Workers Press no. 10

workers press The daily organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League 19 1970 FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY • NUMBER TEN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1969

STION

PRICE Bd.

PUBLISHED

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER

From Brighton comes S. Wales Callaghan visits Ulster Dustmen pits to spread strike? The army

A TORY

their SOUTH Wales area execu- of the meets Monday strike trial action over Coal tightens up Ivalullai meal bicak By Peter Read ames. sala Its president

CHARTER

THE

FORTNIGHT-old Glyn willlams earler Cals week dustmen's strike continued also ce filled con to spread out from Lon- don Manchester executive's proposals. its grip as the workers Press corresponden stopped work No meals Wednesday. repared to dut shif it times, at patrols in the Falls the a as It's prepared to cut

FOR SCABS

ave of the meal time. Presente bage, said a colnel spokes man. aller lalks between 'LABOUR' Home Secretary Mr James Calla- Ulster Constabulary. omciais and dust- But the miners want their ghan breakfasted with Northern Ireland GOC Labour men broke down. ded in the shift time inclu- Freeland yesterday, Sir lan then went on for 1 ca by worth! talks with Unionist cabinet ministers, of continued preparations background by though heaving ATUA meeting British troops for further repressions against uck in solidarity with their By David Maude Ulster's working class.

LUTON

MR ROBERT CARR, Mrs Barbara Castle's Tory Callaghan's over the six counties. during

BE ON GUARD

Vauxhall 'Support Ellesmere Port- the forces of law previous visit, these dis- 'shadow', has followed up Heath's demand for the They culminate week Throw out scabs' charter' Basildon, Essex cussions come at a crucial which have a at all those involved mus stewards

COMPLAINT

legal breaking up of the dustmen's strike with an Friday, October 10, 8 p.m.

over stage in the army's task of Northern Ireland eight-point charter for blacklegs in every industry.

The Cock re-asserting imperialist rule Paisley be on guard. welcome The Catholic Park squar aa health attempt presented to the Conservative Party His proposals, the daily

BIGGEST SITE SHUTS DOWN

conterence at Brighton on wednesday alternoon, will barnce in the tresture of con- form the basis of Tory industrial relations legislation if

VAUXHALL

joint shop fence Committee on Sunday.

the party is returned at the next general election.

Solicit His demagogic warning that The Tories, Carr said, Port, the would: Saturday at its meeting on lues

'SUCCESSFUL'

Protect staece of his supporters.

"This not to committee welcomes A workerS righ

BLACK-

oin a union • Strikers acting thanks it for the

OUT ON

Who go o1 reports of struggle in ou Require Albert Brast near the Ci I more to break Cartoie plants. brace to pre

B.B.C.

THAMESMEAD

Czech Mary hile, the barbed sire erve imperialist rule wit

THE

24-HOUR

strike strikes through Callaghan's latest • C Stalinists shut down all the corpora- a Wold leaders alternoo the take place from 8 a.m. Sat- attack to the use of military police urday to o a.m. sunday. e so s countesentatives Big support for et secretty the organising unions • Directors of breaking the action. way: Maxi workers ATUA meeting By Robert Black as is portion reacted fter Wednesday

HULL

all informations leading Czech union mem- 'Workers' Press and that increased. PRODUCTION at Morris Motors, Cowley, came to a removed ent Day productivity deals' Have public statements are made total halt on Wednesday afternoon when thousands of

BBC

director-general mom tael posts. Sunday, October 12, 3 p.m.

Set up in opposition to the company's prominent on parent or workers walked COul Carron House threat to put 1,500 Maxi assembly workers on short Duresolv- Beverley Road be stopped time.

•HAS NASS

Tories to de id each employee taking part Lines will not start Since Husak's takeover this in the stoppage. On again they have resisted Instruction во мін ст stated that the The 650°; joined by 2,0rd Whatever sacked four and a further four have ders magents was opened to

HIA

PICKETS

the mination to die ine head of the milked e workers press inion sisted them "thamesmead site at ADDey largest in sym wood, woode 2, no workers are on woo wich lerudy erse on a million workers.

worshing hea sesistance expected to follow suit was the third walk-out BBC thee three-year-old labour-only Commented one steward on Ine sub-contracting. Thamesmead site is one Strike action solar theres been ° Theatrical and Kine an now involv- On eve of LP. conference big Europe's biggest bullalns began developments solid: ther she men to nine and tnere lave been 1970 could be work there for an- termons afternoon 20 The heating and ventilat- diction i butle to civil meelings. in the ma or an Forced to agree of

ALL TRADES

ORDER THE

Clearer Vietnam split

UNIONS

Nationalization out of

DAILY

ALLIANCE

of m00 cirs in U.S.

MEETINGS

the question' different By a foreign correspondent

SWINDON

NOW

By a foreign correspondent THE split in the US rulin mum wage of 10s • itd. dennam become hour. be all mass support clearer every Speaker: Frank Willis —Libyan oil minister Guine General Wheeler, Full aubscriptlo Young socialists candidate

SATURDAY'S

ted dally) two days on wednesday ta in the parliamentary 42 0. or thee Bonapartist At the OR i to me month povernment will ha Dy-elecuon

WORKERS

Nasser-style ally ing for she thee regime. Tuesday, October 14 I would like to subscribe to Workers' Press for stew alter Anis Ahmed lization

PRESS

No limit 8 p.m. Hitting out atever the peed eatis out or the Exede rime our decaned that™ sheetes to balance uoen weorge s egime in Sai the where sain documents sell be noir the struggle inside the USSR Name enue from the lucrative Friday, October 17 oil Kosterin's letter to 1K of socialism Tactical Alexis Address.. Main question o D. the CPSU and Piotr Yakir ecialists and Swindon Town Hall Nationalization of oil would alva diet genuine so sins of he futurect oranon al le reveal the shall have orkers P720 2186) Thursday, October 23 Alexis nosterin. Order your copy now polies. he enagerialism troush 8 p.m. Toi ginnes strd their inst Phone 720 - 2000 the Phoeburst Common Room

workers press The daily organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League

NUMBER TEN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1969

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY Ol

STION

PRICE Bd. S. Wales From Brighton comes Callaghan visits Ulster Dustmen pits to spread strike? The army

A TORY

their

SOUTH

Wales tive of the National Union or Mineworkers meets Mondav strike action over tria the National tightens up Coal Board's threat cut meal-break By Peter Read said its president Mr Glyn earlier this

CHARTER

THE

FORTNIGHT-old dustmen's strike continued so be called to spread out from Lon- also cane its grip Manchester don as the Workers' Press correspondent stopped work No meals Wednesday. presented tard has sati 1ne patrols in It's complete eight-and-a-quarter page, said a council spokes-

FOR SCABS

sue 0t 90 exclu- and dest introd Constabulary 'LABOUR' Home Secretary Mr James Calla• council dust- 2 But meals want ghan breakfasted with Northern Ireland GOC Labsur Callaghan Conference he told men broke down. ded in the shift time Sir lan Freeland yesterday, then went on for London days ago. talks with Unionist Cabinet Ministers, against a background of continued preparations by ATUA meeting British troops for further repressions against coles ur idariy with thei Adence it By David Maude Ulster's working class. MR ROBERT CARR, Mrs Barbara Castle's Tory

LUTON

Callaghan's over the six counties.

during weigh AS

BE ON GUARD

Vauxhall 'Support Ellesmere Port- behind the forces of law anc 'shadow, has followed up Heath's demand for the previous visit, these dis- week They Throw out scabs' charter' culminale a cussions come at a crucial barricades Maye stewards legal breaking up of the dustmen's strike with an

COMPLAINT

Friday, October 10, 8 p.m.

stage in the army's task of been dismantled over eight-point charter for blacklegs in every industry.

Northern Ireland. Park square re-asserung Imperlanst rule welcome His proposals, presented to the Conservative Party the daily

BIGGEST SITE SHUTS DOWN

conference at Brighton on Wednesday afternoon, will serviceonstitu unday. appeared form the basis of Tory industrial relations legıslation n

VAUXHALL

Such JOlnt the party is returned at the next general election.

strengthen committee. ny attempt to vertere The Tories, Carr said, ends in alesmere POrt. massed Attorney would: the following reso ution Saturday at its meeting on Tues- eir pace Cabinet-

'SUCCESSFUL'

day night: Protect Strike-breatency right not tc Belfast's Catholic committee welcomes

BLACK-

* maintee kith Defence IntrCOUCIOn ol CEne hauc.

IN TUNE

• Strikers acting the troubles or last we c on bers' sides Workers Press who go on unofficial strike Teal role of the th thanks it for the tactua

OUT ON

is love the cal Tom to reports of struggle in our Require They to break Catholi

THAMESMEAN

@tareer employers B.В.C. Albert Bridge. Czechi to pres autorities are criminately rights and obligations heart

24-HOUK

strike • Compliance make more essential than Wiser must be re of notice spos- Stalinists

BBC

which wil Tory Br whole labour shut down all the corpora- on the sie 8 a.m. Sat- ise of military police aid worker attack British troops. millions all levels urday to 8 a.m. Sunday. • Workers at Big support for inancially and in every othe unions to works • Directors the ways me sam By Robert Black he action. Maxi workers ATUA meeting given to shareholders PRAGUH Radio announced ejected attee • That Wednesday that many

HULL

that its 4 given all leading Czech union 'Workers' Press and offer be PRODUCTION at Morris Motors, Cowley, came to a nublic employment ber hair been removed increase cent pay productivity deals total halt on Wednesday afternoon when thousands oi Charles Sunday, October 12, 3 p.m.

workers walked out in opposition to the company's Set up those that e House threat to put 1,500 Maxi assembly workers on short Kremlin interventien and ing inter-union aisputes time. would be It would be difficult for the Lines will not start Tories to be more explicit.

Husks alerted stoppage. again until this morning.

On the one hand, a thin Meeting Wednesday Instruction Botemora 6,500 by 2,000 11K our had a resee to be nions n i vise Ass malags (ACCT), union to return was expecter to iron deter- On the o the the workers press make the strike official yes- Thamesmead site at unions Close on a mim workers. Membersh or the planned strike. other unions are the pathy wood,

WOOLWILL

expected to folle suit. wes the third walk-out The workers art l three-year-old strike atainst about onl legislative Chamesmead site is the Strike action sub-contracuns. biggest completely One the strike now involy' they strikes samir and there solid: Thousands ing nine developments ave been Monday afternoon. could be work there for an ship Thous strikers Statutory heating and ventilat- othel zu years afternoon's The action is a further in- Trade Ps lates rom the Central Com mitte at its recent plear, actirations in the a of Forced to agree corporation's session. at the British-Leyland has been

ALL TRADES

@ PAGE 4 COL. 7 →

ORDER THE

Clearer Vietnam split forced to ag ree to an informal

UNIONS

scull slewalls Nationalization out of

DAILY

ALLIANCE

a spor tenselor hop in U.S. allies certaintrec a week in the Maxi

MEETINGS

the question'

NOW

By a foreign correspondent differen

SWINDON

By a foreign correspondent THE split mour ernmental backers would re clearer every day. —Libyan oil minister Speaker: Frank Willis from the Libyan workers por led tse General Earle US ielen withdrawal from vicelera Young Socialists candidate chiers of staff peasalls said at

SATURDAY'S

LIBYA'S

new ICed in Tan in the parliamentary goes not ment at present Bonapartist OR by-election . for three

WORKERS

This typically {1 for three months in or the heel rearme. Tuesday, October 14 I would like to subscribe to Workers' Press fo

PRESS

No limit 8 p.m. Shteiwi Whatever the nege the Reuben Nan to Este Hall present Forehe focumens in English Sardime in Sai- because market but tor our ol. the declared Name 80m, strugs inside aine USSR South Vietnam Friday, October 17 Tactical he Cu and Page at of socialism Address 8 p.m. Main question Central Committee suppre is fumber withdrawalcts of Swindon Town Hall

• CPSU

and Piotr Yakir's Natio lization of oil would boils "Alexis hesterie. oration ems for Present •іі поло : Praphan Chuter, Organ, si. 4 Ker P20 21869 Thursday, October 23 reveal Order your copy now 8 p.m. Pinehurst Common Room Phone /20 - LUUU gOv-

PAGE TWO

Stalin "Trium- Kamenev virate' sky. January are all problems of and the with Carr, selected from

MANKIND'S

FATE

But Carr is not only a skilled craftsmen. He obviously feels that in Revolution the Russian Cided fought out and de- THIS IS the first im- portant work since the Hammond's IgII The Village study Labourer' to be de- voted to the great ris- ing of English agricul- tural labourers in 1830 -a movement em- bracing 20 counties, concentrated in the south and east. In their work the Hammonds exposed the servitude and starvation endured by the rural poor in the period of the in- dustrial revolution during the late 18th • and early 19th centuries and the repression which brutal followed their vain attempt to change these conditions in the 1830 rising. Rudé and Hobsbawm add to this earlier work in that they provide a mass of de- tails, from each of the coun- ties involved, of the extent, progress and effects of this rising. They are able to show that not only did the Hammonds underestimate the geographi- cal extent of the movement, but they also tended to place undue emphasis on land en- closure as a causal explanation for the discontent of the rural poor.

THREATS IN

LETTERS

'Captain Swing' was the sig- nature most commonly added to the many threatening let- ters addressed to landowners, and well-to-do parsons farmers during the rising de- manding higher wages, the breaking up of agricultural machinery and the ending of rural unemployment. Although the protests of the half-starved labourers (many were found dead in hedges with only dandelion leaves in their stomachs) took many forms--arson, threatening let- ters, inflamatory handbills and posters, robbery, wage meet- ings, assaults on overseers, and landlords and parsons machine-breaking-they were united in a common aim: to minimum living secure standard and ensure regular employment. The roots of the 1830 rising are to be found in the changes which had been taking place in English agriculture since the mid-18th century. The European 'peasant', or small independent producer, ... ...

WORKERS' PRE

Carrs'detailed account of the begin- ings of Stalinist degeneration and Trotsky's fight against it.

THE INTERREGNUM 1923-1924'

By E. H. Carr First published by Macmillan 1954 created no other paths to the pp. 400 10s. have a historical ealization right. Penguin 1969 what The English With tr Review by Robert Black proverD. greater •Righea indivi- Party, ques. concrete but it is my "Platform of the 46' is international rela- At and the wrlung Taken again well documented. witt volumes (the first the problems other nine war and peace, he 'Platform' de rest et he t itsel. which Inree are alread is ther he end est ided to with available in Pelican) this devote reproduced at the end one his academic life to resus beck cholary worl vast Marxist study confinement Lenin's last articles. of the The volumes Revolution Trotsky's articles, and his- setting, the both in Carr is certainly aware the which origins of Tneory the need guided it and in ideas 'Platform' O1 Ce Still of the further. world-wide that led revolutions. These two blows against bureaucracy This book sets of Trots Trotsky, and Carr

SMOOTHS

shows how jective struggle for these first tempo 1924

CONFLICTS

industrialization climax at the Party conrerence smooths out is infists. he

NOT AN

PUT IN

INDIVIDUALIST

presented

CONTEXT

suggests ss she lie that led to ta Pose sales t great cha the took i ne events • 11 undercurrents and bourgeoi: during interreg- place slanderously nothing position and ed in their umvirate num' were more than him indivi- a series mall adaption dualist against the the Party after 1923. id international co special privileges Bother se Revolutien defeat of the German already ise given due nothing i place in March 1923. say Parhese struggles -DuL criticism, declara- deststalin, the bureaucracy tions, warnings and protests, Marxist imply sneel IlS- severa Carr does be- comrades, preserve many lievens) I can- or eats cares. now tha that revolutionary not do situation existed Germany the n the summer or 1yrs right the Party and the Com- There stre be a and the Party, since history with munist International. had n e had ion cousiece dis- had appeared. Although many spoke of the *English were referring to the agri fact workers of the cultural wage who had begun to countrysiat ere industrial reerution.

Repercussions of Industrial under the impact rallel pulation rapidly growing it italis Revolution in Britain 1850. more extensive after

'CAPTAIN SWING'

By E. J. Hobsbawm and George Rude was Lawrence and Wishart pp. 382 | 70s. Review by Peter Jeffries The old paternalism of rural England was brutally troyed. The systen complete mercy of his em- for a basic part of their in- ployer. worsened The end it toe em short-term general AILer Enis the grouna, une core OI spole die brought consists demobilizations from add orces to he armed

AT EMPLOYERS'

abou he supply. piendrul from Agricultural prices, and

MERCY

war uring the declined equally the sou to and east throughout now arp. lated from the town by the operation with rurai unemployment

LEADERSHIP

of the system of regulation administration the parish a harsh

ASSUMED

reliet those a tested a witch ile heavily in a number of manent e dependent was placed source which movement grew and the role played in it ans in the villagese few of leader- sip and direction the ha mains recot aron his is to inform you fert ar feared - but Sentelmen y proraing you The threshing main ob- DoM. put down your nes ect of attack Yet, basic ong run almost irrelevant one wanted the wretched rar a can ratnel to drive annie name roanstrates mise singer low esturgs. or we their unsympalacuc will curn down your of the barnsand another decade) largely illusory: 1s the spects haupe Professor is largely esponsible for the sections ealing with toe treatment c Inose convicted

DEATH

SENTENCES

"Swing' letters sent to farm owners by the peasants during More than 250 lahourers

JC O1 LO

heir 1830 uprising and others were sentenced to

NORKERS' PRESS

It was a year of qualitative change, not just the adding together of a series of poli- tical adjustments and man- "triumvirate' eouvres by the in their fight against Trotsky.

In his presentation of the struggle, this inner-party clouding over of the main political lines of demarca- tion prevents the reader from drawing the full benefit from the factual material repro- duced, much of it for the first time in the west. the has, vocabulary assimilated and concepts. difference Carr's is evolution- 1923 com- technicians managers proletariat. its political platform was to interests... for the liberation working class. soon opposition however cannot death (with 233 commuta- actually tions) ; 19 were ex Australia and a further 6ed sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. Many enthusiastic reviewers hara scholar- ship. able form. evidence. the Marxist's. been so • an academic for the specialist. lish manner. They great on them through the of emergence reflected in movement's looking form. condi- lysing tions during the industrial ing with thized. of the aspects the modern emergence proletariat. conscious in history, are picture. from the and against be under- empirical stood way. and movement. history in non-Marxist own writ- Books 'Stalin' 'My Life' in the Chartist movement.

Depressed to the level of poorly-paid wage slaves stripped of even the minimal protection which the old rela- tions in the countryside had given them, they had none of that their the opportunities counterparts in the towns had for organization.

ONLY

'SUCCESS'

Their only 'success' (if the limitation of the use of thresh- ing machines can be so-called) owed as much to the oppo- sition of the farmers to machinery - at least while cheap and plentiful labour was available — as it did to the strength of the revolt. After 1830 reaction set in By depression and ters broken Protest became increasingly isolated and individual, more desperate and with little aim or direction. The real worth of the study will have to be extracted by the reader. In the first place it under- lines once more the violent nature of the rise of British capitalism. Its triumph involved the legradation and pauperization f large layers of the popula home

UNEVEN

PROCESS

Second, the emergence of the working class, which went hand-in-hand with the dom- inance of capital, was no even process. Although the labourers were to rise against their conditions in the early 1830s their move- ment was doomed to failure.

It was only at a later date, with the growth of trade unionism largely amongst the skilled urban workers that a basis was laid for the growth stable organizations amongst agricultural workers in the 1870s. But there is little attempt to place the movement in this wider setting. What were its lessons? Were they passed on to later generations and other sections of the movement?

Or defini- was continuity tively broken with the repres- sions after 1830? None of these questions are the satisfactorily tackled in final chapter 'Aftermath'.

So the work, despite the undoubted the talents authors, is ultimately vitiated by this radicalism which in- creasingly penetrates the work of all those whose 'Marxism' has derived from Stalinism.

Only an approach to past struggles of the working class which starts from their essential continuity can derive the real lessons from the past which are so vital to the arm- ing of the movement today.

October 10, 1969

'SELECTED POEMS: ANNA AKHMATOVA'

Translated by Richard McKane Penguin Books pp. 111 4s.

Review by David Spooner

ANNA

1930s are full of confusion Andreevna and turgid mysticism. Gorenko, born in 1889, "The rest in backyards 5.00 took her pseudonym, lilac haze', fact ang the world is that the real obli- Akhmatova, from her terated by her feeble and Christianity. She is ob- grandmother, prob- naive sessed with the minutiae of ably from a desire to existence. her Even when she writes of a retain even theme' death— 'grand like name links with 1gth which she writes of obses- century Russia. sivels cats that she It is the death of * her mourns- She endured the October it is very much on a reduced scale: Revolution, managed to dies 'When a man survive the Stalinist trials his portraits change. and died in 1966. Her His eyes look in different way, writing, then, spans a his- his lips a different smile period which torical in smile. I noticed this on returning gigantic changes took from the funeral of a poet.

place, in which Russia Since then have often checked it. from passed Tsardom and my theory has been through the February 1917 (1940) confirmed.' bourgeois revolution, the This remains the extent of the of intellectual content October Revolution and verification of ler poems; the then the Stalinist degener- lender and delicate obser- vations. ation. Yet we must say that- the Stalinist trials of the 1930s, Yet despite this, we see which in her husband and these events in her poetry her son perished, startled as though through the eye some extent out of her of a needle. isolated world. Certainly she felt that she In the early poems, had record the suffering to Sinyavsky says the intro- in of the victims of those trials, duction reprinted from 'Novy though her lyrical poetry and Mir', Akhmatova lives in the individualist stance cannot locked i in Dast. her private the encompass historical sig- world nificance of those massive The poems vibrate with a blows against the working sense isolation, nervous- class. ness and deep fear. She can only the grasp *In the the palace events in relation to the dis- windows burn of her turbance own private cut off by silence. life. Not a track. not a path, only the ice-holes are 'No, this is not me- dark.' someone else suffers. The in- I couldn't stand this: let pre-revolutionary Akhma. telligentsia to which black drapes tova belonged was orientated what happened, towards the aristocracy since and let them take away the street light. the Russian bourgeoisie re- feeble Night. mained economically and culturally Philistine.

It is night for her because Trotsky the she face As said, is brought to face of with history events from the collapse the 1905 revolution to the connect herself with the pro- October Revolution 'struck the intelligentsia heavily and The final in the with 'Epilogue' continuously, as a bat- book, axinracces her desire to and Akhmatova break with her tering ram', herself seems to have been own past, but still in many of the post-1930 | stunned poems Chris- into senselessness. She repeats over and blur the over tianity intrudes to again a vague of loss, contours of reality. sense whether Here though, in 'Epilogue', of parting with she gathers herself to speak over or God In fact she is speaking, out boldly in a way that she without being conscious of it, accomplishes nowhere else in the the destruction of her book. class and of Tsardom. She tries desperately to Though she tried to remain cast off her 'orientation to the pre-October oblivious of the October Re- society and volution, she could not cheat speaks for a moment in history. voice that other, in- poems, but at appears The tellectuals in conflict with the Soviet these bureaucracy poems, appears can re- the form of individuals connie and daisome in con- the tinuity with Sinvavsky not in movement of (as threaten- does in the introduction to masses; a stranger harch of the poems). ing her or the 'cry the roof She writes of a monument occasionally the being built to her which must silence. not be placed in her old The are static. nature - haunts where images re- she freeze sought to the world. flecting her desire to escape society in the feudal mould but ere, where where stood October The Revolution, three hours, then, left her artistically they unbolted never mute, as it did many sections the door for me. Since of the intelligentsia. blessed even in From the standpoint of the death I am terrified the clash of that will forget petty bourgeois, the great class forces beyond thundering of the Black is comprehension, absorbed as Marias, they are in a private reckon- forget how the hateful with their till or their door slammed. ing how conscience. an woman howled like a wounded DEms post Her revolutionary 1920s and beast.'

October 10, 1969 By a foreign correspondent JIRI PELIKAN, form- er director of Czechoslo- vak Television, has de- cided to remain in exile rather than 'serve a leadership which is re- turning gradually to the methods and language of the dogmatic Stalinist period. It would be wrong to dis- miss Pelikan's statement (reproduced in "The Times' of October 1) as the work of just another Dubcek 'liberal'.

While still confined largely to the political perspectives of the April 1968 'Action Programme', this 30-year veteran of the Czech Com- munist Party makes a dis- tinct turn towards the work- ing class as the force to de- feat Stalinism. In addition to demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the abolition of censor- ship and the restoration of 'freedom of expression' Pelikan Pelikan claims to have the sympathy and s democratic forces on his side. These include of the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary anc last three have seen powerful working-class cracy, as in the 1953 East Berlin uprising, For Schools and Colleges.

9.38, 11.55, International Golf. 12.55 p.m., Disc At Dawn. 1.30, Watch with Mother. 1.45-1.53, News and Weather. 2.5, For Schools and Colleges. 2.25, Racing and Golf.

4.20, Play School. 4.40, Jacka- 4.55, Crackerjack. nory. 5.40, Junior Points of View. 5.50, National News and Weather.

6.00, Entertaining with Kerr: The Galloping Gourmet. 6.25, Television Brain of Britain.

6.45, The Virginian. 7.55, Not In Front of the Child.

ren. Golden Silents. 8.25, 8.50, The News and Main Weather. 9.10, The Survivors. 10.00, The Horse of the Year Show. 10.45, 24 Hours Including 11.20, The Party Conservative Conference. 12.20 a.m., Weatherman. Reglonal programmes as BBC 1 except at the following times: Midlands and East Anglia: 6.0- Today, . Looka 6.25 p.m., Midlands Look East, Weather. 12.22 a.m., News Summary, Weather, Week- end Prospects for Anglers, Road Works Report for the Midlands and East Anglia.

North of England: 6.0-6.25 p.m., North, Look Weather. 12.22 a.m., Northern News Headlines, Weather Scotland: 10.25-10.45 a.m., Around Scotland. 11.35-11.55, Modern Studies. 6.0-6.25 p.m., Report- ing Scotland. 9.10-9.35, Current Account. 9.35-10.0, Corrie Folk: music. Epilogue, 12.22 a.m., Scottish News Healines, Weather. Northern Ireland: 6.0-6.25 p.m., Scene Around Six, Weather.

12.22 a.m., Northern Ireland News Headlines, Weather. Wales: 1.30-1.45 p.m., Ar Lin Mam.

6.0-6.25, Wales Today, Weather.

6.45-7.5, Heddiw. 7.5-7.30, Bob Yn Dri. 7.30-7.55, Week In Week Out. South and West: 6.0-6.25 p.m., Points West, South Today: Spotlight South-West, Weather.

12.22 a.m., South and West Weather, News Headlines, Road Works Report. Coverage of key debates of Conservative and Unionist Party Conference to be announced.

11.00-11.20 a.m., Play School.

p.m., What Are The Facts?: 7.00 measuring fitness. 7.30, Newsroom and Weather.

8.00, Wheelbase: Fifty Years of the Bentley. 8.25, The First Churchills.

9.10, The French Cinema. The War is Over (La Guerre Est Finie). 11.10, News Summary, Weather.

11.15, Line-Up. Novotny calls for the legalization of workers' councils. It was the rise of workers' councils in Hungarian the Revolution of 1956 that pre- cipitated the brutal Kremlin intervention after Khrushchev's initial hesitations as to the course the movement would take. The Dubcek leadership al- ways opposed the development of independent workers' coun- cils, and, on the day of the Soviet invasion, did everything in its power, to prevent a strike movement against the action of the Kremlin. That is why Pelikan's posi- sympathy and solidarity of progressive and e. These include the intelligentsia and youth ad, Hungary and even East Germany. ' The ul working-class movements against bureau- Berlin uprising, seen above.

7.00 p.m., Parkin's Patch. 7.30, Strange Report: 'What Price Change?' starring Quayle, Anthony Kaz Garas, Anneke Wills. 8.30, Ours Is A Nice House: 'All That Glitters' starring Thora Hird. 9.00, Hawali Five-O. 10.00, News At Ten. 10.30, Frost On Friday. 11.15, Hadielgh: 'Some You Win Some You Lose'. 12.10 p.m., The Mus|clans.

Border TV 2.0-2.40 p.m., For Schools. 3.0, Conservative Party Assembly. Border News Headlines. 4.0, 4.02, Junkin. 4.15, Short Story.

4.40, Once Upon A Time. 4.55, Cowboy In Africa. 5.50, National News. 6.0, Border News and Lookaround. 6.35, Crossroads. 7.0, Parkin's Patch. 7.30, Mr and Place. Mrs. 8.0, Peyton 8.30, Please Sir. 9.0, Mission: Impos- sible. 10.0, News At Ten and Border Weather. 10.30, Frost on Friday. 11.15, 12 10 Bonanza. a.m., Border News Summary and Weather. Available from NEW PARK London, S. W.4 tion is contradictory. He makes ho criticism of the role of Dubcek, who, in the early months of the occupation, proved invaluable to the Kremlin. Neither does he point out that as a member of the Parts Presidium (a post he has since lost) Dubcek endorsed the same repressive laws that Peli- correctly denounces kan as 'the introduction of a censor- ship much more severe than existed under the Novotny regime. Pelikan takes quite a firm stand on international issues: 'We refuse support trom fascist or rightist forces. We express special solidarity admiration for and the heroic people of Vietnam, who set us an example by their courageous fight for independence against Ameri- can intervention.' Pelikan's anti - imperialist stance is confirmed by his re- fusal to capitulate to anti- Soviet moods and forces in Czechoslovakia or abroad: If . .. I condemn the occupation of my country, it does not mean that I share the opinions of anti-com- munist and rightist circles at home and abroad, which profess hatred of the Soviet Union. In spite of the pain- ful experiences of last year, I still maintain my respect for the sacrifices and enor- mous contribution of the Soviet people in the fight against fascism and the liberation of country from Nazi occupation.' Neither does he rely on the 'support' of capitalist govern- ments or the United Nations: 'We also have on our side the sympathy and solidarity of progressive and demo- cratic forces throughout the world, including important groups of the intelligentsia, youth and working class in the Soviet Union, Poland, and even East Hungary, Germany!' The last three have all seen powerful working-class move- against ments bureaucracy, East Germany in June 1953, Hungary and Poland in the Summer and Autumn of 1956.

Telling blows are struck against the Kremlin's cynical claim that the intervention and checked pro-capi- occupation talist forces in Czechoslovakia: It is precisely the pro- longation cf the occupation, with all its negative conse- which activates quences, those anti-socialist and anti- Soviet forces which have never had deep roots in our country. Here Pelikan is absolutely right. The Soviet occupation never intended to deal was imperialist with a mythical plct' concocted within the walls of the Kremlin. It was directed above all working against the Czech class. The Warsaw Pact troops did not head for Czechoslovakia's borders with West Germany and Austria. These were, in fact, adequately protected by the Czech army. They made straight for the main industrial centres — Prague, Brno, Bratislava.

To this day they have not succeeded in rounding up a single ex- or would-be Czech capitalist. of Soviet All the might and 600,000 troops armour was directed against the work- ing class, which in the few Dubcek W PARK PUBLICATIONS, 186a Cl

WORKERS' PRESS

JIRI PELIKAN: Born 1923. Intended to become a painter, but after Munich deal joined the Communist Party, engaging Was imprisoned by Nazis in 1940, escaped to in illegal work. resistance leader. In 1948. became a of become a 1955 Parliament and in President of International Czech post of Director-General Union of Students. 1963, took over of Czech Television. After Kremlin invasion, helped to organ- Sacked ize the secret 14th Party Congress held in a factory. 1968, from his job under Soviet September he pressure in was sent to Rome as Counsellor for Press and Cultural Affairs.

weeks before August 1968 was munist Party in the May-June General Strike. beginning beyond the go coming together of reformist programme of the The Dubcek 'liberals'. political ferment made possible In the last days before the by the abolition of censorship periodicals flourished with the of the invasion, movement discussed which openly the working class towards workers' of Trotskyism and councils drove the Kremlin to question the role of the French Com- intervention. WE INSISTED in Workers' Press (Septem- ber 27, 1969) that J. R. Campbell always repre- sented the extreme right wing of Stalinism, OF, more precisely, that sec tion of the British Com- munist Party which never broke from social democracy. Rapid confirmation—-if any needed-now were comes from strongholds of two British opportunism: "Tribune' and Monty Johnstone, spokes- Campbell/ man for the 'liberal' wing of the British Communist Party.

'Tribune's' obituary is pen- ned by George Aitken, who throws some interesting light not only Campbell's poli- on tical development, but his own: •"Tribune" will readers Second know that when the Com- World War began the munist Party strongly sup- ported it but that a few weeks it accepted the Comin- "The war tern line that; was an imperialist war to which all the tactics applicable to imperialist war... Campbell 'Tohnny and Harry Pollitt strenuously op- posed the Communist Party's switch of policy from support World War and of the Second suspended from office. 'My wife and I spent an with him and at that evening time we agreed with him. But little later he and Pollitt persuaded to accept the were new line. Our paths di- verged from then onwards..?

PATHS

Their paths may have di- verged in an organizational but both have con- sense. tinued the fight against revo- NS, 186a Clapham High Street, lutionary Marxism. An closer political even Price 12s. 6d. solidarity is revealed by John- Here we can agree with Pelikan. The responsibility for any growth of anti-Soviet feelings or forces either inside or out- side Czechoslovakia must be placed entirely on the Soviet bureaucracy. We must now return to other political faults in Peli- kan's position. a reformist in He remains that he is still trapped by the Stalinist theory of 'socialism in one country', which, after 1945, was served up in Eastern 'national roads to Europe as socialism': 'More and more socialist countries want to follow their own path. More com- munist refuse parties to subordinate themselves to single centres of power. They are searching for new solutions, free of old dogmas and monolithic ideas The parties that Pelikan re- spects are among the most opportunist in the world Stalinist movement. As we have insisted from the beginning of the Czech crisis, their support for Dubcek was in no sense based genuine internationalist on principles, but rather repre- sented a long-felt desire to draw closer to their own ruling Classes. The British Communist Party leaders, for example, have gone on record for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, yet they endorse the dispatch of British imperialist troops to Northern Ireland. Pelikan's firm stand against imperialism at once clashes with the opportunist line of the British CP on Ulster.

All the naked opportunism that we see today in the ac- tivities of the British and other Western Stalinist parties was prepared long ago, in the days when Stalin ruled Czechoslo- vakia through Novotny and his henchmen. The peaceful, parliamentary road to socialism was written into the programme of the British Communist Party by none other than Stalin. There is, therefore, a close link between the Kremlin in- tervention in Czechoslovakia, which springs from the bureau- cracy's fear of the Czech work- ing class, and the ultra-right- wing line of parties such as the British and the Italian, who oppose the intervention in such a way as to bring themselves even more into favour with middle-class and 'democratic' opinion in their own countries.

That is the logic now of Stalinism, as it daily reveals all its inner contradictions.

While rightly stressing the importance of international solidarity with the Czech wor- king class, Pelikan can take it no further. His support for the Dubcek- Tito-Togliatti theory of 'poly- centrism' (the belief that each party and workers' state can and should pursue policies in- dependent of each other) is far away from what is required politically in this situation.

What is called for today in Czechoslovakia, as in Vietnam, Pollitt stone's letter to the 'Morning Star' of September 26. This renegade from the Trotskyist movement knows full well Campbell's scandal- ous record as a slanderer of Trotsky and the Fourth Inter- national. Even Johnstone has ad- the com- mitted elsewhere pletely fraudulent nature of the purges and the three Mos- cow Trials. It is to be hoped that the Soviet Union will soon officially revise these trials.

Without waiting for this, however, I believe we have sufficient evidence to warrent our following the lead of the Communist Party Italian which, since 1961, has pub- licly rejected the accusations of a criminal nature against Trotsky made at the trials...

The absence of a public poli- tical revision of former sup- port for the trials by British Communists provides an op- portunity for the Socialist Labour League in particular to harrass us persistantly on this question... This was Johnstone writing a year ago in 'Cogito', the dis- cussion journal of the Young Communist League. One of the worst offenders Soviet tanks moving into Prague during th August 1968. Britain, Italy or anywhere else in the world, is an inter- national programme of struggle for socialism. Those who struggle to under- stand and break from Stalin- ism (and Pelikan is one such person) must retrace not only their own political develop- ment, but that of the entire movement in which they re- ceived their political education.

The anti-Stalinist movement in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union must fight to restore the continuity of the world Marxist movement so savagely mutilated by Stalin- ism. It is this theoretical task that must be tackled by wor- kers and intellectuals now in the forefront of the struggle against the bureaucracies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The building of the Fourth in International western Europe will give tremendous By Robert Black in this respect was, of course, J. R. Campbell himself. In his book 'Soviet Policy and its Critics', ', he has this to say of the Moscow Trials: "Trotsky proposed to co- the fascists to operate with secure their victory, so that, that fol- in the breakdown lowed, the Trotskyists could to power on the basis come of concessions to fascism ..: (p. 214.) 'If the Russian purge was directed against people who were working to develop the socialist society, then it would indeed be tragic. ...

But as it is directed against people who are impeding the socialist development of society, how can it be de- scribed as tragic? It is unfor- tunate that these people were in important positions. It is not unfortunate that those who were traitors have been executed. ... The heroes are those who remained unflinch- ingly at their posts and, under leadership Joseph Stalin, brought the ship into of victory. the harbour (PP 235-236.)

ARCH-STALINIST

This is the arch-Stalinist whom Aitken chooses to de- scribe as 'a very fine type of Scot'. But what does Johnstone have to say about a man who to the very end clung to the revolting lies we have just quoted? Which will win out: John- stone's 'opposition' the to crimes of Stalinism, or his which organic opportunism politically places him with Campbell at the extreme right of British Stalinism?: Johnny Campbell will al- ways remain in the memory of all who knew him as one of the most colourful, human !!

and understanding personali- ties that our movement has produced. :

PAGE THREE

Prague during the Warsaw Pact invasion in encouragement to all the forces now struggling for such a poli- tical development. Finally we must insist that Pelikan is no defector to the camp of imperialism, which was, of course, the charge hurled against him within a few day of his announcement.

I have made this decision to remain abroad as a diplo- mat, a member of parliament and a citizen of Czechoslo- vakia, fully aware of my re- sponsibilities to my country and to the ideals of socialism for which I have been fighting for 30 years as a member of the Communist Party ... 1 shall continue to struggle for • these aims as a member of the Communist Party of Czecho- slovakia and a citizen of my country. 'As soon as it is possible to and defend these express opinons publicly at home, I shall return to submit an ac- count of my activities.' When the full history of the Communist Party • comes to be written. special credit will, I feel sure, be given to of the posi- the correctness tions that he took up in more than one crucial Party con- sound troversy, pitting his and first-hand common-sense knowledge of the psychology of the British working class and its labour movement revolutionary against the pipe-dreams sometimes enter- tained in some other quar- ters... Not aword about this 'colourful and human' Stalin- ist's support for the murder of almost the entire leader- ship of the Leninist-Bolshevik party. 'anti-Stalinist' The great Johnstone, who in Monty 'Cogito' takes his leadership to task for not revising its estimation of the Moscow Trials, here eulogises the man who not only refused to re- his judgement of the VISe trials, but played the central part in spreading anti-Trot- inside skyist slanders the British workers' movement.

HOSTILITY

Johnstone overlooks • all this. What pulls him towards Campbell, despite the latter's atrocious record on the purges and the trials, is his hostility to any political line that leads to a clash with social democracy. That he chooses to dress Campbell's opportunism up as 'first-hand knowledge of the psychology of the British class' is typical of working the social democrats' con- tempt for the revolutionary potential of the working class.

This so-called working-class psychology' is undergoing very rapid changes which leave Campbell's in successors Tribune' and the Communist Party far behind Far from being a 'pipe- dream', revolutionary politics are here to stay. That is the meaning of the launching of the Workers' Press.

PAGE FOUR

8694 G.E.C.-English Electric

SCIOPER

SIAMO

CINESI

Sackings

VINGE!

#UNITI

VINCE!

fight is stepped up MORE than 2,000 GEC-English Electric workers from three Merseyside factories struck on Tuesday as part of their continuing fight against manage- ment plans for 4,300 more redundancies.

100,000 engineers Unemployment and the By Peter Read An official overtime ban lessons of GEC-English has been imposed during

A.T.U.A.

ofticiais, to ust electric current redundancy means PusI support for negotiations. saine para- in Milan march Sunday, October 19 The strike started after 1.30 p.m. dustmen shop stewards alleged that Mullam own tell staff management did ve his Speaker: C. Slaughter maintenance work over the following

ONE HUNDRED

THOUSAND engineering workers 1HE national weekend at Tne comesac marched through Milan on Tuesday in support of a London All Trades Unions

FARM WAGES

average! appliances actory to Unions national campaign for higher wages.

sure continued production.

Second issue The of the All Nine columns of workers AT Ine vernerton plant, the Trades By a foreign correspondent Converger

CLAIM

where three quarters cenue dom vals pulls jobs are threatened. on the outskirts and held a €20 00 ot the 400 workers minimum meetine adaressea oy unior are out and those staying leaders. work

REJECTED

ELEE

is direct challenge to supply Prices Aside factory, same Workers Workers' Press reporter by ihe same struggley united repeal of this BRITAIN'S 350,000 farmworkers have just over a month productivity dealsection of to prepare their reply to this week's arrogant relusal same prily of tace the by the employers to settle their claim for an increase in eads the way The tactics of the unio pay and a reduction in hours Ship strikers are maintaining a mass on i and the Woe! eaders are very clea Tuesday's meeting of

PARTIAL

Agricultural wage

STRIKES

alization of all Board. a claim for a £3 12s repair eue their case at tone nest

POLITICAL

and a tour. note arantee strike so they begin brot hour painical scrusure cut a in the working

ISSUES

was turned down flat "Geddes' against • the farmers. with the Fit workers to th to docks an it Lookers, folowed be Bose li в сотрх зі planned ustriale (IRI) are simply N.U.T. Coventry deal " Henry Satipal chain man

SHIP-REPAIR

Lown in the cesarpene are planning a major pro- Blueprint for world trade war. aucavity arive y and there was no adjust which could tne year lead to speea-up and refected because it mout 5100 mi out at dundancies througnout ine a betrayal Foll!he are man award like that discover the pay itot have the money to them from fighting as a single,

CEC

onths, said, united force. do for off BY ACCEPTING the sacking of 133 Coventry part-time get a comer had beery has

DEFENSIVE

teachers and agreeing to further cuts in the City's occupier.

THINKING

-important urthe willingness ol all inis l president Mr Bert Hazell.

divert bility of labour eucalon service nauonal umon or reacners leaders mal dams Ed akers to fight down are preparing their blueprint to sell out the national pay yards Hard fight widesper sat Clall. head hard The teachers By Mark Jenkins fight the sor were de. union, the CGIL. he прошате manding £135-a-year generated in the factories.

affects when the With struggle unior ducation Committer The Stanise in pailar particula u nunderstands dominated t com- Bosses get mittee companies, most the location Committee id on jobs and wages in benefit of pallels. through government solution Decline the cheek affecting seatomen d been made du Hull: No sell-out Output in the industry fo electricity at about so to 260 milo Facilities at Priestmans • facinties, over the decade savings with Not surpriseal is scant an ough is known to

VICTORY

the eight- By G. Myers пол от прона week-old SuIKe to are be to alled upe Sacked Priestmar engineers bare share eve sot whet we wan brothers. being There were 19s teachers union jeopardized bJ "VAll the danger signs are cording supplement Dement (Oes Union Within a blanke

'AEF

ado an out siness crosk out of quit workers.

the to schools, yards (Oin otheracked prepare marine last Wednesday, rds 133 teachers uld mean a £60 loss arrend the anonymous spokes- • This is the one. the latest national engineering the star of a maive a 3 necess be malage ceded neil Concession Learney the ores of the tea.

Resolved Bon thes i ple that senate main get to there ede Coates ear but were ree lich operates

A TORY CHARTER

Union officials meet now rely and as to s agree- Lary i 1970 ments.

• FROM PAGE ONE

P.S.F. (Coventry) bosses Offer provide nd procedu inor die can we had mason dam daton to he on wilmand presto meet Save isle pins Fisher, other work in the are ressed Ster inquestion for oventry, management to- ask ssurances backines bout future employment in palen has meant even in rech for the jar utpu Transfer ounced increase in the Patents, Widespre *on the perket line te TunNe AEF steward told the ands of Street to non October 10, 1969

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

By Robert Black WITH the Czech purge now in full swing, news has come from Prague of promotion for several secret police officials disgraced in the period after the fall of Novotny.

Many of those 'rehabili- tated' have close contacts 'Back to with their opposite number in the Soviet Union, the

KGB.

work' order Promoted Novotny men in- clude the new deputy Minister of the Interior, Miloslav to Montreal Kosnar, who sacked was by Dubcek in 1968, much to the horror of his KGB friends.

police So much that General SO Kotov, head Soviet 'adviser' to the Czech government, in- THE Quebec government tervened (vainiy) to rescue him. ordered striking policemen and firemen back to work Ominous in Montreal on Wednesday An in the face of what it termed even more ominous name has been mentioned in 'the threat of anarchy'. the Czech party organ, *Zivot While bank robbers appear Strany'. be field-day, the to having a It is that of Miroslav main problem for the govern- Mamula, former head of the has been a series of ment Seventh Department' and re- demonstrations, mainly by Dubcek for 'in- moved under taxi drivers, which have methods applied CONTeCE erupted since the police strike Novotny era'. during the began on Monday. His name has been linked A provincial policeman and with the attempted ultra- a demonstrator were reported as shot dead after crowds had Stalinist army coup of January 1968, a move designed to re- surged through Montreal on store Novotny to power Tuesday night. following his isolation inside Paced with a partial col- lapse of its state machine, the the Party Central Committee at the end of 1967. government has now called in Mamula has just received a the army and mobilized 800 provisional policemen. clean bill of health from the Czech bureaucracy-it needs him now more than ever. about the city's force were on duty, while Faced with an increasingly about as many of the 2,400 defiant working class, the firemen reported for work.

Stalinists realize they This strike for in- wage served trust only those who creases the first in the the arch-purger Novotny. for police force 30 years. What have' the leaders of certainly reflects the in- It the British Communist Party stability of the Trudeau new to say on these latest

DIO-

administration, which after a motions of men judged, under long build-up for its leader's Dubcek, to be guilty of crimes radical image, now finds itself the Party and armed against the using neat forces to working class? maintain and order'. EAST German police arrested 50 youths following clashes during the 20th Anniversary Celebrations of the (East) German Democratic Republic.

According to one partici- By a foreign correspondent pant in the events, about 2,000 youth broke away Ulbricht can make speeches from the official Stalinist on the theme of contact with for the parade and made capitalist politicians the and Berlin Wall. businessmen of the 'decadent West'. They believed the Rolling But when youth, in a com- Stones could be heard per- forming from the roof of the pletely individualist and un- conscious way, take their first Springer building on the west idealist towards side of the wall. steps inde- pendence from the bureau- The Rolling Stone's spokes- cracy, the police wade in with man stated that the group is truncheons flailing. tour in the Far at present on The youth of East Germany East and had been will scheduled appear at the return to Marx and to Engels. wall. The Stones not the In East and West (as we are main point here. saw with the struggle against the neo-Nazi National Demo- The East German youth. Party) cratic the youth of herded into the various Stalin- Germany come on the scene ist 'youth' organizations, vanguard of the fight as the denied any political or cul- against capitalism and bureau- tural expression outside of the limits set by the bureaucracy.

Though still full of idealism will rally and illusions, they Independence to and build the revolutionary party. Little wonder that they seize on anything that seems to them to express independ- from the grip of All ence iron Ulbricht and company. The stale dogma churned out by the press and the leaders' 'vouth only turns from genuine them away Maryism. Sickened by Alliance a regime and a party that blocks all the aspirations of youth, they and took their guitars tran- conference wall, sistor sets to the the symbol of Stalinist oppression in East Germany, and made 'their own' Motor workers' conference All car, car components and

/ CHARTER

delivery workers the legal immunity enjoyed. are invited by unions in abetting strikes other pressures to enforce or to a the closed shop. motor workers' We have been warned! conference Wilson, Castle and Jenkins, the real trail-blazers for Carr Digbeth Civic Hall, and Powell, will now use this their claim to be to bolster Digbeth the defenders of the unions against Tory reaction. Birmingham No one will be fooled by Saturday November 8 this The of redoubling our 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. build the efforts to mass revolutionary party in Britain Write for credentiale to : throw the Wilson out R. Parsons traitors and repeal every scrap 1 Strawberry Path of their anti-union legislation Blackbird Leys. of —is the only real defence Oxford. unions against the the trade Tory onslaught. Conference lee: 5s. a person