Workers Press no. 1087

workers press

CAPITALISM'

Lofthouse: Smell warned miners of water danger ROLAND "Tiny' ROWLAND boardroom rebels and retai executive of the £200m Lonrl group. Shareholders decided in favour c daring business style by 29.5 millic It was a victory for-to use the Pri the ugly face of capitalism'.

After voting to keep Rowland as chief executive the meeting went on to purge eight directors who had led the revolt against him. Those ousted by a huge included Sir Basil majority Smallpeice, the former chairman of Cunard. At times the packed meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, was like a crowd of football hooligans. They booed, hissed, jeered, slow handclapped and stamped their feet. Sandys Lonrho Duncan chairman and Tory MP for Streatham, was on his feet on a number of occasions trying to establish order. But still they bayed and catcalled. He eventually gave up. YESTERDAY'S unruly meeting was the dramatic climax to a boardroom row which began on March 18 when the Smallpeice lobby tried to oust Rowland.

BLAME for the Lofthouse col- liery disaster moved closer to top NCB management on day two of the official inquiry at Wakefield, Yorkshire. The court heard that officials up to the pit manager were told water was seeping on to the death face up to a week before the disaster. They knew Division S9B was approaching old workings but decided not to halt mining oper- unless production was ations affected. The day before the inrush of water which trapped and killed seven miners, an abnormal smell at the coal face associated with a increase in water was so bad and under-officials that men gathered to discuss it. Face worker Mr Walter Stubley told the inquiry there

INCORPORATING THE NEWS

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTE

VLAND yesterday routed the 1 retained his job as chief n Lonrho mining and trading favour of Rowland's abrasive and 9.5 million votes to 4.5 million.

se the Prime Minister's own words-

BY ALEX MITCHELL

This resulted in action and a spate of publicity court about the company's financial activities in Africa. Details also emerged of fat fees to directors paid into tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Jersey. Although he has defeated Smallpeice, Rowland's problems are far from being over. It was revealed yesterday that the South African police have sent documents to Attorney- General's Department in Lon- don about dropped fraud charges against several Lonrho directors.

The "Sunday Times' said this week that Sandys had been in- volved in getting the charges quashed. When the votes were counted showing Smallpeice's defeat, the was no smell like it in any other part of the colliery. As it got worse speculation grew that the smell was linked to the presence of an old bore- hole. Keith Stone (26), who ran out of S9B only yards ahead of a killer wall of black water and slurry, said that the entire pre- shift had complained vious about the smell and about grow- ing dampness. Earlier, pit under-manager Mr John Oliver (47), disclosed that he had inspected the coal face three times before the disaster, but decided against halting work because production was unaffec- ted. Senior overman Mr Gerald McWalters confirmed that the face had been inspected, but ere only to ensure that production INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY JUNE 1, 1973 • No 1087 • 4p

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE

Top: Triumphant "Tiny'. Above: Sullen Smallpeice. meeting turned on him with a vengeance. They shouted he and nee and other seven purged curectors sat grimfaced on the platform. his speech the Smallpeice shareholders' meeting repeatedly booed Was and Cal called. said: "A majority of the board of Lonrho consider that over the last four years Mr Row- land has failed you anG Is Sul

FROM IAN YEATS

IN WAKEFIELD

would not be affected and not from the point of view of safety or determining the source of the seepare He said: I thought the major- ity of the water was coming from chocks and the cutting machine.

saw nO l reason to conduct an investigation for safety, It crossed my mind that the connected with water coule be the old shafts which were mark- being 50 yards away. working plans as be reason But i nad no apprehensive because of the cover given by the plan. mind that had it in aways Where if there wille we king ak there were workings at our level. No 1087 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

failing you by his conduct of the company's affairs — conduct which falls far short of that re- quired for • a of company Lonrho's present size of com- plexity. "Rubbish' , the defiant Rowland lobby shouted. What about you at Cunard?'

asked one shareholder recalling Smallpeice's chairmanship of the ailing shipping line. Sandys asked shareholders to give Smallpeice "fair chance. Another shareholder was booed to silence when he raised some political issues about the Lonrho affair. He said: 'All my voting life I have actively supported the Con- servative Party. Every vote for resolution one (in favour of Row- land) will rebound against the Party and the next election. I have peace of mind you have not.' He shouted above the rising crescendo of noise, 'You have joined the Maxwells and the Poulsons. Now you follow the German messiah (Rowland was born in Germany of no fixed address.' Sandys silenced the man as a 'Sit down loud voice bellowed: you bloody, silly fool.* Mr Oliver confirmed he knew of ol workings in seams above and below the face where the seven men died. But he denied knowledge of workings or shafts in the same seam. Plans, including the old work- ings, are certain to become the of fierce controversy subject later in the inquiry. discrepancies Already serious have arisen over the exact loca- tion of the workings. One chart shows them 35 yards away from the face of S9B while Mr McWalters put them at 50 yards.

But Mr Oliver claimed he was told by the pit surveyor Mr Peter Wood that there were 100-120 yards to go before a stop mark would be reached. The inquiry heard that Mr Wood sent pit manager Mr Tom ANOTHER smashing post of £411.00. Just think of it.

We're running two funds at once and both are suc- cessful. Only a politically prepared revolutionary movement could achieve such success. We now look forward to the best weekend's campaign ever. Reading £1; Birkenhead £10; Middleton £17; Basil- don £150; Wolverhampton £20; Southwark £50; £4; Acton Basingstoke Paddington £10; £11; Battersea £4; Bristol £27; Acton £25; - Post Office Workers £42; A.R. £40. Our total is now £38,325.64. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG Mapplebeck a warning that the S9B face approaching a was 'cautionary area. In a critical statement, Keith Stone, who was at the face minutes before the water broke in, said an unusual smell like rotten eggs was coming out of the coal as the machine. tragedy Minutes before the Mr Stone said the smell inten- sified and fellow worker Mr Walter Stubley said he turned round and saw water coming out of full bore' (the the face width of the seam). He said: 'I was in the packing hole. I heard a heavy rumbling and then a queer noise like an explosion. The water picked me up and flung me onto the stage loader. A deputy picked me up.

He said run ... and I did.'

The inquiry continues.

workers press

CAPITALISM'

Lofthouse: Smell warned miners of water danger ROLAND 'Tiny' ROWLAND boardroom rebels and retail executive of the £200m Lonrl group. Shareholders decided in favour ( daring business style by 29.5 millic It was a victory for-to use the Pri 'the ugly face of capitalism'.

After voting to keep Rowland as chief executive the meeting went on to purge eight directors who had led the revolt against him. Those ousted by a huge included majority Basil Smallpeice, the former chairman of Cunard. At times the packed meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, was like a crowd of football hooligans. They booed, hissed, jeered, slow handclapped and stamped their feet. Duncan Sandys Lonrho chairman and Tory MP for Streatham, was on his feet on a number of occasions trying to establish order. But still they bayed and catcalled. eventually gave up. YESTERDAY'S unruly meeting was the dramatic climax to a boardroom row which began on March 18 when the Smallpeice lobby tried to oust Rowland.

BLAME for the Lofthouse col- liery disaster moved closer to top NCB management on day two of the official inquiry at Wakefield, Yorkshire. The court heard that officials up to the pit manager were told water was seeping on to the death face up to a week before the disaster. They • knew Division S9B was approaching old workings but decided not to halt mining oper- ations unless production was affected. The day before the inrush of water which trapped and killed seven miners, an abnormal smell at the coal face associated with a increase in water was so bad and under-officials that men gathered to discuss it. Mr Face worker Walter Stubley told the inquiry there or

THE UGLY

FACE OF

routed the Shareholders decided in favour of Rowland's abrasive and It was a victory for—to use the Prime Minister's own words-

BY ALEX MITCHELL

This resulted in court and of publicity action a spate about

LAC

comany s activities in Africa. Be til directors emerged also oi lat fees to paid into tax havens Cayman the Islands ano ersev. Although he has defeated Smallpeice, Rowland's problems are far from being over. It was revealed that the sycolciudy African ponce wrive sam documents to the Attorney- General's Lon- Department don about dropped fraud charges against several Lonrho directors.

Times' said this The Sundav week that Sandys had been in- volved in getting the charges quashed. When the votes were counted showing Smallpeice's defeat, the smell like it in any other was no part of the colliery. As speculation that th grew the smell was linked the presence of an old bore- hole. Keith Stone (26), who ran out S9B only yards ahead of of d of killer of black wal slurry, said that the entire pre- shift had complained the smell and about grow- ing dampness. pit under-manager Mr Earlier, John Oliver (47), disclosed that ne nad three times before the disaster, but decided against halting work unaffec- because outuo ted. Senior overman Mr Gerald McWalters confirmed that the but inspected, lace lad ocCa only to ensure that production

HE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY JUNE 1, 1973

E CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

Top: Triumphant "Tiny'. Above: Sullen Smallpelce. meeting turned on him with a vengeance. They shouted 'good riddance' and 'get out' as and the purged directors other seven sat grimfaced on the platform.

During his speech to the shareholders' meeting Smallpeice was repeatedly booed and cat- called. He said: 'A majority of the board of Lonrho consider that over the last four years Mr Row- land has failed you and is still

FROM IAN YEATS

IN WAKEFIELD

would not be affected and not from the point of view of safety or determining the source of the seepage. He said: 'I thought the major- ity of the water was coming from chocks and the cutting machine.

I saw • no reason to conduct an investigation for safety.

'It crossed my mind that the water could be connected with the old shafts which were mark- on our working plans ed as being 50 yards away. 'But I had no reason to be apprehensive because of the cover given by the plan. I always had it in mind that we wouldn't be allowed to work there if there were workings at our level' 1, 1973 • No 1087 • 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

failing you by his conduct of the company's affairs - conduct which falls far short of that re- quired for • a company of Lonrho's present size of com- plexity. 'Rubbish', the defiant Rowland lobby shouted. 'What about you at Cunard?'

asked one shareholder recalling Smallpeice's chairmanship of the ailing shipping line. Sandys asked shareholders to give Smallpeice a 'fair chance'.

Another shareholder was booed to silence when he raised some political issues about the Lonrho affair. He said: "All my voting life I have actively supported the Con- servative Party. Every vote for resolution one (in favour of Row- land) will rebound against the Party and the next election. I have peace of mind you have not.' He shouted above the rising crescendo of noise, 'You have joined the Maxwells and the Poulsons. Now you follow the German messiah (Rowland was born in Germany of no fixed address? Sandys silenced the man as a 'Sit down loud voice bellowed: still you bloody, silly fool.'

Mr Oliver confirmed he knew of ol workings in seams above and below the face where the seven men died. But he denied knowledge of workings or shafts in the same seam. Plans, including the old work- ings, are certain to become the subject of fierce controversy later in the inquiry. Already serious discrepancies have arisen over the exact loca- tion of the workings. One chart shows them 35 yards away from of S9B while Mr the face McWalters put them at 50 yards.

But Mr Oliver claimed he was told by the pit surveyor Mr Peter Wood that there were 100-120 yards to go before a stop mark would be reached. The inquiry heard that Mr Wood sent pit manager Mr Tom ANOTHER smashing post of £411.00. Just think of it.

We're running two funds at once and • both are suc- cessful. Only a politically prepared revolutionary movement could achieve We now such success. look forward to the best weekend's campaign ever. Reading £1; Birkenhead £10; Middleton £17; Basil- don £150; Wolverhampton £20; Southwark £50; £4; Acton Basingstoke Paddington £10; £11; Battersea £4; Bristol £27; Acton £25; Post Office Workers £42; A.R. £40. Our total is now £38,325.64. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG Mapplebeck a warning that the S9B face approaching a was 'cautionary area'. In a critical statement, Keith Stone, who was at the face minutes before the water broke in, said an unusual smell like rotten eggs was coming out of the coal as the machine. tragedy Minutes before the Mr Stone said the smell inten- sified and fellow worker Mr Walter Stubley said he turned round and saw water coming out face full bore' of the (the width of the seam). He said: 'I was in the packing hole. I heard a heavy rumbling and then a queer noise like an explosion. The water picked me up and flung me onto the stage A deputy picked me up. loader. He said run ... and I did.'

The inquiry continues.

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Clyde conference planned Lambton-Jellicoe affair It didn't Q. What happened to really the Lambton-Jellicoe affair? A. Nothing, it's still with us. Well in the Isn t wylty papers and on television? happen been a Tre es woue ornel a me tacIs —he wouldn't hide anything.

Yes, he also said he would UnOuS.

TCCUCE

•.ce and give everyone the sroke the "Sunday chance to live in comfortable still Heath's from People' in housing. Cabinet. Morocco. What is the 'People' doing Why didn't he will happen to Lord, have •wnat with resign too? the Tugltives nean. v camoton anocar law? Jellicoe? Because he wouldn't. Search Read the me. They will write articles for 'People' on Sunday. Why didn't Heath make important newspapers like "The him leave like ine OIne Se You mean the capitalist 'Daily Express' and the Times' Because he couldn't. ress consorting witA shortly elevated people wanted for questioning come selenis or deceniy and saintliness. If Heath is worried about about 'criminal offences'?

security, he national why has It looks that way. integrity. Cabinet? Isn't Heath worried But they did T021 movont Search me. Mr Mrs Levy will give something wrong? third the name of the man Q. Are there any more people They may have. But this ls 'People' and they'l

TOP

intes scaneai Sulitte • lish it on Sunday? comoietery sudoranale vestigated? fact that, like thoroughly de- The 'People' owned by cent chaps, they Yes, Mr and Mrs Levy. In up. Cor- International Publishing Monday owned up after they statement last They WeTe •oncon noSOcrd S or caught, they C•lise Don Ryder. The editorial owned This makes them see them connection director Sir Hugh Cudtipp. splendid with criminal offences'. fellows and much think •oli tere s Where are they? chance of the name getting out. What about the third man?

A. They're with two reporters on yards' future SHIPBUILDING unions

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

and shop stewards Clydeside are to organize Booz-Allen said that if ivity. conference on the DrilaIn was lo comoele wild Japan, the speed-up would future of their industry have to reach 100 per cent. which, according to ex- is likely to fall The axe perts, faces massive hardest in the areas of high- redundancies big unemployment, like the and productivity increases. Ulyde, and the lyne in the north-east. Those invited include the Already management at Powellite Tory MP the Govan Shipbuilders. now the Taylor, Teddy member only merchant shipbuilding Glasgow Cathcart. trom the upper Unions say they have in- reaches, sed ducti izo Days vited him to show the con- by

NOUST

increased ference will 'not be per cent. just Many shipyard workers on about nationalization'. The will summit, ine river are extremev WOr. ried over their future. So far take place this summer. forced unions the pace stewards and vo ves 110100 af thal yeprs oni nne upers producavily wnlca increased yards aespite a han wage and bonus ana IOWel reaches Inc under the rivehe Labour Party view will governments pas aws. the Scotstoun Anthony At division by orcocalcu of Govan Shipbuilders, wedewood benn wno, Minister in Wilson's govern- bonermakers. iedov Samant resisted all Barr- -the Communist Party doggedly Dicill leader of work-in fame--have calls to nationalize the alling industry. of 800 votes in favour out Anthony The main talking point will other workers in preparation Some boilermakers wood for deal which boost be the Booz-Allen and LasL the meeting waked

OUT

With Hamilton em- reDort- uoe vuLTUl in disgust before the poll. Shipbuilders' ployers' charter, prepared by The main target of abuse venor has been the consultants who aimed criticism Management at Marathon boilermakers who first British Make Inauslly Hlavt see Tos VICOrV competitive. employers in breaking down all Sister atmos ov They of mmende d, the to break down their wage demarcation in the yards.

sacking between rates and conditions concrence bulit They entirely year. walll up workers neUsUV over oecaae. strucce mobile, super-productive pool within four years or 25,000 The latest to suffer are the of 'steel workers' to build redundancies within Marathon boilermakers ten oil-rigs. Clydebank who have agreec years. would All these issues will come ins ramonazacn _acceDi men IrON ounel run parallel with the trades into their ranks after up _Tne summer meetine of to three firms organized by the Confedera- closure retraining. tion of Shipbuilding and En- then a secret ballot a acel cent mncrease BVen revealed a tiny 31 majority every worker's product- oneene umons. Workers Press, Friday June 1, 1973 PAGE 3

"LAMBION• NOW

mait

RUNAWAY CYCLISTS TURM

•UP IN A PUBEEE:

of girl in Norma is wanted tor questi about 'crimes What German Q. about the thing about his connections in connection? There's been London? hasn't there? court case, A. They can do it all right, they can do it. A. Yes, Hans-Ulrich Althoff has been giving a year's jail Q. But won't Lord Diplock for pimping. and his Security Commission Q. Did anything come out all bring this out into the about his involvement with the open? London end of the scandal? A. No. It's a secret commit- prosecutor No, the state tee meeting behind closed specifically said that what went doors. on in London 'wasn't the con- Q. Why don't they cern of this court'. Evidence put it on Watergate television like the of conversations with London 'had been inquiry? clients deliberately left out. A. Because it's a secret. Q. You mean this could be Q. But everyone around Fleet another cover-up? Street Knows and Whitehall Heath Brandt A. saw on who the third man anyway Tuesday for a private lunch.

and everything that's been going on. Q. Then this could have been cooked up? A. Yes, I know, but it's best to be secret about what's A. What a shocking, out- public knowledge. allegation! Of rageous course, it that the trịp was Q. I don't understand. is true marred by Heath's urgent A. Neither do I, Shut up and phone call to No 10 Downing Before you go to bed. do, Street to clear the third man.

the close wardrobe doors. Q. But they jail There may be a 'News of the how can a World' photographer in there.

man in Munich yet not do any- MASSEY FERGUSON trac- tor workers in Coventry have deferred strike decision a until June 7. The 4,700 workers object to attempts by the management to link payment of the state pay limit of fl plus 4 per cent to the introduction of a new wages structure in place of piecework. With only hours to go before the strike due was begin. to T. Jayne, Director of Personnel, told local

AUEW

officials the company wished to enter 'mean.

ingful discussions' on the £2.50 across-the-board wage claim.

A meeting of the National Negotiating Joint has Counci been convened for next Thurs- day, June 7. At the mass meeting on Wed- nesday afternoon discuss the position, many workers de- manded that the strike should go ahead. But J. Dunne, T&GWU venor, said the strike should be called the dis- to allow cussion to proceed. By a narrow vote the strike called off. was Most workers prepared dis- are to permit the claim cussions on pay but many fear strings Measured-Day Work-will be linked to the pay offer. Wedg-

PERIODICALS AND

GET YOUR BOOKS.

Benn seen

NEWSPAPERS FROM THE

Upper Clyde nipbuilders' con- and Com- unist Party mem- er Jimmy Reid at Labour Party last

28 CHARLOTTE STREET

LONDON, W1

Open Monday to Saturday

TRANSFORMING THE SOC

INTOA REVOLUTIONARY

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Friday June 1, about the Labour socalism Mr Singh (28), is a teacher and member of the National • I was born in India during the years of independence and I was intensely patriotic.

But as I grew up I found that Gandhi and Nehru or God whom I believed in, even, didn't help me. I wanted education, but I couldn't get it because my dad couldn't afford it. I had a religious upbringing.

I used to believe that God was responsible for everything that happened and that there was no point complaining about it.

In my own case I have suffered poverty. My dad was a policeman. At least he had a monthly salary coming in, but it was too little to support a family-especially to send a kid to school. I used to have to go to schools where my dad went to the headmaster and pleaded with him to give me a free seat. being The headmaster a liberal middle-class bloke would say: 'All right, we'll do it' • But the school would be owned by a private individual and he wouldn't have it. I was at most of my schools without my name on the register. These experiences and all the poor people I could see around living and dying in suffering made me into liberal or a social democrat.

The Nehru government had plenty of slogans. I used to go on demonstrations shouting 'Long live Gandhi!' and 'Long live Nehru!' But when I went to school I was a second-class kid. I wasn't on the register and I couldn't get any of the pocket money the rich kids got. I remember once, particularly when the school was going on a picnic. All the kids had to pay two rupees, but I couldn't afford it and my dad couldn't afford it. I wanted to go and the teacher, being a nice per- son, said 'All right you can come', ', but I felt it all the time I was there. I was treated as a person who had not paid.

Gandhi and Nehru only talked about socialism. They never did anything about it. They didn't mean it. This led me to start looking around for something else. I could see there was no medicine for the sick, no proper jobs, nobody worrying about those who were starving to death. I discovered One summer that my dad's best friend who was very nice to me killed himself. He jumped into a well.

1 asked people why he killed himself and they said he was in debt. So much in debt that he couldn't bear it any more and he killed himself. These experiences made me think more and more about Nehru and Gandhi's socialism and about the idea of God as well. I thought 'Well, if there is a God, he would have stopped that bloke jumping in the well'. ay June 1, 1973 Nehru represented the liberal people of India who talked about doing good to the ordinary people and who talked about socialism, but they had no clue. Socialism in India required a revolutionary party, a party of the peasants and the workers.

No other party could bring socialism to India. The other parties were based on the so- called intellectuals and liberals and people who were supported by big business. Gandhi used to worship at Birla temples and Birla is one of the biggest capitalists in India. He owns probably 80 per cent of the wealth in India.

Gandhi-Nehru clique The represented this sort of big business. That's where they went wrong. They represented the Indian bourgeoisie. I always wanted to get away from India with all the misery and poverty and I thought I would probably be better off in England. That's why I came here. When I came, I was a liberal and full of hope. I didn't sup- port Nehru and social demo- cracy, but still I thought that democracy could work in England. I have worked in all sorts of jobs here. I have done Nehru (above) talked about doing good but had no clue.'

Top: Police disperse anti-British demonstrators in the years just prior to Indian independence.

sweeping, catering work, I have done night-shift for day after day and week after week. With all these experiences it came out that the idea I had about democracy in England was wrong. It was a painful experience for me. Then I thought the Labour Party would represent the right sort of democracy. I supported the Labour Party. I thought they were the party of the working man, but one after the other, events, disillusioned me. In 1966 when the Labour government came for the second time they put up pre- scription charges, even though they had said they wouldn't.

Then they brought in 'In Place of Strife against the trade unions and now the Tories have. used the same paper to put: their Industrial Relations Act into practice.

More recently there have been the betrayals of Jenkins and his group over the Com- mon Market. The Tories could have been chucked out. Jenkins and his group kept the Tories in power, but all Wilson was interested in was keeping the party together.

These events shattered com- pletely any illusions 1 had about the Labour Party bring- ing socialism because I could see they were only interested in keeping the capitalist system going. I was influenced by the Communist Party because I thought they would be for poor people everywhere. For a long time I was very interested in the Soviet Union and its achievements and the October Revolution. The Communist Party has given up any desire to over- throw capitalism. The people in the party don't have the interests of the working class at heart. They are not prepared to take up a struggle on behalf of the working class. It goes back to the develop- ment of communist parties all over the world in the last 20 years or so. All the parties guided by the Soviet Union want peaceful co-existence with the capitalist system. They don't want to over- throw capitalism. They just want to reform it somehow and that, I think, is the reason for the betrayals. It was the rise of Stalin in the Soviet Union which set the whole thing going. I saw it in the CP of India and now I can see it in Britain. They have no role to play at all in overthrowing the capitalist system. Then I studied the Chinese Revolution. When I came to this country ten years ago, I was anti-Chinese because of the war between China and India in 1962. Later on, when I compared India with China, I could see China definitely better was than India. Now I can see that Maoism is essentially a Stalinist ten-

CIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

dency. Mao never broke with Stalin. The Socialist Labour League is the only party which fights for a principled leadership. The political correctness League impressed me. The League is not interested in slogans, but purposes. They are putting the real question— the question of power; to take the working class to power by overthrowing capitalist the They do not simply system. talk about socialism or call for more and more protests.

I have heard this all my life.

That is the essential differ- ence between the League and the all other tendencies on left in Britain, including the International Socialists.

I have been in contact with the IS in the NUT. They are, once again, the protesters.

At our last branch meeting they had a motion down about South Africa. These people withdrawing think that by your money from Barclays you can get rid of South Africa.

But the real question is capitalism. Capitalism is res- ponsible for South Africa, not my investment or my account: at Barclays. The coming to power of the Tory Party and one after an- other the betrayal of the labour : sta me think that leaders made the building of a socialist party was very urgent. The Tories have brought out .

legislation against the working class and prices have gone up.

Now they are forcing the trade union leaders to play a part in controlling the working class and the leaders of the trade unions and the Labour Party are helping them all they can.

On of Phase the question Two, instead of taking up a fight against the government, they have accepted it and now they are talking to them about Phase Three. The whole capitalist class passing the world is over through one crisis after another. Lal At the moment there is no in monetary system the world. All the capitalist arrangements they have tried to make have broken down, beginning with Nixon's scrap- ping the dollar's convertibility into gold in 1971. The crisis is growing sharper every day. One of the reasons the struggle of the is that working class over the years not has meant that they are able to exploit the working class as much as they used to.

It has weakened them. The fight for more wages and the fight for better con- ditions has forced the employ- ing class into a position where their economic system is less and less profitable. I think this has a lot to do with the crisis, but I have read the economic document and I don't yet understand fully the economic arguments in it.

In the world generally the trade war between Britain, the United States, Japan and West getting faster. Germany is These big monopoly capitalist countries are competing for the same markets and as a result the trade war is developing more and more. As the monopolies fight for bigger profits the only thing they can do is drive down the working class: get them to work harder and longer hours for less money. That's the only way they can put value back into the world's currencies.

There is clearly a need for the revolutionary party now because the Tories will be forced to be harder and harder on the working class. They cannot give any concessions to the working class. There will be more and more repression and taking away the rights of the working class. In this struggle the Tories will use the Labour and trade union leaders. That is why it is most urgent now that the Socialist Labour League transforms itself into a revolutionary party to pro- vide the leadership to working class. It must be a leadership which will fight on behalf of the working class in the face of the betrayals by the present leaders of the class. It is very important to make workers aware of the philo- sophical method which differ- entiates the Socialist Labour League from any other tendency on the left. Only then can workers see that there is a clear alternative.

There is so much left talk that iot at the moment workers don't see any difference between the else. It isn't possible to under- our stand what is happening to us —to the whole working class- without understanding Marx- ism. The objective conditions which surround us can't be explained away as a temporary phenomenon or like something else that has happened in the past. Marxism is the only way to the steps the Tories explain are taking against the working class. Capitalism is trying to survive, but the only way it by taking away the can rights of the working class and suppressing them. I think there will be diffcul- ties in building the party, but is class there consciousness already among the working vote for the class. • Their Labour Party is a class vote.

But to explain the Marxist basis of the party will be difficult. I believe it can be explained because in the coming period 'Mao (above) never broke from Stalin. | essentially a Stalinist tendency'. Top I stration in London during the recent str the London allowance which the Tories : the experiences of many people will make them see that the League has an explanation for what is happening and that it is the right one. We have all been trained as individuals, but I think in- dividuals will begin to see that m Stalin. Now I can see that Maoism is cy. Top right: Teachers on a demon- recent strikes over their pay claim and he Tories are trying to take away.

the end of the road has come for them as individuals and only way they can that the this tyranny of the fight capitalist system and overthrow it is by joining the party and fighting for the philosophy and analysis of Marxism. Workers Press,

LONDON-

I have only just joined the League but I can see a lot of for myself. I can difficulty understand the analysis of the party, but I can see a difficulty in carrying it into practice. At the same time I can see a clear need for me to overcome this difficulty in the light of the deepening crisis. I can't do anything on my except capitulate more own and more to what the Tories want to do. The clear question is either I work and contribute and be is part of the party which preparing to take the working class to power, or be left alone to do my own thing. I agree in principle with democratic centralism, but I find that when it comes to practice my upbringing as an individual comes into conflict with it. People like me will have to overcome this conflict. Democratic centralism is one of the best structures because it gives room for factions while the majority decisions have got to be carried out and people have to stick to them. The minorities have the right to fight for their views. The conflict really arises for me personally in this way. ers Press, Friday June 1, 1973 PAGE 5 Viam S.huols losed? Politically 1 completely agree with the party. In my life and I imagine in the lives of many other work- men, you want to stick to the little bit of freedom you have, the job, the house, the family you have got. If the party knocks at the door and says this has got to be done, I might say I've got friend or family and to see a that's where the conflict arises.

Politically I see that there is a clear need for me to go and work for the party, but at the same time the little life that I've got, friends and family, that also is important for me. I think the problem can be resolved because it is only a seeing that of question my future and that of my family is with the party and that therefore the work for the party is important. At the same time the part!

will have to be considerate to people and be understanding and • wanting to know about people's difficulties and their desires. The two documents under dis- cussion are available from Socialist Labour League, 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG. Price 5p each.

ON THE SEVENTH DAY

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday June 1,

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

An occasional series by Charles Parkins The Six-Day War of 1967 once more brought terror and destruction to the Palestinian Arabs, as Israeli forces, seizing fresh Arab territory, were once again used to pursue a policy based on denying the Palestinians all rights to the land of Palestine. Villages destroyed, were land seized, people again driven out as refugees from their homes. Amos Keinan, Israeli an writer serving in the forces, protested to Israeli politicians over some of the things he had seen, and his letter was later published abroad. (The unit commander told us that it had been decided to blow up three villages in our sector; they Beit Nuba, • were Amaos and Yalu. We were told to search the houses of the village, to take prisoners any armed men. Un- armed people were to be allowed to pack up their be- ay June 1, 1973 longings and to be told to go to the nearby village of Beit Sura. We were ordered to block the entrances of the village and prevent inhabitants from re- turning ... the order was to shoot over their heads. Beit Nuba is built of fine quarry stones; some of the houses are magnificent. Every house surrounded by an orchard, olive trees ... they are well kept. At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down the first house at the edge of the village. Within ten minutes the house was turned to rubble, including its contents.. • after the destruction of three houses the first refugee column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. There were old people who could hardly walk, murmuring old women, mothers carrying babies, small children.

These children wept and asked for water. They carried white flags. We told them to go to Beit Sura. They told us that they were driven out everywhere, forbidden to enter any village, they wandering that were about like this for four days, without food, without water, some dying on the road. They asked to return to the village and said we had better kill them. .. We drove them out. They go on wandering in the south, like lost cattle. The weak die. In the evening we found that we have been taken in, for in Beit Sura, bulldozers had begun to destroy the place, and they were not allowed to enter. 'We found that we had been taken in.' That is the way a number of Israelis-perhaps as yet small, but nevertheless in- creasing-have begun to feel, in the last few years, not only about particular incidents, such as described above by Amos Keinan, but about the whole Six-Day War, and the policies of which it formed part. The Israeli leaders told their people that they must go to to defend themselves war against invasion and, probably, extinction, by the neighbouring Arab Moshe Dayan states. said: 'We have no invasion aims. Our only target is to foil the Arab armies' aim of invad- ing our country? On the eve of war, he declared: 'Soldiers of Israel, we have no aims of territorial conquest.' Of course, it must be said, that the Israeli plans were sabre-rattling aided by the bombast of the Bonapartist Nasser, and the bloodthirsty demagogy of reactionary Arab Ahmed leaders like Shukairi, who spoke of a war of extinc- But Israell tion. concens have admitted since the war that all the evidence showed that the Egyptian forces in Sinai had not been prepared for an offensive. The Israeli leaders claimed that the war, and the occupa- tion of Arab territories which has followed it, would bring new security and the prospect of peace for the Israeli people.

But far more Israelis have been killed in action maintaining the occupation than were killed in the actual war itself. Every week brings fresh incidents, clashes, ambushes, roads mined, of sabotage, bomb ex- deLs the Palestinian D10S.Ons. youth, both young and men girls, take up the fight against the oppressor. Israelis, For young the loss of lives, and the need to be in a permanent state of tension and militarization, with

COCK

the demoralizing effect of hav- army serve occupation, repressing a sub- ject population. As regards territorial con- quest, both statements and actions by Israeli leaders and forces have belied any claims to have no expansionist aims.

On the day that Israeli forces went into action in 1967, Levi Eshkol declared: 'We do not demand anything except to live in tranquillity in our present territory? After the war, however, Eshkol stated: 'A new political reality in the Mid-East has been created. Israel intends to keep the former Jordan part of Israel without Jerusalem Israel without a head... Explaining that he was 'not an annexationist, Moshe Dayan told a Kol Yisrael radio pro- gramme on March 9, 1969: 'I am not in favour of an- nexation now, and certainly not in favour of total annexa- tion. 'But there is a difference between annexation-meaning a Knesset resolution that Israeli sovereignty shall be extended to all areas which we today call "the occupied areas" -and linking the inhabitants of these areas to Israel through economic ties, and the creation of physical facts in the areas, such as new settlements and the like. "These latter things can be done without extending Israeli sovereignty legally to those areas.' As to what 'facts' should be created, Dayan explained: 'The decision must be based on a certain view of what the future

the final settlement situation. we desire, shall be.. Indeed, s. the facts constitute a basis for the settlement which we desire V1 and which could we more easily attain by credling facts I do map, I merely want to say that anyone who thinks that map of the new borders should include a certain must of also support the creation Israeli settlements in that area.

Anyone who thinks that settlements should be estab- see were makes a wiln- from all the areas eager. Recently, there was a publicised row between Dayan and other Israeli political leaders over the issue of Zionist acquisition of land for settlement in the occupied ter- Some reports- -per- haps deliberately- -tried to con- vey impression issue was one of principle, with Dayan alone for taking over land. This was not so. the The difference was that Dayan had for the right of private interests and land up they wished. wherever policy, as well as their chauvinism, may Zionist help explain why leaders Britain tended in to side with Dayan in this row.)

The Israeli government, how.

ever, was mainly in favour of a planned policy of acquisition, so that colonization Israeli troops during the Six-Day war of 1967, fighting to capture the city of Jerusalem. The Israeli leaders surround the war with a cloak of mysticism, with the myth of 'lands crying out and places calling out for liberation.'

carried selectively, at out strategic points. This 'creation of facts' has for a few been proceeding years now. In June last year, was reported that 600 dunams of land in the Jericho area had been confiscated by the occupation authorities and fenced off with barbed wire.

In the same month, the Israeli forces radio announced that the Nahal Sinai outpost was to be made into a settle- ment. On July 3, a new settle- Baq'on was reported ment, in the occupied established Jordan valley. On August 1, Israeli Minis- Portfolio Israel ter without Galili announced that 15 Jewish settlements had been set up in the Golan Heights since the 1967 war, and 'Settlement of the declared: Golan Heights will continue.'

Later in the month, Israeli radio reported that the ground- work was being completed for a new village in the Golan, about two kilometres south of Ramat Magshimim, and also that the 54th Nahal outpost in the Jordan valley, named Gitit, had been established. On October 11, the 'Finan- cial Times' reported from Jerusalem that Jewish com- panies had set up 145 new in- pr dustrial plants in the territories occupied since the June war.

The 'Daily Telegraph' reported that the Israeli government was offering low interest loans, grants, financial aid for build- ing and working capital up to per cent, to encourage businessmen to set up in the occupied territories. On February 3 this year, Israeli radio announced that 42 new settlements had been established in the occupied territories since the June 1967 war and also that plans had been drawn up for the port at Sharm Sheikh, at the southern tip of Sinai. These would include a number of military camps, a naval har- bour, a domestic airport, an industrial zone and a power station. There is another side to this 'creation of facts, of course.

Israeli In 1968, forces took over half the land of the Arab village of Akrabeh, south-west of Nablus. In 1971, the con- fiscated area was extended to take in a further 1,250 acres of best arable land. The people complained to the Israeli government that this was the main acreage from which they derived a liv- ing, and they organized a dele- gation to the military governor of the area. They were given permission to pasture animals on the land, but only to enter it by day, and then they must carry an army permit. In December 1971, seeing their land lying fallow, the Villagers decided to sow it. By the beginning of March, the wheat could be seen coming So that month, Israeli up. army vehicles were sent out to flatten it. Then, in the middle of April, an army plane went and sprayed the crop over with chemicals to destroy it.

On July 8, 1972, after ques- tions had been asked in the Knesset, it was officially admit- ted that this had been carried out on orders from the military goxernment of the occupied West Bank. On November 25, 80 Israeli demonstrators who protested at the treatment of the Akrabeh villagers and the establishment of a Nahal settlement on the confiscated land, were arrested.

five of them, On March 11, members of the left-wing Siach group, received sentences of for 'incitement' six-months from a military court. Also last year, the Israeli commander of the Southern General Arik Front, Sharon, decided to implement army contingency plans for deporta- tion of the Bedouin from the area of the southern Gaza strip of and the adjoining parts Sinai. The plans called for the re- moval of the tribes, the block- ing of water-holes and wells, and the fencing off of pasture.

Eight different areas were fenced off and from one of alone, Pithat Rafeah, these 4,800 Bedouin were evictea.

Sharon also ordered the bull- Gaza dozing of houses refugee camps to clear a path 'strategic roads' for so-called by Israeli to be patrolled soldiers; the hunting down of Palestinian resistance men in the camps, who are either sen- tenced to life imprisonment or shot, and the deportation of wanted men's families to special camps, so that they can- not give food or refuge to the resisters. Military censorship was used and keep the Israeli to try public 'in the dark' about what was going on in the Gaza area.

The eventually got news through when the Israel Lab- Party's weekly review our 'Ot carried an article-using paraphrase to dodge censor- ship-revealing details of the Pithat Rafeah action, and criticizing it. Minister Moshe Defence Dayan threatened to have the editor, David Shaham, sacked from his job and even to have the Labour Party close down the paper It can be seen that the re- Workers Press pressive methods and appara- tus used in the occupied terri- tories threaten to reach back also into Israeli political life itself. In fact, the increasing num- ber of arrests, both of Arab and Jewish opponents of the government, inside Israel itself; the use of Shin Bet infiltration and of police torture against them; and the use by Israeli leaders of terms like 'saboteurs' and 'Fatah' against Israeli striking to defend workers their living standards, show that this is happening. Already the British Mandate Emergency Laws, which the Israeli government has main- tained on its own statute books, have been used first to jail Arab socialists (in 1968) and then to end a strike by Israeli postal workers (in 1969).

The continuation of the repressive policies in the occu- pied territories means danger for the democratic rights of the Israeli working class.

In the ideological field as well, the aftermath of the 1967 has been an upsurge of war reaction. This is no small mat- ter in a state where clericalism and chauvinist ideology have a privileged always enjoyed position. Although the Ultra-Orthodox religious fringe has never re- cognized secular Zionism or gone along with the state, and many Israelis, tor that matter, are non-religious, the Lionist movement, with its use of tra- ditions such as the 'Chosen , the Promised Land' People' and the very idea of 'Return , has interwoven some to Zion' of the most backward aspects of Judaism with modern chau- vinist attitudes to produce a highly reactionary mixture.

Furthermore, not only have the religious parties been able to exercise an influence Israeli politics and legislation out of all proportion to their electoral support—in 1966, for instance the National Religious Party was able to secure a ban on Sabbath working in agricultural settlements — but also, the clergy has been given legal power in such matters as marital law. In 1964, Mrs Rina Eitani, a well-know • figure in the Israeli Labour Party, who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto, and served in the Israeli forces in 1948, was told that she would have to give up her Israeli citizenship, because it had been discovered that her mother was a Protestant. The Israeli Law of Return of 1950 and the Nationality Law of 1952 both give legal recognition to the concept of a 'Jewish nationality', with special rights to Israel as a 'Jewish homeland'. At the same the time, definition of 'who is a Jew' has been based on religious tradition—is the mother Jewish on recognition by the -and rabbinical establishment.

In 1968, a Lieutenant-Com- mander Benjamin Shavit caused a row by demanding that his children be entered as of Jewish nationality' on their identity cards, being told that they could not, because their mother was a Christian. (A special anomaly concerns anyone born of a Jewish father and Arab mother. Under Jew- ish law they are not acceptable as Jews, while under Moslem law they cannot be accepted as Moslem either! Of course, in a secular state-which Israel is not-this would pro- bably not bother them much, but in the context of Israel's archaic legal system it could prove a real problem.) In September 1971, it was reported that a number of from Falashas-Black Jews Ethiopia-who had emigrated to Israel were applying for con- version to Judaism. In actual fact, the Falashas, who number some 30,000 in Ethiopia, have practised the Jewish religion for many centuries. But neither the rabbinate nor the Zionist authorities would recognize them as Jews and it is an at- tempt on their part to get kers Press, Friday June 1, 1973 PAGE 7 through the discrimination that this entails, and gain accept- ance, that has led some of them seek to be 'converted' to their own religion! In 1962, there was the issue of the Bene Israel, a Jewish community from India. (The fact that it is Afro-Asian Jews who are affected in these cases is probably not accidental.

There is more than one type of racism in the Israeli blend.)

The Bene Israel demanded an end to discrimination in marriage questions and full acceptance as Jews. It was only after they had staged demon- strations and sit-down strikes and the Israeli authorities had been embarrassed by the pros- pect of the Indian government raising their case, as well as the threat by the Bene Israel (who said that their first ex- perience of discrimination had been in Israel), to return to India, that on August 18, 1964, the Knesset voted that they should be given full Jewish and status afirmed their equality. While many Israelis resent the power of the rabbinate in the life of their country, and even the government finds it an embarrassment and a nuisance at times, the fact re- mains that Zionism, the official ideology of the state, drawn much of its mystique from backward religious ideas; that the state's patriotic litera- ture and culture glories in the 'traditions' of the nationalist remote tribal past, in all its brutality, culled selectively from the pages of the Bible; and that the conquests of 1967 have been consecrated by delib- erately whipping-up nationalist- religious hysteria and . artifici- ally-created emotion about Jerusalem, the 'Wailing Wall' and so forth. After saying 'The Land of Israel, the Land of our Fathers becomes a reality', one writer, Avi Porat, describes his feel- ings as his unit camps down the night under Mount Gilboa: I sense it in my very being.

They're all with me tonight, Macabees, Bar Kochba, the Joshua, and all the Judges. My thoughts fly to Gideon and his men, who fought at Harod's Well.. i (Extract from 'At Harod's Well, in 'The Seventh Day- Soldiers Talk about the Six- eli Day War.' Penguin edition 1971.) It is perhaps not surprising after this sort of stuff, and its use by the Israeli leaders to surround their practical actions with a cloak of mysticism, that the Six-Day War after the National Religious Party has gained a new strength and arrogance. It has been notice- ably associating with the ex- treme right-wing chauvinists of Herut in its pronounce- ments. Not that all Israelis go along with the religious-nationalist cult. In another part of the book quoted above, another soldier, Amos Oz, young describes a visit to the parents of a paratrooper who had been killed: 'A few of the kibbutz mem- bers were there and the mother was crying. The father was biting his lips to hold back his tears. One of the older mem- bers tried to comfort them: "Look, after all, we've libera- "he , he said, ted Jerusalem" didn't die for' nothing" '. The burst into sobs and mother said: "The whole of the Western Wall isn't worth Micha's little finger as far as I'm concerned ... ".. And Oz himself goes on to say: 'If dynamiting the Western Wall today would bring Micha back to life, then I'd say "Blow it up!" That's how I feel about it' Later he adds: "Today, I'm completely to all this myth of opposed lands crying out and places calling out for liberation. It's worth dying to liberate people.

But to liberate places? It's not worth anyone's little finger.'

TROTSKYISM

AND STALINISM

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Friday June 1, 1973 Since May-June 1968, the Soviet Stalinists have been haunted by the spectre of revolution in western Europe and the growth of Trotskyism in the advanced countries in the west. Fearful of losing their parasitic privileges at home and their control of the labour movement abroad, the Soviet bureaucracy has begun a campaign to once again discredit and distort the principles and history of Trotsky's struggle for the regenera- tion of the USSR and the world-wide revolution of the work- ing class. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1972 published 'Against Trotskyism', a compendium of docu- ments, articles, extracts, speeches and resolutions aimed at dis- crediting Trotskyism and distorting completely the truth about the relations between Lenin and Trotsky.

In this series of articles MICHAEL BANDA replies to this book.

PART ELEVEN

Lenin's view carried the day in the party, but it still did Passing in silence over the not resolve questions posed by the discussion, which Trotsky's outstanding could be resolved only by record as Commissar for new economic orientation, War and builder of the embodied in the retreat of the

NEP.

Red Army, the book Not only did Trotsky come 'Against Trotskyism' to see that he had been wrong on this question, he was with- moves to the other major in a short time in alliance with conflict in which Lenin Lenin the incipient against and Trotsky stood on bureaucracy emerging in the opposite sides. Bolshevik party and the state machine. Lenin was at pains to point objective portrayal out that the USSR could not period, not even a chronology simply be labelled a workers' to guide the reader. who might According to Lenin it state. be excused for thinking well 'workers' and peasants' was that the only communication state' - even more, in between the head of state and phrase Trotsky was to quote his minister for war in the frequently later, it was 'a course of two years' bloody workers' with bureau- state conflict consisted of two deformations' cratic (trans- brief, cryptic and slightly cri- tical telegrams. occupy 14 lines of These type in all and are the only documents offered to cover the period from March 18, 1918, 1920. The December 20. to Moscow lie specialists certainly cannot be accused of being overscrupulous presenting their against Trotsky. case They make no pretence of historical accuracy or com- pleteness! fasten on the trade They union which controversy, broke out at the end of 1920.

with great eagerness after the "barren years' in between. The trade union controversy occu- almost a quarter of the pies book and comprises over Gregory Zinoviev. Alonaside third of the material taken Stalin and Kamenev, he suppor- from Lenin's works. the foreign ted modifying trade The trade union controversy monopoly. Trotsky came, points out lated in 'Against Trotskyism in his Letter to the Institute History, 'with a twist in it'). of Party at a time as Naturally this book, which when war communism had ex- hausted itself. is concerned entirely with epi- differences, and it sodic 'Agriculture with makes no of everything else had arrived in mention the most vital questions facing the a blind alley. Industry was dis- policy integrating. The trade unions Soviet state. These fall under become agitational and three main headings: the had future of the NEP recruiting organizations which and how the workers' state could be increasingly lost their inde- protected from the danger of pendence. «The crisis of the trade capitalist restoration; the na- tionalities question; the grow- union was by no means "crisis of growth". it was a bureaucratization of the whole party and the state. crisis system The of the of war communism. There was introduction Economic passage out of this blind New Policy in- nO alley without the introduction volved the regeneration of of the New Economic Policy?

and trade petty-bourgeois Soviet society who Trotsky admits that his pro- avers in posals, which essentially aimed were once again able to en- trade to a limited at harnessing the trade union gage in machinery to the administra- extent. tive system of economic man- did small not point the market while agement, way out of the impasse. capitalists and other exploit- Nor, for that matter, did the ers were given greater liber- ties stimulate proposals advanced bv Lenin's in order to faction, which presented the reconstruction and post-war defenders of the provide a breathing space for unions as the USSR material and cultural interests class and a This policy universally of the working was retreat, and school of communism. recognized as a Trotsky and Lenin at Second Congress controversy of this period, Trotsky wa it strengthened those tenden- cies within and outside the Bolshevik Party which repre- sented the interests of the bourgeoning middle class.

In addition the opening • up capitalist of trade with the countries gave the capitalists the hope that they would be able eventually to break the state monopoly of toreign trade and deal directly with peasants and private business- men. Had the monopoly been breached, one of the pillars of Soviet power would have been he undermined. Lenin was forced to defend the monopoly with all his might alongside Trot- sky and against Stalin. None of this is mentioned in the present book, though its authors are well aware both of Stalin's role and of the alliance between Lenin and Trotsky against hit in de- fence of the foreign trade monopoly. The following quotations are taken from the already quoted book 'V. I. Lenin, Biography'. Here is what the Institute of Marxism-Leninism had to say eight years ago about the foreign trade mono- poly and Stalin's attitude to- wards it: I Lenin | attached great im- to the foreign trade portance monopoly as a lever of social- ist development. He regarded it as a crucial economic factor and Congress of the Third International In 1920.

rotsky was standing In alliance with Lenin agi pointed out that nothing but foreign trade monopoly, the coupled with planned govern- ment regulation of exports and imports, could safeguard the as yet weak Soviet economy from an invasion of foreign capital, rehabilitation secure the and development of domestic indus- try and obtain the profits and gold necessary for the country's industrialization. 'He stressed that the mono- poly on foreign trade was parti- cularly important in view of the New Economic Policy and the fierce attacks made on it by foreign imperialist and capitalist elements at home. "The issue became doubly acute because some leading Party and government officials out with proposals to came modify, even to repeal, the for- trade monopoly. Sokolni- eign kov, Buhkarin and Pyatakov urged repeal of the monopoly, Zinoviev while Stalin, Kamenev suggested modifying it.

'Replying to a letter which Lenin him wrote to and M. Frumkin on May 26, 1922, in which Lenin had demanded "a formal ban on all discussion, negotiation and committee work, etc., about modifying the mono- _foreign trade," poly Stalin write: "I have no objections to 'formal ban' on measures to mitigate the foreign trade mono- poly at the present stage.

""All the same, I think that mitigation is becoming indispen- sable." "A plenary meeting of the Central Committee on October 6, 1922, which Lenin did not attend, passed an incorrect de- In 1920. Shortly after the trade union Lenin against the insipient bureaucracy.

cision providing for temporary permission "to import and ex- port certain groups of commo- dities with respect to certain borders". In a letter to stalin, who was secretary of the Central Committee, Lenin objected to the decision and pointed out that it is tantamount to lifting the monopoly on foreign trade" 'He noted that "undue haste was shown in putting the matter on the agenda of the plenary meeting" and that "no serious ensued" and discussion sugges- ted postponing the final decision until the next plenary meeting two months hence in order to collect the necessary facts and make a deep-going study of the question. 'All members of the Central Committee present in i Moscow consulted, and backed were Lenin's proposal. Only a few persisted in their erroneous atti- tude. In a letter to the political bureau, Bukharin, for one, tried to justify his plan of abolishing foreign trade monopoly. the Stalin too wrote: • 'Comrade Lenin's letter has not made me change my mind about the decision of the CC plenary meeting of October b on foreign trade [i.e. Stalin still pposea Lenin. . . "All the same, in view of Comrade Lenin's insistent pro- posal to delay implementation of the CC decision I vote for a postponement with a view to question being discussed again at the next plenary meet- ing in Lenin's presence' (Lenin biography, p.517.)

CONTINUED TOMORROW

'The Anarchists in the Russian Edited Revolution'. by Paul Avrich. Thames and Hudson. £1.35. 178 pages. This is a useful book be- cause it consists of the writings and statements of the Russian Anarchists be- fore, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. It reveals, at first hand and beyond all doubt, the totally reactionary nature of Anarchism, which not only would have des- troyed the revolution but con- sciously set out to do so.

the revolution, Even before views of the the so-called Anarchist communists were his- backward. torically Viewing society through a romantic mir- ror, they dreamed of agricultural communes and handicraft co- operatives. They turned their backs on large-scale industry, and - with it-on organized labour as well. elements, The best the anarcho-syndicalists, pinned their hopes on the factory committees born in the course of revolution- ary struggles. But only those of this tendency who went over to Bolshevism completely and re- jected their anarchist past, could make a positive contribution.

Some anarchist armed groups —like the one led by Makhno fought the landlords in the early days but later degenerated into bands hostile to the robber revolution. When the revolution was fight- ing for its life against the White Armies and the invading capital- ist the anarchists powers, attacked the Bolsheviks as worse than the Romanovs. In on the Red a statement Army, published in April 1919, the Anarchists stated thạt they regarded 'the compulsory, rega-t et lated, disciplined and centralized Red Army as an inevitable con- authoritarian, of the sequence political and statist path onto which the "communists" have temporarily diverted the revolu- tion? The Red Army, they said, could not be 'the genuine and faithful defender of the revolu- tion'. Instead, the anarchists called for a 'insurgent' spontaneous, army without discipline. They were, in fact, for leaving the revolution without military defences. They stated: •With regard to the external attack on the social revolution by western and other imperialist Anarchists the have powers, always relied and will continue to rely not on the regular Red Army, not even on an insurgent war, but on the inevitable col- lapse of imperialism and its armed forces through the un- folding world-wide social revolu- tion. Of course, the Bolsheviks too relied on the spread of revolu- tion. But they did regard not this as an inevitable, spontaneous development for which they could just sit back and wait. They combined armed defence of Units of the Red Army crossing the uprising of sailors in 1921.

the revolution with political struggle for its extension.

The Anarchist formula meant no defence of the revolution and no extension of revolution.

the (In Bavaria, where anarchists did see power fall into their hands, they lasted one week Review Red Rising and left themselves and working class open to military counter-attack. In Spain, 20 years later, they were to join in bourgeois Stalinist-supported coalition and turn on the work- gers and peasants. The Anarchists, of course, amount wrote an enormous about Kronstadt. Kronstadt has been the rallying cry of every anti-communist - not least the British Socialist International group-for half a century.

Kronstadt had The sailors in the vanguard of the been revolution. Then, in March 1921, there uprising , in Kronstadt was an against the Bolshevik govern- ment. A so-called 'free Soviet' lasted for 16 days before it was put down by a detachment of the Red Army sent from Petro- grad. The simple and 'obvious' solution was that the revolution- 'seen the light', ary sailors had to anarchism, and then turned been brutally suppressed by the very Bolsheviks they had helped place in power. This myth has been peddled by reactionaries ever since. It answered long ago in a was pamphlet by Trotsky called Hue and Cry over Kronstadt'. Here Trotsky explained that there are three main layers in the working class. A revolution- layer, backward layer ary which clings to the middle class and its ideology, and a broad Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37$p • 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 sing the Ice at Kronstadt to quell the ical mass which in revolutionary times can be won over by deter- mined action to follow the and revolutionaries. The Kronstadt sailors had played a glorious revolutionary role because their most advanced layer, having joined the Bolshevik Party, had been able to give decisive leadership.

But, Trotsky had explained, if the revolutionary layer were re- moved, then in times of diffi- • culty, hardship and disappoint- ment the 'centre' layer could be pulled behind the backward, reactionary wing. at That is what bappened Kronstadt. Many of the very best elements of the Kronstadt sail- ors had died in the civil war and the wars of intervention. Others, of necessity, had to take up important responsibilities away from Kronstadt. long, After weary months struggling against counter- revolution, followed by economic starvation, hardship and the leadership Kronstadters took the road, not of revolution, but of counter-revolution. The Kronstadt leaders of 1921 were not the Kronstadt leaders of 1917. The revolt had to be put down in order to save the revolution. The Anarchists would have destroyed the revolution as they tried to do with their call 'third revolution' at the for a height of the civil war. Centralized authority was necessary to defend the revolu- tion and the young Soviet State.

But the Anarchists equated the authority of the revolution with the authority of the pre-revolu- tionary regime and of the coun- ter-revolution. 'Monarchists, Constituent Assemblists, Mensheviks, Com- munists, declared the Anarch- ists, 'when they have the same In the midst of the greatest scandals ever to hit the capitalist world and at a time of unprecedented crisis in the capitalist system, the Com- munist Party's daily paper, the 'Morning Star', , devoted its main feature page last Wed- nesday to an article on ...

cycling! Not the trade cycle, or the money cycle, but the plain common or garden bicycle.

Workers Press means and the same ends can their paths be different? They recruit more members want to into their parties. They want authority. But strong strong authority implies subjection' Organization, discipline, auth- ority were abstractions to the Anarchists, devoid of class con- tent. But in practice, Anarchists were not fighting the authority and discipline of the counter-revolutionaries, they were fighting the authority and discipline of the revolution. Their 'de-classed' view of the state, in fact was a petty-bour- geois view of the state, as Marx had long ago explained in his against Proudhon, polemic 'Poverty of Philosophy'. as 'outside In seeing the state classes' it in practice sought to leave the bourgeois state un- touched. The Russian anarchists equated the White Armies with the Red Army. They were both 'armies'. In practice, however, the Anarchists could not dis- organize the White Army. But they sought to disarm the Red They not fight Army. could against the dictatorship of capi- tal. But they fought against the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Petty-bourgeois opposition to Bolshevism has trod the same path ever since. It is expressed here in one famous sentence by the leading anarchist Emma Goldman. What she wanted, she said, was 'not the dictatorship of a new class over an old one. The dictatorship of the prole- tariat is, however, the acid test for revolutionaries. Without it, there safeguard can no against counter-revolution. That is why Lenin insisted on accep- tance of that principle by any party which applied to join the Communist International.

STORY OF THE

'Citizen Nader' by Charles McCarry, published by Jonathan Cape at £3.50: The story of the self-appoint- consumers' ed champion who first rose to fame by his attack on General Motors 'Unsafe at any Speed'. General Motors, in an attempt to silence Nader, put detective agencies on him in the hope of digging up some scandal in his life which they could private use against him. Instead Nader successfully sued them for 'in- of privacy' vasion and got $270,000. Nader's field has since widened to include investiga- tions of standards in meat, gas pipe-lines, coal mines, radiation control and occupational safety.

benefits of cycling'. This hard- hitting, class conscious piece by John Gritten raised the demand of the hour: Go By Bike! 'An affluent gentleman who owns the business next door to our building-the number plate on his sedan consists of the first three letters of his name plus the figure one-has a chauffeur who drives him in this capacious vehicle back and forth. 'An extreme example of the misuse of a lot of road space, Gritten declared courageously.

'For decades I have com- muted by bike in central London five days a week in all weathers [and invariably use it on the other two as well] entirely free of all these problems, he continued. noble sacrifice, For this Gritten is well rewarded.

'Personally I find the feel- toc cers Press, Friday June 1, 1973 PAGE 9

PROBLEMS OF

THE DISABLED

'Journey into Silence' by Jack Ashley MP, published by • The Bodley Head at £2.50: Jack Ashley, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent, South, went totally and permanently deaf after contracting a virus infec- tion. This is the story of his life. Since his return to parlia- ment after his illness he has concerned himself particularly with the problems of disabled people. He was active in the campaign • to get higher compensation for thalidomide the children-al- though he has not raised the demand for nationalization of the drug industry under work- ers' control and without com- pensation.

ISRAEL- REALITY

VS IDEALS

'Whose Jerusalem? - the Con- flicts of Israel by Ronald Segal, published by Jonathan Cape at £3.50: An examination of Israeli and Arab society. Mr Segal con- the Jews 'confront siders that themselves in a crisis of iden- tity' arising out of the conflict between the ideals of the pioneers and the reality of the israeli state. He the separation of sees rich and poor in Israel and an 'increasingly authoritarian man- agement' instead of a society in which all Jews are brothers.

future, But the hope for the according to Mr Segal, is those 'on both sides of the [Israeli- Arab] conflict who seek what is reasonable and right in the cause of the other, and reject what they see unreasonable and as wrong in the assertion of their own'.

HESSE

'Hermann Hesse: Autobiogra- phical Writings', translated from the German by Denver Lindley, published by Jonathan Cape at £3.50: The writings of Herman Hesse, whether fiction or autobiogra- phy, merge into what he called 'the timeless realm of the spirit' - that is, unreality. Hesse was an idealist who considered the real world transitory and the meaningful world that of the spiriti This mysticism pervades all his writings, particularly his best known work 'Steppenwolf' Co- liberal-oppositional founder of a journal 'Marz' in the early years of this century, Hesse took up a pacifist position during World War I. His opposition to the war, however, was also mystical. In collection of pacifist a essays "If this war goes on. . .

', Hesse attributed the bloodiest slaughter man had known 'war which he claimed permeated the whole of Europe. Hesse's attempts not to re- the real cognize world were shaken by the post-war infla- tion which wiped out his sav- ings and his German royalties and by rheumatism which crip- pled him in his later life.

1940s, During the 1930s and Hesse lived in Switzerland where he did his best to help friends trying to escape from Nazi Germany. He died in 1962.

ing of freedom, of not being enclosed, not to mention the exercise after being gentle cooped up in an office, is far more pleasant than sitting in- side a vehicle.' One wonders how many class-conscious workers have the time or the need for additional 'gentle exercise' after fighting for the revolu- tionary party seven days a week. As if in answer to unstated ick criticism, Gritten avers: 'The Go-By-Bike campaign, far from being a distraction, should complement public pressure for cheaper fares and better facilities on public trans- integrated port and for an transport policy. 'If you don't cycle already, then, with me, Go By Bike! You'll find it quicker, healthier, relatively more carefree, It's 'non' a few other things too.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday June 1, 1973

BBC 1

ITV

spits. M0.35 12:25.05 Banana Races art on. iao _Film: ThRandaen, roundabout. Seven Eisteddfod faces Lao'. Search. Tony

SPILLS

urd. 12.55 1.00 11.15 In search Mill News. Baroara Eden. Chigley. Rainbow. 12.25 at one. lost world. Animal design. 2.10 Portrait of Happy House. 12.40 First Does the your friend Cuckoo nest. Avocalle 3.10 Landlubber 2.00 hospital. 2.30 3.00 San 4010'S Play world. Good afternoon. sie. 4,50 3.25 slap. 4.50 school. Bargain hunters. 4.20 Lassie. Lift Coal of 5.50 hole 5.20 dream Jeannie. 5.40 are News. tnere. News. Weather. 6.00

TODAY.

6.35

CROSSROADS.

6.00

NATIONWIDE.

THE

SKY'S THE LIMIT.

7.00 6.45

THE

QUEEN'S

GUARDS.

7.30

ROMANY JONES.

The Ring. Trooping the Colour. 8.00

THE FBI.

The Attorney. 6.55

TOP OF THE

POPS.

THE

9.00

BETWEEN

WARS:

"Mr. 7.30 STAR TREK. Wink of an Eye.

Out Konald Evelyn Waugh. Little 8.15

IT'S A KNOCKOUT.

Evelyn With Fraser, John Le Mesurier,

NEWS.

Weather. 9.00 Derek Godfrey. 9.25 ON

THE ROCKS.

SCOTCH

NEWS. 10.30 POLICE FIVE.

10.00 Phase 10.40 "The Blood Ter-

FILM:

Beast TALK-IN TO DAY. Robin Day.

10.10 Peter Cushing. In England ror'. 10.55 LATE NIGHT NEWS. Weather.

the 1840s men are dying horrific deaths and witnesses 11.00

FILM:

"The Gang's All Here'. mad. going Alice Miranda, Faye Carmen Ellison 12.10

SITTING IN JUDGEMENT.

extravaranza with music by Benny Goodman.

2.15 JASON

KING. It's Too Bad Weather. Auntie. 12.40 \bout get WORKERS PRESS Do you regularly? If not, why not take subscription now? out a {20.28 for 12 months (312 issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1 56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to : Circulation Dept., Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

THURSDAY

MONDAY

Days required

FRIDAY

(Please tick)

TUESDAY

SATURDAY

WEDNESDAY

Or subscription (six days) for ..months. Full Name Address Amount enclosed £ I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

LEAGUE,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

SECRETARY,

186a CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON SW4 7UG.

Name.. Address.. Above: John Calrney plays John Phase of Mackle in Four the Nationalists' bid for Scottish 'Scotch on the Rocks' on power BBC 1 at 9.25. Riaht: John Le Mesurler and Ronald Fraser team in Willis Hall's adaptation up Evelyn Waugh's 'Mr Loveday's Little Outing' Independent's in 'Between the Wars' series at 9.00.

REGIONAL TV

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open News. 1.30 London.

CHANNEL: 1.15

2.55 2.30 Yoga. Lord Kinross University. 25 Theatre 125 7.05

MISTRESS OF HARDWICK.

chimp. London. This Costly Countess. 6.35 Romany Tones. 7.30 NEWS. Weather. Canary'. Film: 'Yellow 12.10 News, weather.

7.35 GARDENERS' WORLD.

SOUTHERN:

10.00 Paulus.

MONEY

AT

WORK.

Less Yoga. Canada impressions. 8.00 Thunderbirds. 12.00 Equal Than Others • . • Do 3.25 Lon only 3 Pebbles women get equal pay? Dyke. 10490 Lond P. 4.50 0210lt1 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 9.00

FILM:

•La Collectioneuse'. CArtooni 6.00 Day don. 6.35 Eric Rohmer's film about a Who do 7.35 Ma. 10.35 9.00 Chains'. Film: end. oner Guideline. _ News. Weather. 12.10

ATV MIDLANDS:

on. 3.30 Saint. 12.00 only. London. Rainbow Theatre. nice concon. 4.50 London. 4.25 Forest ran 5.50 London. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 Flintstones London nears Report West. 6.18 Report 6.01 Wales. 8.00 Hawaii Live-d. non. 10.30 6.35 Doctor charge. Film: Geronimo 9.00 London. 10.30 Come Film: SurReon. dians. 1.00 Friday profile. Frankenstein'. Weather Jones. 12.00 Dr Simon Locke.

LISTER

12.05 Weather. 12.30 London 1.29 News London. 2.30 Cartoon

HTV

Cymru/Wales above 3.00 4.23 Romper 5 room Lonaon. Stesion 6.01-6.18 4.25 cantamil. News. 63st London. Rainanw 10.30 dydd. Fistaddfod London. 6.35 gened aetno. yr urdd 1973. 11.00 Outlook. 7.30 _ongstreet. 10.30 Film: Big London. ITV Wes as above except: 6.18-6.35 Heat' Report wact

YORKSHIRE:

10.05 Ed Allen time Edgar

ANGLIA:

9.30 Paulus. 9. 9.40 10.25 Sullivan. 10.35 Joe 90. Cartoons. allace. 11.35 Simon Locke. bro- Charlton 11.40 Galloping gourmet. 12 05 İong 4 25 [one Ranger Arthur. 12.04 News. 12.05 London. London. Funny face. 5.50 2.30 About Women. 3.00 London. London. Calendar. Weather. 6.3 225 chair theatre. romper takes Majority 0.00 London. 5.20 London. 10.30 Film: 6.00 5.50 London. 12.45 Weather Hawaii 6.35 Anonial London. five-o. Romany Jones. 9.00

GRANADA:

10.55 11.00 don. 10.30 11.00 Film: Gilbert The and Sullivan, Frozen 2.45 Epilogue. 11.5. Handful Cons.

NOW AVAILABLE

Contents include: Ceylon: The Centrism of Bala Tampoe By a Ceylon correspondent April Dictatorship: The Tasks of the Greek Trotskyists .. A journal of international Marx- ism published by the Inter- Resolution of the 5th national Committee of the Fourth Congress of the Workers International Spring 1973 International League LUTON: Sunday, June 3, 6 p.m. Small Hall. Recreation Centre, Old Bedford Road. 'Build the Revolutionary Party. Centre. 'Build the revolutionary ACTON: Monday June 4, 8 p.m.

Party. High Bells', Street, W.3. DARLASTON: Monday, June 4, Stalinism and the fight to defend Head', 7.30 p.m. 'The Nag's The democratic rights'. Darlaston. 'The Fight Green,

CRAWLEY:

Monday June 4. against the Tory Day laws.'

Council for Social p.m.

BATTERSEA.

Tuesday June 5, Services. 19 Station Road. 'The Wandsworth 8 p.m. 'Nag's Head', unions and the Tory trade 'Build Road. the revolutionary government'. party'

LEWISHAM:

Monday June 4,

BRADFORD

(Engineers' Deptford Engineers Club, -meet- 8 p.m. Tuesday June 8 New Cross Road. 'The ing): 5, p.m. way for- 'Engin- Talbot Hotel, Kirkgate. ward-build the revolutionary eers and the fight against the party'. Tory government. BRIXTON: Monday June 4, 8 p.m.

(Please note date change). Con-

DAGENHAM:

Tuesday June 5. Room, Training Barking Co-op Hall, trol Brixton p.m. beautiful young girl who col- lects boys. With Haydee Poli- toff, Patrick Bauchau, Daniel Pommereulle. 10.25 FILM NIGHT. Otto Preminger and former film censor John Trevelyan discuss the forth- coming re-issue of two con- troversial Preminger films 'The Man With The Golden Arm' and "The Moon is Blue'. : a 11.00 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

12.05 London. 4.25 Joe 90. 4.50 Lon- 5.50 Lon- don. 5.15 Dick Van Dyke. don. 6.00 News. 6.20 Sky's the limit.

6.50 Film: 'Maya' 8.30 Romany Jones.

•Bowery to 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: Broadway'. 12.10 Spyforce.

TYNE TEES: 9.30

Stor tell finger. 9.40 Enchanted house. 9.55 At your tips. 10.05 Thunderbirds. 10.55 Rain- bow country. 11.20 Pied piper. 11.25 Rediscovery. 11.40 Shirley's world. 2.31 Yoga. 12.05 London. 2.30 News. 4.25 Woobinda. 4.50 3.00 London. 5.20 Flintstones. 5.50 Lon- London. 6. hive-oday, 635 ondoon.

8.00 don. Hawaii five-o. London. 10.30 News. Film: "Sylvia'. 12.35 12.40 Lectern. ( SCOTTISH: 10.00 Technoflash.

10.25 Gilbert and Sullivan, 11.10 Dr Simon Locke. 11.35 Charlton brothers. 12.05 London. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 London.

4.20 Nanny and the professor. 4.50 London. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 Lon- don. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Who do you do? 7.00 London. 7.30

FBI.

8.30 Romany Jones. 9.00 London. 10.30 Friday night. 11.00 Late call. 11.05 Film: 'Wicked as They Come'.

Several translations of articles from the German Trotskyist newspaper Der Funke dent Italy's New Fascists By Stephen Johns

LENIN AND TROTSKY WRITING

ON EUROPE

and six International Committee statements 'Build the Fanshawe Avenue. revolutionary party. HACKNEY: Wednesday June 6, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Central Hall, Mare Street. 'Unite in action to defend basic rights'. LEEDS: Thursday June 7, 7.30 p.m. Peel Hotel, Boar Lane.

'Forward

ATUA

Conference and the fight to defend demo- cratic rights.'

HEMEL

_HEMPSTEAD: Monday 11 (please June note date change), 8 p.m. Adeyfield Hall, Queen's Square. 'Build the revo- lutionary party. LEAMINGTON: Tuesday, June 12, 7.30 p.m. The Commonwealth Club, Church Street, 'The Tory government and the trade unions.'

THE BIG TORY PRICE FRAUD SINCE NOVEMBER

Where your money's gone since the a prices freeze' THE FOODS and bakery giant, Ranks Hovis McDougall, this week announced better-than- expected half-time profits.

Pre-tax profits for the for the six months to March jumped to compared with first six months of the previous £11,482,000 for the year and with £12,750,000 expected by the market.

And a Board statement said: 'Provided justifiable price increases are allowed without undue delay, prohts for the year should show an improvement over the previous year.

On the They did not have to wait long.

same day that the profits were announced, the Tories' Price Commission granted the firm permis- of sion to raise Ine price its cakes by 7.2 per cent.

At the same time Lyons Cakes got the go ahead for and crisps 6.9 per cent rise. increases Other price agreed this week were Smith and Davis per Lent; and detergents. the textile group Mon. cent; and nylon santo's cent (this is abres, third The l group be allowed to raise its prices Du Pont and ICI

OLIC LWO.

THE

TORIES

Price Com- fraud has been as an ination of rises food prices alone will show. The Commission was established on November 1972. when the Tories troduced their state pay laws. From the very beginning, fruits and In the same month 'The April A larGe were excluded from all con- compared February In food Grocer' supermarkets ON APRIL 4, despite gluts Wild Lost week. February revealed of butter throughout Europe, month fresh IN THE first that fresh meat had gone up the Tory government and Spry Crisp veget west 3:21 5.9 per cent, 41 per cent, fish 41 per that prices nounced regetables cent the green vegetables go eggs 13.44 cent rises. fish 8.03 per cent, fruit 18.5 per cent, coffee line with Common Market per cent, fruit 1.6 per flour 10 policy. cent cent, On the same and processed meat 1.13 per processed Cell. Lucals On the day a same gov- Son solemn per cent and eggs 9.0 per ernment order on sugar sub- their cent. shanes price increases of 1tp per lb. November Shreddies and March

THE

WEEK

April 7-14 get breakfast f December includ- saw 213 price hikes, ON MARCH 4 biscuits went ing honey, and up.

DISCUITS

Ip a packet. March

IN DECEMBER,

beef, 14 eggs went up 2p a dozen.

canned meats It was an- ON

MAY

the total num- nounced that lamb. bacon, usu, eggs, sall- were permitted pork, chicken, cauli- sages,

ON MARCH 15

the meat DeT •i once macrease. Vesta and ham the beginning of the year told lowers, tomatoes processors were was 2,599. per chived on february id tee the all went up. February THE MONTH of April saw since Nov- oul wo lucu broducl fastest rises changed. The Ib had been January ember 6. Food had gone up could now go up 7p per 1b And now th the intro- 8 per cent This meant dearer increases duction of the Com been 'Financial cent increase do pork and canned and frozen ing profits at a was allowed and the Tories survey showed than £30m a s meat products. monthly family shopping bil announced that frozen fish £32.28 had 'treated' foods March IN THE week ending March It is quite owner risen to £33.27 in April for would be exempt 16, 230

ISCO

LULLS

'control'. the same food. nounced. these incheer Canned processed pies, sau- class families meats, animal canned fish, ests of sausages bases, cooked eggs, bacor cost of living toods. discils and •reaklas!

alcals. holding down | foods all immediately shot and ham. May up in price

MARCH

Wages No

THE

anal Prices Index showed that On May 8 imported bacon

ON JANUARY

was 8. it were rising four food prices went up by 2p to 4p alb. announced that times taster than wages. The League to had meat price and fone up by On May 17 Unilever's Blue biggest increases affected tire working cent • per bacon, tomatoes and Band, Stork, Echo Outline, the Heath since the inauguration of the Cookeen, White Spry, Cap resign. Commission on Nov- Prices ember 6.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALL TRADES UNIONS

IN THE week ending Janu-

ALLIANCE

ALLIANCE

220 ary 13, rises food announced. Two prices were days later 200 branded foods Public Meeting Central London were raised by cent. They were mainly

'A MANIFESTO FOR

and sliced canned meats,

POSTAL WORKERS'

EQUITY'

sausages, pies ana Dacon.

MEETING

SUNDAY JUNE 3

Break off secret talks with 7.30 p.m. February the Tories! London Film School Force the Tories to resign!

ON FEBRUARY 13 increases of 5p a lb in processed meat 24 Shelton Street Sunday, June 3, 10.30 a.m.

were announced. (corner Langley St) The editor of 'The Grocer' Conway Small Hall, opp. Covent Garden Tube Rod Lion Square November 6 and said Speaker: Corin Redgrave Holborn (admission 10p) the government's price con- trol was 'a joke'. Workers Prel

TOYS

e number of increases d prices are recorded ermarkets every single pry Crisp and Dry got reen light for 6-per-

SMALL INVI

the same day Robert- Mersey Docks got permission to put pected to rejec eir jam by lp a jar, unveiled by th alade by 1zp, lemon Yesterday th by 1p and mincemeat Committee was Shredded Wheat, oppose the pro dies and Golden Nug- will write dowr reakfast food also went staggering 70 p There are st MAY 22 Batchelors whose individua permitted to raise prices for a quarter of esta meals by up to The writedow per packet and Cad- as a way of re to raise Schweppes jam by 0.75p on a 12 Under the sc about £20m wo ence shares as • d now the latest price be noted that tl ses granted to Mc- to repayment. alls—a company mak- Details of th rofits at a rate of more out yesterday b £30m a year! Page, who says, is quite clear that the turned. We are s intend to intensify hope that we hi on working- holders mesal The families in the inter- if profit by sending the is a successful of living soaring while referred to the ng down prices. And because th by an Act of l better justification judiciary will u be found for the call Socialist Labour For Liverpoo le to mobilize the en- crucial importa working class to force the Tory gover Heath government to tically rationali

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE LECTURES

Given by Gerry Healy national secretary of the Socialist Labour League Wednesday June 6 7.30 p.m. Questions and Answers on Marxism Philosophy, Economic and History St David's Church Hall Church Street, Merthyr rkers Press, Friday June 1, 1973

PAGE 11

LL INVESTORS in the Tory-created y Docks and Harbour Company are ex- i to reject the capital reconstruction just led by the new management.

terday the Mersey Docks Security Holders littee was meeting to consider future steps to reorganization which e the proposed share vrite down the value of their holdings by a ring 70 per cent. are several hundred small shareholders : individual holdings of up to £5,000 account quarter of the company's stock.

• writedown is being proposed by management way of reducing the company's £109m debt.

der the scheme the stockholders will receive £20m worth of nominal redeemable prefer- shares as 'partial compensation'. But it should ted that these new shares carry no legal right ails of the capital reconstruction were sent esterday by the company chairman, Mr John who says, bleakly: 'I hope that the tide has that we have hit the bottom, * team effort. I d. We are working towards meeting in Liverpool on June 22. If there successful revolt, the matter is automatically ed to the High Court's Chancery Division.

because the company was brought into being • Act of Parliament, it is inevitable that the ary will uphold the company's plans.

Liverpool dockers, the financial plans have I importance. The new company, set up by ory government in 1971, is going to be dras- , rationalized. The money squeeze is not only on the small investors—who are going to be cynically wiped out operation-but on the in this labour force as well. The only people who will sur- vive this share reorganization will be the big institutions which have acquired large stakes in the Port of Liverpool since the Tories changed it from a board into a public company. In the background of the debenture writedown are the following policies: • Land profiteering from the 300 acres in the redundant South Docks area. • The complete implementation of a supplementary register with a starting number of 500 dock- ers. • A big step up in productivity.

Phase Three trap being prepared New speed-up EASin factories All Trades Unions Alliance Conference: To discuss defence of democratic rights

BELLE VUE

Kings Hall: Belle Vue Zoo Park: Manchester-Sunday July 1: 3 p.m.-9 p.m.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Friday June 1, THE TRAP to ensnare the trade unions into the begin- nings of a corporate state has been further prepared by the government and the CBI.

While Heath and his top ministers got together with CBI chiefs to work out the best way sta to shackle the trade unions in the forthcoming talks with the TUC over Phase Three, Robert Carr was dropping further hints about amendments to the Indus- trial Relations Act. The Tories' plan is to tie unions through the pay laws even worse penal controls than the National Industrial Relations Court possesses. But they want to get the TUC's co-operation in this voluntary corporatist set-up. The tremend- ous resistance to the NIRC shown by trade unionists particularly the the jailing of over dockers forced the Tories into these new tactics. By means of the totally bogus 'concessions' over the Act, they tro WOMEN WORKERS at Ga Cheney Manor, Swindon, player factory yesterday voted tinue their sit-in strike against up, which today completes its week. The vote was a decisive blow against the company's attempts to isolate and split the strikers, and finally to trick them back to work. But also, like the determined resistance of sections of British- Leyland workers to their em- ployer's drive to force up the rate of exploitation, the women's decision reflects a new round of struggle by the working-class movement. THE OWNERS of Garrard's, the giant Plessey electronics are, like British-Leyland group members of the Engineering Em- ployers' Federation. And earlier this week a lead- ing official of the EEF, Edward Marsh, revealed the root of this round of struggle when he called "relentless' campaign to push up productivity. Marsh, who as director of. advisory services for the EEF spends much of his time talking to employers at factory level, was clearly speaking of a cam- paign is already under which but which the EEF wants way, extended and stepped up. At Garrard's the story started when, last December, after a bitter struggle, management succeeded in forcing a product- ivity deal into the Cheney Manor factory, known locally as 103 building, on the grounds that under the Tory pay laws an in- crease could be paid in no other way. Initially, in order to get the deal running, work targets of 55 record-player units an hour were fixed. But now, after applying work- techniques designed study to wring the last halfpenny of pro- fit from the workers, manage- ment want to push the targets on some lines up to 74 units an hour. accepted, and the failed to reached this women level they would lose money.

of After every avenue PrO- cedure laid down by last Dec- had been ember's deal ex- hausted or broken down, the strike and occupation began on All Trades Kings I y June 1, 1973 hope to get the TUC leaders' support for Phase Three of the state control of wages. This was the deal put to Victor Feather, Jack Jones, Hugh Scan- company in the secret talks held at Chequers and Downing Street earlier this year.

This was the deal Scanlon was his notorious talking about in speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch when he voiced in principle of the acceptance Common Market, the pay laws, and the Industrial Relations Act.

'Two amendments to the In- Relations Act could dustrial offer a way forward for co- operation with the Tory govern- ment,' he said. The amendments would do nothing to alter the essence of the Act which is the state con- of unions. They would trol at Garrard's don, record- voted to con- etes its fourth

BY DAVID MAUDE

May 4. The women's leaders in- sisted that the expected rates of working 'physically were impossible'. In informal talks since the strike began, the company has claimed that last December's deal gives it the right to set times, methods and patterns of This claim is utterly re- work. jected by the strikers. Friday Garrard's put Last ALLEGRO workers at Swindon's British-Leyland car-body factory meet this morning to discuss progress in their two-week-old struggle against speed-up.

Allegro production has been Leyland's Long- suspended at bridge, Birmingham, assembly factory because of the strike.

The 750 strikers work on fenders, floors and other press for the Allegro and are ings fighting a management bid to force up their rate of working to call 100 what work-study men BSI, 'maximum effort'. Today's meeting is not ex- pected to discuss a return to work. So far the company has re- fused to negotiate while the are on strike. For their men part, the men say they will not A BITTER row is brewing be- tween the 'left' leaders of the engineers' union and the Associa- tion of Technical and Managerial Staffs over their respective poli- towards Industrial cies Relations Act. The protagonists in the row are Hugh Scanlon, president of the engineers, and Clive Jenkins, secretary of ASTMS. general is Scanlon believed to have raw by touched the been on Jenkins' recent claim that he did work' for a section of 'the dirty engineers' members in union a Trades Unions Alliance Conf

BY ROYSTON BULL

merely give back the unions their tax concessions and prevent private employers taking unions to the NIRC without the govern- ment's prior approval. And the even greater stripping of authority the of the trade contained in the pay unions, laws' abolition of free negotia- tions would be wages, accepted by these TUC leaders.

The CBI has made it clear to Heath that there must be no return to free collective bargain- ing under Phase Three. The Tories themselves have repeatedly said that even if a voluntary agreement can be imposed on the sanctions will IUC the penal remain on the statute book.

workers at its other two fac- tories in the town on a four-day week. This was a clear attempt to bring pressure to bear on the strikers by cutting the pay of their fellow workers in the other factories. But it failed to work. And on Wednesday the company resorted to the desperate measure of sending out letters to each striker suggesting that normal work would be resumed return while industrial engineers -work-study men-remain on shop floor.

SOME 12,000

carworkers re- ported back at Longbridge yes- terday after their Bank Holiday break-and were sent home again. stayed Foremen had away, protesting at having to work while the production men were enjoying an extra day off as part of a package deal. With production of the Alle- by the Swindon stopped gro dispute, the factory was not pro.

ducing a single car.

ENGINEERS'

union members on a new production line have started a selective strike at the British-Leyland north works 103 department, Leyland, near Preston. hearing at the National Industrial Relations Court. Apparently, what has particu- larly enraged Scanlon suggestion that he and his execu- tive have been defying the NIRC in public while co-operating with it by the back door, through others. Scanlon's 'left' image has taken a considerable battering of late, particularly because he partici- pated in secret talks with the , Conference: To discuss de b0 Park: Manchester-Sunda The TUC bureaucracy is pre- paring historic capitulation will which leave the unions stripped of all their rights.

The working class will be put at the mercy of the most savage attacks on their living standards The aim of Phase Three is to and democratic rights from cut the wage norm even further which is facing ruling class an the below rise in the cost of unprecedented crisis its present fl living plus Than une economic system. which is already per cent, with the Continuing talks drop in the standard Tories disarms the completely of living for the whole working working class in the face of these Class. dangers. There is nothing to be from them. They As inflation gets still gained are a the workers' fami- trap. pressure un There is justification for lies will become unbearable.

any trade union leader to go to This is the development that Downing Street or elsewhere for the class is feverishly capitalist further with any negotiations preparing to meet. And it is the this Tory government. Its Heath rUC's collaboration with and its authority eroded, that opens the way to this dan- shattered. economic basis gerous situation. Trade everywhere unionists The trade union leaders' re- must demand: Phase Two is becom- treat over • Break off all talks with the What is at stake ing a rout. Tories. independence of the the whole • Mobilize a campaign to bring trade union movement from the this government down. capitalist state.

MAY FUND

YOU DID IT!

WE ALMOST thought we might not reach our £1,750 target this month. But how could we think that you, dear readers, would let down? magnificent US last- minute effort - yesterday's post the following local day. brought {421.05—made our total Press similar made suggestions. to £1,784.54. Many, many up This trick was angrily con- thanks to each and every one of demned by the strikers at you. which voted to conti meeting It is particularly good as our ing, to continue the Party Development Fund is also until a strike at least report- alongside. coming in shows back from talks in which the Workers the enormous support has now asked union company Press has achieved within the officials to take part. workers' No date had been fixed for movement. these talks yesterday But it is only a beginning.

AS But union officials expected them the movement grows among the to take place soon. working the demand is class, growing for that con- paper sistently fights for principles and takes a determined stand against this Tory government and only our paper does this. The 30 men, from the Daimler bus and truck line, are striking So help expand in uS attached This against strings to direction. not the

EVERY

in award. While time to be complacent any pay strike they will be supported by let's press on with the way, so fight. Raise all Start the rest of the five Leyland fac- you can. Fund right away. Post tories in the area. our June your donations to: At Leyland's Rover assembly Workers Press June Appeal Fund Solihull, ( Warwickshire, plant in 186a Clapham High Street of the 900 clerical stafi most were striking over an extra day's London SW4 7UG holiday given to manual workers.

They were picketing the fac- and turning away lorries tory delivering badly-needed wheel Rest rece •Published the Workers Wheel supplies. shortage has Hith Clapham Street, already stopped production of Printed ondon, the Rover 3.5 litre car for the Press Ltd. (TU), Clap- LoVe London. Circulation: ham

SW4 7UG

rest of the week, but, has not 11-720 2000. Newsdesk: yet affected other models. 01-622 7029. Tories, publicly advocated marks, at his union's recent con- deal with them over pay and the ference, were something of a last the hos- anti-union Act and let straw. pital workers go down to defeat If the row does burst into the without lifting finger in the open, Jenkins is unlikely to reply TUC to help them. directly. Neither Scanlon nor Jenkins Amalgamated Union of Engineer- headquarters will be anxious to ventilate the ing Workers been real, underlying issue in the row: have that all the union leaders' policies undated with branch resolutions of non-co-operation with the In- condemning his suggestion of a the Tories. dustrial Relations Act have col- deal with Thus Jenkins' reported lapsed, and everyone knows it.

re- iss defence of democratic rights TUC must break Special showing off all talks on. of the Pageant Phase 3 Make the Tory

•THE ROAD TO

government

WORKERS

resign! Transform the Socialist Labour Songs and scenes League into the Revolutionary Party! Sunday July 1: 3 p.m.-9 p.m.