bosses a Express' reporter John Grant, he said: 'I think we new audience among the rightachieved the impossible'. At the car workers' meetwing social-democrats, in orde ing immediately after the interview he conveyed to convince the right wing anc the impression that something was gained, but at the Conservatives that a section of the Labour Party could pre- the end of his statement it was obvious that Wilson did not OFF TO LIEGEYOUTH VIETNAM Atlantic Treaty Organisation. This massive undertaking by the British rabbit IF THERE IS one thing for which the present Labour government will be remembered, it will be for the multiplicity of its abortive plans and schemes. Even Attlee, with his groundnuts and Gambian eggs (alas too many were counted before they were hatched) has

Real socialist planning requires the Full independence for all colonial and Withdraw all troops from overseas, and What next for i the 'left'? ByGerry The Labour Party Conference summed up on PAGE TWO WEEK G. Healy's series PROBLEMS OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL will be resumed.

This article will deal with 'The Robertson group in the USA' FOOTNOTE IN A FOOTNOTE to his article •Behind the Ulster Crisis' on page 3, Cliff Slaughter writes:

In a Cabinet reshufile last week, Faulkner was removed as Leader of the House at Stormont (the Northern Ireland parliament), though retaining his position as Minister of Commerce.

Mr. Brian McConnell was relieved of his post as Minister of Home Affairs, and appointed a Minister of Development.

One Minister of Development already exists, and in present circumstances one wonders how even he could have the prospect of much to occupy him over the next period! UNION OFFICIALS and shop stewards from all over Britain were attending a central conference between the unions and employers this week at York. The conference has sackings and short-time working at the top of its agenda.

It was planned to last two days, Thursday and Friday, but because of the weight of business may last until Saturday.

Convenor at the north-west London engineering hirm of ENV, Mr. Geoff Mitchell, will be attending : the conference. The US management of the Willesden firm announced several months ago that the factory would have to be closed, but no date has yet been fixed. normally when a firm was about to close, it was not concerned about' trade unionism. But, he claimed the management had continually attacked organisation in the factory—it is reported that an attempt was made to dismiss a shop steward in the week for 'alleged misconduct', but this had been prevented. me that the whole thing is designed to close the union down. All the tactics used are to try and divide the workers; to get some split and utilise Monday after being locked out for refusing to take part in stock taking.

Healy Union still under attack at ENV Newsletter Reporter Mr. Mitchell told The Newsletter that Such attacks, said Mr. Mitchell, 'convinces this. So far they have been unsuccessful'.

All the workers had returned to work last nothing to equal Wilson in this sphere.

He has a plan for Rhodesia, a plan for Aden and the Far East, a plan for unemployment, a plan for wages, a plan even for transport-and now a plan for Vietnam! the "plan' to end quarters that plans for Vietnam was cooked up as a sop to the disgruntled ego of George Brown, who, since he was kicked upstairs from the Department for Economic Affairs to Foreign Secretary, has had nothing to do apart from addressing. the Commonwealth Prime Ministers on foreign affairs.

The fact is that Mr. Brown's 'plan' looks suspiciously like many of the dead rabbits which McNamara and Johnson chave been producing for the last two years from the same diplomatic top hat.

And for this reason it has been deservedly rejected by Hanoi, Peking and even Moscow.

If George Brown thought that Asian opinion would be favourably impressed by his rotten swindle, he has now learned differently.

As any peasant knows, all talk about Icconvenins the Geneva conference is the product of either duplicity or stupidity.

While Brown was h prating at the United Nations, mentors at the White House were weighing up the alternatives in Vietnam and all the evidence suggests another frightening round of escalation.

Blunt statement

The 'Time' magazine in its first pages states it bluntly:

'The US once again is on the threshold of fundamental and far-reaching decisions about the war in Vietnam. The decisions have been deferred for the time being by the coming Manila conference, fresh flurry of peace feelers, and, not least, next month's congressional Once Johnson will not be able re delay much longer the need to determine how far and by what means—-barring any realistic prospect of a negotiated peace the is prepared to go to achieve a military victory.' US youth into Vietnam and 0,00 youth into ing bombed country incessantly for 18 months now realises that the National Liberation Front and the Hanoi government, far from throwing in the sponge, are content to let the go on indefinitely until the US. pulls out.

All attempts to seal the South against infiltration has failed and the US army is now contemplating mining the entire demilitarised zone at a fantastic cost.

The mounting cost of the war has prompted prominent US politicians and military figures such as Curtis Le May and Eisenhower advocate the use of nuclear weapons bring the war to a conclusion.

But nobody, not even George off the hook oing Vietnam. That is Brown. is to get the US why. after November 8, the world, and south-east Asia /in particular, developments some dramatic in the undeclared war.

Recently 'The Economist', the commit himself to making Tories' weekly business hand- single concession. Yet Etheridge book, had said that Wilson was deliberately tried to cover up for him.

The movement in the trade In the audience was Mr. Bert unions was to the left. But the Ramelson, industrial organiser of crisis in the Labour Party was the Communist Party, who told motor car stewards who were critical of Etheridge's report back to 'shut up'. He also, on behalf were looking, were part of this of the Communist Party, tried to cover up for Wilson.

The conflict between Wilson's and Frank Cousin's ideology' was CP's role only seen by the 'left' as a matter This, then is the real role of The extension of the immediate the Communist Party. It makes 'left noises' in order to convey the impression that it opposes Wilson. Then, when real action against him is proposed, it tells Such a situation showed the the workers concerned 'that they superiority Marxism which, nave already won a victory, ano beginning with the needs of the working class, could see the ways hat it is not necessary to fight.

In this way it disarms and betrays and means to build the revolu- the working class, just as the tionary party in the next period, fake 'lefts' do inside the Labour based on previous experiences. Party. All this flows from the AT BRIGHTON magistrates court on October Il, two men were fined £20 each after pleading not guilty to a charge of using 'threatening behaviour.

They were charged. under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, 1936, as amended by Section 7 of the Race Relations Act, 1965. Prior to their court appearance they had been imprisoned in Lewes jail for eight days.

According to the Morning Star', October 12, the police said evidence that 'the accused had been arrested after shouting and waving a banner in defiance at a procession consisting of a large number of Young Socialists'.

Both 'Carroll and McDonald', the 'Star' goes on, 'agreed in evidence that while carrying a banner inscribed "Birmingham Council for Peace in Vietnam" they tried to join the march after failing to find a CND contingent. They said the marchers had told them to leave the procession and Carroll said he had been pushed out.

'Carroll added, the 'Star' continues I started shouting back and asked my friends to come out of the crowd.

spokesman for the National Committee of the Young Socialists declared on Tuesday that the sentences passed on the two men were harsh and unjust and that use of the Public Order Act 1936 with the amendment by Section 7 of the Race Relations Act 1965 is absolutely wrong.

"The Young Socialists' demonstration at Brighton on Sunday, October 2, he said, 'was supported by over 1,200 youth and adult trade unionists. It was by far the largest demonstration on the eve of the Labour Party conference. All opponents of the war in Vietnam and the wage freeze were cordially invited to join it.' The National Committee spokesman said that he understood that 'Carroll and McDonald were asked to join but they refused.

Instead they had marched on the pavement beside the demonstration calling upon the demonstrators to break ranks and join but they refused.

'Had this taken place it would have constituted a disruption of the demonstration leading to a conflict with the police,' said the spokesman.

age ou October 15, *1 96 6 Those applicants who were not already holders of ICI stock had to take part in a ballot for £50 or £100 of the new issue. • With the demand reaching record proportions, it was inevitable that the price would shoot up as soon as dealings began.

The 'stags' were as certain of a handsome profit as ICI workers are of getting the sack.

And so, just as Callaghan was explaining why hundreds of thousands workers' families would be living on unemployment pay and national assistance and millions more on reduced wage packets, the ICI stockholders got £36,000,000 without lifting a finger.

The Labour leaders are engaged in attacking the living standards of the working people , precisely in order to maintain the system of production under which such things can happen.

Let us see to it not succeed. Octo ber 15, 196

Devlin's sweetener • CENTRAL COMMITTEE sour THE €15 SWEETENER' offered in the Report will be used purely as a cover for a Slaught on dockers' protective agreements. clear from the report, issued last week.

The National Modernisation Committeeset up under the original Devlin Commission scheme for the docksreached deadlock over wages in April this year. The Ministry of Labour then set op an inquiry with Lord Devlin Bobe president Sidney Ford, and the motor industry's shooter, Jack Scamp, as its members.

Their report makes it clear that on the Modernisation Committee, trade union leaders had gone a long way • in agreeing to worsen dockers' conditions.

Proceedings on the committee were, of course, hidden from the dock workers. While their leaders were going through months of discussions there, dockers snatched only an occasional glimpse of what was going on, mainly through press leaks. leaders Problem facing these way to get their members to accept an attack on conditions.

Agreement had been reached on the Modernisation Committee that 'in general the following practices would have to be dealt with':

Restrictions in mobility within working periods, whether between ditterent points or between different operations. . . . Continuity rules which inhibit such latest Devlin wholesale onThis much is mobility will require modification so as to ensure that the full benefit in terms of production is secured from all hours of a shift:

• Unreasonable restrictions on, or conditions attached to, overtime working.' But the Modernisation Committee could not agree wages for the trade union leaders it was only a question of how much they needed to take before their members to help them sell these proposals.

One thing stands out from the agreement on overtime restrictions: the offensive is now passing over to the employers.

In the 1950s, dockers hammered at the employers' attempt to make overtime completely compulsory. The National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers ('Blue Union') called an official strike in 1954 on the principle of voluntary overtime.

Today the employers, with the backing of the trade union leaders, have become strong enough to demand the smashing of the conditions dockers enforce to keep up wages and control overtime.

The recent report again lists the employers' demands. They want to end such practices as:

• Refusal to work overtime on subsequent days unless overtime is worked on the ship's first day;

Refusal, when a weekend intervenes, to work overtime on succeeding week days unless overtime is also called for Saturday and Sunday;

• Requirements that no overtime shall be worked by any gang unless all gangs are ordered out;

Refusal to work overtime unless penal payments are made, e.g., the requirement that any work done after 5 p.m. must carry with it the payment of a miniWE DEMANI £ 15 NOW/ OUR DELECT YouAs Te TOIN TUr mum of four time pay.

The employers now agree with the trade union leaders that they would have to put out a little sugar to help the leaders force this bitter pill down the dockers' throats.

'Most employers,' the report says, 'share the views of the trade union leaders about the "facts on industrial life" and agree that the leaders' task, there were no "sweetener" offered, would be a hopeless one.' So the employers were offering a 'modernisation payment' of 9d an hour, with a guaranteed weekly wage of £14 in the provinces and f15 in London-the "modernisation payment' could be temporary.

Conditional

Says the report: The guarantee would be conditional on the fulfillment of the dockworkers' obligations under the scheme. These include the obligation to work reasonable overtime during the week? (Our emphasis.)

The inquiry suggests a 1s an hour 'modernisation payment' and a £15 guarantee, which the employers are prepared to give, and adds: 'The employers have now gone as far as it is reasonable to go' In the Modernisation Committee, the trade union leaders Unemployment Day fact that the Communist Party has today: the same reformist, 'peaceful road to socialism' beliefs as the Labour leaders.

The motor car workers at Brighton demonstrated their hostility to the policies of their union leaders and the Labour government. But Etheridge and the Communist Party covered up for these enemies. The car workers required a lead and all they got was vague 'left talk' about 'victories' that were in fact set backs. PetroChemicals sackings AT THE PETRO-CHEMICAL site, Carrington, near Liverpool, the main engineering contractors. Stone and Websters sacked 132 men-mainly pipe fitters and their mates.

Many of the workers consider this a phoney redundancy following strike action in recent weeks to ensure 56 hours' redundancy pay and an average week's bonus in the event of sackings.

The men also allege that this attack was facilitated by the actions of the stewards—almost all members of the Communist Party—who began the action, but then failed to call a full site meeting when the sackings were known. y sackings start pressed for a work-sharing arrangement whereby the drivers work one week on and one week off.

Such an arrangement already operates between the union and at least one other firm of delivery agents.

On Monday the T&GWU blacked movement of BMC cars for export from a temporary storage site at Halesowen, Wores. This followed reports that cars were being moved by drivers taken Statements they made to the inquiry that a change in the casual scheme 'is not to give the men greater security, but to give the employers closer control of our men' is strictly verbal stuff.

It was used purely to try and get a little more out of the employers to make it easier to sell out the dockers.

It is doubtful if they had any • intention • basing any action on this statement, or going to the men and repeating 1t.

But the 'sweetener' has turned sour in the face of the wage freeze.

Here is another sharp dilemma for British capitalism which reveals the crisis of the dockers' enemies. They still have to get to the crunch of their proposals to shackle the dockers.

But it would be dangerous for portworkers to be complacent.

Too many dockers say "They won't be able to do it, or 'wait till they try it'.

In fact it would be foolish to ignore the preparations and strengthening among the dock employers. There has been a steady amalgamation into bigger groups along with continual discussion on 'restrictive practices' to sort out the best front for attack.

The employers, threatened by the international trade war.

must have a crack at dockers conditions soon. Without preparation, the dockers' reaction can only be sporadic and confused.

More than ever before there is the need for advanced dockers to study the experiences of the struggle for leadership on the docks over the past few years, and particularly the struggle of the Socialist Labour League.

The urgent necessity is for a national docks' leadership with political understanding of the fight against the employers and the state, which can prepare the dockers for future struggles.

Just look at what has happened during the past few days. Sir George Harriman, boss of BMC, has openly hinted that those who will be sacked on November 4 may not regain their jobs after the 12 months squeeze is up. Wilson knew very well that this was the position when he spoke to Etheridge on October 3.

"The Guardian' of Wednesday, October 12, explains that unemployment at BMC today could, in the opinion of the shop stewards, be transformed into an attack on existing wage and piece work rates in the coming period.

Compromise

Full-time union officers' it says, believe that a compromise will have to be reached with BMC that will put the firm into a competitive position regarding the use of labour.' Who are those 'union officers'? Obviously the T&GWU and the AEU and the NUVB are involved. This is what makes Frank Cousins' 'left talk' sound so hollow. Is he really ignorant of something which • his full-time officials already know?

At the TUC, early in September, all the top trade unior leaders were aware that diaters wilson wari ed the vote in support of the Prices and Incomes Act, unemployment was about to take place in the motor industry. Yet they kept quiet. They are now aware that this unemployment will lead to wage cutting, and still they keep quiet.

Is it not time we fought for a new revolutionary Marxist leadership inside the trade unions?

Halesowen.

Thousands of workers at the Joseph Lucas factory, Birmingham, suppliers to the motor industry, went on short-time at the end of this week. The management put the blame for this on the car delivery drivers' strike.

Lucas employs 26,000 workers.

Two • other car component firms, Wilmot Breedon, employing 6,000 workers in Birmingham, and Birmingham Aluminium Castings, Smethwick, are also operating short-time. Northern Ireland

AFTER GETTING NOTHING from Harold Wilson at Brighton, and nothing from BMC chief Sir George Harriman at Haseley Manor, Dick Etheridge, convenor of the Austin joint shop stewards, appears to be resorting to gimmicks to 'persuade' the government and the bosses to stop the sackings in the car factories. At a meeting of car workers in Birmingham Rag Market on Tuesday night, Etheridge stood on the platform collecting redundanev notices in a nlastic dustbin. These were to be returned to Harriman.

What does Etheridge think this is likely to achieve? Whom does he think it will impress?

Workers going up to the dustbin with their notices quite rightly looked sell-conscious at being required to participate in such a ritual.

What substitute is this for the firm lead for which workers are still looking?

The Rag Market meetitle the thousands of car men who might have been expected to attend.

At the end of last week it had a good deal of advance publicity. Frank Cousins was reported . to be coming. The 'Morning Star' anticipated a giant mass meeting'.

Not pushed Then it was said in Birmingham that Cousins was not coming after all. A worker from Tractor and Transmissions, looking round the comparatively small gathering almost lost in the vast Rag Market, said:

"The trouble is the meeting was never really pushed in the factories. A leaflet was put out, but there was no real drive to bring in the thousands who might have come.' With regard to Frank Cousins' non-appearance, Etheridge said:

'We dropped a clanger. He would have been here if we had late, Sent him an invitation too the car workers, as had been suggested. 'We have the utmost confidence that Frank Cousins and the Transport and General Workers will give us the utmost support in the fight against redundancy' Hugh Scanlon, executive member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, made a somewhat surprising appeal to the workers not to 'betray your leadership'. He urged them to 'compel' a change of policy by going into their trade union branches, constituency parties and trades coun cils in sufficient numbers. Etheridge Scanlon, had urged support of on whose behalf fellow AEU members in the forthcoming union elections, recalled with apparent pride the union's record in the various stages of policy leading up to the present crisis situation.

The AEU had accepted the package deal ('the kite flown to see whether the incomes policy was a possibilițy as and when a Labour government came to power').

They had accepted the incomes policy with unprecedented legal powers.

They had endorsed the complete standstill on wages for six months and a period beyond that 'how long we did not know'.

They had done all this for one purpose—'to give the government the breathing space it required to put the economy on a sound footing and to avoid unemployment.' Not the most pessimistic person, declared Scanlon, could have foreseen on July 20 when the Prime Minister announced his stringent measures, what the disastrous consequences of those measures would be!

Scanlon referred to the recent warning by Harriman that the 12,000 car workers to be redundant must not regard their dismissal as 'purely temporary'. They were facing a period of bleak and perhaps long-term unemployment.

Sinister actions If at the forthcoming central conference at York there was failure to get agreement on work-sharing, it would be for the national executives of the various unions to decide 'how far they would then go in supporting the demand'.

Jim Sheldon, convenor at the Morris Commercial factory, said there was something more sinister behind the actions of BMC than merely redeploying labour.

He suspected it was a new system of payment, the measured day. If they were allowed to sack 12,000, the bosses would think "We'll have a go at them because they show no fight'.

The only call from the platform for the nationalization without compensation of the car industry came from Arthur Harper, convenor at Tractor and Transmissions, when he said:

'If all the gaffers dropped down ing. more efficiently in the morn- tonight the factories would be Trade union officials talked about loyalty to the Labour Party; they should themselves be loyal to the people who paid their wages.

Etheridge, though claiming that he was not a Christian, thought work-sharing until things picked up 'a good Christian practice' . He admitted they had achieved nothing at Brighton but we brought the problem to the highest level in the country, and brought it home to the general public. We forced Gunter to send . for the BMC chairman to discuss it with him'.

There were hints that if all else failed the likely course would be for BMC workers to introduce work-sharing by force. Workers would begin to take a day off here and there to spread the work round, in an attempt to force the company to take back the sacked men.

It must surely have been clear to many workers present that heavy responsibility for the unemployment crisis lay at the door of the leaderships of the ABU and other unions.

Were they so lacking in clear sight as not to foresee the 'disastrous consequences' of government policy?

Why was no resolute fight put up in good time against such measures as the package deal, the incomes policy, anti-trade union legislation, the wage freeze and the penal powers legalised in Part IV of the Act?

Where the true hostility of such people lies was made clear when a collection was taken to defray costs of the meeting.

It was announced from the plattorm that all money was to go into the official yellow buckets and not into the collecting tins being taken round by the Young Socalists, 'who are nothing whatever to do with this meeting'.

YS members were collecting to enable unemployed youth to travel to Liege this weekend.

OVER 350 of the 748 car delivery drivers employed by the Longbridge Group of delivery agents received dismissal notices on Tuesday.

The management also issued a warning that there would probably be further sackings, or, at best, short-time working in the near future.

The drivers are in the third week of their official strike against the first redundancies.

The Transport and General Workers' Union has refused to accept the sackings and has had originally asked for a straight increase-the daily time rate to be increased from 44s 4d to 68s. •But 'The Times' of October 10 makes clear the leaders' attitude now: "The largest dockers' union, the Transport and General Workers' Union, will almost certainly accept the report." It goes on: 'But some of the leaders expect to have a difficult job selling it to their members?

The real question that dominates these leaders' thinking is how they can get the members to accept it, not whether it will benefit their members or not.

Correspondent THE NORTHERN IRELAND Labour Party's failure to intervene in the Duncairn by-election on a socialist platform has resulted in their candidate, rakenham, coming bottom of the poll. He was beaten by both the Unionist (Conservative) candidate Smith, and the Protestant Unionist, Mrs. Paisley. - Instead of calling for a united dangers of fascism, the issues working class to fight against the cerned themselves with such as the qualifying examination and were praised by the Stalinist newspaper Unity' for taking this line.

No attempt was made to point out that the Rev. Ian Paisley would be the instrument for splitting the working class in the deepening economic crisis; no mention was made of Paisley's role in the Divis Street riots.

Protect machine

Neither of the Tory organisations can help the working class. The Unionists, under the leadership of O'Neill, are only interested in the support of international capital, especially the large American combines. So they are prepared to go to any lengths to protect the smooth-running of the state machine.

For this reason, Craig, a strong-arm man of the Ulster cabinet, has been moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs 'to defend the Constitution against any organisation which threatens it' Paisley's support lies with the older and smaller industries of Northern "Ireland to whom the Common Market and Anglo-Irish Trade Pact mean bankruptcy.

This man's chauvinistic policy towards Europe and the Irish Republic is their last hope for survival in the world of international big business.

This struggle shows the deepening crisis of capitalism as two pressure groups struggle for control of parliament.

The working class is not being consulted about this struggle and they can reap no benefit from either side. Therefore, the Labour Party's call for stronger measures against one half of the Tories by the other half, which at the moment only seems more liberal, is ludicrous.

Forget differences

In the coming depression the right forces will unite and forget their differences in the common desire to protect the rights of business to organise against the rising militancy of the Irish working class.

The Communist Party, on the other hand, is drifting into the wilderness with its nationalistic support of compulsory Irish language in the Republic. In supporting the Irish language, it supports those capitalists who wish to isolate Ireland and is therefore following the same line as Paisley in the North.

The Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League will make no deal with any capitalist who is, atter all, only out to protect his own interests. The only road to a socialist Ireland is through opposition, on a clear basis, to all capitalists who have, since 1800, exploited the Irish workers.

This tendency must be turned into: a • fight for control of the political funds of the trade unions by members, in order that an alternative workers' party can be formed.

Arguments will be advanced that the Labour Party is the champion of the lower-paid workers by its insistence that if and when the freeze ends priority will be given to this class of work-people. • But the champions of lowerpaid workers are those workers who, through organisation have raised their living standards.

It is these highly-organised and effective workers that the Labour leaders are determined to break and thus destroy effective trade unionism in this country.

Our policy as trade unionists must, in the light of present circumstances, be aimed at:

Breaking the wage freeze;

Forming a new workers' party representing our class interests.

The Newsletter will reply to these two letters next week. Bin caph The Newsletter. s.W.4 Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper

AS DELEGATES arrive home from Brighton, their thoughts will undoubtedly return to the events of the past week. What happened at the Labour Party conference and where do we go from here?

The conference revealed the widespread opposition which is now developing against the government particularly over wage freezing, unemployment, defence expenditure and the war in Vietnam. This opposition is bound to grow over the next few months.

As the Wilson leadership moves more and more to the right, the working class will be forced to the left by the harsh measures of the government.

Irrespective of certain trade union leaders voting for unemployment and the application of Part IV of the Prices and Incomes Act, their unions will inevitably reflect this leftward trend.

Sincere left-wing delegates cannot but welcome such a development. The question is, who is to lead this movement and how can it become a vehicle which will usher in the socialist society?

At Brighton, Frank Cousins emerged as the most powerful figure on the left, but that is more or less to be expected, since he opposes the government on the issues which most sharply affect the working class.

Experience shows that when the working class is moving to the left, it always tends to test out in practice its immediate leadership, no matter how opportunist they may be, before looking for an alternative.

This explains the overwhelming vote _given to Wilson last March. It also explains the strategy of the Socialist Labour League_which was based upon voting Labour to power in the General Election.

Labour and the working class We proceeded from the need to take the working class through the experience of reformism in practice, in order to demonstrate the need for alternative revolutionary leadership.

This, however, did not at all mean that such an experience would only be reflected inside the Labour Party.

It applies with equal force to work inside the trade unions against the reformist leadership. Whilst we must ruthlessly oppose 'left' adaptation to the bureaucracy, we must just as firmly oppose any ultra-left and sectarian suggestions which imply that at the first signs of struggle workers will automatically move away from their old leaderships.

The Labour Party, and leadership, is based upon reformist adaptation to the Tories and the ruling class. When the working class moves into struggle, it motivated by fundamentally different considerations than those of the Labour Party and its leadership.

Workers do not immediately rush to the ward and constituency party meetings seeking solutions.

On the contrary, they invariably begin their protests in the factory or industry where they are employed.

Only much later does the Labour Party reflect what is happening.

It would, therefore be a great mistake to imagine that what took place at the Brighton conference was an accurate reflection of the present situation inside the working class movement. It was nothing more than a very indirect reflection of the class struggle.

There is now emerging a real anger and hostility towards Wilson which cannot be measured by such glib phrases as 'the debate continues'-workers are in no mood for the kind of 'debates' which are the fashion among the fake 'lefts' of the parliamentary party. Tens of thousands face unemployment and increasing misery.

To appreciate this conflict between the rank and file and Wilson's leadership is to begin to understand the class struggle.

Having betrayed the working-class, the Labour leadership takes up its position alongside the ruling class.

It justifies this by the Fabian and Communist Party theories of the "peaceful road to socialism'. In practice this means opposition to all forms of class struggle, as a means for taking power.

This is replaced by the class-collaborationist idea that there is a 'parliamentary road' to power. At this point reformism openly join hands with the ruling class because it is 'their parliament' which rules on their behalf in a class society.

There is a basic conflict of ideology between the Marxists and 'lefts' such as Frank Cousins. He believes that it is a matter of persuading Wilson to change his policies.

But Wilson acts for the capitalists. He is not confused. In a deliberate and determined way he has taken over the government for and on behalf of the capitalist class.

Wilson and Cousins He is now busy making the working class pay for the capitalist crisis, and he will not change his policies because Cousins asks him to.

If the time came when, say, a mass movement arose which was forcing him and his government to the brink of change, they would rather split from the labour movement, like MacDonald did, rather than accept such a decision.

And, if that did happen, are Cousins and the 'left' ready to take the power by expropriating the property owners and estab-A STRONGER I are praising this same Labour government for its legislation against the trade unions.

The gentlemen who wrote this treacherous rubbish are amongst those who glibly refer to Trotsky in their spare time, whilst they gleefully attack in the most vicious and lying fashion the Socialist Labour League.

It is not an accident that they have a , 'soft spot' for Wilson's government, and that they constitute a poor man's fan club for Frank Cousins.

These so-called Trotskyists are nothing more than the dregs of the reformist barrel, who utterly reject the responsibilities of the class struggle.

Need for Marxist

leadership The Socialist Labour League was expelled from the Labour Party in 1959 because it requested the right to form a Marxist tendency inside the Labour Party. In 1964, the overwhelming majority of Young Socialists were expelled from the Labour Party because they opposed Wilson's policies which are responsible for the present crisis.

However, despite these experiences, it would be a great mistake to believe that either the Socialist Labour League or the Young Socialists have turned their backs on the Labour Party.

Our estimation of this party is a •question of Marxist perspectives.

Our direct participation inside the factories, the youth and the trade unions is providing us with the necessary class experience and Marxist education to train a revolutionary leadership.

We seek to base ourselves on the working class in struggle, whilst, at the same time, we strive to participate in all the experiences of the class.

settle political accounts with the opportunists, it is necessary to combine the experience of building the revolutionary • party through direct participation in the class struggle with the fight inside the Labour Party. In the course of this experience we aim to wrest the leadership from the centrists and the right wing.

Brighton revealed once more the fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between Marxism and reformism.

The Socialist Labour League is the only revolutionary organisation in Britain today pledged to fight to the end against the reformists for the building of the party to take the power.

We hope that all left-wing delegates will give serious consideration to our point of view. LETTERS

FROM PETER JEFFRIES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was solved in Washington when the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund ended. The main items on the agenda were of course the closely connected ones of the weakness of the dollar and the problem of world liquidity.

As all the delegates to the meeting knew, the present system of world trade and payments rest on the US dollar. In the post-war world no other currency was universally acceptable as a unit of account.

All currencies in the world were linked to the dollar which was in turn linked to the price of gold. The US guarantees to exchange all holdings of dollars at the rate of 35 dollars to an ounce of gold.

These present arrangements are under fire from nearly all quarters.

Many people want to dispense completely with the role of the dollar (particularly the French) while many more think that world liquidity should be increased by raising the price ot gold in terms of the dollar: which would be equivalent to a devaluation of the dollar.

This was reflected in the recent Statement by Mr. Douglas Jay, President of the Board of Trade, while in Australia.

Why is there growing opposition to the existing monetary arrangements?

Mainly because many people now fear that the US holdings of gold are slipping dangerously downwards to a level where they will be unable to honour their promise to change dollars for gold at a fixed rate.

This • loss of gold has been caused by the continual balance ot payments deficits over the last few years which have in turn resulted from the massive expenditures on 'aid', capital investment abroad, and military expenditure. These deficits have risen to such • a size that many people are losing confidence in the ability of US capitalism to continue to prop up the whole capitalist system.

There has, in fact, been 'run on the dollar' in which several European countries, but notably France, have exchanged a large proportion of their reserves, formerly held in the form of dollars, into gold and have caused an even bigger drain away from Fort Knox.

At the IMF M. Debre, the French representative, attacked the present monetary arrangements and said that no reform was possible Which gave the dollar a privileged position as a 'reserve' currency and in any case no progress could be made towards reform until the US balance of payments had been eradicated.

US economic crisis

This of course President Johnson has striven to do: if only to put himself in a stronger bargaining position us a vis the French and their supporters.

But his attempts have until now been futile.

The already massive expenditures on the Vietnam war are still rising rapidly.

In addition the uncontrolled inflation inside the United States has pushed the import bill ever upwards to such an extent that the US trade surplus (i.e., the surplus from the sale and purchase of goods abroad) has shrunk visibly in the past few years.

Interest rates have risen unchecked and now stand at their highest point for 40 years.

But of course the "correction' of the US balance of payments deficit is not simply a question which concerns President Johnson. In the nrst place, any cut back on imports into the states —a necessary part of any such operation, would slow down the whole tempo of world trade and finance.

In addition it would of course raise the level of unemployment inready merin indiationse have already been crisis in industries such as motors and steel.

That is why the eyes of the capitalist world are turned the direction of Wall Street, rather than the City of London.

What happens to American capitalism affects the whole system.

For Britain, closely bound to the world market as she is, developments in US capitalism are of major concern.

Secondly, the attempt to 'correct' the US imbalance will hit the colonial and semi-colonial world. Not only are these areas absolutely dependent on the American and European markets for their exports, they also rely on these same areas for their capital investment.

In fact since 1961 'aid from nearly every 'advanced' country has either been stagnant or in absolute decline. Britain and the US, both faced with balance of payments crises, are in no position to expand their aid programmes.

Thus, although Mr. Woods, President of the World Bank, pointed to this decline, and underlined. the disastrous economic and political consequences which would follow if the colonial areas continued to be starved of aid, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Woods called for an increase in the money paid in to the World Bank-now at 250 million dollars—to a level of one billion dollars.

Yet the general opinion was that the World Bank will be lucky if present levels are maintained until 1970, let alone increased.

The colonial world in any case pays over seven billion dollars in servicing debt payments on official and private capital invested in their areas. As much as a quarter or one third of all 'aid' is wiped out immediately in making these payments.

The crisis is international Interest payments on publiclybacked capital alone take , about 10 per cent of the merchandise exports of these colonial areas.

Rising interest rates in the US and in the world generally mean that all capital for the 'underdeveloped' areas has to be raised on more expensive terms and further increases this crippling burden of debt to the international bankers.

It the IMF meeting did one thing it was to underline the international nature of the present British' or even an "American" crisis, which is neither crisis alone.

Those in Britain, such as the Stalinists and Labour 'lefts', who present the crisis as something confined to this country are deceiving the working class.

They are in fact suggesting that it can be solved through a series of reforms which Wilson can be forced or persuaded to carry out. They attempt to tie the working class to reformism.

But Wilson has no control over this international crisis. The only role of this government is to try and solve the problems for capitalism at the expense of the working class.

It is the responsibility of all Marxists to hammer home this point: that imperialism is now entering a new period of acute crisis internationally, in which the divisions between the capitalist powers grow wider each day.

This is why nothing conclusive came from the deliberations of the IMF.

France did not move from her firm position in opposition to US capitalism and all that the financiers and politicians could agree to do was to carry on talking and present more proposals at future meetings of the IMF.

These divisions between the capitalists are a symptom of this international crisis.

The revolutionary road is the only one for the working class. It must break from all reformist illusions which the Stalinists more and more attempt to foster in the international working class movement.

Only the construction of the Fourth International and the building of a revolutionary youth movement throughout the world can answer the needs of the present situation. shown that there is a link between wages, unemployment and trade union membership. Between 1921 and 1927 there were severe cuts in general wage rates, a growing rate of unemployment and an alarming fall in trade union membership. So severe was the attack on wage rates that the pre1921 position was not recaptured for 22 years.

There is now developing a crisis every bit as serious as the pre-war years and the same formula will be applied.

Already a wage freeze and growing unemployment are with uS.

As the crisis deepens, the Labour government will be faced with a retreat from their present policy or a hardening of that policy. It is inconceivable that any retreat will take place thereby allowing workers to make new advances.

A hardening of the present policy can only mean growing unemployment and the next stage in the attack on wages-which will be a reduction in rates.

There is a significant difference between the position now and that of 1921.

In 1921, the employers were left to reduce wages and increase unemployment, although certain government actions assisted them. There was, however, no Act of parliament designed to freeze or reduce wages and after years of struggle the working class recovered the lost ground.

This time there is to be no recovery.

The state machine is to intervene and parliamentary Acts will be introduced. The present Act to freeze wages can only be the first of a number as the attack develops.

Because of repeated betrayals, the workers have long since become cynical about the official trade union leadership and that leadership is now completely ineffective.

Northern Ireland THE BRITISH PRESS recently reported with relief that Captain Terence Ireland, had emerged victorious after quelling a revolt within his own parliamentary Unionist (Tory) group. Mr.

merce, who was favoured by the rebel 15 196 9 second article EWSLETTE

MEETING lishing socialism?

We are convinced that they are not, because their conception that the crisis today assumes the form of a 'debate' means that they have not yet broken from reformist, capitalist methods of rule.

Here is the reason why they are hostile to the Marxist conception of leadership.

Marxism begins first of all with a study of the working class through its participation in the class struggle. We see the Labour Party as a bureaucratic reformist party which predominantly reflects not the strength of the working class, but its weakness.

The trade unions, on the other hand, reflect more accurately the immediate reactions of the working class to the problems of wages and working conditions, but their role is purely defensive.

They stand and fight for reforms under capitalism and this leads them towards support of the reformist Labour Party leaders.

No matter how 'left' he may talk, Cousins is a reformist who has no basic differences with Wilson on the long-term role of reformism.

Those who delude themselves that it is possible to change the Labour Party into a revolutionary party are dangerous political imbeciles.

Those who likewise dream that all they have to do is hide out inside the Labour Party, talking about what Trotsky said, until the time comes when Cousins or someone else will lead a split from the right wing, likewise, live in a fools' paradise. by G. Healy History teaches us over and over again that people who have not rejected reformism for Marxism can never organise a successful break from the reformists.

This, we repeat, is a class question, which can only be undertaken by those who not only study the development of the class struggle, but who directly participate in it through the building of a revolutionary party:

We cannot, at this stage, build a revolutionary party through complete immersion inside the Labour Party.

The dominant political atmosphere within this party is opportunist to the core. All the sO-called "Trotskyists' and 'Marxists' who have buried themselves inside this swamp and who sneer at the so-called isolation of the Socialist Labour League have, in fact, placed themselves at the disposal of the reformists in the fight against revolutionary Marxism.

The fake 'left' It is they who are really isolated from the working-class and not the Socialist Labour League, whose members fight with and within the labour movement on all the ma or issues.

Thus we read in the duplicated conference handouts from "The Week', a fake 'left' paper edited by Mr. Ken Coates of Nottingham, that 'we (i.e. Coates) support Labour government—anything else would be far worse (at least we think so)-but can it be that it is pursuing the wrong policies?' How nice and naive all this is, coming at a time when the Tories

I THINK every socialist who wants to see workers organise themselves against the wage freeze and unemployment should welcome the fact that building workers in the north west and elsewhere are now producing a monthly printed paper 'Rank and File'.

A paper of this kind can play an invaluable part in organising building workers; the question is: are the policies of 'Rank and File' correct in the situation we are working in now?

The October issue has just appeared. I have some criticisms of this issue that I should like to put before Newsletter readers.

The solution that this paper poses to the problems of building workers, repeated over and over in different articles, is: more rank-and-file organisation, solidarity between different sections of workers.

I support these policies, but are they enough?

Organisation of the working class along these lines has brought successes in the past, as pointed out in the article on page three of 'Rank and File' about two disputes which took place last year; but surely the situation has changed somewhat since last year?

In the last six months we have seen:

The seamen's strike: this showed that in the fight for higher wages and shorter hours the Labour government will back the employers, and even to per•suade them to hold out longer than they want, against the working class. Ever present was the threat of the Navy being brought in to move the ships. The seamen's strike was a strike against the government whether Mr. Hogarth and the 'Morning Star' like it or not.

• The introduction by the Labour government of the Prices and Incomes Bill which, if implemented, could make it illegal for workers to organise for higher wages.

The six months' wage freeze.

What does all this add up to?

The Labour government determined, because of the crisis, to prevent the working class fighting for _better wages, conditions, etc. It intends to make it impossible for workers to continue to maintain their standard of living in the old way, i.e., by strong shop floor or site organisation, negotiations and strikes.

Therefore it is completely inadequate to say, as Rank and File' does, that the solution is to tighten up organisation and improve rank-and-file links.

The fact that the Labour government is now attacking workers in this way means that we have to organise against the Labour government.

Nowhere in 'Rank and File' is this suggested if they are not workers fight and rank and file-ism HISTORICALLY, it can _be clear what they have to do and what enemies they face?

It is interesting to look at the analysis that 'Rank and File' makes of the situation.

It says that the balance of payments problem can be blamed on military expenditure abroad and the export of capital.

To raise these criticisms is all right as a piece of propaganda against the system. But What 'Rank and File' is saying is that if only Wilson would cut these items, he could avoid an attack on the workers.

But military expenditure abroad and the export of capital have been characteristic of capitalism since 1900.

Wilson is acting on behalf of the Tories and international finance; he will not take action against the very nature of capitalism. He has to attack the working class.

By the use of an incorrect analysis of the situation, 'Rank and File' manages to avoid putting before building workers the fact that their fight is a political one against the Labour government.

Again, 'Rank and File' sugto proposed redundancieslution right as far as it goes, but Wilson and Brown have expressly stated that they want unemployment, not work-sharing.

This means that attempts by employers to sack workers have the backing of the Labour government. This can be seen clearly in the case of the car workers.

What is really needed is to build up a strong movement around real socialist policies, such as nationalization, which will be able to make clear to workers the real nature of the crisis, the role of Wilson and the trade union leaders, right and left, and convince them of the need for, and possibility of, organising a new party to take the power.

I think that the work done by the Young Socialists in organising a lobby of the Labour Party conference is the sort of thing needed.

The kind of syndicalist ideas put forward by 'Rank and File' in this issue have always been wrong, but never more so than today, when the need for political opposition to Wilson's government is so clear.

I am sending this letter to you because I think that these ideas are very general among workers who want to fight the wage freeze.

It is not just 'Rank and File' to blame, but also trade union leaders like Frank Cousins, who, in my opinion, is consciously putting forward similar ideas, deliberately to head off the transport workers.

I hope 'Rank and File' will change its line, because if it does it can do an excellent job. As it Is at present, however, it just represents a danger to building workers.

north west socialist.

However, gains continue to be made at shop floor level. The new measures will, therefore, be designed to attack shop stewards and shop floor organisation. This Will lead to an exodus from the trade unions.

Through direct intervention by the state the government hopes to have lower wage rates, higher unemployment and weaker trade union movement as permanent features of our society.

The rank and file of the trade union movement cannot and must not delay any longer in taking action against these betrayals of the working class.

Shop stewards' committees must organise against the present measures at factory level and attempts must be made to link various shop stewards' committees locally.

There must be a drive to reform the once thriving National Shop Stewards' Committee.

Although the various protest meetings and lobbies being organised should be supported, they must not be considered as anything other than a means of finally organising direct action in the workshop.

Every attempt must be made to relate full-time officials wages with general rates of pay. Democracy in the trade union movement must be fought for at every level (already there are signs of trade union leaders preparing to attack those who resist them even in the most innocent ways).

Workers must be made to understand that this is a political battle and the whole question of political levy and the future role of the Labour Party must be the subject of discussion in the trade union branches.

Certain individual trade unionists are becoming disgusted with the role of the Labour government and are seeking to contract out ot political levy. This type of action can only lead to the breakdown of organised resistance.

Continued

O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Brian Faulkner, his Minister of ComMPs to replace O'Neill as premier, was despatched on a fortnight's tour of the USA-no doubt to attend to interests of those who have invested over 200 million dollars in Ulster during the 1950s and 1960s.

It is doubtful if anyone believes that the political crisis in Northern Ireland has been resolved by the collapse of this premature move to challenge O'Neill. It had long been known that Faulkner was openly unwilling to condemn the extremism of the Rev. Paisley, who had denounced O'Neill not only as a capitulator to the Southern Irish Nationalists but also as an agent of the Roman Church and a fascist dictator.

Similarly the Minister in charge of Ulster's police, Mr. Brian McConnell, , had nothing to say about Paisley and his movement even when his own department had to ban the Ulster Volunteer Force, a paramilitary organisation supporting Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church and Ulster Constitution Defence Committee.

These facts and many others made nonsense of much of the Irish press's attempt to portray Paisley's movement as an isolated extremist sect.

Paisley built on earlier extreme Protestant movements inside the Unionist Party and the Orange Order.

One section of the Unionist leadership actually supports his aims, the rest lean in the direction of his policies in order to lessen his effect. Clearly it is futile to call upon the official administration to deal with Paisleyism.

Yet this is precisely what the Northern Ireland Labour Party did, and it was nobly rivalled by the Communist Party, which denounced the Paisley demonstrations as 'anarchy' which required strong government handling!

Even Ulster Volunteer Force, banned by the government, is alleged to have armed itself with government weapons under the autocratic emergency laws.

GOVT. ARMED Nationalist MP Mr. Tom Gormley claimed in July that the 'B' Special Constables. purely Protestant force armed by the government, was riddled with supporters of Paisley, who sent his men into the Constabulary in order to arm his own organisation.

Gormley claims that photographs of Paisley rally platforms show him alongside prominent 'big shots' in the 'B' force.

Of course Ulster Catholics Gormley made a call only to to protect themselves against the inflamed and well-armed Protestant mob, instead of explaining the need for working-class unity against Paisley and the whole capitalist structure which nurtures him.

The recent Parliamentary crisis was only a small bubble on the surface of Ulster's highly contradictory social and political situation.

The effects of the current crisis of Britain's economy and capitalism's international problems are combined with the accumulated historical distortions of Ireland's development as the longest-established victim of capitalist colonialism.

In a few days' time the Rev. Ian Paisley is due to be released from jail after serving his sentence for refusing to be bound over to keep the peace.

The courts in Belfast are at this moment concerned with two SLAUGHTER Paisleyism and Commenting on the 'freeze' measures of the Wilson government, he predicted that they would not have a severe effect in Ulster because the conditions they were designed to create namely high unemployment—already existed there!

This rare "privilege of backwardness', however, will not prove much comfort to Mr. Napier or to any other Northern Ireland politician, let alone the unemployed. Even the boom of the 1950s and early 1960s, with a regular rate of growth of 4 per cent a year, was unable to make any impression on the unemployment rate of 7 per cent, despite the assistance of an annual emigration of 9,000.

Modern investment can under certain conditions provide nearly full employment for a few years at a time, but it has within it a basic tendency to decrease the numbers employed in industry, particularly among the unskilled and the youth.

This is as true for Ireland as it is for the USA.

While the numbers employed have risen during the boom, this has not kept pace with the popuONELL -LENTED COINS PIRACY EVERY ORANGEMAN INSUNTED MARTIN IWALICE, DEPUȚM EDITORIOF THE BELFASMTELEGRABHIWHICH CAPTAIN O NEILL STUPIDLYI INKSESITHE NOICELOFI ULSTERIS MINETERISE NVITATONETOI LRLAL MANDAND MURDERER LEMASS *He towally lgrowed the Orange Quader Abumunh fior that!

ORANGEMEN ALLOW THIS amittee. This leaflet, produced by more extreme sections of the Orange Order, is a typical product of the ideology of reaction. lation growth, leaving the unemployment rate hardly altected.

Even when running 'in top gear', therefore, capitalism is unable to resolve the accumulated tasks set for humanity by the earlier phases of class society and early capitalism.

The 'Negro problem' in the USA must be seen in this light, just as much as the recent outbursts of 'militant Protestantism' in Belfast.

TWIST

In its death-throes, capitalism divide the workers as a class force.

This contradiction is an insoluable one for capitalism, and at various times different sections of the capitalist class oppose each other on the political line to be taken towards it.

Between the, two world wars fascism was the political answer of the banks and heavy industry in Germany, whose bourgeoisie had been crowded out by the older capitalist powers and was threatened by a powerful working class within. They broke with 'parliamentary democracy' and used fascism to break the working class as a class.

REACTION

Countries like Ireland and Greece today-small, weak, backwaters of capitalist development, suddenly drawn into the prospect of a limited expansion by the relatively prolonged post-war boom-face in a different, social form the impact of the uneven development of capitalism, and respond with their own virulent -ph-23нE 65 YDULGOINGITONSK BYLAND TAROT BENHUIRLEDNMIKSONZ forms of political reaction.

As explained in an earlier article (Newsletter, September 24, 1966), Prime Minister O'Neill represents a section of Northern Ireland capitalists who want to prepare for early entry into the Common Market, in order to attract foreign capital and gain access to markets, ensuring a continuous programme of investment and profit, so far as possible.

These capitalists feel it is time to 'forget' the fears for social stability created by the 'troubles', i.e., they have a measure of confidence that Wilson and the Labourites, helped by the because of the strength and confidence brought to the working class by full employment.

Each capitalist government is therefore forced to intervene with incomes policies' and restrictive economic measures to discipline the working class.

Because the crisis of capitalism is linked with a parallel crisis of the Stalinist bureaucracy and of the social democrats, however, this political intervention by the state provides conditions for a deep-going radicalisation of the working class as it comes under attack, because they are forced to reject the old leaders and put to the test a Marxist, revolutionary leadership, represented by the Fourth International.

Northern Ireland was made part of 'Great Britain', separately from Eire, after the national revolution of 1916-21, and remains dependent upon Britain's government (politically and financially) and on its economy.

Consequently all the critical problems of British capitalism and the bankruptcy of the Labour government and trade union leadership have a direct impact on Ulster.

For all the backwardness of Irish economy and society, the industrial working class 1s an enormous and ever-present revolutionary threat to the ruling class there.

The industrial concentration of Belfast contains about one third of the whole population of Northern Ireland.

Paisley is seen as useful by some sections of the ruling class, but at the same time they are inevitably stricken with fear at the prospect of a series of social explosions in what is really a political powder-keg for the whole of Ireland.

In times of crisis, the Protestant-Catholic division in the Irish working class becomes especially important.

FUTURE

Paisley represents the reactions of the middle class and certain layers of the working class to the social crisis. The future of his movement depends both on the depth of the struggles aroused by the crisis, its capacity to enrage and provoke these social classes to violent solutions as they are squeezed between the monopolies and the mass of the workers, and on the decisions by more powerful sections of capital and the establishment to finance and encourage such a plebeian' solution to the threat from the working class.

The immediate problem is extreme form of an established system of prejudice and discrimination.

So long as there is no alternative to the traitorous Labour leaders or to the nationalist divisions and betrayals of the last generation, the Protestant workers in many cases cannot see any future except what they conceive to be their small share of the official system of discrimination against Catholics.

This compares with the racialism of many poor whites in the USA.

About one third of the population of Ulster is Roman Cathothe rest divided between various Protestant denominations, mainly Presbyterian.

BLACKLIST

Often Protestant workers are placed in a position of dependence on an employer because he too is a Protestant. In factories, in shops and offices and all the localities the 'Orange Lodges' (a Protestant fraternity) impose a virtual blacklist, insisting on loyalty to other Orangemen before all other ties, and particularly of course loyalty of workers to their class and its organisations.

Catholic workers in many factories are discriminated against in getting obs, in promotion, in cases of redundancy, etc.

In the countryside, because of British policy over centuries, the best land is held by Protestant farmers and tenants, with Catholic farmers dispersed away from villages and in the worst holdings. Employment in municipal and government jobs, even down to Post Office clerk level, is almost entirely reserved for Protestants. • Electoral boundaries are fixed ('gerrymandered') to prevent large concentrations of Catholics from having their full effect. For example, in Londonderry there are 14,325 Catholics on the electors' register, and 9,235 Protestants. But the boundaries of wards are so arranged that Unionists (Protestants) have 12 seats and Nationalists (Catholics) only nine. There are many even worse cases.

Housing allocations by these local councils is also discriminatory. Unionist Councils invariably insist on strict segregation in new housing, allocating Catholics to estates which the Nationalists already have an electoral majority, thus preventing any danger to the Unionist majorities in other wards.

Londonderry, even though it has a large Catholic majority, has a Protestant in charge of every City Council department. Of 177 salaried employees in the pay of the Council, 145 are Protestants.

All the national bodies concerned with welfare, housing, health and education are staffed almost exclusively by Protestants.

The 'Parliamentary democracy' of the British Isles does not allow these questions of discrimination to be raised in the Westminster Parliament, on the well-known grounds that they are the 'internal affairs' of Ulster.

Over 100 Labour MPs have joined a 'Campaign for Democracy in Ulster' to press for Westminster interference against discrimination.

This is a gross deception: they profess to believe that the same Wilson, Gunter, Brown, Stewart and Co. who pushed through the new immigration restrictions are going to institute social justice in Ulster.

It is equal to the trust which was placed by these same 'left'wingers in the Wilson government for the solution of the Rhodesian crisis.

Governments which are imperialist will use imperialist methods. The discrimination in Northern Ireland results from centuries of British imperialism. Its extreme expression in the Paisley movement reflects the decay and crisis of this imperialism, the resistance of privileged and backward elements of the local bourgeoisie, middle classes with thee apitkisss, ceedined divide the working class.

Only the united action of the working class behind a new, revolutionary leadership can defeat Paisleyism and all that it represents. This is the lesson of struggle against fascist and extreme right-wing movements everywhere.

BEGINNING

The Young Socialists of Northern Ireland have made a great beginning in the building of this new leadership. They fought for socialist policies against the wretched right-wing bureaucrats of the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

They have consistently mobilised young and older workers to participate from Ulster in every political action of British workers, from the unemployed campaigns of 1963 to the struggles against anti-trade union legislation and demonstrations at the conference of the Labour Party.

They will be participating in The Rev. lan Parsley, represents the reactions of the middle class and some workers to the crisis.

the international protest of youth against the imperialist war in Vietnam at Liege on October 15.

Through these political activities, starting from the political programme of the Fourth International, and through the training of a • body of Marxists in the socialist youth movemen. best Young Socialists lay the possible foundation for the defeat of Paisley. With this background, they are in a position to study in detail, explain, and mobilise young workers and trade unionists against the threat from the right.

This threat is certainly made much more real by the great strength of prejudice and tradition, but it would be a mistake to regard Paisleyism as 'just one more outbreak of Protestant extremism'.

FAITH

In examining Paisley's movement and propaganda, we must constantly see it in the context of the present political and economic situation. • Paisley's main emphasis is to insist that Protestant Ulstermen should see themselves first and foremost as Protestants, bound by this, through centuries of faith and tradition, to the British government and to the partition of Ireland.

He portrays Roman Catholics as the ideology of bloody nationalism, universal poverty and predemocratic autocracy. This is Why he rants so much about the 'Glorious Revolution' of 168890, Which defined the political and religious settlement between the various classes of British capitalist society, built on the subjugation of Catholic Ireland as one of its principal foundations.

The Orange Order is criticised by Paisley's supporters for hanging_back in its oposition . to O'Neill and to Church unity, but the Order as such is not questioned. Inside the Orange Order, 'Protestant Unionist' extremists close to Paisley set up groups like the 'Orange Defence Committee, which whips pressure against the established officials . with the message of a more vigorous resistance to the erosion of Protestantism in Ulster. Take the leaflet reproduced on this page.

This is a typical product of the ideology of reaction; it concentrates on the involved traditional loyalties; it takes for granted deep-seated prejudices; it incites by appearing to ask the reader to make the only possible reaction on the basis of his own judgment.

cases of alleged political murder.

These symptoms of the crisis will not just come and go. They must be understood in the whole context of the present stage of development of capitalism and the class struggle.

In Britain, the most dangerous idea put out by many 'lefts' in the trade unions is that there really is no crisis of any magnitude, so that we only need more 'progressive' policies which emphasise productivity. This fallacy was given a special twist for Ulster consumption by Mr. Sam Napier of the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

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Name Address dredges up the oppressions and ideological backwash of the past, now giving them an added twist of violence through the explosive contradictions of modern imperialism.

The concentration of capital and the drive for profit have proceeded apace, while these historical problems remain just as stubborn as before. Although capitalism in one way requires the 'equalisation' of workers and the rubbing out of national, racial and religious differences between them, allowing business to proceed smoothly and 'rationally', at the same time capitalists require such divisions and 'traditions' to Stalinists nationally and internationally, will guarantee the acquiescence of the working class in the unobstructed programme of expansion.

O'Neill's talks with Lemass (Premier of Eire, or Southern Ireland) and the Free Trade Agreement of July this year between Britain and Eire, are preliminary steps in this programme.

HAZARD

But the opening up of prospects of capitalist phases of expansion is a hazardous affair at the best of times.

This time it meets up with the end of the boom.

Northern Ireland capitalists are looking for expansion in the Common Market precisely at a time when all the big capitalist powers face a new stage in the crisis of imperialism, and the prospect of contracting markets.

This crisis means that the expansion of business in any one country, comes up against international problems of finance and payments (the liquidity crisis, and yet the measures taken by each power to cure its own 'inflation' themselves endanger the whole international structura.

Within each country, the very 'prosperity' of the boom brings inflationary pressure, above all THE BOMBING of the Socialist Workers' Party headquarters on September 29, along with similar attacks on left-wing movements throughout the United States, is yet another example of the fanatical right-wing elements spewed up and encouraged in this crisis-ridden country.

Four petrol bombs were hurled at the SWP headquarters in New York, damaging a Party office and a window of the Party's newspaper office.

No-one was hurt, and so far no-one has been detained.

In fact no-one has been held by the police in any of the bombing cases this year: In May a bomb was thrown at the Communist Party headquarters, smashing a window (previously an attempt was made to fire the building and a bomb was sent through the bombed post); On March 4 dynamite was used to blast the : San Francisco headquarters of the WEB DuBois clubs; In April dynamite destroyed the headquarters of the Vietnam Day Committee in Berkeley, California.

The most violent expression of these terrorist activities came in May, when a gunman walked into the Debbs Hall headquarters of the SWP in Detroit and shot three student members of the Party, killing Leo Bernard and seriously wounding Jan Garrett and Walter Graham.

All these movements and the three students have been involved, in one degree or another, in campaigns against the US action in Vietnam.

It is only through a correct struggle against this war, and the capitalist politicians and big businessmen running it, that the terrorists caa be effectively answered and swept off the streets forever.

heightened by the great militancy of the Dublin working class in the last two years. A series of violent unofficial strikes has been met with new legislation from the government of Lemass, and has raised again the spectre of a fighting unity of the workers of all Ireland.

The O'Neill-Lemass talks certainly had this problem at the top • of the agenda along with their economic plans.

Paisley proposes to smash this potential working-class unity by a separate path: the demagogic whipping-up of anti-Catholic, anti-Eire, anti-Republican prejudice among the Protestant workers and middle classes of Ulster.

Why does Paisley find some measure of mass response?

It is because he represents the POLITICAL VIOLENCE flared again in Kingston, Jamaica, last week, reflecting deep economic problems of the island. On October 3 a state of emergency was declared in Western Kingston, where supporters of the rival Jamaican Labour Party and the Peoples' National Party fought each Newsletter Correspondent other with stones, guns, and home-made bombs.

Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. R. A. McNeill, ordered troops to join the police. It is reported that six people have been killed and scores injured in these incidents.

An unofficial curfew is operating—people are afraid to leave their homes because of the number of police still patrolling the area.

This area is by far the most thickly populated in the island and the people there are the most depressed section of the working class.

Unemployment is high, even compared with the rest of Jamaica.

The cause of recent trouble was the clearance of slum districts in Denham Town and Trench Town.

Shacks have been demolished without the people living in them being given alternative accommodation. In some areas, where people build somewhat better houses on what is called 'government land', notices to quit were served.

Refused to quit

When these notices expired, many people had not found anywhere to live and some, quite rightly, refused to quit until the government found them other accommodation.

The Minister of Housing said this was impossible and ordered bulldozers to be used to demolish the houses.

Many people who had no relatives to take them in were left to sleep in the streets.

This was a vicious blow • to these poor workers who have saved their money for years to build these houses.

A great fuss has been made of a contract to build 71 twobedroomed houses in Trench Town, displacing several hundred families.

The political leaders of the two main parties use the unrest not to benefit the workers, but to further their own political careers as stooges of imperialism.

The Jamaican Labour Party, at present in power, is led by Sir Alexander Bustamante, noted for his admiration of the late Sir Winston Churchill.

The opposition PNP is led by Bustamante's cousin, Dr. Norman Manley, who claims to be a socialist, but who, when in office, did nothing to improve the conditions in places like Trench Town.

Corruption is well known to exist in both parties. Jobs and houses are allocated in return for political services as well as direct bribes.

The unions offer no protection to the workers, for they are dominated by the political leaders. For example, one leader of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) holds shares in one of the biggest firms in Western Kingston.

Not surprisingly, there • has never been a strike there in all its history.

Jamaica is basically a rich country with its bauxite and rich agricultural produce, but slave traders and imperialist investors have sapped the country's wealth.

The economic crisis in Jamaica and other West Indian islands will become worse because of the crisis in caritalist countries on which these islands depend.

The only answer to these problems is to build a section of the Fourth International in Jamaica, an alternative leadership to the present corrupt leaders, to carry through a socialist revolution in the West Indies.