Workers Press no. 951

workers press

TRADE UNIONS FACE THE CRUNCH

ETHER FIGHT

SMASHED

Commissioners will go for engineering union's property

BY STEPHEN JO

TODAY'S MEETING of the momentous since May Day 19 held a summit in the Memo organize the General Strike.

cussing a declaration of war by The Baldwin administration starve the miners by cutting cent. Today the Heath govern- ment has made a similar decision. Wage rises are ban- ned by law, but prices are deliberately allowed to go up and up. In other words the Tory government is pursuing an open policy of wage- cutting. Now Heath has laid down the ultimate challenge. The order has gone out to all industry that pay negotiations must halt immediately. This is what the TUC General Council will be talking about today.

On May Day 1926, power was given to call the entire working class out on strike. But the TUC scurried back and forth until Baldwin put an end to the game.

He called the frightened union leaders together. 'Goodbye, I am sorry,' he said. "This is the end.'

Heath's declaration on wages is the end for Victor Feather and all the other faint-hearts on today's General Council. It rips away the last shreds of TUC 'opposition' to the wage laws-that negotiations can con- tinue despite "freeze'. The Tories are saying loud and clear that free trade unions can pack up and leave the scene. But the situation is even more serious latest than this. This provocation proves what Workers since the last Press has said election-the Tory government is bound to have a showdown with the working class and attempt to destroy its unions. This con- frontation can now only be a short time away. As the Tory Daily Telegraph' said yesterday, Heath's methods approach those of Adolf Hitler.

In their editorial the "Telegraph' noted: *A clear distinction between government policy and the law, between ministerial wishes and legal powers, is the bedrock of constitutional democracy and a barrier to arbitrary state control of our lives. It is significant that Hitler obliterated this distinction and transformed all his wishes UNION property now seems certain to be the target of the commissioners whose job it is to seize £55,000 from the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering Workers. Tomorrow the commission- will take the Midland ers

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLET

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR

HEN JOHNS

of the TUC will be the most Day 1926 when union leaders Memorial Hall, London, to Strike. Then they were dis- war by the Tory government.

tration had just decided to cutting their wage by 13 per GEORGE CURRELL ...This is first r into law by means of an Enabling Act.' But this government's methods now approach those of Nazi Germany. Statements by govern- ment ministers, while not law in the strict sense, assume the power of law. The Tories are working under their own unofficial Enabl- ing Act. (See Powell speech p. 3.)

situation This extremely grave facing the working class is almost entirely the result of the union leaders. Like the men of 1926 they have been led into a trap by the Tories. • THEY followed the advice of idiot lawyers and ignored' the Industrial Relations Act. But the Act did not ignore them.

BY DAVID MA

Bank and a City stockbroking firm, Joseph Sebag and Co, to the industrial court in con- nection with the fine. They will apply to the court order about certain for an property" of the AUEW en- gineering section, it was said yesterday. The property in

NEWSLETTER

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 20

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

is first round. THEY have conspired with the Tories since the release of the 'Pentonville Five' in a series of meetings secret over an economic plan involving prices and wages. Meanwhile the real intention of the Tories was to kick Feather out of Downing and impose their own dictator- ship over wages. This they did in November. But above all the TUC gave the Tory government that valu- able time to prepare their offen- and get into capitalist sive Europe. The working class will pay a price for this abysmal treachery. Now the Tories have estab- lished the most ruthless legal

DAVID MAUDE

question is understood to be held by Sebag's in the names of union trustees. Notice of the application is understood to have been dis- cussed at a trustees' meeting at AUEW headquarters yester- day afternoon. There had earlier been spe- culation that the money might

EMBER 20, 1972

• 4p No. 951

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

SLOUGH

engineers yesterday called on the AUEW executive council to organize an all-out fight against the Industrial Relations Act early in the New Year. Over 7,000 engineers res ponded to the district com- mittee's instructions for a one- day stoppage yesterday against the fines on the union. The main factories out on were Cooper's 4,000 strike workers), High Duty Alloys (1,000), Mitchell & King's (200), Electro Mechanisms and Satch- well Control. conditions for its showdown with the working class. • By law, prices can rise and wage rises are banned. • By law, all trade union rights are illegal. This is the meaning attack on the engineers, of the Britain's most militant union.

• By law, an offensive can be launched on the shop stewards' movement under the so-called *Fair Trading' legislation, now before parliament. But laws are one thing. Carry- ing them out another. The Tories know that such measures can only be made to work after the most brutal suppression of the working class. But such an offensive is now be drawn on the union's credit facilities at the Midland branch in Rye Lane, Peckham, despite the fact that the AUEW is over- drawn there. But the commissioners are understood to have been un- happy about an earlier NIRC ruling that the facilities con- stitute an asset. The strike by Asian knitwear workers in Loughborough is the first major conflict in the history of Mansfield Hosiery mills. The strange re- lations between the union, management and workers were revealed at the government inquiry in Nottingham last week. TODAY the inquiry's findings are published and Workers Press reporter PHILIP WADE, who has followed the course of the strike, presents his in- vestigation of the dispute on pages 6, 7 and 8 of this issue. • TOMORROW-Two new series One on the history of the engineers and the other on prices. Get your copy. Tel. 01-622 7029.

District secretary George Currell said after the meeting: 'Our feelings here were that this was only the first round of the battle. 'We passed a motion calling on the TUC and all workers to fight the Industrial Relations Act until it is defeated.

"The AUEW is in the van- guard—in the hot seat. We want the EC to take the Tories on in the New Year.' • See AUEW executive report and round-up p. 12. under active consideration by the Tory government. It lies behind Heath's arrogance over wage negotiations and the hot words on Trotskyists and Mao- ists in parliament spoken by a junior minister on Mondav.

Yet despite all its bombast and sword-waving, this government is basically weak, resting on a capitalist class wracked by eco- nomic and political crisis.

Its dilemma is made far worse because it faces a strong working class which has not suffered a serious defeat since the election.

Because of this strength the showdown has been postponed several times, but it is bound to The capitalist economic come. crisis is forcing the pace. Inter- national trade is fought in in- creasingly cut-throat conditions and the currency that finances international transaction is un- stable and near collapse.

This collection of circum- stances has now combined in a most acute form to pose a revolutionary solution to the working class. Not one of the great dangers facing every working man and woman in Britain today can be avoided.

The first and most basic step Turn to Page 12

workers press

TRADE UNIONS FACE THE CRUNCH

EITHER FIGHT

SMASHED

Commissioners will go for engineering union's property

BY STEPHEN JO

TODAY'S MEETING of the ' momentous since May Day 19 held a summit in the Memo organize the General Strike.

cussing a declaration of war by The Baldwin administration starve the miners by cutting cent. Today the Heath • govern- ment has made a similar decision. Wage rises are ban- ned by law, but prices are deliberately allowed to go up and up. In other words the Tory government is pursuing an open policy of wage- cutting. Now Heath has laid down the ultimate challenge. The order has gone out to all industry that pay negotiations must halt immediately. This is what the TUC General Council will be talking about today.

On May Day 1926, power was given to call the entire working class out on strike. But the TUC scurried back and forth until Baldwin put an end to the game.

He called the frightened union leaders together. 'Goodbye, I am sorry,' he said. "This is the end.'

Heath's declaration on wages is the end for Victor Feather and all the other faint-hearts on today's General Council. It rips away the last shreds of TUC 'opposition' to the wage laws—that negotiations can con- the 'freeze' tinue despite • The Tories are saying loud and clear that free trade unions can pack up and leave the scene. But the situation is even more serious than this. This latest provocation proves what Workers said since Press has the last election-the Tory government is bound to have a showdown with the working class and attempt to destroy its unions. This con- now only be a frontation can short time away. As the Tory 'Daily Telegraph' said yesterday, Heath's methods approach those of Adolf Hitler.

In their editorial the "Telegraph' noted: 'A clear distinction between government policy and the law, between ministerial wishes and legal powers, is the bedrock of constitutional democracy and barrier to arbitrary state control of our lives. It is significant that Hitler obliterated this distinction and transformed all his wishes UNION property now seems certain to be the target of the commissioners whose job it is to seize $55,000 from the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering Workers. Tomorrow the commission- Midland will take the ers

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLET

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR

HEN JOHNS

of the TUC will be the most Day 1926 when union leaders Memorial Hall, London, to Strike. Then they were dis- war by the Tory government.

had just decided to cutting their wage by 13 per GEORGE CURRELL ...This is first r into law by means of an Enabling Act.' But this government's methods now approach those of Nazi Germany. Statements by govern- ment ministers, while not law in the strict sense, assume the power of law. The Tories are working under their own unofficial Enabl- ing Act. (See Powell speech p. 3.)

This extremely grave situation facing the working class is almost entirely the result of the union leaders. Like the men of 1926 they have been led into a trap by the Tories. • THEY followed the advice of idiot lawyers and 'ignored' the Industrial Relations Act. But the Act did not ignore them.

BY DAVID M/

Bank and a City stockbroking firm, Joseph Sebag and Co, to the industrial court in con- nection with the fine. They will apply to the court order about "certain for an property of the AUEW en- gineering section, it was said yesterday. The property in

NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 20

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SO

is first round. THEY have conspired with the Tories since the release of the 'Pentonville Five' in a series of secret meetings over an economic plan involving prices and wages. Meanwhile the real intention of the Tories was to stage a last-minute coup, kick Feather out of Downing Street and impose their own dictator- ship over wages. This they did in November. But above all the TUC gave the Tory government that valu- able time to prepare their offen- into capitalist and sive get Europe. The working class will pay a price for this abysmal treachery. Now the Tories have estab- lished the most ruthless legal

DAVID MAUDE

• is understood to be question held by Sebag's in the names of union trustees. Notice of the application is understood to have been dis- cussed at a trustees' meeting at AUEW headquarters yester- day afternoon. There had earlier been spe- culation that the money might

EMBER 20, 1972 •

No. 951

HE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

SLOUGH

engineers yesterday called on'the AUEW executive council to organize an all-out fight against the Industrial Relations Act early in the New Year. Over 7,000 engineers res- ponded to the district com- mittee's instructions for a one- day stoppage yesterday against the fines on the union. The main factories out on Cooper's (4,000 strike were workers), High Duty Alloys (1,000), Mitchell & King's (200), Electro Mechanisms and Satch- well Control. conditions for its showdown with the working class. By law, prices can rise and wage rises are banned. By law, all trade union rights are illegal. This is the meaning of the attack on the engineers, Britain's most militant union.

• By law, an offensive can be launched on the shop stewards' movement under the so-called •Fair Trading' legislation, now before parliament. But laws are one thing. Carry- ing them out another. The Tories know that such measures can only be made to work after the most brutal suppression of the working class. But such an offensive is now be drawn on the union's credit facilities at the Midland branch in Rye Lane, Peckham, despite the fact that the AUEW is over- drawn there. commissioners are But the understood to have been un- happy about an earlier, NIRC ruling that the facilities con- stitute an asset. The strike by Asian knitwear in workers Loughborough is the first major conflict in the history of Mansfield Hosiery mills. The strange re- lations between the union, management and workers were revealed at the government inquiry in Nottingham last week. TODAY the inquiry's findings are published and Workers Press reporter PHILIP WADE, who has followed the course of the strike, presents his in- vestigation of the dispute on pages 6, r and 8 of this issue. • TOMORROW—Two new series One on the history of the engineers and the other on prices. Get your copy. Tel. 01-622 7029.

District secretary George Currell said after the meeting: 'Our feelings here were that this was only the first round of the battle. We passed a motion calling on the TUC and all workers to fight the Industrial Relations Act until it is defeated.

"The AUEW is in the van- guard—in the hot seat. We want the EC to take the Tories on in the New Year' • See AUEW executive report and round-up p. 12. under active consideration by the Tory government. It lies behind Heath's arrogance over wage negotiations and the hot words on Trotskyists and Mao- ists in parliament spoken by a junior minister on Mondav.

Yet despite all its bombast and sword-waving, this government is basically weak, resting on a capitalist class wracked by eco- nomic and political crisis.

Its dilemma is made far worse because it faces a strong working class which has not suffered a serious defeat since the election.

Because of this strength the showdown has been postponed several times, but it is bound to The capitalist economic come. crisis is forcingis fought in in- the pace. Inter- national trade creasingly cut-throat conditions and the currency that finances international transaction is un- stable and near collapse.

This collection of circum- stances has now combined in a most acute form to pose a revolutionary solution to the working class. Not one of the great dangers facing every working man and woman in Britain today can be avoided.

The first and most basic step Turn to Page 12

PAGE Z

weanesaay Decemoer 20, 1916 Hypocrites at Printing House Square 'The the recall of the TUC to didn't they turn their turgid editorials

WHO ARE

the people that run the Industrial Relations Act. It is hard ing prepare into deeds? General Strike to force the Tories who took to believe that any Imes ane. trade monist sub- office. Why didn't they take the steRIC They open to upon their impertinent selves yesterday that the any out another to tell the whole union movement national will altered by inter principle ht Ms Ree Mioris and go off to the newspaper principle'. editorial complain about strike? how to run its affairs! and damaging interrup- Icocalca of their tion of production. didn't, because ne erstwhile line has They hirelings of millionaire SCOr

NONE LA

are the 'yielded Cecil pressure'. What about Harmsworth It is not only 'hard to believe, Mr Rees publisher, Lord Thomson of Fleet: They recent pepper, The Sunday Timest incident his sister , is right when he says in his con- personified person "The Mogg, nonsense to believe. The diary that 'our emperors have Mr William Rees Mogg, Fleet Street have not been editor, stoppages in This, as a sensitive 'academic' and devout Roman liberal belief that yet unreported. affair deserves some airing. One final broadside at "The Times'. In Catholic and former Tory candidate.

the Tory Press bell will change its tune Just to show the enormous the the strike action hypocrisy in Rees Mogg's its concluding paragraph paper Act. Rees He denis boy insings says: repeated strikes merely tend claim. of one print union worships Jenkins, against the laken cavitalist Michel public for the taken precisely because trade ceciced to take a number ol nis DrO- right-wing faction „ener ore unionists vilified and their struggles ther members to the Industrial Tribu. Dick are one arous

•ACL

Labour Party. Inus, ne also Ilkes There was an immediate walk-out. unreported by nal. who has been Taverne, the Lincoln MP msteporter varsio solidarity trade unions Labour Party The Times'. banished from standing as show a disregard amounting to contempt his caneleate because persistent What for tree public aiscussion in the press votes with the Tories on the Common then they achieve no result except mere Market. damage. His eccentricity wish for his Unadulterated rubbish. The strikes which He receruy •onu- the working class have fought the Liberals could win a ficated that we think ear-th miners, railwaymen, dockers, General Election because Britain had building workers and now the engineer bour- ot the become fris high-hrow CounLy Illass Immensely sureneuened geoisie'. riveries a working class. dim the advertising They have done battle with the and the media personalities the IcH, class and shown their fighting strength When rushing frantically around like print workers walked out over were building begging all parties not to outhits Hoe raIs he limes here is no evicence Tor Christian Aid and Shelter. Nor is there the iailing of the five London dockers.

assertion that the whole country was whiff of political reality in his dream they did so to bring a halt to the anti- so here weet against the the arms miners, working class propaganda which here we have the spectacle of 'Tie which he, of a new 1n the dockers or ralLy other Times' group desperately any be Press the government anxious noi rallwaynel presumably, would guiding tools oi Tory ection of the community which decide beacon. were spewing out. the court which Lo rave a lose belore to resist government plans.

"An editorial So it is with 'The Times' editorial Mr Rees Mogg publicly says is the greatest thing • yester- vielded " to since Magna There of the policy which pressure Section up which • ot 'top Count 6av. 'Tie newsbader the If the Times is so outraged by the action largest section people' tries to ostracize the engineer- Lose woule cease alillo refusing respect, including the self respect of ing union or tne engineers closing down tne tree millons Work-cass lanes Press', ample opportunity resented and the more conscious members National Industrial Relations journalists.' with the itself for it to respond at the professional classes. They He's Absolutely ast Frida! Court. draill. the Tories. They want The Pontiff Printing House Square During the stoppages oi previous major agalliot luc 'There this been three the Act the Central London Association. Why gang have year says. National Union of lidn't thes Press barons put their Against this force Rees-Mogg's sermon the one-day

DO LICO

SLIIKCY

Dialli money where their mouths are?

Why communion wine. national newspapers in protest against as journalsts passed a resolanon demana- Italian Nixon's threadbare lies dockers

BY JOHN SPENCER

black Residential areas bombed "Sign now' THE MAIN cities of North Vietnam were Spanish to stop build-up in south' of pounded by waves is a heavy bombers yesterday ships as President Nixon Ronald Ziegler said the Us was stance of the Vietnamese revolu- back where it had been on May tionaries. Having failed to break marked the breakdown of cringing first the their resistance by diplomatic when Nixon ordered the Paris peace talks with manoeuvres, Nixon is once again mining of DOCKERS in Genoa yesterday bours and authorized the bomb- trying to bomb the north into a barbaric orgy of des- Stone staged a 24-hour boycott of all in orler Hanoi oI plea to truction. The reprisal by claimed the measures savas Spanish ships and all other put into operation the American Air Force signifies More dropped to mines nau been deal with build-up that US imperialism never in- vessels leaving for or arriving enemy along the coast northern Heath tended to negotiate genuine that could lead to another often- from Spain in protest against the blockade the sive in the south' Nixon would Vietnam Nixon is pre. Deace o B52 bombers attacked towns the holding of political prison- take action deemed senting Hanoi with the stark any and cities all over the north. choice: or bomb capitulate we sary to prevent such a build-up.

THE BRITISH Communist ers in Franco's jails. bomb- All restrictions on the Ziegler said.

VOU

Party is continuing its ing raids were lifted by presi- and Nixon presumably considers Genoa the nearest major Quite how the bombing shoddy diversion of a 'sign what he wanted Italian port to the Spanish fron- that he has dential order. devasto or aos residenlai now' campaign, designed to tier. US nuclear-powered air- districts prevents the build-up of trom _ The Cranace forces South Vietnam Paris: re-election as a bringer of put 'pressure' on Nixon to 'Enterprise' slipped not Call CallICt "peace assurance con- out Hong Kong sign the October nine-point TO take up excust The Laragoza simp factore is ace lie. battle stations in the Gulf of on Hanol trom draft agreement drawn up of the fact, that the Moscow and the Tonkin re- support in Paris. bombing opportunity to extend the war on the newea bombing or lne nort resumptionl rrenco con- This campaign has now White House officer Nixon's answer an even larger scale than ever.

une DIeSS of November. TAken a new wist wier maker it ten times more cringing and Alvaro No- The students servile than was originally. BOse AntoniO We will soldier on say Not content with direct (21) and Luis Mellado on the chief butcher sure Segarra (21): They world imperialism, the CP accused the to the avulylls 'Hammer British Was nock ano eaters Impertaisin Sickle' Greek as well. leaflets university The latest stunt, pictured in yesterday's 'Morning Star',

LIC

Wad VIRO TOr peace attended leading Stalinists the under colonels attack was for slogan 'Heath tell Nixon sign Pompidou taken by the covernment

HEATH-

The lives these stries ts,

BY A FOREIGN

theories

CORRESPONDENT

ELL

In his end-of-the-year, State-of-the-

SIC

Burgos Papadopoulos, Nation. speech, George

NOW

Greek Prime Minister, announced that PLO Paris Greece was not yet ready for parliamen- tary democracy: 'The Greek nation has now'. Their editorial states: 'Heath and Wilson be must lived for thousands of years... let it denounce the cruel. protest

COSCO LO

wait for a while .. brutal and deception cynica Nixon be flooded with "sign He said that the regime of the Greek messages. SOME 3,000 people demonstrated colonels arose from a legitimate 'revolu- of fraudu- through Paris at the weekend to lent campaigns on Vietnam, the tion' and was in favour of peace through- Papadopoulos (1) with fellow military man Pattakos.

against the attempt Communist Party scarcely out the world, in particular, of 'a really organized have behind Mannoud nanchan long and calm period of peace- the Palestinian Liberation Organ- freedoms restrictions Press weight of the shadow of martial worthless and Sane SoPr ful ization's representative in France.

co-existence Euro- and martial law throughout law'. Not only does it create the pean peoples'. Greece. Oppositionists and illusion that "pressure, Nixon sus- Mr Hamchari severely Papadopoulos complained that within live, course, Greece jured by a bomb blast al his hat

COOLIDIC

DuL His speech ended with denial 'idealists abroad' did come constant of the ver worse The not under Tear still, it spreads the ide December thousands 'and see that not a single Greek real shadow of the Greek secret that Heath actually favours believed to have been caused by that there were his Vietnam! shoulder under the police. an Israeli bomb. bends peace in

Slough engineers who yesterday demanded all-out action against the Industrial Relations Act leave their meeting • & See reports pages 1 and 12.

Cash bonanza for police and prisons Heath's 'arbitrary' letters: They undermine Engineers il Slough engineers who yesterday dema

BY A WORKERS PRESS

REPORTER

A BIG JUMP in law-and- order spending by the gov- ernment was announced in a White Paper published yes- terday. The White Paper on public- expenditure plans the over next five years sets out plans to recruit more police and 'modernize' their facilities.

Plans are also announced to build more prisons. The bill for all this stepped-up activity will rise from f847m in the preiod 1972-1973 to £1,079m in 1976-1977—an average annual rise of 6.2 per cent. On the police side alone costs will rise from the present £34.8m a year to f44m within three years. The rate of increase in the number of police is expected almost to double by 1977.

on prisons Expenditure budgeted to rise from £13.1m to £38m over five years. The White Paper goes on to say that the average growth rate of defence spending--at present £3,003m a year—is expected to 2.4 per cent per year. This will take it to a staggering £3,304m. 'Britain's first strategic priority is the maintenance and improve- ment of her military contribution to NATO and most of the com- bat units of the services are accordingly committed to it, it says. 'But Britain also retains obli- gations for the protection of her remaining territories overseas and well as certain other treaty commitments and is willing to play her part in countering threats to stability outside the NATO area, it adds. By contrast the housing budget shows a drop of 3.2 per cent in its average annual growth rate from £1,415m in 1972-1973 to £1,241m in 1976-1977. The White Paper attempts to explain away this drop by claim- ing that it has to be seen against the "broad objectives' of Tory housing policy. These, it says, are 'to secure the provision of hous- ing in response to needs and demands'. What this turns out to mean is more expensive private build- ing, the sale of more and more council houses and the saddling Workers Press, Wednesday December 20, 1972 PAGE 3 rs in action

THE

PORT

of London Authority is still busily hiving off its valuable real estate portfolio. It has been announced that the PLA has agreed to sell the freehold of its Cutler Street warehouse near Liverpool Street station in the City of London. site just under five i ne of the richest square mile acres in the whole of Britain. BRITISH RAIL announced yes- terday that it is not go ahead

WILL

TILS

banned freight wagon services from Southampton Docks spring next unions —but the 1C1&11 productivity pressure DIg rday demanded all-out action against the Industrial Relations Act leave their meeting • & See reports pages 1 and 12.

concessions. More than 100 dock workers and 220 goods at southampton depot workers at South Lambeth, London, would have been made redundant under the plan.

Southern Region spokes- man said that they and the trade unions, who had made counter- proposals, were studying costs and improve business. The given for reason the closure plan was the run-down traflic due to containerization This year's loss was expected to be about £600,000. The British Rail spokesman thought still

WAS

whether the business. could be made profitable, adding that staff cuts WelC Southampton and at DOTAr

ROBERT MARK.

the South Lambeth. Metropolitan Police Commissioner, taking dis- Bensons

HOH

ile rice has not neeni develop 'a correct tele- closed, but sources close to the vision image'. deal well say over £10m The buver is English and Con.

His Mr tinental Property Company, the Stanley Hyland, head of a firm of consultants on suffered various ranks. an unprece- vy alker Clearly luc camcue ol dopcar• dented number of scan. the Home Mr Ramon Greene. ing on television. Office is expecting that same duo have already expensive resignations and early policemen shortly snapped up Bush House in the ject is part retirements. of a cam. nave strand and Canard House in th clean firm they

LIC

sue consultac cue ension to train about want the scripts polIce also to The site just purchased from which has recently 200 police officers sound convincing! Bishopsgate

PLA

the _runs from to Houndsditch and is at present used mainly for The buyers want develop of increasing numbers of work- the blast of competi- counter BSA sells land with offices and shops ing-class families with cripping tion trom curope. Not long sold the PLA mortares. The White Paper does not sav has also joined the off one of its other major land Over this, but this be seen years The hiving off business. In a desperate assets- own headquarters Paper, says the government plans against the Tories' raise cash the company bid to and moved to new premises.

£160m aside assist in- basic indus- has sold part of the company's The policy the of stripping vestmicut lu lue slate maustres try alter common Market entry property at Golden Hillock Road, real estate assets came into being Birmingham, to the City Coun- This is seen less as an attempt unspecified sum is to be with the appointment of Lord to increase employment, than as set aside to meet part of the cost Aldington as chairman two years sop parliamentary of held-down prices in the state opinion price purcHase ago. former Tory that there should be an attempt £950,000. minister, is head of the banking group, National and Grindlays

MR ENOCH POWELL

by law, than a letter from Tory gov- me or a letter from any of lashed the yesterday for ernment yOU "Statutory incomes policy, hees and issuing arbitrary direc- serving the traffic law and letter sent by Tory leader he said, oy tne Agnicultural Depart tives which undermined that they were not proceed to make it a con- Heath

G&MWU

chief to the rule of law. breaking the freeze the weeds tyranny price dition of his being allowed Cooper

LULU

The right-wing Wolver- spring up overnight. become pay negotiations would to anve That hampton MP told a City connivance in breaking the is must not be carried to the It a usurpation and insidious, is the rule of law. Group a tyranny none the less so point of an improved offer Liaison lunch at Which car COrrUDUne He said: "The London's Waldorf Hotel state may cannot acco dec Was aso by the trappings of storm- He said: 'A letter from framed in of lawful as wel dena mar everv terms that invitations to unions sign monthly troopers and secret police.' the Prime Minister obligation but declaration that he is ob Powell more force, unless backed inherent nature, arbitrary.'

prices crease enter Into pay rise lalks were a breach of the law un- less they were backed by legislation. A wide selection of paperbacks—special giftpacks— Powell wants

NOT

that legislation. His ideal is children's books all available from free clunolly wages find their own level. In present conditions the would people WiIO benefit from this are, of monopolies. Small

OPEN:

businessmen ald 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon-Thurs nuge sections of the work- inting ass yards wipe their class would have their 9 a.m. 7.30 p.m. Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdav Book Tokens welcome overnant. Powell told the Group that any person who signed

BOOKS • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPERS

unattlakis requested

THE FIGHT FOR UNION

RECOGNITION AT KODAK

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Wednesday Dece

BY DAVID MAUDE

The long battle for union recognition at Kodak enters a new phase in just under a fortnight's time.

After months of delay, the TUC organization committee is to hold an audit of member unions at the photographic giant's big Harrow and Hemel Hempstead plants. The first object of the audit is to establish the negotiating strength of the five unions in- volved. But secondly, activists hope it will help end the claims of two non-TUC 'unions' to re- present a significant number of Kodak workers. The Union of Kodak Work- ers and its white-collar coun- registered have under the Industrial Relations Act. Both emerged early this year when it became clear that the 'Workers' Representative Com- mittee'-the only organizations recognized previously by Kodak-would not be eligible for registration. Ken Roberts, Kodak orga- nizer for the TUC union which has led the recognition fight in the company, the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians, des-

KSSA

cribes the UKW and scornfully as 'house unions'.

He says the audit will reveal their weakness in terms of These manage- membership. ment-supported organizations are now facing massive defec- tion of their early members' he told Workers Press. The £56m Kodak operation in Britain imported resistance to trade unionism with its capital. But soon after the UKW be- gan circulating the 13,000 wor- kers in the company with its and publicity material pro- posed rules, it was granted negotiating rights. The KSSA was later made sole bargaining agent for 2,000 senior statt.

Peter Ellis, ACTT branch Kodak's Harrow secretary at factory, says there is a moun- tain of evidence contradicting the UKW's claims to be an • independent organization.

The big legal bill incurred in drawing up its rules was footed by the company, he claims. Permission to use a Homeless families are being carted around the country by local councils who are unable to offer them accommodation. Plagued by ever-growing : waiting lists, council housing authorities are anxious to off- load their new additions else- where if there is even the re- motest connection between family concerned and the another area. A recent conference of social workers in Brent, north Lon- don, was told of families arriving there from all parts of England. In one case, Ealing council paid the taxi fare, and other cases have been reported of train tickets from the west country and the Midlands be- ing bought by local authorities.

Andover Council recently sent a couple, with their two

KODAK

AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

HAUPTVERWALTUNG

Ken Roberts, ACTT Kodak org council flat in Pinner, Middle- UKW's first office as the sex, said to have been arranged by Kodak lawyers. Certainly the UKW's expen- sively-printed rules Canne aouot on me claim in a cover- ing letter that it is 'an organi- zation... independent of any management influences'. Veto The executive committee-a body comprising the chairman and branch committees- -can veto anv decision bv a branch which considers to breach be in of rule. At the same time branch committees are selected not by of vote the whole member- Shrai groups decided by yelec.

but by a series of elec- small children, to Brent.

The pregnant wife was and had tried to commit sui- already cide. The husband was having to sleep away from his family in a taxi cab. Desperate parents are even abandoning their children in the hope that they, will get a roof over their heads.

recently left one mother her Brent two children at council premises and the local refused authorities have to confirm deny that there or have in fact been seven such cases during November alone.

Brent, with a housing list of 7,000, has now announced that it will accept no more homeless families. they arrive, they apparently Will have to travel on—to where?

No one knows. The Tory Housing Finance Aumber of homeless families will increase they are forced out as accommodation they can no longer afford. Those Labour councils, such as Brent, which are imple- menting the only Act, are helping the Tory government to break up families and drive to impoverishment and inem despair. nouar nizer (second from rigt), with guessed it, the branch com- mittee. But to get the UKW off the ground, Kodak had, ironically enough, to give equal recruit- to the TUC ment facilities unions. Besides the ACTT, these were the Association of Scien- tific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, the Electrical and Plumbing Trades Union and the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades.

They seized the opportunity with both hands, and by the end of March, the TUC itself had moved into the picture to arrange a meeting to co-ordi- nate their activities. Some of the union leaders involved then began treading on extremely thin ice as far as the TUC's then policy of no Writings of

WRITHICS

Leon Trotsky

LEOT TROTSHY

1022-38 (1938-3)

WRITINGS OF

TEON

LEON

TROTSHO

(1933-341 1934-35 Six volumes of Trotsky's writings during years 1929-1940 28.00 includes postage Please tick those you requi Name Address Complete form and post to: New Park Publications, 186 co-operation with the trial Relations Act was con- cerned. They began urging the organization committee to fight

UKW

the registration of the and KSSA under the anti-union Act. Backed out And following the TUC's own about-turn on appearances May, even some al court 1n shop stewards began talking in terms of personal applications to the National Industrial Re- lations Court to secure recog-

MEON

October terms for a mem- bership audit in the company were agreed between the

TUC

and organization committee Kodak. At the start the UKW went along. But at the last minute,

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History of Russian Revolution -special gift pack of three volutes £1.70 includes postage Please tick those you require. Amount enclosed £ New Park Publications, 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG I factory in Germany it backed out with objections about the terms of reference.

Kodak called the audit off.

Last Friday, at a meeting at TUC headquarters in London, the company agreed to go back to the terms agreed in October and the audit was fixed for the first week in January.

The Kodak workers' most effective sanction is a black operated at the Hemel Hemp- stead factory on a machine for Kodak's producing film new prestige miniature camera, which has already been adver- tized on television. Until the firm negotiates a rate for the job with a recog- nized union, the workers say, they will not operate the ma- chine. And if Kodak continues stonewalling the film will never go on the market.

TROTSK

Trotsky a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 includes postage et, London SW4 7UG

BY TOM KEMP

The French Communist Party's 20th Congress held last week, unlike its Soviet counterpart in 1956, brought no revela- tions'. It ran like a well- oiled machine in which delegates played their appointed parts and by acclamation the leader- ship secured support for a policy which everyone knew in advance was going to be accepted. This time there was not even a Garaudy to raise a dis- sident voice, though the differ- ence between the views of general secretary Georges Mar- chais and the revisionist for- mer member of the Political Bureau would be difficult to discover. More like a political circus even than past congresses, this one was also a public relations job. Its aim, above all, was to establish the Communist Party as a respectable governmental partner before the General Election due next March. It was based on the common pro- gramme established for that election with the Socialist Party of François Mitterand and the rump Radicals led by Fabre. Marchais' opening, report attacked what he called 'leftist gesticulations and adventures' and staked his claim to be a responsible member of a bour- geois government. He said that the application of the common electoral programme did not mean socialism or communism -that would be for later...

The main emphasis was placed on the Party's accept- ance of 'democracy" which, in the context of France in 1972, was intended to mean the framework of institutions which make the Fifth up Republic, including the Bona- partist constitution established by General de Gaulle after his return to power in 1958. Be reassured, Marchais said in effect to the bourgeoisie.

We shall play according to the rules and if we are placed in power by a parliamentary vote and then lose the majority, we shall go meekly into opposition again. But to win a majority the Communist Party had to win, and give guarantees, to allies. In the first place the Com- munist Party has its alliance with the Mitterand socialists.

While the Socialist Party has roots in the working class in its traditional of areas strength, its electoral strength is interesting from more Marchais' point of view. In much of France it is nothing more than an electoral machine which exists to support ageing and corrupt deputies. Even the combination of Socialist and Communist votes will not be sufficient to defeat the Gaullists and their allies.

As voting is by a proportional system, which means that there is a second ballot if on the first vote one candidate does not secure a clear majority, it is necessary to try to find other allies, still further to the right. More particularly Marchais hopes to pull in votes for the coalition by attracting all those discontented with the present Gaullist majority led by Pierre Messmer. He thus bends over backwards to re- Catholics, small assure property-owners and peasants that nothing will be done to harm their interests. Not only does he want to win from the centre votes parties, but also from the Gaullists. 'We want to con- vince and win, Marchais pro-.

'many French people claimed, who until now have supported one or another party of the majority, but who have had of the government's enough anti-social policy and who are angered by a policy which con- tradicts their idea of what France should be like' Echoing de Gaulle's phrases, he seeks to win votes normally cast for the conservative right.

He concluded with an appeal made by Maurice Thorez, symbol of the turn to the Popular Front in the 1930s: 'We are not the party of the raised fist, we are the party of the outstretched hand to the people of France.' indeed, At one stage, Thorez proposed what he called 'a French front' , em- bracing all Frenchmen of good- will on a nationalist pro- gramme. Remembering the votes which were lost in the July 1968 elections, Marchais wants to reassure the middle-class electorate that the Communist Party has nothing to do with revolution. "The workers will make sure,' he said, 'as the CGT has invited them, that nothing will be allowed to perturb the election campaign. The work- ing class of our country... wishes to see the election carried out in order and calm after a great democratic debate.' Never, says 'Le Monde', has the Communist Party given so many pledges of good behaviour and guaranteed to act according to the rules of the system. The delegates modelled their speeches on Marchais' lead. Of they spoke of low course bad conditions and wages, exploitation in their own areas. Their picture of particu- lar aspects of the crisis of French society was always painted to suggest that the reformist solutions of the common electoral programme would be sufficient. That was the essential mes- sage of the Congress to the Workars Prose, Wack The now Political Bureau of the Frenc the Congress. Above: delegates at the : working class: trust the Party, elect the coalition to office and your troubles will soon be over as a result of the reforms which we shall sponsor. In other words, the dele- gates, wittingly or not, played the leadership's game of con- fusing and disarming the working class, lulling it into a false sense that the Party will be able to get something done with the help of its allies.

Hence the attacks on 'left- ism' and the appeals for calm and order. Marchais seems to be saying: 'Do not do what your forebears did in May 1936 when, after the election of a Popular Front government, 2t million workers occupied the factories.' It was Thorez who got them to go back to work in 1936 defused a revolutionary and situation, just today's as leaders repeated the betrayal a, Wedneeday December 20, 1872 PAGE 5 the French Communist Party, elocled at es at the 20th Congress at Saint-Owen.

in 1968. Great prominence was given at the Congress to the Soviet delegation and to the speech of that hardened representative of the Soviet bureaucracy, Michel Suslov. The policy which the French Communist Party puts forward is com- pletely reformist and repre- sents in part the attachment of its leadership to the French bourgeoisie. But the Soviet bureaucracy also needs a coalition govern- ment the sort which Marchais hopes to see elected in March in order better to pursue its aim of making a global deal with imperialism.

This is the real purpose of the Congress and on behalf of this aim the Soviet bureaucracy is prepared to overlook French Party's condemnation of the invasion of Czecho- slovakia in Augest 1968.

THE HOSIERY STRIKE THAT EXPOSED RACIALISM

BY PHILIP WADE PHOTOGRAPHS B

The strike by Asian wor. kers at the Mansfield Hosiery mill, Lough- • borough, in Leicester- shire marks the beginning of a new period of stru- ggle against paternalistic knitwear bosses . . . and right-wing union leaders.

It is the first major strike to hit the company in almost 40 Mansfield Hosiery years. part of the powerful £65m Nottingham Manufacturing group. The group is a major supplier of Marks and Spencer, turn, has invested which, in in some of its pension fund Nottingham Manufacturing.

the National For years Union of Hosiery and Knitwear 1072

TITI

HOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN MAYER AND P. J. A

Workers, which represents the has remained strikers, bureaucratically-run instru- ment, seemingly having few relations with the rank and file. Not affiliated to the Labour Party—unlike the vast majority of unions-the NUHKW has been content to negotiate with management, avoiding as much any participation as possible by the rank-and-file. The union, with a member- ship of just over 64,000- 47,000 of them women—repre- sents about half of all workers in the hosiery industry. Branches of the union are not constituted as they are in most other unions. Although there is provision for a branch committee 'where it is deemed for administrative necessary

YER AND P. J. ARKELL

reasons' there is nothing in the ships established in the indus- book which provides for try are under attack. rule Dormant for many years, the branch meetings. regular low-paid workers in the indus- In Loughborough, for exam- of try are-under the impact there nearly ple, where are inflation and Tory-inspired 4,000 members of the union, basic democratic attacks on there is not one single branch.

rights-beginning to throw off be The membership has to their shackles. with a district content the Lei- At the same time mittee. cester-based NUKW has been The union's annual confer- shaken from top to bottom ence is made of full-time up this strike. district and all officials the • The Race Relations Board committee members the dis- has found that the union the

NUHKW'S

has out not fought for the right of the tricts. workers be trained Asian to The union has signed an in- well-paid, for skilled jobs as dustry agreement with the fully-fashioned knitters, at pre- employers which has absolutely performed sent all by non- provision for settling strike in motion. Yet the agree- Asians. had of its way to • That in fact the union ment goes out condemn unofficial strikes. signed agreements which in Now effect prevented Asian workers all the cosy relation-

THE NAWE

KASHAME Wr getting a chance to do from these jobs. • When the low-paid workers at Loughborough put in a £5 union claim June, the brought out figures to show the claim could not be justi- fied! • A form of strike notice was sent out by a union official which was received by man- the day after the agement strike began. Naik was the first Jayant Asian to start work at Lough- borough when he joined the firm in 1962. In March this year, Naik, a runner-on, com- the East Midlands plained to Conciliation Board, He alleged that Asian workers were not allowed fully- to train as fashioned knitters. Naik had approached man- workers, agement with a request to be "'"E fully-fashioned trained as a knitter. One week after his re- quest, his interpreter told last week's inquiry government held in Nottingham, he dis- or four covered that three •other people had been given jobs to work on the knitting machines. 'He then approached Mr [management] and Simpson asked why, in fact, he had not been employed and he said there was an agreement that he could not employ him, be- tween the management and the union. Mr Naik then requested Mr Simpson to show him the agreement and Mr Simpson replied that he could look at the agreement in his own union offices, the interpreter added.

Eventually they met union officials and demanded io see the agreement. "They were told it was confidential and they could not see it,' said the in- terpreter. At that point Naik complained to the Race Re- lations Board. asked Naik to The Board pursue this matter through the union. According to the Board's evidence to the committee of "this advice was fol- inquiry lowed on various dates between March 27 and May 5, but that the grievance went unremedied.

On May Il it was decided to investigate'. By July 6 it was held that on the face of it the company had contravened Race the Relations Act. The Board then turned towards the union.

General president Peter Prendergast first told them that the exclusion of Asian semi-skilled workers from work 'was as fully-fashioned knitters the result of an agreement of the National Joint Industrial Council' that in the filling of vacancies, priority knitting should be given to unemployed trimmers. 'Mr Prendergast was unable to provide any details of the

NJIC

When agreement. Prendergast met the East Mid- lands Community Council [EMCC] on October 12, it emerged that an agreement as such on preferential treatment for trimmers did not exist, the Board told the inquiry.

Prendergast then told the EMCC that two "progression agreements' which had been signed with Mansfield Hosiery enabled Asians to be trained as fully-fashioned knitters.

Workers Press, Woohan Said the Race Relations Board in written evidence to the inquiry: "These agreements had the effect of allowing some Asian bar-loaders to become Bon- fashioned or flat frame knitters.

Although the agreements state that the progression from son- fashioned fully-fashioned knitting would continue, in practice no Asian semi-skilled workers became fully-fashioned knitters. 'According to the company, because of the union embargo on Asians, they were obliged to fill other fully-fashioned knitting vacancies by the external recruitment of white labour with no previous ex- perience in the industry . . .

In practice the agreement has been used to exclude Asians from those jobs.' (My em- phasis.) It (the company) has a man- agement and a union . .. which appear to work SO closely together that the union has been gradually los- ing its standing in the eyes of its members-both white and Asian.? 'Financial Times,' December Z. John Elliott, Labour Editor.

Throughout, Pendergast has denied practising discrimination against the Asian workers and blames the company for the situation. The company blames union and the white workers. In June the bar-loaders put in for a £5 pay increase. Shop committee member Mansukhlal Shah told the committee of inquiry last week that Ronald Carter, the NUHKW's district official, advised them that the claim was 'fair and reasonable'.

Union officials at Leicester proved helpful at the most time. 'Information was gathered for them [bar-loaders] which proved that their wages were in line with other people's the wages jobs on same throughout_the of the rest trade,' Prendergast told inquiry chairman Kenneth Robinson. With a pay increase presum- ably the bar-loaders would be earning too much! On September 7 the strikers what had happened to their claim. He was told to give days' strike notice seven on 7. 'After September seven days,' said Shah's interpreter, 'they approached Carter again and asked him if he had given notice and he said he had not.'

Unused to leading any sort of strike, the National Union • Workers' leaders Pr Hosiery and Knitwear president (left) and Harold Gibson, gener: been accused of racial discrimination.

Loughborough mill before the strike was dec rose, Machoaday Decoal

• 20, 1972 (ACE 7.

• and Knitwear oi Hosiery Workers in fact does not have any laid-down procedure in the NJIC agreement for setting a dispute in motion. There are several stages of conciliation and arbitration, ending with the sending of the dispute to the government-with a demand for arbitration.

Unofficial strikes are specific- ally condemned in Clause 16.

'The union and employers deplore such action and under- take to do all in their power to restrain it,' it reads.

Nevertheless, the bar-loaders and runners-on struck work on October 3. But the strike notice had not been issued to their instructions. Peter Scott for the company, told the inquiry: No notice at all was given of them intend.

ing to go out on October 3.

Indeed it was not until October 4 that we received Mr Carter's letter which surprisingly is dated September 3, 1972? The Asians returned on October 10 and the manage- ment promised to go to con- ciliation if no agreement was reached in 21 days. When the men returned on October 10 the company, in attempting to comply with the Race Relations Board ruling, employed two Asians as fully-fashioned trainees on knitting machines. White knitters struck. The union claimed in its evidence that they had not threatened to make the white knitters' strike official. Strike leader Naik disagrees. 'Apparently Mr Prendergast made a statement in the board room that if these Indians were not removed he would call a strike and make it official, Naik told the inquiry through his interpreter. The strike was eventually 'settled' by the suspension of the two Asians on full pay. Eventually the 21 days began to pass on without any sign that the management wanted to resolve the issue of the pay claim. An offer of f1 a week for bar-loaders, subject to any new national agreement, rejected by the Asian workers.

1he union admitted at the inquiry that it refused to take the whole question to arbitra- tion, as was its right under the NJIC agreement. The bar-loaders wrote to Carter on October 17 telling their frustration and him of demanding some action if talks with the management failed.

In fact the company received a letter on October 19 giving Continued overleaf Norkers' leaders Peter Prendergasi, general rold Gibson, general secretary (right) have • discrimination. Above left: Pickets out at • the strike was declared official.

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday Dec Continued from Page 7 'seven days notice of intent'.

It was in effect notice of im- pending strike action, although Carter had no power to issue such notice. On October 26 over 450 Asian bar-loaders and runners- on walked out of the plant.

They were demanding a £5 increase for bar-loaders and an end to job discrimination.

Mansfield Hosiery moved swiftly into action. First all the strikers were dismissed because the company claimed they were in breach of con- tract. As the union had no procedure for setting a strike in motion, the company took a hard line. Asked by the inquiry chairman if there was a customary period of strike notice in the industry, Peter Scott, for the company, replied: 'There is no evidence about any such accepted custom. As far as my clients are concerned I think I am right in saying that they have not had an official strike in 38 years of operation apart from this one' The Loughborough workers had been caught in a Catch 22 situation. They had to strike to defend their interests. But the union did not allow for such things. Therefore they were technically in breach of contract and likely to be, as they were, dismissed. The company began recruit- ing outside labour, at the same time taking the opportunity of the strike drastically to reduce manning levels on the knitting machines. In fact 103 workers were taken on, all non-Asians. Some 41 were given jobs as trainee knitters, specifically the jobs that the Asian workers de- manded some participation in.

Then agreement an was reached to end the strike and return on November 27 on the for basis of a wage increase bar-loaders at the end of the Tory 'freeze' and a pledge that job would be discrimination ended. Strike committee member Patel takes up the story through his interpreter about they what happened when went back inside the mill.

"The management told them how many people should come and what time to do what jobs.

It was a different routine and work procedure? In fact manning levels on the machines had been slashed.

Where before two bar-loaders and one knitter used to work two machines, now one knitter machine. Many worked one bar-loaders were now surplus to management's requirements.

And short-time, three-day week working envisaged for was bar-loaders for a six-month period. Asian workers, aggra- The . vated by this attack on their jobs, then had their biggest shock when they discovered the recruitment of outside labour. •.. The management officials told them that they had employed 41 knitters from outside. They then asked the union official [Carter] whether he knew of these 41 knitters, and the union denied they knew anything about it. The management contends they in- formed the union. Union officials were aware that the 41 knitters were due to start work at the time when the agreement was set out, said Patel's interpreter. All the strikers walked out again immediately the dis- the new knitters covery of was made. But what did the union have to say about the recruitment that took place during the strike? 'We knew nothing whatso- ever about the recruitment of these people by the company and when we did know the general president of the union made representations to the company and objected to the employment of these people, on the frames,' general sec- retary Harold Gibson told the inquiry. It was established at the esday Decerber 20, 1972 inquiry that even when the union leaders knew about the recruitment they never at any time informed the strikers. Nor did they demand that any return-to-work agreement in- clude provisions for the re- moval of the recruited strike- breakers. Recruitment began almost immediately after the walk out on October 27 and went on for two weeks, according to the company. 'On November 16, at the union's request, recruitment was halted on the basis of an assurance from the unoficial strike committee that a return to work was imminent? said the company at the Notting- ham inquiry. And later on, it was revealed that the November 23 agree- ment for a return to work did not even mention the existence of the 41 knitters or their redeployment. Yet the union knew of their existence. Kenneth Robinson, former Labour Minister-now British Steel's personnel chief — who chaired the inquiry asked Prendergast: 'Did the strikers or their representatives, with whom you as a union must have dis- cussed the terms of the return to work, know lal that re- cruitment had gone on; and [b] how extensive it had been?

Prendergast: No. Robinson: It was not discussed between you? Ronald Carter [district sec- retary]: No. Not surprisingly the Asian workers walked out again when they found out about the recruitment. On December 4 they occupied the Leicester offices of the union. The next day the strike was declared official. But the non-Asian knitters are still working and have received no instructions from their union. On the last day of the Nottingham inquiry, Peter Prendergast said he hoped in future the Asians would have confidence in the union and would . take notice of advice given to them. Prendergast is right for the when he ex- wrong reasons presses this wish. At no time have the strikers identified the policies of the union leaders with the union itself and the principle of working-class unity.

The task facing , the Lough- borough strikers, workers throughout the industry, and indeed the length and breadth of the trade union movement, is the removal of the right wing from positions of leader- ship. The Loughborough experi- ences give only a glimpse of what the alternative will be if the right wing is left in control.

As the Race Relations Board found, the situation allowed one group of workers to be played off against another, or this occasion, the skilled on white against workers the semi-skilled Asians. That is why a group of knitters from the mill recently felt confident enough to march a factory banner on an anti- immigrant pro-Powell march in Leicester. And then last week a sup- porter of the strikers found his car had been deliberately rammed, and that was followed right wing by an extreme attempt to intimidate pickets at the mill. Right-wing, reformist trade union leaders have no policies for fighting racialism. A new leadership has to be based firmly on Marxist prin- ciples. Only on the basis of such a leadership can racialism.

fought and the unity in action established among workers to take the first step along the road to socialism by forcing the Tories to resign and put- ting back a Labour government pledged by the mass movement to socialist policies of national- ization of all the basic indust- including the ries, hosiery trade, under workers' control and without compensation.

"AFE: D

KNITTER;

gham eatre The Tories eventually set Dhiru Patel (left) and Mansukhlal Shah (right) evidence to former Labour minister section of knitters from the mill joined a pro-powell march in Leicester (above).

'WE BELONG TO THE

ONE WORKING CLASS'

Benny Bunsee, a Nottingham sociology student who is the strikers' spokesman, try and capitalism don't think the majority lobs insecure. of workers racialist.' The ale confused They and most

ENOCH T

FOR

BRY

• IOCH

FOR

HITAIN

sat caller cent of the workers especially when consider are women. But I think this strike will have repercussions throughout the industry and awaken a lot of people. The Asian workers have con- the sistently position taken that there is no division be- and white them

LWCCI

They belong to the workers and the same Solide working class. And they have already given pledges that they will support the knitters or any other sec- tion of workers in the factory if they have their own dispute. Dhiru Patel, one or the strike leaders, alleged: If there is a division be- tween us and the knitters, it is a division made by the union leaders. Whenever they had a meeting with the white knitters, they didn't ask us to be were. The one white worker who struck with the Asians is Mike Haywood, who has worked at mill for two-and-a-half the years as a lorry loader. Mike • inquiry Into ine aisoute were two strikers who supported the principle of the Robinson. small strike. (You shouldn't stop a man working on a machine be- cause is black. The union ne should have made it official for all workers in the first place, rather than waiting for weeks. The right to a decent stan- dard of living everyone's right. But what's going on here is part of a system, with not even enough jobs now for the frightened. The knitters' jobs kids when they leave school' are disappearing in the indus- The union membership should tell their leaders: the crisis in British 'Do also makes their what want get out. Workers leadership neco hosiery industry who believe in and will y is exploitive industry, work for the working man.

Readers of 'L'Humanité', the and its associates will be tak- ing full management control of French Communist Party's could read last Wereldhaven and their. daily • repre- sentatives will be appointed to Saturday Board and graph of news on the struggle the supervisory Britain against the in place of the In management Amalgamated existing members. fine Union of Engineering Unions. Wereldhaven has extensive and residential The brief report of the 24- commercial hour properties throughout Holland.

A revaluation of these proper- stated will probably ties is expected to reap sub- prevent papers from appearing'. stantial surplus. The acquisition was made The CP custom is to call through Burnham International two-hour strikes in the print who are keeping a 10 per cent trade-like a recent series of Wereldhaven. stake in two-hour stoppages by jour- In Europe Argyle is already nalists. That ensures the building a large office develop- of the capitalist appearance The Hague. dailies the true traditions ment in It will shortly start work on another of 'democracy. 'L'Humanité,' Lille and Readers of in only last month announced an important deal however, could read last in Paris to buy the Galeries Saturday the latest episodes in du Louvre on the Rue de two çartoon features: the stir- Rivoli. ring tale of 'The Heroes of the Steppes', adapted from the world-famous novel on one D. Fourmanov, and 'Blowfish The readers of the Spanish and the Aquanauts', the ré- weekly 'Mundo" magazine sumé of read: 'After which have decided that Mr Spain death of Blowfish and his the 1972 is the broad- accomplices, had peace re- shouldered, smiling, indus- turned the beaches of trious ex-Olympic yachtsman- Australia. have guessed yes, you must There was also a full-length —Prince Juan Carlos. report on the match that was Second to this promoter of to be televised between the foreign investment in Spain All Blacks and Scotland that Don iS JoséR Luis Ceron, atternoon. general-director of Interna tional Relations the Foreign Spanish Affairs Argyle Securities, the property Ministry. Ceron negotiated group in. the Slater which the trade deal with Moscow Walker and Jimmy Goldsmith and is now in charge of nego- empires have a stake, has tiations with the

EEC.

taken a further major step in His boss, Gregorio Lopez developing property interests Bravo, has just been elected in Europe. President of the OECD, by In association with the the way. Hambros group the company Mir World 1972 is, accord- has bought 40 per cent of the ing 'Mundo' to readers of issued share capital of Beleg- Henry none other than A. gingsmaatschappij de Wereld- Kissinger. Runner-up the in haven, the largest investment world honours is Jane Fonda.

company in Holland. property At a solemn ceremony in The price paid was £9.5m. Barcelona, trophies were pre- Of the 40 percent stake Argyle sented by the head of the îs buying 24.9 cent and Navy, per Spanish Admiral Hambros the remainder. Argyle Cervera. Special offer £20 includes postage Complete the form below with name and address of person to whom you would like the paper sent.

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LONDON, SW4 7UG

BY A GUEST REVIEWER

Frederic, the hero of Eric Rohmer's latest film, 'Love in the Afternoon, is first seen in a prologue which sets out the limits and limitations of his bourgeois life. He is a partner in a business consultancy firm, married to a teacher with a daughter and expecting another child, and lives in a small flat in the modern and modish suburbs of Paris. But he is dissatisfied with life, despite the contentment his work and family bring him.

At his office he works in the lunch-hour so he can go out to eat on his own later on and dispel a vague sense of anxiety in wandering the streets of central Paris shopping and watching beautiful women, especially young girls. These young women, how- ever, are not to be enjoyed except in fantasy; they simply enhance the beauty of his own wife. But in a dream sequence Frederic, with the aid of an electronic device which des- troys the free will of the women (!), succeeds in making with all the heroines of Rohmer's earlier 'moral tales' like 'My Night with Maud' and Minima. Knee' auto uns life steps Chloe, a former acquaintance, who is slightly 'hip' and mocks con- ventional bourgeois values, but would like to escape the grind of being a waitress in a bar and bourgeoisie. embrace the Gradually, through all the contortions of ambiguity we are used to in Rohmer's study of human relationships, they come close together. But once Frederic is con- fronted with the chance of having sex or making love- this too is ambiguous—with Chloe in her flat, he flees. He suffers from the same in- hibitions of all Rohmer's particularly reminis- heroes, cent of the Catholic in 'Maud', and rushes home to his wife an equally banal for final scene. It all sounds terribly com- monplace, and, at a superticial level, it is. But, even if taken simply at the level of an intimate study, the 'feel' of the film is very sure, the aware- ness of shifting intermittences of the heart very subtle, and the purely formal qualities of colour and texture, of frame and movement, very fine. that, But, more than the film expresses the crisis of the middle class in economic and political terms, even if it only Workers Pross, Wadness Top and above: Frederic (Bernard Ve scenes from Eric Rohmer's 'Love in the .

alludes to these and remains for the most part at the intim- ate level. Though there is no direct link established between private passions and public that link clearly issues, emerges from within the film and marks interesting an departure in Rohmer's work.

Take Frederic's reading. Rohmer has our hero say that he reads in order to take him- self out of present time and understand space; not to society or the world. Indeed, it is fascinating that the one book we see him read on the Metro is Diderot's 'Voyage à Bougainville' Diderot was one of the foremost bourgeois philoso- phers in 18th century France and the book in question con- cerned the myth of a Golden Age and the Noble Savage unsullied by the growing development of capitalism and industry By the merest hint, Rohmer suggests the psycho- political crisis of the middle in its revulsion from class modern capitalism and its contradictions. Nor do I think it fanciful to suggest that the sexual difficulties of Frederic-his in- ability to act out his fantasies except in dream-are indis- solubly linked with that • Wednesday December 20, 1972 PAGE 9 ernard Verley) and Chloe (Zouzou) in ve in the Afternoon'. political crisis of the middle class. Not only can he not act but also he cannot sexually, act politically, when the only way out of the crisis is to take such political action. This is not fanciful because Rohmer sets his hero much more securely and firmly in economic setting: the office, the home, the street, the train, especially the former. Though criticism the hero the only makes of his work is that he is not satisfied with the finan- cial aspects of the partnership, it is abundantly clear from his actions—his reveries, his will- ingness to spend long hours away from work with Chloe, his inability to find anything to do--that it too is critical.

Far from being then a simple study in ambiguity, as most bourgeois critics have sugges- ted, the film has far deeper resonances. Of course, it re- mains fixed within the limits of a tenuous critical realism, but this simply makes the study of the crisis much subtler. If it is not quite as accom- plished as the last two of the now complete 'moral tales', that is an even better indica- of the new ground tion Rohmer is breaking ... and of hat his own crisis.

PAGE 10 Workurs Press, Wednesday December 20, 1872

CHARING CROSS

STATION

Fight Rising Prices Force the Tories to Resign MANCHESTER: Wednesday De 'The Black cember 20, 7.30 p.m. Lion Hotel', corner of Blackfriars Street and Chapel Rd. 'Fight the Industrial Relations Act-Force the Tories to Resign'. HOLLOWAY: Thursday December 21, 8 p.m. Hall, Seven Sisters Road. 'No Room at the Doss-House' is tonigl the Engineers'. Thursday

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December 21, 7.30 p.m. 'The New Cock Inn', Fishergate. 'Fight the Industrial Relations Act-Force the Tories to Resign'. SWANSEA: Wednesday December 20, 7.30 p.m. YMCA. 'Defend the Tories to re-

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p.m. 8.10 ON 2. Birgit Nils- *Fight Derby Road. Tory rent son talks to Bernard Levin 'Make this government rises!' and sings some of her resign. most famous roles. 9.25 MAN ALIVE. No Room at DAGENHAM: Thursday December the Doss-house. corner of 28, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, 10.15 NEWS ON 2. Weather.. Fanshawe Ave/Longbridge Rd.

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ONE

EARTH.

ONLY

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12.00-12.25 Engineer's world. 9.40 Skippy. 10.00 Film: 'The Bowery'. Wallace Beery, Jackie 12.30 Nai zindagi naya jeevan. Cooper. 11.35 Galloping gourmet. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at 12.00 Cartoon. 12.05 Rainbow. 1.30 Mary, Mungo and one. 12.25 Rupert Bear. 12.40 First Midge. 1.45 Made in Britain. 2.00 report. 1.00 Scotch 1.30 corner. Cradle England. 2.30 Look.

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Crown court. 2.00 Harriet's back 3.00 Thank god it's Sunday. 3.30 2.30 Good in town. atternoon. Mastermind. 4.00 Deputy dawg. 3.00 Looks familiar. 3.30 Saint. 4.35 4.10 Play school. Crystal 4.25 Lift off Ayshea. 4.50 with Tipps. 4.40 Jackanory. Arthur of the Britons. 5.20 Univer- 4.55 sity challenge. 5.50 News.

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ON CHRISTMAS.

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IMPOSSIBLE.

MISSION

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SOFTLY: TASK

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11.25 THEATRE: MELODRAMA

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There's a Will There's 11.20 Death. The Marvyn Man- ville Players. roses. 11.55

TALES OF EDGAR WAL-

11.45 UP THE ORGANIZATION.

LACE.

Candidate for Peter Townsend. Murder.

12.55 IT MATTERS TO ME.

12.10 Weather.

TODMORDEN

HULL

Wednesday January 10 Monday January 8 'The economic crisis' Stalinism and Trotskyism onday January 2 Nednesday January 24 Marxist theory and the revolu talinism' tionary party Monday February 5

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THE TORY Press was given a pat on the back Commander- yesterday. in-Chief, Army Northern Command, Lt-Gen Sir William Jackson said troops in Northern Ire- land were getting a real morale-booster from their coverage of the war. He said: 'How grateful we are for the way in which you have supported us in Northern Ireland. What better confir- mation of the role of the capitalist Press could there be?

Meanwhile in the Six Counties the Tory govern- ment continues to play to 'moderate' opinion by en- couraging the illusion that THE DIRECTOR of Public received a Prosecutions has report into methods used by the Special Branch to arrest and charge five members of the Saor Eire group in east London. The inquiry of the Special Branch was undertaken by other members of the police force Mr William Kelsall, deputy Chief Constable Cheshire, and of Detective Superintendent Charles Horam, head of the Manchester and Salford CID. The Home Office initiated the inquiry after charges against four Irishmen and a woman were dropped at the Old Bailey.

The accused had spent almost seven months in custody and the Press had described the case as the 'IRA terror guns trial'.

The arrests were made by the Special Branch in a swoop on a house in the Hackney area.

Guns and ammunition were taken in a well-publicized raid.

"The Times' Insight Sunday team later revealed that a Special Branch agent, Mr John Parker, had infiltrated the group and acted as an agent provocateur. It that the arms had was alleged been 'planted'. Special Branch officers No have been suspended since the inquiry began. ENGINEERS' union presi- dent Hugh Scanlon yesterday challenged a Tory MP to re- peat outside the House of Commons allegations that Scanlon altered the rules of the union so that he would not have to face another elec- tion. The allegations were made by Sir Frederic Bennet, MP for Tor- Monday quay, during night's Commons debate on industrial militancy. As they were made inside the Bennet's House, remarks are protected by parliamentary privi- lege. Scanlon's challenge is that he repeats them without this protection. The union president angrily denied yesterday morning that he had had any influence on the rule-change in question, which was in fact carried by a rules- conference two years revision ago. The rule now is that any union officer who has won two elections for his post, and whose second terms of office takes him beyond 60, need not stand again.

peace can end the economic problems of the province.

£15m is to be made immedi- for a direct- ately available labour organization to provide jobs in land-reclamation, park- planning, drainage and various other projects. The scheme is expected to provide 'permanent' employment for about a thousand of Ulster's 26,483 men out of work. Taking together, 45,000 groups THE TORY government will not announce plans for the future of the shipbuilding in- dustry until 'well into 1973' according to Industrial Development Minister Christopher Chataway. This inordinate delay is heighten the eco- bound to nomic crisis in the industry which is already being hit by fewer orders and fierce com- petition from yards in Japan and Europe. The Tories are deliberately delaying announcement an: because it will enforce closures rationalization similar and to what has happened on the upper Clyde. In a letter to Mr Geoffrey Rhodes, Labour MP for New- castle, Chataway says: 'The study into the industry its nearing : completion and findings should provide a factual analytical basis on and which the industry future policy on can be determined. We will for- mulate the policy as quickly as possible, but to be realistic, it may take well into 1973 before this can be done. He said the government was well aware of the order book problems of certain British ship- Ministers builders and were 'keeping a close watch on the situation' But the most ominous passage in Chataway's letter comes in a with Rhodes' dealing passage plea for more government aid.

FIST-FIGHTS broke out between rival groups on the campus of Cairo University yesterday as a row con- tinued tetween pro and anti-government factions.

Sources said that the trouble broke out after one student people are jobless. The cash is an additional leaders in carrot to moderate their discussions with Heath's Ulster supremo, William White- law, about the future of the Six Counties. There is clearly still some lack of confidence in Tory promises and the government's White Paper on Northern Ire- land is now unlikely to be pro- duced until well into the new year. The Neptune shipyard at Wallsend Chataway affirms that it is at present government policy not to investment reintroduce general grants because it was 'not eco- nomically justifiable'. He said that scheme a restricted to orders placed in British yards 'would give rise to considerable international diffi- culties'. Chataway is here referring to the EEC objections to sub- sidizing industry. Once Britain has entered the Market it will be more difficult for the sort of feather-bedding' which the Labour government indulged in.

The Tories are prepared to see vast sections of the British shipbuilding industry run down.

This can be seen from the figures of recently given government grants to shipowners. A total of £99,841,000 in grants was paid out in the year ended March 31, 1972. Norman A. Sloan, director of the Ship- builders' and Shiprepairers' Asso- wrote indignantly to ciation, point out that some publicity of this grant scheme left the im- pression that the shipbuilding industry had received this money.

had received a letter from the university authorities de- nouncing him for being too outspoken in his comments contained in a wall newspaper.

One group of students is demanding an end to student councils, which it claims have been penetrated by the police.

Workers Press, Wednesda meeting of After a weekend Heath's Ulster task force at Downing Street it seemed that Whitelaw would need to continue his talks with Ulster politicians and community leaders for some time yet until agreement can be reached between them. Meanwhile in the Six Counties the Tory government continues to play to 'moderate' opinion by encouraging the illusion that peace can end the economic problems of the province.

'It is quite clear,' he said, 'that this will convey to your readers that these vast sums of money have been paid out to this industry, whereas in fact the sums referred to were in respect investment grants paid to of British shipowners. 'Not one penny of this money was paid to the British ship- building industry: indeed, I am quite certain that if you investi- gate the position you will find a substantial part of the total investment grants was paid to British shipowners in respect of in foreign ships constructed shipbuilding yards.' In other words the Tories are paying out huge grants to let their friends in the shipping in- dustry place orders in overseas Thus the local shipbuild- yards. ing industry is being denied con- tracts from the home market.

One of the areas where the will have its government policy severest effect will be on Tyne- side. Already the local Con- federation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions has sought urgent talks with Swan Hunter state of the order about the book. Unless the situation im- proves-and there seems no rea- sọn to suppose it will!-the first big redundancies will occur in mid-1973. Rhodes says: 'I estimate that redundancies on Tyneside by the end of 1973 in shipbuilding will have risen by several thousands.'

of He said an 'emergency' situation existed. The government's leisurely studies were completely inappropriate, he added. These students have also de- nounced 'the fake information media' and attacked leading journalists. A recent meeting of members of the Egyptian Press syndicate called for an end to censorship and denounced the treatment of dissident students. Wednesday December 20, 1972 PAGE 11 EIRE police have denied they any attempt to arrest made Provisional Sinn Fein vice- president Mr David O'Connell at the weekend. They admitted that tailing detective had been a O'Connell, but said that he was never within 20 feet of him.

REPORTS that Sean MacStiofain has been replaced • as Chief-of- Staff of the Provisional IRA continued to gather momentum yesterday, although there was no official statement. The news that MacStiofain was being replaced by an advisory council was first leaked last Friday, but after a weekend meeting of IRA leaders in Donegal, it seemed certain that MacStiofain had been sacked.

Although he is taking liquid foods, MacStiofain has noW entered the second month of his strike at the Curragh hunger military camp. FREDERICK Joseph Sewell, the man sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering a Blackpool police officer, has just been given one of the harshest punishments ever handed out in a British jail.

Magistrates at Leicester's Gartree prison condemned him to 392 days' solitary confine- ment for his part in an escape bid last month. They also took away privileges for 760 days.

The privileges include watch- ing television and films and going to concerts. From now on he cannot mix with or speak to other prisoners and will be forced to work alone in his cell. For 56 days he is to lose all earnings. A we asked what year ago chance Sewell had of a fair trial after he appeared in court covered in cuts and bruises and after the èntire Tory Press had pre-judged him. The latest barbaric punishment prompts us to ask: what chance he has of being treated fairly in prison? Only Sewell has been con- demned to over a year in solitary confinement although two other men involved in the escape attempt were also punished.

One lost 380 days privileges and the other 236 days remission.

Following the Blackpool jewel- Supt Gerald lery raid in which Richardson was shot, Sewell was subjected to one of the biggest manhunts in recent history and to some of the severest punish- ments. Last October we drew attention the difference between to the hunt for Sewell and the search for those responsible for attacks on coloured working-class immi- families in grant Bradford. Thirteen attacks were reported and three people died before the police acted. Now the punishments new against Sewell and other prisoners reflect the deepened consciousness and determination of the capitalist smash all those who class to its their rule and oppose guardians. A PARLIAMENTARY commit- tee today published a report on the exploitation of invention and claims that it has been deliber- ately kept secret from the public.

The Select Committee on Science and Technology says that the report, commissioned by the government in February 1971, held up by the Tories. was Efforts to get it published in May failed and it eventually got the report from the Aerospace Minister 1 Michael Heseltine in this September. committee says: 'Too The often government seeks to avoid being questioned on aspects of policy by appointing an inquiry, then refusing to make any_com- ment on the subject until the inquiry has reported.'

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday De Demands that the engineers' u stoppage against the £50,000 f Peckham Road, the union's he 1.4 million-strong union's engir out discussion of these demand number of branches, shop stew: Hugh Scanlon, AUEW Pre- sident, would not comment on the suggestion that action called by the executive was now imperative. 'We have had no action or resolution which condemns the executive' , he said. 'They might be suggesting different forms of resistance, but to the best of our knowledge and be- lief the whole of the member- ship's united in its resistance to the Industrial Relations Act. "The only question is how to express that resistance.'

Scanlon would not comment, either, on whether the executive would try to obstruct the com- missioners appointed to collect the £50,000 fine (see page 1).

He seemed slightly bewildered by the possibility that the money might be taken from credit faci- lities at the Midland Bank, Rye Lane, despite the fact that the union is overdrawn there.

Financial manoeuvres I've heard of some legal and financial manoeuvres' , he said. 'But how anyone can make a debit into an asset I don't know."

But asked if the executive had instructed the bank not to pay.

replied: 'We tell he cannot people what to do." We can only say what our view is on the decision of the court.' The AUEW President admit- ted, however, that the union had consulted by the Midland been about the situation. Repeating an earlier formula, Scanlon said: 'We will not volun- tarily pay the fine.' Telegrams of support for the union's stand were read to yes- terday's meeting from the Inter- national Metalworkers' Federa- the French and Italian tion, metal unions, the National Union of Mineworkers, the print union NATSOPA and the sheet metal- workers' union.

LATE NEWS

Association of Scientific,

THE

Technical and Managerial Staffs is to ask the industrial court to- morrow for an order 'determin- ing the rights of the parties' in its dispute with the west London travel firm, Horizon Holidays.

Last week the court granted an application. by Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan to Rice red bished sporters Post Office. 186a Clapham SWA huStreet, London. High Printed by Plough Press • Ltd. (TU), Street. 180b Clapham High London.

SW4 7UG.

Despite widespread support Engineers' chiefs ignore call for all-out action

BY DAVID MAUDE

Demands that the engineers' union executive call an all-out national stoppage against the £50,000 fine fell on deaf ears yesterday at 110 Peckham Road, the union's headquarters. A morning meeting of the 1.4 million-strong union's engineering section leaders passed off with- out discussion of these demands—now being voiced by an increasing number of branches, shop stewards' meetings and district committees.

Tocher tops north-west poll JOHN TOCHER, Manchester district organizer of the Amalgamated Union Engineering Workers, has been re-elected in a closely- fought ballot. 48 Over cent eligible to vote participated in postal ballot-an unusually the high Tocher, Communist Party member. attracted 8,419 votes as against 8,186 which the

WELL

date, Mather. The sitting candidate for the post of Leeds district organizer, Binns. elected. In the Scottish district, W. Aitken was elected organ- while in Hull-Grimsby-North Lincolnshire there is be second ballot. second at is aso assistant distrib held contest for organizer in Norfolk. CP member, Tocher's fellow Dixon did less well sitting ballot candidate in the the post member in eastern England. Although ostaine 11335 13,697 votes as against the Dixon nearest rival Talled obtain an overall majority.

The is to be decided in a second ballot. have the union's claim for reco, by the Commission Horizon investigated Industrial ke alons.

NOW

general secretary Clive Jenkins has writ- that the court claiming une man mainlalnins a lock- out against four union members and in activities which engaging could prejudice the CIR inquiry.

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

01-622 7029

WEST

engineers at Rolls-Royce, of Scotland battle showd be at nationa Hillington. level and that the full

AUEW

officials have organization called off today's planned

ALTHOUGH

engin- should be

MUST

Ferry planning to strike adden That The cers one-day strike against the to fight the at the Austin-Morris Industrial tory, Longbridge, Birming fines. They said yesterday Act at Halona mandremel Cluele that members felt a local membership'. try keep the plant 24-hour stoppage was not Engineers -which 20,000 at several fac- tories and shipyards the workers But it enough and national area not known dow many mei time —if any—will turn up for action was needed. of the announcement already decided stop

TWOK

Alex Ferry, Glasgow dis- today

WORK

decision flowed Caro They men Ine moe yuke man &ul engineer the decision Weir Pumps, Cathcart, the ing workers in the Swanse: of district meeting sec- Chrysler Linwood plant at to instructed Glasgow, relaries n all-out national withdraw their 111 Marathon labou and Dumbarton raisiey Govan shipyards. for a one-day protest strike yesterday at 110 arcas. But the decision of the on January It is fairly evident district secretaries means district swansea g meeting of the members almost 100 • Scotland ale anti newspaper committee or per should be published ing union said yesterday it cert went out s passed off with- tive in the stand they have usual today. that taken,' he added. The one-day strike call districts ot the by an increasing The OTher hand was relected or oner sewi Shone ake they have expressed ing machine workers a concerted effort to strike trict committees. Clydebank and night-shift on the same day. strong opinion that the From Page 1 be faced Trace bode dromenan people set up to supervise the worker. The capitalist every is to unite me working cass ro distribution of essential commo will class not abandon their create the political and industrial plunder. the Tories conditions to make allies. worKing will have to take the power resign. I his programme is essential to destroy the capitalist state an the working class in struggle. The second vital step is The fight for these socialist mea- Tenace working class to fight unite The state. for socialist policies as an answer sures movement to secoine frith the str le Titant to consider tal call for to the lory attack Tories out. militant to consider the • All the means of production, fight for such a programme the All these policies „Tne factories, mines, Trades Unions Alliance in Octo should be nationalized and ber this year.

HEATH

has repeated his placed under workers' control negotiations. The central point in this de- wall on wake claration was the pledge to trans- He said that any awards made disappon tments- high levels would lead to form the Socialist Labour • League • The Stock-Exchange should -implying they and abolished, the banks expro- part revulutional. priated capital would movement expand ine workers rre the second phase of Tory wage that has always told the abroad trozen. control. High -into the was industrial truth to workers mass • Plans tor entrv into the Com- would lead cally paper or uns movement.

mon Market must be scrapped action', said Heath. Socialist campaign This task is now a matter of United States The ot Europe extreme urgency. campaign traitors of the Labour Party will to get signatures the

ATUA

on • Defence expenditure must be Sales expose l Coust declaration must be set uD struggle for Labour govern. Slasnea. Ine standing army must or the workers ress so i pledged to implement suck be withdrawn from overseas land ment creased. Delay now only gives including Ulster and abolished.

the a policy. class enemy more time • Prices should be controlled But above all the revolution- the prepare aLLaCk •Cae and committees of housewives, ary implication of such a pro- working class and all socialists.

• FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

FOOD PRICES have risen an Commons yesterday. Godber also revealed that the Tory prices incredible 23.1 per cent since freeze was fraud he

WICH

the General Election when admitted that the cost of tresh food had risen 'substantially' Prime Minister Edward Heath MP for Peter Hardy, Labour promised to cut prices 'at a Rother Valley, said the situation stroke. would get Godber said

DECEMBER

there were ample supplies of figures were released by LuIKeYS alle Should higher this Christmas than last.

NEEDS £765.94

WE ARE trying Talse £1,750 may so target before next Monday. far have we £984.06 Use moment you make sure we complete our full total in time. This struggle against the In- By OUR OWN REPORTERS grow ing. Today, , thousands more trade GLASGOW Labour councillors were yesterday ordered to im- unionists de are out on strike the plement the Tories' Housing Finance Act within seven days.

ing that exists to fight this issue Failure to do so could result in their contempt of court and ou against the Torles. possible imprisonment. Following a public inquiry, the council Workers Press the only was served with a default order giving the corporation 14 days • this paper 1o show to implement. Last week, the Labour council reaffirmed opposi- movement of the working of this are confi. tion to the rent increases.

win even greate support. The Labour group's execu- cillors from Clay Cross, Derby- Help us theretore this month. tive met last night to consider York- shire, and Conisborough, Make ver • snecial yesterday's court order and our fund over these next few shite. morning s the entire group will discuss meeting of the Labour Party nat- davs. Collect extra amounts the matter today. Glasgow cor- ional executive. wherever you Coll everything you raise im. poration meets tomorrow They will be demanding no mediately 1o: Glasgow is the largest non- retreat from the bary s cower implementing authority in Britain, Workers Press ence resolution which called on with December Appeal Fund 150.000 tenants a future Labour surelicall 15 Labour councils are not put- 186a Clanham Hiah Stree! Termourse councilor venalized ting up rents in Scotland.

SWA 7UG

London, by the Tories for non-implemen- coun- tation.