workers press

The daily paper of the Socialist Labour League, 1969–1973: a searchable archive of the scans

Workers Press no. 1089

4 June 1973 · 13 scanned pages · about 21,110 words of machine-read text

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workers press Feather sets date for Phase Three talks

MONOPOLIES

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY JUNE 4, 197

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

BY DAVID MAUDE

WHILE VICTOR FEATHER and Harold Wilson seek to hand the working class bound and gagged to the Tories, Britain's biggest monopolies are preparing all-out war on trade union rights. New evidence of the monopolies' strategy ged over the weekend when it became clear that the most powerful industrial company in the country, Imperial Chemical Industries, is fighting a desperate behind-the-scenes battle against unionization of its anti-union memo, written by sonnel chiefs at must be no return to free collective-bargaining.

And it came four days after a leading official of the Engineers Employers' Federation, an extremely well- and bosses' outfit in its own field, 'relentless speed- caned tor a up drive. Yet

TUC

secretary Feather chose Saturday, The ICI revelations, to announce that his formal Heath next visit just WIll De In over weeks time, on June 13. Meanwhile over the weekend, Party right-wingers were Labour backing Wilson's anti-nationaliza- tion stand. Nationalization without under compensation only workers control is unc way to deal with a firm like ICI.

This means demands for conferences emergency Michael Clapham, ICI deputy chairman and president of the CBI, was the and the Labour at 10 Downing Street last Wednesday for talks with Heath.

betrayals, Party, stop the be no return free collective bargaining Phase Three under urgently be pressed and pay laws, he told the Tory premier.

At the weekend Clapham throughout length received Is seen with W. O. Campbell Adamson, CBI director a knighthood. He Dreadin Ine movemen. makes even more vital the fight to transform the Socialist Labour even sharper, however, with the respective union claims for col- League

BULO

revolutionary National Industrial relations lective bargaining arrangements.

party. Ke atons Instead, the memorandum

ICI,

the £1,750m Court for bargaining rights.

This makes clear,

ICI

wants its staff which dominates the market will be heard on July 16.

represented through a corporatist.

basic raw Currently many materais. ara- number staff ot style staff committee system.

explosives and non- Moanores.

ETOUDS

are being balloted about ferrous metals, had long been their views on unionization, and in ten secret talks with un known for hard-line policies ories the TUC leaders signalle its the company is trying main- towaras me unions. complete surrender to une

COR

Lall poratist plans of Heath and their Recently criticized for neutrality' at least until these the willingness to collaborate in forc below poverty line wages it paic are over. black workers in South Africa, or exploitaton or• But the secret memorandum working class, as demanded the Lne company is entared sent out to heads of department by Clapham. massive speed-up and rational- rom Kuncorn. makes clear that ization programme in Britain.

Far from satisfying the rapa- ICI is in fact bitterly hostile to March cious appetite of government and At the end of its unionization and that it IS Call employers, however, each morsel deputy chairman, Michael Clap paigning determinedly agalast It.

betrayal serves only to make who is also CBI president, Dated Mav I. and blamed the working class for them want the whole cake.

Tait, the flation and called memorandum about The EEF's call for more speed companies pro- from Edward bodies up came whose outside individual ductivity each of *own external objectives may not who. as director of advisory ser Clapham has just been always with par- vices, is in constant contact with knighted by the lories. staff factory level. His company ticular In- The spirit of all for a 'relentless productivity corone which terests. Mond-Turnerism, the "The increase colncides wit a rutnies.

company wowa lke 1930s, campaign by several EEF member company sponsored in the influence staff opinion-to the firms, notably British-Leyland still lives in the ICI boardroom that this legitimately extent and Plessey. company has beaten off a ne possible- -SO That une impenous number of attempts to organize ballots of the supervisory and ICI's secret memorandum, th its white-collar workers.

scientific and technical staff com- Clapham-Marsh productivity de- situation has become mands and the Leyland-Plessey I he mon interest groups reject the THE ACT, the television and film technicians' union, commercial television COm- The union is at present black- day refuse to answer a complaint by lodged with the National Indus the Central Office of Information trial Relations Court. Goodman's legal firm, and alleges

SUCRECH

A writ has been issued against agency, over a Tory plan to pust the union's general council and industrial practices' through staff cuts there.

NE 4, 1973 • No 1089 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

speed-up drive all took shape following the start of the clan- destine Tory-TUC talks, on March 18. Yet even the fact that these are now out in the open does not embarrass the craven TUC General Council. In fact the openness of the betrayal on which they are en- gaged only seems to make the trade union and Labour leaders more arrogant in their attitude to the working class. When he promised the Tories last Thursday that the General Council will do a deal whatever September's TUC thinks, next Feather did so in the most con- temptuous terms possible.

•We shall make the chicken stretch its neck, , he said. He was speaking of the working class.

And in his attempt to knife the growing movement nationalization of ruthless giants like ICI, Wilson blatantly chal- lenged the right of workers to determine any policies of the Labour Party at all. All talks with the Tories must be broken off now, the TUC leadership must be brought to account at a further recalled Con- and the strength of the gress unions must be mobilized to of make the Tory government resign. Harold Wilson must be ex- pelled from the Labour Party executive for going completely against conference and

NEC

policy. There must be the maximum attendance at the July 1 rally at Belle Vue, Manchester, of the All Trades Unions Alliance.

SATURDAY'S post brought in £721.03. This brings the total to £42,187.00. We are eagerly looking to today's post forward which will tell us if we have reached the £50,000 first leg of the fund due to be completed by June 3. We need £7,812.32. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Dagen- £20.85, Tottenham ham 224; Southwark £52; Croy- don £35; Lewisham £120; Battersea £25; East Lon- don £48; Kingston £116; Slough £19.93; Willesden £10; Tooting £15; Wands- worth £10; Watford £67.25; Paddington £2; Cambridge £100; Nottingham £6; Exeter £49.50. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

JUNE FUND

BEGINS

WITH £30.41

WE MUST keep up a good pace throughout this month. We realize that you, dear readers, are mak- ing a huge last-minute drive to complete the first stage of £50,000 for our Party Develop- ment Fund. But don't neglect our Monthly Appeal Fund. We need it regularly each day to maintain Workers Press and help it expand constantly. Our paper is vital now. As crisis throughout rages the capitalist system, Workers Press is needed more than ever to prepare thousands of workers for this rapidly developing politi- cal situation. So let's show what can be done. Help us raise both our funds in good order. Send all your donations for our June Fund to: Workers Press June Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG The battle in the fishing grounds around Iceland are reaching a climax with charges a n d counter charges of aggression and violence. The men in the middle Britain's deep- are sea fishermen. But whose war are they fighting? Workers Press has investi- gated the economic and political issues behind the conflict. The series starts on Wednesday with the views of Hull's fishing community.

BE SURE OF YOUR COPY.

Telephone Circulation 01-622 7029.

Scan page 2

workers press Feather sets date for Phase Three talks

MONOPOLIES

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY JUNE 4, 1973 • No 1089 • 4p

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE

BY DAVID MAUDE

WHILE VICTOR FEATHER and Harold Wilson seek to hand the working class bound and gagged to the Tories, Britain's biggest monopolies are preparing all-out war on trade New evidence of the monopolies' strategy emer- weekend when it became clear that the industrial company in the Imperial Chemical Industries, is fighting a desperate behind-the-scenes battle against unionization of its The 'leak' of an anti-union memo, told the Tories publicly that there must be no return to free collective-bargaining.

And it came four days after a leading official of the outfit in its own field, destine tarks, The Te over coer ICI revelations, to announce that his next formal visit Heath wil be just over weeks time, on June 13. Delrayal on which tney are en- Meanwhile over the weekend, Party Labour right-wingers were backing vlson s ant-natonalza- their attitude more arorall tion stand. Nationalization without compensation under workers control une way to deal with a firm like ICI.

that General 1uurscdy "This means demands for recalled conferences en the tuc Michael Clapham, ICI deputy at 10 Downing Street last Wednesday for talks with Heath.

There should temptuous terms possibie.

Party, stop the betrayals, be no return bargaining under Phase free collective Three the urgently be pressed throughout the length and premier. a knighthood. He is seen with W.

Campbell Adamson, CBI director movement. speaking of the working class.

general. makes even more vital the fight to transform the Socialist Labour even sharper, however, with the respective union claims for col- scarle

ILLO

revolutionary approach of an application in the bargaining allangements. party.

ICI,

the £1,750m company Court for bargaining which dominates the market will be heard on July represented through a corporatist- Wall y Dasic law materas. aru- style staff committee system.

explosives and non- ncial nores, groups ferrous metals, had long been Tories the TUC leaders signalled unionization, known for its hard-line policies the company is Illalil towards the unions. 'public Lalli poratist plans of Heath and their the Recentl criticized tOr press sureneun willingness to collaborate in forc.

below poverty line wages it paid black South workers in Africa, ne e cок он Comany enraced sent out to heads of denartments massive speed-up and rational- trom ization programme in Britain.

rar trom satisfving the raDa.

executive At end of March its going completely Michael debutv chairman. Clan. conierence ham, who is also CBI president, policy. blamed the working class for in- There must be the maximum Ration and called on companies attendance at the July 1 rally pro- Belle Manchester. callic yue Une ductivity of each individual Unions Alliance. Al races worker. Clapham has just been knighted by the Tories. Cull bally 11- spirit corporalist terests. Mond-Turnerism, which the in crease coincices company sponsored in the 1930s, still lives in the

ICI

ber mor att has beaten off ine number to organize its white-collar workers.

The situation has become Interest Males alo lat

THE

ACTT, the television and some of its leading officers by Industrial Relations film technicians' union. wil to. countered COme day refuse to answer a complaint panies. ing all films and processing by lodged was drawn up by Lord the Central Office of Information, trial Relations Court. Goodman's legal firm, Goodman propaganda A writ has been issued against a number over a Tory plan to push the union's general council through staff cuts there.

SATURDAY'S post brought in £721.03. This brings the total to £42,187.00. We are eagerly looking forward to today's post which will tell us if we have reached the £50,000 first leg of the fund due to be completed by June 3. We need £7,812.32. Socialist Labour League branches sent in: Dagen- £20.85, Tottenham ham £24; Southwark £52; Croy- don £35; Lewisham £120; Battersea £25; East Lon- don £48; Kingston £116; Slough £19.93; Willesden £10; Tooting £15; Wands- worth £10; Watford £67.25; Paddington £2; Cambridge £100; Nottingham £6; Exeter £49.50. Post all donations to: Party Building Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG. Willill

JUNE FUND

BEGINS

WITH £30.41

WE MUST keep up a good pace throughout this month. We realize that you, dear readers, are mak- ing a huge last-minute drive to complete the first stage of £50,000 for our Party Develop- ment Fund. But don't neglect our Monthly Appeal Fund. We need it regularly each day to maintain Workers Press and help it expand constantly. Our paper is vital now. As crisis rages throughout the capitalist system, Workers Press is needed more than ever to prepare thousands of workers for this rapidly developing politi- cal situation. So let's show what can be done. Help us raise both our funds in good order. Send all your donations for our June Fund to: Workers Press June Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG The battle in the fishing grounds around Iceland are reaching a climax with charges an d counter charges of aggression and violence. The in the men Britain's deep- middle are fishermen. But whose sea war are they fighting? Workers Press has investi- gated the economic and political issues behind the conflict. The series starts on Wednesday with the views of Hull's fishing community.

BE SURE OF YOUR COPY.

Telephone Circulation 01-622 7029.

Scan page 3

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday June 4,

THE INFLATIONARY

boom in the United States cannot be sus- tained at its present rate, according to top officials of the Nixon administra- tion. They admit that attempts to control in- flation could precipitate a slump. Treasury Secretary George Schultz told reporters at the White House last week that 'a central problem for economic management' was 'how to man- age this boom so that it tapers off without leading to a decline in real income. 'We know that the real rate of increase of 8 per cent that we have now is not sustainable. The economy just doesn't expand that fast in terms of its basic in- crease in productivity and labour force. 'Most people think that gives you a rate of expansion of capa- city of the order of 4t per cent or something of that kind. So this 8 per cent real rate of in- crease has got to come down to the 4 per cent rate by definition.

INDECISION

'The problem is to bring it down without having the 4 per cent turn into minus 1 per cent or something, to bring it down and expand have at economy something like that 4 per cent rate? Schultz's remarks show the in- of decision administration an racked by the Watergate scandal and facing a world economic crisis of unprecedented severity.

The paralysis of the Nixon administration can only be in- tensified by the results of his summit meeting with French President Georges Pompidou in Iceland. Despite the participants' brave attempts to put the best face on the outcome of their talks, the result was a disaster for Nixon and for the carefully arranged programme of meetings between the main capitalist powers over the coming months. The extent of basic disagree- ment between Nixon and Pom- pidou not only intensifies Nixon's domestic problem (namely how to deal with the working class while fighting to stay in office), ITALIAN Fascist leader Giorgio Almirante claims he has tape recordings that reveal wholesale corruption in the ruling Christian Democratic Party. The tapes contain conversa- tions about crooked road-build- ing by ex- contracts obtained secret service wire-tappers.

They show how the Depart- ment of Roads and Highways corruptly bought and sold ten- ders for road-building to the highest bidder. Ex-head of the Milan Criminal Police, Beneforti, had 'bugged' the office of the General Direc- tor of the Department of Roads and Highways. ay June 4, 1973

BY JOHN SPENCER

but also increases the paralysis at the top of his administration domestic and foreign plans as begin to crumble. All that Schultz and the Federal Reserve Board have done so far to solve the 'problem of economic management' has been to allow interest rates to increase, discourage company borrowing and encourage the repatriation of funds from abroad. The 'Financial Times' summed up the situation in its editorial: 'US output is booming, but so of the are prices: Phase Three is not anti-inflation programme going to work on the voluntary lines originally hoped for and Mr Nixon is not at present in a posi- tion to exercise the pressure needed.' "The Times' detected 'growing alarm that the Nixon administra- tion will not be able either to take appropriate domestic eco- Former Milan police chief Beneforte n But who was he working for?

revealed in an investigation into a huge bug- network of government buildings in Rome. Already a number of former secret service officials have been arrested.

The government has allowed to be delayed by proceedings rivalry between Rome and Milan magistrates. Beneforte has been imprisoned by the Milan magistrates.

To- gether with Beneforte, Tom Ponzi, another secret agent, and Bruno Matioli, a Mr Pontedera was named in the bugging opera- tion. Pontedera's real identity is lawyer Marino Fabbri (48). But nomic measures either to hold increases, back wage and price or to win any material conces- sions in the international trade and monetary negotiations'.

Manipulaion of interest rates is about the only means left to Nixon now that he can no longer rely on Congress to put through legislation on Phase Three of his plan for state control of wages.

Meanwhile the raging inflation has brought the dollar down by an average of 7 per cent against other currencies since the second formal devaluation of the US currency in February. At the same time the gold record level price 1s at a new having touched $120 in hectic trading at the end of last week.

And symptomatic of the trend towards slump is the continued decline on Wall Street where the index of stock market prices has almost without interrup- fallen tion since the beginning of the year and the big companies are a major openly preparing recession in 1974. eneforte now awaiting trial for 'bugging an it is still not clear for whom either Beneforti or his collabor- ators were working. Fabbri obtained the tapes, tried to blackmail a leading engineer, and then gave two ol the tapes to the court of investi- gation. He promised to return another but instead disap- two tapes, peared. It is said that a political offered a tremendous amount of money for these two tapes. Now Almirante, leader of the Italian fascist party-due to be tried for reviving Mussolini's is movementhas stepped on the But scene. LABOUR PARTY right-wingers are out to cripple the move- ment in the middle of the most colossal struggles between the working capitalism and class since the war. Harold Wilson has embarked on a course of open defiance of Party policy. Other leaders are continually flouting NEC and Conference decisions. Every- where, the right-wing splitters Party from trade union basis and its traditional com- mitment to socialism. Wilson states categorically that whatever the NEC and Con- ference might decide about taking over 25 major private enterprises, he and the Shadow Cabinet will veto it. 'The Shadow Cabinet would not hesitate to use its veto at the appropriate time. It was in- conceivable that the Party or its leader would go into a General Election on this pro- posal, nor could any incoming Labour government be so com- mitted.' James Callaghan is openly scorn- ful of a previous Conference decision to take the banks and insurance into public owner- ship. Even as the separate policy docu- ment on this is being prepared in Transport House for pub- lication in a couple of months, Callaghan, number three in the is making Party hierarchy, nonsense of it by saying he cannot support it. Callaghan is a director of a major bank.

Market, Over the Common despite substantial majorities at Conference against entry on the terms negotiated by the Tories, 69 Labour MPs, includ- ing the then deputy leader Roy Jenkins, openly flouted Party policy and voted for entry. In the process they kept the Tory government in office. Despite a Conference decision last year to back any Labour councils defying the law by non-implementation of the rent Act, the Labour leaders washed their hands of the rebel coun- cillors when the crunch came.

THE GREEK government yesterda its opponents in the armed forces fo attempt and the successful coup 'Velos'. More than 150 officers des- cribed as Royalists were under arrest on Saturday night after the colonels had declared a republic and deposed the exiled King Constantine. Also under arrest was former Minister Christopher Interior Stratos (49), an industrialist who, in the past, has acted as a close political associate of Con- stantine. of detained Some families naval officers said about 200 officers had been rounded up in connection with the mutiny at Salamis naval base. The govern- ment announced that 40 officers being held, but said inves- were tigations were The mutineers, who have been given asylum in Italy, atmosphere of described the suspicion inside the armed internal police forces, where spy on the political views and opinions of both officers and men. The special military police even had plans to take over con- trol of the entire armed forces from the regular services in the disturbance, Captain event of It is Party policy to re-nationalize without compensation any publicly-owned enterprise sold back to private capitalism by the Tories. But when Anthony Wedgwood Benn promised this for Rolls-Royce Motors, Wil- son repudiated his statement.

Roy Hattersley, Shadow Minister of Education, wanted to attack the NEC nationalization deci- sion in a public speech at the weekend. Transport House had to refuse to publish his speech.

The Jenkinsite wing is hard at work trying to break the Party from the unions. Bill Rodgers, Stockton MP and ex- Minister, has termed the 25 'electoral companies plan suicide and called for a policy that clearly the • Labour was Party's own 'and not just the TUC's dressed up'. Jenkins' former acolyte Dick Taverne, another ex-Minister, is now attacking the Labour Party in Lincoln where he was sacked as MP for joining the Tory camp over the EEC. His Democratic Labour Party is running anti-Labour candidates in the local elections just as he did in the parliamentary by-election. Already, the Labour Party is los- ing all effectiveness by these disruptive attacks on its policy from within. The right-wingers create total now out to are in order to under- confusion mine the support for socialism within the labour movement.

The right wing fears that the sharpening class conflict caused by the crisis of capitalism will demands create enormous unionists for trade among wholesale nationalization.

The whole labour and trade union movement must now demand the urgent summoning emergency Conference of an of the Labour Party to • kick out the traitors and splitters and bind the Party once and for all firmly to a policy of nationalization the basic industries and finance capitad without compensation, under workers' control. yesterday stepped up its arrests of forces following last week's abortive iccessful mutiny of the destroyer Nicholas Pappas of the 'Velos' said. The Velos' mutiny demon- strates the complete absence of any social base for the colonel's dictatorship. Disaffection inside the armed forces is at unprecedented an level, though the officer corps gained great privileges as have a result of the military coup six years ago. King Constantine, naturally, is trying to place himself at the head this opposition with of speeches about restoring demo- cracy and 'fighting as a soldier' against the colonels. But this is a desperate attempt to save his throne by a man whose influence even among the is by no means univer- officers sal. The Greek regime, imposed by the Central Intelligence Agency and kept in being by the most ferocious repression, is in grave trouble. In the aftermath of the declar- ation of the republic and the mutiny in the navy the last word has yet to be spoken by the regime's arch-enemy—the Greek working class.

Scan page 4

Peyton-welcomed the growth of the 'casual'

SINISTER MOVES

BY EMPLOYERS

ON THE DOCKS

Corporatism had reared its head on ugly the docks, under cover of the 'new career structure' which employers have been trying force to down dockers' throats since last year. The aim of this career struc- drag dockers into lure is to cahoots with the employers by means of payments for their various specialized jobs.

And the employers' latest ploy for giving credence to this dangerous set of proposals to sponsor a phoney discussion on the role and representative authority of shop stewards.

This matter was first raised Donald Redford, in March Dy the new chairman of the of Port National Association Employers, when he was speak- ing on the same bill as John Peyton, the Tories' Minister for Transport Industries. Election rules Peyton delivered a homily welcoming the growth of the 'casual', supplementary register, by means of which the government and employers are noping to undermine the Dock Labour Scheme which gives dockers job-security. Redford moved in with the suggestion that there should of be the election rules for shop stewards on the docks.

Early this month he returned to this theme in "The Port', the 'independent' newspaper sponsored by the Port of Lon- don Authority. NAPE chief told the The paper he was 'concerned about the degree ... to which the stewards reflected accurately views of their members. Without a shred of evidence, a by your leave or an explana- of why he thought

LON

subject his business in the first place, he started sounding off about not enough men voting in the elections for stewards at some ports. Because of this, delicate in- could dustrial relationships end in the hands of up he said. mockerous minority They could even be placed at mercy of irrelevant sice winds' from outside the indus- try. If stewards were to assume more responsibility, he well • of the 'casual' supplementary register.

on, they must speak for as many men as possible. This required a change in the election rules encouraging more men to vote. some dockers, To who missed the nasty whiff of witch-hunting about the phrase side winds from outside the industry, this may have seemed to a large extent merely a dis- cussion of a technical problem.

But 'The Port' itself let the corporatist cat out of the bag.

Here is how the paper dragged the issue up again on May 24: 'Do shop stewards truly represent the views of the majority of men in dockland?

"This was the important question posed chief Mr port Donald Redford when he declared publicly that before stewards would be shop into management as absorbed part of a new career structure for dockers, changes ought first to be made in the rules governing their election.'

The key phrase, of course, 'shop. stewards would into management'. absorbed "The Port admits, is This, the real purpose of the pro- posed career structure. Behind all the phrases of employers like John Lunch, uld PLA director-general, about of 'every docker should have a director-general's baton in his overall pocket' lurks the aim of depriving dockers of any real representation. First the employers want to take way from the docker his independent union organiza- tion. Then they want to take away from him job-security his under the Dock Labour Scheme.

Redfords, And then, the Lunches and Peytons think, they will have the troublesome fellow where they want him.

Of course they know dock- themselves will fiercely ers resist these moves. But they are relying in both cases on the treacherous poli- cies of the union leaders to see them through. 'workers' participation' The garbage being so enthusiastic- ally peddled by the leadership of the Transport and General Workers' Union, in particular, is one of the biggest dangers ent in this context. Just a hint of the em- ployers' boardroom dis- cussions about how to deal with the working class came out into the open last week when a leading official of the Engineering Employers' Federation called for a relentless speed-up drive. But Edward de Burgh Marsh, the EEF's director of advisory services, was just the latest employer to let the anti-work- ing class cat out of the bag.

In recent months a series of spokesmen at different levels have been laying it on the line that what is needed is a mas- sive increase in the rate of exploitation. Marsh, a • former manage- ment consultant, clearly tav- ours a straightforward blitz at shop-floor level aimed at push- ing up profitability. Others have talked of doub- ling the rate of investment or legislating more favourable terms for industry. The aim is the same. Speaking at last Tuesday's of the Industrial opening Training, Exhibition, he said: 'Currently, while net output per head in engineering has in- creased from something like £1,330 per head in 1963 to over £2,400 per head in 1972, the real contribution by this same manpower to commercial measured in objectives as terms of added value per fl of wage and salary has consist- ently declined each year from £1.80. in 1968 to below £1.60 in 1972, with the result that "margins" from which addi- tional costs, depreciation and future capital investment pro- grammes must be funded have declined.' Marsh, who spends much of his time talking to employers on the ground about producti- vity, payment systems and manpower planning, and there- fore presumably reflects a con- siderable body of opinion in engineering, said that the trend of falling profits must be first stopped, then reversed it Bri- tish industry is to regain a competitive edge over foreign competition. He went on: 'The frame- work for Phase Three could do much to help this recovery.

Industry can also do a con- siderable amount for itself by relentlessly, pursuing all areas of potential improvement-and A new English edition of the 'First Fiv Years of the Communist International' i corporating hitherto unpublished materi from Volume XIII of Trotsky's 'Works'

FIVE YEARS OF THI

COMMUNIST

i cans la Workers Press, Monday June 4, 1973 PAGE 3 there are many-in the effec- cation of this provision-con- tive use of manpower.' tained in the government's code for of Phase It is worth examining these operation Two-the detail, head of Britain's remarks in some since employers' powerful they begin statistical most with organization was attacking the trick and are concluded with a government for 'sloppy virtual call to battle against think- ing about the role of profits'.

wages and conditions the on shop floor. With Phase Two hardly off The trick is that Marsh gave the printing he was presses, already bidding up the odds figures for the increase in out- for Phase Three. of their put in terms sales Michael Clapham, president value and this, although he of the Confederation of British did not directly say so, left the impression that much of the Industry, said that employers price in- of urgency was due to matter increase must as flation. The rest of this part of 'raise dramatically the level of his speech tended to reinforce output per man'. this impression. But the real strategic aim of way that the It is in this this section the employers edge taken off his call for a was revealed last year, shortly relentless drive to push before the unveiling of Phase up profits, 'reasonable' One of the pay laws. giving gloss which would not frighten Lucian Wigdor, CBI deputy off the union leaders who have let drop at a director-general, already decided to participate little-reported Press conference Phase Three talks with in that to sustain the present rate Heath. of business growth the amount But the real position as re- of money available for invest- would have to be gards output in engineering is ment suggested in indices published doubled. by the Department of Employ- What he meant was that ment. profits would have to be doubled. And a few quick cal- Taking 1963 as 100, provi- figures show culations sufficed to tell some sional that by of the journalists present that 1971 output per person em- here was a statement of some ployed in mechanical, instru- ment and electrical importance. engineer- ing had reached 137.1. To push up, by another 9 other words calculating or 10 per cent the 9 per cent In at constant prices the actual gross national product amount of goods produced had which goes to make up profits risen by more than a third.

each year, the 61 per cent of This was GNP paid out in wages must almost 1l per cent the increase for the be slashed by one-sixth. up Either economy as a whole. that or the money enough for must come from But this is not the 30 per Marsh and the EEF. so of GNP cent or which And they are not satisfied, makes up government expen- either, with the considerable diture. incentives for firms which push If the whole of the redistri- up productivity written into bution called for by Wigdor Phase Two of the Tories' state came off wages, it would mean pay control laws. a cut in pay rates of 15 per speaking, British Where, generally cent throughout in- firms have to absorb 50 dustry, which would trim the per of allowable wage-packet by more cent cost in- average than £5 a week. creases arising from increases in labour costs, in the case of attempt to redistribute An industries labour-intensive from government expenditure, sliding scale comes into opera- already foreshadowed in Bar- tion. ber's £500m cuts announce- A firm ment, would mean swingeing where labour costs 36 per of its attacks on represent cent the social services total could pass on 51 possible of costs and the abolition per cent of any allowable in- the health service as we know crease, while one in which pay it. represented two-thirds of costs That such topics are now could pass 73 per cent. increasingly aired publicly by Thus a labour-intensive firm employers' spokesmen must indicate that they which extracted a big increase are more and the predominant in output for a meagre wage more of boardroom discus- increase would stand to give topics itself, itself a big edge in terms sion. And this, is an the employers' indicator of profits. Some 48 hours after publi- growing crisis. First Five rational' in- material The First Five Years of the Communist International This first volume of Trotsky's writings and speeches for the Communist International covers the period of its first three Congresses when the post-war revolutionary upsurge reached its peak and then began to recede. It establishes, without fear of con- tradiction, the important role which he played in the foundation of this, the Third workers' International, and'in the formation and early development of the French, German and Italian Communist Parties. At this time the theory of 'socialism in one country' had not been invented and Joseph Stalin was still a second-line Bolshevik leader who played no part in the international movement which he was later to pervert and eventually destroy.

OF THE

Price: £1.50, 421 pages. Available from: New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG or the Paperbacks Centre 28 Charlotte Street, London, W1 (Enclose 10p for postage)

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TRANSFORMING THE SOC

INTO A REVOLUTIONARY

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Monday June 'But money isn't made from money. It's made off our backs' JIm Evans (46), is a General and Municipal Workers' Union shop steward at the South East Gas Corporation's plant in Croydon. He says: I first met the Socialist Lab- our League when people came selling Workers Press at the gate during the strike. I went to a meeting of the All Trades Unions Alliance and I disagreed with a few of their things, but there were more that I agreed with. I call our strike the 'waste- of-time strike'. The union took us for mugs, they had no in- tention of winning the strike.

If you go in, you go in to win.

But even when we were called out on a 24-hour strike, the production men were sent 'for They said it was in. safety', but it definitely wasn't; it was to keep the stocks up.

Why did they call it in the first place? The real reason the men were agitating was for a strike and it got too big for the union. I don't see why a union should ever be They've beaten. got the strength, if they use it.

We should have fought to- gether with the hospital work- ers. Instead, our union was the first to give in. The TUC has given the Tory government carte blanche do what they like. The to unions' leaders are doing a better job for the Tories than the Tories could do for them- selves. Our union accepted £2.80, but if we start any further in- dustrial action to reduce over- time, or if we ban overtime, we lose 56p off it. The leaders say they didn't agree with that, but they had to accept it!

They didn't have to accept anything. We would have had a General Election if the union leaders had refused to accept the Tory pay freeze. Pay is frozen, but not prices. The unions should step in now.

Look at the Lonrho men. One got £130,000. Our men get f2,500 to £3,000. might After 30 years' service they get chucked out like old tow- rags. And take Lambton and Jellicoe — people we're sup- posed to look up to. They've had to resign, but they won't be on the dole, will they?

working man It's time the was put first, and that's what I like about Workers Press.

The only way you're going is by a to beat the Tories General Strike. Our jobs are threatened all the time. Four ago 350 to 400 men years could produce 25-30 million cubic feet of gas a day. Now 50 can make 190 million cubic foot a day. That's progress for you. But our wages haven't gone up. We've got redundancies hanging over our heads all day June 4, 1973 The Lonrho men at the Westminster Hall meeting last Thursday. Says Jim Evans 'Look at the Lonrho men. service One got 2130,000. our men might get 12,500 Arter su years tney get chucked our like old tow-rags.' Above: Gasmen during their strike earlier this year. the time. We know North Sea money.' There's not a lot to choose have a return on my made between Labour and the Tories gas will shut us down in two money isn t from three years' off as far as I time. money. It's our now, can see. made says I must brought up in the Welsh The capitalist backs. was valleys where you never saw a Tory get his nose in. But the last Labour government was never a socialist govern- ment. The first thing they did was put MPs' salaries then up, freeze wages. As an Opposi- they've done nothing, tion, nothing at all. always been Labour. I've I was brought up on Labour. Now it's not enough. I think it might have been enough, if only Labour had been stronger what they're doing. But 'weak' isn't the word for it.

You have to dig deep to find a word for them. The leaders have let down every working man in the country. The May Day strike, for instance, was a flot, but it needn't have been a flop.

The way things are going, there's got to be a revolution- ary party. There's nothing else for it. The Workers Press is a good paper, though I would like to see more news of develop- ments in this country rather than on foreign news. I don't everybody will agree suppose with that, though. we've got to form I think what's the basis of pening in this country.

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C IALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

But lent CL11™ W as hen ing, oul. our. ink 1, if nger But it. find own the rike, It it ing, ion- else Пор- ther lon't gree on Tories want workers on their knees to John is a driver in London and member the Transport of a and General Workers' Union.

He said: I came from a very big family and from the early days it was a struggle for a living. There were 12 of us and we were very poor. In those days, especially in the big cities if you had a big family, you had such small accommodation that you either went in the into army or service. I went into service.

I started off as a kitchen boy and worked my way up to butler working for rich people and even Royalty. It was just slavery when I first started. I used to get 7s 6d (37łp) a week and I had to sleep in the kitchen. I used to visit back to my parents and see how they lived.

They never had anything. My father was a taxi driver and I remember he gave my mother 4s (20p) a day. I used to go out when I was very young in the early hours of the morning-say one or two o'clock-to the local bakers, catch the night shift and buy six penny worth of stale bread. That was for the family and it really opened my eyes. Later on, working for rich could really see people you in the difference the way people had to live. I used to say to myself 'Is this fair?' That's how I came into politics. And politics came the whole family. Any into spare money we had went to educate the eldest boy. That happened in most families. He went into politics and was a Labour councillor for 25 years.

We all had to do our bit and go on the streets canvas- sing for the Labour Party. This was in the early 1930s. In those days Labour was the party for the workers. The old leaders in those days were true socialists. But it's miles different today. This is what shocks us. When I was 16, I went on a march from Fulham to meet the hunger marchers from Jarrow. That another was turning point to see all those people coming towards you with pieces of old rags on their feet and covered in blood.

Then, another thing, we used to have miners coming into Anywhere you went London. you could see groups of them singing and even though I was young I said to myself 'This isn't right. Good strong men having to go begging'. Now the Tories have un- leashed a vendetta against the workers. There always was talk before the Tories got in that all the workers were doing was playing bingo, buy- ing televisions and wanting Tories said workers two cars. were getting too much and they said they would put a to it. stop It's the old vendetta against the workers — the Industrial Relations Act, rents and every- thing else. There was a period when they obviously felt the workers were taking too big a Jarrow hunger march— 'That was anoth slice of their cake. Now they've got a policy to make them poor again, to divide them and to break up the unions. They want the workers down on their knees so that they can go back to the 1930s and have workers begging for work so that they can state their own price. If they can get the unions where they want them, which they're trying to do now, they'll be wage-cutting and sacking men just like in the old days. I've been a Labour man all my life and I am very dis- appointed in the labour leaders.

They are the people. If they had stood together like true socialists they could have stopped this government be- fore now. If Jenkins and his crowd hadn't voted with the Tories atter the House of Commons debate on the Common Market they would have been out now.

They would have been out a year. was another turning point to see all those peor This is where I get dis- illusioned with these people calling themselves socialists because they're not socialists at all. If they were, they'd have got this government out before now. The TUC leaders are the same as the Labour Party.

You've got these right wingers who I call traitors to the work- ing class. These are the people who are letting us down. I think these officials have been spoiled so much with high salaries that the money has gone to their heads. They couldn't care less about other They're people. above way them and they are frightened to lose their jobs. That is the reason why I It's the support the League. only alternative. With these right wingers holding the power, we're never going to get anywhere. They've got to be chucked. out. The League has got to organize to get these right Workers Press. hose people coming towards you with pieces o wingers out and put a Labour government in that will be truly socialist. If Labour doesn't follow the League's policies, then there will be break with them. There will have to be an alter- native party come in and lead the working class. If these right wingers are half capitalist and support the system, they might as well be whole capitalists. I've read the documents about the crisis and trans- forming the League into a revolutionary party and I agree something drastic has got to be done. - There's only one thing I disagree with and that's prob- ably because I don't under- stand. That's when it mentions 'revolution' A lot of people would be worried by that because they think it means get up in armed struggle and start shooting.

They think there's violence coming all the time. r8 Press. Monday June 4, 1973 PAGE 5 h pieces of old rags on their feet ...

If it came to it that workers' rights were being taken away all the time and living standards going down those people who do not understand now will understand then that there will have to be drastic measures taken. Nobody wants force, but if your standards are so low that you're starving, then you've got to fight to live. The workers have got to organize. There's They doubt about that. no can't rely on the right wingers in the Labour Party and the

TUC.

If we rely on them our standards will be so low in the end we won't have any- thing left to fight with.

These people will do nothing opinion the for us. my League is definitely the only party which can. Somebody's got to organize the working class, especialiy the youth. If the Tories get away with what they're doing, future the youth is finished

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PAGE 6 Workars Prosa, Monday June

BY TOM KEMP

'WRITINGS OF LEON TROTSKY

(1932-33): Edited by George Breitman and Sarah Lovell. Path- finder Press, New York, pp. 364.

Paper £1.45. This volume of Trotsky's writings spans the period of the historic defeat of working the German class and the coming to power of Hitler which made necessary a fresh assessment of the tasks of the Left Opposition. It was one which furnished further evidence of the de- generation of the Stalinist bureaucracy and the disastrous consequences of the working out of the policy of socialism in one country. At the same time, the capitalist world was plunged into its worst slump and the drive to fascism and was proceeding at full war speed. Trotsky was shoulders as the only surviving leader of the Bolshevik Revolu- tion able to make use of all its experience to resist the Stalinist tide and rally the cadres for rebuilding the inter- national communist movement.

struggle of the Left The in the Opposition had begun Union in 1923-1924 Soviet when, in the closing stages of Lenin's life, Stalin, as rep- the rising resentative of bureaucracy, took command of the party apparatus and went on to make a major revision of Marxism with the theory and policy of 'socialism in one This struggle was country. continued over the question of the failure of the German revolution in 1923 and taken into the Communist Inter- national when Stalin's policy led to a series of disasters in China, Britain and other countries. After the exile of Trotsky from the Soviet Union in February 1929, the forces of the Left Opposition began to grow, mainly by individual special selection, under very and extremely difficult con- ditions against the whole weight he sday dune 1, 1873 of the bureaucratic apparatus of the Stalinists and the Social- Democracy. From his exile in Turkey, Trotsky followed very closely the internal life of these groups, them constant counsel giving and advice, from his immense store of experience, in over- coming their problems. He was well aware of the shortcomings of many of those who pro- claimed themselves his sup- porters. In article written in an December 1932 'On the State of the Left Opposition' after his visit to Copenhagen where he had the opportunity of meeting many Oppositionists, its problems in he reviewed some detail. At this time the Left Opposition still considered itself to be an organized faction within the official Communist Parties and the Communist International working to oust Stalinist leadership the and bring them back to a Leninist Trotsky firmly course. was opposed to the formation of new parties or the call for a new International. The sections of the Inter- national Left Opposition faced considerable internal difficulties which arose largely from their composition and isolation from the mass movement. The task facing Trotsky was to select and train the most promising cadres and confront ther with the task of penetrating the trade unions and establishing solid links with the working class. The view which Trotsky expressed before Hitler took power and while there were still good grounds for expect- ing that the German working class would fight, despite its rotten leadership, was that to counterpose the adventuristic slogan of a second party to existing party, as the the Stalinists would accuse us, mean to block our way to the communist workers themselves.

But to blur our difference with centrism in the name of facili- tating "unity" would mean not only to commit political suicide, but also to cover up, strengthen and nourish all the negative features of bureaucratic cen- trism, and by that fact alone help the reactionary currents within it against the revolu- tionary tendencies'. By bureaucratic centrism, Trotsky meant the policy of Stalinized communist the parties. In a document which prepared for the conference of the Internatione.

Left Opposition, published in December 1932, he made a lengthy analysis of what he meant in applying this term to the Soviet bureaucracy at that time. He insisted that while 'bureaucratic centrism signifies the worst degeneration of the workers' state • even in its bureaucratically degenerated form the Soviet Union remains a workers' state' From this followed a basic programmatic principle of the movement: "Unconditional defence of the Soviet Union against world imperialism is such an elemen- tary task of every revolutionary worker that the Left Oppo- sition tolerates no vacillations or doubts on this question in its ranks.' It was rejection of the principle of unconditional defence of the gains of the October Revolution which re- sulted in splits with a number of groups and individuals who had been attracted towards the Left Opposition. This same rejection made the split with and Burnham in Shachtman the Socialist Workers' Party in the United States irrevocable in 1940, as it did a decade later with the adherents of the so-called 'state capitalist' theory, the present-day Inter- national Socialists. In the theoretical guidelines which he offered to the forth- coming conference, Trotsky pointed out that it was false to regard the evolution of the Comintern as merely a re- flection of the factional struggles within the Russian Communist Party. 'There were,' he insisted, 'reasons rooted in the develop- of the international ment workers' which movement drove the young sections of the Comintern to the Stalinist bureaucracy? In fact none of these sections had really been parties of a Bolshevik type.

The defeats and disappoint- ments which they suffered Left: Trotsky wearing deep-sea fishermen's harness on waters of the Sea of Marmara.

when the post-war revolution- ary wave receded in the early 1920s prepared the way for a new political orientation.

"When the Soviet bureau- cracy, exploiting the disappoint- ment of the Russian workers in the delay of the European revolution, set forth the national-reformist theory of socialism in one country, the young bureaucrats of the other sections breathed a sigh of the new perspective relief; offered them a road to social- ism independent of the process of international revolution.'

The not-so-young bureaucrats of a later generation, hand- picked for their fidelity to the bureaucracy, who head the Communist Parties today have gone still further in establish- ing a national base for policies collaboration and of class interests as a reform. Their bureaucracy coincide on all the main issues with the men in the Kremlin. In his statement to the International Left Opposition Trotsky made it clear that it 'stands on the ground of the first four Congresses of the Comintern' and rejects the revisionist decisions of the Fifth and Sixth World Con- gresses. He went on to outline basıc principles, a number of the essence of which has passed into the heritage of the Fourth in particular, International: 'irreconcilable hostility to the Stalin faction' Readers of this volume will note that right up until the German defeat Trotsky sharply rejected the idea of setting up Parties parallel Communist in the Soviet Union which, would, he said, mean a policy of armed insurrection and a new revolution. At the same time: 'In contradistinction to Stalinism, the Left Opposition is the bearer of the theory of Marxism and of the strategic achievements of Leninism in the world labour movement.'

It would be right to say, therefore, that while Trotsky did not think that the time was ripe for the proclamation of new parties and a new Inter- national, such a change in might be required if policy objective conditions changed. Until the German defeat, how- ever, all the possibilities of the original tactic of the Leit Opposition had not been exhausted and still promised to yield fruit. Trotsky had to intervene in a number of questions involv- ing the internal life of the International Left Opposition and its sections. In particular, part of the German leadership had become bitterly opposed to his uncompromising criticism Stalin's economic policy made in the course of a com- ment on a book by an American businessman who had worked as a technical adviser in the USSR and reported the ex- tended conversation which he had had with Stalin. In this, foreshadowing recent deals, Stalin made it clear that he was not interested in the spread of revolution and did not intend to interfere with the form of government in the United States. In this conversation Stalin sharply contrasted his policy towards the capitalist world with that of Trotsky and dis- played great cordiality towards interviewer. The article Trotsky's criticism, containing first item in this book, the entitled 'With Both Hands' one of the reasons for was a sharp conflict with two of the German members of the Secretariat of the International Left Opposition, one of whom went under the name of Roman Well, later to be unmasked as a GPU agent. was one of the two Well Sobolevicious brothers, both of whom were Stalinist under- cover men. Well, later to be Dr Robert Soblen, known as committed suicide after he was deported to the United States for trial as a Soviet agent.

Well expressed disagreement with the position of the Left Opposition on a whole series of issues and Trotsky proposed that he should be expelled. The factional dispute blew up at a critical time, and no doubt not by accident, almost on the eve of Hitler's : coming to power. Trotsky devoted a short but important article to the Well case which showed that the GPU was specially concerned with the disintegration of the Left Opposition from within, utilizing people like the Sogo- levicious brothers. Since this volume is com- piled in such a way as to ex- clude writings which are other- wise accessible, it may appear that Trotsky gave insufficient attention to the developments in Germany at the end of 1932 and the beginning of 1933.

This, of course, was not so, and the reader should take into account that simultaneously following the develop- with ments in the Soviet Union and the other parts of the capitalist world Trotsky was especially concerned with Germany. (See 'Germany 1931-1932'. New Park Publications.) While alerting the working class to the consequences of suicidal the and 'social fas- cism' in Germany, Trotsky also raised a cry of alarm about the dangers threatening the work- ers' state from Stalin's in- ternal as well as foreign policy.

The First Five-Year Plan had only. been completed at the price of incredible sacrifices on the part of the working class.

Trotsky pointed to the great dangers facing the Soviet eco- nomy as a result of the forcing of collectivization through against the opposition of the mass of the peasantry and the tremendous disproportions re- sulting from forced draught industrialization, with its rapid building up of heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods production. The result had been to destroy all incen- tive to work on the part of the peasantry, shortages of food goods, high and consumer labour turnover, careless work and malingering in the fac- tories. 'In the midst of newly-con- factories, plants, structed mines, electric stations, collec- tive and Soviet farms, the workers and peasants begin to feel more and more as if they are in the midst of gigantic phantoms indifferent to the fate of humans. The populace, as consumers, can no longer understand to what end they their energies as pro- strain ducers.' Under Stalin repression had the chief method of become economic management. Exag- gerated claims of economic went side by side successes with isolation and the dangers of capitalist encirclement. The disastrous mistakes and crimes of the Comintern had culmi- nated in the German defeat.

In putting forward a Marxist alternative to the Stalinist course, Trotsky was still firmly of the opinion at this time that 'No new revolution is neces- sary to save and strengthen the dictatorship. Profound and all- sided and fully thought out reform will completely suffice.

The whole question lies in who will carry it through. This question touches not persons or cliques but the party'.

But reflection on the con- sequences of Hitler's victory convinced Trotsky that there was no possibility of reforming the German Communist Party (KPD) and that it was neces- sary to call for the building of a new party in Germany which Comintern 'seize the could from the hands of the Stalinist bureaucracy'. The failure of the KPD to working class mobilize the against Hitler after he became Chancellor on January 30, 1933, leading to its own sup- pression without a aght on March 5 was, Trotsky said, the

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Democratic for war credits ir stag. bureaucracy Union and, despit votes, lion from the working question of would win out in the interests of class settled. Trotsky now has he policy of bu of the German sec had to combat t Thalheimer tunist position. lerites lat the Stalinist Comintern was ba struggle against Another represented among émigrés from Nazi for a new Oppositi SAP. But the SAF container was corroded by task was to find these elements. In the same w sure of events wi members of organizations munism and offer to then, recr mainly been basis, but offered the winning organizations workers' parties. number writings represen volume were dire Inis lask, wnich w related to the str centrist politics. opportunity the Austrian devoted particular this after the Hitle ended the period he title of one o lets, Germany wa the international s class Bocal the influence of t was limited. Austria resembled ore-Hitler years: Bonapartist dictat maintains neutralization of tl and fascist camps' The Social Dem Otto Bauer, made one between But fascism. pointed out: In f cracy was social regime reconstructing society into a soc this then revealed first of a where the created by the where cracy, composes the deci the nation, Democracy repres cisive force in thi Yet today, living through in action that flesh of the flesh and decomposes In Austria the cracy could Stalinists because responsibility the working class Even power General Strike Fascist victory 'democracy'. On the struggle could Austria 1914, the Social had voted party credits in the Reich leadership re- lindly obedient to the Soviet the isolated class. The factor the KPD— ests of the Stalinist cy or the logic of the — had now had to fight for of building a new from resistance ity of the leadership rman section. He also Brandler- the group which an oppor- The Brand- recognize efused to Stalinist policy o : the n was based upon a Trotskyism, correct. i problem was Do \P (Socialist Worke was strongly ed among the political rom Nazism. The call Oppositior and : the SAP, although healthy elements ded by centrism. The to find a bridge to same way, the pres- was propelling the socialist towards com- and offered the Left possibilities new recruitment on an individual the new situation of over groups of the mass of Trotsky's represented in this directed towards which was intimately situation. He articular attention to the Hitler victory had was the key to national situation. stria the mass of the followed the emocratic Party and ence of the Stalinists situation esembled that of the years: one of 'semi- ist dictatorship which itself by mutual tion of the proletariat st camps'. cial Democrats, under er, made the struggle 'democracy' and Trotsky ut: In fact, if demo- indeed above the gime that engendered vas indeed capable of bourgeois to a socialist society, should have been wals Social proletariat the the decisive force in Social and the cy represents the de- 'ce in the proletariat what is Austria demonstrates that democracy is he flesh of capitalism, with it.' tria the Social Demo- blame the not because it had entire for the fate of class. Rut Rauer the workers the takin for Even his threat o Strike to avert was onfined to defence 0f other hand, as ointed out, a success- for in •owe the provide German workers with the lever for overthrowing the Hitler regime. Trotsky's warn- ings, unfortunately, were to go unheeded by the Social as Democracy, as they had been by the KPD leaders a few years before. Bauer's policy paved the way for the defeat in 1934 of the Viennese proletariat. In reply to some Austrian Social Democrats who asked for his political advice, Trot- sky said that the first thing that was necessary was un- compromising struggle against leadership which Bauer had capitulated to the Dol- fuss regime and had thus already betrayed the working class as surely as the German Social Democracy had done.

in a final In March 1933, appeal to the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he offered the of the Left co-operation Opposition in reviving the party. This required that it should be offered the possi- bility of normal work within _ a recognized the party as faction. No reply was received. on "The In his article Degeneration of Theory and the Theory of Degeneration' Trotsky made a fundamental Marxist critique of the claims of the bureaucracy to be build- ing socialism in the Soviet union. This should have meant the disappearance of class differences and the 'withering away' of the state. fact, Trotsky pointed In out: "The USSR is, of course, not a socialist society, but only a socialist state, that is a weapon for the building of socialist society; the classes are as yet far from abolished; the question of who will pre- vail is not decided; the possi- bility of capitalist restoration is not excluded; the necessity of a proletarian dictatorship therefore retains its full force' By 1933 Stalin had des- troyed the Bolshevik Party, the Soviets had lost their independence, the trade unions had been geared to the needs of the bureaucracy and a com- plete perversion of Marxist theory had taken place. In exposing the theoretical pre- of the bureaucracy tensions and its apologists Trotsky made a highly important con- tribution to theory which was to be pursued later in 'The Revolution Betrayed'. Trotsky Thirty years after wrote this article, the bureau- cracy is as incapable of solv- ing the problems created by its own policy of 'socialism in one country' and its misman- agement and parasitism as it was then. When all allowances have been made for the passage of time. Trotsky's analysis con- serves all its value while the hollow claims of the Stalinism to be building socialism have been amply exposed. What Trotsky says about the tran- sitional stages of the planned economy conserve all their validity and might have been written precisely for the pre- sent crisis of the Soviet Union.

He emphasizes, for ex- ample, the need to establish a stable monetary system as an objective instrument of plan- ning: Increase in the productivity of labour and improvement in the quality of goods, in par- ticular, are absolutely unattain- able without an exact measur- ing instrument which penetrates freely into all the pores of the economy, that is, without a stable monetary unit.' As Trotsky shows, when the working class takes power cannot be instantly money abolished. Like the state it withers away in so far as plan- ning frees itself from operation of the law of value.

"The Soviet economy today', Trotsky wrote, 'is neither a monetary nor a planned one.

It is an almost purely bureau- cratic economy.' That is why attempts at 'economic reform' , giving greater play for the operation of market forces and more initiative to the plant mana- gers have proved abortive, still leaving the economy a prey to chronic disproportions and imposing further burdens on the working class. As this volume shows, Trotsky studied and wrote authoritatively upon a variety of political and theoretical questions. A few of his sub- may be picked out for jects special mention for the reader to look for. He will find, for example, article entitled Japan an for Disaster' which Heads originally in the appeared 'Bulletin of the Russian Oppo- sition' but was later repro- duced in the bourgeois Press.

At the time Japan had been pushed by enormous economic pressures into a programme of Asiatic expansion on mainland, and, in line with the famous Tanaka Memorial was preparing with of 1927, all speed for an even greater confrontation with the Soviet Union and the United States.

Trotsky explains Japanese expansionism from the history of the country, but he also showed how internal weaknes- ses were driving it to inevit- able disaster. "The hasty mixture of Edison with Confucious'— which arose from the way in which Japan had been trans- industrial formed into an country after the Meiji Restor- ation of 1868—'has left its mark on all of Japanese cul- ture' • After 30 years of tre- mendous change and upheav- als these contradictions of un- even and combined developed remains.. БЮЛЛЕТЕНЬ ОППОЗИЦИИ БОЛЬШЕВИКОВ-ЯЕ Balletin der Opposition (Bolshrwiki. Lei « ОЛЕРЖАНИЕ ста. пористо „ОБЕНМИ РУКА! понела Штаты Bullotin of the Rusalan Oppost tlon. How to explain the Japanese enigma? Trotsky suggests that it can be found in a sig- nal feature of Japanese his- tory: 'Present-day Japan has behind it neither a religious reformation nor an era of en- lightenment, nor a bourgeois revolution, nor a real school of democracy'. Much of the old feudal heri- tage was thus carried over into period of expansive the capitalist development, giving it an explosive and aggressive Obviously Trotsky character. the actual could not foresee course of Japanese history. The disaster came right enough in the war of 1941-1945, but still Japan has had no revolution and the old traits persist, com- bined now with a still more type of capitalist advanced industrialization geared to an ever-increasing need for mar- kets with the next stage being one of a drive for imperialist expansion and renewed militar- ism. By the summer of 1933 the defeat of the German Com- munist Party and the inability of the Comintern to draw any lessons from that defeat had convinced Trotsky that it was necessary for the Left Oppo- sition to abandon its former policy of working as a faction within the Communist Parties.

Already convinced, by the banning of the KPD in March and its failure to mobilize the workers to fight back against Hitler, that it was necessary to work for a new party in Germany, he now declared that it was necessary to begin the construction of new Com- munist Parties and a new International. It was to this task that he was his energies until tion in August 194 The German provided the final a which test trayals of Comintern had posed a suicidal KPD, but it had all discussion It persisted, triumph, in had ›olicy Tine y its bankruptcy i demned to a the strongest proletariat ized The need to build 1 was not a question but tion, was Trotsky put it, tive march of gle'. It was the from snatched debacle. The decision by Opposition to brea comıntern brought forward of and which hac had to with all openly organizat socialist had to take place o of 'principled capable of attractin workers into revolution that there Instead from the many from broken done, Trotsky insis more on the need the conquests Revolution. This ing the parasitic bureaucracy degenerati for the Soviet Union nuon na which. in the whole and led to degeneration state, remains even of immeasurable re significance. the Soviet Union terrible to world, perh Who e cades to come. The the first workers' bandd dissolubly struggle the tion. The defence of Union could only by organization Stalinist the standing on its on enjoying support masses', but ready, 'for inited fror Stalinists against i and counter-revolu This was dinlectical ssess uation as Trotsk it shortly after defeat and for whic for the rest of his Besides consequences strategy of ary the German warning of the the Ing Irom in the Soviet Union a numder or impo retical questions covered by He discussed the and combine

CVCI

with

MUCIL

comrades. He gave the Georges Simenon, aspıring lournalist. l be famous as He Maigret. tions about the Pa the field of and sophy sion of life on the island of ish which he had lived four oven anaca Historical Objec is made an important about the thought and acti sciences. social What he calls for Workers Pross, M e was to devote all • until his assassina gust 1940. situation had le final and decisive exposed the be- Stalinism. The had not only im- icidal policy on the it had stamped out ion of that policy after Hitler's maintaining that correct. naa been it had con- colossal defeat and best-organ- in Europe. to build new parties question of personal or dissatisfac- imposed, as 'by the objec the class strug- the German cision by the Left to break with the immediately rward the question discussed th all revolutionary This organizations. the of showing other road. turning away Union the 'lefts' had who had Stalinism tsky insisted all the the need to defend of the October This meant grasp- rasitic nature of the and the reasons of the receneranon Stalin under Wanna nao weakened world proletariat • terrible defeats. stence of the Soviet pite the far-advanced the workers The colla Union would lead reaction the in ild, perhaps for de- ome. The struggle of vorkers' state is in- bound up with the world prole- the socialist revolu- ensured pendent r 'independent bureaucracy, on its own feet and among the ut ready, if needs be front with the against intervention er-revolution'. as the completely assessment of the s Trotsky diagnosed the German for which he fought st of his life. the working out for revolution- the defeat of working class and dangers flow- Stalinist course et Union he took up of important theo- the year in this volume assed the law of un- combined develop- American some He gave an inter Belgian writer then an urnalist, but later to as the creator of answered ques- Party's policy d of art and philo- wrote his impres- : on the small Turk- Prinkipo on lad lived as an exile shortly al Objectivity?' he mportant statement relation between nd action in the calls for is a grasp • Press, Monday June 4, 197 of the objective for determine historical ment: which can on through an the historical metho maxims. science no less physiology. hypocritic scientific accept or reject dialectic istic must reckon with it objectivity can in the lodged itself. his own In Revolution' Russian year or had given a this method that most important hist the 1r he achieved what he do, 'to give the of that events A historical tific, Trotsky Tacts combine Into process which, to its int history And in wished to 1L01 1' erdict of the hist cess itself' It is no accident, that neither historiograph geois Stalinist hacks have write Russian bears compari: Trotsky's. That is r tion of skill talent in writing. It position which and bound impossible makes it denict. tar less i 'the revolution the direct struggles these words, of histo machinery fication operated by ists had only The criticism he 1933 justified a hundred- IrolsKy gives of a tell-tale ample intended to dispara role in the revoluti a short time the his Revolution was in writings which completely di liminatin events, und other leading fi pletely and into a position whic held in the direction of the Readers will to notice that sent greeti first the Flag'. calls rades producing it examinatio critical policy of the Comm and expose its osci tween opportunism 'We say least exaggeration, 'that the British Party thoroughfare and re fluence only in that working class the been forcibly side by the both capitalism ism.' Like the other this this value for great contribut Trotsky's and practice theory ism. Trotsky at work a work tical materialist the responsibilities had thrust it the stood defeats for the heralded Nazism in struggle to tionary parties and International of these writings today. no 4, 1973 PAGE 7 ective forces whict historical develop h can only be done understanding of al method: is not a dumping documents less objective than "impartiality" but One can metnoa. reject the material- tic as the method al science, but one n with it. Scientific can be and must be the very method wn History of the volution' published so before, Trotsky a brilliant example ethod in practice. of the account tant historical turn- the 20th century, 1 what he set out to the key to all the that revolution' rical work is scien- insists, 'when ine into one whole ich, as in life, lives o its internal laws.' history 'he merely the the historical pr accident, of course, 'objective' bour- nor the history the Revolution which mparison That is not a ques- in research or riting. It is that the they adopt, adopt, to mpossible for them far less understand, as a process. i by all the past, of struggles of classes was writing the monstrous of historical falsi- erated by the Stalin- begun its work. makes of it 40 years later, hundred-fold. one ex- a tell-tale distortion o disparage his own revolution. Within le the history of the to be shown and films in a way pletely distorted the liminating Trotsky leading figures com- thrusting Stalin tion which he neve and preparation I the kevolution. be interested 1933 May nt greetings to the on the com lucing it to make a of the amination he Communist Party • its oscillations be- ortunism and adven- • say without the he wrote, British Communis become a political re and retains its in- y in that section of class which has its driven to decomposition of alism and reform- • for understanding practice of Marx- particular see conscious of which his- thrust upon him. was a rical turning point. of t the beginning the working class triumph of Iso the start of the build new revolu ties and the Fourth and the lessons ritings are directly the tasks in Britain

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TROTSKYISM

AND STALINISM

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday Jun Since May-June 1968, the Soviet S by the spectre of revolution in west of Trotskyism in the advanced cor of losing their parasitic privileges of the labour movement abroad, 1 begun a campaign to once again principles and history of Trotsky's tion of the USSR and the world-w ing class. The Institute of Marxis Committee of the Communist Par 1972 published 'Against Trotskyist ments, articles, extracts, speeches al crediting Trotskyism and distorting the relations between Lenin and articles MICHAEL BANDA replies

PART THIRTEEN

Quotations from the Institute of Marxism- Leninism's own bio- graphy of Lenin, pub- show that the differences were unbridgeable on the 'national' question and only a temporary was manoeuvre which was abandoned immediately after Lenin's death. The extracts do not bring out the essence of the dispute which was the brutal, cynical and autocratic manner which Stalin and Orjonikidze adopted the Caucasian com- towards munists in particular. Nor do they say anything about Lenin's great — and hardly accidental —reliance on Trotsky during the course of this dispute. The book says: In the spring and summer of 1922, the central Party bodies of the Ukraine, Byelo- russia and the Transcaucasian Federation requested the CC of the RCP(B)' to formalize relations between the indepen- dent republics and the

RSFSR.?

They pointed out that the federative bonds be- tween the Soviet Republics had to be developed and strengthened. In view of this the Political Bureau of the CC

RCP(B)

suggested to the Organising Bureau on August 10, 1922, that a commission be appointed to prepare the question of relations between the RSFSR and the indepen- dent republics for discussion at the next Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee.

J. Staiin, V. Kuibyshev, G.

Orjonikidze, Kh. Rakovsky and G. Sokolnikov were made members of the commission, included which also S. Agamali-ogly of Azerbaijan, A.

Myasnikov of Armenia, Mdivani of Georgia, G. Pet- Ukraine, A. rovsky of the Chervyakov of Byelorussia, and other representatives of the national republics. The draft of the resolution 'On Relations Between the RSFSR and the Independent Republics' was drawn up by Stalin. He advanced the idea of 'autonomisation' of the in- dependent national Soviet Republics, providing for their in the Russian inclusion Federation as autonomous re- publics. Clause 1 of the draft read: 'The formal entry of the independent Soviet Republics of the _ Ukraine, Byelorussia, Georgia Azerbaijan, and into the RSFSR is Armenia considered desirable. Accord- ingly, Clause 2 of the draft onday June 4, 1973 Soviet Stalinists have been haunted n in western Europe and the growth unced countries in the west. Fearful rivileges at home and their control abroad, the Soviet bureaucracy has ce again discredit and distort the Trotsky's struggle for the regenera- world-wide revolution of the work- i Marxism-Leninism of the Central unist Party of the Soviet Union in rotskyism', a compendium of docu- eeches and resolutions aimed at dis- listorting completely the truth about nin and Trotsky. In this series of A replies to this book. suggested the 'formal exten- sion of the competence of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Labour and De- fence of the RSFSR to the corresponding central govern- bodies of the republics ment in Clause 1' listed Stalin's draft was then sub- mitted for discussion to the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of the various Soviet Republics.

Stalin's idea of 'autonomiza- tion' of the independent Soviet Republics was wrong. It con- flicted with the Leninist national policy and, in effect, belittled the rights of the national Soviet Republics. Furthermore, it was inconsis- tent with the task of strength- ening the friendship of the peoples, of uniting them, and of promoting co-operation be- tween them in the building of socialism. Lenin was ill at that time and had gone to Gorki. He was not informed until the end of September of how the prepara- tions of the question of rela- tions between the RSFSR and independent national re- the publics were proceeding, and had no chance of influencing the work of the commission.

Lenin's attitude However, on this issue was expressed in his works and letters, and in the Central Committee de- cisions he had helped to frame. Lenin urged a close Lenin in Gorki, 1922. political alliance of the re- publics, but called contin- for supreme caution uously and tor respect of the rights and sovereignty of the inde- pendent Soviet Republics.

Before the independent republics could be joined in Lenin stressed, their union, peoples had to consent to it, and every provision should be made to secure their complete equality and sovereignty. This would pave the way to greater unity and the coming together of the peoples, lacking which socialism and communism could not be built in a multi- national country. Stalin ignored the principles set out by Lenin on this score and suggested abolishing the independent national Soviet Republics. This was not acci- dental. In 1920, Stalin had disagreed with Lenin's pro- position, which drew a dis- tinction between the federative bonds of Soviet Republics based autonomy, and on federative bonds between in- dependent Soviet Republics. At that time he said in a letter Lenin with reference to to Lenin's theses on the national and colonial questions that in effect, no there was, difference between these types of federative bonds. "There is no difference,' he wrote, else it is so • small that it is equal to naught.' Stalin also flaunted the propositions on federation set out in the Tenth Party Congress decision, "The Current Tasks of the Party on the National Question'. On September 22, 1922, in reply to a note by Lenin, who had evidently inquired about the attitude of the CC to the question of relations between the Soviet Republics (Lenin's note is not extant), Stalin set out his point of view and tried to reason the necessity of the 'autonomization' of the inde- pendent Soviet Republics. He misconstrued the national policy of the Party, maintain- ing that the independence of the national Soviet Republics was no more than formal. Stalin opposed the indepen- dence of these republics to the need of unifying them effec- tively in 'an economic whole' He contended that the only the actual way to secure unity of the Soviet Republics' was to turn them into auton- omous. republics within the framework of the RSFSR. 'It desirable with respect to .

the five independent republics (Ukraine, Byelorussia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia).'

The 'autonomization' plan was approved by the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Georgian Com- munists opposed it. The Cen- trai Committee of the Com- munist Party of Byelorussia favoured relations based on formal agreement. The Ukrain- ian Communist Party did not discuss project. even the Earlier, in March 1922, the Political Bureau of the CC, • Communist Party, Ukrainian noted in its decision concern- ing relations between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR that it was acting upon the resolution of the Eighth All- Russia Party Conference 'On Soviet Power in the Ukraine' which stressed that the Com- munist Party of Russia 'main- tains the view of recognising independence Ukrainian SSR' Stalin submitted his 'auton- omization' plan to the com- Organizing mission of the . of the Central Com- Bureau mittee. The commission, which convened on September 23 and 24, with Molotov in the accepted Stalin's draft chair, resolution as a basis. On the following day, September 25, the documents of the commis- sion and the resolutions of the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia were dispatched to Lenin, who was in Gorki, while the commis- sion's resolution was circu- lated as a preparatory paper the for plenary meeting scheduled for early October, among the members and alter- nate members of the CC Lenin's knowledge without and consent. Lenin studied all the mater- ial closely and conversed with Stalin, Sokolnikov, Orjon- ikidze, P. Mdivani, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Georgia, M. Okujava, L. Dombadze and K Tsintsadze, who were mem- bers of the CC, Communist Party of Georgia, and Myas- nikov, Chairman of the Coun- cil of People's Commissars of Armenia. He was strongly opposed to the idea of 'auton- omizing' the independent Soviet Republics and levelled caustic criticism at Stalin's 'The proposal. In a letter, Question of Nationalities or "Autonomization"', , which he wrote later, he described 'autonomization' as an act of great-power policy and a de- viation from the principles of proletarian internationalism.

Lenin stressed that the 'whole business of "autonom- ization" was radically wrong and badly timed. I think, Lenin wrote, 'that Stalin's haste and his infatuation with pure administration, together spite against the with his notorious "nationalist social- ism" , Lenin added, 'spite generally plays the basest of roles'. Lenin set out a fundamen- tally different plan for unify- ing the Soviet Republics. He based it on the principles of Soviet federalism which he had worked out earlier, and on the summed-up experience of national development in our country, and defined the specific form of union-the of Soviet Socialist Union Republics — based on the voluntary unification of equal and independent Soviet Re- publics. This was a major contri- bution to Marxist theory and to the practice of socialist con- struction. He conceived of a type of multi-national new state and, at once, a new type of federative proletarian state united multi-national -а socialist state, a voluntary union of equal and sovereign nations governed by the prin- ciples of proletarian inter- nationalism. On September 26, 1922, in a letter to the members of the Political Bureau, Lenin criti- cized the commission's resolu- tion on 'autonomization' and set out his own plan for the union of the Soviet Republics.

• Stalin did not take Lenin's criticism in the right spirit. He was opposed to Lenin's suggestion of unifying , Soviet Republics on the the basis of equality i and sover- eignty. His letter to that effect addressed to Lenin and the other members of the Political Bureau September 21, on 1922, referred with intolerable rudeness to Lenin. Although he accepted Lenin's proposal of forming the USSR, the terms in which he couched his consent indi- cated that it was purely for- mal. He objected to the idea union-wide Central a Executive Committee along with the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR and suggested reorgan- izing the latter into a federal Central Executive Committee.

Stalin did not grasp the inter- nationalist substance of the idea of forming the USSR, and qualified Lenin's attitude as 'national liberalism'. Evidently Kamenev and Stalin exchanged notes at that time (the notes are not dated).

In his reply to Kamenev, who wrote, 'Lenin has made up his mind to go to war in behalf of independence,' Stalin said: 'In my opinion we have to be firm against Lenin.' However, Stalin knew that the Central Committee would back Lenin and did not dare to insist on his own point of view. So he revised the reso- lution of the commission of the Organizing Bureau of the CC to bring it into line with all of Lenin's proposals.

The new draft, signed by Stalin, _ Orjonikidze, Myasni- kov and Molotov, was sent to the members and alternate members of the Central Com- mittee. The preamble to the draft did not say that it had been revised in accordance with Lenin's principles and the fundamental difference be- 'autonomization' tween the project and Lenin's plan of forming the USSR was obscured. The preamble said commission's resolu- that the tion on 'autonomization' was 'basically correct and definitely acceptable', but that it 'had to be made more specific in some parts, chiefly those concerning the structure of the union- wide central bodies and partly, concerning their functions' The new resolution, the pre- amble added, was a 'somewhat revised and more precise ex- position of the decision passed by the CC commission'. On October 6, when the Plenary Meeting of the Central Lenin, Committee convened, who was indisposed and could not attend, wrote the follow- ing note to Kamener: I declare war unto death on Great-Russian chauvinism. As soon as I get rid of my tooth- ache I'll eat it up with all my good teeth. It is absolutely essential to insist,' Lenin added to his pro- posals of forming the USSR, 'that the Union Central Exe- cutive Committee should have as chairman in rotation 'a Russian, 'a Ukrainian, 'a Georgian, etc. 'Absolutely!' The Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee ranged it- self behind Lenin's proposal. It passed a resolution based on his proposals and circulated it as a CC directive. It also appointed a new commission to draft a law on the forma- tion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was to be submitted to the Congress of Soviets.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

1 Russian Communist Party (Bol- shevik). ° Russian Socialist Federation of Soviet Republics.

Scan page 10

Jean- Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) of Haiti en- joys even closer relations with the United States than his father used to when he was dictator. To all intents and purposes the American ambassador in acting Haiti is an colonial governor and plays a decisive role in the country's politics.

The almost monarchic Duva- lier dynasty has proved to be a blessing for the Nixon adminis- tration because it ensures more stability and control than any attempt at 'Duvalierism with- out Duvalier'. By passing the dictatorship to his son, Papa Doc saved Nixon the trouble of breaking in a new team of rulers and spared the US the necessity of military intervention to prop up the regime. Clinton E. Knox, the then US ambassador, supported Jean-Claude's succession to the 'throne' at Port-au-Prince with great fervour. On April 22, 1971, when Papa Doc died and his son took over, Knox gave a Press con- ference saying the US should aid the new administration and that he had asked Washington urgently for a $750,000 loan for Haiti. Knox is a black millionaire who has worked closely with Nixon for years. He retired to enjoy his fortune earlier this year after he had been kid- napped and held to ransom by anti-Duvalier commandos. Colonel Joseph Edward Roy, who represents the Central In- telligence Agency on the island, is military attaché to the US embassy. He has great influence with Duvalier. In May last year a group of Haitian students living in the exposed the United States presence in Haiti of a secret ÜS mission which was training the notorious Ton-ton Macoutes, the secret police.

Members of this mission in- cluded Major Edward Gordon, Capt Evans, Lts Maxwell and Griffith, Sgt McKennie and a European mercenary linked to the CIA who uses the name of Jean Dufourd. On Armed Forces Day (Nov- ember 18) last when year, Jean-Claude Duvalier reviewed the military, a march-past of he was accompanied by ambas- sador Knox and Chuck Neale, a US marine officer and veteran of Korea and Indo-China. Neale is under contract to the Haitian government from a private company based in Miami called Aerotrade. His

FARE

Prince Charles' recent three days of shore leave cost £1,691 in scheduled air fares. He flew back to his ship from Heath- row airport, London. The Prince flew from Bal- moral in a special RAF And- connect with over BOAC 707 jet to Antigue, switching there to another scheduled flight for Puerto Rico. The return fare for the prince was £422.90, but his aide-de-camp and detective travelled with him - also first class. A fourth seat in the same row was ordered to be left Wearing the uniform of the Leopards Je pany, a CIA front, which supplies helic of the Organization of American States job is to train the Leopards, the regime's special security troops. Aerotrade, which has close ties to the US administration, has sold the Duvalier regime jeeps, trucks and Ml6 rifles and has provided five instruc- tors to train crews for flying T6 and DC3 planes. an Inter- The next day American Defence Board dele- gation headed by General Eugene B. Le Bailly of the in United States army arrived Port-au-Prince. Duvalier welcomed them with a speech calling for har- monization of arms and mili- tary systems in 'to the area defend the continent against communists' the repeated empty. And that had to be paid for as, well. Strict security precautions included a test of the aircraft water for poison. sopards Jean-Claude Duvalier greets a US adv lies helicopters and weapons to Haiti. Above: an States (OAS), with Haitian president Jean-c threats to use violence and arms to take power' After a certain amount of bickering over arms sales, the Secretary of State William Rogers received a delegation from Haiti in March 1972 to finalize military aid. The delegation, headed by the then strongman Luckner Cambronne and Foreign Minis- ter Adrien Raymond, was allowed six patrol boats at a cost of $1.2m. The Aerotrade company was given the go-ahead to make "modest' sales of weapons to the Haiti government. Later Duvalier's government received helicopters and training advisers. Reorganization of the mili- makers of Valor paraffin was recently fined £650 at Smeth- wick magistrates court on nine charges of employing child labour and six charges of allowing defective machin- ery to be used after being notified of its defects. The court was told that the firm had employed 13-year-old boys at 16p an hour, to work 'highly-dangerous ending the year March 31, 1972, the Valor Company increased its trading profit by over 50 per cent to £1.03m and doubled the divi- dends paid to shareholders.

The seven directors shared £45,175, with the chairman the Mr M. company, Montague, taking £15,000.

Labour Research Workers Press, 1 a US adviser from the Aerotrade Com- i. Above: Galo Plaza, secretary-general ent Jean-Claude Duvalier.

tary is closely linked with the overhaul of the police. The US has attached permanent advisers General Breton to Claude, chief of the Dessaline police and Luc Desire, secret police chief charged with sup- pressing communism and all shades of opposition. As a result of these activi- ties the Leopard corps has been built up from 400 men to 800.

visits to Port-au- Courtesy Prince and Cap Haitienne by US warships have become more frequent with the sailors tak- ing shore leave in the country's tolerated brothels. Economic benefits have also begun to flow in for the ruling clique who have long held power by savage brutality and 3 Press, Monday June 4, 1973 PAGE 9 repression. In June 1971 the for Progress Alliance [sic] sent a delegation to Haiti, headed by Carlos. Saenz de Santamaria. The visit resulted in a $1.8m 'aid' programme for Haiti, financed through the Inter- American Development Bank.

The total aid from this source was $10m in 1972. Under pressure from Wash- ington the ten-year breach in diplomatic relations between Rica Haiti and Costa was healed. Haiti's Minister of the Interior Luckner Camborne visited the neighbouring Domi- nican Republic, another US client state, and received top decorations. Then in March 1972 Duva- With Coca Cola's in their hands, Minister Francisque and Foreign Minister Raymond make a toast to the secretary-general of the

OAS,

Galo Plaza, during latter's visit to Port-au-Prince.

lier was visited by General Anastasio Somoza, Ir, presi- dent-for-life of Nicaragua, who signed a military co-operation treaty. These ties led the Alliance for Progress to hold its 1972 annual meeting in Haiti, at- tended by Galo Plaza, secre- tary-general of the Organiza- tion of American States, another imperialist stooge or- ganization. Besides Plaza, others at the meeting included representa- of the Aid for Inter- tives national Development (a US government organization), the

IMF

the International and Bank for Reconstruction and Development: The meeting decided that from 1972 to 1976 Haiti would receive credits of $150m against the county's own pledges to sink $66m in devel- opment projects. this money is The bulk of destined to find its way into the pockets of the ruling clique because imperialism has not the slightest interest in improv- ing the lot of the working people of Haiti, who have one of the world's lowest living standards. Nixon stands behind Duva- lier and he is determined that Latin America be kept safe for imperialism come what may. means keeping Duvalier That on his throne and maintaining a regime held in universal con.

tempt and hatred for its savage and bloody-thirsty repressions.

Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37гp • 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.

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= FOR THE CAR-MAKERS

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday June 4, 1973 Hungarian bureaucrats have sions-only refreshments, i.e.

coffee and soft drinks, been asked to draw a tighter can be served. Participants will have rein their expense on to pay for their own meals.

accounts for entertainments Evidently the entertainment and other functions. to which the bureaucracy has A decree of the Ministry of been treating itself has reached Finance lays down that: 'Official such extravagant proportions entertainments should take that a brake had be im- to place only when they promote for its own safety and posed the tasks of the entertaining well being. bodies-and even then only at Meanwhile the People's Con- moderate expense and trol Committee in Budapest level befitting the occasion. Costly congresses and confer- has complained that shops are so much alcohol that erices with the entertainment stocking involved must be restricted.'

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Name Address. Spain will produce more than a million cars by 1976, more than doubling the production figure reached in 1971. This will be one of the results of decrees promulgated by the fascist regime in November last year and in February. Ford has already built a plant not far from Valencia to produce some 250,000 cars a year. Un May 14, Lord Stokes announced a major investment programme to mark the 50th anniversary of the British- Leyland combine. A large slice of the com- pany's foreign investment is earmarked for the jointly- owned Auti plant near Pam- plona. In full operation this plant could produce from 100,000 to 250,000 vehicles a year. Having announced his expan- sion programme. Stokes sig- nificantly set out for an official visit to Madrid on May 15.

All five major car companies manufacturing in Spain are multi-national. The largest, Seat, is largely the in hands of the Italian combine Fiat. The February decree favours Seat, which is currently the only firm of the big five large enough to qualify for the special tax concessions offered by the government.

The most important condi- tion for these concessions is that production must exceed 500 cars a day, at least 100 of which must be exported. The conditions for tax concessions are slightly less stringent in cases where the firm involved

KREMLIN PALS

The foreign policy of the Pompidou regime is being extolled by Soviet commenta- tors as a model for the other capitalist countries. The willingness of the French government to back the Euro- pean Security Conference has been of great assistance to the bureaucracy in carrying through of detente. No its policy wonder it was relieved and satisfied when the Gaullists were returned to power in the March General Elections. An article in the Soviet government daily 'Izvestia' on May 16 listed the fields in which there had been a step- Dishonesty and corruption are rampant in the Yugoslav League of Communists, according to a speaker at a joint session of the Central Committee of the League in Croatia with the Council of the trade union federation. Dr Stipe Suvar accused a minority of Party members of leading the race for personal enrichment. Dishonesty had crept into the League and it was an illusion to think that could be stamped out quickly. He went on: 'I think in particular that in our country we have more rogues than class enemies, that is to say rogues are probably the most dan- gerous of the class enemies. Perhaps we as members of the League of Communists could fix special limits by way of publicly proclaimed Party norms on annual income and is producing only one or two models. The aim of the new laws is to encourage further foreign in the Spanish investment motor industry, which the gov- ernment has declared a special development' industry. Wages in Spain are among the lowest in Europe and union organization is strictly outlawed. These conditions are calculated to make the country a Mecca for the capitalists of western Europe. subsidiary, The Renault FASA-Renault, the second largest car company, has plans for expanding its capacity. Spanish Chrysler has already announced that it will enlarge its plant in the country. Similar plans have been made by Citröen-Hispania. Under the new decrees these groups are specially favoured by the fascist regime. In future any other manufacturer who wants to start from scratch in Spain must export two-thirds of his production and invest Volkswagen's Karmann body plant in Osnabruck, West Ger- many was hit by a two-day strike of immigrant workers recently. It was the first important dispute involving the specific demands of immigrant workers in Germany. ping up of co-operation be- tween the two countries since Leonid Brezhnev's visit to Paris in October 1971. They included space tech- nology, aviation, the oil in- dustry, nuclear power, motor manufacture and ferrous metal.

lurgy. The authors of the article quoted the President of the National Assembly, Edgar Faure, as being very satisfied with the present state of Franco-Soviet relations.

The Soviet bureaucracy has always been a keen supporter of General de Gaulle and his Georges Pompidou. successor In the light of this the policy the • French Communist Party in holding back the wearing working class and down its militancy acquires its full significance. on the ownership of property that would be smaller than for those outside the Party. It would not be normal for us to foist some kind of forced but poverty ourselves, on neither is it desirable that communists, even a minority of them, should lead the way in any kind of race for per- enrichment or in pro- sonal moting a social climate favour- able for such a situation.'

The point is that it is pre- cisely the policy and habits of the Yugoslav bureaucracy, beginning with Tito himself, hardly noted for his abstemious way of life, which has created this social climate. The many cases of fraud and embezzle- ment which have come to light recently amply demonstrate this. The bureaucracy is now be- coming increasingly aware that it is hated by the masses for its ostentatious parasitism a country where hundreds of thousands of workers have to emigrate and seek work in the worst jobs available in capi- talist Europe. Lord Stokes. a minimum of about £60m. This is not, however, likely to deter the competition for long. Peugeot and General Motors, neither of which has any Spanish interests as yet, are both eager to enter the Spanish industry, with car hopes of turning it into a major source of supply for Africa and Latin America. 1,600 Spanish and Portuguese workers out of a work-force of 5,000 had been demanding the right to have their holidays in one block, instead of two separate shorter holidays, since the beginning of the year.

Two short holidays rather than one long one would in- volve greater travelling ex- penses to get to their home countries less time to and spend there. Despite opposition from the Works Council leader Martin Nardmann, who gave them no support, the immigrant work- ers won their demand for one continuous holiday, although they did not obtain the four week holiday.

EFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

REFORMISM ON THE CLYDE

'Reformism on the Clyde' the first exposure of Com.

munist Party tactics at the UCS work-in. It shows how a powerful challenge to the Tories degenerated into a reformist protest. It exam ines the records of the men who led the struggle, James Reid, James Airlie and Sammy Barr. Price 30p, 128 pages. illustraled.

Available from: New Park Publications 18Ga. Clapham High Streci London, SW4 TUG or the Paperbacks Centre 28 Charlotte Street London, W1 (Enclose 10p for postage)

Scan page 12

AA-DETEE

delegates 100 the

OVER

_10 Yorkshire regional biennial con- Con- ference of The Union of struction and Allied Trades Technicians agreed unanimously at the weekend to unite with manoeuvres members of other trade unions in the area in setting up Coun- cils of Action to defend trade union rights.

VICTOR FEATHER,

general

TUC.

AIl UCATT branches are to of the has secretary arranged with premier Edward Heath to hold a further round of talks on Phase Three at 10 Downing Street on June 13.

City editors said at the week- end that Feather's of promise getting a deal over Phase Three had helped the share market.

'Daily Patrick Sargeant of the PROFESSOR Alfred Cross, Mail' gave enthusiastic praise to member of the Diplock Feather for his statement which pushed the index up 9.2 points.

But if the share speculators recommended the continua- believe that Feather can deliver tion of detention and trial the whole labour and trade union in Northern without Jury further stage movement into a Ireland was knighted in the of the state pay laws, they are Queen's Birthday Honours clutching at straws. Or feathers! List. Other of representatives British imperialism in Ireland are also honoured. Lt-Gen Sir Harry Tuzo, mili- tary chief Ulster for 1n two is made a GCB and Lord years,

A COMMONS

committee inves- Grey, the Queen's 'representative' tigating conditions of South in Northern Ireland 1968, since African workers will interrogate is made a Knight Grand Cross.

es from the British Steel Mr Austen Laing, the man who Earlier this yeat 14, +9. led the campaign for Royal Navy

BSC

a joint deal to announced support for British trawlers fish- establish a plant in the apartheid ing in Icelandic waters, has been The will be state. investigators made a Commander of the Order - why the asking corporation of the British Empire. wants to invest there. As director-general of the Other concerns to give evi- British Federation Trawlers' he dence before the will committee has been vociferous his be Slater Walker Securities, in at- Tate Iceland's Cadbury tack measures and Lyle, Barclays Bank, defend her fishing industry.

Schweppes Courtaulds. and Britain's All these have chief arms salesman of companies South African subsidiaries which since 1969, Mr Lester Suffield wages that below the (62) is knighted. A former pay are British-Leyland director, poverty line. sales

THE TORY

Prices Commission The increases mean more good Walls Family. has given the go-ahead to for the Royal Phillips, Mark the price of its Lieutenant Prin- pIes, saus- ages and canned products by 8.9 Anne's cess horse-loving hus: band-to-be, direct interest per cent. has a dearer sausages. Walls is part of the mammoth Unilever combine which declared His father is a Walls director £64m profit for the first quarter who works from the firm's of the financial year. firm The Willesden, north London, i fac- has virtual monopoly of the tory and slaughterhouse. sausage trade. Phillips senior-Peter Phillips -began his long trek the to

CORRECTION:

In Friday's sausage factory when he decided 'What We Think' on Labour and not to go into mining because of nationalization, we incorrectly nationalization. Harold Wilson reported as dis- the

NEC

Later he tried to farm, but owning decision to form state-holding failed. Then he became an company. dica Walls What Wilson did disown was the manager for in London. reference to 25 major His speciality was pig buying and companies as the first target for the holding his skill has earned him his pre- company in which to buy a con- the meat- sent position as trolling interest. purchasing director. SC Be High Street, p.. Bells', Street, 'Stalinism and the fight to defend

ALL TRADES

democratic rights'.

ALLIANCE M

CRAWLEY:

19 Station Road. Services, government'.

LEWISHAM:

SLOUGH: Wednesday June 6, 8 Community Centre, Farnham New Cross 'The way for- the rising cost of living.'

WEMBLEY:

Wednesday (Please note date change: con- (Please note date change).

revolutionary 'Build the revolutionary WOOLWICH: Wednesday June 6, 8 p.m. 'The Castle', Powis Street

DARLASTON:

Stalinists- supporters of corporatism'.

Darlaston. Teel Hotel. Boar Lane 7.30 p.m. Peel Hotel, 'Nag's Head', Wandsworth fight to defend demo- 'The Swan', June p.m. way. 'Force the Tories to resign'.

Talbot Kirkgate. 'Engin- Hotel, HOLLOWAY: Thursday June 7, and the fight against the 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters Tory government. Road. 'Force the Tories to resign.

Tuesday

DAGENHAM:

June 5, Return Labour government Co-op Hall, p.m. Barking pledged to socialist policies'. Fanshawe Avenue. 'Build the revolutionary party

HEMEL

HEMPSTEAD:

Monday 11 June (please note date HACKNEY: Wednesday June 6, change), p.m. Adeyfield Hall, Room, p.m. Parlour Central Queen's Square. 'Build the revo- Hall, Mare Street. 'Unite in action lutionary party. to defend basic rights' EAST LONDON: Monday June 11, TOTTENHAM: Tuesday June 5, 8 High 'Bricklayers 8 p.m. Bromley Public Hall, Arms', Bow D.m. Road, E.3. 'Forward to the revo- Road, near White Hart Lane. 'Stalinism and the trade unions' lutionary party. immediate be asked to initiate action in • local trades councils of aimed getting Councils at Action set up. Delegates noted with concern the prosecution and show of Mr Suffield is head of Defence Sales. Mr Michael Clapham,, Presi- dent of the Confederation of British Industry is also knighted.

Clapham recently said that Britons risked becoming 'the peasants of the western world' unless higher productivity was achieved. Mr James Calder, now conduct- ing the public inquiry into the Lofthouse colliery disaster, is made a Companion of the Bath.

Two ex-members of the re- vamped Rolls-Royce company are honoured-Mr lan Morrow becomes a knight and Lord Cole is made a GBE. Mr John Laurence Pumphrey,

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 Economics and History St David's Church Hall Church Street, Merthyr 01-720 2000

IDES UNIONS

CE MEETINGS

5, 8 BERMONDSEY: Tuesday June 12, ham 8 p.m. 'Havelock Arms', Bala- and clava Street. Forward to the revolutionary party' CAMDEN: Tuesday June 12, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Wharfedale Road, Kings Cross. 'Trade unions and the revolutionary party.

PADDINGTON: Tuesday June 12, 8 p.m. 'Prince of Wales', , Harrow Road, corner of Western Road.

'Force the Tories to resign.

Return a Labour government pledged to socialist policies.

TOOTING: Tuesday June 12, 8 Tooting Tooting Baths, Tories to p.m. Broadway. 'Force the resign. Return a Labour govern- ment pledged to socialist poli- cies'. LEAMINGTON: Tuesday, June 12, . 7, 7.30 p.m. The Commonwealth Club, Church Street, The Tory government and the trade unions.' HARROW: Tuesday June 12, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall (Small Hall), wil 'Avenue, Masons Wealdstone. 'Forward to ATUA conference'.

• WANDSWORTH: Tuesday June 12, 8 p.m. 'Foresters', All Farth- 'Force the Tories to ing Lane. resign. Return a Labour govern- socialist ment to Workers Press, M police force at Shrewsbury and the police escort of scabs at the Thomas's hospital, London and at other sites. The conference also called upon the executive council to take every step possible including industrial action, to defeat labour-only, self employment and agencies, private employment commonly known as the lump'.

central figure in the 1957 a 'Bank Rate Leak Scandal' be- comes a KCMG. A remark by a girl relative who worked at Conservative Cen- tral Office led him to believe that confidential information about bank rate was common knowledge at the Tory head- quarters and he reported this to Hugh Gaitskell. A tribunal found that the girl's remark was 'a joke' which shouldn't have been taken seri- ously. Mr Eric Cheadle, deputy man- aging director of the Thomson organization, has been awarded the OBE for services to the Newspaper Society'.

SOCIALIST LABOUR

LEAGUE

PUBLIC MEETING

Wednesday June 6, 8 p.m. The Cock O' Th' North' Portway, Wythenshawe, Manchester SW4 Plough Newsdesk: 01-622 7029. 01-622 7029 SLOUGH: Wednesday June 13, 8 p.m. Community Centre, Farn- ham Road. 'Force the Tories to resign'. SOUTHALL: Wednesday June 13, ark Road. resign. Return a Labour govern- ment to socialist

WALTHAMSTOW:

Wednesday June 13, 8 p.m. 'Crooked Billet', North Circular Road. 'Stalinism , 8 and the struggle to defend demo- cratic rights' HULL (Special meeting of engi- neers' section): Wednesday, June 13, 8 p.m. 'The Windmill Hotel', Witham. BASILDON: Thursday June 14, 8 Barnstaple Community p.m. Centre. 'Make the Tories resign.

, 8 Force a Labour government to carry out socialist policies.

CROYDON: Thursday June 14, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, coombe Road. 'Force the Tories to resign'. FELTHAM: Thursday June 14, 8 p.m. 'Three Horse Shoes', High Street. 'Labour to power, pledged to socialist policies of national- ¡zation of land and property.

all), WILLESDEN: Thursday June 14, 8 p.m. Brent Labour and Trades Hall, High Road, N.W.10. 'Force Tory government to resign'.

The Station Hotel. Revolutionary Party and the Fight against the Tories'. 3 Press, Monday June 4, 1973 PAGE 11

TODAY'S TV

BBC 1

. 12.25 Eisteddfod 9.38-11.25 Schools. urdd. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Vr Mill at one. Schools. 1.30 Joe. 1.45 Look, 2.05 3.10 Sky stranger at 3.30 Holiday 73. 4.00 Huckle- berry Play school. 4.35 4.50 Blue Peter. 5.15 Man 5.40 Weather. 6.00

NATIONWIDE.

6.50

TOP OF THE FORM.

7.15 2 CARS. Hi-jack. 8.00

PANORAMA.

9.00

NEWS.

Weather. TODAY: 'Three's 9.25

PLAY

FOR

One'. By Penelope Mortimer. With Hywel Bennett, Caroline Mortimer, Fulton Mackay. 10.25

MOVIE QUIZ.

10.55

SKY

_AT NIGHT. Colours of the Stars. 11.15

LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.20 MAN IN HIS PLACE. City of Cycles and Slums. 11.45 Weather.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 World War I (London 11.00 Schools. 12.05 only). Rainbow: 12.25 Up and down, in and ut, roundabout man. 12.40 First re- port. 1.00 Melody inn. 1.30 Emmer- dale farm. 2.00 Schools. 2.20 Cartoon.

2.30 Harriet's . back town. 3.00 In Doing things. 3.25 Father's help.

4.25 Clapperboard. 4.50 Tomorrow people. 5.20 Thirty minutes Worth. 5.50 News.

6.00

TODAY.

6.40

DAVID NIXON SHOW.

CORONATION STREET.

7.30 8.00 MY

GOOD

WOMAN. New series. 8.30

WORLD IN ACTION.

9.00

HUNTER'S

WALK.

Disturb- New police series. ance. 10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

10.30 WILD, WILD WEST. Night of the Skulls. ART OF THE CRAFT. Uphol- 11.30 stery. 12.00

WORLD WAR I.

12.25

CLERGY AT LARGE.

5.25 Open 7.05 • 7.30 7.35 IE. •Id 8.00 9.25 lie lie 10.10

PAIR

K ord 10.55 ther. ea 11.25 Transex Libera-

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL:

9.30-12.00 London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. 6.00 News. 6.15 Survival. 6.45 London. 10.30 Theatre.

Towards the year 2000. 11.15 11.40 Protectors. 12.05 News, weather.

WESTWARD. As Channel except: 12.05 London. 12.37 Gus Honeybun. 12.40 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 Lon- 6.20 Sports desk. 10.33 rormat tor june. ness business. 12.05 Epilogue.

SOUTHERN:

12.04 12.05 London. 5.20 5.50 London. 5.25 6.00 Day by day. 6.45 London. 10.30 Afloat.

of 11.00 News. 11.05 Streets San Francisco. 12.00 Farm progress. 12.25 Weather. Guideline.

HARLECH:

9.30 London. 2.00 At service. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 your 2.30 London. 5.20 Chuckleheads. London. 6.01 Report West. 6.22 Report Wales. 6.45 London. 10.30 Film: 'Five Branded Women'. 12.20 Weather.

HTY Cymru/Wales as above except: Yr 6.01-6.22 dydd. 8.30-9.00 wythnos.

HTV

West as above except: 6.22-6.45 Moon'. 12.30 Epilogue. At your service. 2.30 London. 6.00 1.40 Schools. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. don't eat the daisies. 6.45 London. 10.30 'Jubal'. 2.00 At London. your 4.25 service. dale farm. Streets of San 6.00 News. 6.25 9.30 London. service. 4.50 London. News. Lectern.

SCOTTISH: 9.30

London. _ 2.00 At 4.25 service. Cartoons. downstairs. 11.35

GRAMPIAN:

London. 1.38 farm. 5.50 London. 6.05 Strictly 10.30 Romantic chal- tion.

Scan page 13

Slater Walker: New Tory scandal?

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.

Special showing of the Pageant film 'THE ROAD TO WORKERS POWER' and songs and scenes from history PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday June 4, 1973

BY IAN YEATS

THE RACE RELATIONS conference backed by the revisi Birmingham at the weekend played straight into the han right wing. At the very moment the National Front and Enoch P intensifying their campaign against immigrants, the 5 conference was told white workers were racialist and weal consciousness. Speakers from the Com- munist Party and the Inter- national Socialism Group in particular jumped in with both feet with revelations about the 'hopelessness' of the fight. The central clash in the pro- foundly anti-working class one- day debate came on the question of whether black workers should form a ginger group in the trade unions. Conference organizers, the Mansfield Strike Hosiery Mills Committee, heavily influenced by Bennie Bunsee... for a Bennie supporter Bunsee, ginger group in unions. thought they should. Committee Mr black workers on the shop floor chairman Jayanti Naik said they were without mentioning the capital- opposed to black ist separate crisis as it is to discuss.

the but he trade union, said that problem of Catholics Pro a and black caucus was needed in the testants in Northern Ireland. unions to force them to fight for Yet time during the at no the interests of coloured work- conference the five-hour was ers. crisis even referred to. In the discussion which erup- live Struggling against •TO ted after the main speakers had storm of rising prices and work- finished, the need for a black ing alongside the spectre of un- separatist organization was lack of leadership employment, extended from blaming quickly from either the trade unions or union leaders blaming trade to the Labour Party drives some the entire white working class.

workers to a fierce but backward It is as much nonsense to talk defence of their jobs and about clashes between white and ditions against all-comers.

THE SLATER WALKER takeover of merchant bankers, Hill Samuel, has been thrown into jeopardy by disclosures in yesterday's 'Sunday Times'.

The paper's City staff has issued a series of warnings about the state of the Slater Walker empire. The revelations are so serious that it is difficult to see the government avoiding a special Department of Trade and Industry inquiry-except that the Trade and Industry Secretary is Peter Walker, one of the founding partners of Slater Walker Securities.

It means, however, that the

BY ALEX MITCHELL

Tories are saddled with yet an- other scandal, hot on the heels (Reginald Maud- of Poulson part of its profits, while at the same time of Sandys ling), Lonrho (Duncan the nrice of some those shares, inevitably influenced and Edward Cann), the by the dealings, constitutes Lambton-Jellicoe affair and its This major part of assets. Lord Polwarth's close business has not stopped. North Sea interests in the 'Since then, the world-wide boom. operations of Slater Walker have The City editor of the 'Sunday become immensely more complex, Times', Graham Searjeant, and Far East. particularly in Sullivan, formerly of the Lorana Even senior Slater Walker execu- 'Wall Street Journal', make these tives find great difficulty in keep- observations: ing up with them. In parts of the indeed, subsidiaries of empire, 'More than a year ago, we Slater Walker companies tend to warned of the dangers of a sys- appear and disappear at will.

tem where Slater Walker's deal- dominated 'In journeys abroad to Slater ing in shares by Slater Walker produced a major Walker companies in Hong Kong, All Trades Unions Alliance Cont Kings Hall: Belle Vue Zoo Pa Special showing of the Pageant film 'THE Tickets £1: Available from R.

le revisionists in he hands of the noch Powell are the 500-strong nd weak in class The picket line during Mike Cooley . . . workers don't understand class. The central question in poli- tics today is to understand the crisis and the effect of the tra- ditional labour leadership's re- formism and to struggle to build revolutionary Marxist a new leadership capable of uniting black and white workers in the fight against the common enemy.

Bunsee criticized the trade union leaders-but exclusively in the context of their backing for white workers he claimed were riddled with racism and support- ers of the National Front and Enoch Powell. His speech was the cue to the tal Slater ... Administers Singapore, Australia, Fiji, America and Canada, we have collected hundreds and documents amassed quantities of information about how Slater Walker oper- ates. 'In examining some of these activities, we have found further disturbing evidence that the profits red asset the group than usually more related and, in fact, significantly depend on the switching of major assets from one part of the group to another. • Conference: To discuss del oo Park: Manchester—Sunda m 'THE ROAD TO WORKERS POWER e from R. Smith, 60 Wellington Street West, Sa ino during last year's Mansiield Hosiery Mills s1 Stalinists and the revisionists to ignore the crisis, brush aside the question of building a revolution- ary party and concentrate stead on hammering the working class. Left' winger and ex-TASS (AUEW). president Mike Cooley said British imperialism had trained workers despise to coloured people. He said: "The working class did not understand then and they don't understand now that it is not colour that matters, but class. 'Unless the working class can free itself from cancerous philosophy of racialism, it will never be able to free itself from this economic system.' The delegate from the London district of the Communist Party said a campaign against racialism throughout the labour movement was needed urgently. He said: 'Forces are coming into struggle which we will ignore at our peril. There have been bombings all over south is London. The working class weak, but it is the only working class we have. We have got to inspire the labour movement.'

AUEW assistant general secre- tary Mr Ernie Roberts said Walker... Minister •Apparently randomly-applied accounting thus treatment can significant differences in make the balance sheet and profit and loss accounts of the group.

'At the same time, the infor- mation available to shareholders in the disparate parts of this far- flung empire has, in some areas, sharply diminished, and in many more become impossible to un- derstand. 'Certainly, few people reading the group Slater accounts Walker Securities and the limited ss defence of democratic ri Sunday July 1: 3 p.m.-9 p.m.

POWER' and songs and scenes from hi : West, Salford 7, Manchester.

ry Mills strike in Loughborough.

racism could only be fought through the TUC and the Labour Party. But he added: 'The TUC is unfortunately a reflection of our movement. The TUC has a job to do and it is not doing it. It can only be made to do it as a result of pressure from below?

Winston Pinder of the R/no Workers' Co-ordinating tee accused white workers being two-faced. He said: "The same people who link hands with you on the picket line are voting for the National Front.' Some groups of immigrant workers without traditions class or trade union organization fall into the trap of blaming white workers for the plight they find themselves in when in reality it is the collaborationist policies of the trade union leaders that pave the way for racialism.

Instead of fighting that view- point the Birmingham conference can only deepen it and intensify the resentment of white workers.

The capitalists will use racialism to divide the working class, but unity between white and black workers will only be achieved through the building of the revolutionary party to put an end to their vicious system.

information contained in its offer document for Hill Samuel could grasp the full nature of the group's operations. 'We give some examples of unusual happenings and worry- ing gaps which may cause share- holders of Hill Samuel to ques- tion whether they should become involved at all.' Although the 'Sunday Times' article is written from the stand- point of 'advice to the investor' 8o way beyond its implications this narrow question. It has long been true that Slater Walker has optimized its asset value by massaging its share prices market and by up- valuation of its property assets.

If this form of business prac- tice and accounting is now being attacked, then a section of the City has clearly decided to lower the boom on the money manipu- lators. In recent weeks the share price in Slater Walker has fallen from 170p to 157p. When the markets open today it must be expected that a further fall will occur.

And if Slater Walker starts to slide, who will it take along?

atic rights TUC must break off all talks on Phase 3 Make the Tory government resign! Transform the Socialist Labour League into the Revolutionary Party! 9 p.m. s from history

← no. 1088, 2 June 1973no. 1090, 5 June 1973 →