Workers Press no. 846

workers press Lessons of the docks strike

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

POLITICAL WEAKNESS

BY OUR POLITICAL CO

THE DOCKWORKERS

must be congratulated on their struggle against the Tory government and their own union bureau- cracy. They defied the National Industrial Relations Court and then secured the release of their five brothers. This week they showed what they think of the Jack Jones leadership of their union, which connives with • Tory pre- mier Heath at No 10 Downing Street and with the employers of the Confederation of British Industry. And yesterday men from Lon- don's Royal group of docks ceremonially burnt Transport and General Workers' Union propa- ganda for the Jones-Aldington report. Throughout their three-week strike the dockers demonstrated great militancy and determina- tion in their struggle to defend jobs. But although militancy is decisive, it is not enough in the fights which the working class faces today. The lesson of the docks strike —10,500 Liverpool dockers and 32 Hull stewards are still out—is not be won by that it could militancy alone. From the start the struggle was a political one. The fight for the right to work is a political fight. That right can only be won by the removal of a Tory gov- ernment and the election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies including the nationalization of the docks and road transport industries.

No docker opposes the new technology in the docks industry.

What he opposes is this tech- nology being used by the ports employers to throw him out of work, to steal his job and thus his whole family into throw poverty. Workers in other industries the pits and the railways—are fast recognizing this central poli- tical fact of their struggles.

They see their jobs and standard of living being savaged by the Tories, who have delib- erately set out to create mass unemployment. At the same time the government has introduced its vicious anti-union laws to deal who put up any with those resistance. The strike has also revealed the crisis of leadership in the

T&GWU.

It is dominated by reform- ism. Just as Jones and his backers in the Communist Party, like Jack Dash, smoothed the way for Devlin, which provided the con- ditions for containerization, SO today it is a similar combination which ushers in Jones-Aldington and mass unemployment. By not insisting that all con-

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

CAL CORRESPONDENT

tainer bases should be brought under the National Dock Labour Scheme from their inception, Jones allowed the employers to create two classes of workers in the industry—one with a statu- tory right to his job, the other without. through a policy Only of workers' nationalization under control and without compensa- tion to the previous owners can the jobs of all workers in the industry be secured. Jones steadfastly kept this policy away from his members. The role of the Communist Party stewards was revealed glaringly at the Cumberland Park mass meeting in London yesterday, when Bernie Steer failed to give any firm leadership in calling for the strike to go on. Reporting after the closed meeting, Stephen Johns writes: Not once did the London shop stewards put a clear recommen- dation to the men to continue the strike on an unofficial basis.

The men heard Steer and Vic Turner, stewards' chairman, call for the strike to continue until Monday while contact with the northern ports was made to dis- cuss the situation. This was a deviation from the recommendation made by Wednesday's national port shop stewards' committee, which was a clear-cut call for an unofficial strike until the dockers' demands were met in full. The London dockers decided, however, by a narrow majority to to work on Monday. go back As the crowds began to drift away a younger and more milit- ant element urged stewards to go ahead and picket dock gates.

I understand this was rejected by the leadership on the grounds that it would fragment the struggle. speakers confined them- The selves to criticizing the number of concessions extracted from the employers which meant that the principles of the Jones-Aldington report were not dealt with at all. The most glaring comparison in political approach is between London and Liverpool. Liverpool vehemently stewards have been opposed to Jones-Aldington and at their report-back meeting a clear call to keep out on strike was put and won unanimous sup- port from a mass meeting of 6,000. The London stewards are led to this dismal performance because of their backing reformist solutions to dockland's jobs crisis. The call for the nationaliza- tion of the industry was one of the original nine points on the national shop stewards com- But this demand was mittee. shelved on the insistance of Lon- don stewards some months ago.

An attempt to reinstate more recently was rebuffed.

It must be resurrected imme- diately and made the central demand on the docks if the

E NEWSLETTER • SATURDAY AUGUST 19, 1

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC

Dockers at the Royal group yesterday Jones-Aldington juggernaut is to be stopped. Along with other sections of the working class the dockers have shown that they are pre- pared to fight. They have enormous strength -for the second time in two years the Tories had to bring in emergency powers to attack them. That strength must be mobil- ized with socialist demands which are the only demands to solve the problems of their industry.

The reformist leadership of Jack Jones won't fight for nation- alization. That bankrupt leader- ship spends more time with and the port employers Heath than it does with its own mem- bers. And every time another deal is struck with the capitalist class, the Tories are strengthened-to go on throwing people out of work and jailing trade unionists.

Jones never led this strike. He opposed it from the start. He's delighted that men have been forced to accept proposals he's cooked up with Lord Alding- ton, the ex-deputy chairman of the Tory Party. A new leadership which will fight for socialist policies must be built not only on the docks but in all sections of the T&GWU and the trade union movement.

UST 19, 1972• No 846 • 4p

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

yesterday morning gave Jones-Aldington propa DOCKERS ceremonially burned union propaganda in favour of the Jones-Alding- ton report at London's Royal group of docks yesterday.

The incident came after they had heard Transport and Gen- Workers' Union official, eral Bill Mundy, call for a return to work. Before the meeting stewards insisted that no back-to-work vote should be taken and urged dockers to go to a meeting organized by the stewards at 1 p.m. But both at the Royal and especially the West India docks, London stewards launched only a half-hearted attack on the Jones Aldington sell-out. At the Royals Vic Turner, one of the docks delegates, reported that the Jones-Aldington pro- posals still did give the • not guarantees that dockers wanted.

There were, he said, firm pledges on two things the abolition of the ton propaganda a hot reception temporary unattached register and the security of the National Dock Labour Scheme. The other guarantees were for 290 jobs and a possible 500 in the future. "Now if this is a guarantee your delegates did not see it that way,' he said.

Later he was asked by one docker if the work-sharing pro- posals agreed by the union to absorb the TUR men would mean a loss of pay. He replied it would not and that national docks secretary, Tim O'Leary, assured the delegates it would not. Union official Bill Munday got a stormy reception. He was drowned out by angry dockers when he said: 'We never go against a delegate conference result. As far as we are concerned, as trade unionists, we expect every member to walk through those gates." He then had to abandon his speech as dockers began to s!

'Off, off, off.!

workers press Lessons of the docks strike

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

POLITICAL WEAKNESS

BY OUR POLITICAL CO

THE DOCKWORKERS

must be congratulated on their struggle against the Tory government and their own union bureau- cracy. They defied the National Industrial Relations Court and then secured the release of their five brothers. This week they showed what they think of the Jack Jones union, leadership of their Tory pre- which connives with mier Heath at No 10 Downing Street and with the employers of Confederation of British the Industry. And yesterday men from Lon- don's Royal group of docks ceremonially burnt Transport and General Workers' Union propa- ganda for the Jones-Aldington report. Throughout their three-week strike the dockers demonstrated great militancy and determina- tion in their struggle to defend militancy is jobs. But although decisive, it is not enough in the the working class fights which faces today. The lesson of the docks strike —10,500 Liverpool dockers and 32 Hull stewards are still out—is that it could not be won by militancy alone. From the start the struggle was a political one. The fight for the right to work is a political fight. That right can only be won by the removal of a Tory gov- ernment and the election of a Labour government pledged to socialist policies including the nationalization of the docks and road transport industries.

No docker opposes the new technology in the docks industry.

What he opposes is this tech- nology being used by the ports employers to throw him out of work, to steal his job and thus family into throw whole poverty. Workers in other industries— railways-are the pits and the fast recognizing this central poli- tical fact of their struggles.

They their jobs and see standard of living being savaged by the Tories, who have delib- erately set out to create mass unemployment. At the same time the government has introduced its vicious anti-union laws to deal with those who put up any resistance. The strike has also revealed the crisis of leadership in the

T&GWU.

It is dominated by reform- ism. Just as Jones and his backers in the Communist Party, like Jack Dash, smoothed the way for Devlin, which provided the con- ditions for containerization, SO today it is a similar combination ushers in Jones-Aldington which and mass unemployment. By not insisting that all con-

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

CAL CORRESPONDENT

tainer bases should_be brought under the National Dock Labour from their inception, Scheme Jones allowed the employers to create two classes of workers in the industry-one with a statu- tory right to his job, the other without. Only through a policy of nationalization workers' under and without compensa- control tion to the previous owners can the jobs of all workers in the industry be secured. steadfastly Jones kept this policy away from his members.

The role of the Communist Party stewards revealed was glaringly the Cumberland at Park mass meeting in London yesterday, when Bernie Steer failed to give any firm leadership in calling for the strike to go on. Reporting after the closed meeting, Stephen Johns writes: Not once did the London shop stewards put a clear recommen- dation to the men to continue the strike on an unofficial basis.

The men heard Steer and Vic Turner, stewards' chairman, call strike to continue until for the Monday while contact with the northern ports was made to dis- cuss the situation. This was a deviation from the recommendation made by Wednesday's national port shop stewards' committee, which was a clear-cut call for an unofficial strike until the dockers' demands were met in full. The London dockers decided, however, by a narrow majority to go back to work on Monday.

As the crowds began to drift away a younger and more milit- ant element urged stewards to go ahead and picket dock gates.

I understand this was rejected by the leadership on the grounds that it would fragment the struggle. speakers confined them- The selves to criticizing the number of concessions extracted from the employers which meant that the principles of the Jones-Aldington report were not dealt with at all. The most glaring comparison in political approach is between London and Liverpool. Liverpool stewards have been vehemently opposed to Jones-Aldington and at their report-back meeting clear call to keep out on strike was put and won unanimous sup- port from a mass meeting of 6,000. The London stewards are led to this dismal performance their backing because of of reformist solutions to dockland's jobs crisis. The call for the nationaliza- tion of the industry was one of the original nine points on the shop national stewards •com- But this mittee. demand was shelved on the insistance of Lon- don stewards some months ago. An attempt to reinstate it more recently was rebuffed.

It must be resurrected imme- diately and made the central demand on the docks if the

E NEWSLETTER • SATURDAY AUGUST 19, 1

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC

Dockers at the Royal group yesterday Jones-Aldington juggernaut is to be stopped. Along with other sections of the working class the dockers have shown that they are pre- pared to fight. They have enormous strength -for the second time in two years the Tories had to bring in emergency powers to attack them. That strength must be mobil- ized with socialist demands which are the only demands to solve the problems of their industry.

The reformist leadership of Jack Jones won't fight for nation- alization. That bankrupt leader- ship with spends time more Heath and the port employers than it does with its own mem- bers. And every time another deal is struck with the capitalist class, the Tories are strengthened-to go on throwing people out of work and jailing trade unionists. Jones never led this strike. He I it from the start. He's opposed delighted that men have been forced to accept proposals he's cooked with Lord Alding- up the ex-deputy chairman of ton, the Tory Party. A new leadership which will fight for socialist policies must be built not only on the docks but in all sections of the T&GWU and the trade union movement.

UST 19, 1972 • No 846 • 4p

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

yesterday morning gave Jones-Aldington propa DOCKERS ceremonially burned union propaganda in favour of the Jones-Alding- ton report at London's Royal group of docks yesterday.

The incident came after they had heard Transport and Gen- eral Workers' Union official, Bill Mundy, call for a return to work. Before the meeting stewards insisted that no back-to-work vote should be taken and urged dockers to go to a meeting organized by the stewards at 1 p.m. But both at the Royal and especially the West India docks, London stewards launched only a half-hearted attack on the Jones Aldington sell-out. At the Royals Vic Turner, one of the docks delegates, reported that the Jones-Aldington pro- posals still did not give the guarantees that dockers wanted.

There were, he said, firm pledges on two things the abolition of the lon propaganda a hot reception temporary unattached register and the security of the National Dock Labour Scheme. The other guarantees were for 290 jobs and a possible 500 in future. Now if this is a guarantee your delegates did not see it that way,' he said.

Later he was asked by one docker if the work-sharing pro- posals agreed by the union to absorb the TUR men would mean a loss of pay. He replied it would not and that national Tim O'Leary, docks secretary, had assured the delegates it would not. Union official Bill Munday got stormy reception. He a was drowned out by angry dockers when he said: 'We never go against a delegate conference result. As far as we , are concerned, as trade unionists, we expect every member to walk through those gates.' He then had to abandon speech as dockers began to s: "Off, off, off.'

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Saturday Augusi

AROUND THE WORLD

BY JOHN SPENCER

LT-COL AMAKRANE

and Lt Midaoui, two Moroccan officers who took part in Wednesday's unsuccessful attempt to overthrow King Hassan were escorted back to Rabat yesterday on orders from the Tory government. They had sought political asylum in Gibraltar after fleeing from Morocco in an air force helicopter. The Foreign Office refused asylum and herded them onto a Moroccan military aircraft which promptly flew back to Rabat.

The two officers face torture and certain death at the hands of the king's secret police. The Tory government, which main- with tains the closest ties dictatorship, Hassan's well is aware of the fate to which it has condemned the two men. According to Joseph Godber, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, their continued presence on the Rock was 'not conducive public good'. The men to the illegal immigrants and were were deported as such, he said.

felt that the correct was thing to do was to return them Morocco, he added. to The decision taken following was representations in London by the ambassador Thami Moroccan Ouazzani. There is no extradition treaty between Britain and Morocco.

Not that Hassan himself usually bothers about these formalities. His strongman Gen Mohammed Oufkir (said to have shot him- self for reasons of 'honour' after the coup's failure) was convicted in France of having organized the kidnap-murder of Moroccan union leader Mehdi Ben Barka seven years ago. During his interview with the ambassador, Godber expressed on behalf of Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home the govern- ment's shock at the 'wicked attempt' the life of King on and asked Ouazzani to Hassan convey Douglas-Home's congra- tulations to the king on his escape. King Hassan's absolute rule in Morocco is sustained by the most repression against savage any opposition. In July last year a group of progressive officers who tried un- successfully to overthrow the monarch were summarily ex- ecuted after hideous tortures.

Hassan personally supervised the execution officers of ten three days after the coup attempt. FLEMISH fascists in Belgium have erected a monument tc their co-thinkers who fought in the Nazi SS against the Soviet Union. west of Antwerp, was ersted bey the Vlaamse Militante Orde, a far right-wing organization which is now formally dissolved.

It was put up despite a ban by the local authority, and the mayor of Stekene is now seeking leave to take the case to a higher court. The 'Bloc National Belge' a war-veterans' organization, has "public homage to treason sand described the memorial and added: 'It is obvious that the annual SS reunions at Flensburg lay August 19, 1972 The officers-four generals, five colonels and a major—were pub- licly humiliated and their insignia stripped from their uniforms before being shot. Afterwards their troops were paraded past their corpses to spit on the bodies. Queen Elizabeth II sent her 'most sincere con- Hassan gratulations On your narrow escape' and asked him to 'convey my sympathy to the relatives of those who died'. This week Hassan's postbag has included a letter of con- gratulations from General Fran- cisco Franco, Spain's fascist ruler. There will also be rejoicing in Washington that the Americans' most reliable North African ally is still in the saddle. The US has three secret mili- tary bases in Morocco, serving the Sixth Fleet and manned by 1,700 military technicians.

Hassan's savage and corrupt regime receives from the US huge hand-outs which are used finance the armed forces and the secret police and maintain the luxury of the royal court.

In October last year, after the July coup attempt had been brutally suppressed by the King's police apparatus, Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin visited Morocco on a 'goodwill' visit. The Soviet Union has close trading ties with Morocco despite its connections with the US.

GERMAN manufacturers: of electrical consumer goods are demanding urgent government action to stem the influx of competing Japanese products.

The production of radios, TV stereo kits sets, and tape recorders accounts for a quarter of the entire West German elec- tronics industry employs and more than 100,000 workers.

Imports of these goods, mainly from Japan, increased 331 per cent last year to a total worth about £100m. German firms have already been driven out of the pocket transistor radio market and made only a third of the stand- ard transistors sold on the home market last year. The German firms sold only 289,000 portable television sets, and Munster will now be held at Stekene.' Three years ago, when • the project was first mooted, the fascists driven of were out Stekene by Belgian ex-servicemen and trade unionists. THE government is setting up a special board to deal with the resettlement of Ugandan Asians holding British passports, Home Secretary Robert Carr announced yesterday afternoon. He said dis- cussions with other Common wealth countries were underway to ensure that UK passport hold- ers who wanted to go to countries other than Britain should be allowed to do so. Feudal for narrowly. welcome escaped Hassan Hassan is also courted by the Chinese Stalinists. When the rebel officers attacked the Skirate palace in July they found the Chinese ambassador among the guests at the king's birthday party. against 376,000 imported. And home-produced tape recorders now represent only 10 per cent of the home market. The Japanese 'offensive' is caused by the closing of the United States market following Nixon's August 15 measures last "year. The West German electronic goods market is more open than those of the other EEC coun- tries and German firms have been buying Japanese products for sale under their own brand- names. Unless the government pro- the home industry, tects the manufacturers the whole say, market in small transistor radios and portable TV sets will be in overseas hands by 1980, together with three-quarters of the radio set market and over two-thirds of colour TV production. CHILE'S worsening agricul- tural crisis is creating great problems for the Popular Unity coalition headed by president Salvador Allende.

Luis Corvalan, the Communist Party general secretary, told the party's plenum in Santiago earlier this week that agricultural pro- duction had increased only by about 2 per cent. 'The has not suc- country ceeded in untangling the econo-.

mic problems preventing the increase of food production..?

he said. Food prices have up to now been fixed almost from day to day. Our main error has been to drop our guard in the country- side' The Communist Party's chief the Popular contribution to Unity's agricultural policy has vigorous denunciations of been The Communist Party's strategy 'left' promoting the trade union leaders is now exposed for all to see. This strategy has been a cover for avoiding a fight to bring down the Tory government. No trade union leader has been consistently presented more by the 'Morning Star' as a good workers' leader than Jack Jones of the Transport and General Workers' Union. Even when Jones sold out the 1970 dock | first strikethe clash between the working class and the Tory government —he was protected by the 'Morning Star. loday Jones not only seeks to sell out the dockers' strike for a few worthless promises-he hides behind the capitalist police and is enthusiastically supported by all the million- aire press. He is praised to the skies while his members are reviled as 'vicious animals, assaulted by the police and fined hundreds of. pounds in the bourgeois courts. This 'left' lines up openly with the bourgeois state against the working class. Yet not a single word of condemnation of Jones has appeared in the 'Morning Star'. On the contrary, Jones' claim work and housing was that being prepared on 'hundreds of acres of London's dockland' without comment. And Friday's 'Star' went even further. It listed the small ports which had decided to return to work. It quoted Jones's appeal for an end to the strike. It reported the scandalous condemnation of the dockers by the leaders of the National Union of Jour- nalists. All without comment.

And it even joined the chorus 'dockers' about violence'. Dockers, it declared, 'may not use the best methods to express grievances'. But, above all, though it is com- pelled to declare support for the strike and to urge solidarity 'blacking', the 'Star' nowhere calls for united action by the working class to bring down the Tory government. It twists and turns in all direc- tions to avoid having to call for a fight to construct a new leadership to replace Jack Jones, now totally discredited in the eyes of thousands of dockers. The 'Star' also attempted yester- day to cover up for builders' union general secretary George Smith. He was given a full- page interview to claim the building unions were not on péasants who occupy their land- lords' farms. is The Allende government committed to the bureaucratic take-over of the huge estates, and Corvalan said this process be completed in 18 would months' time. Yet according to the Socialist Party, which is in alliance with the Stalinists, the state take- overs trequently mishire because the state Agricultural Reform Corporation is not on hand to prevent the landowner selling his machinery once he knows his land is to be taken over.

As a result, says the Socialist Party, 'more than half the expropriated lands are now non- the point of signing a sell-out deal with the employers last week. In fact on August 2 the trade union side of the industry's negotiating body agreed unani- mously to recommend accept- ance of a deal which only gave £23 and which a basic of contained a no-strike clause.

The Communist Party is building up TUC General Council chair- man Smith as a preparation for the retreat from the claim through company agreements. Building workers, like dockers, must fight the Stalinists' pro- tection of the union leaders.

The Socialist Labour League, in contrast to the CP, demands the reconvening of the T&GWU conference where jones must be made accountable. We call on all unions to organize immediate solidarity action with the dockers. We campaign for the immediate recall of the TUC to plan united action of the whole working class to bring down the Tory govern- ment. We fight to construct Councils of Action to build this unity in struggle against the Tories and their agents in the labour movement. Unless this is done, the trade union leaders will continue to betray their members and use the force of the state against them. Trotsky warned that in the epoch of imperialist decay the trade unions would either be transformed by Marxists into instruments revolu- tionary struggle, or be trans- formed by reformists class on behalf of working capitalism. This is the issue facing trade unionists today. The Communist Party, based on its reformist 'British Road to Socialism', argues that capital- ism will peacefully hand over its wealth and power to the working class. It opposes revolutionary struggle against capitalism. That is why it consistently presents men like Jack Jones as leaders who can be trusted.

As a result of this miseducation, CP militants are left unpre- pared for the betrayals of these leaders, who are now co- operating with the ruling class in seeking to isolate and divide the dockers. Only in struggle against Jones and the class-collaborators at the head of the trade unions deal can the working class with their main enemy. covering up for Jones, the In 'Morning Star' consciously assists in the plot to defeat the dockers. productive' The party also complains that the 'peasant councils' supposed to group the agricultural workers have been created 'from above' and are dominated by the land- lords. The urgency of the situation is underlined by the shortage of meat and vegetables in the cities, where there are now some- queues for basic food- times stufts. The Socialist Party has calcu- lated that the country will need to import $400m-worth of food and $100m-worth of farm machinery this year, exacerbating the already grave balance of pay- ments situation.

BY PHILIP WADE

A MASS MEETING of over workers at Cowley, Oxford, yes!

a one-day strike against plans Leyland subsidiary. The meeting heard appeals for su from BLMC's heavy transmission F ment Thornycroft, Basingstoke.

A recommendation for a strike on August 28, endorsed last week by senior shop stewards from throughout the by combine, • the was put Lord Stokes SETTLEMENT of the national engineering pay claim will not affect the strike at Snyder Ltd, Waddons Brook, Stafford- shire. strike-now in its third The week—will go on at the special machine tools factory, says works convenor Gilbert Mould. Mould says that his members were already earning more than the new national basic of $25 offered by the Engineering Em- ployers' Federation to the Con- federation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. The district committee of the ок°* Amalgamated Union gineering which Workers, Mould is a member, has declared the strike official. A strike committee has been formed and all branches of the AUEW circulated • for financial support. All convenors at the main factories in the area have been contacted for support.

The Girling works at Cwmbran have been asked for assistance and a service engineer at the factory where Snyder's machines are installed has been turned away. Fords, Dagenham, and British-Leyland Rover tactory have agreed to back the strikers.

BOOKS • PERIO

of over 5,000 Morris Motors ord, yesterday decided to stage st plans to sell off a British- Is for support from shop stewards nission plant of Transport Equip- Cowley stewards and carried.

Over 1,000 Thornycroft workers have now occupied their factory to stop plans to sell the company to the American-owned Eaton Corporation of Ohio.

Eaton plans to make about 350 of the work force redundant immediately they take over on October 1. British-Leyland sold the factory for £2jm. The 50-acre site on which the factory stands has been sold to a recently formed property com- English pany, Continental Property, also for £2}m. Workers worried about the future of the plant itself point to the fact that Eaton's only have a three-year lease from E&CP.

is just about the right This amount of time needed to close down operations completely.

"This is the sixth factory sold by British Leyland in recent years,' Thornett, deputy Alan senior shop steward at Cowley, told yesterday's mass meeting.

'In three years Leyland's labour force has been reduced by 10,000 a year, from 190,000 to 160,000.

"The combine committee took an extremely serious view of Thornycroft because there was no need for the factory to close' The work was going outside the combine and out of the country, he added. "The company is being sold to raise other cash for capital investments in Europe. Lord Stokes is selling operations in France. 9 factories expand The joint shop stewards' com- mittee at Cowley had been unani- mous in support of the stoppage.

British Leyland could not take these decisions with impunity.

'You may think a one-day strike is insufficient. "That's not the issue. This is the sixth factory and the first time action has been called. can't fight this Thornycroft battle alone,' said Thornett.

Jones, Amalgamated Gordon Union of Engineering Workers' convenor at Thornycroft, said Leyland, by selling the •factory and the land, were selling the workers' skills. "They have reneged on an agreement with and with can't be national officials and allowed to get away it,' he said.

Thornycroft • clerical workers' representative Jim Bryer told the meeting that Leyland still wanted If the Basingstoke men their they wouldn't jobs get a?

• PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERE

Morris Motors workers vote for strike ac another one for 20 miles around.

'Without your support we're completely dead. Let's stop the rot and let Leyland recognize the combine committee as • a tiger with some teeth,' he said.

the Cowley meeting, From Thornycroft representatives to Birmingham to seek travelled support among more British Leyland workers. THE IRISH television network RTE has been asked to stop co-operating with the South African Broadcasting Corpora- tion, which is establishing its own television service. South African Corporation officials have been in the Re- public of Ireland gaining technical experience and looking for staff.

Members of the television sec- tion of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union protes- ted at the arrangement and called for its termination.

They also urged their members not to take jobs in South Africa.

The union said: 'There can be no doubt that the South African Television Service will be used, as the present radio service, to propagate a doctrine of racialism and white supremacy.' SKILLED toolmakers at CAV's refusing Acton plant are still to release finished tools to the production lines. They are quite willing to working but return to normal the management is insisting that their bonus must be changed.

The men began their action five weeks ago in support of laboratory workers who were on strike.

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 а.т.- 6 р.ПП. frl 8 a.m.-7.30 pra. 3at 9 a.mo -6 D.l Workers Pres strike action THIRTY-ONE women canteen workers at the main Cour- tauld's factory in Coventry are in the third week of a strike for a 5p-an-hour in- crease. They are being sup- ported by a few cleaners who came out in sympathy. The strike has been declared official by the Transport and General Workers' Union; Ron organizer is Marsden, the attempting to get the firm to accede to the women's demand.

shop Mrs Samsons, the steward, told Workers Press: put in for this rise six We months ago. At first the firm only offered 3.25p per hour. Now they are offering 4p per hour-but we want the full 5p per hour' Other pickets told us that they have not had a rise in wages for three years. The current The stewards in the laboratory are refusing to co-operate in an exercise aimed at reducing the backlog which resulted from the four-week strike. The men will not work over- time or operate a new com- puterized test-bed until the tool- room men recover their bonus.

The laboratory men are par- ticularly incensed at what they believe to be victimization of the toolmakers. Other sections also assisted them during the dispute refusing to deliver and 'blacking' laboratory work throughout the factory. Clearly the management are concerned at this solidarity action. To take punitive action against all the who groups assisted the laboratory workers would escalate the situation.

MOTOR insurance firms in Eire 'urgent talks' with are seeking the country's Minister for Industry and Commerce, Patrick Lalor, over the crisis in car insurance. A spokesman for the Institute of Insurance Brokers of Ireland said that it was almost impossible for any driver under 25 to get insurance cover. Within a few months new drivers might find that cover was unavailable, he warned. Of the 11 companies, several of them British subsidiaries, operating in the motor insurance feld in the Irish Republic, only three or four accepting were new business, he said.

36 10, 1872 PAGE 3

wage is £14 for a 40-hour week but many canteen workers only work 25 or 30 hours a week.

The canteen workers have had sympathetic response from the factory workers. Shop stewards have promised to help on the picket line. The executive directors have been forced to go to local 'clubs' for their lunch. Socialist Labour League

FOUR LECTURES

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

given by

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary) 1. Marxism as the theory of knowledge Tuesday September 5 2. Development of Marxism through working-class struggle Tuesday September 12 3. Nature of the capitalist crisis Tuesday September 19 4. History of materialism today Tuesday September 26

AEU HOUSE

Mount Pleasant Liverpool 1, 7.30 p.m.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE MEETINGS

VICTORY TO THE BUILDERS

AND DOCKERS!

TUC MUST BREAK OFF ALL

TALKS WITH HEATHI

MAKE THE TORY GOVERN-

MENT RESIGNI

CENTRAL LONDON:

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

Smail 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: Wednosday August. 23, 7.30 p.m. Hotspur Hotel, Haymarket.

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Saturday August 19,

BY TOM KEMP

Four years ago, late on the night of August 20, 1968, heavily armed units of the Soviet, East Ger- man and Polish armed forces rolled into Czecho- slovakia and took up position throughout the country. They met with universal hostility, active but little opposition. Prague radio had called on the population not to resist. So ended the brief period of liberal reforms in which a wing of the bureaucracy, led by tried Alexandr Dubcek, to give itself 'a human face'.

Unable to call on the work- ing class for a struggle against the bureaucracy, of which it was itself a wing, the Dubcek leadership found itself swept aside. Direct nominees of the Kremlin were brought back into power. The Warsaw Pact troops were told that they were being Czechoslovakia to sent to a capitalist restor- forestall ation and outside intervention.

There was never any danger of this kind. Indeed, Washington Saturday August 19, 1972 informed of the had been invasion and neither it nor its NATO allies had any intention of intervening in the country.

aimed The invasion was against the working class. The armoured occupied columns industrial and the Prague centres. They did not take up positions on the frontiers with the capitalist countries where strong units of the Czech army were already stationed. The troops were required in order to prevent the weak and vacillating Dubcek regime from being swept aside by a great upsurge of the working class.

It was no accident that the intervention followed so soon after the events in France of May and June in which the Communist Party had played a counter-revolutionary part in preventing the General Strike from becoming a struggle for power. propaganda Whatever use the imperialist media made of the capitalist the invasion, states were happy to see the Warsaw Pact armies forestall a revolution which would have broken the existing political in Europe and equilibrium threatened capitalism in the West. What is the projected Euro- pean Security Pact about if it is not to enable the bureau- cracy to remain master in its own house and deal with the working class in whatever way it thinks fit? The meaning of 'peaceful co-existence' was powerfully demonstrated in August 1968. Behind the events of August long-maturing was a crisis which had erupted in Czecho- slovakia in the Spring of 1968.

For many years after the coup of 1947, which established the Communist Party in power, Czechoslovakia appeared to be the model Stalinist country of Eastern Europe. Already highly industrialized compar- atively prosperous, it was of control i under the a seasoned bureaucracy led by Clement Gottwald and later by Antonin Novotny. The events of 1953 in Berlin, and even the Hungarian Revo- lution of 1956 and the events in Poland in the same year, had little effect on Czechoslo- vakia. The men of the Stalinist be apparatus appeared to firmly in control. They had after the to power risen massive purges of the 1949- 1954 period and continued to censorship and through rule the secret police. There was a deep fear among Party and government leaders would that any "liberalization' bring up the question of the trials and purges which swept 1948. the country after Ordered by Stalin, supervised by the Soviet security police out by the all- and carried powerful Czech secret police, carried the purges were through with great thorough- ness. Thousands of local commun- ists were imprisoned or shot. Show trials were organized on the lines of the Moscow Trials 1930s. Principal de- of the fendant in the main trial was Rudolph Slansky, who had him- self built the security up apparatus which was later to arrest and frame him, The men who held power under Gottwald and Novotny were guilty men. They had signed the death warrants of of their former Party many comrades that they knew to be had climbed innocent. They into their jobs over a pile of corpses. They knew that the trials were frame-ups. They knew that the purges were completely unjustified. They feared the anger of the masses.

Beneath the exterior of calm Czechoslovakia which pre- sented in the 1960s to the out- side world or the casual visitor deep-going ferment was taking place. It first of all expression among the found students and intellectuals. It spread to wider sections of the and began to affect the youth working class, even those most loyal to the Communist Party.

after all, The Party had, deep historic roots the in Czech working class which went back to the 1920s. The strength of this working class, highly - industrialized in a country, was a force to be reckoned with. What helped to bring the welling discontent and criticism of the Stalinist regime to the virtual surface was the breakdown after economic This was the fruit of 1936. 'socialism in one country' and lavish adherence to the Soviet model of planning.

DISSENT

A reform trend began to appear in the party leadership and among economic admini- strators. Kept in check at first by Novotny, who was con- sidered a 'reformer', a growing volume of criticism began to be heard in the factories as well as in the universities.

Once the Novotny regime's failure to make sub- any stantial changes became apparent the dissent and criticism began to assume a sharper form. By the end of 1967 of and the beginning 1968 the solid mass of the Czech working class began to move into action. Novotny was pushed aside and hopes for a change were focused on Dubcek. For a few months, especially after March 1968, the new Dubcek regime made a series of important concessions. There was a new atmosphere of free discussion and debate, ferment pre-revolutionary which caused increasing alarm in the Kremlin. Representing a wing of the had bureaucracy which no intention of relinquishing power and wishing to find a modus vivendi with the reached Kremlin, Dubcek soon the end of his possible con- cessions. But the working class was not only just beginning to the scene as appear on an independent force. It turned, as might have been expected, to its tradi- tional organizations-to the trade unions and particularly to the Communist Party. Usually dull and untroubled meetings became the theatre discussion, for unprecedented debate and decision-making Step-by-step, as the result of a bitter struggle, workers forced the new leadership to grant them rights which existed on paper but had never been exercised in practice. The Dubcek leadership was thrust into increasingly an contradictory position, facing the demands from the working class on the one side and the hostility of Moscow growing on the other. Until the invasion of August 20, Dubcek lived in the hope that he could, with Moscow's consent, find some way out of the impasse. times he held back At all working class and pre- the vented its emergence as an in- independent force. The vasion brutally destroyed his hopes. Carted off to Moscow he was forced to sign a secret protocol rescinding the reforms •Prague of the spring'. The bankruptcy of 'socialism with a human face' was complete.

Dubcek's capitulation did not destroy • the illusions in him held by many workers.

Until the following April, when he was dismissed, he continued to perform a useful service to the bureaucracy. . He became the figurehead for the process of 'normalization' in which the of few the previous gains months were wiped out. Under the protection of Soviet tanks and the armed of the Warsaw Pact forces countries, the Czech bureau- launched vicious re- cracy pressions against those who were prominent in the events intellectuals of 1968. Many and workers were dismissed from their jobs. Students were forced to give up their courses.

The sorry story of arrests and victimization still goes on, after the invasion. tour years That invasion was condemned, in words, by a number of com- munist parties, including the of Great Communist Party Britain, which had expressed their support for Dubcek, They have done nothing, and do nothing today, to oppose the repressions. The Czech class working showed its strength in 1968 by suing the secre14th supporting secret of Congress the Communist Party held under conditions of occupation in August.

NO PARTY

What was lacking was leadership, a party and a per- could over- spective which and throw the bureaucracy establish the power of the working class. This could not be done within the confines of a single country like Czecho- slovakia. It is a task for the working class of the whole of and of the Eastern Europe capitalist countries on the of the Fourth programme International. lessons of Czechoslo- The vakia in 1968 reinforced those of Hungary in 1956 and were to be manifest again in Poland Workers Press, Saturday 1970 in the Baltic 'food in riots' The working class of the capitalist countries has power- ful allies in the working class lemned, of Eastern Europe and the Union. But Soviet only revolutionary parties on the of the Fourth programme International can defeat their enemies-the bour- common and the ruling class geols parasitic bureaucracy. In a statement issued immedi- the invasion of ately after Czechoslovakia in August 1968 the Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League issued a statement under the slogans: Arm the Czech workers! No capitalist restoration!

Withdraw the Soviet troops!

Speaking of Dubcek and the tendency which he represented it said: The path of liberal re- form by a section of the bureaucracy, with the working class having no revolutionary programme and leadership has now proved itself once again: it opens the path to capitalist restoration on the one hand, military-bureaucratic re- and pressions on the old Stalinist style on the other. This was the role of Dubcek.

This is why we warned in July: • No political support for the Dubcek regime. • For the political revolution of the Czech workers! Now the Dubcek regime has led directly to the present kers Press, Saturday August 19, 1972 PAGE 5 Above : a tank burns on the streets of Prague in August 1968. situation. Only the political revolution of the working class defend the nationalized can property in Czechoslovakia ...

The working class in Britain must support the struggle of Czechoslovak workers against Stalinism. Only through that struggle will they be able to secure the socialist property relations. Our support for the Czech workers support is against imperialism, against all those anti-communists who are given ammunition by the Soviet intervention. In the event of any capitalist inter- vention, ( we would unhesita- fight for international tingly working-class support for the armies of the Warsaw Pact.

We appeal to all members of the Communist Party to im- to the mediately face up lessons of the Czech events, following so closely on the counter-revolutionary role of Stalinism in France. There is no way out of the Stalinist crisis except along the path of the programme of the Fourth International. Gollan's suppori for Dubcek, like that of the Italian and communist French parties and of Tito and Ceausescu, has only helped prepare for the the way situation. present

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Saturday August 19, 1972

FINAL PART BY STEPHEN JOHNS

At one time the life of a So like the shippers on the North Atlantic they turn docker was a continual round and throw some massive battle for survival. Each cordon trade, herd around day he would brace him- themselves into cartels in a bid to choke the arteries of trade self for the humiliation for their own benefit. of the free call. There he And all the time the equilibrium of the monopolists would vie with his fellow is threatened with collapse by workers to sell his carcass the prospect of a slump in to the employer. world trade-itself a product of of a system they have created Ben Tillet, one the fathers of trade in their own image. unionism on the docks, described the scene It is simply that the tech- niques of at the call: production them- would 'In selves are incapable of being building that hold very few in comfort, men developed within the pressing confines packed tightly and sterile of the were unto system of private ownership.

suffocation, like the black hole If the sharpens the of Calcutta, and those struggl- fought desperately employer is forced to embark ing men and tigerishly, elbowing each on an orgy of destruction.

So we have the spectacle of ships other, punching each other, the of wasting away in the harbours using last remnants of the world while the dis- strength to an TOr possessed in all the hour hour for colonial and few pence. semi-colonia nations cry Out of this kind of degrad- out for food and commodities.

Throughout ation and misery the dockers' the transport industry militancy and solidarity was technical advance forged. It was a bitter struggle offers only one prospect to the working class- -unemployment. against rapacious employers all the way. What it has meant the Now, docks has been recorded when technology in offers the prospect of a respite this series. But it is the same slavery, back- in every sector. from wage breaking and dirty work, the dockers again are

ADVANCES

OICP

threatened with insecurity and unemployment. But this is the nature of It On the railways the intro- capitalism. uses technology of not to promote human advance duction freightliners has meant redund ncies. The most and welfare, but as far as it can, for profit and self gain.

recent example is at Lambeth Containerization could mean where 200 rail workers are to lose their jobs because traffic it new era for the dock whorter could bring shorter is to be containerized on the freightliner network. hours, and better wages- at last the real chance for dockers In the industry power to develop their potentialities mechanization and the devel- opment of new rules has meant as human beings. the But of the dole for half Britain's in the grip shipping and transport miners: in the - car industry monopolies it is turned into new systems automation be intensified work the opposite-a thing to mean feared, which massive redundancies. system once "ar! On further the the docks again oppresses pits worker against advances only hold out the class and of worker. prospect more Even the capitalists them- cuts in the labour force.

There is talk of transport- selves have learned to fear this by barrage developm nt ing containers sallcons , hem to embark on helicopters. In It force or largely unplanned private hands this would massive They find the extinction of investmen them- mean the selves locked in a battle for ports themselves. Already the first SEABEES profit and survival. ave journeyed up the Thames.

labour question in every dock- er's minds. can these fit his communa tod his community family no one argue that the are against modern- Thaco middle dece individ.

'Luddites' put work handling stinking hides, rotting meat carbon blac conventional cargo liners. Indeed there are many, many imples in docke them. selves pace modernization. Blue union the origin union was in a handing dema mechanize Transport Workers Union and

PROPHETORS OF I

the employers declared that contempt for the rights won National Dock this impossible. (What under the was the employers really meant, of Labour Scheme. course, was under exist- But the working class cannot ing circumstances it was not afford to be split. profitable.) It must stand as one against The union leaders must bear this wholesale onslaught on its a major responsibility for the basic rights and conditions.

They present impasse. were There that more united responsible for split- directly the docker with the driver ting the labour force. and the warehouse workers In nine saw how wo than divides them. Transport the and General They all face the now ton. Workers' ahead Union went niques that continually threaten the and recruited in con- They all face their livelihoods. tainer bases and unregistered a Tory government determined ports. the crisis capitalism solve What is more they did this faces at their expense. with the full knowledge that the Surely the unity in struggle involved originated work that was immediately demon- the docks. But the conditions five London strated when the accepted behalf they of dockers jailed be were can their members were inferior to this fight. rediscovered in those of the dock workers. If there is a split between The issues are as fundamen- tal and universal: in the dockers, warehouse workers or the right peaceful case drivere today it lid two the the or three years earlier by their picketing. other the full right to reaD bene- own union. The recruiting on this basis fits instead of the punishment of technical progress. not only laid the grounds for dissension the The question remains how Intor but demonstrated the leaders' are dockers to win this fight? Can they, for In the hands of the example, win private permanent security from more employer this will mean fewer continer base jobs and the reg- and fewer jobs. The issue on the docks other words istration of all the ports?

We have goes right to the rotten heart argued in this series they cannot. of capitalism. The

ONLY

All the jobs in base solution is pro- every in the country could not solve shorter hours and gressively the crisis they face. better pay. But then the capi- can't In part three talist wails: make we argued on evidence that there might be a money that way. I will go out of 2,000 of business.' total lobS This would not The even absorb workers might reply- the current unattached register 'exactly'. For the fight over in Hull and London, containerization raises directly the 10.000 the issue of the ownership of redundancies the employers say they want in the means of production If the working class the next few years. awned docks, the the the wharfs, shipping lines and the

OWNERSHIP

con- the problem of haces unemployment would vanish. It would simply be a matter This solution ignores the rational decision a man a plight of the base on how much of our resources container workers. They are trade union- should be devoted to this or ists and workers- Naturally —are they to that trade. the retire to the dole? emphasis would be on produc- Again it can only be empha- ing the food and commodities sized that containerization and the working class and the the allied in peasantry of the world wanted world transport and ensuring their transporta- system that needs less labour power.

tion was as efficient as possible.

sent workers, solu bachare, in workers, engineers marching , m support of the five jailed dockers Already the dockers' strug gle has come near to forcing a General Strike. And the first task on the agenda remains the removal of the Tory government. The nationalization of the docks, land shipping and transport industry cannot be envisaged if the Tories remain in office. This demands a Labour government. If the working class rallied round the dockers and forced they this government out would be able to deal with the reformists in the Labour move- ment who shrunk from the task of taking over the means of production. This is the dockers' perspec.

tive. In their struggle, the struss gle of every worker embodied. The question of pro- gress is a class question. The working class can only reap the benefits of technology if they control the means of production. Workers Press, Saturday August 19, 1972 PAGE 7 NATIONALIZATION of the should pledge ernment to carry through nationalization land transport industry, the docks and the shipping lines, within the first few months of without compensation under office. In the meantime these workers' control. should take imme- reforms CONVENTION of the diate effect: A docks unions, the transport Reduction in the hours and the National worked each week to absorb unions Union of Seamen to lay down all surplus dock workers with the guidelines for nationali- no loss of pay. zation. The convention should • Employment of all tem- porary unattached men at full of consist representatives elected by the rank-and-file average earnings and subject to immediate re- • The registration of all port call. and container bases. This policy demands a fight of the The extension to force the Tory government National Dock Labour and to resign. Scheme to transport The incoming Labour gov- warehouse workers.

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

THE 1912 DEFEAT

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Saturday Augus From the Dockers' Ta

PART 3

1911 and 1912 saw an upsurge in strike action.

Late in 1910, 120,000 cotton workers struck in Lancaster. At the same time there was a 14week lockout of all boiler- makers on the North-East coast. In June 191l the seamen and firemen in Southampton wages and over- won higher In August troops time rates. were called out against the dockers in Liverpool. 191l national dock The strike, discussed in the pre- vious article, won substantial gains. 1911 also saw the first national railway strike in Britain. Once again, the troops were called out and two rail- were shot dead at waymen Lanelli. But the greatest victory of all was the winning of the minimum wage for 850,000 miners after a national strike.

Lenin hailed this as the dawn of a new epoch: 'The British proletariat is no longer the same. The workers have learned to fight. They have become aware of their power. "They have ceased to be the meek lambs they so long seemed to be to the satisfac- tion of all the champions and extollers of wage slavery."

The inspiring victory of the miners was a major factor in decision of the the London docks unions to launch an offensive against the employ- ers to enforce the closed shop.

This conflict, however, revealed all the weaknesses of these unions. The Stevedores' Union and the National Transport Work- ers' Federation was anxious to zain uniform rates of 8d or Is all work on overseas vessels. They were also eager to force the employers to pay the new rates for sailing barge work which had been agreed after the 1911 strike but which the employers had so far evaded paying. Neither of these demands had much chance of being gained as long as the employ- ers could freely hire cheap non-union labour. In May 1912 the lighter- men struck work because an ex-foreman would not join the union. The workers saw the transfer of this man as a deliberate provocation by the employers to smash the union and they were determined to meet the challenge. Feeling was strong in the whole Port of London, and the NTWF quickly made the strike official and general throughout the port. government hastily The appointed the Clarke Enquiry but the employers were spoil- ing for a fight in order to recoup what they had lost in the 1911 strike (see previous article). Led by Lord Devonport, chairman of the Port of Lon- don Authority, they refused to anything less than accept unconditional surrender by the unions. The employers' offensive was spearheaded by the Shipping Federation, established imme- diately after the 1889 strike aim with the avowed of smashing : trade unionism on the docks. In one of its earliest state- ments the Federation told the Dockers' Union that it would henceforth be confronted by a close combination of the entire interests of the British Mer- cantile Marine' and advised it that it had 'better be con- strained to exercise greater day August 19, 1972 kers' Tanner Strike 1889 to Devlin : circumspection than hitherto in determining the expediency of the demands of its members'?

By 1911 the Shipping Fed- eration had established a special 'Labour Department' which operated three vessels the 'Lady Jocelyn', , the 'Paris' 'Ella' — which were and the fitted out to house and trans- port scab labour under police escort to any port with a dis- The department also pute. number motor launches. (It's worth mentioning, how- ever, that an attempt to sail Cardiff during the scabs to 1911 strike was effectively sabotaged by a supporter of the strike who got a job as cook on the 'Lady Jocelyn' and doctored the scabs' food.)

But during the 1912 strike the major weaknesses of the unions . and

NTWF

the emerged. For one thing, there had been a neglect of the pro- vincial ports. Indeed, during the 1911 strike the NTWF and the London-based union leaders had lagged behind the men. In Liverpool Manchester Hull, and Cardiff the strike had been led not by these officials but by local-and usually unoff- cial-leaders. Thus when the NTWF called for a national strike in • 1912 they were unable to pull the provincial port workers (except in the Medway ports) on what was seen as a purely Lon- don issue. The neglect of the provin- cial ports not only isolated the London men but it enabled the Shipping Federation's Lab- our Department to draft in the staggering total of 13,000 non- union workers to break the London strike. By the end of July-despite substantial financial aid from dockers in Australia America and Germany-the strike was broken and the NTWF admit- ted defeat. A vicious wave of victimi- zation followed. Men who had done little more than distri- found bute leaflets every Devlin 1967. An historical series on avenue of employment on the docks closed to them. a huge The result was dockers' decline trade unionism. This occurred mainly in the Dockers' Union, which organized the unskilled work- ers, but the Stevedores' mém- bership also declined drasti- It fell from 8,000 to cally. 5,000 within two years. This period of decline depressed militancy and the right-wing came to the fore.

In 1913, for example, Ernest Bevin-later to become gen- eral secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, a stalwart of the right in the Labour Party, Minister of Lab- in Churchill's wartime our coalition and Foreign Minister in Attlee's post-World War II Labour Government—became assistant secretary of the Dockers' Union. The same conditions which facilitated . the growth of the encouraged the right wing employers, flushed with vic- tory, to launch an immediate onslaught on trade unionism.

Their first step was to trans- fer the "call-on' to inside the thus preventing a dock gates, check on union cards. More important even than this, however, the employers were able to utilize the con- ditions of defeat, decline and demoralization to play off the Dockers' Union and the Steve- dores' Union against each other. Instead of fighting to arrest the decline of union organiza- tion, the Stevedores' leaders concentrated on preserving special craft rates and jobs for their own members, regardless of what happened to other workers. The Dockers' Union leaders, for their part, co-operated with the shipping lines in transfer- ing stevedores' work to dock- ers at a lower rate. The conditions of the work- were thus driven down ers while their leaders bickered over their sectional differences.

This continued until the out- break of war in 1914, despite some attempts to form a gen- ries on the organization of the dock Tillet (centr Top: dockers' leader, Ben Board of Trade In 1912. Above: the Clark eral federation of portworkers' organizations. In fact, the Transport and Union, Workers' General rapidly to become the most powerful union on the docks, was not formed until 1922.

During World War the portworkers' unions joined chorus the of labour leaders praising British imperialism (despite Bevin's early speeches calling for international work- ers' action to stop the war)!

Trade union and Labour Party leaders fell over each other in their rush to serve the state. Verbal opposition soon gave way to paroxysms patriotic fervour - in which none excelled the dockers' leader Ben Tillett. The joint board of the TUC, for the Labour Party and the Gen- eral Federation of Trade Unions hastened to proclaim a political and industrial truce.

The union leaders (without consulting the men, of course) agreed to no strikes, compul- sory arbitration and waiving of restrictions on hours, over- time and untrained labour. They accepted the Munitions of War Act embodying these conditions. In June, 1915, the Labour Party agreed to participate in the Asquith coalition. he dockers by Jack Gale lot (centre) betore • a conterence of thu : the Clarke Enquiry in session.

At no time did these leaders raise the slightest protest flagrant against the price increases and profiteering that continued throughout the years of slaughter. In fact, so low had the leaders of the workers' organ- ization sunk, that even Bea- trice Webb was constrained to describe the 1915 Trades Congress in these Union words: 'The leading have men grown fatter in body and even more dully complacement in mind than they were 20 years ago. ... What the delegates enjoy is a joke. Indignation is felt to be out of place. "There is no anti-government feeling? no determination to get evils righted. In so far as there is • feeling it is reserved for jealousy between leaders.' But, despite all this, the employers-and not least the port employers — were unable to destroy trade unionism. Since the 1889 dockers' tan- ner strike, organization in the ports was here to stay.

CONTINUED

" Lenin 'On Britain' p. 152.

2 'Ernest Bevin' Francis Wil- liams pp. 42-43.

ICLAVI

Above left: Sargent Shriver holds hands The selection of R. Sar- gent Shriver to replace Thomas Eagleton as the Democratic Vice - Presid - ential candidate points up the tremendous crisis fac- ing the Democrats as the economic crisis deepens and the working class resists the attacks of the capitalists on every front.

Shriver is the brother-in-law of the late President Kennedy, the late Senator Robert Ken- nedy and the current Senator Edward Kennedy. He is the direct representative in the 1972 campaign of the Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party.

The new candidate comes to his post with impressive credentials as a man dedicated to the defence of capitalism.

He started his climb upward in the world of business and politics as the head Chicago's Merchandise Mart, after being given this position in the 1940s by Joseph Ken- nedy, patriarch of the Ken- nedy clan. In 1953 Shriver secured his position further by marrying Eunice, the third of the Ken- nedy daughters, in a ceremony performed by New York's Cardinal Spellman. Throughout his career Shriver has demonstrated a thorough opportunism, the same kind of personal drive to climb to the top of the heap which characterized his unfortunate predecessor as Vice - Presidential candidate, Thomas Eagleton. These men are determined to achieve personal success and power without regard to principles than any other devotion to capitalism. Their own principles are those of the capitalist entrepreneur himself - individualism, prag- matism, and toughness when it down to the funda- comes mental interests of the system, • the only thing to which they subordinate their own personal ambition. Shriver was born in 1915, into a very prominent Mary- investment land banking family. He was not marrying above his class when he joined the Kennedy family at the age of 38. Though his family was hit hard by the Wall Street crash, Shriver was able to continue to attend the most exclusive private schools, and then Yale University in the late 1930s.

At Yale he became chairman of the Yale 'Daily News' and a member of Scroll and Key, a senior and secret honour society known, according to the 'New York Times', for its elitism and its lock-step march- ing around the campus on Saturday evenings. In becoming chairman of the Yale 'Daily News', Shriver Ids hands and grins with now friend George N announced his personal credo 'Christian, Aristotelian, as optimist and American'. No doubt Shriver's member- ship in the right-wing, isola- tionist America First move- ment during this period was one of the qualities noted with approval by Joseph Kennedy, who was US ambassador to Britain before the war and a notorious of sympathizer Hitler's. Particularly since his asso- ciation with the Kennedys, Shriver has built up a reputa- tion as a businessman with a social conscience. This was indeed how McGovern referred to him in announcing his selection. The particular assets of Shriver are well enough sum- marized by black Democrat Shirley Chisholm, one of the unsuccessful Democratic Pre- sidential candidates. Chisholm wrote McGovern a letter praising Shriver as follows: 'He is attractive, personable, broad and well-liked by a cross-section of groups. 'He knows the Hill and is an experienced and respected businessman, but he is equally at home with the poor and minority groups whose affec- support he earned tion and during his tenure as head of * the Office of Economic Oppor- tunity' Shriver is a good friend of Chicago's Mayor Daley, not the working class. His liberal reputation only serves the function of trying to tie the workers to the Democratic Party and to capitalism. His real class loyalties are shown by his views and associations at a time when he did not have to concern himself with polishing a liberal image for the voters. Shriver's connections to Kennedy, Daley and others now being desperately are grasped by McGovern in his attempt to hold together a campaign which is falling apart at the seams. The McGovern staff is try- ing to provide some momen- tum and direction by selecting a man acceptable to the various wings of the Party which have set out in opposite directions, and above all to the section of the capitalist class which has been backing McGovern but which has been badly shaken by the events of the past two weeks. The Eagleton fiasco, on top of the neutrality of the AFL- CIO, the hostility of the so- called regular Democrats and the decision of Wallace not to run independently in 1972, has thrown the McGovern camp into a tremendous crisis.

The Vice-Presidential nomin- ation was turned down by at prominent least six names before Shriver was finally selected. George McGovern Senators Humphrey, Ken- nedy and Ribicoff, and Gover- nors Nelson and Askew all turned down the offer. Then the offer to defeated candidate Muskie was widely publicized, only to have Muskie also refuse it. The of reluctance many prospective Vice - Presidential candidates reflects a recog- nition of the acute problems facing the Democrats in 1972.

And these problems are the problems of the capitalist class, no longer able to hold the Democratic Party together as a party of the liberals, the middle class and large sections of workers, on behalf of capitalism. Eagleton's history of emotional instability, and his decision not inform to McGovern of it at the time of his selection as his running mate, are the personal reflec- tion of a political crisis affect- ing the entire capitalist class and its two political parties. Eagleton is not the only with problems. man Witness the recent difficul- ties of Mr and Mrs John Mitchell, and Nixon's earlier visits, disclosed after the 1968 campaign, to a New York internist who specialized in psychosomatic illness. Then we have McGovern's indecisive handling of this delicate problem. For a week Eagleton re- mained on the ticket. Then McGovern took nearly a week to find a replacement. As the ruling-class com- mentators are now quick to point out, McGovern's 100 per cent support for Eagleton very quickly turned out to be zero.

issues which Those on McGovern had hoped to capitalize are receding into the background, and those on which he must affirm his basic with Nixon agreement are coming foward, together with his the movement of the working US and inter- class in the 1 nationally. This is the meaning of the gold crisis, Pay Board, the continuing inflation, the the wooing of both Moscow and Peking for a counter-revolu- tionary alliance. The lesson of the Democratic Party shambles is the need for the working class to intervene with its own policy and its own party. only alternative The to Nixon and McGovern is a labour party based on the the trade union power of movement. This is the only answer to every attack facing the work- ing class today, from the Pay Board to unemployment, speed- up, anti-union legislation, rising prices, racism and dis- crimination and the war. On every single issue Nixon and McGovern stand together with capitalism and against the working class. Workers Press, Saturday August 19, 1972 PAGE 9 World War II brought death and to millions of misery people. But big business knew how to cash in on it. And so did the enterprising God-men.

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Saturday August 19, 1972

BY IAN YEATS

A ONE-DAY General Strike in support of the dockers and building workers has been backed in principle by Liver- pool Trades Council. Fifty delegates have agreed to call special meeting of all Merseyside shop stewards next Tuesday to plan the day of pro- during which test solidarity march will be staged in the city The stewards are expected to ask their members to stop work for the day Thursday. on Appealing for the Trades Coun- cil's for Merseyside's support 10,000 dockers, steward port Jimmy Nolan told delegates at Thursday night's meeting: 'We feel it is essential to get of all active trade the support Audience at Thursday's Trades Council We're fighting for unionists. our jobs like other working The any recommendations of the men.' Jones-Aldington had committee Nolan said Liverpool dockers to be rejected. We have attemp- handled 13 million tons of cargo ted in the past to negotiate with a year, 50 per cent by only 500 port users and ship owners but dockers dealing exclusively with they are not preparea to container traffic. come to any type of agreement He said: 'If the port employers on the question of job security.

their way they will expect get It is essential for the dockers men to handle the whole 1.000 support of all trade to get the 13 million and 9,000 dockers will because unionists, next week lose their jobs. troops could be used. We propose 'We unofficial strike are on the recall of Liverpool Central because the union has let us Hall shop stewards' meeting and down. a demonstration throughout •i- are concerned As far as we city against the emergency powers out of we've got no other way the Industrial Rela- and against We say to the port this problem. tions Act.' employers and the Tory govern- The day of protest was don't promises, given ment-we want backing by builders' strong we want guarantees. I would like information about Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL

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Amount enclosad £ s Council meeting leader, UCATT official Bill Doherty. He said: 'We are engaged in a very bitter struggle with the most vicious employers in the country.'

The theme of the one-day strike and march will be the right to work. Deputy chairman of Liverpool Race Relations Commission, Ludvic Hesse, asked the meeting to ensure the protest embraced the problem of youth employ- ment, which he claimed was the cause of recent disturbances in the Toxteth district of the city.

Delegate Bill Hunter pressed the council to make the one-day strike the beginning of a sus- tained campaign to bring down the Tory government and return a Labour government forced to carry out socialist policies.

He told the meeting: 'You can-.

not separate the dockers and the builders, and what happened at Toxteth, from the strategy of the • Tory government to split the working class.' He called for the building of Councils of Action to unite all sections of the working class against the Tory government who, he said, were ready to benefit from every split in the labour movement. The meeting also decided to send a letter to the Press Council to register a strong com- plaint at Fleet Street's treatment of the dockers. Wednesday, Liverpool On tenants will stage a mass march and lobby of a special meeting of the Labour Council to urge them not to implement the Tory rents' Act. The Trades 'fair Council agreed to send a letter calling on the Council to stand firm.

ABOUT 1,500

workers at the nuclear submarine base on the in Gareloch Dunbartonshire staged a one-day strike yester- day. The workers are also opera- ting an overtime ban and a work- to-rule in a • bid to get the management to review a £1.50 a week pay offer. government's

THE TORY

proposals for the reorganiza- tion of the National Health Service can only lead to the 'eventual collapse of the NHS by private medical schemes which will put health on the market-place and turn the clock back 26 years'. This is the conclusion of the 41 PO-strong National Union Public Employees, which represents hospital nursing, administrative, technical and ancillary staffs. In a statement entitled 'How shall we manage the National Health Service?' the union's

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

SCOTTISH building workers yesterday staged a series of marches in support of their pay and hours claim. About 40,000 are on strike in Scotland with another 20,000 expected in the next few days. Six thousand men joined the march in Glasgow, which began from Glasgow Green.

They chanted 'Heath out' as they passed through the city streets. The Scottish secretary of the main building union UCATT, Donald McGregor, has been engaged in the divisive policy of trying to get a purely Scottish agreement. He said yesterday he was 'dis- appointed' he hadn't been able to pull off such an agreement. The building employers have for McGregor's sharp reply manoeuvres. R. W. Campbell, director of the Scottish National Federation of Building Trade Employers, said: "They keep going on about a Scottish agreement. DESPITE the Jones- Alding- ton committee's bromides that everything is going to be all right for the dockers, rapid changes are still taking place in the industry without any control whatsoever. The latest development is that the remaining two major em- ployers of dock labour in the port of LiverpoolOcean Port Services and the Port of Liver- Stevedoring Co-have pool announced that they too are closing down in September.

This news follows hard on the decision by A. E. Smith Cog- gins employing 2,300 dockers to cease operation on September 17.

three companies are in- volved in merger talks with the fourth employer-the major Mersey Docks and Harbour Co.

Between them, the tour employ about 7,000 of the 10,000 Liver- pool dockers. The aim of the merger and the reason for closing down indepen- dent operations is to make more money. Instead of all four using separate labour,_administrative stafi, machinery, shed space and berths to part capacity, a policy of closures will ensure full capa- city working. Under the Jones-Aldington proposals, the dockers involved are promised continuity of em- ployment by being reallocated to executive council says that the proposals in the recent White Paper on NHS reorganization will maintain control of the ser- vice by the same kind of self- perpetuating oligarchy that has the public, been criticized by patients and hospital staff for more than 20 years. The system of selecting and appointing members of the new health authorities is 'constructed to present a façade of democracy while preserving a tight central- ized control designed to ensure conformity, the statement says.

The appointment of members I can tell you there is no possibility of a Scottish agree- ment, certainly at this point of time. "This federation is still com- mitted to national negotiations because we feel the only effective and lasting settlement is by a UK agreement. This is still our policy.' It certainly is! The building employers are now following the policy adopted by the Engineer- ing Employers' Federation dur- ing the engineers' pay claim. They are organizing financial help for strike-hit firms. In the case of the EEF this meant a flm kitty was estab- lished to pay out money to firms, especially those in the Man- area, who were under chester occupation. All sites in the Medway area, Kent, will be out within the next weeks, says Jim Duffy, three leader of the strike committee.

Duffy, convenor at the Isle of Grain power station site, said the response to the strike call had been 'tremendous'. At his own site the strike call immediately supported by was electricians and engineers.

Yesterday the flying pickets went to ten local sites which had been listed for pulling out.

other port employers, now mainly

MD&HC.

But the logic of the merger is that not all of the workers should be taken on again. But despite all the Jones- Aldington promises, there is a clear threat to the dockers too.

The contracts for stevedoring work are with the different ship- ping lines. The ship owners are the ones who have been setting the pace in looking for better pro- fits through containerization and use of non-scheme ports etc.

Already the Ocean Steamship Co, which owns OPS, has pulled Far East trade out of Liver- pool to container berths at Southampton necessitating 600 dockers being put on the unat- tached register. It is significant that the three firms closing down are general cargo handling companies using a considerable amount of dock labour and which have not yet gone over to completely mechan- ized handling. If the Mersey Docks and Har- bour Co, which was formed only a year ago to take overall con- trol of the port of Liverpool after a controversial Act of Parlia- ment, fails to make good, then the Liverpool dockers will be in deep trouble. predecessor, the MD&HC's 113-year-old Mersey Docks and was bankrupt Harbour Board, when abolished by the Act.

of the Regional Health Authori- ties by the Secretary of State 'is precisely the same discredited system which has produced Regional Hospital Boards over- weighted with elderly and con- servative members who are com- pletely unrepresentative of the public at large' And it adds: "The first essen- tial is to reassert democracy and to end, once and for all, the situation where the

NHS

largely beyond the effective control of the people who pay for it, use it and who are em- ployed in it.'

BBC 1

12.15 Weather. 12.20 Athlete. 12.45 Grandstand. 12.50 Football Road 1.50 to Munich. 1.35, Racing from Haydock Park. 2.20, 2.50, 4.30 International show jumping. 3.20 Rugby League. 4.45 Final score. 5.05 Last of the Mohicans. 6.05 NEWS and Weather. 6.20 GUNSMOKE. Dr Herman Schultz MD. 7.05 FILM: "Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD'. Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins.

Dr Who • science fiction adventure. 8.30 IT'S LULU not to mention Dudley Moore. 9.15

A MAN CALLED

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SIDE. Walls are Waiting. 10.15 NEWS and Weather. 10.20

MATCH OF THE DAY.

11.20

PARKINSON.

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9.35-1.00 Open University. 3.00 Film: 'Our Vines Have Tender Grapes'. Edward G. Robinson.

Life in a Norwegian-American community. 7.25 NEWS, Sport and Weather.

7.35 ALL IN A DAY. The News.

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of Champions. 8.30 CIVILIZATION. The Smile of Reason.

BBC 1

9.00-9.30 Nai zindagi naya jeevan.

10.30-11.30 The eyes of all wait upon thee. 1.30 Farming. 2.00 2.25 in Steam horse. Made Britain. 2.34 News. 2.35 Laurel and Hardy. 3.00 Young idea. 3.25 'City Countryman. 3.50 Film: Beneath the Sea'. Robert Ryan, Anthony Quinn. 5.15 The Onedin line. 6.05 NEWS and Weather.

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PRAISE THE LORD.

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OMNIBUS AT THE PROMS.

Viennese night. 10.55

INTERNATIONAL

GOLF.

Tommy Aaron

(US) V

Vicenzo Roberto (Argentina). 11.45 Weather.

BBC 2

9.00-1.00 Open University. 1.50- 6.30 Cricket.

7.00 NEWS

REVIEW and Weather. 7.25

THE VANISHING HEDGE.

ROWS. Henry Williamson. 8.15 MUSIC ON 2. Workshop: Suzuki. 9.10 MARY. Rhymes and Mary Reasons. Travers with guests Don McLean, Spike Milligan, Reece Elliott.

ITV

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6.30 THE COMEDIANS.

7.00 FILM: 'The Over-the-hill Gang Rides Again. Fred Astaire, Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan, Chill Western Wills. comedy about three ageing Texas Rangers.

8.20 POLICE FIVE.

8.30 SATURDAY VARIETY.

9.30 VILLAINS. Alice Sheree.

10.30 NEWS.

10.40 AQUARIUS MAHLER FES.

TIVAL. Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philhar- monic Orchestra. 11.40 PRIVATE VIEWS. Audrey Russell.

12.25 DOCTORS' DILEMMAS.

9.20 SOUNDS FOR SATURDAY.

Alan Price and Georgie Fame.

10.05 EMMA.

FILM NIGHT.

NEWS ON 2 and Weather. FILM: "The Prowler'. Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell. Early Joseph Losey film about a cor- rupt policeman who plans to murder his mistress' husband. !::..:::

ITV

11.00 Morning service. 12.00 Country calendar. 12.20 All our yesterdays. 12.45 Catweazle. 1.15 Stingray. 1.45 Odd couple. 2.15 Big match. 3.15 Film: "Good Morning, Boys'. Will Hay. 4.40 adin Golden shot. 5.35 Follyfoot.

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6.15 RETURN OF THE KING.

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7.25 DOCTOR IN CHARGE.

Yellow Fever.

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9.30 WHO DO YOU DO?

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MS. 10.15 COUNTRY MATTERS.

Arms. lan Mc- Craven Kellen. 11.15 ELEVEN PLUS. Russell Harty.

12.00 DOCTORS' DILEMMAS.

9.55 FOR THE NATION. Two paintings by Adam Els- heimer.

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DOM. The Reprieve. op: 10.55 NEWS SUMMARY and Weather. 11.00

WORLD CHESS CHAM-

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11.25 ONE MAN'S WEEK. Ron Geesin. Alan Price, Georgie Fame (BBC 2, 9.21 7.05 p.m.)

REGIONAL TV

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London. 5.15 Who do you do? 5.45 Sale of the century. 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 Film: 'McCloud-A Little Plot at Tran- quil Valley'. 8.30 London. 11.40 Weather. her. WESTWARD. As Channel except: Van 11.05 Make a wish. 11.30 Lids- ville. 11.40 Faith for life. 11.45 Weather. SOUTHERN: 11.30 All our yester- days. 11.57 Weather. 12.00 Lon- ex Mary Travers, Spike Milligan (BBC 2,

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 11.00 London. 12.05- 12.20 Training the family dog.

3.50 Weith 20° Big Darting 3.00 Film: My Darling London. 7.55 Daughter'. 4.40 Film: 'Full House'. 10.00 London.

11.15 Avengers. 12.05 Epilogue.

Weather. EE. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 12.20 Archery. 12.45 Judo. 1.30 Farm progress. 12.05 Faith for life. 12.10 Weather. SOUTHERN: 11.00 London. 12.37 Weather. 12.40 Talking hands.

12.55 Farm progress. 1.25 Out Far Workers Press, S 383 BC 2, 9.20 р.m.); Daleks on film (BBC 1 don. 5.15 Avengers. 6.15 Please 6.45 Comedians. 7.15 Film.

sir. 8.30 London. 11.40 News. 11.50 Frighteners. 12.20 Weather. Guideline. HARLECH: 10.30 Sesame street.

11.30 Farming diary. 12.00 Lon- don. 5.15 Please sir. 5.45 Sale of the century. 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 McMillan and Wife. 8.30 London. 11.40 The set up. 12.40 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: 5.45-6.15 Sion a sian.

(ВВС 2, 9.10 р.м.) of town. 1.45 Bush boy. 2.15 London. 3.15 Film: Talk of Million'. 4.35 News. 4.40 London.

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HTV Wales and HTV Cymru/ Wales as above except: 12.05 sylw. 1.05 Nabod y gair. 1.35 The other half.

2.37 ANGLIA:

11.00 London. 1.50 Weatiier. 1.55 Remember. Out Farming. 2.30 UFO. 3.25 Car- Lon s Press, Saturday August 19, 1972 PAGE 11 ANGLIA: 11.00 All our yesterdays.

11.30 Felix. 12.00 London. 5.15 Primus. 5.45 Who do you do?

Les. 7.00 Film: 'Red 6.15 Sez Tomahawk'. 8.30 London. 11.40 Jason. King. ATV MIDLANDS: 11.55 Horo- scope. 12.00 London. 5.20 takes a thief. 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 Film: 'Port Afrique. 8.30 London.

10.40 Short story. 11.10 Name of the game. 12.35 Stories.

ULSTER: 11.30

Skippy. 12.00 London. 5.15 Primus. 5.45 Who do you do? 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 'Timetable'. 8.25 Summer Film: results. 8.30 London. 11.40 Frighteners. YORKSHIRE: 10.45 All our yester- days. 11.10 Make a wish. 11.35 Woobinda. 12.05 London. 5.15 Primus. 5.45 Who do you do?

6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 Film: 'McCloud'. 8.25 Cartoon. 8.30 London. 10.40 Prizewinners. 11.40 Journey to the unknown. 12.35 Weather. GRANADA: 11.00 Sesame street.

12.00 London. 5.15 Primus. 5.45 Who do you do? 6.15 Sez Les.

7.00 Film: 'The Sleeping City'.

11.40 Strange London. report. TYNE TEES: 10.45 All our yester- days. 11.10 Bush boy. 11.35 Joe 12.00 London. 5.15 Primus.

90. 5.45 Who do you do? 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 Film: 'A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley'. 8.25 Cartoon.

8.30 London. 10.40 Prizewinners.

11.40 Journey to the unknown.

12.35 Epilogue. SCOTTISH: 11.30 Casebook. 11.55 12.00 London. 5.15 Horoscope. Joe 90. 5.45 Sez Les. 6.30 Comedians. 7.00 Film. 8.30 Lon- don. 11.45 Late call. 11.50 O'Hara, United States Treasury.

GRAMPIAN: 11.45 Beagan gaidh- lig. 12.00 London. 5.15 Batman.

5.45 Who do you do? 6.15 Sez Les. 7.00 Film: 'McCloud'. 8.25 8.30 London. Cartoon. 11.40 Private views. toons. 3.40 Football. 4.40 London.

7.55 Film: 'The Leather Saint'.

9.30 Larry Grayson. 10.00 Lon- don. 11.15 Saint. ATV MIDLANDS: 11.00 London.

1.40 Horoscope. 1.45 All our Film: London. 7.55 Film: '36 Hours'.

10.00 London. 11.15 Spyforce.

ULSTER:

1.45 Survival. 2.15 London. 3.15 Film: Tarzan's Peril'. 4.40 London. 7.53 Sports results. 8.05 Film: 'Rope of Sand'.

10.00 London. 11.15 Saint: YORKSHIRE: 10.45 Talking hands.

11.00 London. 12.05 Craftsmen.

12.30 Songs for your delight. Farming 12.55 outlook. 1.25 Common Market cook book. 1.55 Soccer. 2.50 Film: 'A Pair of Briefs'. 4.40 London. 7.55 Film: The Condemned of Altona'. 10.00 London. 11.15 Strange report. 12.15 Weather. GRANADA:: 11.00-12.00 London.

12.30 Children to children. 12.55 Living architects. 1.25 All our yesterdays. 1.55 Football. 2.55 Film: 'All Over the Town'. 4.25 Bugs Bunny. 4.40 London. 7.55 Film: 'Conspiracy of Hearts', 10.00 London. 11.15 Scotland Yard casebook. TYNE TEES: 10.45 Talking hands.

11.00 London. 12.05 Something to sing about. 12.30 Western civilization. 12.55 Farming out- look. 1.25 Skilful rugby. 1.50 Where the jobs are. 1.55 Soccer.

2.55 Film: 'On the Fiddle'. 4.40 London. 7.55 Film: 'Against the Wind'. 10.00 London. 11.15 line. Strange report. 12.10 Poems.

don. SCOTTISH: 1.20 Out of town.

1.40 Horoscope. 1.45 All our ding yesterdays. 2.15 Studio. 3.15 Film: 'Murder in Reverse'. 4.40 London. 7.55 Film: 'Marjorie Morningstar'. 10.00 London. 11.15 Late call. 11.20 Festival cinema.

GRAMPIAN: 12.55 Common Mar- ket cook book. 1.25 All our yesterdays. 1.55 2.25 Film: London. ( 7.55 Film: "The Brain Machine'. 9.30 Sioit story. 10.00 Car- London. 11.15 Untouchables.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Saturday Augur

BY PHILIP WADE

BUILDING union leaders in Scotland have signed deals with three leading employers which fall far short of the claim and represent a real retreat.

Yesterday the Scottish region action committee bureaucratically decided to send thousands back to work on the basis of only a £25 basic wage and no cut in hours. Although a packed meeting in Aberdeen opposed the deal no was allowed. The deal vote affects workers at three firms Peter Cameron, Betts and Dey.

In fact Cameron workers were at the offered a similar deal beginning of the dispute and only came out on strike two when a rapid escala- weeks ago tion of strikes took place.

Aberdeen strike committee member Bill Johnstone said: 'The officials refused a vote because they knew it would have been The fight must go on and lost. a national strike called.'

In Dundee it was the same with the Com- story, yesterday, munist Party leading the betrayal.

Over 1,500 workers were told by the local action committee, CP almost to a man, to accept the same deals. CP speakers in Dundee man- get the vote oeuvred hard to through. They claimed the rest of Scotland had accepted when in fact the meetings were still taking place. Jacky Gordon, CP chairman of the action committee recom- Many mended acceptance. thought the vote went against but to cries of 'never' and sell- out he closed the meeting.

workers' claim The building for £30 and a 35-hour week is now in great danger of betrayal.

National leaders in London are also preparing to sign company and send the men agreements back to work. From the tenor of the Scottish deals it is clear they will fall far short of the claim. Taken with the decision last not to call week all-out national strike, the danger is now that the 150,000 building work- ers on strike could be further split up and confused. When separate company agree- signed, the men will ments are undoubtedly return to work, while at the same time others are coming out on strike.

This the was the case recent. Manchester engineering sit-ins for higher wages and a shorter working week. As a result, little unity prevailed and 01-622 7029 01-720 2000 Workers 86a Claphan (TU) Ltd. Clapham swalustreet, London day August 19, 1972 no major concessions were won from the employers. And in the end the engineer- ing union last leaders week accepted a two-year wages deal without any move to a 35-hour week. in As yesterday was seen Scotland, the betrayal is taking place only with the help of the Communist Party. The 'Morning Star' yesterday headlined the news of company "breakthrough'. deals as a At the same time they gave a full- page interview to UCATT gen- eral secretary George Smith who has already tried once to sink the claim. Smith made it clear he accepted company agreements, so long as they were 'reasonably related' to the claim, which is vague enough to be dangerous.

He spent several paragraphs trying to explain away UCATT's rejection of the recent national offer which at one stage they were prepared to recommend for acceptance. Smith omits one vital meet- ing from his explanation, the meeting of the trade union side of the NJC on August 2 which discussed the deal worked out by the ad hoc committee of employers and union officials the week before. At the end of it, leaders of all four unions unanimously agreed to recommend acceptance of the deal so that it could be ratified the following Tuesday at a full meeting with employers at the

NJC.

As is now the deal only proposed basic of £23 and also contained relation to guaranteed earnings.

Smith was unable to swing the deal because the rank and escalated the file immediately strike throughout the country, demanding no sell-out. On the Tuesday last the deal was to be ratified, 7,000 build- ing workers marched through that UCATT's London to find executive had met that morning and changed its line. These are the facts which the 'Morning Star' does not care to print. The CP are opposed to a national strike because it would lead to a confrontation with the Tory government. Now they cover up for Smith and union officials they as accept a £25 basic, £5 short of the claim, and no reduction in hours. The union leaders must be made to fight or resign. Their Stalinist friends must be cleared out of the leadership of the movement. • No company agreements. Call a national strike. No retreat from £30, 35-hours and an extra week's holiday.

Demand the TUC prepare a the General Strike to force Tories to resign. Return a Labour

WEATHER

A TROUGH of low pressure will move south-eastwards across the northern half of the British Isles.

In southern and eastern Eng- land and the Midlands it will be mostly cloudy with a few bright sunny intervals. Wales, northern England and eastern Scotland will be cloudy with some rain later. Northern Ireland and the rest of Scotland will be cloudy with some rain, becoming brighter Temperatures will be near Outlook for Sunday and Monday: and Generally rather cool mainly dry with sunny intervals in the South-East. Bullders' pickets, out in force at Tufne government pledged to national- ize the building industry under workers' control and without compensation. Postscript: In Glasgow for 5,000 building workers voted an all-out national strike, after a massive demonstration through the city yesterday. CP steward Eammon Monaghan tried to tell the meet- ing which followed: 'I think that the national leadership is now sincerely prepared to give lead- ership.' But this convinced no one. The meeting had earlier howled down UCATT official Dan Craw- ford when he tried to tell local authority workers to go back.

And in the end the floor of the meeting forced the chair- to put the national strike man motion and it received a unani- mous and enthusiastic vote.

BY IAN YEATS

FIVE HUNDRED Mersey- side clerical workers voted unanimously yesterday to continue their four-week-old strike against redundancies.

Trouble flared two months ago when A. E. Smith Coggins Ltd, who employ 580 men at the announced e 10-per-cent port labour cutback. Last week the firm said they would shut down completely after the middle of next month.

Now two other major port employers, Ocean Port Services and the Port of Liverpool Steve- doring Co, have agreed to merge with the Mersey Docks and Har- bour Co. Many dockers and clerical workers fear the mergers stem from the port modernization envisaged under Devlin and that hundreds more jobs will be axed in the next few months, particu- larly after the loss of the Far East trade. Smith Coggins have already made 17 clerks redundant. And the Transport and General Work- ers' Union strike committee said yesterday there would be no return to work until the notices were withdrawn. Negotiations are going on with the harbour company to find ways of 'absorbing' all the clerical workers currently or likely to become redundant because of closures and mergers.

Liverpool's 900 clerical work- ers are also demanding registra- tion and the extension of the Dock Labour Scheme to include sacked them. One of the men by Smith Coggins after eight and a half years, Harry Burke, told me: 'If we had full nationalization du at Tuinell Park, London, yestarday The threat of office staff doing the jobs of building workers is being vigorously countered by the Preston building workers' strike committee. Mike Gallagher, one of the strike committee, told a mass meeting yesterday: If Preston Council let office staff do our jobs then Preston Council will stop forthwith. 'We will allow two stands for Preston Guild to go up, one for the children and one for the pen- sioners, if they want it, but other- wise there will be nothing else.'

Edward Heath travels to Preston on Monday. The building workers and as many dockers as possible are arranging a march and picket which will start at 10.30 a.m.

at the underpass by Shepherd's Market Street site in the middle of Preston. of the docks industry it would be to the advantage of our work- ers. If they extend the Dock Labour Scheme it would give our lads the jobs security they want.' He added: 'Since the Devlin recommendation there has been a general tendency for a one- employer system in the port and we think it will lead to redun- dancies. 'We say, because of the trend to a single employer and con- tainerization there is a danger of high unemployment.' The clerical workers are adamant they will not accept a single redundancy. They want men who are chronically sick, or who leave the profession volun- tarily, to receive severance pay equal to other dockworkers.

Harry Burke said there was no chance of alternative work on Merseyside. He told me: I've got quite a number of friends who have been unemployed for 12 months.' He travelled to London on Wednesday with the dockers to lobby delegates in Smith Square.

He said: 'We went down to show Jack Jones we are also fighting for the right to work and to align ourselves with the working class in their struggle for job oppor- tunities.' chairman

T&GWU

branch George Morris said after yester- at Prince's day's mass_ meeting Stage, Pier Head, that he thought there was little chance of the clerical workers breaking soli- darity with the dockers even if they get the jobs guarantees they want. Later the men marched with of the banners to the offices Mersey Docks and Harbour Company to protest against re- dundancies. МІЦНОКО

AUGUST FUND

£726.60 — 13

DAYS TO END

OF MONTH

£57.60 arrived yesterday making our total now £726.60. It still is a slow, uphill fight. This week- end we must all go into action with a big drive to push this figure right up. At a time when the treachery of the union leaders serlously weakens and splits the dockers, our paper stands more firmly than ever behind those in the main ports who remain deter- mined to fight. The whole trade union movement must mobilized to support these men.

Big struggles lie ahead. All your support is needed behind Workers Press. Step up the cam- paign now for our August Fund.

Extra amounts are needed. Raise all you can and post immediately to: Workers Press August Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG. Soclalist Labour League

PUBLIC MEETINGS

End TUC talks with Heath!

Stop Jones-Aldington collaboration I Victory to the dockers ! Natlonalize the docks and transport Industries! Make the Torles resigni

HULL

MONDAY AUGUST 21

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