Workers Press no. 983
1973 Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Columns and stories run into one another, and words are misread. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.
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workers press
PHASE TWO REVOLT
IS PLAYED DOWN
INCORPORATING THE NEWS
DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR
BY A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
TORY PREMIER Edward Heath has obtai co-operation of all the Fleet Street editors in ing news about sections of workers who opp That is why there has been such a deafen- ing silence in the capitalist Press over the past week about the collision course between the hospital workers, the Ford workers, miners, civil servants, gasmen and the government. In the week that Heath unveiled his Phase Two legislation Press at a presidential-style conference, the Fleet Street editors filed into No 10 Downing Street to hear their orders.
They told solemnly were that the economic was so severe that if the legal machinery crisis failed, Britain faced financial ruin.
To ride out the political and economic storm, it was essential for the Press barons to play down trade union opposition to the pay laws.
Accordingly, some industrial correspondents were summoned by their editors for unprecedented interviews. order was that news was be to 'managed and the growing wave of resistance to the £1 plus 4 per ceiling was cent wage to be toned down-and kept off the front pages.
In one case a leading industrial correspondent on a mass-selling national daily was handed back an article he had just written and told to rewrite it. While the Tories apply their gag in Fleet Street, they also moved to stop the screening of a World Action' film television on "The Friends and Influence of Mr John L. Poulson'.
The hour-long documentary, due to be screened this evening, has been banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The Granada members of the film union, ACTT, will meet today to decide whether to stage a tele- vision black-out against the political censorship of the film. The chairman of one of Poulson's subsidiaries and a leading shareholder was the deputy Prime Minister and the Border', a film on the Irish former Home Secretary, Reginald struggle, was stopped He had to Maudling. resign from
IBA
without the having board Heath's Cabinet following the even seen it! decision by the Director of Public order an Prosecutions to Among the media unions there investi- gation of the bankrupt Poulson is a growing alarm about the empire by Scotland Yard's Fraud extent of state curb powers Squad. programmes and articles. This highlighted in the furore which followed the High Court Resignation decision to stop the film on Andy Warhol from being shown ITV two weeks ago. Another personality leading linked with the case, Mr T. Dan This sharp crisis in liberal Smith, Harold Wilson's choice as opinion is now expressing itself head of the Northern Economic Correspondents the Labour and Industrial Council, Planning resigned Group on the as director of Tyne Tees issue of discrimination Television political Friday. His against David Maude of Workers last surprise resign- ation came as the IBA decision Press. taken and the of It has come to light that gov- Was Leve today's reopening of the Poulson ernment Ministers regard the Wakefield County inquiry at group as a 'club' at the disposal Court. of the government. If the tem- This is the second time in 12 bers do decide let David to months that a World in Action Maude in, then the government banned. "South film has been of will no longer use it for its own HE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY JANUARY 29, 1973 • No. 983 • 4p
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
obtained the ABOUT 3,500 people marched from St Paul's ors in censor- Cathedral to Camden Town Hall in London yes- terday to commemorate the Derry Massacre January 30 last year when 13 people were shot Provisional and Official Sinn Fein members dead. and the supporters of Anti-Internment League provided the bulk of the demonstration.
DERRY MARCH-See back page.
political because it For workers in the media purposes in- fears that Workers will Press dustry the choice is clear: either 'expose it. the and become speechwriters public relations men for the Tory The stripping away of the last government or fight to preserve veil of deception forced has some semblance of independence.
number of industrial journalists This to face up to the fact that they can't be done without are part of an unprincipled and the professional media unions outrageous conspiracy. joining with unions in other in- dustries a mass mobilization in against the Tory government and Exposed all its repressive laws and GOn. spiracies. Film-makers and journalists All those the who fought in who have tried to hide from the keep out Workers group to political realities of the Heath Press-the right-wing Stalinist being brought face era are clique-have been completely face with them in the sharpest exposed. way. The biggest Tory papers have To resolve the professional and already given indications that political which thev questions will break they up the lobby confront requires revolutionary Workers Press socialist answers. These lie only rather than see "The Times' Socialist Labour League admitted and men in the have asking for their and its daily paper, Workers started subscriptions back. Press. came to Forty years ago to- morrow, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler be- came the Fuehrer of Germany. On our centre pages to- morrow and Wednes- day Tom Kemp looks at the reasons for the fascists' rise to power.
SHAKE-OUT
IN STEEL
SAVE
SHOTTON
STEELE.
50,000 jobs are to be axed in the steel industry in the most massive and ruthless manpower shake-out since the Tory government came to power. Why? Which plants will close? How will the steel- men fight back? IAN YEATS has been to the major steel- making centres in England, Scotland and Wales to find out. He begins his reports on
THURSDAY
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Scan page 2
workers press
PHASE TWO REVOLT
ISPLAYED DOWN
INCORPORATING THE NEWS
DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR
BY A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
TORY PREMIER Edward Heath has obtai co-operation of all the Fleet Street editors in ing news about sections of workers who opi That is why there has been such a deafen- ing silence in the capitalist Press over the past week about the collision course between the hospital workers, the Ford workers, miners, civil servants, gasmen and the government. In the week that Heath unveiled his Phase Two legislation at a presidential-style Press conference, the Fleet Street editors filed into No 10 Downing Street to hear their orders.
They told solemnly were that the economic severe that if the legal machinery crisis was so failed, Britain faced financial ruin.
To ride out the political and economic storm, it was essential for the Press barons to play down trade union opposition to the pay laws.
Accordingly, industrial correspondents some were summoned by their editors for unprecedented interviews. The order was that news was to be 'managed' and the growing wave of resistance to the fl plus 4 per ceiling was cent wage to be toned down--and kept off the front pages.
In one case a leading industrial correspondent on a mass-selling national daily was handed back an article he had just written and told to rewrite it. While the Tories apply their gag in Fleet Street, they also moved to stop the screening of a 'World Action' film television on 'The Friends and Influence of Mr John L. Poulson'. The hour-long documentary, due to be screened this evening, has been banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The Granada members of the film union, ACTT, will meet today to decide whether to stage a tele- visIon black-out against the political censorship of the film. The chairman of one of Poulson's subsidiaries and a leading. shareholder was the deputy Prime Minister and the Border', a film on the Irish former Home Secretary, Reginald struggle, was stopped by Maudling. He had to resign from
IBA
the without board having Heath's Cabinet following the even seen it! decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to order an Among the media unions there investi- gation of the bankrupt Poulson is a alarm about the growing empire by Scotland Yard's Fraud extent of state curb powers Squad. This programmes and articles. highlighted in furore the which followed the High Court Resignation decision to stop the film on Andy Warhol from being shown ITV two weeks ago. Another leading personality linked with the case, Mr T. Dan This sharp crisis in liberal Smith, Harold Wilson's choice as opinion is itself now expressing head of the Northern Economic the Labour and Industrial Correspondents Group Council, Planning resigned on the as dist triday. THis Sures issue discrimination Television political last Friday. against David Maude of Workers surprise resign- Press. ation came as the IBA decision of taken and the It has come to light that gov- today's reopening of the Poulson ernment Ministers regard the Wakefield County inquiry at 'club' at the disposal group as a Court. of the government. If the Tuem- This is the second time in 12 bers do decide to let David months that a World in Action Maude in, then the governal film 'South has been banned. of will no longer use it for its own HE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY JANUARY 29, 1973 • No. 983 @ 4p
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE
obtained the ABOUT 3,500 people marched from St Paul's Cathedral to Camden Town Hall In London yes.
ors in censor- terday to commemorate the Derry Massacre January 30 last year when 13 people were shot dead. Provisional and Official Sinn Fein members and the supporters of Anti-Internment League provided the bulk of the demonstration.
DERRY MARCH See back page.
political because For workers in the media purposes in- Workers fears, that will Press dustry the choice is clear: either 'expose it'. the become speechwriters and public relations men for the Tory The stripping away of the last government or fight to preserve veil forced deception has some semblance of independence.
number of industrial journalists to face up to the fact that they This can't be done without are part of an unprincipled and the professional media unions other in- outrageous conspiracy. joining with unions in dustries in a mass mobilization against the Tory government and Exposed all its repressive laws and con- spiracies. journalists Film-makers and All those who fought the who have tried to hide from the in keep out Workers group to realities of the Heath political Press-the right-wing Stalinist being brought face clique have been completely face with them in the sharpest exposed. way. The biggest Tory papers have To resolve the professional and already given indications that political which they questions will they break the lobby confront requires revolutionary up than Workers These lie rather see Press socialist answers. only "The Times' Socialist Labour League admitted and in the men asking for their and its daily paper, Workers have started subscriptions back. Press. Forty years to- ago morrow, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler be- came the Fuehrer of Germany. On our centre pages to- morrow and Wednes- day Tom Kemp looks at the reasons for the fascists' rise to power.
SHAKE-OUT
IN STEEL
SAVE
SHOTTON
STEELP:
50,000 jobs are to be axed in the steel industry in the most massive and ruthless manpower shake-out since the Tory government came to Why? Which plants power. will close? How will the steel- men fight back? IAN YEATS has been to the major steel- making centres in England, Scotland and Wales to find out. He begins his reports on
THURSDAY
BE SURE OF YOUR
WORKERS PRESS EVERY
DAY. EITHER FILL IN THE
SUBSCRIPTION FORM ON
PAGE 10 OR RING CIRCU-
LATION 01-622 7029
Scan page 3
PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973 Welders test Govan 'no-strike' deal 'If the men ordinating committee which led
WELDERS'
shop stewards At Marathon a svstem of bind.
deciae to stay out and the strike goes on for UCS work-in. ing arbitration has been agreed will try to extend the week-
BY STEPHEN JOHNS
long time, the pledged to 'ensure and this re-inforced by man- old Govan Shipbuilders* un- the efficient agement's denv
DOWCI
SIX
official strike at a mass meet- of welding special of manpower, months' bonus the for utilization metnoes workers
WHO
One conditions in Glasgow today. machine. Welders are demanding and incompatible that prolonged unofficial 'The government financial support special the with payments using practices strike action. strike has already hit company was a guarantee that objective would rapidiy be elimin.
there be neW colonical" Behind the dispute the company's would Loe tional' disputes in the yards.
issue nave been going on ior nve atea. Govan and Linthouse divisions enomous o ve but has never Another the section commits Govan. Shipbuilding consultants and a further 200 welders from the avoiding des- reached unions what 1S estimated before government Scotstoun yard Will attend Laid off 'unconstitutional sentes Crioca as actron the that today's rally to decide whether Culpally yards. strikes- -while producuvity Wolle nave to walk-out in solidarity grievance is still in procedure.
with The dispute, however, is being pushed by 120 per cent. Because of the strike a total of their seen as the : big test colleagues. have teams been in 547 Yesterday men have spokesman for •cer No sanctions s yartar ever since rapidly Govan Shipbuilders, the escalate _ IT TnA unoficial far the main Stalinist comody oulucers which outlaws dispute continues this The the remnants of the strikes. sPokesmen have been silent Tormeo Trom welders already bankrupt Upper Ship- The Boilermakers were But unlike the agreement which under- from builders thât consortium, warned Dicad Done nakers -the US luctant to sigr this deal and oniv ane now une Society back ancias management company which bought the Clyde main guardians of the two deals.
icad acreed allow negotiations to take place. to government intervention. made some concessions and bank division of
UCS
there The CP's 'Morning Star' has also are 'It all depends on the way this The intense Stalin- has been caused pressure Irom sanctions for aDDiv.
COLCICLO
lalicu lo
LOVC.
1vv1Loc [- he said dispute develops,' by a management bid to introduce ing these clauses. dustrial dispute on the Clyde.
Walker's Wilson denies back-room bugging at Chequers US trip
THE LABOUR
government worked on drafts that were But the leader full Labour support for submitted to the made no attempt to explain President's 'San concealed a US agent at leaders. Antonio' formula. Wildl naa nappened Chequers during top secret paves way the February 1967 Kosygin This offered a bombing Gorman also said the negotiations on Indo-China pause, provided Brine Cald on petam be- between Prime Minister Wilson claimed after the Vietnam prepared phone call on for Heath talks in a statement to par- negotiate seriously and Soviet Harold Wilson tween Kosygin and Brezhnev Janei premier Alexei Kosygin, an meeting cessation of bombing. Soviet Communist Party. 'Intricate mechanism American general sald in ANGLO-American During this perlod the talks Ing to peace' In Vietnam He said the British had Communist Party Stalinists Los Angeles on Friday. in Washington on trade operated But he also made it clear Brig-General Paul WCTe auestions were certain/v with the United States Core 'speak for Britain' In Wash- that there were 'deeo v-held encouraging', according man, testifying in the Pen- throughout Kosygin's visit. differences' between ington. tagon Papers trial, said the
WILSON
Tory Minister self and Kosygin. The were in- The Socialist revelations Labour Trade Peter Walker, who Was source high American dignantly denied by formel The Labour government's and Trom League the Young four led the British delegation.
Conco that US agent premier Harold Wilson, who fawning unpublished volumes auemels Colu Walker's visit is pre- Chester Cooper, an assist- claimed that war effort in paigned known
SLON
me amenda nis visit lo be , to a summit meet- ant to w. Angeles Vietnam became a by-word.
Its sole pur- portea 'Negotiations Volumes'. between President while court was 'totally in- They ulminated WIl- back room prepare new Was These, he said, providec the British and Soviet version'
NIXON
• ano re what son's visit to the Vietnamese Washinator allacks Edward Heath, who is due 'documentary evidence leaders talked and actually happened. February where he revolution. CVel to visit Washington shortly.
Walker Conclic Willl. outer. Turkish trial Viet battles rage Secretary George Shultz, residential adviser Flanigan and
L CLC)
Liauc William negotiator Eberie. He said the purpose of no bar to visit was to exchange ideas during the formative BITTER fighting raged that the Thieu Sihanouk, the Who neads Europear Vietnam deeply dissatisfied with the liberation forte the ecar declared and US atti- across South mon deal. Cambo dia Peking that despite yesterday, the Lace 'friendship' form. They complained formally contade official ceasefire. The and his LOn
NOI
after internaulona necollauons bloodiest _use cerenon battles were regime were finally de- begin the to the French WIll WiT011 feated. leading to Saigon as the General Agreement and formal Tariffs and Thieu Trade in Sep- regime tried to apology for the presence The still keep open its lines of demonstators olitsice
TIRA
dreaming using Cam- In March both sides will
SOVIET
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko is International Conference communication with the Doce ano aos discuss the issue of com- centre expected to visit Turkey soon to press for a treaty where the signing of hitting the National the provinces. pensation took place. Liberation Front of South of friendship and non-aggression between the two States for Common Market Vietnam. There South Vietnam countries, an Ankara Foreign Ministry source was also heavy Within enlargement. the departure of US fighting With the signing of the around the city Reportedly revealed at the weekend. has plans where Sai- forces will leave the Saigon Vietnam of Tay Ninh, ceasefire to pay over visit Turkey in March, but Last April, the military unten- acioso Penh there gon claims the Provision- keep speculation able position. turned down regime une hukara coverament nac government power in w asnington mar Nixon suggested April, the source made mo virei se tropecisio eat This entirely order operacion proposals to establish said. ment wants Europe during an official visit by year dependent the wall The 1LS Capital. bodian bases. president Nikolai international ob- may the year of Europe. US and can- Soviet 1iUW stacles North Vietnam, not long the Podgorny The source menos D how- to be seen mands for red reien of referred to include 1s culaa the Yures® which said the Turkish Foreign ever, declared tbat the war whether schemes demands reduction the membership of raid it wolete se certain to erupt follow- Ministry was studying the
NATO,
which • is currently would seriously and nin sake. new proposai, bul daata. entering complex Europear Cam- adhere scrupulously of South Vietnam. any trade witn the UN. necorations with Paris bodia, Thieu's fellow- provisions 1 15 01 0. e . sa. Eberle is due in Tokyo and other _The peace agreement. dictator, Lon Nol, that such a treaty would has February the perialism suffered East European countries. untimely both from appear set-back than From the behaviour of in Indo- decisive secone une jess Internally, operations against the internal Turkey is ar year the Saigon delegates at the unaore liberation forces will cease.
anti-communist polnts or view. extremely the Japanese govern- Paris signing ceremony to maintain its puppets for military dictatorship. On the weekend, appears But Prince long. Gromyko had wanted to ment. Norodom Saturday in Ankara a mili- for 20
OLISON
sentences East Germans try to justify their years for former law pro. fessor Do defendantsk Perincek and other
CO-MAN O
left-wingers. diplomatic deal with Spain Dr Perincek, of a son conservative politician, beer alcusta ravine founder and chairman of an underground alleg- dedicateda ty edly
DIPLOMATIC
BY JUAN GARCIA
Workers and youth throughout relations set throwing the existing social Franco's Spain eastern and the Soviet between up. and economic order. diplomatic He concluded his apologia with estacament and East Germany have met relations no the cynical dictum: "A The prosecutor asked for declaration ful® foreign policy 12 of the acused, 12 years imprisonment for with considerable working- cannot Just be democracy destroved •oureeols class opposition. in Spain.
CUCS
lical lilal coolllls Uu- Vasco
CHOLONS
differences, anti- able as this might be in particular Many workers and internacionas lecuive even The official Stalinist Press these, will be overlooked in the instane new friendship was graphi- years for the remaining six.
fought has been devoting some atten- future. They are accused of be- explaining how diplo- the interests of War for the policy of the Popular Turkish was in Cally ing members of th Unity (Communist) matic ties are possible with a Party daily Front peacelul co-existence to promote kevolutionary Workers' an‹ even with states diubinad fink report Ernst Thaelmann Brigade regime which came to power reasants rarty. new with opposing social systems, 1t with from Germanv lost manv lives in through ant-communist the High Accoraing to the fighting in the University City sala. •noloerada oi veneral rranco. crusade which fascist Command of the Istanbul The pro-Franco campaign mild, potted biography described in Madrid. Martial Law generals supplied with Area, the Re. were ceived further Chis dor from him 'the son of a naval officer' Some luckier four as troops, arms and aircraft by Schwabe, Workers Ernst-Otto An ane background East German Ministers and two Peasants' Partu 'claimed to both Hitler and Mussolini.
at one Politburo members fought une anals week aruce sumo sald be the true heritor of The youth 'Jungle whose article Spain and lived able Horizont wine and dine with fascist diplo- banned Turkish Communist published 'in all the East German experienced dific t years: Welt', said reply (1936-1939), *The people Party and aimed to extend reader's letter last week: national dailies. mals network over the country'.
Scan page 4
BUILDING MILITANTS STRIKES
Twelve building workers' pickets have been ordered to pay a total of £600 in fines following an incident in Lancashire during last year's bitter building strike. They also have to pay costs witnesses' and expenses amounting to £200. When sentencing the 12 men the presiding magistrate at Wigan Borough Magistrates' Court, Mr John Shannon, said: 'We want to assure you that we have imposed the penalties on the men in the court. We have not, in any way, con- sidered the union. The men were charged with offences alleged have to occurred outside M. A. Peters in Soho Street, Wigan, between September 4 and 5 last year.
Among those fined was Mike Farley, chairman of the Wigan committee during the action strike. In a statement to Workers Press Farley said: 'Most of the arrested men were originally charged only with obstructing the highway. It was nearly three weeks later, when the men were asked to come to the police station, that the threatening behaviour and ob- structing police charges were made. 'I see this, and the heavy fines, as part of an attempt by the Tories to isolate picketing workers from the rest of the trade union movement. With the rapid increase in food prices and the TUC's connivance with the Tories' wage freeze, workers will be forced more and more to take strike action and picket to defend their standard of living. It must be made quite clear that the Tory to workers government has to smash the organizations of the workers before they can solve the crisis of British capitalism. "The ruling class hopes that by the use of mass arrests and big fines, such as those given Wigan builders, they to the can frighten workers from taking action in the future' Another of the fined men, Thomas Cummings (32), a labourer, said: 'The arrests and large fines imposed on us are all part of the government's drive to attack the working class and keep down wages.
Workers Press now and during the builders' strike is the only paper to explain this attack . to try and organize the and working class to fight back' Farley was fined a total of €54.30 while Cumming's fines amounted to £105 plus £19.30 costs. The men have written to their unions-the Transport and General Workers' Union and UCATT-asking them to pay the fines. will be Two other men brought to trial on February 8 over the same incident. These were the fines imposed by the three Wigan magistrates when the 12 appeared on January 19: Labourer Michael Farley (31) was fined £15 for obstructing a free passage and £20 for a policeman. He obstructing was ordered to pay £15 costs and £4.30 expenses. Thomas Cummings (32), a labourer, was fined £15 for obstructing a free passage, £20 for obstructing a policeman, £50 using threatening behaviour, £20 for a further offence of obstructing a police- man. He has to pay £15 costs and £4.30 expenses. David Berry (22), a joiner, and Kenneth Sell (27) each
TERS & CO. LTO
M.A.PF
33A RS
LTD
R 37G 35A This sequence of three photographs show to the 12 men being arraigned in Wigan serious charges. Seconds after taking ' himself was arrested. fined £15 for obstructing free passage and £10 for obstruct- ing a police officer. They were each ordered to pay £15 costs and £4.30 witness expenses. Labourer Thomas Topping (26), now living in Carlisle, fined f15 for obstructing was free passage, £15 for obstruct- ing a police officer and was ordered to pay £20 costs.
Labourer William Hitchen (39) was fined £30 for the two and obstruction offences ordered to pay £15 costs and £4.30 expenses. Plant operator James Harri- son (35) and Frank Comerford, (24), a bricklayer, were each fined £15 for obstructing a free passage, £20 for obstruct- ing a policeman and £30 for using threatening behaviour.
They were each ordered to pay £20 costs. Bricklayer Thomas Fletcher
RAPETER
E 35 aphs shows the actual incident which led I In Wlgan Borough Court on a variety of er taking the pictures, the photographer ree (23), was fined the same . amounts for the same offences as Harrison and Comerford. He was ordered to pay £15 costs and £4.30 expenses.
Stanley Wildman (23), a joiner, was also fined £65 for the three offences and also £10 for assaulting a police officer. He was ordered to pay £20 costs plus a doctor's fee of £4.20. Joiner Edward Jones (29) was fined £15 for obstructing a free passage, £20 for ob- structing a policeman, £30 for behaviour using threatening using obscene and £5 for language. He had to pay £15 costs and £4.30 witness ex- penses. Labourer Francis Barker (30), was fined £15 for obstructing tree passage and £20 for obstructing a police officer. He had to pay costs of £20. Workers Press, M The capitalist Press has deliberately tried to be- little the massive wave of indignation among engi- neers following the £61,000 fines on their union. At one stage there were headline stories that the right wing intended to recall the national council and reverse the union's policy of non-co- operation with the Industrial Relations Act and its notorious court. No such thing took place. And when the Coventry dis- trict committee decided not to call local action, the Press again had a field day. Stories appeared that the strike move- ment was crumbling and that engineers were not happy with the union's stand. Last week, however, the first figures appeared showing the scale of the strike wave. In reply to a parliamentary ques- tion, the Minister of State (Employment), Mr Robin Chichester-Clark, said 230,000 working days had been lost in December by engineers on strike against the fines.
This does not take into account the strikes which have continued into this month.
Nor does the capitalist Press make prominence of the resolutions just published for the AUEW national committee meeting in April. The pre- liminary agenda reveals that as many as 17 of the union's 26 Dear Editor,. The Tory government has taken away the rights of the working class of Britain by: • Taking : away the right to strike. • Taking away the right to organize a strike. • Taking away the right to negotiate reasonable wage in- creases. Has the trade union move- ment let them get away with it? Yes. ES Now available from New Pai 186a Clapham High Street, | • Press, Monday January 29, 1973 PAGE 3 divisions support the official boycott policy. The tone of these resolu- tions not only indicates main-" tenance of the present policy, but there are also calls for national strike action should the NIRC again impose swingeing fines. For the employers, the cost of the fines has been enor- mous. Workers Press has com- piled a table of the strike wave with the appropriate number of men involved. This does not include the large number of other trade in unionists. who came out sympathy or were laid off: December 18—London, British- Leyland at Oxford, Ford at Dagenham, Sheffield, Ports- 100,000 mouth December 19—Slough 7,000 December 20 — Merseyside, Manchester, Midlands, En- Dundee, field, Chatham, Bristol, Southall plus 10,000 dockers 250,000 January 1- Leeds and Swindon 8,000 January 2—Swindon 8,000 January 5 — South Wales, Swansea and Cardiff 13,000 January 8 — Tyneside, Wear- side, East Glamorgan, Bath- gate in Scotland 68,000 January 15- South Midlands including Vauxhall at Luton 50,000 19 - Merseyside January car. workers, and Shotton steel- workers joined engineers 40,000
TOTAL 544,000
I say to the TUC-Wake up!
The way to show our dis- approval of the Tory White Paper is for the working class to show them that they are
NOT ON!
We must demand a General organize rallies and Election, a General Strike. Let us show Heath and his government we will not accept a dictatorship government.
Let us also show the Tory government that we will not let them destroy what we have worked for since the trade union movement began. If we do not fight for our will know rights now, Heath he can get away with anything and then we shall no longer be the working class but the dole class. Fight for your rights. A. P. Livell, Todmorden, Lancashire. By LEON TROTSKY Paperback. £1.00 Illustrated Sharp pen-portraits of leading figures of the Second Interna- tional in Russia and Europe, for the first time published in an English edition. The translations were first commissioned by the Socialists' Young paper Left' Their enormous success has led to the completion of the translation of the whole book, which is the first part of Volume 8 of Leon Trotsky's 'Works' pub- lished in the Soviet Union in 1926. It provides the most vivid picture available of the historic figures of the Second Inter- national, their strengths and weaknesses, written by an obser.
ver who was also a participant in the daily struggle of the Euro- pean and Russian working class.
New Park Publications Street, London, SW4 7UG
Scan page 5
PAGE 4 Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973
MAN CONVICTED
FOR PROTEST FIRE
Allegations of Rachman- ism were made in a Sal- week. ford court last John William Keeley (29), an unemployed labourer, started a fire in a house where he and his wife rented a flat to draw at- tention to the deplorable conditions he lived in. In court his solicitor said there was human excrement in the basement and drunks and slept the hallway 1n varialils and landings. Keeley's flat is on the second floor. He has been trying. for years to get repairs done
LWO
with There is no success. no the front door of the lock On flats and there is no electricity in the hallway or on the stairs.
Mr Keeley claims the health department has done nothing about the human sewage in the basement. He also told the court that recently visited his two men flat, gave him two days' notice to get out as they had taken over the lease threatened
NOREASE
PENSIONS
ECREATED
Tre
EEKLY
•hEALTH
RIGHT
STATE
PAY LAWS
HITS
PENSIONS
People due to retire during the next five years could find that their occupation pensions have been cut because of the state pay laws. The 45,000-strong Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators said yesterday that expected pensions
SOLIC
could be reduced by several pounds a week. The institute said that in the many pension screnses amount due to be paid when someone retired was a pro- portion of the amount earned over a specified period or in a particular year before retire- ment. If Phase Two stopped the person having a rise, it would also reduce the rate of pension to which he was subsequently entitled. someone As an example, whose pension was due to be two-thirds of his pay during 1973 might well, under normal circumstances, have been due for a rise of £300 a year on this would have i january added £200 a year to his pen- sion throughout retirement. But Phase Two would stop the rise--and thus make him £200 a year worse off for the whole of his pensionable life. ay January 29, 1973 violence against his wife if the police or rent tribunal were intormed. On November 28 one of the men came again and told the Keeleys to get out in seven 'or else'. He turned off day the power supply in the flat.
The Keeleys used to pay £6.50 a week for their flat, but after a visit to a rent tribunal it was reduced to f5. After the electricity board and the health department had told him they could do nothing, Mr Keeley set fire to an empty flat in the house and called the police. Mr Keeley was given a six months prison sentence SuS- pended for two years. He faces a bill for damages of £100 and a £140 electricity bill because after the fire it was discovered that there had been some cross-wiring. He is about to go to a rehabilitation in centre the hope of learning skills which will enable him to get a job.
The chairman of the bench he said sympathized with Keeley, 'but he knew he was breaking the law by setting fire to the flat': Rocketing beef prices have given a boost to sales of Courtaulds' synthetic meat pro- duced at a Coventry pilot plant. A heavy increase in demand is reported in the north-west where test market- ing began. A similar reception is ex- pected when the food-Kesp is launched in the Midlands next week by the Coventry- based wholesaler Vincent Sorge. Mr John Lissaman, sales manager of Vincent that with real minced says beef at SUp a Ib, Kesp had an 'undoubted advantage' at 24p a lb. It is significant that the company is beginning its sales drive by inviting representa- catering tives of industrial concerns, hospitals and school meal services to meetings next week and not housewives. It was recently revealed in Yorkshire that some children were being served meat sub- stitute in their school dinners without either themselves or their parents being aware of it.
Most of Stockport's 11,000 tenants face a steep rent in- crease for the second time within a year. The increases will be in addition to the 66p all-round rise which was intro- , first phase of duced as the the 'fair rents' Act only four months ago. new increases, which The come into effect in October, will mean 1,600 tenants will be paying 75p above their present rent, 750 tenants between 5lp and 75p more than at present, and a further 6,300 tenants paying up to 50p more. Cllr James Vesey, deputy- chairman of the Labour-con- trolled Housing Committee said the increases 'in no way imply an agreement, wholly or the Housing in part, with Finance Act'. Cllr Arthur Bradbury de- clared: 'We have abandoned our responsibilities to the tenants.'
YES!
Those who went along with the Tory Housing Finance Act are belatedly discovering the real venom contained in this measure. The Tories and their allies in the labour movement-the present leadership of the Labour Party — managed to 'sell' the 'fair rents' legislation to the public. Tenants were lulled into a false sense of security about the increase. They were told would that rebate schemes help to claw back the higher charges. It is now patently obvious, however, that the Act is what Workers Press said it was—a instrument to attack legal municipal housing. The experiences of Robert Pryor, committee member of the Rossendale Tenants' Asso- ciation in Ramsbottom, Lan- cashire, are worth recording.
Mr Pryor has just written to the local newspaper saying: May I give a run-down on what the Ramsbottom UDC did to the rents since December 1971. They increased all rents sy fl. After protests by residents, it was reduced in April 1972 then ps 50p increased again by 54p in October 1972. All this was done in order to straighten the Housing Revenue Account for the 1972 Housing Finance Act, which, by law, must commence a new financial year with a balanced account. Due to a re-assessment by the council, which, by the way, is not final, we are now faced with an increase in April of £1.30, for a three-bedroomed house, which brings the net rent to £4.30. The net rent in £2.03 December 1971 was which is an increase of 127
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per cent. The same proportion two-bedroomed applies to houses. Without any further rate increase in April, this will bring the total rent to £5.60 for three-bedroomed houses and slightly less for two- bedroomed houses. Supplementary benefits can- not fill this gap, as the total home higher than tabulated lists set out, and in any case, people already on supplementary benefits will, in that have been cases some investigated, be worse off by 10p to 20p. May I also point out that the majority of these houses, having been built with inferior materials, i.e. the outside bricks are extremely porous which allows dampness to percolate into the houses, causing falling of plaster and peeling wallpaper.
Above: Merthyr tenants on a march to protest against the Tory Housing Finance Act.
Also the window frames and woodwork appear to have been manufactured from what can only be described as box wood, ply etc. wood Pryor's conclusion from Mr all this is to ask for a 'thorough survey' and a rent re-assess- ment. This indicates the degree to which illusions are still ram- pant about the Tories' inten- tions. The Tories are deliberately responsible for raising rents.
It's part of their whole strategy —allowing prices to rise, hold- ing down wages-to impoverish the working class. And don't go to the Tories to complain about building standards. Some of their most powerful financial backers are in the building industry.
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Economic and political tension between the Uni- ted States and Europe is rapidly increasing as a result of the monetary crisis and trade war sparked by President Nixon's measures of August 15. 1971. The US balance of payments continues to slip deeper into the red despite the 13-month- old Smithsonian currency re- alignment agreement — now honoured mainly in the breach.
Attention is turning to the series of talks between the main capitalist economic powers on trade and monetary questions scheduled for this year. The Americans have already made it clear they attach great importance to these negoti- particularly to the ations, Group of 20 discussions on so- called monetary reform and to the trade talks which begin soon with the Common Market and Japan. The outgoing US Commerce Secretary, Peter Peterson, who played a key part in negoti- ating the sweeping trade deal with Moscow last autumn, spoke to businessmen in New York recently about the implic- ations of the trade negotiations.
Peterson is one of the inner circle of Nixon's trouble- shooters and is due to travel to Europe and Japan later this year as the President's special envoy on international econo- mic and trade affairs. He spoke of the forthcoming talks as 'extraordinarily im- indeed sensitive' portant and and stressed that the admin- istration was working hard to elaborate a strategy for deal- ing with the Europeans. Peterson spoke of the strong feeling on both sides of the Atlantic that the old relations
WHO MIGHT
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The Uruguayan government of Juan Maria Bordaberry is seeking to 'consolidate peace' by passing a law against 'potentially dangerous people'. The Bill defines a 'state of dangerousness to legal the order' which would make it possible to jail suspects for as long as five years. The guilty men would not be tried nor would they be entitled to defence: it would be enough for them to be accused of belonging to a sub- versive organization of or having supported the actions of such an organization. The Bill also includes a section on "preventive arrest' which authorizes military judges to prolong interrogation confinement of and solitary prisoners for 30 days. Bordaberry is not intending to rely on laws alone in his repression of opposition.
This year's budget devotes a quarter of all expenditure to the Ministries of Defence and the Interior. Education and Public Health will receive just 6 per cent of the budget.
The preparation is thus made confront the to Uruguayan working class which will be into struggle against forced the cutting of its standard of monthly price in- living by creases of 10 per cent. The Uruguayan Communist Party, the crucial factor in the Uruguayan trade union federa- tion, counters Bordaberry by maintaining its 'Broad Demo- alliance' cratic with the Christian Democrats. between Europe and America were deteriorating. 'Some of our allies,' he said, 'have been as heedless of our sensibilities as we may have been of theirs'.
In particular, the Common Market countries were so pre- occupied with enlarging their community that 'they have countenanced the spread of preferential agreements to an extent which far exceeds the expectations which underlay our original policy of support for an expanded community; he said. All the spleen of US capital- ism and its hostility to the European bourgeoisie emerged Peterson's speech. His reference to preferential agree- ments is aimed at the EEC's Mediterranean policy and its recently negotiated special arrangements with the count- ries of the European Free Trade Area. American capitalism con- siders that the Common Mar- ket's trade arrangements with the countries of Europe, the near east and Africa cut US goods out of markets which are vital to American ex- porters. The accusation is thrown back in their face by EEC enthusiasts, who cite the Moscow - Washington trade deal and the non-tariff barriers of the United States as ex- amples of US restrictive practices hampering their trade. Peterson's talk of For all 'strengthening the indispen- sable old bonds' between Europe and America, he made clear Nixon very the administration will give the Common Market no leeway in the forthcoming talks. "The Common Market, con- ceived positive as a step toward economic growth, has adopted more and more the character of an economic perimeter. It is a small but A warning that unprofitable factories might have to be down was given by closed President Nicolae Causescu of Rumania at a local conference of the Communist Party in lasi County. This is the first time that the President himself has made such a threat. He urged that factories should be modernized and skills improved and that the quality of goods for export should be improved. Causescu has been on tour in the provinces and laying special stress on the need for more effort to achieve plan targets. At one place he walked for several kilometres through the main street, to the apparent astonishment of the crowd. Outgoing US Commerce Secretary, Pete dangerous step from the per- ception that you share a com- mon bond with one or more countries to the easy but fallacious concomitant that recognition of the bond can take the form of disregard for interests shared with those outside the group,' he said.
He warned that the current state of US-European relations threatened 'loss of our sense of common purpose' and 'could increasing easily stimulate bitterness and pressure for uni- lateral, increasingly isolationist Peterson attacked the pre- vailing approach to trade negotiations, which he des- cribed as 'a quota for a quota and a tariff for a tariff'-in- dicating the degree of mutual suspicion and hostility between the two sides. He called instead for what he termed a 'total relationship' based on the conception that aspects of economic An The French Communist Party's daily 'L'Humanité' (January 22) carried a bitter attack on the left-wing demonstration against the Vietnam war held in Paris on January 20. It claims that there was some sinister purpose behind the demonstration, which re- sulted in violent clashes with the police and 700 arrests. It can easily be seen', writes the paper, 'what benefit the gov- ernment can obtain from inci- dents of this sort six weeks from the elections. It is nothing new for it to use dis- order to its own profit'.
It refers to the coverage that the demonstrations received on TV and in the press and speaks of 'the same scenario as in May 1968'. Once again, with elections near, the Communist Party is falling overbackwards to pear as the party of order p.
as not to frighten its coalition It virtually solidar- partners. with the police, izes itself whilst insinuating that the whole thing was a provocation of the government. Unfortunately, 'L'Humanité' asks why the demonstrators have waited should so long, when Hanoi was being bom- barded some time ago. Unfor- tunately, because the British Communist Party's demonstra- tion, under the slogan 'Nixon, Sign Now, was held on the same day as the one in Paris organized by the leftists.
Workers Press, M etary, Peter Peterson-key role In trade deal wl relations-'Trade concessions, monetary adjustments, military foreign aid and support, technological know-how' - should be included as negotiat- ing items. This idea has already been advanced by • spokesmen for US imperialism and it has received a less than lukewarm reception from their European counterparts. The reason is that the Peterson proposal is simply a threadbare cover for the predatory ambitions of his own class. The American employers are not interested in currency re- alignment, trade agreements and military burden-sharing as things-in-themselves. For them these are items all of which can be used to force European capitalism to shoulder burden of world economic crisis. Peterson even produced a specimen agenda for talks em- bracing all these questions.
And, in case the message has Press, Monday January 29, 1973 PAGE 5 de deal with Moscow. Right: Nixon.
been lost on his audience, he delivered himself of the follow- ing belligerent passage: 'The situation we face is one of exceptional challenge. If we ignore it, we could drift further European from away our The nature of this partners. sort of drift is insidiously im- perceptible. It is all too easy to arrive at undesired an destination without having noticed passing of tell-tale way stations. 'Wars are rarely planned.
Countries drift into them. Similarly, economic confront- ations are rarely brought on by design. No one intended that the tariff wars in the 1930s take place, yet that happened and a devastating effect on world trade was not corrected until World War II.' Better than anything else in Peterson's speech, this passage indicates the kind of thinking in Nixon's hierarchy as the President prepares to receive Tory premier Edward Heath at the beginning of next month.
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PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973 Heath, Hailsham, Carr and Barber are always going on about 'the rule of law'. Those who break the Tory 'rule of law'— strikers, pickets and now workers who want a decent wage packet—are branded as 'criminals'.
Workers Press has been examining the concept of •British justice' as practised by the Tory government since it seized direct rule in Northern Ireland. In particular, we have been looking at the new courts set up to review the cases of internees in Long Kesh. These courts are of a similar type which Hitler instituted in Germany. Witnesses need not only not give their names, they give their evidence from behind a curtain. In most cases the accused never hears all the evidence against him—or even the charges! The introduction of the courts took a parliamentary form increasingly used by the Tories. The courts came into operation on November 7 on an order of council under the Temporary Provisions Act (which established direct. rule). But although the courts were operating early in November, the debate authorizing their use didn't occur until December Il, more than a month later. Mr William van Straubenzee, the Minister of State for Northern Ireland, said the new courts constituted a fair system to deal with the situation.
Speaking for the Labour Opposition, Mr Merlyn Rees, Labour's spokesman on Northern Ireland, asked his own benches to support the Tories. 'I advise my honourable friends not to vote against the order. It is, as the noble lord, Lord Gardiner, said, a step forward. I do not advise my honourable friends to vote against a step forward.'
But a handful of Labour MPs did insist on dividing the louse. The Labour Party supported the Tories massively and i vas carried by 179 to 32. Stan Orme. 'left' MP of the 'Tribune group, sponsored by the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, deliberately abstained.
Long Kesh internment camp is a set of barbed wire-enclosed com- pounds. In each is a small cluster of Nissen huts. Murphy, Sean arrested on The men in these rough August 9, 1971, who appeared huts live in numbered before the court on November 14 last. He was charged that cages. on or before August 1967 he At the end of October one became the officer command- of the huts had a remarkable
IRA
Belfast and ing the facelift. Internees noticed a that 'in or about January 1970 great deal of activity as furni- (that's and August 1971' ture was carted into the hut period of 20 months!) he was by groups of tradesmen. The a training officer in the IRA.
work went on for about three Murphy told Sheriff Dick on weeks. the bench that he would not On November 7 the word be legally represented, that he passed from compound to did not recognize the court, compound about the mys- but that if the occasion arose terious refurbishing that had would cross-examine wit- he been going on. nesses. The Nissen hut had become The first and principal wit- a courtroom. A very special a Special Branch ness was courtroom. officer. He sat behind a curtain It has all the trappings of screened him from the which the Old Bailey. Plush scarlet His name was given as court. drapes hang from the ceiling.
'A'. His real name was handed a deep blue carpet is spread to Sheriff Dick on a piece of on the floor and the room is paper. polished decked cosily with 'A' said that on May 17, wood tables. Over the judge's 1971, Murphy, with along head hangs the British lion eight other men, left Belfast unicorn signifying and the in two hired cars and travelled authority of the Crown. into the Republic of Ireland The judges, who are impor- where he trained these men in ted from the law of courts the of a .303 Lee Enfield use England and Scotland, live up rifle and a .45 automatic pistol to the grand surroundings. . the ammunition had been They appear in full kit, wig concealed in the door panels included. The obiect of the of the hired cars. tribunals is to comb through Murphy was completely be- all those interned in Northern Ireland since August 1971.
wildered by this 'sworn evi- dence'. He asked 'A' how the They have so far heard over information came into his pos- 200 of this cases; number 'A' stated that a reli- session. about 80 have been freed while able informer had supplied the the remainder have been com- information on the morning of mitted to "indefinite detention' May 17. 'acts of terrorism'. for Murphy then asked 'A' why We have obtained copies of he hadn't prevented the transcripts of of the cars some from crossing the border and that have so far been cases heard which give an incisive arrested the men involved.
picture of just how these Tory 'A' replied that he had 'no courts are streamlined to dis- authority to do this' pense "justice. Two other Special Branch officers 'E' and F'-gave evidence. They explained to the court that what they had to say in evidence might place in danger the lives of their informants.
Accordingly Murphy was taken from the court for 20 minutes.
On his return Sheriff Dick announced that the evidence given against him in his ab- sence was from 'two reliable sources' and that they both confirmed he had been train- ing officer of the Belfast bri- gade, Provisional IRA. Dick then asked Murphy what he would do if he were released. Murphy replied that he would attempt to find em- ployment in his profession.
Would he be involved in politics? Dick asked. Murphy replied that he was socialist confirmed who a wished to see the establish- ment of a 32-county socialist republic of Ireland and that he would strive to achieve this.
Dick then gave his verdict.
In the light of the evidence he had heard he was satisfied that Murphy was an intelligent and efficient officer in the IRA.
Murphy would not be released, he added. Owen Martin, who was arrested in September 1971.
He appeared before Commis- sioner John Dick, a sheriff from the Lothians. He was alleged to have been an officer in the IRA, to have concealed arms and 'it is therefore said that you were concerned in the direction and organization of persons for the purposes of terrorism'. Martin had an assortment of witnesses. They Kafka-like Special were Branch officers 'A', 'B' and 'C'. 'C' , who is known as one of the RUC's chief interrogators, was asked what Martin might do if re- leased. He said the respondent would rejoin the IRA. I am inclined to agree, be- impression I cause get the from looking at him that he is reasonably intelligent, said Sheriff Dick. In conclusion, he said that in view of the evidence he had heard he had 'no option' but detention order. to sign a Martin remained almost silent throughout and refused to re- cognize the court. Francis Dougan, arrested on August 9, 1971. He ap- peared before Commissioner Leonard charged with making petrol bombs, bringing them across the border and with concealing in the weapons garden of his house. The evidence on the petrol bombs Branch hind hi he had Febi prisoner large in the | an atta Aske was times'. The r 'B ness, told conceale garden. Doug court th in his s Distu discrepa Leonard why, known house, raided. When next da: discover
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if re- ondent e, be- 'ession lat he said d that ne had but n' order. Sent to re- rested ap- sioner naking with petrol bombs was supplied by Special 'A' from Branch officer be- hind his curtain. He said that he had received information on February 2, 1970, that the prisoner had manufactured a large number of petrol bombs in the Republic to be used in an attack on Armagh. Asked if the police informer was reliable, 'A' said "some- times'. The next Special Branch wit- ness, 'B', said that his informer told him that Dougan had in his concealed weapons garden. Dougan pointed out to the court that none of the houses in his street had gardens.
Disturbed by this and other discrepancies, Commissioner Leonard asked 'B' to find out why, if these weapons, were known to be in or near the it had never been house, raided. When the case was resumed next day 'B' said that he had discovered that the house had bei in fact been raided in October 1970 by the Coldstream Guards who had not found anything. The army informed him that this was because the weapons had been moved. A doctor then gave evidence that Dougan was in the early stages of a nervous breakdown and suffered from periodic blackouts. Commissioner Leonard then simply announced that Dougan could be freed. It was 15 months since he had been picked up. He had 15 months in the stinking cages of Long Kesh because of the most dubious evidence.
Joseph Conway (42), unem- ployed, from Newry. On Nov- 14 last he appeared ember before Commissioner Lewis at ber a four-hour hearing. He was accused of being in the IRA and that on unspecified dates between April 1970 and (that's August 1971 16 months) he had made various bombs and blown up 'various buildings in the area of Newry. The charge against Conway must rank as one of the loos- est drawn up during the recent trials. 'B' said he had received information that Conway had allegedly planted a bomb in a Customs post. Commissioner Lewis: With- out revealing the name of that person, can you say anything about the reliability of that person as a source of infor- mation? 'B': He was a previously proven source. Lewis: What do you indicted by that? 'B': Information he had pre- viously given was found to be correct. Lewis: Had you personally Workers Press, Mor checked information he had given you previously? 'B': Yes, sir. the 'evidence' As 'B' read Lewis interrupted to ask: 'Was this information volunteered to you?' 'B': That is correct. Lewis: Did you pay for it?
'B': Yes, sir. From behind his curtain Special Branch officer 'C' then produced a document contain- ing further allegations against Conway. This document was not shown to Conway because 'C' stated that, in his view, other people would be endan- gered if Conway was allowed to hear what was in the docu- ment. While the evidence was given in. detail, Conway removed from the court.+ he been represented by lawyer his lawyer would have had to leave too). On his re- turn Commissioner Lewis said: 'The information such as I ally can give, I'm afraid, is not Press, Monday January 29, 1973 PAGE 7 Long Kesh-barbed wire com- pounds, Nissen huts and now a special courtroom where Inter- nees are tried. very large, but it is to the effect that in August 1971 in- formation was received that you had in fact been involved in no less than seven separate explosions in Newry during the the previous 12 months. Do wish to question the you officer?' Conway declined to do so.
But the invitation was absurd.
He had no idea what the de- tails of the charges were against him, the dates or the localities. Commissioner Lewis sent him back to the cages. His subsequent appeal has • hen the legislation setting up these kangaroo courts came into operation in mid-Decem- ber, 'The Times' headlined the story: 'Internment replaced by fairer system of dealing with terrorists.'
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PAGE 8 Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973 In Greece today political trials are on the increase and tortures intensify. Yet the Greek Communist Party calls for the restoration of the monarchy and a 'government of national unity'. It was a government of this type which led to the Civil War of 1944 when the British-backed Greek ruling class sought to disarm the working class—with Stalinist The coming to power of the assistance. military junta in 1967 was directly linked to that betrayal.
While Greek communists languish in jail, Moscow has recently signed an agreement with the colonels to inaugurate a railway service linking Moscow and Athens. Other Stalinist countries, like Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Rumania, have trade and cultural pacts with the colonels November Chinese regime. In Can man delegation arrived from Peking to open an embassy in Athens, and in the same month the state-controlled Public Power Corporation announced an $89m supply-and-install deal with Russia for a new be The steam power plant to erected in northern Greece. Stalinists, in Greece and elsewhere, bear the major responsibility for the sufferings of the Greek masses under the colonels' military junta. In this series of articles JACK GALE will trace the rise of the colonels regime and the direct assistance given to it by Stalinism.
Greece emerged as an 'in- really benefited. The owners masses 'gained' only increased dependent' nation in taxation and poverty. 1829—but was really a World War I, During semi-colony of the major represented Venizelos-who the native capitalists' dream of European powers. a new Hellenic empire-sought Foreign kings were imposed to enter the war on the side of Greek on the people and Britain and her allies. exercised their oppressive rule King Constantine placed his for the benefit of the foreign hopes in a German victory and bankers and the small clique tried to keep Greece neutral.
of Greek capitalists and land- By 1917, the 'Protective while the Greek owners, Powers' had deposed Constan- workers and peasants lived in and tine recognized the abysmal poverty. government of Venizelos, who Greek 'War After the of promptly suspended the con- Independence' against the ruled stitution and by Turkish Ottoman Empire emergency decree. Martial law ended in 1829, the new state was introduced and the carried a birthright of over prisons filled with political £4m debt to the British banks.
prisoners. It also lived under the shadow Venizelos also sent 100,000 of three 'Protecting Powers'- Greek troops to fight with Britain, France and Tsarist General Deniken against the Russia. Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
A 'Royal Line' of Bavarian Pushed forward by the Allies princes was brought 11 mena he launched an onslaught on act as clerks for basically to Turkey that cost £80m and an the ruling class of these three uncounted number of lives.
When powers. these were out by a nationalist kicked movement, they were replaced by a line of Danish kings.
By 1922 Anglo - French of The fictitious nature was increasing for in- Greek 'independence' rivalry was fluence in the Balkans with the Treaty of 1864 revealed by • the result that France armed which entitled any one of the Turkey Greece. This against three powers to send in troops, caused the annihilation of the provided the other two agreed.
Greek forces and the massacre Greek consent was not Greek of the population in necessary. Asia Minor. the 1880s there was a In Greek economy The was brief period of native capitalist ruined. The trade balance had this was little expansion, but deficit of 50 a standing per more than a pale reflection of and drachma cent was the enormous expansion taking place in western Europe. Greek people Greeks had capitalism could never be truly (1.5 million been returned from Turkey) were on independent and defeat in the with Turkey in 1897 (the the verge of starvation. war But a new force was emerg- Turks extracted £7m indemn- ing. As everywhere throughout ity) led to national bankruptcy.
Revolu- Europe, Russian *Protecting the The three tion inspired the working class.
Powers' appointed Inter- an Party The Greek Communist Finance Commission national was formed and rapidly won a guarantee payment of the the grow- leading influence in debt Turkey and of the to ing trade union movement.
bond payments to themselves.
The bourgeois monarchists Modern capitalism in Greece 1910 when and republicans-united against dates from 'Military League' of the emergent working class army alliance discovered that the officers, supported by the with foreign imperialism was a national bourgeoisie, forced life-and-death matter for them.
constitutional government from The crisis led the monarchy. economic to unending The first government under political crisis. an From 1920 until the Metaxas this constitution that of was regime of 1936, one unstable Party leader the Liberal Venizelos. succeeded government rapidly He reorganized No bourgeois efficient another. party Greece modern, on could find a firm base. So the capitalist lines. Two army became the regulator of Turkey and Bulgaria against political life. led to the expansion of Greece eiected in to 6 million people. Commerce Venizelos King Constantine 1920 and and government revenue in- creased. recalled. military But only a small clique of 1923 a junta In headed Colonel Plastiras bankers, merchants and by ship- Papadopoulos, head of the colonels' re anniversary of the colonels' coup.
dethroned Constantine and executed a number of mon- archist leaders. following year The the Republic was proclaimed. In 1925 another d'état coup established the dictatorship of General Pangalos. Yet another 'strong man'-General Kondy- lis-appeared in 1926. Then Venizelos assumed power once again. By 1930 a quarter of the entire working class was un- employed and the cost of living had 20-fold in gone four years. That year 100,000 workers took part in strikes and armed clashes between workers or peasant insurgents and police were increasing.
Venizelos declared the Com- munist Party illegal and intro- "Emergency Bill for duced. an Security of the the State' under which workers and peasants were deported to the barren Aegean islands. In 1935 Kondylis, the former republican general, staged coup d'état to bring back the monarchy. The entire staff of communist the newspaper 'Rizospastis' was arrested.
An army-managed plebiscite resulted in a ludicrous 98-per- cent vote for King George II!
The Stalinists had split the trade unions during the Stalin- proclaimed 'Third Period'- thus making it easier for the bourgeoisie to attack them. But this was the period of the Popular Front. Therefore the Greek Communist Party welcomed George II as 'a guarantee against fascism and authoritarian against any regime" The Stalinists even sent a delegation to the king and assured him that their party would work 'within the frame- work of the present regime'.
lonels' regime in Greece, with his bodyguards The election of 1936 ended in deadlock. The pro-Venizelos wing of the bourgeoisie secured 142 seats and the opposing wing 143. The communists got 15. To the background of a growing strike movement, George Il ('the guarantee against any authoritarian regime') appointed the mon- archist General Metaxas- whose party had gained grand total of seven seats in the elections-to be head of government. The class struggle intensified.
A General Strike was called in Salonika, in of support a tobacco workers' strike. Thirty workers were shot dead in the notorious 'Black Saturday' Over 100,000 massacre. marched at their funerals. Demands for a national strike grew. With the workers demanding action, the Stalinist and Social Democratic trade union federations issued a joint call for a one-day protest strike and called on the workers to 'hold themselves ready'. And, while the workers were held check, Metaxas pounced. The day before the strike he mounted machine- guns at strategic points in Athens, abolished parliament, banished the working-class leaders and proclaimed the dictatorship. Within 13,000 a year political exiles languished in the Aegean islands. Thousands more were in the jails. Ancient forms of torture were revived.
'Liberty', declared Metaxas, 'was a 19th century illusion.'
The responsibility for this dyguards at a ceremony marking the fifth led historic defeat rests with the los Stalinist policy of the Popular Front. The workers were ready to form a workers' and Peasants' Stalinists government. The dominated the workers' move- and held powerful ment positions in the countryside. In 1936 the soldiers and sailors were sympathetic to the revolu- tion. Several sections of the army had • to be withdrawn from action against strikers.
For five years, as everywhere else in the world, the Stalin- ists had divided and disorient- ated the working class with their "Third theory of the Period'-the 'imminent col- lapse' of capitalism. By 1936 they had swung to Popular Frontism and, instead of mobilizing a revolutionary working class, concentrated on trying to manoeuvre the Liberal Party-the party founded by Venizelos!-into a Popular Front Alliance. This was explained by the Stalinist leader, Sklavanos, a few days before the Metaxas dictatorship was pronounced.
was no revolutionary There situation, declared Sklavanos, and Greece would have to go through a 'democratic' revolu- tion before it was ready for a socialist one. Needless, to say, the Liberals preferred Metaxas to the work- class, assisted ing and the police-military dictatorship.
The Metaxas regime lasted for four years, collapsing after the invasion of Greece 1940. But it came into exist- only because of the ence treachery of Stalinism and sur- vived only because of the exhaustion and disorientation of the Greek masses brought about by that treachery.
CONTINUED TOMORROW
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One worker is holding out against commodity fetishism.
He earns a salary of £600 a year and lives in considerable poverty in Gragnano, Italy, with his wife and large family —and an original Botticelli worth £100,000. Why doesn't Gerardo Somma (48), sell the painting, named 'Madonna and Child', and ease the burden of his impoverished life? 'What kind of a man would I be if I sold the Madonna to some stranger for money? I would don't think she ever forgive us for selling her.'
How did a Botticelli painted for a Pope over 300 years ago ever get into the hands of a poverty-stricken, humble worker? Professor According to Raffaelo Causa, director of the Capodimonte Museum in near- by Naples, the canvas was done in Botticelli's early career, about 1470. In the year 1474 Pope Sixtus as a gift to a parish gave it priest friend in Gragnano where it hung for many years in a small church. The church, which happened to be next door to Somma's ancestors, eventually crumbled when Somma's away. And great - grandfather purchased he legally acquired the land, one of Italy's great works of art without realizing it.
Handed down from genera- tion to generation. the Bot- ticelli came into eventually Gerardo Somma's hands. Isn't he afraid the painting will be stolen? 'Since everybody knows I am the owner of this Botticelli, how could any thief ever sel it to anyone? Nobody woul ever buy it that way. No, I'm not afraid of it being swiped.
Besides, the Madonna is pro- tecting my home. So who can steal her?' Having Heath to dinner at your home is a pretty repul- sive suggestion. Nevertheless this is what Mrs Elizabeth Morris of Manchester broach- ed when she was surveying the cost of living. She wrote in a local news- paper: 'My husband and I would like to extend an open invitation to Mr Edward Heath to come to dinner one Sunday. I should explain at the outset that we are pen- sioners and I am secretary of the Partington and Carrington branch of the National Fede- ration of Old Age Pensioners' Associations' She suggested the following menu:
VEGETABLE SOUP
One onion (8p), celery and carrots (14p), meat pieces, cheap (29p for flb), savoury flavouring, salt and pepper (3p) 54 р
MAIN COURSE
Potatoes, small tin (8p), cabbage, 1lb (6p), two chops, 3oz each (30p), Yorkshire pud ingredients (20p), gas for cooking (10p) 74р
SWEET
8p Tin of rice pudding (8p) €1.36
EXTRA
Sorry, Mr Heath, you cannot have wines, you will have to manage 7p with a cuppa we have had this When glorious menu one day each week, we have to wait until someone helps us. Our money works out this way:
INCOME
£11.35 Pension £4.35 Rent allowance
TOTAL
€15.70
EXPENDITURE
£4.79 Rent £2 Coal Gas £1 Electricity f1 Bedroom heating £1 £1 Milk for sick husband
TOTAL
£10.79 She went on: 'I also forgot to state that we do wash soap 15p.' Mrs Morris could have spared herself the labour of writing the letter. Heath wouldn't won't read it, he accept the invitation and what's more, he eats a little more luxuriously than veget- able soup, stew and cabbage.
the No 10 Downing + Street talks prior to the Phase Two laws, the TUC and CBI leaders were treated to smoked salmon, game pie and hock.
And at the dinner at Hampton Court to celebrate : Common Market entry, Heath stuffed himself with lobster, followed then by pheasant and ice cream cake. Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37Łp • Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Paperback 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Paperback 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Paperback 10p Postage: 10p per book. Order from:
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TV REVIEW BY ANNE BLAKEM
'A Voyage Around My Father'. By John Mortimer. Adapted for tele- vision by John Mortimer and Nesta Pain. Produced by Ronald Directed by Claude Travers. Whatham. BBC 2. The dry bones of bour- geois darma rattled away on Tuesday night, thinly fleshed by favourites like cynical wit, urbanity and that brand of perceptive disparagement that is in- tended as a disarmer for the audience. . play 'A John Mortimer's Voyage Around My Father' displayed all the technical skill of the experienced writer that Mortimer is and, as its dessi- cated contents were revealed, a deathshead quality about its philospohy and indifference to the world. This was made worse by the sort of mummified constraint in the performances by Mark Dignam, Ian Richardson and the rest which always mark them up for high praises like 'polished' and impeccably pro- fessional' amongst the bour- geois Press and critics. A successful lawyer, blinded by a gardening accident while still in his prime, is observed through the eyes of his son in relationship their developing over the years. At least, I take it some development was in- tended, although little enough was apparent from a cowed, passive childhood through to what appeared to be only mar- ginally less cowed and passive adulthood on the part of the son. Father dominates all—and in fact is the only character to suggest even a glimmer of life the proceedings. He is contemptuous, callous, bored by his family, by the idiocy of life, unable to express his misery at blindness except by destructive sallies at those close to him and the inference is made persistently that we should find him appealing, amusing and even lovable.
The son is seen delivered into the clutch of the sterile, public-school system with a pompous jingoistic headmaster, tiresome and competitive non- the boys relationships with and aberrations of teachers like the one who periodically explodes into bouts of madness as a result of old war wounds, or the young man who plays the banjo, exudes flippancy and teaches the boys to fox- trot. He comes to see the one- sided truth of his father's com- ments 'all education is per- fectly useless' and 'no one ever got a word of sense out of a schoolmaster'. 'What's the point of Greek and Latin? asks the gardener's daughter; 'they train the mind' says the boy parrot-fashion, into submission frozen but confused by the girl's simple curiosity. The young manmoves, blindly enough, on to law school, his first encounter with sex, 'the monstrous persistence of nature' says father; a cur- sory exploration of law is made, a cynical eye cast as father annihilates a trouble- some witness and expounds the art of cross-examination to his son. 'But what is the point of all this actually?' asks son. 'The point is to do down your roars the old opponent; empire-builder. When son takes up writing and appears to desert the law, father is suitably appalled and similarly when son threatens to get married: 'avoid the temptation to do anything heroic' says his father. Workers Press, Mor
LAKEMAN
However no whiff of ill-bred conflict or taint of passion is seen throughout the action. A stiff upper lip and a sense of correctness are preserved and this is all that matters. Father staggers to his deathbed with the occasional • outburst of irrascibility and we are startled to hear the son express his loneliness now that father's gone. tepid inclination Despite a ' on Mortimer's part to deride and expose the hollowness of his material, finally he does nothing less than subscribe totally to all the sterility and despair of the middle class in its determined regard of life as a whim of fate in face of which, style is all, good breed- ing the ultimate defence.
It is all utterly removed •Midweek: Lyndon Baines John- 1908-1973. Presented by son Ludovic Kennedy. Edited by Peter Pagnamenta. Ludovic Kennedy gave bland guidance to a sickening por- Midweek of Lyndon trayal on 1 what Baines Johnson and emerged as his heroic but 'tragic' place in the history of international American and politics. A documentary film on his origins and career established him as a vulnerable small-town country boy, fraught with in- feriority all his and battling against great odds to become in the US Senate. suffered the strains of He ill health; he was beset by comparisons with Kennedy during his career as President and on top of it all he had to face the indignity of mass demonstrations, mass hatred blameless war- directed at his making in Vietnam, ('he did not start the war and he was pressed by his Generals into increasing the forces in Viet- nam'). willing sycophants few A added their fulsome memories in the studio — Al Friendly, Heren of the Sunday Luis Times' who pointed out that 'his basic simplicity, so often a strength led him to a posi- tion where he could not face withdrawal from Vietnam'; also—always a great accolade Press, Monday January 29, 1973 PAGE 9 from the harsh realities of daily life, from the lives of any but the most secluded minority and is conducted in a bloodless and intellectualized vacuum of the most oppressive kind. It is no accident that the in the West End play ran Theatre very successfully as it colludes so enthusiastically with all the old crutches of nostalgia and disillusion that the middle classes nourish for themselves. This static, con- stricted and paternalistic world, glimpsed in plays like this one, is the very stuff of obsolescence and its role is already played out. A new concept of theatre, drama, whatever name it has, must shortly emerge, born of crisis within the coming period.
in the capitalist world: 'he could be all things to all men without losing any personal integrity. All present agreed that Johnson had instigated the greatest reform era ever within the USA. Happily we are not without reminders to carry forward with us of this paragon among men—includ- ing the Johnson Library in Texas (costing $10m to con- struct and fill) with gems like 2 million photographs of Johnson and his family and friends; 5 million personal and other documented accounts of meetings, letters and telephone calls made by the great man.
We also have monuments like the nauseating interview shown between Walter Cron- kite and Johnson where the 36th President gave his tale of 'how I became President', of Kennedy's assassination and the untold suffering of all con- cerned, particularly Johnson who royally and readily took the oath when called 'to serve his country'. Thus the arch counter- revolutionary, the architect of four of the bloodiest years of warmongering known this cen- who made tury, the man millions out of politics and who used his politics to des- troy thousands, suddenly, in death, became a new hero in obscene mythology of capitalist political history.
Scan page 12
HAIL THE PROGRESSIVE
PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973 The unprincipled and worldwide struggle ostensibly 'make to Nixon sign' the thoroughly opportunist 'peace' In fact, agreement. nature of the revisionist however, the campaign was opposition to the Viet- aimed at forcing the NLF and Hanoi to agree to a settlement nam war is nowhere which is the direct product of more disgustingly dis the betrayal of the Indo- played than Chinese peoples by the Soviet in the and Chinese bureaucracies. columns of the 'Militant' The October 'peace' plan —weekly paper of the ra- was a formal acknowledgement dical Socialist Workers' of North Vietnam's failure to win a decisive military victory Party of America. over the south—a failure due On page 4 of last week's Mr largely of the blockade to Larry Seigle took issue with Haiphong, the massive retalia- the Communist Party Stalinists tory bombing of the north and accords' on the peace that the cynical refusal of world were being negotiated in Paris Stalinism to provide material between the National Libera- aid and political support to tion Front and US the the Hanoi regime. imperialists. The NLF have as a result The Stalinists launched a notably dropped their demand Do you get WORKERS PRESS out a subscription now? £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) £10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: Circulation Dept., Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.
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Name.. Address.. for the scrapping of Thie's regime and the release of all political prisoners. Mr Seigle correctly criticizes the Stalin- ists for peddling pacifist illu- sions and quotes an article from the 'Vietnam Courier' published in Hanoi before the change its
NLF
agreed to policy vis-à-vis Thieu. The article pointed out the cease fire consequences of a agreement which did not give the NLF effective government control of the south: 'First Mr Nixon will be able to present himself to the US having made electorate as and, what is no less peace important, the Saigon regime can appear as the legal govern- ment of the country; attempts to overthrow it being now a violation of the agree- ments signed, which might set in motion a terrible mechanism of reprisals. 'Mr Nixon will have won on both scores: to get himself re- elected and to consolidate the power of his placemen in Saigon, not to mention the recovery of captured military- men.' Seigle continues to warn his readers about the trap which is being prepared in Paris: 'It is an illusion to believe that genuine peace can come to Vietnam through any US- imposed accords... the class struggle in South Vietnam continue, and, without will question, the United States will continue to do everything in its power to prop up the pro-imperialist regime and to maintain a base for itself in south-east Asia.' Mr Seigle's indictment of Stalinist pacifism and popular frontism, however, is only half picture of revisionism. Crticism in words — unity in practice remain the guiding line of these opportunists. As Trotsky wrote in relation to the Spanish POUM: 'Ambiva- lence is the heart of centrism.'
The SWP's real line is re- vealed on the back page of the same issue of the 'Militant' where a certain David Thor- stad unequivocally welcomes the pacifist petition campaign in Sweden which is backed by coalition of reformist a Writings of
RATNAGS
Of lean Trotsky
LEONI TROTSHY
077-38) (1938-91
WRITINGS OF
WRITINGS OF
LEON
LEON
TROTSKY
(1933-34) 1834-35) Six volumes of Trotsky's writings during the years 1933-1940 £8.00 including postage Please tick those you requi Name Address Complete form and post to: New Park Publications, 18 A New Park Publicati Above : Nixon, USA, and Thieu, Vietnam workers' and capitalist parties.
Writes Mr Thorstad: "The petition which was drawn up to the December in response of North Vietnam bombings calls for an "immediate halt to the bombings of Vietnam" and "all contending urges agreement sign a peace TO the principles that based on the USA and North Vietnam indicated they had reached agreement on in October": The correspondent enthusias- tically the fact that petitions with space for signa- tures totalling Swedish population have been printed and that Sweden's reformist premier Olaf Palme has made a 'sharp statement United States comparing the assault on North Vietnam air to Nazi atrocites. Mr Thorstad omits to men- tion that the Swedish premier's hatred for militarism and war does not include the well- known Swedish arms industry which supplies
NATO
many weapons and nanons Will components. Palme's opposition ic the Vietnam war is far more closely linked to the anti-US protectionist spirit which animates the European bour- geoisie than it is to the feelings of the Swedish workers. The popular-Ironush 'Militant', i does not however, stop with the Swedish Centre Party the bourgeois of Moderate Coalition Party.
further. goes 'Militant' who
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have in the past been amazed or nauseated by the solicitude shown by these revisionists for the widow of President Ken- nedy will be interested to know that SWP— for all its republican traditions — is not indifferent to monarchic in- stitutions either. (Of course they haven't yet reached the depths of the French Ligue Communiste, which recently published a Pope Paul VI statement of without comment - but with approval.) States the obvious 'Militant' in deadly serious- ness: 'Speaking from the throne occasion of the the on opening of the Riksdag January 11, King Gustav VI Adolf took a determined swipe [!] at US Vietnam policy. "The Viet- namese people must be given the opportunity to shape their own destiny," the 90-year-old "The merciless king said. bombing be must not resumed."' We would like to point out to the editors of the "Militant' that King Adolf VI's hypo- critical defence of the Viet- namese will not prevent him from using the Royal Swedish Army and Air Force against the Swedish workers if they ever decide to emulate the Vietnamese workers and peasants. The Vietnamese - we are sure-can do without the regal patronage of a 90-year-old parasite or his revisionist apologists. Trotsky—a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage et, London SW4 7UG ble, free, on request.
Scan page 13
Press
APPEAL
JANUARY
FUND NEEDS
£466.26 BY
WEDNESDAY
ONLY THREE days to go. It will be a tough certainly struggle to complete our £1,750 total. But our confidence lies In the fact that youiet us dear have readers, never down. Whatever the difficulties, you have always fought back and won through. We are sure that this month is no exception. We do under- stand that these last few months, the huge increases in the cost of living must have greatly affected you. But we also know that this can have only increased your anger towards this Tory govern- ment. Not a day goes by with- sections of out even more demanding wage in- workers creases in order to defend their living standards. The fight is building up.
Workers Press is needed more than ever to give a political lead. Thousands of workers begun to realize this and are turning towards our paper.
Every effort is needed, there- fore, to complete the Fund over these next few days. Try and collect extra amounts— give more wherever you can.
Rush every donation immedi- ately to : Workers Press January Appeal Fund 186a Clapham High St London SW4 7UG. ABOUT 4,250 workers at the telecommunications Plessey in Beeston and Long factories Eaton, Notts, are staging a one day stoppage today over a pay dispute. supporting 100 They are workers in the wiring shop who began a sit-in on January 19.
Another 300 workers at the factory have already walked out bor Fight rising rents and prices Defend basic democratic rights Force the Tories to resign WATFORD: Monday January 29, 8 p.m. Trades Union Hall, Wat- Watford Junction ford, near station. PADDINGTON: Monday January 29, 8 p.m. 'Dudley Arms', , corner North Wharf and Bishop's Bridge Road, W.2. MANCHESTER: Tuesday January 30, 8 p.m. 'The Maypole', Ford Pendleton. Speakers: _ane. Connie Fahey, Harry Price, Mike Hyndman. Fight rising prices! Force the Tories out!'
ROCHESTER: Tuesday January Greyhound, 8 p.m. 'The 30, Rochester Avenue. BARKING: Tuesday January 30, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, corner of Fanshawe Ave./Lagbridge Road.
THE Plymouth Fine Tubes strikers have just completed two years and seven months on strike. These men have waged a bitter struggle for the most basic right a worker can possess—the right to belong to a trade union. Strike committee members have travelled over 100,000 miles to sustain their fight.
These latest have months been the hardest of all for the men, their wives and 53 WHILE the film unions are locked in a bitter fight with asset-stripper John Bentley over his threatened carve-up of Shepperton Studios, a print union has joined him in a consortium for a London commercial radio licence. NATSOPA, led by 'left' general secretary Richard Brigin- shaw, is co-member of a newly-formed company called All News Radio. Others in the group apart rom Bentley and NATSOPA tacted about this we didn't know Alexander Macmillan, are who else would be in the group member of Harold Macmillan's and once we'd committed our- family publishing firm, Osbert selves we weren't willing to pull Lancaster, the 'Daily Express' out. cartoonist and his wife, 'Anne 'What do with these Scott James, gourmet Quentin people? We dislike their activity; Crewe and the Greater London we denounce them publicly; we Fund for the Blind. fight them industrially and will continue to do so. You don't run The who worked with man awat simply thip the world from these Bentley in putting together this away amalgam was George Hutchinson, right-wing former editor of the No one is asking Briginshaw to weekly, "The Spectator'. Hutchin- jump off the world. We just want remembered for him to carry into practice what
SOH
of Edward eulogistic biography he preaches. Heath. In June last year at his union's How did Briginshaw in- Bourne- get annual conference at Bentley, the Briginshaw called for volved with mouth carved the toy industry General Strike the In- who up against of dustrial Relations Act. creating hundreds redun- and who is now trying to dancies Yet few months within hive-off 40 acres of the Shepper- Briginshaw those was among property studio lot for ton going to Downing Street for talks development? Heath. Briginshaw with would Bentley's plans for Shepperton at the that first he say meeting emasculation launched an attack on Heath in amount to face-to-face confront- the studio and will create more angry 200 than redundancies among ation. film technicians and electricians.
But this sort of one-upmanship 'Sunday Briginshaw tola the is neither here nor there. Times': 'When we were first con- It is like Briginshaw saying he publicly denounces the activities of but the asset-strippers, next he co-operating with them in a commercial under- taking. The working class and the Shepperton workers in particular -have had enough of the left fakers. The task today is the building in support of the wiring-shop of alternative revolutionary leadership will occupation. which not make The sit-in has been staged to any compromises, pacts back demands for increases in business deals with the class bonus payments. Lilye HARROW: Tuesday SOUTH EAST LONDON: Thurg- January Deptford 8 p.m. day February 1, 8 p.m. Engineers Club, New Cross Road.
Wealdstone. HOLLOWAY: Thursday, February 30,
CLAPHAM:
Tuesday January Co-op Hall, Seven p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, 8 p.m. Sisters Road. Clapham Manor Street, SW4.
WANDSWORTH:
Tuesday Jan- Wood Street. Cardinal's 30, Selkirk Hotel, uary p.m. Tooting Broadway, SW17. CROYDON: Thursday February 1, House, Coombe CAMDEN: Tuesday 30, p.m. Ruskin January Road. 'Prince Albert', Wahrfe- p.m. dale Road, off York Way, Kings
MANCHESTER:
Thursday, Febru- Cross. ary 1, 8 p.m. Ross Place School, Fort Ardwich. Joe Potts, Winnie Price, Connie Fahey. 'Fight rising prices! Force the Tories out, Adelphi. February
WIGAN:
More Hotel, 5, CAMBRIDGE: Thursday February p.m. Market Mesmes 1, 8 p.m. The Rose and Crown', Street. Speakers: Frank Kelly, of Newmarket
UCATT,
Bill
AUEW,
Lyons, Ray East Road. Hudson, UCATT. (All in a per- sonal capacity.) KINGSTON: Thursday February 1, p.m. "Liverpool LIVERPOOL: Tuesday February 6, Arms. of Cambridge Road/ p.m. AEU House, (corner 7.30 Mount London Road). Pleasant. children. Common Market entry, lose. That is why the Socialist with rapidly rising prices, has Labour League and imposed Workers Press wishes to make financial The 37 strikers face burden. a special appeal to all trade the challenging months ahead unionists to take collections in with depleted strike fund— their factories and branches this is in a period when meat for the Fine Tubes men in has now become a luxury for order that. their heroic and all but the highest paid. determined action can be car- January is always difficult ried forward. All money should month to raise money to fur- be sent to : ther their fight. Fine Tubes Treasurer Yet they are determined to c/o 65 Bretonside fight on. This is a struggle the working class cannot afford to Plymouth, Devon. Workers Press, Monday January 29, 1973 PAGE 11 9.38-11.55 Schools. 12.00 Office. 12.25 Cywain. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill at one. 1.30 Woodentops. 1.45 Animals at home. 2.05-3.55 Schools. 4.00 Pixie and Dixie. 4.10 Play school. 4.35 Jackanory. 4.5 Blue Peter. 5.15 Fish. 5.40 Magic roundabout. 5.45 News. Weather .00 NATIONWIDE. 6.45 YOUNG SCIENTISTS OF THE YEAR. Cor all v Hereford v Dunder 7.10 STAR TREK. The Immunity Syndrome.
8.00 PANORAMA. Too Many Children? Do we need free birth con- 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS. Weather.
9.25 PLAY FOR TODAY: 'HIGHWAY ROBBERY'. By Michael O'Neil, and Jeremy Seabrook. With John Collin, Angela Crow, Davio Swift, Rosemary Martin
10.45 COME DANCING. 11.20 LATE NIGHT NEWS.
11.25
ITV
9.30 Schools. 10.33 World War I. 11.00 Schools. 12.05 Inigo Pipkin.
12.25 Alice through the looking glass. 12.40 First report. 1.00 Mr and Mrs. 1.30 Emmerdale farm. 2.00 Schools. 2.20 Cartoon. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 Film: 'The Astonished Heart'. Noel Coward. 4.25 Par- don my genie. 4.55 Clapperboard. 5.20 My good woman. 5.50 News.
6.00 TODAY. 6.40 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS!
7.30 CORONATION STREET. 8.00 PROGRAMME IN DISPUTE.
THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. The Mysterious Death 9.00 on the Underground Railway.
NEWS AT TEN. 10.30 THE WILD, WILD WEST.
10.00
DRIVE-IN. 12.00 WORLD WAR I. 12.25 ALL IN THE MIND.
11.30 Judy Geeson plays turned sleuth, Polly Burton, in the first reporter 'The Rivals Sherlock Holmes' of a new of on Independent series channels. Polly, with her uncle Sir Arthur Inglewood (John seen coroner's is out to solve 'The Mysterious Savident) at inquest, Death on the Underground Railway'.
BBC 2
11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.
7.05 PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 7.30 NEWS. Weather.
7.35 LOOK, STRANGER. A Future for the Past.
8.00 ALIAS SMITH AND JONES. The Posse that Wouldn't Quit.
8.55 CALL MY BLUFF. 9.25 DAVE ALLEN AT LARGE.
10.10 AMERICA. The Arsenal. 11.00 OPINION. 11.15 NEWS. Weather.
REGIONAL TV
CHANNEL:
9.30-11.52
ULSTER.
11.00 London. 1.33 News. News. 1.30 London. 2.20 Film: 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper room. 3.00 People'. 4.15 Puffin. 4.25 London. Film: Among the 4.22 Headhunters'. 6.15 Maverick. 4.25 News. LOnCON, News. o.kki Keports 10.30 Name of the game. 11.50 News, 10.30 Loss Smith family. 6.45 London.
weather. of the Printorian 11.00 Monday Film: String and Sealing Wax'.
WESTWARD.
12.57S, Channel News. London.
YORKSHIRE: 9.30
2. 30ndon. 2n.° 3.000 4.15 Honeybun. 6.00 Diary. trus resterdays London Danton. 10.30 News. our. ye 11.55 with A Girl and ondon. 6.55 .20 L Bon: Faith for life. London. 4.50'SK SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 12.00 News. «weatner 50 of Yoga. 2.05 London. .10 Training the Name The 12,45 Ugliest girl in town. Weather. 2.30 Houseparts London. dog. Film: Prince Pirates'. 6.00
GRANADA:
9.30 London 11.55 Bugs by day. 6.45 London. 10.30 .05 London. Bunny. 12 2.00 All scene. 1.00 11.05 buthern •it ves
WCWD
2.30 "Idol 12.00 of Farm progress. Crossroads. London. 6.00 Weather. Guideline. News. 6.25 This is right 6.40 5 •4° Taste London. 10.30 Film: Evil.
HARLECH:
9.30 2.00 2.30 noon. ·: 3.00 kitchen. only.
TYNE
TEES:
9.25 Communication: West. 5.22 Report hroken down 02 London. 2.00 have Report West our yesterdays. 2.30 2.31 Film: 1 House on Galloping gourmet 3.00 London. Greenapple Road' Weather. Blazes'. 4.50 London. Skippy. 3000 above except: London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Cartoon. Yr wythnos. 10.30 not the g me. 12.25 Wrace. Deadline Name News. 12.40 Leeos.
HTV
above excent: 6.22-6.45 Lectern. is the West this week west This Sesterdass: 2:30 batein. 2 30 30 AI A2.05 Lon 9.30 12.04 News. London. Film 4.2i5 London. vesterdays London. 2.00 Al Heaven'. 6.00 011 2.30 3.00 Housepart422 Saint To.So Late 6.30 20.33 Lich 6.45 London. Romper room. News. Lon- call. and dragon 10.30 6.00 About Anglia. 6,45 6.45 London. 11.20 the Princess Loss of VICTOria Russell Harty. London. 12.00 Big question.
GRAMPIAN 5
10.58 Cartoon. Tond The 9.30 London. 12.00 3.05 News;s 3.08 Film:
AIV MIDLANDS:
1200 2.00 Today. London. Simon 5.20 Emmerdale London 3.00 Film: if 6.00 London News. 6.05 4.25 London. 6.00 Today. 6.45 10.30 KOva ransmen 10.30 Victo game. Loss the Princess '1.00
LOROOR.
Name ori „Tne 11.55 Stories worth telling. Weather. Name of the game. 12.25 Mediunun.
Scan page 14
Rents, rates, prices PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday Januar
BY PHILIP WADE
OUR HOUSING
CORRESPONDENT
BY DAVID MAUDE
THE JOSEPH LUCAS com- bine will today face a new at its Fazakerley problem site in Liverpool, where CAV workers have been on sit-in strike for almost 16 weeks.
Workers at Lucas Industrial Equipment, smaller factory which shares the Fazakerley site with CAV, are to go into work using passes issued by the CAV occupation committee. If, as fails to expected, management turn up, they will work in.
LIE workers were laid off 12 weeks ago after the occupation committee decided to ban all movement of supplies on and off the site. In fact the lay-off took place week earlier than it about a should have done. Lucas's sent the 350 workers home after in- structing foremen not to accept the occupation committee passes.
Eleven days ago a CAV mass meeting agreed to allow the free movement of supplies again, in order to make clear it was not denying LIE they who were workers their jobs. But the sit-in strikers decided to keep up the pass system, and control of to retain on-site services, such as the boilerhouse.
The combine stubbornly insisted that both be given up. On Friday a LIE mass meet- ing voted to accept the passes and yesterday maintenance workers went in to make ready for the return. It is believed that there are enough materials in the factory to provide work for about a week. TWO Croydon engineering fac- tories are to close. The 250 workers at APV Mitchell have been told the fall-off in the chemical industry means a serious rundown in orders for fabricated equipment. The whole plant will be phased out from March 31.
Shop stewards from the whole APV group will meet in Crawley, Sussex, this week to discuss action. All 200 workers from both the ABOUT 1,200 strikers from Stoves Limited, St Helens, have decided to reject the manage- ment's redundancy demands.
The men have instructed their stewards to fight against 61 an- nounced redundancies and to re- affirm their principle of last in, first out. Management says that if they accept this principle 120 will have to go. Registered as a newspaper at the Posi 2862 claphan Published by Workers Press. Street, London, 186a High
SW4 7UG.
(TU). Printed by Plough Press Ltd.
Clapham London. 180b High Street,
SW4 7UG.
ay January 29, 1973 MILLIONS OF COUNCIL tenants will get massive rate this April, in addition to the second round of rent rises u Tories Housing Finance Act. Manchester corporation leader staggering 50 per cent, while the range th rise will be a Britain is from 30 to 40 per cent.
This savage burden on most will be working-class tenants made heavier by quite separate 50p 'fair increases under the rents' Act-most will have to pay a £l total to the rent man from April 1. The last revaluation took place in 1962. Taking account of inflation, the new assessments have pushed council housing from the bottom to near the top of the list of rateable values. Rate increases are also needed to cover the extra £100m local authorities have to fork out under the Housing Finance Act itself. In Clay Cross, Derbyshire, where councillors are appealing against sur- for re- charges and disqualification to implement the Act, fusing tenants are fighting back. It is estimated that 90 cent have signed up per petition backing the councillors' stand and are withholding all their rent.
Meanwhile, the great Tory prices hike goes on. Today, chicken bought at Fine Fare, Britain's biggest super- market chain, costs 2p a pound more -with government For permission. the housewife, it means the average 5lb bird will go up viciously by some- thing like 10p.
THE
And firms like Tesco say the house- wives have forced up the prices them- selves by switching to chicken from beef! Poultry feed goes up £7.50 a ton— Within also from today. six weeks, this will be reflected in even higher chicken prices. In chorus the big food have put these rises down to firms 'world scarcity'. And the Tories, to no one's sur- after "due consultation' have prise, also given permission for rises in the prices of holidays abroad, leather goods and copper allov castings. EVERY miner at Westoe colliery in South Shields will strike to- day if a man who has just torn up his union card is allowed to start work. This was the unanimous deci- sion of a 1,000-strong lodge meet- Union of the National of ing Mineworkers yesterday morning, which heard official confirmation that Tames Calvert Sims had left office and shop floor at McNallys the union. Engineering works will meet this Members morning following a two hours' of the Durham Col- of their immediate sacking Association notice liery Mechanics at last Fridav. Saturday- the pit-meeting exactly taken the had already The firm's bankers told stew- same decision. for ards it would be 'dishonest' week be employed a them to Sims, i who last year took the because there was no
NUM
industrial tribunal an money in the firm's account.
dispute during a over overtime due report for earnings, The firm does mainly Ministry work at 4 a.m. of Defence contract work.
But it now seems unlikely that he will even bother to turn up. Yesterday's lodge meeting was National Coal told that the Board had agreed to his locally 'on a day-to-day basis' suspension hill massum eting toda at Raine and the lodge secretaries of both Labour Club hear the NUM and the DCMA will be result of a union executive meet- discussed making the on hand to see that this agree- which observed. strike official. ment is As Mike Peel. the mechanics' ASTMS and DATA men have Workers now come out in support of the told Press secretary, yesterday: If Sims turns up, shop floor following the sacking of 18 ASTMS men. of Chrysler's Ryton in Coventry,
KEN WALTON.
factory contentr has been named in a complaint to the National Industrial Relations of Court by non-unionist Joseph Langston. Langston has complained Walton and the Amalgamated Union unfair industrial practice by an of Engineering They until February Workers. An have reniv. industrial tribunal last month backed Langston's campaign against the closed shop by saying that he did not need to belong to a union, but the Ryton workers will not let him back as a non-unionist and he has been suspended. WALTER ANDERSON, general secre- e rate increases tary of the National and Local Govern- rises under the ment Officers' Association, will spear- n leaders say the head a right-wing move on Friday to ange throughout force the TUC back into talks with the Tories on their pay-control law.
The move will come at
TUC
of the special meeting Economic Committee, called to consider draft proposals for a trade union alternative to the government's economic on policies. At last Wednesday's General Council a number of other right- chiefs made it clear wing union that they also want to get back into talks. The NALGO executive decided THOUSANDS marched through Saturday on that while it was Londonderry yesterday afternoon opposed to Phase Two of the consultation with Heath In a mass commemoration of the pay law, about the still economy was 13 who died there at the hands needed. A report of the British army on January the possibility missioned of 'further obtaining concessions' 30 last year. from the government. A silent column marching So far NALGO members have seen little three abreast wound Its way from evidence of any con- cessions. 34,000 of them the In the city's Creggan Estate, past electricity industry have had pay the graveyard where the 13 are talks held up. An hours cut for staff been burled, to a huge meeting in local government has frozen. Derry's Central Park. The demonstration took half an hour to pass the graveyard.
SLL public meeting Busloads had earlier arrived from all over Northern Ireland.
SWANSEA
and from several parts of Eire, to join the mass protest, which Wednesday, January 31, 7.30 was organized by Provisional Sinn Fein. Oxford Street School, p.m. Oxford Street. British army-normally much in evidencewere nowhere Speakers : Roy Battersby to be despite reports that seen, 200 extra troops had been drafted
(ACTT),
Don Jones (AUEW into the city. convenor Viscose), Jim Beavan (mid-Glamorgan AUEW district Left: A silent vigil was mounted opposite Downing Street committee). All in a personal in London yesterday by the Irish capacity. National Liberation Solidarity Front. SPECIAL LECTURE: Given by G. Healy, SLL national secretary 'Marxism and the Road to Workers' Power' SUNDAY FEBRUARY 4, 7p.m.
BEAVER HALL, GARLICK HILL
(nr Mansion House tube)