workers press

The daily paper of the Socialist Labour League, 1969–1973: a searchable archive of the scans

Workers Press no. 886

5 October 1972 · 12 scanned pages · about 16,425 words of machine-read text

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workers press

WILSON MOVING

CLOSER TO TORIES

THE DECISION of the Labour conditions amounts to accept abdicated any fight on behalf Heath's plan to drag Britain in Since they refuse to mount a campaign to bring down the Tory government, entry on Heath's terms is assured. And no negotiation of terms is possible. Dr Sicco Mansholt, President of the European Commission (and also vice-President of the 'Socialist International') made this clear on Tuesday. when he declared that there was no ques- tion of re-negotiating Britain's entry terms. 'Britain has signed a treaty that has been ratified by nine governments', , he told a press conference. 'If she wants to re- negotiate a new treaty, it has to be signed by all nine. She won't get it.' The conference resolution sub- mitted by the constructional section of the AUEW opposing entry into EEC on any terms and calling on a future Labour government to withdraw was by 3,076,000 to defeated 2,958,000 a majority of only 118,000. The Labour leaders escaped defeat by the skin of their teeth after an executive statement of Common Market policy was only narrowly approved on a show of hands. (It was then carried on a vote by card 3,407,000 to 1,802,000.) The boilermakers' resolution calling for entry on re-negotiated terms, which would include abandonment of Value-Added Tax and the common agricultural policy was carried by 3,335,000 votes to 2,867,000. The Labour leaders know that there is no possibility whatever of the capitalists European accepting these conditions.

and General The Transport Workers' Union supported both • the engineers' and boilermakers' resolutions but abstained on the thus helping

NEC

statement, Wilson to avoid an embarrassing defeat. All the other big unions voted against the engineers' motion.

If the left' is Jack Jones against entry in principle, why did he refuse to block the double- talk in the NEC statement?

In failing to oppose the NEC, Jones violated his own union's anti-Market policy and that of millions of trade unionists who want nothing to do with this capitalist pact, which means only higher prices and more unemployment. 'Left' MP Michael Foot also assisted in the Wilson victory.

Foot also backed the AUEW resolution, but referred to the NEC statement simply as 'con-.

fusing'. He did not call for outright rejection of the statement.

The

NEC

statement is not merely 'confusing', it is posi-

INCORPORATING THE NE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTF

BY OUR REPORTERS

: Labour Party conference to 're-nego accepting entry on Tory terms. 1 behalf of the Labour and trade u ritain into Europe. tively treacherous. It allows Wilson to continue his man- oeuvres on the Market, which he secretly supports. anti- Despite overwhelming Market' votes at the TUC, the 1971 Party conference at Brigh- in the Parliamentary ton and Labour Party, Wilson allowed 69 to vote for entry Jenkinsites with Heath. During the subsequent parlia- debate these right- mentary NO CHALLENGE to the Tory Pr plan for state regulation of wages was contained in the 18- page document considered by the TUC Economic Committee at John Baldwin moving the AUEW motion THE HEATH settlement with the Common Market was 'utterly unacceptable' Dan McGarvey, Boilermakers' Society yesterday's president, said. Labour Party debate. It must be repudiated by a future Labour government and in any new policy the new circumstances must receive the assent of the British people.

his McGarvey was moving union's successful motion. This opposes entry on the present Tory terms, calls for an immedi- ate halt to entry arrangements and the renegotiation of new consistent with British terms interests. The boilermakers' leader called for an end to 'squabbling, equivocating and splitting'. What the Labour Party wanted was a referendum to decide the issue, he said. •

THURSDAY OCTOBER

• THE NEWSLETTER

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

're-negotiate' Common Market erms. The Party leaders have trade union movement against wingers consistently gave Heath the crucial votes to keep him in office. And at Blackpool yesterday they sought a form of words to cover abject capitulation before the capitalist class and its Tory government. In tomorrow's Workers Press: The great Common Market fix.

We reveal the backstage deals which lay behind yesterday's voting. Preston yesterday. The document criticized the arithmetics of the plan, put for- ward at talks between the TUC, of British the Confederation Industry and the government at Jack Buchanan, mover of the defeated motion pro-Market from Clackmannan and East said Stirling, constituency, it be a failure of political would responsibility not to put before the people the perils of not joining, or, in fact, withdrawing after Britain has been in.

The national executive com- mittee statement opposing entry on the present terms was formally moved by Party chair- man Anthony Wedgwood Benn.

Moving the unsuccessful en- gineers' motion, union John Baldwin said: 'We intend to have a Labour government during the transitional period of membership which will carry with it a mandate to withdraw from the Treaty of Rome.'

• Shouts of 'coward", p.3.

OCTOBER 5, 1972

No 886 - 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

WORKERS at the CAV Fazakerly, Liverpool, plant decided unanimously yester- day not to permit any machinery to leave the closure threatened plant. They also agreed that they may have to sit in at a moment's notice. A mass meeting of men from Chequers nine days ago. It questioned whether the plan was socially just or met the needs of the lower paid. But nowhere did it unequivocally reject the principle of the proposals.

OCTOBER FUND

STEP UP THE FIG

LET'S STEP up the campaign immediately for our October Fund. This month our target is £1,750 which we are determined to raise as soon as possible.

From the Labour Party con- ference at Blackpool, it is clear to see that the Labour leaders offer no lead at all in the fight against the Tories. More than ever before, with rents going up and unemploy.

ment increasing Workers Press Is needed to build an alternative leadership through the labour all shifts imposed an immediate overtime ban and voted for a 30p per week levy to build up a fighting fund. Delegates are to be sent to other CAV plants to seek support and the Fazakerly men are demanding that trade should union committees examine the books of the entire combine. Liverpool Trades Council is setting up a committee to examine the threatened closure.

Dave Martin, convenor of the factory, said on behalf of the stewards committee that shop mass meetings had given 100- per-cent support for the fight against the closure. *We will fight it with every means. The management arbit- rarily made a statement to us on Tuesday that they intended to close the site. We are now making a statement that they will not close. Delegates are going through- out the combine to appeal for support. We cannot allow the combine to get away with sack- ing 1,000 workers without a fight.' Paddy Mullane, maintenance steward, said in a personal statement that he wholeheartedly supported preparations to оссиру. 'We should leave no stone un- stop the closure here, it has to be part of the fight for the right to work which can only be carried through by a fight to bring down the Tories and get a Labour government to carry out socialist policies with the same determination with which this government carries out Tory policies.

ND NOW £25.05

E FIGHT TODAY

trade union movement. and All our support is behind the ATUA conference on October 22. We urge all trade unionists to attend to discuss the building of such a leadership in every union.

Our Fund is vital for the pro- duction of Workers Press. Help therefore, make for a good start this month. We know you "will raise everything you can.

Post all donations immediately to: Workers Press 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

Scan page 2

workers press

WILSON MOVING

CLOSER TO TORIES

THE DECISION of the Labour conditions amounts to accept abdicated any fight on behalf Heath's plan to drag Britain in Since they refuse to mount a campaign to bring down the Tory government, entry on Heath's terms is assured. And no negotiation of terms is possible. Dr Sicco Mansholt, President of the European Commission (and also vice-President of the 'Socialist Intertiational') made this clear on Tuesday. when he declared that there was no ques- tion of re-negotiating Britain's entry terms. 'Britain has signed a treaty that has been ratified by nine governments', , he told a press conference. If she wants to re- negotiate a new treaty, it has to be signed by all nine. She won't get it' The conference resolution sub- mitted by the constructional section of the AUEW opposing entry into EEC on any terms and calling a future Labour on government to withdraw was defeated by 3,076,000 to 2,958,000—a majority of only 118,000. The Labour leaders escaped defeat by the skin of their teeth after an executive statement of Common Market policy was only narrowly approved on a show of hands. (It was then carried on a vote by card 3,407,000 to 1,802,000.) The boilermakers' resolution calling for entry on re-negotiated which would include terms, abandonment of Value-Added Tax and the common agricultural by 3,335,000 policy was carried votes to 2,867,000. The Labour leaders know that there is no possibility whatever the capitalists of European accepting these conditions.

The Transport and General Workers' Union supported both •the engineers' and boilermakers' resolutions but abstained on the thus helping

NEC

statement, Wilson to avoid an embarrassing defeat. All the other big unions voted against the engineers' motion.

is If the 'left' Jack Jones against entry in principle, why did he refuse to block the double- talk in the NEC statement?

In failing to oppose the NEC, Jones violated his own union's anti-Market policy and that of millions of trade unionists who nothing to do with this want capitalist pact, which means only higher prices and more unemployment. 'Left' MP Michael Foot also assisted in the Wilson victory.

Foot also backed the AUEW resolution, but referred to the NEC statement simply as 'con-• fusing' He did not call for outright rejection of the statement.

is not The NEC statement merely 'confusing', it is posi-

INCORPORATING THE NE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTF

BY OUR REPORTERS

: Labour Party conference to 're-nego accepting entry on Tory terms. 1 behalf of the Labour and trade ul ritain into Europe. tively treacherous. allows Wilson to continue his man- oeuvres on the Market, which he secretly supports. anti- Despite overwhelming Market' votes at the TUC, the 1971 Party conference at Brigh- in the Parliamentary and ton Labour Party, Wilson allowed 69 Jenkinsites to vote for entry with Heath. During the subsequent parlia- debate these right- mentary NO CHALLENGE to the Tory Pr plan for state regulation of wages was contained in the 18- page document considered by the TUC Economic Committee at John Baldwin moving the AUEW motion THE HEATH settlement with the Common Market was 'utterly unacceptable' Dan McGarvey, Boilermakers' Society said in yesterday's president, Labour Party debate. It must be repudiated by a future Labour government and in any new policy the new circumstances must receive the assent of the British people.

McGarvey was moving his union's successful motion. This opposes entry on the present Tory terms, calls for an immedi- ate halt to entry arrangements and the renegotiation of new terms consistent with British interests. The boilermakers' leader called for an end to 'squabbling, equivocating and splitting'. What the Labour Party wanted was a referendum to decide the issue, he said.

• THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY OCTOBER

• CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

're-negotiate' Common Market erms. The Party leaders have trade union movement against wingers consistently gave Heath the crucial votes to keep him in office. And at Blackpool yesterday they sought a form of words to cover abject capitulation before the capitalist class and its Tory government. • In tomorrow's Workers Press: The great Common Market fix.

We reveal the backstage deals which lay behind yesterday's voting. ory Preston yesterday. The document criticized the arithmetics of the plan, put for- ward at talks between the TUC, Confederation of British the Industry and the government at Jack Buchanan, mover of the motion defeated pro-Market Clackmannan East from and Stirling said it constituency, of political would be a failure responsibility not to put before the perils of not the people joining, or, in fact, withdrawing after Britain has been in.

The national executive com- mittee statement opposing entry on the present terms was formally moved by Party chair- man Anthony Wedgwood Benn.

Moving the unsuccessful_ en- gineers' union motion, John Baldwin said: 'We intend to have a Labour government during the transitional period of membership which will carry with it a mandate to withdraw from the Treaty of Rome' • Shouts of 'coward", p.3.

OCTOBER 5, 1972 • No 886 • 4p

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

WORKERS at the CAV Fazakerly, Liverpool, plant decided unanimously yester- day not to permit any machinery to leave the closure threatened plant. They also agreed that they may have to sit in 'at a moment's notice'. A mass meeting of men from Chequers nine days ago. It questioned whether the plan was socially just or met the needs of the lower paid. But nowhere did it unequivocally reject the principle of the proposals.

OCTOBER FUND

STEP UP THE FIG

LET'S STEP up the campaign immediately for our October Fund. This month our target is {1,750 which we are determined to raise as soon as possible.

From the Labour Party con- ference at Blackpool, it is clear to see that the Labour leaders offer no lead at all in the fight against the Tories. More than ever before, with rents going up. and unemploy.

ment increasing Workers Press Is needed to bulld an alternative leadership through the labour all shifts imposed an immediate overtime ban and voted for a 30p per week levy to build up a fighting fund. Delegates are to be sent to other CAV plants to seek support and the Fazakerly men are demanding that trade should union committees examine the books of the entire combine. Liverpool Trades Council is setting committee to up examine the threatened closure.

Dave Martin, convenor of the factory, said on behalf of the shop stewards' committee that mass meetings had given 100- per-cent support for the fight against the closure. 'We will fight it with every means. The management arbit- rarily made a statement to us on Tuesday that they intended to close the site. We are now making a statement that they will not close. 'Delegates are going through- out the combine to appeal for support. We cannot allow the combine to get away with sack- ing 1,000 workers without a fight? Paddy Mullane, maintenance steward, said in a personal statement that he wholeheartedly supported preparations to occupy. 'We should leave no stone un- turned to keep the site open, but the big question is a poli- tical one. If we succeed and stop the closure here, it has to be part of the fight for the right work which can only be to carried through • by a fight to bring down the Tories and get a Labour government to carry out socialist policies with the same determination with which this government carries out Tory policies.'

ND NOW £25.05

E FIGHT TODAY

trade union movement. and All our support Is behind the ATUA conference on October 22. We urge all trade unionists to attend to discuss the building of such a leadership in every union.

Our Fund is vital for the pro •duction of Workers Press. Help therefore, make for a good Us, We know you • start this month. *will raise everything you can.

Post all donations immediately to: Workers Press 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG.

Scan page 3

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Thursday October 5, 1972

SPECIAL REPORT BY JOHN SPENCER

AMERICAN forces have dropped $95m worth of rain-inducing silver iodide canisters into clouds over.

the Ho Chi Minh trail in Indo-China, says Montreal meteorologist Bernard Power.

Power (53), president of the Weather Engineering Corporation of America, is suing the US government for £39.5m for using 'Weathercord'—a cloud-seeding device he invented ten years ago.

Patented in the US and is known of the long- nothing with Canada term effects of tampering the system explodes the weather, particularly on the 3lb canisters of silver iodide scale that is being undertaken in crystals dropped from planes.

Indo-China. If Power's figures are Rain-making was first used in correct, this that the US Vietnam, according 'New means has dropped some 2.5 million Ibs of York Times' 1963 1n August Buddhist the precious metal into monsoon when demonstrators clouds over Vietnam and Laos.

were active against president Ngo Dinh Diem. A former CIA agent This is roughly 17 per cent of told the paper: They would just silver production annual at stand around during demon- levels and would cost strations when the police threw some £25m at current prices. The at them. teargas silver is not recoverable once it is released the clouds 'But we noticed that when the over because the resulting rain distri- rains came they wouldn't stay on.

butes it over a wide area.

The Agency got an Air America Beechcraft and had it rigged up There is world shortage of with silver iodide. There was silver which growing more another demonstration and we acute and forcing up prices.

Con- seeded the area. It rained.' sumption is running at a level above The three months well capitalist world's outputn Ironically only later the CIA was instrumental in of new output silver in 1969 was 17.3 under organizing the assassination of million lbs. Diem by of group army cloud-seeding But generals. the In the same period, a total of programme was born. over 27 million ounces was con- sumed, much of it in applications From these small beginnings where recovery is low. rain-making has become US industry for the air force. The photographic industry, for Four of planes operating out instance takes 30 per of cent of the • Udorn top-secret section world production. Thailand are assigned airbase in Not only is the US rain-making full-time to the job. costly and programme extremely The purpose of the American flagrant of waste scarce rain-making over Indo-China IS natural resource, it is also highly primarily to hinder movement of the dangerous. When cloud- Vietnamese North troops and seeding policy was first revealed and anti- equipment suppress earlier this Dr Matthew year, aircraft fire. These of Harvard aims are Meselson University achieved by muddying roads and told the magazine Science: flooding lines of communication.

It is that obvious weather As an added refinement, the modification used as a weapon of US has developed a method for war has the potential for causing treating clouds with a chemical large-scale and quite possibly un- that eventually produces an acidic controllable unpredictable and rainfall capable fouling the Furthermore of destruction. such North Vietnamese operation of destruction might well have a far for radar equipment used on civilians than greater impact directing surface-to-air missiles.

on combatants. Other objectives of the pro- "This would be especially true gramme are to provide rain and in where subsistence areas agriculture is practiced, in food- cloud for infiltration of South Vietnamese commando delcit areas and in areas subject and intelligence teams into North to flooding.' Vietnam; 'spoiler' to serve as a As is well-known, much of liberation attacks for by the Indo-China falls into all three forces the pattern and to tailor categories. of and rainfall to assist clouds Last the fresciences US bombing missions. year National Academy •Sciences One of the main effects of the urged the. Nixon administration lengthen the programme was to at the to sponsor a resolution duration of the south-west mon- all United Nations 'dedicating North Viet- which Soon covers weather-modification efforts to Laos from May to and and peaceful purposes establish- early October. By lengthening the an advisory mechanism ing . .• rainy season the air force had the for consideration of weather- of opportunity creating more modification problems of national concern.' the Even after ten years, The US military choud-63e dina Pentagon almost is still as 1963 programme began. ignorant of the long-term secret until July this year was effects of cloud-seeding as it was New York Times' when the Advanced when it started. Its details of revealed the pro- Research Projects Agency gramme. sponsoring research to determine It began when the technique how' much tinkering with the of rain-seeding, first developed by atmosphere is required to disturb the climate on a global meteorologist even was in its very early days. noW almost scale. THE CENTRAL question facing the labour whatever if the NEC had had its way. And movement is the need for a campaign to -a few days after the building workers' force the Tory government to resign. This the NEC sought to strike delete the has not been forthcoming from the Labour building industry and finance houses, from Party conference. a nationalization resolution..

cases prominent 'lefts'- -Frank The Tory press is in broad agreement in both Allaun and lan Mikardo—were pushed for- that Tuesday's speech Harold by Wilson ward to argue the executive's case. While Tories. the right gets a completely free hand..on 'Financial Times' assessed Wilson's the Common Market, these gentlemen of plan as not unrealistic. the 'left' allow themselves to be com. 'Mr Wilson The 'Daily Mail' declared: promised rather than engage in a prin- 22- was careful not to reject the [Heath] cipled public battle with the NEC and fight a-week plan out of hand. He knows there for re-election in opposition to Wilson land is no alternative to something along these the right wing. lines all the socialist leader could do The defeat of the leadership on the was to point to some of the loose ends.'

questions of the rent rebels (by 4-1 And 'The Times' said: 'The criticisms majority) and nationalization was a victory rank and file of the Labour Party that Mr Wilson had to make of Mr Heath's tor the and the trade unions. commanded only someone Left wing delegates are also attacking knows what he Prime the executive because they say it has sup- Minister's place. That said, it should be pressed a resolution demanding that MPs acknowledged criticism decisions who act in opposition to Party neither obstructive nor wholly negative.

should be made to resign and should not be re-endorsed. But this, important as it is, The Labour leader, presented is not the main question.

no policy at all for socialism. advance from the political bankruptcy Without a campaign to force the Tories which allowed the Tories to take office to resign, all the discussion at Blackpool 1970. That bankruptcy opened the door for is meaningless. Resolutions on nationali- the Tory attacks on workers' living stand- zation, rents and the Common Market are ards which flow. are now And words unless a Labour government In workers fighting these attacks are being pledged to carry them out is put into rejected by the Labour leaders at Black- office. pool. Tenants facing rent rises, workers Tenants and those Labour councillors facing restriction and unemploy- fighting who are this week's rent rises ment, housewives facing ever-mounting would have been given no protection costs, want action as well as words.

TORY

PREMIER

Edward Heath's declaration about the French Pompidou President to permanency of British call off the summit this summer.

Heath, in Italy for talks with accession is intended premier Giulio Andreotti, has to reassure the other Heath said after his talks with leaders over Market said that future British agreed no Inal boln nad they may have that any icals government will be able to Labour government might meaning, the renegotiate treaty of Britain out of the Market.

fight bledged accession to the Common In of Harold Wilson's higher wages and attack workers' view Market. position adopted at the Black- living standards. Party conference This is likely to be a key issue His position was echoed by their fears at the summit next week, when Sicco Mansholt, Dr president by the are en- monelary questions of the European Commission, tirely unjustified. will also be high on the agenda. who said there was no ques- The of British permanency Heath and Andreotti also dis- tion of Britain the renegotiatng entry key element 1s a • 1N the proposed European cussed which the entry treaty at some future Doll car mater alon Conference

OCCULIL'

WILC

visit. date: the being promoted Soviet declaration Union and other East European sue walls to negotiate the British employers to sub- treaty, it has new to signed as á means of ratifying their own orolnae nanonal by all nine member countries. terests to those of the European She won't get it.' monopolies Heath's visit comes just a week as a whole. before Declarations come cheap, Paris and they cutesirell however leaders spent most of their time over deep-going divisions The discussing the issues which within the

EEC

created by are likely to be raised at that meet- international crisis. 1Ic. alinost causedl

THE

GREEK colonels will and his wife attended a reception embassy in open an Peking on an official invitation.

before the end of the year.

This first official was contact between Franco's and The agreement establishing between diplomatic relations china yet enjo. diplomatic relations. Chief host Greece and China was or Lopez Bravo was Chia Kuan- in Albania in June. Chinese nua. vice-minister diplomats Mao's had more tor roreign Alairs. success on Tuesday in their court- • Who will be next on the road of the Tory Foreign Minister 111k alli worki o Peking' regimes which keep their cass wil lead a British voltas-none own Maoists firmly in jail. dest from october 29 to for- At the United Nations, Spanish visit from October to Nov- Minister Foreign Lopez Bravo Andreotti ember L.

Scan page 4

BY ALE›

DELEGATES gave a rough ride to Labour's open pro- Common Market faction in yesterday's debate.

Jack Peel, right-wing general secretary of the Dyers,

'BONN

Bleachers and Textile Workers, who lost his seat on the TUC General Council recently, told the delegates above considerable noise: 'The NEC statement gives us a basis for unity. Divorce? No 1 'With it we can win. tive parliamentary candi- date for Horsham, Without it, we shall be said a clear conference decision isolated from Europe and after, by every member of The was required. terms from power in this coun- the Labour Cabinet be- and the treaty were un- try for a generation.' tween 1967 and 1970, in- acceptable. cluding Mr Peter Shore, Peel said that there was Anti-Market MP Peter and including Mr Benn' substantial minority Shore despite said that Against a background of the party in favour of the and pressures persuasion Market. groans, appiause and people have The british Hamilton said: "The 'One third of the Parlia- remained resolutely Labour Party's record Labour Party are whole opposed TO The not a credible one.' pro-Marketeers.' proposition Michael Foot, the newly- This greeted with We have won the argu member the al artar shouts of 'traitors' and ment in the country and, national executive, said: 'shame'. believe too, we have "The worst aspect of the really won the argument in He said that they Tronic whole Common Market the next General the Party as a whole. not win affair is that the He urged: 'We have to Kurtich mereV Ny making people being driven are full-blooded socialist mobilize the country in an the Market by Heath speeches. election and fight to stop and his government with- •We have to persuade the the whole wretched pro- out consultation, without cess of surrender.' country we we are fit to gov- their consent and as far as ern. to govern There were cries of all the indications show, chairman we have to persuade the 'coward' when against their will. Anthony Wedgwood Benn we have construc 'Indeed the case is even alternative policies. announced that Roy Jen- TITe worse than that. Words We have kins had indicated that he he consistent were used by Heath at the in our behaviour. did not wish to speak in last General Election Peel added against loud the debate. deliberate purpose, the thA shouts: were in Benn had earlier said 'We sole purpose might favour of entry on principle that pro-Market leader Last Tenzina been among Ive vears ago. vear harl

BILLBOARD

stood out the MPs who wanted to speak. against for local Blackpool news- Now Another pro-Marketeer, Tens WATe are pro outside the Con- posing to paper go back on the Willie Hamilton, MP for West Fife, ference hall: principle. What platform i booed and 'Complete Entertainment that for Harold Wilson at hissed during his speech.

the next election? said: Guide totally is a was convinced and remain con-

WILSON'S PLAN

sure ticket tor defeat. There were shouts of vinced by the arguments

TO END

'rubbish'. put forward by Harold

INFLATION?

Leaghton, prospec- Ron Wilson in 1967 and, there-

THIS

YEAR'S

Party earnest talks with the doesn't seem like a bad chairman Anthony Wedg- rank and file. bloke does he? wood Benn, has been con- Union of Post the companion com- AT spicuous in his attempts to Office Workers-Post Office mented the former woo trade unionists' Engineering Union Technology Minister: 'You

SUD-

recen. tion he held forth for an must be joking, ane cost un nort At every reception Been hour with a groun of grim- jobs han more and wife have When think of, postmen. he heen torad engaging in 'participatory left their company one of You can fool some of the democracy' by holding them 'He said hesitantly. people some of the time ...

A 2,000-STRONG

kids get m as s Kinose turn it wil be next going don' know meeting of workers at the Triumph factory, Meriden. black has been imposed Coventry, from the rest of the factory on has voted to Friday—9 a.m production going into and out of financial support for raise the spares department. the 66 sales and service The company has set up department workers who firm new called

CHARLOTTI

International struck work on Monday. Triumph BSA Spares. This com- is part of a pany, says Triumph, Clarinal manual workers 28 struck over the Triumph board of allow which wil the company to 'shop about' for directors' daricion to tronator tha whole department to Birmingham Im of spares cous the pro- other wonde tha by the beginning of December duction Yesterday's meeting agreed to outside the Triumph motor evcle 50p-a-week levy through- group. pay The out the factorv. move to Birmingham Engineers' John could well mean that told neer more than McLoughlin the 66 meeting: inet tha in the spares

TOTTENHA!

inha "These trade unionists and service department would be whose basic rights- -their right to lost. In fact. the warlord at defending. factory fear up to one-fifth, about are believe it is imperative that 360, of their we jobs could be take up the fight. When the whiz affected.

\LEX MITCHELL I

e? No we don't belleve in It, do almost say, of excluding the Common Market issue from the General Election.'

Foot said of the pro- Marketeers in the party: I respect their views. I would not be any party to stifling the rights of • is ' minorities to speak.'

This applauded was enthusiastically and Foot added: I have never said Roy Jenkins or anyone else should be called upon to recant their views. But now face this situation and let the pro-Marketeers face it.

What happens to that doc- trine after January 1, because Heath is saying to all of us who are against entry: "You have to recant views after January your 1." 'Don't let anyone imagine that the fight about the Common Market is over on January 1. Of That is the course not. time the British people are going to start paying—in food prices, in the Com- mon Agricultural policy, they will have to start paying to the economic and monetary union.' Foot added: 'Heath says that you have no right to settle the question of British He has entry. slammed the door in your face. But we in the labour going to movement are open that door because we say that the whole issue of the democracy in this country is at stake. 'If the British people are not allowed to settle this issue then we would have destroyed democracy? Foot was given a stand- ing ovation. ndon W1

BOOKS • PERIODICALS

-9 a.m.-7.30 p.m.

RLOTTE ST

GOODGE ST

• TUBE

TENHAM CT RD

Workers Preca, Thun ELL in Blackpoo

EGE

In It, do we dear?

PAUL

CALLAN

editor of the 'Daily Mail's' gossip column: 'Don't a reat- call me tionary. I'll have you know I started the first communist society at Eton.' Rough and tumble GLOVES are off for a rough-and-tumble by-elec- tion in Lincoln. During the conference's secret session Dick Taverne, QC, MP, did not appeal against his dis- missal as a Labour candi- date at the next election, but later he made it known that he is going to resign the seat shortly and fight the by-election as an inde- pendent. Roy Jenkins and his col- leagues have indicated they may campaign for Taverne against the official Labour man. The Tory press has been primed to aid Taverne. "The Reds have taken over Lincoln', one political correspondent told us this week. Which gives us a glimpse of the sort of treatment the by-election will get in the press. Already local Party agent Pat Mulligan has issued a writ against Nora Beloff of the 'Observer' over one of her articles.

OD CALS !

• NEWSPAPERS

PAPERBACKS

rosa, Thuraday October 8, 1872 PAGE 3 ‹pool SINCE the miners' strike a group of right-wing Labour- ites in the union have been drawing up plans on how to stop the influence of com- munists. One of the attacks they are is against the right of directing Communist Party members to attend Labour conferences and participate in decision making on their delegation. At present these CP members sit in the public gallery through- out conference and join in fre- quent discussions with Labourites to frame policy on which way to vote. Now the right wing want to end this.

They want the CPers out of the hall and the conference al- together. Gormley: Agreement with Rumania on economy. MEANWHILE Joe Gormley the miners' leader is basking in the reflected glory of the smash- ing of the Tory pay norm. In private conversation Gormley projects himself as the architect of the fight. This will come as a great surprise to thousands of miners who watched Gormley throughout the strike plead with the Tories for a settlement at almost any price. And to show how • really left he is, Gormley is telling the story of his recent visit to Rumania. He got very upset he says when he was introduced as being a leading right winger.

He began a discussion on with the Rumanian economics leader who, you will remember, has just taken his country into the World Bank and the Inter- national Fund. Monetary Rumania thus becomes the first East European country to enter these citadeis of capitalist power.

When they completed their discussion, Gormley says they found they were in complete and total understanding on the sub- ject of economic management.

'So how can I be a right winger? Gormley asks.

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.

Scan page 5

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Thursday October

BY DAVID MAUDE

One of the most vehe-. nent opponents of last week's inquiry report or Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act was Baron Wigg of Dudley, security bloodhound for Harold Wilson until he was pro- moted to the Lords and the Horserace Betting Levy Board in November 1967. Lord Wigg (71), once plain Cecil Wigg, George Edward attacked Lord Franks and the inquiry team which 12-man prepared the report as 'a crowd of bloody amateurs' He ranted: If the govern- ment does what Franks says, the beacons will be going up in the Kremlin. It might have weakening our the effect of security and at the same time imperilling our freedom.'

Lord Wigg appears to be having it both ways here. He that spies wants to suggest would find it easier to get government secrets under the Franks proposals, while at one and the same time implying it would make the circulation of information more difficult.

Wigg's is But comment typical of the hysterical, Red scare atmosphere generated in several sections of the mass media around the report. In some cases the language used was reminiscent of ex- treme right-wing Tory MP Enoch Powell, whose amazing and quite unsubstantiated alle- gations of Civil Service con- cealment of the real facts' about immigration hit thei headlines during the last General Election campaign.

The reason for this atmos- phere today is as obvious as that for the splash coverage given to Powell in June 1970.

The British ruling class desperately needs backing from the middle class for its bid to destroy living standards and the organizations of the work- ing class prior to Common Market entry. Its media men must there- fore seize on every oppor- tunity to whip the middle class in behind the Tory government and the politics of 'the nation' This, then, is the first point y October 5, 1972 about the Franks report: it should not and cannot be separated from the general de- velopment of the class struggle in Britain today. But to say this in no way implies acceptance of the pic- ture Wigg's comment conjures up, of a set of wishy-washy liberal proposals which might in some way lift the veil of secrecy from the workings of capitalist government. Quite the opposite. The second, and most im- portant point about the report is that if implemented it will in fact strengthen government powers to withhold information and clamp down on the work- ing-class press. of the Official Section 2 among other things, any note, document or infor- mation been ob- which has tained in contravention of the Act or which has been en- trusted to him as a person office under the holding Crown. It provides that he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour if he communicates it to any- one other than those he is authorized to communicate it to. The committee of inquiry found the section 'a mess' obscuring important the distinction between espionage and the mere leakage of infor- mation. It said this should be re- placed by a new Act, known as the Official Information Act, which would penalize those who leaked information caus- ing 'serious injury to the in- terests of the nation'. '. The re- maining sections of the Official Secrets Act could then appro- renamed priately be the Espionage Act. Under the new Act, those liable for prosecution would include government Ministers, civil servants, members of the armed forces, the Atomic Energy Authority and the Post Office. People serving under them or employed by them would also be liable. So would re- tired employees and members of the legal profession acting for the Crown or the police in bringing prosecutions.

The types of information the proposed new Act would cover would be: • Classified information about security, internal defence, foreign relations, the currency or the reserves. • Information likely to assist criminal activities, or impede law enforcement. • Cabinet documents. • Information which has been entrusted to the government y a private individual or con cern. Penalties would include two years' imprisonment or an un- both, for amited nne, or

COL"

indictment. On viction on summary conviction the penal- ties are six months or a f400 fine.

SECRET AND

CONFIDENTIAL

suggested provisions The would open the way to a wide- reclassification of in- formation and a much more drafted set tightly of provi- for deciding when sions offences had been committed.

The reclassifications -into "top secret', 'secret' and "cont- basis -would form the dential of prosecution. It would be the government undertaken by through the Ministers or civil servants concerned. Wide powers would thus be of handed to the government the day to suppress relatively inconsequential, but embarrass sing information as 'secret'.

of the And a clear result tighter drafting was clearly ex- pressed last Sunday by Brian editor of the 'Sunday Roberts. Telegraph'. Admitted Roberts: 'It might well result in more secrecy than at present, where an cul tor may take a slight and ill- defined risk under Section damned "publish and be and If this is the fear of the high Tory 'Sunday Telegraph', the prosecution the threat of working-class press be

NUSU

intnitelv increased. The Franks report in fact rejects the idea that it should be a defence to a charge under the proposed legislation the disclosure in question was Top: Lord Wigg who called Lord Fran 'a crowd of bloody amateurs'.

made in good faith and in the public interest. It does so on the grounds that contentious political issues cannot be left to a jury, and that in rebutting such a defence the prosecu- tion might itself have to dis- close secrets. What is more, the report proposes to leave a political appointee, the Attorney- whether or not pro- General, ceedings are taken. Lord Franks and I his 12-man inquiry toas the two Unlike Wigg, Labour MPs who the on (Merlyn Rees and Incull y

TUC

Brian Walden) and the gave evidence leaders who Marxists do not accept the right of the capitalist state anti-working class conauct Its business in convale Neither do they accept its right Inumidate or fine those who seek to bring to light the Clandestine work.

ings of government.

Scan page 6

FOR RIGHT WING

BY OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

President Andreotti's Italian government allows the fascist move- ment to organize military training camps for its youth movement. is The police force other- wise engaged in rounding up left-wing militants with the backing 'anti-subver- legal of sion' section of laws drawn up by Mussolini. Meanwhile the Italy Com- munist Party strives to give this reactionary government every possible support in its efforts to bring advanced democracy to Italy. On September 16, Andreotti visited the town of Sesto to present the citizens with a gold medal for their heroic partisan struggle the against fascists during World War II. The Italian Stalinists were in the vanguard to welcome his and to tribute prevent any opposition to the fraudulent ceremony. On the eve of the presiden- tial visit, the walls of Sesto were covered with posters signed by the CP. and the trade unions under their control. They called on all citizens to make sure that the event 'was not disturbed by initia- tives Which favour provoca- tions and manoeuvres harmful to the of anti-fascism cause and democracy'. They added: No opening be allowed for must groups which have as their objective division anti-fascist the . of unity. The CP was readily suppor- ted by that respectable body of Sesto citizens-the police. They refused to allow Maoists and the centrist Lotta Con- tinua to organize a demonstra- where the tion to the square gold medal was to be handed over. road from The Milan to was lined with armed Sesto police with machine guns and Sesto itself was thronged with plainclothes police and men on the day of the visit.

RED

When Andreotti arrived and .began his speech in the People's Square, a contingent of workers from Breda the factory began to shout: 'The resistance is red, not Christian Democratic' The police attacked the dem- - including youth onstrators and students-arresting several off workers who were driven in police The police vans. Com- were supported by munist Party stewards sport- ing red arm bands. Their combined efforts were enough silence not to the workers' anger at the hypo- critical praise for the partisans from a President whose power rests on the votes of the fascist Italian Social Movement. Top: President Andreotti, using laws dr

ARGENTINA

REVISIONISTS

PRESSURE

LANUSSE

The Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRT) of Argentina joined has with Juan Coral's Social- ist Party (PSA) in a sum- of left' mer campaign General pressure on Lanusse's military gov- ernment. The two parties have demanded that military une 'retire' from power! The PRT is backed by the Pabloite revisionist Socialist Workers' Party in the United States, which made this gran- diose claim for the PRT's partner in a recent issue of the weekly 'Militant': "The

PSA,

has called upon all working-class organizations to refuse to participate in the conferences organized by the dictatorship military and oppose all blocs with any sec.

of the capitalist class' tor fact, in build-up to In the the forthcoming elections

PRT-PSA

delegation visited the Co-ordinating Committee of the of the Political Plan military dictatorship to pIe• revolutionary docu- sent ment: "They must go'. The document, which entirely aimed at the military bourgeois parties and Peronist bureaucracy of the CGT (union federation) on the military to retire from the exercise or power: If the military kind were enough to absent themselves,

PSA-PRT

the wants 'pact of guarantees for the working class, people and nation, supported by all par- ties which are for the work- ing class, the people and national liberation'. This pact will call for broad, coalition aemocrauc government in constituent Top: President Andreotti, using laws drawn up by Mussolini (above).

assembly which will open the Press, Thursday October 5, 1972 PAGE 5 way up for socialism. Such an approach to the generals merely gives their election a left tinge. This much is clear from the PSA- PRT conception of the 'his- torical failure' of the armed forces in Argentina. 'The failure of the Argen- revolution is tinian new example of its historic impo- tence in bringing progress to the people and the country, whether with parliamentary democratic or dictatorial forms' -Perhaps the PSA-PRT has in mind progress through Peron's 'humane' dictatorship, or more currently, the 'progressive' dic- tatorship of the Peruvian gen- eral, Juan Velasco? Despite this 'historic failure' and despite the imprisonment, torture and murder of trade unionists and students, the Pabloite/social democratic alli- ance believes: 'It is evident that since Gen- eral Lanusse came to power there has been a change in the national situation, with the tardy, imperfect opening up of a process leading to polítical legality? (Emphasis in original.)

Consequently, 'unlike the other parties, we do not ques- tion the reforms which the armed forces wish to introduce in the 1853 Constitution ..

('Avanzada Socialista', No. 26.

Paper of the PSA.) Petty-bourgeois opportun- ism, veering from adventurism to reformism, is the hallmark of the Pabloites in Argentina.

The SWP backs the PRT of Moreno. The European Pablo- ites support the Revolutionary People's Army (ERP). The ERP's futile shoot-outs with the army are the other side of the PRT-PSA's praise for Lanusse's legality. Both are tailor-made to dis- orientate the militant working class in Argentina.

Scan page 7

DERRY DOOMED IF SHIRT FACTORIES CLOSE

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Thursday October 5, 18

BY IAN YEATS

The challenge of cheap imported shirts is kicking the props from under the last major industry in the Belfast, towns outside Northern Ireland. Isolated 80 miles north west of Ulster's capital, London- with unemployment derry, already running at 20 per cent, will be worst hit. With Iceland to the north, the wilds of County Donegal to the west and a two-hour drive to the nearest easterly centre of industry, Derry is businessman's first not every choice. Generous bait has been laid out by the Derry Development ursday October 5, 1972 Commission including grants to 40 per cent for of up and machinery, equipment building, tax allowance, free loans, factories depreciation, low and training rents, at grants of up to £15 a week per man. The Maydown industrial estate set up in 1960 on the outskirts of Derry was the earliest and—after the fighting in 1969—virtually the began fruit of these lavish 'only concessions. Firms which set up there include Du Pont, the British Oxygen Company and Molins, the tobacco machinery manu- facturers. output has in- Although creased, the number of wor- kers employed by these firms and at Derry's three other industrial estates at Pennyburn, Bligh's Lane and Springtown has actually dropped. The desperation of a situ- ation in which second genera- tion unemployment is now a common feature-fathers and sons-has been recognized by the Tory government. It has announced cash inputs total- ling £110m to 'rejuvenate' the area. Many Derry homes have been kept going by wives and daughters supplementing Social Security payments with their from work at local income shirt factories. A new bombshell has been dropped into this aiready dis- astrous employment situation two of the largest shirt Tillie and manufacturers, and Hogg and Henderson Mitchell may have to close.

Others are claimed to be under pressure. This threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of is workers nothing to do with the sec- tarian violence which has raged for the last three years.

Only two weeks the ago shirt manufacturers' associa- tion warned that up to 70 per cent of the home market had been lost to foreign imports. The threat to jobs in Derry and in other primarily rural towns dependent on the cloth- ing trades springs entirely from cut-throat competition the manufacturers are forced. to engage in as their markets contract under the impact of world recession. Urgent talks between the owners of the factories and the Ministry of Commerce are going on. But should they fail, up to 1,200 girls will lose their jobs, further deepening the already fathomless poverty in which scores of families live.

A spokesman for the Ulster Office said that if the factories shut the situation would be 'very serious'. Derry is by no means alone in its plight. Isolated towns like Strabane and Newry, for whom the clothing and textile mills and workshops of the 19th century were their life- blood, share its predicament.

Most of their problems have been caused by the demise of the linen trade. In the eight years up to 1971 production fell by more than a third.

• It was replaced by the syn- fibre production in thetic plants owned by the giant world monopolies like

ICI,

Courtauld's and Dú Pont. But the branch factories they set up to cash in on the avail- and com- ability of cheap paratively docile labour em- ployed few people and were centred around Belfast. The towns and villages of what has become rural Ulster fend for have been left to is It significant themselves. that it is often in these places, with their high and insoluble unemployment, that violence has been fiercest. Ulster has The industry sticks close to Belfast, a city where half Ulster's 1,527,293 population lives and works and where businessmen find all the services they need conveniently clustered together. If local markets are not large, at least Belfast has the virtue of being on the coast and therefore closest to the sales possibilities offered by England's industrial north west and Midlands. In response to sharpening competition output has gone up throughout the troubles— rising from 142 in 1969 on the production index to 157 today. But unemployment has continued to rise. It now stands at 45,226, or per cent, and of 8.7 much the increased output has come from upped productivity rather than extra employment. The Ministry of Commerce freely admits that in the last decade and particularly in recent years companies have set up in Ulster because labour is cheap and they have been able to introduce work prac- tices that are unacceptable to workers elsewhere in Britain.

Production has been further helped by the employers, the government and trade unions impressing on workers that the already tenuous links between the textile giants and the Six Counties would not be strengthened by strikes.

Last year stoppages were down by a third. Bulk of the jobs lost directly as a result of the troubles have been in the retail sector, and 2,000 workers have been sacked because of closures.

Since 1969 only ten manu- facturers have left Ulster as a direct result of the fighting, with a loss of 621 jobs. bombings Shootings and Workers Presa, Thanaday ig mill in Bellast. Top: dole queue in hipyard. Balow: boarded shops, Newry.

= = have emptied what were once busy shopping areas and small businesses have been the first to the wall. Shopping multiples, many of them owned outside Ulster, have lasted longer.

Ulster is the Tories' biggest lame duck. And much of its major industry, including Bel- fast's shipyards, is utterly dependent for its survival on millions of pounds of govern.

ment aid. Should the shipyards fail, scores of small engineering factories, already cutting back, would crash with them. Tory money is propping up the economy of Belfast and much of that of Derry. Aid for the ailing shirt manufac- turers will take it the whole hog there too. The problem is that no ay October 3, 1ST2 PAGE 7 Top: dole queue in Derry. Above: welder in amount of Tory money will pump life into dead markets and sooner or later those who pay the government piper will start calling the tune. Capitalism is to blame for the problems of poverty and unemployment which have dragged in Ulster for on decades. The closure of Derry's shirt affecting Catholic factories, and Protestant workers alike, rams home that it is recession and the employers who are of Ulster's the root cause troubles. This also points the way to the unity of Northern Ireland's working class, without which it is incapable of joining with British workers and striking decisively at the real enemy—— the Tory government.

Scan page 8

AFTER THE DEFEAT

OF THE GERMAN OCTOBER

Above: Zinovie in his heyday, dominant in the Comintern and Intervening personally in the KPD's affairs In Germany.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thursday Octob Part seven of a series by Tom The defeat of the German October in 1923 opened a new period in the his- tory of the German Com- munist Party (KPD). The period of temporary stabilization in the capitalist world removed the immediate prospect of revolution. The rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union and the changes which ensued in the leadership and policy of the Communist Inter- national made themselves felt in what was called 'bolsheviza- tion' of the Communist Parties.

This process, which brought the parties under the control of the Stalin faction in the Soviet Communist Party, had more direct and serious effects on the KPD than perhaps any other party. Relations between Moscow and the German communists had always been close. German , was the main language of the time. International at this Many of its leaders knew Germany well and some, like Radek and Zinoviev, had in- ervened personally in the KPD's affairs The problems and internal situation the member of parties were always thoroughly discussed by the Comintern's Executive Committee or by special commissions set up for the purpose. The international- ism, which had prevailed in first years of the Comin- the tern under Lenin and Trotsky, continued in a distorted form in the 1920s—this time as direct control by the Stalinist leadership over its hand-picked lieutenants in the national sections. The history of the German Communist Party-from its defeat in 1923 to its even greater and definitive defeat years later-falls into ten three main periods. These corresponded with divisions the zig-zags of the Comintern, determined by the needs of the Soviet bureaucracy dic- tated by Stalin. Although at some points the resisted German leadership these turns, it became increas- ingly docile to Moscow's demands. By the 1930s it without question accepted policies which many of the leaders themselves recognized to be dangerous, if not suicidal.

In the early years there was considerable freedom for dis- cussion and debate between clearly-defined factions. But as Party became increasingly the Stalinized, adherence to the line was mandatory. party Leaders or members who quickly opposed were expelled. After 1923 the Brandlerite right was in disgrace and the left dominated the party. This to do left wing had nothing with the Left Opposition in the Soviet Union, but was close to Zinoviev, who was dominant in the Comintern at this time.

This section of the leader- ship, under Ruth Fischer,- Arcadi Maslow and Ernst Thaelmann, continued in con- trol of the Party until just after the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1925 when Thaelmann took over complete control. In the meantime it had adapted itself to the right- ward turn which Stalin made in 1925 when Bukharin re- placed Zinoviev. From 1928 the KPD went over to the policies of the third period, corresponding day October 5, 1972 y Tom Kemp on the history of the Ge Above: Zinoviev in his heyday, dominar with Stalin's ultra-left turn as forced collectivization and in- dustrialization began. Throughout these years the KPD had an ultra-left wing, which seemed to constantly renew itself despite expulsions.

There were also supporters of Brandler and Thalheimer who stayed in the Party at least until 1929 when they were expelled. In addition there were many members of the permanent Party apparatus who went with the dominant faction or followed the direc- of Moscow without tions expressing a clear view of their own. Finally there were tendencies which had a local base or followed particular leaders. At one time, at the end of the 1920s there were as many as ten. In the following period of complete Stalinization the differences which remained were mainly on a personal basis and political discussion had sunk to a low ebb. The post October 1923 period was naturally domin- ter ated by the effects of the dis- aster, once it dawned on the fac f the German Communist Party ,, dominant in the Comintern and intervening / Party leadership how entire serious it had been. After the Hamburg uprising the govern- ment made the Party illegal, which added to its difficulties.

Many workers left or drifted from the Party in 1924. They were mainly elements favourable to the Brandler- Thalheimer right leadership and former members of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD). In many areas left's influence grew in Party. There was great the bitterness against the role of Democratic Party Social the a revival of ultra-left and trends, including hostility to trade union work. KPD influence in the unions declined markedly and many known communists were ex- pelled. Sharp differences be- tween the 'left' and the 'right' emerged in a debate on trade union work. This discussion and one on the October defeat was con- ducted under conditions of in- in- ternal democracy with free debate and the formation of he factions. Although the Stalin ervening personally in the KPD's affairs in Ger faction in the Comintern was able to use various pressures —such as detaining Maslow and others in Moscow, or demoting leaders-the Party was still very far from being an instrument of the Soviet bureaucracy. At this stage it was only beginning to emerge as a para- sitic layer in the workers' state. What has to be traced . is how this degeneration brought about the transformation of the KPD. In 1923-1924, despite losses in membership, the KPD re- mained a mass Party of the working class with consider- able influence in certain areas or among particular sections of workers. The claimed mem- bership in March 1924 was 180,000 against 380,000 two years before. Instead of an honest reckon- ing being made in Moscow of the reasons for the October 1923 defeat, the main concern was to find a scapegoat. The whole responsibility was placed on Brandler and his • while Zinoviev's supporters left in the dark. role was Irs In Germany. Zinoviev at this time was in alliance with Stalin. Both were anxious to find allies against Trotsky. The Comintern leaders tried to reconcile the warring fac- tions in the KPD. There were three main positions on the right October events: the (Brandler and Thalheimer) which had dominated the party at the time, justified the retreat; the centre accepted that a retreat was invoidable, but thought that it should have been made fighting; the left maintained that a great revolutionary opportunity had been missed. Right-wing leaders were called to Moscow and kept there while an attempt was made to bring the centre and left together and establish a new leadership. In fact the initiative rested with the left in the shape of Arcadi Mas- low, Ruth Fischer and Ernst Thaelmann. The first two were intellectuals-Maslow be- ing the main Party theoretician -while Thaelmann, later to become unchallenged leader, was a worker from Hamburg.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

Scan page 9

BY PHILIP WADE

Conventional thrillers always seem to be filled with plenty of darkness, harassed detectives sleuthing innumerable suspects and plenty of overt violence. At the end of it all, so the moral goes, the good cop comes out on top. When Claude Chabrol makes a thriller it is entirely differ- ent. 'The Butcher' is almost in the form of a film essay.

In fact, the murder of three girls French from a small rural town assumes a sort of sub-plot around which the main essence of the film is played. out. The flm's main characters and plot are carefully and thoughtfully unwrapped rather than revealed at the beginning for all to see. It opens with celebrations at a wedding of a local schoolteacher. But the camera selects the main participants by regularly zooming in on Helene, the young, vivacious headmistress of the school and Popaul, who has returned to his native town after 15 years in the army.

And then only as he walks her home after the wedding does he reveal that he was a butcher in the army, like his father before him. 'Do you like meat?' he asks her. A strange question on any count.

The first murder is intro- duced almost casually. In silence the camera pans on the local gendarmerie and then fades. It is linked with the two characters in passing. main One of the children in the play- ground mentions the fact as they are hustled inside for the class, police with dogs march past to examine the body and look for clues. Yet the same day Popaul arrives at the classroom with a present for the headmistress-- a leg of lamb. Then the film turns again as she takes the initiative and much to his sur.

prise invites him to dinner. In the evening it twists yet again when he is the first to men- Top: Helene (Stephan Audran) and v Yanne) the butcher in the army and in th tion the murder. By now Chabrol has built up a relationship between the two.

She has no lover because of a disappointing affair some years ago. Yet it is obvious she feels something for the local butcher who is kind and generous and altogether an apparently pleas..

ant man who was sickened by the carnage he saw in Algeria and Vietnam. Only mid-way through the film does it tighten in tension with the first real evidence that Popaul is the murderer.

Chabrol manages And to maintain the link nicely between the couple by having Helene discover the body on a school outing. She also finds at the scene a lighter she gave as the butcher for his birthday.

Perhaps, not unexpectedly, she pockets it and says nothing to the police. the plot revolves Still around her deep felt but hid- den passion for the man. And this continues throughout the film. The butcher himself maintains this affection for Helene, throwing the murders which he has committed into some sort of relief. Inevitably, of course, he - n) and victim. Centre: Popaul (Jean and in the town. confronts her with his role as murderer, especially when he the lighter he left at discovers scene of a murder in the Helene's room. For those used to conven- tional thrillers made in the American-style, the ending will be a surprise. But considering the main plot of the film it is not. Suffice to say that it closes with Helene wistfully a mist-laden staring across river, shattered. Chabrol's direction is beau- tiful. The ambling pace of life in the countryside is set per- lack of hurry fectly by his over seemingly unimportant scenes. At the same time, of course, he is building and developing his theme, patiently making the connections. The two principal actors their own sketch and draw characters rather than being one by the imposed with screenplay. all this the photog- Amid raphy is superb, with exquisite use of colour and softness in the accustomed manner of film directors. "The French Butcher' is in fact, if there is such thing, a poignant murder film. Workers Press, Thursday October 5, 1972 PAGE 9 There is a growing interest in Chairman Mao's China, according to the Universities of Leeds and London School of Oriental and African Studies. Applications are the increase for the four-year Chinese studies degree course.

Brian Hook, a lecturer 1n the Leeds Chinese Studies De- partment, says the people who those apply are often who 'attracted by the land of are Mao'. What sort of jobs do they get? The Foreign Office, the Bank of England and the news media, says Mr Hook. King Hassan of Morocco's from hasty return Paris on private jet, August 14 in his was attacked by dissi- which dent air force officers out to kill him, followed information from the French secret service up-and-coming company that something suspicious was can consider itself really set going on at home. up in business these days with- suggested This is in an out at least two different ways article in the journal 'Afrique- of getting above the madding Asie'. It says that his attention crowd, it seems. was called to discontent in the You've about the heard army and he decided to return building employer who used without consulting his Interior his helicopter to ferry non- Minister, Oufkir, the real in- unionists over the strike picket spirer of the plot to overthrow a site in Basildon. line into him. Well there may be no con- Commandant Kouera, whose nection at all, but the young intercepted royal plane the heirs to the Marks and Spencer Boeing, had instructions to have millions Just spent force it to land at the Kenitra £80,000 on a mint condition King re- air base. When the Westland-French Gazelle heli- fused do this, Kouera to opened fire and finally directed copter they saw at the Farn- borough Air Show. his jet against the Boeing and (22) and Julian Sacher used his ejector seat. Michael Glass (24) have already The other jet fighters, which acquired two executive jets for were obliged were not armed. their new company Meriot In- to Kenitra and the to return ternational. pilot of the Boeing was able And so anxious were they to bring it down at Rabat air- for the Gazelle they refused to port. first delivery date accept the The paper claimed that after early next year. They insisted landing Hassan took refuge in until on taking the demonstration the Lebanese embassy model. the danger had passed. Sacher is son of the It adds that Oufkir was not store assistant liquidated at the royal palace group s managing director, while Glass is married of Shirat. Instead, knowing the to Diana Lerner, grand- game was up and taking flight, daughter of store-chain founder he fell into an ambush and burst of Lord Marks. The question is: killed with a was would machine-gun fire in Hassan's • man the have approved? presence.

LEON TROTSKY:

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

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Scan page 10

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thuraday Octol Hotel terence and the Revolutionary Party.'

WEST BROMWICH:

Thursday October 5, 8 p.m. "Wagon and Horses', Lewisham Road. 'ATUA conference'. BRACKNELL: Monday October 9, 8 p.m. Priestwood Community Centre. 'The ATUA national conference.' COVENTRY: Monday October 9, 8 p.m. 'Market Tavern', Junction Street (off the Butts). 'ATUA conference. BIRMINGHAM: Monday October 9, 8 p.m. Lecture Room 3, Digbeth Civic Hall. 'ATUA conference.

SOUTH WEST LONDON: Tuesday October 10, p.m. Clapham Clapham Manor Manor Baths, Street, SW4. "The ATUA confer- egce'. WEALDSTONE: Tuesday Octo- p.m. Wealdstone 10, 8 Labour Hall, Station Approach, Road. "ATUA Station ence'. MANCHESTER: Wednesday October 11, 7.30 p.m. Mil- ton Hall, Deansgate. 'Fight the rent Act! Build Councils of Action!' SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thursday October 12, 8 p.m. Deptford En- Now gineers' opposite Cross Station. ference'. LEICESTER: Thursday October 'Queen's Hotel'. Rut- 12, 8 p.m. land Street. 'ATUA conference.

Socialist Labour League

LECTURES

THE THEORY AND

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

given by

G. HEALY

(SLL national secretary) Historical materialism today Sunday October 8

EAST HAM

TOWN HALL

Lister Room Barking Rd, 7 p.m. Public Meetings Wages Jobs and the Fight against the Tory government Thursday October 5, 8 p.m.

Town Hall, Banbury Speaker: Gerry Healy, national the Socialist secretar _abour League Nottingham Wednesday October 11, 8 p.m.

Street, Thurland Hall, Pelham Nottingham Speakers: Roger Stenson (Secretary Bilborough Tenants' Association), Jim Butler (T&GWU branch chairman). Both in personal capacity.

John Eden (YS Nationaly Committee). THE POULSON bankruptcy hearing is expected to be the most costly of its kind held in Britain with a final £50,000 bill.

The 'Architects' Tournal' has de- manded immediate action by the Royal Institute of British Archi- professional conduct tects on charges laid against John Poul- 'Poulson was allowed six son. months by the professional con- reply to its duct committee to charges, says the journal. This period has now expired and the PCC should act at once? aday Octobor 5, 1972

BBC 1

9.42 Schools. 12.10 Bridges in Holland. 12.30 Telewele. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one.

1.30 Pogles' wood. 1.45 Tom and Jerry. 2.00-2.38 Schools. 2.50- 3.15 Nurses in training. 3.20 Garden of the gods. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 Adventures of Pars- ley. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.50 Deputy dawg. 4.55 Blue Peter." 5.20 John Craven's newsround. 5.25 Yogi bear. 5.45 News and weather.

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8.00 SYKES. Menace. 8.30 AS WE RECALL. John Snagge looks back at 50 years of the BBC.

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11.35 Weather. COUNCIL TENANTS attend- ing the first public meeting of the Orpington and Siacup angrily Council of Action demanded answers from the local prospective parliamentary candidate - who was in the audience — about the Labour leaders' betrayal of tenants.

The candidate was forced to speak, but he avoided straight answers to the tenants' demands.

chairman of Bill Freeman, printing, Joint Briant Colour Chapels Committee, told the A MASS MEETING of 6,000 workers at the Singer sewing machine factory yesterday hit back at management who have threatened to withhold rates from Clydebank council. they will not Singer have said pay the £20,000 rates bill because they claim it has gone up follow- ing the council's decision not to implement the 'fair rents' "Act.

stewards' Shop convenor Gavin Laird said after the mass meeting: £20.28 for 12 months (312 |s {10.14 for 6 months (156 iss £5.07 for 3 months (78 issue: If you want to take Workers Press f1 £1.56 for 3 months (24 issue £6.24 for 12 months (96 issu Fill in the form below NO Circulation Dept., Workers Press, i London, SW4 I would like to take out a subsc

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Calcutta. meeting that the Tory govern- ment must be forced to resign and be replaced by a Labour gov- pledged to socialist ernment policies. Laurie Smith from the Erith Committee of the District

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who. blamed the working class for the betrayals of the leaders and who talked of 'apathy'. The working class had shown that it was prepared to fight, he said. The workforce expressed their anger at management's interference in local politics.

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11.25 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

delegated from Alan Mayes, Klingers' shop stewards' commit- tee, described the threat of their management to move production abroad where cheaper labour was available. Pat Bridgeman from the Young for an alterna- Socialists called tive leadership in the labour movement to fight the betrayals of the present leaders. The meeting passed a resolu- tion of support for the Birming- ham conference of the All Trades Unions Alliance on October 22.

PICKETING is to be stepped up at the two Fife, Scotland factor- ies of GEC Telecommunications where over 2,600 workers have been on strike for the past eight weeks. This follows GEC moves to switch work to England.

After a meeting in Kirkcaldy a joint strike com- this week mittee spokesman said: It is not for me to say that the management are bluffing. But we are certain they are not going to move work out of the Kirk- caldy and Glenrothes factories.

We already have a 24-hour picket at the two factories, but this will now be intensified,' announced last The company it intended weekend that to switch manufacturing work south of the border to enable nearly 1,000 workers at the Aycliffe factory, County Durham to start work. The strikers have already re- jected a company offer of a f2 a week increase. Frelimo meetings SPEAKERS from Frelimo MPLA and PAIGC are to report on the liberation struggle in Mozam- bique, Angola and Guiné at two meetings next week. The meet- ings-organized by the Com- mittee for Freedom in Mozam- Angola and Guiné-are bique, on Wednesday October I1 at 7.30 in the Conway Hall, Red on Thursday Lion Square and October 12 at 2 p.m. in the Conference Hall, Central Col- legiate Building, Gordon St,

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6.18 Report Wales. 6.30 Sky's the limit. 7.05 And mother makes three. 7.35 Film: "Press For Time'.

9.30 London. 10.30 Alive and kicking. 11.00 London. 11.45 Spyforce. 12.45 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales 7 and 41 as above except: 2.30-3.00 Hamdden.

4.10-4.25 Miri mawr. 6.01-6.18 Y dydd. 10.30-11.00 Musicians in the making. HTV West as above except: 6.18- 6.35 Sport West.

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London. 3.40 Labour Party. 4.10 Sean the 4.25 News. leprechaun. 4.20 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.20 Arena. 6.35 London. 7.00 Film: Greengage Summer'. 9.00 The And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 11.45 Frighteners.

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2.20 Horoscope. 2.25 Women today. 2.55 Sports special. 3.45 Labour Party. 4.25 London. 6.00 • Film: Today. 6.35 London. 7.00 You'. 8.45 'Don't Look Behind Cartoon. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Golf.

11.15 Cinema. 11.55 Film: 'In the Dog House'. ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.32 Schools. 2.40 Cartoon. 1.40 special. 4.00 Romper Sports room. 4.20 News. 4.25 Cowboy in Africa. 5.20 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 London. 7.00 Pro- tectors. 7.30 Film: 'The Remark- able Mr Pennypacker. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London.

11.45 What's it all about?

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7.00 Cartoon. 7.10 Film: 'Bana- cek'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 11.00 the line. 11.30 Golf. TYNE TEES: 9.30 London. 4.25 Woobinda. 4.50 Junior showtime.

5.20 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 London. 7.00 Popeye. 7.05 Film: 'Some People' . 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Golf. 11.15 Cinema. 11.45 Police four. 1.00 call. 12.05 Division Revolving chair. SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Dateline Scotland. 2.55 London.

4.25 Lost in space. 5.20 Cross- roads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today.

6.30 Jimmy Stewart. 7.00 Film: 'The Quiller Memorandum'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Golf. 11.15 Cinema.

Late call. 11.50 Benny Hill.

GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 12.45 Sports special. 1.38 Schools. 2.42 Cartoon. 2.50 News. 3.00 Sports special. 3.45 London. 4.25 Elephant boy. 4.55 Junior show- time. 5.20 London. 6.00 News.

6.10 Mr and Mrs. 6.35 London. 7.00 Film: 'Not With My Wife, You Don't. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 11.45 Golf. 11.15 Cinema. Epilogue.

Scan page 11

Sharp reaction to CAV closure Kremlin chokes French CP magazine LUCAS WORKERS at Live pool reacted sharply to ti combine's threat against 1,00 jobs at the city's CAV vehicl pump factory at Fazakerly.

At both CAV and the nearby Luc Industrial Equipment factory, Worke Press was told that workers complete rejected the closure plans and wor fight them to a finish. Keith Wright, toolroom steward, CA said: don't redundancies accept closure. I'm convinced we can get anoth product. We can keep it open.

"Cond Diesel of Barcelona is mak A MASS meeting of 3,000 Tyneside boilermakers at Swan Hunter's shipyards yes- terday decided to continue their four-week-old strike for a £4.70 cost-of-living increase.

Their decision was a rebuff for McGarvey, Dan Boilermakers' Society president who on Tues- day night called yet again for a return to work. McGarvey speaking was to reporters at the Blackpool Labour Party conference. Ivor Mitchell, speaking on be- half of the apprentices who on Monday voted to support the strike with work sanctions, told the meeting that individual apprentices were being victimized by foremen. Terry Daley, secretary of the shop stewards committee, told Workers Press after the meeting: "There is no chance of boiler- makers going back for a £2 increase. The TUC should never have gone into talks with the Tories. They're just enmeshing themselves in a spider's web.'

BY JOHN SPENCER

THE FRENCH Communist Party weekly 'Les Lettres Françaises' presided over by the writer Louis Aragon is to cease publication next Tues- • day because of falling circula- tion. The daily paper 'L'Humanité' is also in serious difficulty and the party's central committee has appealed to the member- ship to act immediately to pre- vent a reduction in its size which would otherwise be necessary. cited by The chief reason Aragon for the winding up of 'Les Lettres Françaises' is the fact that it is now not sold 'in a number of overseas markets for extremely diverse reasons which there is no need to enlarge on here'. For several years the magazine has not been on sale in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and other East European countries because of Aragon's liberal criticisms of the Warsaw. Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Though the Kremlin has choked his journal, it awarded Workers Press, Thursday October 5, 1972 PAGE 11 exactly the same pump at half the price got to decide themselves. I think they men and women are being sacked merely cheap (Cond should We should then of profit. Surely this and because iesel support day to the them, even age a person's livelihood is more important nau a surike last vear wulca rased workers nicalls WC Lilt wages from £6.50 to £8.50 a week.) same than profit margins.' line or acton. comf workers here will say we will be jeopardizing. our jobs Peter King, also from Lucas Industrial, Equipment Lucas will be neustrial convenor by taking abs on jeopardiz- It is i support of be just said: Ray Reynolds, spea sing personal ing Our we con L.

GODS

brothers and action the members isa said Lucas one. that whatever their jobs can be moved somewhere else.'

CAV

on CAV take sisters we «Should ore- whole trade union movement bring shop 'If will endeavour support steward, said: serve Jobs, l Workers down the government. they

CAV

them. The shut down Should disastrous for are prepared to sit-in at we should them. this area. have the right suport Bob Stanton said: a disgrace. The No one It 1s power to affect the livelihood of 'Ihe Lucas combine is trying make sooner we get a good Labour government 1,000 people in this way.'

bigger for pronts. viable Them the better. what The employing. class 'Members in CAV Brian Stoneley said: 'I want to do some- will not win on their The working class is a greedy class. Is not thing can we do? Bob Stanton the support of other

OWIL

Inev

CAV

greedy JUSt sections of workers.' answered: could save 11 101 standards.' Lucas combine unite and say Equipments First and foremost Cadetail Lucas: ducan. It you do everybody will stopet "You're not closing factories •People should realize Turner to French rail pay quit as

TALKS

between rail union leaders and mind cement of the French railways open in Paris today following a series of partial one-day stoppages in dock shop various regions. The communist and reform- ist unions have joined together to submit demands over ditions of work and for steward revision of the existing system of Phe strikes n the railways strikes support these demands, however, have been organizea so as to cause

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

marginal disruption of only VIC TURNER, one of the five dockers services-24 hours in the Marseille and region minor jailed by the National Industrial Rela- actions elsewhere. tions Court, has said he wishes to 8,500 in resign Transport and General Workers' Union shop steward. AS chairman of the London port stewards' Bengal jails committee, Turner played a leading role in the recent national docks strike and its ending in London.

Turner: Position before meeting ABOUT 8,500 people are under arrest Bengal because west Precisely His reasons for what this stewards at the Royals picket off. they defied a government ban on over picketing Press demonstrations wanting to resign are mcans workers ately clear. Midland Cold Storage, immediately published to be put to a joint onces me mmend oment There has been the Hackney depot this con- important develop- They were arrested at the of

T&GWU

meeting siderable criticism the Vestey ment in the thinking of of three-day ownca campaign National Amal- family, where dockers the tendency ques- and organized by and London stewards' are fighting for jobs. tion. as Indira capitalist policieot est Party gamated Stevedores Bernie Workers stewards - Press was Other Dockers' -1n- and dele- during the one tendency cluding Indira Gandhi. Lallel come gates. But he says that

T&GWU

strike. that if secre- who have at The docks Police demonstra. OlOKE Neither spoken Jack could Royals amongst these is dis- tary Jones meetings states, but there tons in other mass meetings at were fewer arrests than in West illusionment with the prove uncle was a Das. lale- for negotiation with the the idea that it is their Bengal. novas. The line the

T&GWU

Communist Party Last week, Vestey's, there might be committee's intention to has ong supported the congress taking. blew up among grounds for calling the

TOW

end the picket. government and the demonstra- tions are merely aimed at putting orcosure or tand order nese •housanos ot the breakaway party other left- wing are In DISORI West and pro- Delea Moscow Stalinists have made little protest, over their fate.

Daily paper also in crisis Shots fired at Craig ULSTER Vanguard leader Wil- Aragon the Order of the October to the French Stalinists who are the tendency is reversed, this will Craig escaped an assassina- Revolution for his 75th birthday also in difficulties with the rest reduce impact and make tion attempt yesterday Tuesday. The award the their On I Humanite resu into its circula- fired 1 ucoudy Turtle his car at subject Diaper lical text tion. 1ull bart Icalure pubisned the Lisbull Tuesday's 'L'Humanité'. of a resolution to be submitted by the Central Committee to the Party's 20th magazine was Aragon c concess founded news- December. ender the German cups- According the resolution, non. Dave a

MAOR

the Party's daily 'must face up to the mobilization of French intel- I would like information about lectuals around the Communist •uncines so senious mar we wil not succeed in resolving them rally in une years allel lac war. communist this unless every burnt onto his consciousness' Aragon's pliable backbone and

THE SOCIALIST

his fulsome praise of Stalin won adds that: 'For him place the French CP "L'Humanité" the continuing tall Central Committee which he still in circulation which been

LABOUR LEAGUE

holes. MoscoW rewarde• him going with an honorary doctorate of worsening Welco Moscow University and the Lenin already dangerous, more the Fill in the form below and to NATIONAL University especially the of send ana Lenn ruze sale for services to 'peace between L'Humanité-Dimanche"

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

LABOUR

LEAGUE,

the peoples. Sunday magazine edition) is fall-

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

ing as well.' In recent however, ycals, order to maintain any credibility This means that the Sunday Name his French edition dillon? reduersilip, no loneer be abe as the past to make up Aragon has beeni forced to pub- IT 010 Address lish a certain amount of criticism the deficit sales the dailý. on Soviet literary The policy and the 'The resolution adds: hnan. invasion of Czechoslovakia • are sucn tnat our The loss •Les Lettres newspaper will shortly have Françaises' will be a serious blow cuts its numbers of pages unless

Scan page 12

Laying down the line—left, right and centre—Wayne Harbin, president of the Marathon Manufacturing Company

MARATHON CRUNCH

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday Octol Laying down

BY IAN YEATS

COMMUNIST PARTY leader at the Clydebank Shipyard Glasgow, face a stark choic today - prostrate themselve before the Marathon Manu facturing Company or lead real fight for the right to worl on the upper Clyde. shop When he meets stewards and union leaders at the Imperial Hotel Black- afternoon, Mara- pool this thon president Wayne Har- bin will repeat his 'co- operate-or-pull-out' warning.

Stalinist Clydebank convenor James Reid has already come makers, Pressure from boiler- under leader Danny Mc- to call off any new Garvey 'work-in' at the yard. And at his London hotel on Tuesday Harbin went out of his way to make it plain that there was no basis for a new work in by assuring workers that anyone made redundant would be rehired as quickly as possible. But Reid will have tough job persuading Clydebank's 2,000

WANDSWORTH

Labour council in south London have put notices up around housing estate rent offices saying how have to sorry they were to implement the 'fair rents' Act.

The fact remains, however, that the borough's thousands of council tenants have had their rents raised 75p. And no amount apologies from councillors of who refused to fight on the issue will make any difference on that score. In the Battersea district, on the huge Winstanley Estate, the tenants' association call to with- hold the increases has met with good Charlotte response. a Despard Avenue tenants are reported to be 80 per cent behind the call. At the rents office yesterday and around the adjacent shops, housewives were extremely bitter about the increases and most of them had refused to pay up.

Mrs Edith Aylott said: 'I think it's a bit much because the extra 75p would have to come out of my housekeeping out of my housekeeping. 'My rent is already £9.30 a for heating for which we have have to pay throughout the year.'

Her husband, who is a driver, had told her not to pay the in- crease. "The rents went up in April, they're going up now and it will be the same next April,' said Mrs Aylott. 'He got a rise in April and gave me fl out of it. But now with all the prices going up there's nothing left of it.

'Although I'm not paying I'm putting the money by. The only day October 5, 1972 g down the line-left, right and centr • leaders shipyard, • choice emselves Manu- lead a to work workers to throw themselves on Harbin's mercy. As the American arrives in Blackpool today the last ship to be built at Clydebank will glide down the slipway to be towed up- river for completion. ator and sub-contractors finishing this ship and three others due to sail not later than February.

So far Marathon has hired I only 450 men whom they have em- on demolition work in ployed preparation for converting the yard from shipbuilding to oil-rig production. This leaves about 800 men un- accounted for and it is these workers Reid and Harbin will primarily have to reassure as a today's of meeting, result although the 800 others will be going to wondering what is happen to them come February.

ur trouble is that some are paying.

ave But I don't think this govern- ment is always going to get the better of us.' 'Scandalous' how Mrs was Peggy Smith described the 75p imposed on her £5.92 a week rent. 'And the point is it will be going up again and again,' she told me outside the local Co-op where she had just spent some of the last of the week's house- keeping. 'Look, my husband's wages don't go up after this. Heath is sayıng we have no rights at all.

If we end up paying the increase it would mean giving up the car.

'I know that might sound like giving up a luxury, but my hus- band works in and Croydon needs it to get to work. In fact it's cheaper than the trains.

'Now I only wish we could get this government out, said Peggy.

In the nearby Battersea Park • Estate, a rent strike is also gathering pace. One of those not paying the increase is Pat Lebby.

Her rent is already £6.61 a week.

"To pay the extra rent means I have to cut down on every- thing. Everyone thinks the same about this government. But • lot of although there's been a resistance to the Tories it doesn't to have made much seem in difference. Yet if every tenant to pay they couldn't refused evict all of us.' Trade unionists at Hebburn, County Durham, have set up an action committee to co-ordinate industrial action in support of any tenant evicted for not paying only the rent increases. nd centre-Wayne Harbin, president of Reid claims Marathon agreed to employ 1,000 men immediately, but Harbin said in London that they would only work up to that number by the end of the year.

Harbin argues that his com- pany's programme to develop the yard was set back at least two months by the Tory government's failure to pass the Industry Bill by June 30 as promised. The legislation which allowed a f6m loan to be paid to Mara- thon was not finally passed until August 8. Harbin said at his London hotel: "This has set us behind in if people programme, but our Will be patient we will go ahead and • develop this yard and it could be one of the finest in Europe? added: You cannot just He 2,000 provide employment for people overnight. We pledged that in 18 months or two years would build up to that we number. 'We told the unions from the beginning that they had to be prepared to accept redundancies and the agreement was signed in the full knowledge of this.

'If we cannot get peace in the yards with the labour force and the unions then we must with- draw from the yards and if we have to we will. It is not too late. It is never too late.

'The idea of going back into the so-called work-in is very dis- ruptive and under the agreement usey promised not to do this to Harbin said he had now paid cash for Clydebank bringing his investment in the yard to total around $5m (£2m). worried that He was deeply continued labour unrest at the preventing Marathon yard was from clinching even a single order. Two drilling platforms which could have been made at Clyde- bank had already been trans- ferred to Singapore and Browns- south because ville, Texas, customers refused to risk delays and losses because of disputes at Glasgow. Harbin claimed $100m (£40m) worth of orders hung on today's decision. "There is a world of business', he said. 'But we are not going to we resolve these see it unless labour disputes. 'All customers our are American and they think a work- in is men taking over your - business. Of course it is not like that. You can't imagine what it is like trying to win a multi- million dollar order when the customer turns round and says "You are kidding, the men up there won't work" Harbin said he did not under- stand what the latest trouble at Registered as a newspaper at the Pos Press, Office. Published Workers by 186a Clapham High Street, London,

SW4 7UG.

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

SW4 7UG.

ldent of the Marathon Manufacturing Company ordinating committee signed with Clydebank was about, stressing Marathon. the pot' that 'stirring 'dis- was Harbin is a shrewd business- ruptive' and creating 'serious difficulties' for Marathon.

man with an eye for a deal, but the his anxiety about cost of He said: ' think there is an and delays disruption almost element which agitational there indicates the slender certainly it is difficult to understand. It is which his margins com- not if the temporarily as pany operates. redundant won't have a job ever.

When we start production they will come right back and they •

STEPHEN JOHNS WRITES

have redundancy pay to tide them FROM BLACKPOOL: Clydebank that period.' stewards at Blackpool yesterday Earlier he when arrived at refused to say whether the work- London's Heathrow from airport would be called off. in' America, Harbin made a scathing McGarvey said they were meet- Clydebank attack on shop ing Harbin today 'to get his full alleging the new work stewards, to the overall plans in relation inspired was a communist picture'. plot. He added: "The went out of his way men want to Later he do everything possible to make to be conciliatory to Reid: He this yard success.' said don't think it was right to could current problems be say the agitation communist- solved if a spirit of co-operation inspired. think James Reid prevailed. right to might have been take exception to that. I think I said Shop stewards are due to meet there was an agitational element before they see Harbin at 3 p.m. there with communist overtones. and idea which McGarvey one don't think I said that James redundancies one a cyclical casp will put them Reid by was inspired com- munists' ..Hе said yesterday could men Reid member of the civil contractors iS a be employed by National Executive of the Com- demolishing the yard so protect- munist Party. ing them from long-term redun- Harbin still made it clear that dancy. Marathon was a commercial com- Bob Dickie, at convenor first responsibility pany whose that Clydebank said yesterday to its stockholders: was 300 men will get their notice 'For some reason James Reid from the liquidator next Friday, feels he has a responsibility to but these will be employed com- the workers in the yards. We pleting the vessels already taken certainly don't feel we have upstream. obligation to provide employment He said a further 400 men for people who have never been on our payroll' within the faced redundancies weeks and the figure Harbin's remarks throw into next few high relief the tenuousness of the is expected to rise to 900-1,000 the Stalinist-led co- by Christmas. agreement The for all Send for delegates' and observers' cre- dentials Conference Secretary, from: R. Goldstein, 103 Lewis Flats, Dalston Lane, London E8 COCIAL TRAM PROM RUSTON, LONDON, $1.80. COACHES FROM OTHER ARRAS Union. Branch Names, addresses and No of delegates/observers I onclose € as delegatos feos Signature of secretary

← no. 884, 3 October 1972no. 887, 6 October 1972 →