Workers Press no. 869

workers press

BUILDERS SAY

NO TO SELL-OUT

INCORPORATIN

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENT

BY PHILIP WADE

TWO thousand building workers from all over Britain sell-out' of their claim for £30 for a 35-hour week.

They were unanimous in their determination not to re- turn to work until the claim was met in full. Over 300,000 builders are now locked in bitter strike action, which sees the end of its 12th week today. Building union leaders arrived early yesterday morning at the employers' New Cavendish St offices, central London. Lobbyers arriving at midday were surprised and angry to find talks had already Many begun. ( had been told they would not begin until the afternoon.

The proposed offer, thought to give an immediate basic rate of only £26 a week, no reduction in hours and which lasts for months, was fixed up at last strength to strength. The next week's TUC Congress. move must be a national strike including all local council work- Rank-and-file builders had ers. travelled down overnight from Wigan, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Wigan builders, who last week South Wales, Bristol, Birming- 13 organized conference of ham and all other major strike Action Committees in the north- areas. west, were equally determined: They stood outside 'We know from Shouting our experi- the clear of '£30, 35 message what these union leaders ence hours now'. will do, but we're not going to Many speakers from let ourselves be sold out. No form outside the tarks ched lor the has confidence in this one any executive' said Mike Abbott all-out an national strike, member of the T&GWU and the deals and for support company Action Committee. from other workers. Robert Blanchard from the Other builders told Workers Hull Action Committee said they Press they would stay out no were completely opposed to matter what the leadership two-year deal. decided and demanded the resig- of George nation Smith, general secretary of the Union of Con- Allied struction, Trades and ENGINEERS' union leaders are Technicians who leads the pay dispute close to signing a new talks. the procedure with employers. Said Gordon Carruthers At York yesterday Jack Service, UCATT militant from Swansea: general secretary the Con- *We have rapidly lost confidence of Shipbuilding and ederation in our union leaders who have Engineering Unions, said: failed to fight from the beginning.

would bet that we shall have a The union has agreement by never been the end new could strong and go from the year.

RPORATING THE NEWSLETTER •

FRIDAY SER

E CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SC

•We've got the Common Mar- ket coming up and our rents go up £l on October 2. I'm not going back until we get the full claim. We've not been out 12 weeks for nothing. *This leadership's been left in for too long and it wants a com- plete complete clear-out, change. We have to stick it out, it can't get worse. If the builders go down now, they will never get up again.' At one stage, when the lobby appeared to be getting out of control I saw a Chief Inspector signal to four Special Branch men to join the police outside the talks. The CSEU executive agreed to discuss a new agreement with Employers' Engineering the Federation meeting next ai a month or in early November.

Service said this was likely to follow the pattern of the agree- recently reached with ment British-Leyland to replace the 50- year-old York deal.

RIDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 1972 •

No. 869

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

CRUF TE TIEN

Part of the mass picket mount- ed at Deptford, south-east Lon- don, yesterday

BY SARAH HANNIGAN

INDUSTRIAL workers through- Scottish dockyard naval out establishments are due to go on strike today in support of their pay claim. And men from the Deptford, south east London naval storage base, on strike since Tuesday, are today picketing men at the Chatham, Kent, government's naval depot to persuade them to take strike action as well.

In Scotland, the 4,000 men at the Rosyth yard have been out for a month in protest against the government's insulting €1.50 reply to their claim for a 16- per-cent increase. Last Monday over 90 shop stewards representing govern- ment workers throughout the country unanimously decided to escalate this strike against the government's offer. Socialist Labour League

LECTURES

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

given by

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary) London Marxism as the theory of know- ledge Sunday September 17 Development Marxism through working-class struggle Sunday September 24 Nature of the capitalist crisis Sunday October 1 Historical materialism today Sunday October 8

EAST HAM

TOWN HALL

Lister Room Barking Rd, 7 p.m. Liverpool Nature of the capitalist crisis Tuesday September 19 Historical materialism today Tuesday September 26

AEU HOUSE

Mount Pleasant Liverpool 1, 7.30 p.m.

workers press

BUILDERS SAY

NO TO SELL-OUT

INCORPORATIN

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENT

BY PHILIP WADE

TWO thousand building workers from all over Britain lobbied pay talks yesterday in London demanding 'no sell-out' of their claim for £30 for a 35-hour week.

They unanimous in were their determination not to re.

turn to work until the claim was met in full. Over 300,000 builders are now locked in bitter strike action, which sees the end of its 12th week today. Building union leaders arrived early yesterday morning at the employers' New Cavendish St offices, central London. Lobbyers arriving midday at were surprised and angry to find talks had already begun. Many had been they told would not begin until the afternoon. The proposed offer, thought to give an immediate basic rate of only £26 a week, no reduction in hours and which lasts for 26 months, fixed up at last strength to strength. The next TUC Congress. week's move be a natiónal strike including all local council work- Rank-and-file builders had ers.' travelled down overnight from Wigan, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Wigan builders, who last week South Wales, Bristol, Birming- 13 organized conference of ham and all other major strike Action Committees in the north- areas. west, were equally determined: They stood outside shouting 'We know from our experi- the clear of '£30, 35 message ence what these union leaders hours now'. will do, but we're not going to let be No ourselves sold out. Many speakers from the plat- one has confidence this form outside the talks called for any in said Mike executive', Abbott all-out national strike, no member of the T&GWU and the company deals and for support Action Committee. from other workers. Robert Blanchard from the Other builders told Workers Hull Action Committee said they Press they would stay out were completely opposed what the leadership TO a two-year deal. decided and demanded the resig- nation of George Smith, general secretary of the Union Con- struction, Allied Trades and ENGINEERS' union leaders are Technicians who leads the pay close talks. to signing a new dispute procedure with the employers. Said Gordon Carruthers At York yesterdav Tack Service, UCATT militant from Swansea: general secretary of the Con- 'We have rapidly lost confidence of Shipbuilding ederation and Engineering in .our union leaders who have Unions, 'I said: failed to fight from the beginning.

would bet that we shall have a The has never been union agreement by the end of as new and could from the year. strong go

RPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY SEI

E CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SC

00 'We've got the Common Mar- ket coming up and our rents go fl on up October 2. I'm not going back until we get the full claim. We've not been out 12 weeks for nothing. 'This leadership's been left in for too long and it wants a com- plete clear-out, complete change. We have to stick it out, it can't get worse. If the builders go down now, they will never get up again.' At one stage, when the lobby getting out of appeared to be control I saw a Chief Inspector signal to four Special Branch men to join the police outside the talks. The CSEU executive agreed to discuss a new agreement with the Engineering Employers' Federation ai a meeting next month or in early November.

Service said this was likely to follow the pattern of the agree- reached ment recently with British-Leyland to replace the 50- year-old York deal. RIDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 1972 • No. 869

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

CHRISTIN

4e de Part of the mass picket mount.

ed al Deptford, south-east Lon- don, yesterday

BY SARAH HANNIGAN

INDUSTRIAL workers through- : Scottish dockyard naval out establishments are due to go on strike today in support of their pay claim. And men from the Deptford, south east London naval storage base, on strike since Tuesday, are today picketing men at the Kent, government's Chatham, naval depot to persuade them to take strike action as well.

In Scotland, the 4,000 men at the Rosyth yard have been out for a month in protest against the government's insulting £1.50 reply to their claim for a 16- per-cent increase. Last Monday over 90 shop stewards representing govern- ment workers throughout the country unanimously decided to escalate this strike against the government's offer. 4p Socialist Labour League

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

given by

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary) London Marxism as the theory of know- ledge Sunday September 17 Development of Marxism through working-class struggle Sunday September 24 Nature of the capitalist crisis Sunday October 1 Historical materialism today Sunday October 8

EAST HAM

TOWN HALL

Lister Room Barking Rd, 7 p.m. Nature of the capitalist crisis Tuesday September 19 Historical materlalism today Tuesday September 26

AEU HOUSE

Mount Pleasant Liverpool 1, 7.30 p.m.

Two kinds of treatment , PAGE 2 Workers Preas, Friday September 15, 1972

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

SOVIET LEADERS snubbed a high-level Spanish Communist Party delegation which recently visited the USSR to plead for an intensification of inter- national solidarity in the face of increasing fascist repression. The delegation, including three members of the Spanish CP Central shunted round provincial party Committee, was organizations in Moscow, Leningrad and Siberia.

The Central Committee members who spent three weeks in the Federico Melchor and J. Izcaray. In USSR were Javier Ramirez, 'Mundo Obrero', Izcaray's the latest edition of the Party's paper report on the trip reveals the Moscow Stalinists' priorities: 'The level of exchanges that took place is indicative of the attention given to our delegation. We had talks with the regional committees of Siberian regions of Novosi- the Soviet CP in Moscow, Leningrad, the with the urban committees of the majority of these birsk and Irkutsk, those responsible for central council of the trade the unions, towns, Union of Journalists in the scientific centre in Academgorod and the in this have forgotten or two Irkutsk and, surely, list, we exchanges. did not meet one member of the In other words, the delegation These same leaders will meet Soviet Communist Party leadership. of all countries, but they will not meet Nixon and capitalist leaders members of the Spanish CP, many of whose members are in Franco's Compare the welcome given to of workers fight- representatives ing against fascism with the gar- which lands and receptions greeted Castro and Angela Davis.

be no doubt that There can the Moscow Stalinists have long class Spanish working pursuit of diplomatic their with the and commercial ties Franco regime and peaceful co- Europe. existence in the At the same time as CP'ers emphasiz- Spanish were ing to the lower echelons of the CP and Siberian journ- Soviet 'the absolute necessity in alists Spair the present situation in for an intensification of interna- with the work- tional solldarity ing class and other revolutionary and progressive forces 111 Our which advancing country are despite extremely continuously Soviet offi- repression', intense a trade cials were drawing up agreement with fascist Ministers Nixon's and President in Paris envoy Kissinger in Moscow.

The repression referred to by Izcaray has led. recently the murder of two Basque terrorists and new decrees on education which meant not only the witch- hunting of militant students, but also that secondary-school teach- get a certificate ers will have to of 'good conduct' from the police before they can be employed.

The authorities are Spanish the particularly worried about the northern situation in pro- of vince of Galicia, in the towns El Ferrol and Vigo, scene of the The El Ferrol shipyard where tr strike of shipyard workers 1n February during which two work- police. the were shot by period of After a comparative the workers the quiet 1n area, of the Citröen-Hispania factory in Vigo, out on strike have come the employers have because the rest refused to give them

WARSAW

Pact army Saturdays which day on was last round of manoeuvres in Czechoslovakia the agreed on in 'Shield collective negotiations. under the code name the Vul- 72' are being Already workers in treated as an Vigo in have shipyards cano important political event by staged one strike of solidarity.

the East European bureau- These mrites come nal hin eye cracies. of the military tribunal Leading Czech CP member Ferrol which will try eight ship- Josef Lenart has welcomed mili- who arrested yard workers were tary dignatories for the exercises.

in the February strike and have Emphasis Bratislava in been in jail ever since. speech last Monday was laid on Spanish The news agency the necessity for intervention of announced yesterday that in the the Warsaw Pact armies in Paris talks the Soviet Union has August 1968. expressed in buying, Interco Spanish- other things, among

MORE FOREIGN

ships for its merchant fleet built Spain in would buy and return Soviet coastal launches. AMERICA and the Soviet U deal following Dr Henry Kis President Nixon's foreign aff the Kremlin. Prospects for 1 agenda. I where trouble is brewing again presence Czechoslovakia once again obviously intended as a warning that the bureaucracy is ready to use every means to maintain its It is also* directed at Yugoslav workers who have criticized the manoeuvres. A main military objective of the exercises will be to test the ability of the Warsaw Pact forces to fight under conditions in which tactical nuclear weapons would be used. EIGN NEWS p. 11 Brezhner (I) deals with Kissinger (r) refuses meet Spanish CP delegation

BY JOHN SPENCER

oviet Union are expected to announce nry Kissinger's visit to Moscow earli eign affairs trouble-shooter, spent thre ts for the $2,000m US-Soviet trade Full details of whatever ha likely to be made public befo Nixón on his return to the Unit Victor Louis, the 'Evening News' Moscow correspondent, who has close contacts with the Kremlin and the KGB, filed a story on Wednesday saying the two countries were on the verge of a 'mammoth trade deal' which would be worth £2,000m by 1977. He that Kissinger's wrote extension of his stay by one day underlined that negotiations had reached a significant stage. It was obvious that the big obstacle to an agreement—Russia's repay- ment of war debts to the United States-had been cleared,' he said. With the lend-lease question settled, Congress. could quickly legislate most-favoured nation status for the Soviet Union on its dealings with the United States.

The 40-year-old tariff barriers against Soviet goods, which sell if it is to buy more in must the US, would be sliced by some- thing like three-quarters.

The Soviet need for a trade deal with the US is underlined by a recent report in the Moscow 'Economic Gazette'. The paper said there were shortfalls in pro- duction of textiles, clothes, shoes, TV sets and washing machines.

The current five-year plan, un- promised veiled last year, to 'saturate' the market with con- sumer goods. Leonid Brezhnev, Communist Party chief, singled out consumer goods for 'appreciable' production increases. Increased production of these items, according to Brezhnev, depends on a rapid rise in pro- ductivity. duvisages a rise of up to 40 par The current cent by 1975. This is obstructed not only by the bureaucratic disorganization of production, but also by the of sufficient modern absence machinery and the lack of adequate service and ancillary industry. This position is most acutely visible in agriculture, where bad weather and low crop yields have combined with mismanagement to produce the worst harvest for some years, making necessary anounce their biggest-ever trade w earlier this week. Kissinger, ent three days in secret talks at t trade pact were high on the ever has been agreed are un- lic before Kissinger reports to the United States this weekend.

ng large-scale imports of US food.

The five-year plan, described as the one which would give la substantial rise in living stan- dards as the main task', repre- sents the Kremlin's fear of the workers' growing demands for a better life. The trade deal with the US will no doubt allow the bureau- cracy to import more consumer goods in return for heavy indus- trial products and minerals, such as petroleum and ores. But it is bought at a heavy According to political price. Washington journalist I. F. Stone: 'Nixon's trade and credit negotiations with Moscow have bought him a free hand in the Middle East.' Stone says this is the real explanation for the expulsion of Soviet military advisers from Egypt. He quotes from sources White House to close to the show that the talks on trade have been closely linked with political questions notably the Middle East and Vietnam. And he cites the opinion of 'US News and World Report' Moscow correspondent that: 'Soviet determination to escape a collision with the US has been reinforced by the Moscow- Washington relations evolving from President Nixon's visit to the Soviet capital. "The Soviets have too much at stake in this relationship to allow it to be jeopardized by what Soviet leaders believe to be Egypt's reckless and futile strategy against Israel' He also points out ominously that the Peterson trade mission which visited Moscow after Nixon was accompanied by Helmut Sonnenfeldt, a key mem- ber of Kissinger's staff who has taken part in some of his secret negotiations on Vietnam. Sonnenfeldt, Stone says, 'would hardly be needed in a commer- cial negotiation unless it was Nixon is certain to want as high a price as he can get for aiding the Soviet Stalinists to their economic problems. ease The price he wants is the sup- port of the Kremlin against the Arab and Vietnamese revolution.

No buyer for Briant's TALKS between British- Leyland and six unions on Wednesday night failed to end the month-long occu- pation by workers fighting the plan to sell the Thorny- croft factory at Basing- stoke, Hants. British-Leyland intends to down the 900-strong run labour force by a third and sell the plant to the American Eaton Corporation for £2.5m.

The factory makes gear- boxes for heavy goods vehicles.

British-Leyland's industrial director Pat Lowry said no details of the talks were being made public. 'If the sit-in con- tinues, it will inevitably affect other factories within the British-Leyland Motor Corpora- tion, he declared. sources COMMISSION on Industrial Relations chairman Leonard Neal has admitted that he had no direct evidence at all to back up his recent state- ment that money from, 'dubious sources' was financ- ing flying pickets. But that did not stop him from calling pickets "bully-boys' down' on thereaders to clamp Speaking at Nottingham on Wednesday, Neal—an ex-T&GWU official—said: 'This manifestation mass picketing and, of violence, indeed, training for these tasks begins to cause people like me who have for many years rejected the reds-under-the-bed theory_ to wonder say, the CIR Needless to chairman produced no more evidence for his 'special training' allegation than he did • for his 'dubious money' story. But his second outburst with- in a week indicates a growing desire on the part of the Tory government and its state officials to lay the basis for more attacks on the right to strike and the right to picket.

SIX

HUNDRED

engineering workers at the former Fisher- Bendix factory, Kirkby, Liver- pool, have won a new 35-hour- week pay deal. The workers-now employed by Clohurst Engineering, a sub- sidiary of the International Property Development group make radiators, night-storage heaters and some components for the motor industry. under New rates agreed the deal give women workers £27.50 a week, labourers £30, semi- skilled skilled workers £35 and men £41.30. Convenor Jack Spriggs told Workers Press yesterday that shop stewards were very happy with the terms. •This is not a productivity deal and there are no work-measure- or anything like ment "strings" that', he said. The workers' original claim was based on the demands sub- mitted nationally by the Con- federation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.

BY IAN YEATS

THERE IS virtually no chance of a buyer for Briant Colour Printing, reckham, a spokesman for the liquidator said yesterday. Since the work-in began I1 weeks ago, 60 firms have responded to adverts for the factory placed by the liquidator. only eight or ten But materialized as serious offers and now there is not even one firm buyer in sight. Liquidator's spokesman H. B.

Blandford Baker told me yester- day turnover at the works was so low that no. employer could afford to take on the existing labour force at current pay rates. He said the five-year-old factory needed an annual turn- over of flm a year, but in the previous 12 months had only notched up £66,000. As turnover dipped over the past four years because of market conditions, the proportion taken up by wages rose from 31 to 51 per cent. Yesterday's bleak news was thai any new employer would be forced either to reduce the work- force or slash wages-neither of which has ever been acceptable to the work-in. With hundreds of printers un- employed in London, the 120 men 30 women felt they had and everything to gain from taking over their factory. Factory occupations will, with- out doubt, be central to the fight against the blanket sackings which will follow Britain's entry into the Common Market. But Workers Press and the Socialist Labour League have A FURTHER big leap in prices can be forecast from figures just released by the Depart- ment of Trade and Industry.

The figures show that home sales of manufactured products rose by nearly l per cent in August alone, following increases of a f per cent in each of the preceding months. And this trend shows every sign of accelerating even further as British entry into the Com- mon Market next year looms closer. In November the British Steel Corporation is expected to intro- duce substantial price increases so as to bring its prices in line Steel and with • the European Coal Community before the entry date of January 1. This move, which will probably be accompanied by a number ot other big rises when the CBI's price-restraint policy present runs out in November, will, in its turn, jack up prices through- out the manufacturing industry once again. yesterday's In other words, TUC-CBI-government talks took place in a context where the and the Tories had employers already laid the basis quite deliberately for a further attack on workers' living standards.

The DTI figures themselves expose the phoney and cynical basis of yesterday's talks.

The annual rate of increase in wholesale prices was 5.4 per cent in the three months to May, 6.2 cent between March and per June and 6.4 per cent from April to July. In the latest three-monthly period the annual rate of in- crease has risen to 7.8 per cent.

The steel price rise, which could 15 per approach cent, çould eventually double this rate of increase.

SVE DEMAND

THE RIGHT

WE DEMAND

TO WORK

THE RIGHT

TO WORK

Workers seen inside the printing plant always insisted that unless these take-overs were linked to the liq political perspective of mobiliz- ing the trade union and labour in struggle to movement the force the Tories to resign and elect a Labour government pledged to socialist policies, they would be ineffective. We warned from the outset that work-ins could not save what even . the employers had given up as a bad job. This has not been more bitterly illustrated than at the upper Clyde ship- builders' yards, where thousands of jobs have been lost. Until at least the end of July cash for paper and electricity to Briant printing operate the The electricity-supply industry is also pressing for increases in its prices. In the immediate period, this could hit the domestic consumer first with an increase of 15 per cent in his charges from Novem- ber 1. Even more serious in the however, slightly. longer term, would be the sought-after 2 per cent increase industrial in charges. The effect of this and the steel increases, together the with existing trend threatens to tear wage packets to shreds.

BOOKS • PERIO

CHARLOTTE ST

28

GOODGE ST

& TUBE

TOTTENHAM CT RD

Workers Press, Fric machines provided by the was the liquidator to clear £20,000 worth of business half finished when the company collapsed. This more than anything else allowed the fiction of a successful work-in to be maintained.

But since that time the work-in committee has been responsible for the wages of people employed at the plant and the total cost of all materials and electricity.

Now the liquidator, P. Gran- ville White, has warned work-in leader Bill Freeman that the workers will be liable and he has sought to impress upon him that if no-one can be found to buy the plant as a going concern the workers will have to leave, even PAINTERS in the UCATT Wimbledon, south London, branch have unanimously supported a call for special dispensation for Workers Press and other papers in the labour movement in the event of a stoppage of the national press. Their resolution to the Merton Trades Council calls on all its affiliated branches to demand of the executive of the printing unions — NATSOPA,

SOGAT

• PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

Press, Friday September 15, 1972 PAGE 3 it it means a High Court order, so that the assets can be sold off to the highest bidder. Blandford Baker told me there no chance of the work-in was making the business pay. He revealed for the first time that the real cause of Briant's downfall was that management borrowed too much money from finance houses in their efforts to modernize and had then been prevented by the slump from recovering the cash from turn- over. Bill Freeman refused to discuss the liquidator's bleak predictions yesterday. Recently he admitted that many of the offers to buy the plant had been bracketed with demands for redundancies or wage-cutting. Now he will either have to give in to these demands or wait until he and the other 150 workers are thrown out into the road by police armed with a court order. Either course will mean that the brave and selfless struggle of the men and women who have loyally followed the work-in leadership over more than two in long months will have been vain. We repeat again: The closure of Briant Colour Printing is a direct result of the trade slump and the drastic fall in employers' rate of profit. It is part of a phenomenon common not only throughout the print trade, where hundreds of small firms have been axed in the also throughout past year, but British industry. The fight for the right to work only be brought about by can mobilizing the trade union and labour movement in a General Strike to force the government to resign and return a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. These would include the nationalization of the printing without industry compensation and under workers' control.

and NGA-to grant special dis- Workers Press, pensation to 'Morning Star' and all labour press to print during any future strikes against the Tory govern- ment. "This is vital in a situation such as the jailing of the five dockers under the Industrial Relations Act, where all the printworkers immediately came to the sup- port of trade unionists fighting for their basic rights. 'As a consequence, it con- tinues, 'the press of the workers' movement was also interrupted Tory machine continued propaganda while through other channels function

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.

SKS CENTRE

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Friday September 15, 1972

WHEN THE

MILITARY,

THEN

THE FASCISTS

STEP IN

Part 15 of a series on Picketing by Bernard Franks Police and Army Chiefs of police and army are increasingly asserting the ability of their forces, as the essential arms of capitalist the state, to play a more direct and political more part in the measures against working class. The power, and prestige given to Brigadier 'counter: Kitson-the "rank insurgent' theorist who devel- his 1deas during action OUcu against workers, peasants, and socialists uade Kenya, and Oman, in Muscat Cyprus Northern Malaya, and Ireland reflects the army's special preoccupation for the methods combating class in power of the working britain. charge of the army's School of Kitson has been Infantry Warminster which a through officers pass in training. army Both army and police oill cers have put their views into more once. ГО "Times' example, reporter, September 15, 1972 Picketing by Bernard Franks writing from the headquarters of the United Kingdom Land Force, Wilton, Wiltshire, in May this year stated: 'Events such as the miners' strike were scrutinized closely here, with the possibility the back of the might be called on to deal with the breaking-up pickets. Brigadier Watkins me: "The told whole period of the miners' strike made us realize that the present size of the police force is too small.

It is based on the fundamental philosophy that we are a law- country, but things abiding have to the state now got where there are enough not resources to deal with the increasing numbers who are not prepared to respect the law"; According to an article in "The Sunday Times', Kitson too is 'interested in the idea that the army might take part in the monitoring of people suspected as political subver- sives. In fact, in December 1971, Workers Press detailed Kitson's theories in a series of articles current with his book 'Low-Intensity Operations' These showed that he is in no sense concerned with just 'monitoring' activities, but is 'keen promote active an He advocates repression' Supreme Command under con- trol of the army,

WALN VONOU

committees for 'stability opera- and populace control Intelligence resoll" 'tactical opera- ces tions', and would carry strictest out secrecy what amounts operation search-and-destroye anyone army or azallIst considers be government 'subversive': Kitson is a firm believer in 'psychological warfare' and the trained of infiltration bands of informers and provo- cateurs into the ranks of the enemy. like was systems these which directly contributed the deaths of 10,000 Kenyans in the army's offensive against the Mau Mau. considers to u that "There Kitson timely to onentate MeLIOUS Britain to prepare for the civil by war threatened premier Edward Heath his 1970 in United Nations. speech to the Police chiefs also are call- ing. for more political action and closer ties between police and army. At the Scottish Police Fed- eration Conference in May this the right yeal,

DICKEL

Was attacked and tighter laws were callea IoI. 'Why should the laws gov- erning such an emouonal and volcanic situation be so loosely defined. • Lets at least some of the onus on the demo- cratically-elected office bearers of the strikers; they are per call who their members strike. who 1s ther

OU-L

011 call on their members to carry picket dutv.

OU I

Reference to the miners' made recently also SLIKe was by the former Chief Superin- tendent of Warwickshire and Coventry Constabulary. Call- ing for closer links between police and military he said: of the "The inability police to contain the miners hastily- mobilized pickets, which occa- sioned public dismay, revealed weakness in that a surulluldi otherwise formidable instru- ment of the criminal law whose role to provide the very shield under which society may go about its lawful business in safety. 'Dangers of internal subver- sion and civil anarchy begin to justify consideration of closer police-military ties. that He concluded the police-military link would stor , still less 'duplicating, he army usurping the role of the Special Branch people suspected of political subver- (Workers sion'. Press report, June 26, 1972.) The Fascists For its impressive- sounding of array anne allied organizations for repress- ing the working class, capital- ism has found of these many forces, especially in times of crisis and poli- deep economic tical of workers, to upsurge be singularly ineffectual. The fact that the decline is, pervades rot Loe capitalist entire system such a time inevitably per- these meates organs also. disaffection Demoralization, and discouragement set in and weaken what the surface on a formidable avocals "asseill" blage of armour and manpower.

Even sections of the police and the most strictly army. disciplined of all trolled and all the forces, be Cannot unaffected. In Italy and France units of the riot police most have broken under the strain of the continuous consummate hatred and opposition of the working class. It is at such times that the frightened capitalist class turns to the totally reactionary forces of fascism which preach and with clubs, knives Dracuice and firearms- -outright physical of destrucion Coe

WORK-

ers' own trade union and poli- tical organizations. This dependence on fascism may be undertaken with some reluctance, not quite what the business community had in Under the fascists, Social Dem- ocrat Carl von Ossietzky who died in 1938 from mistreatment in Esterwegen concentration camp. mind. Leon Trotsky com-. mented in the 1930s: "The big bourgeoisie likes fascism .

as aching little as a man • with molars However, when the only alternative appears to be a takeover by the working class, then the capitalists decide that out-and-out reaction, if some- what painful, is a thousand * times more preferable. By 1944 in fascist Germany some 7.5 million slaves-—work- rounded up in occupied ers countries — were being made ruthless use of by German employers. Krupp employed thousands, in one plant kept in dog ken- nels for six months. Hanging was the special treatment for dissent. the land, the COn fundamental law for all work- ers was a directive which said: "The farmworkers have to labour as long as demanded by the employer' Every boss had the right to beat his workers. One factor which immeasur- ably strengthens all the most reactionary forces of capital and allows an undecided mid- dle class to be pulled into the fascist camp is a working-class leadership, which is not equal to its task, which is weak or downright treacherous. In 1934, Trotsky wrote of previ- ous defects of the working class: "The reformist parties of Germany, Austria and- Spain did not prepare the revolu- tion, did not lead it, but suf- fered it. Frightened by the power which had come into their hands against their own will, they benevolently handed it over to the bourgeoisie. In this way they undermined the confidence of the proletariat.

They prepared the conditions growth of fascist for the reaction and fell victim to it.'

('Whither France?')

CONTINUED TOMORROW

TRUDEAU: ONLABOUR

S. AFRICA

WOOS

EUROPEAN

STEEL

The apartheid regime in South Africa is gloating over its successful woo- ing of European steel producers. Over the past several from the months executives British Steel Corporation and West German two groups have visited South Africa to aiscuss a lolnt plan to pro• semi-processed and duce ore semi-finished steel products.

the In euphoric language South African press is pro- claiming the various advan- tages of their racialist system.

They have been pointing to the fact that labour costs are much lower. This is certainly the case. The miners of South Africa almost exclusively are black and they are paid slave working wages walle the most wretched and danger- ous conditions. They are also barred from belonging to trade unions.

The racialist press also boasting that South Africa is uninhibited by pollution legis- lation. In other words the establishment of steel produc- tion plants is not subject to laws covering smoke and other industrial pollution. This con- production siaerably reences costs. The South African Iron and Lord Melchett Proposing to abandon Bril Steel Industrial Corporation has confirmed that negotia- tions have commenced be- tween the BSC and West Germany's Thyssen and Kloeckner groups. A BSC team has already visited the site of the proposed export harbour at Saldanha on the western seaboard. 'They apparently liked what ', one South African they saw, newspaper reported, 'and de- tailed negotiations have since been taking place. 'The idea of investing in a on South African plant is that semi-finished products would nd be imported by Britain for andon Britain's steel-producing industry final processing in the corpora- tion's plants. 'The output of the plant in South Africa would be around 8 million tons a year. 'The scheme would make it unnecessary for the corpora- tion to replace many of its old steelmaking units which are earmarked for closure.'

the Tory-controlled Thus BSC and its multi-millionaire chairman Lord Melchett proposing to abandon Britain's traditional steel-producing in- dustry by importing cheaper materials produced off the backs of shockingly oppressed South Africans. Workers Press, Fridi Twenty-four hours after Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau recalled parliament to deal with the British Columbian dock strike, the state government fell and the New Democratic Party (labour) was overwhelm- ingly returned to power. By throwing ort the Social Credit government of W. A. C.

British Columbian Bennett, workers took the lead for the labour movement throughout Canada. The Social Credit Party has ruled the province for 20 years the world recession and as intensified it led the attacks on workers' rights and living standards. Bennett's government im- posed a pay-ceiling on teachers, doctors and civil servants.

It also brought in an order to enforce compulsory arbitra- tion and in June the legisla- tion was used against the con- struction workers' strike.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police carried out 52 raids on construction union offices with the full approval of Trudeau's Liberal government in Ottowa.

Bennett's actions in British Columbia are what every worker in Canada will face in the next period. Trudeau has announced federal elections for October 30 and with only three months to go, all the major class ques- tions tacing Canadian workers are being fought out. The intervention ot the . re government in the Trudeau British Columbian dock strike makes this clear. The dockers not simply answering were Bennett when they voted his government out, but taking on federal government as well. Some 60 countries, in- cluding all the world's major producers and consumers of cocoa, are to meet in Geneva in yet another bid to draw up an international cocoa agreement, a task which has eluded them for the last 15 years. Cocoa is the world's fifth largest commodity after coffee, and rubber. sugar, cotton World exports last year total- led $850m (£350m), but the market for it is subject to sharp price fluctuations and in- tense speculation. affects the This severely economically under-developed countries which are heavily dependent on cocoa exports their foreign-exchange for earnings. For instance, in 1970, cocoa exports accounted for 79 per Ghana's foreign ex- cent of change earnings. Other coun- tries whose economies are heavily-dependent on cocoa in- clude Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo, Ecuador and Brazil. One of the major problems ross, Friday September 15; 1972 PAGE 5 The NDP victory gives the lead to all Canadian workers to throw out the Trudeau gov- ernment and return an NDP administration pledged to socialist policies. The greatest obstacle is the Labour Party's own leaders.

Party chief David Lewis said of the Bill against the dock- workers: 'My colleagues and I will support any Bill that gives a justifiable solution.' British Columbian NDP leader David Barat promised the repeal of two Bills clamp- ing freeze and on a wage making , arbitration compul- sory. But he also held out a carrot to the middle class by talking about the problem of foreign domination Canadian industry. He made it plain that the NDP were not going to be tied to the apron-strings of the unions saying: "The business community has nothing to fear from us.' The working class in British Columbia has shown its deter- mination to fight both in the dockers' strike and now by NDP provincial electing an government. The election will have a big impact on the federal voting October. It also gives a lead to American workers in their struggle to break from the democrats and repub- licans and build a Labour Party. But American workers look- ing to the NDP, for example, will have to go a lot further themselves. And the task facing Canadian workers is the NDP's fight to force the reformist leaders to adopt and implement genuinely socialist policies. a reformist party is Such quite inadequate for the tasks facing Canadian and American workers and would pose no solutions to the big economic and political problems ahead.

is to introduce some stability into cocoa prices, but the last United Nations Cocoa Con- ference, held in Geneva last to make any March, failed headway, despite dragging on three weeks. The main stumbling block to a world agreement is the fix- ing of a minimum price for cocoa. No real progress to- wards a quota system can be achieved without this being done. A concluded agreement to assign export quotas to all member-countries with an an- nual production above 10,000 tons is unworkable if a mini- mum price is not fixed. The forthcoming conference, which is expected to last for about five weeks, will also wrestle with the thorny prob- lem of reconciling the need of cocoa of their own with the interests of the processing in- dustries of the traditional im- porting countries. prolonged Behind this wrangling lies the fact that the national bourgeoisies of the under-developed countries are demanding higher prices for their basic products and the to whom they monopolists sell, and who thereby control the lies of millions of people, are reluctant to pay.

FRELIMO VICTORIES IN WAR WITH PORTUGAL

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Friday September 15, The liberation movement in Mozambique (FRE- LIMO) has moved south below the Zambesi river to undertake operations not far from the port of Beira, according to a British supporter who re- cently visited the Portu- guese colony. Until recently, Frelimo was confined to the northern banks of the Zambesi which the colonial authorities have used as a natural barrier to prevent guerrilla of the expansion operations against them. iday September 15, 1972 • The Portuguese made deter- mined efforts to seal off the part of the colony south of the river, which is bounded on by Rhodesia and the west both white South Africa, supremacist countries which actively assist Portugal with arms and men to fight the guerrillas. The Portuguese use fast, the armed boats patrol on Zambesi to prevent the Frelimo forces from crossing the river and have destroyed most of the boats used by the black far- mers and fishermen who live along the river's banks. however, These measures, have apparently failed and the Frelimo's break into the southern provinces is a deci- sive step forward for the liber- ation struggle against Portu- guese rule. The guerrillas success in crossing the Zambesi is attes- ted to from the other side by Wilf Nussey, a South African journalist writing the 'Rhodesia Herald' earlier this year.

LOCAL

SUPPORT

the Frelimo Nussey said were crossing the guerrillas river in Tête province (near Rhodesian border) with the 'disturbing rapidity' and had penetrated along hundreds of miles of Rhodesia's borders.

Nussey added that the strong local support for Frelimo was shown by the sparse informa- tion given by Africans to the Portuguese. He said the South African and Rhodesian authori- ties were suddenly feeling real anxiety over the course of the Mozambique war. racialist powers Both the have a lot to lose if Portugal is flung out of the colony. They would lose one of the two which protect great pillars them from the independent black African states further north. The fall of Mozambique South would expose Africans and the Rhodesians to hostile guerrilla incursions over their frontiers along hun- dreds of miles of open country.

RHODESIA'S

INTEREST

The two countries also have interest, a major economic symbolized above all by the Čabora Bassa dam. This multi- pound undertaking, million financed by British, West Ger- man and US capital, to supply power largely to the industries of Rhodesia and South Africa, is now very close to the guer- rilla's front line of action. Access to the dam is becom- difficult, ing increasingly despite heavy patrols along the roads linking the project with Rhodesia and the presence of many Portuguese troops in the area. Anxiety over the dam ex- plains the increasing participa- and South tion of Rhodesian African troops in the Portu- guese colonial war. Lord Gifford, chairman of the committee for freedom in and Angola, Mozambique Guine, who recently visited the liberated areas, said Rhodesian troops and planes were taking part in the war. He said they had been allo- cated a sphere of operations in Tête province, where the dam is sited. They had made several incursions over the border, in- cluding a major land and air offensive four months ago. A Rhodesian army sergeant deser- ter had told him the Rhode- sians had given training in counter-insurgency warfare.

Gifford said the Frelimo guerrillas now had 10,000 men under mainly with arms, weapons from eastern Europe.

The movement is making a major drive for support from the west, campaigning on a liberal basis British against capitalism's ties with the move- ment's racialist opponents.

Portugal a NATO member, acquires many of the arms it needs for its colonial wars from its allies. But its main backing in Mozambique and in Angola on the other side of comes from continent the South Africa.

GAINS

Of the social and political organization built up by Fre- limo in the liberated areas, Gifford said: 'It far surpasses everything we had imagined. It was quite evident the people were freely and joyfully sup- Workers Press, Friday Sept Frelimo from their porting enthusiasm at the public meet- ings and their warm and friendly attitude towards the soldiers. "They were not only support- ing them but also positively determined to work with the movement that was changing their lives and to hold onto the freedom Frelimo had won for them.' Frelimo's gains against the Portuguese regime in Mozam- bique are important step an forward for the struggle in southern Africa against white supremacy and colonialism.

The increasing crisis of the white supremacists in southern is Press, Friday September 15, 1972 PAGE 7 Left: the people of Mozambique show their support for the Fre- limo, sharing their crops with the guerrillas. Above : women libera- tion fighters undergoing training Africa was shown not only by the massive reaction of Rhode- workers to the Smith- sian Home deal, but also by the in South West big strikes Africa at the beginning of the which spread to other year, parts of the country. Frelimo's victories will un- in doubtedly play a part these struggles, advancing bringing nearer the downfall of and the Smith and Vorster defeat of Portugal's brutal colonial dictatorship.

A three part series by Juan García, our Spanish correspondent on how the depression of the 1930s hit the Spanish.

Catalonia, and the resulting struggles of workers against unemployment while the armed forces of the state prepared for Civil War.

THE JOBLESS REPUBLIC

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Friday Septembe A three part series by Juan ( Catalonia, and the resulting st The struggle of the Span- ish working-class against the wide-scale unemploy. ment brought on by the impact of world reces- sion on the Spanish eco- nomy holds many lessons for workers the world over. During the Second Republic, begun in 1931, anarchists and centrists led many militant strikes against unemployment with a programme identical to that of the centrists today-i reduction in the working week and work-sharing. After five years of struggle for a six-hour day, in 1936, these centrists faced civil-war.

Because of them, the Spanish working class was unprepared for this revolutionary situation.

The centrists were unable to grasp that the growth of unemployment was an essential aspect of the world economic crisis which was pushing the capitalist class towards fascist dictatorship and a second World War. Their programme up to and after the beginning of the Civil War did not go beyond the reformist solutions of the International Labour Organiz- ation in Geneva and that expressed by William Green, president of the American Federation of Labour in October 1931: 'If the machine gets rid of manual labour, there is no reason why the worker should not be compensated with better working conditions and more opportunity for useful leisure.'

As workers soon discovered, the capitalist class was not interested in good reason: what was reasonabie for them was what was profitable-so it was reasonable to have millions of unemployed workers since this brought down Inbour costs and helped the fight against trades unions. In Catalonia, the election of the Republican government in 1931 aroused hopes that exten- sive public works and social- welfare programmes would be started to alleviate the lot of the unemployed. By the end of 1930, there 17,250 were workers unemployed in the Barcelona province alone.

Many workers in the anarchist National Confeder- ation of Labour (CNT) voted for the Republic. In May 1931, a committee of unemployed workers visited Francisco president of Macia , the Generalidad, the Catalan of the Madrid extension parliament. Macia promised to put pressure on Madrid to create jobs in the port and create a fund for unemployed who had lived in Barcelona for at least five years. Many workers in Catalonia immigrants from the were rural areas in the south and the employers' immediate ploy was to split workers on regional basis. The Presidents of the Chambers of Trade issued this statement in May: 'They agreed that unemploy- yet reached ment had not alarming proportions and was limited to labourers and did not affect skilled workers. They all agreed that it was not a good idea to give out subsidies without providing work and that it was also expedient to send back to the towns where they come from workers who are unemployed.' Catalan businessmen had September 15, 1972 • Juan García, our Spanish correspo alting struggles of workers against un Top: workers enthusiastically greet the p April 14, 1931. They thought the Rep employment, low wages and poor livi democrat, Indaleco Prieto.

for good reason to prepare with the crisis ruthless measures. On July 7, 1931, the main Bank of Catalonia had to suspend payments, After the election of the Republic 300 million pesetas were withdrawn from current accounts. The of Spanish value exports slumped by 40 per cent in one from 2,456.8 million year. worth at the end of pesetas 1930 to 990.3 millions in 1931.

spread Unemployment in the rapidly building and engineering industries. By the end of 1932, over half of all correspondent on he ainst unemployment poor living conditions. building workers were out of work. citv there and houses empty, despite th workers still lived slums. Under the Prim dictatorship, there vast scheme of t some of which had was the solution to un- conditions. Above: social building workers in Barcelona were out of work. In the same 16,000 were over flats standing the fact that workers still lived in crowded and deflation Under the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, there had been a public works, some of which had been carried depression of the 1930s hit the le armed forces of the state prepared out in the period of relative stability in the late 1920s.

This policy was sharply reversed by the Republican government and its Socialist Party Minister of the Exchequer. This policy of restriction and deflation was opposite of what the the masses expected from the left- wing republicans and social- democrats in power. Engineering and steel workers did not receive much support either from the social- democrat Indalecio Prieto, whose sole ambition was to capitalism make work by rationalizing it and disciplining the working class. The rail industry, which had been developed with massive state aid, soon entered into crisis. Many of the new lines which had been built were not paying their way and Spanish coal was much more expensive than foreign coal. This meant that the deficit increased and fares could not be cut. Prieto's solution came, short and sharp in June 193l: 'Not for a peseta more building new railways.' Within a year the budget was cut by a third and within two years 26,572 workers in the Basque steel industry were unem- ployed. In the city and province of Barcelona 94 workshops had to reduce the working-week by 30 per cent. By 1933 more than 4,000 engineering workers were unemployed. By 1933, 35,000 or 6 per cent of the labour force in Barcelona was unemployed. In Spain, the total was over 500,000. The Republican government kept faithfully to the needs of the bourgeoisie. There was no increase in the payment of benefit to the unemployed, which in part had to be paid by the employers. The govern- ment felt it would be wrong to put the pressure on employers in a period of economic crisis when they already had enough financial problems. Less than 6,000 workers got ied any help from the government.

it the Spanish province of epared for Civil War. This type of payment was, according to the Republicans, encouragement for people an to be lazy. While Ministers could not find resources to help the un- employed, increased finance was no problem when it was a question of hand-outs to the police and the armed forces.

Their budget increased • by 38 per cent from 1929 to 1933 and most of this money was spent on equipping the police force to deal with anarchist terrorism, or workers' demon- strations and strikes. This was the real role of the Republican government: the preparation of civil war against the working-class through the strengthening of the armed forces and the weakening of the working class through un- employment and impoverish- ment. The CNT split into two: the Iberian Anarchist Federation

(FAI)

favoured terrorist activity while the

CNT-

Treintistas preferred strikes as a method of forcing reforms from the bourgeoisie. During the first three years of the Republic, the FAI, which organized many unemployed workers and immigrants from the south, attempted no less than three futile attempts at insurrection. The General Workers' Union (UGT) obediently followed the parent-body, the Spanish Socialist Party, which, as we have seen, led the fight against jobs in the first period of the Second Republic. The UGT collaborated in the government's 'Turados mixtos'.

joint-committees of employers and trade-unionists which were convened by the government whenever there was a dispute.

These were the continuation of the hated 'comités paritarios' set up by Primo de Rivera as an imitation of Mussolini's corporatist bodies.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

It's been a good week for racism on television. Alf Garnett is back and so is the nauseous series 'Love Thy Neighbour® Indeed, since the docks strike, anti-immigrant senti- ment has dominated the head- lines in the bourgeois media.

It was in this politically- atmosphere charged that Granada's 'World in Action' presented on Monday night the first of its new series.

This programme and its imitators Tele- on Thames vision and the BBC is best characterized by its rank op- portunism. It was not surpris- ing, therefore, that the editors chose the Ugandan Asian story to start their autumn ratings campaign. The basic concept was this.

They went to the Smithfield markets where the National vigorously Front has been operating during the past few weeks with its anti-immigrants campaign. They pointea their cameras at various workers and asked: 'What do you think arrival of Ugandan the Asians in Britain?' Not unexpectedly, if you ask loaded question, you get loaded answers. One of the most outspoken opponents of the resettlement of the ex- pelled Asians was Wally Mur- rell, a steward in the Trans- and General Workers' port Union. comes the World in Now Action' gimmick. The team in- vited Murrell to go to Uganda to 'see for himself'. We then see the meat porter at Heath- entering his jet airliner, roW, chatting the air hostess, etc, etc. He arrived at his hotel—it looked familiarly like the Apolo where you can get a decent bed and breakfast for about £5 a night!-and, in his first interview, he said that the local natives were living in 'mud huts' 'shacks' and 'squalor' . Which is rather like going to the North Pole and being shocked to find that the inhabitants live in igloos.

He then became tourist and in interviewer downtown Kampala. What a miserable business this was. The black Ugandans were clearly hostile or afraid. And who can blame them living under a bloody dictatorship like military Amin's. It is already a matter of public record that hundreds of people have been butchered by the 18-month-old regime.

Many of the Asians were simply furtive. They gave him nothing. Certainly no sense of how they felt about the regime and their abrupt expulsion.

Those he did contact for fuller interviews were like the Sikh who owned a square mile of property and drove around in a Mercedes Benz. revealing inter The most view was with the bishop who admitted that he was more or less doing a Pontius Pilate as far as his Asian flock was concerned. Then the team was kicked out by the regime for undis- closed reasons. We catch up with them in Kenya where Murrell gives an interview in which he appears to have altered his position.

From being a 'keep-them-out' campaigner, he now says the government has no British alternative but to take them in. He also says he would do anything to help the Asians if he could To summarize, therefore, anti - immigrant Smithfield worker is taken by TV trendies to Uganda, talks to inhabitants, local changes is thus van- mind, racialism quished, humanity is restored.

This went out last Monday night at 8 p.m. at peak viewing time after 'Coronation Street'.

One could picture the sort of self-satisfaction which en- veloped the producers of this programme as it beamed out to the masses. They had done 'their liberal thing'. It won't do, however. Even in liberal terms in a bourgeois society racialism cannot be treated with such gimmickry.

If the programme-makers had been • their • serious with subject, they could have at least subjected Murrell's argu- ments to the rigours of some further interrogation—perhaps by a Kenyan Asian now settled in this country. Preferably an Asian who is in the Transport and General Workers' Union. One could have surely been found in the ranks of this giant union, one who, perhaps, is on strike for workers' claim. the building Then we could have had a more even confrontation-be- cause confrontation, as you know; makes 'good telly'—in which class issues must necessarily have arisen. But Murrell was given total licence; the game was loaded completely in his favour. The programme opened with an unbridled opportunity for the Smithfield racists to put their point of view. Everything subsequent in the programme was the experi- ences of a man goaded by the media into treating racialism single, emotional issue. as a Behind this style of media presentation is the rank op- portunism of people who want to skate on the surface of events, who simply want to sensationalize news and cur- rent events. thing Precisely the same happened during the Chobham 'confrontation'. Farm 'World in Action' invited Bernie Steer and Vic Turner for the dockers and two depot workers into their studio. And they staged a punch-up. Workers, all from the same union, were pitched into a bear pit to tear them- selves apart to confuse trade unionists and engender smug- ness in the middle class.

For the 'World in Action' people these two cases of 'con- frontation' television don't by accident. It occur conscious policy to cast trade unionists and working - class people in the most reactionary light. formula This television springs from a contempt for the working class; workers are to be brought onto the screen under prearranged and stage- in managed circumstances their entirely progres which sive and revolutionary capacity is obscured by the ugliness of situations forced on them by the ruling class itself. It is the container employers are obliterating who docks jobs; it is the military dictator- ship of General Amin, backed by the Tory government, and the National Front, which is stirring racialism. When 'World in Action' has intervened in both these im- portant issues in the working class it has served the Tory with a refined and master splendid veneer of being 'democratic' and pretending to hand over communication to workers themselves. No one is fooled by this cynical technique. As someone remarked the other day: 'The Free Communications Group was never revolutionary.'

BY ALEX MITCHELL

Workers Press, Friday September 15, 1972 PAGE 9 The Port of London Authority that the site could be worth continues to shed its most about £10m. valuable land The PLA, chaired by Tory to property specuators while at the same merchant banker Lord Alding- time slashing its work force by has a property portfolio ton 2,000 this year. estimated worth £66m. Having hived off its historic Last year the PLA's Trinity headquarters, the PLA is now Square headquarters was sold contemplating a at a profit of £7m. It was gen- 'mini- Barbican' on the site of the regarded that the erally sale Cutler Street warehouses near price was more than reason- the famous Petticoat Lane.

able' It is expected that the 4ł-acre redevelopment of the site will contain hugely-expen- sive new homes, shops, office It Lord Beeching was who space and other amenities.

"reviewed' the British railway Advertisements been have and system thus ended the placed for the sale or lease of livelihoods of thousands of rail- the warehouses. way workers. The old properties date from He was one of the 'techno- the days of the sailing ships. crats' of the Wilson era. With Because of the shutdowns in 'genius' like that it's no won- London, the upper Pool of Beeching blue-eyed der is a these buildings rendered are of London. boy in the City more or less useless for modern Take his company, Redland trading. But if planning per- Limited. It has just given is granted their mission for of details its 89-per-cent demolition, they become almost increase in post-tax profit. priceless on the property mar- directors Shareholders and ket. have £4.7m profits to carve up According_to a spokesman as opposed to £2.5m for the for City of London survevors same period last year. Gooch and Wagstaff, the ware- house complex is almost impos- Below: Beeching with BR reshap- sible to value. One estimate is ing report in 1963.

LEON TROTSKY:

Germany 1931/1932 Paperback £1.25- -Cloth £1.87} Where Is Britain Going? Paperback 37}p Revolution Betrayed Paperback 62)p—cloth £1.05 Problems of the Chinese Revolution Paperback £1.12}- -cloth £1.87½ Permanent Revolution : Results and Prospects Paperback 75p In Defence of Marxism Paperback 75p Lessons of October Paperback 60p Postage 10p per book, 3p per pamphlet. Order from :

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG.

BRETLL

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Friday Seplember 15, 1872

SPECIAL ATUA

MEETINGS

CENTRAL LONDON :

Inaugural meeting of the entertainments and press unions.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

17, 7 p.m. 'The crisis of technology and unemployment.'

SHAFTESBURY HOTEL

MONMOUTH STREET,

WC2. Speakers: Roy Battersby

(ACTT.

personal - capacity). A London docker.

LIVERPOOL :

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

17,10.30 a.m. 'Crisis in the car indus- try. Fight for the right to work.'

STORK HOTEL

QUEEN'S SQUARE

Speakers : Alan Thornett (deputy senior steward Morris Motors, Oxford. In a personal capacity). Mike Banda (SLL Cen- tral Committee).

SWINDON:

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER

17,7.30 p.m. 'Join the fight to force the Tories to resign'

LOCOMOTIVE INN,

FLEET STREET

Speakers: Tim O'Sullivan (senior night steward, Morris Motors, Oxford, in capacity). personal Member of the Swindon building strike commit- Representative from tee. the Thornycroft (Basing- stoke) occupation.

BOOKS

THE SOCIALIST

LABOUR LEAGUE

Fill in the form below

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

Name Address lay September 15, 1872

BBC 2

4.10 11.00-11.25 Play school. Professional golf.

6.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY.

7.30 NEWSROOM. Weather. 8.00 MONEY AT WORK. Capi- talism with a Human Face.

Was Karl Marx right?

9.00 GARDENERS' WORLD.

9.25 DOCUMENTARY: THE

SHOALS OF HERRING'.

Film based on 'Singing the Fishing' by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker. 10.30 SPORT TWO. I Love Leeds.

Colin Welland and lan Woolridge. 11.10 NEWS ON 2. Weather.

11.15 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

Johnny Speight.

REGIONAL TV-

CHANNEL: 1.45-3.20 Racing from AN Ayr. 3.30 Jimmy Stewart. 4.00 dor Puffin. 4.10 Happy house. 4.25 Pebbles and bamm bamm. 4.50 London. 5.20 Alexander the greatest. 5.50 London. 6.00 News, weather. 6.15 Report. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 FBI. 8.30 London. 10.35 Film: "Term of Trial'. 12.45 News, weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 3.28 News. 4.00 Gus Honeybun.

6.00 Diary. 6.25 Sports desk.

10.32 News. 12.45 Faith for life.

SOUTHERN: 12.55 News. 1.00 Let's face it. 1.25 Beverly hill- billies. 1.50 Freud on food. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 London. 3.00 3.55 Houseparty. Danger lus. 4.25 Stingrase. 4.10 Paulus. 4.50 London. 5.20 Sylvester. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Day by day. Scene SE. 6.30 Out of town. 7.00 Shut that door. 7.30 Comedians. 8.00 Benny Hill. 9.00 London. 10.30 Weekend. 10.35 Film: "Too Hot to Handle'. 12.30 News. 12.40 Weather. Guideline.

Moscow Trials Anthology Paperback, 62}p

MAX SHACHTMAN:

Behind The Moscow Trial Paperback 75p

ROBERT BLACK:

Stalinism In Britain Paperback £1.122-cloth £2

LEON TROTSKY :

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

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS

186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG. information about elow and send to NATIONAL

CIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE,

GH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

as Epitania in Bar- Maggle Smith nard Shaw's "The Millionairess' In BBC 1's new 'Play of the Month' series on Friday nights.

ANGLIA: 1.45 Racing. 2.30 Lon- don. 3.00 Racing. 3.55 Romper room. 4.20 News. 4.25 Skippy.

4.50 London. 5.20 Primus. 5.50 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Glamour 72 7.30 O'Hara. 8.00 Combat. 9.00 London. 10.30 Film: 'The Boys'.

ATV MIDLANDS: 1.45 Racing from Ayr. 3.25 Pinpoint. 3.40 Horoscope. 3.45 Women today.

4.10 Happy house. 4.25 Forest Ranger. 4.50 London. 5.20 Flint- stones: 5.50 London. 6.00 Today.

6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Sale of the century. 7.30 Persuaders.

8.30 London. 10.30 Film: "The Victors'.

Weather. ULSTER: 1.45 Racing from Ayr.

4.00 Romper room. 4.20 News.

4.25 Rovers. 4.50 London. 5.20 Shirley's world. 5.50 London. 6.00 Ber Crossroads. 7.00 Reports. 6.35 Sale of the century. 7.30 Jason King. 8.30 London. 10.30 Spec- 'Run Simon trum. 11.00 Film: 0.35 Run'. YORKSHIRE: 1.45 Jake's scene.

Trawlermen demand 50 p.c. A BASIC pay increase of more than 50 per cent is being sought for Fleetwood trawlermen by the Transport and General Workers' Union. Trawler in the port owners have been asked for an extra £10.50 a week which would take a deckhand's basic pay to £29.50.

Trawlermen have not had a pay increase for two years. BICC plant

BRITISH

Insulated Callender's • build Cables (BICC) is to a making £1.6m factory for telephone cables Morelena, at near Lisbon. The factory, occupy- 25-acre site, will make ing a paper-insulated and plastic- cables insulated of the latest design. BALPA talks of strike BOAC pilots' leaders met yester- day to discuss strike action after what the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) described as a ludicrous' pay offer from the company. BOAC had offered 0.8 per cent for a cost-of-living increase. The pilots have asked for 10 per cent.

chairman Captain

BALPA

Robert Smith said: 'BOAC man- agement must be deliberately provoking further unrest and jeopardizing the future of BOAC when they offer us 0.8 per cent and have the effrontery to attach conditions to such an offer.'

BBC 1

ITV

9.45-10.00 Camberwick 11.55 Sydney. 12.25 Women to- green. 11.00 Professional golf. 1.00-1.25 day. 12.50 Freud on food. 1.15 Frenhines yr Eira. 1.30 Finger- Bellbird. 1.25 Dan. 1.40 Bush boy.

bobs. 1.45-1.53 News and weather.

2.05 Castle Haven. 2.30 Good 2.00 Golf and show jumping. 4.00 afternoon. 3.00 Cartoon. 3.10 Delta. 4.05 Happy house. Clangers. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 4.20 Adventures of Gulliver. 4.50 Mag- Parsley. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.50 pie. 5.20 Nanny and the profes- Deputy dawg. 4.55 Help! 5.15 sor. 5.50 News. Michael Bentine time. 5.45 News and weather.

6.00 TODAY.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.30

CROSSROADS.

6.30 THE VIRGINIAN. Sins of 7.00

THE PROTECTORS. 2000

the Fathers. ft. to Die. HAWAII FIVE-O. Death is a 7.30

7.45 IT'S A KNOCK OUT!

Company Policy.

9.00 NINE

O'CLOCK

NEWS.

8.30 SHUT THAT DOOR! Larry Weather. Grayson with guests Leslie

'THE

PLAY:

MILLION-

Crowther, Margaret Powell.

AIRESS'.

By Bernard 9.00 HOLLY. Episode three. Shaw. Maggie Smith, Avril Angers, 10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

Tom Baker, Peter John Garrie, 10.30

POLICE FIVE

Charles Priscilla 10.40 VILLAINS. Knocker. Bob Morgan, Donald Pickering, Hoskins. James Villiers.

OVERCOMING LONELI-

11.40 11.05 THE NDO SHOW. Northern

NESS.

Dance Orchestra. 11.45

FILM:

'WITNESS FOR THE

11.35 LATE NIGHT NEWS.

PROSECUTION'

Tyrone

MAN CALLED

IRON-

11.40 A Power, Marlene Dietrich,

SIDE.

Ransom. Charles Laughton. Agatha 12.30 Weather. Christie whodunnit. 2.15 Bellbird. 2.30 London. 3.00 toon. 4.10 Make a wish. 4.25 4.10 Merry Dangerman. 4.00 Cartoon. melodies show. 4.50 Lon- don. 5.20 Elephant boy. 5.50 Lon- Happy 4.25 Merrie melo- 5.20 don. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Crossroads. London. dies show. 4.50 6.00 7.00 Please sir. 7.30 Cade's Elephant boy. 5.50 London. weather. 6.35 Cross- county. 8.30 London. 10.30 Film: Calendar w 'Too Hot To Handle'. 12.30 News.

Please sir. 7.30 roads. 12.45 Epilogue. Cade's county. 8.30 London. 10.30 Moses'. 12.30 Film: 'Mister SCOTTISH: 1.45 Racing from Ayr.

Weather. 4.25 4.10 Happy house. Skippy 5.20 Cartoon. 5.25 4.50 London. GRANADA: 12.20 Grasshopper is- Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 12.35 land. Galloping gourmet. Scotland today. 6.30 Who do you Pipoi 1.05 Stingray. 1.30 long- do? 7.00 Please sir. 7.30 Hawaii 1.55 stocking. Racing from Ayr. London. five-o. 8.30 10.30 Late 3.20 Rocket 3.45 Robin Hood. call. 10.35 Film: 'Dracula'.

4.10 News. Happy Crossroads. 4.25 Funky phantom. 4.50 house. 1.45-2.15

GRAMPIAN:

Racing London. 5.15 Pevton Place. 5.50 from Ayr. 2.30 London. 3.00 News.

London. 6.00 News. 6.20 Bugs 3.55 Car- 3.03 Racing from Ayr. Bunny. 6.35 Kick off. 7.00 Shut toon. 4.10 Happy house. 4.25 that door. 7.30 Protectors. 8.00 Pippi longstocking. 4.50 London.

Benny Hill. 10.30 9.00 London. 5.20 Ivanhoe. 5.50 London. 6.00 Band of the Film: 6.10 Thompson News, weather. at teatime. 6.35 Crossroads.

7.00 James. 7.30 King. Jesse Jason

TYNE

TEES: 1.45

10.30 Partners. Funny face. 8.30 London. Bellbird. 2.30 Yoga. 2.59 11.05 Film: The 2.15 11.00 Job look. News. 3.00 Dangerman. 4.00 Car- Mummy'. 12.40 Meditation.

A BIRMINGHAM

struck, claiming that the man- car com- agement was refusing to recognize ponents firm has recognized the Mrs Annie Howes their as workers' right to choose their steward. The firm makes steering- own shop stewards after a strike column locks for the Rover plant which stopped Rover production at Solihull. Shortage of these led for two days. 1.000 Rover to workers being laid off. Members of the Transport and Yesterday both the Excelsior General Workers' Union the and Rover factories were back at at Excelsior Motor Co at Tyseley work. The daily aper that non tha light againal the Torles. {20.28 for 12 months (312 lagues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 (88u0s) £5.07 for 3 months (78 lagues) If you want to take Workers Pross twice a wook the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) {6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and sand to: 186a Clapham High 31., Irculation Dept., Workers Presi _ondon, SWA YUG I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

MONDAY

THURSDAY

Days required

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

(Please tick)

SATURDAY

WEDNESDAY

Or Full subscription (six days) for months. Name Address Amount enclosed £

WEDNESDAY'S talks between Harold Wilson and Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party leaders failed to produce a formula which would enable the SDLP to attend the Whitelaw 'all-party' talks due to begin on September 25.

This would mean that White- law would receive only schemes drafted by Ulster's pro-Unionist parties. Though absolutely no conces- sions were gained from their earlier talks with Heath, the SDLP leaders were said to be impressed' the way the with Tory Prime Minister heard them out. One of the MPs commented: 'We are not totally dissatisfied- though naturally we would like to have heard the Long Kesh was finally going to be camp cleared. The SDLP meeting with Wil- son was also attended by Merlyn Rees, opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland, Shirley Williams, Shadow Home Secretary. A Labour Party • statement issued after the talks, declared: LIAM COSGROVE, leader of the right-wing Fine Gael-Ire- land's main opposition party—is to talk to Ulster political leaders in Belfast soon. He will be accompanied by the party's spokesman on foreign affairs, Richie Ryan. The decisions, announced yesterday, follow Shadow a Cabinet meeting which studied the various policy documents submitted by the Ulster parties.

Fine Gael said yesterday that POLISH miners are pressing for more democracy in the pits and an end to managerial arrogance and arbitrary decisions. The miners, numbering 420,000, the biggest single work- in- country, are force in the creasingly taking court action against managers as well as com- the trade plaining through the Communist Party unions, and the press As the rising in the Baltic ports at the end of 1970 showed, there is plenty for workers to complain about in Poland. Although the upheaval led to a change in the leadership with Edward Gierek, himself an ex- he has miner, taking over, obviously not been able to solve the basic problem. Since 1970 uprising the workers' opposition to the bureaucracy has become stronger self-confident than and more • this hostility before. Although often takes the form of court actions against particular officials or opposition to arbi- work orders it shows trary a feeling class which growing bodes ill for Gierek and the Polish bureaucracy. PEKING has established such friendly relations with the anti- communist semi-feudal regime of the Shah of Persia that next week it is to welcome not only Minister Prime Amir Abbas Hoveida, but Queen Farah as well. The Shah is expected to visit Moscow next month. TURKISH intellectuals are on trial accused of attempting to set up an underground Communist The military prosecutor Party. has demanded heavy sentences for the 37 leftwingers. Fourteen guerrilles alleged to have been trained in an Arab country face death sentences before another military court. It was agreed to hold further discussions on ideas which were put forward by the Labour Party and which would lead to the repeal of the Special Powers Act.

It was further agreed to meet again with the SDLP hirelath Conferene prior to the This further meeting has obvi- ously been arranged in order to make a further effort to find a formula under which the SDLP can attend the Whitelaw confer- ence. Paisley's Meanwhile nionist Party, Democratic has said that it, too, will boycott the Whitelaw talks unless the gov- announces: a public ernment inquiry into the deaths of two civilians : in the Shankill Road last week. Whitelaw, who told the SDLP leaders that the talks would go ahead whether they attended or not, was far more conciliatory towards Paisley. I hope that on reflection you will attend the conference and your views, known make he replied. "To do so must be in the interests of your party and the people your represent.' sensible co-operation the people of Ireland. Mr Gerry Fitt, leader of the Northern Ireland Social Demo- cratic and Labour Party, has given a guarded welcome to Cos- grove's intended visit. THE latest issue of the Peking

ACTION

theoretical journal Red Star' York St accuses the Soviet bureaucracy of trying to 'poison the will' of deaths o the Russian people who are re- demned sisting its attempts to restore the capitalist system. Governor linked alcoholism in the drug addic- Soviet Union with who set i tion in the United States and criticizes claims that the campaign recently the scene launched against excessive drink- an obser ing was camouflage. from his Excessive drinking reflected Russell G the fact that the Soviet people discontented with their were way of life. At the same time to re-take the bureaucracy drew Troopers revenue from the production and sale of discrimina alcoholic drinks. pletely ch Mao's regime has apparently says: stamped out the traditional addiction of many Chinese to trenches a opium in the past. While strong looking fir drink flows freely at official re- guns load ceptions, public drunkenness is the heavil not tolerated. to the kil hostages were not activity? CHINA has bought half a million tons of wheat from the US in The most of tl the first deal of its kind for 20 were legi years. It is believed to mark had tried of further expansion trade a between the two countries.

system to include extra pay CEAUSESCU'S govern- ment has warned Rum- targets have been anian workers that they fulfilled. face wage-cuts if targets Wages in Rur fulfilled or if are not rank among the l they slack on the job. in Europe. They As much as one third been kept down of the pay packet might erately to make po be docked. an ambitious invest Rumanian The programme. bureaucracy is trying to / Causescu, an a place the entire burden for its own mismanage. of the ent ment and economic policy of 'socialis difficulties onto the one country, working class. The pro- facing a growing e jected new law mic crisis. may 1H Lord Wilfred Brown: Anti-piecework pr ACTION taken to put down the York State in September last y deaths of 43 prisoners and guar demned by a special investigating c The report does not spare SC Governor Rockefeller himself, hi who set up the commission. It ti criticizes his refusal to come to the scene after appeals from d an observers' committee and from his prison commissioner, Russell G. Oswald. W When the decision was made to re-take the prison, 300 State firing in- went b discriminately and in a d com- pletely chaotic way. The report Troopers shot into tents, CI trenches and barricades without h looking first... the use of shot- guns loaded with buckshot in the heavily-populated spaces led to the killing and wounding of hostages and of inmates who were not engaged in any hostile The commission found that most of the prisoners' grievances were legitimate and that they had tried to work within the A system to correct them. It de- He is trying to o xtra pay where come the difficulties ave been over- a so-called drive aga bureaucracy and tur in Rumania the Communist P ong the lowest towards tighter con ›. They have of industry. t down delib- • make possible Ceausescu has ord‹ ious investment new efforts for nat alization, better distr scu, an adher- tion of skilled lat the Stalinist and the supply of si f 'socialism in parts. All party u ntry, is now have been told that 1 growing econo- must get closer to w bench problems. Workers Press, Friday September 15, 1972 PAGE 11

BY ALEX MITCHELL

AN ORGANIZATION calling itself the 1972 Industry Group was founded in London yesterday comprising man- agers and business executives who are Labour Party members. Its main pur- pose is to act in an advisory capacity to the Labour Party on industrial and economic questions. Heading the organization is Lord Wilfred Brown, Minister of State at the Board of Trade during the Wilson government, and a former chief executive in industry.

From 1939 to 1965 he director was managing and chairman of the Glacier Metal Company and in 1964 he was appointed a director of Associated Engineering. At yesterday's press conference to launch the 1972 Industry Group, Lord Brown said the Labour Party lacked communication with management. He said about 20 per cent of managers and business executives were sympathetic to the Labour Party.

Many executives were afraid to declare they were party members because they might be labelled as 'red' and therefore lose promotion chances.

Brown, a notorious right-winger, said he did not think the trade unions would resent the formation of the group. He went on to explain that he had met TUC's Victor Feather who had 'welcomed' the group's formation. A biography handed out to the press showed that Brown had written a work entitled 'Piecework Abandoned'. When questioned by Workers Press if he was in favour of Measured-Day Work and other productivity schemes, he said: 'i can claim to be the pioneer against piecework. He said he first started fight- piecework 20 ing years ago 'before anybody else'. Other businessmen would not listen to today, they are paying through the nose, proposals to get rid of it'. If other managers had listened to him they would have saved themselves a lot of money.

Brown is a figure of some con- tention in the labour movement • Prison riot in New because of his association with hich resulted in the the docks. He was chairman of s been strongly con- the Docks Modernization Com- mittee from 1965 to 1967. This sion. the which notorious body was jail conditions as 'de- implemented the initial stages of debasing and vola- the Devlin Report which slashed ng, st to the point of in- jobs in dockland. warfare. men in Other 'Labour' the mmission found no evi- Derek group are vice-chairmanNorfolk, any plot for a take-over Page, who was MP for 'ison. The demonstration Kings Lynn until the 1970 Gen- spontaneously and ace eral Election. He was founder of ly organized by the in- the Cambridge Chemical Com- pany and is a director of Buck- authorities' action was master and Page, a firm engaged on the need to make a in 'industrial security'.

reassertion of the state The other vice-chairman • is s sovereignty and power. Wilson's close friend, Sir Joseph officials all state were Kagan, chairman of the Gannex d about the safety of Company. Kagan received they had finally knighthood in 1970. the conclusion that, Honorary secretary is Arnold ur days of negotiation, Gregory, director of Intas Tech- to reassert the authority nical Services and a consultant ate over the rebels out- Limited. Cour- to Courtaulds the risks of an assault. taulds has other connections commission found that with the Labour Party: the senior that the revolt took director in charge of personnel Attica was a question and industrial questions is Lord ce, 'the elements of a Foreign George Brown, former on are all around us. Secretary and Labour's deputy every prison; and every • Attica' leader. Honorary treasurer is Norman I. Hart, joint managing director of Gwynne Hart and Associates, ns He public relations consultants.

is a determined member of the pro-European right-wing clique his ulti- In planning in the Labour Party. He is presi- Ceausescu Young European natum may dent of the nave picked up some Management Association and ips from Greek the deputy chairman of the Labour colonels' Minister of Committee for Europe. and Sciences, Culture The inaugural meeting of the Panayiotakis, who spent 550up will beheld bo Septeader days in Bucharest ive which Labour leader earlier this week. Wilson will be guest Harold speaker. Panayiotakis had talks during his visit with Ion Yesterday's meeting of this Maurer, the Rumanian Labour Party group was held in citadel big business, the premier, and with Jus- a of

CBI

inian, the of building. Brown described patriarch the Labourites' 'a the Rumanian Orthodox presence as Church. nice bit of British liberality'.

LONDON STEWARDS ARE OVERRULED

DOCKS OVERTIME

BAN GOES ON

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Friday Septemb

BY OUR INDUSTRIAL STAFF

SHOP STEWARDS yesterday group of docks, London, to en the ban followed pleas from th Zealand Meat Board, the Tra and the National Amalgamate

FROM OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

UPPER CLYDE shop stew- ards will meet again today to discuss the threat of 1,000 redundancies at the Clyde- bank yard now taken over by the Texan oil-rig firm, Mar- athon Manufacturing. After a two-hour meeting of the co-ordinating committee yes- terday, Clydebank converor and Communist Party member James Reid, said the redundancies were 'totally unacceptable'. 'Our position is quite clear,' he said, 'that there must be con- of employment for the tinuity four divisions of the old UCS.

Reid's statement amounts to the most wretched hypocrisy. He and fellow Stalinist James Airlie are chiefly responsible for the disastrous policy which has led to the break-up of the yards and to the introduction of agree- which include no-strike ments clauses. Marathon has made elear that it can only take on 900 men by the end of the year, leaving 1,000 without jobs. A mass meeting of all UCS shop stewards is likely to be held next week. THE EXECUTIVE of the Boiler- makers' Society has summoned Swan Hunter shop stewards who an unofficial strike are leading on Tyneside to a meeting today.

executive will tell the The stewards that there can be no negotiations until they return to 3,800 boilermakers work. The walked out nine days ago in sup- port of a claim for 17 per cent, cost of living rise. strike began the Since the management has laid off 1,100 general workers but 7,000 other employees are still at work.

WEATHER

MOST PARTS of the British Isles will be dry with variable cloud and sunny intervals, but mist or fog patches may occur early in the day. North- inland ern and western Scotland will be mostly cloudy and there may be a little rain or drizzle in the Ork- neys. Temperatures generally will be near the season normal.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham _Street, London, High

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), 180b Clapham High Street, London.

SW4 7UG.

September 15, 1972 sterday failed to persuade men from the Royal 1, to end an overtime ban. The attempt to lift from the Port of London Authority, the New the Transport and General Workers' Union Igamated Stevedores' and Dockers' Union.

All had threatened that if the ban con- tinued New Zealand meat ships would be diverted to other with a resulting loss of hundreds of jobs in the Royals.

officials will make another bid to get the ban lifted. The men are operating the ban to bring about the number greater work-sharing and to reduce of men temporarily unattached returned to the

(TUR),

which is due to close in two register weeks' time. at the Royals But yesterday's mass meeting was split on the proposal from the London docks shop stewards seven-day working to to return has already been agreed at West India and as Tilbury. Stewards' committee member Teddy Gates said the overtime ban was not being honoured through- out the port and 'we are not going to allow any- one to roast' when others were carrying on normal working. He went on to say that picketing and blacking the container depots and cold stores must not of only be maintained but stepped up.

Steward Colin Ross called first for the stepping-up of the fight Dockers vote against I| depots. against container This was carried unanimously.

But when it came to accept- ing the end of the overtime han the stewards could not get agree.

After two with votes ment. Ross abstainers as scrutineers abandoned any attempt would ban decision and said the "emain. FORTY delegates representing Steel Callaghan said Docker Brian 22 organizations attended the afterwards: 'I think this proposal inaugural meeting of the Ox- was terrible. It iust isn't good ford Council of Action on enough. Wednesdav. *No man should be entitled to These included delegates work weekends when there are from the key 5/55 and 5/60 men not at work during the week branches of the Transport and who are on the unattached pool.

General Workers' Union which I'm glad it got beat. The shop workers in Pressed cover car back stewards will have to go and think again.' from the Mid- Said a picket Cold Store "I think land depot: we shouldn't lift the overtime ban. We took a vote that no one until work should overtime regularly at work, everyone was and that's got to stand.'

FRANKIE FRASER, serving Another member of the Mid- • a 20-year sentence at Gartree 'You land picket team told us: Prison, Leicestershire, is be- four-day week- should have lieved to have been savagely should be solit in half the week beaten following the recent so that the people who are on the unattached their sit-down strike there. can get basic wage. don't agree with lifting the One of Mr Fraser's relatives they're told Workers Press that a prison ban unless overtime sharing it with the people who doctor had fled a report show- are not at work. was suffering from ing that he severe bruising. The New Zealand Meat Board The injuries consistent are claims that the ban has meant kicked with having been and refrigerated meat ships staying so assaulted. in London that they are long able to make onlv one trip dur- Fraser is loathed by prison instead of the ing the season Last year warder at warders. customary two. Wakefield was given a two-vear are being Already two ships suspended iail sentence and re- of switched to the Kent port moved from the prison for send- Sheerness. ing abusive letters to of In a letter to each of the port's one Fraser's relatives and misusing dockers, the two companies who official documents. Zealand handle i the New meat trade in London, Scrutton's Malt.

When the of strikes wave Stevedoring, Fraser and Thames through prisons, by swept threaten that 'negotiations are at was immediately accused by the present in progress which will capitalist press and the warders decide the in which next as being one of the 'ringleaders'.

nort Zealand meat trade season's New Prisoners at Gartree have since handled ' will be denied this. The emplovers' letter demands 'We were all involved. It iust increase the immediate in spontaneously, happened one tonnage handled per shift' and said. ban improvement of at least per cent in the output per gang' The same people also claimed • against lifting the ban ig Steel and Morris Motors and several AUEW delegates. The meeting pledged to build the Council of Action as part of the campaign to force the Tory government to resign and to elect a Labour govern- ment pledged to socialist poli- cies—including repeal of the Industrial Relations Act.

Fraser was the 'ringleader' of Parkhurst prison the riot in 1969. This is also untrue. The jury acquitted Fraser of being a major member of the rioters— but he was still given an • addi- BRITISH Petroleum, oil the giant, has turned in disastrous profits for the first six months of this year. Profits have crashed by just over £65m-from £86.2m to £21m. Announcing the figures yester- day the BP board of directors the interim dividend cut to shareholders from 5.67p a share to 5p. The second quarter figures were also included in yesterday's statement. The company made a net profit of f6m for the second quarter of this year which com- pares with £37.3m in the same period last year. Chairman Sir Eric Drake said: "The unforeseen severity of the A BLACK LIST of local educa- tion authorities who are failing to help schools cope with raising the leaving age to 16 may be published by the National Union of Teachers, general secretary Edward Britton, warned at a press conference on an NUT survey published today. The survey is on the state of preparations made by local edu- cation authorities in England and Wales in terms of buildings, curriculum, staffing and in- service education for teachers.

tional five years' jail. Now, since the Gartree sit- down, Fraser has • been again victimized by the prison authori- ties. He has lost 56 days' remis- sion on his current sentence.

price recessior since the autumn of 1971 is basically responsible for the continuing poor group results' An indication of the way rising costs and selling poor prices have bitten into BP's pro- fits is given by the disclosure that in the six months period, crude oil sales increased by just over 6 per cent, and sales of oil products and chemicals by just over 8 per cent-but net income per share was down from 23.94p to 5.41p. The company's shares, already down from high point this a year of 616p, lost only another 5p to 5474p after the announce- ment.