Workers Press no. 833

workers press

EMERGENCY POWERS MEAN RULE BY DECREE

DAILY OF

BY DAVID MAUDE

A STATE of emergency was declared from midnight giving the Tories power to move troops onto the docks if there is no settlement of the national docks strike early next week. The sweeping emergency powers were seized by the government on the pretext that there is a shortage of animal feed. But its more obvious role is to pile pressure on docks delegates to accept the terms of the port employers in the rejigged Jones- Aldington report. After shop stewards put their case to committee Wednesday night, the on T&GWU general secretary Jack Jones said he expected to be in a position to before very recall the docks delegates long. Jones and national docks secretary, Tim O'Leary, were summoned to the Depart- told ment of Employment yesterday and in advance of the emergency proclamation.

A spokesman for Mr Maurice MacMillan said the 30-minute meeting was to in- form them that the state of emergency would be declared today and the reasons for it'. The state of emergency declared by the Heath government is the fourth since it took office in June 1970, and the second as a result of a docks strike. A govern- ment spokesman indicated yesterday that services—army, all three and navy air force-would be mobilized in the fight• against the dockers. Heath yesterday officiated at the passing Sandhurst cadets at the out parade of Royal Military Academy near Camberley, Surrey. He took the opportunity to give a boost to the army prestige by saying that Northern Ireland provided the best illustration' of the task of the army officer.

*Operations like those Monday on [taking the no-go areas] have been carried out with skill, he said When the Commons met yesterday, the Home Secretary, Mr Robert Carr, new stood at the bar of the House and was summoned by the Speaker, Mr Selwyn Lloyd, to come to the table. Holding up

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY A

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

'Messages the proclamation, Carr said: from the Queen signed by Her Majesty's own hand.' He then handed it to Selwyn Lloyd who If it read it to the hushed House: appears to Her Majesty events occur or are about to occur of such a nature calcu- lated to interfere with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel or the means of locomotion to deprive the community or a substantial proportion of the community of the essentials of life, the Queen may by proclamation de- clare a state of emergency.

The Queen has deemed it proper by proclamation.

to declare a state of emergency exists:** A debate on the Queen's message will be held next Tuesday, the day before par- Durint goes nents loadiummer recess.

During the lengthy Tories will govern by decree through the Privy Council. The Queen signed the proclamation in the presence of four Tory Privy Council- lors aboard the royal yacht "Britannia' lying off the Isle of Islay on the West of Scotland. The final decision was reached at a meeting of ministers at No. 10 Downing Street on Wednesday night-while Jones was with his co-chairman Lord Aldington and Victor Feather of the TUC was coun- ter-signing a document on phoney arbitra- tion procedures with the head of big business, Mr W. O. Campbell Adamson of the CBI. Those present at the emergency Cabinet were Home Secretary and author of the Industrial Relations Act, Robert Carr, Paymaster General Lord Eccles, Housing Minister Julian Overseas Amery and Development Minister Richard Wood.

Whitehall officials yesterday dropped the pretence that emergency solely a precautionary measure. The soli- darity of the strike has bitten hard and quickly not only on imports, but also on exports which British industrialists are desperate to fulfil if they are to retain any competitiveness in the trade war.

But behind the declaration is a blatant attempt to intimidate docks delegates to end the strike. The Tories are now apply- ing a vicious pincer action on the dock- ers' leaders -the olive branch is a treach- erous rephrasing of the discredited Jones- Aldington report, the mailed fist is the FRIDAY AUGUST 4, 1972 • No. 833 • 4p

MITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Dockers began cheering and dancing outside Transport House on July 27 on hearing that the docks delegates had thrown out the Jones-Aldington report and called for a national By rephrasing the threatening troops under a strike. report and use emergency, the Tories are hoping to get the strike called off.

threat of troops moving into dockland and credence it very definitely should not strike-breaking airlifts have. the continued The state of emergency is a declara- thie cituation reliance of the trade and Labour tion that the Tories prepared for a union are leadership the Tones-Aldington inquiry fight to the fnich with the Joshard on is criminal. Heath and his Ministers know that No of from amount promises port what is implied by the dockers' demands is nationalization of the entire industry authorities. stevedoring firms or container.

depot owners solve the jobs crisis under workers' can control, and they are de- the number The of cannot end the norte containet that if Tones jobs dockers can hope to is at the through his they will win committee, estimate 1,000. most generous do it hi force report-rightlv That is aim of the interim why the urgent recall of the reiected by last week's docks delegate T&GWU biennial delegate conference to was to slash the 41,000-strong plan the defeat of the Tories is so vital.

conterence register of dockers by means of improved • Recall the T&GWU biennial confer- severance-pay terms. assist this policy No trade unionict con ence. in a situation where 900.000 workers are • Recall the TUC. already out of work nationally. Turner. the London Vin chairman • Forward to the General Strike.

docks stewards, says that the promises in the renot muct he 'copper- • Force the Tories out. turned into bottomed guarantees'. But the of the committee • Return a was Labour government pledged nature amply demonstrated when the demand of to repealing the Industrial Relations Act the national stewards committee for and nationalizing the docks. road trans. down banks and industry under renracentatior wac turned port To imply that it can come anywhere near workers' and without compensa- control demands dockers' give tion

workers press

EMERGENCY POWERS MEAN RULE BY DECREE

DAILY Of

BY DAVID MAUDE

A STATE of emergency was declared from midnight giving the Tories power to move troops onto the docks if there is no settlement of the national docks strike early next week. The sweeping emergency powers were seized by the government on the pretext that there is a shortage of animal feed. But its more obvious role is to pile pressure on docks delegates to accept the terms of the port employers in the rejigged Jones- Aldington report. After shop stewards put their case to Wednesday night, the committee on Jones

T&GWU

general secretary Jack said he expected to be in a position to recall the docks delegates 'before very long'. Jones and national docks secretary, Tim O'Leary, were summoned to the Depart- ment of Employment yesterday and told in advance of the emergency proclamation.

A spokesman for Mr Maurice MacMillan said the 30-minute meeting was to in- form them that the state of emergency would be declared today and the reasons for it'. The state of emergency declared by the since it death government is the fourth ook office in June 1970, and the seconc as a result of a docks strike. A govern- .

ment spokesman indicated yesterday that all three services-army, navy and air force-would be mobilized in the fight• against the dockers. Heath yesterday officiated at the passing out parade of Sandhurst cadets at the Royal Military Academy near Camberley, Surrey. He took the opportunity to give a boost to the army prestige by saying that Northern Ireland provided 'the best illustration' of the task of the army officer.

'Operations like those Monday on [taking the no-go areas] have been carried out with skill', he said.

When the Commons met yesterday, the new Home Secretary, Mr_ Robert Carr, stood at the bar of the House and was summoned by the Speaker, Mr Selwyn Lloyd, to come to the table. Holding up

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY A

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

the proclamation, Carr said: 'Messages from the Queen signed by Her Majesty's own hand.' He then handed it to Selwyn Lloyd who read it to the hushed House: "If it appears to Her Majesty events occur or are about to occur of such a nature calcu- lated to interfere with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel or the locomotion deprive means to the community or a substantial proportion of the community of the essentials of life, the Queen may by proclamation de- clare a state of emergency. The Queen has deemed it proper by proclamation to declare a state of emergency exists" A debate on the Queen's message will be held next Tuesday, the day before par- lament goes into its lonadjournment summer recess. the lengthy the During Tories will govern by decree through the Privy Council. The Queen signed the proclamation in the presence of four Tory Privy Council- the royal lors aboard yacht 'Britannia' lying off the Isle of Islay on the West of Scotland. The final decision was reached ata meeting of ministers at No. 10 Downing Street on Wednesday night-while Jones was with his co-chairman Lord Aldington and Victor Feather of the TUC was coun- ter-signing a document on phoney arbitra- tion procedures with the head of big business, Mr W. O. Campbell Adamson of the CBI. Those present at the emergency Cabinet were Home Secretary and author of the Industrial Relations Act, Robert Carr, Paymaster General Lord Eccles, Housing Minister Julian Amery and Overseas Development Minister Richard Wood.

Whitehall officials yesterday dropped the pretence that the emergency solely a precautionary measure. The soli- darity of the strike has bitten hard and quickly not only on imports, but also on exports which British industrialists are desperate to fulfil if they are to retain any competitiveness in the trade war.

But behind the..declaration is a blatant attempt to intimidate docks delegates to end the strike. The Tories are now apply- ing a vicious pincer action the dock- on ers' leaders—-the olive branch is a treach- erous rephrasing of the discredited Jones- Aldington report, the mailed fist is the

FRIDAY AUGUST 4, 1972

• No. 833 • 4p

AMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAG

Dockers began cheering and dancing outside T that the docks delegates had thrown out the J national strike. By rephrasing the report and t state of emergency, the Tories are hoping to ge threat of troops moving into dockland and strike-breaking airlifts by the RAF.

In this situation the continued reliance of the entire trade union and Labour leadership on the Jones-Aldington inquiry is criminal. No amount of promises from port authorities, stevedoring firms or container- depot owners can solve the jobs crisis in the ports. The number of container jobs dockers can hope to win is at the most generous estimate 1,000.

The aim of the interim report-rightly rejected by last week's docks delegate conference was to slash the 41,000-strong register of dockers by means of improved severance-pay terms. No trade unionist can assist this policy in a situation where 900,000 workers are already_ out of work nationally.

Vic Turner, chairman of the London docks stewards, says that the promises in the report must be turned into 'copper- bottomed guarantees. But the nature of the committee was amply demonstrated when the demand of stewards' the national committee for representation on it was turned down.

To imply that it can come anywhere near the dockers' demands is to give it

IR LEAGUE

outside Transport House on July 27 on hearing out the Jones-Aldington report and called for a ort and threatening the use of troops under a ing to get the strike called off.

credence it very definitely should not have. The state of emergency is a declara- tion that the Tories are prepared for a fight to the finish with the dockers.

that Heath and his Ministers know what is implied by the dockers' demands is nationalization of the entire industry under workers' control, and they are de- termined that if Jones cannot end the strike through his committee, they will do it by force. That is why the urgent recall of the T&GWU biennial delegate conference to plan the defeat of the Tories is so vital.

• Recall the T&GWU biennial confer- ence. • Recall the TUC. • Forward to the General Strike.

• Force the Tories out. • Return a Labour government pledged to repealing the Industrial Relations Act and nationalizing the docks, road trans- port, banks and basic industry under workers' control and without compensa- tion.

2 oppositionists near death PAGE 2 Workers Press, Friday August 4 SIGNING of the 'stop strikes' the TUC and pact between CBI was hailed by-the press as another step on the road to defusing the industrial situ- ation and bringing shop-floor peace. In fact it is nothing of the "independent sort. The Con- ciliation and Arbitration Service' to which Victor Feather put his name with Britain's top boss, W. O. Campbell Adamson, is a dangerous diversion. Under its cover the Tory government is laying its plans for all-out war on the working class-as it was being an- nounced to the press the Cabinet was preparing emer- gency powers to break the dock strike. Take these paragraphs from the joint statement Feather and Adamson issued to the press: 'The conflict between the government's role as manager of the economy on the one hand, and as agent for the promotion of industrial peace on the other, has undoubtedly weakened the confidence of unions in the impartiality of government - provided concilia- tion and arbitration. 'Both the CBI and the TUC believe that an independent service created by the will of employers and trade unions acting together would offer the best hope of acceptance by parties to the disputes and would have the best chance of lasting credibility! In other words, one of the principal aims of the service is to restore to the government the political fiction that it is "impartial' in the class struggle.

Feather, the union chiefs leaders all and the Labour • with the big employers agree on this point because they are scared out of their wits by the rapid movement of the working class in a political direction.

The miners' strike focussed workers' attention on the power. The rail- question of waymen's ballot showed their distain for the Industrial Re- lations Act, the docks strike their determination to smash it. Garnett of the John Society, one of the industrial most enthusiastic advocates of 'independent conciliation' said yesterday BBC-radio's on 'World at One': 'One of the main difficulties of industrial relations today is ... people are not striking against employers but against political policies.' Garnett, Feather and Adam- all aware that the son are problem is even bigger than that. Those who stopped work over the jailing of the five dockers were striking for the removal of the Tory govern- ment. But instead of giving a lead to these thousands of workers and declaring the TUC-CBI deal a dangerous farce, TUC 'lefts' such as Jack Jones and Hugh Scanlon are to be found in the ranks of its supporters.

Today's Tory state of emer- gency - the fifth since the Heath government came to power - demands that these their time-wasting: men stop • Break off all talks with the Tories. • Scrap the TUC-CBI strike- breaking deal. • For a General Strike to force the Tories to resign.

• For the election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. US Treasury Secretary admits Two-tier gold under a strain

AMERICAN

proposal mooted following Presi- Treasury

BY JOHN SPENCER

dent Pompidou's visit to Rome Secretary George Schultz The US administration is no • concerned with has acknowledged that -that's our present intention'. longer maintain-

DONUYAS

statement means ine DUSL• Wal

DYO-

'free market' the rising Nixon Nienti a dor atranio n has no tem. but it ( TO Walr official win trading advantages and force price of gold is putting raising pice- rival the -fixed last December capitalist powers two-tier CUld the gold price $38 an ounce. even wall. selling Schuliz expressed his discois.

the US not and old to structure under strain. this not tent with other capitalist anyone at price notably Canada But he added that the US so the fature. countries likely to do arch y9-8 asyerem, e steping which claimed did he present aDall. I10 U government nac no March 1968 after sterling *Ho was paritay any dealing with the plans for previous year, situation and expressed the of buying time Wasa Hul Calis will the two refusal that 'something noDe save coldose Cuntaico Woods Bretton monetary agree- emere' from the annual toruke ara oslole Conce ons demanded by the United States ments. meting of the International .S. reduce latter's fixed one for gold price Fund in Washing- Monetary balance-of-payments deficit. He centra banks and sales for the end of next "unofficial' market gold not Salle recenT Lalks Canaod held by • On had made no progress towards month.' Nixon declared reducing unfavourable 1 J las y cal. Asked at his first-ever on-the- US would not sell gold with that alle Culliy cially, even central banks. big TeCore „press CONC CICe Anen cae

DUS OC

walls oped s0 an Dince, schitz two-tier system decision originally every other capitalist country to described as 'temporary' its exports and accept ounce, remarkable imports. To get this state Hasi ormancil said: look, and' there are moves by affairs.the Nixon government other central banks break out moving towards an all-out trade It's strain, there's no fix their war E. holding.' and own the system

•OTOE

DUL ILS

under way in all the main The US, he added, would let the 'official' SIon IS orice tor cre metalsual two-tier system "function as it is is the gist of the Franco-Italian capitalist centres. Brno party chief on trial lated the defend- Stalinist has PROFESSOR Jaroslav by press ates' were being tried ants during presi- already condemned the Sabata, leading The. under Article dential election last defendants. opponent of the War- Code November. cartoon the rekai

CUYCH

saw subversion. weekly "Tribuna' showed Th leaflets Czechoslovakia, went In the last two weeks, man turning out remimen voler omnel on trial in the have people duplicator rie pri crd balint, sop Jeafiets on a of Brno Vian this printed ballot slip, with two huge rats

LUW I

schlcccu HuCI yesterday. section of the Codei al ting nearby saying: 'He's WrILe OlCS of them Sup ortere the same breed former refuse vote alto- Sabata is the secretary gether. a tahie ceBreo, an DaLLy Alexandr Dubcek. human face? important They also accused the centre ne nere onlA air industry. This is sarcastic regime of using the elec- thought daughter include Dubcek's reference Earlier this week Sabata's concone une slogan 'socialism with a the occupation and refused to testify Sovler #sudusulaw• the resultant human face'. Milan sons esra dy case o ns rena

IWO

are liberties. Huebl, a former serving sentences kentta Like the other trials Com member jail Sabata has stated that the Brno process Iwo and years' 6f years subversion. he does not consider the being carried on imprisoned for exnler mus week suverson' denel KOSeti

OOOK

official charges thought law or the constitu- except servile The news pall relate to leaflets tion. However, the functionaries excluded. agency Ceteka yesterday circu- Second US base attacked by NLF

FESE SAA

LIBERATION

forces liberation gun with a range of 17 firing shell 38 ured rockels Inle which destroys all but the huge US airbase at the nevles deeest bunkers Nang, 172 Sovth viet- The guns are hidden The nam, yesterday. in jungled hills west of for rokets killed one US Ouang Iri and redeated ADiNi and They US bombing serviceman Around Quang are using has failed wounded 20 others. close to the demilitar- Soviet - made 130-mm to silence them. TWO LEADING Soviet oppo- was Daniel nerticn con. Viktor Fainberg and ducted Professor sitionists the Lunts, who has headed a Leningrad sosy chiatric hos- Leningrad 'psychiatric •olaca desarinen o une Serbsky Institute of Forensic pital' run by the secret police.

Psychiatry Moscow since the desperate appeal save early 1950s. has lives made "certified' been such .nac prominent oppositionists as Acacem ciar Amorrel bakanaroy the inventor of the Soviet Vadimir grigorenko and H-bomb and leading cam- -he DukoVSKv- cecared nun against Stalinist sane' in and eversed the balener Tebes- sion. fecind Fainberg later. years found In an open letter adressed to suttering Boris the Soviet from 'schizoheterodoxy'. -a diag- Health exceptionally cynical even Minister, Sakharov

KGB

standards wrltes On 1968 Fain- •Fainberg and Borisov Christmas Eve are Vadimir Borisov solitary confinement, deprived o1 berg was sentenced to be con- University fined in 'special' hospital for books from Leningrad and wanne maleras Without your intervention there become a ine-arts specialist.

was Coll bulsOly ucalmenl In 1970 Fainberg wrote a long are no forces capable of saving arrested on August 25, 1968, them. the appeal world public lenouncing the KGB doctors and demonstration are

IWO

ODDOS CONISIS

against the invasion o the best-known victims they

MOSCOW,

svstem be- alliulls KGB technique of incar- Czechoslovakia. longed. The followed this in 1971 by was celalle oooosiuonists SO- viciously launching a hunger strike which callea mental nospitals until they allackea olalll-

KGB

recant their views or go mad.

clothes men shouting asteo an Incree & cạre "They're all Jews' and 'Beat joined in this strike by Pyotr the urgorenko. Vadimir Borisov, anti-Sovietists' an electrician World War Il hero and militarı historian, and the poetess Natalya was hit in the Moscow. and a member of raln berd tace until he bled and of his Gorbanevskaya are the some Action Group for the Defence of among teeth were knocked out. He Civil Rights. other anti-Stalinists was

OLUIC

Borsov spent four years suttering this treatment

NOL

inca Tenow- from Viktor Fainberg, former demonstrators but detained for a psychiatric prison worker who report on his mental state.

After his release from this first graduated meral EGYPTIAN President Anwar Sadat flew back to Cairo yesterday after concluding an agreement with Libyan head of state Col Muammar Gaddafi to merge the two countries in September. The combined state-the big- in the Middle East—will gest unite Libya's oil wealth, worth at $1,000m and ex- lease a year pected to double by the merger Egyptian skilled date, with of which is at labour, much present out of work. decision follows The merger Sadat's expulsion of Soviet mili- tary experts from Egypt. Gaddafi, a fervent Muslim, noted for his anti-communism, fanatical has long opposed the Soviet military presence in Egypt. Some of Sadat's officer corps were broadly in agreement with Gaddafi's position and Sadat had attempt unless he feared a coup broke the Soviet link. The merger proposal is yet another effort to overcome the fundamental inability of bourge- ois and petty-bourgeois national- ism to defeat Zionism and carry through the Arab revolution.

But like the United Arab. Re- public formed with Syria in 1958, it is a structure built on sand. The UAR was hailed with demagogic oratory like the present merger, but after three it broke down in mutual years recrimination. Libya, Egypt and Syria are loose already joined in a Federation of Arab Republics, but there was no indication yesterday of Syria the role would play in relation to the new merged state. The merged state would give certain strategic advantages in a future war with Israel, supply- ing Egypt with a more extensive hinterland. But despite Sadat's repeated promises of a 'final struggle' with Zionism, he has under- yet to take anything of the sort.

Gaddafi has been even more militant in words. But this has largely been a function of his distance from the front line.

What does do, the merger however, is to link Libya's main international bargaining counter —its vast oil deposits-with the demand for Israeli withdrawal from* occupied Egyptian terri- tory. In future negotiations for countries would have the possi- bility of putting pressure on Israel's main ally, the United States. spell of incarceration, he signed letter in defence Gen a Grigorenko and an appeal to the United Nations. June 1969 he was In re- arrested and taken back to the Leningrad psychiatric hospital.

On his arrest, one of the doctors told him: 'Listen, Borisov, you're quite normal: you don't want to be sent to a lunatic asylum do you? Better change your ideas about politics.' The doctor told him he was being 'not on hospitalized my own initiative but in accordance with orders. In November of that year he was tried and judged to be of unsound mind. The court decreed compulsory treat- ment in a psychiatric hospital of special type, i.e. a KGB mental hospital. After their long hunger strike and their years in the hellish KGB special hospitals, Fainberg and Borisov are in danger of death. Unlike other political prisoners of the Stalinists, they have no date for release and can be held indefinitely. The entire world labour move- ment must come to the defence of these courageous fighters irst against Stalinism in the USSR.

Visions of troop-picket clashes by 'City Press' THE LEADING newspaper of the City of stand by to break the national dock strike by next week. In its front-page leading article the paper says: 'In the 1926 General Strike the armoured cars were able to force a way through cordons of picketing dockers to enable army food con- voys to remove vital food supplies from London docks. 'Fighting between dockers and troops might break out if the army operate food convoys out of the docks next week and the operation could escalate into some- thing approaching civil war.'

'If the dispute escalates, we The that the paper says 1926 face near revolution. In the used will be specifically troops General Strike of flour convoys the docks to unload meat, on had be unloaded the to trom flour and vital foodstuffs.

London docks by the troops and "There are sufficient troops in then escorted through pickets of 'The London for this,' it adds. This sirikers by armoured cals. the Royal Engineers have may have to be done again now, skilled men to necessary oper- and the mind boggles the at forklift and other ate cranes resulting risk of violence.'

The dock machinery. Royal Lamb's article plea to Corps of Transport and the Royal Heath to change his tactics with Ordnance Corps would Army the working class. for food provide the transport Mr Heath 'Somehow must convoys. oil on the troubled 'Armoured cars would have to pour waters open a way for the military food as Stanley Baldwin did after the the London docks 1926 General Strike collapsed. convoys from hordes of picketing Otherwise we face industrial through Baldwin's brilliant dockers and militant youth.'

anarchy. handling of the aftermath of the These panic-stricken images General the depth of Strike contributed show agitation in They his the ruling indicate enormously to winning class. millions of working class votes the detailed plans and intentions in the extraordinary 1931 General of the ruling class in this present Election.' situation. as in Ulster, the Tories Just In there must be particular, resort to the to smash Industrial military changes' 'big in the the defiance of the working class, Relations Act, Lamb says.

so in the rest of Britain the army He the fact that the cites will be the front has not intervened government lines to defend the privilege and dispute in the docks with property of the bourgeoisie.

cooling-off period as an example The military also theme the Act has been how by the editor of 'City taken up rendered unworkable in situations Press', Richard Lamb, in a centre which are too explosive. united.' The greatest understatement in Lamb says: 'The dock dispute the paper is this: 'With grim prospect of a and the Industrial Relations Act the dock strike and the have divided trade union prolonged the of clashes between troops movement from the rest of the fears and dockers, this week's rise on nation more deeply than at any time since the General Strike of Stock Exchange the is mis- placed! (I!) 1926. THE LEADERSHIP of the threatened industrial action.

Under the new proposals National Union of Railway- with the f20 minimum man on 45 years' would qualify men has abandoned its fight service '€1,300 redundancy- -roughly for against the planned massive equal to 13 months' wages. redundancies in the industry.

This is in comparison with the £660 he could have got before Despite earlier war-like cries the deal. driver with 45 action the union An engine of industrial for has signed a pact with British service can qualify £2,072 payment instead of £1,115, Rail which offers increased plus a special £500 payment in redundancy money to get men certain circumstances. to leave the service voluntarily.

who is prepared to Sidney Weighall, senior move to keep his job gets £300 assistant general secretary of the immediately and a further £275 hoped

NUR,

said he these if he moves within a month.

payments would per- British increased The of Rail. aim to leave the suade older men headed by ex-Labour Minister make for Richard Marsh, is to get rid of service to room next 44 workers who had lost workers in the younger 20,000 Marsh their jobs. On Tuesday said: years. still Within the the the Though union next years formally opposed to compulsory railway system as it exists today conciliatory could be gone for good.' redundancy, this The Board is working towards attitude is dramatic change from statements made at the last denuded rail network with a TUC Congress in September.

only the main inter-city routes Then Weighall called a total arend big industriat centres.

commuter services and halt to redundancies ON MH 3298 ANOTHER report has revealed the horror story of "black wards' in mental hospitals where people are often shut up just because they are old. In his annual report for the Hospital Advisory Service, Dr A. A. Baker writes : It is possible to and well tears, aware that they cannot give find wards in mental the standard of hospitals where care they would like. sleep, patients eat, •In conditions, such excrete, live and die in student and pupil nurses one large room. do not adequate get 'As would be expected instruction, the qualified under such conditions staff not the sparing the wards will be quite time to teach that SO sordid with foul smells, of training the quality and all kinds of per- is below standard. As a sonal activities and result, become nurses distress publicly ex- discontented and leave before training is com- posed. 'Sometimes the nurses pleted.' The report also gives concerned seem to more evidence of people become so hardened to being sent into mental the sight, sounds and smells of wards merely because this type of of their age. Often they accommodation that admitted without they unable were seem to realize having seen a doctor. the impact on the first visitors and Dr Baker says that indeed new admissions.' undoubtedly some should have been ad- Dr Baker finds these mitted general appalling conditions to hospitals and not mental have a destructive hospitals and some did affect on the nursing need hospital ad- not staff. 'It has been distress- mission at all. ing to see good I am sorry to say nurses on wards of this kind that some of these old with 40 people are admitted into more who very bad conditions in- patients. a r e deed! he obviously under great concludes. sometimes in The failure to spend stress, 12-20

GORE

London W1

BOOKS • PERIODICALS • NEWS

Workers Press, Friday August and die in one s foul-smelling ro psychiatric money On geriatric services and has led to gross over- crowding. Dr Baker cites two wards each housing 80 or more patients in one hospital with only two nurses on duty in each ward. 'Staff appeared . to be overwhelmed by the work load and the total inadequacy of facilities, says. 'The patients were mainly elderly. They were largely unsuper- vised for 1 meals, and those temporarily sick in bed could not be properly attended to. 'Patients were retir- ing to bed from • 5.15 p.m. onwards and clearly even this exercise was a mammoth task for the very limited staff. The bathroom was a separate building and it was a large bare room with absence of seating and no storage facilities for clothing. 'The floors were of and concrete some attempt had been made to protect patients' feet by spreading bed sheets

• NEWSPAPERS

lay August 4, 1972 PAGE 3 ng room on the floor. In winter- time conditions in this bathroom must border on the arctic. 'Two nurses bath 40 patients each morning, during which time the other patients have to for be left to fend themselves. Some of the patients are destructive and given to scratching each in these other, working and living con- ditions tensions must inevitably arise both •staff and among patients. The report says that more attention is being paid to the 'black wards' by regional hospital boards and management committees, but it will be a year or two at least before any signifi- cant sums of money are spent on improvements. Keith Joseph, Tory Secretary of State for Social Services, said the report did not refer to the many measures to im- already taken prove hospital and local authority services for the elderly and mentally disordered.

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 a.m.-6 р.m. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

PAGE & Workers Press, Friday August 6 Tory Transport Minister Mr John Peyton above has rubber stamped plans for the axing of between 4,500 and 6.500 jobs on the railways. The decision coincides with the news that British Rail expects a £40m deficit this year and as a result will raise passenger fares by an average of 74 per cent and freight charges by 24 per cent. Since 1969 the Board has slashed 30,000 jobs and in the years 482 loco- past two motives, 115,000 wagons and 1,100 passenger coaches have been taken permanently out of service in a bid to cut costs.

An official said the Board would be in serious difficulties without further government financial aid. He said: 'No other railway in the world is undertaken with such a low level of gov- ernment support? 1 August 1, 1972 But railways are only one of Britain's ailing industries and, because of the recession, suc- cessive governments and par- ticularly the Tories have been called upon to pour millions of pounds into 'lame ducks' The Tories have made it plain that they cannot go on doing this except in circum- stances where special political criteria apply-as in the cases of Belfast's Harland & Wolff, Rolls-Royce and Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. Their hands are tied. The Exchequer is not a bottomless well and unemployment and inflation are steadily eroding its solvency. This leaves the nationalized industries to be run in accord- ance with the most ruthless canons of capitalist business practice —in the case of the railways it has led to the near dismantling of the network.

However, even after decade of formidable pruning, the Board's books have once again lurched into the red and on the while inflation rages situation can only get worse.

By inflicting heavy fares increases on rail passengers the Board, like the govern- ment, is merely recognizing the reality of its position.

Neither wants to consciously encourage inflation, but there is no choice. The eventual consequences of unfettered inflation hold for the enormous dangers working class and the labour movement against whom it will be used mercilessly.

That point has not yet been reached. For the moment British Rail's losses stress once more the utter impos- sibility of maintaining indus- tries under state ownership with all the benefits that nationalization should confer without bringing them under workers' control in a fully socialized economy.

TOOLS SLUMP

HITS

MANCHESTER

The closure of Churchill Machine Tools at Altrin- cham, near Manchester, The one pace the end the year 1,000 Churchill em- ployees will have joined the dole queue. Altrincham employment ex- change is setting up special facilities to cope with the in- crease of jobless men. But its Mr William Bailey, manager, said: 'Finding work is to going be a very difficult task indeed Many of the workers may find it necessary to move out of the area. "There are 300 fitters about jobs at Chur- lose Their chill's and in the Manchester area unemployed fitters already chasing al c

LCI

vacancies.'

RADIO

BAN

Journalists in Ireland have their union been advised by not to accept any further con- tract employment with Radio Telefis Eireann, the state tele.

without first network. consulting the union. was issued at the weekend by the Irish area council of the National Union of Journalists. The statement added: "The

NUT

completely opposes The situation is the same for electricians. Special hard- ship will fall on Churchill's 120 apprentices who have next to no chance of resuming their trade. Churchill's is closing its Altrincham plant and moving the facilities to its Coventry headquarters. It is one of a number of machine-tool firms which has been hit by the huge slump in orders. By the end of next week 50 Churchill employees will have started work in Coventry with the Alfred Herbert parent company. There were plans to stage an occupation of the lactory, but little has been heard of this recently. When the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber visited the his factory late last year limousine attacked • by was angry engineers. Below: Anthony Barber RTE's proposals that journal- ists be given temporary em- ployment on contract to the division, eroding the news traditional principle of perma- nent, pensionable employment in that area. "The Irish Council is accordingly informing RTE that recruitment on such con- tracts is unacceptable to the union and is advizing all its members not to accept con- employment in RTE tract without consulting the union.

'The Council is also in- structing its members not to work with non-journalists who might be employed by RTE to do journalistic work'.

FAURE: SINISTER LIBERAL

OF FRENCH POLITICS

BY ALEX MITCHELL

Edgar Faure is back in the French cabinet, serv- ing under Pierre Mess- mer. That in itself is almost a programme. In July 1968 Faure was selected by General de Gaulle to carry out a special task of great delicacy. He had to re- store order to the French uni- after the student versities revolt of May, outwit and isolate the leadership of that revolt and carry through a reform of the antiquated edu- cational system to meet the needs of modern capitalism.

There was no doubt about his astuteness in carrying through the first part of that task. He completed the work the CRS (para-military of police) and revealed the poli- tical bankruptcy of the student leadership of May. Before the reforms had been carried through, however, he was re- placed in the government re- shuffle which followed the election of Pompidou. Now the old troubleshooter, miscalled a liberal, is back on the job. This time it is the toughest one of his career: he has to find a way of opposing the demands of the working class while appearing to make a few (inexpensive) conces- sions. Edgar Faure has had strange and tortuous political career. A brief survey of its highlights may shed some light on his role in the Messmer government of class war. His background and con- tacts span a wide spectrum of French politics. He has friends on the extreme right while he likes to pass for a 'left'. He was actually Prime Minister at what, for France, was the early age of 41—if only for three weeks.

A POLITICAL

CAREER

Before 1939 Faure was mainly concerned with build- ing up a prosperous legal practice. One of his best friends was the extreme right- winger and Petain-supporter, Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancourt, also a lawyer, and later to be a candidate for the presidency.

He now gives conditional sup- port to Pompidou. During the war Faure fled to Tunisia (then a colony) and after the arrival of the Anglo- American forces joined Gaulle. He was one of the French prosecuting team at the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi lead- ers. With the peace he decided to embark on a political career.

After a flirtation with the Catholic MRP, he joined the Radicals, the traditional anti- clerical Michel Debré and Jacques Chaban-Delmas-both later to become Gaullist Prime Ministers. In 1946 he became a deputy for the first time. His first post as a junior minister came in the right-wing Queuille govern- ment in 1949. At this time like 1952 the up-and-coming Edgar Faure became Prime Minister.

Unhappily for him the music started after only up again three weeks in that office.

About this time he began to seek a reputation as a liberal.

His father, an ex-army doctor, had flirted with the Com- munist Party. His wife, who writes detective stories, is des- cribed as 'progressive' After a spell as Minister of Top: Faure In 1968 as Minister of Ed his friends, de Gaulle and Chaban Delr Finance in the right-wing con- servative government of Laniel in 1953, he moved on to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 'left' government of Pierre Mendès-France. Protection of the franc was one of his main concerns-after the advance- of Education. Above lett ment of his personal career.

Besides being Pid itician of the Fourth Repub.

Faure had comfortable ugly

WELC

that he tion in the tax on the sale of ve left and right: ersonai career. a successful le Fourth Repub- d also made fortune. There in 1955 secured a reduc- x on the sale of Workers Press, I race-horses for personal reasons. He and Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber almost fought a duel over this question—with pistols. An apology came in time for it to be called off, though not before J-J-S-S had posed • for the cameras doing some practice shots.

COMPROMISING

PERSONALITY

Not long after this lurid in- cident Faure back was as Prime Minister, this time for a few months. At the end of 1956 the so-called Republican Front of Mendès-France and Guy Mollet won the elections.

Faure was out. Not long after- wards he was pushed out of the Radical Party as well. He was too compromising a per- sonality and a hint of scandal floated about his name. May 1958, in the crisis pro- voked by the settler uprising in Algeria, found him in the last, short-lived government of the Fourth Republic. De Gaulle took power two weeks later.

At this time Faure was not a Gaullist; in fact he criticized 'the personal power' in com- with the Communist pany Party. But Faure was making his 18 Pross, Friday August 4, 1972 PAGE $ way back to political life. In 1961 he was re-admitted to the Radical Party. He learned that Gaullism was likely to last for some time, so he became a con- fidant of de Gaulle's. By 1963 he was the General's informal envoy to Mao Tse-tung, pre- ceding Nixon by nine years.

His book on China helped to give him a 'left' image. Enjoy- ing the confidence of the age- ing General he built himself a clientele among young and 'progressive' technocrats.

In 1966-1967 he was Mini- ster of Agriculture in a Gaul- list cabinet with the special task of dealing with the res- tive peasantry whose position was being undermined by the Common Market price policy and the advance of big capital.

So it was not surprising that the wily lawyer was brought into the cabinet to handle the students in 1968—nor that Chaban-Delmas considered him a dangerous rival. Faure is, not aiming to remain a minister or even to become Prime Minister for the third time. It is clear that he aims still higher, his eyes on the 1976 presidential elections.

But he is not the only candi- date for Pompidou's succession and there are many things which can happen before then.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday August 4, 1972

BY JOHN SPENCER

unlike The Pentagon has at last of American policy, previous where the admitted to bombing the Walls. planes took a secondary role.

dams and dykes of North The ground troops are now the demoralized and mutinous Vietnam though it Vietnamese South conscripts claims that the bombard- who have no interest in fight- incidental to is have repeatedly ment ing and 'military' suffered defeats at the hands attacks on of the North Vietnamese and targets National Liberation Front United Until last week troops. States officials had The daily air strikes against always denied any damage the North Vietnam to are only a Vast dykes, which are vital to con- of the small part war. trol flooding during regions outside the control of the cur- United States-including the TenT monsoon season. Then, Thursday, July two-thirds of Laos, three- on of Cambodia, all of 27, President Nixon coolly ad- North Vietnam and much of mitted that dykes had been He had the South Vietnam virtually hit by his planes. are Intelligence 'free-fire' where Central Agency zones any- "legiti- thing that release carefully selected aerial moves is mate' target. photographs to carefully- has selected reporters along with This policy a strategic drive the peasant eight-page report. purpose- -to an The of the countryside photographs showed inhabitants hit into the cities where they can dykes by bombs during two raids on July 10 and 1l.

be herded together and kept According the Pentagon under surveillance by the to ten of the 12 damaged dykes Americans and their puppets.

were close to 'military' targets.

To wage this against wall the This supposedly proves that population of entire the North Vietnamese allega- demands enormous countries lies, technological and tions are worthless and resources back vast supplies of armaments.

everyone eve come table able at e should From 1965 to 1971 the US US planes are only over Indo- dropped 6.3 million tons of China to hit military targets.

bombs on Indo-China - this In fact, Nixon's clumsy represents 250 pounds for the bomb- Indo- ttempt to justify every inhabitant of ng of the dykes has only re China, 22 tons for every or bounded in his face the square mile. as Hanoi radio service was quick The figure is more than twice total amount dropped during World War II It has once again brought the and the Korean war combined.

into prominence grim reality of the US air war in Far from cutting back the Indo-China-a war described level of the air intervention, by some of its opponents as Nixon has radically stepped it the 'Third Indo-China War'.

up since the current heavy The war is being waged full- fighting began in the south.

scale by 50,000 US airmen and More B52s have been sent, 500 aircraft strike particularly to Thailand, where ranging from the huge B52s to the main US air effort is con- the killer The And gunships. planes centrated. the carrier from 'Yankee stations' sail- operate a dozen mam- fleet on and aircraft moth airbases ing in a predetermined pattern the coast of North Viet- carriers. This continuous air war is has been reinforced by nam Nie for the administration's two more ships. the of substitute use The aircraft involved in ground soldiers. the air war are highly special- American Most of these have now been ized and sophisticated for the withdrawn, but US air power task of killing-each in its is stronger than ever. own specific way. Bombing is now the heart There at least five different types of fighter- bomber, some operating from Thailand and others from the carriers. are attack aircraft, There subsonic and designed specific- ally to hit targets on the ground. They carry more bombs and can deliver them with greater accuracy than the fighter-bombers. Observation aircratt, giving a ringside seat to the forward air controllers and heavily by electronic protected gadgetry, carry a fast-firing machine gun to strafe targets on the ground. There also, electronic are warfare aircraft which receive from automatic messages sensors on the ground. They are also equipped with anti- radar devices confuse to gunners on the ground.

SINISTER

Reconnaissance aircraft use the latest techniques of infra- red photograph to detect human or animal life on the ground. They also record the effects of the bombing raids.

is A more sinister role played by the gunships. These platforms flying are gun equipped with machine guns capable of firing 6,000 rounds minute against fleeing a peasants. Most sinister and destruc- tive of all are the high-flying pilots bomb B52s. Their entirely on electronic instruc- ordnance with huge tions "commando ranging up to the vault' bomb of 15,000 pounds.

The planes cover the skies at all times of the day and night. Gen William Westmore- the former American land, commander in chief in Indo- China, boasted: 'In Vietnam, where artillery and tactical air forces inflict over two-thirds of the enemy casualties, firepower is respon- sive as never before. 'It can rain destruction any- where on the battlefield within minutes... whether friendly troops are present or not.

'On the battlefield of the future, enemy forces will be located, tracked and targetted almost instantaneously through data links, use computer-assisted intelligence evaluation and automated fire control.' Westmoreland's gruesome vision is now the rule in Viet- nam — and not just on the 'battlefield'. The entire war in the air is synchronized and controlled by remote computer-operators sitting in Thailand, Udorn, or on carriers out at sea. Whole have been areas air-dropped seeded with devices that can detect vibra- people. They can Cons they be listen may colines sensitive to metallic objects, to heat radiation or to chemical from human emanations beings. Even the planes are increas- automated. ingly new system called Pave Phantom the pilot merely requires punch data on to the desired target position onto his com- puter's keyboard, together with information about his chosen weaDon The computer steers the air- craft over the target and This the weapon of often another piece advanced electronic gadgetry, the tele-guided or laser-guided 'smart bomb which homes on its target to pin-point accuracy.

The themselves weapons show better than anything else character the

TAP

counter - revolutionary Nixon is waging. They are directed specifically towards destroying people and which they very land on the depend to live. From the skies parts of Vietnam, OVer sate 'Newsweek', the damage says seems staggering. bombs High explosive 250- size from ranging in pounders to the giant 15,000- blockbusters pound have carved out a total of 21 million bomb craters averaging Westmoreland, centre: 'It can rain destructi feet across and five feet deep over the past ten years. The craters cover a total of 345,000 and have dis- placed more than 3,000 million cubic yards of earth. They form a vast breeding ground in mosquitoes. , spread- ing virulent forms malaria •throughout the peninsula.

is High explosive, however, effective against not very people who have learnt to dig themselves well underground to escape its effects.

VICIOUS

At least 50 per cent of al dropped Indo- bombs over China are designed to kill marm sharp flying shrapnel. They include the pineapple bomblets which can be dropped a thousand at a time by a single plane. When these vicious weapons 250,000 tiny steel phiets near landing they spew in horizontal shred pattern any flesh in the vicinity.

the similar weapon guava bomblet, which can be set to explode in the sir the ground or with time delay.

of contains grams hann explosive and about 300 tiny ball-bearings. can rain destruction anywhere on the battlefield This bomb can inflict Workers Press, Friday casualties in bunker or cave entrances because of its spray These pattern. weapons are indiscriminate. completely Their pellets are hard to remove by surgery. In addi- rendered tion, they have thousands of acres of prime timber useless by filling the tree trunks with shrapnel.

Incendiary bombs the are third widely-employed form of weaponry in the air war. They include (and napalm various forms of 'souped-up' napalm), thermite, white magnesium, Phosphorus and mixtures of all Napalm covers its target in a sheet of fiame which can extend for hundreds of yards.

Phosphorus continues to burn despite determined efforts to put it out. And the mixture combines the deadly effects of its components. Then there are the so-called area-denial weapons, like the dragontooth and the mine spider mine. These are designed to explode when stepped on, killing or maiming the unfortunate victim. ' They are dropped indiscriminately 'deny' over whole areas to them to any form of life.

An additional sadistic refine- ment of these last weapons is the use of plastic pellets and shrapnel. This is cheaper to make and the pellets do not show up on X-ray plates, Yorkers Press, Friday August 4, 1972 PAGE 7 Above left: Casalities. Top right: A few of the 20 million bomb Centre : in Indo-China. craters Shipment of high explosive bombs dropped. Above: being and Examples of Pineapples Guava bomblets thereby prolonging the victim's and necessitating agony exploratory surgery to remove them. estimates of Conservative the cost of this war effort put it at $2,000m to $4,000m year, almost equal to the US's balance of expected trade deficit. The sensor programme alone cost $1,600m according to the Department of Defence.

One B52 bomber costs $8m to produce. The figure does not include the vast research and develop- ment effort which goes into the air war. The most striking thing about the air war in Indo- is its ineffectiveness. China The workers and peasants of Vietnam, Thailand and Cam- bodia continue to win victories against the US and its puppets despite the enormous weight of armour and technology ranion as discene. Nixon discovering what all his predecessors found out: against a determined revolu- tionary movement and people's war, no amount of weaponry can compensate for the lack of fighting spirit in the puppet armies.

PAGE 8 Workers Prosa, Friday All • & 1872

LET HISTORY

JUDGE

STALINISM

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 the bureaucratic everything which Trotsky wrote about 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. Medvedev 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 submit Medveder's book to This of articles wrong. series detailed scrutiny with the aim of 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 7

loyal to the Leninist policy of

STALIN

revolutionary defeatism. The communist parties were thrown into acute disarray by

AND WORLD

Stalin's volte-face' Prepared for many years to adopt a de-

WAR II

behind their position own ruling class in the coming the banner of anti- war under fascism, they now had to The foreign policy corol- different adopt entirely policy in which the lary to 'socialism in one war- mongers were the governments country' 'peaceful was of Britain and France. co-existence' with capital- Their embarrassments in- Stalin carried out ism on the basis of an creased as his undertakings to Hitler fully acceptance of the existing and enthusiasticalv even atter division of the world. the Nazis had made them- Contrary to selves masters western some assump- Europe and had begun to turn co-existence' tions, 'peaceful had nothing in common with their attention and their forces towards the East. Leninism, nor was it an inven- tion of the Khrushchev When the Nazis launched era; it the Soviet their attack was a necessary part of Stalin- Union on June 22, 1941, Stalin ism and took definite form after 1934. completelv bv sur- was laker prise. He had refused to credit The fact that a _new im- perialist war was being the many reports war pre- preparations and the warnings pared at that time posed diffi- cult problems for the practi- which were received both from foreign governments and tioners 'peaceful co-exist- ence': which gang of robbers from Soviet intelligence agents who were risking their lives in should they co-exist with? There order to obtain such informa- objection was 110 principle to co-existing, which Nothing had been done, in with co-operating, the period of the Pact, to pre- either. for the German attack. The rise of fascism made pare The no difference. Stalin could co- Red Army was still the blows in- will staggering under operate Hitler, as With indeed better, flicted by Stalin himself on its than with high and officer comand 'democratic' government more Its liable to alter its policy.

corps. To the last, under Stalin's instructions, the Soviet rite or all celete se or alliance press issued statements claim- with

LULLLY

capitalist 'democracies', which ing that Germanv was strict v observing the terms of the alongside the policy went the Popular Front, gained Pact was no ana unal unere truth in the rumours that an Stalin many friends and sup- porters on the non-communist attack was being prepared.

Stalin's culpability the left and among those capitalist disturbed by defencelessness of the Soviet politicians the Union in the face of the Nazi growing threat the other imperialist countries from Nazi attack and criticism of his Germany. conduct the war were obviously not raised during his They were prepared stomach the Moscow Trials, lifetime in the Soviet Union. Congress and even defend them, turn a was the 20th blind eye to the purges and which first revealed such facts to the general public and gave praise Stalin's statesmanship.

It was a different story the all clear for historians and in publicists 1939 August when Stalin changed role the events leading course and sought in to security Third Reich. The cries of be 1nd with war and in the war itself Loe and to demolish the myth of trayal' were as deafening the great war leader. Medredev they were hypocritical. Many inst Stations together good 'democrats' were hoping the case against and that the Red Army would, persuasively Stalin's phrase, pull the those who, in the past few use chestnuts out of the years, had begun to rehabilitate fire for them. Stalin. Medveder turns a blind eye The wave of Stalinophobia which followed found its the degeneration the to pression in the Trotskyist bureaucratic regime which leading a enabled Stalin to movement, wreak the brought Workers Party to abandon line American Socialist havoc which nearly the Soviet Union to disaster slogan of defence of the Soviet and blames everything onto Union and 'the question its class ot one-man rule But, in complete con- combined man's nature. with one However, trast with the Stalinists, The limitations'. given Fourth International remained this limitation, he undoubtedly Top: Stalin and Ribbentrop shake hands lovsky (left) and Bulganin in comman overrode the advice of his Generals wit Russian losses and in October 1941 h makes clear Stalin's respon- sibilities. As he insists, against those who now try to resurrect Stalin the great war leader, the facts cited by Khrushchev in 1956 have been been dis- proved. His judgement in this respect is worth quoting: 'Stalin was in fact a mediocre commander. He did make correct decisions, gave his subordinates correct orders, and accepted from them — often after arguments and resistance - much good advice. But his personal quali- ties-his nastiness and narrow- mindedness, his contempt for ke hands after the Nazi-Soviet pact. Above: Ger , command headquarters near Moscow. In the nerals with regard to the advancing German ti r 1941 he panicked and left Moscow people and boundless love of power, his suspiciousness and bureaucratic of style leadership — were bound to affect his behaviour as a com- mander. The result was some- thing much worse than the mistakes that cannot be avoided in any war. Most of Stalin's wrong decisions were so extravagantly and sense- lessly costly that they cannot be condoned.' When the German attack began, Stalin had difficulty in believing it. The first orders given to the Red Army left open the possibility that there Ibove: General Zhukov (right) with Soko- w. In the early stages of the war, Stalin German troops, which resulted in huge had been a mistake and Stalin ordered Molotov to see the of German ambassador and get in touch with Berlin. Only when Molotov returned to confirm that Germany had declared war did Stalin believe it. for a perioa, trom June 24 to July 2, 1941, Stalin with- from public drew was lost. What he was doing in those days no one knows for sure.

In private Khrushchev once said that he was drinking. At any rate, as Medvedev points out, the system of command

Needless offensives exhausted the troop!

was so highly centralized that Stalin's temporary defection had a paralysing effect and helped to account for the rapid penetration of Soviet territory by the invaders in the early days of the war. Once Stalin had come to his senses, he imposed his own views on strategy on the namely to military command, avoid retreat until the last This made defence moment. in depth impossible and on a number of occasions left large bodies of troops in exposed positions where they could be encircled. Huge losses resulted from fruitless offensives and needlessly troops were exhausted in premature attacks when a strategic withdrawal was called for. An atmosphere was created which stifled initiative In the early stages of the war Stalin overrode the advice of Generals Koniev and Zhukov and then on October 16, 1941, again he panicked and left Moscow. Early in the winter of 1942, when the German troops had been brought to a halt by the resistance of the Red Army and were facing the rigours of a Russian winter-for which they were ill-prepared-Stalin again insisted on a large-scale offensive. The offensive was, in any case, continued too long and during the spring and summer the Wehrmacht was again able to go over to the attack and score victories. Stalin had a good deal of responsibility for the heavy. losses suffered during the offensive around Kharkov and in the crimea.

the troops. Russian prisoners in late 1941 trans During the war, of course, Red Army suffered the incalculably from the purge of 1937-1938. Not only had the brilliant commanders most been killed, but an atmopshere had been created which stifled in particular, initiative and, made it difficult for anyone to stand up to Stalin, however foolhardy or illiterate his pro- posals. It was the heroism of the Army and the re- Red power of the awakened October Revolution which enabled the invaders to be defeated despite the costly mistakes of Stalin. The evidence which Med- brings vedev together about Stalin's record as a war leader is damning indeed. His con- is worth quoting at clusion length: 'In short, Stalin was in several respects a poor com- mander, with a weakness for abstract schematizing, for underestimating the enemy and overestimating his own forces. He was shortsighted and cruel, careless of losses, unwilling or unable to fight with little loss of blood, little interested in the fate of soldiers or the common people.

He had much more to do with the reverses at the beginning of the war than with the vic- tories at the end. Those mili- tary historians are wrong who the simple syllogism: accept since the war ended in victory, and Stalin was the Supreme Commander in Chief, he was a very good commander. A care- examination of the record supports a very different view.

With other leadership the army could have defeated the Nazi aggressor not at Stalingrad and Kursk, but much further 1941 transported by the train load.

west and much sooner. Hun- dreds of towns and tens of thousands of villages would have been destroyed. not Victory would not have cost 20 million lives. Moreover, during the war Stalin continued to carry out arbitrary arrests and ordered the execution of many military commanders reprisals and against their families. In most cases they were made scape- goats for his own blunders.

Medvedev claims that by refusing to sign the Hague convention on war prisoners, deprived Soviet which prisoners in German hands of help from the International Red Cross, he opened the way to join Vlassov's for many army which fought on the German side. They did so, he says, 'to save themselves from starvation, hoping at a suitable moment to cross over to the Soviet army or the partisans'.

After the war the promise that returned Soviet prisoners would not be prosecuted was not kept. Returned prisoners were treated like traitors even when they were war heroes.

Most of them were sent to remote labour camps, there to die or to languish for years.

The conditions under which they lived have been described many times, most vividly, perhaps, in works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

1 In France many deputies, senators and other elected representatives left the Com- munist Party, which was made illegal in September, 1939. The effect in Britain was hardly less devastating • 'Stalinism in Britain'. R. Black. New Park Publications. Workers Preca, Friday Augual 4, 1872 PAQE •

PAYING TO

HOUSE TRAINED

STAND UP

SHEEP

One of the joys of working at Further notes of Lord Ald- National the Theatre consists He was a junior min- ington. of the understudies having Board of Trade to ister at the pay to stand to watch the with Edward Heath during the show they are meant to be 1950s. late He resigned and understudying. left politics because he said he Due to administration 'diffi- could no longer afford to live culties' it can take up to two on a junior minister's salary. days to get a free pass for He and Lady Aldington share one of the company to watch an eccentric hobby. They keep house-trained the show he or she is under- whose studying. Rather than go through the ton to knit mittens and pull- of hassle overs for the family. telephoning about ten secretaries to explain who he is and why he wants to Below: Heath and Aldington see the show, the actor in desperation and frustration ends up by buying a standing place. This can cost anything up to £2. And again, of because the heavy administrative machinery at the National, most understudies don't be her to try and claim the money back. No wonder of some the actors are listening a little cynically to the claims of in- ternal democracy heard at the theatre.

CHEERS

Listen to this correspondent in the Tory-controlled 'Yorkshire Post'. 'Sir, —As one of the silent majority, who are weary of the constant industrial strife initi- ated by the tiny militant min- I would ority, like to ask, through your columns, if there are any influential and capable form an leaders who could organization to call upon vol- untary labour from the ranks of this silent majority-such labour to be used to take the place of strikers wherever such a step is possible. would willingly 'I, for one, give up my evenings to work, docks.' ior example on the The authority of this amaz- ing burst is none other than well known supporter of the working class Frank Ogden Waddington. Cheers, Wodders, old man! Why not put up your suggestion at the meet- next ing down at the Royal Group of docks.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25—cloth £1.87} Where Is Britain Going? Paperback 374p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 62kp- -cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.121—cloth £1.87} Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday August 4, 1972 1973 Congress that any of them A TOTAL of 34 unions will face expulsion for continued have now been suspended defiance of official policy.

TUC

from the TUC for remain- Victor Feather, general that 102 unions secretary, says ng on the Tory register 9 with million members established by the Indus already following policy and that he expects representatives of trial Relations Act. 500,000 will be doing another But they may be allowed so by this year's Congress next month. delegates to and to send letters sent out yesterday speak at the Brighton Con- to all affiliated organizations he gress early next month. says that several unions are And it may not be until the through their taking steps internal procedures to come into line. The letter 'The continues: General Council will be giving further consideration to the nature of suspension precise under Rule 13 and of the be adopted cedure to at Congress. 'In the meantime all affiliated expected to observe strictly the requirements THE POST Office made a £36m of the Bridlington and Croydon double prin- profit last year-nearly ciples and procedures. the trading surplus of the pre- vious 12 months. In fact Feather expects that On the the General Council's telecommunications recom- mendation in September will be side-which includes telephones and telex-the corporation made that unions are given final deadline for line a £58m surplus. But the postal, coming into of December 31. remittance and data- giro, They would not then be auto- processing services lost nearly matically expelled, but their £22m. continued until The had suspension the government set September 1973 £100m plus profit target for the Congress. This, Post Office in the period 1971- Feather explained to reporters, 1972. was because only a full Congress could take a decision to expel a In the annual report out yes- terdas Post once workers about chairman Ryland union. The General Council will be warns deciding its recommendation excessive wage claims. at 'The Post Office is very vulner- its pre-Congress meeting on able inflation. On August 23. to present Until trends this will make the finan- then, it will be cial results for 1972-1973 decided suspended whether much worse than those for 1971-1972, unions can attend the Congress, he or submit nomina- says. move motions If increases in wages and in tions for the General Council.

the paid for goods It would be unprecedented if prices 'benefits they were allowed to do so.

destroyed the of But and growth, improved produc- Feather's argument is that there tivity, he added, there would be is 'no other where a

CONC

be filled, nnancial gap suspended union was in company especially on the postal side.

with 33 others' The General " The itself lost Council is not afraid of creating postal service £12.6m, a much smaller loss than precedents, he says. Three of the suspended unions In previous year, but fell £23.2m short of the set target.

are having special conferences in Ryland said an important an attempt to deregister.

contribution towards They are the Union of Shop, price restraint in the Post Office Distributive and Allied Workers, would be the writing-oft of past the Association of Scientific, losses in the By Technical Managerial Staffs postal service. and the end of 1972-1973, the losses and the Civil Service Union.

are expected to have mounted to The National Graphical Asso- £180m. ciation is holding a ballot.

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

PUBLIC MEETING

CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE

LONDON, WC1.

END THE TUC TALKS WITH HEATH

VICTORY TO THE DOCKERS

NATIONALIZE DOCKS AND TRANSPORT INDUSTRIES

MAKE THE TORIES RESIGN

Speakers: Larry Cavanagh, dock worker G. Healy, SLL national secretary would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

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

Name «Address THE DECISION by Labour-co the Housing Finance 'fair ren qualification. A £1 rent increas be passed on. Instead, the gove come in and try and do the job.

STATE I

A 24-HOUR picket is being maintained by women cleaners outside Cleanagents Limited in Fulham over a recognition dispute. The Civil Service Union has official backing to just given the women's struggle. The picket line will be strengthened in the next few days by other trade unionists, including building workers.

WORK on Manchester Airport's £8m redevelopment plan has been stopped by more than 100 building and construction men who downed tools in support of a claim for a guaranteed £30 for a 35-hour week. They members of the • are Transport and General Workers' Union, and the Union of Con- Allied Trades struction and Technicians. UCATT regional organizer John Brooms, said: 'Until the men get "a satis- factory wage agreement negoti- ated or an order from national level to go back to work, they are staying out.' new Jumbo Jet Work on a pier, multi-story car park • com- plex and the airport south front is halted, and pickets say they will stop any lorries carrying material entering the site.

Camden won't implement Rent Act Let Tories do own dirty work THE DECISION by Labour-controlled Camden, London, council not to implement the Housing Finance 'fair rents' Act leaves them open to surcharges and dis- qualification. A £l rent increase for the council's tenants due this October will not be passed on. Instead, the government's Housing Commissioner will be invited to

EMPRESS

STATE BUILDING

MINISTRY OF

DEFENCE

300 The firm employs work women in London at four government ministries and private buildings. Earls meeting at Court is planned for Monday.

Employ- The Department ment fears that the strike will spread to other buildings,

HOW

many of them wiere government work carried out. Magazines may stop over pay dispute THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists has served notice of strike action on the maga- zine and book companies of the International Publishing Corporation. tion by move fe lot 631 to 224 at The move followed a mass meeting of members of a offer £300 to last pay for £495 months against a claim for 12 months house agreement (pay and con- ditions for agreement par- ticular group or oince). The companies have also refused to concede an additional holidav. agree highel minimum rates for long-service employees, to introduce paid maternity leave provide facilities

TOI

mothers. ur members are cancan angered that the money offer ndon, council not to implement open to surcharges and dis- nants due this October will not ommissioner will be invited to Camden's decision was made in the face of a split in the Labour group. At least 15 Labour councillors voted with the Tory opposition and the final vote against imple- mentation was 30 to 20. After meeting the on Wednesday night, Mrs Millie Miller, leader of the council, said: 'We have asked that the Hous- ing Commissioner be appointed to take over the affairs of the as possible. borough as soon This is inevitable now and we feel it may minimize the serious- ness of the surcharge. 'We cannot stop the govern- this, but we are not They bringing in extra rents. will have to bring in a Com- missioner to do their own dirty work, she added. The Tory government's attack housing and the social on services has meant that Labour The Housing Finance Act and its equivalent the Housing (Financial Provisions) Scotland Act both received the Royal Assent on July 27. councils have had to make up minds. Were they their to be the instruments of Tory policies?

Mrs Miller and the Labour majority on Camden find their predecessors on Poplar council in East London. In 1921 the council, led by George Lansbury, refused to hand over local rates to the London County Council.

To hand the money over would have meant cutting the relief given to the unemployed through the Board of Guardians. By September 1921, 30 mem- bers of the council had been sent to prison for contempt of the High Court. Demonstrations took place outside the prisons and the dockers threatened a strike.

The government rushed a Bill through parliament easing the rates burden and the councillors were released. And they never purged their contempt. represents less than half of what the newspaper division of the corporation agreed last week to concede to NUJ chapels in Lon- don, Manchester and Glasgow.

'If the companies make no better offer and the strike takes effect, this of country's most leading women's journals, comics, general and specialized maga- zines, and trade and technical journals will disappear from the bookstalls.' The spokesman added that strike notice was due to expire in about a month's time and that 1,800 employees were affected. If the management wanted to meet the union 'they can make a new proposal'. OFFICE STAFF at Crescent Kent, are • in dealing with pay and tax refunds for 100 striking dockers.

BEEN DEBEN

ITV

11.20 The 12.25 Lords Women today. 12.50 rico on Bush Dan. boy. 2.05 Castle haven. 2.30 Rac- Redcar. ing from 3.45 Delta. 4.40

BBC 1

PoSe giants. 5.50 News.

MONTY.

6.00

MIDSUMMER

9.45 Camberwick Modlyn. Green. Monty 6.30

DICK

Casey Jones. 10.25 Attenborough

NEW

VAN

and Animals 10.50 Tin Tin. 10.55

DYKE

SHOW.

The Tele- Roundabout. Eu Tyb Magic 12.55 7.00

BEST

OF

PLEASE

A'u lebyg. 1.50 ringerdobs. 745 News, School.

SIR.

4.40 4.55 THE FBI. The Quarry. Jackanory. 7.30

THE

COMEDIANS.

8.30 Ask Aspel. 5.44 Sir Prance-

HAVEN.

lot. 5.50 News, weather. Episode 3.

6.00 LONDON THIS WEEK.

10.00 10.30

THE

FRIGHTENERS. The

6.20 TOM AND JERRY.

Disappearing

WOMEN.

11.00

WICKED

Chris-

6.30 THE VIRGINIAN.

Edmunds. First tiana

IT'S

7.45

KNOCK - OUT

senes plays based on Second international heat.

true crime.

SCALES

OF JUSTICE

George Baker bellevas he's com 9.00 NEWS, weather. 12.30

THE BISHOPS

ITV London, Victor Maddern (right) belle 9.25 THE MAN OUTSIDE. Man- dala.

REGIONAL TV

Weather. Guideline.

10.15 DAVE ALLEN AT LARGE.

HTV:

2.15 Racing 3.45 Women

CHANNEL:

1.45 Racing. 4.05

11.00 NEWS.

4.15 Tinkertainment. 4.30 Cross- Happy 4.55 Woobinda. 5.20 Flax- Mouse 4.20

11.05 SUMMER TALK.

Stewart. 4.50 Pebbles and Jimr ny 5.50 News. 6.01 5.20 Primus. Bamm Bamm. 5.50 Report Wales 6.30 west 11.50 Weather. Jimmy 7.00 In NewS. i Comedians 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Comedians 7.30 8.00 7.30

FBI.

8.30 for a penny. Cade's county. 9.00 London. 11.00 9.00 London. Film: "The Film: 'Account Rendered'. 12.10

BBC 2

Tingler'. 12.00 News, weather. Scales of justice. 12.40 : Weather. Wales and HTV Cymru/ WESTWARD. As Channel except: above except: 4.15 11.00 Play School. 4.20 News Open Gus Honevbun Y Dydd. 6.00 Diary. Sports desk. West above except: 6.15 7.30 10.32 News. 12.00 Faith for life. weather. Report West.

THE

8.00

ENTERTAINERS.

TWO

Players the Music News World War I. 2.00 Market. Beloved enemy. 1.25 Hillbillies. Mad Racing. 3.45 8.50

THE

BEETHOVEN

1.50 Cook 2.15 Racing.

SYM-

book. fluvice

PHONIES.

4II NeWS Cartoons Philhar. 3.45 Cartoon. 3.55 Weekend New 4. l 4.25 Romper room. 4.50_London.

monia Orchestra conduc- Houseparty. Paulus. 4.30 6.00 About 6.35 Cross- Anglia. ted by Klemperer. Crossroads. 4.55 Voyage. 5.50 7.00 72.

SPORT

Glamour 10.15 Dennis 6.00 Day by day. Scene Today Newo. Comedians. Combat 9.00 -Fast Bowler south east. 6.30 Who do Like. • Vol cor 10.30 Film: 'Victim'. 10.45

GARDENERS'

WORLD.

7.30 Week- With Percy

FBI.

9.00 Thrower. end. 11.05

NEWS,

Weather. 10.30 'Look

ATV

MIDLANDS:

1.45 Racing. Film Back Loncon. 11.10

LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

Anger'. 12.20 News. 12.30 3.35 Horoscope. 3.45 Women. This collection of articles was penned by Trotsky in reply to various critics of his then recently-published "Wher is Britain Going?' They appeared ir the Soviet press of the time and con- stitute a necessary corollary and sequel to that work. Trotsky here all the dissects the arguments of brands of opponents of Marxism: re- pacifist, formist, Fabian centrist,

BRITISI

trade-union bureaucrat and by impli-

BEVOLUTION

cation, its Russian counterpart, the By leritistshy nascent Soviet bureaucrat. Here also he unravels many of the knotty prob- lems facing the infant Communist Party developing a strategy for power in the revolutionary epoch.

64 pp price 35p (postage extra).

A salient work of Trotsky treating with his struggle against the rising Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. Written in the aftermath of the civil war and in the period of the New Economic Policy when, despite all the conservative pressures generated within the Soviet Union, chance of there still seemed every curbing and overcoming this bureau- cracy. This book makes a bridge between Lenin's deathbed struggles against Stalinism and the later found- ing of the Joint Left Opposition.

IN LEONTROISKY

108 pp price 65p (postage extra) Avallable from 186a, Clapham High Street, London SWa JUG and the Paperbacks Centra (800 p. 3) Workers Press, Friday August 4, 1972 PAGE 11 le's committed a crime in BBC 1's 'The Man Outside' at 9.25, while on Ight) belleves he's 'Th e Disappearing Man' at 10.30.

4.10 Julia. 4.40 Happy house. 4.55 5.50 News. Lost in space. 5.50 News. 6.00 News. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 6.30 Riptide. 7.30 In for a penny.

In for a penny. Persuaders. 7.30 8.00 Protectors. 8.25 London. 8.25 10.30 Film: London. 'Black 10.30 Film: "The Snorkel'. Bart'.

SCOTTISH:

1.45 Racing. 3.35 ULSTER: 1.45 Racing. 4.30 Horoscope. Rom- 3.45 Women. 4.10 4.50 News. per room. Animaland. 4.15 Crossroads. 4.50 4.55 Cow- boy in Africa. 5.50 News. 6.00 Happy house. 4.55 Skippy.

5.20 News. 6.10 Viewfinder. 6.35 Cartoons. 5.50 News. 6.00 News.

Crossroads. 7.00 Sale. 7.30 In for 6.15 Love, American style. 6.30 8.00 Jason King. a penny. 9.00 McArthur. 7.00 Please London. 10.30 Comedians. 11.00 Saint. 8.30 London. Film: 'Night Slaves'. 10.30 In camera. 11.00 At odds. 11.45 Late call. 11.50 Theatre of stars.

YORKSHIRE:

1.45 Racing. 3.40 Eisteddfod. 4.10 Calendar. 4.15 Crossroads. 4.40 house.

GRAMPIAN:

1.45 Racing. 3.37 Happy 4.55 Skippy. 5.20 News. 3.45 Women. 4.10 Yoga. Flintstones. 5.50 News. 6.00 Calendar. 6.05 4.40 Happy house. 4.55 Rumblie Randall and Hopkirk. 7.00 Film: Jumblie. 5.20 Bush boy. 5.50 Seven in Darkness'. 8.30 In for a London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Mr and 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: Mrs. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Come- penny. 'Peeping Tom'. 12.30 Weather.

dians. 7.30 Cartoon. 7.35 Jesse 8.05 Hawaii five-o. James. 9.00 London.

GRANADA:

1.45 Racing 3.40 10.30 Hogan's heroes University challenge. 4.10 News. 11.05 Film: 11.00 Job look. Peyton Place. 4.40 Happy house.

'Paranoiac'. Road report.

Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 622p

MAX SHACHTMAN:

Behind The Moscow Trial Paperback 75p

ROBERT BLACK:

Stalinism In Britain Paperback £1.12%—cloth 22

LEON TROTSKY:

Death Agony of Capitalism (The Transitional Programme) Pamphlet 5p Class Nature of the Soviet State Pamphlet 20p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p The Theory and Practice of Revisionism Pamphlet 15p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from:

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

186a Clapham High Street.

London SW4 7uG The dally paper that fight against the Tories. £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 far 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: Circulation Dept., Workers Press.

186a Clapham High St., London, SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

Days required

MONDAY

THURSDAY

(Please tick)

TUESDAY.

FRIDAY

SATURDAY•

WEDNESDAY

Or Full subscription (six-days) for.

. months.

NAME

ADDRESS

Amount enclosed f

Labour MP accuses government department Cover-up conspiracy over 13 companies PAGE 12 Workers Press, Friday August 4,

IAN YEATS

MEN AT wharves at Col- Rowhedge chester and docks, Hythe, were working normally yesterday despite requests from London docks shop stewards to back the national strike. A 300-strong picket failed to arrive yesterday because dockers had to collect tax re- bates and social security for their families, and sign on for strike pay. Carpenter, chairman But Jim of the Port of London Authority stewards at the Royal docks, told Workers Press: 'We will be out in force today.' The Colchester wharves em- ploy a total labour force of 30 including ten dockers, but none are members of a trade union.

The men work for three private wharfingers handling coasters of which 500 tons to carry grain, timber and animal foods..

students Two 18-year-old working at the wharves left on Thursday after National Union of Students President Digby Jacks made a flying visit to Col- chester to urge them not to scab on dockers. container terminal The at Harwich, Parkestone Wharf, was also open for business yester- day. Operated by members of the National Union of Railway- nearby Pickets from men. Harwich navy yard had asked them repeatedly to stop work.

and General Transport Workers' Union shop steward for the 120 unregistered dockers at the navy yard, Ernie Blake, said his men were not affected by redundancies at the mainly roll-on, roll-off dock. But he added: 'We have been : out on official strike. We called . T&GWU members and are all we are all dockers, so we stopped work. 'The main thing the dockers are after is guarantees. They have lost much through SO modernization and now things have come to a head. "The Jones-Aldington report has not given enough. The strike has been made official and Jones will have to come up with some- thing. If he calls it off without giving the men what they want, there is going to be a lot of angry lads about, including me.'

Unlike the Hythe men, who see no end to the use of small coasters and therefore no threat to their own jobs, the navy yard redundancies in has the seen past and the dockers there back they fear the strike because modernization could inflict it on them again. duty yesterday Pickets on a 'good said the dockers had case' and were entitled to jobs in container depots where non- dockers worked for less pay.

Across the Orwell estuary, ships at the unregistered port of Felixstowe were idle as a result of the 425 dockers decision to join the strike.

LATE NEWS

LEADERS of 110,000 electricity supply manual workers decided yesterday to go for a to-a-week • the basic minimum increase on wage, bringing it to £25, with increases up the scale. They also want a 35-hour week and four weeks annual holiday. The claim will be put next month and the four unions concerned will de- mand an early settlement to avoid a possible dispute running into the depths of winter. Last year they won 7t per cent. THE 34 unions suspended from the TUC for remaining registered under the. Industrial Relations Act will not automatically be suspended at branch level from local trades councils. In a letter to the trades councils, the TUC says: 'The decision whether or not to suspend the branches is left to each individual trades council.'

(See page 10.) August 4, 1972 LABOUR MP, Mr Arthur Lewis, yesterday accused the Department of Trade and Industry of deliberately aiding and abetting the breaking of the law. In a wide-ranging attack on the department Mr Lewis, MP for West Ham North, named companies which the should have department taken action against. of them, the offshore One property fund Real Estate Fund America, had the former Tory Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, as its first president.

Mr Lewis told the Commons: 'The department have been guilty of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of their officials to cover up and protect a number of illegal activities to the detri- ment of the shareholders of the companies.' Mr Lewis said he would name 13 companies to which he had drawn the of the attention Department. They were: Hartley and Co; H. I. Baldwin; Baird Vehicle and General Insurance Co; Competitive Insurance Co; Dollar Land Holdings; Pinnock Finance Co; Threeways Nurser- ies; Camp Bird Ltd; Rolis Razor and the Bloom Empire; Asso- ciated Leisure Holdings; Sempah Holdings; Third Mile Investment Trust and Real Estate Fund of America. He also mentioned the Poulson affair. Maudling resigned two weeks ago after the Scotland Yard THE DISTRICT committee of the Transport and Gen- eral Workers' Union has called for a one-day total shutdown in Coventry on Monday, August 14, in pro- test against the Industrial Relations Act. Bill Lapworth, Coventry dis- trict said the secretary, would be brought 'to a complete standstill'. Most local industry, public transport and local gov-

WEATHER

SCOTLAND and Northern Ire- land will be cloudy with some rain or drizzle in the west and some sunny intervals in the east.

England and Wales will be mostly dry with sunny spells and longer periods of sunshine in the east rising and south. Temperatures back to near the seasonal nor- mal in most areas.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION 01-622 7029

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Published by Set, London.

BY OUR POLITICAL COI

fraud squad was called in to in- vestigate the bankrupt empire of Yorkshire architect John Poul- son. He became the inaugural presi- dent of the offshore fund REFA early in 1969, but retained shares in the group's management com- 12 months pany for more than after his resignation. He left the company, he said, to concen- trate on the 1970 General Elec- tion. The founder of REFA, Jerome D. Hoffman, a former Missouri baseball player, is now serving two years in a United States jail for mortgage fraud. It was revealed a week ago Yard fraud that Scotland a squad inquiry into REFA has been handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether charges should be laid against anybody connected with Referring to REFA, Mr Lewis said that as far as he knew the action, DTI had taken no although he had heard whispers that the police had been investi- gating. Mr Lewis said: 'One of the di- rectors, Mr Maudling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and former Home _Secretary, has de- clared-and I must accept his word-that he has not been in- vestigated, asked to give evi- dence or called on to give any information at all. 'It amazing situation an where the prime director of a company is now in jail [Hoff- man], the company is being in- vestigated, but the directors associated have not been and are not being questioned.

'When did the police start to ernment services would have to shut down, he said. The one-day strike decision was taken by 400 yotes to four and is expected to involve about 60,000 T&GWU members in the area. In particular the men want to against the fines of protest £55,000 imposed on their union by the National Industrial Rela- tions Court. Ironically, the leadership of the union has already paid the fine to the courts, despite the overwhelming view of the mem- bership that the court and the Act should be boycotted.

AUGUST FUND

NOW £151.28

SO FAR, your response has been good. Keep it up at all costs.

The decision to invoke the emergency powers is a warning to the whole labour movement.

The Tory government will not halt its attacks on the working class and to make it resign is now the vital question of the day.

Use Workers Press in every way for. this fight. Help us this month to raise another total of £1,750. The extra money is needed to cover increased costs. Post all donations off to: Workers Press August Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG. Hillill

CAL CORRESPONDENT

investigate REFA? Have they interviewed all those concerned with REFA, including Mr Lewis said he would like to know why Mr Maudling had not been given an opportunity of being questioned and to put his case with regard to REFA.

He had been told that with regard to the Poulson case nothing could be done because the law had been properly acti- vated. But with regard to REFA, it was possible, and Mr Maudling should have been given an opportunity of stating his case. (Maudling was chairman of an connected overseas company with the failed empire of John Poulson.) Replying to the debate, the Minister for Trade, Mr Michael Noble, said he realized Mr Lewis felt strongly that the department in when should step anything went wront. Mr Lewis thought the department should do every- thing shareholders and •the nothing, Noble said. I cannot accept that.' The Minister. went on: obviously don't talk want about the Real Estate Fund of America or the Poulson case as both are sub judice, and it would so, quite improper for me to do (This is not true. Neither case is the subject of criminal pro- ceedings and it would be per- fectly in order for the minister to answer questions on these cases. And two days ago, Maud- ling himself was given headlines when he protested about evi- dence given by Poulson at his bankruptcy hearing.) A WORKING agreement whi the American oil rig builders.

ing on the Clyde is likely to be Fourteen unions involved in Marathon's take-over of the Clydebank yard met com- pany chiefs including pre- sident Wayne Harbin for talks over the deal. A major obstacle is Marathon's suggestion that disputes during the life of the four-year deal should go to arbitration on the suggestion of unions or manage- ment. The unions are insisting that arbitration should be mutually 'We know there are accepted. very few arbitrators who find for the working man,' was the com- ment from one ( Clydeside union official yesterday. The Marathon deal involves penalty clauses. The craftsmen's rate of fl an hour includes a 10 per cent bonus. This is paid on a twice yearly basis, but if 140 a worker loses more than period within the six-month legitimate excuse, he without a looses his bonus. Some stewards have pointed out that could this clause be against used strikers, but the unions say they would not accept loss of bonus through industrial disputes. Noble defended the role of his department. *I want to repudiate allega- tions that civil servants in my department have been deliber- and abetting ately aiding the breaking of the law. They have carried out their tasks aided by the best legal advice and work- ing under enormous pressure.'

The 'enormous pressure' which Noble refers to could mean the political pressure enormous which is frequently applied to officers in the DTI. is no doubt that the There investigations branch of the de- partment looked into several of the companies on Mr Lewis' list.

But the reports were either ig- nored or suppressed by the poli- ticians of the day. The US Securities and Ex- change Commission has ordered hearings into the operation of Fund, Oceanographic the mutual fund in which President Nixon's brother, Edward, was once a director. Edward Nixon resigned his di- Officials rectorship last year. would not say when it began its investigation, but there were reports about the newspaper probe early this year. The Commission charges also involved the brokerage firm of Mittendorf, Colgate and Com- pany, of which Mr J. William Mittendorf, the US Ambassador to the Netherlands, was a part- ner. A member of the Republican Party's national committee, Mr J. Carl Shipley, was also an officer in the mutual fund.

Commission officials alleged there had been 'gross misconduct or gross abuse of trust' in the buying and selling of stocks in the fund by the brokerage firm.

ent which could finally launch uilders Marathon Manufactur- ly to be signed within a week.

The other major problem is jobs. Over a thousand Clyde- bank workers face the dole in m- September when the UCS liquid- re- ator's work is cleared out of the for yard. Over 400 men will follow the two vessels down to Govan Shipbuilders where they will be finished and a further 500 men are expected to be employed by Marathon. But this leaves a large surplus. I understand unions are wait- ing until Marathon and Govan Shipbuilders who take over three operations in the yards before start lobbying for they absorbtion of a thousand men.

But a large redundancy is now accepted. Marathon are sure to press for higher productivity and faster once they begin delivery dates building rigs at Clydebank.

British companies only made the 18 rigs operating on half this side of the continental shelf.

• One of the main reasons, according to Peter Emery, under- Secretary for Industry, was that the first four orders • by won trial Clydebank were delayed because of labour disputes.