Workers Press no. 845

workers press

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

LIVERPOOL dockers met yesterday in a mood of calm determination and voted unanimously to stay out on strike. Not one man out of the 6,000 present raised his hand against the recommendation to continue the fight on an unofficial basis. Shop steward Paddy Doherty warned of the dangers ahead.

The press, TV and radio would go all-out to break the strike, he said. We must not let these attempts succeed,' he added. "Those who dare to split our ranks must be regarded as splitters and traitors to our movement.' London dockers who meet to- day must heed these words. The return-to-work decision of a mass meeting Tilbury the struggle. The northern ports must not be isolated. At London the lay dele- gates will speak at the key.

morning meeting. The stew- ards will not put forward their own recommendation to keep the strike going un- til a mass meeting at 1 p.m.

The danger in this deci- sion by the stewards is that it opens the way for the right wing to force a return- to-work vote at the first meeting as happened at Til- bury yesterday. Manchester and Preston have also followed Liverpool's lead.

Shop stewards at Hull decided to recommend an unofficial strike from Monday. A meeting of the port's 2,600 dockers will be arranged before the weekend.

Clearly the greatest danger facing the men is that leaders and General of the Transport Workers' Union, in active co- operation with the Tory govern- ment, will be able to isolate their struggle from the rest of the working class. This will give the government maximum opportunity to break the strike by force. Already military aircraft have been used against the Scottish dockers. Elsewhere armed ser- vices personnel are on a 24-hour alert to move into the big docks and shift cargo. The Cabinet was reviewing the new situation after the revolt of the militant dockers, who have now become the main target. It is understood that troops will be used first to release cargo and

INCORPORATING THE NEWSL

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

grain held in strike-bound ware- houses and silos. Meanwhile the open collabora- tion between the forces of the state, the Tory government and the union leaders becomes more blatant every day. The scene at Transport House on Wednesday typified this. Jones and the delegates were cordoned by a massive 1,000-strong force of police while the meeting to -call off the strike proceeded.

It was like the battle of the picket lines with a difference: the police were not defending employers and scabs but a build- ing that, by right, belonged to the dockers outside. Trotsky's characterization of unions under imperialism is most apt: •Monopoly capitalism is less and less willing to reconcile itself to the independence of trade unions. It demands of the reformist bureaucracy . . • who pick up the crumbs from its banquet table that they become into transformed its political police before the eyes of the working class.' Jones is playing this role. By advancing the latest proposals he is helping the shipping mono- polies and the big port employers who dominate land and sea transport. On the basis of promises he wants to break the resistance on the docks to the plans for a further 10,000 cut-back in the labour force, massive increases in productivity through container- ization and a further erosion of National Dock the Labour Scheme. This open treachery poses the question of a new leadership in the T&GWU. It is the duty of every member of this union to fight to remove Jones and his clique and recall the biennial conference of the union to discuss action to defend the dockers' rights. We warn all militants against any compromise with Jones and O'Leary on the basis that the dockers are three-quarters of the way towards victory. There can be no peaceful co- existence between the rank and file and this discredited bureau- Just as there can be no peaceful co-existence or deals between the dockers and the employers. Any Communist Party member on the docks who says otherwise is leading dockers into another trap -just as they led them into the Devlin trap. Finally the dockers must realize that concessions from the em- ployers cannot solve the crisis they face.

• FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 197:

E NEWSLETTER

ENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIA

6,000 say •We strike on' -Liverpool Pier Head yesterday Containerization in the hands • of the monopolies will mean a vast reduction in manpower. This will occur whether or not the ports are registered. The only alternative to the Jones - Aldington sell-out workers' nationalization under control without compensation to the owners. Jones himself recognized this

BY IAN YEATS

SIX THOUSAND Mersey dockers were told yesterday: If we chuck it now the em- ployers will have the initia- tive' Port steward Dennis Kelly, a T&GWU docks delegate, told a Pier Head meeting: 'While we go back to work and negotia- tions and inquiries start they'll be opening small wharves with part-time labour, getting half our wages. 'Behind our backs they'll be cutting the ground from under us. There are no jobs in Liver- pool, and if anyone accepts the £4,000 severance pay, after 12 months he'd be back at Social Security:* meeting The unanimously rejected the latest Jones-Alding- ton proposals and voted to stay out. Dennis Kelly said: We are not chucking this fight until we get cast-iron agreement on bring- ing the unregistered ports into NationalDock Labour Scheme and on making stuffing stripping containers dock- ers' work. In the whole history of the trade union movement I don't i think anyone has said chuck the fight when the fight is at Т 18, 1972 • 4p No 845

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

when he said that the two choices facing the dockers were a deal with the employers or new legislation to secure their rights. These are the most crucial days of the dockers' fight. The working class must rally round them. If they lose their fight for the right to work it will be a blow to the whole labour move- its strongest and we're only half way to ending the battle.

'Cornelius Clancy was right when he said in London that anyone who accept Jones-Ald- ington is a lackey of the capi- talist system. It is all part of the plan to lick our strike, smash our trade union and make us docile workers.' Liverpool will be one of the ports hardest hit by container- ization and modernization. By 1975 there will be 11,500 fewer jobs in Britain's dockland, many of them on Merseyside. Birkenhead shop steward Larry Cavanagh told meeting: •There was nothing at all in the Jones-Aldington proposals about job security. 'Our lads at the delegate con- ference hammered them line by line. The people who voted for them never took our lads up.

They just sat back and voted.

They couldn't wait to get back inside the gate. 'All it promised was that there would be further committees set up to look into conditions on the docks. 'But while these committees ment. Recall the biennial conference of the T&GWU. mobilize in • All unions to solidarity with the dockers.

• Force the Tory government to resign. • Elect a Labour government to nationalize the docks without compensation under workers' control. alf are being set up employers like Vestey are saying they will not give jobs to dock workers. How can Jones offer 200 jobs when the employers say 11,000 will be put out of this industry in the next two-and-a-half years?'

Cavanagh said the dockers were fighting for the basic right to work and he thought many other sections of workers could be rallied to their support.

Liverpool Trades Council was asked last night to call for a meeting of all Merseyside shop stewards for joint action to back the dockers and building work- ers. yesterd. Preston dockers unanimously rejected the lasiest Jones-Aldington proposals. Shop stewards will meet employers once more to 'test their reactions to the report, then meet on Sun- day to decide whether to keep up the strike. The consensus however is strongly in favour of unofficial action. We want them to give a statement of intent. We want nothing under the carpet, said Norman Wright, stewards' con- venor.

workers press

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

LIVERPOOL dockers met yesterday in a mood of calm determination and voted unanimously to stay out on strike. Not one man out of the 6,000 present raised his hand against the recommendation to continue the fight on an unofficial basis. Shop steward Paddy Doherty warned of the dangers ahead The press, TV and radio would go all-out to break the strike, he said. 'We must not let these attempts succeed,' he added. "Those who dare to split our ranks must be regarded as splitters and traitors to our movement.' London dockers who meet to- day must heed these words. The return-to-work decision of a mass Tilbury meeting yesterday at weakened the struggle. The northern ports must not be isolated. At London the lay dele- gates will speak at the key. ad morning meeting. The stew- ards will not put forward their own recommendation to keep the strike going un- til a mass meeting at 1 p.m.

The danger in this deci- sion by the stewards is that it opens the way for the right wing to force a return- to-work vote at the first meeting as happened at Til- bury yesterday. Manchester and Preston have also followed Liverpool's lead.

Shop stewards at Hull decided to recommend an unofficial strike from Monday. A meeting of the be port's 2,600 dockers will arranged before the weekend.

Clearly the greatest danger is that leaders facing the men of the Transport and General Workers' Union, in active co- operation with the Tory govern- ment, will be able to isolate their struggle from the rest of the working class. This will give the government maximum opportunity to break the strike by force. Already military aircraft have been used against the Scottish dockers. Elsewhere armed ser- vices personnel are on a 24-hour alert to move into the big docks and shift. cargo. The Cabinet was reviewing the new situation after the revolt of the militant dockers, who have now become the main target. It is understood that troops will be used first to release cargo and

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL

grain held in strike-bound ware- houses and silos. Meanwhile the open collabora- tion between the forces of the state, the Tory government and the union leaders becomes more blatant every day. The scene at Transport House on Wednesday typified this. Jones and the delegates were cordoned by a massive 1,000-strong force of police while the meeting to ~ call off the strike proceeded.

It was like the battle of the picket lines with a difference: the police were not defending employers and scabs but a build- ing that, by right, belonged to the dockers outside. Trotsky's characterization of unions under imperialism is most apt: 'Monopoly capitalism is less and less willing to reconcile itself to the independence of trade unions. It demands of the reformist bureaucracy ... who pick up the crumbs from its banquet table that they become transformed into its political police before Jones is playing this role. By advancing latest •polies and the big port employers who dominate land and sea transport. On the basis of promises he wants to break the resistance on the docks to the plans for a further 10,000 cut-back in the labour force, massive increases in productivity through container- ization and a further erosion of the National Dock Labour Scheme. This open treachery poses the question of a new leadership in the T&GWU. It is the duty of every member of this union to fight to remove Tones and his clique and recall the biennial conference of the union to discuss action to defend the dockers' rights. We warn all militants against any compromise with Jones and O'Leary on the basis that the dockers are three-quarters of the way towards victory. There can be no peaceful co- existence between the rank and file and this discredited bureau- cracy. Just as there can be no peaceful co-existence or deals between the dockers and the employers. Any Communist Party member on the docks who says otherwise is leading dockers into another trap —just as they led them into the Devlin trap. Finally the dockers must realize that concessions from the em- ployers cannot solve the crisis they face.

E NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 197

ENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIA

6,000 say 'We strike on' -Liverpool Pier Head yesterday Containerization in the hands of the monopolies will mean a vast reduction in manpower. This will occur . whether or not the ports are registered. The only alternative to the Jones - Aldington is sell-out workers' nationalization under control without compensation to the owners. Jones himself recognized this

BY IAN YEATS

SIX THOUSAND Mersey dockers were told yesterday: 'If we chuck it now the em- ployers will have the initia- tive' Port steward Dennis Kelly, a T&GWU docks delegate, told a Pier Head meeting: 'While we go back to work and negotia- tions and inquiries start they'll be opening small wharves with part-time labour, getting : half our wages. 'Behind our backs they'll be cutting the ground from under us. There are no jobs in Liver- pool, and if anyone accepts the £4,000 severance pay, after 12 months he'd be back at Social Security." meeting unanimously The rejected the latest Jones-Alding- ton proposals and voted to stay out. Dennis Kelly said: 'We are not chucking this fight until we get cast-iron agreement on bring- ing the unregistered ports into the National Dock Labour Scheme and on making stuffing and stripping containers dock- ers work. 'In the whole history of the trade union movement I don't i said chuck think anyone has the fight when the fight is at • T 18, 1972 • No 845 4p

• SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

SITUATLEA

when he said that the two choices facing the dockers were a deal with the employers Or new legislation to secure their rights. These are the most crucial days of the dockers' fight. The working class must rally round them. If they lose their fight for the right to work it will be a blow to the whole labour move- its strongest and we're only half way to ending the battle.

'Cornelius Clancy was right he said in when London that who accept Jones-Ald- anyone ington is a lackey of the capi- talist system. It is all part of the plan to lick our strike, smash our trade union and make us docile workers.' Liverpool will be one of ports hardest hit by container- ization and modernization. By 1975 there will be 11,500 fewer jobs in Britain's dockland, many of them on Merseyside. Birkenhead shop steward Larry Cavanagh told meeting: 'There was nothing at all in the Jones-Aldington proposals about job security. 'Our lads at the delegate con- ference hammered them line by line. The people who voted for them never took our lads up.

sat 'back and voted. They just They couldn't wait to get back inside the gate. 'All it promised was that there would be further committees set up to look into conditions on the docks. 'But while these committees T0000 ment. • Recall the biennial conference of the T&GWU. • All unions mobilize in to solidarity with the dockers.

• Force the Tory government to resign. • Elect a Labour government to nationalize the docks without compensation under workers' control. are being set up employers like Vestey are saying they will not give jobs to dock workers. How can Jones offer 200 jobs when the employers say 11,000 will be put out of this industry in the next two-and-a-half years?'

Cavanagh the dockers said were fighting for the basic right to work and he thought many other sections of workers could be rallied to their support.

Liverpool Trades Council was asked last night to call for a meeting of all Merseyside shop stewards for joint action to back the dockers and building work- ers. • Preston dockers yesterc... unanimously rejected the laste!

• Jones-Aldington proposals. Shep stewards will meet employers once more to 'test their reaction»' to the report, then meet on Sun- day to decide whether to keep up the strike. consensus however The strongly in favour of unofficial action. 'We want them to give a statement of intent. We want nothing under the carpet, said Norman Wright, stewards' con- venor.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Friday August 18

AROUND THE WORLD

BY JOHN SPENCER

ITALIAN police author- ities are preparing a mass trial of nearly 600 left wingers in the industrial city of Turin. They have already issued 579 for sub- summonses and versive propaganda association agaiast members of groups to the left of the Communist Party. The accused include 45 mem- bers of Potere Operaio, 300 members of Lotta Continua and 217 Maoists of various organiz- ations. Ten of the Lotta Continua members have been further charged with 'organizing' sub- version and could be held in prison during the lengthy pre- paration of the trial. The Communist Party has made no attempt to defend the A BLACK South African con- tract labourer, who works a seven-day week, I1 hours a day £3.25, has been sacked because he had nothing to wear to work. Masingayi Xhakalegusha, 31, was fined £10 earlier this week for failing to obey a lawful com- mand of his employer. He had told the magistrate he had been unable to work when ordered to do so because he had washed his only pair of trousers the day before and they were still wet. After the case, the foreman of the poultry farm, Johannes his con- Lebenburg, cancelled tract and gave him a train ticket back to the Transkei. Lebenburg said that his firm employed 12 contract labourers who were given free accommo- dation but no food or medical treatment-their only 'perks' were a pair of overalls and boots.

"OF COURSE I'M DO

PLAYING

August 18, 1972 victims of this mass trial who it has repeatedly denounced as 'leftists' and police provocateurs.

The case was set in motion by the department Turin police following a top-level meeting of police chiefs in Rome on July 10. This was one of the first acts of the new right-wing coalition under Giulio Andreotti. The premier's 'law and order' campaign, however, does not fascist groups extend to the which are openly preparing for civil war. Mezzocorona in the At mountains of North-East. Italy, armed guards are protecting an encampment of over 50 fascists National Vanguard from the movement. guards wear military. The style uniforms with and belts bayonets in plain violation of the law, yet they have not been touched by the police. Inside the camp the fascists are wearing black shirts and display- ing the runic cross, the one-time emblem of the Hitler youth.

The guards' uniform belts are inscribed with the motto: "Our fidelity, honour called the slogan of the SS now adopted by fascist groups New Order the and National Vanguard. The fascists had originally tried to establish their camp on the outskirts of Trento. But they were driven away by the local people who refused to tolerate such a camp on their doorstep.

At Mezzocorona local police, after 'casting an eye' over the camp, told the local paper seen nothing out of they had the ordinary. The campers were simply, on holiday, they said.

Mariano Rumor, the Minister of Police, who has in the past denounced repeatedly armed camps, has decided to take no action against the Mezzocorona fascists. Yet the fascists' leaders, Massimo Marchesini and Cristiano De Eccher, went on record in

1 DOING SOMETHING AB

YING AS HARD AS I CA

January last year to the effect that: 'We who seek the true revolu- tion prefer to remain in obscurity and conserve the political inno- cence of our militants. 'We are an organized nucleus, trained in the use of arms, dis- ciplined and ready to act when the need arises. 'We of the National Vanguard are ready to crush a communist insurrection side by side with the army' admin- The corrupt Italian istration is riddled with fascist sympathizers in high places. Yet the Stalinists of the Italian Com- munist Party maintain that this 'structural system produce can reforms' in the interests of the working class. Meanwhile, the right wing goes about its preparations for civil war while the Communist Party fritters away workers' militancy in a series of partial strikes and protest actions and looks on as the state prepares to smash the left in mass trials.

BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

RICHARD NIXON has used the presidential veto against what he termed 'reckless' budget proposals from the United States Congress. The proposals, which form about an eighth of the total budget for the forthcoming finan- cial government year, cover spending on health, education, welfare and labour.

1G ABOUT IT - I'M

ICAN!"

Tartar festival In Chirchik (April 21, 1968 CRIMEAN Tartars deported en masse from their homeland by Stalin, have sent two petitions to the Kremlin with 38,000 signatures demanding to be allowed to return to the Crimea. The Tartars, falsely accused by Stalin of having collaborated during the Nazi occupation, were swept from their homes Nixon denounced the $30,500m proposals as 'a perfect example of the kind of reckless spending that just cannot be done without more taxes or more inflation'.

The US government faces a budget deficit which could be as high as $35,000m and Nixon is determined to economize at the expense of essential social ser- vices. His original budget strategy of going into deficit to stimulate the economy has failed and un- employment remains high while production stagnates. The vetoed budget proposal now goes back to Congress where the Democratic majority are un- likely to be able to muster the required two-thirds majority to overrule the president. KING HASSAN of Morocco has survived the second attempt in months to overthrow • his medieval dictatorship but he has lost his strongman, Mohammed Oufkir. Oufkir was killed at the Kenitra air base 25 miles from Rabat after leading loyalist troops against rebel air force officers who had attacked the king's plane on its way back from Paris and bombed and strafed the royal palace. The king survived a mutiny in the army last July and Oufkir Minister of Interior the organized the summary execu- tion of the coup organizers.

Gen Oufkir was a professional soldier who served cenary in the French Army in Indo-China. Seven years ago Oufkir was implicated in the kidnap-murder of Mehdi Ben Barka, a leading Moroccan trade unionist living in exile in Paris. Barka's body Although Ben found Oufkir was was never sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a French court for his complicity in the affair.

the If attempt has coup achieved nothing else the death of this sadistic butcher will be welcomed with rejoicing by the working people of Morocco.

|| 21, 1968) is broken up ed in 1944 by GPU special units nd and 'resettled' to the East of the Caspian Sea, to the North of Moscow, and in the Soviet Far East. Half the deportees, 110,000 men, women and children, died of their sufferings during depor- tation and 'resettlement'. Their lands were handed over to Rus- sian settlers. The Tartars' fate was shared by the Karachai, the Kalmucks, the Chechens, the Ingush, the Bal- kars, the Meskhetians and the Volga Germans, national minorities who fell victim to the Great Russian chauvinism of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The operation of deportation was directed by Marshal Voro- shilov, who recently died loaded with honours in Moscow. He ordered the destruction of all Tartar national monuments and graveyards and the obliteration of all trace of the Tartar nation.

The Tartars were not mentioned in Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's crimes at the 20th party congress in 1956 and had to wait for ll more years before their fate was officially acknow- ledged. It was not until September 1967 that the false accusation of having betrayed the Soviet Union officially. lifted But the was of the Supreme Soviet decree admitting the falsity of these charges described the Tartars as 'citizens of Tartar nationality for- merly resident in the Crimea', in- dicating that they could not re- turn home. A group of Tartars who did try to return were driven out with brutality by the great secret have consistently police. They been subjected to police repres- sion for voicing their demand for full national rights. Last May 18, anniversary of their deportation, the Tartars organized demonstrations in Kur- gan, Fergana, Samarkand and Bekabad deportation are buried.

where those who died in the Police with submachine-guns cordoned off the cemeteries and arrested several of the demon- strators. The petitions demand an end to 'the political and terror national discrimination against the Crimean Tartar people' and just solution of the call for a Tartar question: 'We shall strive towards this with all determination, in spite of all difficulties, until our legi- timate demands are met, until our cherished dream realized, together with our hopes, and our just, entirely natural desire to live and work in our homeland, the Crimea' The Crimean Tartars' demands have received the support of the anti-Stalinist opposition in the

USSR.

Among their most outspoken champions is General Grigorenko, confined in a GPU psy- now chiatric prison. Grigorenko was arrested after he had answered an appeal from 2,000 Tartars to act as public defence spokesman at a trial of their leaders in Tashkent.

This was Smith Square, London, on Wednesday DOCKERS were a little wiser yesterday about their 'left' leader, Jack Jones. But they were also wiser about the workings of the capitalist press. They had come on Wed- nesday from all parts of the lobby their country to delegates. That is their right.

It has been a time-honoured practice of trade unionists.

When they reached Smith Square they found it cordoned shoulder-to-shoulder by police. At other entrances stood a troop of mounted police. On hand and dealing directly with the operation was none other than Robert Mark, recently-appointed Metropolitan Police Commissioner. After the docks delegates' decision to call off the strike, Jones incensed his members by inviting the Tory press into his suite on the third floor to hold a press conference. the darling of Fleet industrial correspondents, Street was willing to talk to the hire- of Lord Thomson, Lady lings Pamela Berry, Sir Max Aitken and Vere Harmsworth rather than his own rank and file.

They broke into the press con- ference. This drew a statement two leaders of ves. terday from the National Union of Journalists, and president Harold Pearson general secretary Ken Morgan. They said journalists covering conference 'man- were handled and had their notebooks photographic equipment and damaged.' They went on: 'Making every allowance for the understand- ably high feeling of the demon- strators, the incident was a dis- graceful and inexcusable one.

"The dockers and any sym- pathizers of theirs who took part

BOOKS • PERI

would do well to remember that most, if not all, the journalists attending the conference were themselves loyal trade unionists merely doing their jobs.'

This is arrant humbug. The NUJ leaders have not same uttered a word in condemnation of Herman Roberts, ex-Birming- ham Post' industrial correspond- ent who is now a judge with the National Relations Industrial Court. Roberts, an NUJ member, sat with Sir John Donaldson on the three-man bench which jailed the five London dockers. Yet Pear- son and Morgan have made no moves to get Roberts expelled from his honorary membership of the union. The other point in the NUJ statement is that it talks darkly 'sympathizers' who may about have been present. This is the same bogey which the right-wing press introduced - the suggestion that yesterday 'evil, outside forces' were on the lobby. Instead of joining the press proprietors in slagging the dock- should they be defending ers them against the lies and dis- tortions of the capitalist press. In any case what did the men 'who were merely doing their jobs' turn in to their editors?

Listen to them: industrial Geoffrey Goodman, editor of the 'Daily Mirror': 'In 23 years of industrial reporting nothing in my memory matches the disgraceful behaviour yester- day • of men who called them- selves trade unionists ... if ever fought for a union leader has dockers' jobs it is Jack Jones in the present dispute. Using the most lurid language he could throttle out of his typewriter Goodman described how his beloved Jack Jones was shoved and manhandled by the lobbyists. This is the same Goodman Wednes- who the previous day, day, told his readers in another front-page story: 'Furious women stone pickets'. note of criticism in Not a Wednesday's paper of the attacks on pickets by the brutal force

ISE ISS/AS

LATER

8 • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

of the police or the right-wing ladies of Goole and Scunthorpe.

Dockers should Good- note man's special morality: it's all right for police to bash dockers and for women to throw stones at them. But it's not all right if dockers demand face-to-face confrontation with Jones, their their headquarters, leader, Transport House. Let's pass on to the 'Daily Mail'. Its inside story was headed: 'The ordeal of Jack Jones. Men he fought for scream: Crucify him'. The article made no attempt to deal with why the dockers were so enraged; not a single docker was interviewed. There were also the astonish- ing claims about a certain ash- tray which figured in all the press reports. Some papers said that it was thrown at jones, but hit Alex Kitson, at the conclusion of the docks delegates' meeting. But two other papers-the 'Birming- ham Post' and the 'Western Mail' -were equally certain that this occurred when dockers had arrived at the press conference.

Both carried identical para- graphs which stated: Later angry rank and filers burst into a press conference he was hold- ing, turned the pressmen out, and forced Mr Jones to talk to

BY JACK GALE

THE government has instruc- ted the Monopolies Com- mission to investigate the contraceptive industry. This comes almost seven months after the London Rubber Co. had been attacked in parliament by Labour MP Leo Abse.

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 а.т.-6 р.т. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Workers Press, Fri Earl's i Jones ex-wife то і » goes thur* wrong almut !!! bor the Daily Mirror vanda rad whe leek part o di Te these backers You wil bestroy your .•.u code flet: them. An ashtray and a glass of water were thrown at him.'

Workers Press Reporter Stephen Johns, who was present at the conference, says this is completely untrue. saw the water hurled at Jones but nobody threw an ashtray at anybody else. During the weeks coming dockers the Tory expect can press to accelerate its lies and distortions. It happened during the power workers' strike and it happened earlier this year in the miners' Abse declared: "This mono- polistic company, which manu- factures 95 per cent of the rubber sheaths used in Britain, has a long history of social irrespons- ibility. It has protected its inordinate profits in the past and present by the most ruthless methods. To would competition ensure no emerge it has taken over or entered this field all who have almost crushed In addition to this LRC con- trois 90 per cent of retail dis- tribution. The chairman of LRC Inter- national, which prices its products up to six times those of United States and whose producers, profits increased by flm last year, is Sir Edward Howard, Lord Mayor of London. According to the current re- port from the Select Committee Science and Technology, on LRC's principal British sub- sidiaries are : Autonumis_Ltd; LR Industries Ltd; L R Wines Ltd; Andre Simons Wines Ltd; Churchill and Williams Ltd; Geo. Idle, Courtney and Co Ltd; John Lovibond and Sons Ltd; Valentine Charles Ltd; Association Medical Supply W. H. Bailey (Holdings) Ltd; and Son Ltd; W. Gubbins (North- ampton) Ltd; Hogg and Ross Ltd; Medical Electronics Ltd; Press, Friday August 18, 1972 PAGE 3 mino FURIOUS Tercé and 'vote on strike today Want to know the future attach

RHINE-

EUTRO DI PALA

Diane strike. capitalist Journalists the on press must join with other sec- tions of print workers in repudi- ating the propaganda which their masters now want to churn out.

The smears can be stopped if journalists and print workers show complete solidarity with the dockers' struggle. This solidarity was magnifi- the cently demonstrated when five London dockers were jailed NATSOPA chapels led a move to shut down Fleet Street until the men were released. The Medical Supply Association Ltd. In addition LRC International controls subsidiary companies in Sweden, West Germany, India, Holland, Italy, Austria, United States, and Canada.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE MEETINGS

VICTORY TO THE BUILDERS

AND DOCKERS!

TUC MUST BREAK OFF ALL

TALKS WITH HEATH!

MAKE THE TORY GOVERN-

MENT RESIGN!

CENTRAL LONDON:

wed, August 23, 7.30 p.m. The builders' fight.

Small Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn. ACTON: Monday August 21, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Acton High St.

CROYDON: Monday August 21, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe GLASGOW: Wednesday August 23, 7.30 p.m. Partick Burgh Hall (nr Merkland St under- ground). UCS and the docks.

NEWCASTLE: Wednesday August 23, 7.30 p.m. Hotspur Hotel, Haymarket.

Poler Walker, Secretary for the Environment, has power under the Housing Finance Act to order in commissioners to police the rent increase

RESISTANCE TO TORY RENT

BILL GROWS IN THE NORTH

PAQE & Workors Press, Friday August 11 Peter Walker, Secretary for the Environi The rent revolt of tenants and authorities local against the Tory govern- ment continues to gather force. The latest council to declare its intention to oppose the increases forced on working class people by the Housing Finance Bill is Edinburgh. The city corporation made a final cliffhanger decision to defy the government last Tuesday. The vote was 25 tỏ 24. The Labour - Party (the biggest group on the council but with- out an absolute majority over Tories and Liberals) was aided by absence of government sup- porters through holidays.

VICTORY

Councillor Ron Brown, who has been in the vanguard of the movement, triumphantly told Workers Press of the decision. 'This is the end of a long battle. Now this decision is a final one, it's a victory but we have not won the battle. 'The next step must be to force the Tories out-no ten- ant can be secure until this has been done. he said. August 18, 1972 e Environment, has power under the Housing f Apart from Scotland the rents battle promises to be fiercest in the North-West.

There councils have seven decided not to implement the Act, which came into force on August 10. These include Salford, Stock- port, St Helens and the new town of Skelmersdale. In Stockport where the council have already banned the sale of council houses, trades unions and tenants' associations have already begun to draw up a joint campaign for action against any imposed increases. Under the Act an agent of the Secretary of State for the Environment can be installed in council offices to carry out the. Tory offensive by decree.

Councillors who stand in his will be fined £400 and way face jail if they refuse to pay the fines. Tenants' leader Ron Williams says there will be approaches made to shop stewards to bring out local factories in sympathy with the tenants' struggles. The idea is for the factory workers to join tenants' pickets on the big estates to bar the way of the men collecting the new higher rents. Another tenants' association leader, Ken Marston, has called on 'all working people' to support the picket move.

Housing Finance Act to order in commissioner Feeling in Stockport is very high. It is a militant town and took the brunt of the engineer- ing pay claim with Manchester.

Local people are strongly sup- porting the council's move.

A recent probe by the town's ultra-Tory 'Advertiser' revealed that most people backed the decision to defy the law.

The greatest weakness in the Stockport battle comes from the right-wing in the Labour group, six of whom are magis- trates and as such they must swear allegiance to the law of the land. One Alderman, John Hol- land, made ambiguous an statement to the local paper on this issue. When he was asked where he stood on the issue of the law he said that to disobey it 'might' be wrong. Clearly there is a strong chance that this group may capitulate. In Manchester there has been massive pressure from the tenants' association on Labour councillors who have pre- varicated on this issue. One of strongest associations organizes the 90,000 strong Wythenshawe estate, reputed missioners to police the rent increases to be the biggest in Europe.

They have already inter- rupted council meetings and demanded that Manchester stand firm against the govern- ment. The other great danger in these militant battles which of steam is that the only campaigns may take the issue-the focus off • the real removal of the Tory govern- ment. In these industrial towns of Lancashire and North Cheshire is a truly enormous there groundswell of opposition to the Tory government. expression in This finds its the big tenants' revolts. It could be mobilized with factory action aimed at bringing the Tories down.

Otherwise while the picket- ing on the streets continues the Labour leaders may eventu- ally capitulate in the town halls. There is a parallel with the engineering sit-in strikes that swept the Manchester area.

While the men fought hard and stuck it out the national leadership got on with drawing up a rotten compromise. But one thing is certain. On D-Day, October 1, there will massive and widespread resistance in towns like Stock- port to the Tory drive to make the working class pay for economic crisis. Hundreds of tenants in Cumbernauld, Scotland, are being threatened with eviction by the develop- ment corporation for re- fusing to pay Tory rent increases. Many have received circulars from the corporation warning that action will be taken if the are not paid within arrears seven days. Cumbernauld Corporation took advantage of the Hous- ing Finance (Scotland) Bill before it became law. Rent increases were imposed under the Bill—it is now an Act-as long ago as May 28.

The chairman of the corpo- ration is Sir Donald Liddle.

For a general manager, tenants have to put up with a brigadier, C. H. Cowan. The page-long warning to individual tenants says the first step will be to prosecute them' in the Sheriff Court, followed by eviction orders if necessary.

The local rent action com- mittee formed to fight the increases, is concentrating on legal arguments with the cor- poration. A counter-letter has been drawn up for tenants to send back to the corporation. It tries to argue that the rent rebate position been altered by amendments to the Bill it went through as parliament. It demands an immediate re- fund of any extra rent which was paid unnecessarily. But the corporation has said they will not withdraw their own letters. A recent meeting of the rent action committee rejected a call an All Trades Unions by Alliance speaker for the for- mation of a Council of Action to mobilize tenants and work- ers to prepare for the General Strike force the Tories to resign. Communist Party member David Kane, chairman of the committee, said the proposal was 'not realistic' as the rent increases in the major cities did not come into effect until October. Treasurer Doug. Gilchrist— up the who drew counter 'threatening' letter-also tried to alienate potential support the corporation's office from staff. He claimed staff at the rents office had 'over-reacted' to the situation and had put pres- sure on pickets. In fact, many of the staff are sympathetic to the struggle being tenants themselves. Such provocations as have occurred have been the responsibility of a minority of supervisors and senior clerks.

TO ALI

TRADE

UNIONS

YOU HAVE A

T DUTY -

TO SADORT

FIGHTING

MEMBER

RENT RISIS

«EVICTION

TROOPS LEAVE

BUT THE WAR GOES ON

South Vietnamese soldiers, who are sent in by the Americans to serve as 'live bait, run from the artillery fire of the liberation forces South Vietnamese soldiers, who are sent Seven years and five months after the Marines first landed on the beaches of South Viet- nam, the last American ground combat unit em- barked for home last week at the Da Nang base. According to the American command there are now no American troops directly in- volved in ground combat in Vietnam which has been entirely handed over to the troops of the Saigon puppet army. The last troops to leave were men of the 3rd battalion of the 21st Regiment of Infantry. They were replaced by men of the South Vietnamese 3rd Division, which fled in disorder from the town of Quang Tri at the start of the current liberation offen- sive. But though Nixon's public- relations men would like to give the impression that American involvement is all but over there are still 43,000 US military per- sonnel in Vietnam, the majority at the Long Binh base. important And much more there are the 600-odd bombers based mainly in Thailand and supplemented by the air and fire power of the Seventh Fleet.

o are sent in by the Americans to serve as 'live The Nixon administration once had 543,000 men in Vietnam, in April 1969 in the aftermath the famous Tet offensive.

be the But what appeared to numerical army's strength — its preponderance-was in reality its greatest weakness. The troops simply refused to fight. Idey mutinied, "fragged' their. officers, took drugs, deserted and forced the presi- dent to bring them home. The air war now being waged with unprecedented intensity is Nixon's answer to this problem.

It supplements the efforts of the Saigon forces, who are as dis- inclined to die for America as the American troops themselves.

What Nixon means by • 'Viet- namization' is the combination of automated air power and sophisticated weaponry with the blood and bodies of dragooned Vietnamese men. Bombing is now the heart of the American military strategy: though ground troops, still important, play an entirely secondary role. The Asian • foot-soldiers are to support the American used bombers by: • 'Showing the flag' when going in after bombing has caused the liberation forces to retreat and taking out supplies and refugees; ve as 'live bait', run from the artillery fire of the Providing garrisons for the towns and undertaking police action against the population; and Serving as "live bait" to draw the fire of the liberation troops so that the Americans can know where to bomb. of Richard Boyle, an observer the 1970 American • invasion of Cambodia, described the latter process in the following terms: "They're just using these kids as cannon fodder. The Americans send them out a few klicks (i.e.

a short distance) so they can find out where the communists are. Then they call the bombers in. The Cambodians don't do anything, and they're dying like flies. Sometimes they're even caught in the bombing raids themselves.' Describing an operation in the early months of last year, John Saar of 'Life' magazine told of similar tactics: 'As the operation evolved...

new tactics appeared, calling for the ARVN [South Vietnamese puppet] units to stay mobile...

They've reduced the heavily- outnumbered

ARVN

battalions to the role of live bait.

"The troops spent their days and nights running and hiding while US airpower struck at the pursuing North Vietnamese Army. Workers Press, I fire of the liberation forces 'Saigon spokesmen claimed the tactics were very successful, but some Vietnamese called them "inhuman"? The withdrawal of US troops has not meant any decline in the intensity of the onslaught against the people of Indo-China.

The has distinct war advantages for Nixon, however, in that it is automated more and more completely and requires gung-ho right- only relatively keep going wing pilots to indefinitely. It is also extremely lucrative for the hundreds of American corporations with contracts to supply the electronics, the bombs and the planes. The brunt of the air war falls on South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese have suffered an appalling rain of death but their compatriots to South the are bombed even more heavily and systematically.

South is simply a Much of the 'free-fire zone' where aircraft can dump their bombs at will.

This part of the war is played down by Nixon's agents in Indo- China, who use a combination of management and straight- news forward lies to cover their crimes. This keeps the secrecy war acceptable to the people at home.

The US was able to carry out air strikes against Laos for more than six years without making any public declaration, and the war there is still deeply shrouded in secrecy. is Press, Friday August 18, 1972 PAGE 5 The US command prohibits from even its own press observing most of the air war at first hand by keeping reporters off raids outside South Vietnam.

In Thailand, where the B-52 bombers their out set on daily bombing runs, the military dictatorship obligingly prohibits any access to the huge US bases.

The secrecy has little military justification-the only reason for it is that it hides the bulk of the air war from public scrutiny.

Nixon government is The as determined as ever to keep its in power in Vietnam, puppets and Cambodia. This Laos vital to its strategy of counter- revolution throughout Asia.

The air war is designed to warn every worker who may be contemplating revolutionary struggle of the terrible price he will have to pay. But it has its own logic. In February 1972, the administra- tion announced it was doubling the number of B-52s and aircraft carriers in Indo-China. Nixon had to carry this out sooner than he expected when the liberation forces launched their continuing Tensive two months later. But it has proved inadequate to contain, let one defeat, the courageous liberation forces who are winning victories in Vietnam despite the bombardment.

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday August 18, 1972

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

'You worry me. You're like This partly accounts for the some of so-called mili- dockers' characteristic strength my and independence The're scared of the - from the tants. employers and union bureau- employers. I'm not scared. cracy. My job is to defeat the It also means that the port employers! Tim O'Leary, bosses have had to pay a high national docks of secretary price for a smaller and vastly Transport and General the more productive labour force.

Workers' Union, to a Workers The size of the severance Press reporter. bribe to get men out of the The dockers' fight is not industry is not due to the employers love of their labour unique. They are facing force, but because the Scheme what every other worker prevents from forcing them the men out. in Britain has been facing Therefore, the scheme can- over the last five years—a not be viewed as some legal massive cut-back in the regulation peculiar dock- to labour force and a drive land. It is a most important basic right won by dockers- for higher and higher pro- and one that should be ductivity. extended cover the whole to It has been going on in the of the working class. shipyards, the car industry, the railways and the mines.

EROSION

But there is one factor that gives the dockers' struggle its particular bitterness and For this reason special form the National employers hate the Dock Labour Scheme. scheme and have always conspired to get rid of The Scheme was intro- This duced in by the Labour it. urgent 1947 hecame government. It gave portwork- necessity when they were forced to modernize and begin ers a legal of secu- guarantee The rity of employment by setting containerization. con- uD a register of men and for- tainer revolution meant mas- bidding employment of sive investment in new ships, the berths, cargo handling equip- men not on this register.

also ensured that a lorries and docker ment, containers, would have Deen accompanied received certain regular pay- ments whether there was work by a productivity scheme aimed The at tricking the labour force into accepting big redundancies similar to the Labour Measured-Day iointly trolled by the unions and port Work proposals in the car employers. After Devlin industry. the To an extent this has hap- Scheme stayed, but the men pened on the docks. Devlin and successive employers. Any severance schemes have slashed the lab.

'temporary' unattached our force from 60.000 in 1967 register where they got mini- (the year of Phase I) to 40,000 mum fall-back pay each week.

The Scheme is not just a today. Containerization has buffer against unemployment.

been accepted and on many Without it the dockers would modern berths manning levels are considerably reduced. This be the powerful fighting not was the kind of "slow erosion force they are today—it is the sheet-anchor of all their rights scheme that and conditions. wanted. But they employers Its most important effect is came unstuck. depris Eventually dockers realized he employers their righ. ; hire and fire. On that their rights and condi- tha dock:. employers cannot tions were bein thered leva ihreaten dirs. • and mass unem. to nothing and halt to the dangerous ployment to unco-operative proces: labour force. his is the background to th current strike and the ill-fated Jones-Aldington report. 'new deal' for This second dockers is a desperate ploy by the employers - aided by union officials - to get their plans back on the rails. They offer more severance and, through the proposal of work-sharing, hope to con- vince dockers that the TUR has vanished. In fact dockers on full pay will be subsidizing the 'unemployed' men. If the employers can get around this latest impasse, they to drive forward hope and reduce the labour force by another 20,000. The hope is that some day the docker labour force will be so weak and denuded that the fight for basic rights will be abandoned.

The Jones-Aldington epi- sode, however, does highlight another feature of dockland struggles — the continual co- operation of union officials and employers. It is rather sickening to hear Transport and General Workers' Union leaders talking about the 'great human prob- lem' caused by modernization.

We heard none of this wailing back in the 1960s when the employers were launching their attack - then, we were told, Devlin and productivity would make docker's every street "sunshine street, to quote Pete O'Hare T&GWU district secretary in Liverpool. T&GWU officials played a major role in bringing in con- tainerization without any safe- guards at all for the labour force, despite the fact that the effects of this development on the labour force were obvious.

SCRAMBLE

for these The key period developments between was 1965 and 1970. The earlier date marks the first desperate into containers by rush the big British and European ship- ping lines. This scramble was accompanied by intense lob- bying, by employers, of union officials and the Labour gov- ernment. Of course it was the era of Harold Wilson's 'white- hot, technological revolution', big talk about so all the 'revolution' in sea transport sounded very impressive to the feeble reformists in the Labour government. One of George Brown's first jobs was to set up a national development men September 1965 it exports. produced its report. A reveal- ing passage noted the develop- ment of containers and roll-on, roll-off services and recom- mended: the concept of "From through-transport has stemmed of Inland Container Depots (ICDs) where full loads danver broken dory, but and delivered • away, necessarily far away, from the congested port area. if systems groupage could be developed further there might be a significant reduction in the transit time of for this type load. An increase in the number of ICDs should make it easier to extend groupage? This was probably the first container depots had time the received official recognition and Britain. encouragement in A of this committee was member one other than Tim O'Lear &GWU's national dock the secretary. Yet the report no where mentioned the problems for dock labour, which would growth from the of ICDs. During the next two years the Labour government intro- op: dockers walk away in disgust from a meeting where a T&GWU offi duced successive legislation to 1965. Above: Jack Jones and Tim O'Leary during the dock Workers Press, Friday change customs clearance and transport regulations to aid the development of container and roll-on, roll-off networks. The one thing they did not do was to carry out their pledge nationalize the docks. The shipping lines stevedoring and firms were not touched by legislation-on the the Labour contrary government did almost exactly what these interests wanted. The collaboration continued the shippers when began establish their container depots. In part three of this we showed how the series T&GWU agreed to the recruit- depots. When were forced to the act, leaders attempted to suppress industrial action over the ICDs by fighting a series of fruitless legal battles. Over the last five years they have been in court about times definition of over the dock This work. very Won expensive and complete waste of time; the judges came out almost exclusively on the side of the employers. container When the revolu- tion in Britain was well under way, the employers, with great delicacy, began to work their towards long-desired goal-a free hand with the dock labour force and the abolition of the scheme. In September and October 1970, soon after the introduc.

talks with Jack began

T&GWU

and secretary They O'Leary. Langulls, topics was eventual abolition of the National Dock Labour Scheme.

SECRECY

The thinking of the shippers was summarized in a memor- Tory andum sent Minister of Transport, Peyton, by Sir John Nicholson read of Ocean Steamship Co. the Scheme he stated: aim should be the substitution of industrial normal agree- for and relations the present statutory regulation of the industry (the circumstances of 1947 no longer apply). This does not preclude work- people's participation in the process which the govern running of dock labour affairs, but such participation would consequence of agree- be the ment between employers and not be

WOUC

dependent on statute. These were the views that the big shippers put to Jones and O'Leary met when they them in secret at the Adelphi Liverpool, on October Hotel, 1970. 1, An employers' memo on this discussion made points on dock labour and its status: 'We shared Jones' wnolly that until Devlin earlier view Il bedded down be it coula disastrous to talk publicly about any change in the exist- ing structure. As previously explained, we must look forward changes which would match the alterations in the pattern and form of employment and oblig statutory that end ations must disappear at some stage.. the president of the Port Association, Sir Nicholson, then head John of the Ocean Steamship. Com- the Tory met Minister Dally. Peyton and reported on the with O'Leary. A memo on this meet- discussion ing made these points: took the opportunity of explaining ito Peyton] that had made it business to my that Jack Jones was apparently not hostile a) to our conception of the NPC National Council] despi? his understandable and preterence for b) would be nationalization; prepared, at the appropriate here a T&GWU official is explaining the Devlin report in summer time, to discuss our ideas about a dock strike in 1970. Vorkers Press, Friday August 18, 1972 PAGE 7 substituting the NPC for the NDLB [National Dock Labour Board] though he thought, and entirely agreed, that it We would be most damaging if anything of this kind was ventilated in public before Devlin II had bedded down.'

This direct move by the employers has failed for the present. The T&GWU, through Jones and O'Leary, retain at least a verbal commitment to the scheme. But the Adelphi episode and the container issue all serve to show just how close the union leadership came to abandoning all the rights won by the dockers in over a century and a half of struggle. They did this because they believe that 'rational' dis- cussion can smooth away the antagonisms between the working class (in this case the dockers) and the employers. This is the hallmark of reform- ism and the dockers have paid the price with a 30 per cent reduction in the labour force in five years. Now the who same men failed to safeguard their mem- bers during the container revolution are helping the em- ployers over the last major hurdle. If fully developed, modernization on the docks could mean a labour force of 5,000. Such a denuded force could not withstand the pressure for a revision of the Scheme. The dockers would be in their most vulnerable state since the 19th century. This is the meaning of the Jones-Aldington plot. Any therefore, compromise must, be entirely rejected. Those who argue that 'copper-bottomed guarantees' would solve the issue are also misleading the dockers. Suppose all the container- base jobs went to the dockers, suppose all the ports were registered and suppose the temporary unemployed register (TUR) was abolished? Would it solve the crisis on the docks? The answer is no. Modernization in the hands of private employers means a vastly-reduced labour force at the port, in road transport and warehousing. To reduce the struggle to one over a handful of jobs is to give the employers maxi- mum advantage. They can then turn round and declare that the affair is nothing to do with them, that it is squabble between workers for an in- evitably declining pool of employment. The inescapable conclusion from evidence on Con- tainerization is that there is no solution to the dockers' problem outside nationalization of the entire port transport and shipping industry. This cannot be passed off once more as some long-term dream. Another 'deal' will be disaster, whatever the guarantees 'copper- - bottomed' or otherwise. There is only one way to go forward-with political policy of nationalization, with- compensation under workers' control. This means that the No. 1 task on the agenda is to remove the Tory government and put Labour back to carry out this job.

As we said at the start of this article the dockers' plight is not unique. All workers are in this situation. The employing class faces economic and harsh CriSIS international competition. No- where are these problems more severe than in the very sinews of capitalist system- the international trade and trans- port. To survive this crisis, the employers must make the working class pay in unemploy- ment and eventual loss of earnings. The dockers are now in the vanguard. They must not be left isolated. All workers and unions must rally round this strike with industrial action and make the dockers' struggle the fatal blow that will force the Tory government out of office.

From the Dockers' Tanner Strike 1889 to Devlin 1967. An historical series on the organization of the dockers by Jack Gale

FIGHTING THE EMPLOYERS'

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Friday August 1 From the Dockers' Tanner Str Despite the victory of the 1889 'Dockers' Tanner' strike the fortunes of port workers continued to rest heavily on trade fluctuations. The employers, eager to re- cover what they had lost, joined together to form the Shipping Federation. The counter-offensive was under smashed within the seven weeks in 1893. The principal object of the Federation was completely to destroy trade unionism on the in waterfront - particularly.

London. To this end, it built up a powerful scabbing organ- ization. In 1900 a London strike was broken by dock scabs brought in from Swan- sea, Liverpool, Shields and Rotterdam. The central conflict was over the closed shop. In the aftermath of the 1889 victory, the dockers were able to force this principle on the reluctant employers. This enabled the union to exercise control over the number of men employed in a gang, speed of work and forth. The employers' re- SO action was predictable. As a certain Mr Hill of the Wilson- Hill Line told a Royal Com- mission on Labour in 1891: 'Non-unionists give us more control of the men.'' Of course, the usual argu- against organization ments were trotted out - the men were 'out of control', they were breaking the agreements, could not 'enforce dis- unions cipline' etc., etc. The struggle for power be- tween the unions and the bosses centred on the 'calling- on' stands. In the 1889 strike the men not only won the minimum wage of 6d an heur and 8d overtime. They could also earn a 'plus' calculated on tonnage rate. More important, the men could elect a representative to 'plus rates' check that these were accurate. In practice, representatives also these checked union cards at the 'call-in' and this enabled them stop non-unionists from to being taken on. step of the The first employers to break this was the growth of to encourage other organizations. They played upon the rivalries be- tween the Dockers' Union and the organizations of the more men-the Stevedores' skilled and Lightermen's Union. The Dockers' Union organ- ized the mass of workers— the casuals. The employers assisted the relatively more privileged workers to stay out of the Dockers' Union and helped to form the them Association of Foremen and Clerks of the Docks, Wharves and Warehouses, and the Permanent Labourers' Mutual Protection Association. The Dockers' Union denounced these organizations as com- pany unions. Their members certainly en- joyed better conditions. They received a regular wage, they usually lived away from the waterfront and they subscribed to benefit schemes run by the employers. By the second half of 1890 the trade boom was slackening off. In November that year the joint committee of the London and East and West India Com- panies terminated the 1889 agreement. 1 August 18, 1972 nner Strike 1889 to Devlin 1967. An Top: the quayside at Albert Dock, London, an early stronghold of the Dockers' Union. Above: Harry Gosling, transport union leader.

Workers' representatives were swept away and union delegates longer were no allowed to examine union cards at the call-on. Despite wide- spread unofficial stoppages, the Dockers' Union failed to lead a fight and its membership began to drift away. As the union weakened, the employers pressed home their advantage. Workers who re- the union mained loyal to were victimized. In the London upstream docks the bulk of the work was given to permanent men and, after them, to regular weekly labour. Outside these categories, the casuals were formed into 'preference lists' and taken on for work accord- ing to their list number.

This meant that a small number of men got regular work while the vast majority, in the casual grades, got hardly any work at all. This was a clear threat to the Dockers' Union. In February 1891, London stevedores struck work against the employment of non-union labour by the Shipping Federa- 967. An historical series on the orga to unload ships tion manned by non-union crews. The strike was lost and by March three of the largest shipping lines were employing non-union (or 'free') labour supplied to them by a Office at Free Labour ( the Albert Dock. In June, 1891, the P&O line broke with the union over the issue of double-time pay- ment for working holidays and also took on "free' labour.

Throughout the period be- tween 1892 and 1911 the employers held the whip hand in the ports. By the end of the 1890s the Victoria and Albert district of the Dockers' Union was the only one to retain any real strength.

In 1900 the Victoria and Albert dockers struck work for the stevedores' rate of 8d and Is. They also demanded that men should be hired out- side the dock gates—a pro- cedure which enabled the closed-shop to be enforced.

The Shipping Federation de- feated the strike with the aid of imported scabs and by 1906 the Dockers' Union was vir- tually extinct in London, although it maintained its existence in the provincial ports. this period, the dockers In faced not only the opposition f the port employers, but also that of the large firms which used the docks. Associated Portland Cement was one firm which disapproved of the use of union labour to handle its business. During this time, the decline of trade enabled the employers to attack the unions, particu- larly over control of hiring procedures. As the mass organizations declined, the Stevedores and Lightermen were left as the only unions with real influence, especially in London. In 1911, however, both these organiza- tions agreed to join with the Dockers' Union and the largest he organization of the dockers by J provincial transport unions to form the National Transport Workers' Federation. This was not before time.

The workers faced powerful foes-not only the shipping companies, but also the Cement Combine and Scrut- tons Ltd, the largest steve- doring firm in London. In April, 1911, the Dockers' Union launched a campaign to raise wages to 8d and Is. The Stevedores' Union immediately endorsed the claim. But the spark came from seamen. In June the sea- men's union called a national strike and dockers in Hull, Goole and Manchester came out in sympathy. The sailors' union • to the affiliated was Workers' National Transport Federation, and this enabled the dockers and lightermen to co-ordinate their claims with that of the seamen. This united action frightened the port employers and they the executive of the met NTWF in July. The NTWF wanted (1) full recognition of all transport unions in London and (2) a port rate of 8d and Is. The final settlement, known as the Devonport Agreement (after Lord Devonport, chair- man of the Port of London Authority) brought men earn- ing 6d and 8d up to 7d and 9d and those already on the latter rate were, subject to arbitration, to receive 8d and The employers agreed to recognize the unions, but not this in- the closed-shop. On adequate basis, the NTWF leaders called off the strike.

But they had miscalculated.

They had satisfied the em- ployers, but not their own members. The men threw out the Devonport Agreement and came out on strike, despite the pleas of Harry Gosling and Ben Tillett. The strike was started by ers by Jack Gale the London coal porters and swiftly spread through the Vic- toria and Albert and Surrey docks. Bowing before the storm, the NTWF leaders issued an official call for a strike throughout the Port of London, which began on the very day when Sir Albert Rollit was due to hear the arbitration case. This may well be relevant to the arbitration decision—to grant the 8d and Is to the whose case was being men considered. But this was not enough to stop the strike, which rapidly spread to carmen, stevedores, crane drivers, tugmen, barge- men and ship repairers. With tons of food rotting on the docks, the government intervened and substantial concessions were made. The NTWF declared the dispute at an end-but, in fact, it con- tinued for another ten days because the PLA refused to reinstate about 3,000 labourers.

The working class was defi- nitely on the offensive. In July and August, 1911, the dockers' Union expanded its membership from London under 2,000 to over 22,000.

The stevedores doubled theirs from 4,000 to 8,000. This placed the closed-shop on the order of the day. On August 14, London dockers refused to be called on inside the gates. The same day a general transport strike erup- ted in Liverpool. On August 17 and 18 a national railway strike began. On August 18 the London employers conceded that men should be called on outside the dock gates—thus ensuring union control over hiring.

But the peace was an un- easy one, soon to be disrupted.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

11. Lovell 'Stevedores and Dockers', p. 126. " Harry Gosling. 'Up and Down Stream', pp. 53-54.

Reviewed by Leslie Stewart The apologists for the capitalist system have from the beginning tried to show that it is a 'natural' mode of produc- tion. This means that the profit motive is also natural, as is the exploitation of man by man. Thus the classical econo- mists, Adam Smith and Ricardo, justified the idea of the freely competing individual by explaining that his behaviour was based on that of the solitary and isolated hunter or fisherman or on that of Robinson Crusoe on his desert island. Others tried to find a rationale for the system in mythology, but Marx as pointed out there is 'nothing more tedious and dull' than attempts to 'explain the origin of an economic relationship— whose historical evolution the writer does not know - in a historico-philosophical m a n by mythology; means alleging that Adam or Pro- metheus hit upon the idea ready made... Today the apologists of sio capitalism do not go back to classical mythology. They have seized instead on what they call the New Biology. This is a view of human life and of the origins of human behaviour based on the work of animal psychologists like Conrad Lorenz, or the appro- Lionel Tiger, priately-named or Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape), or Robert Ardrey, whose 'The Territorial Imperative' is an attempt to the defence of prove that territory, whether it be a semi- or an empire, is a detached natural law of behaviour as incapable of change as domin- of the weak by the ance strong, or as racialism. It is a way of thinking which appeals to the childish concepts of leadership and of 'the pack', , which is one of the basic of British concepts middle-class education — the view of human relationships which found its myth-maker in Kipling and his 'Jungle Books'.

It attempts to prove that the life of modern man is still ruled by animal instincts or by what are assumed to have the patterns of social been organization of early man.

The dangers of transferring to human societies the patterns of animal behaviour are obvious. But the enthusiasts for the New Biology are not afraid of a theory which promises a means of isolating 'a factor which can be used to help us to improve the vast clumsy modern corporation not only as a place for humans to work in but also as a profit- making industrial unit.' from That quotation Antony Jay's 'Corporation Man' Jay is a Cambridge graduate who, after serving in the Corps of Signals where he was com- missioned, went on to join the BBC's "Tonight' team. Now a freelance, he wrote script for the Royal the Family® documentary - the BBC's massive and expensive attempt to sell the monarchy to the viewers as an institu- whose members tion are ordinary people with a cosy family life. But his real importance is as a consultant. In television he is adviser to David Frost, whose programme he devised. He is adviser to Aubrey Singer, the BBC executive whose department produced 'CORPORATION MAN' by Anthony Jay. Cape Publishers, £2.50 the 'British Empire' series.

He is a consultant on business management and one of the best-selling apologists for capitalism. Not an original thinker but 'with it', a modern myth- maker. His theory is that men (women he hardly considers camp-followers) except as work in hunting packs of 'ten- groups' which are 'the result of millions of years • of ten- of sion and interaction between the social structure of the ape troop and the logic of the wolf pack' Each pack competes with other packs but comes together with them in the larger loyalty of the Corporation tribe.

Corporation tribes come under the King who rules the Empire. Naturally this is a highly undemocratic social organiza- tion based on the concept of leadership. 'Of course any leader will often want to talk to his group before giving an answer, but that is visibly different from having to defer to their will if it conflicts with his, he says.

Jay is a great believer in leadership and wonders why some people are embarrassed by it; can it be, he wonders, that they see in it 'an oppressive denial of human equality?'

He is comforted by the feeling that 'lower down' the principle is 'understood and unambiguously expressed' in terms of 'governor and chief and squire and gaffer and boss'.

A lot of this is adman stuff on the level of the poster which shows Tarzan bursting through the jungle with …a packet of peanuts in his hand.

It might be just possible to dismiss as harmless nonsense the idea of sharp young execu- tives thinking of themselves as a hunting pack that comes back to the wise old chief, the managing director, for a 'talk round the fire at the end of the hunt. But Jay extends his views to the shop floor. Now the vicious dangerous- ness of his thinking becomes apparent. Jay believes that strikes are caused by the activities of what he calls 'malignant cells' of workers -ten groups that have, as it were, gone wrong. Of course, he admits, the strikes will have 'a sensible- sounding pretext, such as more money or longer holi- days, but in fact a strike is the 'ultimate expression of the break-down of the corpora- tion's tribal system'. An all-male tribe, he explains, is always liable to bouts of collective aggression, whereas a reasonable pro- portion of women working with the men dilutes the con- centration of aggressive energy and makes the chieftain's (i.e.

the boss's) task easier'.

Historically, he concludes it is the 'all-male tribes in mines and docks and car factories which have provided the bitterest strikes, longest and whereas strikes of all-female tribes are extremely rare' On one level, this is ridicu- lous nonsense; on the other, it is an argument for the dilution of labour by (if possible) un- organized female labour. His solution to the problem 'malignant posed by these cells' is to isolate the workers in small groups as much as possible from their fellows.

He particularly admires factory where the Belfast machines were grouped and 'white lines painted on the floor round each group'. When one of the groups struck, the other groups stayed at work. The groups, he says triumphantly, had arrived.

It is not surprising that he finds his ideals of industrial management in Japanese indus- 'workers try where meet together in their free time, possibly under the chairman- ship of the foreman, to discuss how the job is done and how to do it better' Once, he quotes approvingly from 'Modern Japanese Man- agement, 'this was done without pay... now entirely Mitsubishi pays a token two hours' pay a month in recog- nition of these efforts'.

What Jay wants within industry is a form of cor- poratism in which 'ten-groups of workers can be closely in- volved in the success of a giant corporation'. What he is after, behind all his romantic. terminology, is the strengthening of the struc- tures of monopoly capitalism and the integration of the workers into a system where they will know their place, collaborate and happily in- the profits of BMC, crease General Motors, or Mitsu- bishi. working In such a close relationship, mutiny 'or strike, as it is called in civil life' is a virtual impossibility. Jay is a man who is capable of saying of great corporations and their aggressive competi- . for higher and higher tion profits and growth that 'greed hardly comes into it at all'.

He dismisses the great revo- lutionary moment of the storming of the Bastille in the first days of the French Revo- lution 'mindless mass as behaviour' He calls for the reduction of the numbers of university students because young people are concentrated in 'groups beyond the acceptable tribal size, and without adequate tribal structure'. Of Lenin he says: I might give him the leadership of a complex project that required dedication, but I energetic would not let him anywhere near the complex realities of long-term corporate manage- ment.' He believes that the Heath government was returned to power because 'the camp had been favoured at the expense of the hunters: too much national expenditure to sub- sidize health and homes and schools, too much government restriction on the activities of industry". Jay's last book on manage- was translated into ment twelve languages. No doubt his new 'Jungle Book' is also a best-seller because it provides the myths the corporation men need.

They have found a new thinker, a man with access to the mass media: a dangerous man. Richard DFC. He was educat vern College Military Academy, He served in Wor the trom became staff War Office and wen British Expeditionar France World War II. commander Artillery in the 15th Division and was w action. end of tl At the was brigadier, gener the allied From 1947 to military attaché in 1 are we telli Why about him? For the past few writing has been articles wing National Front Is Major General only British general i According to drawn up by of Health and Socia the "otal number o families in England Workers Prose, Major as educated at Mal- and the Royal Woolwich 4-1930 ted artilleen then captain the at and went with the editionary Force to outbreak of the 15th (Scottish) id was wounded in end of the war he general staff Norway. 1948 he was aché in Moscow. we telling you all past few weeks he of Spearhead', the extreme right- General Hilton the I general in the NF? and Social Security, umber of homeless England staying in ara Preas, Friday Augual 18, 1872 PAGE 8 temporary accommodation pro- vided by local authorities, numbered 5,459 at the end of 1971. This is an approximate increase of 14 per cent over the previous year. Not only are there more they are staying homeless families stayed in temporary accommodation as long as 18 months, compared with 599 families the previous year.

The number of homeless single people in temporary accommodation increased by 2,520 between 1971 and 1972, and they are also staying there longer. These figures do not, of course, include the number of homeless people who are stay- with relatives or friends, paying out their savings in bed and breakfast hotels or hostels, or just living rough. The number of children in local authority care in England, the report, rose from says 68,255 in 1970 to 83,62l in 1971 and the number of recep- tions into from care rose 49,756 to 61,917 in the same period. Such is life in Tory Britain!

The economy may not grow much, but private enterprise can certainly turn people out of their homes. Below: Property tycoon and Tory head of the Department of Health and Social Security, Sir Kelth Joseph.

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday August 18, 1972 Scabs crash picket with police aid

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

BY AN The operators, members of overwhelming the General and Municipal majority, a mass meeting Workers' ( Union, decided to the 170 process reject the management's first PSR Proposals. For six weeks, workers at the Inter- national Synthetic had refused even Rubber Co plant at negotiate. The dispute is over Fawley, has a new Hampshire, grading scheme, unilaterally voted to continue an management and imposed by official strike now seven rejected by employees Toe because grades workers weeks old. rather than jobs and is seen as an attemot to spilt the union.

Youth fight The strike has been marked by massive police intervention of support scab lorries for union attempting to breach the picket lines ana keep up suppiles to the plant and in support of recognition scab staff trying maintain to prouucuon. A STRIKE by 11 print workers Specially hired scab drivers Kenning and Spencer at loye, are getting £75 to drive rent- Ltd, Bedworth, near Coventry, a-truck vehicles at speed recognition is now 24-hour

TOT

through the picket in its third week. lines. The company has under- -all voung mem- une surikers the damage WiLLet bers of the Society of Graphical vehicles. and Allied Trades -told Workers police have been determined Ihe Press that they escorting 'these lorries to and remain out until they Wilt from the recon oor plant.and have also 100 young workers, blocked attempts by pickets to over the and General follow the trucks to find out men vers Workers' Union, Municipal are more about them. still work. The police have ignored Strikers say that these other complaints about the danger- workers naa votea to come oul the trucks are driven but were prevented from doing ous way their full-time official. through the pickets. by

SOGAT

Martin of oincial R Last Sunday one is still investigating this state of strike-breaking lorries smashed affairs. pickets cars into two or the The central SOGAT branch in parked on the side of the road.

Coventry is arranging collections The next morning the same among print workers for the lorry but different driver Bedworth Appeals strikers. are raced through a mass pIcket. aso •ems made Lo caI laclonc Both police and pickets had to in Coventry for financial support.

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Amount enclosed E. niy. Police hamper pickets as a lorry pushes jump for safety. The lorry was travelling too fast to turn into the plant entrance and was forced to drive into a dead-end road where it was trapped by angry pickets. A prosecution may follow. Solidarity with the strike is growing in the area. Maintenance workers and contract cleaners employed at ISR have observed the picket lines, and apart from the Electrical and Plumbing Trades Union their action has been declared official. BOAC, Britain's state-owned overseas airline, has made a £1.4m loss in the year ended March 31. This is the first overall loss by BOAC for eight years. But the annual report released yesterday says BOAC fared far better than many competitors during an extremely difficult year.

Among the reasons blamed for the loss uncontrolled pro- are charter flights, liferation of which to poach continued scheduled traffic and I 'vigilance against hijacking', which had to be maintained despite its effect on punctuality and costs.

In spite of this BOAC would have made a small profit 'had we not been deprived of our profit- able West African and Libyan services, which were transferred by government order to British Caledonian'. This is a barbed reference to the Tories' decision to hive-off the route to the government- private, 'third force' air- created line which caused much bitter- ness at the top of BOAC. The report the BOAC says board decided that it would not be commercially justifiable to pay a dividend on public dividend capital, although this could have been done by depleting reserves.

This decision was supported by the British Airways Board.

But the government had taken action under the 1967 Air Cor- porations Act to require a pay- ment of £3.25m—equivalent to a 5 per cent rate on BOAC's public dividend capital. BOAC had pressed for a new charter concept, where seats would be sold to the public pre- pared to buy their tickets well in advance. There are now signs of the emergence of an understanding between discussions in result of discussions which the British government played a leading role, said the report.

Concorde, BOAC iS.

ORU

26 ry pushes through Esso workers at the adjacent oil refinery have refused to supply essential oil, and National Union of Railwaymen members have refused to shunt wagons into the plant. International Synthetic Rubber, which the owns Fawley plant, is a consortium of major tyre and rubber firms and is one of the largest pro- ducers of synthetic rubber in Europe. Workers launched strong picket and were faced with a 200-strong force of cerned that the aircraft's sonic booms should be acceptable to into and over the countries which it will fly. 'This is a matter which the government also have very much in mind.' In the seven years since the public dividend capital has formed the part of BOAC's capital, £52.4m has been paid in dividends to the government- equivalent to an annual dividend of 11.5 per cent on the £65m public dividend capital. BOAC chairman, Keith Gran- ville said at a press conference

ANOTHER

building society announced higher yesterday rates for investors, interest despite last week's 'no change' from recommendation the Building Societies' Association.

Sussex Mutual Building The Society is following the lead of and Westbourne, and will Leek pay investors an extra t per cent a year from October I. The new rate of 5t per cent tax paid is equivalent to 9 per cent gross a year. Borrowers will not face any increase until later The society's the year. assistant managing director, Michael Horton Ledger, said he believed the move would give a 'fairer deal for investors'.

He said: 'We believe that as much as possible should be done to reward investors, without whom none of the great social benefits of building societies would be possible.' TWO DOCKERS arrested on the picket at Neap House Wharf and fined £165 at Scun- thorpe last week were yesterday ordered to pay the fines at fl per week. The rate will be raised to £2 a week when they return to wOt police. Two men were arrested for trespass. They were guard- ing two rail tankers the com- pany want to get into the factory. The men are against of them would be unable to reach the top pay grade. Another problem is man- agement's refusal to give an assurance that no action will be taken against workers who continue to black transport firms who have broken picket of lines during the strike.

that to pay the government its dividend of £3.25m the corpora- tion had to dip into reserves to the tune of £1.8m. But he emphasized that BOAC's financial position was with reserves of still strong, about £77m. He said the present year offered little hope of any substan- improvement trading tial results and the forecast was 'little more than break-even'. A tremendous effort would be needed to get back to previous high profit levels. For the time being the rates the society charges borrowers • put 'to avoid undue will stay hardship'. But increases in these are planned from December 1.

Tories attack rent strikers' benefits MORE than 13,000 people in Northern Ireland are having Security and welfare Social benefits deducted at source in a government measure against the year-long rent and rates strike.

So far £1.12m has been taken off householders withholding rent and rates in the protest organ- ized by the Civil Rights move.

ment after the introduction of internment on August 9 last year.

A further £1.13m is still out- standing in the public sector, however, and another £850,000 in rates has not been paid.

But the strike is gradually losing support. A recent estimate of householders taking part is 18,500 as compared with around 25,000 last autumn

ITV

11.30 York golf festival. 12.25 Women 12.50 today. Freud on Bellbird. food. 1.30 1.15 Dan. 1.40 Bush boy. 2.05 Castle haven. 2.30 York golf festival 3.45 Delta.

4.40 Happy house. 4.55 Land of the giants. 5.50 News. 6.00

TODAY. (

BBC 1

6.30

ARNIE.

Father meets Daughter. 7.00

THE

BEST OF PLEASE

9.45 Camberwick 10.00 green. SIRI False Alarm. Flashing blade. 10.25 Atten- 7.30

THE FBI.

The Gold Card. borough and animals. 10.50-11.00 8.30 SHUT THAT DOOR! Larry and the omruds. 12.00 Noggin Grayson. Show jumping. 1.00 Eu a'u tyb

MAN FROM HAVEN.

9.00 tebyg. 1.30 Fingerbobs. 1.45-1.53 10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

2.00 Show News and weather. 10.30

YORK GOLF FESTIVAL.

4.15 Play school. 4.40 jumping. 11.15

WICKED

WOMEN.

Anne Jackanory. 4.55 Monkees. 5.20 Maria Moody. Jane Asher, Ask Aspel. 5.44 Sir Prancelot. John Stratton. 5.50 News and weather. 12.15 SCALES OF JUSTICE. The

6.00 LONDON THIS WEEK.

Material Witness.

12.45 DOCTORS' DILEMMAS.

6.20 SHOW JUMPING.

6.30

THE VIRGINIAN.

The Hell Wind.

45 IT'S A KNOCK OUT

•00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and REGIONAL TI

9.25 MISS UNITED KINGDOM

1972. CHANNEL: 11.30-3.55 London.

FILM: 'OLYMPIA 36'. Film 4.05 Happy house. 4.20 Puffin. 10.15 4.22 Jimmy Stewart. 4.50 Peebles.

by Leni Riefenstahl about 5.20 the 1936 Olympics in fas- and bamm bamm. Primus. 6.00 5.50 London. News and cist Germany. 11.00

LATE NIGHT NEWS.

weather. 6.10 Cartoon time. 6.35

SUMMER TALK.

Crossroads. 7.00 Comedians. 7.30 11.15 Weather. London. 11.15 Film: 'The Fright- 12.00 ened City'- 12.50 News and weather in French. Weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except:

BBC 2

3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News. Diary. 6.25 Sports desk. 6.00 11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.35 11.13 News. 11.15 Film: 'The Open University. Frightened City. 12.50 Faith for life. 7.30 NEWSROOM and weather. ONE PAIR OF EYES. We're 8.00 into SOUTHERN: 11.30 London. 12.55 coming our own. Arthur News. Beloved enemy. 1.25 Dooley. 1.00 8.45

SPORT TWO.

Hillbillies. 1.50 Let's face it. 2.15 9.45

GARDENERS' WORLD.

Sport. 3.55 Weekend. 4.00 House- 9.55

THE

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4.15 Paulus. 4.30 Cross- party. roads. 4.55 Voyage. 5.50 London.

PHONIES. Otto Klemperer SE. Philhar- 6.00 Day by day. Scene 6.30 with the New do? 7.00 monia Orchestra. Who do Shut that you NEWS ON 2 and weather. door. 7.30 Weekend. 7.35 Sale of 11.15

LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

8.05

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9.00 Lon- 11.20 the century. Marat BUILDING workers on strike in Portsmouth We're prepared to s hold a mass meeting to discuss the situation is won. General Crane driver John (above). Afterwards a Transport and Workers' Union shop steward summed up the that George Smith, t mood of the men. chairman, should be 'We're pretty strong minded now, he said.

conciliation with T Now is t Initially we might have accepted the latest moment. Tories!' he said. offer, but we've been messed about too much.

But already 700 tenants on the

BARNSLEY'S

Labour-con- Athersley estate have signed a council decided this trolled declaration they will that not week to implement the Tories' pay the increase of fl per week due to take effect in October.

'fair rents' Act. Brian Sefton, of the secretary Tenants' Finance Committee chairman 360-strong Athersley 'People Brian Varley, a Labour alderman, Association, said: in described the Act as 'vicious and Athersley will not the pay highly political', but, he said, the increase. council 'They will pay the rent they 'had to accept the law of the land. are paying at the moment and if Liverpool sculptor Arthur Dooley (BBC 2, 8.45 р.m.) Olympic training at 6,000 fl don. 11.15 News. 11.25 Film: "The Mummy's Hand'. 12.40 Weather. Guideline. HARLECH: 11.30 London. 3.45 Women only. 4.15 Tinkertainment.

4.30 Crossroads. 4.55 Woobinda.

5.20 Flaxton boys. 5.50 London.

6.01 Report West. 6.15 Report Wales. 6.30 Jimmy Stewart. 7.00 Shut that door. 7.30 Comedians.

8.00 Cade's county. 9.00 London.

11.15 Film: 'Hide-Out'. 12.25 Scales of justice. 12.55 Weather.

HTV Wales and HTV Cymru/ Wales as above except: 4.15-4.30 Cantamil. 6.01-6.15 Y Dydd.

The HTV West as above except: 6.15- for 6.30 Report West. ANGLIA: 11.30 London. 1.40 World War I. 2.05 Mad movies.

2.30 London. 3.45 Yoga. 4.10 News. 4.15 Cartoons. 4.25 Rom- oss- per room. 4.50 Giants. 5.50 Lon- don. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 7.00 Glamour 72. Crossroads. 7.30 Comedians. 8.00 Combat. 9.00 London. 11.15 Film: Wicked As They Come'. ared to stay out until the full claim iver John Clarke said he didn't think e Smith, the UCATT leader and TUC should be involved with any talks or Tory premier Heath at this Now is the time to get rid of the they want we will hold the increase for them. Mr Sefton, who is fighting for a Council of Action in Barnsley, earlier told Workers Press: 'Tenants cannot win alone.

'Men here are used to a power- behind them - the ful union National Union of Mineworkers.

The trade unions must back up the tenants in this fight.'

Workers Press, Friday August 18, 1972 PAGE 11 (BBC 2, 8 р.m.) with some of his work; Kenyan athlete Kip Keino (BBC at 6,000 ft. ATV MIDLANDS: 12.00 Golf. 3.30 4.50 Skippy. 5.15 Funky phantom.

Horoscope. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.05 OK.

3.45 Women today. 4.10 Julia. 4.40 Happy house. 4.55 6.30 Riptide. 7.30 Shut that door.

5.50 London. 6.00 Lost in space. 8.00 Protectors. 8.25 Comedians. ATV today. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 9.00 London. 11.15 Film: 'Stranger Larry Grayson. 7.30 Persuaders. on the Third Floor. 8.25 Comedians. 9.00 London. 11.15 Film: 'Showdown'. SCOTTISH: 12.00 Golf. 2.35 Horo- 3.45 Women scope. today. 4.10 ULSTER: 11.30-1.10 London. 4.30 Animal land. 4.15 Crossroads. Romper 4.50 4.55 room. News. 4.40 Happy house. 4.55 Skippy. Cowboy Africa. 5.50 London. in 5.20 Cartoon. 5.50 London. 6.00 Viewfinder. 6.00 UTV news. 6.10 . 6.15 Love American style.

News 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Sale of the 6.30 Who do you do? 7.00 Lon- 7.30 century. Jason King. 8.30 London. don. 7.30 Saint. 8.30 London. 11.15 Comedians. 11.15 Late 11.20 At call. odds. 12.05 On the buses. YORKSHIRE: 11.30 London. 4.10 Calendar news. 4.15 Crossroads.

GRAMPIAN:

11.30 3.37 London. 4.40 Heppy house. 4.55 Skippy. 3.45 News. Women today. 4.10 5.20 Flintstones. 5.50 London. Yoga. 4.40 Happy house. 4.55 6.00 Calendar news. 6.05 Randall 5.20 Bush Rumblie jumblie. boy. Hopkirk. 7.00 and Film: 'Yuma'. 5.50 London. 6.00 News and 8.30 11.15 London. Film: 'The weather. 6.05 Mr and Mrs. 6.35 Tattered Dress'. 1.00 Weather. Crossroads. 7.00 Comedians. 7.30 Cartoon. 7.35 Jesse James. 8.05

GRANADA:

Hawaii five-o. 9.00 London. 11.30 London. 3.40 11.15 University challenge. 4.10 News. 'Kiss 11.20 Film: Job look. of Place. 4.40 Happy house. Peyton Evil'.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

MEMBERS of Preston Faulkes replied: 'It is an official strike. What you lack is building workers' strike credentials. This prevents people committee want to know from listening to you. 'The men will not come out.' why their official leader- But Preston men know ship in London are not that they will strike and said so.

Yesterday Fairclough's main yard calling for an official closed was by builders' pickets. national strike. Mike Gallagher,

UCATT

retary of the Adlington branch, Workers At yesterday's told Press: 'Nobody meeting crossed lines.

UCATT

the picket The area organizer Bill 200-odd engineers and boiler- Faulkes was hard pressed to makers held a meeting and went justify the lack of national home.' leadership. 'Our leaders don't A resolution from Alan Moon calling on the national want to offend us, he said.

executive to stand up and openly declare a national strike was side-stepped Alan Moon, a member of the by Faulkes, back: who promised strike committee, called credentials to the strike 'We are battling against the union com- mittee. leaders as well as the employers.'

At Croft's on Wednesday, the Another of the committee member names of three members told how men he had called out strike committee were taken by had said it an official police as they called out workers was strike. on the site. Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62½ p

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PAQE 12 Workars Preas, Friday Augual 1 London bullding workers at their meeting

BY PHILIP WADE

A MASS MEETING of over 1,000 London building workers decided yesterday to pull out as quickly as possible every remaining site in the capital. Many speakers demanded the union leaderships call a national, official, all-out strike for the £30, 35-hour week claim. But leading members of the Communist Party opposed the idea and no resolution was put to the meeting. The enormous turn-out for the meeting, which started at ? a.m., the real determination showed of the rank and file to fight the claim through to the end.

Several contracting electricians also came to express solidarity workers and with the building condemned Electrical and Plumb- ing Trades Union leader Frank Chapple for failing to call them out officially. the meeting, Jack Opening Henry, a CP member and Union of Construction, Allied, Trades general coun- and Technicians cillor said escalation had rapidly taken place in London. 'Once we've consolidated we have to go outwards and attack Greater London as a whole,' he said. 'It's a question of a national strike, region by region, he added, without explaining what that formulation actually meant.

Clapham sWahuStreet, Hish y Auguet 18, 1872 ir meeting yesterday holidays. Running along- more side it was the elimination of the lump. 'The fundamental question now is for 100 per cent unity behind the leadership in this fight,' he concluded. Not every speaker from the floor, however, accepted Henry's union leader- cover-up tor ship, who have refused to call a national strike. One steward from a Mile End site said his men had a grievance to bring to the meeting. They had been asked by the local

UCATT

organizer to pull out in their some sites area. The site agent refused to let him speak to the stewards on the site still working. In the end phoned

UCATT

agent regional Len Eaton secretary who told him the Mile End men were 'fréelancers'. 'What kind of leadership is that?' the steward asked. "The selective strikes policy always treacherous. The was union leaders have not called for an all-out national strike. And committee the London action failed to organize a lobby when the leaders met last Tuesday.

Instead of this splitting-up of London into six areas it should be one out, all out - like the miners and the dockers. 'The union leaders tried to sell us out and only a massive demonstration stopped them. The is avoiding the call leadership because it would mean an all- out fight with the dockers against the Tories.' At that point chairman Henry broke in and cut his speech short. Another leading Stalinist, Lou Lewis, then tried to explain his position.

WEATHER

A RIDGE of high pressure will move into western districts of the British Isles during the day.

North and East Scotland and North East England will have scattered showers at first but will become mainly dry. and Northern West Scotland Ireland will be bright, becoming generally cloudy with rain later in the day. Wales, South West Scotland and most of England will be mainly, dry with some bright ntervals. It will be rather cool Outlook for Saturday and Sun- day: Generally cloudy with driz- zle or rain in the North and West but dry with a few sunny normal below West and North West. 'I stand for an all-out national but I also stand for strike, reality; he said in reply to the Mile End speaker. It has to be organized. The decision by the leaders means the regions can stop all the sites.'

A steward from the Laing's site, Gipsy Hill, said there should have been a call for a national all-out stoppage to halt the confusion. 'It is also an illusion to talk of conditions on the sites out- side of nationalization of the building that industry. And means a fight to bring down the Tories. 'Scanlon has sold the out engineers for a two-year deal and no cut in hours. We must call for a change in the official lead- ership of our unions,' he said.

Earlier, Stalinist, another Peter Cavanagh, had made the CP's position absolutely clear.

'Some slogans have been put here all-out across an national strike. I've said it before and say it again. 'They living in cloud are cuckoo land, he said to no applause. They were taking on the employers and what was needed picketing. was more effective 'Not slogans, but the facts of life,' he added. Speaker after speaker yester- day came to the microphone to emphasize their determination to stay out and fight until the claim was met in full. But after over three hours of discussion, the Stalinist leader- ship was unable to offer any per- spective for the fight by build- against the employers and ers the Tory government. The only perspective is for building workers to join with the dockers who are now at the forefront of the struggle against the Tory government. No decent , wages, no jobs security can be won today un- less it involves the political struggle to remove the govern- ment. The unity of dockers and building workers will be a start.

But it must be extended through- out the trade union movement.

BY ALEX MITCHELL

THE REMAINING 1,000

workers at the Thornycroft heavy transmission plant at Basingstoke have occupied their factory on a 24-hour basis. The men are determined to halt the plans of the management, British Leyland, to sell off the factory to the Eaton Corporation of Ohio. In the hiving-off deal Leyland has also sold the 50-acre site to a property company. The decision to occupy was

INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE PAY and conditions deal establishing Govan Shipbuilders in three divisions of the old UCS consortium has run into trouble. Boilermakers from the new objecting to company are two clauses in the agree- ment. One deals with the end of the 'work-in' the men want a 77 boiler- that the guarantee makers still working-in will be re-employed by the company.

The other concerns pay. Management want to negotiate wage deal in the New a new Year, but they are insisting that rates remain static between now and January 1973. The boiler- want a free makers, however, hand to put forward claims since there has been a pay pause at the yard for the last 12 months. Boilermakers met in a Glasgow cinema yesterday where a large minority were in favour of throw- ing out the deal altogether.

The men eventually instructed their officials to return to man- agement to get remaininua rantections on the two and report back to a further mass meeting next Thursday.

The decision was taken des- pite heavy pressure from Scottish boilermakers' leader James Mur- ray. He said that the Tory Cabinet had instructed Govan Ship- builders managing director Archi- Gilchrist bald that deal would have to be signed in its immediately form present or there would be no public money for the firm. He also told the meeting that boilermakers' president Danny McGarvey had been told by the Strathalmond, chairman, Lord that any delay would jeopardize an order for ships from Kuwait. decision The to accept the deal in principle was so close that a ballot had to be held.

exclusively The agreement, reported in the Workers Press on April 15, provides for a mas- sive increase in productivity. The unions are pledged to introduce flexibility between crafts and break down the lines of job demarcation. requires the boiler- It also makers to relinquish their inde- pendent bargaining rights.

One clause insists that nego tiations will take place between management and all the labour force. This is a change from the unions present practice when like the boilermakers usually go it alone—a practice which allows leap-frogging claims by lower-paid groups. At the meeting MacDonald candidly admitted that he did not like the deal but it was at least better than • the signed at one the fourth UCS division-Clyde- bank-now owned by Marathon Manufacturing of Texas. stewards, There the led by Communist Party national exe- cutive member James Reid, have agreed to a four-year no-strike contract. boilermakers at Clyde- The bank originally objected to losing their pay differential, but col- after Marathon chiet, lapsed Wayne Harbin, threatened to pull out. Taken on Tuesday with only 14 votes against. stewards Today Thornycroft will address a mass rally of Ley- land workers from the Cowley plant at Oxford and call on them for industrial and financial sup- port. Other Leyland workers, those employed by Jaguar, are also demanding combine-wide action as their pay strike enters its ninth week. The Govan deal will set the seal on the long UCS struggle.

where workers It was one wanted to fight, but the Stalin- ist-dominated shop stewards' co- ordinating committee kept the down with the temperature 'work-in policy handed over boats to the liquidator and traded jobs and basic rights with em- ployers and the Tory govern- ment.

AUGUST FUND

IT CERTAINLY Is a tough struggle this month. Our post yesterday brought £74.15 giving us a total of £669.10 so far.

We are sure we can raise even more. enormous treachery of The the union leaders opens up great dangers for the dockers and plays right into the hands of the Tories. It means that our paper is absolutely de- today. Trade unionists cisive everywhere are looking for an alternative to these reformist union leaders. More support than ever can be won from all those determined to fight to make this Tory government resign. It Is this determination which drives us on to complete our fund. We speclally appeal to you, our readers, to do every- thing you can to change the position. Every month you fight magnificently. This month- please don't leave It too late.

Post all donations Immediately Workers Press August Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG. Workers Press August Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG Soclalist Labour League

PUBLIC MEETINGS

End TUC talks with Heath I Stop Jones-Aldington collaboration! VIctory to the dockers! Natlonalize the docks and transport Industries I Make the Torles resign I

MANCHESTER

FRIDAY AUGUST 18

7.30 p.m. Milton Hall Deanagate Speakers: LARRY CAVANAGH (Liverpool dock worker) ALAN STANLEY (Vauxhall Ellesmere Port shop steward) Both in a personal capacity

HULL

MONDAY AUGUST 21

7.30 p.m. Co-op Hall, Kingston Square, opp New Theatre Speakers: G. HEALY (SLL national secretary) LARRY CAVANAGH (Liverpool dock worker) JOHN NOLAN (T&GWU con- venor; Hollis Brothers) • in a personal capacity Both 01-622 7029 01-720 2000