Workers Press no. 898

workers press

UDA TAKE ROAD

TO CIVIL WAR

DAILY OR

THE WORKING CLASS of Northern Ireland is now threatened with its gravest crisis of all. Leaders of the Ulster Defence Association are cynically throwing away the lives of misled Protestant workers. On Tuesday they 'declared war' on imperialist army of the British occupation. Yesterday they sat down in talks with the British High Com- mand, discussing how best to bloodily supress the Northern Irish Catholics (in the name of dealing with the IRA). Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig had declared on Tuesday that unless the extreme right-wing Unionists were restored to power directly in a revived Stormont, then: 'We would make this country un- governable. No solution would be accepted here that does not have the consensus of the majority. These extreme right-wing organizations, spuriously claiming the allegiance of the Protestant working-class majority, are not concerned with democracy ('the consent Shop stewards from the Thornycroft sit-in, Basin factories in Lancashire before yesterday's Prest vehicle combine. The Basingstoke stewards (I to Montana. See full story p. 12.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSD

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

of the majority'), but with supressing all rights of the Catholic minority, in order the better to continue exploitation Catholic and Protestant workers alike.

Capitalist politicians like Craig are using the present situation to build up their organization and control of a backward minority cf the working class armed and drilled for later use against both Catholic and Protestant workers as they fight on against the Tory jobs and wages, on government. Any idea that there is something 'pro- gressive' about the fact that Protestant workers are now drawn into street-fighting the British army must be totally rejected. They have been politically mobilized by reactionary forces as a means of pressure to force a blood-bath in the Catholic In this way, by bringing to a head once more the religious antagonisms established by the bourgeoisie within the working class, they hope to preserve reactionary Unionism in Northern Ireland, the tradi- tional bulwark of Toryism in Britain.

It is literally a matter of life and death to halt this profound worsening of the Ulster situation. The political struggle in Britain and in Ireland for the withdrawal of the British troops is at the same time a struggle for the unity of Protestant and I-in, Basingstoke, with Len Brindle (centre) of the Ley ay's Preston meeting of stewards from all British Leyi ards (l to r) are: Tom Lewis, Len Smart, Frank Coffe • THURSDAY OCTOBER 19, 1972 • No 898 ® 4p

IMITTEE OF THE • SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Statement by the Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League of and Similarly, all these middle-class and Catholic workers, and British workers against the Tory govern- elements who uncritically sup TeVISIOnISt ported individual terrorism divorced from ment. any mass working-class movement have The important task in Northern share responsibility for the present situ- most building of the political Ireland is the ation. independence of the working class, break. ing from every variety of Unionism and Betrayed in this way, the Catholic are now in deadly danger. The religious sectarianism. WOrKerS Protestant workers are being driven Stalinists, republicans down the slope of destruction.

use STeTO SES. and revisionists who supported direct rule and William Whitelaw's policies, bear the The responsibility of the British labour historic responsibility for forcing the movement, well as Protestant workers further into the arms Ireland, North and South, is now very or reachon. great and very urgent. These traitors rejected policies of What is needed is a struggle to force united Protestant and Catholic working- the resignation of the Tory government, class struggle against and The Tories which will struggle and bring inspire Unionists, and have by expos- ended up bennet a sa workers who race ing the Catholic workers to the very rea amentally the same problems. The

UDA

dangers of mass pogroms. Vanguard cannot solve a single one and of these problems. These and same

TCTOISES

adventurers welcomed the entry of betraya set all thate who have opposed British of in 1969 as

WOODS

DrULCCLOTS of all those who have opposed the Catholics! building unted poncal British trade union movement. It can be reversed capitalists were only by the most determined struggle severe crisis over treato when tney posed direct rule. Principled politics in defeat that reformist and Stalinist leader- ship and to bring to successful con- the workers movement could have turned this into a final crisis for the Ulster clusion the fight to make the Tory govern- Unionists. Instead, it was turned into the ment resen. opposite and pnase tragic misdirection of the working class.

October 18, 1972 forward for all Send for delegates' and observers' cre- dentials from: Conference Secretary. R. Goldstein, 103 Lewis Flats, Dalston Lane, London E8 SPECIAL TRAIL FROM EUSTON, LONDON, £1.50. COACHES FROM OTHER AREAS Union Branch Names, addresses and No of delegates/observers I enclose € as delegates fees Signature of secretary f the Leyland Motors Coffey and Peter

workers press

UDA TAKE ROAD

TO CIVIL WAR

DAILY OR

THE WORKING CLASS of Northern Ireland is now threatened with its gravest crisis of all. Leaders of the Ulster Defence Association are cynically throwing away the of misled Protestant lives workers. On Tuesday they 'declared war' on imperialist the British army. of occupation. Yesterday they sat down in talks with the British High Com- discussing how best mand, to bloodily supress the Northern Irish Catholics (in • the name of dealing with the IRA). Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig had declared on Tuesday that unless the extreme right-wing Unionists were restored to power directly in a revived Stormont, then: 'We would make this country un- governable. No solution would be accepted nere that does not have the consensus of the majority' These extreme right-wing organizations, spuriously claiming the allegiance of the Protestant working-class majority, are not concerned with democracy ('the consent Shop stewards from the Thornycroft sit-in, Basin factories in Lancashire before yesterday's Prest vehicle combine. The Basingstoke stewards (I to Montana. See full story p. 12.

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURS

AILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

of the majority'), but with supressing all rights of the Catholic minority, in order the better to continue exploitation Catholic and Protestant workers alike.

Capitalist politicians like Craig are using the present situation to build up their organization and control of a backward minority cf the working class armed and drilled for later use against both Catholic and Protestant workers as they fight on jobs and against the . Tory wages, on government. Any idea that there is something 'pro- gressive' about the fact that Protestant workers are now drawn into street-fighting with the British army must be totally rejected. They have been politically mobilized by reactionary forces as a means of pressure to force a blood-bath in the Catholic In this way, by bringing to a head once more the religious antagonisms established by the bourgeoisie within the working class, they hope to preserve reactionary Unionism in Northern Ireland, the tradi- tional bulwark of Toryism in Britain.

It is literally a matter of life and death to halt this profound worsening of the Ulster situation. The political struggle in Britain and in Ireland for the withdrawal of the British troops is at the same time a struggle for the unity of Protestant and with Len Brindle (centre) of the Le Basingstoke, ay's Preston meeting of stewards from all British Leyl ards (1 to r) are: Tom Lewis, Len Smart, Frank Coffe • THURSDAY OCTOBER 19, 1972 • No 898 • 4p

IMITTEE OF THE. SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

Statement by the Political Committee of the Socialist Labour League Similarly, and of Irish and all these middle-class and Catholic workers, elements who uncritically British workers against the Tory govern- revisionist sup- ported individual terrorism divorced from ment. any mass working-class movement have to The most important task in Northern share responsibility for the present situ- Ireland is the building political ation. ot tne inde from ee of are close al class, break- the Catholic ing from every Betrayed this way, in are now in deadly religious sectarianism. danger. The workers driven Protestant being workers are The reformists, Stalinists, republicans down the slope of destruction.

and revisionists who supported direct rule and William Whitelaw's policies, bear the The responsibility of the British labour for historic responsibility

SOCIA

socialists well as of Protestant workers further into the arms Ireland, North and South, is now very of reaction. great and very urgent. These traitors rejected policies What is needed is a struggle to force united Protestant and Catholic working- the resignation Tory of the the Tories government. struggle which will inspire and bring behind it all Irish workers who face fun.

Unionists and have ended up by expos- ng the Catholic workers to the very rea amentally the same problems.

UDA

dangers of mass pogroms. and Vanguard cannot solve a single one cynical reformists and ol unese prodiels. These same adventurers welcomed the entry British in 1969 as protectors of The present situation results from the troops betrayals of all those who have opposed ine Latnolics. the political building of a united and The British capitalists in trade union movement. It can be reversed were by the most determined struggle to severe crisis over Ireland when they im- only posed direct rule. Principled politics defeat that reformist and Stalinist leader.

successful the workers' movement could have turned ship and to bring to con- clusion the fight to make the Tory govern- Ulster UnIS Unionists. Instead, it was turned into the ment resign. and oi reaction

OPOUSILE

October 18, 1972 tragic misdirection of the working class. for all trade unionists Send for delegates' and observers' cre- dentials from: Conference Secretary, R. Goldstein, 103 Lewis Flats, Dalston Lane, London E8 SPECIAL TRAM FROM EUSTON, LONDON, $1.50. COACHES FROM OTHER AREAS Union Branch Names, addresses and No of delegates/observers I enclose £ as delegates feos Signature of secretary t the Leyland Motors Leyland's heavy. rank Coffey and

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972 'I HAVE no intention of tak- ing back the vote 1 gave on October 12 last year.' Jenkins voted with the Labour And Labour chief whip Robert Party on Tuesday because, Mellish only permitted

LIOL

68 'pairs', but a number of With these words in Tuesday's he made clear. he sidered the whole business unpaired absences. Common Market «enate pro-Marketeer a useless exercise. This sup- parliament, of Tory While the Tories porter policies is government Roy Jenkins again declared continues confident that the Labour offensive his contempt for the work- wages, prices, jobs and rents, leaders' opposition is purely ing class and total disregard verbal and that in practice the Labour leaders joke and opinions of Labour the House of sneer in thev accept Common Mar- Party members. ket entry on Tory terms. Commons. Indifferent the huge in- to considerable Five other MPs-Messrs Aus- Meanwhile the creases in the cost of living William of Tory Albu, number Hannan. tell suppolicis which Common Market en- George Lawson, Christopher in the ranks of the Parlia- try will bring, Jenkins con- Mayhew and George Thom- Labour Party be- melitary tinued: did abstain and helped increasingly bold son- come as the Tories towards their 28 the leadership continues to 'I give clear notice that having deaf ear to workers' majority. turn a demands to get rid of them.

Bent over backwar on the Bill will vote for The Labour leaders made no Party motions of substance which attempt to defeat the Tories.

At the Labour confer- Harold Wilson in any way seek to challenge treated the ence no time was given to a resolution demanding the principle of entry or seek occasion another that off Labour MPs opportunity to delay it beyond january Cally string of wisecracks. ference decisions, despite a By Foreign Editor JOHN SPENCER THE COMMON MARKET summit opens in Paris today against a background of continued economic threats from the United States and rapid inflation of domestic economies. The European employers are in a very weak position to wage the trade war and fight their own working class at home.

of policy fight the American and position In more than year no alt They dictate trade-war measures. were terms their new bargaining with the US, the forced to accent an al-round up.

'partners'. EEC has proved powerless currencies valuation their to prevent the onset of trade against the dollar. The Tories are now trying, with the aid of the

TUC

war, let alone beat down the leaders, Pompidou then pushed through Nixon impose state control of wages or demands of the Common the working class administration. Market currencies would be held This attempt discipline within parity band as working class crush and The much-heralded Washing towards Cyculudl wares movement Comes ton meeting of the International eve of formal entry to the

EEC

monetary broke Monetary Fund last month dawn within weeks when the which will bring vast nothing and British unilaterally

SCLLICU

merely ell government flight capital Creases initiative in American hands The abroad. pending the presidential election.

disguised devaluation. The Tories have proved unable The West German and Dutch The French are certain to facing elections keen their next monts and facin promises to The stress the other Common Market capitalists.

next union once again They had assured their "partners' Cartne rars position to commit their govern- meeting-but govern- would bring the British any plans. they in Britain fact the summit workers meeting nas been linking formula. But more than two years •tue more monetary union what they government have not ritual gathering to welcome the term economic union. adherence of Britain, Ireland and broken the strength of the work. ing class, despite the Industrial In Heath Willalk. practice this means Relations Act, unemploy- will demand a large slice of

EEC

This does not mean that any and big attacks on living areas of high standards. tne outstanding problems

COTI

unemployment'-hoping to re- the European employers are of the the some money behind them. The question of common action against the working class Pompidou French the Common Agricultural Policy.

president all over Europe is likely topics at be originally summoned the one of the major The French, who will be in the 1ng on August 1o last year, inree The Paris-based forefront of demands for im- rans meeling. days after US President Nixon 'International Herald the pound's had imposed a 10 nixing per cent import mediate suggests that 'if there is one area parity against otner surcharge and ended the dollars in which the Nine might act countries, will not be impressed convertibility with gold.

by this piece of special pleading save dals meets wrom une waste- basket of history But it soon became clear inat economic affairs. the various European countries acounts with the working ettle ployers have settle united could agree

1LUL

'The

EEC

has long needed of European body some sort could the hirst Loat steps towards putting the mem- ber-countries' economies in the order needed to achieve Kinu Ul

PRESIDENTIAL

Henry Hanoi Radio week union. bodv could envoy for described Thieu 'the institute common methods as most Kissinger Saigon

COLICICU

with such diverse yesterday with South Vietnamese dealing loval lackev of the US imperialists labour-management president Nguyen Van Thieu •roo ens as secret talks in Paris end. Thieu relations and following his cord very ana regional policies throughout the with North Vietnamese represen- recentlv declared his intention community.' tatives. fighting until every communist in Vietnam was killed. Thieu's removal is one of the The implementation such demanded He has been showing signs of plans, ceasefire in Vietnam. Speculation increased nervousness over decisive revolutionary working past few days staging emergency ation ceasefire with the cass Europe -and is imposing a throughout may he near has followed cabinet meetings and the spectre that haunts the Paris singer's recent series of talks in rigid censorship on tightly-controlled Saigon Press.

meeting. promise from chairman Anthony Wedgwood Benn that it would be debated.

• Benn, of course, went back on own statements authority of conference decisions. It is the Labour lefts' who have been the most promi- nent in protecting the right.

boasted Michael Blackpool: 'It has been the left of this Party who held it together over the last 12 months. He went on: Commons appeared.' setback' government! with Wilson in protecting Tory supporters in Labour Party, the Lincoln constituency party shown the way to deal with turncoats, like Dick these Tavernethrow them out. CHILEAN President Salva- dor Allende has imposed a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew in its sur- Santiago. and rounding province as bus- owners and engineers joined the lorry-owners' strike.

Leaders of the Christian Democratic Party, the main- spring of the strike movement, an invitation have rejected from Allende to i meet with him and discuss the crisis.

On Wednesday evening, Allende warned copper miners coutd lead chile to he bbink present troubles of civil war. He added that difficult moments were ahead because the annual overseas currency deficit had reached $200m and 'we don't have single a dollar'. As with his previous warn- ings about civil and war economic difficulties, Allende insisted on the need to de- "democracy' fend Chilean rather than to prepare against the counter-revolution. A

MILITARY

has court sentenced prominent members of the banned Turkish Labour Party to prison terms ranging from six to 15 years. Party chairman Behice Boran (60) and seven other members of executive were party sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years' imprisonment followed by five years' exile for political activities against the constitution.

ARAB STUDENTS on hunger strike in London against the persecution of their fellow countrymen in West Germany yesterday appealed to . the British trade unions to take a stand against the infringement of basic rights by the Willy Brandt government. Palestinian students' and workers' unions have been banned in West Germany and more than 200 of their members deported without trial.

Some of the 12 hunger strikers, now in the sixth day of their action, were among students and youth from a num- ber of Middle East countries who picketed the West German embassy yesterday (see right). They delivered a lotter in the name of Palestinian, Turkish, Kurdish and Iraqi organizations. The letter condemned the West German action and stated their inten- tion to continue their protests until the banning orders are revoked and the deportees allowed to return.

The protests take place against the background of heightened Zionist terror directed against Palestinlans. Following weekend raids on refugee camps in the Israell premier Lebanon and Syria, Golda Meir again stressed her intention guerrillas wherever to hit Palestinian they may be. On Tuesday Adel Wael Zuaiter (38), Al Fatah's representative In Italy, was shot 12 times in the courtyard of his Rome apartment. The dead man was a second cousin of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and edited the revlew 'Palestina'. Al Fatah said the killing was the work of Israel!

agents. The Israell government refused to comment on the assassination.

FOUR

West German students denied • charges subversion of against the Greek regime yester- day when they appeared before a tightly guarded Athens court A packed court room heard defendants plead guilty of planning to Greek-German woman, Mrs Edith Economou, to leave Greece with document she was being sought by Greek security accused-Ernst Zorer (32), Werner Robbers (26), Jurgen Obsermeyer (27) and 19- year-old Miss Suzanne Bausigner -were arrested in July, only 24 hours after arriving in Greece. Mrs Economou (30), married to a Greek, is to be tried at a court martial. She is accused of plotting to explode bombs and with illegal possession of explosives. army captain George Tsallas who arrested Zorer, the alleged leader of the group, in a coffee bar, said he posed as the group's Eight others given sentences ranging from six to 12 years followed by periods of exile. All the accused were also per manently banned from any forn of public employment. The Labour Party was banned following imposition of last year and its martial law leaders were arrested and brought to trial.

-LINCONSTITUTIONAL

DEPORTATION of

PALESTINIANS FRON

GERMANY

LONG LIVE

THE PALESTINIAN

VEDEMAND UTION

MANGOVT,

OP IT'S

SCIST

TUTION.

LIVE THE

DARITY

BAKE CONTIN

NEEN KURDISH

CALESTNAN

TUDENTS

PICKETS SUFFOR

PALESTINIANS

ER STRIKE

UNITE AND

LONDON

DEFEAT

GERMAN

NEO-NAZIM

Builders' bonus fight 'Straw men' removed BUILDING workers on strike at the BEDWORTH Labour coun- World's End site, Chel- cil, near Coventry, has re- are in being isolated tion of the 'fair rents' Act.

the time, union leaderships. councillors Labour who hour. Now Altogether they have over prepared mangelyred TeNT Cubitts are only been out for ten weeks- increases have been moved from the council's nive them since the This cut led to an im- end of the £30, 35-hour mediate total stoppage of commuttee. In all, nine right-wing week claim recently com- multi-million pound Inc Labourites fought for promised by Stewards union housing site. special leaders. rightly saw that Cubitts council meeting on Tues- Immediately and crack following intended to try day night. trade the ending of the fight for But they were narrowly the national claim, Cubitts organization on the site defeated cut the site bonus like which has made the men votes so nine, with the Liberals ot the highest bald Lilall Have and one Tory abstaining. done. London. The has Before the strike it was 'Although it's official,

LOW

been reierred back to the manse mendacmmit tine Friday Sit-in duplicated? Last pro - implementers were thrown out of the Labour Group following their GESTETNER workers in Harold Morris was back-stage mansualons London will down suspended full for a special council meet- on Day sit-in tools today demanaing inat rollowing protest Tuesday's lapsed union member by the other members of meeting back He is due to re- his sub- lis shop. Cir. Geotrev Prestidge pays nine called the 'men

SCOURS.

turn to work today. straw. He told them: 'Be- The Shop stewards say Mor strike is expected fear their all well the involve 1,300 Cause OVCr property workers the Broad out would nave weeks comolance that they might be Lane, Tottenham, duplica- allowed by the Amalga- mated Union of Engineer- they turned tor factory. mprisoned, week dis-caster tal and ran.' Last ing Workers. Here's where In the to buy books heart of by London's Leon Trotsky West End Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972 PAGE 3 Port chief hits out at Royal group trading Twisting dockers' arms over meat trade

CALET

BY DAVID MAUDE OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

A NEW BID to force speed-up in London's Royal group of docks has been made from New Zealand by the director-general of the Port of London Authority, John Lunch.

HANDS

The New Lealand Meat But the port enoovers aloe Producers' Board has threat- Producers' Board, in which the the Vestey family have a powerful

FALESTA

enea to transier its trade out of London to wherever offers VUlC Walll

HOIC

al c stepping up the pressure on all the cheapest and most reliable fronts. service. In his message, Lunch tries to substantial proportion of whip the Kova dockers with the the trade up 2,000 does go, example of the West India and could jobs be affected. Port Tilbury 'New Zealand men. enolovers • TO „ vse impressed Uy this situation to blackmail higher ge sain West India and Tilbury, levels throughput from the he New Zealand Apple and Now, after visit New Pear Board. Zealand for top-level talks with 'goodwill cularly valued the of government Ministers and leaders the India dockers clearing joined or the trade, (LunCh nas perishable unew sales this campaign for the second at the start of the national dock time in two months. strike. 'I must tell you frankly, he 'By looking after customers in is that message to London says Inis way inala docks are making the future of the dockers, a fine investment in the future.

conventional New Lealand meat After split the attempting trade in the koyal docks nangs the militants dockes are Isolalt in the balance, despite our best in this way, the endeavours. general says: "I have expressed * have done all | can. But that Royals belief dockers

ILV

the past record of low through- respond challenge will ( LO une per man at the Royals meat put with good performances. the trade berths means that intervention Lunch's previous delays worried all with the Was al. mulervich ships and importers 'Journal of Commerce' through the n fact tonnages August. berths increased consider- nave There he said that Tilbury was ably in recent weeks. Tine and that establishing users were establishing themselves with Tibury were doing the Maplin sands ceve looner even further downriver in mind.

he said then, 'Frankly,' Royals are a worry to me as they not providing by and large same standard of service ine isolated by union the Une owner aocks systell and it is less easy to attract fresh trade to them. Besides being the largest com- plex 1n

COCKS.

Royals have been the centre of militancy in the por! we can't get any change • Hontaine of the of the union Nevertheless there end out men, will national docks strike, as Lunch's picket on 10 sign that the mer was told by a interviewer Peter Green revealed the gate yesterday morn- abandon the principle thes the article*, the port came out for. But without ing sallic support from other build- In a succession of meet- emplovers and conter overcors embarked on a deliberate have ing workers in the London hes. stewaros of smashing the shop stewards pleaded area bitter with officials They Tace bring out the other Cubitts period of isolation. power inere Financial should They took advantage London back support sited opportunist weaknesses revealed the's hing m 1972 World's sent Care Party-led something in Treasurer, Communist Fontaine, stewards in ending when have have West strike in London. Bank, another Barbican or Horse- It is no accident that Lunch's ferry Road do,' added John London, N.I0 statement comes JUSt lourdys after Lord Vestey's de at Mid- AUEW backs fight on sack 27 depot workers at rather than land Cold storage give any concessions dockers pickets there. BOC jobs

SHOP

STEWARDS from This to split the alley Co the British Oxygen dockers must be combated. Bu' factory at Edmonton, north this job will not be by …cone stewards fusion cuseted clear up London, have won Cre next --the ducts factory would be created by backing of the engineers' conlusion It rumours and counter-rumours ycai. union district committee in pletely shut down by 1974 a picketing 'truce' at Midland in their fight against threat- if their plans go through.

with Vestey. return for talks ened closure. Journal of Commerce'. August would destroy 1u 25,

BOC

wants start jobs in the area, and the See Who's creating cold store closing its Road, factory Tot- • See Sparklets at confusion? p. 1l. Edmonton. tenham would also be hit.

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THE JAY LOVESTONE

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Thursday Octob From Stalinism... to the CIA Between 1962 and 1963, America's Central Intelli- gency Agency was subsi- dizing the Kenya Federa- tion of Labour, led by Tom Mboya, at the rate of £1,000 a month. In 1963 and 1964,

CIA

spent about £150,000 agents their operation in British in Guiana, using as a cover the Public Services International- a trade union centre to which are affiliated such unions as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and, in Britain, the General and Municipal Work- ers' Union. These are just two of the exposed cases of the more manipulation of workers' organizations by the CIA, the work of Jay Lovestone - ex- Stalinist, ex-centrist, the CIA's man in International Affairs department of the AFL-CIO.

There have been others. Lovestone himself has boasted of the part played by gradu- ates of the American Institute for Free Labour Development, which he founded, in bringing down governments such as that of Joao Goulart in Brazil, 1964.

In the Dominican Republic, according to Dan Kurzman in the 'Washington Post' (June 14, 1966), the bulk of the lab- movement regarded the our National Federation of Free Dominican workers, CONA- IRAL-the trade union organ- ization which the AFL-CIO International Affairs depart- ment supported—as a 'tool of

AFL-CIO,

the the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency'. Victor Reuther, of the American auto-workers' union, who visited the Dominican Republic in 1966, when US troops occupied the country, also cited events in that coun- try as a case where co-opera- tion • between the CIA and trade union leaders could be seen at work. In all its activities, the CIA has guiding aim-the one gathering of intelligence to help maintain the domination of American big business, and the carrying out of whatever secret political or military operations are necessary, in the CIA's This has been Lovestone's aim. But it would not even be attempted, even with all the vast sums of money available, were it not for the continued presence, in the leadership and; offices of workers organiza- tions, as well as in the intellec- tual circles influential on these organizations, of a layer of reformist bureaucrats and are ideologi- careerists, who cally (as well as in some cases financially) tied to the capital- ist system and to imperialism.

This deep-set corruption is certainly not confined to the American labour movement. If we hear more about the inter-.

national coups and operations of the CIA than we do of cer- tain other countries' intelli- and gence secret forces agencies, it is not only because the CIA is bigger, but also perhaps because the older having imperialist powers, more experience, are in some ways more efficient and more discreet. For example, the British day October 19, 1972 the CIA. By Charles Parkins. Part 1 'Old Boy' network might be business-like than less the systemized corruption of aca- demic and other institutions by the intelligence service, as has been exposed in the United States. But as a way of recruiting and placing contacts it makes a lot less noise! Likewise, the alignment of labour and trade union leaders in this country with imperial- ists' foreign policies has not attracted so much attention as American union's ties with the for one thing, CIA-because, it has been established for so long that it tends to go un- noticed; just part of the scenery. Nevertheless, it was a former Transport and General Work- ers' Union leader, Ernest Bevin, who declared: 'I am not prepared to give up the British Empire, because it would mean • drop in the standard of a living of my members.' It was a Labour government under Clement Attlee which became the first British govern- "peaceful' ment to maintain conscription—in order to send soldiers all over the world to enforce colonial repression.

It was a Labour government under Harold Wilson which after 1964 maintained brutal repression, including the use of torture in Aden, and which gave political and practical support to the US war in Viet- nam. It was another 'Labour man', George Brown,: who went on record with a speech defending the My Lai massacre.

These are, of course, men who are always available, for any occasion, to sive a 'deploring speech and denouncing 'violence'; provid- ing only that the 'violence' con- cerned is of the left, of militant workers, oppressed Or colonial peoples. Lenin characterized this type of leadership as 'social imperi- . In Britain it has gen- alist. erally taken the form of Fabianism. This is the theory which insists that the working class itself must limit to gradual, peaceful reforms with- in the capitalist system.

The objective historical basis for this ideology lay in the development of British imperi- alism in the latter part of the 19th century, which enabled the British ruling class to rely on its profits overseas, and to buy 'peace' at home by grant- ing some concessions and reforms to the working class. It also offered a new lease of life to the middle class, in the form of an expanding civil service, colonial government, local gov- ernment, etc. At the same time it fostered within the trade union move- ment the growth of a privil- eged bureaucracy of profes- Sional bargainers to negotiate with the capitalists, a social layer which the ruling class soon learnt could be opened to temptation, not only with such crude things as outright bribes, but with more exalted prizes, office, like pubiic knighthoods, and so on. To analyse fully the rela- tionship between reformism and imperialism would require an article in itself. It is suffi- cient here to say that Fabian- ism, the product of middle- class intellectuals and admin- istrators, such as Sydney Webb (later to become Colonial Sec- retary Lord Passfield), found receptive audience, and a ready allies, in the opportunist . Part Twelve Joao Goulart who was president of Braz graduates of AIFLD in bringing Goulart's union leaders. It succeeded in providing the channel for bour- geois ideology, and in the par- ticular form held by the middle class of an imperialist influence country, to the British labour movement. It has remained the dominant influ- ence on the Labour leadership.

When they were honest enough to recognize the neces- sity of imperialism as the basis their reforms and oppor- tunism, the Fabians were good imperialists. The Labour lead- ers schooled in the Fabian approach became the type with which we are familiar, for whom socialism is fine for occasional May Day speeches, or for arousing enthusiasm at Party conferences, but who are prepared once they come to office to work with the "realities' of the system— including colonial repression and imperialist wars. Whether looking forward to enjoying the comforts and privileges of public office, or cosily ensconced in the union bureaucracy, the opportunists in the labour movement natu- rally hate communism, which they see as a threat, as much as the bourgeoisie do-and often more virulently. It is against this background that we must understand Love- stone and his activities, and the support he has managed to mobilize in the labour bureau- cracy. It is not really surprising nt of Brazil until 1964. Lovestone himself boas , Goulart's government down.

that union leaders in Britain along with the have gone policies in international affairs of the AFL and CIO leaders.

There are differences in history 'and traditions and there have been differences and conflicts in policy, but there are also essential similarities, and there has been considerable co- operation. The most notable event, of course, was the splitting of the Federation of Trade World Unions in 1950, only five years after its formation. This split, out of which emerged the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, was pre- pared by a meeting on June 25, 1949, of James B. Carey, the CIO, George Meany of the AFL (which had refused to join WFTU anyway) and Jay Lovestone, together with State Department officials. The TUC followed the American unions, breaking as a result not only from the Soviet trade unions, but also from the main union centres in France, Italy, and other coun- tries. The ICFTU has subse- quently been shown to have received CIA funds and to have been involved in CIA schemes. Its Latin American sub-section, ORIT, is virtually a straightforward Lovestone outfit. self boasted of the part played by his It has been argued, of course, that the Soviet trade unions are really an instrument of the state, of government policy, and therefore not bona fide trade unions. We will leave aside such questions as whether the US union leaders have not also functioned as instruments of the government, and of a capi- talist and also state, cism of Soviet unions as true, the split was the way to help, ask instead a much simpler question: What was there in 1950 to justify the break which did not arise in 1945? Had the TUC leaders really discovered for the first time that the working class in the Soviet Union was oppressed by a privileged bureaucracy.

Or was there some highly significant change in the status of Soviet trade unions in those five years? Surely, there was no real change at all, except in foreign relations, that is that in 1945 the Soviet Union was still the ally of Britain and the USA, whereas by 1950, the Truman government was waging the Cold War, and had launched the Marshall Plan and NATO; while the British Labour gov- ernment was waging a colonial war against communist guer- rillas in Malaya.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

In 1964, the "Trotskyist' Lanka Sama Samaja Party joined a 'United Left Front' government with Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike's bourgeois Sri Lanka Freedom Party. SLL secretary G. Healy, who visited Ceylon during the coalition period, analysed the degeneration of the LSSP in the pamphlet 'Ceylon: The Great Betrayal'-still available from New Park Publications. This four-part series by JACK GALE examines

CEYLON: THE GREAT BETRAYAL CONTINUES

In 1964, the "Trotskyist' Lanka Sri Lanka Freedom Party. SLI in the pamphlet 'Ceylon: The some of the significant politic

PART TWO

The reunification in 1963 of the Pabloite tendencies into the Unified Secre- tariat of the Fourth Inter- national was an unprin- cipled fraud made pos- sible only on the basis of no discussion of out- standing political questions. (For legal the reasons Socialist Workers Party of America could not become an actual member of the Secre- tariat.) This conspiracy of silence obscured the reactionary turn in Ceylon. To discuss this with the Socialist Labour League would have blown the reunification sky-high. Joseph Hansen and Ernest Mandel, therefore, kept silent and thereby permitted the right- of ward development the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in Ceylon. Indeed, the reunification congress declared its complete support for the LSSP leaders, particularly for their strategy of a United Left Front with the pro-Moscow Communist Party and Philip. Goone- wardene's People's United Front (MEP). It was well known that the Communist Party whole- heartedly supported Mrs Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Free- dom Party (SLFP) and that the MEP had actually participated in a coalition with the 1956 SLFP government. The Unified Secretariat therefore assumed full re- sponsibility for the abandon- ment of the Tamil (Indian im- migrant) workers and for the United Left Front which was ' Lanka Sama Samaja Party joined a rty. SLL secretary G. Healy, who vi n: The Great Betrayal'—still availabl : political events since then.

a major step on the road to coalition. In December, 1963, Pablo himself sought unsuccessfully to raise the question of Ceylon inside the Unified Secretariat.

But the same Pablo had re- fused all discussion with the

SLL.

By now the degeneration was almost complete. In reply to calls for a dis- cussion, the Secretariat leaders declared, early in 1964: 'It would be wrong for üs a body representing the as movement as a whole to brush aside the deliberations of the majority of the LSSP leader- ship and refuse to grant them the time needed to prove in the sincerity of their action stand in relation to the United Left Front and the good faith of their assurances. It would mean • first of all to deliberately heat up the atmospere in the LSSP by in- jecting the sharpest kind of factionalism. A divisive policy of this kind would put in jeopardy, if not destroy, fra- ternal relations between the Unified Secretariat and the leadership of the LSSP. "The end result could be highly injurious to the Fourth International and to the LSSP, including its left wing which has absolutely no inter- est to put in question the unity of the party through the creation of undue internal fric- tion and tension from any source.' In April 1964, just two months before the LSSP leaders joined Mrs Bandara- naike's coalition, they received a laudatory letter from the Unified Secretariat which de- clared that the United Left Front could establish 'its own political power on a genuinely socialist programme' and oined a 'United Left Front' governm who visited Ceylon during the coali available from New Park Publicatio would provide 'another Cuba or Algeria'. This United Left Front in- cluded the Stalinists! The perspective of Stalin- ists participating in a non- revolutionary seizure of power linked with Trotskyists in a 'Left Front' flowed directly from Pablo's 1953 resolution, reinforced by the Pabloite obsession with the revolu- tion-with-a-party' road of Cuba and Algeria. Within weeks of the Unified Secretariat's letter being des- patched Mrs Bandaranaike was to say: 'We cannot expect any re- sults unless we get the co- operation of the working class • Disruptions, especially strikes and go-slows, must be eliminated and the develop- ment of the country must pro- ceed. 'Some people feel that these troubles can be eliminated by the establishment of a dicta- torship. Others that say workers should be made to work at the point of gun and bayonet. 'Still others maintain that a national government should be formed to solve this prob- lem. I have considered these ideas separately and in the context of world events. 'Therefore, I decided to ini- tiate talks with the leaders of the working class, particularly Mr Philip Goonewardene and Dr N. M. Perera. 'Can we form a coalition government? If so, how could this be done? These are the questions we considered. Afterwards they informed me that they could form a govern- ment on the basis of a com- mon programme.' The LSSP leaders had en- tered secret negotiations with nd Mrs Bandaranaike precisely Workers Prose, The government with Mrs Sirimavo Ban he coalition period, analysed the deg blications. This four-part series by JA when they were faced with an unparalleled opportunity to seize power. At the beginning of 1964 the Ceylon Mercantile Union had won substantial gains which threw the Bandaranaike government into crisis. At the same time unprecedented trade union unity, involving both town and plantation workers, had been achieved around a programme of 21 demands. The largest audience of workers ever seen on the island unanimously • declared for a fight to a finish to win these demands. Perera chose this period to conclude his Judas deal with the bourgeoisie-assisted by the Communist Party, which had always supported coali- tion, and by the leaders of the Pabloite International. His action cannot possibly have been a surprise to Han- sen and Mandel. In 1960 he had forwarded to the Unified Secretariat in Paris a letter which outlined precisely his proposals for exactly such a step. This listed: (1) a no-contact pact (2) support for the forma- tion of an SLFP government 'not hedged about with con- ditions' and (3) steps to bring about a programmatic agree- ment with the SLFP with a view to forming a joint government. The programme on which Perera wished to embrace the SLFP involved strict limits on nationalization, and especially no nationalization of the banks. This letter, in the hands of the Unified Secretariat for some four years before Perera was able to carry it into prac- tice, specifically repudiated Leninist the characterization of the state: Proes, Thursday October 19, 1972 PAGE 5 vo Bandaranaike's bourgeois the degeneration of the LSSP es by JACK GALE examines Top: June 1964 the first coalition of LSSP and SLFP parties. Next to Mrs Bandaranaike is Dr N. M.

Perera. It is no accident of history that in no country where uni- versal franchise obtains has there been a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class.

"Though mass struggles lead- ing to the overthrow of capi- talism are conceivable, in point of fact such situations have never yet arisen, because the franchise has placed in the hands of the workers a vehicle for achieving power.

Universal franchise one must admit has tended to blunt the edge of mass struggle. Militant working-class actions will con- tinue to occur, but they do not reach the heights necessary for wresting power' These were the issues which Mandel and Hansen sought to hush up in order not to de- "fraternal stroy relations'. These were the leaders to whom the Unified Secretariat wished to grant 'the time needed to prove in action the sincerity of their stand'!

That, they certainly did.

They bolstered capital up rule and helped discipline the working class. As Perera had to Mandel and his written friends in 1960: ministers may have

'LSSP

to take unpleasant decisions with regard to strikes, and the demands of the workers'.

This at a time when imperial- ism could no longer retain its hold on Ceylon through the capitalist parties alone.

This betrayal marked the definitive end of the Pabloite International as a revolu- tionary force, just as surely as victory in 1933 Hitler's marked the end of the Third International.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972

BY JOHN SPENCER

will be The faith and confidence even then they swindled if they get anything of the masses in Bangla- at all,' Khan said. The desh has been moneylenders and usurers are squan- dered by robbing the peasants at an the ruling alarming rate and the govern- Awami League in the in- has crippling burden of done nothing ment terests of getting rich annul the debt on the peasantry' juick, says union leader He said the present govern- Sirajul Hossain Khan ment was a government of the Mr Khan is general secre- rising capitalists, tary of the Sramik (Workers') backed by the pro-Moscow Federation, which is the trade Communist Party which he union arm of the Maoist- "the B team of described as oriented Banglar Communist the Awami League'. Until recently Party. he was It was trying to balance in- Dacca editor of the East- also ternationally between the Indo-Soviet ern News Agency, but his re- the alliance on to the liking hand and handouts of of the Awami League govern- American capital on the other.

"They are trying to sail two In alliance with the boats, which dangerous of National Awami Party thing do at the best of times, Mr Khan said. Maulana Bashani, the Banglar forth- The real appetites of the contesting election likely to coming be Awami League are thinly con- held in March next cealed behind 'left' phrases, as yeal. In the first days of independence Mr Khan pointed out: it gave support to the Awami 'The Awami League has League government- policy said is that going Khan now considers was "socialism" and would estab.

VITI

an error. lish workers' and peasants' source of em- A particular rule. But they say this only be for pro-Maoists barrassment cause today the slogan of like Mr Khan was the Chinese socialism the passport 1S Pakistan during support for politics in Bangladesh.' the war and their current re- fusal to recognize Bangladesh. Mr Khan is now living in virtual exile in north London.

In reality, he the interview with Workers says, In an Press he spoke of the rapidly Awami League leaders who rode back from Calcutta in the economic situation worsenis in Bangladesh and the political baggage trains of the Indian ruling army are plundering the pre- Ilalloeuvres of Bangla- carious economy party. 'The situation of the desh opening up to exploitation by foreign (mainly economy is terribly bad. Prices have risen by. 200 to 400 per Indian) capital. 'It is the natural tendency of independence cent since Millions of people the rising capitalist class to try and get rich overnight and one are undergoing starvation and source is foreign capital and semi-starvation. business. foreign The rising 'Unemployment has risen to fantastic levels. The Bengali capitalists had mostly govern- been denied these possibilities ment does not any figures, but pre-independence days by every day there Pakistani big busines are mile-long queues morning to evening outside the employ- 'No sooner were they back Dacca than they began ment offices in Dacca,' he said 'There is no dole in Bangla- searching for a foreign entente desh. The unemployed get which was readilv made avail.

nothing at all. Industrial pro.

able by the Indian big business duction has down be- houses. Awami gone bers and newly supporters, ot mismanagement and corruption by the newly- turned businessmen, have joined in the spree. appointed administration deal of the so-called nationalized *There great in- marketeering and custer. Sanese manneers are Leaguers or smuggling by mostly Awami «isnonest who either businessmen are people on we ave cumbed the Awami League bandwag- pro-Awami League or shielded gon.' League's leaders. For In fact, said Mr Khan, the public consumption these denounce 'anti-social League's leaders Awami nationaliza- tion proposals have extended elements', but they won't take action against only to firms which were serous by their them. abandoned former their own party West Pakistan All i ney Waitis. members. They are the other capitalist enterprises smugglers, the looters and the have been left intact, despite black marketeers.' the government's 'socialist' pre- their fortunes, tensions. They make said. by Awami League's currency The Mr Khan promises of land reform have manipulation, corruption and The And meanwhile, equally illusory. speculation. proved maximum land holding has the economy continues to 100 fixed deteriorate biggars (about 33 acres)—a large hold- "The Bangladesh economy is Bourge the They have heir Bengali standards. ing 'Out of this the landless bourgeoisie. have their little and agents in Bangladesh who are peasants get shelter- Above: homeless familles ing pipes. there growing poverty amongst the and unemployment is widespread. Left: Cholera victims League in the main Awami men. Many items are being India at imported from much higher than world prices. Items like cloth and fuel being ale sold above the ruling way price elsewhere, he said.

Since independence the value of Bangladesh LOeS Cullens has declined rapidly. The government's first act after the end of the December war was to devalue the existing Pakistan with the rupee to parity Indian rupee. The pre-independence Pak- istan rupee (now renamed the originally worth takka) was 1.6 Indian rupees. The immedi- devaluation ate post-war cut its value by over 30 per cent, that real since time its and cur- value against the Indian dropped has even further. On the black market today, the takka discounted 1S least 35 per cent against the Indian Mr Khan said. rupee, of the government's Amoune acts immediately after indepen- dence was to open the border free trade with India, abolishing all previously exist- ing tariffs and duties. 'This is one of the major factors in price increases. Even commodities which are cheaper in India are worth smuggling because of the currency gap, he explained. 'A smuggler will buy rice in Bangladesh at, say, 80 takkas, and sell in India at 70 rupees.

If he changes this back into Bangladesh he will currency least 105 takkas in get at exchange. And if he further Indian com- smuggles some modity back into Bangladesh with the proceeds, he will make another profit. 'The Awami League has legalized simple virtually smuggling, Mr Khan said. As a result much of the country's produce which should be earn- ing desperately-needed foreign exchange for the new state is instead earning if for Indian businessmen. Without hard currency Bangladesh cannot buy the goods it vitally needs from and must borrow at overseas exorbitant interest rates from banks which foreign are impose stringent certain to conditions for their loans.

As an example, Mr Khan cited India's average foreign exchange earnings worth about 1,600 million rupees from jute exports every year. 'This year by the first week in June India had earned about 3,200 million rupees on of it on jute exports-much Bangla- jute smuggled from desh,' he said. This explained why the value of Bangladesh currency rapidly. In dropping SO December and the first part of January 100 takkas was worth 110-120 Indian rupees. Now you need 150-160 takkas to buy 100 Indian rupees. And as you know the Indian rupee is hardly a hard currency.' As well as smuggling and currency manipulation there is widespread corruption and the most ruthless exploitation of the poverty-stricken and starv- returned ing refugees who from India after the war: • 'The government handed out some relief in cash and kind, but this was looted and much of it grabbed by the local Awami League leaders. I spoke to one old villager who told how one blanket was cut into piece three pieces and each distributed to one person.

'The accounts showed three blankets had been handed out.

Two were grabbed by the local dignatories and by and large this had been routine. The old Workero Prose, Thieradary, villager voted in 1970 for the Awami League. He told me: "Now I will see to it that no- one in my family supports the Awami League any more"; Mr Khan said As a result of these develop- Sheikh Mujib's ments, the government, which began with an unprecedented store is rapidly popular support, the hatred of the earning masses: 'The government's popularity has fallen fast the among and among students masses and white-collar employees. This is so much so that majority faction of the League's student front has revolted arms against it, to take up threatened said his rival. Mr Khan Abdul Mannan, leader of the Awami League's trade union Sramik organization, the League, currently unable was to enter the Dacca Jute Mill for fear of the workers' anger.

Yet the mill League was a stronghold and the birthplace of its Lal Bahini, the League's armed militia. 'Graft began very soon after independence and for months Mujib people banked to on turn the tide against it,' Mr Khan said. But as the months wore on, it became clear that Mujib was unable or unwilling to do anything about it. aro Presa, Theraday October 19, 1972 PAGE 7 "Then the Awami League began to raise private armies anti-social of riff-raff and elements to bully down the people,' Mr Khan said. particularly •They were active in Dacca, Khulna, Chitt- Tongi areas—all agong and of working - class centres militancy. But the workers and them the public gave a thorough beating and they are now in the soup. 'The US Central Intelligence Agency is reported to have had plans to make massive attacks on the left forces and these private armies were their van- guard. But they have been dis- appointed in their performance.

'Bangladesh is not Indonesia and any attempt to massacre the regime's opponents will not have the least popular support.

Without any public base it cannot succeed. Already people thoroughly disillusioned are with the Awami League on account of its political | activ- ities and its economic policies.

confident that the am people of Bangladesh will certainly • triumph and accom- their unfinished plish • revolu- be the tion, whatever may forces of domestic and foreign reaction. People on a mass scale have learned to fight with and they will not let arms swindling and exploitation go unchallenged.'

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thursday Octol 'Parliamentary reform' and the wor The Chartist movement was a great stride for- wards in the history of the British working class, for although it achieved none of the Six Points, it converted the demand for the right to vote into a 'war slogan' in the class struggle. Marx was confident that, as a result of workers' increasing understanding of the irrecon- cilability interests with of those of the capitalists, the Whig and Tory parties would soon merge to face the common enemy—a united pro- letarian party demanding poli- tical power in order to carry out social change. This funda- correct perspective mentally was carried into the Inter- national Working Men's Asso- ciation (the First International), founded in London in 1864.

But although it was to be 1900, economic fulfilled after development in Britain in the second half of the 19th century prevented the Chartist move- ment from leading directly to a mass Labour Party. As Engels explained, with the in advantage of hindsight, 1874: 'No separate political working class party has existed in Britain since the downfall of the Chartist Party in the 1850s. This is understandable country in which the in a working class has shared more anywhere else in the than advantage of the immense ex- pansion of its large-scale in- dustry. Nor could it have been otherwise in an England that ruled the world market.' For a few decades Britain was indeed the 'workshop of the world'. On the basis of exploitation of earlier genera- tions of British workers, and of cheap labour in the colonies, the capitalists could afford to 'buy off' sections of the work- ing class movement with social reforms and higher wages.

long Free Trade, for so advocated by the radicals, be- came official government policy Gladstone. under Peel and 'converted' to the Peel was free trade doctrine when it became obvious that Britain had such a headstart over industrial competitors that she not possibly lose from could lowering tariff barriers. Loss of revenue from customs duties would be compensated for by the overall increase in pros- perity. The raw material for indus- try became cheaper, while the annual value of British exports rose from £47m in 1842 to £200m in 1870. Even the Repeal of the Corn Laws, bitterly contested by land- owners, led to a 'Golden Age' for British farming, since there were no imports of cheap grain from USA as yet, and scien- tific methods produced a steep rise in British output. The euphoria of the capi- talists in this era transformed free trade from a mere day October 19, 1972 I the working class, by Jane Brown economic policy into a moral and political philosophy. 'In- dividual liberty' and 'self-help', it was believed, offered a universal panacea which could restore harmony between the working class and the em- ployers, and even between the various nations of the world.

Cyclical economic crises would become a thing of the past, and a smooth road of ever-increasing prosperity reached into the future. Hence the faith in British 'gradualism' attacked by Trotsky in 'Where is Britain Going?' Plausible to the Victorian middle class, it began to seem better-off plausible to the layers of the working class. As Marx pointed out, however, for the great mass of unskilled conditions improved workers very little in these boom years.

Social legislation, which would lead to increased taxes, had a in a free-trading small part government's programme. The Ten Hours Act was a victory for organized working- But statistics class strength. bear out Marx's assertion that "a minority of the work- only ing classes got their real wages somewhat advanced'. 'minority"? Who were this They were the successors to Lovett's 'moral force' artisan supporters; an aristocracy of made important labour who economic gains, who laid the foundations of modern trade unionism, and yet who also, by their faith in class collab- oration, sowed the seeds of the conservatism and • oppor- tunism which has riddled the trade union bureaucracy ever since. The employers had smashed militant trade unions (such as the Miners' Association) in the 1840s. This was one reason for the mass turn to Chartism as a political for solution economic ills. The 'New Model' unions grew up among skilled workers in the 1850s based on policies of caution and con- ciliation, backed up by finan- cial resources (from high mem- bership contributions) such as no earlier unions had possessed.

The Amalgamated Society of Engineers set the pattern in 1851. Registering as a Friendly Society, it set out to create a permanent national organiza- with full-time officials tion working at its London head- quarters to co-ordinate policies.

'no politics' clause was written into its rule book, and funds were used • mainly for • purposes. By 1867, the ASE had 30,000 members, and a bank balance of £140,000.

Leaders of several similar unions met in 1860 to form the first London Trades Council, a permanent executive with including Allan, Applegarth, Odger, Coulson and Potter.

It was no council of war against the employers. The affiliated unions preached 'self- help' to their members through an expanding trade union Press and educational centres, and

BE UNITED

AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF ENGINEER

SMITHS, AND PATTE

Chisisto Certito Top: George Odger, a member of the fl London Trades Council. Above: member had strong links with non- conformist and temperance movements. Exclusive and respectable', they were 'making a bid for middle class recognition' (Pell- ing). They gave verbal support to various 'progressive' poli- tical movements, including the First International, but their main political activity con- sisted in supporting middle- class sympathizers at election times, hoping thus to gain an anitate

ENGINEERS, MACHINISTS, MILLWRIGHTS.

IND PATTERN MAKERS

r of the first permanent executive of the e: membership card of the ASE.

indirect voice in parliament. in the But late 1860s, a concerted attack on the unions by the employers and ruling class, provoked by sagging trade figures, galvanized the into a trade union leaders political defence of all they had obtained through 'gradualism'.

In 1866 some violent inci- dents in Sheffield conducted by unionists against blacklegs, sensationalized by the were capitalist Press (in a manner now familiar) so as to suggest that trade unionists were all potential anarchists. Amid this witch-hunt, judgement came down against the unions in the 'Hornby v Close' case, thus depriving all trade unions of the legal and financial protec- tion given to Friendly Socie- ties. The judge pointed out that were in fact trade unions illegal organizations, because they 'tended to act in restraint trade. of The government appointed a Royal Commission to examine the question. The trade unions could no longer afford to adopt an aloof attitude towards politics. The partiality of the Press and the courts had been demonstrated, and now their whole fate hung in the balance, depending on the Commission's Report. 'Political power is needed to obtain social emancipation' -Ernest Jones' words were being borne out. The result was that as well as organizing the best possible defence be- fore the Commission, the trade unions united with less highly organized workers in another mass parliamentary re- form movement. The Reform League was founded in 1866, campaign for universal suffrage and the ballot, in the same year as a more moderate Reform Union demanding household suffrage. The existence of separate reform organizations reflects the duality which always accompanied pressure for ex- tension of the franchise. From • of indus- point of view trialists and the middle class, the 1832 Act needed up-dating, but they wanted property- owners to remain in control of parliament. The working class, on the other hand, had not forgotten the betrayal of 1832, and knew that the majority of its members would still be without the vote if only house- holders were enfranchised.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

Part Two by Tom Kemp Writing in "The Times' on October 4, Professor Ota Sik, who left Czech- oslovakia after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, says the economic system went wrong because it state monopolistic, not socialist. He does not offer any class East European analysis of society or say how national- ization of the means of pro- duction took place. He care- fully conceals the existence of the privileged and parasitic bureaucracy to which he once belonged as a follower of the Dubcek regime. As he says: 'The people have as little interest capital development as in the west, and this interest cannot be created by any amount of party and state propaganda.'

That interest can only be created when the bureaucracy is removed by a political revo- lution just as it can only be created in the capitalist coun- tries when the bourgeois ruling class has been dispossessed.

But Ota Sik would not be granted the hospitality of 'The Times' to advocate revolution.

Just as in Czechoslovakia he was an advocate of reforms, so he advocates reforms - from above in the capitalist coun- tries. Sik offers the ruling class advice in dealing with the besetting problem of inflation.

He blames inflation onto wage increases resulting from union bargaining power and increased expenditure on 'social needs' declaims, Wage-earners he like the West End clubmen who wrote their commendatory letters to 'The Times', • are interested only in increasing their wages, not in capital development. Even • a cursory reading of Marx's 'Capital' would have enabled the learned Professor of Economics at Basle Univer- sity to understand this, but he wisely makes no parade of his 'Marxist' understanding. Instead he talks about 'the gradual collectivization of capi- tal and the creation of condi- tions in which working people are no longer alienated from production and the distribu- tion of its fruits and are able to participate in basic econo- mic decisions!' Not only is this classic Fabianism — 'the inevitability of gradualness'-but Sik does not envisage the workers organized as a class taking power and establishing their own forms of rule. He still sees the means of production 'capital' from which the as workers can be 'alienated' 'unless they are periodically informed by the management about the affairs of the enter- prise.. All this shows Sik's limited understanding of Marxism for which, no doubt, having been miseducated in Stalinist Czech- Ota Sik: Does not offer any class ana and carefully conceals the existence of t oslovakia, he is not entirely to blame. In fact he does not conceive of a society in which the working class has real power. He sees either capitalism or a society similar to that of the Czechoslovakia which he knows but in two versions (a) the bad Stalin version which the Dubcekists rejected; (b) a reformed version of the same which they tried to institute in 1967-1968. After all this which no doubt passes for erudition in Swiss universities, Sik pro- poses . . . an incomes policy!

This is to be devised by a planned policy, economic which, it is plain to see, has nothing to do with socialism.

This is how he goes on: 'If included the planning bodies not representatives of socially- opposed wage-earners and capi- talists but the two in one per- son [sic], an incomes policy would not be created, and the conflict between short- and long-term interests would not wholly disappear, but if this were no longer the expression of social conflicts of interest [does he mean class struggle?

—T.K.] it would be easier to overcome in a reasonable and democratic manner'. What this farrago means is largely a matter of choice. It sounds suspiciously like the corporate state in which employers and workers are represented by the same organ- ization and there is no longer wage-bargaining because har- mony of interest reigns between classes — and those who try to disturb it are con- signed to concentration camps.

The society Sik is talking about is not a classless society, but one in which capitalists and workers still exist but where truth and light reign.

After a final doff of his hat to ex-Home Secretary and ex- Chancellor Reginald Maudling's proposals an incomes for Sik withdraws with policy, the profound statement: 'Sooner or later the conflict between the interests of capital and in a highly- wages industrial country developed must vanish.' Mildly reformist views mas- querading as Marxism are even more popular with the bour- geoisie than mildly reformist views which are openly Fabian.

No reader of 'The Times' lost any sleep over Sik's article, which asked for no changes more basic than those advo- cated by that well-known extremist and ex-member of Poulson organization, the Reginald Maudling. In fact a number of letter- class analysis of East European society tence of the privileged bureaucracy.

writers hastened to praise his audacity. One, not without found his proposals reason, remarkably like the co- partnership schemes of the Liberal Party. Another pointed out that what 'he was recom- mending already existed in West Germany. Austen Albu, a well-known advocate of worker-manage- ment co-operation in industry, and a Fabian, drew attention to the experiments to be car- ried on in the Volvo car plant.

It is worth noting that the Communist Party in this coun- try, which now supports the

TUC

attitude on the Tory government's state pay plan, was enthusiastic for the Dub- tendency in Czechoslo- cek vakia in 1968. The 'reforming' wing of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe readily establishes a bond of sympathy with the bourgeoisie.

Both hate the idea of revolu- tionary change by the work- ing class and are ready to sup- port each other against such a threat. Sik's article, and the reception accorded it, are revealing on that account. While he is out of power and in exile many members of the bureaucracy in Eastern they Europe think like him. His ideas are a logical exten- sion, any way, of current prac- tice. If the Siks and Dubceks were chased out by the War- saw Pact armies, it was not so much because of the economic reforms they wanted to intro- duce inside the country. After Soviet 'economic all, the reform' initiated in 1965 was a step in the same direction.

What the Soviet bureaucracy was afraid of was the opening which 'liberalization' offered during the 'Prague spring' for the entry onto the scene of the working class as an independ- ent force. In addition, of course, the Dubcek bureaucracy sought greater independence from Moscow by a turn to western capitalism in an attempt to solve the economic problems inherited from the Stalin era.

The bureaucracy could • not take either of these risks, so Sik did not get an opportunity to put his policies into prac- for more than tice short period. Even so, what is known about that shows clearly enough that they were incap- able of solving the problems of the Czech economy, which can- not be dealt with except on the world arena. Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972 PAGE 9 Frank Allaun has indeed be- 'In April vast numbers of 'left'. council tenants will be faced tame The with a 50p venerable MP for Salford East rise in their rent has already put the boot in (on of top this year's in- for those few Labour council- crease', whilst a great mass of lors still fighting the Tories' will have others a in- Housing Finance Act with his crease in October next year.'

at the Labour Party speech (Our emphasis.) conference. The present rises are As every reader knows it worthy only of a mention in was Allaun carried brackets. Worse who than that, national executive policy Allaun tells us the slogan now when he opposed a resolution has advanced: 'Not to be calling for wholesale nationali- another penny on the rents.'

zation to solve the housing to off Just round the Allaun crisis. - it says Most significantly, how- should White- ever, he went to the rostrum hall, not the hall 'for town and said the NEC would not the guilty Heath, Walker and Amery.*e men and could not ask a Labour government to back That's just Allaun up what financially those councillors would like. Tories The may who might be penalized by have brought in the Act, but the Tories for refusing to im- only servility of the plement the rent increases.

Labour leaders, nationally and Not satisfied locally, has with laying allowed them to these councillors immediately get away with it. open to attack, Allaun has Allaun conveniently forgets now turned on the the 69 Labourites who voted tenants themselves, who with the Tories on the Com- bitterly are of up. mon Market last year to keep opposing rent rises to letter to 'The them in office. Guardian' last week he wrote: No doubt, if Allaun gets his 'The second round in the way, the slogan next April will struggle against the govern- be 'not not ment - imposed another penny on rent in- ... is now opening.' creases What's this. Fighting talk Below: Frank Allaun, who has froin 'left'? Not a bit of the 'advanced' his slogan to 'Not it. Listen to the rest: another penny on the rents'.

LEON TROTSKY:

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PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972 Soclallat Labour League TV

PUBLIC MEETING

Behind the Assassination of Trotsky

BBC 1

A reply to 9.42 Schools. 12.10-12.25 Boomph with Becker. 12.30 Disc a dawn.

Joseph Losey's 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble mill at film 1.30 Pogles' wood. 1.45 Dressmaking. 2.05-2.25 Schools. Tuesday October 24, 8 p.m.

2.50 Racing from Newbury. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 Magic round-

CONWAY HALL

about. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Blue

RED LION SQUARE

Peter. 5.20 Joh Carven's news- round. 5.25 Yogi bear. 5.45 News

LONDON WC2

and weather. (Nearest tube Holborn)

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.50 TOM AND JERRY. Hatch Up Your Troubles. (SLL national secretary) 7.00

• TOMORROW'S WORLD.

Admission 10p 7.25

TOP OF THE POPS

8.00 SYKES. Stranger. 8.30

PETTIFER

IN

AMERICA.

Soclalist Labour League The Impossible Dream: Julian renter meets Glenn Leeds Wesley Turner, millionaire patron saint of rree carenonse

9.00 NINE

O'CLOCK

NEWS.

LECTURES

Weather.

THE THEORY AND

9.25 COLDITZ. The Undefeated.

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

10.15

MONTY

PYTHON'S FLY.

ING

CIRCUS.

Given by 10.45

MIDWEEK.

Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central

LATE NIGHT NEWS.

Committee member) 173U 11.35 ANIMAL DESIGN. Strength Without Skeleton. Historical materlalism today Weather. Monday October 23 Bullding the revolutlonary party

ITV

Monday October 30 performance. amate 9.30 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow.

crowd would set their Flying 12.25 Diane's panda part. 12.40 Heights' in a builders' back

PEEL HOTEL

see John Cleese and Co on BBC 1 tonight.

First report. 1.00 Joker's wild.

Boar Lane, 8 p.m. 1.30 Crown court. 2.00 General

BBC 2

TRADES UNIONS

hospital. 2.30 Good afternoon.

ALLIANCE MEET

3.00 Out of town. 3.25 Mind of 11.00-11.25 school

KENT:

Thursday October Mr J. G. Reeder. 4.25 Voyage

OPEN

•.UN The Legion', Burgess 6.35 ROSLA AND AFTER. Dis- p.m to the bottom of the sea. 5.20 Road Aylesham. Wil- Reinstate cipline Dave Cash radio programme. 7.05 Griffiths

OPEN UNIVERSITY

rresare conference.' Speakers:

NEWSROOM.

Weather.

ALUA

5.50 News. Rent Griffiths' striker and leading 8.00

EUROPA.

6.00 TODAY.

miner (both in a personal 8.30

WAR

AND PEACE. A Letter capacity). 6.30

CROSSROADS.

and Two Proposals. 9.15

BACKSTAGE

Sir John

MOTHER

MAKES

6.55

AND

Gielgud talks about Hearts that ATUA conference

THREE.

Two the SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thursday DeCT as 9.25

HORIZON.

When Polar Deptford 7.25

FILM.

OPERATION

Bears Swam in the Club, Engineers' opposite

CROSSBOW

Sophia NeW Peppard, a names Cross Station. Loren, George

TONIGHT WE

10.15

THEATRE

Monday October 30,

MEET

ARTHUR

PENDEL-

Mills

AVION.

Wartime search for Hitler's

BURY'

Co-op Hall, High Road. By Alan Plater Donald secret weapons. Churchill,

CLAPHAM:

Tuesday October 31, Norman Bird 9.30

THIS WEEK.

Clapham Manor Baths,

DESCENT

THE

OF 10.45 Clapham Manor Street, SW4.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN.

WOMAN.

Elaine Morean EAST LONDON: Tuesday October 10.30 CINEMA. Clive James talks whose book offers a new Festival inn, unlisg. to Peter Sellers. theory on the evolution Street Market, E14. of man, on a whistle stop 11.00

SOMETHING TO SAY.

WEST LONDON: Tuesday October America

LOUI

12.00

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

31, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Wharfe- 11.15

NEWS ON 2.

Weather

12.15 THE NEW MISSIONARIES.

11.20

LATE NIGHT LINE-UP

•ce node ones cross. Subscribe! Dublin without The dally paper that workers press fight against morning papers the Tories. {20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) 8156 £10.14 for 6 months issues) {5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues)

MORNING

NO 1C Waddel If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: were published in Dublin ves terday. Publication of the three £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Dublin-based was halted after dis- Fill in the form below NOW and send 1o: papers patch workers Kress pionee by 186a Clapham High St., irculation Dept., Workers Pres 'Irish the objected ondon, SW4 7U( the erection of partition dividing dis- the rotart anu I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

patch departments.

THURSDAY

workers brought

MONDAY

Days required into the unofficial dispute when

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

'Irish Press' (Please tick)

SATURDAY

WEDNESDAY

voked lne Irisn rrinung reaera tion Agreement pact which Dublin Or involves all ewspapels Full subscription (six days) for affecting one a soule them 2,500 Name the emploved "Irish h Times group, Address Press. *Irish and the Irish Independent' workers involved are members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union Amount enclosed £ A meeting of the printing group of unions and the Irish Printing ance. Who else but the Monty Python ng Circus Interpretation of 'Wuthering yard. For something completely different BC 1 tonight. Fiona Gaunt is Hélène Kuragina In the fourth of BBC's 20 episodes of 'War and Peace' tonight.

Federation yesterday proved in- the newspaper conclusive and managers resisted the request of the unions that the 'Irish Times' and Independent' newspapers should continue publishing.

Management argued that the screen which led to the row was an essential part of a heating and ventilation system. • SOME Press Association ser- vices were delayed yesterday by a mandatory chapel (office branch) meeting which began on Tuesday night and was continuing into the morning. The agency's NATSOPA chapel a 'house' pay offer has rejected and told the PA management it will continue meeting until its demand is met. affected Among departments were the telephone switchboard, copy-takers and racing clerks who prepare programmes and returns.

The PA continued to put out and sports service as a news neither journalists nor telegraph- ists were involved in the dispute.

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 9.30-12.05|

London. 1.10 News. 1.30 London. 2.30 Women today. 3.00 London. 4.25 Skippy. 4.50 Primus. 5.20 London.

6.00 News. 6.15 Sports roundup.

7.00 Film: 'None But the Brave'.

9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Smith family.

11.02 Cinema. 11.35 Frighteners.

12.00 News, weather. WESTWARD. As Channel except: 12.05 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 London. 6.00 Diary. 10.59 News.

12.00 Faith for life. SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 2.30 Women only. 3.00 London. 4.25 Land of the giants. 5.15 Emmer- dale farm. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6.45 Junkin. 7.15 Film: 'Crack in the World'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 11.00 News.

11.10 Guideline. 11.15 Film: 'The Killer is Loose'. 12.35 Weather.

HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 London. 4.25 Merry melodies. 4.50 Elephant boy. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.01 Report West. 6.15 Report Wales.

6.30 Sky's the limit. 9.00 And mother makes three. 7.30 Film: 'The Double Man'. 9.30 London.

10.30 Gallery. 11.00 Spyforce. 12.00 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales 7 and 41 as above except: 2.30-3.00 Hamdden.

mawr. 4.35-4.50 Can- 4.25 Miri tamil. 6.01-6.15 Y dydd. 10.30- 11.00 Studio one. HTV West as above except: 6.15-6.30 Sport West. 2.30 ANGLIA: 9.30 London. women only. 3.00 London. 4.25 News. 4.30 Land of the giants.

5.20 London. 6.00 About Anglia.

6.35 Crossroads. 6.20 Arena. 7.00 Film: 'Man Inside'. 8.50 Emmerdale. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 11.00 Avengers. ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London.

2.30 Women today. 3.00 London.

4.25 Land of the giants. 5.20 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Cross- 'A Clear and roads. 7.00 Film: Danger'. 8.45 Cartoon. Present 9.00 And mother makes three.

Gardening 9.30 London. 11.00 today. 11.30 Film: "The Fast Lady'.

Weather.

ULSTER:

11.00 London. 1.31 News. 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper room. 3.00 London. 3.25 Women today. 3.55 Harriet's back town. 4.23 News. 4.25 Rovers. 4.50 Phoenix five. 5.20 General hospital. 5.50 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 7.30 Film: "To the Protectors. Shores of Tripoli. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 Lon- don. 11.00 What's it all about?

11.20 Champions. YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 2.30 Farmhouse kitchen. 3.00 London.

4.25 Funky phantom. 4.50 Junior showtime. 5.20 London. 6.00 Calendar. weather. 6.35 Cross- 7.00 Film: 'School For roads. Scoundrels'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Sport. 11.05 Cinema. 11.35 Department S. 12.30 Weather.

GRANADA: 9.30 London. 2.30 Yoga. 2.55 Doing things. 3.25 London. 4.20 Lone Ranger. 4.55 Rainbow country. 5.15 Peyton Place. 5.50 London. 6.00 News.

Police file. 6.30 Dave Cash. 7.00 Cartoon. 7.10 Film: 'A Clear and Present Danger'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 11.00 On the line. 11.35 Odd couple.

TYNE TEES: 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31 Let's face it. 3.00 Doing things. 3.25 London. 4.25 Woobinda. 4.50 Junior showtime.

5.20 Pebbles and Bamm bamm.

5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 7.00 Popeye. Crossroads. 7.10 Film: 'School For Scoundrels'. 9.00 And mother makes three. 9.30 London. 10.30 Sportstime.

11.00 Police call. 11.05 Cinema.

11.35 News. 11.50 Scotland Yard mysteries. 12.25 Revolving chair.

SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 London. 4.25 Lost in space. 5.20 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Scotland today. 6.30 A place of her own. 7.00 Film: 'Who Was That Lady'. 9.00 makes three. 9.30 And mother London. 11.00 Late call. 11.05 Journey to he unknown. GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 2.40 Cartoon. 2.50 News.

3.00 Out of town. 3.25 Women in today. 3.55 Harriet's back town. 4.25 Elephant boy. 4.55 Junior showtime. 5.20 General hospital. 5.50 London. 6.00 News.

6.05 Try for ten. 6.35 Crossroads.

7.00 Film: 'Designing Woman'.

9.00 And mother makes three.

9.30 London. 11.10 Salute to Vaughan Williams. 12.00 Medita- tion.

Talks of deal after top meeting with stewards and CP Ever since the end of the nati group of docks have been t depot in east London de registered dockers. Over the p been no mass meetings called the Communist Party-to dec tactics. Here ALEX MITCHE ments from the pickets themse 'We don't know any- thing about a truce with Vestey. We don't know about any deal. We only know that the picketing is going on? Thus a docker from the Royal Group summed up the confusing situation over the picketing of Lord Samuel Vestey's Midland Cold Stor- age depot in Hackney, east London. Of course, this is only his view. Other dockers have com- pletely different views of the situation. They believe that peace moves are well under way to lift the pickets. Dockers driving past the gates in Waterden Midland Road have stopped this week to ask why the pickets are still on. 'Haven't you heard,' they said, 'the pickets are off' In no uncertain terms the pickets told their brothers that the line will be maintained! first The source of the article that the picketing would 'Finan- be suspended was the cial Times' on Monday. That paper's labour staff boldly announced that a truce was under way. Then another so-called authoritative the source, 'Morning Star', • reported on Tuesday: 'London port shop stewards have provisionally agreed to lift the picketing of Midland Cold Storage the depot in east London for one week-if the company agrees to talks with the transport workers' union on its manning.'

The 'Star' industrial reporter went on to say: "The stewards' position, it is understood, is NORA BELOFF, the poli- tical correspondent of the 'Observer', yesterday lost her breach of copyright action against the magazine, 'Private Eye'. Beloff complained to the High Court about the publication in 'Private Eye' of a memorandum she had written to the editor of the 'Observer, David Astor.

It was published in the 'Eye' under the heading "The Ballsoff Memorandum'. Miss Belofi was ordered to pay costs of the eight-day hearing, unofficially estimated at £10,000.

In his reserved judgement Mr Justice Ungoed-Thomas said the copyright of the memorandum did not belong to Beloff.

In February 1971 the 'Observer' published a slashing attack on •Private Eye' accusing it, in effect, of smearing the Home Secretary, PRESIDENT Park Chung Hee —who seized power in a military coup in 1961—partly suspended the South Korean constitution and dissolved the National Assembly on Tues- day. His move comes at a time when key talks are being held with the North Korean govern- ment on the reunification of the country. Press censorship has been imposed and all universities and Immediately after his declara- tion, tanks and armoured cars moved into Seoul and took up po Ever since the end of the national dock strike, men from the Royal group of docks have been picketing the Midland depot in east London demanding work there is given to registered dockers. Over the past two weeks there have been grow- ing rumours about the picketing being called off. But there have been no mass meetings called by the shop stewards-dominated by the Communist Party-to decide on the pickets' future or any other tactics. Here ALEX MITCHELL examines the facts, helped by com.

Who's creating cold store confusion? that the picketing will be lifted only when talks take place.'

leading figures on the London stewards' com- mittee members can assumer that this article was doubtlessly with written after consultation aune docks steward aralik Party's industrial organizer Bert Ramelson. Does reflect the views of the men? Have the men had a chance at a mass meeting to express their the shop stewards' committee these peace-feelers? Ballsoff Memorandum' Mr Reginald Maudling, March 1971 and oure raoncauon. Private Eye' replied with Beloff's incorporating The judge said 'Private Eye' has for time been Maudling's censee will ship with Mr Jerome Hoff- of whose Real man, rund of America. aoLaLe ling had become first president.

'Mr Hoffman, understand, imp usan ent and fined 400 in was sentenced USA on fraud charges, he Though 'Ballsoff' the title and thor- oftensive Crealta all oughly objectionable impression Beloff would not any event additional entitled to have been damages in respect of the publi- cation. 'Private Eye' now faces a libel action by Beloff due to be heard next week. Clampdown in Seoul during talks in North The positions. eight-point martial law decree stated that all political demonstrators ano assemblies were banned. Talks will be resumed on North Korean Monday the Red Cross officials of both coen between In his statement President Park revealed that the parts the constitution suspended were be replaced by amendments published next week. If the amendments were sup- portea In a relerenaum, lue col from the Royal d Cold Storage e is given to have been grow- But there have -dominated by ure or any other , helped by com- Dockers Midland ing Is o printable After three days of investiga- tion we have been unable to satisfactorily answer any of these questions. There has been no mass meeting and, as far as we can establish, not even a full meet- ing of the shop stewards' com- mittee. So how the 'Star' can attribute this truce decision to "London port shop stewards'.

Messrs Bernie Steer and Vic Turner, once the most com- have pulsive media men, - suddenly fallen reticent-at the crunch point in the battle with powerful cold storage the operators. FRENCH trade union federa- tions—the Stalinist CGT and Socialist CFDT-called their 'week of action' this week to embarrass the EEC sum- mit which opened in Paris yesterday. But the leaders of European capitalism were probably im- pressed by the labour bureau- cracies' docility. The unions' demands are for a minimum wage of 1,000 francs (£83) a and retirement month at 60 with a minimum monthly pension of 800 francs (£66). They also want a cost-of-living clause in all wage contracts. The 'week of action' is deliberate attempt by the Stalin- ists and the Socialists to defuse the anger at the rapid fall in the value of workers' wages and encourage their appearance as in their joint election moderates campaign. stitutional order would be 'nor- malized' before the end of the year. But if they were rejected, he added: 'I will take it as an expres- sion of the will of our people against the North-South dia- logue.' For time now the some Stalinist regime in North Korea has been conducting negotiations the for reunification with American-backed military dicta- torship in the South. Park Chung Hee now feels the instability in his regime, especially following the over- tures to Peking first by • Wash- ington and now by Tokyo. Workers Press, Thursda *N•2 Dockers have been driving up to collea Midland Cold Storage depot to assure ing Is over. The answer they have be printable. They readily agreed to spend 30 arguing minutes against , unionists trade other onl Granada TV's World in Action', they had no qualms appearing about with Lord Aldington on BBC, and they even wrote a joint article in 'The Times'. seems impossible today to get a clear statement from them, as the senior repre- . and spokesmen the committee, on the Midland dispute. The contrived article in the 'Star' and the leaks in the capitalist press have served only to create further con- dockers fusion among over their struggle for jobs. The same was true of the Party. members Communist who controlled the upper This 'pressure on the governs ment and the employers' , as it 1s described by the French Stalinists, is to lead to a national one-day strike, the date for which has not been fixed. Although the original decision nationally by was taken the CGT-CFDT, the form of action 'democratic' was left to the choice of each factory and work place. Monday's 'L'Humanité', the Stalinist daily, could only record one specific action called as part of the protest-the docks will 'minimum' of stop work for a one hour next Friday. The 26 hours strike called for next Friday by railwaymen's Fill in the form below and

SECRETARY,

SOCIALIST

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, L

Name Address s, Thursday October 19, 1972 PAGE 11 • colleagues outside the assure them the picket- have been given is un- Clyde struggle. James Reid began the reformist work-in amid a blaze of publicity. But as the wheeling and dealing began with the Tories and the union trade bureaucrats, he left the television screens and the number of mass meetings drastically dwindled. On Tuesday Turner told us he could not comment on rumours that stewards prepared to call a truce in return for talks. 'I can't confirm or deny anything because there's nothing for me to confirm or deny,' he added. The confusion deliberately being fostered on the London today can . only assist docks and his Vestey powerful backers in the Tory Party and Jack Jones. leaders for an increase of 8.5 per cent is the result of the refusal by the employers to grant and not the concessions any CGT-CFDT call. One of the railmen's leaders complained to 'L'Humanité': 'We, for our part, have accomplished miracles in the field of produc- tivity; within one generation out- put has gone up and the labour force has gone down from 515,000 to 290,000.' Both the CGT-CFDT 'week of action' and the rail strike show that the French Stalinists are in full collaboration with Pompi- dou's anti-working-class policies wage-cutting and rationaliza- of tion. information about ow and send to NATIONAL

LEAGUE,

ALIST LABOUR

H ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG.

No firm reply on power claim — whipping boy' fears in public service Pay delay anger mounts Milbank Toler, Lon push poore in front of unlon president/secretary Frank Chapple as he enters yesterday's pay talke at PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday October 19, 1972 POWER INDUSTRY employers yes- terday refused to come forward with any reply to the unions £5.50 pay claim until after the government-CBI.

TUC meeting on October 26.

Today the local authorities are expected to follow Union negotiators suit. this in section of industry are seeking £4-a-week increases. At an with Tory Education urgent meeting Secretary Margaret Thatcher yesterday teachers' leaders voiced suspicions that the government pro- posed to use the public services as the whipping boys' of a prices and incomes policy.

The power-station engineers have already given just a small indication of the unrest this is causing with their decision to stage the first of a series of one-day strikes on October 26.

Backing for the Tory policy came yesterday from "The Times'. The paper welcomed the TUC leaders' acceptance of the principle of state control over wages.

Chequers "The outcome of Monday's talks at the TUC and the

CBI

between the government, make an agreement on a voluntary pay and prices said an likely than it policy look more editorial statement. But it went on to reflect ruling-class fear that TUC cannot deliver real control over settle- the ments-and ruling-class preparation for other measures. 'It is already apparent that the TUC cannot itself be the mechanism for applying the pay element in the deal', 'The Times' says.

'If it tried it would destroy itself. Its influence and acquiescence is invaluable; but the moment it policeman it ceases to be a tribune Lobbying electricians tries to be d and so loses its occupation.'

Millbank Tower, Lond For the union leaders to en- gage in the talks at all is a be- trayal. But for them to continue with them, under conditions the class where ruling openly weighs the value and cynically NATIONAL union offi- down. different forms of the of possible the the only rea cials arrive at betrayal adds insult to injury.

Thornycroft plant in The talks must immediately be appearance Basingstoke, Hants, this end their broken off and an alternative re- Union morning to try and get built. volutionary leadership lift the engineers to gave the task before Sun- This is British-Leyl day's All Trades Unions Alliance their ten-week оссира- tion of the factory. last conference in Birmingham.

It is thought they will would obta

WORKERS'

Bill -have,

THE

POWER

be led by John, broke off talks Amalgamated Union ted union yesterday 'until the Engineering Workers' on their wage claim occupation free to negotiate. executive councilman. employers are to The union side to Most men sitting-in at They is to report their executives with the heavy gear-box fac- have Various recommendation that the claim were opposed to the tory officials day's be backed up by. industrial action the coming to achieve 'a realistic settlement'.

The union negotiating side is to meet again October 27. on Jack Biggin of the General and Workers' Union Municipal told "The fact that Workers' Press: the TUC is involved in talks with is a matter for the government the General Council, not for us.'

Bob Wright, of the engineers, THE THREAT of a strike said imposed freeze was the British- throughout intolerable. and Leyland bus truck division in support of workers the combine's occupying Basingstoke plant was lifted temporarily yesterday. Shop stewards from all the factories Leyland's heavy in vehicle division agreed at Preston action to postpone any pending the outcome of talks at Basing- stoke today. LABOUR MP Eric Heffer meets These will involve leaders of the workers occupying the com- industrial development minister Christopher Chataway and Lucas bine's gearbox subsidiary of management in London today for Thornycroft and national union the scheduled closure officials who will be seeking to talks on CAV Fazakerley, end the dispute on the basis of of the Liver- Leyland's latest offer. pool, plant. the leaders of the fac- But tory's occupation committee the 1,100 workers representing who took over almost two weeks

LATE NEWS

yesterday opti- ago-were mistic about the outcome of tha discussions. 'We don't expect much from

• HAROLD SPEAR,

industrial told Workers Dave Martin convenor of the Elec- relations member Press. Two Lucas told tricity Council, said after a two- stewards travelled to London and-a-half-hour meeting with the last night to attend the meetings.

'not that there was unions Added Dave Martin: 'The feel- the chance' of their meeting ing here now is that the whole claim for a five-hour reduction Lucas combine has in the working week. We have to build this one. on council felt that nothing The up the and cannot let support should be done to prejudice the They must the combine sit aside. the government talks between be involved in our fight. and the TUC, he said. •Personally, I think the support has to be in the form of action if we're going to win. Occupation committee mem- attending bers are now busily stewards' meeting throughout the Press, They feel that be- Lucas empire. Clapham for help trom gutsps like docup they go outside the group Press 1 Lond (TU), and airport workers, those inside Street, the industry must come forward.

actricians push posters in front of unlon president/secretary Frank Chapple as he mer, London. lute disaster. They fear that decisively rejected the York le only reason for their proposals. Eaton's themselves, pearance is to try and The them- proposals according to the state- their fight. worth about selves York ment after the officials-—who much as the two meeting, only undertook undertaking to pages they are written give full considera- ritish-Leyland at York on. Eaton's the buyers, tion to Basingstoke as week that they will take over the fac- possible manufactur- tory from next January. ould obtain a meeting location ing for the however, And British-Leyland exer- potential new products. the has only undertaken pressure on Earlier this week committee supply Eaton's with three years' work 'sub- occupation committee • call another meeting. thought to to market condi- leaders remained con- are ject The way Leyland fident that today's meet- been angered by tions'. Sun- ing would throw out the result of last is going at the moment, York deal. which could meeting that mean abso-

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

HAZARDS for the British After this meeting shop Com- industry of entry into the stewards will make recom- mon Market were pinpointed yes mendation to a mass meeting of terday by Sir William Lyons, workers. founder of Jaguar cars. After yesterday's meeting, Len Opening Motor Show Smart, spokesman for the occupy- the at Lyons put a heavy Earls Court, committee, said: in errand previous damper the day's have certainly taken extravagant public relations from some steps forward. Before last Lord Stokes, head Jaguar's week there had of been no real reaction from them.' parent company British-Leyland.

Mr Smart was referring to the vehemently Stokes hit out at guarantees from Leyland to any suggestion that Market entry supply the Thornycroft factory- will be other than an unparalleled boost for Leyland's fortunes.

He which is being hived off to Eaton's, an American firm-with for announced bumper year work for 740 until 1976. British-Leyland models' enough in new Mr Thorny- 1973. Smart said the croft stewards were still sticking Lyons, however, said there to their original three demands.

would be no easy benefits from These were that Leyland would entry. unscramble £24m have to From the engineering point of Eaton deal, keep Thornycroft the British view industry was within the combine and offer well placed, he said. But the 'dis- 1,000 jobs to match the low of growth, appointing rate number of workers originally low level of capital investment, employed at the plant. the appalling industrial relations' It be the officials may that would, if continued, make it ill- will this is equipped to meet European com- convince im- possible, said Mr Smart. petition. agreed that major the demand obstacle was to Thornycroft within the retain any new deal. British-Leyland combine. to He expressed the concern He said it would be a question growing throughout the Leyland of the offer, accepting existing combine over redundancies.

accepting it as rejecting it or 'skeleton' 'flesh 'We are extremely worried and around which could be filled'. are looking on the Thornycroft indication of Speaking for the British- issue as being an further developments, he said.

Leyland shop stewards' Mr 'Our position is that are mercial committee, Len we completely opposed to the hiving Brindle said strike action was off of any BLMC plant.' still a possibility. Convenors from other plants in 'Our meeting stands adjourned division the heavy until the outcome of tomorrow's vehicle Basingstoke tomorrow in a talks, he said. Further industrial go to ! personal to observe capacity would depend on the action developments. attitude of the Thornycroft men

REDU

as he enters yesterday's pay talks at

MONTHLY

APPEAL

£437.28—13

DAYS TO GO

IT IS a tough struggle again to raise our Fund this month. We still need to collect £1,312.72 In 13 days' time. Let's go all out from now on and do our best to raise it. We know we can change the position around. Everywhere trade unionists are Joining the fight to demand the TUC breaks off all talks with the Tories. Huge.

price increases are forcing even more unions to fight for wage in- creases against the latest decl- sion for state control over wages.

Workers Press must continue to lead this fight. Our paper must be used to build a revolutionary leadership throughout the trade union movement. We must there- fore do everything possible to raise our Fund in time. Take add some collections at work, thing extra yourself, if you can. Post every donation immediately to: Workers Press October Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG. A 1,200-STRONG mass meeting of Glasgow bakers now on un- official strike for a week voted almost unanimously yesterday to continue their strike for a £5 all-round pay increase. Unofficial strike committee chairman, Mr James Owen said the Press had been misrepresent- ing the struggle, claiming that it was only a handful of militants leading the strike. Union officials have already agreement with the signed an employers for £2.50 for men and £1.50 for women. This was in mandate from spite of a clear a full meeting of shop stewards and factory representatives the which had week before over- whelmingly rejected the proposals.