Workers Press no. 903

workers press

AUEW BACKS INDUSTRIAL ACTION

TORIES SEEK

POWER MEN

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 25, 1972• No. 903 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

TO DEFEAT

Homeless

BY JACK GALE

students A SECOND big union yesterday decided to back industrial action in support of the power workers' €5.50 pay claim-but left its members dangerously exposed to picket Tory attack. The executive council of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering

DES

Workers decided that it would give general support to any action agreed at Friday's meeting of power industry union chiefs.

It failed to specify what form of action should be taken. AUEW executive council man Bob Wright was

LARGEST

given a free hand to back whatever emerged from Friday's discussions. This follows the decision of the

POLY IN GB.

N.E.LON.POLY.

Transport and General Workers' power and engineer-

SPENDS

ing group leaders to recommend an overtime ban to

MILLIOR

- 4TWEEK

POLY-NOT-

NOT

1p ON 11 SPENT ON back up the claim. 200

STUDENT :

With the support of these

/NO MILK SING

per-cent deal which pay two big unions, therefore,

STUDENTS

amounted in practice to a wage

HOMELESS

CUL

mace or me rISInE COSu tain of support on Friday. But living. This was the this will be utterly inadequate height of the miners' the Tory onslaught

ATTENTS

meet united by these waen

DOORSTEP

against the power men which key sections of workers

TWO

already building up. It is the aim of the Tories to

UNT

make this a test case for brought down the Tory govern- their ment altogether. 198- enure boncies. Victory for the power workers can only be won, in other again come fore

¿MULTI

by mobilizing the entire working the union leaders accreness navolves government To nent une a fight to bring down the Tory

LONDON

than they were during the 1970 government.

POLY

claim. Anything less only plays into

DES MESS

Since then, they have accepted the hands of Heath and Co, who

NEEDS

anxious a showdown are

STUDENT

the right of the Tories to impose with the workers and wages.

ROUPING

marrow the TUC leaders continue

'HATCHA

DUWCI

state control them with the enure 100 + working class. their talks on the state pay plan

STUDENT

Ministers hoping for a with Heath and the leaders *ot 1970

HOUSING OOF FOR

when they the Confederation British repetition

DOMELES DENS

were able to isolate une power mausty. men and whip up middle-class An immediate condition lol them on the power workers victory is to hysteria against

STUDENTS HOMELESS

break basis of Press and television force the union leaders lies about pensioners off these talks and to halt theit hospital patients. full-scale retreat before the Tory

INELONDON

offensive. erican camon le de Frank TUC secretary Victor Feather's electricians union leader whimperings une dange Chapple abandoning the £5 claim rejected. This eine has been usea election must calling off the work-to-rule for a government exchange to prevent a nent asamsu ever Court or mouy single Tory measure, words, in 1970 incluaing In the

ABOUT 50

'homeless' full-time and 4,000 part-time other students the £55,000 fine imposed on the leaders placed the fate the union picketed the Department students was only one T&GWU by the National Indust- workers in the of the Education

DOWE

anc science nead oritain withour residenta accom ria Keatons Couru Waterloo modation. hands or une tory covernmen Feather's bureaucratic "logic" the event the Wilberforce students, North is to let the Tories walk trom over He said there was a serious award exactly equivalent to the employers cast report gave London nave beer the working class because nOW shoriace or mais ano beositters in a if we don't, they might win an within a radius of five miles of offer- and board-room common-room and election. the Polytechnic rents were Following this retreat the on camp beds or the floor.

Tories were able to isolate and But elections do not decide beyona student pockets everything. The Tories cannot dereal tne postmen. Student Union vice-president Said Mr Greer: We are demon In February 1972 the Mr Greer said strating outside menis leaders accepted aver the DES becaus

JONT

TURN TO BACK PAGE

Polytechnic, 4,000 we feel it is their

TOMORROW

Portrait of a Marxist revolutionary 1879-1940 The exciting, large - format, paperback documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King, published today, is re- viewed in tomorrow's Workers Press in a four-page pull-out section. Be sure of your copy now: Telephone circulation 01-622 7029.

N. E.LONDON POLY

BLY-N

STUDENTS

HOMELESS

TUDE

me making the provision of residen- tial accommodation a priority.

We want to create enough publicity in the Press so that Education Secretary Mrs Margaret Thatcher knows what we are on about.' Demonstrators carrying ban- ners, chained themselves to the railings of the government office for a short period and handed in a statement demanding im- mediate accommodation.

BS5 S0S0

workers press

AUEW BACKS INDUSTRIAL ACTION

TORIES SEEK

POWER MEN

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 25, 1972 @ No. 903 • 4p

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

TO DEFEAT

Homeless

BY JACK GALE

students A SECOND big union yesterday decided to back industrial action in support of the power workers' £5.50 pay claim—but left its members dangerously exposed to picket Tory attack. The executive council of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering

DES

Workers decided that it would give general support to any action agreed at Friday's meeting of power industry union chiefs.

It failed to specify what form of action should be taken. AUEW executive council man Bob Wright was

LARGEST

given a free hand to back whatever emerged from Fridav's discussions. This follows the decision of the

POLY IN GB

N.E.LON.FOLY.

Transport and General Workers' power and engineer- ing group leaders to recommend an overtime ban to

- 4 WEEK

POLY-NOT

back up the claim. 100:

NO MILKISING HOUSING

STUDENT

With the support of these deal which per-cent pay two big unions, therefore,

NEEDED U

amounted in practice to a wage overtime dan woula seem cel ance

MS COSI

tain of support on Friday. But living. This was the this will be utterly inadequate height of the miners' Tory onslaught meet the to by these wien united actor against the power men which two sections of workers could not only have won both is already building up. but have It is the aim of the Tories to make this a test case for their brought down the Tory govern- ment altogether. entire policies. 198 Victory for the power workers An Come to the ere today.

be won, in other can only again come today,

MULTI

NORy by mobilizing the entire working leaders 2A51 class behind them. government Willing to one the fight to bring down the Tory

- ONDON

than they were during the 1970 government. claim.

POLY

less only plays muc Since then, they have accepted

DES MESSE

NEEDS

the hands of Heath and Co, who the Inaustrial melations Act ana anxious for showdown are the right of the Tories to impose workers and with control

NONG

LIlt state state the TUC leaders continue wages.

NEED

'HATCHA

through them with the ente 100 + working class. their talks on the state pay plan

STUDENT

Ministers with Heath and the leaders

HOUSING OOF OR

*of 1970° hoping for a they Confederation of British

HOMELES STUDENTS

when the sevenol were ave to isoate ure vower men and whip up middle-class An immediate condition

STUDENTS HOMELESS

them the power workers' victory to break is hysteria against television force the union leaders ot Press bass lies about pensioners hospital patients. full-scale retreat before the Tory offensive. erican canon leader frain TUC secretary Victor Feather's leader electricians' whimperings Chapple abandoning the £5 claim a Doll The cancer of. • This line as been election must be and calling the work-to-rule used rejected. for exchange government to prevent a nent azalnsl every court or noury. single Tory measure, including in 1970 the In other words,

ABOUT 50

'homeless' full-time and 4,000 students part-time the £55,000 fine imposed on the leaders placed the fate students, union picketed the Department was the only one T&GWU by the National Indust- workers of the the Education power and Hence witnout residential accom rial Relations The Noah. hands Waterloo modation. government. quarters at Feather's bureaucratic 'logic' In the event the Wilberforce students, from Tories walk over He said there was a serious award exactly is to let the report gave an Lone on recine •cel The workle class nOW becaust Shortee or mats and beasliters equivalent to the emplovers last lemming room no board if we don't, they might win an within a radius of five miles of offer board-room common-room election. Polytechnic and were Following this retreat the the on camp beds or the floor.

to isolate and beyond student pockets. Tories were able But elections do not decide defeat the postmen. everything. The Said Mr Greer: We are demon- Dres cannol Student Union vice-president In February 1972 the Mr Greer (23), said the DES mens leaders accepted a ver because Suralle

TURN TO BACK PAGE

Polytechnic, which has 4,000 we feel it is their fault for not

TOMORROW

Portrait of a Marxist 1879-1940 The exciting, large - format, paperback documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King, published today, is re viewed in tomorrow's Workers Press in a four-page pull-out section. Be sure of your copy now: Telephone circulation 01-622 7029.

N.E LONDON POLY

BLY-N

STUDENTS

STILL

HOMELESS

making the provision of residen- tial accommodation a priority.

'We want to create enough publicity in the Press • so that Education Secretary Mrs Margaret Thatcher knows what we are on about.' Demonstrators carrying ban- ners, chained themselves to the railings of the government office for a short period and handed in a statement demanding im- mediate accommodation.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednesda

BY JOHN SPENCER

THE SECRET TALKS

Vietnam settlement pose revolution. While Kissinger talks peace in and Paris Saigon the Nixon admi- nistration is escalating the air war north and south of the 17th parallel and planning to obliterate Hanoi. The carefully-timed 'peace offensive' from Washington a fortnight before the November 7 presidential election has more to do Pha with Nixon's plans to smash the Democratic Party at the polls than with ending the war. Nixon wants a clear majority at the polls to strengthen his hand against the working class both at home and abroad. By talk- ing peace before : the elec- tion he is preparing for a brutal intensification of the Vietnam war after November 7. He used the same strategy to win the election in 1968 and thanks to the absence of a Labour Party in the United States it seems assured of a second success this time. Yesterday Radio Hanoi questioned whether Nixon seriously intent on was achieving peace in Vietnam or just trying to fool public opinion. Commenting on the re- cent talk of an imminent ceasefire, the radio said: 'Nixon's new war aggres- sions pose questions as to whether he is really talk- ing peace seriously or is merely playing with cons- piracies to fool public opinion.' The radio condemned the continuing US for its bombing of North Vietnam and liberated areas of the south and said the build-up of US air and naval forces in South-East Asia in- dicated Washington wanted to step up the Vietnam war. 'At a time when the US is creating an atmosphere of peace before the pre- sidential election, its in- tention to step up war and commit more crimes lays bare its ferocious character,' - the radio added. These correct sentiments are in marked contrast with those of North Viet- namese premier Pham Van Dong, interviewed last week by the US magazine 'Newsweek'. said negotiations were in an that we will do nothing to jeopardize a happy con- clusion at this stage by talking out of turn'. Pham Van Dong spoke of the 'positive' character of the present evolution' and even enlarged on the 'new relationships' which would emerge between Vietnam and the US 'following our agreement'.

There are clearly divisions within the North Viet- namese leadership which has been under great pressure to settle with the Americans from Moscow and Peking. The Hanoi leaders are What we think Behind the secret talks Nixon plans to

LABOUR'S PRO-MARKET

FIFTH COLUMN

intensify war

STRENGTHENED

DOUGLAS HOUGHTON, aged 74, has in Indo-China been re-elected chairman the OI This is Parliamentary Labour Party.

noteworthy news for the and aDOU movemen because Houghton is one of the most in the parts On October 28 last year, Houghton wa: one of 69 Labour MPs who THE SECRET TALKS between Hanoi and Washington on a the trooped into the Tory lobbies to give Common Vietnam settlement pose very great dangers for the Indo-China Heath a majority for his Market bid. Subsequently Houghton abstained on numerous votes during and the of the European Com- vacillating: at the end of questions passage settled Bill, aid together thus and ast week unev were wak. Douces ing of an imminent settle- comfort the Tory legislation Taer in. ment, but these statements sistance that the US remove throughout the debate its Nguyen Van puppet By voting for the reactionary plans of Have occu Thieu. office biggest danger the big monopolies and their political The Meanwale • indicates, Hanoi agents in Europe, Labour the pro- correctly Indo- Radio revolution the Nixon administration is Marketeers were also keeping Heath Comes in office to carry out the rest of his the Stalinist character of the stevolne At the end of September leadership, which bases its vicious attacks on British workers the US Joint Chiefs of Staff When the voting for the PLP chairman- the south DespeCulve decided to allow the bomb- Houghton ship was announced on Monday it The achievement concord and demo- had revealed Houghton Ludl in the words targets and notebe he 136 votes cracy, obtained while his working class. They believe they can only De Vietnamese planes Van break trade union and party confer- was the centre of Hanoi. killing the fact that this reactionary ence decisions with impunity.

Communist Party • Geneva 1954 French delegate-general and old fossil can command more than (It is interesting to recall that when the which accepted the half the votes in the PLP throws con- Wilson office, Administration spokes- In accords WIlD Irrance USSR and China-the sell- men siderable light on the state of poli- Houghton, the right-wing tyrant, have made ceal out partition of the country that the North Vietnamese tical affairs in the party.

most of his time reading the capital will to be which the continue The PLP is now a swamp dominated riot act to 'lefts' who refused to go Daved way 101 the second Indo-China war.

bombed. and in the south by the right wing in which pro- and along with some of the more out Mode who ist the Viet- the air has been Torce anti-Marketeers which rageous anti-working class co-exist, excesses targets around namese Party Now manv senior ex-Ministers still favour Wilson the government. and the OI OnCe 'acceptable levels' of unemployment, Houghton breaks PLP policy at will).

Mos- tense pressure from Peking do All these developments in which there is still enthusiasm for The growth of this fifth column in the a prices and incomes policy, in which Labour Party is an indictment of the deal with the US, its point an even more are wavering and ruthless and brutal counter.

there popular for the of the 'left' and 'Tribune'- senders aemana strategy divided. revolutionary fol- orensive replacement of the Industrial Rela- ite MPs who claim to be coercing the In talks Kis- lowing the November with tions Act by another form of legisla- party leftwards. elections, as Nixon has singer it is they who have They tion over the trade unions doing nothing of the sort are made the conces- made clear he wil major already Or let us put it another way..

And, more diabolically, they provide sions, if the reports in the be much less inclined Houghton is re-elected chairman of the Press can be believed. They 'negotiate' in the likely a leil cover lor une viison leadersnit

PLP;

another right-wing in its manoeuvres Tories their vigorous that he wins at

WITA

love Marketeer, vious demand that military polls.

KOT

and the Jenkins faction. Mallersity, in by Wilson as brought shadow But the day of reckoning is not far Defence George Thomson Minister, off. goes off to Brussels as an EEC com- took the The Lincoln Labour Party missioner and he takes with him as first tentative steps in making Labour chef de Cabinet the party's assistant MPs accountable for their treacheries general secretary, Gwyn Morgan, when they threw out Dick Taverne. who, earlier this year, came within a This is a sign of the times.

hair's breadth of becoming the If the Labourites think they can flag- partv's general secretary succes- rantly operate their coalition politics, sion to Sir Harry Nicholas.

they are mistaken. The working class These people hold contempt for the will see to that. Crackdown on Czech workers threatened

BY OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

THE Czechoslovak government is planning to tighten up the already stringent code of labour discipline in a campaign against what it calls 'low morale' among the workers. At the last conference of the Czechoslovak trade union movement earlier this year the Stalinists finally abolished the remaining formal rights won from Dubcek in 1968. Pham Van Dong The trade unions were declared fully 'normalized' following the abolition of Durban dockers stand the right to strike and the imposition of a docile and subservient leadership.

'labour firm for £5 rise discipline indic of this told the

•ABOUT

2,000 black the men, overtime on toD

SORY

strikers that a final decision on dockers in Durban, ozz-hour week and satety hel South rested with the Minister and boots are not pro- german bread the te manne al pay Africa have angrily re- vided by the company jected a company appeal to He appealed mean rete, it The dockers are herded into end their strike and return work the barrackedled compounded high the fact that the right to work is one bed-bugs. with jeers and shouts was highly prized conquests to work. Food served Czechoslovak workers. DaCK lO WOrK tem. 'he men went on strike on until we are paid 18 rand (f9) 'In such a situation,' according to one Monday morning, bringing a week' they cannot eat it. And their work ships in beer rations are diluted with leading party functionary, 'mere appeal on stevedores also 1 10 are consciousness and working to workers biggest fighting a new five-day work-

DOIL

water. morale have little effect.

standstill. They are demanding week introduced a week This is the second strike increase their basic year on Durban docks. The Slovak 'Pravda', quoted by Radio because the hours this the present £4.25 a trom The strikers leaders were Prague. sa harsher statutory mant people Wast TO0OIg Sine inen for to work 124 hours a day with town calling measures ol alter W. hour for lunch, a earlier stoppage, but the stat against negative phenomena in the sphere Dreyer, an executive of the unable smash Stevedoring the ot labour " It adds: "Ihis path JurDell Spokesman sall WaS Labour Supply They have to work compul- will doubtless have to be taken.'

Lo, which em- dockers oreanwadon

CAV sit-in leader tells ATUA conference We fight ON TUESDAY October 3, 1972, the CAV management made an announce- ment that it was their intention to close the factory by the end of April 1973.

We were told quite ruthlessly that we for the were to be thrown on the dole.

On Wednesday October 4, 1972, the decided at a mass meeting workers of CAV that they would not, and could not, accept right the threatened closure and that they were prepared to sit-in at a moment's notice. On Monday October 9, for reasons which I will go into later, the workers at that plant evicted the management and began their sit-in.

10 Work I would like now, Brother Chairman, if I may, for the benefit of everybody here, so that they may have a clear understanding of our situation, to give you a brief history of the CAV factory member John Howe, of the to date. In April of 1960, the War then Department occupation committee at the its intention sit-in

CAV,

announcee close aown lie KOVa at Ordnance Factory Fazakerley and to make its Liverpool, spoke at labour force of 1,750 workers Trades Unions Alliance During that year after much and succulaliull national Bir- piece appeared the conference at necoaton Tolowing local nems open. It read: Sunday. mingham last firm manufacturers are prepared to take Workers Press here over the razakerlev Roval Ordnance people there. complete duces transcript to employ between 2,500 and 3,000 people They prepared to offer full employment to all of his speech. are the people there 10W• Closector was was laken over by the Joseph concern who employ between promised 2,500 and 3,000 men 1961 the Lucas com May pany started production on that limited way and a

SILC

months later CAV, a subsidiary Lucas company, also production. not there was government grant involved in the Lutcas from the War Depaitment actual takeover we nave neen unabe to ano our But one thing is sure and certain, that of government huge sums have money been that site for the last 1l 15 cars. So much about there ot the machinery cent less the sophisticated and most téchnologically-advanced type is worth milions of pounds ano

THIS

BRINGS

us to the question- -why does a company who claim they losing are millions of pounds spend se much money on new machinery? Why does a com- to all the trouble to pany go equip DanT Crest machinery and then close it down? To to read you extracts ot a like extracts to read you Press Pr April 9, 1970. 1 must add here management that this was a lengthy document which I have cut ruthlessly for réasons of time. £13.5m expansion DrO taken by CAV. When being under- complete increase the company's total production capacity by more than 50 per cent. 'A memp, CAV and its the Joseph Phase aposase be completed.

diligently for the changing Lucas alllll - of patterns trade may slant ated companies employ Gillingham factorv. not develop and existing Walcal perple at eight factories in the in a development area and where there interests new plant would not qualify 101 double duvartare "The expansion will the casts. WOlse De that company now the subsidized plant from the British motor Tne strengthened by the addition of Fazakerley that factory, to Units- will Motor thereby saving the company quite кеер opportunity lllitely of a fair sum of cash. the steadi regulrements international diesel engine market market, and working

BUT

THEN

over the next five years.

this brings the even close question why the move five European 'Spread over the next dWay from Liverpool to the south. to this end. will vedes. male programme And here again the company's include a 200,000 ft single- And nere, factory Kent; acre site statement makes it clear that storey Lne real reason Ine they intensify their closure of the CAV factory Gillingham all 25 activities in the south east of sion provide a DeT CenT The continental market increase in capacity at the Roto England and on the continent.

more cheaply easily and Diesel (French) factory and a To find a possible reason for satisfied from the southern-based this we need look no percent increase further than plants in terms of transport and the Condiesel, Spanish une remarks kennels Lans portalion unan is la factory? the company chairman, case from Liverpool. But much at Gillingham The factory who his the develop- was report em- important 1971, stated: ment of the Spanish factory, with to come into being in two phases.

ployees In phase one completed by advent 'with te britain's a te avancestor em. January 1971—there was no entry into the Common Market, ploying classes that exist in that ourselves mention in the statement of when we Here's where In the to buy books heart of 28 Charlotte St London's by London W1 West End Leon Trotsky Workers Press, Wedne The restrictions trade on unions and workers' organizations and the effect that these restric- tions have had on working con- ditions and wages are a tempt- ation that even the most national- istic of employers cannot resist.

A top paid skilled fitter for week in instance, is on f12 a the Spanish sub- Condiesel, sidiary of CAV. Last Wednesday the company told a group of Liverpool MPs that the reason for the closure was because of the poor indust- rial relations on that site and consistently because of heavy losses. They also stated that the Spanish factory is only a very small concern hardly capable of producing more than ten pumps a day. On the question of industrial relations, there have been militant traditions at that factory and long struggles have been fought for improved

• PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

88, Wednesday October 25, 1972 PAGE 3 Left: John Howe speaking in Bir- mingham at the weekend. Below left: Inside the plant and conditions, for wages which we make no apologies.

When Lucas came to Liver- pool they thought they had cheap labour-we've changed their minds over the years. just on However, the purely academic side of it, Fazakerley is way down on the list in terms of days lost due to disputes in 1969-1970 in comparison with some other factories in the group.

it cannot be So here again claimed that it was the cause of the closure. However, the claim that the company made about this little firm in Spain being hardly capable of producing ten pumps a day is an absolute lie.

We have documented evidence that in 1970 the Spanish firm was capable of producing 40 pumps a day and incidentally during a nine weeks' strike at Fazakerley in 1970, Condiesel supplied British-Leyland with a large quantity of pumps. The management's feeble ex- planation for this was that Con- diesel had done a deal behind their backs direct with British- Leyland and they were most annoyed. And so you see, brothers and sisters, the employer who can no longer get his product on the cheap in this country is moving to Spain where he can and this is basically our situation.

On Monday October 9, 1972, because of the action of the management in operating volun- tary redundancies and closing down certain shifts before any discussion had taken place with the stewards, the workers evicted the management and began the occupation. We immediately set up vari- ous committees to deal with all the different aspects of the occupation. THE MORALE of the workers has never been higher and it is remarkable how well the work- ers are responding to the abso- lutely necessary rules and regu- lations that have had to be laid down by the committees. The shop stewards' committee has never been more united and I think I should say here that it is fantastic how some stewards and many members have devel- oped and taken positions of lead- ership in the past fortnight which one would never have thought possible a month or two ago. I'd like to wind up do, I would just like to read you a final extract from a state- ment made by our company chairman in 1971 when he was commenting the huge on improvements in profits for that year: The results for the year 1970- 1971 show a welcome improve- ment over the very inadequate achievement of the previous year. This improvement, although helped considerably by a better level of working in the motor industry in the last four months of the year, would not have been possible, without practising throughout the group, the most stringent and often inpalatable economies, which have included the unavoidable closure of some of our factories and, to my very great personal regret, the need to reduce the number of people in our employment. What he blatantly said was that increased profit was achieved and could only be achieved by throwing workers on to the dole.

"Sie At CAV we are not going to be thrown on to the dole.

We are calling on the working class to come to our aid. We are fighting for the most basic and fundamental right of the working and that is the right to class work.

NOW OPEN

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 aim.-6 p.m. Fri 9 a.m.-7.30 p.m. Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

THE BEN BARKA

By Tom Kemp. The Story of a Political Murder PAGE 4 Workers Press, Wednesday October 25, 1972

AFFAIR

PART ONE:

THE VICTIM

The appearance in Paris of a film called 'L'Atten- tat' '(The Outrage) loosely based on the kid napping and murder. of Moroccan left-wing the nationalist leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, re-opens one of the murkiest political scandals in the history of the Fifth Republic. Whatever the merits of the film, and some have called it an outrage to the memory of Ben Barka, it comes at a time Fifth Republic is when the wallowing in a rising tide of scandal and An of this affair dating evocation sday October 25, 1972 from 1965, when General de Gaulle himself was in power, is timely. On October 29, 1965 a small, dark man in his mid-forties briskly through the moved gates at the Paris-Orly airport after arriving on the 9 a.m.

plane from Geneva. He travel- led under an assumed name with an Algerian diplomatic passport but his departure from Geneva, where he divided his with Cairo where time family lived, had been notified instantly to the French police by their Swiss colleagues.

The inconspicuous man who seemed quite at home in Paris was, in fact, on the political danger-list. An exile from his own country since July 1963, his movements were watched by the police and secret ser- vices of several countries.

After leaving his baggage with some friends, Ben Barka went to the Champs-Elysée where he was to meet a Moroccan student, El Azem- mouri, at the famous Drug- Store, recently destroyed by fire, at I1 a.m. Later, he was to meet a number of people who had contacted him earlier in the year and had proposed the making of a film dealing with decolonization. The Moroccan leader was also concerned with the organi- • to zation of the Tricontinental Congress which was to be held in three months in Havana time. However, he was no revolutionary and in fact he had had talks in the previous April with Prince Moulay Ali, cousin of King Hassan II, with a view to returning to Morocco as leader of a loyal opposition.

He had once been the young Prince Hassan's private tutor -before turning to politics he had been a teacher of mathe- matics. But it was to discuss the film that Ben Barka had made the trip. He was to see, in par- ticular, the journalist Philippe Bernier who had worked on Stalinist and fellow-travelling papers and whom he trusted as a friend of ten years' stand- ing. He was also to see Georges Figon-a character with criminal past which he could not know about - through whom funds for the film were ni- to be provided. Before going on to meet these individuals, with whom he was due to lunch at the Brasserie Lip, favourite haunt of well-heeled 'lefts', Ben Barka discussed some aspects of the project with El Azemmouri. They took a taxi to St Germain-des-Pres and it was while standing outside another Drug-Store that they were approached by two men who showed their police cards and asked the older man to accompany them. Apparently satisfied that he was only wanted for a routine check, Ben Barka was driven off in a car belonging to the Paris police. His companion was told to make himself scarce. In fact he was terrified, went into hiding and it was hours before anyone some learned that Ben Barka had been 'arrested' The policemen were genuine enough. Louis Souchon was head of the Paris drug squad and also had a part share in a hotel in Montparnasse frequen- ted by pimps and prostitutes.

Roger Voitet, one of his young assistants, had simply been that it was a routine cola check. Sitting in the front seat of was Antoine Lopez, the car traffic officer at Orly airport and an important official of the service agency known secret by its initials SDECE, later to well known for the become alleged implication of some of its officers in drug-smuggling to the USA. But the car did not head for the Prefecture of Police, but for one of the outer suburbs, Fontenay-le-Vicomte, where it stopped at the villa of a French resident in Morocco, Georges Boucheseiche, then engaged in negotiating with Hassan's gov- ernment for the extension of his chain of brothels. He was also a former Gestapo agent, a police informer, a retired gangster and a man said to be able to dispose expeditiously of unwanted bodies. Lopez and Boucheseiche, the respectable Orly official and secret agent and the one-time lieutenant of underworld boss Pierrot-le-Fou, were boyhood had grown up friends and in the European together Casablanca. They colony in had villas in the same suburb and they were both on friendly terms with General Oufkir, hero of the French army in Italy and Indo-China, and now boss of the Moroccan police and Interior Minister. Also present at the villa were Pierre Dubail, ex-body- guard of a notorious gangster chief, Jo Attia, and Jean Balisse, a former Gestapo agent condemned for collaboration.

They were also on the pay-roll of SDECE, for whom they did the odd job-presumably beat- ing people up or killing them.

Once at the villa Lopez tried to contact Outkir by phone. He failed to do this straight away, but two other Moroccans arrived at the villa, including a police inspector, to inter- rogate Ben Barka. That night Oufkir telephoned Lopez at his villa at Ormoy and arrangements were made for him to meet the air traffic controller at Orly airport on a flight arriving at 2.30 a.m.

Oufkir was not on the plane and did not arrive in Paris until 5 p.m. He was met by Lopez and left at once for Boucheseiche's villa. Although . the facts so far were revealed at the official French inquiry, what happened next is not known for certain.

According to a 'confession' which Fignon made to a news- paper, Oufkir_proceeded. to torture Ben Barka with a dagger ... This was too much even for Boucheseiche who protested, Ben Barka was then taken to Lopez's villa. Whether he was then burned in the furnace, killed and buried in some remote spot or taken by plane, dead or alive, to Morocco is not certain. At any rate he was never seen alive again—or dead either.

this going While was on some of Ben Barka's friends, who had expected to see him visit, became during his worried. El Azemmouri's wife gave the alarm and anxiety began to grow for his safety.

October 30 At. 9.30 a.m. on one of Ben Barka's Moroccan friends informed General de Gaulle, then President of the . lawyer, Gisèle Republic. The also informed Roger Halimı, Frey, Minister of the Interior.

The afternoon edition of 'Le Monde' announced that Ben Barka had been arrested in Paris.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

PROPERTY

MEN

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

British property develop- urged to push ers were ahead with projects in Europe before their con- tinental rivals could catch with them by Julian Markham, boss of Ream hurst Properties, at a re- cent conference on 'Buil- ding in the EEC'. He implied that they could still make the smart grab and take advantage of out-of-date conditions before their rivals woke up to the opportunities Though he did not put it in quite those terms. What he was suggesting was that the type speculative development which has pushed up land values and spoiled the Britain all urban view over should now be carried into European cities. He was not talking about building houses to satistv real needs or to improve the con- of life ditions of workers in Europe's overcrowded, slum- ridden cities. By 'development', he means building office blocks for business firms and luxury flats for the rich. Markham sketched out some dos and don'ts for the intend- ing speculator. Those drawn to Paris should -the opportunities be cautious- are running out and the mar- ket is an artificial one. Because over-building, rents and prices might begin to come down. Perhaps wisely he did not mention the financial and poli- scandals much building development in the Paris area.

MAO'S MEN TALK

TRADE WITH THEIR

JAILERS

When the Brazilian mili- removed President tary Janio Goulart in the 1964 coup, they also filled the jails with every shade of opposition from liberal intellectuals to socialist trade unionists. These oppositionists were joined in prison by trade and Press representatives of the People's Republic of China who had been operating trade the Goulart regime. Until recently, the 'People's Daily been condemning has President Medici for im- perialist policies and organ- ization of 'electoral farces' However, a five- last week. trade delegation headed Gaulite by Coutinho, President of the Brazilian Exporters' Association, arrived in Peking

ONDENT

The key to making money in the property business is having an eye for the main chance.

Move into areas which are due for rapid growth, then wait for land values to spiral and the haul will be rich indeed. The thing is to get into the places where the Europeans have been slow off the mark.

Pick up land at prices before they begin to soar and erect offices which can be sold or rented at a huge profit. Brussels, too, to seems suffer from an excess of office space, but new buildings are going up all the time and British firms are already deeply involved. 'Indeed,' Markham said 'the seemingly easy route to over- seas status via Brussels could prove more of a nightmare than a dream.' The Dutch, the oldest specu- lators in the world going back to the 'tulip mania' of the 17th more ready to century, are welcome foreigners than the French. British developers are already active in the main Dutch cities turning many an honest guilder. Markham told his hearers to be poised for an invasion of the German market. With the experience already acquired in other Continental countries developers should, as he put it, attack in force. In fact you do not have to urge many of these City gents to "go into Europe'. They are already there with the deeds of the land ripest for develop- ment in their pockets. British property investment in Europe is already conserva- tively estimated at around £500m. ili- for the Canton Export Fair.

After discussions with Chou Hua Min, vice-Minister of Foreign Trade, and Wang Wen vice-President of the Lin, Council for the promotion of World Trade, Coutinho an- nounced that a large mission will visit businessmen China to sign contracts next year. He hopes Brazil will exchange their sugar, cotton, machinery and synthetic fibres Chinese for coke and chemicals. The Chinese Stalinists have short memories. They have forgotten the 1964 arrests and the Brazilian vote against Chinese entry into the UN, which cost instant coffee mag- nate, Horacio Coimbra, a $Im deal last year with Peking.

In fact, since entry into the UN, Mao's men have been talking trade with fascists from Brazil, Spain and Greece.

Monsieur Henri Modiano who has been A Gaullist deputy, Henri Modiano, who sits for the 13th district of Paris, has been drummed out of the UDR (Union for the De- fence of the Republic), the Gaullist party. Accused of complicity in a financial scandal, he was urged by party secretary Alain Peyre- fitte and a former deputy for his own constituency, Hubert Germain, to leave the country immediately. They claimed that if he stayed to face a court he would bring discredit on the party. deputies have While many been involved in one way or another in the scandals which have shaken • the regime over the past 18 months, only Modiano has been singled out for exemplary treatment. Modiano was one of the whizz-kids of Gaullism with one foot in politics and an- other in business. He began in Rothschild bank under the Pompidou and later became an executive of the nationalized Renault car concern. Having served his appren- ticeship, he launched out into other deals-and it was these which landed him in trouble.

He was associated with a firm called which France-Elevage bankrupt after three went years. Then he became the manag- ing director of the French subsidiary of a German firm.

Mannesmann-Silos, which wanted to open a branch plant.

A building permit was required Monsiour Henri Modiano who has been pushed out of the Gaullist party during the recent scandals.

MONSIEUR MODIANO

FALLS FROM FAVOUR

"What's up, mon ami, can't you get It off elther?'

to build a factory and the firm believed that Modiano could He did, quite quickly.. After the revelations of Gabriel Aranda, a former civil servant in the department con- with cerned issuing permits, anyone who has obtained one, especially with little delay, is under suspicion of having used influence But Modiano became also embroiled in with a dispute Mannesmann over his attempts to re-sel the factory. One firm which had tried to buy it claims that Modiano also made them pay for a building permit.

A case is now pending before the courts. May-June after events as a tough Gaullist after a tightly-fought contest 88, Wednesday October 25, 1972 PAGE 5 party during the recent scandals.

get it off elther?' veteran fellow-traveller Pierre Cot. From the time of the franc devaluation in August 1969, which he opposed, Modiano came into conflict with the party bosses. He claims that unfounded suspicions about his business methods are now being used to put him out of political harm's way by expel- ling him from the party. By getting rid of Modiano, the UDR chiefs hope to assuage the public demand that some heads should roll while leaving the real villains to get away unscathed. At present he is still fight- ing back, mainly to defend his own record, but also is attack- ing Giscaird d'Estaing's finan- cial policy and has won a certain amount of public sympathy.

PAQE 6 Workars Prosa, Wadheaday Octobor 25, 1972 Journalists face the biggest crisis in the history of their pro fession. Jobs are vanishing at a record rate, censorship of news and views becomes more severe everyday. Here a special cor.

respondent investigates the capitalist grip on the British press.

the board of Newspaper publication is editors are on fisher nt hich he must repub.

directors and control in lne which he must recoup industry. a l monopoly hands of a trust fund domin- from the advertisements placed Huge amounts of capital family ated the Scott in tition recess the com- interests. petition for these are required to compete. grows the more fierce and some runners Competition between In a recession, the strug.

will not break even. nine major newspaper groups gle to survive is fought The savage. sharpening At the same time, a grim crisis makes it im- out on a colossal scale economic struggle is going, on for the possible for them all to sur- small ads 'shoppertunity' and the consequences of There will be financial columns which are the bread failure are drastic-espe- crashes and further for the Saturday This time, the paper closures. cially for the workers in and Sunday newspapers. Ad- redundancies among pro the industry. space salesmen are ver using duction workers and journal- locked in a keen contest to barons of Fleet will run into thousands, The Press win for their groups a suffici- will be per- Street are the essence of big share highly ent of this manently out of a job. The service they pro- stable market. vide for the cause of monopoly In the 1930s, the battle for As the economic conditions circulation was fought out by Capilallsin Pall for the industry deteriorate of their own existence as big means of late editions and along with the general decline special editions to meet monopolists. UlL" capitalist trading, so the expected breaks. This examples. accompanying political crisis was extremely costly in Viscount Rothermere and creates further source of highly-skilled power requiring the Harmsworth family have antagonism between the pro- and highly-paid production effective control of the Associ- prietors and the people who teams to stand around just ated Newspapers Group which produce the newspapers- for -Pal- waiting a £60m annual turnover something ticularly the journalists.

happen, and includes the 'Daily Mail', The new generation of News', The monopolists competed London Touting young, mainly university-edu- with each other by bidding up 'Weekend', about local cated journalists have the the manning requirements and newspapers and specialist mag- natural ambition to develop the rates for the most highly- and other interests in azines, their craft as far as they can, skilled operators. But in doing television printing, computers, which is bound to mean bigger this, they created a mighty rod (37.5 ownership of per cent and better exposures of the for or their own backs. and Southern Television), oil more glaring examples of cor- today, the heavily- transport. ruption and inequality in staffed production are The group closed the 'Daily still manning the presses at a SOCIeLy. Sketch' last year, causing when part of the com- of time hundreds _reaundancies, because capital was being tied petition between the monopo-

POWERFUL

lists has turned into a race unprofitably. Newspaper Thames off Fleet introduce the printing sites by the latest like colour technologies

MEDIUM

Street could more lucra- be supplements, web off-set, tape developed for hotels or tively and photo type-setting, etc.

other forms of property specu- But as the political climate capital- Printing is highly lation. intensive and machines go out changes from carefree Organization The Thomson days of ('The Sunday Times', "The of date quickly. To get a good government-Dashing the Labour to return on such expensive administration Times', a of provincia the mortal fight between capi- Scottish Television, all for the monopolists to re tal and the the monopolists to get trade unions over printing and other interests, who is to be defeated in rid of large numbers of opera- the major travel company and a resolution the deepening tors for good. is twice the size of Associated Satisfactory profits cannot the monopoly capitalist Crisis, in turnover but is /o per cent Press begin be achieved to finance the new barons to adopt owned by Thomson Scottish machinery all the time the agitated concern about how fully- Collary their powerful bills high, propaganda controlled by Lord Thomson wages especially in the face of the medium is used. and his family interests.

The blatant censorship Beaverbrook Newspapers long-term rate decining profit plus the immediate diffi- reporting of events in North- ('Sunday Express', 'Daily Ex- Ireland, which ern affec- London *Evening culties of the rapidly worsen- economic ted both Press and television, Standard', and 13 other crisis. a chance with means men must be panies) much smaller sacked on But special exception at all. It only f10m turnover (and there- a large scale. the essential expression of the fore vulnerable) with a million already unem- more much will establishment's vital ployed, any redundancies interest but is even further under the in keeping from control of its proprietor with be fought all the way. Opera- the working class all evidence of successful tors must end up fighting the Max Aitken and the Beaverbrook family owning. 79 introduction of new tech- revolt against the capitalist system and the because it will cost methods the cent of the voting shares nology per state machine will use to sup- and 10 per cent of them their jobs. But the mono- the non- press it. polists need to introduce these voting shares. if new machines they are to Bitter rows have broken out Even more interestingly, the of journalists Beaverbrook group had all of round between and Lone competitive struggle. The con- management at the BBC, ITV, three major newspapers its editors on its ten-man board of is antagonistic and 'The *The Ob- irreconcilable. server,' Sunday period. and directors in tne Times' because Whatever liberal illusions The pace is beginning of deliberate 'The hot up already. The 'Sketch' suppression of news from Ire- held it, Guardian' group little has gone. The next London land. Whole television films and massive newspaper investi- its capitalist newspaper casualty immi- ditterent trom colleagues. It has £10m nent. The colour supplement gative probes have been com- war has broken and the pletely spiked because they re- turnover from a group

OUL

of 17 from Mirror group suffered a f3m vealed too much of the British companies ranging, the Manchester "Evening News' loss to keep government's trom trying up repressive hand and Anglia Television to print- with Thomsons. in Ulster's crisis. 'The Observer' is feeling the Particularly suppressed has ing, newsagents and property Both strain. Producing a colour sup- been evidence of special interests. its main

ADA

VAH 1301

Above left: Printing workers march down Flee British army and police assas- sination squads at' work Ireland and the appalling reign of torture and concentration camp terror being used to eli- dangerous political minate the capitalist opponents of state. Another very sensitive area is the provocateur of role British agents in fomenting communal strife in a bid to keep the working class of Ire- divided land and also the treacherous deals being pre- pared between the Tory state and bourgeois interests throughout Ireland to sell out the working class and preserve capitalism, despite all the rot- of the present estab- tenness lishment. A massive protest meeting of television and Press journal- ists was held last year follow- ing a particularly severe period of news censorship which tried pretend to that items were being withdrawn in the inter- ests of 'balance'. BBC, ITN, and the independent television companies were all involved.

'The Observer' withdrew Mary Holland from Ireland be- cause of their uneasiness at her coverage of events there, in spite of the fact that the previous year, it had won her the Journalist of the Year' 'The Guardian' later award. forced John O'Callaghan to re- sign because of a ban placed on his reporting anything to do with the Irish question.

Finally, "The Sunday Times' Insight team almost revolted en masse after their probe into the Derry massacre, which in- dicated Tory government com- plicity in a deliberate plot to Kill workers, was spiked. And ars march down Fleet Streal. the home of the giant Press barons 'Times' reporter repri- was manded for reporting the com- ments of officers at a British Army training school which was making a close study of the pickets' actions during the miners' strike. All of these features of Press censorship will be re- peated wholesale when the conflict finally breaks out in earnest between the British state machine and workers in England, Scotland and Wales, which cannot be far away.

News of police brutality and provocations against strikers and large-scale arrests and in- ternment will be vigorously suppressed, as will evidence of torture of prisoners for forc- ing information about work- ing-class organizations.

SELF-

Unless the ciass- more conscious journalists unite with the production workers to take charge of the presses, they will be able to do nothing about it. Large numbers of them will not want to. The profession as a whole is stuffily middle-class in outlook. For all their loud talk, many journalists are the most pathetic supporters of the establishment. And almost all of them are affected by the occupational disease of capitalist newspaper reporters -self-censorship. To make any progress up the ladder, or just to lead a quiet life without too many a giant Press barone, to demand the freeing of the jalled docker fruitless rows with the news- desk, or even just to survive in one's job, journalists all learn, early on-and for many it becomes unconscious an habit of a lifetime-to avoid political realities stating in their stories, which they know will be unpopular with the edi- tor, and instead stick entirely to such unexceptionable 'facts' as will conform with popular prejudice. Thus a strike is always a strike, but a management lock- out is considered too emotive a term and is better described as a temporary closure forced on management by impossible union demands. Angry demon- strations by workers are al- ways given massive coverage, but the reasons for that anger appeat, if at all, in very small print. Conscientious journalists see through this easily enough, but they still fall for the illu- sion that by a careful selec- tion of the 'facts' they will highlight in their story, they are able to con the manage- ment and put over a piece that will tell the workers' side of the struggle. Such efforts are worth mak- ing, and there is good and bad coverage, but the overall effect of any capitalist news- paper is always bound to be prejudice reinforce every that its readers have about the world-if it is not in fact alienating them by its blatant bias and hypocrisy. Because the assumptions it makes in every article is that within the system, every prob- being lem is looked at or dealt with. Whereas the real problem is the system itself— of the jalled dockers. Above right: December last year- including the capitalist Press, whether liberal or right reac- tionary. In such a situation, as the political begins to pressure mount, the Workers Press per- forms an absolutely vital role.

having in view a Only by paper which can act as the completely uninhibited voice for the development of a revo- lutionary party can progres- sive journalists orientate them- selves to fight as best they can from within the bourgeois media. At the same time as the jobs crisis gets worse, the establishment and the news- industry employers are paper unprecedented launching an attack on the working class to force down real by wages means of runaway inflation crippling the unions' plus ability to fight back through the legal restraints of the In- dustrial Relations Act. All this is necessary as part of the being war general capitalist wagea In every country by the ruling class against workers to force down wage rates in order that that particular country's industries may survive the growing ex- port competition and trade war that will accompany the slump which will result from America's the collapse of credit position and the crisis of over-production. Britain's monopolists are driving the working class into furnace Common Market competition in order strength to derive collective from the combined EEC mono- polists' assault on wage rates and trade union strength.

In the face of this onslaught, cember last year-fourrellals burn employers' letters cor the unions in the printing in- dustry, no less than in other industries, are faced with near They hesitate to go paralysis. the employers' along with wage-cutting for fear of the angry memberships standing fear behind them, but they much more the giddy heights of standing up and opposing the capitalist class in their offensive. their members by signing lonut Eventually, they out term pay deals which will go nowhere near meeting the cost of inflation over the coming period and by opposing the Industrial Relations Act in words but raising no real fight against it in practice through challenging the government's use of the Act. The National Union of Journalists' leadership recently concluded a Fleet Street pay award which gave a rise of under 7 per cent a year over 18 months. This 10-per-cent increase nowhere near com- pensated for the rise in the cost of living in the 18 months since the previous wage award and will be completely inade- quate to combat the inflation that is still to come, especially after Britain joins the Com- mon Market Previous to this, the NUI leaders sold out even on the soft-line TUC stand against the Industrial Relations Act by putting the de-registration issue to a referendum which predictably went in favour of the Tory pro-registerers.

And despite this yet the militant ele- treachery within the NU) have ments shown an enormous capacity and readiness to fight both in Workers Press, Wednesday The Newspaper Society etters containing scab reversing de- the referendum cision at annual conference and subsequent special at conference, and in coming within an inch of defeating the Fleet Street pay award in a ballot

WORKERS

CONTROL

Journalists, like other print- ing workers, have shown a willingness to go into action against the employing class and the establishment. Given proper leadership, they would undoubtedly be able to play a full and valuable part in a printworkers' united move- end ment to the private and take ownership system over the whole publishing in- dustry in the only way it can be done to solve the problems of the economic crisis - by nationalizing the property without any compensation and under workers' control. To bring this about, the leader- crisis of the current ship must be resolved by ex- posing their bankrupt reform- previously gave ism which their credibility in them struggle, removing them from office and electing new leaders to prepared prosecute struggle to its final and only conclusion — the ending of ownership over the private means of production for ever.

The best solution the Labour Party could offer at its recent conference was a pathetic pro- posal, which never even got debated, for a National Print- 18 Press, Wednesday October 25, 1972 PAGE 7 ing Corporation which would allow left-wing journals to publish. They plan to leave the real wealth of the industry accu- mulated from the labour of the workers in it, the multi- million poundsworth of capi- tal in buildings and machinery along Fleet Street which is already in over-capacity, firmly in the hands of the robber Press barons The other tendencies on the left all favour one or other of the forms of 'workers' control' 'workers' participation', or which is meant eventually to lead to a slow creeping-up-on- the-capitalist-from-behind and taking over their plant that way. at an estated a cigos ally that the capitalist class never agree to be taken over— slowly or in any other way. They will have to be forcibly taken over. And since that "has to be the end result, far better to be clear about it from the very beginning and not confuse workers with the illusion of 'creeping participa- tion'. solution the Any to enormous problems which this greatest-ever crisis of capital- ism will throw up in the next few years will of necessity re- quire the ending of private ownership of production. To begin this drive towards workers' power, the first step must be the mobilization of the working class to force the Tory government to resign and its replacement by a Labour government forced to give pledges to • carry out socialist policies.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday October 25, 1972 'Parliamentary reform' and the working class, by Jane Brown

HOW THE

WORKERS

WON

THE VOTE

PART TWELVE

In 1911, the payment of MPs was introduced by Lloyd George, as a sop to the financial problems of the Labour Party. But this measure did nothing to restore the position as far as the trade unions were concerned. Indeed, it tended to alienate the trade union rank and file from the Parliamentary Labour Party. ILP conference of At the 1912, the central question was brought into the foreground by lowett's resolution in tavour o.

break with the complete Liberal Party, as the only pos- sible means of establishing the class nature and independence of the Labour Party and turn- ing it into a socialist organiza- TOn. The careerism of Labour MPs is revealed in the opposi- tion to this proposal by Keir Hardie (it 'reduced parliamen- tary government to absurdity') Philip Snowden ('Poli- and by tics means compromise'). These so-called socialist leaders had been sucked up into the parliamentary machine.

They owed their loyalties ies do- its bankrupt bourgeois tions, not to the working class.

Yet, as Lenin commented: 'The class struggle is becoming tremendously intensified, and along with this the foundations of opportunism are being un- derminea . • The extent of the social the reforms carried ouL Liberals, for so long the oppo- nents of government ference', is testimony to this fact. The spontaneous, militant by workers to resistance tacks on their living standards could be restrained by neither Labour nor

TUC

leaders. Be- could be Jiet that the country ruled directly by the trade unions, after a 'general expro- strike', was being priatory formed into a new doctrine of syndicalism, already spreading across European countries.

1910-1914 saw the greatest strike which had ever wave occurred in Britain. Beginning with lock-outs against boiler- makers, railwaymen, and Welsh 1910, it extended miners almost to General Strike pro- Southampton and portions in Manchester in 1911, then to a workers' transport strike in London. Federation National of Women Workers was founded Mary MacArthur and by brought its members support the transport workers. railway national strike soon paralysed the coun Taking advantage of the

TUC'S

obvious reluctance to assume responsibility for these struggles, the Liberal Home Winston Churchill, Secreted the strike crushed with mili- dead a tary shooting number of Welsh strikers.

1912 brought a lock-out of Lancashire then weavers. esday October 25, 1972 the working class, by Jane Brown national miners' strike for a minimum wage. Over legal strike 500,000 miners amounted to a challenge for power, in a country much more dependent on coal than it is today. A Minimum Wages Act was rushed through parliament.

This victory naturally encour- aged the London dock strike later in the year, and the 1913 workers' Dublin transport strike. This latter strike, led by the socialist James Larkin, was of enormous political importance, have for its success would irrevocably undermined the government's Home Rule tac- tics. Larkin visited England and pressed Keir Hardie and the TUC into giving some sup- port. But the TUC refused to British labour mobilize the movement behind the Irish workers, thus eventually mak- ing it possible for their em- ployers to starve them back to work. Out of this experience came an agreement by railmen, other transport workers and miners, to support each others' strikes future. This Triple the Alliance' was sanctioned by TUC (they had little the option). Only the outbreak of World War I made it possible for the trade union leaders to evade their obligations, which would undoubtedly have resulted in a complete General Strike within 12 months. Another movement of enor- mous militancy in the pre-war years, which gained no satis- faction from either Liberal Or Labour parliamentary parties, fight for 'Votes for was the Women!' The demand had been put forward mainly by middle-class socialists in the 19th century, but it was now taken up in an anti-socialist manner by the upper- and middle-class women organized in the Womens' Political Suffrage Union.

For all their violent demon- strations, hunger strikes, arson etc., these women represented the crisis of the bourgeoisie, trapped in the general social upheaval, rather than the re- sistance of workers to capitalist oppression. Christabel Pankhurst was the 'Germaine Greer' of the movement, feminist first, and a 'suffragette' only second. Her social snobbery was comple- mented by the apolitical anar- chism of Mrs Emmeline Pank- hurst—'The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics' (February, 1912). Both women pinned their faith on striking a bargain with the Liberal Prime Minister, Asquith. In August 1914, though their political demands were unfulfilled, they gave him 'war work'. full support in The demand for female suffrage, of course, was of major importance, since women were the largest single group still excluded from the vote.

Labour MPs supported it only Above: arrested suffragettes after crisis of the bourgeolsle, trapped in an individual capacity (e.g.

Lansbury), though Sylvia Pank- hurst demonstrated the need to turn in into a working-class demand, instead of a feminist crusade. as a socialist She worked as well as a 'suffragette', , in the East End, establishing con- tact with the National Federa- tion of Women Workers. In 1913 she spoke publicly in support of the Dublin transport The resulther ostra- strike. cization by the WPSU—shows the reactionary nature of the latter. After the war, when women had been granted the vote, she was to be found for a time among the early British communists. The 1918 Parliamentary Reform Act was a product of the crisis of imperialism in in • 1918, decay. The Tories like the Liberals in 1914, were • so precarious a position that they were prepared to grant almost any measure of in order to quell the 'reform' upsurge of the working class.

They abolished all property qualifications for voting, leav- ing only the age restrictions of 21 (for men) and 30 (for women). Eight million new enrolled. Such voters were apparent recklessness, com- pared with earlier haggling over and opposition to Reform Bills, is a measure of ruling- class fears. But it is also a measure of their confidence in the Labour Party's and trade unions' willingness to keep their members loyal to capital- ism. They had done so very ably during the war, by agree- ing to the virtual abolition of union rights in trade the interests of the 'war effort.

But the trade union rank and file were not so docile. During the war, unofficial shop stewards' committees up in all the main sprang industrial areas in defence of living and working standards.

Strikes were organized and labour newspapers appeared, though both were illegal. Much political confusion remained in the aftermath of syndicalism.

But the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution gave tremendous impetus to the various Marxist groups which formed the basis, in 1920, for the launching of a united Communist Party, affiliated to the Third International. Lenin played an important violent assaull on Buckingham Palace.

in the general soclal upheaval.

role in launching this party, warning against the dangers of sectarianism and dogmatism.

Such trends were understand- able in a new movement deter- mined not to follow the role of the "com- reformist promisers' in the Labour Party.

But it could only prevent the Communist Party putting new down roots deep into the labour movement. It was neces- sary to understand, rather than merely condemn, the political weaknesses of the trade unions and the inadequacies of the existing parliamentary system social vehicle for as revolution. Lenin's book '"Left-Wing" Communism', written in 1920 to assist the young communist parties springing up all over the world in the wake of the imperialist war, is most valu- able reading for revolutionaries today. Marxists now have an oppor- tunity to comprehend the degeneration of the Labour Party and of the Stalinist communist parties, at a deeper level than ever before. We are once again living in an era of capitalist crisis. The acute world working class is on the move, and in Britain it resists attacks of the employers and the Tory government with a vigour which has not been equalled since the period in which Lenin and Trotsky in wrote about this country.

"Correct revolutionary theory •.. is not a dogma, but assumes final shape only in close connection with the practical activity of truly mass and truly revolutionary movement? It is the responsibility of Marxists to bring all their understanding of the past into the present struggle to • build such revolutionary a mass party in Britain. This task requires not merely historical knowledge of the 'facts' of how workers won the vote, and how the Labour and Com- munist parties became tools of bourgeois parliamentary democracy, but also the firm- ness of principle and flexibility of tactics practised and des- cribed by Lenin. In 1920 he warned: 'We can (and must) begin to build n Palace. These women socialism, not with abstract human material ... but with the human material bequeathed to us by capitalism. True, that is no easy matter, but no other approach is serious enough to warrant discussion.'

As the economic crisis deepens, reformists of all shades are thrown into dis- array by the militancy of the working class they profess to 'lead'. The petty-bourgeois leftism' of revisionists such as the International Marxist Group and the anti-communist Inter- national Socialists is merely another side of this bankruptcy of reformism. They have no confidence in the ability of the British working class to take power, so their approach to building the is revolutionary party naturally not at all 'serious'.

This disregard for Marxist philosophy and economics is only equalled by their philis- tine disregard of history.

For the Socialist Labour League, on the other hand, historical study means study of 'the human material be- queathed to us by capitalism'.

We must study it closely, not in order to help us to per- petuate existing confidence in parliamentary democracy and reformism, but in order that we may develop the correct strategy for attacking the political weaknesses of the working class, exposing the reformist traitors among its leaders,. and founding Marx- revolutionary party in Britain. Forcing the Tories out and the return of a Labour govern- pledged to socialist ment policies is a necessary political experience for the mass of the working class. It is necessary in order to demonstrate, in more than a sense, that both propaganda the Labour Party and parlia- ment are 'historically obsolete'.

The depth of the economic crisis makes it certain that this exposure, consciously fought for by Marxists, can break through 'the weight of ideas and prejudices which have handed down been from generation to generation'. For the economic crisis is a fact: and, as Trotsky wrote: 'Living facts are more powerful than dead ideas.

CONCLUDED

WORKERS MCGOVERN'S

NOTEBOOK FRIENDS IN THE

Orange Order The reactionary If a member of the IRA says divide the always seeks to he is willing to kill, the capi- class along religious talist Press loses no working time in lines, trying all the time to branding him as a brutal, nihilistic, murderer. obscure the real revolutionary struggles of Irish workers.

But listen the London to In Edinburgh they. have just 'Evening News' commenting Tories joined with local Vanguard leader William to on I will kill' outburst erection prevent the of a Craig's memorial to the socialist James which he made at a meeting of the right-wing Monday Club.

Connolly who was shot by the British army in 1916. 'Bill Craig is a shy man by According to local records to stirring nature, not given Connolly was in fact born in oratory like Ian Paisley,' wrote Cowgate, Edinburgh, in 1868. John Jackson. to Ireland as Before he went 'His elevation into such Ulster's brutal Connolly was prominence in a young man, involved in the city's socialist politics is as much a surprise and trade union activities and, to him as to anyone who knows him.' like his brother, was a delegate to Edinburgh Trades Council.

We are tempted to ask: Can Craig who this be the When Labour councillor Ron same got himself sacked from the Brown put down a motion to Unionist erect a plaque, he immediately government on of firm principle, the matter provoked a storm of outrage man who consciously and as from the Loyal Orange In- stitution of Scotland. a result of the same principles formed the extremist Vanguard I wanted to remind workers Movement and the man who of their revolutionary heritage, he told Press. Pre- today stands and says Workers up brazenly that he is prepared cisely for that reason the local and death to Press joined the Orange Order to use terror achieve his ends? in screaming about 'murderers Jackson and Craig's hosts in engaged in an abominable cam- the Monday Club both apolo- paign of murder and whole- gized for Craig, but neither .. in Northern sale terror . condemned him. Ireland. Said Jackson: 'He lives with So when the motion came death as his constant to committee the Tories man- com- panion. Earlier this month he aged to vote the proposal survived down. Their friends an assassination in the attempt. Orange Order had won the day.

The police breaking the are law 'with impunity' West Ham Labour MP Arthur Lewis said at the weekend. 'It looks very much like one law for the police and another for the rest of us,' he said.

Lewis claims that policemen Park their private cars in banned areas of Cannon Row outside and other police stations and traffic wardens do nothing about it. He said: "The practice is to leave Metropolitan police memo form in the windscreen bearing the name and rank of the back you 'Bill Craig has the driver. courage. Night after can see a helmet or some other night before the piece of police uniform so that shootings and bombings began traffic warden the in no he hit the campaign trail in every Orange Hall and Union- doubt that the car belongs to a policeman and he takes no backroom meeting he ist action. could attend. 'The police are breaking the 'His platform appearances law with impunity with their nearly low-key, are always private which they are delivered deadpan and not not entitled to do. likely to rouse the passions of 'Yet they will rigorously volatile Protestant even audiences. impose the law against private motorists. I've raised the 'Though sustained by matter with the Commissioner German-born wife, charming of Police and given him details Doris, and two young sons, on him personally the strain of numbers and times, but he lust doesn't want to know' has been immense.'

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US ROUND-UP BY JACK GALE

The revisionist Socialist Workers' Party is now openly aligned with the Communist Party Stalin- ists on the Vietnam war and against the struggle for a Labour Party in the United States. Both find themselves in the same camp as union leaders Workers' like United Auto President Leonard Woodcock who has urged continued sup- port for 'liberal Democrats' like George McGovern, despite McGovern's anti-labour record.

Woodcock recently told a reporter from the 'Bulletin', weekly paper of the Workers' League: I'm opposed to a Labour Party. I think we can do every- thing through the Democratic Party; we don't need a Labour Party like in other countries.

If we had a Labour Party it would kill all the liberal Democrats' like Woodcock Leaders desperately seek shelter behind American big McGovern as business consolidates its forces around the Republican Party to take on the trade unions.

These same leaders are unable to fight against wage restric- tion, unemployment and speed-up. The threats facing American workers are illustrated by such measures as Proposition 22 farm- which would outlaw workers' strikes in California, and by the attacks on United Workers' headquarters Farm by armed fascist groups. Meanwhile,

UAW

the leadership is struggling des- perately to prevent a nation- wide strike against General Assembly Division's Motors attempts to introduce a back- breaking speed-up. GMAD's 8,600 workers at the St Louis plant were recently ordered back to work on the basis of Woodcock's of selected token strategy 'warning' strikes. Yet Woodcock and company are, of course, enthusiastically supported by the Stalinists in their efforts to hold back the working class and American keep it tied in behind the Democratic Party. A recent issue of the US Communist Party's 'People's World' reported the General struggle without Motors _a single criticism of Woodcock and urged on this labour traitor efforts "blue-collar, votes for capture McGovern. The Stalinists seek to pre- sent McGovern as a 'progres- sive' on the Vietnam war.

They used the seven-point peace programme of the PRG (Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam) to turn their youth anti-war marches of October 14 into pro-McGovern rallies. The central demand of this programme is for a coalition government to include repre- sentatives of the Thieu regime.

This has not prevented the revisionists of the Socialist Workers' Party from going over to the Stalinists on Viet- nam. The SWP prefers to seek closer relations with the CP rather than fight for a Labour Party and for a revolutionary lead in the anti-war movement.

The October 13 issue of 'Militant'-the SWP's weekly paper — makes a parallel be- tween the Stalinists' efforts to conclude a Vietnam deal and Br Workers Press, Wedne Top: Leonard Woodcock, President o continued support for urges McGovern above. the Brest-Litovsk treaty with German imperialism concluded by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

This is a political obscenity.

The SWP revisionists equate Bolshevism with Stalinism.

In 1918 the Bolsheviks made it clear that they were forced to make concessions because of the enormous weakness of the Soviet Union • and the immense superiority of the German armed forces. And every detail of the negotiations was made public. There is no comparison be- tween this and the secret dealings of the Stalinists in Vietnam, where American im- perialism has been unable to secure a military victory and has a demoralized army on its hands. Yet the SWP- lacking all confidence in the revolutionary strength of both the Viet- namese masses, and the Ameri- can working class—places all its emphasis on relations with the Stalinists. At a recent meeting at Brooklyn College, Fred Hal- 33, Wednesday October 25, 1972 PAGE 9 esident of the United Workers Union, for liberal Democrats' like George stead, a leading member of the Young Socialist Alliance (the SWP's youth movement) spoke on the history of the Vietnam war without once mentioning Stalinism. Instead, he declared: 'We could not tell the Vietnamese people what type of government they should have.' Yet Trotskyism came into existence to fight against the betrayals and Stalinism which are central to the struggles of the Vietnamese people, and of the American working class as well. Thus, the fight to break the American labour movement from the Democratic Party involves a struggle against both the Stalinists and the SWP revisionists. This fight in the United States is undertaken only by the Workers' League and the Young Socialists. And the 'Chicago Confer- ence for a Labour Party Now', held last weekend, was an [al- important step in the struggle.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday October 25, 1972 naya jeevan. 12.55 News. Pebble Mill t one. 1.30 Mar Midge. .45-2.0 Mungo and Made in 2.50 Racing from Ascot. 4.35 Magic round Play school. Adelphi. about. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 The SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thursday 5.20 Search. 5.45 October p.m. Deptford Club, opposite New Engineers'

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

Station. Cross 6.50 TOM AND JERRY. Mucho HOLLOWAY: Thursday October Mouse. 7.00 ANIMAL STARS. Bears.

IMPOSSIBLE.

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8 p.m. Tooting Broadway. erve:

WILLESDEN:

Thursday Octobel

SOFTLY: TASK

p.m. Trades and 26, 8 Labour

9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS.

CENTRAL LONDON (Press and Weather. Sunday entertainments

DEATH US DO

9.25 TILL

Street en- School, Langley

PART.

Calder. 9.55

SPORTSNIGHT.

Features European Cup-tie action.

ACTON:

Monday October 30, 8 р.m. Со-ор Hall, High Road. 10.45

MIDWEEK.

The of case CROYDON: Monday October 30, Patrick Murphy. the Is 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe jail wrong man In tor Road, nr South Croydon Station. murder?

SOUTHALL:

Tuesday October

11.30 LATE NIGHT NEWS

Community 31, 8 p.m. Centre, Bridge Road. 11.35

BELLAMY

ON BOTANY.

In the Mire. WOOLWICH: Tuesday October 31, 8 p.m. 'Queen's Arms', Burrage 12.00 Weather. Road. DAGENHAM: Tuesday October 31, Hall, Fanshawe 8 p.m. Co-op Avenue.

CLAPHAM:

Tuesday October 31,

ITV

Manor Baths, 8 p.m. Clapham Clapham Manor Street, SW4. EAST LONDON: Tuesday October 9.30 Schools. 12.05 Rainbow. 'Festival Inn', Chrisp 31, 8 р.m. of 12.25 Adventures hupert Street Market, E14. 1.00 Bear. 12.40 First report. WEST LONDON: Tuesday October Scotch corner. 1.30 Crown court.

2.00 Harriett's 'Prince Albert', Wharfe- back in town. 31, 8 p.m. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Looks Road, Kings Cross. dale familiar. 3.30 4.25 Danger man. NORTH LONDON: Thursday Nov.

Lift off Ayshea. 4.50 Ace with Bricklayers' ember p.m. of wands. 5.20 University chal- Arms, Tottenham High Road (nr lenge. 5.50 News. White Hart Lane).

6.00 TODAY.

BRACKNELL: Monday November Priestwood Community 6, 8 р.т.

6.35 CROSSROADS.

Centre. 'Councils of Action'.

7.00 THE SMITH FAMILY.

Rogue Cop. Soclailst Labour League

7.30 CORONATION STREET.

8.00 THE BENNY HILL SHOW.

9.00 PLAYHOUSE:

'A

MAN

WITHOUT

FRIENDS'.

Tom Bell, Peter Vaughan.

LECTURES

NEWS AT TEN.

10.00

THE THEORY AND

10.30 TONY BENNETT. At the

PRACTICE OF MARXISM

Talk of the Town. Given by 11.00 TRAPPED. Chez Madame Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Thompson. Bery! Reid, Committee member) Laurence Naismith, Leigh Lawson. Bullding the revolutionary party 11.30

FILM:

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Monday November 6

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Alex Dreier, Thriller. Stefanie Powers.

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BBC 2

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Battle. 7.30 NEWSROOM. Weather.

8.00 TIMES

REMEMBERED.

Joan Bakewell talks with the widow of Oscar Deutsch, founder of the Odeon cinemas. 8.10 MUSIC ON 2. The orch- estra is Alive and Well. Bernard Keeffe with the New Philharmonia Orch- estra. SHIPYARD WORKERS in north- east Scotland-the centre of the 'oil boom'-are being so-called threatened with major redundan- cies. About 70 men-mainly from the steel trades-are to be paid off by Hall, Russell & Co, Aber- deen. Also Caledon Shipyard in Dundee — where unemployment is already running at one of the highest rates in the country- have announced their intention of paying off 30 per cent of the labour force. Dundee In emergency an meeting of the local Confedera- tion of Shipbuilding and En- gineering Unions and Caledon shop stewards is to be held this week. Caledon convenor, Communist Party member Harry McLevy, demanded that the Tory govern- ment intervene to provide gov- ernment contracts for the yard.

A similar, reformist campaign has been launched in Aberdeen.

The local Confederation has set up a North Sea Oil Action Com- mittee to pressurize government departments to see that priority is given to British companies in work connected with North Sea oil exploration and production.

yne in tonight's Playhouse production independent channels. The frlends he for his movements the night a woman 9.15 PLUMB-LOCO. The death of a steam loco..

9.25 WAUGH ON CRIME.

In Inspector Waugh which knows the criminal but not the crime. 9.55 Stars in

MAN ALIVE.

their Eyes. Models London. 10.45 WAYS OF SEEING. John Berger analyses the im- ages of advertising. 11.15 NEWS ON 2. Weather.

11.20 LATE NIGHT LINE-UP.

The action committee is to go through the usual rigmarole of lobbying the local authorities, the Tory government and all Scottish MPs. Its policy flows from the reformist and Stalinist line that the only problem with capitalist 'unfair' industry in Britain is foreign competition. boilermakers' Jim McArtney, convenor at Hall, Russell, and leading local CP member, pro- tested that the yards on Scot- land's east coast were well equipped to build supply ships.

US subsidies were keeping the orders away from Britain, he said. McArtney said the point of the present campaign was to expose the attitude of American oilmen in Britain. He stressed that the action committee was non-political and that its aim was to pressurize the Tory gov- ernment into getting the oil com- panies to make greater use of British that the industry, so British people will benefit from the 'oil boom'

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12.30 Weather. HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Houseparty. 3.00 London. 3.25 4.25 London. 5.20 Gusta- Saint. vus. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 Lon- don. 6.01 Report West. 6.15 Re- port Wales. 6.30 Jimmy Stewart.

7.00 On the buses. 7.30 London.

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11.45 Weather. HTV West as above except: 6.15- 6.30 Report West. ANGLIA: 9.30 London. 2.30 Houseparty. 3.00 London. 3.30 Odd couple. 3.55 Romper room.

4.20 News. 4.25 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 London. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 London. 11.30 ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London.

3.30 Saint. 4.25 London. 6.00 11.00 London. 11.30 Stories worth telling. 11.35 O'Hara. Weather.

ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.32 News. 11.40 Schools. 2.40 Rom- per room. 3.00 London. 3.25 Women today. 4.23 News. 4.25 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Dick Van Dyke. 7.30 London. 11.30 Woorld War I.

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London. Looks familiar. 3.25 Ugliest girl in town. 3.50 Cartoon. 4.00 Cross- roads. 4.25 London. 6.00 News.

What's on. 6.30 Crown court. 7.00 On the buses. 7.30 London. 10.30 Chicago teddy bears. 11.00 Lon- don. 11.30 What the papers say.

im- 11.45 Kreskin. TYNE TEES: 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31. London. 3.25 Saint.

London. 6.00 4.25 Today. 6.35 London. 7.00 Protectors. 7.30 London. 10.30 Chicago teddy bears. 11.00 London. 11.30 News.

11.45 Mod squad. 12.35 Epilogue.

SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Dateline. 3.00 London. 3.30 Saint.

4.25 London. 5.20 Crossroads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.30 University challenge. 7.00 Hogan's heroes. 7.30 London. 11.30 What the papers say. 11.45 Late call. 11.50 Love American style. GRAMPIAN: 10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 3.00 London. 3.25 Women today. 3.55 Harriet's back in town. 4.25 London. 6.00 News.

6.10 Grampian week. 6.35 Lon- don. 7.00 Me and the chimp. 7.30 01-622 7029 01-720 2000

Stockbrokers warn of class- 'Left' talk fails to fool

MANCHESTER

tenants' action group has decided to give dele- gate and voting rights to mem- bers of political organizations.

Members of the International initially Socialists opposed this move. But it was carried at a meeting on Monday night after the delegate from Manchester and Salford Trades Council and other tenants' leaders argued that the tenants needed as much help as they could get in their struggle.

International Socialists later participated in a move to stipu- late that only private or council tenants could hold office in the action though group, even speeches from the floor called for those that worked hardest for the tenants and working class to be allowed to stand regardless of their type of home. This excludes not only trade unionists but also activists such as Mrs Constance Fahey, former group secretary, who is an owner- occupier paying a mortgage.

addressed to an engineers passen resolution was meeting delegates Manches- ter this Sunday, called to discuss the tenants' dispute. It asked the trade unionists to pledge sup- port including industrial action in defence of any tenants threat- ened with eviction. TENANTS on rent strike in south London have just experienced the treachery of the 'left? talkers in the trade union leadership who, when it comes to the crunch with the Tories, are really pre- pared to do absolutely nothing. On Monday night over 200 of them were treated to a long bluster at Woolwich town hall from Bob Wright, executive councilman of the Amalgamated Union of Engi- neering Workers. But eventually he had to admit - to from the groans audience of 200 tenants - that he was in favour of continuing the talks with the Tories on their plan for state pay control and was opposed to calling industrial action to bring down the Heath government. Wright's first contribution was militant enough to confuse most "Rent, interest of the tenants. and profit were the foundation stones of the Tory party,' he told them. 'Rachmanism has now been made legal by the Housing Finance Act. Therefore we must see the need to unite as trade unionists, tenants, Labour Party members or supporters of other socialist parties - forget He explained how the Common Market would raise prices by up to 30 per cent over the next three years. Tory policy was to use the Industrial Relations Act to dis- arm the trade unions, and to create 'a subservient leadership' *résponsible trade unions' and responding to the dictates of the law. Wright appeared to attack the pay plan. 'My union has no doubt where it stands if the govern- ment believes the current dis- cussions are intended to place the burden of so-called inflation on the backs of workers.'

said, The AUEW, he would not accept £2 or f3 unless the government withdrew the 'fair even then they were not pared for the government to determine the wages of our members'. Wright called for the nation- alization of urban land without compensation by the next Labour government, the repeal of the Housing Finance Act and so on.

'The leadership has got to defeat the Tory government and the Act. I am confident with your solid support we can force a General Election and get rid of the Tories and their rotten policies, he finished to strong applause.

BY PHILIP WADE

IN A confidential, inter- nal memorandum a lead- ing London firm of stock- brokers has warned big business and finance to prepare for an inevitable, all-out confrontation with the working class this winter. The firm, Buckmaster and Moore, members of the Stock Exchange, tell their clients in investment their October review that they 'believe that this government will not lose their nerve in the face of such a confrontation'. At the same time the docu- ment reflects the pessimism in the ruling class about the pros- pects for the economy and the dangers of uncontrollable infla- tion. Government boasts about any real growth in the economy next year are cynically written off by Buckmaster and Moore.

Discussing the inevitable resist- ance in the working class to any Bob Wright addresses Monday's meeti But within ten minutes the audience had fallen silent when he replied to a question from a tenant who was also a member of the AUEW. Wright was asked if considering his call for an election he would break off talks with the Tories and fight.

for industrial action to bring them down. 'The talks the TUC are having with the government should take › he answered, to surprised place, murmerings from the tenants who had gathered the impres- sion he was in favour of ending them. trying to apologize for this In position, the AUEW leader said the unions had faced a 'vicious campaign in the Press' blaming the unions for inflation. Although 'distinct betrayal of this was a truth', the unions should not refuse to talk with the Tories.

Jack Jones and Hugh Scan- lon represent the true voice of the trade unions at the talks,' said Wright. They would force the Tories, not the unions, to break off the talks. Wright conveniently omitted to mention Jones' actual, advice • to the Tories who were worried any 'ceiling' figure agreed in the talks would go onto basic rates and influence other earnings. (It was Jones who suggested plan figure should be wage tacked on to wage packets as a agreement on a wage plan by the TUC with the Tories, the brokers warn shäre buyers that 'at this stage should they recognize the dangers of a con- frontation with organized labour'.

Feeling the momentum build- ing up in the working class for an all-out fight with the govern- ment, they say the wages plan has 'not unexpectedly, provoked a storm of protest... and could be seen by the more militant sections [of the unions] as an opportunity to bring down the government. Then also seeing that the trade union bureaucracy will not find it so easy to carry the day on the Tory plan, the brokers tell their clients in industry and finance that the 'question whether such an agreement could ever be enforced in practice.

'The evident difficulty of en- forcing the law against them in the case of even the most flagrant violations (e.g. the dockers) will apply equally to any agreement restricting wage increases.'

At this point in their analysis,

VITT

HOLD

y's meeting 'government bonus' to SO as prevent the 'wages drift' the em- ployers fear.) On the question of industrial action to bring down the Tories, Wright was even more apologe- tic. 'Industrial action must come from the workers themselves and can never be directed from the top,' explained Wright, in one stroke abdicating all responsi- bility for leadership against the Tories. He said the union leaders will not stand in the way of our • members' if they wanted such action. Wright's apologies were an unsuccessful attempt to make up for the lack of leadership from Greenwich Tenants' the and Residents' Campaign Committee as a whole, made up as it is of Com- Labour Party talkers, munist Party members and the local vicar, Graham Swain.

Labour Party councillors only "asked the tenants to keep the pressure on the local right wing in the council who had decided to implement the 'fair rents' Act. Repeated calls to withhold the rent were made to tenants who were clearly beginning to see that such action by itself would not stop the increases from going through. The leadership of the cam- paign committee is opposed to Workers Press, Wedness which follows a meeting of all the firm's partners, they make it clear to clients that the middle disguised 'public against workers, to isolate and, hopefully, defeat them.

may be that before any progress can be made in this direction [of enforcing the wage plan], public opinion will have to more thoroughly become much alarmed than it has been so far by the threats of union violence.'

In other words, Buckmaster and Moore, and the leading counting houses of British capi- talism have thrown their weight in behind Home Secretary Robert Carr's suggestion that picketing is violent and unlawful and re- quires the use of riot squads.

And if the wage plan should 'the out- be inade unworkable, come may be a General Election if the government feel they have the support of public opinion against the unions' As far the economic situation the brokers goes, appear extremely nervous about pros- ouR

GREENVICH

COUNCI

TENANTS

CAMPAIGN

COMMITTER

uniting with other workers to lead a campaign in the area to bring down the Tories and re- Labour turn government pledged to socialist policies.

If the 1,000 Greenwich tenants not paying their £l increase are not to be left isolated and de- moralized at the end of the day, it is a matter of urgency that the political fight be taken up against the Tories. While the Tories remain in power, so does the 'fair rents' Act. I would like infor Fill in the form below and

SECRETARY, SOCIALIST

186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, L

Name Address , Wednesday October 25, 1972 PAGE 11 pects, considering the clash that has to take place with the work- ing class. Seeing the abolition of bank rate as an attempt to curb the it is cynical supply, money about claims that the economy will The stockbrokers grow. write: "The government has com- mitted itself (for what this may be worth) to a policy aimed at 5 per cent growth in real terms during the next 12 months.'

Losing their cool at the im- of what they have plications saying, Buckmaster and been Moore, warn sharebuyers that at this stage they should recog- nize the dangers of a confronta- tion with organized labour' 'We believe [but they are not quite certain] that this govern- ment will not lose their nerve in the face of such a confronta- tion, but its possible effect on market prices is quite unpredict- able.' And after all this they recom- mend 'caution' in the purchasing which are of gilt-edged shares, government stocks themselves!

THE Transport and General Union may face Workers' new Relations Court as a result of the continued blacking of a Liverpool transport firm at Liverpool docks. A lorry owned by the firm, Howitt Transport Ltd, was turned away from the docks yesterday after being sent to test whether the black was still on. Talks aimed at settling the dispute have broken down. How- itt's flatly rejected a union pro- posal that two men dismissed by the company be paid lump sums of £300 each. It was the men's dismissal, which they claimed resulted from their striking in support of the five dockers jailed by the NIRC, which led to the blacking of the company. In Hull yesterday docks stewards lifted their six-month black on Panalpina (Northern) Ltd, one of the firms which took the T&GWU to the NIRC earlier this year. The black came off at 7 a.m. Panalpina has signed a document saying that in future it will send its groupage import containers to be handled by registered dockers at the new British Transport Docks Board depot. at King George dock. • Britain's second largest union, the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, may face a contempt action in the NIRC the refusal following of the union's Sudbury, suftolk, branch to admit James Goad to its meet- ing last Friday night. Goad, a Tory, is seeking legal aid to bring the case. information about low and send to NATIONAL

IALIST LABOUR LEAGUE,

•H ST, LONDON, SW4 70G.

Mr Fitt and Mr Craig PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday Oct Dockers will picket cold REPORTS. in Monday's. 'Eve- ning Standard' that picketing Midland Cold Storage, at Hackney, had been called ofi denied by vigorously were dockers on duty at the depot yesterday. 'We were a bit late arriving Monday,' said one picket.

on 'But there has been no change of policy. As far as we are concerned we will be here for ever' Workers Press

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Power workers, now taking up the wages fight, find them- selves forced into the fore- front of the struggle against this Tory government and its plans for statutory control of wages. Press alone has Workers prepared workers for the poli- tical nature of the struggle ahead. It Is vital therefore every opportunity that we use to raise our Fund and keep our paper out in front. days. We still have seven Let's make a malor effort to pull our total right up. Where- ever you can, try and ralse Post all these extra amounts. immediately to: Workers Press October Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG

ITALY'S

, three main trade union federations called out one - hour workers a On nationwide strike of protest yesterday. The strike in protest was again the weekend bomb attacks on trains carrying trade unionists to a rally against unemployment in the southern town of Reggio Calabria. This call was aimed at de- fusing the hatred building up in the Italian working class towards the Andreotti government, under whose wings the fascist move- ment is daily becoming bolder in its attacks on the organizations of the working class. The Stalinists and the right- wing union leaders condemned 'the criminal behaviour' of the fascists the and called on government to take 'energetic measures to punish the fascist.

leaders.' Communist Party itself The advised its members to get into with 'other democratic contact forces in order to oppose fascist provocation'. It is this joint policy of dis- sipating working-class militancy protest strikes through and wooing the middle class with the demand for 'progressive demo- enabling cracy' which the 1S to recruit backward fascists workers and sections of the petty bourgeoisie. sections which feel These themselves crushed between monopoly capital and organized labour will have been pushed more to the right yesterday by the one-hour national strike.

esday October 25, 1972

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

THE LATEST crisis in Northern Ireland— caused by the absence of revolutionary leadership and the growth of sectar- ian trends — has created havoc among Ulster poli- ticians. The Rev lan Paisley will hold an emergency meeting with Tory premier Heath to- morrow. He is worried about being outflanked on the right by Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig. Craig THORNYCROFT engi- neering workers at Bas- ingstoke, Hants, will this week again face attempts by trade union officials to their ten-week call of sit-in. The Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers' executive yesterday decided to council send Bill John down to the factory on Thursday. He will try and force through proposals made British-Leyland at York two weeks ago. These were decisively thrown out on two occasions last week by the occupiers, the second time after a 90-minute plea from John.

The Thornycroft men remained firm in their opposition to Ley- with the land's hiving-off deal Eaton Corporation. Leyland's guarantees were con- worth sidered to be little considering that Eaton's only have a three-year lease on the factory. Strike-committee member Tom Lewis said he was 'astonished' to hear that John would be bringing the same proposals down Basingstoke again. to 'It was a very decisive majority that turned them down at the last meeting. It's not as if it was " a close vote,' he said.

TWO HUNDRED Hull Corpora- tion workers are continuing their unofficial strike for a basic wage of £25 for labourers and £28 The dispute is for craftsmen. keeping Hull's bus fleet off the road. At a meeting on Monday night officials of the Transport General Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Union of Engineer- Workers failed to get the men to agree to a return to work.

National 100,000-strong

THE

has voted Graphical Association majority of 2,000 in a by a national ballot not to de-register as a trade union under the In- dustrial Relations Act. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Published by Workers Press, Ofice. Street, 186a Clapham London, High

SW4 7UG.

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

SW4 7UG.

Craig's declaration for a right- wing pogrom in the North has caused panic within the even ranks of his own movement.

The reactionary Orange Union- ists, who have long oppressed both Catholic Protestant workers in Ulster, are terrified that. Craig's call to arms will relationship disrupt the close they have always held with the every capital- British Tories and ist and landowner in the north.

But nowhere is the confusion and fear greater than in that most miserable and cowardly group of reformists-the Social Demo- cratic and Labour Party. Gerry Fitt, the SDLP's man in Westminster, is the best example of this. Fitt has always run from Fltt 'There's been no change since in the opposition of the member- ship here as far as I can tell, and I really can't see the proposals getting through on Thursday.'

Leyland's proposals 'guarantee' three years' work at the factory, CRAFT workers the at British Steel Corporation's Port Talbot plant are meeting today to consider a manage- ment pay offer almost identi- cal to one rejected four weeks ago. Then management offered a rise of £1.92 in for return national time conditions being worked. The workers rejected this and gave 28 days' notice of strike. That deadline falls due today. Last Wednesday, the joint crafts' negotiating committee met the management after deciding without consulting their mem- bers to lift the strike notice.

The management. made basi- cally the same offer. The only difference was that they would accept a time average of 52 hours instead of the national time conditions average of 48

FROM PAGE 1

walk over the working class without great class battles. It is these battles which are decisive. Even though the Tories won the last election, they could not imposed Industrial have the Relations Act, the 'fair' rents' Act and entry into the Common Market on the working class except through the collaboration of the Labour leaders. And a few months ago when enormous working-class solidarity brought victory to the miners, the Tories were on the edge of collapse. They were saved by the great issues that face the Irish particularly the working class, Protestant section. After the most recent violence in Belfast : he is running faster. The direction is always towards the foulest kind of Tory reac- tion. • his latest speech in the Republic of Ireland he made two very revealing admissions.

Firstly he abandoned the prin- ciples of Irish _unity under the guise of attacking the 'Green' Tories in the south. Fitt said he would rather stay in the north than enter a Republic dominated by Fianna Fail-the Tory party of Eire. Secondly he made overtures to undoubtedly Ireland's Craig - most reactionary and anti-work- ing class politician. Fitt said he would join with 'Bill' Craig and 'Ian' Paisley to resist any move towards unity. ended with appeal to an build the Labour movement in the north. So after years of devotion to middle-class campaign to improve Catholics' civil rights, Fitt and the SDLP offer a deal to the Protestants. Not of course the Protestant working class, but its most reactionary Tory oppres- sors. They also use the dominance of Toryism in the south, which is largely the result of a failure of the Irish reformists to chal- lenge the Tory nationalists in any way, as an excuse for abandon- ing the key demand for a united Ireland. exactly with_whom, one Just might ask, is the Irish labour movement to be built? Presumably with 'Bill' Craig but they are conditional on such factors as the state of the mar- ket and economic trends. said the proposals Mr Lewis were 'useless without some kind of monitoring from the trade union side'. hours. But the pay rise still had come to fl.92. But the negotiating com- mittee did not reimpose the strike notice and today of the will attempt to get the men to accept this deal. The only union body to re- ject the proposal is the AUEW shop stewards' committee.

But they have decided that the status quo shall operate, that the 28 days' strike notice be de- ferred and that the unions go back to negotiating a pay in- which does not include crease national time conditions.

This means that they have de- cided to drop the claim, put no opposition to the official trade union leadership and returned to the same conditions as they have been negotiating over the past six months. Feather and his friends. Now the Tory strategy is to cook up a 'voluntary' package deal with the TUC leaders, seek a repetition of 1970 with the power workers and frighten the middle class into line for an election. union leaders' retreats The assist this Tory plan. A united labour movement, rallying round power workers, could pull large sections of the middle class into opposition to the Tories.

In any case some middle-class groups, like the teachers, are themselves in conflict with the government over pay. The working class is more and 'Ian' Paisley? These men are the defenders of capitalist pro- perty in the north. They up- hold the system that has made the workers in Ulster the most section of the exploited work- ing class in the British Isles.

The issue that Fitt and his band of reformists have always ignored is the Tory government in Britain. once have they called Never for the removal of the Heath regime. On the contrary they have co-operated with its impe- rialist at manoeuvres every stage of the Ulster crisis.

By doing this they also ignore the Protestant working class.

There is no other basis for working-class unity in the north campaign to bring outside a the Tory down government together with workers in Britain.

With the Unionists, the SDLP keep this have conspired to truth from Irish workers.

Now Fitt has taken one more step along the road to reaction.

He is trying to stop a sec- tarian war by relying on impe- rialism and appeasing Craig. In doing this he is only ensuring the inevitability of such a con- flict and the permanent division of the Ulster working class. This in turn will strengthen Toryism in Britain. is the answer to the What politics of the SDLP? Republican terror- Not more ism but the building of a revolu- tionary party throughout Ire- Would unite he Irish Working north south. This class with the British workers to smash Toryism, withdraw the construct a united troops and Socialist Republic of Ireland.

A SECOND news agency may be hit by strike action at the week- end over the sacking of Press Association

NATSOPA

father of the clerical chapel, Mr John Lawrence. And Central London National Union of Journalists'

FOCS

voted yesterday to instruct their members only to do journa- listic work; not to do any work normally handled by NATSOPA and not to handle material offi- cially blacked by NATSOPA.

It is understood they will work to prevent managements sup- planting normal PA racing ser- vices from other sources. Some papers have been cutting details from the 'Sporting Chronicle' and advance racing cards. The FOCs also passed motion viewing Mr Lawrence's letter of dismissal as a case of victimization and called for his immediate reinstatement. The PA workers struck a week ago over a pay claim. Mr Law- rence was sacked on Thursday for allegedly breaking his con- tract of employment. Yesterday the PA workers re- jected a move by supervisors to get them to return to work by 118-33. "The majority yesterday was bigger than Monday, said Mr Lawrence, 'and that is very en- couraging.' powerful than the Tory govern- ment. It is held back only by its leaders. The power workers' claim now poses the question: either united action to bring down the govern- ment or capitulation before the plans of big business. This is the issue before today's meeting of the TUC General Council. It involves not just one wage claim but the whole ques- unemployment, tion wages, rents, prices, trade union rights and the Common Market. The working class is facing the gravest decision in a year of momentous struggle. A power workers' mean the victory can end of the Tory government.