Workers Press no. 771

workers press

TORIES PREPARE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

EDWARD HEATH, his Cabinet and selected advisers meet at Chequers today to draw up plans to deal with a national emergency as the country surges to- wards a political con- frontation of huge, his- toric proportions. The Tories are holding this crisis summit to prepare for action on at least two fronts: • ON MAY 29, a week's time, the rail ballot will be com- pleted. It will almost certainly be a massive vote against the government and for further industrial action. • ON JUNE 2 a national docks strike has been called. To meet the threatened close- down on the railways and the docks, the Tories will implement measures under special Emergency Powers Act of 1920.

Contingency plans for the use of this savage Act were prepared as long mid-February ago as during the miners' strike.

They cover the movement of fuel and other essential supplies and only need the authority of Privy Council to become acti- vated. For the past two months there have been behind-the-scenes dis- cussions between the government, the judiciary, the military and the Confederation of British In- dustry about the national emergency. Heath and his ministers have been deliberately provoking the three rail unions as part of their strategy to inflict a major defeat on the working class. The Tories necessity to act ruthlessly against the working class in this period can be seen in any of the decrees made by Sir John Donaldson, president of the National Industrial Relations Court. In the space of a few weeks Donaldson has completely dis- rupted the roost of compromise which the trade union leaders have lived on since the war.

Donaldson's class abrasiveness was also revealed by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, when he gave his judgement in the rail ballot case last Friday. He fully accepted Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan's submission that the rail work-to- rule posed a national emergency.

'overwhelming" evi- There was dence that 'the country's economy would be gravely injured' by such industrial sanctions. At the beginning of his judge- ment Denning was at pains defend the impartiality of the judiciary. It has been suggested,' he said, that the role of the Secretary is so vast that the courts are in danger of becoming a rubber stamp to carry out his This suggestion must decision. be emphatically rejected.

Trade unionists are entitled to form their own opinion on this statement! What is important to grasp, however. is the next weapon in the Tories' legal arsenal- the Emergency Powers Act.

It was passed in the autumn of 1920 specifically to deal with a General Strike situation. It was brought into operation on May 1,

• TURN TO P. 12

INCORPORATING THE NEWS

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

Workers at Stanmore Engineering's Alpe pay claim. See full story p. 11.

HARD-LINERS in the army and the Tory Party were backed at the weekend by a top-ranking general. Gen Sir Walter Walker, 59, until a week ago C-in-C Allied Forces, North Europe, unveiled his plan for cleaning up the Ulster problem. He said: 'We have had this sort of thing before in other parts of the world with yellow skins, black skins and slit eyes.

Why have one rule for the whites and another for the coloureds?'

In other words the suppression of colonial peoples the in- terests of imperialism is the same as the suppression of the metro- politan working class in the in- terests of capitalism. Walker's remarks are a sharp warning that if the politicans fail the army is ready to step in.

Walker is described as having 'secured notable successes against terrorists in Malaya and as direc- tor of Borneo, perations in Brunei and

THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MAY 22, 1972

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

ing's Alperton, North London, sit-in—the first ny BY IAN YEATS Referring to Ulster he said: I hope Mr Whitelaw's way works, but I think we have got to make up our minds and shout it clearly from the rooftops. Are the "no- go" areas part and parcel of the UK or not? *If they are let us treat them as such. Within the policy of minimum force I always had my battle-cry of the three Hs and the three Rs. You hit them quickly, you hit them hard and you keep on hitting them. And you are ruthless. I would cut off petrol, gas and electricity and stop food going in. Then I would soften them up and let them feel the pinch. Let them get the women and children out and then go in after them.

'You must dominate an area 24 hours a day, day and night, and everyone in that area be- haves themselves or. else. These tactics, I think, would work.'

Since they amount to wiping Y 22, 1972 • No. 771 • 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

-the first in London for the engineers' out whole sections of workers they probably would. Such tactics do, of course, in- volve riding roughshod over the civil rights won over centuries by the working class. While right wingers flex their muscles in army, their counterparts in the legal profes- from the Lord Chancellor sion downwards are not standing idle.

Behind chorus mounting a against permissiveness they are preparing for an all-out attack on workers' rights. High Court Judge Sir Raymond Hinchcliffe said at the weekend he wants to curtail the right of defendants to elect trial by jury -others have said they would abolish juries altogether.

We already have rule by decree in the National Industrial Rela- tions Court. It may not be long before the pattern is repeated in the civil courts and the whole edifice of dictatorship underpinned by such generals as Sir Walter Walker.

SPECIAL

FEATURES

THS WEEK

TOMORROW

'Case history of a Stalinist humbug The man in question is Monty Johnstone whose recent distortions about the SLL and YS are taken up by

MICHAEL BANDA

WEDNESDAY

Rhodesia: Post-Pearce Al special correspondent looks at the similarity in legal powers under Smith and Heath

BY DAVID MAUDE

Our industrial correspondent A NEW and dangerous phase of the docks crisis opens up today with a series of meetings full-time union at which officials will try and whip their members into line with the National Industrial Relations Court. The meetings-planned at a three-hour conference of officials called by the Transport and General Workers' Union on Friday-take place in every port alongside union attempts at national level to find a formula to end the containers row.

Dockers are being forced by the Tories, employers and their officials a dangerous towards trap; there are also signs that some of their unofficial leaders may be helping to set it.

Latest port to feel the NIRC lash is Hull, where the T&GWU has called dockers to a mass meeting today. The 2,630 men will be told that the union could face a further big fine if they refuse to obey last Thursday's order court against the 'black' on the con- tainer firm Panalpina. A test consignment will be sent to the port's King George dock tomorrow. If it is blacked, further court action could follow quickly. In Liverpool meanwhile, docks stewards will be meeting T&GWU official Lew Lloyd today to arrange a mass meeting at which he would report Friday's: con- ference. There the union has been given until June 2 to stop the black- ing. Failure to do so, says NIRC Donaldson, president Sir John will lead to the court asserting its in an unmistakable authority manner'. Mersey docks transport drivers have also been called to a meet- ing today. In London, a series of one-day strikes scheduled to start today as saying that while job-loss of after talks between employers and tally clerks' officials. T&GWU leaders are desperate for a negotiated settlement.

Little has so far emerged from their talks on the subject with Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan and the port em- ployers, led by G. E. 'Bill' Tonge of Hay's Wharf. It is believed, however, that Jack Jones, T&GWU general secretary, and docks secretary Tim O'Leary may be coming

• TURN TO P. 12.

workers press

TORIES PREPARE

BY ALEX MITCHELL

EDWARD HEATH, his Cabinet and selected advisers meet at Chequers today to draw up plans to deal with a national emergency as the country surges to- wards a political con- frontation of huge, his- toric proportions. The Tories are holding this crisis summit to prepare for action on at least two fronts: • ON MAY 29, a week's time, the rail ballot will be com- pleted. It will almost certainly be a massive vote against the government and for further industrial action. • ON JUNE 2 a national docks strike has been called. To meet the threatened close- down on the railways and the docks, the Tories will implement measures under special the Emergency Powers Act of 1920.

Contingency plans for the use of this savage Act were prepared long mid-February as ago as during the miners' strike.

They cover the movement of fuel and other essential supplies and only need the authority of Privy Council to become acti- vated. For the past two months there have been behind-the-scenes dis- cussions between the government, the judiciary, the military and the Confederation of British In- dustry about the national emergency. Heath and his ministers have been deliberately provoking the three rail unions as part of their strategy to inflict a major defeat on the working class. The Tories' necessity to act ruthlessly against the working class in this period can be seen in any of the decrees made by Sir John Donaldson, president of the National Industrial Relations Court. In the space of a few weeks Donaldson has completely dis- rupted the roost of compromise which the trade union leaders have lived on since the war.

Donaldson's class abrasiveness was also revealed by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, when he gave his judgement in the rail ballot case last Friday. He fully accepted Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan's submission that the rail work-to- rule posed a national emergency. "overwhelming' evi- There was dence that 'the country's economy would be gravely injured' by such industrial sanctions. At the beginning of his judge- ment Denning was at pains to defend the "impartiality" of the judiciary. 'It has been suggested,' of the he said, 'that the role Secretary is so vast that the courts are in danger of becoming a rubber stamp to carry out his This suggestion must decision. be emphatically rejected' Trade unionists are entitled to form their own opinion on this statement! What is important to grasp, however. is the next weapon in the Tories legal arsenal— the Emergency Powers Act.

It was passed in the autumn of 1920 specifically to deal with a General Strike situation. It was brought into operation on May 1,

•• TURN TO P. 12

INCORPORATING THE NEW:

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

Workers at Stanmore Engineering's Alpe pay claim. See full story p. 11.

HARD-LINERS in the army and the Tory Party were backed at the weekend by a top-ranking general. Gen Sir Walter Walker, 59, until a week ago C-in-C Allied Forces, North Europe, unveiled • for cleaning up the his plan Ulster problem. He said: "We have had this sort of thing before in other parts of the world with yellow skins, black skins and slit eyes.

Why have one rule for the whites and another for the coloureds?'

In other words the suppression of colonial peoples in the in- terests of imperialism is the same as the suppression of the metro- politan working class in the in- terests of capitalism. Walker's remarks are a sharp warning that if the politicans fail the army is ready to step in.

Walker is described as having 'secured notable successes against terrorists in Malaya and as direc- tor of operations in Brunei and Borneo!'

THE NEWSLETTER •

MONDAY MAY 22, 1972

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

ring's Alperton, North London, sit-in-the first my BY IAN YEATS Referring to Ulster he said: 'I hope Mr Whitelaw's way works, but I think we have got to make up our minds and shout it clearly from the rooftops. Are the "no- go" areas part and parcel of the UK or not? 'If they are let us treat them as such. Within the policy of minimum force I always had my battle-cry of the three Hs and You hit them the three Rs. quickly, you hit them hard and you keep on hitting them. And you are ruthless. 'I would cut off petrol, gas and and stop food going electricity in. Then I would soften them up and let them feel the pinch. Let them get the women and children out and then go in after them.

'You must dominate an area 24 hours a day, day and night, and everyone in that area be- haves themselves or. else. These tactics, I think, would work.'

Since they amount to wiping Y 22, 1972 • No. 771 • 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

the first in London for the engineers' out whole sections of workers they probably would. Such tactics do, of course, in- volve riding roughshod over the civil rights won over centuries by the working class. While right wingers flex their in the their muscles army, counterparts in the legal profes- sion from the Lord Chancellor downwards are not standing idle.

Behind a chorus mounting against permissiveness they are preparing for an all-out attack on workers' rights. High Court Judge Sir Raymond Hinchcliffe said at the weekend he wants to curtail the right of defendants to elect trial by jury —others have said they would abolish juries altogether.

We already have rule by decree in the National Industrial Rela- tions Court. It may not be long before the pattern is repeated in the civil courts and the whole edifice of dictatorship underpinned by such generals as Sir Walter Walker.

SPECIAL

FEATURES

THS WEEK

TOMORROW

'Case history of a Stalinist humbug' The man in question is Monty Johnstone whose about distortions the SLL and YS are taken up by

MICHAEL BANDA

WEDNESDAY

Rhodesia: Post-Pearce A special correspondent looks at the similarity in Smith legal powers under and Heath

BY DAVID MAUDE

Our industrial correspondent A NEW and dangerous phase of the docks crisis opens up today with a series of meetings tull-time • at which union officials will try and whip their • members into with the line National Industrial Relations Court. The meetings-planned at a three-hour conference of officials called by the Transport and General Workers' Union on place in Friday—take every port alongside union attempts at national level to find a formula to end the containers row.

Dockers are being forced by the Tories, employers and their officials towards a dangerous trap; there are also signs that some of their unofficial leaders may be helping to set it.

Latest port to feel the NIRC lash is Hull, where the T&GWU has called dockers to a mass meeting today. The 2,630 men will be told that the union could face a further big fine if they refuse to obey Thursday's order last court against the 'black' on the con- tainer firm Panalpina. A test consignment will be sent to the port's King George If it is blacked, dock tomorrow. further court action could follow quickly. In Liverpool meanwhile, docks stewards will be meeting T&GWU official Lew Lloyd today to arrange a mass meeting at which he would report Friday's: con- ference. There the union has been given until June 2 to stop the black- ing. Failure to do so, says NIRC president Sir John Donaldson, will lead to the court asserting its in an unmistakable authority manner' Mersey docks transport drivers have also been called to a meet- ing today. In London, a series of one-day strikes scheduled to start today as saying that while job-loss of after talks between employers and tally clerks' officials. T&GWU leaders are desperate for a negotiated settlement.

Little has so far emerged from their talks on the subject with Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan and the port em- ployers, led by G. E. 'Bill' Tonge of Hay's. Wharf. It is believed, however, that Jack Jones, T&GWU general secretary, and docks secretary Tim O'Leary may be coming

TURN TO P. 12.

Kremlin status symbol-US computer PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday May 22, ' THE EXTREMELY provocative and savage judgements of the • National Industrial Relations Court have sent a chill of fear every reformist in through Britain. ( reformists' complacent The routine of parliamentary opposition combined with an occasional dash of extra- union parliamentary. trade militancy has been irretrievably shaken by the mailed fist of Toryism. Unlike the Stalinists, who con- tinue to pray and hope in the 'Morning Star' for the Tories to revive full employment, the centrists in the Labour Party are seriously concerned with the growing threat of corpor atism in Britain. "Tribune' this week's an In agitated leader writer (could it • be Michael Foot?) unmistak- ably spells out the danger of the corporate state. The tenor of this article, 'On to the Corporate State' , Is all the more significant because the centrist "Tribune' has derided warnings the Workers Press about the danger of Bonapart- ism and the corporate state ever since the Tory Party's Selsdon meeting in 1970. Before the election the 'Tribune'- ites were cock-sure that Labour would win on Wilson's policies.

After the Tory election victory "Tribune' was the epitome of political complacency. They suggested that the Tories would have to go for a spring election in 1971 to secure a further mandate to push their repressive legislation through parliament. Of course the Tories did nothing the sort. Instead they of decided to rule-with a ven- unseen in post-war geance Tory history. Better late than never, 'Tribune' essential *An warns: now feature of corporatism is that trade unions are transformed into instruments of the state.

"They are not free to organize their industrial action, and members are not allowed to who they want to decide That is very represent them. close to what is now being attempted in this country?

Absolutely correct. We remember warning the Labour Party 'Tribune' included—in our "The Newsletter' forerunner when similar corporatist ideas were expressed by Ray Gunter during the tenure of the last Labour government. Now Gunter's vultures have come home to roost in the NIRC and 'Tribune' complains bitterly: Donaldson, with his 'Sir John of "an spine-chilling vision orderly system of industrial relations"; is attempting to in- TRADE union leaders called off the six-day-old General Strike in the Malagasy Republic at the weekend. The country's new military Maj-Gen Gabriel strongman, Ramanantsoa had said he would not hesitate to impose martial law if it continued. Appointed Prime Minister by President Philibert Tsiranana on Thursday, the general earlier re- fused demands by students and forced retire- workers for the ment of the president : symbol of national unity.

But a strike by students, now almost four weeks old, continues.

At a meeting on Saturday there were heated clashes when student representatives accused union chiefs or reneging an agreement that all decisions be taken jointly. The ending of the General Strike is a serious blow to the Malagasy struggle. It opens the way for General Ramanantsoa to clamp down on both workers and students under the extensive given him by the powers president. 1 May 22, 1872 totally alien troduce a con- cept into that relationship by • that disciplinary demanding powers should be wielded in defence of policies determined by an outside body such as the

NIRC.

if the It will not work, and unions try to make it work then sooner or later they will up like Franco's syndi- end catos.' says "Tribune' cor- The court ts a political court rectly, through and through' As evidence it adduces the in- the controvertible terminate the blacking of con- tainers coincides exactly with the expiry of the 28 days' notice of an official dock strike.

conclusion is undeniable: The 'He [Donaldson] has in effect pointed a gun at the T&GWU's head and told it that, unless it can work out some deal with the government and the em- : the container- ployers to solve issue ization within the next two weeks, then it will start a strike with its entire dock funds liable to be seized by the court.' "Tribune' is angered by the con- refusal of 'some union leaders' to learn the lesson of this traumatic experience and who continue to seek justice in the court. It warns 'even if the Court of Appeal were to overturn the; NIRC decision on a technicality of law, that would be a once- operation; the mistakes would not be made again.' However, anger and fingers thrust at trade union bureaucrats will not stop the Tories. And this is precisely where the centrists abandon the struggle. They provide no socialist altern- reformist per- spective of collaborating with court and transforming union executives into police- men for the capitalist state.

Abstention from appearing in the NIRC is useless unless it is accompanied by an . active policy of demanding the recall the TUC and organizing of resistance to the Tories creating Councils of Action embracing all sections and tendencies in the labour move- ment. have already The centrists squandered valuable time in contemplation. complacent There is no time to lose any more. We urge all 'Tribune' readers to the policy of the support Socialist Labour League and Workers Press and ensure the resignation of the Tories and the election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. AN END to trade curbs im- posed during the Cold War and a big increase in Us- Soviet trade is one of the Kremlin's main aims in the summit meeting with Presi- dent Nixon. The Russians are anxious to buy a wide range of American products from animal feeds computers (every self-respecting bureaucrat now aspires to have one of his own). Increased imports from the overcome serious US could help deficiencies ambitious Despite economy. boasts, the Soviet Union is very from catching up with the major capitalist country. in production or in aggregate labour productivity. While other capitalist countries have been increasing their trade with the Soviet Union, US ex- amount to a mere $200m ports imports are of about the and same order. US firms are anxious to sell in the Soviet Union if they get the all clear from Washington, and that will depend upon what political concessions Nixon gets from Brezhnev.

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

AS PRESIDENT Nixon con- ferred in Salzburg with his advisers before flying to Moscow this morning his bombers were still pounding North Vietnam's vital irriga- tion system. Yesterday North Vietnam said American bombers had attacked another dyke system, causing many casualties and substantial damage. The dykes were in Thai Binh province north of Hanoi.

AROUND THE WORLD

BY AN ECONOMICS REPORTER

HIGH-LEVEL talks between the ments will open in the near futu crisis in the countries' trading relat Kakuei Tanaka, the to the talks. demands for sweeping cuts in Japan The talks were agreed by Japanese officials who met William Eberle, the Us trade negotiator, in Tokyo at the weekend. The US has already wrung a crippling 16-per-cent revaluation of the yen and forced Japanese electronics steel, and textile to impose tight manufacturers export quotas. Not content with these moves, however, the US Treasury has now set in motion a comprehen- of Japanese govern- sive probe subsidies to electronics ment exporters. companies American manu- facturing • transistor radios and TV sets have been demanding such an investigation for several months. Their Japanese competitors- whose goods still under- are cutting US products, despite the revaluation—are reported to yen surprised and alarmed' at the Treasury move. They are considering a com- plaint to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade against the discriminatory American measures. The Japanese government held a weekend emergency Cabinet session to review a series of 'voluntary' measures to reduce its

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Last year US Commerce Secre- tary Maurice Stans had trade talks in the Soviet Union and of attended a meeting the Supreme Soviet where he heard an invitation to US capital to participate in the development of Soviet natural resources.

It is possible that concessions of this kind will be used as a bargaining counter by the Kremlin main problem is finding whose means to pay for increased US is much imports. There not chance of Soviet manufacturers competing in American market and the Soviet Union's reserves of gold and foreign ex- change are limited and carefully husbanded. thorny There the is also question of the Soviet Union's wartime debts to the US follow- ing the end of Lend-Lease.

The Soviet Union has already contracted a sizable volume of foreign debt the over past decade. Increased trade may hinge the willingness of US on financiers to provide a big credit to the Soviet Union. For this some guarantee of political good behaviour would surely be required. The US has claimed that dykes are not on its target list, but North Vietnamese sources have cited a number of attacks on the irrigation system over the last fortnight. The waters of the Red River are rising rapidly and apart from Hanoi the immediate damage, fears the bombs will weaken the dyke structures and cause exten- sive flooding. Nixon's stopover in Salzburg, Austria, was marked by big anti- demonstrations, dispersed war een the US and Japanese govern- lear future to discuss the growing ling relations. Minister for International Trade • I'm glad I don't have to attend kely to be bitter dispute over US in Japan's export trade. $9,000m balance-of-payments sur- plus. Among the measures under discussion were cuts in interest rates; reduction of quotas on im- measures to regulate ports the export trade. The Americans have indicated they are tired of waiting for such action from the Japanese govern- ment and have made it clear that the trade war will be stepped up unless the Japanese come rapidly to heel. Costs revolt HUNDREDS of women demon- strated in Bilbao, in the Basque provinces, on Saturday, against the rapid rise in the cost of living. The housewives, waving empty shopping baskets and purses called for the lowering of prices.

Fascist police failed to disperse 800 women who disrupted traffic stalls for and boycotted food hours in another three over working-class district. In San Sebastian police claimed to have arrested 13 members of the illegal Basque nationalist duplicating leaflets movement calling for general strikes, demon- strations and strikes for higher wages. A loan from the US Export- Import bank would require the approval of the President him- self. The Agricultural Secretary, Earl Butz, who , visited Moscow recently, was told that the Soviet Union was prepared to buy feed- $200m a ing stuffs worth • year if credits were available.

cannot in- Soviet agriculture crease the output of meat and a sufficient scale milk on to meet rising consumer needs with- out a greater volume of imports.

For the US, sales to the Soviet Union would have the advantage of disposing of otherwise em- barrassing farm surpluses.

For the Soviet bureaucracy, the technological however, deficiencies of industry are still more crucial. Hence the interest American machines and in machine tools, electronic equip- ment and computers. But Japanese, German, Italian and British . firms have already been active in meeting Soviet The Italians are requirements. now fitting out a chain of super- markets. US firms are hoping to obtain a share of the contracts for the giant truck plant now being built with great brutality by the Aus- trian police. Among the demon- strators was the Prime Minister's son, Bruno Kriesky. Kissinger, Nixon's Dr Henry right-hand man, said in Salzburg yesterday that Vietnam would figure higher on the agenda in the Moscow talks than Nixon had originally thought. He . said mining and the blockading of North Vienamese ports had affected US-Soviet relations more than either side had wished.

THE

SHOOTING of the hated Milan police inspector, Luigi Calabresi, has height- ened the political tension in Italy following the inconclu- sive General Election. The police have so far drawn a blank in . their search for the who shot assassin down the policeman in the middle of a busy street. Calabresi's family has received a letter of condolence from the Pope's Vicar General, which 'a functionary speaks of him as noted for his probity and scrupu- lous sense of duty carried out with an exquisitely Christian spirit'. Railway worker Guiseppe Pinelli, it will be remembered, fell or was hurled to his death from • Calabresi's fourth-floor office window while being interro- gated after an explosion in Milan's Agricultural Bank in December 1969. This brutality continues as the search for a new govern- mental coalition goes on.

Anarchist Franco Serantini died in jail two days after a group tried to break up a neo-fascist rally in Pisa on May 5. He had a fractured skull. The police are on the rampage left-wingers-ten against were arrested in Milan for distributing Calabresi's leaflets praising assassination and many thousands more are being questioned.

Meanwhile the Christian Demo- crats are looking for a formula which would exclude the Socialist Party and mark a shift to the previous with right compared governments. The election has solved none of Italy's but has problems, en- hanced the danger of a right-wing coup. on the Kama River, 600 miles East of Moscow. It seems likely that the biggest bait which the bureaucracy can offer will be a share for US capital in developing Soviet mineral resources. Even here the US will not be the first in the field; negotiations with Japanese firms for the development of Siberian oil have been going on for some time. The attraction for the US here is that Soviet supplies may help to meet their own lack strategically-important of raw materials. A lot will depend on how badly American business needs more trade with the Soviet Union and what political advantages Presi- dent Nixon believes it will be possible to obtain in return.

Brezhnev has already promised a "businesslike' aproach to the sum- mit and no doubt he meant it.

A preparatory round of trade discussions between Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson and a Soviet trade delegation led by Nikolai ended in Patolichev Washington on May 16. Secretary Peterson said that all aspects of trade had been covered by the talks. Both sides agreed that the negotiations had been helpful and constructive.

BY PHILIP WADE HOUSING CO

Three weeks ago the Labour-controlled coun- cil at Lewisham in South London voted 26-41 to implement the Tory 'fair rents' Bill if it becomes law. The majority was made up by 32 Labour councillors who crossed over and voted with the nine Tory councillors to win the day. The debacle followed clashes inside the Labour group, with a split between right and left with on co-operation Tories. In the end a free vote was allowed in the council meeting, showing a desire to : responsibility and abdicate leadership. As the result was an- nounced, bitter tenants threw fruit at the Labour councillors voting with the Tories and shouted out: "Traitors!' At this point Cyril Cook, Labour councillor for the Marlowe Ward rose to his feet, called out 'you ought to be ashamed of yourselves' at fellow councillors and walked out of the council chamber.

Three days later he went out to join a demonstration of tenants against the Bill. To his amazement he found Labour councillors who voted for im- plementation also marching.

'This was like rubbing salt in an open wound. I couldn't march alongside them. It was at that moment I made up my mind to resign from the Labour group on principle,' Mr Cook told me. I know what the nine Tories on the council are. But what do you do with 32 Labour when you don't colleagues know which way they're going to jump? 'What other issue than this

ING CORRESPONDENT

they going to fight the are Tories on-lamp posts, drains and level crossings? They have • stabbed us in the back and we can't trust them. In any case I feel some should be in the Tory Party,' said Mr Cook who is a cold storeman and a member of the General and Municipal Workers' Union.

'As an independent I can attack the Tories and also those in the Labour group who don't fight. I will be able to speak my mind.' Mr Cook has been asked by the Labour leadership on the council to come and talk things over with them. 'What are they going to tell me?

"Trust us tomorrow"? No, I can't see anything to discuss with them. 'Our council was re-elected last year because of the rent rebate scheme introduced by the Tories. Tenants protested against it and we went along with them. 'Now they feel we have rightly betrayed them... and so.' He has had nothing but letters of support for the stand he has taken against the Bill.

issue "This is the most decisive one our Labour coun- cil has ever had to face in its entire history. The aim of the Bill is more than just another £l on the rent. "The way I see it, it is the Tory fourth stage of attack on the working class.

of The first thing they did was to disband the Prices and Incomes Board, giving in- dustrialists a chance to put up prices without any worry.

"Then there was the free- for-all on the Common Market and with decimalization prices went up again. This was followed by the attack on the trade unions through the In- dustrial Relations Act. The rents Bill is the final straw.

'Lewisham councillors, say by imple- among others, menting the Bill they will help some tenants. But this is not .what it's all about-helping some to get good rebates and so on. "They miss the whole point.

This Bill will act as a wage- cutter, putting more money on the rent as you earn more by reducing your rebate. "The Tories taking are powers away from local coun- cils. Implement it or else, say the Tories. Or face a £400 fine and a surcharge. 'This is what made the majority on the council go the other way—though they won't admit this. As far as I'm con- cerned I haven't got £400 and if I did I wouldn't pay it.

'These men had plenty of time to resign because they knew all this has been coming for a long time. If they had should have cold feet they gone and made way for others, said Mr Cook, a councillor for some ten years. What are my Labour col- leagues going to do when tenants fall behind in rents?

Evict them, put them into accommodation? lower-priced What will happen to those private tenants who find their properties decontrolled and the rents doubling? "The tragedy is that by and large tenants will be paying for knocking down, purchasing and building. We will either have to put the rents up or cut-back on our building pro- we tend to gramme. And forget that it is one of the aims of the Bill to cut back council house-building. "The whole idea behind this Bill is to keep the working class where the Tories consider they belong. We have to go back to the Labour party and they have to make up their minds in a decisive way. 'Those who are not prepared to fight must be taken out of the Labour Party,' added Mr Cook. Workers Press, Monday May 22, 1972 PAGE 3 APEX, formerly the vacancies arose. Albion suggested 'that Clerical and Administra- management - CAWU joint tive Workers' Union, has committee be set up to super- been boasting vise the day-to-day workings in its of the relocation exercise'.

journal, "The Clerk', of The CAWU jumped at the the union's recent suc- chance, only laying down the cesses in industrial re- conditions that all vacancies arising at Scotstoun be referred lations. to them with a view to filling them Yoker Undoubtedly, it is right to with men, that workers an opportunity they should be able offer give to guidelines for the selection of to see what it is up to. union's workers involved, and as Summing the far up role in coping with recent as possible synchronize any re- redundancies Glasgow dundancies Yoker with at a at vacancies at Scotstoun. factory, Scotstoun engineering secretary Charles Reid All this must have been con- cludes: music to management's cals. 'When one considers how At least it indicated that there this situation has been handled was to be no troublesome and compared with the ruthless disruptive fight against the manner of treatment in many sackings. other establishments over the The affairs of the joint com- one can be mittee went so well that Reid of could write: appreciative state 'All members of the manage- prevailing industrial relations at Albion Motors. ment and union committee are The handling referred to very satisfied with the way in which this relocation has pro- process whereby a concerns a number of workers lost their ceeded and the almost com- plete lack of friction through- jobs, but were assisted by the out the exercise.' as little union to experience pain at the break as possible.

He added: "Though both At the beginning of 1971 the sides did have minor troubles with their service department at Albion's own constituents, Yoker factory was put under nothing ever loomed as a real threat to the work being the the axe and successful con- duct of the action. done there was due for trans.

fer to Leyland Motors, Chor- Then comes the punchline Writes Reid: "Whilst ley. one Management were seeking must deplore the disappear- to reduce the size of the estab- ance of approximately • 70 jobs lishment by retiring all those to further deepen the economic beyond gloom in the west of Scotland employed retirement age and by filling vacancies one must at the same time with internal transfers. Over- give credit in this instance to time was also to end. first-class example a of man- The of hope one glimmer agement and union co-opera- was that some of those to be tion. So what this great exercise made redundant might be transferred to Albion's Scots- was really all about was how and to lose 70 jobs—quietly. toun works as when SIV has 3,000 workers, a of £16.4m a year, turnover plant on the Adriatic coast and office a sales management in Milan. The option to buy into

SIV

was disclosed when Pilk- ington's issued licences for its In with other big concert 'float-glass' technique to be British Pilkington monopolies, used by the Italian company.

Brothers, the glassmaking giant, is taking a stake in the Licences have now been issued to 40 plants in 21 coun- enlarged Common Market. The St Helens-based A proposed deal has been tries. outlined under which Pilking- company received £8.6m from its licences last year. The Pilk- ton's will buy a substantial equity holding' in Italy's state- ington move into Italy follows owned glassmaking group. only a few days after a report If the deal successful, that British-Leyland intends is to buy up a big car retail firm Pilkington's will link with Societa Italiana Vetro. in Italy.

LEON TROTSKY:

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A COMMUNIST AT 13

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Monday May 22, interview with Keith An Woodward (26), who works at Hopkinson's, Hudders- field. He is an AUEW member. The decision by Hugh Scanlon to send our wage claim back to be fought at local level has weak- ened the whole union. At Hopkinson's the union, accepted some time ago, €2.50 increase in return for changing from piecework to Work. Measured-Day Con- brought in and sultants were they converted the old piece- work times to PI times. We had a ceiling of 130 PI and no bonus below 80. At first we could easily make 120 PI, but then they brought in method-study and retimed the jobs and began to. ter knock our times down. Then, just before Christmas, they overtime knocked off all because they were getting the same production in eight hours that they used to get in nine and a half with overtime.

The men are now starting to realize what MDW is, but it's late. In May the union signed for a f2 rise, with a further 50p in September, but with a 'no industrial action' clause.

But despite this clause, there was a one-hour stoppage on May 9 because the times are being cut down again. We are a highly-organized factory, but we only got a wage rise with strings. The smaller, less well organized factories will be worse off since the much national claim was abandoned.

A man has a right to a living wage. After deductions I bring home about £23 a week, and I've got four children, from one year old to six. In addition, I get £2.90 family allowance a week. Our weekly budget is like this: ay May 22, 1972 Rent three - bedroomed 2.61 house) School meals (two children at school and one at nursery) 1.20 1.06 TV and radiogram rental 1.50 Coal Food and housekeeping 12.50 Clothes (especially for growing children — a pair of shoes 2.00 costs £2) (average, sometimes a lot more) 1.00 Electricity and gas 50 Fares (mainly to work) That totals £22.37 out of a weekly income of £25.90. It leaves £3.53 for emergencies.

Then the rents are going up by fl this year and a further. 75p next year. That's half of gone. I earn too my £3.53 much to qualify for rent rebate, though I've got four even children. My wife has started to. tenants' association to fight the rent rises. We went round with a letter demanding that Huddersfield council should not operate the government's 'fair rent' scheme and saying that decent housing is a basic right. We got 130 signatures on the first two nights, even though some people are a bit afraid because the Tory coun- cil has evicted some families already for minor reasons like the state of the hedge. Now we've put out a leaflet for a meeting. Housing is a scandal. There's a waiting list of between 1,000-2,000 for houses in Huddersfield, but on our estate alone (Sheepbridge) there are about 50 to 60 empty houses.

On almost every street there's a house standing empty. It can only be because people can't afford the rents. I used to be in the Young Communist League. I joined it when I was 13, and when I was 21 I joined the Communist Party as well. I left just before the Young Socialists' Right-to-Work marches began. I was a bit unsure of the Socialist Labour League and the Young Social- ists after being in the Com- munist Party for so long, so a few days before the Empire Pool, Wembley, I hitch-hiked down and joined the Deal to London march and came to the rally. The Communist Party allowed me to be just a card- carrying member. I used to go to the branch meetings but only four or five people would they had a turn up, though membership of 120 to 150 the books in people on Huddersfield. They never discussed politics. They used to organize handicraft classes, I don't know why because I never went to them. The nearest thing to political activity was collecting bicycle bits for Vietnam. People would arrive with bicycle pedals or tyres and hand them in. So I started to look for an alternative. I'd been to a few YS meetings, so I went to the Deal to find out for march myself. I was very impressed by what the Deal marchers told me of their experiences, especially how the Labour Party and Communist Party had tried to ignore them but workers had come out of the factories and helped in every way. I read in the 'Morning Star' that the UCS stewards didn't know what the £100 was for that they gave to the march, but when I met the Glasgow marchers it was clear that they had carefully explained what it was for. That showed me how unprincipled the Communist Party can be. I think giving Top: Lenin addressing workers on Sverdlov Square, May 5, 1920, with Trotsky and Kamenev beside him. Left: Kelth Woodward that £100 back was a great thing to do. I've been in the Socialist Labour League now for a month. It's the only prin- cipled party that can lead the working class to the overthrow of capitalism. The Communist Party won't do it. That's clear from what they did in France in 1968 and from what they've just done at UCS. And the Soviet Union continues to support reaction- ary regimes like those in Sudan and Iraq, where Communist Party members are being jailed and hung and shot. When I was in the Com- munist Party, Trotsky was a dirty word. I never knew any- thing about Trotsky or read anything about him. Now I am.

reading, I discover that it was Lenin and Trotsky who led the October Revolution in 1917.

I've learned more in the last few weeks since I joined the League than I have in the last years. Definitely. I don't think the Communist Party believes in the working class.

But the League showed it has confidence the working 1n class. It showed it to me at the the Empire Pool rally, Socialists' Young conference the May Day rally in and London. I'm reading Marx's economic pamphlets where he answers Citizen Weston who claimed that wage increases put up prices, I've reserved Volume of 'Capital' from the One library. In the Communist Party this was discouraged. People were told they weren't advanced enough to read such things. But in the League you're told to get these books and study.

The League wants people to read the theory of revolu- tionary Marxism, and I feel the need to study.

OKINAWA: JAPAN TAKES OVER'

After under 27 years direct rule from Wash- ington, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu islands be- tween Japan and For- formally mosa were handed back to the Japanese government on Sunday, May 14. Last Monday morning in Tokyo, US vice: President Spiro Agnew officiated at a wit- handing-over ceremony nessed by 10,000 people. Prime Minister Eisaku Sato was seen to dab his eyes with handkerchief during the a apparently over- ceremony, while with emotion, come Emperor Hirohito sat impas- sive throughout. In a brief address to the crowd, the emperor said: I weep for the dead of Okinawa and I express my sympathy for all the sufferings its inhabi- tants have known during and after the war. The thoughts of the rest of Japan are not recorded, but outside the Hall of Martial Arts, where the ceremony was held, a huge force of armed riot police held the populace at bay. In the streets of Tokyo and other cities, police battled with students and youth who threw petrol bombs in protest at the Okinawa Reversion Treaty.

objections Their are thoroughly well-founded, for the Reversion Treaty is in m reality nothing of the sort. Its terms amount to an invitation to the Japanese government to station its own troops on the Ryukyu islands in addition to the huge American forces al- ready there. The Okinawans, who were about this consulted not arrangement, do not consider Japanese themselves anyway. They are convinced with good reason that under rule from Tokyo they will revert to the inferior status they held under the Empire before the war.

The inhabitants of Naha, capital of Okinawa, displayed no enthusiasm for the handing- over ceremony-there were no fireworks and no fanfares as the Japanese flag was run up.

Their island will remain, as it has been since the American troops captured it in 1945, a vast American base. From the Ryukyus Nixon's bombers take off day after day to pound the cities of North coasts and Vietnam. That will continue.

The Okinawans have not 100,000 forgotten either the civilians who lost their lives in the bloody battles of 1945 or the atrocities which went with Japanese rule before the war. When the Japanese Defence Ministry announced plans last 6,400 year to station some jet aircraft, men with F-104 anti-submarine units and Hawk and Nike missiles there was an outcry on the island. A small advance unit landed in March, but protests forced Tokyo to postpone sending the main force until the actual reversion took place. Okinawa's resentment against Japanese militarism has surfaced in the past few weeks with revelations of atro- cities committed on the island by the old Imperial Army.

have come to Three cases light. On the first, television viewers throughout Japan saw a dramatic confrontation be- tween a former Japanese army of officer and survivors a massacre of Okinawan civilians. The officer justified the killings as necessary under wartime conditions as the suspected of civilians were advancing spying for the Americans. As a result of the furore over these cases, the Defence Ministry has trimmed its immediate plans and cut the level of troops it will immedi- ately station on the islands.

Even so, resistance against the introduction of Japanese troops continues. Local land- owners have refused to allow their land to be used for mili- tary purposes and the local Municipal Workers' Union has said it will not co-operate with any deployment programme.

The left-wing Teachers' Union, which has previously preached anti-Americanism in the classrooms plans to cam- paign against the Japanese forces. Japan's government is moving increasingly to mili- tarist solutions of its economic crisis, with a vast increase in spending. Japan is con- arms stitutionally forbidden to re- Workers Press, Top: students protesting against stationing of B-52 bombers in Japan. honoured arm — a provision only in the breach. The Ryukyus and the neigh- bouring Senkaku islands close to the Formosan coast have another big advantage for pre- capitalism. datory Japanese They are believed to lie over rich oil deposits and Japanese companies are already planning to prospect them. had sharp led to This exchanges with the People's Formosa. Both governments claim the Senkakus as part of China. The islands' inhabitants, for the most part poor peasants, badly hit by the are being changeover from dollars to yen.

Worse still, they fear the influx of metropolitan Japanese capital will be only to exploit them and force them to submit to Japanese hegemony as in the past. They fear that under the Tokyo government, Okinawa will have even less autonomy than it enjoyed under the American military administra- tion. Even more Okinawans, they fear, will be driven to seek work on the mainland, where they are generally forced to menial and take the most poorly-paid jobs. Okinawa Reversion The Treaty, hailed as a liberating move, is nothing more than an imperialist carve-up which will to the bring no advantages people of the islands. ors Press, Monday May 22, 1972 PAGE 5 When the closing of the Santa Barbara mercury mine is announced inside of a few weeks, a chapter mining in Peruvian history will come to an end. Mercury, considered a fabu- lous metal' in Spanish colonial times, is now obtained in Peru only from the Santa Barbara mine, in Huancavelica Depart- ment 450 kilometres and 14 hours by car from Lima, over a narrow and dangerous road.

mercury many years, provided vast fortunes for the owners of the mines, but now the bottom has fallen out of the price. Iwo years ago a 76 pound container cost $450 while now the price is $265— and in Peru, it costs $320 to produce it. This is a dramatic difference, one already familiar to the 300 mineworkers at Santa Barbara.

The closing of the mine will not have any important effect on the national economy, but locally it will mean a great deal.

The history of mercury in back to the Peru goes year 1560 and it borders closely on legend and myth. Tradition has it that a Spaniard named Amador de Cabera was attend- ing the Corpus Christi festiv- ities in the city of Ayacucho.

He was wearing a beautiful hat adorned with precious stones and at one point he gave it to be cared for to the young son of an Inca nobleman. The boy lost the hat, and his terrified father, according to tradition led. Amador de Cabrera to the mercury de- posits in the Huancavelica mountains. The mines made an immen- sely wealthy man out of Cabrera, because the demand for mercury increased con- stantly due to its use in the refining of silver. The Spaniards founded Huancavelica in 1572.

They exploited the mines-and the Peruvians who worked them - voraciously, digging tunnels in all directions.

So many mineworkers lost their lives in collapses and landslides that the place became known as the 'mine of death' In a single accident in 1786, 200 workers were killed when the manager of the mine re- moved the logs shoring up the galleries in order to sell them.

The mine's total production is estimated at more than 50,000 tons of mercury. This figure indicates that Huan- cavelica played an important historical role. Without Santa Barbara, the large-scale exploitation of the fabled silver mines of Potosi would not have been possible.

In fact, the area which was to become Peru and Bolivia would not have attained its top level of importance under Spanish colonial rule. Today the mercury mine, located at close to 5,000 feet above sea level, is worked as an open pit. The mercury of Santa Barbara is highly toxic. It is being mined at the rate of 800 pounds a day, which are care- fully stored in the hope that the world mercury market may improve. But so far there is no sign of recovery in mercury prices, and Santa Barbara is closing down. Prensa Latina

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday May 22, 1972

BY OUR FOREIGN

CORRESPONDENT

Workers in the Bolivian tin mines in Oruro, and Lallagua forefront of the Bolivian masses' struggle for emancipation from imperialism. they the Ever since won right to organize in the 1940s —after the bloody massacre of Catavi miners in 1942—their struggle has been betrayed by the unprincipled alliance of nationalist trade- lett-wing, leaders and bourgeois union politicians and generals.

Juan Lechin, former Bolivian Miners' Union secretary such pioneered general, alliances when he swung armed miners behind the National Revolution of Paz Estenssoro (MNR - Movement for National Revolution) in 1952.

In the same year the Con- federation of Bolivian Workers (COB) was formed. Guillermo Lora, leader of the POR, (Revolutionary Workers' also supported the Party), whose National Revolution leader, Estenssoro, he depicted as the Bolivian Kerensky. Lora predicted that his POR would become the Bolshevik toil to this Kerensky as the COB was transformed into 'a workers' government under the leader- ship of the POR'. In reality, the four trade union Ministers in the MNR government — with Lechin as Minister of Mines and Petro- leum—channelled the growing into movement revolutionary collaboration with the bour- geois state. After the initial euphoria in - 11 where, production the mines, decreased by 15 per cent while payroll increased the government backed third, the sack a quarter of the moves to 28,000 labour force. These rationalization Plalls urgent became particularly signed after Estenssoro with West German agreement banks and the US government capital guaranteeing large investment. Faced by this threat of mass sacking, miners forced Lechin's strike supporters organize They, in called alliull on Lechin to return to Bolivia to lead the struggle. of Lechin, vice-President the Republic, was also serving ambassador to Italy. as refused the invitation to aban- don the delights of Rome.

1963, the In August indefinite General Strike called by the miners' federation was Above left: Bolivian police La Paz. Above right: patrol in senemen. mountains near Catavi. Let- killed the in

MON

swiftly and brutally ended by government forces. Lora, had Guillermo who formally broken with the MNR in 1954 when it age outers of compensation to the owners.

three mining companies which had been nationalized, showed that behind later, the left calls 'the direct and class unity of the masses', he action nationalist retained persistent illusions: 'We underline our disagree- mea- ment with the economic of a government suits forgotten that serve the Bolivian, better interests of the Yankees.

While Lora waited for the COB to become the soviets of which the Bolivian revolution, he had said they would become now back in 1952, Lechin, Bolivia, swung his support in the mines the gover!!- ment takeover of the military junta of Barrientos and Ovando November 1964. of October, thousands In students in La Paz and miners in Oruro had marched against of the repressive policies Hundreds were Estenssoro. with Barrientos first demanded • that the miners give up their weapons. When this received little response, he sent Lechin into exile in Paraguay, thus provoking a General Strike.

On May 18, Barrientos de- clared a state of emergency, calling for the military mobili- zation of all people and re- union recognize lusing to leaders. By this time, 29,000 in 17 mines miners were on strike. On May 24, the army and airforce attacked the mining centre of Milluni, 25 miles The mining from La Paz. regions of Catavi Telemaya and Siglo Veinte were declared a 'military area'. Virtual civil war broke out take as troops attempted to over the mines. While miners were slaughtered in the 'mili- sea blew miners from tary railway Quechisla up bridges. They cut off traffic from Argentina after rumours that Barrientos. was seeking arms from there. Fierce fighting broke out between government troops and units of armed factory and miners from workers Workers Press, Monday Milluni on the road from La Paz to the airport of El Alto.

On June 1, fighting ceased.

Eight hundred stringent new labour regula- certain grades would tions: 6,000 receive wage-cuts; miners were to be sacked.

The miners were not long subdued. On September 20, strikes began aimed at making the the government withdraw wage-cuts imposed in May.

Barrientos declared a state A five-hour battle of siege. raged between miners and troops in Llallaguo and Siglo Veinte. After killing 32 miners and wounding 105, the army imposed a curfew. the miners Killed four policemen On September they were holding as hostages.

government In reprisal the the mines in closed down and Catavi, Siglo Veinte Llallagua and stated that no wages would be paid to miners involved in the disturbances.

To back up these measures, with soldiers armed 1,000 bazookas, heavy machine-guns and mortars were drafted into the mining areas. Barrientos was determined to use the harshest of measures to crush the miners. The strike was de- feated. orkers Proas, Monday May 22, 1972 PAGE 7 The recent struggles against Guillermo Lora showed that he had learnt nothing from the past 20 years of struggle by demanding that General Torres arm the Bolivian workers.

Lora has now assumed the mantle of Juan Lechin as a working-class leader tied to bourgeois nationalism; his advantage from the stand- Bolivian point bourgeoisie, is that he can Trotskyist with mask this phrases and international back- ing from the French revision- ists of the Organisation Com- muniste Internationaliste.

The recent Latin American CCI and conference of the Lora's POR ended in absolute confusion—it was agreed not to vote on the two resolutions.

The POR and the Argen- tinian group 'Politica Obrera' published a separate statement 'Olympian' condemning the attitude of the French. In this. epoch of socialist revolution, leftism is thrown into crisis. The most urgent task in Bolivia is the struggle for Marxism against those who have, for 20 years, paralysed the working class, hoping for Soviets to arise spontaneously from the Bolivian trade unions.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday May 22, '

OVER-POPULATION OR P

CAUSE OF WORLD HUN

FRANKS.

PART 1

'The fear of over-population always appears at periods when the existing social con- ditions are disintegrating. The general which discontent then flares up is ascribed primarily to the excess of people and the lack of food and not to the manner in which it is produced and dis- tributed? August Bebel-18791 In spite of drastic and deliberate cut-backs in production over recent months, many food and commodities in other Britain and the rest of the capitalist world re- main 'in glut' and in 1972 menace world markets with what is termed the threat of serious over- production. At the same time, it is being claimed that evacuation of farm workers and peasants from many rural areas is not proceeding quickly enough.

It Is precisely in this situa- that the advocates of tion have population control stepped : up their campaign surplus people' to against hysterical levels on the basis that food, space and resources are rapidly running out for the human race. Exactly at a time when the productive forces appear to be ready to burst from their capitalist fetters and produce enough for all, they proclaim the total failure of science and to provide technology ever enough. is not just a coinci- This Karl Marx long ago dence. showed that the over-popula- tionists are essentially spokes- men for capitalism in time of crisis and revolution. They attempt to prove that starva- tion and unemployment are in no way products of the con- tradictions inherent within the decaying system of production for profit, but on the contrary are a direct and natural result of the over-fertility and in- ferior abilities of the working class: Today this concept is more sophisticated and more elaborate. Malthus's 18th cen- tury arithmetical 'proofs' that outstripping population was food production are replaced analysis of with. computer economic data allegedly com- paring the world's situation now with the inevitable posi- in a few years time. tion Modern birth control methods replace his 'moral restraint' as 1 May 22, 1972

OR PROFIT? THE REAL

HUNGER. BY BERNARD

a means of keeping down num- bers. But the theory and its counter-revolutionary • message -that the most brutal action against the working classes and their organizations are justified by the exceptional circum- stances-are fundamentally the same. Certainly, the symptoms described by the over-popula- tionists do exist. There is in- deed a developing world crisis; over-crowded, workers are herded into slums; millions do go without food basic necessities; pollution is rife; unemployment is grow- world ing. It is by purporting to note vicissi- and document these tudes scientifically that they hope to buy themselves a reputation as objective exam- iners whose final diagnosis of the disease as a product of a high birth rate need not be questioned. self-evident truths of The 'too many people, not enough continually pro- food' are claimed through • every outlet of education and information —even magazines as diverse as 'Engineering' and Playboy' have got in on the act. Not so widely discussed, however, are the measures taken round the world by capitalism to hold back production and destroy 'surpluses'. A few of these in- voked in recent months are as follows: Potato Production In Britain, aircraft are being used by the Potato Marketing Board to spy on farmers to see that 'excess' acreage of potatoes will not be grown in 1972. The amount of land to be used for this crop is strictly limited.

The continual gluts stemming from improved yields led to overall acreage permitted being reduced from 590,000 in 1970 to 558,000 acres in 1971, (a 54 per cent reduction). In spite of this cut, bumper harvests and high yields fur- ther increased the supply and acreage has been cut a further 6 per cent (to 525,000 acres) for 1972. Altogether, the government and Board spent £18m buying up surplus potatoes in 1971. letter in Farmers' A Weekly' at the end of last year refers to 'hundreds of clamps rotting all over the country, which I understand the Board has bought from apparently and was growers . The Board unable to market'. buys up surpluses and tries to get rid of the stock in any way it can, as cattle feed or for starch production, but often it is cheaper to let it rot on the farms rather than pay for col- lection and storage. Dumping 130 tons of rotten onions in so When John Pardoe, a Liberal MP, asked in parliament about the 'spud spy in the sky' and commented that with "such problems as Bangla Desh, why should one most prosperous nations artificially limit its potato supply?' he was told by Anthony Stodart, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Agriculture: 'The marketing scheme is necessary and good. The air- craft is one of the measures adopted by the Board to help prevent evasion of the scheme and to keep planting as close possible the target as to acreage' Many of the major growers are in favour of restrictions in order to try to maintain prices.

Resolutions to the employers' organization, National the Farmers' Union, this year have called for 'stiffer penalties against producers who plant they potatoes than more should'. ('Farmers' Weekly', January 7) is also demanded Action against 'dumping' of potato granules and instant mashed potato from Canada which has its own 'surplus' problem made by anti-dumping restric- worse tions imposed by the USA, which, in turn, is faced with continual gluts. It is in this situation that the Tories actually conde- scended recently to 'stabilize' lower-the retail price of potatoes. Eggs Over the next two years, £20,000 is to be spent by the British Egg Authority on re search into of disposing ways of egg surpluses. The monev 1s to be divided between the Paint Research

ASOCALO

and the British Food Manufac turing Industries Association. The paint people will be look- inhite in housshold paint.

into ways using The chairman of the Egg Authority claimed at the end of 1971 that consumption must go up, or must production because come 'at the down moment there are about 1 mil- lion the too many layers 1n country. A director of Egg Farms Ltd probably the world's largest egg producing 20 per firm. controllng of the British market-called for a contraction of 2 to 3 per cent in overall production.

Pigs The national pig herd will be million down within a article year, accorailso diu 'Farmers' Weekly' of January 21, 1972. Bacon curers that because of are claiming the current glut 'profit margins have been reduced to nil -and below'. The chairman of the National Farmers' Union Pigs stated that sub- Committee stantial reduction would put the industry in a more stable position by the end of the year. Curers say that 'there is too much bacon about: we have to rectify it by somehow mak- ing less bacon. That is what we are setting about doing now. ('Financial Times', Janu- ary 14, 1972.) It should be added here that 'over-production' 'sur- and pluses' are relative terms. They do not mean that there is enough for all human needs with some left over, but that all available sales and market outlets have been taken up.

Capitalism is not interested in the fact that millions go with- out proper food, but only in acquiring profit. As Marx showed: 'It is only interested in demand backed by the ability to pay. The surpluses' are proclaimed long before enough is produced to fulfil the needs of the world's population.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

' German socialist associate of The quote is Marx and Engels. 'Women his book and from Socialism', the last part of which is no published in an abridged translation under title 'Society of the Future', 20p.

President Nixon and his entourage arrive in Mos- cow today to what, from all accounts, will be an enthusiastic welcome from the leaders of Soviet Stalinism. Brezhnev, Kosygin and the other Kremlin leaders have been so eager for this meeting that they have all but ignored the colossal US escalation of the Vietnam war for fear of interfering with the Moscow discussions. In the last month, the Americans have subjected North Vietnam to its worst- ever bombardment from the air —flying up to 1,800 sorties a week against roads, railways, workers' houses, hospitals and schools. Haiphong and the other main North Vietnamese ports under blockade, are their approaches sown with sophisti- cated 'unsweepable' mines.

The US has even begun bombing the river dykes of the Red River Delta — with the start of the monsoon only days away. Yet all these actions have passed with only the most formal of protests from the Soviet leaders. White House aides were openly jubilant last week as it became clear that Nixon's visit would not be called off after all. They had good reason for jubilation — the Kremlin had just allowed them to pull off one of the biggest acts of piracy since Captain Morgan.

To try and save his bankrupt puppet regime in the South, Nixon had gambled the world close to the brink of World War III-and got away with it. It will not save his South Vietnamese allies from defeat, but it can only serve to more vicious encourage even military actions in the future.

The British Stalinists' daily, the 'Morning Star' , faced with the purely platonic character of the Soviet protests, was careful not to raise the ques- tion of Nixon's visit. Instead, it covered itself in advance for all eventualities with the statement that: 'In denouncing Nixon's esca- lation of the war the Soviet Union has demanded the end- ing of the blockade and of acts of aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of Vietnam, and pledged con- tinued support to the Vietna- mese people. "Any actions it takes to fulfil this pledge and combat the illegal and barbarous actions of the US rulers will be com- pletely justified, and should be backed by all progressive people. 'Nixon's apologists claim that he does not want a "con- frontation" with the Soviet Union, and that he hopes that his visit to Moscow will go ahead. 'But could there be a more 'direct effort to provoke a con- frontation than the sowing of So mines in the path of ships • sta Nixon, Kissinger, Brezhnev, Kosygin.

engaged in lawful trade? Could measures be ally lated to heighten international tensions and make negotia- tions on other questions more difncult?' 'More difficult, but not difficult for the apparently too Kremlin Stalinists. As for their British counterparts, they were the Soviet praise Union's forebearance in not allowing itself to be provoked' Nixon's measures. 'Any action' was justified but not, apparently, the cancellation of Nixon's When of the dominated British Campaign Vietnam for Peace were asked whether they -would be demanding the visit be can- celled, they said it should go ahead. This is the treacherous face of Stalinist 'peaceful CU- with imperialism. exstence The requirements of the Viet- namese revolution are sub- of the ordinated to those Soviet bureaucracy. The mines • but the. talks go on. sygin-meeting today Why are the Soviet leaders so eager to talk privately with the leader of world imperial- ism? They want agreement on such topics as strategic arms limitation and European security. The mining of North Viet- namese waters and the escala- tion of the war should have indicated even to the most dedicated proponent of peace- that ful-co-existence imperialists remain as blood- thirsty as ever. If the US can casually vio- late international law in this manner, what is to stop them violating any agreement on arms limitation and 'mutual security?' What then is to be the basis of the peaceful co-existence for which the Soviet rulers are seeking? It can only be based on mutual agreement to police the world against revolution.

And it is this central fact which places the Vietnamese struggle in the greatest danger from Stalinist secret diplo- macy. Workers Pross You will have waited in an endless queue for a one-man bus-spent up to 15 minutes in the rush • hour while the harassed driver collects the fares and then risked breaking your neck as the vehicle jerks into action. The whole idea of the driver- operated bus was to economize service at the bus- the on workers' and the publics' ex- pense. The main aim was to get rid of bus conductors and cut down on costs. Well you will be pleased to hear that London Transport, 'innovation' who began the have been so successful in the campaign against the working class that they are now desper- ately seeking to recruit workers for the buses! Throughout London services are undermanned by an aver- age of 8 per cent—in central strength of the Lor on the conductor force is 12 per cent below establishment. This situation is likely to lead.to an intensification of the campaign to introduce more one-man busses. Conditions on these for the driver are very bad-so bad in fact that London Transport of is having a singular • lack success in its recruiting drive around the Chalk Farm and Willesden areas of London.

'It's finger-lickin' good, runs the ads on the Kentucky Fried Chicken boxes. The US Democratic Party are doubtless saying the same Fried Kentucky about the Chicken Corporation's (US) intervention on their latest behalf in the current presiden- tial election battle. headache A long-standing of the Democrats has been a bill for £5m (spent mostly on airline charters and _ television time) oustanding since 1968, Hubert the year they ran Humphrey for President. Fried chairman Kentucky John Brown is organizing a "telethon' next month with 100 kers Press, Monday May 22, 1972 PAGE 9 celebrity performers, urging viewers to donate. (Volunteers answering the phones have been told they can accept credit cards.) One of the show themes, says Brown, will be 'Charge, Democrats! Charge!' Prices for 'finger-lickin' goodness' give one the impression that it is certainly a long-standing theme of Kentucky Fried. Watch out for Colin Bass, the 34-year-old works engineer at Wilkinson Sword, Acton, London. He awarded the was Institute of Works Managers' top prize for 1971. How did Mr Bass develop his talents?

In the trade union movement.

He joined Wilkinson as an his apprentice and began climb upwards-trade union official, works' convenor and chairman of the shop stewards' committee. Now Bass plays boss to the 800 men he once used to represent. 'I think it's a definite advant- age to have seen both sides.

works' Our convenor now understands that I know what he is talking about? Now he's not keen to join a union. Managers fight their own battles, he says. What do the men think about his meteoric rise to power and wealth— .. • you get the odd guy saying I was bought off by the management.'

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday May 2 Dear Editor, Widgery Since the report on • Bloody Sunday was published the army is making British full use of its increased powers. I watched in the New Lodge Rd area of Belfast a youth being arrested and taken away for questioning. He was simply standing at the corner of a street chatting within

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TORIES ATTACK

THE UNEMPLOYED

The Social Security Swindle day May 22, 1972 yards of his home. Two jeeps full of paratroopers pulled gun up! positions were taken and the youths were questioned as to identification. One of them was then taken for questioning. crowd of A people were this time. The gathering by paratroopers were unconcerned.

In reply to accusations from some of the women and young girls, I saw one para mockingly bless himself. The New Lodge Rd area is a Catholic ghetto and this was meant as a deep insult.

I spoke to one woman after- people were afraid wards. The to give their names for fear of retaliation. She said that for the last three weeks the army have been lifting and torturing them constantly. The previous week her son was lifted at the corner of his house and taken to Glenravel St barracks for questioning.

The questioning, local resi-

A YOUNG SOCIALISTS PAMPHLET

dents told me, consists of the tortures-stabbing most hideous on the hand with a dagger, beat- ing on the privates, pushing a gun from behind. As well as that, detainees are given a drug and under the in- fluence of this are made to sign statements. It seems that with days the army is the longer using the daylight to harass and intimidate workers in the evening. This will have an opposite effect to that intended. There is only an increase in the hatred the people of this area have for the Tories and the army. The only answer is to unite with the English workers and force this barbaric Tory govern- ment, which is totally responsible for such crimes, out of power and to force the returned Labour government to withdraw troops from Ireland. H. G. Belfast. i...

PRICE: FIFTEEN PENCE

Dear Editor, The recent meeting of the Oxford All Trades Unions Alliance made clear that in the future workers may have to decide who they are going to listen to—shop stewards or officials controlled by the National Industrial Relations Court. The government must get the trade unions into a posi- tion where the power removed once and for all from the shop floor and put safely in the hands of top union officials whom they. can con- is one of trol. I think this the prices they want to make us pay for entering the Com- mon Market. The big question now is will the rank-and-file members allow the law to take away the rights of their shop stewards. A new kind of Court has been set up which has changed British law overnight. Now a man can be judged and found trial. guilty even without a Since the Industrial Relations Act came into force the trade union movement has been shaken up. In my area a large percent- age of militant convenors and shop stewards have been made redundant and where firms were organized just before the Act the employers afterwards set about a deliberate policy of clearing out the leading union members. I know of five or six places locally where this has gone on so what must be happening on a national scale.

The real crisis began while Labour government was the still in office when they issued 'In Place of Strife'. For the first time in their history the trade unions were faced with a situation where on the one hand they were financially sup- porting the Labour Party and the other being threat- on ened by it. A lot of Labour Party mem- bers were frustrated about this and there were one-day stop- pages and threats to ban the political levy until the Labour government backed off. But the Labour Party had lot of support with lost a people thinking they were the same as the Tories. When it came to the General Election stage was set for the the Tories to romp home because a lot of Labour voters stayed away from the polls. Tories rushed the The Industrial Relations Act through parliament • 1 with no

A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MARXISM PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNAT

Price 25 pe Volume 7 No. 3 Editorial: Class War and the Mass Party Draft International Perspectiv of the Fourth Internatio real opposition because many Labour MPs wanted something similar themselves. A new phase had come into the proceedings of parliament where we had a government prepared to go to all lengths to get what they wanted and When they eventually took on the miners the working class began to see that it was not just a strike about more but a deliberate money, attempt by the government to smash the unity of the work- ing masses. The working class stood together and the government lost. The government was now desperate and prepared to use the only weapon it had lett— the Industrial Relations Act.

Their actions began to mani- fest themselves as a real des- perate last-ditch stand. Once they had the union law behind them the engineer- ing employers felt strong enough to take on the unions.

The leaders of the AUEW abdicated their leadership by dropping national negotiations with the Engineering Employ- ers Federation, allowing the procedural agreement to be scrapped and opting for plant- bargaining. When the T&GWU was fined £55,000 for contempt of the the union leaders

NIRC,

decided not to fight but to pay, the fine and to send law- yers into the court to fight their case. Now the leaders of the rail- way unions are allowing them- selves to be used as puppets while the government are deliberately trying to provoke the men into an open conflict.

The real issue now is taking the Industrial Relations on Act and the Tory government and forcing it to resign before the trade union they smash movement.

FRANK TOMANY

AUEW member, Slough.

BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

Spring 1972 Price 25 pence Perspectives International

First engineers' sit-in in London Massey stewards' pay retreat angers

LONDON'S

first pay claim is now in its 12th day following the occupa- tion by 120 workers at the Stanmore Engineer- ing works. They demanding the are original claim of a £6-a-week increase, a reduction in the working hours week to 35 and one extra week's holiday.

The sit-in by Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers West Indian members, mostly workers, has provoked a most hitter resnonse trom management at the Alperton, North London, factory. They have cut off all electricity Convenor Bogle: The gov- supplies, blocked off the lift and Eric ernment started this thing barricaded doois to try and pre- WORKERS at the giant Massey Ferguson tractor factory at Coventry meet today to decide on whether to accept a £2.50 mànagement pay offer. They had been demanding £8.

BY A COVENTRY CORRESPONDENT

The firm has offered £2.50 tied bonus and new to earnings for £8-a-week stewards This guaranteed week structure.

increase, an additional four days' offer is being recommended to the meeting by the shop stewards' holiday at average earnings, working £1,000 shorter week, committee. cash award retirement and meeting At a previous mass lay-off pay at average earnings.

this same offer decisively was The decision to abandon this thrown out by the work force.

and recommend claim manage- But since then, the shop ment's £2.50 offer was carried by stewards have completely the narrowest of margins.

reversed their policy because of district and pressure from There is dissatisfaction with national union officials.

the committee's about-face among The original claim by the shop different sections of workers.

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BY OUR OWN REPORTER

vent shop floor workers reaching the first floor. It is on this section that tool- makers and draughtsmen - all members-are work- non-union ing on. If management can get new tools out of the plant, it would lessen the effect of the sit-in. Now about 20 men from the firm's Stanmore factory have joined the Alperton sit-in after they claim they were locked out by_management. Led by convenor Eric Bogle, the Alperton men, who make submitted die-casts, pressure their claim towards the end of March. On May Day they began a go-slow after getting no reply from management. 'On May 1l the works man- ager came up to me and told me •A machine division shop meet- ing last Thursday spontaneously demanded a meeting with con- venors. They threatened a walk-out if they didn't get one. At the meeting convenors and officials were heavily criticized.

There was total dissatisfaction, especially among dayworkers who, in many cases, earn far more than piecework gangs. Ultimately the meeting decided cEwan and Peter Cook are in the first ays by John Mortimer on BBC 2 tonght. 11.

London. 6.00 Newsday. 6.25 This Cla is your right. 6.40 London. 11.20 Scotland Yard casebook. TYNE TEES: 11.00 London. 1.25 Enchanted house. 1.40 London.

2.30 Common Market notebook.

3.00 Film: 'The Frightened City'.

4.35 News. 4.40 Once upon time. 4.55 Rainbow country. 5.20 London. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Love, 6.45 American style. London. 11.50 Saint. 11.20 Time four. 12.45 News. 1.00 Epilogue. SCOTTISH: 11.00 London. 2.33 Workers Press, Monday May 22, 1972 PAGE 11 thing on our claim, not a penny,' added Mr Bogle. f20 and es etters tors 17.50. the operators Some & of I was not working the machine the men take home less than £15 satisfaction, Mr Bogle to his or £16 a week.' 'He switched it off and told me. I switched it on. Last year Zenith Carburettor's This went for profits ran to £470,000. about ten minutes. Invest- 'Finally brought the elec- and other income reached he ment switch the power off. £175,000. Shareholders received trician to a 94-per-cent dividend. So I brought the factory together and we decided to sit-in. 'They have brought the police 'We think it is be better to in here five times already and and than outside we sitting Inl told us we were trespassing. And what they were doing in saw if they had a chance they'd lock Manchester. But we won't be giving us out. Some of the workers sitting-in them that chance. are women and they prepare the It's no offence going for our men's food. of an offence been declared rights- -what sort The sit-in has the AUEW's Southall can you commit doing that? The official by Support started this thing, district committee. has government other fac- telling what can earn. been promised us you trom It's a fight to the finish here and tories in the Zenith Carburettor we're going to win it,' said Mr group. 'We haven't been offered any- Bogle. Despite the last year's low to await the outcome of today's and attacks on the mass meeting. earnings shop stewards' organiz- assembly workers' Assembly shop p workers con- the fighting ation, hostility to tinually express spirit remains intact. the offer. After being laid off last week Incessant short-time working due to a storemen's strike, fitters.

has reduced fitters' wages to the imposed a seven-day ban on over- lowest level for many years. They The threatened time. company have been pressing for the lay- that unless the ban was lifted, off pay clause. further lay-offs would take place.

The guaranteed week offered assembly shop meeting An by the company has a built-in voted the shop to support reducing factor. On a five-day stewards' and kept committee week, 32 hours is guaranteed, on the ban on. four-day week hours is the assemblers An hour later guaranteed. laid off because paint were Internal would stop disputes found their working sprayers the guarantee being paid.

conditions unacceptable. Consequently workers fear that These disputes over the past the company will provoke dis- week indicate the willingness to putes in order to avoid pay out fight is ready to express itself at the factory. Today's meeting will when the tractor men are being be a test of that strength.

laid off by external strikes.

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Containers: T&GWU takes first step against militants PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday May 22 ENCOURAGED by his Common strengthened by the sectarian con rule in the North, Eire's Jack Lync step to re-introduce internment.

This is the meaning of last week's decision-emphatically denied, of course, by Justice Minister O'Malley, to transfer 40 Provisional IRA men from Mountjoy jail to the notorious Curragh military camp. Curragh has been host to many generations political of prisoners since the 1920s civil war. The present inmates were sent to Curragh ostensibly because they wrecked the Mountjoy jail on Thursday night. This argument convinces few, if any, and strengthens the pre- belief that internment has valent not only come to stay but is the prelude for closing the border and denying sanctuary for the Republicans. By opening the gates of the Curragh, Lynch opens the gate to a police dictatorship in Ireland.

Not only Republicans, but trade unionists and socialist and left- wing opponents to the Dublin regime are all equally threatened by this measure. RANSOME, Hoffman Pollard, the ball-bearing manufacturers, who are to sack 1,475 workers because of overproduction, lack of orders and severe competition from Japanese imports, was by the formed two years ago Industrial Reorganization Cor- poration which merged all the major British controlled firms in the bearings market. Production of general bearings has been kept at a high level in the hope of an industrial re- covery, but the firm say no new orders have been coming in.

This has been aggravated by Japanese firms selling in some ranges at between 20 and 40 per cent below British prices.

The sackings will end 530 jobs at Annfield Plain, Co Durham, 525 at Newark, Notts, and 320 at Chelmsford, Essex. 100 staff jobs at Chelmsford and Newark will also be axed.

• FROM P. 1.

round again to the idea floated in secret discussions with Tonge and other employers in 1970.

This involved of substitution the statutory guarantee of dock jobs contained in the 1947 Dock Labour Scheme with a purely industrial, non-legal 'no redun- dancy' agreement. Such a move would almost cer-

WEATHER

EASTERN England will be cloudy with occasional rain at first, but showery weather will brighter from the West. Western spread England, also Wales, Northern and Western Scotland Ireland spells and will have sunny occasional showers, the showers at times perhaps merging to give several hours of continuous rain.

Eastern Scotland will be dull and and with extensive hill wet coastal fog, becoming somewhat brighter later in the day. Tem- peratures will be near normal in the west and south, but rather cold in the North-East. Outlook for Tuesday and Wednes- and Sunny periods occasional showereriods longer of rain, periods and near normal temperatures.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

01-622 7029 Registered as a newspaper at the Posi i Street. London. Office. Publis Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU).

180b Clapham High Street, London.

SW4 7UG.

lay May 22, 1972 Common Market referendum and rian confusion unleashed by direct ack Lynch has taken his first major THE NEXT Labour government has to implement immediately its pledge to abolish all charges in the National Health Service and never re-impose them again.

This call went out yesterday from the annual meeting of the Socialist Medical Association.

Conference also declared that the Party's forthcoming Labour programme had to be health based firmly on socialist prin- ciples. Other motions demanded the democratic control of the NHS by staff and local authorities and the abolition of private practice.

It was necessary for Labour to nationalize the means of produc- tion to abolish poverty, said an- other motion. tainly be implied by redefinition of dockers' which work, currently being hawked around as a solution to the jobs crisis in the ports. And it could well win the back- leading lights on the ing of stewards' national port com- mittee. In the NIRC last week, Hull T&GWU official David Shenton spoke of a form of two-tier

MAY FUND

REACHES

OUR

TOTAL now stands at £1.174.90. With only £575.10 to raise by the end of the month, there must be no let up in this fight. Great challenges face the working class today. The Tory government will not halt vícious attacks. All our strength must be mobilized to force this government to resign. Workers Press has a very. role to play in this decisive battle. We urge each of you, therefore, to help us this month.

In these last ten days make a great effort for our May Appeal Don't sit back for Fund. a moment. Show the fighting spirit of the working class.

'MAKE IT A RECORD TOTAL.

POST EVERY DONATION IMME-

DIATELY TO :

Workers Press May Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High St London SW4 7UG. LACK OF ORDERS at Govan Shipbuilders on the Clyde has caused a crisis within the UCS shop stewards' co-ordinat- ing committee. Shop stewards at Govan are accusing the Clydebank stewards of 'going it alone'.

On Friday I understand their 'James spokesman at Govan, Airlie, did not attend a second meeting of the co-ordinating committee because of his disgust' over their attitude. Instead he called stewards to- gether at the Govan yard and claimed the Clydebank men were 'going it alone. Apparently James Reid—-a con- venor at Clydebank and Airlie's Stalinist co-partner at UCS-was 'tongue-tied'. The cause of the row was un- doubtedly the order position at Govan Shipbuilders, which hopes to take over three of the four old UCS divisions very soon. •The company is likely to start its life with six ships-four for the Irish Shipping Company and two for the Harrison line.

But these are all off the UCS registration under which dockers would gradually replace con- through tainer-depot workers natural wastage. Such a process could never meet the scale of the problem.

And it would merely transfer the redundancy problem to another section of the T&GWU. In yesterday's 'Sunday Times' steward however, shop London Bernard Steer got himself quoted

• FROM P. 1

days 1920, three before any oficial call of a General Strike by the TUC General Council. The Act declares: 'If at any time it appears to Her Majesty that any action has been taken or is immediately threatened by : or body of persons any persons of such a nature and on so exten- sive a scale as to be calculated, by interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel, or light, or with the means of locomotion, to deprive the com- munity or any substantial portion the community of essentials of life, Her Majesty may by proclamation declare that a state of emergency exists.'

just Since coming to power under two years ago, Heath has used various provisions of the Act four times—in the docks, dustmen's, powerworkers' and miners' strikes. But the next occasion will see the Act used on a scale reminis- cent of 1926. Troops will be used on the docks and railways, mili- tant trade unionists arrested and workers' publications closed down.

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

order list and have been awarded to the company by the grace of the government and the liquida- tors. A • further six vessels in the UCS pipe-line at the time of liquidation have either been cancelled or placed elsewhere.

What is more serious there is still no prospect of new orders.

The world market is at a pre- war low and the recent history of the upper Clyde does not exactly attract new customers.

Last Thursday the co-ordinat- ing committee met Govan Ship- builders' management and after- wards Airlie put out an alarmist statement on the orders: The situation is quite serious.

We recognize that it would be the worst possible start to the new company if there were a shortage of orders.' He said there would be an employment crisis at Govan if new orders were not received by the middle of May. is likely that at Friday's It meeting Airlie called for a joint to the government for appeal extra cash. But the logic of his own Stalinist policy had caught up with him. When they agreed to recog- as saying. that while job-loss of this kind would be 'very distaste- ful', the union was 'only reaping what it has sown in its drive for a bigger and bigger membership'.

The Liverpool stewards have themselves abandoned a key bar- gaining-counter in the jobs fight— allowing the opening of Seaforth container dock after a promise from the employers to reduce hours. Act allows the Privy The Council to create new classes of offences overnight and to pre- scribe penalties of fines or prison sentences. All traditional rights of 'justice' are instantly removed. Any com- ment or publication which attacks policy be government can branded as 'seditious' and the editors, publishers and printers jailed. This is the situation we are now entering. It is a situation fraught with dangers for the working class— not the least being the trade union leaders epitom- ized by the TUC's Victor Feather.

At a weekend conference of trades councils, Feather pleaded for the government to 'maintain extend' and consultations with both sides of industry. • fairly, Treated honestly and the unions would do their best help find solutions to the to nation's problems, he said.

Treated 'honestly and fairly' which is by government smashing the trade unions in its throwing hundreds court, thousands of people out of work, doubling rents and encouraging price and property rises.

nized Govan Shipbuilders, the Stalinist-led shop stewards' com- mittee also sanctioned the even- tual break up of the labour force under separate companies.

This happened on Thursday when the stewards ratified two establishing condi- agreements tions of work and procedures at Govan Shipbuilders. A day earlier a detailed agree- ment had been worked out at the Clydebank yard with the Texan oil-rig builders Marathon Manu- facturing. This kind of opportunism by the Stalinists has encouraged the most backward elements in the labour force. Clydebank now has a better commercial future than Govan Shipbuilders since it will supply the oil-rig market. The argument there is-why should we risk our own future by making further demands on which may the government jeopardize the Marathon take- over?' Now UCS workers in all the divisions face a future which will include an intensified drive for productivity, redundancies and possible further bankruptcy. This is what the Stalinists call a victory and their friends in the state International capitalist group Socialists call a 'partial victory'.

AN ATTEMPT by the National Union of Students to organize schoolchildren was launched this weekend.

About 100 delegates from schools in London and the provinces (leit) met in Lon- the National don and formed Union of School Students.

Their draft policy included demands for a fully co- educational comprehensive system, the abolition of all grammar and public schools control of and eventual schools by committees of students, teachers and parents. And in Hull on Saturday, stewards' leader Walter Cunning- ham announced the launch another diversion: the worker- controlled Hull Dock Labour Co.

These moves underline the urgency of a united struggle of all ports to force union action make the Tory government resign. Nationalization of all ports under workers' control-the only . to the dock jobs real solution crisis-can only be achieved this way. To resist the provocations of the Tory government, the labour and trade union movement must move decisively to create the con- ditions under which the Tories are forced out of office.

unionists Rank-and-file trade immediately implement this can campaign by demanding a recall of the TUC to affirm opposition to the Industrial Relations Act and all aspects of Tory policy.

At the same time councils of action must be built through- out the country to unite all fighting against those the government on all issues. The councils of action will become the political fighting unit of working class in the defence of its rights and in resisting the Tory offensive in •a General Strike. When a Labour government is elected the councils will demand that socialist policies are imple- mented and will fight any return to the Wilson programme which only served the interests of the employers. Every worker and his family has been summoned to action— • Prepare for 'the General Strike!