The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 473

THE THEORY behind United Nations sanctions is that the political aims of the majority of the members can be imposed on recalcitrant states by economic means in cases where their actions conflict with the Charter of that organisation.

The assumption is that no modern state can for long pursue a normal existence if its ties with the world market are cut, since inextricably bosed up wie international trade.

However, the harm done by sanctions cuts both ways. Countries which impose sanctions have to accept that their trade with the offending country will be cut off.

In the case of Rhodesia, as a British colony, its commercial and financial links with Britain are particlarly strong: Moreover, its geographical position makes its trade with the South African Republic, Zambia and the Portuguese colonies crucial for its economy. • To go from the partial sanctions already in existence for a year to mandatory sanctions imposed by the United Nations involves a number of new issues. Above all, of course, is whether other countries accept the political aims behind the government's call for sanctions. The answer obviously is no.

Portugal and South Africa do not accept these aims and Zambia cannot afford to cut off all economic ties with Rhodesia.

Sanctions without the support of these countries would, at most, be partial. To make them more effective would involve extending them to South Africa, Portugal and any other country which supported the Smith regime or insisted upon going on trading with it.

Wry smiles

The 'drama' of the Tiger meeting, the tension in the House of Commons and the great show of anger and 'sincerity' by Messrs. Wilson and Brown must have caused some wry smiles in foreign capitals. For a good part of the world the Rhodesian affair is a family quarrel between different sections of the British ruling class and is relegated to a minor corner of current interest.

In this way shrewd journalists and politicians indicate that they take the whole flare up, sanctions included, with a grain of salt. If Wilson was prepared to come to terms with the leader of a so-called illegal regime' representTHE DEVLIN COMMISSION proposals on the docks have now been accepted by the Transport and General Workers' Union. This should not come as any surprise to port workers.

This union, despite the 'left' cover of its general secretary, Frank Cousins, has always capitulated on the important questions concerning dockers. The Devlin Report is perhaps the most important issue that has ever faced rank-and-file port workers.

It hands them back to private employers. It proposes modernisation of the docks and the employment of a select labour force which will mean the sacking of older port workers and greater exploitation of the younger ones.

No wonder the employers are pleased about the position of the They could hardly contain their joy. As soon as Mr. Tim O'Leary mame diately oored men in they ing that it was 'a new deal'.

But it is nothing of the sort.

It is an old deal, an old capitalist deal.

The dockers are to have their conditions of employment and work completely changed, simply for a few shillings extra in pay. They will have to work harder in order that ing at most 200,000 out of four and a half million people the chances are that talk of mandatory sanctions is only resorted to as a prelude to further negotiations.

Outside Britain it is widely understood that the call for mandatory sanctions against an erring colony is a sign of weakness. The British economy is in no state to carry forward a policy of sanctions including South Africa, without which the squeeze which can be imposed on Rhodesia will be strictly limited.

Mandatory sanctions applied to Rhodesian exports without the participation of South Africa could have a slow build-up effect on some sections of the economy, notably tobacco and copper production.

Both these commodities can, of course, be stored or could even be paid for in advance of eventual delivery.

Substitutes

Home production has already turned out substitutes for some imports; others could simply be done without.

Vital petroleum products are certain to flow in from South Africa. Such imports as vehicles and machinery can, as the example of other countries under blockade shows, be made to last longer by increasing maintenance work.

As for Britain, if the sanctions policy is pursued, sales will be Jost which could worsen the balance of payments and weaken permanent loss of markets in sterling and perhaps lead to Southern Africa.

As for the four million Africans the main effect of sanctions on them will be to reduce the demand for their labour power if Rhodesian export industries have to slow down. The Smith regime will thus possibly have to face growing militancy from the African working class if the sanctions policy teally begins to bite.

A policy really aimed to bring down the Smith regime, and not to make a bargain with it, would not, of course, begin with economic sanctions or even with the air strikes spoken of in some quarters.

It would begin with the arming of the African people and regard majority rule as an immediate necessity.

It is clear, however, that Harold Wilson, and his lett critics, are opposed to these conclusions and cling to capitalist methods of sanctions as a saving formula for yet another betrayal.

Reject be invested in modernisation will be repaid with substantial interest. That is Devlin in a nutshell.

Now the fight shifts to the dock side and at this juncture Mr.

Jack Dash calls upon dockers to attend their union branch meetings. He is once again up to his old game of diverting the struggle of dock workers away from the real issues involved.

The dockers have already gone to their branch meetings and have been ignored by their representatives.

The fight is no longer going to be decided in the branches but by the strength of the men on the job.

Jack Dash and the Communist Party are up to their old tricks, just as they were during the seamen's strike.

They talk left and at the same time turn the attention of the dock workers in the wrong direction. Now that the T&GWU has spoken up and agreed with Devlin the only place the men can fight is on the quayside.

Rank-and-file, organisation has therefore to be immediately built up in every important port.

Unless the dock industry nationalized under workers' control the Devlin report cannot be considered. • There must be all-out opposition to any settler regime in line.

And, as in the Congo, UN intervention implies a take over by United States capital.

That is why the effects on the idea of retain protectaployers.

struggle on the docks would find plenty of response from other sections of the working class who are now facing unemployment, shorter working hours and speed up. The time has come to make a real and firm stand against Wilson.

is not only the docks which will be effected by such reorganisation; the railways are also to be reorganised along similar lines.

The employers are about to take advantage of the existence of unemployment by inaugurating the next stage of their offensive against the working class, which is speed up.

Where is Mr. Mikardo's Parliamentary Bill for the nationalization of the docks? Is not it time that the dockers and the working class forced these 'left' MPs to fight on their behalf?

Wilson is today the tool of the big capitalists and the port employers. Those MPs who say that they oppose him should пого take the lead in openly breaking from him in Parliament.

We say: Out with the Devlin Commission Report!

Nationalize the docks under workers' control withor it compensation to the present owners! Birmingham DEMONSTRATION Saturday, Dec. 17 Assemble 2.30 p.m. THE MINORI (near Lewis's) followed by a MEETING Two important lemonstrations tr tend this weeker against the wage freeze and unemployment DEMONSTRATION Saturday, Dec. 17 Assemble 2.30 p.m. MORDEN ST. followed by a CONFERENCE and DANCE

by already feeble British economy of the decision to apply UN sanctions are not merely temporary.

weakening still further Britain's world position, it makes the dependence of the pound on the dollar still more abject and permanent.

The crisis of British imperialism means also a crisis of all the mic sanctions I sanitions mo date imposed Nations is no answer to the Smith regime. It will be used, especially by the African nationalists, as a means of evading a real struggle to overthrow white domination in Rhodesia.

The white settlers, whose rol n Rhodesia has been to lool after British investments there, are fighting for the privileges this has brought them against the threat of African advancement. The middle-class African nationalists, on the other hand, have shown themselves powerless to lead a movement to overthrow Smith.

Rivals

The white settlers and African nationalists are, as it were, rivals for the position of protectors of imperialist investment against the revolt of the African masses.

In the years of boom relatively peaceful transfer of power into the hands of men like Kenyatta and Obote could be arranged. But in this period of crisis such moves present great dangers for the imperialists.

In the mock-heroic meeting on the Tiger, both sides were doomed from the start. Wilson bent over backwards to give the racialist Smith every possible chance to save his regime. He knew that the alternative to agreement spelt ruin for his imperialist masters.

But Smith, faced by the wild men of his Rhodesian Front, could not accept. There can be no future for white-settler domination in Rhodesia except by ruthlessly oppressing the African people.

Even if Wilson and Smith had cooked up some magical formula which had been accepted in Salisbury and London, it would WILSON: Bent backwards

PRESIDENT DE GAULLE has one inestimable advantage over his Western colleagues in dealing with the Soviet leaders. In his first government he actually had Stalinist ministers by his side with Maurice Thorez, self-styled 'first Stalinist of France', as deputy premier.

There is little doubt, then, that he has the measure of Kosygin, understands the weaknesses and fears of the Soviet bureaucracy and knows full well that it has no taste for revolutionary adventures.

After all, if the Stalinists had wanted revolution what better place to have started one in the period 1944-1947 than in France.

Unlike de Gaulle, few Western politicians have lost their basic fear of the Soviet leadership and most of them still interpret its actions through the early resolutions of the Communist International before its degeneration under Stalin. This distorts their diplomacy towards Kosygin and Co. and gives de Gaulle his chance.

Balance of forces

De Gaulle's understanding of the real balance of forces is shown by his break with NATO, a military alliance set up ostensibly to deal with Soviet aggression, an always non-existent threat, and practically a means for the Americans to control the strategy of Western Europe.

For years anti-communism DE GAULLE raged like a phobia in the State Department and in the European capitals. It blinded politicians to the willingness of the Soviet bureaucracy, especially after the death of Stalin, to do a deal on the lines of Potsdam and strengthened the hands of those who wished to wage a preventive war on the Soviet Union.

All this looks very dated in the light of the Cuban missiles fiasco and the evidence of the Vietnam war.

But if Kosygin wants to make a deal and de Gaulle recognises and understands this desire their Reporter KOSYGIN basic aims remain fundamentally divergent.

Kosygin knows de Gaulle's weaknesses. He offers him a way of resisting the growing pressure of American capital in France by developing trade connections with Eastern Europe.

He guarantees that the French Communist Party will remain a loyal and docile opposition ready, needs be, to applaud a Gaullist rapprochement with the East.

But he also knows France's limitations. The real power lies in Washington, not in Paris, and

FURTHER 2,000 men are to be thrown out of the motor industry in the Midlands in the next few weeks. At the same time over 3,000 men sacked from the British Motor Corporation factories throughout the country are still looking for jobs. The new sackings include 700 men in the Rootes group. Others are from the Rover, Dunlop, Pressed-Steel-Fisher, Guest Keen and Nettleford Castings and Forgings Division and Wolverhampton Die-Casting. It was also announced on Tuesday that 100 men at the drop forging factory of Smith's Stamping in Coventry will be dismissed before the end of the year. REPORTER At the same time as workers and unemployed certain Christmas and New Year, the employers their forces.

The Leyland Motor Corporation made a £25 million bid for Rovers this week, only just beating BMC to the post. On Wednesday, Sir George Harriman announced the formation of British Motors Holding Company including BMC, Jaguar and Pressed-Steel-Fisher.

These are only two moves in a whole series which will follow among the British firms whose only chance of temporary survival against the US-owned firms and German and Japanese imports is amalgamation.

Such link-ups usually lead to bigger attacks on the conditions and wages of those workers still left in the factories.

Seasonal

Greetings to our readers As is our normal practice The Newsletter will not be printed in the week before Christmas. The next issue will appear on December 31.

The Editorial Board would like to take this opportunity of sending seasonal greetings to all our many readers, supporters and contributors, with best wishes for the New Year.

IGO GO G face an unare rallying Those now out in the dole queues, after a prolonged period of extremely high wage rates and good conditions, are being particularly choosy about which jobs they take.

As reported recently in The Newsletter some were coming off £25-£30 a week jobs to be offered £9 as dustmen.

Still short

A Ministry of Labour investigation showed that about 1,000 ormer BMC workers who had found jobs through the employment exchanges had gone into manufacturing and service industries, construction and last on the list, transport and communications.

Birmingham City Corporation drivers and 629 conductors, hav- still short of 541 ing only taken on 13 extra drivers and 40 platform staff since the beginning of November-the time of the biggest lay-ofts from the car industry.

BMC has decided recently to take some of the sacked men back because a number of men not dismissed left the firm. Does this mean that conditions are already under severe attack, and that the company hopes to take back a more docile, more mobile labour force?

Certainly the way the employers are beginning to amalgamate and express their need to cut back on conditions and the way the workers were betrayed by their so-called 'leaders' in the fight against redundancy could lead in the near future to a big onslaught on the remaining car workers.

A FOREIGN-OFFICE file containing a copy of the so-called 'Zinovier letter' of 1924 has some important documents missing. This was revealed this week in a collection of 'Documents of British Foreign Policy' published by the Stationery Office.

The famous letter was produced during the election campaign of October 1924 in an attempt to discredit -the first Labour government, which had just fallen.

Zinoviev is supposed to have called on the leaders of the Communist Party to prepare for an armed uprising. The Tory press, and especially the 'Daily Mail', tried to link the letter with the policies of the Labour government in recognising the Soviet regime, and securing increased trade with the new workers' state.

It was never clearly revealed what revolution or armed uprisings had to do with this most inoffensive and timid of all Labour governments, which, according to the testimony of one of its leaders, Snowden, confined itself to 'measures that we were likely to be able to carry in other words to those with which the Liberals or the Tories agreed. But then witch-hunting smears are seldom noted for their accuracy or clarity.

Tories returned

The 'smear' achieved its desired effect for the Tory Party. They were returned to power with a big majority. Their votes however came entirely from those who had either voted Liberal in the previous election, or not bothered to vote at all. The working class was undeterred by the 'Daily Mail' and gave the Labour Party an extra million votes.

Anyone who knows anything about Zinoviev, one of the great leaders of the Bolshevik Party, later to be murdered by Stalin, or about the Communist International of which he was the leader, will know that the letter is a forgery from beginning to end.

Its very modes of expression (for example referring to the "Third Communist International' rather than to the 'Third International'), its references to the spurious 'military section of the British CP' (clearly designed to appeal to middle class 'anti-Red' scaremongers), are quite different from anything that would have appeared in a genuine statement by Zinoviev.

Yet it still seems to be in the interests of Britain's rulers to surround the 'Zinoviev letter' with an atmosphere of scandal and conspiracy. "The Times' of last Monday referred to the affair as 'a first-class mystery'. The Foreign Office added to the fog by 'losing' the documents that show the reaction of Labour leader MacDonald to the letter.

It is usually assumed that it was published without MacDonald's approval. The documents which would have cleared up the question have strangely 'disappeared'.

Nowadays of course it is the Labour leaders themselves who use 'smears' against the militant workers who are forced to ight them. Wilson tried to surround the seamen's demands with the same atmosphere of mystery and intrigue provoked by the Zinovier letter. It is to be hoped that

-From CHARLES PARKINS THERE USED to be a saying among the ArabsWhen you hear the guns roar at Gaza, that is the voice of Western diplomacy'. Just ten years after the British-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt, there are moves towards another war in the Middle East; SPAIN TODAY

and whatever fine speeches are made in the United Natione it ic tha intaracte and intriniac of the imperialist powers that are the main cause now, as they were before Suez.

They are determined that the exploitation of the working people of the area by Western monopolies shall continue uninterrupted. They want to reverse any encroachment on their profits, whether by the workers and peasants of the Middle East countries or by the bourgeois-nationalist governments.

The Syrian government announced last week that it had decided to seize the assets of the Iraq Petroleum Corporation, after a prolonged dispute with the company. The imperialist powers have been preparing for such a situation likely to arise.

On November 13, Israeli forces, including tanks, penetrated the Jordanian border, broke through border-guard units and attacked the village of Es Samu, destroying houses, a school, a mosque and a clinic before withdrawing.

They did not engage the well-armed Arab Legion during this action. That British-trained and equipped force is now deployed in the towns and villages of the interior to suppress opposition to ois is the most striking teature illuminated bu the raid. division of labour is in effect bétween Israeli forces and Hussein's Arab Legion, almost like that between two neighbouring police forces.

Some superficial commentators in the British press have wondered why the Israelis chose to attack Jordan. The answer is that the Israeli raid was not aimed against Hussein's government at all but was a direct attack on the Arab workers and peasants.

Carve-ups

These Palestinian Arabs were the victims of the first of the imperialist carve-ups of the Middle East after the First World War Which gave Britain a mandate over Palestine and later the stooge Kingdom of Transjordan; then of Zionist colonisation which drove thousands of peasants from their land; then of the United Nations 1947 Partition Schemebacked by both the USA and USSR-and the war which followed, in which one million Arabs were driven from their homes.

About 400,000 of these people found themselves in squalid camps in territory on the Western side of Jordan, which was occupied by the Transjordan Arab Legion, a largely Bedouin force under British officers.

This part of Palestine was annexed by Jordan, so that the relatively more advanced Palestinian Arab workers, peasants and intellectuals have had to endure a backward feudal monarchy which is really a puppet manipulated • by the British and Us goverments.

Across the border, those Arabs who remained in territory now occupied by Israel are secondclass citizens, to put it mildly. The villagers have lost their thousands of acres of land under expropriations.

Those who remain in farming suffer economic discrimination.

Nearly 10,000 others are working away from home, migratory labourers trying to scrape a living on building sites and in the orange groves, often forced to accept lower wages than Jewish workers and accommodated in sub-human conditions in unfinished buildings and disused cattle sheds.

Discrimination At least a quarter of these workers are teenagers. Their 'better off' brothers who stay on at school are still faced with discrimination when they leave to look for jobs.

These young workers and students_support the 'New Communist' Party in Israel. Those on the Jordan side of the border, in the refugee camps and villages, and in Arab Jerusalem, support underground movements against Hussein.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation with its slogans against Zionism and against the monarchy and its guerrilla raids into Israel appeals to Arab youth on both sides of the border.

The Israeli authorities are afraid of these youth. The military governors running Arab districts in Israel have even broken up sports groups among village youth for fear that they might be training for other purposes!

The raid on Es Samu was aimed at 'punishing' that village as an example. Fir-Kino Saud of Saudi Arahin meets King Hussein of Jordan.

If the British and Us governments, who after all have plenty of experience in these kinds of measures, have been not too happy in retrospect about the Israeli raid, it is because it did not succeed!

Far from being 'pacified' by the Israeli police action, the Palestine Arab youth have been incensed to a more determined struggle, demonstrating for arms, and the removal of the monarchy.

The truth is that the Es Samu raid, like the Israeli Air Force attack on Syria earlier in the year, was part of the general aggressive policy on the part. of thas hot lise decided in hid salem.

In March last year, Israell premier Eshkol visited London for talks with Wilson, Brown, Michael Stewart and Denis Healey.

While in London he also met Averill Harriman of the Us State Department. Eshkol returned to Israel full of enthusiasm for the 'understanding' he had found, although he did not actually state whether he had made one.

Bearing in mind Britain's policy of support for the Royalists in the Yemen Civil War, it is instructive to note what Eshkol told the Knesset on May 17, 1965 two months after his trip to London:

'Arab apprehensions of Nasser are indeed legitimate, as the Yemen has proved. Nor has Nasser refrained from subversive activity in other countries of the area, it in a less open form... A day will come when the Arab countries which are a target for his strategems will realise that the true division is not between Israel and the Arabs, but between lovers of peace and aggressors; and when they realise this fact, they will draw the logical political conclusions.' In june tnere were more talks in London-Dr. Zvi Dinstein, Israeli deputy defence minister, met Denis Healey, Fred Mulley, Gerry Reynolds and Walter Padley, as well as Field Marshall Sir Richard Hull, chiet of the Defence Staff.

Around this time, Eshkol, on another trip abroad, happened to bump into the Persian premier at an airport. Persia had been associated with Jordan and Saudi Arabia in talks about and 'Islamic Pact', which would meet in Mecca "to combat all foreign ideologies'.

More troops It was not long after this that Israeli planes attacked Syria once part of the United Arab Republic); and it wasn't long after a visit to Tel Aviv by the British Commander-in-Chief, Middle East forces, that the raid was launched on Es Samu.

British troops in the Middle East are now being heavily reinforced.

It is quite likely that they will be ready to intervene in Jordan to try and keep Hussein in power, and it is possible that something bigger is being Drepared. Irabs in Palestine, behind barbed wire When Hugh Gaitskell objected to the . Suez invasion ten years ago, it was largely on the basis that America did not support Britain.

In the present stage of imperialist crisis, the US government has less room to manoeuvre and is determined with Britain to put the clock back in the Middle East.

It would be unfair not to acknowledge the helpful role played by the Soviet bureaucracy in all this.

In a period of imperialist crisis they do not want to do anything boat! During Kosygin's visit to Egypt this year a communique was issued on the talks he held with Nasser. The issue of the Yemen and Israel were left out of this document altogether.

Surely something was said about them? The Soviet leaders have gone further by talking of a Tashkent-style 'solution' to the Arab-Israeli problem.

Of course, the Palestine Arabs would be left out of consideration at such a conference, just as the Kashmiris were left out at the original Tashkent talks, and the purpose would be a united front against revolution.

In effect, the only real purpose served by this new Soviet line is to try and camouflage the real warlike plans of imperialism and its allies, and to excuse Soviet abandonment of the Middle East problems.

By contrast, Soviet policy has for real Arab-Israeli peace Con- done nothing to assist the forces At the Tri-Continental ference in Havana, the Soviet delegates and the other Stalinists combined with Arab bourgeois nationalists to exclude any delegates from the Israeli working-class movement.

Admittedly such delegates lid not miss much, but the action is typical and it represents a policy of refusing to distinguish between the Israeli government and the working class.

While the Soviet bureaucracy is now inclining towards rapprochement with the Zionists, the other policy, which is of course that of the Arab nationalists, may continue to influence some opponents of imperialism.

Yet during the recent strike by Haifa dockers, a Zionist paper AFTER 28 years of power, General Franco has decided to ask the Spanish people for support for his 'ley organica' or policy.

In 1947 there was a similar pantomime of a referendum. The slogan, as now, was 'yes' to Franco, without any sort of opposition.

At the time most people made a mockery of the 'elecciones' and apart from 'no', some Spaniards wrote the names of comedians like Cantinias on their ballot papers.

Agents were placed outside the polling stations to make sure that every voter put 'yes' and nothing else, but there were no prosecutions because so many people had abused the referendum.

During the last two months trade union elections were held throughout the country in order to elect stewards and union representatives at factory levels of the Sindicatos—the government-operated unions.

Illegal groups in the opposition were confronted with a dilemma: to vote in order to get as many active workers in key jobs, even unions, or to abstainloverument. the existing Active in elections Spaniards in exile, mainly from Toulouse, had played an influential role through their propaganda in favour of abstention.

But the Communist Party, wellrepresented in the Comisiones Obreras (Workers' Commissions), as well as left elements in the Falange, and even some workers' alliance movements, in particular ASO in Madrid, participated actively in the elections, contrary to the wishes of the exiled groups.

Twelve months ago in Madrid, a group of the official sindicatos and members of the underground Dressed in fascist style Jose Solis, Ministersecretary of the Movimiento and secretary of CNS (the Franco unions) addresses a recent meeting. Seated is the ageing Caudillo himself.

No entity more things an approval, "that we Marist if truth and are not prepared earn from others"

Such antics serve only to in dicate the desperate plight positions of support within capi- Stalinism as t seeks some firm each st heightens that it now takes to ween its pseudo-Marxist shell and its, counter-revolutionary subpossible government.

What now becomes decisive is the our logue as development of the Socialist MarXist organisation binding one al which is best in be traditions of that working class, bringing with revolutionary of destroy Stalinism for ever commented bitterly that these workers had done more damage than 18 years of Arab blockade.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation, although it reflects the revolutionary aspirations of the young Arab workers and peasants, is actually, consciously or otherwise, leading them into a blind alley.

China, which appears to support its line, is guilty in this respect. Israel, because of the large Jewish working class, cannot be treated just as a colonial country.

Ineffective

Guerrilla tactics and raids from the outside are ineffective so long as the Zionist leaders can rely on a base in the Jewish population. But the Jewish working class in Israel is also involved in a struggle against the Israeli government, a class struggle which is being intensified by the same economic crisis responsible for the general situation in the Middle East.

Unemployment is increasing in Israel. Already, as reported in The Newsletter earlier this year, working-class youth in Tel Aviv have clashed with the police. Their fight is the fight of the Arab youth.

To defeat the imperialists, it is necessary to unite the workers and peasants of the Middle East, and the workers of imperialist countries.

To do this it is necessary to ight for the independence of the workers' movement from the bourgeoisie and its foreign policies.

This is the answer to the imperialist secret diplomacy.

It means the building of the Fourth International to provide a Marxist leadership. In Britain it means an all-out struggle against Wilson and his schemes.

In other words, the policy of Israel's Labour government is a common front with the Kings of Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, on behalt of imperialism against the Arab revolution.

In February this year, Abba Eban, Israel foreign secretary, had talks in Washington with US defence secretary McNamara. In the same month the US delivered to Jordan £30 million worth of 'Lightning' planes and one hundred Patton tanks.

A contract was concluded with Saudi Arabia to provide US military equipment to the value of between five hundred and seven hundred million dollars.

Saudi Arabia has been supplied with aircraft, missiles and British-made radar equipment enabling surveillance of air space for some 200 miles from her own border.

In May this year the US government announced that it was providing Israel with A-4 Skyhawk tactical bombers. (The deal had been fixed up in February, but was not announced until after Kosygin's visit to Egypt.) THE FOLLOWING apology was printed in the apology was printed in the Peace News' published the following apology December 10, 1966, issue of 'Socialist Leader' , issue of 'Socialist Leader', in its issue of December 9, 1966: weekly paper of the Independent Labour Party: MR. GERRY HEALYAN APOLOGY An article headed 'Violence on the Left' in our issue of 26th November quoted from and commented on a letter from a reader suggesting that Mr. G. Healy, National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League had instigated several of his supporters to assault and prevent him from selling literature outside the Caxton Hall, where the Socialist Labour League meeting was being held.

We have since been informed that Mr. Healy asked a steward to clear the pavement in front of the entrance of the Hall so that passengers alighting from coaches would not be delayed in getting to the meeting; that he certainly did nothing to prevent the writer of the letter or anyone else from selling literature; and others were selling literature on each side of the entrance without any interference.

We sincerely apologise to Mr. Healy for having published the suggestion that he employs violence or seeks to curtail freedom of expression. In the correspondence columns of our issue of 25 "Attacked a letter from Exmest Tate which accused Mr. Gerry Healy, National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League, of having instigated several of his supporters to assault and prevent him from selling literature outside Caxton Hall, where an SLL meeting was being held.

We have been informed that Mr. Healy asked a steward to clear the pavement in front of the entrance to the Hall so that passengers alighting from coaches would not be delayed in getting to the meeting; that he did nothing to prevent Mr. Tate or anyone else from selling literature; and that others were selling literature at each side of the entrance without interference.

We sincerely apologise to Mr. Healy for having published the suggestion that he employs violence MR. GERRY HEALY— AN APOLOGY or seeks to curtau freedom of expression.

THE STREETS of all the major cities and towns, FROM TONY BANDA particularly Colombo echoed to the splutter of fireworks, strains of music and general jubilation as members of Ceylon's Mercantile Union celebrated their strike victory on November 24.

Twenty-three days of resolute struggle had brought significant gains over and above the initial demands advanced by As reported in my first article (The Newsletter, November 19), the government was involved from the outset in trying to extricate itself from the damaging eflect of the dispute to the country's economy. Each day served to pile on the agony as far as the balance of payments crisis was concerned.

Action of a huge rally at Trincomalee at the beginning of the strike. Trincomalee port was paralysed by the strike, and the workers there gained support from their comrad i nearby Colombo when attempts were made to continue trade from ther Member 17, 1966 the Union.

Desperately the government, through its Ministry of Labour, sought a 'settlement' of the dispute. There was a feverish scurrying to and fro of messengers between the Ministry, the CMU and the CEF (Ceylon Employers' Federation). But all to no availl The dominant section of the CEF-the great monopoly interests-were out to crush the Union.

The exchange of corresponof the backlog. But to the government every day's loss of irrevocable, revenue was an irreparable loss.

To make matters worse, on the 13th day of the dispute the CEF came out with a wholesale repudiation of the terms of settlement proposed by the Minister. It insisted that the settlement of the bonus issue on its own terms was the basis for any further on-the-spot report

CNT had a discussion on liberalising the Spanish unions. This move was condemned by their previous supporters.

A few • weeks ago Franco announced an amnesty for actions during the Civil War and he dissolved the Tribunales de Responsabilidades Politicas.

Everyone realised this was a move to impress neighbours, particularly those in the Common Market and European Economic Community.

Once again it proved to be a new fantasy of the regime which, from time to time, gives amnesties to political prisoners and exiles, having previously denied the existence of political prisoners.

Monsignor Ussia was Kidna phat by the Primero de Mayo (First of May) group in Italy some months ago. At the time the police were unable to find the people who did it and Monsignor Ussia was released by the kidnappers. They claimed to be members of the Spanish Young Libertarians and wanted to raise international interest about the state of political prisoners in Spain.

Amnesty ... then arrests When the amnesty decree was published on November 10, the Minister of Information, Fraga Iribarne, knew that at the same time the police had arrested four men and a woman.

They were accused of attempting to kidnap a foreign personality (the names of the US Ambassador and Juan Peron, the exiled diotator of Argentine, were mentioned by the police).

The arrested, Luis Edo, Antonio Cañete, Alicia Mur, Jesus Rodriguez and Aberto Herrera, were soon accused oi terrorism and banditry. This would avoid any international protests on political grounds, and meant that even heavier sentences could be passed against these Young Libertarians.

Edo began a hunger strike as a protest and they are all still awaiting trial. There is a fear that they have already been ill treated by the police.

So, ironically, at the same time that these people are arrested for opposing Franco, the Caudillo announces an amnesty for people who were faithful to the Spanish government against which he revolted in 1936.

Now Franco has promised to appoint a Prime Minister—a man hand-picked by him. The purpose of this 'revolutionary' step is to secure the continuity of the Movimiento and the principles of his oppressive regime.

He calls it the ley organica (organic law), which was the subject of last Wednesday's referendum.

The Caudillo has appeared on television and the radio has continued the campaign in favour of a 'yes'.

Large and colourful posters the dictator have been hung Fraga Iribarne, Spain's Minister of Information and Tourism, and the brains behind the 'liberalisation' pantomime.

the main streets, in the squares and on the buildings. No other slogan is allowed except 'Franco —Yes'.

Many voters have now received two ballot forms through the post. One is already printed with a cross against 'yes', while the others are blank.

There is a possibility that abstentions may be counted as a 'yes' as will any blank voting form put in the ballot box.

Civil Servants will lose 1 per cent of their wages if they cannot prove that they have voted. They will probably be given a noteto be handed in when collecting their pay-when they cast their vote.

Demonstrations It is not surprising that nuns were given special permission to leave their convents on Wednesday to cast their votes.

Last week in Barcelona a demonstration organised by the illegal opposition groups was dispersed by the police and severa! people were arrested.

The demonstrators demanded the right to oppose the referendum.

Also in Madrid, four students have been arrested for daubing "no' on some of the Franco posters.

A joint declaration by 12 opposition groups has condemned the referendum as opposed to the rights of the people.

One thing that Franco has achieved in this desperate attempt to avoid the collapse of his regime is the unity of the opposition groups.

From the most right-wing tendency to the anarchists the call has gone out to abstain from this farcical referendum. The old and new movements are distributing leaflets asking people to ignore the vote.

One leaflet reads:

'If you say "yes" •.. the result dictatorship and Franco.

'If you say "no"... the result Franco and dictatorship.

'So do not vote at all.' One of the most eloquent leaflets distributed is from ASO (the Workers' Trade Union Alliance) "organic law" is anti-democratic, made behind the backs of the Spanish people in order to perpetuate the totalitarian system after the death of Franco'.

Playing for time Faced with economic and political difficulties and international pressures, the Spanish regime is in fact playing for time.

The 74-year-old Caudillo creates a problem for his supporters and a glimpse of hope for the opposition. One Spaniard said in an interview: Spain will live when Franco dies'.

But Franco is still alive and intends to remain so until he finds a successor. So much does he value his life that he never travels by air and never outside Spain. (He probably remembers the example of Mola and Sanjurjo, leading rebel generals who died in 'air accidents' which were later found to be the work of saboteurs.)

So for the time being, he is still the man with the iron hand who forbids in the most violent form the presence of other ideologies apart from his fascist doctrine.

The so-called referendum is meant to be a vote of confidence in him, his ideas and the future ot spain under his methods.

But, under the risk of being arrested and imprisoned, the Spanish people are more and more following those workers and students whose actions are limited at the moment to propaganda and daubing of Franco posters.

dence swiftly revealed that the employers were not prepared to concede anything.

November 1 they declared that all concessions to and agreements with the Union arrived at in discussions prior to the strike were withdrawn.

Almost immediately an altercation arose between the Ministry and the CEF. By November 10, after a number of informal discussions with the parties concerned, the Minister set out terms for a settlement. These now included the bonus issue, which the CMU had sought to include in the proposed agreement.

NEW ELEMENT This new element now became the main focus of attention and bone of contention.

Further points were: Union check-off (a deduction of subscriptions from the wage packets by the employers); retirement gratuities; conversion to new scales; conversion of salaries of unmarried employees and a date for the proposed implementation of the future agreement.

The CEF now fell on the bonus issue and evaded committing itself on any of the other: proposals. The CMU, for its part, accepted the Minister's proposals as a basis of discussion and a return to work by November 14, if all parties were agreed.

In the meantime tea, rubber and other commodities were piling up in the warehouses. Treasury reserves were affected.

The point was that the employers could afford to sit it out, contident that any immediate loss of revenue could be recovered after the dispute once they had disposed FROM THE beginning of Trotsky's struggle against Stalinism, the growth of this malignant disease in the working class was analysed as a surrender before imperialism of the spirit and basic propositions of Marxism.

Trotsky further proved that this revision of Marxism, the renouncing of the overthrow of world capitalism behind the slogan of 'socialism in one country, was the political expression of the conservative and privileged social group that emerged after the revolution in Russia-the Soviet Party and state bureaucracy.

From 1926 onwards, Trotsky fought against this bureaucracy and its corrupting influence on the sections of the Communist International as the principal barrier within the working class to the socialist revolution.

Its role in the British General Strike of 1926, the Chinese Revolution of 1927, the rise and victory of fascism in Germany, and its sidetracking of revolutionary movements 'popular front' in both Spain and France prior Second World War, provided indispensable support for world capitalism as it staggered through a series crises following partial stabilisation after the end of the First World War.

Stalinism repeated this rescue operation after the Second World We banduttacy an dehe heads on the two leading capitalists states, Britain and the United States, derailed for the second time mass movements that struggled to overthrow capitalism in Western Europe. giving capitalism these extra decades of life, it thereby prolonged the dominance of the hureaucracy within the Soviet Union itself.

Post-war Stalinism in Britain has lived, therefore shadow of this deal between the Soviet bureaucracy and the vicnegotiations and advanced the operational date of any future agreement to the first of the month in which the major issues were settled.

This drove the Minister to issue a statement to the press on November 16 upbraiding the CEF and calling upon it to review its decision.

The union chose this opportunity to indicate to the Minister that the employers had been acting in bad faith from the outset and that the Union, for its own part, was quite settled in its determination to fight out the issues to the end.

It went further to demand that as an example of its goodwill, the CEF, should make available a schedule of the minimum bonus its memberfirms were going to pay, guarantees to ensure that the total bonus rate should be in accordance with past patterns and further that there would be no victimisation at the end of the dispute.

If these undertakings were not given and the public was further inconvenienced by the strike continuing, the Union would call on the Minister to explain publicly the true state of affairs.

IMPASSE

It was clear that matters had reached an impasse and that the employers were determined to have it their own Warne Union's case as far as publicity was concerned was manifestly popular. However, there was at this point considerable danger to the Union from another direction.

The ruling class, through its press, was gradually arriving at an unanimity on the need for state intervention in the A new stage reached in British Stalinism torious imperialist powers, and despite the tactical twists in Soviet diplomacy, has loyally served as a public relations department for the bureaucracy in it dealings with the British ruling class and the government of the day.

But because the bureaucracy remains a degenerated and corrupted remnant of a once revolutionary party (the Russian Bolshevik Party) and because its international agencies reflect a similar, though not identical, process of political decay Within the capitalist states, the prospects of co-operation with social-democratic governments offer scope for the communist parties countries such as Britain, where points of contact with the social - democratic bureaucracy can be established from the shop floor and the union branch right into parliament and the cabinet itself.

Closer ties

The two years of Labour government that the working class has experienced bring out these points most clearly. The deepening crisis of British capitalism throws the Stalinists into a far closer relationship with the right-wing labour and trade union bureaucracy than at any time since its period of class collaboration during the Second World War.

But even during the period of the Second World War, wher British capitalism leaned heavily on the reformists and the Stalinists, the attacks upon the workcrisis itself did not develop so sharply as they do today.

Part of the preparation for this crisis that the Socialist Labour League makes is, therefore, an analysis of the new stage that Stalinism has reached in response to the demands put upon it by the Soviet bureaucracy and its allies within the Labour bureaucracy in this country.

Part of this analysis must be a study of the Stalinist press, as it is here that the future strategy of the leadership of the British Communist Party will be hinted at, if only in a veiled form.

'Marxism Today' , the theoretical journal of the Communist Party, began a discussion in its October issue on the question of the nature of the state.

This is certainly the most important question that now faces the working class in Britain and form of compulsory arbitration of the issues. It was clear that, given the popularity of the case of the Union and the committal of the government to certain proposals for settlement, the state could not at this point take any drastic action under the Emergency powers. Arbitration was its only way out.

On November 17 the bombshell burst. The Union's Port (Cargo) branches struck with lightning speed, placing an embargo on handling cargo of any of the strike-bound companies. This action was justified by the Union because the CEF had rejected the proposals of the Ministry of Labour for a resumption of talks and because of the diversion of cargo to Colombo from the port of Trincomalee where a lock-out exists.

The embargo was 100 per cent. There was not a single case of breach of decision, all blacklegs having been elimi. nated in a previous port strike.

The fourth week of the strike was opened by another press statement from the Minister which clearly and internationally, at a time when the state intervenes more and more in the affairs of the trade unions, working conditions and wages, and plays an increasingly more important role in attempts to regulate capitalist production.

The question becomes doubly important when the issue is one of a state headed by a Labour government, for now it is bound up essentially with the role of opportunism: the attitude Marxists should adopt first of all to the government of Wilson itself, secondly, to those who *orozressive, this government as somehow 'better' than the last Tory governWe agree that clarification on the role of the state in politics is essential if the working class is to carry out a successful fight against the incomes policy and unemployment, and see this struggle through to the eventual overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism.

But the discussion in 'Marxism Today' has taken another turn entirely. This journal, edited by none other than James Klugman, author apparent of the long-awaited history of the •British Communist Party, has serving on its editorial board leading Stalinists such as Party secretary John Gollan, Maurice Dobb, Arnold Kettle and Maurice Cornforth.

It cannot be said therefore that these men are unaware of the direction the discussion the state has taken, and the ful implications that this has for Marxist theory and the work of the party in the trade unions.

In fact, this discussion is seeking to revise the party programme, drafted by Pollitt and Stalin in 1951, and to replace it by one more in keeping with the latest developments in the British and international political scene.

"The British Road to Socialism', as many party members have found out, involved a break with all previous Leninist teachings on the role of parliament. In its own words, it asserts that a General Election fought on the issue of a socialist solution to Britain's problems could bring decisive results. •.. In this way, using our traditional institutions and rights, we can transform parliament into the effective instrument of the people's will, through which major legislative measures of the change to socialism will be carried.' (British Road to Socialism', page 10.)

This statement (inserted on the instructions of Stalin, as we have Bala Tampoe, a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) and leader of the victorious strike.

It was an action which showed the revolutionary potential of the Union, which forged a unity between all languages and cultures, and attracted more workers to it. now been told by Khrushchev) attacks Leninism on two counts.

Firstly, it assumes that parliament can be a neutral instrument between classes, and can respond to whichever class has a majority of its representatives elected to it.

The capture of such a majority is portrayed as the break-up of capitalist political power.

Secondly (from which the first proposition is derived) it implies that parliament is the central organ of state power, to which all other departments of the state are subordinate.

Yet all the experience of the class struggle under capitalism has surely established that capitalist power radiates out from the banks and industry through its army, police and law courts, and that parliament serves mainly as a screen to conceal this real structure of class power.

Surely the two years of Labour government have established for all time that it is the bankers who rule?

But now, amazing though it may seem, the British Road' is up for revision-to the right!

James Harvey, in the December issue of 'Marxism Today', considers this programme to be sectarian and dogmatic on several important questions.

'Urgent need'

Challenging the initiator of the discussion (lan Brownlie), who argued that the Marxist theory of the state was adequate for current political questions, Harvey insists 'that this theory is in urgent need of development in a number of directions'.

First he takes a swipe at Lenin's attack on the justification of bureaucracy made by Kautsky. Against the Marxist and Leninist theory of the withering away of the state apparatus under workers' rule, Harvey develops a new theory of bureaucracy.

But to discuss bureaucracy, and particularly its virulent growth in the Soviet Union, is to discuss not only Lenin's attitude to it, but the political bloc that he made with Trotsky to fight it, and the development of this fight in the period of the rise to power of the Stalinist faction in the Soviet Communist Party.

Harvey, of course, does not intend to open up this question for discussion:

'I do not wish to pursue the developments which took place in the Soviet Union after Lenin's publicly apportioned the blame for the continuance of the strike on the CEF.

By now, the strains within the employer's camp were beginning to tell and their solidarity to crack. Memberfirms were threatening to pull out and settle unilaterally.

CONCLUSION

On November 23, a letter from the Ministry intimated that the employers had caved in, withdrawing their declaration of November 1. The revised terms for a conclusion of the dispute were as follows:

BONUS will continue to be paid at a rate not less than the quantum of bonus payments paid in accordance with prevailing practice prior to the collective agreement. Bonuses will remain ex-gratia and discretionary on the part of the employer. All existing bonus schemes to continue.

This gain constitutes an important advance on the part of the Union in that, for the first time in Ceylon trade union history the matter of death. It is sufficient to note that even in Lenin's day, bureaucracy had grown up in the state apparatus and the Party!

The rise of such a bureaucracy within what Stalinists (including Harvey) claim to be a socialist state, demands sooner or later that someone has the courage to revise openly Lenin's belief that socialism and bureaucracy were mutually exclusive.

Harvey takes on this job:

It does not follow, of course, that because the theory of the withering away of the state set out in "State and Revolution" requires to be modified in relation to the Soviet Union, needs to be modified in relation to the transition to socialism in Britain. Nevertheless, there are good grounds for thinking that it does.

The theory therefore has not only to be adjusted to the vested interests of an entrenched bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, but also to the social and political privileges of the bureaucracy within the labour and trade union movement in Britain.

Here lies the significance of Harvey's argument, that it draws together and recognises the community of interest between these two bureaucracies, and attempts • to present a 'Marxist' justification for their counterrevolutionary • record and role within the working class.

Bureaucracy plays such a vital role in the preservation of capitalist rule that the ruling class naturally looks with favour on any political tendency that attempts to conceal the existence of this corrupted layer within the labour movement, or as essential tes, resent it as an feature of any social system where large-scale industrial production takes place.

In fact, Harvey would like to see term bureaucracy abolished altogether, as he explains in a footnote:

"The term "bureaucracy" has come to mean something bad and unnecessary. This creates a problem terminology, because compulsion between officials and the people under socialism cainnot be eliminated immediately and indeed has a positive role to play in strengthening socialist relations of production. For this reason I have preferred to use the rather clumsy term "administrative compulsion" in place of "bureaucracy":

Bureaucracy is thus emptied its class and political content. becomes simply a question bonus payment is now a matter for contractual agreement.

Thus the danger of the employers taking back what gave in the way of wage increases in the form of a cut in bonus is mitigated.

CONVERSION to new scales have also been to the Union's advantage, the unmarried employee getting parity with the married.

RETIREMENT GRATUITIES are to be discussed on previous basis.

UNION CHECK-OFF: This is to be implemented if the member so desires. Since the CMU now has a virtual closed shop in most of the great establishments this means practically complete check off.

DATE OF IMPLEMENTATION of Agreement: Here the Union has lost two months from that proposed by the Minister.

NO VICTIMISATION agreed with Minister's guarantee.

There has of course been the usual chorus of cavilling criticism from, strangely enough, the CEF and the technical administration, 'connected with the elements of compulsion that pervades the functioning of . am administrative apparatus, both in a capitalist and socialist society'.

Stalinism here draws closer both to its new-found allies in the 'state capitalist' group (which holds that the Soviet Bloc states and China are capitalist) and to the latest political and sociological theorists, who argue at great length that capitalist society has now been superceded by a new social formation, industrial society, a term which embraces both the Soviet Union and the advanced capitalist states.

Alliances

This step towards the schools of bourgeois sociology and the anti-communist tendency of state capitalism reflects on the theoretical level the alliances that the Communist Party builds with various opportunist groups within the labour movement, and the general turn that it has made over the last two years towards the middle class.

Harvey attempts to develop a new theory of the state in opposition to that of Marx and Lenin. He finds 'State and Revolution' by Lenin 'mainly concerned with the co-ercive aspect (of state power). Throughout the book there is a pre-occupation with violence'.

Of Lenin's proposition that the state is the organisation for the supression of some class', Harvey claims that 'the situation is different in Britain today'. (Emphasis added.)

He then goes on to argue that because of conflicts within the capitalist class, we cannot speak of the state representing that class as a whole, and that the inside the state apparatus and its mode of operation'. This contrastate apparatus an independence from both the contending classes in capitalist society.

Harvey is now able to arrive at his main goal—the role of the state under modern monopoly capitalism. 'Marxist writers have in the past tended to stress its negative characteristics, seeing it only as the instrument of the monopoly capitalists. The positive aspects have been neglected! (Emphasis added.)

'State intervention in the economy is to be welcomed as it contradicts the idea that profit is essential for economic success. Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Reformist) to the effect that bonus remains an ex-gratia and discretionary payment on the part of the employer (as if bonus is anything else!) and that the date of implementation of the new agreement amounts to a loss to the of themy Sour grapes to both Now, suddenly, there is a bustle in the camp of the LSSP (Reformist). They feel that the CMU has stolen a march on their unions and even poached their membership. So they are working themselves into a proper lather to pull a strike, come What may.

They seem to have learned nothing from their previous debacle of January 8, when, as a result of a racially inspired stunt, they had 8,000 workers victimised for nothing at all.

The working class is less likely to follow these squeezed lemons than they have ever done in the past, particularly when they have the option in the form of the CMU.

At the height of the dispute, for instance, the entire work force at the state cement factory in Jaffna voluntarily dissolved their union and applied for membership in the CMU.

POSTSCRIPT On the evening of December I the Union hired Colombo's open-air amphitheatre at Vihara Maha Devi Park for a victory celebration-a 32-item variety show. capacity, 11,000 turned upy to The place was packed organising committee had the invidious task of vetting a list of 23,000 applicants! A special show is to be put on for those who had to be disappointed.

What a show it was! Youth was to the fore as was to be expected, and what a variety of talent and professional competence!

for tour hours, they held that audience capitivated, ex cept for the last item which was a baila, a traditional Portuguese dance, which is also part of Ceylonese tradition. The audience broke up to participate in this dance as a gentle drizzle began to fall.

The show was multi-lingual, multi-cultural, that is, in Singhalese, Tamil, Moslem, Hindi and English, a true expression of the great unifying Innuence this Union is beginning to play in the island's labour movement and national minorities problem.

OUT NOW Fourich International Reich CONKENTS Editorial An Evaluati mot Sha Mayaard Keynes by G. Pilling NIGERIA TODAY by Kiscenesekmon Rose&uKemburg LyNC: Slamsh MONOPONY CAPITAL Beasure otan COMMOS the stormatie a nipariational Murnism bymoritingito:

IbanClaphamHigh Street, London, S.W.4.

EWSLE TTER 1966

From It also creates more and more opportunities for the labour movement ort. influence state rather run a cabialist cosion ot balanca LOI gradual CLUSIUL Capitalisu LaKe blace, workine cass has no need hold nolitical nower. ever out even with this Fabian ociat in cares one be built war, power the working tas people, WOrKINg longer clear, at any Late But it is no longer clear that the from state monopoly w1l take Since itself lass can have th tunity down the pe measur LaKing ol were comero aed as be been added.)

le task of the actual remov i capitalism can now be handı are concerned purely maximum efficiency oi pro lucion will slay end the socialised ownership o ne economy La'Do lar ze evoluton or raveer „mers non. aco the coc and now tineridge in the motor bureaucracy are not on the contrary so he tot contrary, progressive historical mission. •raer mar tae Call the working class must renounci instead exert lemorate and is own Duraucratic unions and order to achieve rather picturesquely calls are reality of its policies reflects rapidly d the shap and the rant that it has necesperform the sp pading confusion on parliament and nationalization under capitalism.

Harvey is in fact a new spokesmali recenty las been hat ti been headed y old-stagers such as Dobb an ohn Campbel ing of he party wil unt mains seen eastip de the central leadership party, headed by Gollan and his clique. will adopt To waras It This upon Marxism At a time when of the British June mass, true la Labour against Christian ominent Churches nmuni star or december the 'Morning Jack Dunman told the EIGHTY PER CENT of the 700-odd council tenants Little Lever, near Bolton (Lancs.), are withholding 1 increases of up to 26s. imposed on them by their local cour In spite of the freeze, the in det mar sousing account deficit by next March.

he deticit has built up rapidl n the past few months due t the crippling interest charges on the Labour policy am Minister i that the increases are The council rejected a motion to rescind the increases by the chairman's casting vote.

Cost £70

The chairman is a local milkman who, according to the local press, nas stated that if the deficit was paid from the rates it would cost him f30 a year.

In fact, some tenants will be paying £70 extra a year if the increases go through.

It is reported that since the chairman made this statement his milkround has dwindled significantly on the estate.

Now that the government has given the go-ahead to all coun cils for rent increases, there will be a spate of such attacks on workers.

What is required is a campaign to get the council to rescind the increases in defiance of the government and go into deficit, coupled with the demand for the nationalization of the banks and finance houses who make vast profits from interest charges.

Convenors

Close positions IN THE NOVEMBER 24 election for the East Birmingham District Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union shop stewards a number of leading Communist Party members failed to get reelected.

They include Peter Nicholas, convenor at the Rover factory, Tysleley, Birmingham, and Arthur Hanen sons Wash Trad and.

Birmingham. defeat viewed by some workers as 'the direct result of weak leadership in the fight against redundancies'. The defeat of Harper has raised speculation about the possible result of elections in his factory.

.From page when future historians come to examine Wilson's smear speeches that vital documents relating to them do not 'disappear".

It is also to be hoped that those who have to fight 'smear' campaigns now will know that the best way to deal with them is not to ignore or avoid them, as MacDonald tried to do in 1924.

Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto:

"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let : the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution.' The British Trotskyist movement is well used to witch-hunts, in its youth movement its trade union work and elsewhere.

It has learned that only a clear principled fight such as Marx outlined will make it possible to build a working-class leadership that can secure a socialist society. CORRESPONDENT Gasworks strike OVER 180 craftsmen from a £3t million gasworks plant at Stoke walked' out on Tuesday after 40 night-shift. workers were told they would be made redundant on Friday instead of December 23. Men returned when the 40 were assured of jobs for the extra week. MAGISTRATES at Oxford

SECRETARY OF the Communist Party of Great Britain John Gollan, speaking at a meeting of the Woolwich Polytechnic (London), General Studies last Thursday (December 8), explained how the CP would aid British capitalism to solve its economic crisis.

Over half of his time was spent on showing that Wilson's government was not socialist, a fact which the capitalist journals such as 'The Economist' has admitted for the last 18 months or so. But, of course, 'The Economist' is more up on capitalist affairs than Gollan who failed to mention that the present government is controlled by the international bankers.

Gollan's 'analysis' of the world economic situation was based on the assumption that there is no major crisis of capitalism, but only the short-term problems caused by fluctuations in the trade cycle.

All would be well, he said, if Wilson was to reflate the economy-he even offered to do the job himself.

He said nothing of the growing contradictions of capitalism and its manifestations in the crisis of world liquidity.

Instead he attempted to solve the problems of capitalism by methods which the capitalists themselves find unsuitable (i.e., reflation). They know they are faced with a liquidity crisis and demand major attacks on the British working class to maintain and increase their profits.

Freeze 'collapse' Gollan seemed unaware that the capitalists needed the wage freeze. He claimed that as it would not solve Britain's economic difficulties, it would 'collapse' and socialism would take over.

He fed his audience with abstract socialism and gave no Incomes Act would 'collapse, and Nothing was said about organising the working class against the wage freeze and in reply to a question about the seamen's strike, Gollan said that it was an economic, not political, strike.

If merchant seamen were paid more, he said be attracted to more efficient workers would the industry and the balance of payments crisis would be 'eased'!

crisis GOLLAN: Denzes Lenin's analysis of the state. It's different in Britain, he says.

The parliamentary road socialism was the only way defeat capitalism.

He was asked whether Lenin was correct when he said about the bourgeois parliamentary means:

... it has been proved that participation in bourgeois democratic parliament • • • not only does it not harm the revolutionary proletariat, but actually. helps it to prove to the backward masses why such parliaments deserve to be dispersed: it helps their successful dispersal, and helps to make «politically parhamentarianism obsolete"' (Lenin, 'Left Wing Communism,' page 42.)

Different here This, Gollan said, was not true in England. Conditions were ditferent to when Lenin wrote in 1920 and it was now possible to achieve socialism through parliament. Instead of exposing parliament the CP believed that it was the gateway to socialism.

Lenin sums up the 'parliamentary road' extremely aptly. CP members should take note:

.. only workers' Soviets, and not parliament, can be the instruments whereby the aims of the proletariat will be achieved. And, of course, those who have failed to understand this up to now are inveterate reactionaries.' (Lenin Ibid, page 61.)

On Rhodesia, Gollan proposed that Britain send troops to fight for 'majority rule'. Rhodesia was only a question of 'colour'.

'If Smith had been brown or black, England would have sent in troops,' he asserted.

To Gollan Rhodesia is a question of colour, not class. Only true Marxists call for the arming of the Atrican workers and peasants against the smith regime.

On all major issues facing the working class in the present crisis Gollan had an answer to aid the capitalists. But it was not the end of his ideas of how the working class would come to power.

Met generals He told the meeting how he was once asked to speak to high-ranking officers of the British Army at the Royal Military Academy. The purpose of his speech was so that the generals 'could learn something about their enemies the communists'. He even asked the army: 'How about having some communist generals?' He also said that workers must turn to the managers and technocrats before there was any hope of the peaceful revolution.

When the bourgeoisie and state institutions saw that socialism was 'better' than capitalism, they would throw in their lot with the workers, he said.

His object at this meeting was to show students that the CP is an extremely liberal group. He succeeded in showing that his party's current economic and social policies are liberal and that he hoped the working class would be tame and respect their 'allies' , i.e., the managers turned out at the Polytechnic.

The Fabianism spouted by Gollan showed that the CP will not fight the Labour government and the state which are attacking the working class.

Only the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League are capable of uniting the working class in the struggle for power against the Labour traitors who are working on behalf of the international bankers and monopolists.

Rhodesian Crisis From page not have prevented breakdown at some later stage.

If Wilson was aware of this, why all the trouble of his trips to Salisbury and Gibraltar? The answer is to be found in the difficulties of the two main political parties in Britain. appease Smith, arison hoped to as far as he did to Heath to maintain the stability of the Tory Party. The right-wing Tories, with their last-ditch stand against American encroachment on British imperialist investment, would otherwise topple the Conservative leadership, and with it Wilson's de facto coalition with Heath.

On the other hand, the rerejection of the Tiger deal in Salisbury enables Wilson to keep the Labour "lefts' quiet-they will be quite happy now that their beloved. United Nations is involved.

The South African rulers are also urging Smith to reach a settlement. Economic sanctions can strike blows at their trade also and weaken their power.

Us pose

The Americans, as on so many other occasions, will soon pose as the great progressives. They will seek agreements with African nationalism, supplanting the British as political and commercial patrons of the 'independent' African governments.

There can be no solution to the problems of Africa except through the revolutionary victory of the African working class. And by striking a blow at the British employers, this would help the working-class movement here to beat back the attacks now being made upon its organisations.

That is why the Socialist Labour League has refused all along to parrot the cries on the left for the sending of British troops against Smith (as if such a thing were possible), or for UN intervention.

Instead we have demanded the arming of the Africans of Zimbabwe so they can get rid of their oppressors and take the wealth of their country out of the hands of usurping white farmers and monopoly investors.

Registered at the G.P.O. as a newspaper The Newsletter 5.W.4 1So Claphan Rien Bret, London, B.W. 4 was a spring under the tip.

The stream said Mr. Brown hac flowed a few yards below the base of No. 4 tip until it was covered by a slip, and broke out further down the hillside underneath No. 7 tip.

Headmaster afraid

He told how the late Mr. Williams, former headmaster at the Pantglas school, always said he was afraid of the tip.

Schoolteacher, Mr. William Lloyd Evans, who lived in Moy Road and lost his wife and children on October 21 in the disaster, spoke of fears among tis family and friends about the On Monday Lord Justice Davies said he was astonished that there was no NCB record of a 'substantial' slip im 1963 on No. 1 tip. It is thought the tip cracked at the same spot this year.

-This lack of records is perhaps not surprising as there is nothing in the Mines and Quarries Act or other legislation laying down safety regulations for colliery tips.

visit the French 1 attempts at financial and economic independence have had to be given up, in but words, even since the last meeting of the International Monetary Fund.

Only the State Deartment can persuade the Federal Republic to settle the German question on the basis of the status quo, which is the main object of Soviet foreign policy in Europe.

Although Russia and France appear for the moment to have common interests against the United States, the reality is quite different.

If the Soviet bureaucracy could come to terms with Washington they would drop de Gaulle tomorrow.

the Were Nim any hen he tend, not to force a show-down, but to prepare the way for a settlement of outstanding differences with the United States.

When the flags are put away and all the ballyhoo about the historic and cultural ties between the two countries has been forgotten what remains? Very little concretely for the moment in the way of economic exchanges. Politically de Gaulle is about where he was before.

As for Kosygin, the sombreness of his expression matches the difficulties, of Soviet policy at the moment.

Happy as he must be to find a Western leader ready to take seriously all the talk about "peaceful co-existence' and to act up to it, he also knows that the visit to Paris will have to be judged by whether it assists in finding a bridge to Washington.

Beset by internal problems, worried by the Vietnam wat, weakened by the split with China and the independent policies of the East European countries, the Soviet bureaucracy badly needs to be able to reduce its military commitment in Europe and feel that its Western flanks are safe.

Clearly de Gaulle alone cannot offer such guarantees.

What the Paris visit makes clear, once again, is the Soviet willingness to bargain with the USA on the basis of the status quo. Doubtless Kosygin hopes that the message will be understood in the White House.

strike adjourned on Thursday (December 8) a prosecution brought by the Transport and General Workers' Union alleging fraud by a union collector.

The collector, Michael Barlow of Brightwell Baldwin, Watlington, Oxfordshire, was charged with wilfully withholding or fraudulently misapplying £170 when he was acting as union collector at Morris Motors (Cars).

The complaint, brought by Thomas Alfred Heard of Iransport House, Birmingham, under the Irades Union Act of 1871, said that part of the money had been recovered, but that €115 was still outstanding.

Barlow, in a letter to the court, said he had been away from Oxford for a period but was now able to settle the matter out of court.

It will be recalled that during the 'noose trial' hoax at Oxford earlier this year, Mr. Barlow was also in the newshe promised to furbish the press with details of a so-called 'inner cabinet' running the strike.

FROM MICKIE SHAW ABERFAN TRIBUNAL Chairman told CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS in Glasgow turned their thoughts to questions other than Christmas trees, cards and gifts for the family when the Young Socialists marched through the crowded streets last Saturday demonstrating against Wilson's BEFORE THE ABERFAN TRIBUNAL adjourned on Wednesday for Christmas, the chairman, Lord Justice Edmund Davies heard of the fears of many villagers about the No. 7 killer tip. wage freeze and unemployment.

The demonstrators assembled at Queen's Cross where a short meeting was held to explain the purpose of the demonstration. A number of young people from the locality spontaneously joined the demonstration and at the end of it saic they wanted to join the Young Socialists.

There was also an attack on Lord Robens by Mr. Philip Brown, who broke through the Davies should hear the truth from and should not Mr. Brown said Lord Robens had made a misleading statement when he claimed in a TV interview shortly after the disaster that no NCB officials knew there Socialist Labour League members and student members of Glasgow University Marxist Society also participated.

Colourful banners and posters demanded: No wage-freeze, no laws against the trade unions, no unemployment; nationalization of the banks and major industries under workers' control and without compensation; an end to the Smith regime in Rhodesia and the arming of the African workers.

Attracted attention

Marching cheerfully along in spite of an intensely cold wind the marchers kept up a consistent chorus of slogan shouting which attracted the attention of Christmas shoppers and caused them to pause in large numbers on the pavements of the busy streets. Slogans included :

'Wage freeze out, Rising prices out, Laws against the unions, out, out, out.' 'Labour must nationalize-All left MPs must fight.' African Workers in, in, it out, 'Wilson out, Smith out, black and white workers must unite.' Along the whole route of the march only one dissentient voice which called Up Smith' was heard from the bystanders and it received no sympathetic echo anywhere.

As on the demonstrations against imperialist war in Vietnam and those held earlier this year against anti-union laws and the wage freeze and in support of the seamen's strike, the Young Socialists again on this occasion won wide support for their demands from the older workers, trade unionists and housewives.

There is no doubt that the lead given by the Young Socialists in fighting for socialist policies in Britain and internationally has found a ready response amongst the workers in Glasgow and that support for these policies will continue to grow and become concretised in joint action and demonstrations against Wilson's government in the months ahead.

•Economic miracle' collapsing IN BRITAIN, open associations of social-democratic and capitalist parties in government have normally only taken place in periods of severe economic crisis or war. In Germany, such a government exists now, led by an ex-Nazi, and including the German equivalents of Wilson, Greenwood and others. • The significance of such a government at this stage in German history should not be underestimated. It 1s true, as was pointed out in last week's Newsletter, that the growth of neoNazism does not represent a movement of the same significance as in the 1930s.

It does however indicate the depth of the crisis facing the German petty bourgeoisie and ruling class. The need for a 'national' government at this time also indicates the depth of the Coral the appareman miracalous, recovery of the German post-war economy.

KRUPP'S LOSSES The persistent rumours in recent weeks that Krupp's is faced with severe losses, dealt with by an almost deafening silence in the European financial press, shows more flaws in the "miracle!?t Krupp's, which just 25 years ago was running on slave labour and is still under the same management, has recently lost money through failure of firms from under-developed countries to pay for the goods that have been supplied and through the need to secure loans at fixed rates of interest. The firm has greeted with a curt and unexplained denial enquiries about whether it was faced with any big losses.

The big car monopoly Volkswagen has announced lay-offs this week.

It is clear that with such problems as these looming on the horizon, the ruling class in Germany needs its 'national' government. Such an alliance can mean only big attacks are ahead for the German working class.

Brandt's meeting on Thursday with General de Gaulle, grouseshooting companion Kosygin, shows that the European monopolists need to come closer together before Britain's entry into the Common Market.

In order to prepare for the big struggles that will be faced by the German working class as a result of the monopolists' problems, it will be necessary for them to build a revolutionary leadership and a section of the Fourth International.