Workers Press no. 848
1972 Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Columns and stories run into one another, and words are misread. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 1
workers press Is Deakinism on the way back?
T&GWU LEADERS
SEEK SCAPEGOATS
BY JACK GALE
JACK JONES has announced a major in- quiry into last Wednes- day's events when picket- ing dockers clashed with police and docks dele- gates who had voted to end the strike. The Transport and General Workers' Union secretary has been encouraged in this step by the virulent witch- hunt against members of his union sustained in the capi- talist press. Of course, violence is no sub- stitute for the central task of building a revolutionary leader- ship in the unions. But those who scream most about the alleged events at Smith Square ignore the background to them.
Dockers had become more and more frustrated at seeing their jobs increasingly threatened by containerization and their conditions undermined by un- registered ports, with no sign of national leadership from their union. They had seen shop stewards
AUGUST FUND
IT IS getting very close to the end of the month, and we still have £960.40 left to raise. It is an uphill battle all the way.
Let's make a huge effort now before it is too late. So far not a month has gone by where you, our readers, have ever let us down. We have confidence that this every month, once again, you will pull us through. Workers Press is the only daily paper to speak out for the working class, loud and clear. Our paper alone warned of the dangers of the Jones- Aldington talks and the ruth- lessness of the Tory govern- ment. We have never ceased our campaign to make the government resign. We appeal therefore to every one of you. Make an all- out fight for our August Fund.
We still have ten days left.
We can and must raise our target of £1,750 by then.
There is not a moment to lose. Rush all donations imme- diately to : Workers Press August Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.
INCORPORATING THI
DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR/
and rank-and-filers jailed for refusing, in line with their union's Industrial Relations Court. They to obey the National had seen their general secretary hand over union money in pay- ment of fines imposed by the same court. What is needed is not an in- quiry which will make scapegoats of a few men, whose conduct was a response to the lack of light and leadership from their union, but a recall of the T&GWU biennial conference at which a real investigation will be carried out. Such a conference would examine the role of the leader- ship during the entire struggle for jobs, conditions and security, and against the Industrial Rela- tions Act. We say there is a danger that this inquiry, in which men have been found guilty in advance by the press, may be used to divert from the main policy attention questions facing T&GWU mem- bers, and to cover up the role of leadership. For Jones has refused to listen to his members throughout this struggle. Although thousands of jobs are at stake, he persistently refused to reconvene the union's biennial conference. Even when trade unionists have made their wishes clear within the unions, Jones has refused to act. Although unions representing a clear majority of trade unionists demand a recall of the TUC to plan a fight against the anti-union Act, Jones made no real effort to fight Victor Feather and the right wing to get this policy im- plemented. Yet this same leader can have the most amicable relations with enemies of the working class.
As one Hull docks steward told a Workers Press reporter: 'Jones sits with Aldington as if they were the best of mates. 'You and I couldn't sit next to a right-wing Tory without a row. But no disagreement seemed to arise between those two.'
And who is Lord Aldington?
He is the former Tory MP and deputy chairman of the Tory Party, Toby Low. Low is one of Edward Heath's closest personal friends. He left parliament to become chairman of the family and Grindlays, bank, National a director of the John Brown Engineering group and a director of job-cutters-in-chief GEC.
He was appointed head of the Port of London Authority by Tory Transport Minister John Peyton who, he claims, declared that he 'wanted a first eleven of businessmen to run the ports' The Jones-Aldington committee was planned on May 22 at a private room at National and Grindlays bank. were Peyton, Present Aldington, Sir Humphrey Browne (chairman of the British Trans- port Docks Board, which con- trols Hull and Southampton,) and Jack Jones. Aldington has described the *a gorgeous com- committee as mittee. You couldn't get on un-
TING THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY AUGU
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC
G
OFFICIAL
DiS PUTE Dockers resumed their picketing of Midi Aberdeen dockers, p. 3). less Jack Jones and I decided'.
It is little wonder that work- ers lose their tempers when their leaders-instead of consulting them-collaborate with such open Tory enemies of the working class. But Jones-Aldington is not the first get-together between the T&GWU general secretary and representatives of the employers.
In September and October 1970 and later, Jones and the T&GWU national docks secretary, Tim O'Leary, held wide-ranging talks with the shipping employers on subjects including the eventual abolition of the Dock Labour Scheme. Secret talks were held in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, and Jones neither informed nor con- sulted the elected bodies of his union about them. Yet the then head of Britain's biggest shipping employer, Sir John Nicholson, could inform Tory Transport Minister John Peyton that Jones was 'not hos- tile' to the employers' plans.
It is this atmosphere of secrecy, the knowledge that deci- sions were being taken that would have a major effect on their lives yet about which • no one con- sulted them, that inflamed the dockers in Smith Square. Moreover every docker pre- knew that the dock dele- sent gates' decision to call off the strike did on's melece she wishes members. It was not a truly democratic
AY AUGUST 22, 1972
No. 848 4p
HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
F ng of Midland Cold Storage, Hackney, yesterda ed'. vote. Delegates from small ports, representing perhaps 12,000 men, outvoted delegates from the major ports who represented more than 30,000 men. the alleged 'violence, is winger Jack Jones opening a door to the restoration of "Deakinism' within his union? (Arthur Deakin was a leading right-winger who was general sec- retary of the T&GWU in the late • 1940s and early 1950s. Under his leadership, the union was tightly controlled by full-time, right-wing officials and was the bulwark of support for the right-wing leaders of the Labour Party and TUC.) And there is another question.
A MASS meeting of 500 Mersey docks clerical workers yesterday voted not to restart work until further assurances regarding job security and redundancies are given. They will not meet again until Wednesday. VESTEY organization yesterday announced the closure before the end of 1972 of its cold store at Nelson's Wharf, Lambeth, South London. Edmund Vestey, joint head of the company, said the closure • yesterday (story, p. 12; interview, p. 12; Could the Jones inquiry bea inquiries precedent for future which might be used to force T&GWU members to accept the rulings of the industrial court?
Will men who refuse to recog- nize the NIRC, or who disobey its orders, in future risk expul- sion from the T&GWU? What is required is a full dis- cussion, not only on the events in Smith Square last Wednesday, but on everything that led up to them. • No scapegoats! • Recall the T&GWU biennial conference, which is the appro- priate body to examine whole question. 'as a result of changed was trading conditions in London.
Jack Jones and Lord Aldington had been informed several weeks ago, Vestey said. BUILDING workers and dockers were among a crowd that met Tory premier Edward Heath when he visited Preston yester- day. When he arrived he was greeted by workers, including Communist Party members, 'Heath out!' (Building chanting story, p.12.)
Scan page 2
workers press Is Deakinism on the way back?
T&GWU LEADERS
SEEK SCAPEGOATS
BY JACK GALE
JACK JONES has announced a major in- quiry into last Wednes- day's events when picket- ing dockers clashed with police and docks dele- gates who had voted to end the strike. The Transport and General Workers' Union secretary has been encouraged in this step by the virulent witch- hunt against members of his union sustained in the capi- talist press. Of course, violence is no sub- stitute for the central task of building a revolutionary leader- ship in the unions. But those who about the scream most alleged events at Smith Square ignore the background to them.
Dockers had become more and more frustrated at seeing their jobs increasingly threatened by containerization and their conditions undermined by un- ports, with no sign registered of national leadership from their union. They had seen shop stewards
AUGUST FUND
TEN DAYS LEFT!
• IT IS getting very close to the end of the month, and we still have £960.40 left to raise. It is an uphill battle all the way.
Let's make a huge eftort now before it is too late. So far not a month has gone by where you, our readers, have ever let us down. We have that this confidence every month, once again, you will pull us through. Workers Press Is the only dally paper to speak out for the working class, loud and clear. Our paper alone warned of the dangers of the Jones.
Aldington talks and the ruth- lessness of the Tory govern- ment. We have never ceased our campalgn to make the government resign. We appeal therefore to every one of you. Make an all- out fight for our August Fund.
We still have ten days left.
We can and must raise our target of £1,750 by then.
There is not a moment to lose. Rush all donations imme diately to: Workers Press August Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.
INCORPORATING THI
DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR
and rank-and-filers jailed for refusing, in line with their union's policy obey the National to Industrial Relations Court. They had seen their general secretary hand over union money in pay- fines imposed by the ment of same court. What is needed is not an in- quiry which will make scapegoats of a few men, whose conduct was a response to the lack of fight and leadership from their union, but a recall of the T&GWU at which a biennial conterence real investigation will be carried out. Such conference would examine the role of the leader- ship during the entire struggle for jobs, conditions and security, and against the Industrial Rela- tions Act. We say there is a danger that this inquiry, in which men have been found guilty in advance by the press, may be used to divert from the main policy attention questions facing T&GWU mem- bers, and to cover up the role of leadership. For Jones has refused to listen to his members throughout this struggle. Although thousands of jobs are at stake, he persistently refused to reconvene the union's biennial conference. Even when trade unionists have made their wishes clear within the unions, Jones has refused to act. Although unions representing a clear majority of trade unionists demand a recall of the TUC to plan a fight against the anti-union Act, Jones made no real effort to fight Victor Feather and the right wing to get this policy im- plemented. Yet this same leader' can have the most amicable relations with enemies of the working class.
As one Hull docks steward told a Workers Press reporter: 'Jones sits with Aldington as if they were the best of mates. 'You and I couldn't sit next to a right-wing Tory without a row. But no disagreement seemed to arise between those two.'
And who is Lord Aldington?
He is the former Tory MP and deputy chairman • of the Tory Party, Toby Low. Low is one of Edward Heath's closest personal friends. He left parliament to become chairman of the family bank, National and Grindlays, a director of the John Brown Engineering group and a director of job-cutters-in-chief GEC.
He was appointed head of the Port of London Authority • by Tory Transport Minister John Peyton who, he claims, declared that he 'wanted a first eleven of businessmen to run the ports' The Jones-Aldington committee was planned on May 22 at a and private room at National Grindlays bank. were Peyton, Present Aidington, Sir Humphrey Browne (chairman of the British Trans- port Docks Board, which con- trois Hull and Southampton,) and Jack Jones. Aldington has described the committee as a gorgeous com- mittee. You couldn't get on un-
TING THE NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY AUGU
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOC
OFFICIAL
DIE PUTE
Dockers resumed their picketing of Mid Aberdeen dockers, p. 3). less Jack Jones and I decided'.
It is little wonder that work- ers lose their tempers when their leaders-instead of consulting them-collaborate with such open Tory enemies of the working class. But Jones-Aldington is not the first get-together between the T&GWU general secretary and representatives of the employers.
In September and October 1970 and later, Jones and the T&GWU secretary, Tim national docks O'Leary, held wide-ranging talks with the shipping employers on subjects including the eventual abolition of the Dock Labour Scheme. Secret talks were held in the Liverpool, and Adelphi Hotel, Jones neither informed nor con- sulted the elected bodies of his union about them. Yet the then head of Britain's biggest shipping employer, Nicholson, could inform John Tory Transport Minister John Peyton that Jones was 'not hos- tile' to the employers' plans.
is of this atmosphere secrecy, the knowledge that deci- sions were being taken that would have a major effect on their lives yet about which no one con- sulted them, that inflamed the dockers in Smith Square. Moreover every docker pre- knew that the dock dele- sent gates' decision to • call off the strike did not of the union's, reflect the wishes members. It was not a truly democratic AY AUGUST 22, 1972 • No. 848 • 4p
HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
oF ng of Midland Cold Storage, Hackney, yesterda vote. Delegates from small ports, representing perhaps 12,000 men, outvoted delegates from major who ports represented more than 30,000 men. By launching his inquiry into the alleged 'violence' 'left'- 1S winger Jack Jones opening a door to the restoration of 'Deakinism' within his union? (Arthur Deakin was a leading right-winger who was general sec- • of the T&GWU in the retary late 1940s and early 1950s.
Under his the leadership, union was tightly controlled by full-time, right-wing officials and was the bulwark of support tor leaders the right-wing of the Labour Party and TUC.) And there is another question.
A MASS meeting of 500 Mersey docks clerical workers yesterday voted not to restart work until further assurances regarding job security and redundancies are given. They will not meet again until Wednesday. VESTEY organization yesterday announced the closure before the end of 1972 of its cold store at Nelson's Wharf, Lambeth, South London. Edmund Vestey, joint head of the company, said the closure , yesterday (story, p. 12; interviom, p. 12; Could the Jones inquiry be-.a inquiries precedent for future which might be used to force T&GWU members to accept the rulings of the industrial court?
Will men who refuse to recog- or who disobey nize the NIRC. its orders, in future risk expul- sion from the T&GWU? What is required is a full dis- cussion, not only on the events in Smith Square last Wednesday, but on everything that led up to them. • No scapegoats! • Recall the T&GWU biennial conference, which is the appro- priate body to examine whole question. 'as a result of changed was trading conditions in London' Jack Jones and Lord Aldington had been informed several weeks ago, Vestey said. BUILDING workers and dockers were among a crowd that met Tory premier Edward Heath when he visited Preston yester- day. When he arrived he was greeted by workers, including Party Communist members, "Heath out!' (Building chanting story, p.l2.)
Scan page 3
Trade tariffs threat at Miami Beach PAGE 2 Workers Press; Tuesday 'August
AROUND THE WORLD
BY JOHN SPENCER
BOTH the USSR and China are in favour of a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war, accord- ing to US Secretary of State William Rogers. In an interview with the Philadelphia Enquirer', Rogers listed four reasons for believing North Vietnam would come to terms with future: • The current North Viet- namese offensive 'has not been successful'; • 'Our bombing of targets in North and mining of the the harbours has been successful'; • 'I think the word is begin- ning to get back to the North Vietnamese people that [the war] is a hopeless endeavour; and • 'The international - com- munity is largely supporting President Nixon.' Rogers said the Soviet Union and China are now in favour of.
a negotiated settlement and 'they are the ones who have been supplying North Vietnam. They are in fact the Ameri- pushing cans' hope for main through a dirty deal at the of the Vietnamese expense revolution. Rogers' bombast about the 'failure' of the liberation offen- sive is not to be taken seriously -the liberation forces clearly hold the initiative on the ground and without US air power the puppet Saigon army would have collapsed in the first days of the offensive. By far the most potent and sinister threat is that the two Stalinist powers will garotte the Vietnamese revolution and force the Vietnamese to accept US terms. This accounts for Hanoi's exceptionally sharp and bitter attack on the 'big powers' which have succumbed to the 'Machia- vellian policy' of 'reconciliation' with US imperialism. North Vietnam has over the past few days repeatedly stig- matized Nixon's peace feelers as fraudulent and deceitful.
'Quan The army newspaper Doi Nhan Dan' last Wednesday described the US plan put for- ward at the Paris peace confer- 'only a hoax aimed ence as at helping his election campaign'.
the The paper said Nixon TOUGH American plans for the introduction of trade pro- tection if other countries do not take immediate steps to shoulder the US balance-of- payments burden were spelled out in Miami Beach on the eve of the Republican Party convention. Paul Rinfret, who is direct- ing the economic side of Richard Nixon's campaign for re-election to the presidency, told reporters that the United States is 'getting to the point where it has to protect its own interests' Unless outstanding trade ques- were rapidly settled by tions negotiation, Rinfret threatened, US would take unilateral action to protect domestic manu- facturers. in Rinfret said he believed free trade, but he also believed "fair trade', adding that the US had had the cards stacked against it for too long in inter- national commerce. Rinfret appears to_ have in- herited the mantle of John Con- nally, who made himself notori- lay August 22, 1972 hawk had not suddenly become reasonable. The only plan up his sleeve was one for the further intensifi- cation of his barbarous attacks the civilian population in on Vietnam. The following day both Hanoi daily papers published an article by Chien Thang which said talk of 'winding down Nixon's the war' was only a propaganda deceive people into stunt to thinking he was trying to end the war by negotiations. The article concluded that the Vietnamese people would through more bitter trials, but the trend of the war was clear: Clearly, the North Vietnamese themselves are not inclined to accept a compromise deal with Washington, and the Nixon •administration is relying heavily on its friends in Moscow and Peking to force acceptance on Hanoi. •..after fatally wounding a man o in the California town. He was si ous as Nixon's economic adviser last year. The blunt threat of tariffs im- plied in Rinfret's remarks is in- tended to warn both Japan and the Common Market that they will find the US closed to their exports if they do not volun- tarily cut them back and agree to accept more American goods.
Rinfret said there were 'hun- dreds of things' the United States could do to protect its
NATURALIZED
Bolivian businessman Klaus Altmann has admitted he is Klaus Barbie, the 'butcher of by the Lyons' wanted French authorities for mur- der and torture of resistance men during the war. But a Bolivian government spokesman, announcing Alt- mann's confession, said there was no question of extraditing Rogers' statements about the course of the war were belied yesterday when liberation forces drove Saigon troops out of an important district town crop athe nearby military mountains inland from Da Nang.
The capture of Que Son town and Base Camp Ross were described by a South Vietnamese military spokesman government biggest setback since as the liberation forces overran several towns at the start of the offen- sive. Heavy airs attacks on the liberation troops attacking the town failed to prevent its capture.
The National Liberation Front claimed 2,000 enemy troops had been killed in the battle for the town. American officials in Da Nang said the liberation troops were well armed and had poured more than 1,000 artillery, rocket and mortar rounds into government positions before storming Que Son. attempting to esca a man on a street le was shot 'while was suspected of t trade if the need arose, though he was careful to add that the US was still seeking an 'ami- cable settlement of trade and monetary questions. Events over the past 12 months -since Nixon imposed the now- withdrawn 10-per-cent import surcharge and abolished the dol- lar's convertibility with gold- have shown that no such settle-.
ment is possible. At the International Monetary 'him to France to face war- crimes charges. The Bolivian criminal courts are now studying the possibi- lity of trying the former Ges- chief, spokesman the аро said. If it ever takes place, such a trial would be a farce. Sup- porters of President Hugo Ban- zer yesterday celebrated the first anniversary of the anti-
THE
American Com- munist Party is promot- ing the candidature of Democratic presidential nominee George McGov. ern as an 'alternative' to Nixon within the trade unions. The Party has opposed the decision of the AFL-CIO (American TUC) leaders not to support either big business party in the November elec- tion. It is now whipping up support for so-called McGovern- the Shriver Labour Committee which has the support of a section of the union bureaucracy. On August 4, the Communist Party's Daily World' hailed the decision of the United Auto Workers' (UAW) leadership to throw in their lot with McGov- ern. g to escape'. His so-called crime? He ected of using a stolen credit card.
Fund meeting on September 25 in Washington the US is certain to express its dissatisfaction with the monetary deal reached last December and the trading_con- cessions made so far by the Euro- pean and Japanese governments.
Rinfret's remarks reveal that it already has plans well advanced to deal another series of blows to its capitalist competitors should the threat of tariffs fail to force them into line. communist bloodbath which brought his dictatorship to power. together with the Banzer, Paz and called for unity in the face of international commun- ism. The rally was preceded by a march-past of the Falange, who greeted Banzer by raising their arms in the Hitler salute.
'McGovern Said the paper: 'The national conference of some 2,000 politi.
action representatives this Sunday in Detroit is the first major trade union response to
AFL-CIO
president George Meany's pro-Nixon, strike-break- ing "neutrality effort"? The Daily World' makes a great deal of Nixon's 'open-shop policies' 'anti-labour and his aims' in order to paint McGovern as the pro-labour man, the man to fight the wage freeze and unemployment. But McGovern not only voted in the Senate against the closed shop, he was also one of the first advocates of the wage freeze even before Nixon announced it in August last year. McGovern's only comment on Nixon's measure was that it was too little, too late. McGovern has made no pledge to end the wage freeze. He has said nothing about the rise in corporate profits nor about the factory closures that are throw- ing hundreds of thousands out of work. The Communist Party wants at all costs to preserve the coali- tion of the labour movement and 'Democratic' capitalists that they foisted on the working class in the 1930s under Roosevelt.
They are mortally afraid of the formation of an independent Lab- our Party with socialist policies based on the trade unions.
this is the logic of Meany's decision to break with the Democratic Party - though Meany has no intention of put- ting this into effect. The Stalinists in the US want above all to prevent the inde- pendent political development of the working class and keep the to the Democratic unions tied Party of big business on the eve of major class battles.
AUSTRALIAN
shipbuilders will face 'destruction' unless they get more help from the federal gov- ernment, according to the chair- man of the Australian Ship- builders' Association, Dr Walter Hughes. He accused the government of 'complete lack of an apparent interest' in shipbuilding.
In a statement in Sydney Dr Hughes criticized the govern- ment's refusal to subsidize ships built for the overseas trade and to provide shipowners with long- term finance at low interest.
The government's attitude had produced the situation in which the Australian National Line was planning the construction of a 731ft container vessel in a Japanese yard, he said. 'The construction of this vessel is quite within the capability of an Australian yard, but the gov-.
ernment will not subsidize local construction on the grounds that the vessel will be engaged in the export trade. 'A publicly owned Australian organization is thus giving work to an overseas yard while our own shipyards are facing a crisis through lack of orders, he said.
Dr Hughes warned of un- employment at shipbuilding yards which would create 'serious social and national problems.
Scan page 4
TWO representatives of im- migrant groups were excluded from yesterday's summit meeting at the Home Office to discuss the resettlement of Ugandan Asians in Britain.
One of those told they could not attend the talks was Mrs Mary Dines, of the Joint Coun- cil for the Welfare of Immi- grants, one of the most experi- enced workers with the East African Asian problem. Her organization has been in the forefront of battles with the Home Office over the barring and jailing of Commonwealth im- migrants. 'We have been given the brush-off,' Mrs Dines said after Home Office attendants had refused to let her into Robert Carr's conference room. She added: 'As always the Home Office is meeting people which it has chosen. They want to set up their own thing which they control. I can't see how the Women's Voluntary Service or St John Ambulance can be more involved in this situation than us.'
The other representative not permitted into the talks was H. M. Habib, whose name is not widely known in immigrant welfare circles. Yesterday's meeting — held behina closed doors-made pre- parations for the expected arrival 35 of some 20,000 Ugandan Asians re who are being deported by Gen- In eral Idi Amin. cil the th Vi the at ber pol the ABOUT 2,000 workers at Chat- sen ham naval base were yester- day still refusing to work until lar safety measures are completed.
the Col The stoppage, which began on att Friday, is to back up a national CoI claim for a pay increase of €2.70 eng a week. gan Work on 15 ships is at a stand- still. rea the A spokesman for the men said by that until work on making lad- ders safe, installing safety rails ins on ships, providing guards for gre welders and other safety measures reg had been completed, the men for would stay on 'waiting time'.
Ru given Priority had been to uni War- the nuclear submarine dec spite' and it was likely that men would return to work today.
sion Nearly 3,000 other men have Col banned overtime and shift work- mo ing and are working to rule.
eve
EST/SSONS
BOOKS • PERIC
AND AS
WE TURN OUR
FACES STAUNCHL'
AWAY FROM ANY
POSSIBILITY OF
A WAGE
FREEZE
BY ALEX MITCHELL
THE TUC's annual con- gress at Brighton will try to delay the expulsion of 35 unions who have registered under the Industrial Relations Act.
When the General Coun- cil meets tomorrow one of the items to be discussed is the recommendation which Victor Feather, on behalf of the Council, will put forward at Congress. Congress meets from Septem- ber 4 to September 8 with its policy of non-co-operation with the Act in complete disarray.
Not only have unions repre- senting 10 per cent of the TUC membership registered, but Jack Johes, leader of the country's largest union, has paid fines to Industrial Relations the National Court and had his lawyers in attendance there. In the final agenda for the Congress, released today, the engineering section of the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering Workers asks congress to reaffirm its "total opposition' to the Act and demands its repeal by the next Labour government.
The resolution 'endorses the instructions of the 1971 Con- gress to affiliated unions not to register under the Act and calls for the immediate operation of Rule 13 in the of any event union not complying with this decision'. Rule 13 deals with the suspen- sion of unions which disobey Congress policy and sets in motion the machinery for their eventual expulsion which can
RIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS
rAUNCHLY only be taken by Congress as a whole. The crunch for Hugh Scanlon's AUEW will come when Victor Feather and the General Coun- expulsion of the 35 sions the cil attempt Feather will ask Congress to set yet another deadline for the recalcitrant unions to fall into line, probably December 31; this would mean expulsion could not take place until next September.
Scanlon and Jones must not be allowed to get away with this stunt. The unions which co-operate Tories with the and help to keep them in office have no place in the trade union movement. They must be flung out. as Lincoln Just constituency Labour Party got rid of its pro- European, right-wing Labour MP, Dick Taverne, so the TUC must get rid of those in its own midst who cuddle to the Tory up government rather than fight it.
The most unequivocal resolu- tion on the Act and the Tories comes from the : Association of Cinematograph, Television and Alled Technicians (ACII), the union which film represents makers and television technicians.
Their resolution "This states: congress declares its total non- co-operation in the workings of the Industrial Relations Act and any of its courts or com- of mittees. 'It further declares that it will take disciplinary action against Con- any unions disregarding gress policy in this matter. It resolves to organize financial or other assistance necessary to member unions whose funds are as a result of the sequestered application of the Act. 'The of these real source attacks is this Tory government and it is only when this govern-
NOW OPEN
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri 9 a.m.—7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Workers Press, Tu
I NEVER
COULD RESIST
AUTOGRAPH
COLLECTORS
ment is rights can be secured. 'Congress instructs the Gen- Council organize eral to a nationwide campaign, including the necessary industrial action, to bring this government down and to fight for a return of a Labour government committed to (a) genuine socialist policies; (b) the repeal of the Industrial Rela- tions Act in its entirety; and (c) the restoration of previous trade union rights." Section VII of the agenda, 'Economic Policy and Organiza- tion', , is the most abysmal. In a total of 44 resolutions only one advocates nationaliza- tion as a means of freeing trade unionists from the spectre of unemployment and wage-cutting. The nationalization of land is demanded by the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Work- ers. The resolution states: 'This • Congress, recognizing that the present exploitation of land and people cannot be allowed to con- calls on the next Labour tinue, government to introduce early legislation bring land into to public ownership.' The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, on the other hand, wants only the public ownership of 'key sec- tions of the building materials industry, which presumably leaves the big construction com- panies and the land developers to continue their profiteering.
UCATT's other demand is for better holiday payments and pro- per provision of industrial pen- sions. Building workers currently faced with a huge pay fight against some of the toughest employers in the country, will rightly wonder how these petty demands can possibly meet the problems of their industry.
To fight unemployment, not a single union has a policy.
The sheet metal workers want an extension of holidays, the Inland Revenue Staff Federation want shorter working hours, the . SOGAT, wants a print union, shorter working week and the Transport and General Workers' Union want a shorter working year. There will be a straight fight with the right wing on the Com- mon Market when two resolu- tions come up for considera- tion. The Post Office Engineering Union wants to amend a Fire Brigades Union resolution asking that the terms of entry be nego- 'consistent with British tiated interests'. ACTT, on the other hand, asks Congress to declare its principle' opposition 'in to Britain's membership and instructs the incoming General Council to press • for the repeal of the European Communities Act and to campaign vigorously for Britain's withdrawal from further negotiations. Prose, Tuesday Augual 22, 1972 PAGE 3 MOST cement lorries were turned • away yesterday from the of works concrete Griffiths* and Co Ltd, Chartham, near Canterbury, by a picket of engineers and miners. The official strike is over the victimization of six fitters from the maintenance department and now has the official support of the Snowdown branch of the National Union of Mineworkers.
The fitters, members of the Amalgamated Union of Engineer- ing Workers, have since learnt they were sacked only after the management had consulted the Industrial Relations Act.
Cavanagh Weaver, the fitters' steward, 'We claimed: were sacked because of the Industrial Relations Act. 'It's a Tory charter. This is the first battleground in East Kent on the Act. If we're defeated, all suffer, Unionists in Kent trade will Jack Collins, NUM national executive member, said: It's the Act which has put these men out of the gate. 'If there was a call from the
AUEW
and Transport and General Workers' Union leader- ship to mass picket these gates, the call would be answered by all the Kent pits. 'And if the coal for this cement is coming from the Kent pits, it will be stopped.'
two ships ABERDEEN dockers refused to handle the cargoes of two ships yesterday. After being at work for about an hour they refused to unload potash from the 'Malta Faith' and phosphate from the 'Cavaco'.
Both cargoes were for a fac- tory in Aberdeen which had been warned by dockers' pickets dur- ing the strike not to discharge a cargo at Montrose. The dockers had declared the cargoes 'black' because the com- pany had discharged a cargo at Montrose using non-union labour at the non-registered Angus port. Later a third ship became idle when dockers refused to handle the timber cargo of a boat which was being collected by non- union lorry drivers.
Scan page 5
PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday August The fight against the Tory 'fair rents' Act has re- ceived a serious stab in the back with the deci- sion by Manchester's Labour-controlled council to implement the Act. According to government figures the average rent in the North West is £2.23 (ex- cluding rates). By 1975 it will be £4.66. But tenants, determined to fight the betrayal, met last for a rent Friday to prepare strike and organize support among trade unions in the area. Manchester council is the most important in the North West and their decision will have an effect on other coun- cils like Liverpool which are wavering. caused has decision The deep divisions within the city Monday Party. On Labour night of last week the city Labour Party voted 29 to 27 to oppose the Act. it soon became clear But that the Labour group on the split the council itself was way and dominated by other the right wing. Before the crucial Labour group meeting on Tuesday evening, the leader, Alderman Sir Robert Thomas said: 'Last night's decision by the party delegates is not in any way binding on the group, but it is certain to influence the thinking of members.' In fact, the party delegates' vote indicated that they much more closely reflected the feel- ings of the rank and file than the Labour group itself.
CAPITULATION
TO TORIES
When the group met on evening, Tuesday tenants demonstrated . 500 strong demanding no sell-out and non- implementation of the Act.
After two-and-a-half hours of the discussion, however, Labour group finally decided 54 to 29 for implementation of the Act which will lead to £1 increases this October for more than 90,000 Manchester tenants. And on Thursday morning a specially convened meeting of the city council agreed without a vote to carry out Tory plans to double rents and smash the basis of muni- cipal housing in Britain.
Tenants' leaders were justi- fiably angry at this sordid capitulation to the Tories.
In the public gallery sup- porters of the Manchester Federation of Tenants Asso- they ciation erupted when heard the result. Earlier they had demonstrated outside with placards. They refused to stand when the Lord Mayor came in to the council chamber. lay August 22, 1972 Mrs. Constance Fahey, Labour Party militant and a leader of Wilmslow tenants told Workers Press: It is quite obvious there are many traitors in the Labour Party in Manchester: Labour Party members now have to go back to their branches and say these councillors don't represent us and should be got out. expected Manchester 'We to show the way, but they hill- bustered until it was a tait deter- accompli. But we are mined to only pay the nor- mal rent and not the extra fl.
Mrs Fahey said they were preparing now for a rent strike so that they would be well organized by October. 'People just haven't got the £1 and it has to be brought home that they will face evic- tions soon. Tenants are wor- ried and anxious and looking around for some form of lead- ership and direction. It is time the 8 million council tenants followed the lead of the dockers and the miners. It's time some of us went to jail.'
COUNCILLORS
WONT FIGHT
Tenants in the area are plan- ning a joint demonstration with the trade unions through Manchester and Salford on September 16. 'We hope the trade unions will support us in this fight in joint action. Most of those who live in council houses are trade unionists. 'The Housing Finance Act is just as vicious as the Indus- trial Relations Act-both are attacks on the standards of working class. living of the • inten- None of us has any tion of being misled any longer by who Labour councillors won't fight,'-said Mrs Fahey.
In fact support is flowing in from the trade unions. Man- chester and Salford Trades Council had already passed a resolution calling on the city council not to implement the Act. They are taking a leading part in organizing the Septem- ber 16 demonstration by put- a leaflet through ting every council tenant's door. The AUEW district com- mittee has summoned Labour explain their councillors position on the 'fair rents' Act.
What is urgently needed now is the construction of a Council of Action in Man- chester to unite tenants, trade unionists and all those fight- ing the Tory government. The Council of Action must demand the TUC prepare a General Strike to force the Tories to resign and elect a Labour "government pledged to nationalize land, the build- ing societies, insurance com- panies and the building in- dustry under workers control and without compensation.
Shepperton-one of Britain's few remali A mass meeting of workers at the Shepper- ton film studio, Middle- sex, will be held on Thursday to prepare a fight against their new owner, assets stripper John Bentley. Film technicians at the studio are becoming increas- ingly concerned about Bentley's plans for their studio, particularly since he started to hive-off various branches of the British Lion group. Contrary to the company's statements that the company has not disposed of any of its assets, it is now clear that the whole operation being parcelled off to the highest bidders. To date the following assets have been sold: ] Lion Pacesetter Produc- tions. 2 Pearl and Dean Publi- cations. 3 The lucrative Dover Street property in Mayfair is about to be sold 'for a considerable sum'. low remaining film studios. It now faces being 4 Subject to approval, the publishing company of Davis Poynter will go to a consortium headed by three British Lion directors, Lord Goodman, Sir Max Rayne and John Boulting. The chief fear is that Bentley will close down Shepperton and hand over the valuable real estate to property developers at a vast profit.
The closure of Shepperton will mean more film unemploy- ment in an industry already hit by chronic joblessness. But more devastatingly it will mean the closure of one of Britain's few remaining film studios. The main trade unions with members at Shepperton have already held • a public meeting to draw up a programme of action against the whizz-kid Bentley who is, incidentally, a protege of Jim Slater, the highest flying financier in the City of London. Last week a lobby by ACTT members, including three mem- bers of the executive, went to Shepperton to distribute leaf- lets urging a big attendance at Thursday's meeting. The response by the workers ces being carved-up and closed.
was enthusiastic, but curiously enough one of the few people to refuse a leaflet was one of the leading trade unionists in the studio. The ACIT leaflet sets out a series of demands which will be put to the meeting. These comprise: No closure of Shepperton.
No redundancies. No planning permission for property development. Renationalize Shepperton without compensation under the control of the board elected by film workers. • Refinance the National Film Finance Corporation.
• End casualization in the industry. • No more studio closures.
• Mobilize all film workers of all unions to fight for these demands. • Union leaders must fight.
An end to this govern- ment of property speculators.
• Elect a Labour govern- ment pledged to nationalization without compensation. Significantly, the leaflet also calls on workers to demand that their union general secre- taries be in attendance.
Scan page 6
OPENING THE DOOR FOR
CORPORATISM IN PERU
Peruvian pollce carry away a student, an
BY OUR FOREIGN CORRESPOI
The Peruvian Communist Party and their revisionist friends in the POMR (the Revolutionary Marxist Workers' Party), the OCI supporters in Peru, are capitulating completely to the preparations of the military dictatorship of Velasco for a corporatist state in Peru. The dictatorship must at all costs defeat and destroy the militant working-class in Peru which is fighting back against wage-cuts and un- employment. The weapons it is using are Sinamos, labour communities and a new union law.
PROPAGANDA
The Sinamos are similar to the official trade unions in fascist Spain and try to link management and labour in a corporatist association. The aim of Sinamos and the other measures is to tie the trade unions to the state in the guise of more workers' parti- cipation in the running of in- dustry. It is corporatism hidden behind the usual rhetoric about revolutionary changes and advances towards socialism—propaganda that is tudent, arrested during street fighting where ma
RESPONDENT
readily accepted by Peruvian Stalinists. • The Communist Party has postponed the conference of the CGTP, the Peruvian Con- federation of Labour, due to held in July, to have been early September, in order to prevent any discussion on these measures. Stalinism has meanwhile decided that the 'CGTP will support Sinamos, which is given an enthusiastic welcome in the recent issue of the CGTP's paper. Sinamos is described as an organ which 'will spur on the struggles of workers for their demands'.
Stalinism's support for these corporatist measures comes the General Strike in after Arequipa, Puno and Trujillo which forced the government to withdraw tanks from Puno, and the threat of a miners' strike which led to the release of miners who had been im- prisoned. The CP calls for 'loyal, firm and honest support for the Velasco dictatorship. Bladimiro Guevara, member of the Cen- tral Committee of the CP and a union leader has been ex- pelled from the party for opposing this support to the dictatorship. This is only one aspect of the opposition of the working-class to Stalinist peaceful co-existence with the military. where many were injured by shot gun pollats ar Velasco's regime, as is well- known, plenty of receives financial and technical aid from Moscow. It also receives enthusiastic. accolades from Fidel Castro whose press can never say enough about the 'revolutionary' dictatorship.
NATIONALISM
The latest financial deal with Stalinists was signed in Lima August 10. The Chinese on Minister for Foreign Trade Pai Hsiang Kuo and the Peru- Minister of Vian Commerce admiral Alberto Jimenez de Lucio signed economic an agreement giving $42m worth of credit to the Peruvian gov- ernment from China. Most of the money will be devoted to modernization of the mining industry in Peru. It should be no surprise that the OCI's proteges in Peru are also in of Velasco's favour brand of revolutionary nation- alism. After all, the Bolivian POR expected him to rush to their side in the fight against the Banzer coup. Not only that, the POR advocated a similar kind of workers' participation to that now proposed by Velasco and the Stalinists. The secretary of the POR, Guillermo Lora notes in his book on the events in Bolivia: 'In the backward countries, Workers Press, Tu • pollots carilor this yoar.
the working class must parti- cipate in the management of natonalized industries they are in a minority, even if This participation is justified as educating the workers in an understanding of the need for control over the economy, the 'structuring of a workers' gov- ernment' many other and radical notions. The support given to Vel- "revolutionary natión- asco's alism' by the POMR faithfully follows the precedent set by Lora's loyal support for General Torres. As Lora says in his book: 'Many military sincerely follow nationalist tendencies and it would be absurd to leave on one side the possi- bility that some of them might The experience of miners in nationalized enterprises from Chile to Peru is that participa- tion and nationalization in a capitalist framework are only steps in the destruction of in- dependent unions along the road to corporatist state.
The treachery of the Stalin- ists and revisionists is that they strive to preserve the 'radical' face of these corporatist policies and prevent the poli- tical development of the work- ing-class in Latin America.
Workers Press, Tuesday August 22, 1972 PAGE 5
POLISH
CONTRACT
WITH THE
COLONELS
Recently reorganized to put power in the hands of
HUTC
the military junta, the new Greek Cabinet is extending flourishing its already eco- nomic ties with the Stalinist governments of Eastern Europe. Last week the Polish Elek- trim corporation Contiaccu with the Public Powe Greek Corporation to build a power station on the island of Rhodes at a cost of some f2m. Poland is to build the tur bines jointly with Yugoslavia; other parts are to be supplied by Greek firms, which will take building and al l assembly work. of In another example peaceful Hun- coexistence the garian Ship and Crane Works has contracted to supply five Piraeus Harbour, for Calico each with a carrying capacity of six tons. The contract is worth nearly £400,000
BUTCHER
MEETS
POPE
Years strained of relations between the Vatican and the Sudan were finally ended on August 10 when the Sudanese ambassador Salah ad-Din Uthman Hashim presented his credentials to Pope Paul.
Omdurman According Radio the ambassador thanked Pope Paul and the Church for the work they were doing for world the third and Dealt world understanding Pope Paul replied by giving Church's of the assurdict desire to work for the spiritual welfare of the people of Sudan but also to collaborate for the promotion of their full human dignity and material good The latter already are guaranteed by President Numeiry's system of concen- tration camps, drum-head executions and court martials. But the Pope is not alone. These highly material aids to 'human dignity already have of blessing the Stalinist ine leaders notably in Peking and Belgrade.
Scan page 7
PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday August 22, 1972 frame-ups aimed at truncating
BY JOHN SPENCER
Then they showed no reluc- tance to condemn the victims ot the une
OTO-
President Svoboda's deci- Dubcek tendency and crushing in the absence of any concrete evidence whatever. call off the alternative continued sion to Indeed the indictment pub- prosecution of ten young The lished before when the first Czechoslovaks appears to Party's 'Morning Star' reports Moscow Trial of Zinovier and this farrago of excuses from Kamener was published in have halted — at least Kremlin's in August 1936 produced the fol- the puppets temporarily — the series It - Prague without comment. lowing reaction from the Daily 'Morning of 'subversion' trials in has seen fit to complain about Worker' the the trials only on one occasion, Star'): Prague and Brno. a half-column editorial 'The revelations. will fill Ull A total of 46 people, all of Thursday, August 10. all decent citizens with loath- them supporters of former July 28 it had On Friday, ing and hatred. Crowning Communist Party secretary published a brief istant OP of all is the evidence infamy Alexandr Dubcek, are serving the showing how they were linked leas dos slalll secretary general Reuben with the Nazi secret police.
sentences imposed in Falber. nine trials since July 17.
The trial had not even begun He said: 'There is an when these words were pub- The trials have been accom- official of adequate absence lished, yet the British CP lead- panied by a vicious press cam- according to information, but ers, such was their slavish ad- paign branding the accused for reports most of the detendants herence to Stalin, had already conspiratorial activities' and to have been accused accepted the guilt of some of them of seeking avocal of producing and Lenin's closest comrades!
common basis from which people's rights in leaflets on they tried weaken and last autures elections. successively overturn the on the reports socialist state and social order'.
CONSPIRACY
nature of the charges are true, 'Rude Pravo, According to the proceedings and sentence Czecho- daily paper are greatly to be deplored. In Party, the slovak Communist said editorial the paper of 'conspirators' notably: The Communist Party chiefs, up a 'small action programme' Socialist democracy. Palme
WITA
sonn ahrow of the hithero aimed 'the radical over- cannot be limited to the right Dutt, D. N. Pritt and Harry bureau- merely to hood views on the Pollitt well to the fore, heaped cratic political system' and the development of socialism. It foulest abuse and slander the demo- installation embrace the right to on the Bolsheviks liquidated by cracy of the bourgeois type.
express them. Stalin. by The paper tells a lurid story 'The limited information They have never explained of the use by the so-called con- available indicates that severe or repudiated their complicity spirators of codewords, micro- sentences have been passed on in these counter-revolutionary and gloves to prevent films and others communists en- crimes, even Soviet identification. political activities gaged authorities themselves notably It adds that their guilt was from their political arising Khrushchev's *secret In Iv. 'proved' not only by con- Czecho- difierences speech' to the 20th Communist WIld toe tessions mutual incrimination slovak government. Party Congress in 1956, lifted and the statements of wit- 'Such differences should be of the corner curtain on nesses but mainly through 'the dealt with by political means, Stalin's record. of documents large amount and not by trials and imprison- The Czechoslovak workers such illegal ment.' have special reasons for hatred further material and written The leaders of the British against their 'defenders' in the duplicating machines. Communist Party apparently British CP. According to 'Rude Pravo' that this pertunctory belleve For just as they supported the trials were carried out statement of general principles the Moscow Trials of 1936 and strictly according to the letter is enough to dismiss the issue Gollans and Dutts 1937. the the law, but strangely of the trials once and for all.
backed the frame-up of trial enough this noble process was Since it was published they Rudolf Slansky and other friends the themselves to open have confined
TOL
Czech government leaders in accused and foreign journalists printing agency reports 1952. who barred from the of the trials and four letters to were This trial was one of a series the editor on the subject-two COUrt. of frame-ups in Eastern Europe 'pro' and two 'contra'. master-minded by They are engaged in a con- Tito's break with the Comin-
FLIMSY
of temptible evasion their 13 tern. other entire past. defendants— them, sig- party general secretary ror nificantly, were Jews-were John Gollan and his henchmen tried as an 'anti-state conspi- have a record stretching right ratorial centre'. In a passage worthy of Franz back into the 1930s of ull- Communist Party Kafka Rude Pravo puts for- member critical support for Stalinist the age of 23, Slansky since ward the thoroughly uncon- frame-ups in all the eastern the that this had served in vincing excuse was and resistance European the coununes and taken part in the Slovak done because it is 'unheard of Soviet Union. of uprising against the Nazis.
that representatives the Without a word of explana- Yet at his trial, he confessed bourgeois press the tion, they now proclaim them- or "independent" high treason, organizations to espionage, se ves domerent. vew should want to infringe the that 'political differences' be- sabotage and miltarv treason.
sovereign state by standing in This was supposed to have communists should be through, judgement'. settled by political means not been conducted amongst others Noel Coward This presupposes that there by trials and imprisonments.
'left' Labour MP was something to judge other The political bankrupts and the at Konni Zilliacus. CP of testimony the head of the British Inan me weal the of the are thus called upon to explain Even more humiliating was 'proving guilt the enforced lie that he accused. Perhaps had their support for the Moscow flimsiness the charges, the 1930s in which been responsible for the death Trials of friend Jan brought all-embracing the overwhelming majority Sverma. OI laws against 'subversion'.
the men who led the October hero of the Slovak rising.
fact 1917 maybe was the Revolution were He was said to have shielded OI that these were crude his co-defendants as members trials framed and murdered by Stalin.
of the 'anti-state centre of con- spiracy Slansky also revealed how he was supposed to have con- cealed the plotting of his Jew- ish fellow-conspirators: 'I deliberately shielded them abusing the campaign against so-called (!) anti-Semi- tism. , proposing that a big 'By campaign against be waged anti-Semitism... I criminally Zionism campaigned against and the revelation of the hos- tile character of Zionism.'
Another defendant, Eugen Loebl, was made to admit: with trade meantiations states concluded canitalist commercial tin chorontor woe romariad in er felt and Worker' claims and 'o tha If the fessor Brodetsky said. opponents of try Tawc st authorities . timo The Duncak in Apri supported Stalin's purge trials of the 1930s and 1950s.
said, should have Progue ne down the number of Jews cut tha trial. •decided in the anti-state conspiracy and authorities at all' fact there was-no anti- state conchiracy, as the Slay government admitted in the is ent the original 14 the Supreme found the iudgement and entirety condemned the ht) Czechoslovak Communist Party chief with ry of the party who two years later was to with of the purges. Left: President Svoboda, and Johnstone who uncritically trials of the 1930s and 1950s.
trial as a violation of the law.
The Supreme Court decided that 'in reality, no such hos- tile centre ever existed, that it was a figment worked out by the security service for which they used testimony extorted by illegal means from persons already under arrest. According to BD's (a secu- rity agent) testimony these illegal methods mostly took the form of exerting mental and physical pressure on those who would not admit offences until and admitted they gave in their whatever interrogators wanted them to say.' Attacking the 1952 judge- the Supreme Court ment, added: 'The court also attached the wrong value to the testimony of the accused, in basing its judgements largely on their tes- timony. "The of the statements accused to the court and in their examination prior to the in trial are couched such way that ridicules their value as evidence. 'In cases they are most statements full of phrases (the accused speak of themselves enemies, solely as hardened and saboteurs of the spies system). 'Any information that was to be passed on to anyone termed a spy thus became an intelligence report, without any attempt being made to examine its contents. 'Any economic concrete measure in the implementation of which the accused was con- cerned and which was regarded as a mistake, was presented as a deliberately damaging act and thus these cases were not examined in their context.'
Eleven communists were done , death in this anti- to Semitic frame-up whose crude- ness is amply evident from 1963 Court the Supreme report. Yet the British Stalinist leaders enthusiastically en- dorsed this legal lynching.
Monty Johnstone, who now Workers Press, Tuesday poses as the CP's 'human face', wrote at the time in the Young Communist League organ 'Challenge': former 'Slansky, general secretary of the Czech CP, and 13 associates were found guilty of spying and sabotage for the US and its satellites. 'Many were shown to have acted as spies in the labour movement since pre-war days.
'These people unwillingly confessed their crimes in the face of the irrefutable [sic] tes- timony of fact, documents and the evidence of witnesses... and 'Such activities can must be rooted out in this and other countries wherever this takes place; through the vigil- ance of the workers the move- ment is rendered stronger and healthier.
LINKS
The British Stalinists now try to gloss over all their years of slavish support for Stalin's crimes with a single nebulous phrase. If political means, not trials and imprisonment are the cor- rect method of settling differ- ences between communists, how do these people explain their stinking past? However much they protest, the leaders of the CP are kers Press, Tuesday Auguet 22, 1872 PAGE 7 linked indissolubly with the Prague frame-ups of 1972 just as to those of 1952. At the time of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Communist British Party claimed to oppose the entry of Warsaw Pact troops. Four years later, this issue is columns of not raised in the the 'Morning Star', though the trials are a direct and obvious consequence of this event.
Instead the British CP lead- 'fraternal' con- ers maintain with the Gustav Husak tacts leadership which is currently incarcerating those who oppose the invasion within the borders of Czechoslovakia. Falber's two-paragraph 'cri- tique' of the trials was pub- lished on his return from a conference of European Com- Parties Paris munist in attended by a 'fraternal' dele- Moscow's representing gate puppets in Prague. British CP raised no The objection to the presence of this man, who represents a regime forced on the Czecho- slovak workers at gun-point by the Kremlin leaders. The unprincipled CP leaders remain Moscow's men however much they may complain about the 'excesses' of Stalinist rule in Eastern Europe. Their lying history makes it impossible for them to defend the victims of bureaucratic op- pression in Czechoslovakia or anywhere else.
Scan page 8
From the Dockers' Tanner Strike 1889 to Devlin 1967. An historical series on the organization of the dockers by Jack Gale
BEVIN: SERVANT OF BRITISH
PAGE 8 Workers Press, Tuesday August From the Dockers' Tan Part five examines the years immediately after the defeat of the General Strike in 1926. Like every other section of the working class, the dockers were betrayed by the TUC in the 1926 General Strike. Militants were victimized in every port in the land. Membership of the Irans- port and General Workers' Union dropped by one-tenth in the first year after the strike a loss of 40,000 members.
A further 16,000 members were lost in the year after that. The employers seized their opportunity to impose cut after cut in wages. In these conditions, not only did trade unionism decline but again-the situation -once was advantageous to the rise right wing. of The the dominant figure during this period in the Labour and Trade Union movement was Ernest Bevin, right_wing General secretary of the Trans- port and General Workers' Union. This development had not been inevitable. In the early years after World War I, the leaders of British capitalism had shivered in their beds at fear of a revolution. Lenin, in 'Left Wing Com- munism' had pointed out the significance of Lloyd George's on the shrewd comments weight of the industrial work- ing class in Britain: 'In France the population is agricultural, and you have a solid body of opinion which does not move very rapidly, and which is not very easily excited by revolutionary move- ments. "That is not the case here.
This country is more top-heavy than any country in the world, and if it begins to rock, the crash here, for that reason, will be greater than in any land.'
Lenin based his hopes for an emerging British Communist Party on this industrial prole- tariat. In particular, he mentioned the emergence of the militant South Wales miners and Scottish engineers as the basis for a Communist newspaper.
But these workers had to be trained as Communists and this involved conflict with them.
Referring to Willie Gallagher, Lenin praised his 'noble, working class hatred for the bourgeois politicians' which 'the beginning of all was wisdom' enough. But this was not , declared 'Politics is a science' Lenin, 'that does not fall from the skies or come gratis.
'If it wants to overcome the bourgeoisie, the proletariat must train its own proletarian class politicians of a kind in inferior to the no way bourgeois politicians.' It was in the, rejection of the struggle to build a revolution- arv international based on dia- lectical materialism, and to fight in the working class for essence of this, that the Stalinism lay. The Stalinists replaced this principled struggle first with reliance on the reformist trade union bureaucracy, with their 1926 slogan of 'All Power to the. General Council' (of the
TUC).
After the 1928 crisis in the Soviet Union, this turned into the ultra-left "Third Period', when Labour leaders were ay August 22, 1972 ers' Tanner Strike 1889 to Devlin 19 denounced as social fascists and communist militants were isolated by futile attempts to form "revolutionary' unions. While Stalin was physically destroying the Bolshevik Party in 1930s, the European workers' struggles were sub- ordinated the Kremlin's to diplomatic manoeuvring with the 'democracies'. This policy was for a short time stood on its head follow- ing the Stalin-Hitler Pact, but after Hitler invaded Russia, the working class was once more told to subordinate its struggles to the alliance of Stalin with Roosevelt and Churchill. In this way, Stalinism not only physically destroyed of hundreds of thousands revolutionaries but warped the development of an entire generation of proletarian fighters. Men like Willie Gallagher of the engineers, Will Paynter of the miners and Fred Thompson of the London dockers, were in this politically destroyed way. This was one of the major factors in the rise to dominance of Ernest Bevin in the 1930s.
Such leaders could only seek to defend their members against the worst excesses of capitalism within the limits of their own bureaucratic and basically pro-capitalist outlook.
: Thus, Bevin sought to end the evil of casual labour simply by trying to get the employers to agree to a register. But decasualization - desir- able as it was-could not, by d', itself, protect the docker from employer. Indeed, many the
IMPERIALISM
dockers -particularly in Glas- gow-claimed that it gave the an additional weapon employer against the docker, namely the threat that he could be put of the register. Without any inroad into the hire and right to employers' could fire, alone achieve little. (It was this dis- pute that led to the formation of the Scottish Transport and Workers' Union, General opposition to Bevin.) But splits like this could not assist the dockers either.
What waseeded was a revolunon ary alternative to the Bevins. For Bevin was an araent ser imperialism of vant British as he showed when he joined Churchill's Cabinet war-time as Minister of Labour in 1940.
can be no doubt why There Churchill called him in. As Alan Bullock 'In May 1926 he (Bevin) and other members of the General Council had walked out of Downing Steret Street Number Ten after calling off the strike 'Now, 14 years later almost the day, he was going back of member Cabinet in which he bore the responsibility of persuading the industrial workers of this as they had work country lu worked before, to never pu regulation and aslue eve their trade agreement had ever made and go on work.
ing until they dropped." " Alan Bullock, Ernest Bevin, Top: Churchill's War Cabinet In 1941. Standing, second from left, is Life and Times' Vol. His Ernest Bevin. Above: Bevin, labour leader, leaving 10 Downing St p. 654. after the betrayal of the General Strike
Scan page 9
It was inevitable that Sunday's Tory press would seize upon the so- called 'violence' by dock.
ers outside Transport and whip the middle class into line and prepare a counter-attack on the unions. Dockers angry and frustrated at another rotten compromise by Jack Jones and the Trans- port and General Workers Union leadership gave their leader a hard time. One threw water at him. But as far as the Tories were concerned-aided by the trade union bureaucracy - it "mob law, 'bully boys' was 'anarchy' and a 'threat to our civilization'. Knowing their allies in the trade union bureaucracy, the Tory press has rushed to the side of Jones, the 'left' who had betrayed the dockers.
reputation had to This man's be preserved at all costs.
On another side, the press saw in the scuffles the image of the Saltley depot in Birm- ingham, where massive the assistance of the working class helped the miners to win a vital battle on the picket lines.
They saw the 'violence' as a sign of the movement of the working class in a very 'non- British' way. 'Who will master the mob?'
asked the 'Sunday Telegraph' feature writer, referring to the dockers. He made a special point of mentioning the dockers' hos- tility to the press. and tele- vision. Dockers, like other workers, have learned through bitter experience thè misrepresenta- tion of their struggles in the Tory press and through selec- tive, biased coverage on tele- vision and radio. The dockers' hostility to the press at Transport House was a class attitude, amply justi- fied by the following day's headlines; it was in the same tradition as that of the 'Eve- ning Standard' printworkers who refused to print a hys- terically vicious cartoon against the power workers. But according to the man from the 'Telegraph', the real question is 'what form the backlash will take.' He then spells out an ugly, reactionary threat of dictator- ship: 'Extremism will be met reassertion either by a of authority where it rightly belongs, or a resort to popular retaliation . . . or by a new in our authoritarian turn affairs.' After calling for a law against mass picketing and the end of Social Security pay- ments to strikers' families, the writer returns to Jones and to TUC chief Feather for help.
Their 'duty' is by now to expelled outright 'have the men who openly staged a riot' 'That ugly word "backlash" no longer represents a remote or hypothetical contingency. It is real, and it does not look this week as if it can be very far away.' The 'Sunday Express' , the Tory crudest of all the high delivered the goods press, again. Its cartoon depicted a dock a supporter of militant as Hitler. Coming from a news- which advocates stri- paper dent nationalism as the solu- tion to all our problems, the cartoonist is treading on thin ice. 'We see the bully boys seek- ing to override the ballot box, and to make the punch-up the determining factor in life.'
Ex-editor of the 'Express'
DOCK
MILITANTS
FOR POLITICS
iN SPORT man "So what's new? You're learning Top: police in action against dockers Above: the 'Sunday Express' cartoon, Derek Marks ..is desperately worried that the strength and solidarity of the trade union movement will force a defeat for the Tories. 'Violent intimidation was successfully used during the notably miners' strike, at , Birmingham,' Saltley, where the 'police were obliged to give in.' (The Tories learned a bitter lesson at Saltley—one they are not going to forget.) After an attack on the building workers' flying pick- ets, and on benefit payments during strikes, writer the to a sinister comes round threat against 'intellectuals'.
'More dangerous are the so- called intellectuals who seek to rationalize and justify violence and defiance of the law,' he says. In the usual manner of a right-wing witch-hunt, not one of these 'intellectuals' is actu- ally named. But such an attack is always the hallmark of the extreme right and must go hand in hand with an attack on elementary rights within the working-class movement. No 'Express' article would be complete without the appeal to mystical nationalism, based on some perverted read- ing of British history. 'Our society, has built up over a thousand years its own culture, its own way of life.
'It has long been our boast that in Britain at least a per- son could live his life peace- fully under the law, the article claims. It is for this spurious 'national culture that the 'Sunday Express' also joins the macabre refrain about being overrun with Ugandan immi- grants. The anti-docker chorus stretched itself to embrace the professional liberals at the 'Observer'. These men have moved swiftly to the right in line with the deepening of the tensions between workers and the Tory government. in Smith Square last Their apprehension future bricks at fighting scenes over to achieve This demonstrating. whom he Flying too. they sent a show the picketing is Yates also lurid threat like When housewives unionists' Hor arallist £200 fines, Vietnam and Ulster. These and abetted. Frustrated, rounded on betrayal. Stalinists the strike When the and tion the ports, class. .... pickets worry him, certainly repre of force and ai intimidation, where- object of peaceful persua s télls us the backlash and commuters round press barons are olence of the police the savage the genocide in and the tortures in condoned the dockers on Jones for his docks themselves the Steer Bernie lead a fight against manoeuvred to wind dockers' frustra- is turned uilding a new revo- the leadership in Tories and their really have will fear of the working Workers Press, Tuesday August 22, 1972 PAGE 9
GOOD OLD DAYS
delegates' Workers Press has constantly meeting last warned that the Tories Thursday's 'Star'. are seeking to drive the working If the capitalist press went allegations class back to the conditions of beserk with of the 1930s. Here is a reminder violence and intimidation, then of what those conditions were Turner went to the other for the working class. In his whole front- extreme. In 1930, Ammanford, in the article Turner did not page South Wales coalfield, had a mention the confrontation be- tween dockers and Jack Jones championship 14 years later a book, 'Britain's at the press conference. Coal'. traced what had hap- Yet it was this face-to-face pened to its members. confrontation on the third Goalkeeper (aged 37): floor which was perhaps the Buried in 1939 under roof fall, most politically significant injured moment of the whole and fractured day's spine pelvis. Could never work again.
events: when the rank and file Right Back (41): Total' in- dramatically its old rejected capacity due to silicosis.
reformist leadership. Turner was among the press- Left Back (34): Buried by fall in 1934. Fractured leg and the men actually at press shoulder. Capable only of light conference. He saw the dockers burst in and heard what they work on surface. Right Half (42): Partial had Jones. Why to say to incapacity due to silicosis.
didn't he report it in his lead story? Centre Half (42): Total incapacity due to silicosis.
It is not until page three of Half (40): that issue that the confronta- Left Total in- capacity due to silicosis.
tion is described in an almost double Outside Right (40): Total anonymous - column incapacity due to silicosis.
This is unsigned, but article. Inside Right: Regular it is presumably Turner's. Although worker in wettest places. Con- all the lobbyists tracted rheumatic fever at 25 were shouting abuse at Tones Turner years of age and died. for his sell-out, Centre Forward (42): Total curiously missed these com- incapacity due to silicosis.
ments. confined Left (33): himself Inside Partial He to incapacity due to silicosis.
docker reporting that one Outside Left (36): Buried by asked Tones to come outside roof fall. and Injured spine and talk to the men. With could below never work almost pathetic concern, •Mr. ground again. Turner added: Jones' documents were also torn up
LIMP
and water was thrown in his direction.
LIBERAL
Not thrown at Jones, over. Simply 'in his direction'.
Pressed for a political des- said that after It could be cription one would say David only one week on the 'Morning Turner is a limp liberal. Star', Turner was learning the 'Tri- He used to work on ropes. Costello seems to have bune', the weekly news sheet gained a worthy acolyte. which claims to be 'left' but in fact covers up for every Below: Jack Jones compromise that the rotten
LIVERPOOL
Wilsons and the Joneses get PuT 2000 into. SHir Turner has just left 'Tribune'
ON T.U.R.!
and moved down the road to the Communist Party's 'Morn- Ostensibly he has Star'. ing been hired Mike to replace Ambrose, a supporter of the who re- Dutt-French faction, signed from the party press to go to a London local paper.
Mick He is also to assist Costello, the 'Star's' chief in- dustrial reporter, who is more and more under pressure as the industrial situation hots up. Turner's finest effort so far was his report of the docks
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Scan page 10
PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday August.22, 1972. . .
BY SARAH HANNIGAN
Manbré because wanted to that ensure our transport is DRIVERS for Manbré operated in the most efficient manner possible. Sugar Co, Hammersmith, For this reason a firm called West London, employed Blox Services of Tooting, effi- by road-transport con- ciency experts, had acquired the dormant firm of Brockelhurst tractors C. Brockelhurst which had been brought out by Manbré several years previously.
Ltd, started work yester- An already day without three of agreement had een signed with the T&GWI their leading union repre- for representation on June 14— the day before the men were sentatives. informed they were to be made redundant from Manbré. The representatives, mem- These moves by Manbré come bers of the Transport and after stories in the national press General Workers' Union that previous wage agreements had that drivers 1/1172 branch, are branch meant were £90 week and earning van Tim Butt, branch secretary majority of boys £40. In the vice-chairman Pat Harrison cases this was untrue. and steward Mike Since then, however, at least shop 12 boys have been made Gash. redundant and under the Brockelhurst, say the drivers, with Brockelhurst agreement have refused to their re-employ drivers are expected to work representatives following a week- faster without mates. Said Tim 'We knew long dispute which started two Butt: hours after they began working had been drawn agreement up at the firm. but we did not know the terms the standing orders or company The three union representa- until August a few days tives are now staging a token before we were due to be made picket outside Manbré. redundant.' Gash added: On June 15, the 70 drivers time it was too late to do thy- Mike that maintenance staff employed and Manbré Sugar were told that by thing about it. Since found out about would be made redundant they they 11. the agreement, the men say, they from August have been unable to contact the On 14, August was official responsible for it signing explained, all Manbré refinery road-transport.group secretary vehicles and transport mainten- W. ]. Packer. facilities would be placed ance Yet this agreement has intaht under the independent control of the acceptance of huge wage-cuts Brockelhurst. of the 'We've for some drivers. According redundancy already taken a considerable cut to Jim Butt 'For this decision in wages,' notices, was made sald. Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL
SECRETARY,
SOCIALIST
LABOUR
LEAGUE,
186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.
Name Address The dally paper that leads the fight against the Tories. {20.28 for 12 months (312 lasues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: 186a Clapham High St., irculation Dept.. Workers Press ondon. SWA 7UG I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.
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Or Full subscription (six days) for months. Name Address Amount enclosed £ 11172 L to r: Stra Bull, Pat Harrison, Mike G some men it has been up to £20.
week, 14, Last on August almost all the ex-Manbré drivers for Brockelhurst. started work Two hours later, at 10 a.m.
they were outside the gates in dispute over the suspension of a driver. The driver in question had been ordered to do an overnight without the customary journey 12 hours' notice, the men say.
He had just returned from holiday. He had no means of his that he informing family would be away and he therefore refused to do the journey.
At the same time management told the branch vice-chairman, Pat Harrison, that he was not recognized since he had no credentials. Technically this was correct, previous agreement since the with Manbré had expired. But credentials had at that no new time arrived from the T&GWU headquarters. NEW ROUND of wage demands by workers in the public sector will be triggered off next month, with known claims varying from 20 to 30 per cent. Judged on these demands, claims in the new round will be no lower than in the last 12 months despite the government's ANCILLARY workers at Swan Hunter's small ships division Clelands, yard, Wallsend-on- Tyne, decided yesterday to con- tinue their fortnight-old strike.
The strike by 140 men has closed the yard, throwing 300 other men out of work. The strikers are demanding an end-of-contract bonus like that paid to craftsmen when ships are completed. THE ANNUAL conference of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers on Sunday giving the passed a motion executive council power to take any steps to remain inside the
TUC.
At the moment, USDAW has been suspended from the TUC for failing to deregister under the Industrial Relations Act. The vote on the motion was 132,248 to 105,793. Yesterday's decision probably means that a rules revision con- ference will be held later this year to allow the union to de- register and come back inside the TUC.
|/LITZ BRANCH
T&C.W!
SHOP
STEWARDS
VICTIMIZED
PROCHEŽHURST L"
L 10 r: Jma Bull, Pat Harrison, Mike Gash outside the Manbré Sugar Company yesterday morning.
At 10.45 a.m. the drivers were told suspended all they were without bay. T&GWU district official Later W.H. Kay arrived and took the anvers rebresenauves no to mace management and introduced them. The he explained. were in the post This the was accepted by Brockelhurst who make which would do to all the drivers they the vard assemoec At 4.30 the announce. went was made. Incy sacked. New drivers would immediately recruited take their place and if they liked they Since then the drivers have picketed the depot daily.
On Wednesday, a further meet- held with Malia calcul who rescale anyone, but said that they would Pay demands of 20-30 per cent coming up unofficial 'norm' of 8 to 9 per cent. First in the queue • next monti will be local manual workers and electricity men supply. manua work. ers and hospita ancillary staff have indicated that they will be : seeking a sub- Stantal muctease wares. longer holidays and shorter hours They will ut a figure to their demands at the beginning of Sep The electricity workers have already indicatea inal waen tne meet the Electricity Council next month they will be seeking Sinn Fein would fight polls in Ulster BOTH the Official and Pro- visional wings of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, are prepared to fight local elec- tions in Northern Ireland if certain obstacles - including the Special Powers Act which outlaws Sinn Fein removed The executive Northern Republican Club- representing the Officials- -decided Sunday nignt to put up canelcates bal internees are released and the Act is scrapped OF
REMEME
197 gar Company yesterday morning.
be recruiting more drivers and that anyone could apply. The shop stewards advised the men to reapply tor their jobs, and this was reluctantly accepted at a mass meeting the following day. morning all the On Friday their representatives drivers and received invitations in the_post to come to Hammersmith Town Hall to reapply for their jobs.
Immediately a mass picket of the Town Hall was organized as went along to ask the drivers for their jobs back. All were accepted • apart from Jim Butt, Pat Harrison and Mike Gash. They were told they were 'un- suitable material'. Yesterday morning the three picketed the gate as the rest of the men returned to work. On site was T&GWU district official W. H. Kay to hear an official complaint from three other drivers' representatives about their victimization. an increase of more than 25 per cent. Railwaymen are about to for- mulate their claim, but confer- ence decisions in the summer that it will be in have ensured the region of 20 per cent.
The miners' conference too, laid down that their new demand should be in the order of 30 per cent. Teachers received a 9 per cent increase this year in response to their demands for 13 per cent.
This year they are stepping up their demand. Figures of 20 and 23 per cent are at present under discussion by the teachers' orga- nizations. It was the Republican Clubs, also outlawed by the Act, which persuaded the Officials to call their truce. Another qualification Repub- want abolished is licans would the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown which all candidates must swear. This has been compulsory in Northern Ireland since 1922, but does not apply in the rest of Britain. A spokesman for the Pro- visional Sinn Fein in Dublin said the organizational problem of fighting local elections would be faced up to if the obstacles were removed.
Scan page 11
BBC 1
9.45 Joe. 10.00 Flashing blade.
10.25 Sounding out. 10.50-11.00 day Noggin and the omruds. 1.00 bor Race to the White House. 1.30 cat Trumpton. 1.45 News weather. 1.53-2.23 Aelwyd ac Bre Play eiddo. 4.15 school. 4.40 the Jackanory. 4.55 Vision on. 5.20 fac Scooby doo. 5.44 Sir Prancelot.
5.50 News and weather.
6.00 NATIONWIDE.
6.50 GOLDEN SILENTS. Where We Came In. 7.15 Z CARS: 'Breakage'. 7.40 FILM: 'Road to Morocco'. Dorothy Bob Hope, Lamour, Crosby, Bing Anthony Quinn. Bing sells Bob for $200. 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather. 9.25 DOCUMENTARY: 'Dieppe 1942'. 10.25
FILM 72.
10.50 A LASTING JOY. Personal choice of poetry by C. Day Lewis. 11.15
CRADLE OF ENGLAND.
Order into Chaos.
LATE NIGHT NEWS.
11.45 11.50 Weather.
BBC 2
11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.35 Open University.
THE NEW MASTERS:
'Circus of the Shooting
WORLD.
8.50
COLLECTOR'S
Buying Antiquès. 9.25
OUT OF THE UNKNOWN:
'The Last Witness'. Anthony Bate.
A MATTER
10.15
OF DISCI-
PLINE. The Community Home. 11.00 NEWS ON 2 and weather. 11.05
LATE
NIGHT
LINE-UP.
Interview with Robert Maxwell.
BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
OVER 100
engineering workers in Tonbridge, Kent, are now in the seventh week of a bitter dispute for union recog nition. The men and women, who work for Creffield Engineer- ing Company Ltd, were locked out by management on July 10. Since then they have picketed the gates and fought for support from the entire trade union movement in the area There has never been a union at Creffield's since the firm moved from London seven years ago. All work at the firm is for the motor industry, producing gear for Ford's and British- boxes Leyland. Top pay for 40 hours, includ- ing bonus was £23. Pay for the various grades varied downwards to £17. Holidays were paid at the bare minimum flat rate.
A productivity scheme was recently introduced by manage- ment without consultation.
ITV
11.00 Outlook. 12.25 Women to- day. 12.50 Common Market cook book. 1.15 Bellbird. 1.25 Felix the cat. 1.40 Flintstones. 2.05 Castle haven. 2.30 Come out Alan Browning — we know you're in there. 3.00 Houseparty. 3.15 Let's face it. 3.45 Danger man. 4.40 Yak. 4.55 Junior showtime. 5.20 Highland magpie. 5.50 News.
6.00 TODAY.
6.40 CROSSROADS.
7.05 QUEENIE'S CASTLE: 'Eng- land Expects'. 7.35
FILM:
'Five Desperate Women'. Anjanette Comer, Bradford Dillman, Joan Hackett, Denise Nicholas, Powers, Stefanie Julie Sommars. Five women college friends meet for a reunion on an island. 9.00
ARMCHAIR
THEATRE:
'The Left Overs'. Anton Rodgers, Ann Bell. 10.00
NEWS AT TEN.
10.30
MIKE, PHIL AND ALBERT.
Michael Bentine with the Roy a l Philharmonic Orchestra from the Royal Albert Hall. 11.30
CHILDREN TO CHILDREN.
From Yugoslavia-picture and rhythm. 12.00
CHRISȚIANITY IN ADVER-
SITY.
REGIONAL TV
CHANNEL: 2.35 Journey into 3.25-3.55 Wind of summer. change. 4.10 Enchanted house.
4.20 Puffin. 4.25 Odd couple. 4.55 London. 6.00 News and weather.
6.10 Lookaround. 6.35 Cross- roads. 7.00 Film: "The Iron Glove'.
Queenie's castle. 9.00 Lon- 8.30 don. 11.30 Actualités et projec- tions. 11.45 Gazette. 11.50 Weather. Workers claim threats of sack- ings and redundancies were used against anyone trying to form a union. A young worker was dismissed in March this year, allegedly for clock irregularities. But on the shop floor men say the main reason was his distribution of membership forms for the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering e . Workers. By July, 107 workers had signed a petition demanding re- cognition of their elected com- mittee and that the AUEW committee be given district facilities to meet the manage- ment. The management refused to accept it and locked them out in response to a threat to work-to- and ban AUEW made the dispute official.
The Members of the Electrical and Plumbing Trades Union and the Heating and Domestic Engineers have supported the picket line.
Now a local electrical contractor : to send labour into is planning the factory. turned many Pickets have lorries away but have been har- assed by police who want to restrict the numbers to a minimum.
MORE WARMINIME
GU CAN SAY WHAT YOI
Life in an approved school—now coyl (ВВС-2, 10.15 р.м.) RT. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 3.55 Gus Honeybun. 4.20 News.
6.00 Diary. 11.27 News and weather. 11.30 S. H. Burton inter- viewed. 11.50 Faith for life.
SOUTHERN: 12.55
News and weather. 1.00 Jobs in the house and garden. 1.25 Dick Van Dyke.
1.50 Farmhouse kitchen. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Let's face it. 3.00 Saint. 4.00 Houseparty. 4.15 Torchy. 4.30 Crossroads. 4.55 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6:30 Smith family. 7.00 Film: 'Tarzan's Fury': 8.30 Queenie's Savage castle. 9.00 London. 11.30 News.
Farm 11.40 progress. 12.10 Weather. Guideline. HARLECH: 3.45 Let's face it.
ve'. 4.15 Tinkertainment. 4.30 Cross- roads. 4.55 London. 6.01 Report West. 6.18 Report Wales. 6.35 Shirley's world. 7.10 • Film: 'Tarzan and the Slave Girl'. 8.30 Another march is planned through th As usual the local Tory press has tried to whip up scares of violence and 'strong-arm tactics' to try and isolate the engineers.
as the dispute committee says: "This is not a fight of a particular trade union. It is the fight of all trade unionists for a basic right that is being workers, denied section of to a Strike chairman committee Robert Todd told Workers Press: 'The management is very militant COALMINING is on the thres- hold of a big leap forward, National Coal Board chairman Derek Ezra told a conference of mining experts from 22 countries meeting in London yesterday.
Spearheading this world-wide leap, he said, must be a massive research and development effort.
He repeated his weekend warn- ing of a global energy gap in the not-too-distant future. There was a growing concern at the mounting rate of demand com- Workers Press; Tuesday August 22, 1972 PAGÉ 11 Film: 'Man in the Saddle'. 8.30 Queenie's castle. 9.00 London.
AT YOULIKE BUT DO WH
Who do? 11.30 12.00 •GO you Stories. ULSTER: 4.30 Romper room. 4.50 News. 4.55 6.00 News. London. 6.10 Lidsville. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: 'The Crimson Kimono'. 8.30 Queenie's castle. 9.00 Lon- 11.30 don. Shirley's world. YORKSHIRE: 1.45 Scotland Yard.
2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Matinee. 3.00 Master chefs. 3.15 Hadleigh. 4.10 Calendar news. 4.15 Crossroads.
4.40 Enchanted house. 4.55 Lon- don. 6.00 Calendar news. 6.05 Hogan's heroes. 6.35 Film: "Two Rode Together'. 8.30 Queenie's castle. 9.00 London. 11.30 Spy- force. 12.25 Weather. GRANADA: 2.20 Audubon wildlife theatre. 2.45 Time to remember. Cinema. 3.10 3.40 Junkin. 4.10 News, Peyton Place 4.40 4.55 Enchanted house. London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Amazing world of Kreskin. 6.30 Dr Simon Locke.
7.00 Film: 1e. 9.00 London. 8.30 Queenie's castle. 9.00 11.30 Felony squad. TYNE TEES: 1.40 Scotland Yard -now coyly called & Community Home 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 Junkin. 3.00 Masterchefs. 3.15 Hadleigh.
4.10 News. 4.15 Crossroads. 4.40 Queenie's castle. 9.00 London. Paulus. 4.55 London. 6.00 News. 11.30 Collecting on shoe- Pauline. 6.05 Perils 6.30 of string. 12.00 Weather. Hogan's heroes. 6.55 Film: "The Pistolero of Red River'. 8.30
HTV
Wales and HTV Cymru/ Queenie's castle. 9.00 London. Wales 11.30 12.25 as above except: 4.15- Division four. News. 4.30 Miri mawr. 6.01-6.18 Y dydd.
12.40 Epilogue. 11.30-12.00 Sion a sian. HTV West as above except: 6.18-
SCOTTISH: 3.35
Horoscope. 3.45 6.35 Report West. Women today. 4.10 Animal land Crossroads. 4.15 4.40 Origami.
ANGLIA:
1.40 Remember. 2.05 4.55 London. 6.00 News. 6.15 Pippa. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Hogan's heroes. 6.45 Film: London. 3.15 3.45 Junkin. 'Breakthrough'. 8.30 Queenie's Women today. 4.10 News. 4.15 castle. 9.00 London. 11.30 Late Felix. 4.40 Enchanted house. 4.55 call. 11.35 Festival. London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 McMillan and wife. 8.30 Queenie. 9.00 London.
GRAMPIAN:
3.37 News. 3.45 11.30 Jesse James. Yoga Women todav. 4.10 for Yak. health. 4.40 4.55 London.
ATV
MIDLANDS:
3.10 House- 6.00 News and 6.10 weather. 3.25 Paulus. 3.45 Women Dick Van Dyke. 6.35 party. Crossroads. 4,10 Dick 'Storm today. Van Dyke. 4.40 6.55 Film: Centre'. 8.30 Rupert Bear. 4.55 London. 6.00 Queenie's castle. 9.00 London. ATV today. 6.35 Crossroads.
7.00 11.30 Epilogue. Piste hrough the town on Friday in support of union recognition.
They are appealing anti-union. much more militant for finan- But than we were. things have cial support to be sent to : changed-the struggle has made W. Fox, 7 Dodd the treasurer, more determined.' Road, Tonbridge, Kent. us Creffield workers are calling on carworkers to black the factory's • TWO miners killed in a blast products. They also want support Wigan, at Cronton colliery, throughout the labour and trade near Lancs, early yesterday were later union movement. Beesley (51) of will demonstrate for the named as Thev Tonbridge Adswood Road, Huyton, col- second time through this Friday leaving the factory in and Kevin Walsh Vale Road at 6 p.m. a much more skilled and highly ared with the availability of sur aid occupation lies and the development of nuclear techniques. 'concern' for supplies Ezra's Once demand picks up again, certainly does not extend to the could well find ourselves die could we said. in of and jobs of number pits thousands of miners. and careful planning Vigorous was needed by governments toge- His idea is for fewer, higher- ther with a major effort from the producing, highly-mechanized workers industries themselves. collieries with fewer pay-all It is machines slightly higher Ezra also said: getting which will do work of which could be afforded with the rough money saved from massive and men will do the skilled jobs the and therefore mining will become iob-cutting.
Scan page 12
PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday Augu
BY PHILIP WADE
RAY HALSEY, shop steward at Nine Elms Cold Store, a member of London docks stewards' committee, talked yester- day to Workers Press about the struggle on the docks. The Jones-Aldington pro- posals offered dockers nothing at all, he said. The question of the temporary unattached register had not be solved. 31, for (After example, our employer says he will have to sell out if he is forced to take more dockers on.
We have been given guarantees for 200 jobs at the expense of 10,000 workers. The register now is 42,000 and we want it to be like that in 50 years' time.
Our fight is to maintain the Labour Scheme National Dock which they want to do away • be The problem only can solved by a shorter working week-not at the expense of other workers. refused to We have never containers, with but work modernization has to be for the benefit of the working class.
At the London meeting last Friday the feeling at first was that Hull had let the men down by not staying out. On the other hand, after what we did, we let Liverpool down something terrible. They were prepared to fight alongside us. I was critical at the way Bernie Steer handled the meeting. He on too long instead of went making a short speech and coming over with the proposal which would have won the day.
I agree the decision of the stewards' national port shop after the delegate committee meeting was for stewards to fight to keep the strike going. That wasn't carried out on Friday.
There was no meeting between the Wednesday and the Friday to change the proposal. Ask me why Vic Turner changed his mind after talking about concreting in the dock if we lost and I don't know the answer. At the moment the committee is at sixes and sevens, trying to regain the confidence of the men.
Last Friday's decision was like a knife between the shoulder blades. When Steer and Turner came along the men at our place saw them as some sort of saviours.
We all have to gain the confi- dence of the men. There guarantees in are no Jones-Aldington and I don't dispute you can't get guarantees about the jobs we want.
IATE NEWS
01-622 7029 01-720 2000 aday August 22, 1972 We've always wanted 100 per nationalization on every cent port, wharf, dock, where any docker works, registered or un- the fight will registered. And never be over until we get that.
It's the dole queue or the shorter working week. There are one million unemployed and our children will say we sold our jobs for £4,000. Many children in Sunderland have never had a job. My politics are nil, I've just been thrown into the fight. I've to how no answer as you bring the Tory government down, though the fight we've got can't be separated from that. Workers in every industry have to wake up. Then you'll bring them down and I believe it's coming to that. As to Jack Jones' "inquiry" into what happened at Transport House, it is going to be a witch- hunt. If words are violence then Jones got violence. These men had a real griev- ance to put to him. If it isn't a witch-hunt, then how come Jones never did his job and went
WEATHER
AN ANTICYCLONE is slowly moving over Ireland. North and western districts of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be rather cloudy with some drizzle at times. Eastern Scotland will be mainly dry with sunny periods. All other districts will be dry with sunny Some early morning intervals. fog patches are expected in cen- tral England. Temperatures generally will be near the seasonal normal, but it will be rather cool near wind- ward coasts in South-East England. Outlook for Wednesday and Thursday: Cloudy over West and North Scotland with rain or drizzle at times. Elsewhere dry with sunny spells. Temperatures near normal. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Workers Press, Office. Published by Street, London, 1868 Clapham High
SW4 7UG.
Ted am He Street London. Street. London
SWA TUG.
to see the five who went to prison? The dockers followed their leadership and he let them down —just like Vic Feather. And Jones is supposed to be one of the militant leaders.
What are the rest like. A lot of men, Ray Halsey told changing of were talking unions into the 'Blues' (National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers), but he did not think that would help. We have to change the leader- ship, he said. The problem was who would replace them. He concluded: 'The trade union leadership is now defunct, but workers in different indus- the light. tries will Every see worker is asking what is hap- pening to their unions and where they are going.' Graphical Associa-
NATIONAL
tion has decided to boycott next month's TUC in protest against their suspension. The NGA was suspended on August 1 for failure to apply for deregistration under the Indus- trial Relations Act. A statement yesterday said the union-with resented, members — 'deeply 107,000 TUC's decision seeing that the NGA was about to ballot members with deregis- tration recommendations. (TUC agenda, p.3.)
BY IAN YEATS
DOCKERS from London's Royal group resumed their picketing of the Midland Cold Storage, Hackney, yesterday.
Three weeks ago five London dockers were jailed for defying an order of the National Indus- trial Relations Court to stop picketing the depot. Britain's dockers With all back at work pickets claimed yesterday they were not satisfied with the jobs guarantee obtained by the Jones-Aldington com- mittee. A DANGEROUS split is being , created in the solidarity of Hull building workers by the accept- ance of nine site deals which do not fulfil the £30, 35-hour week claim. News of the agreements was given yesterday at a mass meeting of 1,000 strikers at Bevin House, city head- quarters of the Transport and General Workers' Union.
The firms which have nine agreed to pay the £30 guaran- teed wage for 40 hours will be providing work allowed to they can prove that the agree- ment has been signed by the union. Stan Suddaby, chairman of the joint strike committee, told Workers Press that he personally opposed completely was to separate agreements. The meeting decided to pull out all remaining workers includ- ing those employed by the corporation, who are not in fact part of the present claim.
IN COVENTRY a march of 400 strikers from 42 sites was staged through . the centre of the city yesterday. Their ranks entered the central shopping precinct chant- ing: 'What do we want? f30' Bill Mathews, Coventry district Union of Con- official of the Trades and Allied struction, Technicians said: 'As far as we are concerned this is a full-scale stoppage. "There has been a call from leaders for a national certain national strike and the T&GWU has promised full support to cripple the industry.' Peter Carter, chairman of the building stewards, Birmingham member of the regional action committee and a Communist Party member, got support from for a militant- meeting sounding speech attacking the record of the building employers and their derisory offer.
'Birmingham used to be a non-unionism but cesspool of now we have support and organ- izations throughout the Mid- lands, he said. We want new deal for a building workers based on the £30, 35-hour week claim and an end to the "lump" system. We can win this strike by turning out men to stop cement works and brickyards sending supplies.'
His militancy did not extend to demanding the nationalization of the building industry, however, and the core of his message was that militant action is enough.
He also welcomed the fact that the docks strike was over and the building workers could now get on the front pages. of the newspapers. There was a call for a national strike from a rank-and-file build- ing took the worker who microphone. After the meeting he told Workers Press: I believe that ineffective. selective strikes are The employers can still get by?
On nationalization, he said: I am for the nationalization of the building industry because it is both now a dog-eat-dog system on conditions and standard of work.' Yesterday's march and meet- ing brought a great response 'We know there is nothing in it, said one man. 'But with uS out here again Jack Jones will be forced to fight.' The attacked the pickets T&GWU leader for accepting the threadbare proposals put to the committee which he chaired with Lord Aldington. lorries are being turned All back at the depot gates and the men expect Midland may make a fresh application to the NIRC.
*Another £55,000 fine might force Jones to do something, picket told me. from union members. Squads have been sent out to Ernsford Grange Estate, Coventry. ABOUT 200 building workers attended a mass meeting at Burn- Vestry Hall in Sheffield greave yesterday. They decided unani- mously to give full backing to the escalation of the strike.
In a report to the meeting Les McKay, a full-time union official from Leeds, said that individual were already being agreements signed. He gave the example of has one Barnsley firm which accepted £30 for skilled workers and £27 for labourers for a 35- hour week. Sean Couston, a member of the local strike committee, called the T&GWU to "black' on building supplies. He particularly for help from lorry driv- asked ers and dockers. Couston also called for the pub- lic works department of Shefield Corporation to join the strike. of This has been the subject sharp disagreement at a number of meetings. McKay opposed this saying: "There's difficulty in an unauthor- ized pull-out of the public work- ers department because official of Stalinist full-time UCATT, Hilton Stewart, said 'There's terrific pressure to bring works depart- out the public ment-both inside and outside.
But will the private employers settle quicker? No. • 'The Tories are opposed to public works departments because they can't make a profit.
"The best way public works can help is by giving fin- men ance, he added. 90 per cent of private sites in Sheffield are now out. A BUILDING workers' picket was arrested and charged with obstruction after incidents at a building site at the Stock Ex- change, London, yesterday.
City police intervened when building workers picketing the site formed a line and tried to stop electricians going to work.
ALL TRADES UNIONS
ALLIANCE MEETINGS
TUC MUST BREAK OFF ALL
TALKS WITH HEATHI
MAKE THE TORY GOVERN-
MENT RESIGNI
LEEDS: Tuesday August 22, 7.30 p.m. The builders' fight. Upstairs room, Peel Hotel, Boar Lane.
CENTRAL LONDON:
Wed, August 23, 7.30 p.m. The builders' fight. Small Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn. EAST LONDON: Thurs- day August 24, 7.30 p.m. Lister Room, East Ham Town Hall, Barking Road (change of venue). Les- sons of the docks strike. Speaker: Larry Cavanagh, Liverpool docks steward (in a personal capacity). Socialist Labour League
FOUR LECTURES
THE THEORY AND
PRACTICE OF MARXISM
given by
G. HEALY
(SLL national secretary) 1. Marxism a8 the theory of knowledge Tuesday September 5 2. Development of Marxiam through working-class struggle Tuesday September 12 3. Nature of the capitallat crisis Tuesday September 19 4. Historical materialism Tuesday September 26
AEU HOUSE
Mount Pleasant Liverpool 1, 7.30 p.m. •