Workers Press no. 728

workers press

BEHIND THE T&GWU €5,000 FINE

THE SWORD IS

IT IS a great shock' say the and Stalinists when referrin imposed on the Transport a Union by the Industrial Relati Here we see the under- lying bankruptcy of the traditional forms of class- collaborationist leadership which has been continuously back-peddling the political fight against the Tory gov- ernment since it came to power. 'Men make their own his- tory, said Marx, 'but they do not make it just as they please, they do not make it under cir- cumstances chosen by them- circum- selves, but under stances directly found, given and transmitted from the past.'

No matter how much the re- formists and their allies may cringe and crawl before the Tory government the ghost of the 1901 Taff Vale judgement against trade unionism has reappeared from the past. And how could it have been otherwise? The historical impli- cations of great change between the major class forces have always been most deceptive in Britain. For the slow movement in the appearances or form of relations between them has always been, in dialectical essence, the con- tradictory opposite of the deep- going molecular process going on underneath, which formed the content. This is why in times of great crisis matters of law, which have hitherto been confined to the obscurity of courts, sud- denly, like a bolt from the blue, become great national issues.

Both Tory and Labour politi- cians may juggle how they like parliamentary phrases. with Their ancient ancestors did it in

MARCH FUND

-WELL OVER

YOU MADE IT. You made It. It was a really magnificent effort.

Not only did you raise our target but you also collected £228.80 over the top. We cannot thank you enough. These last few days have shown the determination of you, readers, to maintain the our Workers Press. There can be no doubt that there Is a real need for a dally paper that stands firmly on the side of the work- ing class and that speaks out -determinedly for Its principles.

We know that you are all firmly behind us. Let's therefore not sit back for a moment. Help us expand circulation our wherever you can. Take extra coples to sell at work or where you live. Win hundreds of new for Workers Press. readers Finally, If you have any more left-don't forget our money April fund starts today. Post all your donations to: Workers Press March Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

ay the revisionists, reformists referring to the €5,000 fine sport and General Workers' | Relations Court.

BY G. HEALY

the debates between Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament in 1640. Nobody, as Trotsky, quoting the French historian Guizot, re- to draw marked, wanted the sword, but eventually they were forced to draw it. drawn-out yearning The long for compromise was smashed by revolutionary events which finally led to the execution of Charles -I in 1648. All the learned bourgeois of *drawn the NIRC have done is the sword. From the point of view of capitalist law they are of course justified. Contempt of their courts is one of the most serious acts that can be com- mitted. Now we can see the enormous crimes of those trade union leaders and Stalinists who evaded a real struggle against the Tories in the months before the Indus- trial Relations Bill became law.

Forget all about the reformist "Tories clap-trap that the dare Act. Maybe if it not use the were left to individual Tory MPs they would have acted in a more reserved way, but, we repeat after Marx, men do not make history 'under circumstances chosen by themselves. The representatives of the rul- ing class have drawn the sword because they face an insoluble economic crisis. Nothing can be the same again. Five years after the Taff Vale judgement in 1901, the Labour Representation Committee which Labour Party was founded the launched in 1906. Today, the perspectives before trade unionists entirely are With its back to the different. wall the Tory government has hit out at the working class, whilst the reformists stand aside paralysed. Trade unionism can only be defended today by revolutionary means through a revolutionary party. Those who refuse to create the conditions which would make the Tory government resign are in fact betraying trade unionism and the working class. The policy of the Socialist Labour League is the only revolutionary organization to politically prepare the working class to meet the present crisis.

ABOUT 500 people marched from Trafalgar Square yesterday on the first leg of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's Easter demonstration to Aldermaston.

CND secretary Dick Nettleton told me: "We are reminding the people that Aldermaston is still there and it is still doing the same kind of work. Forty Labour MPs have spon- sored the march and we've got the backing of the Communist Party and the Co-op Party. We've INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • SATURDAY APRIL 1, 1972• No. 728 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE It's thumbs-up from the Sharston men, but what happens now?

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

TWENTY TWO workers at Sharston Engineering, near Stockport, have lifted their factory occupation after be- ing under threat of police action for 24 hours. The men will return to work on uescay amer mue raster non- days and their employer,

MTS

Isabella Dubost, has promised 'reconsider" excnante. decision sack them all and close the plant. The retrat at Sharston cannot be disguised. It means that tor just started a section in the Liberal Party and we've even got a few Tories who support us.

a pretty fair spread of opinion.

Mr Nettleton said CND wanted to draw public attention to the langer involved in the Tory gov. erment's decision to switch the administration of Aldermastor from orh civil ate minisere oy Ministry Authority Derence. Speaking at the Trafalgar

PRIL 1, 1972

• No. 728 1 4p

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

on men, but what happens now?

the first time a court action by an employer has been successful in breaking an occupation.

The men took their decision to go back after long talks with John Tocher, Manchester or- the Amalgamated ganizer of Union of Engineering Workers, and Bernard Regan, Stockport's district secretary of the same union. They are both Communist Party members. Unions originally promised they would try to protect Shars- ton workers with a mass picket.

Over 7,000 workers in Greater the Square rally one of CND's got original organizers, Walter Wolf- gang said: We are marching at a time when far too many people have learned to live with the bomb. 'Given the size of the problem we have converted a good many people to a new way of thinking but given the urgency of the problem we well enough Just haven't done • See picture, page 12. Manchester and Warrington are now occupying 11 factories. The latest to join are 2,000 workers at the Ruston Paxman diesels plant, Newton-le-Willows.

In theory it would now be pos- sible for the 11 other employers in the North-West also faced with occupations to sack their workers and take them to court for trespass. • 'Lessons of the sit-ins,' p. 12.

Ford men occupy FORD workers have started to occupy their factory in Doncas- ter during the night shift as part of their fight against redun- dancies. This means the factory will be under the control of the work force during the period covered by the two-shift system.

So although men will work as normal, none of the vital dies they produce, used to manufac- ture components for the Capri, Escort and Granada models, will be allowed to leave the toolroom.

The decision to stage the sit-in was overwhelmingly agreed by 150 workers from the plant at a meeting called on Wednesday by the Amalgamated Union of En- gineering Workers. RAIL union leaders will meet in London next Wednesday to review the wages battle with British Rail.

workers press

BEHIND THE T&GWU £5,000 FINE

THE SWORD IS

IT IS a great shock' say the and Stalinists when referrin imposed on the Transport a Union by the Industrial Relati Here we see the under- lying bankruptcy of the traditional forms of class- collaborationist leadership which has been continuously back-peddling the political fight against the Tory gov- ernment since it came to power. 'Men make their own his- tory,' said Marx, 'but they do not make it just as they please, they do not make it under cir- cumstances chosen by them- circum- selves, but under stances directly found, given and transmitted from the past.'

No matter how much the re- formists and .their allies may cringe and crawl before the Tory government the ghost of the 1901 Taff: Vale judgement against trade unionism has reappeared from the past. And how could it have been otherwise? The historical impli- cations of great change between forces the major class have always been most deceptive in Britain. For the slow movement in the appearances or form of relations between them has always been, in dialectical essence, the con- tradictory opposite of the deep- going molecular process going on underneath, which formed the content. This is why in times of great crisis matters of law, which have hitherto been confined to the obscurity of courts, sud- denly, like a bolt from the blue, become great national issues.

Both Tory and Labour politi- cians may juggle how they like with parliamentary phrases. Their ancient ancestors did it in

MARCH FUND

-WELL OVER

YOU MADE IT. You made It. It was a really magnificent effort.

Not only did you raise our target but you also collected {228.80 over the top. We cannot thank you enough. These last few days have shown the determination of you, our readers, to maintain the Workers Press. There can be no doubt that there is a real need for a dally paper that stands firmly on the side of the work- ing class and that speaks out -determinedly for its principles.

We know that you are all firmly behind us. Let's therefore not sit back for a moment. Help circulation expand our wherever you can. Take extra coples to sell at work or where you live. Win hundreds of new readers Workers Press. Finally, If you have any more forget left-don't our money April fund starts today. Post all your donations to: Workers Press March Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SWA TUQ.

INCORPORATING THE NEWS

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

say the revisionists, reformists referring to the £5,000 fine sport and General Workers' I Relations Court.

BY G. HEALY

the debates between Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament in 1640. Nobody, as Trotsky, quoting the French historian Guizot, re- wanted to draw marked, the sword, but eventually they were forced to draw it. The long drawn-out yearning for compromise was smashed by revolutionary events which finally led to the execution of Charles I in 1648. All the learned bourgeois of the NIRC have done is 'drawn the sword. From the point of view of capitalist law they are of course justified, Contempt of *their courts is one of the most serious acts that can be com- mitted. Now we can see the enormous crimes of those trade union leaders and Stalinists who evaded a real struggle against the Tories in the months before the Indus- trial Relations Bill became law.

Forget all about the reformist "Tories dare clap-trap that the Act. not use the Maybe if it were left to individual Tory MPs they would have acted in a more reserved way, but, we repeat atter Marx, men do not make history 'under circumstances chosen by themselves'. The representatives of the rul- ing class have drawn the sword they face an insoluble because economic crisis. Nothing can be the same again. Five years after the Taff Vale judgement in 1901, the Labour Representation Committee which founded the Labour Party was launched in 1906. Today, the perspectives before unionists entirely trade are With its back to the different. wall the Tory government has hit out at the working class, whilst the reformists stand aside paralysed. Trade unionism can only be defended today by revolutionary through a revolutionary means party. Those who refuse to create the conditions which would make the Tory government resign are in fact betraying trade unionism and the working class. policy of the Socialist The Labour League is the only revolutionary organization to politically prepare the working • class to meet the present crisis.

ABOUT 500 people marched from Trafalgar Square yesterday on the first leg of the Campaign for Disarmament's Easter Nuclear demonstration to Aldermaston.

CND secretary Dick Nettleton told me: 'We are reminding the people that Aldermaston is still there and it is still doing the same kind of work. 'Forty Labour MPs have spon- sored the march and we've got the backing of the Communist Party and the Co-op Party. We've

HE NEWSLETTER • SATURDAY APRIL 1, 19

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC

It's thumbs-up from ther Sharston men, bi

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

TWENTY TWO workers at Sharston Engineering, near Stockport, have lifted their factory occupation after be- ing under threat of police action for 24 hours. The men will return to work on Tuesday after the Easter holi- days and their Mrs employer, Isabella Dubos reconsider' her has promised, in exchange, to decision sack them all and to close the plant. The retreat at Sharston cannot be disguised. It means that for started section in the Squ just Liberal Party and we've even got a few Tories who support us. It's a pretty fair spread of opinion.'

Mr Nettleton said CND wanted to draw public attention to the danger involved in the Tory gov- ernment's decision to switch the Aldermaston administration from the civilian Atomic Energy Authority to the Ministry Defence. Speaking at the Trafalgar PRIL 1, 1972 • No. 728 • 4p

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

on men, but what happens now?

the first time a court action by an employer has been successful in breaking an occupation.

The men took their decision to go back after long talks with be- John Tocher, Manchester от- ganizer of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, and Bernard Regan, Stockport's district secretary of the same union. They are both Communist Party members. Unions originally promised they would try to protect Shars- ton workers with a mass picket.

Over 7,000 workers in Greater of CND's the Square rally one original organizers, Walter Wolf- We are marching at gang said: a time when tar too many people have learned to live with the bomb. 'Given the size of the problem we have converted a good many people to a new way of thinking but given the urgency of the problem we • See picture, page 12. Manchester and Warrington are now occupying Il factories. The latest to join are 2,000 workers at the Ruston Paxman diesels plant, Newton-le-Willows.

In theory it would now be pos- sible for the 1l other employers in the North-West also faced • occupations to sack their with workers and take them to court for trespass. • 'Lessons of the sit-ins, p. 12.

Ford men occupy FORD workers have started to occupy their factory in Doncas- ter during the night shift as part redun- of. their fight against dancies. This means the factory will be under the control of the work force during the period. covered by the two-shitt system.

So although men will work as normal, none of the vital dies they produce, used to manufac- ture components for the Capri, Escort and Granada models, will be allowed to leave the toolroom.

The decision to stage the sit-in overwhelmingly agreed by was 150 workers from the plant at a meeting called on Wednesday by the Amalgamated Union of En- gineering Workers. RAIL union leaders will meet in London next Wednesday to review the wages battle with British Rail.

Chilean Stalinist backs capitall PACE & Workers Prose, Saturday Apoll 1,

AROUND THE WORLD

BY JOHN SPENCER

• PRESIDENT Nixon yesterday union Taft-Hartley Act agains to prevent two major strikes closed down the entire US rail Under an emergency order signed yesterday, he set up two boards to look into the dis- putes and banned workers from striking for 60 days.

The boards have wide powers to try and enforce a settlement before the two-month "cooling- off' period is over. The banned strikes were due to begin at midnight tonight, when members of the Sheet Metal Workers Union were walk off the job in all member firms of the American Railroad Association. On the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad, now supported by mas- infusions of government cash, train drivers and guards in the United Transportation Wor- kers Union were also due to strike. Presidential press secretary Ronald Ziegler said on Friday that there were few hopes of settling either dispute. A strike against the Penn Cen- tral would close down 40 per cent of rail traffic in the Eastern United States. If other unions honoured the Sheet Metal Workers' picket lines their strike could close the entire railway system. Turkish guerrillas killed AFTER a gun battle with strong security • forces who attacked their hideout, 10 mountain Turkish guerrillas and their three British hostages were found dead.

There are conflicting reports of the final stages of the kidnap drama, but the Turkish Ministry of the Interior claims that the hostages were found shot through the head with their hands tied behind their backs. First reports said that the guerrillas had died when they blew up , the house, but it was later said that they had been in the killed battle with the troops. main leaders of the Peoples' Turkish Liberation Army' were among those killed, Mahir Cayan and included Alptekin admitted responsibility kidnapping and killing the Israeli consul a vear ago.

BY TOM KEMP

CHILEAN Stalinism's compli wards counter-revolution was recent speech made by Luis F munist Party member and head trade union organization.

Figueroa is president of Central Unica de Trabaja-/ dores. Figueroa backed Chilean President Allende's concept of the gradual development of a 'strong socially-owned area'.

follows the which fought for the retention of private property and against socialist policies.

asa Spainfaced Workerseneral General peasants, Franco's armies had taken over ay Aprll 1, 1972 sterday invoked the anti- t against railway workers strikes which could have US rail system. This is the second time in less than a year that Nixon has invoked Taft-Hartley against a major strike threat. He used the Act to order dockers back to work during their long strike at the end of last year. Nixon's attempts to use right- wing trade union leaders to en- force his pay-freeze policy through the Pay Board broke down earlier this month when four of the five union representa- tives on the board walked off in protest against attempts to cut the dockers' negotiated pay rise.

He is now forced to rely more and more heavily on the repres- sive anti-strike laws as the pre- sidential election date nears.

JUST eight months after the bloodbath of Sudanese com- General Jaafar munists by. Numeiry's right-wing military dictatorship, Rumania's president Nicolae Ceausescu is in Khar- toum for a four-day state visit.

Sudanese president yesterday Causescu pledged support to the military regime as part of what he termed the 'African struggle against imperialism'. Sudan as Numeiry said the keen to develop bilateral rela- tions with Rumania on the basis of full for national respect sovereignty. He spoke of the 'fruitful co- operation' which had resulted from resumption of diplomatic relations in December last year.

Sudan broke off relations with Rumania in 1969 when Ceausescu exchanged ambassadors with Israel. Last July, the Sudanese armed forces crushed the Communist Party and the powerful trade- union movement after defeating NLF steps up the offensive in Vietnan N VIETNAMESE battered S Vietnam's defence line below the demilitarized zone with rockets, mortar bombs and shells, forcing the abandon- ment of two military camps.

Big field guns were brought into action for the first time, probably firing from N of the demilitarized Ground zone. complicity in the moves to- on was clearly revealed in a Luis Figueroa, leading Com- nd head of the country's main factories and land, particularly in Catalonia and Aragon. The Spanish Communist Party, in accordance with Popular Front policy, destroyed these indepen- dent mass movements. Property restored to its former was owners and the independent militias and • control committees were broken up. The logic of Stalinism was that defence of bourgeois democracy must come first-socialism would come after the defeat of fascism.

History shows bitter lessons: the mass movement was disorientated Nixon an attempted coup by left-wing army officers. The Chinese Stalinists immedi- ately supported this counter- revolutionary bloodbath and with- in weeks they were joined by the Kremlin's men in Europe. Vasil Bilak, Moscow's repre- sentative the Czech Com- on munist Party leadership, told a secret central committee session October 21 last year that revulsion against the killings was - 'based on a misunderstanding'.

He attacked executed the Sudan CP leader Abdel Khaled Mahgoub for 'moving towards sectarian positions' in opposition to the 'progressive forces' (i.e., Numeiry and his military backers). Ceausescu's 'independent' foreign policy has exactly the same counter-revolutionary con- tent. His visit is a full endorsement of Numeiry's butchery and shows the line-up of world Stalinism against the Sudanese working class. etnam fighting was also raging in a number of places and the Americans brought jets and naval forces into action in an effort to stem the offensive.

The second US gunship to be lost this week shot was down over Laos where it was trying to halt the southward movement of field guns. and Franco's dictatorship was established. Figueroa states clearly that the predominant feature the 'social area must be worker participation: 'Participation must be expressed NOT in the owner- ship of the firms' property by their workers, but in an effective and active role in management and planning. Management councils would replace shareholders and would become a form of revolu- tionary political power. He described the growth of a voluntary work movement and increases in productivity under the democratic Allende regime.

He begged the middle class to persuade the right wing not to break out of this democratic institutional framework, because workers might take over factories and 'they will never return that property • capitalists "Those whose ed property is guaranteed by the THE TOUCHSTONE of British politics today is the 'direct rule' plan of the Tories for Ulster.

There are those who welcome direct rule like the Tories, Wilson, Labour 'lefts' and the Social Democratic and Labour MPs in Ulster. There are those who unequivocally oppose direct rule and fight to make the Tories resign, kick out Wilson and elect a pledged Labour government to socialist policies. This policy—the only viable socialist alternative to direct rule, the only principled opposition-is confined to the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists.

And then there who look both ways; who accept are nose continuation of Tory rule and implicitly the cover up their craven unprincipled submission with loud protests about the excesses of Tories. This the is the position the middle-class liberal and radical, so succinctly expressed on the front page of the latest 'Socialist Worker', the paper of the state capitalist protesters of International Socialism. Direct rule, states the 'Socialist Worker' editorial, will not change a thing. 'Nothing that Heath or Whitelaw have done will change this situation .. The only difference is the way in which British big business controls.' Nobody suggests that unemployment or bad housing will dis- appear or be ameliorated because of direct rule, but the revisionists deliberately slur over the real objective of direct rule.

To do other would mean Criticizing their Republican allies the Anti- Internment League and their friends on the back benches of the House of Commons. By imposing direct rule the Tories have secured the support of the entire Labour opposition in parliament and the tacit support of a good section of Republican-Nationalist opinion in Ireland.

Thanks to this Miss Devlin and Mr McManus gigantic political manoeuvre, found themselves in a small minority in the House.

What is more significant is that this Tory political coup was followed the next day with the unprecedented legal decision against the Trans- General Workers' Union in port and the Industrial Relations Court.

Contrary to 'Socialist Worker' and IS some things have changed in Ulster as a result of direct rule. It has provided the framework for a negotiated political settlement with the Catholic middle class and the disengaging of armed forces of the state in preparation for Britain repression in and elsewhere. Whether this policy was on the Tories by the armed resistance of the Irish ghettos forced is important-but not decisive. What is decisive is that the absence of working-class leadership in Ulster, and the reformist policies of People's Democracy (an IS offshoot) and the Stalinist-dominated civil rights movement, as well as the political bankruptcy of Sinn Fein, have enabled British imperialism to preserve its economic interests. by sacrificing Stormont. It was a small price to pay.

In the course of 'readjustment' it has this Is cannot answer ke retaliation from the Protestant working class. cannot answer challenge of Craig and the Vanguard because they have capitulated to bourgeois Republicanism. Hence this puerile and recollary It is Protestant fear that they are being betrayed by their analysis: old leaders that explains the massive support this week for William Craig's Vanguard movement.' Protestant • working-class fears partly accounted for by their privileged position-a fear that neither

IRA

IS the can dispel. ( These fears also born out of healthy Catholic domination. Those who hatred of bourgeois this real feeling cannot offer out for the Protestant ignore way workers, or for that matter the Catholic workers.

We say that the only way to break Protestant workers from the fetishistic cult Orangeism and lay the basis for lasting unity of Catholic Protestant workers is to prosecute the anti-Tory and struggle in Britain until the Tories are forced to resign. It is only by and through such a struggle that the Protestant workers will realize where their real salvation lies. IS consciously avoids such a policy and struggle by transferring the Ireland, by calling on struggle to '32 Counties' Workers' Republic' Irish workers to institute To confine the struggle to Ireland and to refuse to unite Irish and British workers in a joint struggle to force the Tories to resign is class and perpetrate capitalist rule in Britain to betray the working and in Ireland. The IS reject direct rule in words only in order to accept it in practice.

BY IAN YEATS

FRENCH

authorities yesterday banned Basque Fatherland Day celebrations. No reason was given.

In the past the holiday has led to trouble in Basque towns.

Sources say this year's ban may to the be linked tension in Mauleon area of France following prohibit decision to recent Basque refugees from living near the Spanish border. Two leaders who pub- Basque Unity Programme Popular had lished an article warning that better think it over.' the prohibition on refugees might Workers' participation, accord- touch off a 'strong reaction' have ing to Figueroa and Allende, is been summoned to the police then a demagogic fraud used to Jean-de-Luz and told station at defend the continued existence of that could be taken action 'democratic' so-called capitalism against them. and block the development of Basques have said they The Chile's socialist democratic caes as the intend to defy ban and go with their Aberri Eguna capitalists prepare ahead counter-revolution. celebrations. clamp-down The marks • Chile's main opposition party, further step in the development the Democrats, Christian plan of the French government's another demonstration mass policy of co-operation growing the Allende fol- Franco's regime in Spain. against regime, with lowing the banning of a women's Franco needs the assistance of street last week. the Pompidou in government pressio A pay claim made by workers attempting to crush the mount- at the giant El Teniente copper ing tide of workers struggles in has been settled after a Spain. mine strike threat. French harassment of Basque's asking for The workers were and Spaniards stepped up The settle- Paris a 50 per rise. following talks in between Coul for rises of French Minister Marcelinteriod ment provides be- Marcellin M 30 and 40 per cent with Raymond tween an automatic 30 per cent increase Eduardo Blanco, Colonel in Chief of the fascist security services.

every three years.

The Soviet Union is expected to double trade with Latin America this year as part of a spectacular economic growth in the area. The United States, carefully playing to the rules of 'peaceful co-existence', appears to be accepting the situation for the moment. American pressure on some countries whose regimes it dislikes in fact opens the way for the Soviet Union. However, the Russians are not particular about whom they trade with. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru are among the coun- tries with whom big trade deals have recently been made. Much of the trade done with countries, these which have right-wing military regimes and hunt down and imprison com- munists, is conducted on favour- able credit terms.

SOVIET TRADE PUSH

IN LATIN AMERICA

In this way Brazil will be equip- SuDD le• with generatino ment worth $30m, and Col Banzer's Bolivia regime o•land [WO remmenes assistance in prospecting for oil.

addition to the substantial aid which keeps Cuba vastro s anod. ovier ald ls now furnished to Chile, which is in deep trouble with capitalist its creditors who would like to see the Allende regime overthrown.

However, Soviet Union does not want

CLO

becone

TOC

deeply committed to support for should he Allende. But be dis- placed by right-wing dictator- ship, no doubt the present con- tracts would continue honoured. Likewise, in pacing its orders for Latin American produce, the Soviet Union works on the political discrimina- ciple oi no tion. Despite the fact that Brazil is regarded by Washington as its main military support and jump- ing-off ground for the economic penetration of Latin . America, the Soviet Union has showered it with offers of aid and has recently bought 10 per cent of • Brazil's exportable sugar.

It would be a mistake to think that the Soviet bureaucracy has no political interest in Latin America. Its main concern is to ensure that the revolution does not spread in an area which is alive with guerrilla movements mass expressions of discontent.

It is at one with the USA in wishing to preserve the status the meaning of that is quo: peaceful co-existence'. Top: Castro and Allende both receiving Soviet ald as is Banzer (below left) and his Bolivian regime. Workers Press, Saturday April 1, 1972 PAGE 3 Bologna, the large Italian colonies' was held in Rome.

is The attended industrial conterence city, now by leaders of the liberation move- twinned with a tiny refugee of Mozambique, ments Angola camp in Tanzania the and Portuguese Guinea, on who later borders of Mozambique. were received in an audience by the Pope Paul, thus provoking The decision to link two un- recall of Portugal's temporary equal communities-taken by the ambassador to the Vatican. communist-dominated city council symbolic of Bologna-is ges- After the conference, the vice- Marcellino support for the Mozam- President of Frelimo, ture of bique liberation struggle and the Dos Santos, Reggio went to for programme Emilia, another starting point communist city of practical assistance to Mozam- 116,000 N of inhabitants of bique. Bologna, for a twinning cere- which has a popula- Bologna, between the city's mony main of 450,000 people, twinned hospital and a small field hospital tion itself with the camp of Tunduru in liberated Mozambique. about 20 miles from the Mozam- for bique border, which cares about 1,000 women and children made homeless by warfare in the Portuguese territory. The of the population camp The Italian hospital immedi- includes 600 children under 12 ately began sending gifts of medi- years of age who have lost their cine and equipment to its twin, parents in the fighting. Cabo Delgado the hospital in Bologna council, The city Mozambique, despite the opposi- Italy's communist most tamous tion of the Italian health minis- administration, is also sponsoring try. of solidarity new committee The staff of the Italian hospital with the Mozambique Liberation gave one day's pay to contribute Front (Frelimo). of stretchers consignment to intends send- This committee Cabo Delgado, while Reggio's ing food and school materials to dustmen made a gift of a mobile as. well as a team of the camp operating theatre. agricultural to train experts Under a recent constitutional Mozambique refugees in raising reform, administration of hospi- animals and growing new crops.

been transferred tals has from Bologna's move could be em- the central government in Rome barrassing to the Italian govern- regional ( administrations, and to ment, which does not recognize the Reggio hospital has this year the liberation movements in Por- £3,000 in its budget for included tugal's African territories.

aid to Cabo Delgado. Four Mozambique guerrillas with amputated legs have also been having treatment in the Reggio hospital since last Novem- and Mozambique ber, three The government was already are undergoing training embarrassed this month by the there. publication in the Italian All this sounds jolly decent, if com- munist of an allegedly not paternal, pandering the

PICSS

from heroic struggle against Portuguese leaked document the Italian ambassador in Lisbon, capitalism. But it takes on more Signor Girolamo Messeri, when urging sinister tones one realizes that the CP bureaucrats are using efforts by Italy to block inter- national recognition of such their support workers to liberation movements. aid and gain face give left The Bologna twinning ceremony while the real politics are quietly is the latest, though sig- nudged to side. nificant, development in a grow- The Stalinists' masters in the Kremlin ing movement of support for are increasingly twin- Frelimo themselves diplomatic in Italy's predominantly ning communist region of Emilia.

and trading level with the right- The movement Portuguese began in june wing regime, whose 1970 when the first international forces shot off the legs of those conference of 'solidarity with the four guerrillas now being treated Portuguese people's of the in Reggio hospital. Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62½ р

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PAGE 4 Workers Press, Saturday April 1 by Clift Slaughter, Socialist Labour member. •Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement? Lenin, and alter him Trotsky, insisted upon this principle against every enemy, inside the revolution- ary movement as well as outside. In the Bolshevik Party, in the Communist (Third) International and then in the Fourth Inter- national, the middle-class attack on correct revolutionary strategy always had to be answered by deepening the struggle for basic Marxist theory. Recently, in the International Committee of the Fourth Inter- national, political differences have once again come to the point of questioning the very foundation of Marxism, dialectical materialism.

The •Socialist Labour League and the majority of the Inter- national Committee, basing them- selves on the theoretical gains of the struggle against the empiri- pragmatism of the cism and Socialist Workers Party and other Pabloites who split from the Fourth International, have fought to consciously begin every task from the standpoint developing Marxist theory.

The Organization Communiste Inter- nationaliste (OCI) of France and a minority of the IC have rejected this struggle. They prefer to regard Marxist theory as something embodied in Fourth the programme of the International, in the direction of which experience of workers' struggle will tend.

The documents of this split are now being published in Workers Press. Meanwhile the enemies of Trotskyism in the self-professed 'United Secretariat of the Fourth International' in Paris (Pabloites) are trying, with little success, to

INT!

WAICHWORD)

Tarla All: aciousneso determini

COIN

lay April 1, 1972 st Labour League Central Committee take some comfort for themselves, doubt to help obscure the no raging difference in their midst.

One of Pabloite leaders, Pierre Frank, writes in the March 'Intercontinental issue Press' an article • "Construct" "Reconstruct" the Fourth International'. While consist- ing largely of stale and un- founded criticisms of the stand taken by the International Com- mittee on the questions facing the Trotskyist movement since • 1953; Frank's article is revealing, nevertheless, for what it reveals of his own theoretical (or rather anti-theoretical) starting-point.

Frank quotes in full the amend- ment proposed by the Young Socialists to the resolution pre- sented to the Essen youth con- ference by the AJS (youth organi- zation of the OCI) last year.

The primary task of the revolutionary youth This amendment placed the struggle to develop Marxist theory as the primary task of revolu- tionary youth. The first point to note is that in his lengthy article, Frank no.

where says whether he agrees with this amendment or not! He is interested in it only in order to speculate and manoeuvre. The education of his own movement in- on the principled questions volved does not enter his head.

We have noted the evidence for this absence of any attention to questions such fundamental earlier, in exposing the explicitly idealist basis of Tariq All's book, 'The Coming British Revolution'.

Just as, in that book, one vital sentence (. .. consciousness de- termines history ...') was the determines history clue to all the positions of Tariq Ali and the International Marxist Group, the Pabloite section in Britain, so, in Frank's article, his on the consequences comments of this amendment take us to the root of the whole Pabloite con- ception. Frank says: 'Lambert's refusal to vote for this amendment pro- voked two remarks from Healy.

this response In the first place, showed that Lambert was guilty of underestimating, or renouncing dialectical materialism. On this point, we are faced with one of Healy's customs. Every time he engages in a tendency or faction struggle he believes it is necessary to introduce the question of materialism. dialectical Why? Well because Trotsky dealt with in the this question struggle against Burnham and Shachtman in 1939. "Trotsky did this because the was introduced by his question opponents, one totally denying dialectical materialism, the other declaring that it had no practical Trotsky conducted importance. many tendency struggles without introducing this question; but that matters little for Healy. For him, every internal struggle can- not help but pose the question of dialectical materialism. And if no one else is inclined to raise it, he will never hesitate to do so.

'Must we add that when Healy induges in this bizarre idiosyn- crasy, he succeeds most often in making himself look ridiculous?'

Pierre Frank could do well to read over the very dispute with Burnham and Shachtman to which he refers. Trotsky says: "The opportunists, I am in- formed, greet with bursts of very mention of laughter the "dialectics". In vain. This un- worthy method will not help. The dialectic of the historic process has more than once cruelly pun- ished those who tried to jeer at it' Suited to the petty bourgeoisie, not to the proletarian revolution Pierre Frank, Joseph Hansen and Ernest Mandel have long ago substituted impressions for Marx- ist analysis. This method, suited to the petty bourgeoisie, but not to the proletarian revolution, led these gentlemen to agree on the fact that 'neo-capitalism' had so changed the proletariat that its role would pass revolutionary over to-at different stages-the a left revolutionary peasantry, nationalist revolutionary leader- ship sui generis, the students.

Frank boasts about the 1963 'reunification' of his own forces with the American SWP on the basis of this agreement. He says: .. this period [of splits in the Fourth International] ended in 1963, when the principal Trotsky- ist organization •UP advancing identical world wound answers to those new problems and reuniting?' So desperate is Frank to avoid recognizing the dialectic of his- tory which has made nonsense of the orientation to non-working- class forces that he deliberately falsifies events. He knows that within months of the 'reunifica- tion', Pablo himself and his sup- porters split from the Unified Secretariat! He knows also that the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon, the first. mass hailed by him as party, Joined a bour- Trotskyist geois coalition in 1964 and had to be expelled! Hee epitome of a stro naturad as the epitome of a new Marxian revolutionary as the basis of the 'reunification' went over immediately to the worst kind Stalinist attack on Trotskyism. If Frank continues shamelessly to sneer at dialectical materialism and to ignore the real history, it is because the dialectic has certainly found out com- pletely. Right at the time when the proletariat, written off by the development him, demands of Marxist theory, he laughs it off. That is to be expected.

His version of the 1939-1940 split in the SWP (Burnham and Shachtman) is, once again, dashed off in an irresponsible and carefully distorted fashion, very typical of the petty-bourgeois contempt for a truly theoretical revolutionary approach. Is it true that Trotsky only raised • the question of dialectical material- ism because his opponents did?

Let Trotsky speak for himself: •. My first conversation with comrades Shachtman and Warde, in the train immediately after my arrival in Mexico in January, sity, was devoted to the neces- of persistently propagating dialectical materialism. After our American section split from the Socialist Party, I insisted most strongly on the earliest possible publication theoretical a organ, bearing again in mind the need to educate the Party, first- and foremost its new members, in the spirit of dialectical materi- alism. In the United States, I wrote at that time, where the bourgeoisie systematically: instils vulgar empiricism in the workers, more than anywhere else it necessary to speed the elevation of the movement to a proper theoretical level ... 'Let me also add that I feel somewhat abashed over the fact that it is almost necessary to justify coming out in defence of Marxism within one of the of the Fourth Inter- sections national!' (Trotsky. 'In Defence of Marxism', pp. 142-143.)

A hundred. other quotations from the same • book could be cited to show just how far away from Marxism Pierre Frank has gone. In suggesting that dialec- tical materialism is some separate 'question', which only comes up by chance in certain struggles, Frank engages in complete renunciation of Marxism. Once having thrown out dialectical materialism as the theory of knowledge of the development of consciousness, Frank must inevitably "commonsense, 'all back on the method of a series of impressions. Each stage in the history of a party is then taken only on its own particular terms and concerns 'concrete only the questions which initially provoke a dis- cussion. In this way the unity of theory and practice, continuously ne- gating and enriching each other is thrown away. Dialectical materialism is chal- lenged by all these revisionist forces, because it is precisely dialectical materialism which differentiates parties of the Bol- shevik type from all bourgeois and reformist parties. A clear far-sighted, completely thought out world outlook 'In order not to give way under the pressure of bourgeois public opinion and police repression, the proletarian revolutionist, a leader all the more, requires a clear, far-sighted, completely thought- out, world outlook. Only upon the basis of a unified Marxist conception is it possible to cor- "concrete" rectly approach questions.' ('In Defence of Marxism, p.144.) When Pierre Frank describes the SLL's concentration on dia- lectical materialism as. 'a bizarre idiosyncrasy' on the part of its national comrade secretary, Healy, and characterizes the re- as 'ridiculous, sult Frank repeating virtually word-for-word the behaviour of the Burnham- Shachtman opposition in 1939, who went into fits of laughter at the mention of dialectics.

What is at stake is not simply formal education in philosophical texts, but the whole method of building revolutionary parties and developing revolutionary per- spectives the struggle power. Dialectical materialism is philosophy, not an abstract separate from the sciences which deal with nature and society, but is the theory of knowledge based on the development of these sciences. Without a continuous struggle for dialectical material- ism, revolutionaries cannot under- stand the relation between their own activity and consciousness, on the one hand, and the objec- changing tively class relations of which they are part. The rejection of dialectical materialism, as surely in the case of Pierre Frank as of Burnham and Shachtman, is the surest sign of having abandoned this revolu- tionary practice in favour of poli- tical representation of the petty bourgeoisie, a class whose very position in society inclines it to consider its consciousness to be independent of and higher than the objective necessity of social development. Finally, let us see how the crude empiricism which Pabloism substitutes for dialectics works.

Workero Pr Far left: Lenin. Left: Trotaky; both In revolutionary theory there can be no Castro; attacked Trotskyism. Above: A for Marxist analysis. -- out today. Look at Frank's own version of the possible sources of the split in the International Committee (as we have seen, he dismisses without even considera- tion the possibility that a differ- ence over dialectical materialism could produce a split!). We have underlined certain expressions to emphasize the type of argument Frank uses: • a certain rigidity on Healy's part and Lambert's un- bridled opportunism appear to clash. It would not be surpris if the source of this clash lies in the international situation in the two organizations and in the relation of forces • between them. 'At one time Healy carried more weight than Lambert in the "International Committee". Now it seems to be the other way around. Also, Healy's organiza- tion may be losing some of its steam. In that case, his rigidity could be explained as a means halting of this development. Lambert's document alludes to this fact . ... In the history of the Marxist movement, surely no one has ever ventured into the explana- tion of political differences on a flimsier basis than this!

Lenin, for example, insisted in World War I that, in understand- ing the split in Social Democracy it was necessary to explain the class, economic roots (in im- perialism) of the tendencies in Social Democracy, to trace the history of the differences, so as to produce a systematic analysis of the relation betwen revision- ism, reformism, social patriotism and the struggle for a new Inter- national. unday Aprl 1, 1972 PAGE & y; both Inalsted on the principle without an be no revolutionary movement. Top: Above: Mandel; substituted Impressions Trotsky similarly always probed to the class • roots of tendency differences and traced out their origins. Without this dialectical method there is no Marxist approach to the question.

But Frank deliberately very simply compiles a list of im- pressions from the surface, to- gether with his own hopes: the SLL 'may be losing steam,' 'it seems to be the other way around, 'it would not be sur- prising! Then what 'seems to be becomes 'a fact"l As we saw in the first part of this article, Frank is equally cavalier in his attitude to the history of his own movement.

Even to open up the question of the real history of the issues on which "re-united' the Pabloites in 1963 would blow them wide apart and would show that the struggle conducted by the Inter- national Committee at that time for dialectical materialism, against pragmatism and empiricism, was the only basis for a truly prole- tarian orientation. It is precisely because the petty-bourgeois infection of the movement, via Pabloite revision- ism, was so virulent, that all the basic questions of the Marxist method were raised. What Frank may not recog- nize today is that the more he dabbles in the differences in the International Committee, the he will expose his own more role. This is because the develop- ment of the working class now demands from the revolutionary vanguard a struggle to deepen and develop dialectical material- ism as the method of the prole- tarian revolution.

In preparation for the Fourth national Committee of the Fo Central Committee of the Sc are publishing the four main d national Committee coverin French Organisation Commu Declaration of the Central Com- mittee of the International Com- Organization (For the munist Reconstruction of the Fourth International) Reply to a Splitting Act: For the Defence of the Inter- national Committee! For the Reconstruction of the Fourth International! the daily Workers Press, paper of the Socialist Labour League in the November S issue, and the 'Bulletin' weekly organ of the Workers League of the USA, dated November 8, published a document entitled 'Declaration of the International Committee of the Fourth International' (Major- ity). This document was adopted on October 24 at the end of a meet- ing attended by, according to the signers, representatives of the following organizations: Socialist Labour League (Great Britain). The Workers League (USA), League for a Workers Vanguard (Ireland),_ International Workers Leaque (Greece), and a German 'Sozialistiche Arbeiter Tour by elements Bund' formec ex- pelled from the German Trotsky- ist organization, IAK, for refusing to obey in action the discipline of the organization.' The title of this document is in itself a flagrant political. false- hood. There cannot any 'majority' of the International Committee any more than there can be a 'minority' since there was no meeting of the Inter- national Committee. meeting factional .. of The October 24 was held in fact with- informing the OCh Hun. the out Revolutionary League of Socialists •(LSRH), the garian Revolutionary Workers Party of Bolivia (POR), and the Workers Marxist League (LOM) of Mexico.

The document which came out of this meeting was not sent to the sections of the International Committee before being made public. The purpose of this document is to break up the framework of the International Committee, to break up the discussion and not to provide the basis for a serious discussion. Therefore, as such, it is not so much a question of an answer, but a clarification: this is purpose of the present declaration. All the same this document represents by itself an element of the very discussion that it wants to prevent: this discussion will be carried out and the Central Com- mittee of the OCI will publish next a text which will answer the basic questions posed by the present stage of the fight for the reconstruction of the Fourth International. 1,1872 Fourth Congress of the Inter- the Fourth International, the the Socialist Labour League main documents of the Inter- covering the split with the Communiste Internationaliste.

Who wants to break up the International Committee? The first chapter of the text adopted on October 24 is called 'A New Period for the Trotskyist Movement. flamboyant headline. for A such a pitiful attempt to break up the International Committee founded in 1953 to defend Trot- the programme of the skyism, Fourth International against the liquidationists. The whole argument of this chapter is dictated by the follow- ing conclusion: 'There is the International Committee of the Fourth Inter- resting on the found- national ations laid down by Trotsky in 1938, the first four Congresses of the Third International and all the work of the IC since 1953, particularly the decisions of the 1966 conference. And there is the bogus "IC for the reconstruction of the Fourth International", • re- presented by the OCI and the Hungarian section, who want to regroup with centrists against the split, Fourth International. This and not the Bolivian revolution and the Bolivian POR is the basic issue.' To believe the authors of this document, the OCI and the LSRH have thus created the split by publicly attacking the SLL and the Workers League in company with Lora (whose organization is supposedly not affiliated with the IC) and in holding a meeting comrade Stephane where Just abusively designated himself the title of Secretary of the IC, etc., all in able to avoid discussing the 'fundamental questions'. What terrible crimes! Suppose for a minute that the the formal used excuses signers of the October 24 Declar- ation are well founded: OCl and the LSRH committed a splitting act in relation to the IC.

What then was the duty of the other especially of the sections and most important among them, the SLL? To propose a plenary meet- ing of the IC as soon as possible, to place those who threatened the the IC before their unity of responsibilities, to force them to make a retraction or else make a clear break. The way to pro- ceed was certainly not to hold a secret meeting with four sections of the International Committee and then to try and make it appear that the others had taken the initiative to split. But it only seems to be illog- ical. The strange method used by leadership of the SLL who the initiated the October 24 meeting can be explained by the inaneness of the excuses and by a panicky 'fundamental flight from dis- cussion'. Let us re-establish the facts, the best way to give politics its proper rights. For more than two years-and especially since the pre-conference of the july 1970 of the inter- Committeethe leader- national ship of the SLL has been multi- plying its efforts to prevent any discussion on the 'fúndamental question', that is, on the con- crete content of the present stage of the struggle for the re- construction the Fourth International. In September 1969, the OCI submitted a political text, 'For the Reconstruction of the 4th International' for discussion. In July 1970 a pre-conference of the IC sections and groups associated with it was held, a step towards an international conference re- grouping organizations, groups and militants who base them- selves on the Transitional Pro- gramme. The OCI text was the only document submitted to the discussion. The SLL delegation began by affirming that the heart the problem was •Marxist philosophy'. Then they declared that the OCI text was correct in its overall line, but needed some amendments. Then they declared that the text was unacceptable.

Finally, they asked, due to 'lack tak pre a stand on a text im heir meant possession for nine months) that the vote be put off until the second session of the pre-con- ference. They proposed that this session take place in October.

The OCI delegation, fighting to Preserve and strengthen the international Committee, accepted this report, taking into political difficulties account the of the sections. But-by a com- mon proposal of the OCI and the SLL-a statement was voted on which provided a framework to continue the discussion and which characterized the OCI text as a basis for discussion in line. with the principles of the Fourth International. Since July 1970, the leadership of the SLL has refused to call the second session of the pre-con- ference. Instead it appealed leading the centre liquidators of the Fourth Inter- national, to the 'Unified Secre- tariat' of Mandel and company to propose a common conference in terms not only opposed to the * decisions of the pre-conference but contrary to the meaning of the whole battle of the Inter- national Committee, proof of which is the article of its general secretary Gerry Healy in the September 8 issue of the Workers Press. At that point a clear and rapid reply by the OCI Central Com- mittee retarded the development of this dangerous tendency. But that it was able to reveal itself to this extent shows the serious- ness of the oscillations of the SLL leadership which has led the SLL today, with the document of October 24, to become the vehicle of conceptions close to those of the Pabloites to the point where the Pabloites run out to distri- bute it as widely as possible.

this episode, Since

SLL

the leadership intensified its obstruc- tionist attitude, only to come out of it in order to launch a deliber- against the unity ate offensive of the International Committee, with a disloyal and slanderous attack against the POR of Bolivia: Tim Wolforth's article in the August 30 issue of the 'Bulletin', reprinted by the Workers Press September 8, and in the October 24 document 'Our Statement on Bolivia'. The OCI replied publicly to this public offensive, explaining its estimation of the revolution- ary struggle in Bolivia (delaration of the Central Committee of the

OCI

September 17) without mentioning the SLL or the Workers League. Comrade Lora Then, after wrote to the sections of the IC to ask that the IC hold a meet- ing as soon as possible to discuss a report prepared by the leader- ship of POR; the Lambert com- rades (OCI), Nagy (LSRH), and Lora (POR), signed a public which said: declaration 'What is more natural than for all the difficult problems of the whole international class struggle to be reflected and concentrated within it? What is more natural world than for the gigantic struggle to be expressed in the crisis of all the organizations of the working class? Today, the leadership of cer- tain organizations of the Inter- like national Committee, the Socialist Labour League and the Workers League, lacking clarity strategy of con- precisely on the quering power and on the recon- struction of the Fourth Inter- have given in national, to enormous pressures by attacking the POR. The three delegati elieve CuSSIon ast ween well within sections, but used by the Workers must be they, without reports comrade national blenary sasses sit to take a posit of the Bolivian tasks Fourth International.' problems answer to the propos ward, no attempt a factional meeting. l four sections of abusively baptized. fact, in addition do not see h That we ity could be created n vithout a meeting, w slance the SLL built this 'M As weil "of the te activity Fourth Internati the the did become members of ti was unanimity on this rman LAK, a sympathizer c a member thus compo Line

OCI

sections. (Great Britain),

POR

Communist Marxist workers (Mexico) League (USA).? There section, because the participated into Terence the eve of the conditionse me study split and Slaughter's decided issues are clear: an orzanizatio rourin split 1951-1952, the IC in 1970 joined against Pabloism in E capercur joined after a me which Comrade attended. Moreo officially announced (No. 547 March denied by 110L The wrote paper, Workers Press during the Banzer's troops that: the Bolivian section ( national Committee. unconcervabie PUk is a member or 1 joneer menDer analysis ot its pollci discussed. In procedures allen to. Thus, the efforts of create, by adding an fictitious majority i not change the of the IC among the o four oniv mnenber August 1971: Bolivia, mite. Right: students the sections method Workers League and ist be condemned, condemn Committee upport the demand that the Inter- meet in a position

POR

and on reconstucand split held and 'IC Majority addition to the fact not see sow a mao created within the IC eeting, we must bring which Maiority. known, the reconstruct International led groups or new ity on this question hus, for example, the national Committee is present eight

SLL

ur rance tin), LSRJ (Hungary), Revolutionary Ceylon), for Workers land), and Workers Greek which the 1966 Con- two groups 1967 d'etat coup not allowed motives this each allalysis Therefore, laughter's e PoOR ond Trotskyise the Lilt the

POK

in 1970 on the basis fight and its loism in Bolivia itself. Lora pis was d. Moreover "La Verite' anybody of the stalu IC was not challenged

SLL

who :45 dail its ers Press, August 28, death leader trugg azallol section of the Inter- It would be think that the IC wher ember of the are felled that it when its policies musi case these are to efforts of the SLL to adding and rejecting majority in the IC do facts: There are Oran alons long the organizations ust 1971: workers fight which signed the October 24 text.

Moreover, and on the question of 'reconstruction of the Fourth International' since the October 24 document alludes to the decisions of the 1966 Conference, let us remember that the funda- mental texts of that conference (general resolution manifesto and resolution on tasks) were essenti- ally elaborated by the OCI and that they politically legitimize the use of the word 'reconstruction'.

resolution The tasks on (adopted unanimously) is more.

over entitled "Resolution on the Reconstruction of the Fourth International' and states among other things that: The international conference declares that the Trotskyist move- in the struggle for ment, the reconstruction of the Fourth International, build the must leadership of the centralized world party of socialist revolution in a fight organically linked to the fight in each country for the construction of revolutionary parties leading the revolutionary struggles of the masses. The con- struction of these parties and of the International must be con- ducted the basis of the on experience and the pursuit of an incessant battle against revision- ism. "The IC is composed of repre- sentatives of sections designated by it. At the present stage, the decision of the IC can only be taken by unanimous vote. At this stage, the IC is not pro- claiming centralized itselt the leadership of the Fourth Inter- national which must still be constructed' Finally, concerning the Secre- let us simply tary of the IC, recall that in light of the diffi- culties the SLL faced in assum- ing responsibility for this post, it was agreed to institute a co- secretariat composed of Com- rades Slaughter and Just.

We have insisted at length on aspects which may sec- seem ondary and judicial in order to give a clear place to the political aspect and to show that the formal excuses have nothing to do with reality, but are only traps aimed at covering up an organ- izational break without political debate. thing is of essential The course this "fundamental discus- sion' that is spoken of and which naturally includes the experience of revolutionary struggle of the Bolivian and the proletariat policies of the POR for they are at the heart of the debate: the meaning of the 'imminent revo- lution' the question the struggle for power and the way in which the working class can approach this problem (the workers' and United Front, a peasants' government, the institu- tions of dual power and the dic- tatorship of the proletariat).

This discussion only has mean- ing for Trotskyists in light of the problems of the reconstruction of the Fourth International which the leadership of the SLL seeks to avoid by wanting to break the frame-work of the IC. We seek out this discussion, must beyond the the manoeuvres, falsehoods and the amalgamisms a criticism of the October 24 document. 1. It must be noted that this German group is only men- tioned as a singer in the 'Bul- letin' of the Workers' League.

It is omitted in the Workers Press. Organization in political soli- darity with the IC, the Work- ers' League politically has the status of a section, although as an organization it is not affiliated to the IC because of reactionary • laws in the

USA.

CONTINUED MONDAY

• fight (above) armed only with ayne cers gather round a dying comrade.

PAGE & Workora Presi saturday April i Part 4 of a series by Jack Gale On December 21, 1918, the Ebert government-at the behest of the generals dissolved the first national congress of the German workers' and soldiers' councils. Eight days later—on December 29—a national congress of the Spartacus League met in Berlin discuss breaking from the to Independent Social Democrats and forming a new party. The Spartacists had hitherto belonged to the Independent Party, though with their own central committee and their own paper-'Die Rote Fahne'. The conference decided-with only three votes against-to form the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Next day, they were joined by another revolutionary group, the Bremen Left, which had maintained contacts with the Russian Bolsheviks. The Bolshe- viks sent Karl Radek to represent them at the Conference. After the break with the Independents the first strategic facing the question party new was whether to participate in the elections National to Assembly due to be held in January. There was in the party vociferous semi-syndicalist, a semi-anarchist element of the type that emerged everywhere in the years after World War I.

The Communist International expended a great deal of patient effort trying to convince these elements-usually very courage- ous, militant, young workers-of the need to turn to the masses, but met with little success. And at the December conference in Germany it was decided by large majority-against the advice of Luxemburg and Liebknecht- not to participate in the elections, but to break up the National Assembly by force. Karl Radek. The Bolshovik representative.

day Aorll 1, 1972 Indeed, it was only with great difficulty that the leadership prevented the conference from deciding that Party membership was incompatible with member- ship of the trade unions and instructing all members to resign from the unions im- mediately! The Party also failed to reach agreement with a delegation an the Revolutionary representing Shop Stewards (see previous action, articles) on joint which have meant the would Revolu- tionary Shop Stewards leaving the Independents and joining the Communist Party. Although some of the leaders of the Stewards Shop were revolutionary in name only, their organization dominated the large engineering factories in Berlin and also held a powerful position on the Executive Committee of the workers and soldiers' councils.

It was strong, also, in the areas industry, of heavy particularly the Ruhr and central Germany.

The conference ended on January 1, 1919, and on January 4 the Prussian government dis- missed the Berlin chief of police Emil Eichhorn, an Indepéndent Party member. This.. was an attempt by the Social Demo.

crats to wrest back some of the state offices which the bourgeoisie had been forced to concede by the revolution. Next day, mass demonstrations of workers marched through Berlin and the offices of all the leading newspaper - including 'Vorwarts, the Social Democratic paper- were occupied. A Revolutionary Committee was created with three chair- men-Liebknecht of the Com- munist Party, Ledebour of the Independent Party, and Scholze Revolutionary Shop Stewards. This Committee declared the Ebert government deposed. asentative. Meeting of Berlin workers, called by the But the masses, despite the big demonstration, been not for revolution. (There prepared is, in fact, some evidence that the the occupation newspapers was the work of agents provo- cateurs.) Above all, none of the army units stationed in • Berlin the Revolutionary supported Committee. The Social Democratic leaders had, since Christmas, been pres- ahead their collaboration with the generals, particularly over the formation of the right wing Free Corps. Now they con- spired to behead the new Com- munist Party. Army units in Berlin which were loyal to the government (in fact, had leading Social Democrats at their head) were mobilized to recapture the newspaper offices. Arrangements were made for cavalry divisions commanded by the old officers to march into Berlin. The Central Council of workers' and soldiers' councils, dominated by right- now wing Social Democrats, declared the uprising a 'criminal activity' and granted the government 'extraordinary powers to restore law and order'. Under these powers, Gustav Noske-the former head of the Kiel sailors' council, now government minister for military affairs and an open collaborator with the generals- was appointed commander-in-chief of Berlin. Noske declared grandiloquently: 'A worker now stands at the head of the power of the social- Ist republic' This 'worker' then proceeded to use the military force of the old imperial regime to crush the Berlin rising. On January 15, 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were arrested.

Instead of being taken to prison, however, they were taken to the Eden Hotel, the head- quarters of the infamous Garde- Kavallerie - Schutzen - Division.

This was one of the very few regiments still totally sympathetic to the old Imperial regime and commanded by some of the most right wing of all the old guard officers. Luxemburg and Liebknecht had their skulls smashed in by rifle butts—'while trying to escape' The Division declared then through its officers. that it would not leave Berlin 'until order has finally been restored'. But government forces every- where seized the opportunity to arrest leading communists-more than a few of whom suffered the same fate Luxemburg and as Liebknecht. Tronically. both Luxemburg and the Bolsheviks' representative. Radek, had op- nosed the so-called Spartacist Unrising as premature. Radek called it a 'hopeless undertaking' which would enable the government to deal a blow to the Berlin movement which mav weaken the whole move.

ment'. Defeat for the working class.

of course, strengthened the Social Democrats who. since the Inde- nendents had left the government (see nrevious article). were build- ine bridges to the right.

Following the election to the National Assembly on January ed by the Spartacists in December 1818. 19, 1919, a coalition government was formed of Social Democrats, Democrats, and the Catholic Centre. The generals and the Free Corps maintained 'order' in Berlin. A decisive shift had occurred since Christmas 1918- in a of three-and-a-half matter weeks-since the government had been at the mercy of the wor- kers' and soldiers' councils and had seriously considered leaving Berlin. The German right had, in fact, the revolu- been stunned by of. November tionary events unable to had been 1918 muster any forces in support of the monarchy it so dearly loved.

At the January 19 elections Assembly, how- to the National German right-wing the ever, Nationalist People's Party ob- tained 10 per cent of the votes and 44 seats out of 42l. This party consisted of right-wing con- servatives, monarchists, anti- authori- democrats and assorted tarians. It was also anti-Semitic.

Indeed, anti-Semitism began to grow rapidly after the defeat of the Spartacists, as the middle and lower-middle class became convinced that all their misfor- tunes were the result of a Jewish anti-German plot, led by Bol- sheviks. During the January election campaign, for instance, a famous poster appeared which read: "The fatherland stands close to the abyss. Save it! It is not threatened from without, but from within: by the Spartacus group. Kill its leaders! Kill Liebknecht! Then you will get work peace, and bread! The front-line soldiers.' In mid-February, 1919, the old anti-Semitic Pan-German League launched a comprehensive asso- ciation • bind all anti-Semites to together in one organization which, by August 1920, had 95,000 members. Anti-Semitism, needless to say, was rife in the Free Corps and the Reichswehr whose loyalties lay with the old imperial regime.

In_ July 1919, the Ehrhardt Bri- gade, which had just returned putting from down workers' a rising in Munich, hoisted the old imperial war colours on palace of Berlin which,

SIX

months previously, had been de- fended by the red sailors.

And in November-the first anniversary of the revolution— wreaths tied with black, red and white colours were placed by the Free Corps round the Bismarck statue in front of the Reichstag.

At the end of April, 1919, when government troops occu- pied the Ruhr district, the Free Corps arrested all the members the local workers' councils of who belonged to the Independ- ents or organizations further to the left. That same month the Council's Republic proclaimed in Munich was overthrown by government troops and there was a further swing to the right and to anti- Semitism. Bavarian officers who took part in the Munich action became heroes of the middle class, particularly of the students.

Anton Drexler's extreme right Workers' Party wing German was formed in Munich on Janu- i Were. + G. Marcafeld' ary 5, 1919. By the autumn a new orator was addressing this party's meetings in Munich. His name was Adolf Hitler. Thus, throughout 1919after Spartacist the defeat of the rising—all the reactionary forces which had briefly vanished from the scene (or gone underground) in November 1918, were regain- ing their strength. These forces-the bureaucracy the old regime, the officer of the conservatives and corps, nationalists-backed up by the Free Corps and the Reichswehr units, showed in the Kapp Putsch of March 1920 how far they were prepared to go to overthrow the republican government. The Kapp Putsch was attempt, under the leadership of the Army Commander in N Ger- many, General von Luttwitz, to overthrow the Berlin govern- ment. Although the Putsch was un- successful, it expressed the grow- ing confidence of the right. In the ensuing elections of June right 1920, the wing parties gained an absolute majority with 85 out of 158 seats. The Social Democrats lost 60 per cent of their votes and gained only 26 seats. It was in this poli- tical climate that the German Workers' Party became a mass party. The Social Democrats, having served the bourgeoiseie slavishly, were contemptuously spurned by the very reactionaries whose boots they had servilely licked.

The lessons of 1918-1919 in Germany are clear. The workers and soldiers-were ready to take power, indeed had it in their hands. But, because they were unable to break spontaneously trom their traditional leaders, the Social Democrats, they handed power to their masters, the bourgeoisie, who used it to smash the working class before spurning the Social Democracy.

'lefts' The , the Independent Social Democrats, clung as long as possible to the right wing within the labour movement. When they were finally forced out, they could build no alterna- tive. November 1918 in Germany was in many respects a parallel to the February 1917 revolution in Russia. It was only the in- sistence of Lenin, his determined fight within the Bolshevik Party (supported, after his return from America, by Trotsky) that forced the majority of the old Bolshevik leaders to tread the path of revolutionary overthrow of the Provisional government and the establishment of Soviet power.

In Germany, the • lack of Party which had trained a cadre in long struggles for theoretical principles and which could, at the decisive moment, win the confidence of broad layers of the working class, led to the defeat of 1919. No amount of heroism or revolutionary fervour could be a substitute for such a Party.

A further article in this series, dealing with the revolutionary movement in Austria, will appear in Friday's Workers Press.

BY GUEST REVIEWER

TIM HORROCKS

"The Cowboys' is part of the modern trend—it is not so as an anti- much a western western. And this is no accident. Capitalism in crisis has created conditions in which artists no longer find it comfortable to dramatize the expansionist aggres- sion of the American bourgeoisie (with its attendant genocide), the spread of bourgeois civilization values and its technology, and the small-time transformation farmers into wage-slave cowboys.

I have been careful not to use the word 'glorifying', , despite the fact that, whatever mindless brutality may have been involved, the opening up of the American West for capitalist exploitation progressive act of the was bourgeoisie. Originally the western had nothing i nostalgic particularly about it. William S. Hart, the first western hero, concentrated in his movies on the spread of bourgeois civilization on the one hand, and the value of individual enterprise on the other. He saw these as essential to the Ameri- can West. If westerns have become more 'convinced', it is nostalgic, less because capitalism is exacting its price from the middle classes and working classes, and because the validity of its expansion is seen as a thing of the past.

While the Hollywood artist's attitude to the bourgeois revolu- turning a little sour, tion is individualism is still very much part of the western. Now that the historical value of the vio- lence in the western is no longer seen clearly, mindless brutality- which are usually in westerns 'anti-violence' — has become commonplace. Wild Bunch' Thus "The 'Soldier Blue', 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and , Little Big Man' varia- whatever the tions in their quality as indivi- dual films, are all anti-westerns.

problem They reduce the violence to a liberal abstraction instead of seeing it, as directors and Howard Hawkes John Ford did, as part of a historical pro- and inseparable from the cess spread of bourgeois civilization.

It would be wrong however to pin down the western entirely to historical definition. Once established as a the genre, provide a frame- western could work for all kinds of expressions of ideas, through the power and lasting validity of its features- man and horse, man and land- scape, town and desert, interior and exterior and so on. Anthony Mann rarely based his films on history. They were, on the whole, highly psychological confrontations between men and their past, or the civilized man without, versus the savage within, and so on. Mann used the images of the western genre to give material form to his psychological expres- sions. Examples? 'Man of the West' 'Man Laramie', from 'Winchester 73'" and "The Far Country. The point I am trying to make about the modern western (post- 1964 or so) is that, while return- ing to history for material for stories, the stories treats idealistically, abstracting violence and greed and so on. It returns to history, yet at the same time from Hence the retreats it. Greenwich-village witticisms of 'Butch Cassidy', and the super- ficial liberal waffling of 'Little Big Man' Iohn Wayne is a western star in many respects directly in the tradition of William S. Hart. He has the advantage of the sound cinema, in, which to put this over.

What they share is a common belief in the glorification of individual enterprise. They differ in that Wayne could not care less about history, applying the right-wing intran- extreme sigence, pride and slimly moti- vated of his moralizing side nature to cavalry soldiers, cow- boys, Red Indians and the coming Presidential elections alike.

His political image is that of the good American - proud, highly moral, immov- patriotic, able, but with a heart of gold.

How has this character been used in the cinema? Not as sym- pathetically as some writers would seem to suggest. Starting with The Searchers' however, the Wayne individual- ism and immovability begins to be seen almost as psychotic. Director Ford's own attitude to the West turns sour, and more and more he isolates the Wayne character, making him unreason- able and harsh, and, ultimately condemning him to a lone exist- which outside the society ence has grown during the film.

Wayne is seen no longer as the spearhead of bourgeois values, but as a throwback to the more individualism cruel, anarchistic of an earlier period. So, in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', ', the old and the new are played off against each other by Wayne and ames Stewart—Wayne is a gunslinger, Stewart a prospective Senator. Wayne is the 'noble' avenger, Stewart the hypocrite who will take society forward. Wayne is irrelevant, Stewart is the man of his times. Even in these later films it can be readily seen that whatever values Wayne proposes in a Ford film are seen historic- ally, and not simply from a per- sonal, laudatory point of view.

Leaving aside the question of the admittedly more complex use of Wayne's ideology in the work of Hawks, let us go on to "The Cowboys'. The Wayne character is seen as stereotyped as it has ever been. He has to get his cattle to market. His workers walk out on him to seek gold. He tells them not to come back. He won't em- ploy because ex-convicts, not they are ex-convicts, but because they lied to prevent him dis- covering their past. use children He decides to from the local school. He trains them (though early on is forced to acknowledge their horsemen- ship, etc.) and takes them on the drive. Wayne is seen to tolerate Jews, Spaniards and Negroes (provided they do their job and don't cause trouble). Thus, with the larger national minorities in the States taken care of and under the fatherly wing, the drive is able to begin. The whom Wayne ex-cons wouldn't employ attack even- tually, with a view to rustling, and kill Wayne. The kids, under the leadership of the Negro cook Nightlinger, get the cattle back, killing all the rustlers, and take the beaf into town. They return Wllilam S. Hart to the spot where W: plant tombstone find the Call L kids into story suggests to of character which is basically fath morally when attacked It is who will campaigner year's elections History Everything is fantast are cast nOT married. Negro cook and olde poetic, outside the pale The moments. good watch Mark Rydell, the dire it by shooting mines for effect Sectace For instance, there Kles good Rydell shots kids seized upon the nice sac niced clumsy effect the conveying fact This is typical. threat seen nose rustlers is (historically objectively), nasty adult versus he Equally point- to the of violen Thev will necome selves (the worst rubbish) scenes where me rustlers with characterization the film's structure w its final bout of nosta dead Wayne. This implicates course. theme of anti-violen falls straight and leaves the is a pinsicky piece of liberal moral The two only mee film, on commercial expedienc Wayne betrays past in the western. there, but 1 neis Oo f leadership Wayne's and detail than in€ pro- stereo- major Nixon in out it. The kids apprentice cow- as tor instant largest audience, the waxing workers anyuning happening, and cutan. the

TOTI

reality to ride order to save intercutting fallin off the he has stroke idea for •On a instead posed the any real otherwise or tenons big moral violent them- kind of liberal LI - kids kill the respect for inner logic, 11 (ac Wayne in its thus level westemn wild traditional In short, Workers Press, Saturday April 1, 1972 PAQE 9 A study prepared for the If male chauvinism isn't reel- United States Congress reports ing after that assault, i it that the income gap between certainly ought to be after the America's poorest and richest two-day conference of Stalinist has nearly doubled in the last women last weekend. The 'Morning Star' reported 20 years. And it concludes that the that by overwhelming an 'are majority the conference voted poor asked to pay the price necessary to stop inflation to send a message direct to the for the rest of society'.

Party's executive urging Released Joint the Party to take up the task Economic Committee of Con- of fighting sexism (male pre- gress, the study says there has and judice) calling for a conference on the family'.

been substantial growth in real income in the last two decades.

Throughout the conference But the spread between the the chair occupied by was well-known liberationist John poorest and richest categories has widened, it finds. Gollan, the Party's general "The gap between the poorest secretary. for Gollan, this must one-fifth and the richest Even one- fifth was $10,565 in 1949, the have taken some stamina, to judge from the report of the said. 'In 1969 it was study discussion given in the 'Star'.

$19.071.' Last May, a Census Bureau The 'Star' described the conference as 'a women's con- study of median incomes-the ference of a new kind, chal- mid-point on the range of lenging and self-critical, incomes earned-indicated with an apparent loss from 1969 I to 1970 in median income in con- stant dollars (adjusted to account for inflation). The $9,990 in median income was 1969 and $9,867 in 1970. New conquests for women's lib. The US navy is shortly to gain its first woman admiral, according to Defence Secretary Melvin Laird. He gave out the glad tidings Chicago club after five in a members of women's lib had invaded the plat- astringent allusions to group many form before he spoke and they of women's lives the realities hear him disclose stayed to under capitalism as opposed to that another sexist bastion in the cosy dreams presented in forces the armed was about the women's and magazines fall. television advertisements'.

to He told the Chicago Execu- Among the gems from the I end. the tives Club: 'Before debate: job of Secretary of Defence, • "We are all 'kept' women," " we will have our first woman Annette Wilton of Leeds, told admiral.' He did not name the a startled conference pointing out that most women could woman. The members of the National not live on their miserable pay Organization of Women took and are 'kept' by parents and over the platform amid hoots husbands the all-male Judith Hunt of Manchester and boos from audience before Laird arrived, pointed out that while women and tried to read out a state- one-third form of the mem- ment accusing the club of be- bers of the Communist Party, ing a sexist organization.

they do not have this propor- leader of Mary Ann Lupa, tion branch places on the accused Secretary group, committees, district committees Laird of being 'guilty of and other leading organizations.

sex discrimination' in his depart- 'Brenda Jacques of Bristol ment. told the conference: "I joined the Communist Party The declined women because an I found the world intolerable".

invitation by club officials to hear doubt Gollan stay, and Laird speak. felt the They relinquished the speakers' same way after sitting through table and left. the weekend.

LEON TROTSKY :

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25- -cloth £1.871 Where Is Britain Going? Paperback 37}p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 623p- -cloth £1.50 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.12 cloth £1.87} Permanent Revolution: Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

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PAGE 10 Saturday April 1, 1972

BBC 1

11.55 Weather. 12.00 Double deckers.

12.25 Pink Panther. 12.45 Grandstand. 12.55 Football preview. 1.20, 1.50, 2.20 Racing from Kempton. 1.35 Fight of the week. Joe Bugner V John Conteh. 2.05, 2.35 Show jumping. 2.50 University boat race.

Oxford v Cambridge. 3.50 Rugby league. 4.40 Final score. 5.05 We want to sing. 5.35 News, sport. 5.50 Dr Who. 6.15 Famar, Gorge Sanders, Angela Labury. Matical see TARBUCK'S LUCK. Jimmy Tarbuck with guests Cilla Black, 8.20 Joan Sims. 9.05 THE BEFRIENDERS. 'Lots of Friends in the Big City'.

9.55 NEWS and weather. OF THE DAY SPECIAL. Football and boxing.

10.05 MATCH

11.35 LAW UNTO ITSELF.

12.05 Weather.

BBC 2

3.00 Film: 'Carousel'. Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones. Musical. 5.05 5.30 Television doctor. 5.45 Up country special.

Private lives. THE RESTLESS EARTH. A new account of the planet we 6.05 inhabit. 8.20 NEWS, SPORT and weather.

RUGBY SPECIAL.

Cardiff v Barbarians. 8.30

SOUNDS FOR SATURDAY.

The Faces. 9.05 THE CRAFTSMEN. Dan Arbeid—potter.

9.50

CHAUDHURI.

'Adventures of a Brown Man'.

10.05

NIRAD

SUNSET SONG.

10.55 'Ploughing'. NEWS ON 2 and weather. 11.40 FILM: 'INFERNO'. Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, William 11.45 Lundigan.

ITV

10.55 Road Report. 11.00 Sesame Street. 12.00 Grasshopper Is- land. 12.15 Joe 90. 12.45 News.

12.50 World of Sport: 1.30, 2.00, 2.30, 3.00 Racing from Towcester; 1.45, 2.15, 2.45, Racing from Doncaster; 3.10 International Sports Special; 3.50 Results, Scores, News; 3.54 Wrestling from Halifax; 4.45 Results Service. 5.05 News.

5.10 Both Ends Meet. 5.40 Sale of the Century.

6.05 THE COMEDIANS.

'THE PRICE OF FEAR'. Merle Oberon, Lex Barker,

6.35 FILM:

Charles Drake. Man on run from racketeers framed on murder charge. HAWAII FIVE-O. Didn't We Meet At a Murder?

8.00 9.00 SATURDAY VARIETY. The Val Doonican Show.

10.00 NEWS.

AQUARIUS. The Best Television in the World?

10.10

11.10 THE ODD COUPLE.

11.40 ALL OUR YESTERDAYS.

12.05 IT MATTERS TO ME.

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SATURDAY

CHANNEL: 12.45 London. 5.10 6.05 Randall 6.35 Film: 'Circle of Danger'. 7.58 Weather. 8.00 Champions. 9.00 London. 10.1-0 Jason King. 11.10 UFO. 12.00 Weather.

WESTWARD: As Channel ex- cept: 12.05 Gus Honeybun.

12.05 Weather. SOUTHERN: 11.15 All our 11.45 Thunder- yesterdays. birds. 12.42 Weather. 12.45 London. 5.10 Tommy Cooper.

Hopkirk. 5.40 Randall and 6.30 Comedians. 7.00 Sale of the century. 7.30 Film: 'Carry On Constable'. 9.00 London.

King. 10.10 Jason 11.05 News. 11.10 Aquarius. 12.10 Weather. Discoverers. HTV: 11.25 Leaves of Autumn.

11.50 Captain Scarlet. 12.15 Seaspray. 12.45 London. _5.10 Shari's Show. 5.40 Bugs Bunny. 6.00 Dr Simon Locke.

Meet. 7.00 6.30 Both Ends the Century. Sale of 7.30 Comedians. 8.00 Hawaii Five-O. 9.00 London. 10.10 The 11.10 Aquarius. Saint. 12.05 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: 7.00 Sion a Sian.

12.30 Enchanted

ULSTER:

12.45 London. 5.10 house. Primus. 5.40 Sportscast. 6.05 • Dick Van Dyke. 6.35 Film: 'The Guns of Fort Petticoat'.

8.00 Odd Couple. 8.30 Come- dians. 9.00 London. 11.10 Strange report. 12.05 Epi- logue.

YORKSHIRE: 11.20

Yester- days. 11.50 Vortex. 12.45 Lon- don. 5.10 Randall and Hop- kirk. 6.00 Dick Van Dyke. 6.30 Comedians. 7.00 Film: 'Four for Texas'. 9.00 London. 10.10 Mannix. 11.05 Edgar Wallace.

12.10 Canadian short stories.

12.40 Weather. GRANADA: 11.55 Hot Dog. 12.45 12.15 Secret Service. London. 5.10 Bearcats. 6.10 "The Comedians. 6.40 Film: Law v Billy the Kid'. 8.05 Hawaii Five-O. 9.00 London.

10.10 Sky's the limit. 10.45

UFO.

11.40 International detective. ANGLIA: 11.20 All our yester- days. 11.50 Cowboy in Africa.

12.45 London. 5.10 Rovers.

5.40 Flintstones. 6.05 Sale of the century. 6.35 Film: 'How to Steal a Million'. 9.00 Lon- I spy. 11.10 don. 10.10 Theatre. ATV MIDLANDS: 12.10 Horo- scope. 12.15 Captain Scarlet.

12.45 London. 5.10 It takes a thief. 6.05 Both ends meet.

6.30 Sale of the century. 7.00 Film: 'Behold A Pale Horse' 9.00 London. 10.10 Hawaii Five-O. 11.10 Dick Van Dyke. According to Mark. 11.40 TYNE TEES: 11.20 All our yes- Arthur. 12.15 terdays. 11.50 Lidsville. 12.45 London. 5.10 Bonanza. 6.00 Tommy Cooper.

6.30 Comedians. 7.00 Film: 'Four For Texas'. 9.00 Lon- don. 10.10 FBI. 11.10 Plot to murder Hitler. 12.00 Avengers.

12.55 Epilogue. SCOTTISH: 11.50 Bush Boy.

12.20 Primus. 12.45 London.

5.10 UFO

6.05 Comedians. 6.35 Film: 'Frenchie'. 8.05 Randall and Hopkirk. 9.00 London. 10.10 Sport. 10.40 Late Call. 10.45 Marcus Welby MD. GRAMPIAN: 12.15 Bugaloos.

12.45 London. 5.10 Batman.

5.40 On the buses. 6.10 Film: 'The Hard Man'. 7.35 Comedi- ans. 8.05 Hawaii five-o. 9.00 London. 10.10 Aquarius. 11.15 Jimmy Stewart. 11.45 All our yesterdays.

SUNDAY

BBC 1

9.00-9.30 Nai zindagi naya jeevan. 10.30 Easter Communion, 11.40 story of Jesus. Urbi et Orbi. One man's way of telling the 12.25 Lord Clark Children Film A Man Called Peter card Todd, Son S jumping. 5.10 British Empire.

6.05 NEWS and weather

THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT

6.15

6.35 GODSPELL.

7.25 ENGELBERT.

The Young With Generation and The Goodies. Guest Jack Jones.

8.10 Fi guerril commander falls in love atra an a porrida.

mistress. 10.10 NEWS and weather. 10.20 NIMMO IN LAS VEGAS. Derek Nimmo 11.20 IF IT MOVES IT'S RUDE! Kenneth More with recollections of the Windmill Theatr 2.10. Weathe

BBC 2

They Used To ABOUT US. 9.10 TUTANKHAMUN'S EGYPT. 'The Pharaoh'.

9.30 R. S. THOMAS. Priest and pet reads poetry and talks o his beliefs.

TOM JONES.

ITV

. 2.15 The Big Match. 3.15 Jason King. 4.15 Shirley's World. 4.45 Golden Shot. 5.35 Pretenders. 6.05 News

6.15 THE GOOD LIFE.

6.30 ADAM SMITH.

7.00 HYMN FOR TODAY.

7.25 ON THE BUSES.

7.55 FILM: 'ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. Betty Hutton, Howard Keel.

Musical.

9.50 POLICE 5.

10.00 NEWS.

TIME LOCK.

10.15

11.15 THE FROST PROGRAMME

2.05 IT MATTERS TO ME

REGIONAL TV

All regions as BBC-1 except: laur. 11.20-2.10 Godspel 2.12 Weathe Scotland,

BBC

Wales: 2.35-3.25 Spy N Ireland: 12.12 News, trap. 3.25-4.00 Rugby union.

weather. Engllsh 12.12 4.00-4.30 Canu'r bobol. regions: Weather. 6.35-7.25 Llithiau ac emy- CHANNEL: 11.00 Service. 1.58 2.00 Big match. Weather. 3.00 'Jazzboat'. Date Film: 4.35 with Danton. 4.45 London. 7.55 Film: 10.00 'The Hucksters'. Epilogue. 12.05 London. Weather. WESTWARD. As Channel ex- Farm cept: 1.30 and country Faith for life. 12.05 12.10 Weather.

SOUTHERN:

11.00 London. BBC 1. _8.10 Frank Sinatra In 12,00 12.03 Farm Weather. 'Never So Few' 12.30 Trade winds propaniti

YORKSHIRE:

Tahiti. 1.20 Bear raid war- 11.00 Com- 2.00 Soc- 12.05 Charlie Brown. den. 1.30 Stingray. munion. Film: 'So

12.30 UFO.

1.30 Farming 2.55 This Is cer. oile 4.45 Lon- Parls'. 4.35 News. look. 2.00 Soccer. 2.55 Film: 'How 'Portrait of Clare'. 4.30 Car- don. 7.55 Film: To Steal A toon. 4.45 London. 7.25 Both Million'. 10.00 Lon- Weather. 12.05 Dis- ends meet. 7.55 Film: 'The don. Yellow Rolls Royce'. 10.00 coverers. London. 12.05 Weather. HTV: 11.00 Service. 1.45 Lon- GRANADA: 11.00 Communion.

don. 3.15 Film: 'The Leather Yesterdays. Saint'. 4.45 London. 7.55 Film: 1.15 1.55 Foot- ball. 2.50 Film: "The Mating "Georgy Girl. 9.30 Mr and 12.05 Season', 4.40 London. 6.30 Mrs. 10.00 London. Hymn. 6.50 Adam Smith. 7.25 Weather. 7.55 Film: "The HTV Wales as above except: On the buses Shame' O'r That 12.05 Dan 12.40 Ship Died of Sylw. Wasg. 12.55 Utgyrn Seion. 9.30 University challenge.

HTV

Cymru/Wales as

HTV

10.00 London. Wales.

TYNE TEES: 11.00

London. London. Charlie Brown. 12.30

ANGLIA: 11.00

1.20 12.05 University 1.50

UFO.

1.30 Farming outlook. challenge. 2.00 Out of town. 2.20 Where 1.55 Farming. 2.30 Weather. 2.25 Shoot. 3.25 Film: 'Charley's Aunt. 3.55 the jobs are. 4.45 Lon- Film: 'Nine Men'. 4.45 London. 7.55 Football. 7.25 Both ends meet. Film: 'Goodbye Charlie'. 10.00 7.55 Film: 'Designing Woman' London. 10.00 London. 12.05 Epiloque.

MIDLANDS: 11.00

ATV

Lon- • 1.45 All

SCOTTISH: 11:00-12.00

Lon- don. 1.40 Horoscope. 1.25 All our yesterdays. yesterdays. 2.15 London don. our 1.55 Aquarius. 2.50 Tom Grat Hell'. 4.45 3.15 Film: High Film: 'The 3.15 London. 5.45 Forest rangers. tan's war. " Betrayed. 4.45 "The Rabbit London. 6.05 London. 7.55 Film: :10.00 7.55 Film: Beauty Jungle'. 10.00 London.

12.05 Late call. London. Service. 1.45

ULSTER: 11.00

GRAMPIAN: 11.00-12.00

Lon- 2.15 Big University challenge. 1.55 1.25 Farm progress. 3.15 Film: 'Easter don. match. 2.50 Film: 4.45 London. 6.30 Easter praise. Parade'. 'Knights of the Round Table'.

. 7.25 Hymn. 6.55 Adam Smith. 7.53 4.45 London. 5.35 Pretenders.

Results. On the buses. 6.05 London. 7.25 Both ends 7.55 Film: Long The Long, Film: 'The Pink Stewart 9.30 Jimmy meet. 7.55 Trailer'. Panther'. 10.00 London. 10.00 London: 12.05 Epilogue.

KENT TOWN DEFIES

Union chiefs back wage curb

BY PHILIP WADE

COUNCIL tenants in the small Thames estuary town of Gravesend in Kent are the first to defy Tory plans to double their rents with the so-called 'fair rents' Bill.

Well over 1,000 of them on several housing estates have refused to pay an extra 50p on the rent imposed by the Tory-controlled council before the Bill is even law. Most tenants pay two weeks in advance • on their rent. But when the rent collector called early last week to collect the new week beginning for the rent April 1 he was told 'We will pay the old rent but refuse to pay the extra 50p?

Gravesend tenants prepared for their action by first forming a detence committee. Un it sit representatives of the tenants' association, the trades council and the local Labour Party.

They then organized their own referendum among the town's 5,000 council tenants. It asked. three questions: would tenants pay increased rent as a direct result of the 'fair rents' measure? Would they allow rent assessors in their homes?

And would they fill in the means test forms? The trade unions were asked for their support. And it is said that Kent miners, many of whom stayed in Gravesend on picket duty, have pledged their assist- ance in case of any evictions fol- lowing the refusal to pay the new rent. A pledge was sought from the Labour Party that they would refuse to implement the Bill if they took control of the council after the local elections in May.

At the moment the council is composed of 12 Tory and 12 Labour councillors. But the Tories have four aldermen which give them overall control.

At first the Labour Party said they would give such an assur- ance. But now they have backtracked and say they will have to see what the situation is when and if they win the elections.

Nevertheless the tenants re- main firm. I spoke to one of their leaders, Charlie Robins, secretary of the Gravesend Tenants' Asso- formed in 1957 out of ciation, an earlier rent struggle with the council. He already pays £5 a week for his council house on the sprawling-Denton housing estate.

'It's not that I can't afford the extra to pay 50p-it's a matter of principle,' said Charlie, showing me his rent card with an entry in the debit column of 50p. I'm sure that what I've worked hard for all my life is not going to be taken away just like that.

'In my personal opinion the only way to defend ourselves now is for the trade unions to fight this Bill on a national basis.

'It you could get the unions to say they would come out on a General Strike against it we could squash the Bill. . 4 'The miners' strike - that's when I reckon we missed the We could have had the boat. Tories out if everyone had come out in sympathy on things like the Common Market and rents.

'But if this Bill goes through we might as well go back to the 1930s: 'As far as I'm concerned I won't go through with the means • test. My form went straight in the dustbin. 'Our association is pledged to go round to any tenant when the rent scrutineer comes and tell him he's not coming in. 'These men know what a house is worth-the bricks and mortar it's made of. What they want.to come in for is to see what we've got to sell, said Charlie, who had lived in the house for 21 years. When he first moved in the rent was about fl a week.

'The Tories round here say to us what about your cars and things like that. But aren't you entitled to what you've worked for all your life? Charlie Robins, secretary of the Gravese tenants' leader • Last year Gravesend council ended up with a huge surplus on their housing account. ... 'The tenants' association went along to the town hall and sug- gested there was enough money to give everyone a rent-free two weeks.

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPO

A POWERFUL axis of trade union leaders is building up the bankrupt, around re- formist and widely-suspected idea of 'threshold' pay agree- ments. Carried away by their own fantastic illusions of economic expansion following the Budget, union chiefs are desperate to talk turkey with the Tories on wages. Just how fantastic these ideas be seen from the are can employers' own evaluation of the subject. • But the idea of trading thres- hold deals for a promise of price restraint has apparently caught bureaucratic fancies of the right and 'left'. Both Victor Feather,

TUC

general secretary, and Transport and General Workers' Union leader Jack Jones have been quoted in favour. In theory, thresholds work like this: workers get a wage rise-lower than it would other- have been-which is in- wise creased again during the life of the agreement if the cost of living goes up more than a set percentage. Figures mentioned for the sort of initial rise acceptable to the scheme's advocates range from 5 to 8 per cent. Victor Feather says the union leaders are prepared 'to respond to any serious initiative by the government to meet us in this way'. believes threshold clauses would guarantee workers' wage-packets against his prices —or so he says. Jack Jones such favours clauses on the grounds that they would remove cost of living from the argument without freezing normal pay negotiations. These men are speaking-and.

o Gravesend tenants, with his wife and their re , says "They scoffed at us and said the money belongs to the land- lords, which in this case was the council itself, said Charlie.

Nevertheless the council was swift to move into action under the Housing Finance Bill.

Although it remains a Bill and

RRESPONDENT DAVID MAUDE

it seems, acting on their words— despite a large body of opinion in the trade union movement which wants nothing to do with class-collaboration of this order.

On February 4, the TUC itself held a discussion conference involving full-time officials of most unions at which the mood was predominantly hostile.

And if good reasons for this mood are needed, a recent study made by the Confederation British Industry gives them.

Aimed at pointing to the safe- guards employers would need to incorporate into such deals before they should . consider the idea, the study said that TUC claims that inflation would be reduced should be 'treated with caution'. Said the study: 'There appears to be no way of ascertaining in advance whether an individual threshold agreement will prove since " its be to operation depends on external economic factors which are outside the control of the company. Any possibility of an overall to control of in- contribution flation could only be assessed in terms of a universal system of threshold bargaining. But even in this case a number of assump- tions about costs, prices and the growth of the economy would have to be made. there was evidence such agree.

study said that while ments could have a disinflation- ary effect, the same evidence showed it was equally possible for them to work the other way.

Concluded the CBI: 'If thres- hold agreements are to reduce of inflation, the in- the rate creases in real wages to be guaranteed must be matched by the overall rise in labour pro- ductivity? What is more, the rate of price increases current when introduced nd. thresholding was Workers Press, id their rent book: "A matter of principle'.

is not, therefore, law as yet, there is a provision for councils to in- crease their rents in April. The Gravesend Tories seized their opportunity quickly. 'Democracy is finished in this country, isn't it? Look at the way they've guillotined the Bill in the House of Commons. 'There really ought to be a law against men like Heath! "The fight against this Bill is not over yet. But only industrial action will get rid of the Tories and their Bill, said Charlie.

would have to be low enough initial facilitate to payments which were within the bounds of future improvements in productivity. The CBI, in other words, will only consider talking to the leaders about holding union down their members' real wages if it is already understood that whatever meagre cash rises are granted will be paid for through speed-up. And the employers spell out their arrogant, ruling-class mes- sage even further. It is crucial to the value of a threshold agreement that it includes an initial payment which is lower than would otherwise be the case, says the CBI study.

But it is questionable whether it would always be possible to prove that this criterion had been satisfied. It is also open to question whether the inclusion of a threshold clause would in every negotiating situation be sufficient to persuade unions to accept a lower initial payment.

'Threshold agreements have the disadvantage that their ultimate effect on costs cannot be predicted and that they involve companies in com- mitment to pay further wage regardless their increases future ability to do so.'

What the CBI wants is clearly threshold agreements without thresholds-or, to put it more plainly, just good, old-fashioned.

wage-cutting. Its final conditions are: Agreements should last for a specified period and should include an initial payment which is significantly lower than it would have been without the threshold pro- vision. Calculations relating to the real increases in income to be guaranteed should take account of wage-drift and of ers Press, Saturday April 1, 1972 PAGE 11

BY OUR OWN REPORTER

A TWO-WEEK-OLD strike by workers at the Birmingham Battery and Metal Co should be made official, says the Birmingham W AUEW district committee. They have called on the executive council to back the strike, which is the only one in district over the national the claim. Although they had the strikers were in high spirits as they continued their picket on Bristol Road on Thursday.

The mood of the men was by former convenor summed up L. M. Missud. "These men are ready to fight to the end, official or unofficial', he said. "They will stick out until every demand is won' There was, however, consider- able bitterness among strikers at the attitude of the local social- security office. "Their treatment of single people is diabolical,' said widower Ted Sullivan. 'As soon as I mentioned I was from the Battery I was told I would get nothing. 'How can you live in this so- called welfare state? As far as they're concerned we can starve.

Said Mr Missud: 'Interference with the men by the company or social security will only harden the strike. We will not satisfied without the full claim.' US aids Junta THE NIXON administration is supply the Greek colonels' to regime with 36 Phantom F4 fighter-bombers with spare parts and ground equipment. This political act of solidarity is not without its business side.

The deal will require a payment of some £58m and forestalls the French, who had hoped to sell Greece Mirage fighter-bombers. Feather any improvements in fringe benefits which are conceded.

• Evasion of the mandatory 'no further claims' provision through the submission of claims at a different negotiat- ing level must be specifically ruled out. The pressure on the union leaders for such deals is coming not from the ranks of the trade union movement, but from the Tory government and the employers. A careful public relations campaign has been launched over the last two weeks suggest- ing that the government is eager to get an extension of the CBI's so-called price restraint policy.

Talks on the subject between the CBI top • brass and member firms started last Tuesday, and a final decision will be taken the Confederation's council at meeting in a fortnight's time.

Meanwhile W. O. Campbell the CBI director. A damson, general, has deliberately let slir that informal soundings, suggest a good number of industrialists are against continuing the policy.

According to the rules of the old class-collaboration poker game, therefore, the union leaders are supposed to do exactly what they apparently want to do: make a grand concession. They must be prevented from doing so.

Lessons of the sit-ins e - Week One PAGE 12 Workers Prose, Saturday April 1

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

"THIS IS a small firm and it w small number of people to g 'But if it were a big factory you might want 2,000 police with tear-gas. I want to make sure that any order 1 make can be enforced.' Thus spake Thomas Juage burgess, knight and vice- chancellor of Preston High Court, Chancery division. The objects of his grim verdict were the 22 men of Sharston engineering, their occupying tactory set among the lawns and blossoms of affluent Manchester— a most unlikely setting for the most bitter episode so far in the N engineering pay battle, now in its second week. Hours after the ruling, which gave the Sharston bosses the the factory, a right to clear harassed John Tocher, leader of the Manchester engineers, emerged from a meeting with the men. court of law, he said, was A not the place to settle industrial disputes. The place to do this was across the table with him.

A heartfelt cry indeed from the days of brinkmanship of which Tocher, a leading member of the Communist Party, was a tough and skilful exponent. employers, Many however, have different ideas. It was surely no coincidence that the day of the unique Preston judgement, Jack Jones, leader of Britain's largest union was himself facing an action for contempt of court.

have now The Sharston men won a temporary respite from the dole-but the court action was successful in forcing them to lift their occupation. This lesson has not gone unnoticed else- where. •Closest observers of all were bosses in some 11 other factories, employing 7,000 workers, who are also faced with occupations.

Technically Preston was a test case. Other firms need only to sack their employees then apply to the court for an order to clear their premises. A day after the court ruling Tocher declared that the point of in the Manchester no return battle had been reached. The old methods of procedure and custom and practice have been thrown aside. When workers abandoned piece work and went rate. as has been day past practice, management did not negotiate, but locked men out.

But workers faced with sus-

BY GARY GURMEET

LABOUR PARTY

Socialists will be asked this weekend to allow the Tories to continue with their present Ulster policies. before their A . resolution eleventh annual conference, which

WEATHER

WEAK trough of low pressure over S and W Scotland and NE England will move slowly N.

The greater part of Scotland, N Ireland, western districts of England and Wales will remain generally cloudy with occasional rain or drizzle in the N. Central and eastern districts of England will be dry and rather warm.

Outlook for Sunday and Mon- day: Mainly warm with sunny periods in the S and E at first, but cloud and rain in the Nand W will probably spread E on Monday followed by sunny in- tervals with temperatures falling to near normal.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

01-622 7029 Publisbed Press. Street. London. Clapham.

SWA TUG.

Mours ress Ltd. (TU) London High street.

TUG.

day April 1, 1972 and it would be possible for a le to get them out. pension did not walk out of the gates and wait meekly at home, they occupied. is a rude shock for Preston local union leaders. The em- ployers replying to union are with force, backed by pressure law; and by ever-present the threat of closure and more un- employment. John Tocher claims 14 firms concessions have made on the three points of the claim— wages, shorter hours and more more holidays. But there signs big are no fish like Hawker Siddeley, GKN Ferranti, AEI and British Steel are cracking. These groups have refused steadfastly negotiations with their Manchester workers.

And what happens to the Sharston men or the workers in scores of back-street engineering Man- scattered shops around chester's black industrial lab- rynth, men who are threatened with more redundancies as condition to any wage increase?

It is, in fact, only until you get • a physical glimpse of this fight in Greater Manchester that the treachery of the decision to abandon the pay claim nationally really strikes home. The disintegration of the claim allows employers to exploit every weakness within the working class. At one Eccles factory a secret ballot ratified a wage 'increase' of £1.25-50p below offered by employers the rise nationally. These facts are an indictment of the national leadership of the unions and particularly the Amal- Union of Engineering gamated Workers. • The retreat has gone • on.

The Sheffield area, once on the brink of district action, has now entirely capitulated the for- to mula of plant-by-plant struggles ordered by the AUEW national committee. Now it's Manchester's turn to come under pressure. Bob Wright, AUEW executive council member for the area, is understood to be urging local officers to levy Manchester mem- bers to pay for the sit-ins, and there is the distinct impression that more occupations will not be welcomed at AUEW head- Peckham Road, quarters at London. Meanwhile right-wing unions, us- like the General and Municipal opens at Scarborough today, calls on the Tories to 'govern . Ulster the same way as any other part United Kingdom of the is governed.' Withdrawal of British troops from Ireland does not find a mention in this or any other resolution on the subject.

The LPYS conference this year to is bound be the stage- managed job it has always been.

Unlike the real Young Socialist majority which split from the Party bureaucracy in Labour 1964, the LPYS has found it possible to co-exist and assist the work of reformism. The witch-hunt which . the labour leaders carried out in 1964 revealed their complete contempt for the construction of a mass socialist youth movement.

All those who remained servile to Harold Wilson's policies—in- cluding the revisionist 'Militant' group which now controls the LPYS-now form the bulk of the movement. Any visitor to the conference, taking a casual look through the agenda, can hardly fail to notice one glaring contradiction-the contrast between the number of branches claimed by the leader- ship and the number of resolu- tions before conference. The National Committee report says the organization has 499 branches. Yet only 125 have bothered to put forward resolu- tions of any description.

Last year their conference was attended by 150 delegates, and Workers, have yet to back any of the occupations. Their 600 members at Bred- bury steel works are entering their third week of sit-in with no money from the union despite the fact they have been denied dole. Yet not one single employer, from the pygmies like Sharston's, like GKN, has the to giants been able to suspend any workers without facing immediate occu- pation. In some plants men have been offered but are still £6, sitting-in waiting for a conces- sion on , hours and holidays. There is a need now to build on this militancy, to establish a day-to-day link between the Manchester workers, to form committees and regular com- munications.

EXIL

MAKE ALDE

WORK

BRING

BACK

THE

. BICYCLE

BEAUTIFUL

BRITAIN!

A tew of the Aldermaston marchers who set off from Trafalgar Square yesterday. • Report page one. the organization claimed 503 branches. face, the revisionists so-called 'Militant' group deliberately omit any referrence to the capitalist system's economic and political CriSIS. Peter Doyle, in the Political Report repeats last year's main slogan, saying the 'taking over of commanding heights economy' can solve the problems of the working class. •We have to point out that the movement which can carry out such a change has to be struggled for .. • inside the Labour Party and the trade unions.' Not one clear statement on the need to make the Tories resign.

Instead the conference before it no less than eight resolutions calling on the age limit of LPYS to be increased to 30. This, says Reading South YS, will bring the LPYS 'into line with both the Young Conserv- atives and the Young Liberals ...

WILLIAM Whitelaw, Secretary for N Ireland under the Tory government's direct rule, an- nounced yesterday that the ban on marches must remain 'for the present'. This means that Republican marches commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising scheduled for the next few days will be illegal. As the miners discovered strikes have to be organized on the ground to be totally effective.

In this way weaker sections can be encouraged to take action and workers under threat protected.

But it is impossible to win the Manchester battle with those manoeuvres alone. As the days of struggle go by, two things become clear. of the An important section employers will use the law, or the threat of the law, to break up union organization, and use redundancies to intimidate workers. These are the giant issues that now overshadow the Manchester pay battle. What is urgently re- quired is action to remove the source of the bosses' strength: the Tory government.

E ALDERMASTO

AK FOR PEACE!

adri To WORK

DEAL TO LONDON

1972

WRUN IND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

19 YOUNG SOCIALISTS 12th Al Saturday & Sunday April 8/ Dance to 'BRAVE NEW WORLD also see a star-stur Cost approximately £4.50. For tickets apply to Jo 186 a Clapham High Stroot, Lo Please send me details/tickets of the I enclose

NAME

ADDRESS

BY IAN YEATS

ON THE first day of her trial at San Jose, Cali- fornia, Angela Davis dis- missed as 'utterly fan- utterly absurd' tastic, charges that she master- minded the Marin County Courthouse shoot-out in August 1970.

28-year-old Miss Davis, a former philosophy lecturer at California University, is stand- ing trial on murder, kidnap- ping and conspiracy charges arising from the shooting.

Prosecution alleges that Jona- than Jackson and three San Quentin prison inmates seized five hostages at Marin County Court- to kill house and threatened them-including Judge Haley- 'Soledad unless three the Brothers' were set free. Miss Davis opened her own defence by saying: "The evidence will show that I am totally in- nocent of all the charges against me.' She added that the prosecu- had deliberately set out to tion transform the character of the case' by claiming that she was not interested in politics and the conditions of all the prisoners at San Quentin but was motivated only by her alleged love for George Jackson. Miss Davis described the pro- 'conjecture, secution's case as guesswork and speculation'. She denied having , anything to do with the Marin County Court- house shooting. She claimed she bought guns and bullets and used Jonathan Jackson as a bodyguard against threats her life by white ,to extremists. up' charges 'trumped The against her, she told the court, were the logical outcome of a harrassment campaign by Cali- Ronald Reagan fornia governor and the University of California Regents who dismissed her in 1969 because she was a com- munist.

YOUNG SOCIALIETS

WE DEMAND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

SOUTHAMPTON TO

LONDON 1972

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

WE DEMAND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

SWANSEA TO LONDON

1972

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

WEDANAND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

GLASGOYTO LOND

1972 12th ANNUAL CONFERENCE April 8/9 Grand Hall, The Spa N WORLD' Saturday night 8 pm a star-studded show kate apply to John Simmance, National Secretary, High Street, London, SWA 7UG kets of the Scarborough Conference.