Workers Press no. 1055

workers press

TUC AND CP WILLING COLLABORATORS

PHASE TWO

DEALS MEAN

WAGE CUTS

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

BY ROYSTON BULL

TUC LEADERS are ready to respond favourably to a goverr invitation to discuss the next stage of the Tory plan to hold workers' wages. The trade union 'lefts' and the Communist are prepared to back a so-called voluntary Phase Three of state controls, due in the autumn.

By accepting Phase Two deals and the dictates of the Tory pay lav trade union leaders and the Stalinists are in practice, accepting wage c The Pay Board, in effect, has become the wage-cutting board.

Even official government statistics released in the House of Commons show that while the cost of the most basic food items going into the housewife's shopping basket has increased by about 40 per cent on average since the Tories came into office 30 months ago, earnings have gone up by only 30 per cent. come in the summer. On top of this, rents and rates Then the TUC leaders will go been arbitrarily increased have back to Downing Street or the country, all over Chequers to income discuss Phase Three cases by as much as 100 percent.

of the pay laws to be introduced The real rise in the cost of autumn with Heath. in the living, however, even greater At last year's talks, the trade officially-controlled than the leaders, including Jack figures admit. Jones and Hugh Scanlon, wanted The inescapable conciusion is voluntarily the state accept standard of of that the living But they could control of wages. the working class is being steadily not get a deal which they could driven down. the working class. put across The state control of wages is But they plan to conclude such the main instrument for this Tory a deal at the next round of talks, policy onto the work- of passing possibly by means of a phoney ing class the burdens of inflation "threshold' cost-of-living agree- caused by the capitalist system ment. itself. This would be based on the One of the effects of inflation imposition of a most blatant con- is the floating pound, termed by fidence trick the working Tames right-wing Labourite class. Callaghan the 'sinking' pound, Already the price of food and which causes the prices of im- the cost-of-living generally has ported food and raw materials rocketed way beyond the means to rise uncontrollably. of the working-class average this The chief support for budget. Between now and the make cynical programme autumn, the increases in prices for workers capitalism's pay leaving far will get even worse, difficulties is the trade union the behind 8-per-cent rise in bureaucracy, backed by the Com- wages allowed by Phase Two.

That is what the munist Party. compromise Then. at a point when the 'class implications Tories of the "peaceful road might hope to have to over the worst of the inflationary cialism' mean in practice.

crisis, they plan to eliminate the Stalinists' the Following on El plus 4 per cent altogether and at the teachers' con- acceptance replace it with no wage increases ference of the Phase Two deal, at all, a 'nil norm', coupled with Edward Britton, NUT secretary, allowing a threshold clause pay declare yesterday was able to to rise only if the cost of living that wage control was here to stay. (See page 12) But by that time, the price of The next stage in this attempt basic essentials could have risen to sell out the to working class 1973 of by up to 25 meanng a reaper cent in the the corporate principle wage cut of 17 abolish the basic state is to democratic right to free collec-

TURN TO BACK PAGE

tive bargaining for ever. This will INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY APRIL 24, 1973 • No. 1055 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE £100,000

PARTY

BUILDING

FUND

AY APRIL 24, 1973

No. 1055 4p

TEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

red Hobbs, T&GWU delegates at Chalk Farm, ondon, says his garage will be out next Tuesday.

CUNTS

THE FUND is moving, but only just. Socialist Labour League branches Watford £10; Basildon £6; Swindon £1.29; Liza F. £50, have pushed it up to £9,221.07.

We really need a major effort during the next few days if we are to reach the first half £50,000 by May 31. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

HOOVER

How UCS scared the Tories THROUGHOUT the crisis at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders which began in June 1971 when the company went into liquidation, workers Press arcued mar mass industrial action could have forced the government to resign.

Today confirmation of that perspective comes in a book on Ine co crisis writen ov vacr McGill, one of the Scottish industrial correspondents who covered the long UCS saga.

Based on information gathered in oo on cices. Mcai reveals that the Tories were truly afraid of a class challenge workers. In from the Scottish me eariv davs or me crisis mey considered that they did not have the manpower or the political strength to meet such a chanenge. This was the belief of the Workers Press and the Socialist Labour League during those days on the Clyde. We were vehementlv opposed by the Communist Party leadership of struggle. Party members mass political said that calls for ane moustar acuon aimed al bringing down the government destined to failure. who insisted that It was they political slogans be kept off the massive demonstrations and they who abandoned a mobilization of the whole Scottish working class in favour of the reformist work-in policy. This, as McGill reveals, saved the Tory bacon. Turn to page 9 and read how civil war nearly came to the

HANOI

accused the yesterday US of moving Marines towards Vietnam and Cambodia and said American 7th Fleet ships i off the Thailand Gulf were in sight of the Cambodian coast. The accu- sation came as the military situa- tion of the Lon Nol government took another dramatic turn for the worse. Despite waves of air strikes by US bombers, liberation forces were able to pump shells into government positions in ine capital, Phnom suburbs of the Penh

workers press

TUC AND CP WILLING COLLABORATORS

PHASE TWO

DEALS MEAN

WAGE CUTS

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

BY ROYSTON BULL

TUC LEADERS are ready to respond favourably to a gover invitation to discuss the next stage of the Tory plan to hold workers' wages. The trade union 'lefts' and the Communist are prepared to back a so-called voluntary Phase Three of state controls, due in the autumn.

By accepting Phase Two deals and the dictates of the Tory pay la trade union leaders and the Stalinists are in practice, accepting The Pay Board, in effect, has become the wage-cutting board.

Even official government statistics released in the House of Commons show that while the cost of the most basic food items going into the housewife's shopping basket has increased by about 40 per cent on average since the Tories came into offce 30 months ago, earnings have gone up by only 30 per cent. come in the summer. On top of this, rents and rates Then the TUC leaders will go increased have been arbitrarily Downing Street back to or all the some Chequers to discuss Phase Three over country, cases by as much as 100 per cent.

of the pay laws to be introduced of Heath. The real rise in the cost the autumn with In living, however, even gicalel At last year's talks, the trade officially-controlled than the leaders, including Jack figures admit. Jones and Hugh Scanlon, wanted The inescapable conclusion to voluntarily the accept blalc of that the standard of living But they could control of wages. the working class is being steadily not get a deal which they could driven down. put across the working class.

The state control of wages is But they plan to conclude such the main instrument for this Tory a deal at the next round of talks, onto the work- policy of passing possibly by means of phoney ing class the burdens of inflation cost-of-living 'threshold' agree- caused by the capitalist system ment. itself. This would be based on the One of the effects of inflation imposition of a most blatant con- is the floating pound, termed by fidence working trick on the Labourite right-wing James Class. the pound, Callaghan 'sinking' Already the price of food and of im- the prices which causes has the cost-of-living generally raw materials ported food and beyond the means rocketed way to rise uncontrollably. of the working-class average The chief support for this Between budget. now and the make cynical programme to the autumn, increases in prices workers for capitalism's pay will get even worse, leaving tar trade difficulties iS the union behind the 8-per-cent in rise bureaucracy, backed by the Com- wages allowed by Phase Two.

That the munist Party. what 1S Then, when the "class compromise' implications 'might hope to hope Tories to have got of the 'peaceful road to So- cialism' mean in practice.

over the worst of the inflationary crisis, they plan to eliminate the Following the Stalinists' on Il plus 4 per cent altogether and acceptance at the teachers' con- replace it with no wage increases of the Phase ference Two deal, at all, a 'nil norm', coupled with

NUT

Edward Britton, secretary, allowing a threshold clause pay able declare yesterday was to rise only if the cost of living that wage control was here stay. (See page 12.) rises. But by that time, the price of The next stage in this attempt basic essentials could have risen working class to sell out the to cent in 1973, meaning a real r of the the corporate uD Io wage cut of 17 abolish the basic state democratic right to free collec-

TURN TO BACK PAGE

tive bargaining for ever. This will

EWSLETTER TUESDAY APRIL

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF

a government to hold down munist Party of state wage y pay laws, the Fred Hobb ag wage cutting. London, sa

Y APRIL 24, 1973

No. 1055 • Ap

TEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

T&GWU delegates at Chalk Farm, red Hobbs, ondon, says his garage will be out next Tuesday.

THE FUND is moving, but only just. Socialist Labour League branches Watford £10; Basildon £6; Swindon £50, £1.29; Liza have pushed it up to £9,221.07.

We really need a major effort during the next few days if we are to reach the first half £50,000 by May 31. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG. THROUGHOUT the crisis at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders which began in June 1971 when the company went into liquidation, Workers Press argued that mass industrial action could have forced the government to resign.

Today confirmation of that perspective comes in a book on the UCS crisis written by Jack McGill, one of the Scottish industrial correspondents who covered the long UCS saga.

Based on information gathered in top Tory circles, McGill reveals that the Tories were truly afraid of a class challenge from the Scottish workers. In the early days of the crisis they considered that they did not have the manpower or the political strength to meet such a challenge. This was the beliet of the Workers Press and the Socialist Labour League during those days on the Clyde. We were vehemently opposed by the Communist Party leadership of the struggle. Party members said that calls for mass political and industrial action aimed at bringing down the government were premature and even destined to fallure. It was they who insisted that political slogans be kept off the massive demonstrations and they who abandoned a mobilization of the whole Scottish working class in favour of the reformist work-in policy. This, as McGili reveals, saved the Tory bacon. Turn to page 9 and read how civil war nearly came to the Clyde. HANOI yesterday accused the US of moving Marines towards Vietnam and Cambodia and said American 7th Fleet ships off the Thailand Gulf were in sight of the Cambodian coast. The accu- sation came as the military situa- tion of the Lon Nol government took another dramatic turn for the worse. Despite waves of air strikes by US bombers, liberation forces were able to pump shells into government positions in the suburbs of the capital, Phnom Penh.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 Moscow covers the Nixon scandal LEADERS of the Soviet Communist Party Such operations are done far more What we think coming to the assistance of Pre- frequent v--and with far more efncienc sident Nixon, whose administration is —in Moscow! being. Shaken from top to bottom by the Watergate bugging scandal.

kind activity. usurped power from the working class by force Nixon is fighting for his political survival ano mainlala It ov ine mOSI against a barrage of charges involving eavesdropping, theft, bribery and official recently-signed chemical fertilizer barter lent to soviet products exportea to l about Watergate, lies. lo hght his way out of the revela- aeal. secret police are hounding the courage- tions of corruption he needs every friend 'Even criticism of American aid to Israel But over and above the immediate trading

OUS

he can get. 'Chronicle of Current Events'.

and The camboclan government nas avantees ree esperate v reeo to dea by their economes crisis the ored The 'Morning Star' on Saturday denounced At a time, when some members even of been muted, while the burgeoning his own Republican Party are Watergate scandal-which in times Nixon as a 'man who has set new world question- gone economic crisis, records for cynical opportunism and the the White bureaucrats want a grand alliance Ine ixons nuness to woue nave •roviaca wealth House, the Soviet Stalinist chiefs have material for exposing turning of Com ana denouncing united stated outical solicisaulls no doubts at all. capital ignored by ore one rea from the world working class.

ing from CP secretarv Iohn Gollan anc his cronies this is indeed an accolade.

ignored by lolally. In the "Sunday Times' (April 22) Ed Last November, following Nixon's election as 'the

HOT

embartass lney describe the Us Fresident Stevens reported from Moscow: 'Russia's victory Communist Party chief Leonid president Nixon.' leader of a gangster regime who 'be. Brezhnev welcomed the result as show- True Tress as ecome c concadesor haves like a gangster everywhere'.

mation its attitude towards the The Stalinist leaders, both in Moscow and ine subDom or a beace-ove. redusc.

enough. as far as it goes. But thev don' States. Newspapers and weekly Peking, are determined political ve to the foreign Nixon, to Presene sy lin sar anyth President and wise niems President's sident practically filled with future. glowing President Kremlin's Hazarice alci dorsed Nixon President by telling fear accounts or the postave resuits acmever

NOT

oniv Lnev chance. silence bowl be statickl since President Nixon's visit to Moscow which might the 'Los Angeles Times' that he looked are propping up the Nixon The Stalinists May, and forecasts of ties with the they also know Nixon forward to working with Nixon for optimistic several more years. recime Lime Crisis. Turtner imorovements relations relabic Dastiull asalls l Never belore nas there been such tween the two countries. working class in the US and Europe.

The opportunity it is force the President's corruption of Nixon's regime is suspended deterrent People this crucial time 'There are kind words for the President.

the Soviet leaders stalinist support. at LaSt week Secretary of State. who live in glass houses are in no posi- and for Mr Rogers, their exit tax on Jews who want to that stanism stanes revealed leave the

USSR

means of coming Moscow's Standards the watergatll ob throw stones. After he staunchest defender of vole gon ted And most laudatory articles as a ale staunchest defender of the gangster reserved for Occidental Petroleum's Pre.

to inal agreement with the Americans sident, Dr Armand Hammer, and his on giving most favoured-nation treat- spirators are in the White House mere ouncune amalcurs. Watergate: Finger CP makes pleas to Messmer Renault: Govt PRESIDENT NIXON is fac- points to week of crisis ing another with more allegations of lies and corruption at the White House the Watergate over seeks clash Nixon scandal. The accusing finger is now pointing directly at the Presi- dent himself. Three questions are being asked.

BY JOHN SPENCER

Top Nixon officials have • Did he organize the espion. other accused each MANAGEMENT at Renault, the state-owned raid on the Democratic planning the espionage. The headquarters during the French motor giant, is still refusing to nego- arty Attorney-General John cormer tiate with unions representing 40,000 locked- Mitchell has Chanced twice. out workers. Did he know of or authorize plans to buy-off the men caught First he claimed he knew no- After over a month of strikes and labour spying with "hush money"? thing of then said he spying, he conflicts at the the

BICCANCOURT

company's: factories spying plans was reseal wien Did he change report into government seems set on breaking the back were discussed. the investigation cover-up the present of the upsurge of struggle in the He also claimed he had no. thing to do with payments French motor industry. The answers, on Watch NiXone who tried for were It is survival may depend, could come relying, as always, on the treachery and says spying. Now one nelped Grand Jury this the week when of the Communist Partv them with legal fees. cowaruice the most powerful union in the Renault cominate starts

ILS

cross-examinalion Most people think that Nixon combine, the

CGT.

three key characters in the have known about these must Watergate affair. At the Renault Boulogne-Billan- main factory belief acuvices One Dean, Nixon's near Paris, there John are /.000 workers on strike tremely damaging his future Court, to who was toid lawyer, since the President had tried to ocker our. over a aemana inal tney Sillart full for. the lay-offs resulting from last month's President to investigate the the down his Tricky-Dick' 11 VO 1C° press-shop strike. scandal. shat Dean is expected to tell ays 'Time' nation's number one upholder of •At Flins, new Renault factory, 2,000 workers honesty and morality. are on strike and up to 18,000 others have been moat use resort ne drew up for Nixon was changed.

laid off without pay. If this is exposed as a shallow 'Time' 'It thus says: would eel At Sandouville, site of another important Renault facade. Nixon could be hnished like Grand Dean that plant, 9,500 men were locked out when a group for ever. andrite House Sad that sonicoody Party bosses are now worried workers occupied part or une works last week over- in the about the President. If Work has still to resume in tull at the factorv.

ruled or altered his be- out this scandal, his though the occupation was ended by the Stalinist they Dianells hours taking union its Nixon himself •procramme. involves wynetter place. the strikers were threatened by management aware an alteration oi such welfare -will lose cuts- thugs.; Dean's report is a question with and trade union lead. ihe Communist Party is striving hard grave implication. hverywnere ers who darker mimon wan to restore order. On Friday, Party general secretary Other will include increasingly difficult to re- witnesses Georges Marchais extremely demands of all Iclicl former deputy presidential cam- strain the their Renault meeting inside the Gaullist intervene plant". al manager Jeb Stuart Ma- oremier asking WorKerS menders and get negotiations started.

White House boulogne-billancourt. gruder and another • See US inflation story below.

"The government's alde. unaries CoIson.

DCISISCHL

refusal to the side intervene on workers of Kenault combine shows that US inflation cuts wage packets with the

CNPF

(National Confederation Emplovers)'. rienca Marcials wrote, somewhat unnecessarily.

There has been no attempt to US CAPITALISM is in the od innatione in the present rate Tor une tuture spread The only measures likely Lne To The rest inflation. grip of a runaway inflation of the factories in the group, let early effect the This with President have an soar- on colleares alone link with that of which has carried consumer.

Nixon's aim of limiting price in- other workers in the industry.

prices upwards at a faster. creases to per cent per slump ahead of time. Yet at St Etienne, near Lyons, rate than for over 22 years, This aim Union boss George Meany, by the end of the year. the management used two groups commenting on the latest cost- March been: bushed. into according the

HOW

realm of the impossible. or armed ex-Lecionnaires to cicar •l-iving rise. sales mOrE figures. if any sit-in strikers out of the Peugeot being we have positive proof, rises are further proof was plant. Food prices jumped by 2.5 per fuelled what "Time' necessary, failure of the They had been recruited into 2.2 per cent the Scary Spending cent compared will Calls Ava. Compele of the Nixon the factory shop-floor workers : January. lanche'. Consumers are spending economic and 1.y cent Donces as February. On a seasonally-adjusted their dollars Administration. soon

SOV

WorKillales ailu MEANY ... Skidding down "These latest basis this would mean an annual belief that record-breaking act as an internal police force.

' Le will rise houres mean that Americar still lurtner and thell Renault. Manazenenl Other items have money will lose value in their illusory starch reached Sales of cars consumer, housewife and not risen so worke sponsors the company union reached record are going to pay and keep • index pockets or bank accounts.

pay, and fast. but the overall ofcial organize paying for these failures." consumer big increase

CFT

prices. rose Will This leap since the Kirth war.

le rascist-Dalkca Is allve March, ciating money has hi tas pushed spending and consumer credit.

added that for foul Meany in certain plants. which pushed Richer people buying months out of the past five the boom The Stalinists buying power workers' wages lake and luxury items like jewellery which Iclali sales declarations about driving. these the year of 8.8 per cent, assuming they hope will be a store of value had been skidding down. to new heights and produced an thugs from the factory take no further action.

TÚC CONDEMNS WORKERS TO PHASE TWO PENURY

PART TWO BY ROYSTON BULL

Hugh Scanlon, the engineer- union president, wants to do a deal with the Tories to get a voluntary Phase Three. He and his TUC colleagues believe that a voluntary cor- poratism would be better than the imposition of legal re- straints that Phase Two en- with all the consequent tails, hotting up of the class struggle.

But what will Phase Three be like? Maurice Macmillan, Minister, Employment has already let the cat out of the bag in saying it will be much more severe than Phase Two.

Scanion and company are making use of premier Edward Heath's denial of this in the House of Commons to spread false ideas what Phase Three will be like and to talk blather about the Pay Board.

W. O. Campbell Adamson, director general of the mono- polist-dominated Confederation of British Industry, revealed about the more of the truth Tories' plans to steadily reduce even the nominal level of gov.

ernment-approved pay increases (which are disguised cuts be- cause of the enormous inflation of prices) down to zero and then impose official wage re- ductions for all workers some- time in 1974. W.O. Campbell Adamson, director general of the CBI. 'First we had better be clear that it will not be easy for a whole number of reasons, not least because there can be no let up in the policy,' he told a sumptuous employers lun- talking cheon at Cambridge, about the next stage of incomes policy. 'The freeze went well [mean- ing the pay standstill], and the Two will signs are that Phase be generally accepted. But the circumstances of the special first half of this year, due to the movement of world prices and the introduction of VAT, go means that while the rate of inflation will be held in Phase Two, we are unlikely to enter the next stage with any sub- stantial reduction in the rate [of inflation]. 'We shall therefore have to be talking about a policy which can start to lower the rate of price increases to a more acceptable level. And that means restraint for all of us.

So that is the debit side.'

Joining Hugh Scanion by declaring that the CBI would also prefer Phase Three to be voluntary, Adamson explained: 'We back-up mean legal powers to continue in exist- ence, and not to be abandoned in the euphoria of voluntary agreement.' Not content with making sure that wages are firmly screwed down under Phase Three, Adamson went on to express the most blatant class bias in his advice to the gov- ernment on the Phase Three package. 'Management will need to be satisfied that the right en- vironment for investment will • that profit margin exist and will go. Profit control control is a quite unnecessary adjunct to price restraint.' These are the men that Scanlon wants to do deals with out of an alleged common in- terest in solving the problems of inflation. The employers Scanlon nor- With Fede the mally negotiates Engineering Employers' eration, have a very keen sense of self-interest as far as using government legislation to hold down workers' wages is con- cerned. The president of the EEF, Coventry Tom Carlile, told employers at a dinner last month: I suspect that for many years to come, collective bar- gaining as we have known it will not return.? for those who So much doubt that the Tories intend introducing a permanent cor- porate state into Britain.

Carlile continued: 'This may not be a bad r a thing' Mr Carlile is a master of understatement. "There was nothing free about our recent collective- bargaining other than that the unions were virtually free to do as they pleased.' This good news will be passed on to all engineering workers. 'Earnings between October 1971 and 1972 increased by 15 per cent largely as a result of pressure at plant level.'

on: 'The Mr Carlile went government's policy is already Workers Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 PAGE 3 challenged, At the time of wage negotiations being notably onerous burden on managers trade unions with members in It they, Hugh Scanion walks industry. through a Press conference being the public sector. They say primarily, who will be expected see that the policy by isn't fair to their members To works.'

CIVCI

ene overs. be, quite honest, don't sup- It is not the lower paid who from right. pose it is wholly fair to any- are condemned to penury one.' held down while wales are enny-pinching that dismays The magnanimous liberalism prices concern soar of this remark was not all that Carlile. It is the extra work that £5,000-a-year (and above) Tories it seemed, however, as Carlile are And these the managers will that Scanlon explained in his next sentence: wishes to do a have to put in It certainly places police this deal with.

YOUNG

SOCIALISTS

SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

AND

LABOUR

MAY

DAY

DEMONSTRATE TUES. MAY 1sT 4MI7

LIS

DEFEND BASIC DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

BUILD THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

LONDON

Sneakers Corner

SCOTLAND:

Assemble: Blythswood Assemple. o p.m Hyde Park. Meeting p.m. St Pancras Square Glasgow. Meeting: 7.30 Wood p.m. Rooms. Premiere Assembly showing Glasgow. Pre- side Halis S* George's Gross Pageant film miere snowine o raceant im Meeting: Assembly Hall.

WALES:

Meeting: 7.30 p.m. Caedraw School 1.30 p.m. Birmingham *Merthyr of Pageant Digbeth. Tydfil. Première showing

NORTH-WEST

Assemble 10 Islington. a.m Meeting

YORKSHIRE

Meeting: 7.30 p.m. Guildford Hotel.

Lena! Liverpool Première showing of Pageant film.

Headrow. epos

NORTH-EAST:

Meeting 7.30 Civic Centre. Pageant tilm

JACK JONES: BUILDING A BETTER

(CORPORATIST) BRITAIN'

PAGE 4

Workers Press, Tuesday April Jack Jones, head of the giant transport workers' union, declared a united front with the employers last week. His 1.6 million members, he said, stood 'four square with man- agement in building a 'better Britain'. This outburst of industrial patriotism may well have sur- prised many T&GWU members who are used to reading particularly in the Communist Party daily 'Morning Star'- is on the left wing that Jones of the trade union movement.

The British employers are 100 per cent supporters of lory laws banning free bar- gaining. They are eager supporters of the drive to reduce living standards by increasing prices.

They are, after all, pay- masters of a Tory government determined to deprive the working class of all its basic rights. Jones, however, believes this is the time to forget differences and soldier on together for a 'better [capitalist] Britain' He turned to this theme in a letter to a former West Midlands Industrialist William Kirk who is 'selling Britain' in Canada. Jones wrote: 'Contrary to the black image that some of our newspapers have given, over 95 per cent of British workers never take part in a strike and are now playing their full part in increasing Britain's growth rate. We are standing four-square with management Britain.' in building a better The statement is an interest- ing indication of mood. After two years in which his own union has taken an unprece- dented battering from em- ployers and the government, Jones is still sweetness and light—a dedicated advocate of 'working together' . One might also add that the next round of talks with the Tories on a 'Better Britain' can now only be weeks away. Tories will be encouraged, workers will be outraged, but careful observers of the pro- gress of Jack Jones will not be surprised. The outburst is very much in the Jones pattern. During his public career the ex-Liver- pool docker has always ex- pounded a devotion to resoly- industry ing conflict within and reaching some joint pact employers for with some mythical common good. In essence Jones is a cor- poratist, a subscriber to that body of thought that main- tains 'structural' changes in the 'system' can lead to a har- monious method of absorbing 'conflict' In the boom days, people like Jones could sound awfully radical. For example, cor- poratists often pose as advo- cates of workers' control and, sday April 24, 1973 Jack Jones, leader of the T&GWU with like Jones, they are members of the Institute for Workers' Control. But the true reactionary essence of this theory is that it ignores the irreconcilable difference in interests between the capitalist, who owns the means of production, and the worker who sells his labour power. But the reaction only be- comes glaringly apparent in periods of crisis and major class struggle. Then the cor- poratist clings desperately to his fear of conflict and drifts with the rest of the trade union leadership to the actual cor- porate state. This has exactly been Jones' course during 1973. But the seeds were sown early. When he was chairman-elect of the Transport and General Workers' Union, Jones emerged with a philosophy which has ever since. He pursued unveiled this at a top Labour in parliament. Party meeting Jones said he wanted to see four things in industry. The first was • The restoration of order 1376. This was the infamous regulation which set up bodies of arbitration whose awards were binding. Many workers in the shipyards, mines and engineering industries grew to hate this piece of anti-working- class legislation. Maximum expansion of 'conciliation procedures', which would not be based on prior agreement on both sides. intervene • TUC powers to in disputes to take the initiative from local groups of workers fighting a battle with employers.

Local arbitration panels geared to swoop on disputes and get the men back fast.

This fully-fledged was a corporatist plan develeped over five years ago by Jones. Alongside this his was to productivity dedication deals. Jones encouraged many during the key years between 1968-1971. Mèn were lured pay pacts involving into nd, Measured-Day Work and other GWU with the Duke of Edinburgh at a dinner o sophisticated means of speed- ing up the rate of exploitation.

In exchange they got marginally more money and the great Thousands shake-out. and thousands of workers were axed from the industry for good. There is a backlash against productivity within the unions now, but few leaders care to recall that it was their own passionate canvassing for local deals that brought in the jobs holocaust. Jones more than most was the high priest of the local productivity deal.

Jones would generally dress up this nasty dish with vague 'workers' appeals for more control'. Control is perhaps the wrong word. He always made ral it quite clear that employers should never be ousted from the commanding heights, but that they should listen to workers and shop stewards.

revealing exchange in In a one national newspaper, Jones revealed that stewards should be elected to factory joint management committees. Not necessarily in numbers equal to the employers, but equal in influence. They would share the power over things like the appointment of supervisors and increasing productivity.

workers' Again control, Jones-style, is an essentially set-up, part of the corporate general machinery for avoiding conflict within monopoly capi- talism. In periods of boom, such ideology does severe damage to the working class. Jobs are lost during productivity deals• and the fighting capacity of blunted. workers continually In the period of crisis these theories become the spearhead ver of the corporate state itself.

This plan has now become 'officially' recognized by in- dustry and the Tories, who have welcomed a TUC plan (drawn up by leaders including Jones) for 'worker participa- tion' This plan, of course, is a to • dinner of the corporatist-style 'Industrial Socie mockery of workers' control worse. In practice indus- and trialists welcome this kind of worker-representation. It is used skilfully in the propaganda war against militant trade union Within the big organization. private combines the stewards on joint boards inevitably be- come the management's men- they have in the steel industry. Their true menace became apparent when Jones began to reflect on the impact of the National Industrial Relations Court. Jones' main complaint that this piece of class was legislation not so much de- prived workers of key basic rights, but encouraged the mass conflict he desperately strove to avoid. It would, said Jones, break up the machinery of com- promise that had been care- fully constructed by union leaders like himself. He wrote in 'Sunday Times, , for the example: 'Many forward-looking man- agements who have benefited from decentralized local negoti- ations will wonder at the wis- dom of a Court laying down that a union centrally is res- ponsible for every act that its members undertake. 'For the very real danger that arises from the present spate of legal decisions is that British industrial relations could be set back a generation.'

Jones most afraid of was major national class confronta- tion breaking out-which in- deed they did over the very decision to make the T&GWU responsible for its members.

The T&GWU leader has recovered somewhat from his shock of last August when five of his docker members were clapped in jail. But he has learnt no lessons-the cor- poratists plough on for the corporate state. The innocuous phrases about 'workers' control' now assume a new importance. Jones is talking about joint effort to build Britain when the jaws of political crisis are about • a to shut tight on all his mem- trial Society'. bers and their rights. There were certain German trade union leaders who spoke a similar language in the early 1930s. They paid dearly for their faith in the capitalist system-some with their lives.

REFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

T REFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

'Reformism on the Clyde' the first exposure of Com- munist Party tactics at the UCS work-in. It shows how a powerful challenge to the Tories degenerated into a reformist protest. It exam- Ines the records of the men who led the struggle, James Reid, James Airlie and Sammy Barr. Price 30p, 128 pages, illustrated.

Available from: New Park Publications 186a, Clapham High Street London, SW4 7UG or the Paperbacks Centre 28 Charlotte Street London, W1 (Enclose 10p for postage)

COPPER PRICES:

A US CONSPIRACY

Three Latin American countries face losing tens of millions of dollars in foreign exchange as a re- sult of President Nixon's decision to sell of most of the United States stockpile of strategic materials. Bolivia, Chile and Peru, for whom metals are a major ex- protested port, have already unofficially Nixon's about de- now planning and are joint official prescal diplo- protest, according (LO matic sources in Buenos Aires.

The inevitable tal in world prices will harm these metal and other producer countries.

Bolivian minister mines Raul Lema Patino said last week: 'A fall of 10 cents means $6m the price of tin (about £2,450,000) a year less for us.' Chilean President Salvador Allende has frequently said that a drop of just 1 cent $18m copper prices means

POLITICAL PROFILES

LES

rotsky Now available from New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG (£7,347,000) a year less for country's state-controlled his copper industry. Peruvian Foreign Minister Miguel De La Flor also criti- cized the US decision, saying the move was bound to have an adverse effect on develop- 'among countries, them ing Peru'. Peru also produces copper, in many places at mines owned by the US Cerro com- and other metals in pany, sizeable quantities. from a Us First reaction diplomat was that the three Latin American countries were squealing before they've been hurt'. There has been no official statement from Washington on whether the White House has considered how the stockpile 'auction' will affect other countries. said the sale would Nixon 'fight inflation by increasing so hold down supplies and prices'. But he was referring only to the impact on con- sumers. He apparently said nothing about producers. By LEON TROTSKY Paperback. £1.00 Illustrated Sharp pen-portraits of leading figures of the Second Interna- tional in Russia and Europe, for the first time published an edition. The translations English were first commissioned by the Socialists' •Keep Young paper Left' Their enormous success has completion of the led to the translation of the whole book, which is the first part of Volume 8 of Leon Trotsky's 'Works' pub- lished in the • Soviet Union 1926. It provides the most vivid picture available of the historic figures Second of the Inter- national, their strengths and weaknesses, written by an obser- ver who was also a participant in the daily struggle of the Euro- pean and Russian working class.

• New Park Publications h Street, London, SW4 7UG Chile's Salvador Allende. Above: Surface copper mine. A fall in copper prices would harm the economies of Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia's Lema Patino said his government was preparing 'energetic' official protest.

an since the He added that sales would also harm Chile and Peru 'we believe it essen- tial that the three countries protest in unison'. Discussions phrasing on such a protest are already under way, diplomatic sources said. They commented that such as this only an action could unite Latin American leaders as diverse as the right- wing Bolivian president Hugo Banzer and Chile's Salvador Allende. Arrate, vice-president Jorge of Chile's state Codelco Cop- said the Corporation, per effect on Chile would depend whether US on copper re- serves were sold off in bulk packages over a or in small long period. added that 'a • fall But he in prices is exactly what the US is seeking' Señor Arrate pointed out that lower copper prices during the 1971-1972 financial year cost Chile-which receives 83 per cent of its export earnings copper-approximately from $500m. of Dr The government Allende has said this was a major factor contributing to- wards Chile's present econo- mic difficulties. in Diplomatic sources Buenos Aires said the United States had no consultations with countries likely to be adversely affected before tak- ing its decision. Many Latin American poli- lack of ticians believe the advance warning was intended precisely to inhibit co-ordi- nated opposition to the sell- off.

TELEPHONE

TAPPING

ITALIAN STYLE

A telephone-tapping scandal involving the fas- cist Italian Social Move- ment, the Central Intelli- Agency, top pri- gence vate detectives and the government's spy own services is currently racking the upper reaches of Italian society.

The preliminary judicial in- vestigation is due to reach a conclusion shortly in the case, led which has already number of the flight all esis, oi a prominent lawyer anu al least one 'suicide'. Thirty telephone technicians charged with tapping are offences and most of them are now behind bars awaiting trial.

Two other leading figures are in prison: lom Ponzi.

private eye with a James Bond revulauol closely linked with the MSI; and Bene- a former commissioner Ioru, of police. One of Beneforti's former colleagues, the chief commis- sioner Margano, was the vic- tim of a murder attempt which left him five bullet The wounds. assass alos attempt is thought to be con- nected with the tapping scan- dal. In Rome, where the scandal these few facts first erupted, are seen as only the tip of the iceberg: rumours are rife about the involvement of top govern- ment and even Vatican houres After three months of secret investigation allegations

INLO

of the phone-tapping secret was blown by the fascist Press, no doubt in the hope of warn- ing people whose names had not yet been uncovered. Vast network Two years the fascist ago, newspapers mounted a vicious campaign against Mancini, who the general secretary was then of the Socalist Party. They made use of information which could only have been obtained by ta•one cicanones. Beneforti, the principal accused, and Ponzi both claim that the tapping was a private affair in which they were solely concerned with catching out adulterers. In fact, however, a vast net-

VAST

REDUNDANCIES

IF VOLKSWAGEN

MOVE TO US

Volkswagen may open production lines in the United States in a bid to protect its American ex- port market. West German The Brews magazine 'Der Spiegel' said the move could lead to vast redun- dancies in West Germany's six Volkswagen factories. for Volks- spokesmen said the inflation wagen home and the 6 per cent effec- tive revaluatiori of the mark against the Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973

PAGE 5

work of telephone-tapping has come to light, giving rise to the suspicion that much more is involved than just a manoeuvre against an individual or a par- ticular party. In the words of one news- paper, half Rome suspects that its phone calls are being inter- cepted by the other half. Nor were Ponzi and Beneforti the only ones involved. The border police-a para- military formation in Italy— have their own tapping service and according to those in the know it is certainly not con- cerned only with catching cigarette smugglers. The Interior Ministry has also been dragged in: it bought 200 micro-transmitters from Beneforti for "training and exhibition purposes' Margano, the chief commis- sioner who was shot at, was a member 12 years ago of a sort of political super-police set up by the CIA. This body was used for a time to combat the Mafia, but later was used for secret pur- poses by the Interior Ministry: it probably has very wide phone-tapping powers. The principal officials of the telephone service are deeply implicated in the scandal.

For years they have known about the existence of tapping devices on' certain. lines, yet they have regularly allowed the tapping services to have access to the phone system without any formal legal authorization.

All this hardly explains the extent of the scandal. Why, for example, should Ponzi be able to live like a millionaire on the basis of tapping tele. phones? Seven years ago the military intelligence agency SIFAR was the centre of a similar scandal.

It was found to póssess dos- siers of the activities on 150,000 militants. The speculation now is that Ponzi's outfit somehow took over where SIFAR was forced to leave off. Which leaves the question: on whose orders?

And who gets the benefit?

Everything points to the pre- parations for a coup d'etat of the extreme right in Italy, in which the state apparatus is seen to be deeply implicated.

month's monetary crisis were threatening to now push Volkswagen prices out of the US market. About one-third of Volks- wagen's export production is shipped to the United States- where the one-time best-selling 'beetles' are already beginning to feel the threat of com- petitors in the small car market. The spokesman said company experts were probing the costs of wages, transport and siting in the US, but he declined to which cities were being say considered for the possible production lines. The com- to the US for assembly. 'The feasibility studies • long: under way could take a long time to complete, the spokesman said. Volkswagen, once regarded one of the world's most profitable car concerns, has hard recently gone through times, with its models losing ground in home markets, and market absorbing fewer foreign cars.

The Tory government is operating a two-pronged forcing strategy for 'casual' labour into the ports and undermining dockers' hard-won job security under the 1947 Dock Labour Scheme. In a speech to the National Association of Port Employers on March 28, John Peyton, the Tories' Minister for Transport first Industries, unveiled the prong of this strategy. He told the employers that the government was determined not to allow recruitment of permanent dockers any more even though some ports were suffering a shortage of labour following the 24-per-cent cut workforce under the in the Jones-Aldington severance scheme. And he welcomed as an encouraging development the of some in initiative ports recruiting 'casuals'—men on a and Left: Jack Jones Lord Aldington, formulators of the scheme for a 24-per-cent cut in dock workforce. Above: On July 1972, 27, during their strike, dockers rejoice at the rejection of the Jones-Aldington report.

supplementary register pro- vided by the 1947 scheme who sacked at a week's can be notice. This is the second prong of the strategy. FOr, as a letter now in the hands of London dockers' shop Tories stewards reveals, the have been secretly encouraging of supple- the growth the for at least mentary register the last three months. The letter, by written Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan to the chairman of National Dock Labour the Board, insists that the problem of surplus labour which fuelled last year's docks strike must never arise again. "sensible' It that says a any real problems solution to of labour shortage is recruit- the supplementary ment to register. And it asks the National Dock Labour Board to 'guide' local boards into solving their problems on these lines. Any difficulties in applying such a policy, Macmillan says, should be reported to him personally.

Press first drew Workers of the dangers attention to a growth in the supplementary within register last October, a month of the special sever- ance terms coming into opera- tion. • "Casuals" could be the thin for under- end of the wedge mining the traditional solidarity the Dock Labour] which Scheme has reinforced,' we warned in article an on October 4. At that time almost 5,000 applied dockers nationally had for severance under the special terms. By the time the final appli- severance cations were 5 this due in, on february year, the figure had risen to over 8,500.

23 PER CENT

Last week, according to figures from the National Dock Labour Board, the total re- duction in the labour force since the time of last year's national had docks strike topped the 9,700 mark. a cut of This represents which was achieved by the employers in- side six months. Figures like these amply confirm the warning issued by Workers Press the day after Jones-Aldington the com- mittee's first report was pub- was nothing lished, that it more than a Trojan Horse for the employers' plans to attack dock jobs. Meanwhile, despite the bitter opposition of dockers in most major ports, the supplementary register has grown rapidly.

There are now 2,260 supple- mentary - registered dockers In other words nationally. almost 7 per cent of the pre- force of 34,000 sent labour "casuals'-and the per- are centage is rising. Dockers on the permanent register under the Dock Labour Scheme be sacked cannot except for serious misconduct, their and then only when who have equal rep- unions, resentation with the employers on the Dock Labour Boards, agree. The permanent men's chief fear about supplementaries is this: since they can be sacked at a week's notice, either by their immediate employer the Dock Labour Board, the whip of unemployment can easily be held over their heads and used to enforce speed-up Workers Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 PAGE 7 the employers at Preston were agreement able to force the stewards clear that the it is already recruitment of 30 response to special severance has greatly supplementaries. exceeded all But last week they expectations. I understand that came back for 30 And the as a result of this some ports stewards gave them a firm and are finding are short of they unequivocal 'No'. labour. Also the government The word also 'No' at for its part finds that the cost Manchester, Hull and Liver- of the Scheme is likely deal more than we gital At Southampton, however, expected. the 823 supplementaries in fact I expect would you agree outnumber the permanent with me that it was primarily The three other gistered men. the labour surplus situation in ports where the Torv campaigr the docks and the consequential has proved most successful are feeling of insecurity among Middlesbrough and Hartlepoo!, dock workers which led to last are 352 'casuals. where there year's national dispute. I there- of Bristol (194) and the east fore welcome the fact that this Scotland ports (Dundee, Leith, government - financed scheme etc.-167). has greatly eased what was The have the industry's major problem por! employer. always hated the Dock Labour last year. I am most concerned Scheme. that we should not create Within Tory weeks of the problem again in the sunilar election victory in June 1970, future. Sir John Nicholson, then understand that you held chairman of Ocean Steamship. meeting on anuar of the most powerful discuss the future labour one re- shipping. stevedoring and con- quat in she course or and tainer groups in Britain, was that the course lobbying Minister Iransport cussion it emerged that in Peyton for steps leading to its addition to your own six month abolition. forward look, the National By the end of the year a Council Ports preparing strategy for doing exactly that labour forecasts for the Jones- taking shape. was Aldington committee which will take them some time to had taken employers the trouble of holding secret talks complete. can well under- with Jack Tim stand that to be of practical O'Leary of the use these forecasts must relate sound out what their reactions individual ports and that would be. such forecasting is, to say the Neither indicated any fierce least, surrounded with a good opposition to the employers' deal and proposals at this stage difficulty. both later claimed, although Against this background and when it became obvious that what I am sure must be the the dockers assumption themselves just prudent that the would not wear the idea, that process of technological change they had intention of in cargo handling has not come allowing the destruction of the would seem to Scheme. sensible that National me the Dock Labour Board should guide local Boards toward‹ dealing with any proved labour shortages recruitment to supplementary registers. I hope this suggestion will commend itself to the Board. Should you into difficulty in any At this stage the employers

TUL

applying a policy on these lines had to modify their surdlesy I would be grateful if you and But it was modified, only your colleagues would not changed. Even on the eve and of publication of the Jones- COne see And in his March 28 speech, Aldington itself, report em- Peyton as Sir Humphrey said: ployers such The past year has had its Browne, of the British Trans- share of trouble. An uneasy Dock Board,

DUTC

were pressing their deep hostility to summer hinally disintegrated into singularly purposeless the Scheme. Browne, dock strike which surely every- a member of the one save the bully boys must Jones - Aldington committee, attacked "irresponsible' actions have regretted. The registered dockers. dialogue started just before by the Jones-Aldington problems. of the industry committee was somehow kept alive. The bold decision, which a whole, in particular the gap between the Docks Board staff was reached the full Will and the registered dock support of the government, to get rid of the temporarily un- Like workers. many other problems within the docks, this attached register resulted in some 8,000 older and unfit men has its roots in history leaving the industry. then called for the Browne BTDB to be given the powers While this has led to prob.

lems in some ports, a readiness of sole employer al on the entire labour force.

would to resort to permanent recruit- ports-a which This would under- move entirely ment could simply have led to the rapid smashing recreate the mine the protection given by situation all of the Scheme. same over again Scheme and up. the Dock Labour But Jones-Aldington itself anxiety and in- pave the way for its complete which we have security been represented a much more in- abolition. concerned to get rid of. The sidious, and more dangerous At the same time once fact that some ports have been attack on the Scheme, in ways large supplementary ready enough to recruit which are now clear to force is built up in one port, single worker in the industry.

supplementary register is, snatchibe rade a means er think, greatly to be welcomed. Once the supplementary snatching trade other register is firmly established, I do believe that the ports, and thus hitting at jobs, problems of the port industry the employers and the Tories conditions Wale evel would be solved by bringing the held out they can strangle where dockers have reason. all conditions built on the port within up activit against this back-door 1 C confines of the Dock Labour Scheme from basis of the casualization. Scheme which, whatever its behind. Norman Wright, Transport by structure Hence Macmillan's January Its and Genera Workers Union 12 letter and Peyton's March is prone to inertia and steward Preston senior on 28 speech. resistance to change. docks, put it this way: This is a direct challenge to Writing to P. G. H. Lewison, 'In the long term the aim of official cricketing chairman the policy of the employers is to get rid National Dock Labour Board, the scheme altogether. committee is scheduled to meet Macmillan "The main immediate prob- said: Since we met shortly be- within the next week or ten lem with these men, who can days. be got rid of fore Christmas I have seen on the spot, of the National On the agenda for that meet- the amount of hours they're ing will be calls from a number Association of Port Employers.

the prepared to put in and of ports, particular!! Liverpooi and the Transport and General will use them employers Workers' Union, and discussed and Hull, for the recall of the against other ports delegate conference This is bad for with them the current labour docks both the year ended the RDWs [registered dock wor- positon in tae docks While appreciate that the national strike on basis the kers and supplementary of Jones-Aldington. Board will be reporting to the men. The question is: will the With the threat that the port Department next month on the this results achieved by the special committee would lose its traditional trade attack on its members to go because of the labour shortage severance scheme as matters arising under the unanswered? Jones-Aldington, created Dy

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Tuesday April McLean's failure to apprec John importance of Bolshevism and the party led him into several blind al nationalism. In the final part of th examine his last political battles.

McLean, despite his principled hatred of the labour traitors, never broke decisively from the method of the Second International. This was reflected in 1919 when he backed left-talking Scot- miners' leader tish Robert Smillie as the man who might yet lead the British revolution. This, ironically, was at the very time when, as Smillie later told Aneurin Bevan, he summoned before Prime was Minister Lloyd • George and told he must either be pre- pared to take power at the head of the powerful Triple Alliance of miners, railmen workers, and transport or else submit to the require- ments of the capitalist state.

For the bureaucrat Smillie there was no choice involved —he performed the vital func- tion of heading off the mili- tancy of the miners behind charade of the Sankey Commission. support for McLean's Smillie led to a dispute with his normally uncritical. col- league, J. D. McDougall. Mc- Dougall, who was working in the rank-and-file miners' form movement in Lanarkshire, reflected more closely the feeling of the miners, who becoming increasingly were disillusioned with Smillie.

Until his death in 1923, McLean continued his strug- gle for a Marxist analysis of crisis of capitalist economy. Writing to his friend James Clunie during spells in prison in the early 1920s he requesting perpetually magazines books and would assist in his task.

And this, for McLean, re- mained inseparable from the question of the education of the working class. One of his central concerns at this period was working for and fighting for the development of the Scottish Labour College, which established largely had been his efforts a result of during the war. In pamphlets such as "The Coming War With America' (1920) McLean was able to analyse certain aspects of the developing contradictions of world capitalism. In a polemic

BSP

in the columns of the "Call', in 1919, he paper, correctly criticized those wrote of the crisis of capital- ism in terms of an inevitable collapse leading inexorably to socialism. he was not able to base this analysis on the most decisive requirement of the working class and to develop day April 24, 1973 appreciate the full theoretical and the need for a revolutionary blind alleys, including a form of art of the John MčLean, story we living it conflict in the against bourgeois ideology in the working class, represented, above all, by the bureaucracy -including Robert Smillie.

This would have required a decisive break from the past and a struggle for the develop- of Marxist philosopy ment which was inseparable from the construction of a revolu- tionary party. The forces in Britain which turned to the Third Interna- tional, for all their enormous limitations and theoretical ignorance of Marxism, were feeling their way towards this development. McLean became • isolated from it. increasingly At times he appeared to be to the conception close 'transitional demands' which, like 'Bread, Peace and Land' in 1917, would express the demands of the working class in such a way as to pose the question of taking power.

But because his slogans divorced from the cen- were tral historical question of forg- ing the only instrument which the struggle for could lead power, they were turned into their opposite and became little different from the re- conception of formist immediate minimum • demands separated from the 'maximum' demand of workers' power.

This is the essential back- ground to understanding Mc- Lean's capitulation to nation- alism in the period after his refusal to join the Comintern.

two years of his The last political life were spent try- build the Scottish ing to Workers' Republican Party based on the impressionistic conception that militant Clyde- side could be the 'head and centre of the world revolution. It was an idea on which— by implication at least - he poured scorn at himself had the 1918 trial. But by 1921 the world situation had changed. The post-war revolutionary offen- sive of the working class had ebbed, the Russian Revolu- isolated, at had been tion be- least temporarily, by the trayals of social democracy, the New Economic Policy had to be introduced in Russia, and the leadership of the Comin- to conduct tern had a re- orientation of political tactics against those who argued for In 'permanent offensive'. a Britain the leadership of the powerful Triple Alliance sold out on 'Bláck Friday' and mass unemployment began. The labour bureaucracy in Britain also assisted in the of a treacherous imposition 'settlement' and decisive on the Irish working class. In the face of this situation McLean's proletarian instincts and subjective determination to fight capitalism were un- theoretically diminished. But he was at sea, and no amount of fighting determination could overcome this. He fought for the unity of Irish and British-or as he McLean (centre) at Parliament Square now tended to say Irish and Scottish—workers. He led the unemploy- campaign against ment, earning two further jail sentences, and created a dis- turbance at the Cardiff TUC in 1921 (where he appeared a representative elected as not only by Scottish, but also by Sheffield unemployed workers) with the demand for a General Strike in the in- of both employed terests and employed. But politically he now based himself on a false and super- ficial analogy between Scottish and Irish history. Rightly ad- miring James Connolly, who had been shot down by an imperialist firing squad for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916, he could not grasp the need I for the Irish working to go beyond Connolly class to the • building of a Com- munist Party. And he tried to adapt the realities of Scottish history to an idealist comparison with Ireland's past as a British Whereas in Ireland colony. the workers and peasants had to fight a colonial oppressor well as their bour- as own geoisie, the Scottish working class has come into being in the early stages of the Indus- in struggle trial Revolution against a united Scottish and English bourgeoisie. If Scotland was the weaker partner in the alliance its position was in no sense that of a colony. demand for Scottish The separatism never had the slightest basis in the move- ment of the Scottish working class. It was the product of in the bourgeois ideology period of the late 19th cen- nt Square before his trial. Above: Robert Smil tury when the world hegemony of British capitalism was longer unchallenged, and the bourgeoisie began to seek new political solutions to the revolutionary crisis. McLean's turn to nation- alism-even in the form of republicanism Scottish - abandon- meant a complete ment of the struggle for revolutionary leadership in the working class and a capitulation to bourgeois ideology. However understandable this may have been in view of McLean's deteriorating health and personal problems (he was estranged from his wife and isolated from his young daugh- he ters to whom wrote often and with great affection), and in view of the great ob- jective obstacles which faced the revolutionary movement in Britain at this time, to blur this question in any way is to turn one's back on history.

Those who seek to prevent the working class from becom- ing conscious of its real history, and of the true history of the • Marxist movement— reformists, Stalinists, Maoists, and all varieties of revisionists -do precisely this. This is the role of the John McLean • Society — an unholy amalgamation of such people, including open renegades with whom John McLean would never have associated on terms other than hostility. Scottish miners' leader. obert Smillie, Like Karl Liebknecht, Mc- Lean's contribution to the revolutionary movement of the working class lay not in any development of Marxist theory, but in his heroic stand for principles in the face of of social the capitulation democracy in 1914. The fight which flowed from that stand was indispensable to the struggle for the con- tinuity of Marxism in Britain, from Marx's own battles in the First International to the present. McLean's stands as a vital link in the chain which stretches from Marx himself to the transformation of the Socialist Labour League into the revolutionary party of the British working class today.

This is why we celebrate memory and salute his his stand against bourgeois jus- tice in May 1918. This is also why we try to explain his mistakes, from the standpoint of transcending them today.

When John McLean was buried on December 3, 1923, about 3,000 workers mounted a demonstration to mark their respect for a courageous and fighter for the principled working class. Today it is no longer a question of simply paying question of respect. It is a joining the Socialist Labour League, of helping to build the revolutionary party, to carry forward - under condi- tions which offer far greater opportunities, and far greater dangers if those opportunities seized - the struggle are not for which McLean gave his life: the struggle for the pro- letarian revolution in Britain.

CONCLUDED

on the Clyde' by Jack 'Crisis McGill (Davis-Poynter £1.50).

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

The Tory government had a plan to send troops to Clydeside at the height of the crisis at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in July 1971. This is re- vealed in a book pub- lished today by Jack McGill, who covered the UCS story for the 'Scot- tish Daily Express. McGill's revelation is based on information from top gov- ernment circies. In key chapter called 'Work-in' he says: 'The Cabinet consid- had ered the possibility of violence breaking on Clydeside out since the announcement that the group was going into liqui- dation and had delayed the publication of the Four Wise Men's report for 15 days, because on July 14 all avail- able army units were in North- ern Ireland. 'Aware that the police forces in the area would be unable handle the situation in- to volving thousands of workers Scottish Secretary Heath, Gordon Campbell, and Davies then Minister for industry in charge of the UCS situation] decided that the best course was to delay the report until troops were stationed back in Britain. He also claims that Glas- gow police chiefs had a strong guard on the UCS liquidator Robert C. Smith, but that they had told him: 'We can get you into the yard. But don't expect us to try and get any of the workers out. If we try that thousands of others will arrive.'

Says McGill: 'They took the view that they were not willing to take any action which would lead to a situ- ation which they could not handle.' The book is a dramatic con- warnings in firmation of Workers Press that the Tories are prepared for were and civil war if workers should defend their basic rights by united class action. It also shows that the government fears this strength. section of the Another chapter talks about an emer- gency plan drawn up by the authorities in case of real crisis on the Clyde. Glasgow chief constable Kenneth Griffith, the Welsh actor who made the banned the Irish patriot film on Michael Collins, is now on another project. Griffith hit the headlines when his film was banned by ATV chief Sir Lew Grade as part of the censorship of material on Irish republican- ism. Now Grade has com- missioned a new film from Griffith -on the Mafia! Everyone knows, of course, that MPs never tell lies. That is no doubt why the Speaker of the House of Commons,

IPER CLYDE SHIPBUILDER

AR DIVISIOn

NOT

David McNee, the liquidator and an unnamed top civil ser- vant all had to give permis- sion before physical force was used against shop stewards or workers. shows it The author also Communist the Party was leadership of the shop stew- ards which prevented a clash between the working class and the After the government. liquidator was allowed into the yards (despite threats trom Stalinist leaders Tames Reid and James Airlie to bar him) the Tories began to relax.

'The extremists of the left,' McGill, 'regarded the says an ideal Clyde situation as opportunity for disruption, never allowed but they were to move in with their plans for militant action. Oddly it was the Communists who kept them out... 'The shop stewards seemed just as anxious to avoid con- frontation as did the liquidator the government. There and were no barricades... The stewards stopped the cars at the gates lorries and to ask their occupants their business but few, if any, were turned away. . • 'No group of "revolution- aries" could have co-operated more with the forces of law and order former Tory minister Mr Sel- wyn Lloyd, has ruled that the 'pack of lies' expression must not be used in the House.

The authority on parliamen- tary procedure, Erskine May, lays it down that other words and which must be phrases 'lie' withdrawn if used are 'that is a lie', 'he is lying', 'liar' 'deceiving' 'deliberately • mis- leading' and 'damned lie'.

Mr Lloyd has now told the House that in future he will rule out of order all 'allega- tions of deliberate untruthful- ness'. He reminded MPs of the sentence in Erskine May: 'Good temper and moderation are the characteristics of par- liamentary language.' The belief that control over language gives you control over the things the language refers to is a well-known aspect of child thought, which disappears with maturity. But it hasn't got to the House of Commons yet.

ILDERS LIMITED

- ID McGill says that after a few weeks of work-in Davies dis- 'a fig- missed the protest as ment of the imagination' which had 'very little effect on what was being done. author's is The approach of the typical capitalist that journalist. He paints . lurid a picture of the 'ultra-left', who wanted 'blood it is implied and barricades' Despite this it is clear from the information gathered that the Tories were afraid not of these phantoms but the work- ing class itself. Their first worry was that the struggle at UCS might spread to other sections of workers first on Clydeside and then elsewhere. This would have meant a major political and industrial confrontation which they could not have survived. The book's merit is that McGill realizes in a lop-sided way that the work-in and those who led it, got the government off the hook. It is the first commentary out- side Workers Press to recog- nize that the work-in was not an episode of unique defiance, as the Stalinists claimed, but an essential part of a deal that defused an explosive political situation. McGill is to be congratu- One could say that the Ameri- can pay laws are slightly biased towards the rich. Top Ford executives, Henry Ford II, the president, and Lee lacocca, chairman, got rises of £74,000 last year, but kept within the government's wage guidelines by being paid bonuses. Ford himself ended up with £350,000 and Iacocca with £344,000. Workers Press, Tue Reid, CP member. McGill James writes 'Oddly it was the Com- munists who kept them (the ex- tremists of the left) out.'

Above:

UCS

workers marching from the yards. Above right: Wedg- wood Benn-his role is exposed.

lated for this insight, and also for his research, which has clearly involved several inter- views with the Tory ministers concerned. It is also refreshing to read an interpretation of the Clyde- side struggle that does not go into raptures. over Reid and Airlie. McGill states quite correct- ly that by the October of 1971 the effective control of the situation had passed to the leaders of the unions involved,. a particularly boilermakers' pre- sident Danny McGarvey. The stewards were mainly window-dressing retained as a buffer between and the bureaucracy, the Tories and the men in the yards. A question not answered, however, is why the stewards Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 PAGE 9 handed over control to what McGill calls the union 'estab- lishment. This would involve an un- derstanding of the politics of Stalinism. Really there never was a split. The Stalinists dealt with the men and pandered to the illusion about the public unique' form of workers' struggle which had been adopted on the Clyde, while McGarvey and company got with the deal with the on Tories. Both factions worked in the cause of peaceful co-existence, the watchword of stalinism and reformism. The first six chapters of the book deal with the history of

UCS.

The role of Anthony Wedg- wood Benn, the Labour Minis- ter who set up the ill-fated consortium, is unwittingly ex- posed. Benn operated as the per- fect agent of capitalism, hand- ing over massive public funds to a hopeless financial and in- dustrial and conglomerate a feeding greedy and divided shipbuilding bosses group of thrown together by their own financial and technical incom- petence. Never once did Benn opt for the blatantly obvious so- cialist answer—nationalization.

Finally he shows - again almost incidentally - that for the working class UCS has been one long saga of redun- dancy, more productivity and trade union rights. fewer The biggest blow of all was the final settlement, when the boilermakers, despite strong resistance, forced to were independence abandon their and sign the deals which brought two new capitalist employers to the Clyde. McGill is a journalist who simply tells the tale with very little comment and analysis. But he is well-informed, sharp-eyed and, I suspect, a little cynical. At least he spares us the ed, awful misplaced sentiment about the 'genius' of shipyard work propagated by Reid and imitated by most bourgeois commentators. • One correction, Sammy Barr, is not as McGill suggests a member of the International Socialists but a member of the Communist Party. Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37Łp • Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

Order from: NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG

PAGE 10 Workera Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 house, along with

PRIEST

new curate and housekeeper. When the 20-strong deputa-

SPENDING

arrived, Father O'Brien tion sent them packing. parish's finance the When £14,000 committee met ten days later, they were somewhat annoyed that they had not even been

AROUSES HIS

consulted and decided that O'Brien should pull Father out of the deal.

PARISHIONERS

the priest told Whereupon them he couldn't because £1,400 deposit had already been paid. Ireland, as is well known, is Few After signatures had been not rich country. O Brien afford to collected, Father people can buy parish- And even fewer to his agreed can meet house. When they afford Especially not rea buy house for ioners. unere he told them he considered £14,000. illugal since viously paid was 16, price pre- highest the meeting where the was he hadn't called it. has So the local people of Bally- Father O'Brien main- that it would Longford, tained all along mahon, somewhat annoyed that that to £25,000 to bulla cost up paid for a new house that would meet price a new 1s tne priests' residence. And when his requirements and that the local auctioneer put the hive-bedroomed bungalow (lor proposed three people is worth every value of the new presbytery no more than penny. al €7,000, they sent a deputation The latest state of play is to see the local Administrator, parishioners that his are local Father O'Brien. to get to see the He intends to live in the bishop. Subscribe now!

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TODAY'S TV

BBC 1

Magic roundabout. 10.05 10.00 Banana splits. 10.35 Steam horse: iron "That road. 11.00 Film: Funny Feel- ing' Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, Donald O'Connor. 12.30 Dechrau canu. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one.

1.30 Fingerbobs. 1.45 Ask the family. 2.05 Openline. 3.35 3.05 Gardeners' world. berry hound 410 Play school. 4195 berry hound. 4.10 4.50 Animal 5.15 Jackanory. magic. Time-switch. 5.40 Sir Prancelot. 5.45 News. Weather. 6.00

NATIONWIDE.

FILM: "The 6.50 Barbarian and the Geisha'. John Wayne. The date is 1856 and the first American diplomat arrives in Japan.

BIRDS.

8.30

THE

LIVER

9.00

NEWS.

Weather.

DOCUMENTARY:

'Someone 9.25 the Welfare. Social from workers.

73. 10.55 MIDWEEK.

10.25

FILM

LATE NEWS.

Weather. 11.40

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 1.15-1.40 Medicine today. 6.40

INTERACTION.

7.30 NEWS SUMMARY. Weather. 7.35

WHEELBASE.

Portrait of 8.10

PICASSO.

the great artist with Sir Roland Daniel-Henri Kahn- weiler, i Manitas de Plata, Ayrton, Claude Picasso. BLACK. BBC 2 snooker 9.00

POT

competition. 9.25

A THINKING MAN AS HERO.

Coming

REY WHISTLE

to an 10.40

THE

OLD GREY

TEST.

11.15 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

ITV

9.30 This week. 10.00 Wild life 10.25 11.15 Gallop- theatre. Riptide Cartoon. 1 11.40 12.05 ing gourmet. Rainbow. 12.25 Hatty town. 12.40 First 1.00 Lunchtime with report. 1.30 Emmerdale Wogan. ( farm. 2.00 Harriet's back in town. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Epsom spring meet- 4.25 Junior showtime. 4.50 How.

ing. 5.20 I dream of Jeannie. 5.50 News.

IN THE COUNTRY.

6.00 KIDS

6.30

CROSSROADS.

TARBUCK. Jimmy Tar- 6.55

IT'S

buck with guest Tom Tones. FILM: 'Fireball Forward'.

7.25 Ben Montalban. Gazzara. Ricardo 9.00

PLAYHOUSE.

'Vinegar Trip'. Kenneth Cope. With John Ву Barrie.

NEWS AT TEN.

10.00 10.30

DOCUMENTARY:

'The Line- of Fosdyke'. A hams family on the scratch out a living Wash. mud flats of the

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

11.30 Epilogue. 12.15 Picasso (centre) on BBC 2 8.10 p.m.

Hero', BBC 2 9.25 p.m. Keith Barron a

REGIONAL

CHANNEL: 1.15

4.50 2.30 Worms 5.20 3.00 Youn& London. eyes. Partridge 5.50 6.00 NS's Crossroads: weather. 6.10 Lookaround. 6.35 Tarbuck. 7.30 Curtain 7.00 raiser. 9.00 London. 12.15 7.35 Banacek. News. weather.

WESTWARD.

As Channel except: 9.50 Danger man. 10.45 Tommy Tomp- kins, Simon büshman London. 11.35 Dr Locke. 12.05 12.20 Gus Honevbun. 12.40 London. 12.57 News.

1.00 London. 6.00 Diary. 11.55 News, 12.00 Faith for life. weather. 10.15

SOUTHERN:

10.00 Paulus. 11.05 Yoga. 10.40 Southern scene. News. Gilbert and Sullivan. 12.00 ondon 00 Fondon 5.50 days. 6.45 London • 15 Columbo Day day. Tarbuck. 12.25 9.00 London. 12.15 News. Weather. Guideline. HARLECH: 10.05 HMS Defiant. 11.40 North country. 12.05 London. 2.30 3.00 London. 5.20 Houseparty. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 Chuckleheads. 6.01 Report West. 6.15 Re- London. 7.00 Wales, 6 6.30 Try for ten. port 7.35 Bugs Bunny. Tarbuck. McMillan and wife. 9.00 London. 12.15 Craftsmen. 12.45 Weather.

HTV)

Cymru/Wales as above except: 4.25-4.35 1-6.5 maw: das 410.30-11.15 4.35-4.50 Canta- 6.01-6.15 mil. Bro. 11.15-11.30 O'r wasg. 12.15-12.45 that changed history. 12.45 Minutes Weather. HTV West as above except: 6.15-6.30 Report West. ANGLIA: 9.45 Arts are for everyone.

10.10 Paulus. 10.20 Animated classics. 11.05 11.35 Joe Galloping gourmet. London. 2.30 90. 12.04 News. 12.05 3.00 London. 5.20 about women. Smith family. 5.50 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Tarbuck. 7.30 Нес ] Ramsey. 9.00 London. "The

ATV MIDLANDS:

11.00 Film: 12.05 Bank 12.00 Guide. London. London. 2.30 3.00 5.20 Osmonds. 5.50 6.00 8.10 p.m. Above: 'A Thinking Man As • Barron as David Duncan.

Crossroads cool million. 7.00 Tar- Today. 6.35 7.30 Cartoon. 7.35 buck. Gordon Bailey. 9.00 London. 12.15 Weather.

ULSTER:

11.20 One dark morning. 12.05 London. 1.30 News. 1.32 Yoga.

2.00 London. 2.30 Cartoon. 2.40 Romper 3.00 London. 4.23 room. News. 4.25 London. 5.20 Emmerdale

6.00 UTV

5.50 London. farm. news. Shirley's 6.35 Cross- 6.05 Tarbuck London. Madigan. 7.00 5030S. Cartoon. 9.00k 8.50 YORKSHIRE: 10.00 Ed Allen.

10.20 North country. 10.45 Chess. 10.30 Broken hill. 11.40 Rainbow country• 12.05 London. 12.25 Hammy_ Hamster.

Farmhouse 2.30 12.40 5.20 Here's Luch 5.50 3.00 Calendar. Lucy. London. Weather. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Tar- Madigan. buck. 7.30 Cartoon. 7.35 9.00 London. 12.15 Weather. GRANADA: 9.30 Enchanted house. 2000. 10.05 9.45 Towards the year Chess. Film: 'Spanish Affair'. 11.40 11.50 Hammy Hamster. 12.05. London.

shoestring. 3.00 2.30 Collecting on a Nature's window. 5.20 London. 5.15 News. Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Police file. 6.40 Film: The Big Drag- net'. 8.30 Tarbuck. 9.00 London. TYNE TEES: 9.20 Jesus is alive. 9.30 10.10 10.35 Beethoven. 11.20 One dark morning. 12.05 Lon- don. 2.30 News. 2.31 Farmhouse kitchen. 3.00 London. 5.20 Jackson five. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Tarbuck. 7.30 Car- 7.35 Madigan. 9.00 London. toon. 12.15 News. 12.30 Lectern.

seas. 10.50 SCOTTISH: 10.00 Seven Skyhawks. 11.20 One dark morning. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 12.05 London. Cartoon. 5.20 Cross- roads• 5.50 London. 6.00 Today.

6.35 roads. Madi- Protectors. 7.00 Tarbuck, 7.30 gan. 9.00 London. 12.15 Late call.

News. 12.05 London. 1.30 Dr Locke. 2.00 London. 2.30 Women.

3.00 London. 5.20 Emmerdale farm.

5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Coun- 7.30 Car- try focus. 7.00 Tarbuck. toon. 7.35 Madigan. 9.00 London. 12.10 Meditation.

Sparks critical of union re-organization

REPORTS,

TWO

One from Edinburgh and the other from London, have highlighted the rapid deterioration in housing conditions of the working the lowest total since 1965 since the election figures of termeleus mers and Class compared with 26,000 in of the Tory government. greatest numbers 1970. Private housing also cuaren m care The London Council of Tory policy and the Tel Social Services say landlords The report warns: 'If the action of homes for overall standard of housing chances their cical pcuLy in the older and speculative is to be maintained, the pre people DurDoses are blame for the growing crisis sent working-class areas periormance is noi a

111UL C

and the report says that the good of the city steadily alc Even council houses autonues dave no coneicul wolocilll. plan to meet … Tne problem. are DUlil. lllall) WUI Kills the more class families cannot afford bumcearance s iası -over dential boroughs, the situa- them 1971 and This is the finding of the 'but not T103 senous. lower than the 6,109 cleared Over severe. The housing wait- Edinburgh survev. report says lists inner 1,000 council homes ing in are that 7,000 houses people can- empty arees awera 28,000 needed to be pulled down not afford the rent after the pared WITh tion ep new." fortunate boroughs. Tory wild une Cica in creases slums. also shows Mary Hutchison, MabouT report candidate the May steep tall in council house- WOrSt-nIT areas are municipal elec- those of great need-Isling- building-- -which related colnDureu Housing Hackney, Lambeth, the Tory Fin- tions,

LULLI

the •People in absolute des- ance Act and vast in- Hammersmith brennt. allli taking houses land. peration 'are Southwark. These inner crease in the price of London boroughs have the Last year only tor rent council houses were built- up huge arrears. the highest most evictions,

MEMBERS

Loyalist beds without fear. We were very ot the pleased at the turn-out at what Ulster Vanguard movement very spontaneous it clear over the made Was reallya Lave meeting.' weekend that they want the Over the past few weeks con.

British army's infamous para- criticisms and tinuous. chute regiment stay in made against naints have

DCCH

the paras, particularly 'spontaneous' Ardoyne. 300 stroon rally about THE TOKYO stock market yes.

organized at the But the Whitelaw administra- terday plunged to a record low Was the with little buying edge of Catholic condemned _The ATOOVne Nas CULl." lnc ycal area in their support. plaints unscrupulous interest ( In CIOsule propaganda campaign' 'We want average dropped by OrcallLCr. Sunday night history, the paras in because for us they sixth largest A slalclcHt safety. This is the first from 4,495.18, the mean ine the lowest of ycal, that declared: about four with trading volume of 85 million

LIIC

'If the parachute regiment is shares, the smallest of the year. we nave deen able to go lo vur highly DISSATISFACTION with Several branches are dard critica or une mon reorealiza• the leadership of the elec- Other motions reject the tion, which closed many Iory pay laws, demand that the TUC lack of consul. branches, the tricians' and plumbers' union end all talks with the govern tation about the changeover, and ment on wage control, and call is growing judging by the the breakdown in communication 'all with head office that it has led for unions to _use Lnt resolutions for the biennial possible' to remove the sources con- government. delegate conference at Doug- ot motions lory nuDel call for the end demn the signing Other motions of productivity deals which lead las, Isle of Man, next week.

agreements the pay

SOUTHALL:

Wednesday May

SLOUGH:

April_ 25,

MIDDLETON

(Manchester): Wednesday Osterley Farn- Thursday April 26, p.m. New 8 p.m. Southall Library, Community Centre, • •.ul. Market Place, Park Road. 'Report back from

'TUC

Street, ham Road.

LUTIU

General Strike to make the Dav must beain May Day Mioeleton. the General Strike'. Tories resign'

WALTHAMSTOW:

TONBRIDGE:

WYTHENSHAWE

Foresters', Hiil Road. "The Happy Man Quarry

MAKA

Portway. The May Strike' coo ano May Central 0.u. Hall ulisis Living' 'The Castle' Powis Street Scanlon retract' CROYDON: Thursday April Lo trom lvia Road. p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Room 2. Aoev- HienEs Day'

BOW

strike! Action'. HOLLOWAY: Thursday p.m. cnr. wanes Street. Modu the rising cost of living.

Workers Press, Tue withdrawn, it will be seen by the Loyalist people as yet an- other act of appeasement by the British government and con- cession by Westminster that the IRA has won yet another round in the present struggle' The paras are still remembered for their murder of 13 people 'Bloody Sunday, last year on during a mass civil rights march in Derry. Since then they have further earned a reputation among the Ulster workers most as brutal section of the British armed forces. redundancies, and for more.

to fight for higher 'rigour' in the wages. overwhelming majority of An motions on the Industrial Re- lations Act call for continued de- registration and for firmer sup- port by the EPTU for the policy of total opposition to the Act, including industrial support for unions fighting it. : in WORKING-CLASS families the Port Talbot area will be affected by heavy flaring, noise caused by steam release and large plumes of smoke from the chemical plant to be opened at Baglan Bay next week. owned by The £35m plant, BP Chemicals International, will When the produce ethylene. plant, part of a £125m complex, was first started in February, a failure in the equipment caused a fire which soared 100 feet. A number of men were treated for shock. Police are also informing drivers on the nearby motorway of possible 'disturbances' from the works. Press, Tuesday April 24, 1973 PAGE 11

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE MEETINGS

Make Scanlon retract! No collaboration with the Industrial Relations Act!

No acceptance of Phase Two! Force the Tories to resign! Build the revolutionary party! South London

TUESDAY APRIL 24,

8 p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, SW4, North London

WEDNESDAY APRIL 25

8 p.m. Woodlands Hall, Crown Street, Acton, W.3. East London

SUNDAY APRIL 29

7.30 p.m. Abbey Hall, Axe Street (Behind Barking town hall) Luton

FRIDAY APRIL 27

8 p.m. Recreation Centre, Old Bedford Road Sheffield

WEDNESDAY MAY 2

7.30 p.m. 'Grapes Inn' Trippett Lane Speaker : Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee) Registered as a newspaper at the " Post Office. Published by Workers Press. Clapham High Street, 7UG. Printed Plough Newsdesk: 01-622 7029.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday April 24,

APRIL FUND

£652.73

NOW

ONLY SEVEN

MORE DAYS

IT IS getting very close now to the end of April. Our • total to date stands at £652.73 leaving Us £1,097.27 to raise over the seven days. There is no next time to waste. We must step up the fight now for April's Fund. More than ever Workers Press must be kept out in front. As all sections of wor- kers are forced to try and de fend their wages. the reformist and Stalinist trade union leaders prepare to co-operate with the pay boards and accept virtual wage cutting. Workers Press must provide an alternative leadership to this treachery. Only our paper can show the way forward. So let's not sit back for a moment. Our Fund this month Is more vital than ever. Help us raise extra amounts possible. wherever all your donations im- Rush mediately to: Workers Press April Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG. BRITTON ... 'Just' incomes policy

EDUCATION

spending will be by £100m down present on figures by 1976, Labour's chief Roy Hattersley spokesman Mr said at a Party meeting in Scar- borough at the weekend. But, said Hattersley: 'For the next year and possibly two I believe the economy will expand; there is certainly a boom this year. 'Under the Conservative plan for education »A Framework for Expansion" a progressively

FROM PAGE 1

to 18 per cent during Phase Two.

Trade union opportunists and the Communist Party are leading workers into the corporate state to suit their own political pur- LONDON BUSMEN yesterday attempts by the Tory slammed Press to whip up a 'revolt' against the May I strike call.

The fight against the Tory state pay control was far more important than losing a day's pay, said men and women work- ing through the national holiday.

And even if more than a day's pay were lost, the principle in- y April 24, 1973 IN THE past few weeks the Stalinists have re- through theil so-called ultra-left don't want a May Day strike. On Friday, April 13, Mick Costello the 'Morning Star's' correspondent industrial wrote: 'One Irony In the present situation is that, as is so often In recent times, the Tories and the left wing of union movement the trade both understand the full A BID to swing the National Union of Teachers into line behind the TUC's day of protest on May I was thwarted yesterday by the union's right wing-with passive Communist Party backing. Moving suspension of standing orders so that May Day could be International Socialist member Richard North claimed the discussed, decided Stalinist dominated executive had not to and right-wing before they without consulting the membership and even strike formal notifi- received The collusion between the from the TUC. cation Stalinists and the right-wing, Executive member John both openly and tacitly, has Gray told conference all the been stripped bare signs were that teachers did their

FOR

the Tory vote

TUC

deal and their

FAILURE

not want to join the the strike. support May Day. one-day strike on He warned: 'Unless you want to reverse the decision already taken by our execu-

NORMAL

vote for the tive, don't pension of standing orders.'

In an hour-long address at decisiown ti that no for- yesterday morning, general mal decision Britton Edward secrelary May Day taken by was said: members of the powerful , faction Party Communist 'There is a general belief Scarborcugh, which includes that one day in the not to the

NUT

president Max will get future we alstant Morris. back to normal and have free negotiation between and employer employee to

SILENT

settle and rates of wasts pay. Mr North told me after- Nothing could be further wards: have doubt no some of them voted from the truth in this against get back resolution. At the CP pect we will never nute education to so called normal. meeting on morning their spea- Sunday 'We have all of us become kers "ultra-left condemned economically dependent So adventurism" another in our Party speakers in the de- scientific, techno- modern bate silent and the logical commercial society, Were the old free-for-all no motion was overwhelmingly that holds. rejected. longer pansion at all levels, from nursery smaller share of national re- schools to universities. will go to education. sources Asked how all this would be *The next Labour government possible in view of the worsening high public-spending will be and spending balance of trade position, the on government world-wide flight education will rise with the over- from paper currencies and galloping inflation, all expansion of the economy?

Hattersley swept the doubts aside Hattersley teachers' said pay and repeated his belief that boom would be reviewed to attract conditions here to stay. were staff of the right calibre more He added: If we have to spend Student into the profession. on education at a faster rate than grants would be raised and there would be Robbins the economy growing as a return to whole, then we will. standards of education with ex- class a defeat with incalculable The dangers to the work- poses. ing class arising out of this are consequences. The only road forward now for colossal. The trade union leaders, backed all trade unionists is to take up by the Communist Party, are now the fight the class- to expose with the Tory collaborators and drive them working govern. ment to inflict upon the working from the movement negotiate better wages, he said.

At Dalston garage in London's East End. will he nucmen meant the strike should their volved ing tomorrow to decide go ahead. policy May But George on Transport Fred Hobbs, and Rayne, a conductor, said yester- Workers' be General Union dele- day that the union should Chalk Farm depot, Lon- in its strike call. He gate at supported don, said his members' decision estimated his standard of living had dropped by one-third since to strike stood despite the fact Tories had come to power.

some of them would lose up to the If £14.50 as a result. It's a of principle the "The Tories are trying to take you are against must support this strike.'

away the trade unionists right to Who wants a strike on May Day? 24-hour General Strike. 'Those denigrate who right this action the Trotskyist wine ano fringe.' Now we see ine Stalinis faction the teachers' voting against May union We are Day mobillzation. waiting for Gorales comments on this. We urge the teachers to this fignt against and 10 ignoring possible mobilize the tullesi The 'Star's' Costello strike action on Mayl. Scarborough Stalinists

THE

TEACHERS'

THE

AND

FIGHT

take no

STRUGGLE

AGAINST

THE

TORY GOVERN.

MENT

stand

WEDNESDAY APRIL 25

8 p.m. Hotel Elizabeth Albion Road policy, surely South Cliff, Scarborough 1T mUSI a ust one. try's 400,000 were teachers in tor a "rough time' because rise wild cest perman rise would cost ABC of public money. But calling for conditions reducing of service negotiated simultaneously wages, with said there was possi- could overtime bility win Lanci improvements on tue side Britton said the Burnham FOUR strategies for negotiating committee must be made nestiaing all these issues work forum away excessive avertime are set out by the TUC in a book- let published today.

DOCUMENT

which sets the reportead union leaders' response to a from the overtime now-detunct Prices incomes allu Board, says the aim should be to thạt a reduction in regu- ensure levels takes place for the manons

JOSS

income vast majority of workers'. He gave a broad and un- Negotiators, it suggests, should employers attempt 'penalize Tories stopped trying by beat trade for the unions, use excessive over une setting high premium rates; sub- examole with the stitute time off in lieu for over- Relations Act, the unions basic rates; would be ready tọ play their increase Ddy full part in 'social reform'. JInk onased Increases Dasil rates with phased reductions in hours' This year's teachers' con- overtime of the Why verence nas been one trade unionists should most crucial in its history. pay 10p to read this sort of ABC an accompanying press The Stalinists have from the

TUC

does not explain. cases openly collabo- allowed how the others Nor does it explain rated ana 35-page booklet discuss head to Call purge the union try ductions in e Tories state pae militants and lead it into the increases in without once mentioning the embrace of the lory acauly corporate state. laws. All Trades Unions Alliance Public Meetings What next after the miners' ballot? The fight against the Tory government Secretary SLL).

SOUTH

ELMSALL:

Thurs- day April 26, 8 p.m. The 04, 8 T.N: May Hotel Blue p.m Speaker: Mike Banda (SLL •oecken

(SLL

Central Committee). Central Committee). DONCASTER Monday

BARNSLEY:

May Thursday 30, White Bear p.m. 10, 8 p.m. Masons Arms Cliff Speaker: nole. nanale • conter Banda (SLL Speaker: (SLL Central Committee). Central Committee).

CASTLEFORD:

Sagas se

KNOTTINGLEY:

Thursday May 17, 8 p.m. Sagar May 7.30 Railway Rooms. • p.m. Hilltop. Speaker: Healy (National G. notel, Secretary SLL) Speaker: G. Healy (National