Workers Press no. 718

workers press

STOCKPORT SIT-IN TRIGGERS NW ACTION

ENGINEERING PAY

BATTLE OPENSUP

-We're the test case - convenor INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MARCH 20, 1972 • No. 718 @ 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

THE LONG-AWAITED battle between workers and employers in the engineering industry will begin today in Stockport, Cheshire. Up to 20,000 workers in the town will start a work-to-rule and overtime ban in support of the nation-wide engineering claim now being fought out at local level. The action, which comes a week earlier than planned, has been triggered- off by 1,000 workers at Bredbury steel works, Stockport, who voted yesterday to continue their three-day-old sit-in against a management lock-out.

workers began the The Bredbury work to rule, which involved going-off the piecework onto a day-rate payment system, when they found out that the firm was moving stocks in preparation for the big dispute originally scheduled for March 27. Management retaliated with a threat to suspend workers and the occupation began.

other Stockport em- Today ployers are expected to Take line. And if other similar tough will town occupy, the workers could easily spread be faced with mini-enera Strike which to the Greater Manchester area.

Reese the taked to AleC steelworks' convenor this week-

SIT-ON: GKN.

end outside the Ashton Rd fac- Vorkers who torThe firm's action have occupied the all Bredbury plant sit breaks agreed custom and practice, he on the company said. 'In the past during disputes sign at Bent's we have gone onto day Lane, Stockport. Tate. time they refused and threatened with suspension men firm *Well we all

TOOK

one We are not going to b decision. like gates locked out our Toretainers were 1930s. We are here ready for work but we will not be dictated WORKERS at Bredbury Then the factory was known for its lack of militancy. This will steel begin their The Stockport action works is still reflected in the low pay quickly become a test case for second week of occupation the industry Tales today conscious that they bottom grade productior Britain. Shop Stewards worker starts on a basic £16 are the centre of attention throughout the NW have sub- Even the skilled en- claim a £4-a-week in the engineering industry.

a week. mitted for gineer can only expect a basi equal pay for women, a 35- rise, Alec Reese, the Amalga- little over £20. hour week, six more nON- mated Engineering Workers' Guest years holidays and an statutory extra weeks annual holiday.

Keen cleaned out top manage- The convenor told me that the ment ano newcomers steelworks, men knew they were a test where made it quite clear things semi-skilled men are particularly case. were going to change. paid, submitted low their demand volve direbery steel wort "They told us quite openly simlar calm save involve Bredbury works, cash is for £10 a week -to WOrK Study was comE give them earning parity.

district productivity was going The STOCKDOTE Manchester district, but all and there were going up, intelligence reports that fellow throughout workers worker the Bodbre Seest, Renand reamnaancies. one Guest. Keen It we win here county. To C me they will win.' Scen after a flock of uni-

(GKN),

Nettleford CrOUD

WEIC

The versity whizz-kids got to work action Bredbury urging other local bosses into the at floor. The fight. which will would have been quite out of again

STOD

character three ago. dundancies did come and challenging the Tories. years WOrKCIS

SUBSCRIBE TO WORKERS PRESS

CH 20, 1972 No. 718 4p

IE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

INDUSTRIAL action by print- workers on provincial newspapers and in general printing seems certain to be called by the unions this week. Attempts will be made to reach settlements with individual firms, particularly those which are not members of the News- Society or the British paper of Master Printers. Federation But with the bulk of employers standing firm on their offer of form of Measured-Day Work was implemented in the plant.

Bredbury steel has now proved itself to be the most militant shop in the S Manchester area.

Weeks before the latest out- shop-floor workers break, backed the staff over their own claim and then the Bred- bury men went way ahead of NW shop stewards by threatening the firm with a five-day strike notice if they did not conceed to the full engineering claim. i have never seen such a mood of solidarity among the Wells, men,' Alan the General and Municipal Workers' Union convenor, told me. 'But the reason is not hard to find. They are sick of low and a cost of living wages

FORMS P

N THE SLL

rises up to £2.40 a week-now rejected by at least three of the unions involved-a four clash seems inevitable. Union leaders' original claim for up to f7 across the was board on basic rates, and the key National Graphical Asso- ciation has already decided on an undisclosed form of industrial action. It is believed this would apply only to firms refusing individual settlements.

LTD

that's continually going up and up. We have decided to put an end to this.' Alan, with the rest of the men, has been sitting-in since Wednesday when the firm encouraged the confrontation by marching into the mainten- ance section and threatening suspension if men there did not immediately come to heel the work-to-rule. and stop This was the spark that set frustration ablaze. This mood of militancy nowever, is general in the s Manchester area. For the first time since the 1930s massive redundancies have been de- clared throughout the engin- eering industry and most plants are. working short time. At Bredbury_steel, for

SEE BACK PAGE

•

MS P. 11

workers press

STOCKPORT SIT-IN TRIGGERS NW ACTION

ENGINEERING PAY

BATTLEOPENSUP

We're the test case —convenor - INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MARCH 20, 1972 • No. 718 • 4p

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

THE LONG-AWAITED battle between workers and employers in the engineering industry will begin today in Stockport, Cheshire. Up to 20,000 workers in the town will start a work-to-rule and overtime ban in support of the nation-wide engineering claim now being fought out at local level. action, earlier than planned, has been triggered.

off by 1,000 workers at Bredbury steel works, Stockport, who voted yesterday to continue their. three-day-old sit-in against a management lock-out.

the workers began The Bredbury work to rule, which involved going-oft the piecework onto a day-rate payment system, when they found out that the firm was moving stocks in preparation for the big dispute originally scheduled for March 27. Management retaliated with a threat to suspend workers and the occupation began.

other Stockport em- ployers are expected take line. And if other similar tough will the town

EXORS OF JAMES MILLS LTD

workers be faced with min -wenera Strike which could easily spread to the Greater Manchester area.

neest steelworks' convenor this week-

SIT-ON: GKN.

end outside the Vorkers who Ashton Rd fac- to"The firm's action have occupied the all Bredbury plant sit oreaks agreed custom and practice,' he company disputes said. In the past during sign at bent's This Lane, Stockport. we have one on cale. time they refused and threatened with suspension firm cision. Wee all

TOOK

one are not going to b decision. like gates iocked the our тогетатлет. were 1930s. We are here ready work but we will not be dictated WORKERS at Bredbury Then the factory was known will steel begin their for its lack or militancy. Inis The Stockport WOlKS is still reflected in the low pay quickly become test case for second week of occupation industry engineering lalco the today conscious that they bottom grade production Shout the Shop stewards worker starts on a basic £16 are the centre of attention throughout NW have sub- Even the skilled week. en- claim for £4-a-week in the engineering industry.

mitted queer can ony expect a dasic edual pay for women, a 35.

nse. Alec Reese, the Amalga- over £20. little hour week, six more 1O1• mated Engineering Workers' Three Guest years holidays a year and an statutory Keen cleaned out top manage- xtra week's annual holiday.

The convenor told me that the and ment newcomer men knew they were a test stee works. where made it quite clear things Som pilled man submitted ly were going to change. case. paid, submitted their demand "This dispute does not only told us quite 'They openly save works, involve Bredbury on cąsh is for f10 a week- --TO

WOIK

was them earning parity. district productivity was going go give The SoCKOo Manchester district, but and there were going to up, Unior intelligence reports that fellow throughout workers worker the Bredbury steel management, Icuunuancics. Ulie If we win here Pettieford Guest, Keen and told me une country. they will win.' Scen after a flock of uni-

(GKN),

were The Bredbury versity whizz-kids got to work urging other local bosses into the action at shop floor. The which will again mean been quite out of woe are Tories. character three years ago. dundancies come and challenging the

WULKCIS

SUBSCRIBE TO WORKERS PRESS

CH 20, 1972 • No. 718 & 4p

IE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

INDUSTRIAL action by print- workers on provincial newspapers and in general printing seems by the certain to be called unions this week. Attempts will be made to reach settlements with individual firms, particularly those which are not members of the News- Society or the British paper Federation of Master Printers.

But with the bulk of employers standing firm on their offer of form of Measured-Day Work was implemented in the plant.

Bredbury steel has now proved itself to be the most militant shop in the S Manchester area.

Weeks before the latest out- shop - floor workers break, backed the staff over their own claim and then the Bred- bury men went way ahead of • stewards by NW shop threatening the firm with a five-day strike notice if they did not conceed to the full engineering claim. 'I have never seen such a mood of solidarity among the Wells, men,' Alan the General and Municipal Workers' Union convenor, told me. 'But the reason is not hard to find. They are sick of low and a cost of living wages

FORMS P

N THE SLL

rises up to £2.40 a week-now rejected by at least three of the four unions involved—a clash seems inevitable. Union• leaders' original claim was for up to £7 across the board on basic rates, and the key National Graphical Asso- ciation has already decided on an undisclosed form of industrial action. It is believed this would only to firms apply refusing individual settlements. that's continually going up and up. We have decided to put an end to this. Alan, with the rest of the men, has been sitting-in since Wednesday when the firm encouraged the confrontation by marching into the mainten- ance section and threatening suspension if men there did not immediately come to feel the work-to-rule. and stop This was the spark that set frustration ablaze. This mood of militancy nowever, is general in the S Manchester area. For the first time since the 1930s massive have been de- redundancies clared throughout the engin- eering industry and most plants are working short time. At Bredbury steel, for

SEE BACK PAGE

MS P. 11

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday March 2

AROUND THE WOF

A SECOND

autopsy millionaire left-wing publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (45), was held yesterday in Milan amid growing certainty that he was killed last Wednesday as part of a fascist frame-up.

The first autopsy, held on inconclusive. Saturday, was Doctors were unable to estab- lish whether Feltrinelli had been drugged before he was blown up by sticks of nitro- glycerine in a field near Milan.

A pylon near the body was found with other sticks of ex- plosive attached. The public claimed yesterday prosecutor that the state was keeping 'an the cause of Va mind' on open Feltrinelli's death. But already, dozens of left- sympathizers have had wing raided and Fel- their homes homes and trinelli's former branches of his publishing house have also been searched. The publisher's death is creat- unprecedented crisis in ing an the run-up to the Italian General for May 7. Election, scheduled The Italian Social Movement powerful (MSI), fascists with backing from sections of the military and the state machine, are hoping for major gains at the election. The Florence newspaper 'La Nazione' wrote on Saturday: 'No election in the past 26 years has taken place amid such strong open threats and tensions, such intimidation - not such violent even those of 1946 and 1948.'

Mariano Interior Minister Rumor yesterday returned from Naples to Rome to discuss the with premier Feltrinelli case Giulio Andreotti and to consult the police and heads of the carabinieri. secret service. The Italian Defence Ministry counter-espion- age agents, as well as the secret police and the regular police Court threat SPANISH shipyard workers at El Ferrol face trial by military crurt if they do not end their strike today: On ten-day-eld Saturday Franco's fascist cabinet martial law in the authorized shipyard. Two workers Bazan were shot dead and 50 injured by police more than a week ago made when 4,000 workers pay reinstatement demands. and INDIA and Bangla Desh mutual defence treaty along the lines of the Indo-Soviet pact of last year. The treaty provides for im- mediate consultations between the countries in order to take measures' "appropriate effective in the event of an attack threat of an attack on either country: Indian military advisers and training personnel will be THREE ARAB states have rejected King Hussein's plan for a federal state on thë two banks of the Jordan to include territory now under Israeli occupation. A statement from the Federa- tion of Arab Republics. which comprises Egypt, Syria and Libya.

said that the plan opens the way for 'imperialist, Zionist infiltra- tion and places the entire region• the domination of. im- under perialism. It saw it as a US-concocted formula for the creation of Palestine state under the politi- and economic influence of cal Israel. plắn governments to reject ry March 20, 1872

: WORLD

'Corriere della Sera', the Milan forces, all reported to involved in the investigation into daily, said on Saturday that until the death. it had information, the more These agencies are riddled with public should not dismiss the Feltrinelli Cascist sympathizers and nem possibility that •was succeeded in assassinated by right-wingers or have Cases introducing provocateurs into with police complicity. the political circles where Fel- 'There plenty of similar are trinelli was active. case in episodes in the history of Euro- Mario Merlino, point is cur- fascism, the said, pean paper defendant the rently adding that such a plot would Valpreda bombing frame-up. "certain leftist aim at discrediting Merlino was an fascist active subversionism of which Feltrinelli visited Greece until he at the undoubtedly exponent April 1968. colonels' expense in arouse public opinion and to On his he joined the against them. 22 anarchist March movement Party: The Communist which where he played the Rome, has fought Feltrinelli he provocateur's role of since left in opposition encouraging its members to the suD- Hungarian undertake acts of terrorism.

pression of the Revolution 1956, also dangers of this kind of The cauticusly backed the idea that enormously in- provocation are were responsible. the fascists creased by the anarchists Con- for Enrico Berlinguer, the Party's tempt theory and their newly elected secretary, told the isolation from the working class. last day the CP congress in Even the bourgeois has Milan that there was a founded suggested that some such pro- that be involved suspicion the publisher's vocation may terrible frame-up'. Feltrinelli's death. death was class in check as it h THE Italian Communist Catholics and attacked the Christian Democrats been doing Party took further 'hot autumn' in for step to the right failing 1969. preparation for the May order and legality in The middle class elections at its five-day the country. National Congress, unlikely to be impress This extremely by Berlinguer's which ended on Friday. treacherous policy leaves assuring words New general secretary, the for the wav open praise for private init Enrico Berlinguer, made resurgent fascist move. tive. middle-of- an appeal to ment. His policy the-road electors by Berlinguer intends 1o party's compete for the votes of nothing to the worki emphasizing the respect for order and its those who might other- class except for opposition violence. support the fascist support 10 wise institutions and a f

MSI

He called for or the Christian reforms. Democrats. government based on an time with the social- At the same time the At a alliance Italian and left - wing party holds the working ists stationed Bangla Desh on a He was speaking at a reception for Pakistan President Zulfigar long-term basis under the treaty.

Other provide Ali Bhutto, who flew back to treaty articles for regular contacts between the Islamabad at the weekend after Soviet two governments at all levels and two days of talks with leaders. mutual co-oneration in the fields of trade. transport and communi- Bhutto succeeded in persuad- Kremlin resume aid birth control. de- ing the to cations, and Pakistan which velopment. irrigation and power. trade with Soviet Alexei Kosygin disrupted during the Indo- called'emier was Moscow for tri- Pak last December. has He pledged that his partite talks between India, Paki- govern- would help Desh as stan and Bangla a step ment restore peace. ful collective conditions the sub- towards an Asian continent. security system. block 'Zionist and im- for the Palestine people and the and to Arab and machinations which cause against Israel perialist aim US the liquidation of the Pale- at the Saturday's An -article in cause'. stinian •Peoplè's Daily' said that Hussein The Palestine resistance move- intended make impossible welcomed the statement. to ment Kamal Nasser, sookesman for the for hundreds thousands of of Liberation Organization. Polestinian Arahs to return to Palestine their homeland and described the said the Federation. like Algeria honour- plan as a sell-out to Israel.

and Iraq. had taken 'an line' able nationalist He called other Arab on the Oppose governments to King's liquidationist and plan 'the will added revolution con- victory' FOREIGN SECRETARY Sir Alec until tina Peking has out strongly Douglas-Heme was received br comA Hussein's plan and news the Shah of Iran Tehran against in ane-dar much space vesterday have given stop- media his Pakistan. the widespread opposition it has over war to Foreign Minister Chi Mutual Iranian-British aroused. interests Peng-fei met Arab diplomats and in the Persian Gulf were among the subiects discussed. assured them of China's support

TORY STATE

repression democratic working-class rights established a new precedent with the banning of the Anti- Internment League demon- scheduled take stration place on March 26 in Trafalgar Square. A Department of the Environ- ment spokesman told the Press Saturday that Association on the government has banned all demonstrations connected with Irish affairs from the Square.

As usual, the Home Office de- clined to comment on the ban.

Anti-Iternment The League Environment written to has Minister Peter Walker asking him to reconsider the decision.

Together with the unprecedented raids on houses and the de- of without trial portation Seamus O'Kane to Ulster, this growing testifies the to trend toward police despotism in Britain. More and more power is being the executive transferred to while the legislature - parlia- ment-is treated with scant contempt. No debate has been on the repression ci allowed democratic rights in Britain. in pre-Gaullist similar trend A France involved arbitrary arrest and on meetings bans and demonstrations and torture of Algerian militants in Paris.

this led to the Ultimately establishment of a Bonapartist regime.. In Britain, too, the Tory govern- ment is using the Irish question to solicit openly the collabora- tion of the union and Labour Party leaders while viciously repressing and discriminating ck as it has the decline, unemploy- ment is growing and the bourgeoisie is turning towards the dle class is leader of the be impressed Communist Party dis- arms the working class ге- ords or his and offers himself as a rivate initia- guarantor of order. international On offers questions, the Party accepts Italy's member- the working t continued ship of the European bourgeois Common Market and few

NATO,

, a position which will facilitate making e when the electoral deals with politicians. is on bourgeois. WHEN the rail pay talks • Rail is resume today, British expected to increase its offer to slightly over 10 per cent. The last offer was 9.7 per cent, but this was rejected by the three unions the footplatemen's union, ASLEF, the National Union of Railwaymen, and the Transport and Salaried Staffs' Association.

board Originally the offered 7.75 per cent on earnings; this was before the and gaired in- creases cf well over 20 per cent.

The rail unions are demanding that they too should be con- sidered 'a special case'.

The basic rate for railmen is £17.20. Their earnings average £28 for a 50-hour week, are which is well below the national industrial average of £30.93 for working a considerably shorter week. Today's new offer of in- creases of just over £2 are un- likely the militancy to sections of rail among workers. Fer some years now they have with British Rail in co-r perated of the in- the running down resisted industrial dustry and the miners action. Now, like pro quo. And especially quid!

against all dissident opinion in the working class. If the Tories are able to fashion a corporatist strait-jacket for the unions and left-wing groups, it is only political because they feel encouraged the Labour leaders' by vility. By supporting and facilitating the imperialist terror and repression in Ulster, they have opened the door for the police state in Britain. The union their refusal leaders too, by to lead a struggle for the basic rights of the British working for the resignation class and of the Tories, have contributed mightily to the repression in Ulster and-we might add— the growth of extreme right- wing sentiment within sections of the Protestant working class.

Thanks to the Labour and union now have the leaders, we incredible situation where the Tories can massacre the Irish workers and the British work- voice ing class cannot even The right of their protest! assembly is a fundamental no Tory govern- right which ment should be permitted to impugn without immediate and massive cpposition from the working class. We urge all trade unionists to fight for the take up the basic democratic rights of the working class now before it is too late. Demand that your executives cease all collabora- tion through the TUC with this hated government and that they lead a national cam- paign to force the Tories to resign! Metal fatigue METAL TRADERS will petition the bankruptcy court this week after the announcement of trade losses of f4.8m. crippling The decision to liquidate follows urgent talks last week between Metal directors and the London bankers, company's merchant Baring Brothers. The company asked for its share quotation to be suspended last Thursday and simultaneously ceased trading. It is the first col- lapse on the London Metal Ex- change since 1937. prices are to STEEL and iron go up next month-but within the 5 per cent limit being pressed by the Confederation of British Industry. The new prices will give the British Steel Corporation an extra £48m a year. Teachers accept 7.7 p.c. THE Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions has accep- ted a 7.7 per cent wage offer.

The formally offer will be accepted on March 27 when

ATTI

general secretary Tom Driver meets the Burnham Com- mittee. Last week the capitalist press revealed that the Tory government's pay 'norm' is now 10 per cent. Putting the best face on the acceptance of the old 'norm', the ATTI said the vote to settle at 7.7 per cent was taken 'reluc- tantly. Dangerous clique at Labour HQ HAYWARD, the Labour

RON

Party's national agent, said in Blackpool that the party needs to 'revitalize' its organization at grass roots level. There was little democracy in 20-odd people deciding whether or not an MP should be re- which candidate adopted or should be selected, he said.

There was a danger in this situation that "a small clique' held too much power. It reflects no credit on us. It is alien to all our beliefs and often means that a small clique has decided to hold power in their hands whilst deliberately rejecting any attempt to increase their numbers or to allow new voices to be heard.' Hayward himself is employed full-time. at the party's Trans- port House headquarters.

'Hooliganism' was a bit of a novelty when the British army first used it to describe sections of the protagonists in Ulster's civil war. As the blanket term apparently serious far removed from such matters the word as politics, hooliganism is enjoying quite a vogue at the moment. the USSR it is used to describe just about anything reflecting the boredom and frustration with the quality of Soviet life strictly delimited by the character of Stalinism.

It is commonly applied not only to 'vandals', , but to demon- strators and all kinds of political dissidents-those that is who are not 'insane'. Naturally all those acts of 'hooliganism' such as. gratuitous beating of demonstrators up committed by the police are not mentioned. The slump ravaging capitalist states and the consequent out- burst of vandalism and working- class unrest has produced a uniform cry for law and order.

in the Stalinist • The crisis states, mirrored in uprisings in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and now immensely aggravated by the decay of capitalism, has triggered According to Stalinist sources, the cau wave of thefts, violence and a vandalism in the USSR → the to Stalinist cause according sources... hooliganism. The answer? Law and order.

'As long as we take a liberal attitude to lawbreakers there will be no order,' one Russian police- man wrote to a newspaper after he had been knifed in the stomach while trying to arrest a thief. The law-and-order debate has been raging for some time in the Soviet 'stiffer- press and the penalties-against-hooligans' lobby 3, the cause of the opposition to Sovlet tanks is gaining_ ground. The Soviet deputy chief Mikhail prosecutor, Malyarov, defined Soviet hooliganism in an interview as a form of 'militant immorality. It is immorality in its purest state, unmotivated by a desire for worldly gain but only by an towards disrespect and urge insult, if possible in public, he. gu said. Prosecutor Malyarov said there were cases where lethal violence in self-defence against hooligans was justified.

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDE

Reports of bloodshed in the desert have provided a sinister backdrop to the summit meeting which began in Rabat on Friday between Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. Heads of the three states bordering on the Spanish Sahara will discuss new ways of obliging Spain to 'decolonize' this desolate waste sprawling over 103,000 square miles. Two of these states, Morocco and Mauritania, say the desert before Spain belonged to them occupied it in 1934. Earlier this month, reports published in Morocco said about 18 were killed persons or wounded, including ten Spanish policemen, during violent a demonstration in El Aaiun, the 'capital' of the Spanish tiny. Sahara. In Madrid, it was confirmed that a demonstration had taken place and some arrests were made, but no further details were given. Spain says only 46,000 Nomads live in the area. The Moroccan daily, 'Maghreb Informations', , reported that the Nomadic "Sahrawi nr people of the Sahara, were state of revolt' against Spain and uprisings had taken place to 'liberate, the area'. Similar incidents were reported in 1970 just before the first tripartite summit was held to King Hassan of Morocco (left) Houarl Boumedlenne and of Algerla (right): forcing Spain to "decolonize', Workers Press, N let tanks in Prague in August 1968 (above) cited the one night when three 'hooligans' tried to rape her. He escaped, found a gun at a watchman's hut and shot one attacker after they had disregarded his warning. Proceedings initiated against the mechanic were dropped as it was established that the use of the gun was proper and justified.

Another article told how a killer in Kolomna was tracked down with help from the public after the death of a girl student had aroused popular reaction.

SPONDENT

discuss same question at Nouadhibou in Mauritania.

: At that meeting King Hassan II, of Morocco, Algerian Presi- dent Houari Boumedienne and Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah decided to 'intensify close collaboration to hasten the decolonization' of the Spanish- occupied Sahara. Their main quarrel with Spain 'virtually is that has done nothing' to implement a series of United Nations resolutions passed since 1965. These call on Spain to hold a self-determination referen- in the area dum under UN auspices so as to allow the to decide their own people future. Rabat authorities suggest that in the six years since the first resolution was passed, Spain has tightened its hold and reinforced its military garrison. One reason for such a move could be the discovery of a huge phosphate deposit at Bou Craa, 60 miles from El Aaiun, esti- mated to total at least 1,400 million tons. Plans to invest some £62m in a mining project are already well-advanced, and Spain exporting is expected to start phosphate through El Aaiun next year. This mineral bonanza in the desert makes the Spanish Sahara a very valuable prize. It also constitutes a major threat to Morocco's own phosphate-mining industry, one of the mainstays of the economy. context, there are In this signs that the reactionary regime has recently Moroccan hardened its attitude to fascist Spain. Where cash is concerned rs Press, Monday March 20, 1972 PAGE 3 (above) is hooliganism. The killer went before a firing squad. The newspaper 'Izvestia', in reporting the execution of a teen- ager for murder and robbery, singled out the lack of enter.- tainment facilities a con- tributory factor to the delin- quency of his gang. In other words, they were bored. Another factor is the chronic housing shortage. Families often share flats, and raised tempers over use of communal bathrooms and kitchens, plus vodka- drinking, can lead to violence.

no one is friendly. After a brief visit to Rabat last January by Spanish Foreign Minister Gregorio Lopez Bravo, Morocco announced that it would place their bilateral relations 'on a new footing'. The Moroccan press went even further and called for a 'complete and Radical revision of relations' between Rabat and Madrid.

This month, moreover, the opposition parties organized a in " Rabat devoted seminar . to 'Morocco's despoiled territories, which political leaders at demanded the return of the Spanish Sahara to Moroccan sovereignty. Impatient with what they called Spain's 'delaying tactics' and with the Moroccan govern- ment's 'ineffectual policies, the opposition parties are now calling 'liberation for the of the Moroccan Sahara under Spanish domination, if necessary by force of arms'.

PAGE 6 Workers Prosa, Monday March 20, 1872

THE

MARCH

GOES ON

The five Right-to-Work marches organized by the Young Socialists have climaxed their fight against the Tory government by a massive rally at the Empire Pool, Wembley. Now a new stage of the fight opens up. All the determination and political consciousness raised during the nationwide marches is today turned huge success of the YS annual towards making a conference at Scarborough on April 8 and 9. Scar- borough becomes the next signpost on the march to build the revolutionary party in 1972.

NO JOBS AND

MORE POVERTY

IN IRELAND

For the past year and a half!

Dear Editor, Ireland and have been living in The success of the Right-to- hard nave earned une way Work march and the Wembley which ricots previously taken for granted rally was a giant stride for the in England British working class becoming marches focus is on the I ne their historical conscious most vital right, right „the embodied in employed and unemplayed wothe heritage that is unity work principles of the Charter of Basic Rights. ers.

ALL TRADES UNIONS ALLIANCE

National Conference November 6, 1971 10 a.m. Digbeth Hall, Digbeth Birmingham

DRAFT MANIFESTO

Available from New Park Publications 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4.

Deal Right-to-Work marchers at the Endemic unemployment in Ire- land has led to massive emigra- tion of successive generations of that has Irish men and women de-populated the nation and split families in the most cruel way by forcing the young to look over-.

seas. cynically This emigration is accepted by the southern gov- ernment as a long-standing eco- Today the world nomic policy. crisis has restricted economic this escape value to a trickle and the unemployment figures have rocketed to such an extent that the 'Green' Tories have with- drawn benefit from single men in country areas- for their fortu- this town counterparts nate operates for sin months a year.

figures The so-called official are now near 80,000 in the South a population of about l½ with millions, while in the North the figure is well over 30 per cent in many areas. A true national aver- age must be nearer 20 per cent than the 10 per cent admitted in high places. This is rapidly increasing with every prospect of reaching famine proportions, with the develop- ing national conflict and rush to the EEC. The entry into the bosses' Europe will mean directly an drive intensification of the towards productivity dealing and speed-up. These treacherous that have general accept- deals ance in the union top brass will get an extra boost with the next Agreement, or National Wage • Wage Round. These 'rounds' are corporate- like agreements between the state, the countries' biggest employer, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Coalition politics in the South are seen as the best way of hold- ing back the working class. Only 'nationalist' split the right-wing FF party, with from the ruling the formation of Aontacht Eire- ann under the leadership of Kev- in Boland, threatens this 'unity'.

of This new right-wing arm Catholic bourgeoisie is the of the support of the assured Provisional IRA, which provides the bosses with a para-military an alternative to their arm as order' campaign for *law and increasing the size of the army and Garda (police). Not only do the working class have to suffer greater exploita- tion with lower wages and higher prices than in Britain but you go after one of the elusive probably be jobs will you required to pay own your travelling expenses, cost of your medical, etc. no adequate health There is a nominal with only service, for the low income cover bracket, while the rest have to get health insurance if they can afford it. The so-called Volun- tary Health Insurance (VHI) is only expensive but inade- not quate. For example it does not at the Wembley Pool rally drug charges unless they cover • exceed £25 a year, it excludes pregnancies for and expenses other such 'acts of God' etc.

Most Radio Luxemburg listen- ers will know that much of the medical finance comes from the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake Lot- tery, but this is not one of the 'charities' which have numerous •do- legions of middle-class gooders' out waving tins under your noses at every street corner.

Every shop sponsors one or other which charity, most of are controlled by the directly church. religious orders also run The much of the health service facili- ties. In many cases these are so to be hopelessly inadequate as British-trained frightening. One nurse I know personally, had to leave because would not she tolerate these conditions.

Housing is very bad indeed with an acute shortage of coun- cil accommodation and even allo- cation of this is subject to lot- tery. There is of course a policy of selling off council property at market prices. This provides the desperate conditions for a thriv- , estate-agent business and ing mass of groups selling caravans and mobile homes. If you have children it is almost impossible to get a flat or a bed sitter and these, if advertised in the eve- ning paper, are snapped up mys- teriously before the paper appears on the street. A member of Crumlin IYS spent a year vainly searching for a place even though he was prepared to do major renovation work at his own expense. A flat I vacated led to 47 enquiries in the space of one afternoon. Any reasonable place suitable for a young family will be in the excess of £10 but £l6 per week is more common. these conditions Under a mortgage may appear a soft alter- native but there is no possibility of getting more than an 80 per cent loan and even then you need to have £1,000 invested the building society for a year before they will consider your applica- tion for approval! If successful you have to com- mit yourself to a life insurance policy run in conjunction with Building Society. Contracts in Ireland are one way, with 'get out clauses' for the builder but not for the purchaser who is liable for his deposit should any- thing go wrong. Education is still dominated by the church through such teaching orders as the Christian Brothers. Attempts to get religi- with the ous freedom accepted 'community establishment of schools' is naturally meeting stiff opposition while the recently- non-denominational established, 'Regional Colleges' are certainly independent the powerful church interests, in name only.

This pattern of nominal inde- pendence is already appearing with the first Community School on the outskirts of Dublin at Tallaght. Universities are coming under an austerity programme with the government pushing the rational- ization of the two colleges here in Dublin, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dub- lin by forcing a merger. massive cent of A are, in graduates any case, find suitable work unable to here in Ireland and with the collapse of the government's 'grants to foreign industry' pro- gramme which led to such white the Shannon Free elephants as Trade Area' this phenomenal loss of skilled manpower is cer- tain to increase. In these circumstances the weak comprador capitalist class that Lynch represents needs to be supported by a battery of repres- sive legislation. There is of course the long- 'Offences Against the standing State Act' that has, at present, the dormant clause that if re- activated would sanction intern- ment in the South. Having followed Wilson's in attempting to government introduce an Industrial Relations Bill to shackle the trade unions it is no surprise to see sections of the Lynch government keen to follow the Heath Tory adminis- tration's example of the Indus- Relations Bill. Lynch has trial already forced through the Dail Forcible Entry Act which the provides a legal cover for crush- ing any attempt by workers to occupy factories. In the North not only is there imprisonment without trial but there is a shoot-on-sight policy being pursued by the occupation Devlin's warning, forces. Miss after the Derry's Bloody Sunday, of the state violence in Ulster being the same that used against the miners pickets must be heeded by the British work- ing class and especially the youth who must give the class a lead.

Therefore the demand for rights must not only include the right to work, a State Health Service, education, housing, free trade union organization, etc., but must include the right of Ireland for only to self determination, then will the Irish working class be able to demand these same rights which they have so long been denied. The expansion of the Workers Press and the weekly Keep Left in Britain and the launching of printed youth the fortnightly 'Youth Bulletin' in paper the Ireland are a major step towards building the mass revolutionary party in England and the build- ing of the Irish section of the Fourth International to achieve these demands. Forward to a United Socialist States of Europe. Fraternal greetings, N.M.

Australia's TUC is the Mel- bourne - based Australian Council of Trade Unions. And the equivalent of Victor Feather is a fiery self-publicist called Bob Hawke. This profile of Hawke appears in the latest issue of 'Labour Press' , a fortnightly newspaper pub- lished in Sydney : Robert James Lee Hawke took control of the Australian Council of Trade Unions two years ago on the retirement. ref of right-winger Albert Monk.

A Rhodes Scholar, Hawke was hailed as a new model for the trade union move.

ment. With eloquence, legal knowledge and backed by a of research whiz-kids, team i he was going to win fresh battles for the working class.

the new 'left-wing He was terror' of the bosses." quite But things have not turned out like that. The world has changed since Hawke became top trade union bureaucrat, and as the world changed so did Hawke's role in it. From being the union leader the employers loved to hate, Hawke has become, in the words of Federal leader of the opposi- Gough Whitlam, the tion, and troubleshooter greatest of industrial disputes solver Australia has ever had. That Whitlam's description is the most apt is apparent, follow- ing Hawke's betrayal of the Vic- torian power workers' strike this 'recommenda- month, and his tions' to linesmen to call off their work ban when they were fighting for a $6 a week flow on earlier this month. The signs of the role Hawke • was going to take have been there for some time. In Septem- ber last year he warned unionists . through 'proper chan- work to nels'. Although the speech was Bob Hawke: trade union leader and th disputes Australlan bosses have ever had aimed at disputes which had occurred in the NSW branch of the Building Workers' Industrial Union, and the railways, the implications were obviously much wider. He accused some sections of the building of using unions 'incorrect' tactics. Workers have now seen that by correct tactics Hawke means selling out strikes when workers are at their most militant and determined. It is the downward rush of capitalism that is revealing Hawke in his new position. He is now playing the historical role to him - that of a advocated reformist leader in times of an upsurge among the working class.

Under the buoyancy which still persisted in world capitalism into the end of the 1960s, workers were able, through their unions, to extract some pay increases and improved conditions from industry. Now their needs will not be fulfilled by the present leader- neither reformist ship! nor Stalinist. To maintain, let alone advance, their conditions workers will have to fight bitter battles.

Capitalism is bankrupt and can only drive down the work- ing class if it is to survive. The Hawkes of the labour movement are there to supervise this pro- cess, either consciously or other- wise. The only way to prevent this defeat occurring is to replace these reformists and fight for the construction of a revolutionary leadership. It is worth looking in detail at the role Hawke has played in the trade union movement, from the Springbok power strike, to the demonstrations. At the . time of writing, the dispute is before the power Arbitration Commission - with very little chance of success. This is where Hawke placed it, with the words: 'I am not saying you will win the case. I don't say the Arbitration system is perfect.

Hawke has damned himself with his own words and actions.

Knowing full well the arbitration are a line of defence for courts bourgeoise, he the forced the * st. der and the greatest solver of industral e ever had. Top: Sydney bus workers at a strike buses last year. Above: Australian Prim take their 12,000 strikers additiona week's . ur claim for an holiday to one of these courts, when the strike was solid and having a crippling effect on huge major Australian sections industries. of throwing the full Instead weight of his office and that of the ACTU executive behind the strikers at a time when they were tremendous power, he wielding called for them to go back to work. Instead of appealing for the whole of the working class to support the power strike, he made a special flight to the holi- day home of Sir Richard Kirby, president of the Arbitration Commission. He did not organize the union movement to fight for workers, he instead the power went to the chief representative of the employers and attempted to come to some deal. Kirby, regarded by some in the a liberal who would past as divide the cake up fairly between capital and labour, played a key part in the Atlantean dispute at the end of last year, when NSW bus crews were betrayed with the help of their own leadership.

Kirby, the who Hawke man appealed to, ordered the bus workers to double deck man Atlanteans as one-man units on a three months' trial basis.

Hawke's executive body on the ACTU, and the NSW leadership under acting secretary of the Labour Council, John Ducker, refused to call for strike support for the bus crews — the only action that would have defeated the_ Askin government. Hawke's commitment to the arbitration system, • similar or a set-up which would 'legally' give workers their just rewards' Workers Press, M a strike meeting during the dispute over one i alian Prime Minister, William McMahon under capitalism, is complete.

In the power workers' hear- ing an Electricity Commission claimed that spokesman union the claim, if expected successful, to flow on to other industrial areas. Incredibly, Hawke denied the accusation, claiming that such an his own questioned argument integrity. In other words, the president of the ACTU was employers in their assisting attempts to contain any possible annual leave increase to one state. He supported them in their main fight and attempted to isolate one section of workers from others. From being a left cover, Hawke has become a direct instrument of the ruling class.

intervention in future struggles will increasingly be to tame workers, and eventually to openly tell them they cannot expect to make any gains unless they in turn make concessions in the form of productivity deals etc. What workers must realize is that the time when Hawke and other union bureaucrats could forcefully and eloquently put their case for a better deal before the Arbitration Courts is past.

Capitalism can no longer make these concessions. It is fighting for its existence. Every wage rise additional day's granted, every holiday surrendered, is another nail in the capitalist coffin.

Hawke's belief that capitalism can • be reformed and does not need to be overthrown by the working class revealed itself in a number of similar ways over the last 12 months. His philosophy is that all the economy needs in. its, present • Press, iMonday March 20, 1972 PAGE 5 over one man operation of the Atlantean state of near collapse is better management. He made this clear in a telegram to Prime Minister McMahon following the savage sackings in the car industry. The telegram accused the government of inhumanity and incompetence.

During has the recent period Hawke supported trade union capitalism of various forms. Amid such publicity from the press, Hawke flew to Israel and Germany to examine ways the emasculated trade unions of those countries have adapted themselves to capitalism and up the given struggle for socialism. He came back with plans for the ACTU to establish low-cost housing projects, insurance and consumer credit schemes for its members. This month an application will be lodged at the NSW com- panies office to register a joint national trade union co-operative finance company. This is likely to Australian Community Services Corporation Ltd will concentrate initially on con- sumer credit, housing, merchant banking, tourism and mass communications. Thus, while the whole capitalist machine is about to disintegrate, Hawke and the ACTU are fiddling with nuts and bolts.

Workers must ask themselves what Hawke is doing while the McMahon government and the employers represents attempting to hammer them into the ground. They ask themselves must whose side he is on. They must ask whose interest is he repre- senting each time heforces ent striking warkers to arbitrate. »:

PAGE 6 Workers Preas, Monday March 20, 1972

BY PHILIP WADE

body must be disregarded. (My emphasis.) ONE OF the greatest gains What does this mean? Simply, made by millions of workers that rents must be based on what since 1945 has been the vast could be obtained for the improvement in housing con- property in the open market, without restrictions. ditions brought about by the As if this wasn't enough, the expansion of local authority in rents themselves will be fixed building. arbitrary The a most manner. council's officers will Two things have resulted: draw list of fair rents for all its First, million by over dwellings with the advice of the workers and their families lived rent officer. in council houses avic- or nats. the at the whim tenant wants to see was no longer tion new rent he'll have to the to gr of the private landlord seeking be his council's offices as there Il no on ........ He notification. can make repre- In that sense, a property. sentation, but it has to be gained with the security. knowledge writing only. of at least a roof over The rents then go off to the of your life. your head for most Commit- so-called Rent Scrutiny Secondly, the rents were sub- tees which appointed bodies are sidized by government grants. the main the subsidies In went Sues

HOLLONSO

of high property values as offset huge interest and capi- agents, surveyors and solicitors.

tal repayments the City financiers. In this way tenants This examine committee can shielded from the forces of the dwellings. were some who refuses entry be market tenant can It is true that rents have risen will hined £50. The committee the past ten then fix the rent without quite sharply over repre- years. Nevertheless, on the whole, sentation from the tenant.

There still below what their were be appeal from

1CLLS

Lali workers would have to pay decision. land- for similar private Local authorities will have no lord accommodation. choice in implementing these are poised to 49 the Tories Clause makes it Now proposals. deliver blow to this their duty "fair rent' severe to charge a established decent for everv dweling. housing conditions reason- Despite government statements only council contrary, able rent, not the document but to 1.3 million living which fell the hands of tenants into under private landlords. Labour MP Frank Allaun verifies Their the Housing weapon: the increases planned. En- Finance Bill. Their aim: The Department of 'the third of which produced the one vironment, increases lor

SECOL

population; the the introduction estimates in 1970, based its evidence of 'fair rents of test into millions figures homes for the first time; the established for private dwellings of existing demo- the 1965 Rent Act. destruction cratic rights and the "The average opportunity registered rent for the private landlord to make for each age group and dwelling applied to the was corres- then HUL lacy. contempt Showing their usual ponding and dwelling age group Tories have for parliament, the local authority sec- type for imposed a strict timetable tor, says the document. discussion of the Bill. On March be seen from the table, As can 13, despite Labour protests, they of the coun- rents in every part imposed a guillotine on the com- try will more than double as the which must end by carried out. mittee stage plans are 29—the Easter recess— councils to March The Tories want even if discussion is incomplete. increases this April, impose rent On the day Tory Prime before the Bill becomes law. As same snubbed the have refused Minister Edward Heath vast majority Labour MPs, led by Anthony this inducement, tenants will another fl on the Crosland, shadow housing spokes- have to pay he refused to rent from October. when will then be them withdrawing the Bipostponing discuss Rent creases imposed year after until year useful "fair rent' levels are reached.

It would not serve any told Crosland. Over 5 million council tenants purpose, £500m Putting housing. finance pay an perina- Wtil estimated inflationary over the next three of four years.

less nently basis progressive and long Compare this with the present is a of f200m and It is also an act housing subsidies overdue reform. Heath added. you begin to see what the opera- of justice, Tories, therefore, are tion is all about. The pressing on with the measure and For there can be little doubt that most housing accounts will stop no amount oi protests will The key to their attack is show an enormous surplus in the them. seemingly period. The Bill provides contained in the innocuous phrase fair rents".

for the Exchequer to get half have fools, Tories this amount. favourite Local of the councils refusing to chosen one raise the rent in this way can be of all expressions that is sup- of all housing power posed to be decent and honour- deprived British capitalism: "fair'.

and replaced by able in be govern- Com- will well ment-appointed Housing Trade unionists Work, 'Fair Deal at missioner. remember the Tory Any councillor who obstructs published by Party in embodied all the pro- the Commissioner his work 1968. It in the fined £400. The posals which went into can be three Tories are determined to put Relations Act an Industrial municipally-controlled years later. This 'fair rents' end g. Their aim is to step up housing. is nothing more than an attempt to tear the heart out of working- the exploitation of the class and drive millions as tenants and vestiges class housing on to the streets to become prey Sweept asideeventing this will freedom be for the private landlords.

The definition of the basis for Tenants of private landlords Bill if will not 'fair rents' makes clear escape this assessing goes through. About 1.3 million Tory intentions. ten ancies still linind concontrol *Regard must be had: ..to the character and locality of the decontrol age, Tenancies beginning January. dwelling. but it must be assumed and state next Then they will be brought too repair, that there is no scarcity, reads into the orbit of 'fair rents'.

Finally, the Tories intend to Clause 50. The essence of Tory plans, every impose means test on however, is only revealed in the the tenant in an attemot to take last few words of the definition: working class back to the 1930s.

discussed in arriving at ne detais have been a lair rent previous issues of Workers wellito the return that consideration in council must be given to Press. It would be sufficient to add it would be reasonable to expect that the assessment will be made investment' and the on it as an fact that it belongs to a public on gross earnings. And it doesn't have to be the tenant who is necessarily the sub- ject of investigation. If, for example, there is a son in the household earning more than his father, then he will become the "tenant' for the purposes of the means test. In this way the rebat‹ could son's 'needs be slashed as the allowance' would be less than his parents. If there is a change of income in any six-month period, the whole process of applying for a rebate will have to be gone through again. Thousands of tenants in every part of the country have begun to fight back against the Bill. They know that if it goes through they will effectively suffer a cut in wages as rents go up. They rightly feel that the security gained since the war will be eroded and that many will be forced to leave their homes or fats and search for accommoda- tion elsewhere. As the imposition the of the guillotine on com- mittee stage and Heath's speech the Tories will not be show, moved by this anger. involved in Tenants are a bitter struggle to defend their basic rights against a Tory gov- determined drive ernment to down the living standar is of the working class. These rights only be can defended in an all-out fight to force the Tories resign. to Tenants must therefore resist all attempts to turn the 'fair rents' into a purely housing Bill question. A unity must be forged with all these millions of workers in the trade unions prepar 1g to do battle with this governr ent.

This is what the Depa ment of Environmen council rents will be by 1976: London South-East East Anglia West Midlands South-West East Midland • North-West Yorks & Humbers North Wales 1962, Powis Above: Probiems in Square tenants hold rally evictions. Far protest against Crosland. Right: right: Edward Heath. With the defeat of the Tories, Labour government must be pledged repeal the Bill if it becomes law and further without compensa- to nationalize tion and worker the building and build- the land, and industry Materials societies. building Only on the right decent basis can be defended nousing extended. ment of Environment estimates that average Now €7.45 plus rates (£3.50) £6.49 (£3.13) (£2.43) (£2.43) (£2.02) (£2 23) 10 00 00 (E2.08) (£2.39) Workers Prees, Monday March 20, 1972 PAGE 7 Frank McKenzie is the 27-year- For pue do no the depote on life working for hours just to Te cha of the Wendlin mortgage Pay him rent? chairman it's Associatior don't go back to the the TUC 1930s They Farm, in N London, It has abou if the through goes People will ask why they The association workers and yet they won't sa sou members federated with two nearby estates thing about the "fair rents" Bil o give it a total overall member "They're in a position to give ship of nearly 1,000 tenants shouldn't have a lead, you Ter dreamt were never operate estate with postmen or the country. don't forget will be assessed ›n gross earning action out years uld walk tonne of If they I'm already paying £41.50 gutless and won't act. they should month, including central heating, get out and give younger men a ecause they can't afford both,

TOT

wiel chance to fight spoke to him about the 'fair rents' more a asked Frank. them to pay "This generation today won't sit "i With this Bill there'll be a fa for "Ine most оттушу pa monthly from October ncreas ny tenants' association is wh willgo to phi But there is a quick those wake who can't can you pay the rent the occause Tales probably by another live. And i toe working fight to man well. : has year the rent will go up Nexi after again. look their Camden member of the National Unio council children's future, then he'll fight lead its as simple as teral Phought the Tory plans could be • that now. are going up and so are prices.

halted. General Sure or do you carry could buy my pay place But T For what I pay in

THE RISE OF

THE KU KLUX KLAN

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday March 2 Part 2 of a five part series by J Perhaps the most notorious of the right-wing movements in the United States is the Ku Klux Klan whose name has become a by-word for bigotry and racialism. The first Klan was founded in - 1866 by veterans of the beaten Confederate forces in opposition Io the newly-freed slaves.

Backed by former slave- and white farmers who owners beat, lynched and tortured black for standing up , for their men the Ku Klux Klan rights. gradually fell into abeyance once power again became stabilized in the hands of the southern whites.

Its revival in Georgia in 1915 by Emperor William J. Simmons to the was i direct response mounting wave of working-class which preceded struggle America's entry into the war.

In the rears immediately after the war. as the infant American Communist Party struggled to establish itself in the US working class, the Klan grew dramatically in strength. Its membership restricted to US-born white Protestant men. the Klan in its hey-day in the parade Top:

KKK

in Long Branch, New Jersey on July 4, 1924. Above: William Simmons who revived the Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, 1915. y March 20, 1972 ies by John Spencer on the rise of th 1920s counted between 3 million and 6 million members. of It dominated the states Texas, Arkansas, Oregon, Okla- homa, Indiana. Ohio and Cali- fornia and was strong through- out the S These were the davs of whole- anti-communist and anti- sale repression in union the US. sparked by fear on the part of the ruling class of revolution.

In January 1920. some 10,000 Communist Party members and into taken supporters were custody be Department of Justice agents in the various cities. They were herded into special camps many of the and immigrant socialists were recommended for deportation. The Klan was active in vigi- lante attacks on communists and trade unionists both Nand S of the Mason Dixon line. latter-day Klan leader. One Samuel I. Green. claimed it was which first 'dis- his organization covered communism in the United States and which firsted assailed it. crusade was The right-wing not confined to the poor white bigots who made un most of the Klan's membership. The highly Science respectable :Christian Monitor, in an editorial on June 19. 1920 fulminated against the 'Jewish peril'. Discussing the ideas contained in the forged •Protocels of the Elders of Zion' la book which later became the bible of the Nazi movement in Germany), the 'Monitor' said: conspiracy of evil 'There is a against humanity Whether • "Jewish peril" is it constitutes a for consideration it- a question self. but that it exists, as a peril.

entirely undeniable.' The 'Monitor even resurrected the theory that a secret society as the Illuminati known were conspiring for world domination ..a theory first advanced in the 1790s by the French counter- se of the right wing in America revolutionaries. The same day that the 'Moni- appeared, tor' editorial the 'Chicago "Tribune' published an articie saying that Bolshevism was only a tool for establishing Jewish world domination. The 'Tribune' conspiracy. said the wils primarily anti-Anglo-Saxon.

One of the most virulent right- wing campaigns was launched in the same period by Henry Ford.

millionaire multi motor manufacturer. Ford, whose workers were driven to the limit of their capacities by a fiendish work-study svstem.. and whose hired thugs patrolled the fac- tories to keen out trade unionists.

published i paper called the 'Dearborn Independent'. It re- printed large sections of the •Protocols'. Between 1920 and 1927 it devoted itself primarily to anti-Semitic and anti- communist propaganda. •The Ford's book. Inter- national lew: the World's Fore- most Problem': was printed in an than 500.000 edition of more copies and distributed all over the United States. It charged that the Bolshevik leaders. including Lenin. were all Jews. The titles of the articles Of some are enough to give the flavour of 'Dearborn Independent's' the propaganda. with titles like Jew- Articles ish Gamblers corrupt American baseball. 'Rule of the lewish Kehilla grips New York' • 'Jewish jazz. becomes our national music' and 'How the Jewish song trust makes you sing' were regular features. Ford delved back into history familiar the to uncover con- spiracy theory: He maintained that the Jews were actually be- hind both the Illuminati and the Masons. 'Twice in the history of the United States, the people have been aroused by a sense of influence operating in strange their affairs [i.e. in the 1790s and

LUNCH

the 1830s, when anti-Illuminati and anti-Masonic movements won support] and each time the real power behind the influences was able to divert suspicion onto the freemasons ... •.. all that the public was able to see was the Masonic similitude and not the Jewish hand... This is to serve notice the leaders of American on Jewry that this time they • will not be permitted to hide behind the name of Masonry, nor will they be permitted to hold un the name of Masonry as a shield to blunt the darts or as an ally to share the shafts aimed at their subversive purposes.' Ford was initiator of a the famous anti-Semitic court case, which became a kind of Ameri- can Dreyfus affair. An army cap- tain Alexander Cronkhite, acci- dentally killed himself while on in October 1918. manoeuvres •Dearborn Independent Years the For more than three tried to pin the death on Capt Robert Rosenbluth. Cronkhite's second- in-command. Despite the com- plete absence of evidence, the Attorney-General finally SuC- to Ford's campaign and cumbed brought Rosenbluth to trial. The trial proved an utter fiasco and Resenbluth was acquitted.

Ford concluded this was an indication of the depth of the Jewish conspiracy and continued to hound the unfortunate Rosen- bluth. The Jews. according to Ford. were to blame for every- thing: 'You probably think labour unions were organized by labour,' told 'Colliers" magazine in 1923, 'but they weren't. They organized by these Jew were financiers. 'The labour union is a great scheme to interrupt work. It loafing. It's a speeds great up thing for the Jews to have on hand when he comes to get his clutches on an industry.'

Ford's workers were highly re- garded by the KKK. Its publica- tions frequently reprinted parts of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' taken from Ford's news- paper. D. C. Stephenson, its northern organizer, a renegade from _the Socialist Party, argued that Jew- ish bankers were responsible for starting World War I and other Klan orators blamed the lews for the Russian Revolution. The Klan's other main targets were black people and Catholics. Their systematic persecution of militant black workers is notori- but the Klansmen were ous, equally bigoted against almost Catholics. One Klan paper even stated Warren Hardin, that President who died of a heart attack in 1923, had been killed by 'hypno- telepathic thought waves generated in the brains of Jesuit adepts'. The hey-day of the Klan to an end in the mid- came 1920s. The panic terror of the bourgeoisie had begun to subside when it realized that the labour bureaucracy could be relied on to keep the working class from revolution, and the KKK mem- bership began to tail off.

The process was aided by a the Klan virulent dispute leadership. Charges and counter- charges of corruption were freely exchanged and tended to alienate support. Worse still for the KKK leaders, Stephenson was tried and convicted for a particularly re- pulsive rape murder. The Klan proved unable to discredit the charges against Stephenson, who had headed the Indiana organiza- tion. The decline of the KKK in the late 1920s was not the end of the right-wing extremists in the United States, however. In the of the 1930s turbulent years they were to find their champions in the ranks of the fascist dema- gogues like Father Coughlin.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

BY JOHN SPENCER

James Reid, Rector of Glas- gow university and leader of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' work-in, has promised to 'make available the creative ability of the work-force' at Clydebank for the Texan magnate Wayne Harbin of Marathon Manufacturing. Harbin is demanding a four- year no-strike pledge and he is currently working out a pro- cedure to agreement accom- modate this provision with the shop stewards. Reid, a member of the national executive of Communist 'The Times': We Party, told will honour the agreement we reach not only in the letter but in the spirit. But always pro- viding it is reciprocated.'

He added... these extravagant words of praise for _the Tory.

government: 'If Marathon now take on Clydebank agrees to then what has emerged is the of a really modern prospect shipbuilding industry the on upper reaches of the Clyde.

'I can only applaud the govern- ment's courage [!] in taking these initiatives. It makes economic • and social sense.' is the language of the This ultra-right in the Labour move- ment. Agreement along the lines Reid and Harbin have in mind will make Clydeside the first major industry in which the full of the Industrial operation Relations Act is. accepted, no- strike clauses and all. Many workers may be sur- prised that while even to see Lord Cooper is forced to pull his General and Municipal Wor- kers' Union back from registra- tion, it should be the Communist which steps into the Party. breach and operates the hated no-strike provisions of the Act.

The history of British Stalin- ism, however, is replete with the most glaring episodes of class- collaboration. The most notorious after the in- of all occurred vasion of the Soviet Union, when from opposition to the war as 'imperialist', the Stalinists switched almost overnight to a super-patriotic position.

I use the word 'super-patriotic advisedly, because the Communist Party's position had nothing in with genuine defence common of the USSR. Indeed its leaders frequently went out of their way to disclaim any such aim.

Thus, Party secretary Harry 'A Call Pollitt in his pamphlet to Arms', published in 1941: It is not a question now of asking any British workers to defend the Soviet Union, but of defending themselves alongside the magnificent defence that the Soviet Union is making' invasion Before of the Soviet Union, the Stalinists were outspoken among most opponents of speed-up and strike bans in the factories. The 'Daily Worker', for example, stated on October 8, 1940 that: "Today trade unionism is at the cross-roads. Strikes are illegal. Wages and conditions are declining . . . In the name of against fascism that the war "evil thing" is spreading its wings in Britain just as it did in France.'

Churchill and the Labour leaders were denounced, but with Soviet entry into the war, the CP changed its tune with remarkable rapidity. The war suddenly was transformed into a war for democracy and strike- breaking and speed-up became honourable tasks. Pollitt told the 1942 congress: 'The wave of strikes in the coalfields, while it is the direct responsibility of the coal-owners, condoned by the cannot be miners themselves ... The trade union official who said in Lan- cashire "Let the strike continue it will help negotiations" was doing a disseryice to his own union and to his country' d. Rold: "I can only applaud the governm Note Pollitt's explicitly pat- riotic formulation la disservice to his country', not a disservice to the USSR. He went on to praise one particular CP strike-breaker on the Hull docks: 'I salute our comrade, a docker from Hull, who was on a job unloading a with cargo urgently wanted ship When the rest of the dockers struck work, he fought against it because he believed that the course of action he recommended would get what was wanted without a strike.

'What courage, what a sacred spirit of real class consciousness to walk on the ship's gangway and resume his job:.. This is not strike-breaking... As for collaboration with the Tories, Pollitt at the same con- called CP actually gress on members to canvass for them at the election: 'We want to deal with some of the difficulties that are said to stand in the way of Party members when they take part in by-elections and recom- mend people to for vote a government candidate who hap- pens to be a Tory. 'What is said to be the biggest in obstacle winning Labour support our policy workers to when the government candidate is a Tory. That they refuse to vote for a Tory?' In their attempts to break down class-consciousness, Stalinists ran into considerable trouble on the Clyde. One Jack Owen, a CP stalwart and pro- minent campaigner for speed-up, wrote in his book 'Spotlight on the Clyde': "It is impossible to go through vicious Li.e., years the 1930s] without acquiring bitter hatred and a deep sense of solidarity with one's class.

'Yes I understand too well and deeply sympathize with my mates on the Clyde. I know for they many look askance, wonder why I, for one, now advocate collaborating with that same boss. One of Owen's 14 points for in the raising production same pamphlet read as follows: 'More output targets to be fixed and the exposure of managements • government'a couragó' who set them too low [!]' Naturally the CP its gave enthusiastic backing to the Tory anti-strike regulations introduced durins these years. In his pam- phlet 'Defence Regulation lAA' Stalinist lawyer D. N. Pritt wrote: "The council recognizes that dur- particular ing civil war liberties, including the right to strike, must be suspended in the overriding interests of the defeat of fascism. . Alongside these strike-breaking Stalinists activities, the main- tained a bitter campaign of Trotskyists, hatred against the demanding that they be tried for supporting strikes, and classing Trotskyists as 'Hitler's Agents'.

(The present assistant editor of the 'Morning Star' William Wainwright wrote a lying attack Trotskyism under the title on Hitler's Agents'. 'Clear out It said: 'Treat a Trotskyist as you would an open Nazi.') The present Stalinist leader- following in ship on the Clyde, the footsteps of the Pollitts and the Pritts, is equally hostile to Trotskyism. The UCS stewards recently circulated an advertise- ment making the lying inference that their donation to the Young Right-to-Work * Socialists' cam- paign had been obtained under false pretences. the Right-to- When one of Work marchers returned to the yard to ask for further support, he was physically ejected on the orders of the Stalinist leaders.

On another occasion they con- fiscated notebook from our reporter Stephen Johns and had him escorted from the yards.

Clearly Reid and. his cronies hide. It is have something to not just their present collabora- with the boss, but their tion Party's stinking history of betrayal. Quotations in this article are taken from 'Stalinism in Britain' available from by Robert Black, New Park Publications, 1860 Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG. £1.25. Readers who want information about more the Stalinists' wartime activities are recommended to obtain and read this important book.

Workers Press, Monday March 20, 1972 PAGE 9 tend to invite sniggers from the professors and careerists. These academic elitists will then go on to complain about Workers British-Leyland's at how difficult, if not impossible, factories at Leyland, Lanca- it is to educate the ignorant' shire, who concerned ale masses on the seriousness of about the company's plans to the problem (which is all put attempt to bring off a produc- down their over-breeding to and greed for consumer goods).

A more realistic view, how- ever, is taken by at least one scientist at Manchester Jniversity, who recently Midlands ipproached a large company for financial backing for research on pollution and the environment. He tells us that the com- and pany's reply was short frank. They were very im- pressed with the project he had outlined, they said, and wished him every success. But he had unfortunately failed to explain to them of 'what par- ticular value this research Lord Stokes: relax with pint could be to our shareholders'.

tivity deal this year, will have it seems On the other hand, been consoled, we are sure, by that

ICI

(The Pathfinders') one bright piece news have recently expressed an recently. interest in the possible pollu- They have got something to tion from their chemical plant look forward to. A new pub to at Heysham. The company is be opened Leyland by in paying for a PhD student to do the Lancashire Thwaites, some research on this. brewers, is to be named after Local residents have been Leyland's boss, Lord Stokes.

aware for some time that since the Heysham plant's chimneys This is bound to have began pouring out to all Leyland brownish- appeal great yellow smoke, trees the workers. Just think how nice in vicinity seem to be affected.

it will be, after a hard day on wondered They have the production line, to be whether the brownish-yellow able to sit down and relax with particles which from time to a pint in the 'Lord Stokes' and time waft ground level to reminded of the man that might be damaging to people all your productivity is in aid as well as trees. of! Why are ICI now suddenly One bloke we spoke to said showing this concern over it was 'enough to put you on problem? From considerations the But then he's wagon'. of genuine social conscience, probably just a troublemaker.

no doubt. At least, we sin- cerely hope that it has nothing to do with plans to close the Heysham plant for economic reasons. Ecology and 'the environment' becoming. 'in' issues for are trendy discussions in the uni- versities just now. In areas like the industrial Alarming hand-out arrived on NW, where for many years the our doorstep the other day turned into from Post Office. The rivers have been the open sewers for all of declared:

'MORE

sorts industrial

HORSES

and

PO FLEET'.

waste, where workers are used to coughing Good grief, we thought, is the their lungs out for a polluted reintroduction of the horse and atmosphere, many people will cart part of Ryland's plans for be puzzled that pollution is the great technology changes being talked about as though in the Post Office? Will carrier pigeon be it is a new discovery. the But in the senior rehabilitated? common rooms, when learned academics But further reading of the gather to discuss the news released revealed that all matter over sherry, anyone so bold as large vehicles new purchased to suggest the pollution is for the telecommunications caused the the capi- fleet will now have eight horse- by way talists run their industries will power engines instead of six.

LEON TROTSKY :

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday March What have a leader of the en chancellor of a northern univers Hunters shipyards, the chairman director of the CBI and the h Municipal Workers' Union all gr belong to the British North Ameri curiously right-wing views. In thi Press correspondent CHARLES BNAC, its personalities and its pol The British North America Committee was formed in 1969 to consider relations between. the United States, Britain and Canada - both the common interests shared by the three countries and issues that may cause friction between them. 'It is a private non-official whose membership group drawn from businessmen. labour leaders, agriculturalists and uni- • men in the three coun- • versity tries. The committee believes that there is a useful role in inter- national affairs for such a broadly private group to representative economic, in play, especially trade and financial relations.'

Jim Conway of the AUEW, Charles F. Carter, vice chancellor of Lancaster University, Lord Howick of Glendale of Swan Hunter's, Sir David Barran of Shell, Mr C. L. S. Cope of the

CBI

and Lord Cooper of the G&MWU are all members. Further investigation of some of these gentlemen's backgrounds intriguing interlocking reveals connections. Lord Howick is co-chairman of BNAC. Late of the Indian Civil Service, he is also a former S Rhodesia, and governor of . a former UK High Commissioner in S Africa. He was Governor of Commander-in-Chief and Kenya and E African Command, in charge of military and civil 'Mau | affairs during the Mau' emergency. The Kenva emergencv saw 11,000 Africans killed and tens thousands threwn into con- of centration camps. Howick, made a Knight Com- mander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1947, was awarded the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George in 1955. He lives at Alnwick; Northumberland. Howick's co-chairman on the American side of BNAC is Harold Sweatt, honorary chair- man of the board of Honeywell Inc., the multi-national compu- electronics and ter armaments corporation. In 1968, according to a publication of the American Committee, Friends Service Honeywell was the 20th largest war contractor in the US. It has been responsible for developing such gifts to humanity as the Rockeye II and • fro BLU26/B "Guava' fragmentation bombs used against the workers bro and peasants of Vietnam. Sweatt is also on various General including the Mills the Northwestern National Bank Trust and the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Co. He has two homes, one in Minnesota and the other in Palm Beach, Florida. we look at some of the other names in BNAC we get a sort of roll-call of some of the biggest names in British big day March 20, 1972 engineers' union, the vice- • university, a director of Swan chairman of Shell, the overseas I the head of the General and on all got in common? They all h American Committee, a body of s. In this article special Workers ARLES PARKINS looks at the d its policies. business. Besides Sir David of Shell, Barran there is also Sir Eric Drake of British Petro- the banking world, leum. From there is Sir Maurice Parsons, director of the Bank of London and S America, and Sir Frederick Seehbohm, chairman of Barclays bank DCO, well-known for the extent of its involvement in S Africa the and Portuguese colonies. Tobacco interests are repre- sented by Richard Dobson of British-America Tobacco Ltd and Col. Sir Derek Pritchard, chair- man of Carreras (which has ex- tensive S African interests, and produces Rothmans, Piccadilly, Dunhills, Consulate, and Peter Stuyvesant). But Sir Derek's interests are a lot wider than just tobaceo. He is a director of the Midland Bank, and also of: Allied Breweries Ltd, Caribbean Developments Co Ltd (Trinidad), Cussons Group, George G. San- deman Sons & Co Ltd. Grants of St James _Ltd, Guardian Assur- ance Co Ltd and Pye of Cam- bridge. Other business figures who feature in the BNAC list include the chairman of Unilever. Dr.

E. Woodroofe and Sir Frederick Catherwood, who was head of the National Economic Develop- ment Council, and is now man- Laing. aging director of John But now, let's look the at American side of the committee.

Here, besides Sweatt of Honey- well, find. others, we among •James H. Binger, of the same company: Joseph B. Flavin of Xerox: A. E. Balloch, of Bowater Incorporated: Silas T. Cathcart of the Illinois Tool Works Inc., Chicago: and General Lauris Norstadt, formerly of the USAF and NATO, and now chairman the of the board of Owens- Cormings Fiberglass Corporation of Toledo, Ohio. Also in BNAC are Tom Kille- fer, vice-president of the Chrysler Corporation; Augustin S. Hart, vice-president of executive Quaker Oats Co: and, last but by no means least, Henry 1. Heinz II, Tsar of all the 57 varieties. Altogether, the BNAC looks like a capitalists' top trans- atlantic club. But remember, it is big business not only that is represented. As the 'handout' 'membership is drawn tells us. from businessmen, labour leaders . . • a diverse, broadly representative private group. ...' Trade union leaders involved in BNAC include, besides _Jim Conway of the AUEW, Lord Collison, former leader of the National Union of Agricultural Workers (now head of the Sup- plementary Benefits Commission): G. F. Smith, of the Amalga- mated Society of Woodworkers; and Lord Cooper. The late Les Cannon, of the EPTU. was also a tull member of BNAC:". James Conway of the AUEW: one of th Mboya: links with CIA and Fabian Socie It may be remembered that Cannon, the scourge of com- in the munists and militants

EPTU,

posthumously was knighted for his services to 'the nation'. Some EPTU members might also how, • remember under Cannon's lendership, the union journal 'Electron' frequently used to feature the virtues of Cannon's buddies, the leaders of the Inter- national Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers, AFL-CIO. Well, by a coincidence Cannon's old in BNAC pals turn too! up Joseph Keenan, international secretary of the American union, • William Is a member, and so is Ladyman, • vice- international president, from the union's Toronto office. Lord Cooper will be well known to readers of Workers Press. During the struggle at Pilkington's in 1970, and the fight for reinstatement and jobs since then, the G&MWU refused to back the strikers. The G&MWU is affiliated to the Public Services International, American-based organization an which has become known as one of the main channels for Cen- tral Intelligénce Agency (CIA) interference in the trade union movement the world. Between 1958 and 1964 PSI's London office received $60,000 a year from the CIA by means of various conduits. Two affairs in which the CIA and the PSI were involved were the downfall of Dr Cheddi Jagan in British Guyana, and the rise to prominence of Tom Mboya in Kenya. (See 'Mboya-Death of an Agent, in 'The Newsletter', July 1969) In 1959, Cooper of the

G&MWU,

together with four other PSI members, one of whom had CIA connections, and lames Farmer, the American 'Black Power' man who also had CIA connections, went on a 15- nation 'organization and recruit- ing' tour of Africa. The purpose of their mission was tó encourage the develop- ment of pro-western unions in Africa. The man on whom their hopes came to. Mboya. centre was whose Kenya Federation of Labour began to receive regular CIA subsidies. Mboya himself became prominent Kenyan a politician: He was closely linked, one of the trads union men with BNAC connect!

bian Soclety, Commonwealth bureau besides his connections with the

CIA;

with - the Commonwealth Bureau of the Fabian Society.

We might conclude our refer- ences to the involvement of the G&MWU and the CIA, not to Fabian Common- mention the wealth Bureau, in Kenya, by observing that in 1962, their protegé, Mboya, became Minister of Labour. He introduced an 'Industrial Relations Charter'. The Fabian Commonwealth Bureau magazine was very impressed with this legislation, and commented that it was 'splendidly outlining pin- ciples which should and possibly could be applied in Britain....

Mboya's Charter set up a per- manent Industrial and Court, made the unions responsible 101 their disciplining members at and for discouraging work, 'negligence of duty, 'damage to property, 'interference with disturbance normal work' to 'insubordination' , etc. When Cooper went out to Africa in 1959, une of the people who accompanied him was Arnold Zander, then President State, of the Federation of County and Municipal Em- ployees. It was via the Inter- national Affairs Department of this Us union that CIA money was channelled to the Public International. Zander Services admitted the

CIA

connections to the 'Washington Post' (Feb- ruary 23, 1967). Closely associated with Zander at the International Affairs Department of the AFL-CIO, was its director, Jay Lovestone.

A former right-wing renegade from the American Communist Party, Lovestone has been named as the overall co-ordinate of CIA activities in the international trade union movement. Certainly his department was the main channel through which CIA funds passed for these activities.

It should come as no surprise then, and help us to understand the BNAC's role when we find that Messrs Arnold Zander and Jay Lovestone are both members of the Committee. But perhaps most union mem- bers were not aware even of the existence of the BNAC, let alone of their leaders being involved 'broadly representative' in this group. Well, that would seem to it in with the, shall we say, 'discreet' way in which the com- • connections Lord Cooper: member of the club mittee apparently prefers to do its work. As a BNAC policy document explains: Its seeking of to process achieve a consensus among pri- vate views is free from the glare of publicity and public pressure political forces. It can thus often avoid or moderate unwise private action that may invite undesirable government re- BNAC want maintain to "special relationship' between British and American capital.

This does not mean they are opposed to the Common Market in itself. is In fact, Unilever represented both" in the BNAC and in the ranks of contributors to the British European Move- the BNAC grouping wants to ways: to obtain the benefits for monopoly capital of the Euro- pean Common Market, while at the same time keeping the links between British and American capitalism strong. Of course, this attempt to overcome the contradictions in the capitalist breaking out system is only one aspect of the sort of problems that are likely to worry the capitalists in BNAC at present. A far bigger problem in the working itself presents class. In order to compete with grouping their rivals, each of capitalists must try • to maintain its profits by holding down wages and increasing the rate of exploitation. At the same time, faced with the threat of massive unemploy- ment, the working class, far from being cowed, is being aroused to forms of struggle which are in- creasingly political in their im- plications. If the working class succeeds under these conditions in forcing the Tory government to resign, there will be a big demand for the nationalization of industries; and parallel will movements develc in Europe and inter- nationally. Nationalization, particularly when it comes as a result of this sort of situation, must certainly come under the heading of what BNAC calls 'undesirable govern- ment responses'! So it is easy to see the impor- tance for the big business in- terests represented in BNAC of having right-wing experienced union leaders in their Commit- tee, to advise them on the best m- ways of conducting their affairs.

...; ...

THE SPECTRE of Trotsky- ism is haunting the reformist bureaucracies of the world. Having slandered the Trot- as 'fascist agents' in skyists the 1930s and having pro- Trotskyism as 'dead' nounced 'effete' innumerable or in editorials and in the past, the Stalinist and social democratic press is presently undergoing painful convulsions trying to account for the rapidly growing influence of the Socialist Labour League. Their political agony is made no less bearable by the remark- able success of the Right-to-Work marches and the Empire Pool March 12. rally on Reformist apprehension now deep and turns into anxiety alarm as the editorial scribblers in Moscow and London begin the to discern growing threat of Marxism revolutionary and the of their political prospect demise in the not too far distant future. What animates this chorus of hatred against the Leninist theory and organization elaborated and Trotsky is created by Leon fear of genuine resurgent combined with a working class, longing wistful for the return boom and the of post-war an end to the monetary and economic

BY MICHAEL BANDA

1960s of late and crises the 1970s. of innuendo and misrepresent- The 'New Statesman', in par- is extremely. worried ation. ticular, of Trotskyism and The purpose of Gott's essay the growth 'Where Revolutionary of the is the the imminent collapse Party?, discredit Marxism post-war boom because for many is to decades it represented the highest by slandering the SLL and re- collaboration be- habilitate revisionism by lavish- point in the the International labour leaders and the ing praise on tween Marxist the capitalist intelligentsia - a col- group in most laboration made possible because slavish manner. The SLL, writes this pedant, of the objective economic con- has ditions. 'special attraction for middle-class intellectuals with These conditions no longer The guilt feelings about their class obtain today. crisis propels origins'. How Gott's profound! millions of new layers of workers incredible his the road of struggle and— sneers reflect to of Marxism the same extent-undermines abysmal ignorance to Statesman's' credibility and one of the salient ideas of the 'New reduces circulation the Comm times when the and its class format dramatically despite in times when the decisive hour, changes and the sacking of its struggle nears of dissolution going the process editor. credibility of middle-class within the ruling class, in The fact within the whole range Philistinism has never been at of and nothing assumes such a violent lower ebb ex- society, this crudely and character that a small presses more glaring class cuts distortedly than Richard Gott's section of the ruling itself adrift, and joins the re- attempt in this week's. issue to burv the SLL under a mole hill volutionary class. The daily paper that leads the light against the Tories. £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 lssues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a wook the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues).

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Name Address Immediately prior to this passage Marx remarks that sec- tions of the ruling class who are 'threatened in their conditions of existence ... also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and progress ('Communist Manifesto', P Is this to be condemned and laughed at? Only by those who cannot see the imminent hour of the decisive struggle between the working class oppressors. insinuation that the Gott's SLL is predominantly intellectual and middle class is a preposterous insult to the history and tradi- tions of the League. Any com- petent and honest observer of the League will readily admit that its membership is over- whelmingly proletarian in com- and that its main, position but not exclusive, field of activity has been industry. The League recruits from all of society-from un- sections youth, students and employed trade unionists, as well as actors, and others in the journalists professional groups. Without this support and this kind of membership the SLL could not have built the basis for a daily paper. who accuses Curiously Gott, Gerry Healy and his group of being wrong, too often for one to have much faith in their present showing, remains silent majority of Young about the Socialists joining the SIL in 1964 and on the Workers Press.

The daily, press could only be achieved through the youth. It is not only a major conquest of the but is revolutionary movement, a distinctive tribute-Gott with- standing-to the correctness of the SLL's perspectives and prin- ciples. It is impossible to build a mass revolutionary Marxist party of the working class without a daily this all Gott ignores paper. important fact of history.

In his desire to save the IMG from political oblivion, he has that a history of discovered struggle, the construction of a press, and a respect for principles not distinguish does a revolu- movement. Instead he tionary substitutes the awareness of the significance of 'pop culture' and World Revolution's' Third as . constituting the new dynamic of the revolutionary left. Culture'

POD

.. both aspects of the capitalist world in crisis. music in Acceptance of pop organizing Young Socialists disco- theques does not connote in any the acceptance of the way idealist philo- middle-class and sophy which is the basis of John Lennon's 'pop culture. (We will take the music, but Gott can keep the marijuana.) But then Gott's obsession with "pop culture' is not really so he asks in surprising. As bewilderment: 'But does a revolutionary party in Britain have to be Marxist?'

his It is perfectly clear from writing that this is only another way of trying to replace Marxism the reactionary method of with English empiricism. And it is this which leads him to method support the sectarian ultimati- mistic policies of the fusing to support-critically-the Labour Party against the Tories.

This does not end the astonish- his ing ignorance of Gott or penchant for distortion. He states that the SLL 'is characterized by an insufferable arrogance and in- tolerance'. Gott Nowhere does adduce any evidence to prove his allegation. Apparently anyone who accepts necessity for democratic the centralism and the conquest of state power by a disciplined cadre party based on the working class and armed with Marxist theory is 'arrogant and intolerable'.

both Gott's scepticism in this matter is too glaring even to need ex- tensive comment. most dedicated 'Even the Marxist must admit that it is a Herculean task in the advanced industrial world to create a new revolutionary party when the allegedly vanguard class — the workers-are already organized otherformost unionselet heir groups perceive their oppression vividly — as more women have already begun to?'

Is there any necessity to con- The poverty of Gott's tinue? thought is. only exceeded by the his middle-class arro- extent of gance and hatred rf the working class and Marxist theory — a feature he shares in common with Tariq Ali and the IMG. Workera Press, Monday March 20, 1972 PAGE 11

BBC 1

9.38-11.50 Schools. 1.00 Paul. 1.30 Fingerbobs. 1.45-1.53 News and 2.05-3.33 Schools. 4.00 Boomph with Becker. 4.15 Plas veather. School: 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Blue Peter. 5.20 Aeronauts. 5.44 Crosta MAGAZINE. 5.50 News and weather. 6.00

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SON. 'Loathe Story'. 9.50 THE REGIMENT. 'The Recruit'.

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7.30 NEWSROOM and weather. 8.00 FILM: 'DUEL AT SILVER CREEK'. Audie Murphy, Faith

FACE THE MUSIC.

Stephen McNally. Claim jumping and murder.

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'Under the Age'. By E. A. Whitehead.

11.10 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

ITV

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3.10 Tea Break. 3.45 Danger 4.40 Rupert Bear. 4.50 Land of giants. 5.50 Illall. News from ITV. 6.00 TODAY. Bill Grundy.

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6.40 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS! Hughie Green.

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WORLD IN ACTION.

8.30 BLESS THIS HOUSE. 'Parents Should be Seen and Not Heard'. 9.00 HOME AND AWAY. 'Hands at Midnight'.

10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

10.30

FILM:

"THE

SHADOW OF THE CAT. Andre Morell, Barbara Shelley. Thriller.

All regions as BBC-1 except: N Ireland: 6.00-6.20 Scene

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Wales: 1.30-1.45 Ar lin around six, weather. 11.47 mam. 6.00-6.20 Wales today, News, weather. 6.45-7.05 Heddiw. weather. England: - 6.20 6.00 Look 11.15-11.35 Croesi'r bont. North, Midlands today, 11.47 Weather. East, Look Points West, Scotland: 6.00 Reporting Scot- Weathe today, 100 Spotlight SW, land. 6.20-6.45 Se ur beatha.

weather. News, 11.47 News, weather. weather

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CHANNEL: 10.20-2.33 Lon- chan. 11.15 Strange report. don. 4.05 Once upon a time. 12.10 Weather. 4.20 Puffin. 4.25 Yoga. 4.50 ULSTER: 10.20-2.33 London.

5.20 Bright's boffins. Rovers. 4.00 Yoga. 4.30 Romper room.

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6.15 Best reports. University challenge 11.02 of Lucy. 6.45 London. 10.30 Marcus Welby. 11.55 News Monday night. 10.35 Film: and weather in French. "Spare the Rod'. Weather. YORKSHIRE: 10.20 • London.

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Lon- Day 5.50 London. 6.00 by don. 3.40 Yoga. 4.05 News. day. 6.45 10.30 Be- London. Odd couple. 4.35 Hatty town. Marcus 11.00 loved enemy 4.50 Spiderman. 5.15 It's fun 12.05 Welby. 11.55 News. to be fooled. Bright's boffins. Weather. Discoverers. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.25 ANGLIA: 10.20-2.33 London.

this is your right. 6.40 Lon- 4.00 Tea break. 3.55 News. don. 10.30 Film: 'Nightmare' 4.55 Felix. 4.25 Romper room. 5.50 boffins. TYNE TEES: 10.20 London. 5.20 Bright's 2.33 Out of London. 6.00 About Anglia. shadow into the Probe. 3.05 Pied London. 6.45 10.30 3.10 piper. 11.05 Marcus Welby. Yoga. 3.35 News. 3.45 Portrait of a Villain. 4.15 Dick Van

ATV MIDLANDS: 10.20-2.33

Dyke. 4.40 Once upon a time.

London. 3.10 Yoga. 3.35 Stars. 4.55 Rainbow 5.20 country. 3.45 Women today. 4.10 Bright's bottins. 5.50 London. Nanny and the professor. 4.40 6.00 Today. 6.25 Love, Ameri- 4.55 Forest rangers. Origami. can style. 6.45 London. 10.30 5.20 Bright's 5.50 boffins. Face the press. 11.00 Seaway. London. Today. 6.45 6.00 11.55 News. 12.10 Epilogue. London. 10.30 University chal- lenge. 11.00 Aquarius.

SCOTTISH:

10.20 London. 3.45 2.33-2.50 HTV: 10.20-2.33 London. Another 3.30 way. 3.45 Women 4.10 Tinkertain- Origami. Simon Locke. only. 4.50 4.10 4.25 Crossroads. Dateline. 4.55 Arthur. ment. 5.20 5.20 Grattan's Bright's boffins. Tom war. 5.50 Bright's boffins. 5.50 London. London. 6.00 Dateline. 6.15 family. 6.01 Report West. 6.22 Report Smith 6.45 London. 10.30 10.30 11.30 Wales. 6.45 London. Aquarius. Late 12.00 call. 11.35 Work of giants. Film: 'Hysteria'. Weather. GRAMPIAN: 11.00-2.33 Lon- don. 3.37 News. HTV West as above except: 3.40 Junkin. 6.22-6.45 This is the West this 4.10 Yoga. 4.40 Rupert Bear. week. 4.55 HR Pufnstuf. 5.20

HTV

Wales as above Bright's boffins. 5.50 London. except: 4.10-4.25 Cantamil. 6.01-6.22 6.00 Ner. 6.35 Catheon. weather. 6.10 Y dydd. Viewfinder. 6.45

HTV

Cymru/Wales as HTV London. 10.30 University chal- Wales: plus: 8.00-8.30 Yr lenge. 11.00 Saint. 11.55 10.30 Sain, cerdd a Epilogue. wythinos.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday March :

HEARINGS

_of the Widgery tribunal into the Bloody Sunday killing of 13 civilians in Bogside, Londonderry, on January 30 are due to end today. Lord Chief Justice Lord Widgery will later submit report to Tory Home Secretary Reginald Maudling. Cabinet Ministers will then decide when the report should be presented to parliament. The tribunal's terms of refer- ence were to inquire into the incidents in the Bogside which led to the 13 deaths. But two of the three QCs who have appeared before the tribunal have pointed out that it has turned into an inquiry as to whether the paratroopers were justified in opening fire.

A SHOT was fired early yester- day at the home of Stormont MP Austin Currie, he, while his wife and three young children were inside. Mrs Currie said it was the fourth time that shots had been fired at the house.

On Saturday another Stormont MP, Paddy Devlin, was shot at while driving through Belfast.

OPPONENTS of the Smith-Home Rhodesia deal begin daily demon- strations this morning outside the Pearce Commission's London office. Organized around the Rhodesia Emergency Campaign Committee, which embraces several anti- apartheid groups, the demon- strators will call for: with represent- Negotiations atives of the African majority; one man- one vote; no indepen- dence before majority rule: sanctions to be maintained and strengthened until true indepen- won; support for the denice struggle of the Zimbabwe people.

Some white Rhodesians living in Britain will also hand in an open letter to the Pearce Com- mission which has just returned Rhodesia. from •From our personal, and often painful. experience of most the white Rhodesian community, when faced with any challenge to their political and economic the African supremacy over majority, we know that the white honesty • and goodwill on which, under the "Proposals", meaning- ful post-independence African advancement would depend, simply do not exist, says their letter. The Commission is expected to report on the deal by mid- April. TOMORROW on the . 12th anniversary of the Sharpeville Anti-Apartheid the massacre, Movement will hold simultaneous pickets outside the S African Rhodesia House. embassy and Demonstrators will also picket offices of Rio Tinto Zinc the ICI. Both companies have and in southern big investments Africa.

FUND NOW

£403.40 ONLY 12 days left to go. Not a be wasted in the moment can campaign to raise our Appeal Fund this month. Each day in the fight against Workers Press be- the Tories, comes more vital than ever. In the struggle against the Industrial Relations Act, unemployment and " huge rent increases, Workers Press alone speaks out for an alternative revolutionary leader- ship to be built. reformist and Stalinist The leaders inside the labour move- ment remain on their knees before this Tory government.

So back up Workers Press in every way you can. Go all out immediately for our March Fund.

Collect as much as you can and post donations immediately to: Workers Press March Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG ay March 20, 1972

ALEC REESE, AUEW CONVENOR

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPON

WITH ENGINEERING em anti-union law against their and TUC leaders will meet t stitute Industrial Relations Act Oak , - pannelled Congress House, London, will be the venue for this rarified discus- sion about the policy of future Labour government.

Not only are Harold Wilson, party chairman Anthony Wedg- wood Benn and TUC chief Victor Feather completely without a discussion, this mandate workers are already tasting the of their betrayal bitter fruits of any fight against the Tory law.

And in Reading last week, we saw the grave potential conse- quences of this for the engineer- pay fight. A patched-up ing settlement on Friday night be- tween Ideal Casements Ltd and the Transport and General Workers' Union in no way alle- viates these dangers. On Thursday, Ideal chairman obtained James Wallace from the National Industrial Relations Court an order restraining three shop stewards at his Reading fac- tory calling a strike. Wallace had refused to recog- nize the stewards as legal repre- sentatives of the workers follow- breakdown of talks on Ing the dismissal procedures. Theoreti- cally under the Act, he argued, in the the union did not exist plant. Although the company is now going to apply for cancellation of the order and resume negotia- THE NATIONAL Union of Bank Employees has negoti- ated its first pay and working conditions agreement with a building society under the Industrial of the terms Relations Act. NUBE has made the agreement with the Dewesbury and West Riding Building Society and pay

WEATHER

Scotland. central E E and England will have fog at first, clearing during the morning and sunny, but becoming dry and thundery showers are expected to develop over central and SE England.. W England Wales and most will have some showers but also periods of sunshine. Central and W Scotland, N Ire- land and the Lake District will have a dry day with sunny periods. generally rather It will be warm in the NW. and very warm in the S, but temperatures will be about normal in NE. and Wed- Outlook : for Tuesday nesday: Some rain or showers in the S, dry in the N. Warm at first in the south, but temperatures becoming normal generally.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Published by Workers Press. Office. Street, London. 186a Clapham High

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU).

London. 180b Clapham Hish Street,

SWA 7UG.

•

FROM PAGE 1

example, the adjoining rolling in production has been mill one week and idle the next.

The miners' strike has also had an effect. News of the sit-in spread quickly through Stockport and within hours delegations from and Metcalfe and Davies Nettles Accessories came to Bredbury and pledged their support. Later that evening 120 Stockport shop stewards met and brought forward the

RRESPONDENT DAVID MAUDE

IG employers all over the se the full weight of the Tory ' their workers, Labour Party ons Act. tions, it is now clearly open for any employer to make a strike illegal during re-negotiation of a procedure. could have British-Leyland done the same during their recent negotiations. Since large sections of the en- gineering industry are still pro- cedureless, following the scrap- ping last year of the 50-year-old York Memorandum, this opening of by could be made use thousands of employers during the now-fragmented pay struggle of 2.8 million workers. A recent circular to member firms from the Engineering Em- ployers' Federation called for use the Industrial Relations Act of during the engineers' struggle.

• At Pilkington's, St Helens, unions claim to have Lancs, achieved a procedure agreement similar to that recently negotia- ted with British-Leyland.

The vexed principle of status quo does appear to be granted by a clause saying that should changes in pay or working prac- tices 'result in a dispute between the management and the union, the practice shall revert to what it was'. But rank-and-file militants who procedure have the seen are suspicious. As i Leyland, they say, national u. ion officials could be brought in to sell out even more quickly than under the York Memo. increases under the agreement will be backdated to January 1, 1972. NUBE's general secretary- designate Leif Mills said that the settlement was an 'historic one since it represented the first agreement between a trade union and a building society to be signed in this country. He added that he felt that the positive attitude of the building society in negotiating with recognized trade union would be of benefit both to the. society , and to the staff. New salary scales for clerical staff range from £575 at 16 (£11 per week) to £1,250 at 25 (£24 per week) for Grade I. Grade II salaries range from £16.80 per week at 18 to £27.60 a week at 25. The union has also agreed the salary ranges for the senior staff subject to detailed discussions on of people in the the placing various senior grades and to a definition of salary progression through these grades.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE

WILLESDEN: Monday March 27, 8 p.m. Trades and Labour Hall. High Rd., NWl. 'Right- to-Work Campaign and the fight to force the Tories out'.

CROYDON: Thursday March House, 23, 8 p.m. Ruskin Coombe Road, E Croydon. Re- port back from Empire Pool, Wembley, rally. deadline for the it will start by one week. will start today. enolovers. too, are likely to present united front and attempt to suspend demand the any workers day-rate. Indeed evl. dence suggests that the em- resigned fight to ployers are out ine claim the If the dispute does spread, it will the prospect of put fight and Hallel throughout the industry right back on the agenda We demand the right to work!

Make the Tories resign!

LIVERPOOL TO LONDON

YOUNG SOCIALISTS 12th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

SCARBOROUGH

Saturday & Sunday April 8/9 Grand Hall, The Spa Dance to 'BRAVE NEW WORLD' Saturday night 8 pm also see a star-studded show Coet approximately £4.50. For tickets apply to John Simmance, National Secretary,

YOUNG SOCIALISTS'

NATIONAL RIGHT-TO-WORK CAMPAIGN

PRESENTS

The English Revolution' Written by Tom Kempinski Directed by Corin Redgrave

AT THE

YOUNG VIC

THEATRE

The Cut, off Waterloo Ro, London SW1 SUNDAY MARCH 26 7 p.m. ADMISSION 25p (YS MEMBERS) & 50p The Bredbury sunning themselves the plant gates They

WCI

end, tole ne Stockport workers i ternational news 1960s when turnea out Roberts Arundel who workers an wanted to destroy th‹

SWANSEA TO LONDON

•TUNG SOGIALISTS

th ANNUAL CONFERENC ril 8/9 Grand Hall, The Sp VORLD' Saturday night 8 pm ar-studded show moly to John Simmance. National Sacretary Street, London, SWA JUG

ORK CAMPAIGN

(YS MEMBERS) & 50p snoutside were this weekend. undemonstrative bitter to the linger crane-driver workers made in- in the late town the entire support factor fighting were who enolover lestroy the unions.

IFERENCE

1, The Spa