Workers Press no. 830

workers press

TORY TANKS

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

THE VAST military pogrom launched against the Catholic community in Northern Ireland marks a dramatic escala- tion in the Tory govern- ment's war against the working class in both Britain and Ireland. The last time the British army invaded on such a scale was in Aden when the Argyll regiment rampaged through the Crater district murdering civilians and resistance fighters. The same methods were used in yesterday's dawn Over 7,000 troops sweep. poured into Republican strong- holds — the task force was equipped for full-scale war with tanks, hundreds of armoured vehicles, light artil- lery and, in Derry, landing craft. This act of open war in Ulster serves as a great warn- ing to British workers. They will ignore these events at their peril. The same govern- sent in the tanks ment that threatens to use troops against dockers and has already jailed five of them. On an international scale the economy is facing an enormous crash. This will mean rocketing unemployment, poverty and more vicious oppression by the ruling class—in other words all the social conditions of Ulster today.

The Tory government will be forced to use its army against British workers too. It has no choice. This is why Ireland and Britain is one struggle, one fight for the working class. Brigadier Frank Kitson, who served in Ulster and is now head of the School of Infantry at War- minster, made this point crystal clear in his book 'Low Intensity Operations*. Kitson, one of the high flyers in the British army, said: 'If a genuine and serious griev- ance arose such as might result from a significant drop in the standard of living, all those who now dissipate their protest over a wide variety of causes might concentrate their efforts and pro-

INCORPORATING THE NE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

Troops start a search mission in Belfast duce situation which a was beyond the power of the police to handle. *Should this happen, the army would be required to restore the position rapidly.* The army action early yester- day morning had been carefully prepared by the Tories ever since direct rule in March. Their strategy is clearly revealed, and it is an indictment of the Repub- lican leadership. While both wings of the IRA were involved in the phoney manoeuvres with the peace Tories' Ulster Secretary William Whitelaw, the army - through Ulster Unionist leaders like ex- premier Brian Faulkner-consoli- dated their hold over the extreme Protestant organizations.

It was surely no coincidence that the Ulster Defence Associa- tion and the Vanguard movement were warned in advance of the invasion and immediately pulled their barricades down. The Tories have used these forces as a bargaining counter against the Republican • leader-

G THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY AUGUST 1,

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

in Belfast after yesterday's Invasion ship and as a source of intimida- tion of the Catholic community.

Then the Provisionals played their last card and fell into the trap. They swung violently from the most opportunist negotiations with the Tories on peace to another bout of indiscriminate terror. This gave the Tories the final opportunity to prepare the neces- sary conditions for invasion.

Whitelaw said yesterday that the pogrom was a direct response to "Bloody Friday' - July 21 — when women and children were killed by Provisional bombs.

But he did not reveal that the army and the Ulster authorities allowed this slaughter by ignor- ing IRA advance warnings on where the bombs were planted.

The army is now in a posi- tion to root out, arrest or kill all Republican elements left in the North. Only one force is capable of dealing with the armed killers of British imperialism-the unity of the working class of Britain and Ireland. The Socialist Labour No. 830 4p

UGUST 1, 1972 •

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

A Catholic barricade Is br League has pointed out consist- ently that army terror in Ulster can only be stopped by class action to force the Tory govern- ment to resign. This has great relevance to workers in the Republic. Their Tory premier Jack Lynch was told of this invasion hours before it occurred. But he did nothing to warn the Irish workers of Belfast and Derry his alliance with Whitelaw and the British Tories is too precious to the capitalists and bishops of the Republic. Irish workers must remove this man and his party by class action has betrayed them once -he more. The labour movement in both cade is broken up. Another picture p. 3 nations must unite and fight for this programme now - • All British troops out of the North immediately. • Disbandment of the army at home and abroad. • A General Strike to end the Tory government. • The election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies control and without compensation. • For a socialist united Ireland.

When the army 'did a Dresden' oth in Derry. See p. 3.

workers press

TORY TANKS

ROLL IN

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

THE VAST military pogrom launched against the Catholic community in Northern Ireland marks a dramatic escala- tion in the Tory govern. ment's war against the working class in both Britain and Ireland. The last time the British army invaded on such a scale was in Aden when the Argyll regiment rampaged through the Crater district murdering civilians and resistance fighters. The same methods were used in yesterday's dawn Over 7,000 troops sweep. poured into Republican strong- holds — the task force was equipped for full-scale war with tanks, hundreds of armoured vehicles, light artil- lery and, in Derry, landing craft. This act of open war in Ulster serves as a great warn- ing to British workers. They will ignore these events at their peril. The same govern- ment that sent in the tanks threatens to use troops against dockers and has already jailed five of them. On an international scale the is facing an economy • enormous crash. This will mean rocketing unemployment, poverty and more vicious oppression by the ruling class—in other words all the social conditions of Ulster today.

The Tory government will be forced to use its army against British workers too. It has no choice. This is why Ireland and Britain is one struggle, one fight for the working class. Brigadier Frank Kitson, who served in Ulster and is now head of the School of Infantry at War- minster, made this point crystal clear in his book 'Low Intensity Operations'. Kitson, one of the high Ayers in the British army, said: If a genuine and serious griev- ance arose such as might result from a significant drop , in the standard of living, all those who now dissipate their protest over a wide variety of causes might concentrate their efforts and pro-

INCORPORATING THE NE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

Troops start a search mission in Belfast: duce situation which was beyond the power of the police to handle. 'Should this happen, the army would be required to restore the position rapidly? The army action early yester- day morning had been carefully prepared by the Tories ever since direct rule in March. Their is clearly revealed, and strategy it is an indictment of the Repub- lican leadership. While both wings of the IRA were involved in the phoney with the peace manoeuvres Tories' Ulster Secretary William Whitelaw, the army - through Ulster Unionist leaders like ex- premier Brian Faulkner-consoli- dated their hold over the extreme Protestant organizations.

It was surely no coincidence that the Ulster Defence Associa- tion and the Vanguard movement were warned in advance of the invasion and immediately pulled their barricades down. The Tories have used these forces as a bargaining counter against the Republican leader-

G THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY AUGUST 1,

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

in Belfast after yesterday's Invadion ship and as a source of intimida- tion of the Catholic community.

Then the Provisionals played their last card and fell into the trap. They swung violently from the most opportunist negotiations with the Tories on peace to another bout of indiscriminate terror. This gave the Tories the final opportunity to prepare the neces- sary conditions for invasion..

Whitelaw said yesterday that the pogrom was a direct response to 'Bloody Friday' - July 21 - when women and children were killed by Provisional bombs.

But he did not reveal that the army and the Ulster authorities allowed this slaughter by ignor- ing IRA advance warnings on where the bombs were planted.

The army is now in a posi- tion to root out, arrest or kill all Republican elements leit in the North. Only one force is capable of dealing with the armed killers of British imperialism-the unity of the working class of Britain and Ireland. The Socialist Labour UGUST 1, 1972 • No. 830 4p

E SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

A Catholic barricade ls be League has pointed out consist- ently that army terror in Ulster can only be stopped by class action to force the Tory govern- ment to resign. This has great relevance to workers in the Republic. Their Tory premier Jack Lynch was told of this invasion hours before it occurred. But he did nothing to warn the Irish workers of Belfast and Derry- his • alliance with Whitelaw and the British Tories is too precious to the capitalists and bishops of the Republic. Irish workers must remove this man and his party by class action —he has betrayed them i once more. The labour movement in both cade ls broken up. Another picture p. 3 nations must unite and fight for this programme now - • All British troops out of the North immediately. • Disbandment of the army at home and abroad. • A General Strike to end the Tory government. • The election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies of nationalization under workers' without control and compensation. • For a socialist united Ireland.

When the army 'did a Dresden' in Derry. See p. 3.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972 Nobody's selling yet... The Daily Gold: Record Telegraph: a statement

THE TORY

post-war price 'Daily Tele- graph' has uncovered a plot'. It got front-page lead treatment in yes- With terday's editions. photographs. In Its later editions the "Daily

BY AN ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT

express pickea up ine same scare story Their 'plot', belleve It or not, THE 'FREE MARKET' price of gold continued to climb steeply yesterday. It was wue roung nual summer held in fixed in the morning in London at $68.90 an ounce-a new post-war record and Essex. The facts are these: up 65 cents on Friday's closing price. Despite a considerable demand for the Toung Past four yees hi the or the metal, however, there were few sellers. Gold-holders clearly expect the price to rise past Essex years still further in the near future.

educational outing for suppor- ters and their families. The gold price rise is a For the month or more direct consequence of the vent a devaluation of the Italian youth paper of the Young would further disrupt failure of all efforts to reach Keep Left', which economic The internal reacons agreement among the major within the

EEC.

At the recent claims about 'secrecy', etc., Franco-Italian summit it was look a bit sick. capitalist countries on the the inal

LWU

counties distortions These future of the international woula press tor an Increase In tne are official gold price within the in line with and prompted the Tory government's at- following so as to protect monetary system Common tack on trade unionists. Nixon's measures of August ilaly " excilallst 40 create a scare Italy per Walt LO holos about cent under of its reserves in gold and under 15 last year. Market rules its and order 'defence of the rule Common frighten

EEC

of law'. They In particular, the Tory deci- wall ceri to olner central Dalks the which supported lira the hoat bound has Righting organizations the month should be repaid in this forced the other Common class. gold. working Telegraph', which Marker countries to lake aes official gold price were perate action to protect their runs scare stories raised for transactions within the AbOUT Ol wants 10 jail own currencies against another Common Market it would make camp, rush into the Com- spate of parity changes the renayments easier for italy to mon петріоу- neal Germany and Holland are try- ment at 'reasonable levels' However. it would also create council housing and ing severe gold in smash WIth exchange con- price trols to stave off another revalua- official Heath in power. $38 an ounce fixed above all, keep lo une which would tion make The working class will Treasury UN ano Loe 'free market' arouble rice which their slanders and exports ever поте expensive treat those of United this figure. The now nearly distortions with the utter States. move wola imensily contempt they deserve. the existing trend towards the they are diso wynng to pic

FOREIGN NEWS

Fears for safety of Vietnam dykes feet but claimed the damage attacks on dykes several

NORTH

VIETNAM

of the was accidental above the level hear a verv dangerous Previously US spokes- character since is a O all, systems Nixon denied calculated effort to President had any withstand cently admitted that the to dykes, dykes give make une disastrous flooding on the testimony way easily once been

UCO VALC

damaged by US planes, a large caused water level high of many eye-witnesses. scale the by systematic the flood season.'

SADAT IN LIBYA

US American bombard- charged the with launching de- of

PRESIDENT

following president An war liverale Phan My, the vice- against the Sadat Egypt was Sadat's decision to end destrucuon con- minister dykes, damaging or de- Libyan the massive Soviet pres- by thousands of Egypt. servalon. salu Gad- Muammar ence in Hanoi: metres of river and sea The Libyans, however. dan when ne arrived in 'Although the bomb- walls. Tobruk yesterday have mounted big ing and shelling against Monsoon floods discuss Libyan calls for campaign for , a merger en- danger the lives of mil- and Libya ayKes unner cruelween Vietnam yet Vietnamese Egypt, addition have JOns the two nations. caused floods because the Red River Delta if the the Federation According ot A ran the the dyke Republics (FAR) which level in system Egyptians, the two men the water will links the two rivers discuss the

NOT

nsen •reacnea prescill aireduy The rivers in Viet- nations with Syria. high, the calculated US Middle East situation Nixon's man in Moscow trade talks

PETERSON,

estimated and source of raw TRe ment costs. of Com- American Secretary amount to at least $4,000m for material. held hours of one gasfield alone. For Americans the three the Crimea talks are step to- Communist talks. described as for-

WITN

Soviet congenial, Party chief Leonid Brezhnev ward-looking and wards reane mier andon Nixon's slomilin in Crimea Sunday. follow-up. President in this part of the world.

the May. Nixon The of large officials, the injection

ACCOONIY

two men discussed 'concrete carreed amounts American cabilal steps towards the talks that economic and com- into the soviet har hast and mercial links im- Siberia mo bpoly of foreign in throws natural ioint development the foreign trade resources ano tre manacare portant and necessar and sale various products'. strengthening the which is one oI the This is believed refer bilateral relations and thus will tions the Soviet social promote the growth of the actively system. possibility of American bir of 'peaceful business developing natural- its pursuit suciues. resources in American capitalism has withrempray is Siberia. co-existence' gas, neer had its on the Stalinist bureaucracy such scheme the long eye forced Soviet Union make major conces- wollo mier cell Imense Ilalulal reserves the gas the United States Soviet Union, international capital-

DOTH

as Sons develop'_ the vast outlet capital investment to pay climb steeply yesterday. It was e-a new post-war record and a considerable demand for the s clearly expect the price to rise hostile monetary formation of blocs and the complete break- down of the remaining interna- tional monetary agreements.

abolition dollar Nixon's of convertibility, the bedrock of the capitalist monetary post-war system, has also created a severe the International for CrISIS Monetary Fund. A number of countries, includ- ing the United Arab Emirates and Bangla Desh, want to join the Fund, but have no monetary gold to pay their entrance fee.

France and Japan have refused to participate in an IMF scheme to raise the gold from the main Fund members on the grounds that had the US not suspended convertibility the states involved could have bought gold from the American Treasury at the (cheaper) official price.

Last year Syria broke the IMF agreement by buying gold on the free market to repay debts to the Fund after the US and other countries had refused to sell the metal from their reserves.

AUSTRALIAN Tory premier William McMahon has threatened to recall parliament and take emergency powers unless striking oil maintenance workers return to work. The maintenance men's month- long strike has brought much of the country's industry to a stand- still, but the government is determined not to concede their wage demand. McMahon's get-tough policy follows a major retreat by 'left'- talking union leader Robert Hawke who heads the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Hawke allowed a to return work at two oil refineries under Australian ownership, while the strike continued at refineries of Esso, Mobil and Shell. This satisfied neither the employers nor the Tories. The employers insisted that the oil from the refineries should be made available to all companies, fll but the refused to men tankers from the 'blacked' firms.

As a result, these refineries strike again. are now out on McMahon has said Meanwhile, that Hawke's compromise is not enough: "The critical point is that the dispute as a whole has not beer and we cannot permit settled group to any one person or decide who will or will not get petrol, he said. Hawke replied that the govern- "for a change' ment could play useful role if it brought the a oil companies back to the negotiating table. In fact, however, the Australian Tories are bent on breaking the strike by whatever means they can muster. THREE THOUSAND production workers at a Rolls-Royce plant in Coventry yesterday voted to accept an interim pay offer of an extra £2.50 a week. The workers, who make jet had threatened strike engines,. action in the event of an un- satisfactory offer. Shop stewards, recommending meeting, acceptance at a mass said there were to be further talks at national level. ABOUT 650 people are to lose jobs their under plan announced yesterday by the giant Manchester-based footwear group, William Timpson Ltd., to shut down one of its subsidiaries at Kettering. The group's board said that employees of Tite and Garfirth (T. Shoes) Ltd would receive about €150,000 in redundancy payments, plus £50,000 in ex- gratia awards 'in an endeavour to minimize the inevitable hardships created by the closure'. close in The factory will and the group December will cease manufacturing footwear. It will concentrate on retailing. The group said heavy losses in 1969 resulted in the then manu- facturing division of the Timpson being and reorganized, group emerging as Tite and Garfirth (T Shoes) Ltd. Despite vigorous management action, the company continued to lose money until 1971.

THE GOVERNMENT was urged shirt imports yesterday to peg at a 'reasonable' level. The British Shirt Manufactur- ers' Federation expressed grow- ing concern at 'the accelerating rate of imports from low-cost countries'. It felt a critical situation had with imports been accounting for domestic market consumption.

If the current trend continued, Britain would import 45 million shirts in 1972 (compared with 22 million in 1970). Federation chairman William Cole said: 'We are seriously perturbed by the latest figures which show an ever-quickening rate of imports Taiwan, from countries such as Portugal and Hongkong? Manufacturers recognized that the situation would come within the scope of a promised review of all textile imports, but wanted the government to give their par- ticular problem special considera- tion. ONE MIDLANDS car strike con- tinued yesterday after the sum- mer holiday-but another was settled. strike at Jaguar Cars at The Two continued. Coventry seeking better thousand men piecework rates have been out since the end of June. Another 3,000 have been laid off and £7m lost in production. But the strike at Rover's main War- assembly plant at Solihull, wickshire, is over. The plant stayed shut yester- the day-delaying return 4,000 workers from almost holiday. But the 120 internal drivers whose dispute over job-grading and Land-Rover stopped car production for two days before have accepted the holiday, a union recommendation and agreed to return to work today.

The management has asked all laid-off workers to report back starting normal times at tomorrow, with the exception of about 250 men on the Range Rover assembly line, where pro- duction will be held up until later in the week because of a shortage of parts.

When the army 'did a MR JOHN POULSON, the Yorkshire architect, resume giving evidence in the Wakefield bankruptcy court today. At the previous public hear- ing Poulson interrupted his evidence when he suddenly felt ill. He was taken from the witness box to hospital, but later allowed to go home.

At the time he broke down Poulson was explaining how cer- tain sums of money were paid to high-ranking civil servants and to MPs. He was also asked about a covenant paid to the Adeline Genee theatre trust for Mr Regi- nald Maudling, chairman of . one of his companies. As a result of these revela- tions and because of a fraud squad investigation into the Poul- son empire, Maudling resigned as Home Secretary. Since Poulson last gave evi- dence to the court, the bank- John Poulson ruptcy hearing has been proceed- ing in camera. Last week a busi- ness associate of Poulson's, Mr T. Dan Smith, gave private evi- dence. Smith, former head of the Northern Economic Planning Council and ex-mayor of New- castle, was public relations con- sultant to the Labour Party.

In 1964 Smith founded Open System Building Limited which later became one of Poulson's key companies. After Smith left the firm, it was taken over by Mrs Cynthia Poulson and a blue chip board comprising Sir Bernard Kenyon, clerk to the West Riding County Council, and a senior official of the National Coal Board. inquiry Whether the Poulson proceeds today depends to a large extent on the parallel investiga- tion by Commander James Crane of Scotland Yard's fraud squad.

At the time of Maudling's resignation Tory leader, the Edward Heath, announced that into the Crane was looking on the instruc- Poulson group tions of the Director of Pub- lic Prosecutions The court may be unwilling to continue with the fraud squad investigation now under way.

ACTORS' Equity has lodged in application-this new time conjunction with film employers -for closed-shop approved an Industrial under the Relations Act. The application has been made National to the Industrial Relations : Court by the union and the Film Producers' Associ- ation of Great Britain. If granted, it would cover the production of feature films and television series. The applic- ation could be referred to the Commission Industrial on Relations without a formal court hearing. Already Equity has lodged a joint application with the theatre employers for an approved closed- shop. Its leaders are supposed to be fighting the same employers for a £30 minimum wage in the West End. The union has been suspended from the TUC for registering under the Industrial Relations Act. SHORTLY after 5 a.m. yesterday British troops marched into a house on the corner of the Creggan Estate in Derry and announced to the occupants that the premises had been requi- sitioned. Under Section 32 of the Special Powers Act the army demand private accom- can modation for their own use.

The disgruntled owner of these particular premises walked out into the street and asked one of the officers in charge: 'How long are you going to be here?' 'About a week,' the officer replied "That's too fucking long,' the man said. 'You've been here 800 years already.' This exchange is a microcosm in Derry yester- of the feeling day as the British army unleashed its full might on the two no-go ghettos Creggan and Bogside.

It was a huge show of strength. Centurion tanks, Sala- din armoured cars, armed person- carriers, helicopters, eight battalions comprising 5,000 men.

THE INVASION plan was drawn up in August last year just after internment. The permanent bar- ricades were thrown up in the anger which followed the shoot- leutenant in the Provisional wing of the IRA, on August 18.

When General Robert Ford put the scheme to Stormont, he received backing. enthusiastic But in London the operation was considered to be extremely hazardous. For instance, one of the critics of the plan asked the generals: 'Okay, so you smash the barricades and occupy the no-go areas, but can you hang onto them? Won't this expose your soldiers to snipers from every rooftop in the area?'

The generals gave reassurances, their however, that casualties would be light'. . They argued that only a full-scale onslaught could hammer the republicans into submission. One politician who was dis- quieted by the plan told his 'Some of these colleagues: generals are alarming chaps. They think they're fighting World War Il over again. We're not taking Dresden, you know. It's only a suburb of a tiny provincial town.?

In the event, the 'wisdom' of generals prevailed. On Sun- the afternoon a special com- day held in memorative rally was "Derry to mark the six months since Bloody Sunday when 13 civilians were shot down by the First Paratroop Regiment.

Good God! I do believe he's Vehicles on the move during Monday's ll People at the demonstration were emotional and apprehensive.

Ulster The Tories' Secretary, William Whitelaw, had announced that their resistance would be broken and the news on radio and television was filled with information about troop move- ments. The Provos were told of the imminent invasion week last when the government announced the despatch of a further 4,000 troops. Since then they have been gradually slipping out of Derry and Belfast and heading to sanc- tuaries in the republic. ANYONE on the banks of the River Foyle early yesterday morning would have seen an extraordinary sight. Large motor- ized barges carrying a cargo which was heavily tarpaulined.

At Fort George, an old naval berthed and depot, the barges the equipment was stealthily un- loaded. They huge Cen- were turion tanks fitted with special earth-moving apparatus. At 4.05 a.m. the Provos' siren in the Creggan began its terrible wailing. In the streets a number into life and of cars roared started racing up and down the blowing their horns. streets barricades Down the the at Centurions went into action crushing the barricades. Workers Press, Tu ve he's coming back for more

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN DERI

NO PERK

londay's Invasion in Derry In Bogside things went differ- ently. The people heard the siren, heard the roaring engines , their road- black - faced the ways, soldiers climb over their garden fences and scramble from one doorway to the next. There was no resistance. Just a deathly sullenness. Every soldier had been speci- fically instructed to act with the This was utmost courtesy. stringently adhered to. One case was reported of a Scots Guard losing his cool. He fired a rubber bullet at the legs of a teenage girl who was in a and jeering. He crowd clapping was immediately relieved of duty. The army used six battalions to take the Bogside and Creg- gan — the First King's Own Borderers, the First Royal Scots, the Second Royal Grenadiers, the Second Light Infantry, the Third Royal Fusiliers and the Scots Guards. The public relations organiza- tion which was' assembled simul- taneously with the troop move- pains to explain ments was at that two regiments-the 20th Medium Regiment and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers-had also taken down barricades at Derry's • Press, Tuesday Auguet 1, 1972 PAGE 3

IT IN DERRY •

Protestant area of the Water- side. But as these barricades were built by the Unionist-backed Ulster Defence Association as a bargaining counter, the PR gim- mick fell rather flat. Further evidence of the way the army has worked hand-in- glove with the Loyalists was demonstrated late Sunday on night when a Vanguard spokes- man admitted that he and his colleagues had received prior information that a major mili- tary operation was underway.

'That is why, he explained, 'we last night called upon Loyalists to remove their barricades.'

He ended his press comment with a curious statement: 'All we now hope is that the troops will be allowed to go in and do the tied, job without their hands job'? Is there Do what another "job' besides the removal of the barricades? Of course there is. The Tory government knows it, the army knows it, the Unionists know it, the capitalist press knows it.

Murder, terror, torture and in- ternment has not broken the re- sistance of the Catholic working class. In desperation Heath and his colleagues have chosen their 'final solution'.

OF A MAJOR TORY FRAUD

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday August By Peter Jeffries Part 2 The Zinoviev Letter was the focus for a capitalist press campaign to pre- vent the Labour Party from coming to power. In fact the men behind the forgery were not only the propaganda barons of Fleet Street but staff in the Tory controlled Foreign Office. The result was that many overshot the mark. The Letter was in fact forged in Berlin earlier in 1924 with the deliberate intention of try- 'ing to smash any trade treaty between Britain and the USSR.

Berlin was the leading Euro- pean centre for the activities of the circles of professional anti-communists who plotted and planned in a desperate attempt to bring about the downfall of the Soviet regime by any possible means. The letter was drafted by an Alexis Bellegarde, a brilliant linguist, virulent anti-Bolshevik and a later employee of British Intelligence. It was largely as a result of the revelations of Bellegarde's widow in 1956 that it was possible to uncover all the main details of the fraud. Bellegarde was assisted in his task by Alexander Gumansky another devoted anti-com- munist and member of the large émigré Russian commun- ity resident in the Berlin of the 1920s. The forging actually placeon took notepaper stolen from the Soviet Embassy in Berlin-in the third floor apartment of, 117 Eisenach- erstrasse in the Charlottenburg district. After the job was done the passed onto the forgery was Polish government who seized on it, knowing it to be a fake, as part of their efforts to crush the young Soviet regime. General Paciorkowski was the key man in this stage of the operations. A few embell- : made to the ishments were document which then was passed on to British intelli- gence. The man who almost cer- tainly picked it up from the Poles and brought it to London was Captain Sydney Reilly, a spy in the service of leading British intelligence and a close friend of Churchill. a British agent he had As established himself as a mem- ber of the Soviet government and was later condemned to death in absentia for his part in an attempt on Lenin's life.

The tone of his anti-Bolshevism be judged from the may following despatch: 'Here in Moscow there is growing to maturity the arch- enemy of the human race ...

monsters of crime and per- versions ... Here the foulest, most monstrous and most passions gibber and obscene swagger in the seats of govern- ment.' Reilly passed on the letter— which he certainly knew to be a forgery--to Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, a key figure in the direction of British intelli- gence. But in order to force the

THE STORY

Zinovier letter was week before MacDonald Donald in publication Reilly contacted also friend and former Conrad Donald im Thurm. It was Thurm to be the vital link between the Conservative Party, the Foreign Oice and the Secret Service.

General Election, published and the first ever Henderson British spy vative party, the Foreign Office and the Secret Service the forgery his old British spy who was October 1924, ent. Left to right: J. H. Thomas, Rar Home Secretary Above : and the vital link between Cor and the Secret Service. Im Thurm, also City circles for his anti-Sc views, educated at Radley, director of the London Ste ship and Trading Corporat as the Russian Vo teer Fleet. Thurm, after being of the letter's contents . (he never actually saw copy), then approached Guy Kinder- which owned the remnants of the fleet of merchant vessels sley, Conservative MP for Hitchin, and contacted the Conservative Party treasurer, Lord Younger, who agreed to pay £7,500 for the letter, to be given to Reilly (whose identity was not apparently disclosed to the Conservative leader) for his services in help- ing to engineer the defeat of the Labour government. But the 'Daily Mail', the most determined anti-working- class paper in the preceding weeks, also obtained its own It got it from Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, war-time director of Naval Intelligence, later Conservative MP and the Party's Principal Agent. source was, in turn, Sinclair who had worked for him during the war and who claimed he was convinced that the Labour government was about to wind up the intelli- gence service. A key man in the conspiracy was Mr J. D. Gregory, head of the Foreign Office Russian Department, an anti-communist with many friends in Russian émigré circles. It was Gregory, agreement of with his Foreign Office chief, Sir Eyre Crowe, who released the forgery and drafted the letter of complaint to the Russians.

1, the alleged In doing so Gregory ignored or overnment fell. altered many of MacDonald's omas, Ramsay corrections to the original bove: Conrad draft. tween Conser- Gregory was later to be sacked from the Foreign Office so noted in when, in 1928, in connection is anti-Soviet with a case involving currency deals, it was revealed that he i Radley, was had used his access to Foreign ndon Steam- Corporation, Office cables to speculate in issian Volun- French francs. Despite Baldwin's protest- er being told ations that he always believed the letter to be genuine, all the top Tories were part of the conspiracy along with their Civil Service and police friends.

The Tories established a fake Cabinet Committee of inquiry into the event after the Tories had won the election chaired by the Foreign Secretary which found 'no foundation' to Labour charges that the letter was a forgery. Gregory's dis- And when missal threatened to reopen the scandal in 1928, Baldwin produced a signed statement from im Thurm, a mixture of downright lies and misleading statements, which was used by Baldwin to avoid any inquiry into the conduct of the Civil Service. im Thurm was duly And rewarded. He was paid his £5,000 out of the personal account of Lord Davidson, then Conserv- ative chairman. The money was paid to Major Joseph Ball, director of Conservative publicity who transmitted the money to im Thurm. Whether the latter actually paid Reilly is not known. Thus the Red Letter scare was over. It had done its work in securing the election of a Con- servative government at a vital time. Not only did it show the cunning and deception which the Tories have always dis- played against their opponents.

It also revealed the weakness and perfidy of the Labour leaders whose reformism left them utterly prostrate before the conspiracy. 1972 is certainly not 1924.

No doubt the working class today will be on the look-out for any such attempted frame- ups. The Zinoviev letter should be a serious warning to every worker now engaged in battle red against the Heath government.

Above: Peasants in a village. Below: V

BY JOHN SPENCER

In the last two months, three Peruvian towns have been on General Strike. The first was in Arequipa against the sacking of miners and Puno against the murder of workers, and in Tru- jillo in support of wage demands. At the moment, conflicts are likely in the mines against the arrest of miners, in the textile industry against the closure of factories and in assembly plants against rationalization. Both the capitalist press and official communiqués have kept a complete silence on the reasons for the June 27 demon- stration in Puno against Presi- dent Velasco's military govern- ment when his wife visited the city. In his press conference on July 5, Velasco described the demonstration as 'evil and scandalous' Below: Velasco proclalming land-reform laws.

Puno is a depart- In fact, ment full of unemployment and extreme poverty. Thousands of landless peasants are under attack from the measures in 'progressive' the so-called agrarian reform. This legitimate public dem- onstration met with violent repression; three demonstrators were killed and many others wounded. Demonstrators reacted by attacking the headquarters of the hated Republican Guard and a six-day General Strike followed. These actions forced the government to retreat and troops and tanks were with- drawn. The city was controlled by the working class and the local radio stations only broad- cast statements vetted by the working class. There were only solidarity strikes in Cuzco and Arequipa.

The Stalinist leadership of the Peruvian trades unions has not protested about the military's attack. This complicity has allowed the military government to take situation by control of the murdering another worker, arresting many and declaring a state of emergency and . the constitutional suspension of guarantees in the whole depart- ment. The Stalinists are working might and main to prevent a political fight against Velasco's repression. The Peruvian CP is cam- paigning for 'the reorganizing Ministry of Labour' of the because 'the revolution has not reached there yet'. They claim the government's anti-working policies are a result of class 'corrupt functionaries' of the governments who previous still remain in office. Yet Velasco's 'revolution' is aimed precisely at the destruc- tion of the working class and its organizations in Peru-the i of a fascist corpor- preparation The Peruvian ate state. Stalinists are pursuing a policy which can only lead to their own destruction and the dis- organization of the working ved class. Workers Press, Ti The Investment and Commercial Bank, based in Split, Yugoslavia, is in serious trouble. To put it crudely, the bank has been issuing credit like a drunken sailor on a spree, without any funds to back it up. As a result, its debts to the National Bank of Yugoslavia now amount to the staggering total of 675 million dinars.

This is only marginally less than £20m. earlier this At a meeting the bank's manage- month, ment declared that the main reasons for the troubles 'lay mistaken business policy, in objective factors playing only a secondary role' It will take until the end of 1973 to pay of the debt to the National Bank, despite 'tremendous efforts' by other enterprises Dalmatian to smooth the management's task.

The bank's insolvency, how- ever, has created big problems for Dalmatian industry. The cut-back in credit facilities means that all new construc- been indefinitely tion has postponed. Nationalist China, India and Israel all have reactors and enough plutonium to produce nuclear bombs. This has been revealed by a special report drawn up by the United Nations Association of the United States. The development in Nation- alist China (Taiwan) is particu- larly suspicious. Canadian ex- perts are building an atomic reactor that in one year will produce enough plutonium to make an atomic weapon. Taiwan already has four reactors, but these are fuelled enriched by 20-per-cent uranium which is subject to in- ternational restriction by the United States and the Soviet Union. But the $35m Canadian pro- ject to be built in north Taiwan will be supplied with natural uranium which is not subject to any safeguards and can be bought freely on the reactor market. The open will come into operation next year and is understood to be capable of producing 22lbs of plutonium a year-enough for a bomb. Because of the sudden • Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972 PAGE 5 Only contracts which have already started are being car- ried through. These include a hydroelectric station on the river Cetina at Orlovac, an aluminium combine at Sibenik and a hydrated alumina works at Obrovac. An index of the severity of the crisis is the close interest being taken by President Tito in the bank's affairs. Last week he met Dr Ivo Perisin, pre- sident of the Croatian execu- council, Ante Jurevic, tive president of the Split municipal party organization and Jaksa Milicic, president of the Split council. was told about the Tito restrictions on investment and informed that new investments would not be undertaken until the economic situation had improved and the economy was stabilized. He reportedly showed 'special interest' in the Indust- and Commercial Bank's rial problems. Perisin told him a of investment in great wave tourist buildings had taken place in Split and this had led to the bank's difficulties.

Following great efforts, he added, the bank had now be- gun to function normally.

switch the experts believe that led by the ageing Taiwan, communist hater Chiang Kai- shek, could be planning, to divert plutonium into nuclear weapon production. Reactors of the Taiwanese type are already in production in Israel-deeply involved in the Middle East confrontation with the Arab states-and India where a research reactor is capable of producing 209lbs of plutonium. It takes 13.21b to produce the "tamped sphere' to form the critical mass which is the as a workable thing same atomic bomb. The proliferation of nuclear weapons makes nonsense of the United Nations' pious but totally useless platitudes and plans for control of weapons of mass destruction. The so-called treaty to stop the spread of weapons is now four years old, yet is unsigned by nine countries which have the power reactors or research reactors operating within their borders capable of producing weapons. Below: India's reactor

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972

BY JOHN CRAWFORD

'War, used to A wave of Churchillian which be cruel and magnificent, has now ballyhoo is swirling become cruel and squalid... round Fleet Street in the It is all the fault of democracy War has wake of Richard Atten- and science be à gentleman's ceased to 'Young borough's film game.' Winston'. It is not just But when, in 1914, British imperialism had to defend the work of the film itself against its rivals, industry's public rela- difficulty Churchill found no tions machine, however. in sending hundreds of thous- ands and men to most Amid economic crisis horrible deaths "demo- in randal, orping tog sigh is public way. heard from diary of An entry in the Finchley: where is the Leader, Lady Asquith for 1912 shows the strong man? Where is the this aspect of the Churchillian man to put strikers their 10 'W. in glorious form place? Where is the Man on make-up. slightly Horseback? though over-concen- trated instruments of It is not surprising that the destruction. Blasting and middle i class, the little men, idées look back shattering are now his with longing. on the fixes. we leaned side writer of the words: If As by ever side against the taffrail, gliding defeated in this country is past the lovely. smiling coast- war, I hope find a we may of the Adriatic, bathed Hitler to lead us back to our ine I "How in sun, remarked: rightful place among the perfect!" He nations' (Winston Churchill, startled me by his reply: "Yes-range perfect 'Great Contemporaries', 1936.)

-visibility perfect—If we hạd Or the politician who on visited Mussolini in 1927 and six-inch guns on got some declared to the Rome Fascisti: board how easily we could etc." 'If I had an Italian, bombard. • etc. and been details followed showing how would have been with you effectively we could lay from the beginning to the end waste landscape and the blow the of glorious struggle your He against the bestial appetites of nestling towns sky-high. Leninism.' was enthralled the tech- of naval warfare and Of of this nology course, none his of its in appears in the reverent presen- sense results human terms was for the time tation of Attenborough. After being in abeyance? all, was not the script worked Churchill was then maby the ate eft Character but a 38-year-old not Whatever "character schoolboy, politician. Three later, defects' are depicted in the years as First Lord of the Admiralty, film Churchill's role as enemy he ordered the Gallipoli land- remains of the working class 200,000 men died as a decently hidden. ing. Who the real Young result. was But in 1895, when he joined Winston? He was grandson of Hussars, the Fourth he had the Duke of Marlborough, son single death. of the Tory still to cause a discarded leader He sought eagerly to remedy Lord Randolph Churchill. A this lack failure at Harrow, he found Young his way through the army to Winston no was ordinary guards officer. His journalism and parliament.

family connections spread His aggressiveness, pugnacity ruling and ambition throughout the class ruthless were and he used them charac- not merely personal move teristics. They sprang from the around the world and to of British imperial- advance his career at high situation. Thus he able ism at the height of its brutal speed. was to military action, thrusting, his first conquests, brash, not in the British army at all, utterly self-confident its in the Spanish but with drive for profits. army struggling to suppress a revolt Churchill only became the in Cuba. supreme leader of imperialism (The Ambassador in Madrid fiddled his papers.)

the proud British lion when had become a toothless, mangy old beast. But in those early years, his style of bombastic, fulfilled Then in 1896 he sailed with rhetoric pompous équally the needs of his own his regiment to India. There the he played polo, drank whisky personal ambition and and began to prepare himself requirements of his class, the become a class which ruled the world.

to war correspon- dent. In 1930 he looked back Lord Randolph had tried— and failed-to turn on that time with nostalgia: the Tory If you liked to be waited towards the backward Party and of elements of the working class.

relieved home on 30 years In Ulster, in particular, he dis- worries, India ago covered that the Orange card All you had was perfection. to do was to hand over your is the card to play'. From his Sandhurst days on, uniform and clothes the to Winston the dressing boy, ponies to was working in your direction, finding his the and your money to same syce, the butler, and you need never way towards demagogy. And They in the use of military force to trouble any more.. would devote their lives subdue the colonial peoples, their task. For a humble wage, he was learning the methods which the Empire in decay justice. and a few kind words.

would one day employ against there was nothing they would the British workers. not do. Churchill was always fascin- No wonder he later saw In 'My Early India as 'the brightest jewel in ated by war. Life' he says: the English crown'. Young Winston toyed with the idea of joining the Turkish armies then oppressing the Greeks, not as a soldier, but, as he put it, to 'merely see the fun and tell the tale'. Instead, he decided to get however, himself sent to fight the revolt on the North- of tribesmen West Frontier. To achieve this, strings had to be pulled once more. As on other occasions, his mother's influence was of great assist- here. We not ance are interested in precisely how this influence was exerted: reports indicate that it was not entirely Churchill political. Anyway, reports: 'Meanwhile I had been com- missioned as war-correspon- dent by the "Pioneer" news- paper, and my mother had also arranged in England that my letters should simul- taneously, published in the "Daily Telegraph"! experience of From his the borders of action on Afghanistan arose Churchill's book, 'The Malakand first Carl Foreman Field Force'. He describes the fighting with gusto, and makes no bones about the methods used: official parlance the burning of villages is usually expressed euphemistically as "So many villages were visited and punished", or, again, "The fortifications demo- were lished". I do not believe in all this circumlocution. The lack of confidence in the good sense of the British democracy, which the Indian government displays,. is one of its least The admirable characteristics.

of islands only people our require to have the matter put fairly before them to arrive at sound, practical conclusions. If this were not so, we should occupy our present posi- not tion in the world. The upholder of such bar- barism does not blush to refer 'savages' to the Afgliqus as elsewhere in his book. Churchill's first book already exhibits all the characteristics of his life's work. It shows complete and unquestioning confidence in the right and duty of British capital to rule the world. It never so much as existence of mentions the workers or peasants, except as instruments of that passive right. And it puts in the fore- the ground of picture one dominating figure: Winston Spencer Churchill. Churchill's next move was to get himself attached to the army of Lord Kitchener, pre- paring to crush the revolt in the Sudan. This took a great deal of effort, especially on the part of his mother. Hostility his col- among leagues was now quite vocal.

As he says in 'My Early Life': "They began to say things "Who the devil is like this: this fellow? How has he man- aged to get to these different campaigns? Why should he write for the papers and serve as an officer at the same time?

. Why should Generals show him favour? Apart from this, Kitchener himself was extremely hostile to Churchill, an enmity which he never lost. But the inter- vention of the Prime Minister put everything right, and Win- was able to participate ston happily in the crushing of thousands of Sudanese peasants. Omdurman, Churchill At took part in what was to be the last cavalry charge of the British army. (Publicity for the Churchill film shows at the •MY gallop, sword in hand. early Life' explains how a dis- located shoulder made it neces- sary for him to sheath his sword • and rely on his Mauser automatic. But the sword is much more glamorous.) was ready Now Churchill for his next step: I therefore planned the sequence of the year 1899 as follows: To return to India and win the Polo Tournament: to send in my papers and leave the army: to relieve my mother from paying my allowance: to book and the write my new letters to the "Pioneer": and entering parliament, chance of to look out for a His book on the Sudan, "The River War', came out at the end of 1899. Earlier in that year he had fixed himself up with a by- election candidature at Old- ham. His fellow candidate was a "Tory working-man', the of the Operative secretary Spinners Association, believer in "Tory Socialism'.

Their Liberal opponents were two eminent mill-owners. Of Churchill lost course, the election. Something more was needed before he could Land ph Churchia Ca Bird: Home Churchil. Contre: His make his mark in the political life of capitalism. His chance came with the outbreak of the Boer War. Appointed by the Morning Post' its principal as war- correspondent, Churchill sailed for Capetown as British im- perialism embarked on major effort to secure complete control of the wealth of Africa.

Churchill's exploits in this war — his the rescue armoured train, his capture by Botha, escape and his his return as a soldier are all well- known. After all, did he not write about them at length himself? with They provided him material for two more books.

And they made him well- enough known to enable him to sweep into parliament on the wave of jingoism at the 'Khaki Election' of 1900.

So Churchill's plans had worked out: from the army to journalism; self-advertisement Workers Press, Tusadi dan revolt, nbove: Churchill in India 1896 with the oth Right: Kitchener through books, as a stepping- stone to a career in parliament.

In 'My Early Life' , he quotes several articles of the time which criticized sharply this path to the top, and even cast doubt on the truth of some of his statements. Later work shows that he always wrote not about what actually hap- pened, but about the course of events he would have liked to have happened, history as it should have been - from the Churchillian standpoint. Behind the glamour and heroism of popular legend, the romantic picture presented by Churchill himself and trans- ferred to celluloid by Atten- borough and Foreman, stands the real Young Winston. Bullying his way into every imperialist adventure he could find, pushing himself un- ashamedly into the limelight, intent on becoming a leader of his class, Churchill as a young man was the precursor of the capitalist statesman of later years. This was the apprenticeship rkers Prose, Turoday Augu s 1, 1972 PACE V 1896 with the 4th Hussars. Below loll: Lord

YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS

of the man who sent the troops against miners in 1910, who threw millions into the imperialist slaughter, who desperately fought to smash the October Revolution, who worked day and night to defeat the trade union move- ent in 1926, and who, when his former friend Mussolini and his ally Hitler came into conflict with British imperial- ism, drove the workers he had fought at home into a second imperialist war. Even before that war was finished, Churchill had approved the atom bombing of japan, and was already getting ready for World War III. Even Stalin could not reconcile him to the continued existence of the Soviet Union.

The middle-class Tories will, no doubt, cheer their hero once again. But his world is disintegrating, the social order he upheld is in its death agony. The working class he so hated and despised is moving forward to sweep it away forever.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972 The book by Roy Medvedev translated as 'Let History Judge: the Origins and Consequences of Stalinism' (Macmillan £5.75) is the first independent attempt in the Soviet Union to under- stand the Stalin era which has come out of that country. It is a damning indictment of Stalin and Stalinism which confirms about the bureaucratic everything which Trotsky wrote degeneration of the first workers' state. From the great tension under which it is written, its passion drawn from the sufferings of millions of people, is also a testimony to the fact that the conquests of the October 1917 Revolution have not been destroyed. Medveder writes as a communist intellectual, an oppositionist who is harassed and persecuted for his struggle to tell the truth as he sees it. His book has great merits and deserves a careful study both for what it provides in the way of corroboration for the Trotskyist analysis and what it leaves out. On some crucial questions the book is fundamentally wrong. This series of articles submit Medveder's book to with the aim of detailed scrutiny pursuing the struggle against Stalinism to the end. It will deal in particular with his errors and omissions and point the way for a more rounded analysis which must begin with the works of Trotsky which are cited in the footnotes.

BY TOM KEMP PART 5

Stalin have found it difficult to admit that the trials were frame-ups from start to finish.

Medvedev quotes from British Stalinist R Palme Dutt who said 'the final verdict on the whose validity is dis- trials, puted by many living, will rest future historians'. Dutt, with one of the leading apologists for Stalinism and all its crimes, is treated with the contempt he deserves: "The truth is', says Medve- dev, 'that all these trials were completely fraudulent. They The full and frank ex- theatrical were monstrous posure of Stalin's crimes, presentation that had to be coming as it does from in- rehearsed many times before it could be shown to spectators.'

side the Soviet Union, is Trotsky and his supporters valuable corroboration of argued along these lines from what, outside it, can be beginning? the The lies and found in a host of publi- contradictions of trial every were exposed by them when cations. not only the Stalinist press in Medveder's position is every country but a multitude limited, however, by his failure of bourgeois organs accepted Marxist to explain in terms the veracity of the testimony the social sources of Stalin's of the accused, which today everyone knows was extracted power and the cult with which it was surrounded. the most brutal physical He dismisses implicitly the and mental tortures. theory that it was an inevitable Nevertheless, the trials and outcome of Leninism or Bolshe- the purges, which cost the vism. Lenin would never have lives of hundreds of thousands permitted such a cult of his of communists, are still treated own person as grew up posthu- with an embarrassed silence in mously under Stalin's direction.

the press of the Soviet Union In fact, Stalinism was the and in the international com- direct antithesis of Leninism It is true munist movement. and could arise only by des- that all the defendants in the troying the Bolshevik party and trials have been rehabilitated physically liquidating the as citizens and some restored Opposition which continued its to Party membership - post- traditions. humously, of course-but the But what of the Communist verdicts have not been formally Party, of which Medvedev, annulled. Nor have the sland- intents and ers against Leon Trotsky him- purposes, remains a loyal member? He self- -'the principal accused'— has admit: The Party been retracted. to directly or indirectly particip- Medvedev also reports: ated in these events, and for 'Not one of the books on many of its members it was Party history that appeared Congress hard to abstract Stalin's crimes after the 20th Party and mistakes from the general mentioned the trials of the flow.' 1930s. 1960 Neither do the It is probable, as Medvedev and 1961 textbooks on Party considerable suggests, that a history. The 1962 textbook has number of Party leaders at the "The two lines on the subiect: 1934 17th Congress in were repression of the 1930s was prepared to depose Stalin and begun against former ideolo- Sergei Kirov. replace him by gical who opponents, were This would explain the represented as agents of impe- of Kirov assassination on rialism and foreign intelligence services". Stalin's orders, as hinted at Khrushchev at the 22nd by The 1964 History of the Congress, as well as the high.

prepared

USSR'

the Insti- by mortality the tute of History of the Academy rate among of Sciences was a little more delegates following in the years! explicit, but not much. Basi- From 1934 the cally, the bureaucracy is afraid purges began in earnest, starting with of an honest reckoning with Stalin's former political the past which would reveal its opponents and critics, even own origins and the complicity those who had recanted. A of its acknowledged leaders series of show trials was held with the crimes of the Stalin in Moscow, starting with era. former Trotskyists and Zinov- It cannot permit the story ievists. of the The sinister Yagoda Opposition's struggle to had organized the who first be honestly reported. It cannot show trial was himself arrested allow all the documents to be replaced Yezhov and by read. It cannot make accessible as head of the NKVD.! to historians all the secret files, supporters of if any survive. Longtime Above: Sergel M. Kirov. AssI It prefers to hold the keys * to the archives for fear that the: secret of its own social nature be will revealed. The same cringing fear of a reckoning with the past prevails in the leadership of the Communist Party of Great Britain and in the other communist parties.

'It was obvious,' concludes Medvedev, Stalin's 'that extermination of former oppo- sitionists was not accidental; it a premeditated, planned was political act.' he believes, was Revenge, the primary motive. By creat- ing a constant state of emer- through terror Stalin gency was able to concentrate more power in his hands. The logic of the situation led him to terror into the carry that ranks of his own, ostensibly, loyal supporters. In its final paroxysm in 1937-1939 the terror cut deeply into the highest Party and state circles as well as into the high command of the armed forces. The list of Stalin's victims is a cross-section of the bureaucracy whole. had to be opened, many in the most desolate spots in the Soviet Union. The execution squads of the NKVD were never idle. This was the greatest repression in history.

In 1936-1939, on the most cautious estimates, 4 to 5 mil- lion people were subjected to repression for political rea- At least 400,000 sons. to 500,000 of them — above all high officials-were sum- marily shot; the rest were given lons terms of confine- nent. In 1937-1938 there were days when up to a thousand people were shot in Moscow alone. These were not streams, these were rivers of blood, the blood of honest Soviet people.

The simple truth must be stated: not one of the tyrants and despots of the past per- secuted and destroyed so many of his compatriots.' This is Medvedev echoing what the Trotskyists said about the Moscow Trials and the purges which followed them— sinated on December 1, 1934 at Stalin's orders at the time. All these events were known to many people wi in the communist parties out- side the Soviet Union who not only kept silent, but made themselves the apologists for Stalin and his crimes. Most of them have remained silent to this day. What do they have to say in the light of Medve- dev's book? Soviet state brought to the brink of disaster As the whirlwind of repres- sion swept through Soviet society, causing innumerable tragedies and creating human a national trauma which has not yet been healed, it also brought the Soviet state to the brink of disaster. No shred of credence now clings to the theory that the purges were necessary in order to sweep out dangerous opponents, in- competents or fainthearts.

Stalin's own claim that the class struggle intensified in the process of building socialism, like all his theories, was intended to cover up his own arbitrary rule and give some semblance of justification for what was otherwise inexcus- able. That some honest people communist parties accepted this theory makes it all the more tragic and dis- creditable, makes it all the more necessary that the truth should be told and admitted.

There are now many works by those of Stalin's victims who by some chance were able to escape, or who lived through the horrors of the prisons and camps. They add their testi- mony to the damning picture of his tyranny. What remains puzzling to most of them, and to those historians who have examined the development of Stalin's regime as a whole, is why these things happened.

After Khrushchev's "secret' speech to the 20th Congress in 1956, this question had to be faced in the Soviet Union under conditions where the bureaucracy, which owed its position to Stalin, now had to disavow the departed boss ple without undermining their own position. It tried first to get out of this dilemma by blaming Stalin entirely for the repres- sions of the 1930s while main- taining that he had been right in his struggle against the Opposition in the 1920s. While a certain amount of leeway existed for criticism of the purges and the rehabilita- tion of Stalin's victims, it was beyond never allowed to go certain limits and it had to be carried on within the fiction of the 'cult of personality. That is to say, all the crimes and repressions were blamed onto Stalin and the search for reasons why Stalinism had been permitted to arise on the soil of a workers' state was prohibited. In 1956 and the following years, when a certain amount of discussion of the Stalin period had to be accepted, the bureaucracy fell back on a banal and idealist explanation.

The crimes and 'excesses' were all the fault of Stalin and of the 'personality cult'. The bureaucracy adopted a historical method in dealing with its own past which was completely opposed to the materialist conception of his- tory. To search for the material basis of Stalin's power, as they well knew, would involve an investigation of their own past.

This they could not permit undermine because it would their authority, call into ques- tion their power and privileges.

in Hungary in The events 1956, which raised the spectre of the political overthrow of the bureaucracy, were a ter- rible i warning. The 'de-Stalin- ization' campaign was kept within very strict limits. Stalin was simply written out of the official histories. All the great questions of the Stalin era remained unanswered. One wing in the bureaucracy was opposed to Khrushchev's "revelations' and favoured a rehabilitation of Stalin. In the main, by the 1960s, an uneasy equilibrium reigned. But the history of the Stalin era was

Above : Genrikh Yagoda who organized still enveloped in a cloud of lies and dishonesty. Medvedev's book, which was probably not alone in this, sought to pierce this cloud and bring the truth to light. A thirst for truth about the past evident in many sections was of Soviet society, but especi- ally among the youth and among sections of the intelli- gentsia who formed a new Marxist opposition around individuals like courageous Piotr Yakir, General Grigor- Medvedev enko and the brothers. An unhealthy and embar- rassed silence about the past prevails not only in the Soviet Union, but also in the com- munist parties generally, where it is even more shamefaced and cowardly since there is no risk from the NKVD, no danger of being locked up in a psychiatric ward. But to investigate the past means, as we have seen, to deal honestly with the strug- gles of the Left Opposition, the only group which put forward Stalin's alternative to an course; to renounce the theory of 'socialism in one country' and to seek the material roots of Stalinism in the bureaucra- tic degeneration which set in after Lenin's death. In other words, it means the vindication of Trotsky's struggle to main- tain the continuity of Bolshev- ism and of his analysis of the rise of the bureaucracy. Stalin's rise to power co- Yazhov: Who replaced Yagoda organized the first show trial, was himself arrest incided with the emergence of the bureaucracy as a privileged caste in the first workers' state in which the revolution was isolated from the world proletariat in under- an developed, predominantly peas- ant and petty-bourgeois coun- try. Of all the Party leaders, the • chose Stalin bureaucracy as the one who could deal most effectively with its enemies and guarantee its privileges. And Stalin's control of the instru- ments of repression rallied to his side the careerists and place-seekers intent upon power, privilege and income.

Stalin insisted upon adula- tion and his supporters gave it to him in full measure. But, as Trotsky pointed out: increasingly insistent The deification of Stalin is, with all its elements of caricature, a element of necessary The bureaucracy has regime. : need of an inviolable super- arbiter, a first consul if not an emperor, and it raises upon its shoulders him who best responds to its claim for lord- That "strength of char- ship. acter" of the leader which so enraptures the literary dilet- is, in tantes of the West, reality, the sum total of the collective pressure of a caste stop at nothing in which will defence of its position. Each of them at his post is thinking l'etat—c'est moi. In Stalin each easily finds himself. But one Stalin always finds in each one a small part of his own spirit.

Stalin is the personification of the bureaucracy. That is the substance of his political per- sonality." Trotsky saw Stalinism as a variety of Bonapartism on 'the basis of a workers' state torn by the antagonism between an organized and armed Soviet aristocracy and the unarmed toiling masses'. It owed • its birth, he insisted, to the be- latedness of the world revolu- tion-an essential point which Medveder completely fails to grasp. 'In turning its back on the international revolution, the self arrested, and replaced Stalinist bureaucracy was, from its own point of view, right.

It was merely obeying the voice of self-preservation."

A success for the revolution- ary working class at any time during the 1920s and 1930s, by turning the tide of defeats which had succoured the bureaucracy and opening the road for the Soviet proletariat to unseat the bureaucracy, would have been fatal for Stalin and in his own empiri- cal fashion he knew it. From 1933 Stalinism, with- out doubt, had become a con- sciously counter-revolutionary force, intent only upon main- taining its power in the Soviet Union. 'Socialism in one coun- try expressed its credo: but it was not socialism which it desired. As an excrescence on a workers' state which had been into existence by a brought proletarian revolution, the roots of the bureaucracy were to be found in the nationalized property relations. Reactionary in its foreign policy, despotic at home, the Stalinist bureau- cracy nonetheless, could not restore capitalism or establish form of exploiting a new society and establish itself as a new ruling class. Defence of the conquests of October, therefore, requires an unremitting against struggle Stalinism, for the political revolution and the overthrow of the bureaucracy. Medvedev implicity rejects this pro- gramme. He wants to find a way of reform; but because he rejects the Trotskyist alterna- tive-the only alternative other than a return to capitalism— he cannot get to the bottom of Stalinism.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

'On the trials see 'Moscow Trials Anthology', and Max Shachtman, 'Behind the Mos- cow Trials'. New Park Publica- tions. 'See M. Shachtman, op. cit.

'L. Trotsky, 'The Revolution Betrayed', p. 277. "Ibid., pp. 278-279. Workers Prose, Tuseday Auguas 1, 1072 PACE • The 'Morning Star' boasted The prospect of last Monday's the other day that Mrs Irene one-day General Strike had an Swan, chairman of the Com- electric effect in some ruling- munist Party, has been elected Evans, class circles. Harold a delegate from editor of the 'Sunday Times' the National Union of Public Employees to felt sufficiently concerned to the TUC in September. bring his holiday forward four Here's a piece of last week's days and leave the country. history Mrs Swan off to? involving Where did he rush which is worth recording.

Greece, of course. At a meeting of the Edin- Trades burgh and District Council the executive commit- tee moved a motion calling for the immediate release of the We reported the other day the five jailed dockers and for a handsome donation of £2,500 step-up in the fight to defeat Tory by the to government the Industrial Relations Act, International Social Services of 'if with industrial action Great Britain, very necessary'. charity is which During the discussions on work among immigrants. the motion, and in reply to We noted that president of the contribution made by an the charity committee is none

ASTMS

delegate who clearly Beryl other than Maudling, exposed the treacherous role wife of the ex-Home Secretary.

the TUC leadership was play- The list of donors to the ing, Mrs Swan "it stated that charity includes some other was possible for the General interesting people. They include Council of the TUC to lead the Kleinwort Benson Limited, trade unions in General the merchant bankers, and the Strike successfully... Sir Cyril Kleinwort Charitable 'After all you cannot com- Settlement. pare them with the General Before the General Election Council of 1926. They are not of 1970 a director of Kleinwort right wing. We should SO Benson Mr Reginald was confidence in full have the Maudling. TUC leadership because of the powerful left-wing element it contains,' she said. then She went on to say that 'the intervention of the Official Solicitor was in itself Who said the noble savages of a victory for the trade union the Chelsea set were dead? At movement... The Tory gov- a monstrous party the other ernment has retreated, and can evening the twits and chinless be made to retreat further by wonders of the ruling class the repeal of the Industrial threw buns at each other and Relations Act'. poured champagne down the This sounds very much like front of the debs' dresses in a riot of fun-making. the 'All power to the General Cleaning Council' line of the Stalinists lady who turned up the next in 1926. And we all know moring found a human finger where that led... among the debris.

LEON TROTSKY:

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New set of purge trials open in Prague British and French CPs avoid outright condemnation PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972

BYJOHN SPENCER

THREE prominent opponents of the Warsaw Pact occupation went on trial in Prague, Czechoslovakia, yesterday charged with subversion. Milan Huebl, the former rector of the Communist Party college and a one-time Central Committee member was in the dock alongside Karel Kyncl, a former television commentator and Karel Bartosek, a historian.

This is the seventh trial of Czechoslovak fortnight; in the last oppositionists people, all of them supporters of former party have already Alexandr Dubcek, secretary been sentenced to jail terms.

The trials, aimed at crushing the Dubcek tendency, under preparation for have been months. They have now provoked a reaction and British Communist from the French Parties. carefully-worded given to The statement Georges Marchais, the reporters on Friday by secretary, avoids con- French party's general demning the triais outright.

recalled the Marchais pledge February French made last The Warsaw CP leader Roland Leroy by the Pact invasion general Czech secretary party 'opposed' by Gustav Husak: CP& -in one has been or will be No words only their tried arrested or will Socialist legality opinions. respected. be scrupulously added that the Czechoslo- He vak CP had informed the French that 70 people had been arrested, half of whom were than more after only hours arrest Legal some taken action was arrest. against 32 people of whom some freed and others sentenced were Eleven are still to prison terms. awaiting trial. He on: went hostile to 'When forces subversion, socialism resort to Then the French Stoli-ist sabotage, just violence or It is waged relentless these forces leaders that and necessary besmirch the according the campaign be punished defendants' names, and there was law. no slander too dirty for them to to information 'But according at these victims of Stalin- throw disposal, which have at our we Ism. these trials are not aimed against Slansky his and fellow such activities. defendants had spied for almost imperialist 'When it is a matter of political conceivable every ideological one intelligence They had opposition, service. or by means betrayed their closest comrades. should move forward of an intense political struggle.

They were traitors, fascists and according the saboteurs to statement begs far Marchais' French CP. more questions than it answers. which Almost exactly the same words What is the "information disposal' and if by the Com- were used British we have at our Party. Monty Johnstone, it does show that the trials are munist the aimed 'subversion, V10- now party s attempt at not at why does the 'human face', wrote at the time: lence or sabotage' CP not condemn the trials out- 'Slansky, former general secre- right? Czech CP, 13 tary and The 28 people condemned to found guilty of associates were US past spying and sabotage for the sentences over prison Many all tried and its satellites. were weeks were on charges of subversion. Marchais shown to have acted as spies in 'not aimed the labour the trials movement since pre- says Such activities can against such activities. war days. • must be and rooted out Then why does he not come of the through the vigilance openly and denounce the out workers the crude trials for what they are: rendered stronger and healthier. frame-ups organized for the pur- ('Challenge', January 10, 1953.) of the continued crushing

OUSE

Then the Communist Party opposition the Warsaw Pact to showed no reluctance to swallow occupation? Now, the Kremlin's lies. when it Like the rest of the French question of exposing them, 1s a Party Communist leadership, the British CP it 1S, put Marchais trained under was mildly, less than forthright.

Maurice Thorez and Jacques In a statement buried on page Duclos as an unregenerate 'Morning Star', Stalinist. During the Czech purge five of the CP's Falber of trials of 1951 the French Com- Reuben the executive, munist Party virulently de- national wrote: "There is of adequate nounced Rudolf Slansky and the official information (!) but accord- other victims of Stalinist frame- of the ing to reports most ups. I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

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186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

Name Address 959 1954 defendants appear to have been accused of producing and distri- buting leaflets on people's rights in last autumn's elections. If the reports on the nature of these charges are true, the proceedings and greatly to be sentences are deplored.' Falber's conditional phrases have the same mealy-mouthed purpose as Marchais. Like the French Communist Party, the Stalinists protested British weakly over the invasion in order to carry favour with the liberal middle class. Then they kept a very 'low while, profile' under Soviet advice, the Soviet puppets in Czechoslovakia, led by Gustav Husak with Kremlin advisers in the background, prepared the way for the current show trials.

No protest was heard from either Party when the defendants in the present trials were arrested. Nor did they raise any objection to earlier an specifically anti-Trotskyist trial, which resulted in prison sentences. They were silent also when of the the packed congress Czechoslovak trade union organ- ization deprived the workers of the rights they had won under the Alexandr Dubcek administ- ration—the right to strike to elect workers' and committees form tendencies within the to unions. watched in silence as They Husak cleared the way to try the former liberal bureaucrats of the Dubcek era, many of them per- sonally known to the British and French CP chiefs. Their statements on the trials are a contemptible evasion and are designed, . like the original protests over the Soviet invasion, to allow unimpeded progress towards better relations with the middle class. For the French Communist Party leaders this means pre- serving their relationship with Francois Mitterand, leader of the Socialist Party and Joint signatory of the reactionary 'common pro- gramme of Popular Frontism with the CP. The British CP leaders, who are also wooing the middle class, make their miserable complaints about the trial for the same reason. Their despicable record since the invasion of Czechoslovakia is proof of the worthless character of Falber's protest. paper that leads the fight against the Torles. £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and senid to: 186a Clapham High St., Circulation Dept., Workers Press, London, SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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ITV

11.10 Outlook. 12.25 Women. 12.50 Cook Book. 1.15 Bellbird.

1.25 Felix. 1.40 Batman. 2.05 Castle Haven. 2.30 Good After- noon. 3.00 Houseparty. 3.15 Let's Face It. 3.45 Danger Man. 4.40

BBC 1

Yak. 4.55 Showtime. 5.20 Full House. 5.50 News. 6.00

THE

DAVE

CASH RADIO

9.45 Joe. 10.00 Casey Jones.

PROGRAMME.

10.25 Sounding out. 10.50 Adven-

6.25 CARTOON TIME.

tures of Tintin. 10.55 Magic 6.40

CROSSROADS.

roundabout. 11.00 Cricket. Eng- 7.05 QUEENIE'S CASTLE. (New land v Australia. 1.30 Trumpton.

Comedy Series.) with 1.45-1.53 News and weather.

Diana Dors. 1.55 Gwlad a thref. 2.20 Cricket. 4.15 7.35

FILM:

'THE

EYES

OF Play school. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55

CHARLES

SAND'.

Peter Vision on. 5.20 Scooby-Doo where Haskell, Barbara Rush, are you. 5.44 Sir Prancelot. 5.50 Bradford Dillman. Super- News and weather. natural thriller. 6.00

NATIONWIDE.

CRIME OF PASSION. Bap- 9.00

TELEVISION TOP OF THE

6.45 tiste.

FORM.

10.00

NEWS.

7.05

TOM AND JERRY.

10.30 RETURN TO LEEDS. John 7.15 Z CARS. Loyalties. Wells and John Bird show 7.40

'THE

GREAT

FILM:

how a television company LOVER'. Bob Hope. puts its programmes to- 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and gether. weather.

CHILDREN TO CHILDREN.

11.00 9.25

DOCUMENTARY:

THE

(New Series.) Programmes

CLANS.

The Truth Behind by the Inter-Nation Tele- the Tartan-What price the vision Trust. Clan in Scotland today?

11.30 THE BISHOPS.

A LASTING JOY.

10.45 Poetry Day Lewis. by C.

REGIONAL TV

11.15

CRADLE

OF

ENGLAND.

The of the Taming Land.

11.45 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

11.50 Weather. CHANNEL: 2.25 Cricket. 4.10 En- 4.20 Puffin. chanted house. 4.25 Odd couple. 4.55 London. 6.00 6.10 Lookaround. 6.35 News.

BBC 2

Crossroads. 7.00 Film: East Sudan'. 8.30 Queenie's 11.00-11.25 Play school. 4.30-6.05 9.00 London. 11.00 Actualités et Cricket. England v Australia.

11.15 Gazette. 11.20 projections.

OPEN UNIVERSITY.

6.35 Weather. 7.30 NEWSROOM and weather.

8.00

THE NEW

MASTERS. Le WESTWARD. As Channel except: Corbusier. 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News.

8.50 COLLECTOR'S WORLD.

6.00 Diary. 10.59 News. 11.02 In- 9.25

THE

SEXTET.

Blur and 11.22 Faith for life. terviews. Blank via Clockheaton. CRICKET. England v Aus- 10.40

SOUTHERN:

News. 1.00 12.55 tralla. 1.25 Dick Van Dyke. 1.50 Jobs. NEWS ON 2 and weather. Kitchen. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Good 11.10 11.15 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP. In- afternoon. 3.00 Saint. 4.00 House- Bet- 4.15 Torchy. Cross- terview with Lady party. 4.30 4.55 London. 6.00 Day by jeman. roads. KODAK is expected to tell the Kodak Workers and the Kodak TUC this week Senior Staff Association. Both whether it will affiliated unions with the British firm and its US recognize members its parent have a history of hostility plants. Last Thursday directors of the to independent union organiza- multi-million-pound photographic tion. of the TUC But Ken Roberts, Kodak or- giant met members Committee to dis- Organization for the Association ganizer Cinematograph, Television and cuss the issues involved.

The Technicians, claims to have Allied said yester- day that recruitment on behalf of completed a membership audit of two non-TUC bodies who have the TUC unions was making "big registered under the Industrial headway' despite the company's Union Relations Act, the attitude. HOME LOANS are almost certain cuss the movement's six-monthly dearer become within the figures. to Estimates of the expected rise weeks-the only real next question being how much the rise range from f per cent to l per cent. Correspondingly, de depositors in lending rates will be.

will figures receive A special meeting of the Build- more. for the last quarter show that ing Societies Association has been societies took a record In month called for August 9, £1,433m in funds, while with- when the association never nor- drawals also at a record were mally meets. level of €859m. This meant that The meeting was announced by net receipts for the quarter were BSA chairman Sir Stanley Mor- down £6m on the previous quar- ter, at £574m. ton at a press conference to dis-

FULL PRODUCTION

The formula which led to the was re- presented sumed yesterday at the Trostre return was being to of the white- Tinplate works, Lanelli, after a representatives collar workers at the Ebbw Vale four-week strike by 1,300 white- of the works, where members collar workers against an arbi- Association of Clerical, Technical trated pay award. and Supervisory staffs have decided to strike from August 6.

The strike led to the laying-off of 4,100 production workers at will It expected that they Velindre tinplate the line taken by their Trostre and follow near Swansea, West Wales and works, for colleagues accept it. month.

SCOTLAND YARD

investi- Europe and America, and large amounts of currency have been gating the British end of a gems exported illegally. smuggling and currency racket from Sri Lanka-formerly Ceylon Detective Inspector Peter Griggs and two other Yard offi- -and will shortly be submitting its report to the island's High began an investigation into cers the United Kingdom end of the Commissioner in London. I six menths ame Large quantities of gems have operation the High Commis- request been smuggled out of the island Middle East, for sale in the sioner. Workers Press, Tuesday August 1, 1972 PAGE 11.

David Hallwell's 'Blur BBC 2's and Blank via Cleckheaton' is tonight's 'Sextet' series. Denholm Elliott (centre) plays Francis Ramsdale and Richard Vernon and Ruth Dunning his father and mother 7.00 day. 6.30 Queenie's castle. "Tarzan ano the Slave Girl.

Queenie's Castle. 9.01 rum. wire •. Alan browning 8.30 11.00 Jesse James. force. 12.25 Weather. Odd couple. 11.40 progress. 10.55

GRANADA:

2.05 Cricket. Weather. Guideline. 3.45 1.35 Kreskin. 4.10 News.

NOON

noroscope Women. place. Enchanted house 4.70 Simon LOCKe 4 ДИ 4 ДІ 88 Rupert London. 4.55 London. 6.00 News. in face it. 4.15 Tinkertainment.

6.25 Dr Locke. 7.00 writing. Crossroads 'The Outcasts Poker 8.30 Queenie's castle. Flat'. 8.30 Queenie's castle.

9.00 don. 11.00 Who do you do? 11.30 London. 11.00 Felony squad Could 8.3v Queenie s castle. LOn• Jimmy Stewart. Stories. Somen 4-30 himse 3.45 Women. Animaland. 4.15 Weather. Origami. News 4.00 Loncon. •. news Cross ocos 4.40 4.9 London. 6.00 News. 6.15 Hogan's Young 6.45 Film: "The voo. heroes Doctors'. 8.30 Queenie's Queenie s . 9.00 Lon- Cablic. castle call. Loncon Late 11.05 Diversions.

YORKSHIRE:

3.40 10.55, Cricket.

GRAMPIAN:

3.37 News. 3.45 1.35 Cartoon Scotland vard •US. 11040 mysteries. Bellbird. Women. Yoga Yak. 4 cl 3.00 Teesside 4.55 Lod. 6.35 . 6.00 News. ANGLIA: 10.55 Cricket. Crossroads. Eisteddfod. 4.10 Calendar 4.15 MacLeod Loncon. 8 45 Crossrores 4.48 enchantee 9.00 house 4.55 London. 6.00 Calen- Queenie's castle. London. 6.05 Hogan's 6.35 Western mountains. heroes. ... San

A DOUL

•.oU Collocue. Trotsky's reply to critics of 'Where is Britain Going?' This collection of articles was penned by Trotsky in reply to various critics of his then recently-published Where is Britain Going?' They appeared in the Soviet press of the time and con- corollary and stitute necessary Trotsky here sequel to that work. all dissects the arguments of the brands of opponents of Marxism: re- Fabian, formist, pacifist, centrist, trade-union bureaucrat and by impli-

REVOLUTE

cation, its Russian counterpart, the By Leon Trotsky nascent Soviet bureaucrat. Here also he unravels many of the knotty prob- facing the infant Communist lems Party developing a strategy for power in the revolutionary epoch 64 pp price 35p (postage extra) What you've been waiting for: a new impression of 'The New Course A salient work of Trotsky treating with his struggle against the rising bureaucracy in the Soviet Stalinist Written in the aftermath of Union. the civil war and in the period of the New Economic Policy when, despite pressures all the conservative generated within the Soviet Union, there still seemed every chance of The curbing and overcoming this bureau- This book makes a bridge New Course cracy. between Lenin's deathbed struggles against Stalinism and the later found- 1923 ing of the Joint Left Opposition.

BY LEON TROISKY

108 pp price 65p (postage extra) Avallable from 186a, Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG and the Paperbacks Centre (s00 p. 3).

Dock jobs: A 'once-and- Ports are at a standstill PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday Augu

BY WORKERS PRESS

REPORTERS

FIVE THOUSAND Birming- ham trade unionists marched through the city yesterday chanting 'Heath out!' and 'General Strike! Tories out!'

They were taking part-with several thousand other trade unionists in the area-in a token strike against the Act called by the city's trades council.

Car production, public trans- port and beer supplies were all stopped by the strike. The chanting led by was women and girl workers on strike for the day from SU Carburettor, a British Leyland subsidiary. They were joined by busmen Leyland's and carworkers from Austin-Morris factory at Long- bridge, who had earlier walked out stopping engine and gearbox- production and the assembly of 1100 and 1300 cars. At a rally in Calthorpe Park, council secretary Dave trades Perris said there was strong feel- ing. national for a one-day strike. Emphasized Martin Kavanagh, trades council vice-president: 'This Birmingham demonstra- tion today should give a lead to •the General Council of the TUC that we are asking for a national strike on the issue? Bus in Birmingham services and parts of the Black Country, were disrupted as some crews answered the trades council call.

No buses were running in West Bromwich and were off many the road at Wolverhampton.

Beer supplies to pubs and clubs were delayed when nearly 100 Ansells Brewery workers came out on a one-day strike.

IN LEEDS, about 2,000 members of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers staged a one-day strike at Yorkshire Imperial Metals factory. A local union spokesman said: "The strike is in protest at the Industrial Relations Act. We feel it should be repealed.' Production stopped was although supervisors and white collar workers were working nor- mally. AT BRIGHTON, a rally to pro- test against the Industrial Rela- tions Act was attended by about They 150 trade unionists. marched to Brighton Pavilion Conservative Association offices and handed in a petition.

Officials of Brighton and Hove Trades Council, who organized the rally had expected many more They blamed the attend. to action in calling off TUC's a national one-day strike for the small turn out.

WEATHER

EASTERN Scotland and England will be cloudy with rain at times but there will also be some bright periods. The Midlands and central southern England will be dry and sunny at first, but occasional showers will develop by after- noon. Northern and western Scot- land, Northern Ireland, north west and south west England and Wales will have showers and sunny intervals. The showers may be heavy at times in the north west. It will be mostly rather cool but temperatures will reach normal in • the Midlands and central southern England. Outlook for Wednesday and Thursday: Unsettled in east. Sunny intervals in west. Rather cool, becoming near normal in west. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Ofhce. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London,

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), Clapham High Street, London.

180b

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day August 1, 1972

THE JONES-ALDINGTON

committee had to come for- ward with concrete recom- mendations which could be enforced, the London ports shop stewards' committee said yesterday. Bill Chapman, Royal, group steward, speaking on behalf of the committee, told Workers Press: 'We want the right to the work that we have always claimed as dock work. The non-registered ports also have to be brought within the National Dock Labour Scheme. 'As to the temporary un- attached register it should be as Devlin report envisaged it—it was meant to be what it says, temporary. But it has become a MIDLAND COLD Stor- age yesterday dropped the legal action which led to the jailing of five Lon- don dockers and sparked unofficial national an docks strike. The official action called by General Transport and Workers' Union delegates last Thursday remained solid, how- ever. The only supplies moving were to the Channel Islands, Orkney and Shetland and oil- rigs in the North Sea. Dock gate mass meetings took place in LONDON to hear re- ports-back from last Thursday's docks delegate meeting, which decided to call a national strike, and the national shop stewards in meeting Birmingham on Saturday. Jim Carpenter, chairman of the Port of London Authority stewards in the group, told a Royal group meeting: This is the last fight. If we lose this one, we're in real trouble' George Learmouth told the dockers, London, West India that the proposal made by the Jones-Aldington report to take the temporary off men un- attached register was 'only a stop-gap' until December.

'Would the government come forward after then and give the cash to keep them on? I say they wouldn't they would turn round and say do what you like,' he told the meeting. The London shop stewards committee has appealed for financial support to be sent to their headquarters at the Labour Party rooms, Will Thorn House, 5851 Barking Road, London E13.

Meanwhile more than 145 ships wert idle in the Thames. The total number in the river was 175, but the Port of London Authority claimed that 30—oil

LATE NEWS

THE ORDER stopping dockers picketing the east London cold store of Midland Cold Storage national from threatening a 'black' of vehicles crossing the picket line was remove yester- day. In a five-minute application by the company the National Indus- trial Relations Court agreed to discharge the order, which had led to five of the dockers spend- ing four days in jail. See above.

wing

SINN FEIN

the political of the Official IRA, said the • Ulster invasion should, 'display to all groups the utter useless- engaging in talks with ness of the British government' Eire premier Jack Lynch appealed against any violent re- action to the invasion. He is in Cork where his government is undergoing a test at a by-elec- tion. The government candidate is under strong pressure from a nominee of the Republican movement.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION 01-622 7029

PHILIP WAI

permanent pool with 1,700 men it. The employers have on obviously broken their agree- ment.' Both Bill Chapman and Colin Ross, the committee's other spokesman, thought shop stewards' representation on the Jones - Aldington committee would get the guarantees they were after. "This is a once-and-for-all fight, Colin Ross told me, 'And it is one we will win? 'Since 1967, added Bill Chap- George Learmouth, a docks delegate, sp tankers, colliers and ballast car- riers--were working. Thirty of the remainder were at anchor off Southend and Shoe- buryness, 25 in dock and about 90 tied up along the river.

Shop stewards at LIVERPOOL decided yesterday morning to call at a mass meeting tomorrow for a big lobby of the T&GWU dele- conference whenever it is gate held. Last Thursday a special train took 450 Merseyside dockers to London to lobby the delegates.

Stewards hope similar a number to attend this time.

Meanwhile 49 ships were strikebound in the river follow- ing Sunday's mass-meeting deci- sion to continue the strike 'until our just demands are met'.

Dockers at HULL continued their picketing of unregistered ports on the Humber yesterday.

Eleven ships are stranded Hull, nine having sailed rather than held up any longer. Dockers' leaders are planning a meeting with transport drivers' stewards in the next few days.

A spokesman for the FORTH Ports Authority said that Fife port workers at Methil, Kirkcaldy and Burntisland had returned from their annual trade holiday immediately joined the strike. Two ships were lying un- attended at Methil. At Leith, he said, there were a dozen ships waiting to unload and there were seven cargo vessels partly discharged at Grangemouth. A CLYDE Port Authority spokesman said that there were 29 ships affected in the Clyde- port area, which includes Glas- gow, Ardrossan and Greenock.

: of these were at anchor off the Tail o' the Bank. None of

HILIP WADE

man, 'we've pursued the con- tainer problem through the con- stitutional machinery and it got us nowhere' Even if the guarantee could be obtained, would they prevent the thousands of redundancies dock employers were planning over the next few years? Bill Chapman said: 'If we re- gain the traditional work we won't happen. have lost this There will still be jobs for the sacked men within the industry?

What about the lorry drivers' legate, speaking to West Indla docker's yastarda the vessels was thought to be carrying perishable cargoes.

Ships continued to lie idle in Scottish ports. Some being worked at were ABERDEEN-but only those carrying vital supplies to Orkney and Shetland and oil rigs.

In the fish dock, porters were unloading boats normally.

The Fish Market Porters' Association decided at the weekend not to join the dockers stoppage.

PORTSMOUTH dockers voted to lift their ban on essential supplies for the Channel Islands.

A meeting agreed to set up a vetting panel to decide what goods would be allowed through.

But exports from the islands will not be unloaded and 400 tons of arrived in the which tomatoes last Friday port aboard the 'Norman Commodore' coaster will be left to rot. At NORTH SHIELDS the 130 dockers met and decided to con- tinue their strike. They will meet again on Thursday. Pickets duty at six were on gates at SOUTHAMPTON docks yesterday checking all vehicles to ensure there was no unofficial working. The 2,400 dockers at the south coast port joined the national strike on Thursday in solidarity with stevedores throughout Britain. Pickets at No. 4 gate told Workers Press reporter lan Yeats: 'We are not really affected because there is no stuffing or stripping done off the dock. But we've come out to support the other lads otherwise we'd be stabbing them in the back 50 per cent of the About docks freight traffic is container- fears that they would find them- selves on • the dole because of the dockers' action? Colin Ross said: 'We are after no lorry drivers' jobs, no fellow workers' jobs. We only want the work that was originally ours, such as stufling and stripping of containers, warehousing and so Nationalization of the docks is one of the nine points of policy originally adopted by the national stewards' com- shop mittee. Was this the only answer and if so how could it be imple- mented? "The nine points will be pur- sued. We have never deviated from the policy of nationaliza- tion, said Colin Ross. The shop stewards' committee thanked trade unionists for help- ing release the Pentonville Five.

's yesterday ized, but unlike the big tradi- tional ports of London, Liver- pool and Hull, modernization has not led to sackings. Although private cross Chan- nel ferry services continue to dockers claimed operate, no authorized cargoes were getting away. About 40 London dockers arrived at the British Railways container terminal at Parkestone,

HARWICH,

where members of the National Union of Railway- men were still working. The Parkestone workers have voted to continue working and handle to any diverted cargo. British Rail has said, however, that it will not accept diverted goods. Dockers at the unregistered port of NORWICH yesterday agreed to continue unloading the timber ship 'Kerstin Eva'.

But they will not work on any other vessel until the dispute is over. This decision was reached after 20 striking dockers from YAR-

MOUTH

Norwich arrived at Quay on hearing that the Nor- wich men had been at work on the 'Kerstin Eva' since Friday.

Another timber boat due at Norwich today will not be un- loaded. The Norwich stevedores have been seeking registration of the port so that only properly recognized labour would unload ships. The Yarmouth dockers have promised support for this move. WEYMOUTH'S 80 dockers decided yeterday against making any exception to the complete stoppage. They will not handle essential supplies to the Channel Islands, or the Guernsey tomato trade. They meet again on Thursday.