Workers Press no. 998

workers press

NIXON PUTS THE

court

JOSEPH LANGSTON,

the Chrysler car worker, will make a private appearance before the National Industrial Re- lations Court next Mon- day. Langston has been sus- pended on full pay since he left the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers late last year. Workers have threatened to strike at the Ryton plant, Coventry, if he returns to work. In his court application Langston is alleging 'unfair industrial practice' and has named as respondents the AUEW and Ken Walton, the works convenor. BARCLAYS BANK yester- day joined the move to dearer overdrafts, raising its base rate from 8} to 9} per cent. This is in line with the record levels announced by National-Westminster and Lloyds and means tnat cus- tomers face another increase on their overdraft charges.

The Midland Bank has not yet made an announcement, but the general rise in money rates is expected to force it to increase its basic rate.

Barclays deposit rate also increased by 1 per cent to 7} per cent. Barclay loans are not affected. FOREIGN car imports have forced British-Leyland to cut back its sales target from 40 to 35 percent of the market.

Society of Motor Manufac- turers and Traders' figures show British-Leyland has borne the brunt of the on- slaught by overseas car- makers who have doubled their market share over the past three years.

VITAL READING

Today's centre pages If you want to understand today's economic crisis read Karl Marx on Money and the Falling Rate of Profit An article by Peter Jeffries

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY FEBI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

LESS THAN 24 hours after the 10-per-cent devaluation of the dollar, President Nixon has dropped a second bombshell on the stunned financial capitals of the world.

The latest attack involves tariff barriers which will choke off the flow of toreign goods into the American market. Meanwhile US industry—riding high on the competitive advantage of devaluation-will go all out to cripple its rivals abroad.

The background to devaluation is the $70,000m held by speculators, banks and firms in Europe which have a ficticious value since the US refuses to redeem them in These have gold. totally disrupted the international monetary system and now Nixon is turning to trade and rushing the tariff Bill through Congress. These latest moves are the It was only the Trotskyist most serious yet of the crisis movement through the Inter- which began when the capi- national Committee and the talist US rulers in the en- Socialist Labour League that couraged a massive wave of warned and warned again speculation against the Ger- that the crisis was central to man mark and the Japanese the political situation. yen. The Stalinists in the Com- Tariffs mean America is munist Party and the revi- snatching the rug from be- sionists who deserted neath Japanese and Euro- Trotskyist movement said we pean capitalism turning to were wrong. destroy the very creatures it They still have a cringing created after the end of faith in the economic sur- World War II. vival of capitalism. But today even the dim- Recession mest bourgeois commentator is sounding the alarm and admitting that order from For Europe especially it the monetary chaos seems will mean massive recession.

impossible. the physical destruction of These views on the crisis capital and millions and mil- had a crucial effect on the lions of unemployed. working-class struggle against Concorde will be a back- the Tory government. street closure compared to the crashes ahead. Serious Ever since 1914 the capi- talist has been system gripped by contradictions The Stalinists and revi- that could only be solved by did sionists all in their slump or world war. power to keep the working Now its bloated corpse class from a political fight.

the post-war inflation- by They said this was pre- has burst. And the system is mature, that the Trotskyists turning to dust beneath the 'over-estimated the serious- horrified gaze of the Euro- ness of the situation. pean industrialists and specu- So instead of political lators. mobilization they suggested Now is the time for a poli- tical roll call.

TURN TO BACK PAGE

DAY FEBRUARY 15, 1973 • No. 998 4p

EE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

"Left' union leaders on their way to an ultimati Hugh Scanion, Jack Jones, Harry Urwin and

BY ROYSTON BULL OUR INDUS

PREMIER Edward Heath yesterday told call the

TUC

General Council at 10 Downing Street that there was not the slightest chance of the government 'giving in' to wage demands.

In a blunt and unprecedented meet- ing he warned the trade union leaders of the serlousness of the economic crisis. The TUC trooped into Downing Street shortly after 2.30 p.m., having considered an invitation from Heath at the morning session of the General Council. Only two members of the council refused to take up Heath's Invitation to another round of intimidatory warn- ings. They were Alan Sapper of the film and television technicians' union and George Doughty, the draughts- men's leader. The Council, as expected, voted to call a special congress of the full TUC on Monday, March 5. The reso- lution for a special Congress was carried 17 votes to three. The meeting also approved a policy document which lea

LEAGUE

an ultimatum from Heath yesterday (I to r) rwin and Terry Parry.

JR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

calls for 'general support for any unions forced into struggle against the the state pay laws. As the union leaders were being carpeted by Heath, the stock market continued to slide. At 3 p.m. yesterday 'Financial the Times' Index had slipped 2.6 points to 446.6, gold had risen to an all-time record of $72.30 an ounce and the pound to rose $2.4675, a rise of 8 cents since last Friday's closing price. A Cabinet meeting yesterday examined the financial situation and plans were discussed for the introduc- tion of a state of emergency over the gas dispute. David Basnett, general secretary of and Municipal Workers' the General Union, sought no concrete backing for his gasworker members from the TUC yesterday. ' did not ask the General Council to do anything but express their support at this time,' he said afterwards. Sympathy being free, the TUC leaders gave it.

workers press

NIXON PUTS THE

JOSEPH LANGSTON,

the Chrysler car worker, Will make a private appearance before the National Industrial Re- lations Court next Mon- day. Langston has been

SUS-

pended on full pay since he left the Amalgamated Union of Enginerring Workers late last year. Workers have threatened to strike at the Ryton plant, Coventry, if he returns to work. In his application court Langston is alleging 'unfair industrial practice' and has named as respondents the and Ken Walton,

AUEW

the works convenor. BARCLAYS BANK yester- day joined the move to dearer overdrafts, raising its base rate from 85 to 91 per cent. This is in line with the record levels announced by National-Westminster and Lloyds and means tnat cus- tomers face another increase on their overdraft charges.

The Midland Bank has not yet made an announcement, but the general rise in money rates is expected to force it to increase its basic rate.

Barclays deposit rate also increased by 1 per cent to 74 per cent. Barclay loans are not affected. FOREIGN car imports have forced British-Leyland to cut back its sales target from 40 to 35 per cent of the market.

Society of Motor Manufac- turers and Traders' figures show British-Leyland has borne the brunt of the on- overseas car- slaught • by makers who have doubled their market share over the past three years.

VITAL READING

Today's centre pages If you want to understand today's economic crisis read Karl Marx on Money and the Falling Rate of Profit An article by Peter Jeffries

INCORPORAȚING THE NEWSLETTER • THURSDAY FEBI

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF •

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

LESS THAN 24 hours after the 10-per-cent devaluation of the dollar, President Nixon has dropped a second bombshell on the stunned financial capitals of the world.

The latest attack involves tariff barriers which will choke off the flow of foreign goods into the American market. Meanwhile US industry-riding high on the competitive advantage of devaluation-will go all out to cripple its rivals abroad.

The background to devaluation is the $70,000m held by speculators, and firms in Europe which banks have a ficticious value since the US refuses to redeem them in gold. These have totally disrupted the international monetary system and now Nixon is turning to trade and rushing the tariff Bill through Congress. These latest moves are the It was only the Trotskyist most serious yet of the crisis movement through the Inter- which began when the capi- national Committee and the US talist rulers in the en- Socialist Labour League that couraged a massive wave of warned and warned again speculation against the Ger- that the crisis was central to man mark and the Japanese the political situation. yen. The Stalinists in the Com- Tariffs mean America is munist Party and the revi- snatching the rug from be- sionists who deserted the neath Japanese Euro- and Trotskyist movement said we pean capitalism-turning to were wrong. destroy the very creatures it They still have a cringing created after the end of faith in the economic sur- World War II. vival of capitalism. But today even the dim- mest bourgeois commentator is sounding the alarm and admitting that order from For Europe especially it the monetary chaos seems will mean massive recession.

impossible. the physical destruction of These views on the crisis capital and millions and mil- had a crucial effect on the lions of unemployed. working-class struggle against Concorde will be a back- the Tory government. street closure compared to the crashes ahead. Serious Ever since 1914 the capi- talist has been system gripped by contradictions The Stalinists and revi- that could only be solved by did sionists all in their slump or world war. power to keep the working Now its corpsebloated class from a political fight.

by the post-war inflation— They said this has burst. And the system is was pre- mature, that the Trotskyists turning to dust beneath the the 'over-estimated serious- horrified gaze of the Euro ness of the situation. pean industrialists and specu- political instead of lators. mobilization they suggested Now is the time for a poli- tical roll call.

TURN TO BACK PAGE

DAY FEBRUARY 15, 1973 • No. 998 • 4p

EE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

'Left' union leaders on their way to an ultimate Hugh Scanion, Jack Jones, Harry Urwin and

BY ROYSTON BULL OUR INDUS'

PREMIER Edward Heath yesterday told TUC General Council at 10 Downing Street that there was not the slightest of the government chance 'giving in' to wage demands.

In a blunt and unprecedented meet- ing he warned the trade union leaders of the seriousness of the economic crisis. The TUC trooped into Downing Street shortly after 2.30 p.m., having considered an invitation from Heath at the morning session of the General Council. Only two members of the council refused to take up Heath's Invitation 1o another round of intimidatory warn.

Ings. They were Alan Sapper of the film and television lechnicians' union and George Doughty, the draughts.

men's leader. The Council, as expected, voted 1o call a special 'of the full congress TUC on Monday, March 5. The reso- for a special Congress lution was carried 17 votes to three. The meeting also approved a policy document which

LEAGUE

an ultimatum from Heath yesterday... (I to r) rwin and Terry Parry.

IR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

calls for 'general support for any forced into struggle against unions the the state pay laws. As the union leaders were being carpeted by Heath, the stock market continued to slide. Al 3 p.m. yesterday the 'Financial Times' index had slipped 2.6 points to 446.6, gold had risen to an all-time record of $72.30 and the pound to an ounce rose $2.4675, a rise of 8 cents since last Friday's closing price. A Cabinet meeting yesterday examined the financial situation and plans were discussed for the introduc- tion of a state of emergency over the gas dispute. David Basnett, general secretary of Workers' the General and Municipal Union, sought no concrete backing for his gasworker members from the TUC yesterday. 'I did not ask the General Council to do anything but express their support at this time,' he said afterwards. Sympathy being free, the

TUC

leaders gave it.

Telephone tapping and letter opening in Bill Swedish swipe at democratic rights PAGE 2 Workers Pross, Thursday February 15, 1973 ROBERT CARR is the Tory government's 'man from the largest private in Securicor, army Britain. When he joined the Tory Cabinet in June 1970 he was obliged by tradition to drop his directorship on the board of this company.

But from being a private policeman, Carr became a public one. He was made Employment Secre- tary and his first duty was the introduction of the Industrial Relations Act. This legally stripped from the trade unions the right to strike, to picket, to black and to organize.

WHEN dockers defied the Act they were jailed.

WHEN railwaymen imposed a work to rule, they were taken to court and the government forced a court-controlled ballot over their wage claim.

He has started to lay down the law in no uncertain fashion about the way the police will smash pickets. With Carr in charge there will be no more Saltley coke depots-the retreat of the police before the overwhelming strength of miners and engineers in Birmingham during the miners' strike. selective strike On the eve of the gasworkers' action, Carr has sent a confidential memorandum to Britain's chief constables giving them their battle orders. Speaking to Dulwich Tories on Tuesday night he announced what he intends to do: 'Pickets have no right to insist on stopping vehicles.

Picketing which involves violence, intimidation or threats is not protected and those responsible are liable for prosecution. Sheer numbers can them- selves amount to intimidation and the courts have held that if the police reasonably anticipate that there is a real possibility of breaching the peace or an obstruction of the highway, they may limit the number of pickets.

It should also be remembered that it is not only the criminal law which operates in this field and, dependent on the nature of the acts committed, it may be possible for someone who has suffered damage because of picketing in pursuit of an unfair industrial practice to obtain redress in the National Industrial Relations Court, or in the ordinary civil courts if the picketing involves other civil wrongs.' In less diplomatic language, Mr Russell Fairgrieve, vice-chairman of the Tory Party in Scotland, told a meeting yesterday that the government's duty was to resist 'the militant trade union leaders, unofficial pickets and communist dockers stewards, illegal strike-calling Since the miners' strike last year the Tories have been secretly preparing the special forces required to tell pickets to 'shove off'-Mr Fairgrieve's words. A 'heavy mob' based on the CRS unit in France has been trained on an inter-constabulary basis. This crew of specially-armed 'riot police" will travel around picketed sites provoking incidents and smashing picket lines. Carr says that these uni- formed thugs are carrying out 'the wishes of the nation'. It is to protect 'the old, the infirm and the disabled who will be the people most at risk if this sort of industrial action [the gas strike] goes forward'.

The barefaced hypocrisy of this statement is breath- taking. This gang of speculators, asset-strippers and money-lenders who make up the Tory. gov- ernment have never given a fig for the frail and the sick. Can we draw Carr's attention to the case of Mrs Mary McCoy? On Christmas Eve she was found dead in her home at Halewood, near Liverpool.

There was no food in the house. A coroner de- cided she had choked to death eating cardboard!

On Tuesday this week a Labour MP produced figures to show that 20 per cent of 600 school children recently tested were found to have symptoms of rickets. Workers who are now thrust into wages struggles are fighting for the right to a decent standard of living. They are refusing to go back to the mal- nutrition and poverty of the 1930s and beyond.

The Tories are saying that workers, housewives and youth who fight for these elementary neces- 'lawbreakers'. They want to sities of life are make them into criminals.

But it is the Tory government that is 'mugging' women shoppers on the high streets every day as prices continue to skyrocket; workers face prosecution in the criminal courts simply for industrial action in support of taking wage claims; unemployed youth are sent to prison and detention centres for the 'crime' of hanging around the housing estates with nothing to do.

The Socialist Labour League and its daily paper Workers Press have consistently fought for the central task facing the working class in Britain— the removal of the Tory government from office.

This task cannot be avoided a minute longer.

Inseparable from this programme of action is the Socialist to transform the Labour campaign League into a revolutionary party to lead the working class to power. STUDENTS and riot police clashed violently during three illegal demonstrations in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. Some 1,500 youth protested against a police jeep running down and seriously injuring a young girl. In one of the demon- strations a young law stud- ent sustained a fractured skull and two others were taken to hospital with lesser injuries after they had been clubbed by riot police. The university later closed two more faculties, bringing total closed to five.

BY OUR OWN CORRE

THE DEMOCRATIC prete hailed for years as a para democrats and fabians— a ingly threadbare. The Swedish capitalists are from the general crisis of their s every ruling class onto a collisic workers. Democratic rights are now of State Carl Lidbom and his commission set up following the plane by Ustachi fascist émigr reported two months ago and framed a Bill for pre- sentation to parliament. The Bill's full title is the concerning 'Law special measures to prevent certain with violent actions an international background'.

The report defines as 'international terrorism' any violent actions hitting against non-concerned countries or citizens of such countries.

It particularly singles out the left-wing guerrilla and national liberation move- ments of Uruguay, Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Turkey, Greece and Pales- tine. It makes clear that these movements are regarded as criminal and time and again stresses the 'insidious and conspiratorial' nature of these 'extremist groups'.

Though it claims to the right of guarantee foreign citizens to 'devote themselves to such political activities as are consistent with our democratic social system, the Bill puts an extremely wide interpreta- tion on the term "terrorist'.

It will enable the govern- ment to deport any foreigner of terrorist on suspicion involvement, and to prevent any such 'suspect' entering Sweden. The police will be given powers to mail and open to tap foreigners' telephones.

They will also be able to raid homes and search any foreigner they suspect of "terrorism'. It will now be possible to direct foreigners to live in specified places under police surveillance. Police will also compile • register of data in co- operation with other coun- tries' police organizations of individuals, groups and organizations which have been stamped as 'terrorists or presumptive terrorists'.

FROM OUR OWN

Authorities blamed mount- ing tension' on the campus.

At least 12 people were detained during Tuesday's demonstrations. Police also 17 architectural arrested students for allegedly plot- ting disturbances when their school reopens. The students were found in possession of a number of leafiets from the outlawed Communist Party and other illegal pamphlets, police said.

The Zagreb - newspaper Vecernji List' reports that Aleksandr Ishkove, the Soviet Minister of Fisheries, Around th

IN CORRESPONDENT

IC pretensions of Sweden— a paradise by the social- ans— are growing increas ists are by no means immune of their system which is driving a collision course with its own • now under fire from Secretary.

and his special 'anti-terrorism' wing the hijacking of a Swedish st émigrés from Yugoslavia. It The law is so vaguely phrased that it will also give the police extremely wide powers over Swedish organ- izations. For example, the will be able to tap virtuaile any telephone, provided that it is occasionally used, or can be assumed to be used, by a 'suspect' foreigner.

GEORGES MARCHAIS,

French Communist Party secretary, looked forward to the return of his party to the government after 25 years when he spoke electoral meeting to an at Villejuif on Tuesday. He was referring to the period 1944-1947 when the Stalinists supported General de Gaulle and played a vital part in re- storing French capitalism at the end of the war.. It disarmed the partisans and proclaimed the slogans 'one state, Police, one army, one , 'production first' and 'the strike is the weapon of the trusts'. attacks Now Marchais President Pompidou be- cause, for all the guarantees of good behaviour the CP has offered, he has no in- tention of allowing it back into the government. Marchais claimed that the President was exercising , 'an inadmissible pressure' on the electorate and challenging the right of French people to choose their own deputies'.

The CP would stand firmly the side of legality, on

UR OWN CORRESPONDENT

may possibly meet Spanish Foreign Minister Lopez Bravo in Madrid at the weekend. Lopez is described as 'the initiator and insistent archi- tect of new relations with Moscow and the other east European countries'. Yesterday Reuter reported in Madrid of a the arrival four-man Soviet delegation to hold official talks which would give Moscow rights to charter flights to and from the Spanish Canary Islands. The flights would provide I the world STUDENT opponents of the G ship can be forcibly drafted ir new decree issued this week. " to intimidate students involved and demonstrations against the regime. Students at Athens Poly- technic University, tor ex- ample, have been boycotting their classes for more than two weeks demanding the abolition of repressive legis- lation. They are also calling for the withdrawal of police agents from the campuses and active for student participation in educational policy-making. Minister of Education Nikolaos Gadonas, a former colonel, said the government was determined to put an Marchals appealing to the Bonapartist constitution of 1958. Answering a question from a Radio Luxembourg jour- nalist on the alleged differ- ences between the CP and its Socialist allies on the Common Market, Marchais said: 'We agree on the fact that inside the Common Market the interests of the workers must be defended, it must be democratized, and in any case it cannot prevent us from carrying out the Com- mon Programme which we have agreed upon. 'We are against any policy which would destroy our national independence.

France must remain master of its destiny' Marchais appeals to the cheap transport for Russian fishermen who the use Islands as their base. Spain and the Soviet Union signed a commercial treaty last September - the first major agreement between Moscow and Madrid since the fascist regime came to power in 1939. OVER 2,000 miners are on strike in the Asturias in ten pits belonging to the nation- alized HUNOSA. They are protesting against a regular discount which is being taken from their wage- packet and non-payment for a one-day stoppage over a serious accident in the Llascaras pit. of the Greek colonels' dictator- Irafted into the army under a week. The decree is designed involved in the recent strikes end to the effort by a minority of "student-mong- ers" instigated by outsiders to create the artificial im- pression that Greek dents are in a state of tur- moil'. Under the new decree, any student who steps out of line can have his mili- tary deferment withdrawn immediately by the Ministry of Defence. This action can be taken simply for not attending classes. ON TUESDAY the colonels agreement with announced China establishing a regular air service. crudest nationalism in true Gaullist style. He also ex- pressed strong support for the European Security Con- ference, which is the main target of Soviet diplomacy.

Marchais emphasized the 'responsibility' of the CP by rejecting the idea of 'wor- kers' control' which, 'as put forward by certain people would lead to anarchy. We don't want that'. Instead he proposed greater representation for trade unions and members of works' committees in the management of nationalized enterprises. He is going all out to present a respectable image middle class to the and offers his services, to use the phrase of Leon Blum, the Socialist Prime Minister of the 1936 Popular Front a loyal government, as manager' of capitalism. While Pompidou and the ruling class will be ready to turn to Marchais to hold back the working class, they are sparing no effort to pre- vent an electoral victory for the Common Programme coalition. Pompidou has made it clear that he will not call upon it to form a govern- ment in such an event.

SHOTTON STEELWORKERS may stage a work-in as a last-ditch bid to halt the closure of their works with the loss of 6,500 jobs.

Action committee secretary Mr Ken Monti, announcing the decision yesterday, said that the alternative to steel-making at Shotton was mass unemployment. Shotton action com- mittee is inviting steel- workers and trade officials from Tory pay plan ends on May 1, steel prices could go up doomed plants in Eng- products are from 2 t0 Scotland per cent lower than by 6 to 8 per cent. land, and thel west European would add {65m to Wales to a national con- £85m industry's reves ed ves Coti l ference next month. terday. costs the prices ant many products can They plan British steel producers WoN l be expected rise. under their are heavy the •uNAT Meanwhile skyrocketing British Steel Corpor- Tiner aliosociin llkely scrap and Steel Commission to ation's rationalization put further upward pressure raise prices. scheme. Steol Cor- European makers fear Whether poratlon's costs the Shotton taritfs come down PhAr nR Steel prices In work hn wìll cma Sorar America have reached the still problematical. will be , they highest level for dercut in world markets. Japan Imports works has only eight weeks' Mr Jack Frye, supply of iron ore and 48 anarwenr of the now Independent recent vast expansion hours' of oil Suvov British Iron and Steel Con- her output has been 'If we can get round this In prepared to work- Councl. said that malor pushing we are Rumerd

TARTO

when Phase One of the prices up. he said. in, Flintshire's chief execu- Mr Haydn Rees said tive vesterdav that the A MEETING Of TUC steel TUS coresrede specs • expressed at a special steel-making Shotton aki a body blow to would Inlo relanateo Mil- benele In Shetfleld on March 7 to dayitogether ThA 2702| discuss action against pro- 60 represen- Apart from the 6,500 tonk nart from Tlf steelmen sacked, the jobs naca e tor hidoanour AIc

TATUAR

backs recently announced regional advisory commit- oI /00 miners would be in Britlsh Steel tees In England and Wales by Cor- jeopardy, up to 200 Birken- the 1,750 poration. and the entoa dockers, coi. Opposition BSC'g Decisions on possible tractors and shopkeepers action the proposed rationalization plans, which over would be ruined will deferred £500,000 a week InVO Ue aleia down trom anolmred wage hil 229,000 to 180,000 jobs until after the March at Shotton suddenly ceased.

the meeting. He claimed unemploy- •Ver ment woula go up trom 4.3 per cent to O2 3.5 to 5.3 'We sell 'They might just as well must not our Shotton, from children's rights to jobs for dron an atom bomh on the Chester Der cent and a mess of pottage' place and get rid of every- from 6.2 to 8 per cent in Women's action on Nowadays if men go on Wrexham. mitteP Redundancy expected toe nts Rosedale said: strike they are acting are now Tarrow the the If the was town against law. between £4,000 and £5,000 that 13.000 was mitrerar in the nyArnmAnt puts per man, but, said action 1930s. Shotton the men [Shotton's total work- committee chairman Mr about force] dole, orat lao do they answer?

LOWI

onlT- dered. ( inke Me oughilne IN THE centre of Covent Garden, the London con- tingent of the Pageant found have rehearsal space. It is a large warehouse donated to us for the dura- tion of the rehearsals. We've got a bookstall set up and large blow-ups of photo- of graphs previous produc- tions-'200 Years of Labour History, presented Alex- Palace and •nora "The English Revolution' that was performed throughout the Right-to-W or k the national marches last year. Pennle see who aron ny can our sketches of the early

TUC

Applegarth, Allen and leaders, to the icoar ravorting atolnc. strains 'Buy them off, buy of them off, them off' as sung buy hu Oueen Victoria and her con sort. Or there long, are serious the coccionc among nartiM. pants about Marx's and role policies founding the First 1864 nte nationa nn Indeed, erationat eis nol e of the International was *Se. few hundred vards awav in Martin's Tom Kempinski has written which the script recreates the Mary's struggle tagal eight-hour collaboration comrade, with his Engels. The e* the ton doni bi- cast of the Pageant will sode predominantly orofessional actors notice on w and actresses. tions Act, acceptance e v no Many of have cutting and the flat rejection of Equity. them come They the membership's are saying into the Pageant work from the masc re- leadership fight in their union. Equity, none doricina foe stala notiom anm leader- coming forward to work built based on the the right-wing „nęț of of the revolutionary the living struggle the ship and its policies in ot rodicomn. tion under the Industrial Rela- working ( class, these actors are Workers Press, Thuraday February 15, 1973 PAGE 3 Anti-state pay law meeting

FORD

SHOP

stewards Dagenham, Essex, have called from for all-out strike action March l in big pay-and-hours claim. And the stewards have issued

SELLIOLN

workers the with Tories' pay-control laws 9. attend a national meeting at the weeken A stop-work mass meeting at Dagenham Monday de- manucu a naward sourne was no improvement There the Dagenham stewards' meeung, wac cook place Tuesday night, also passed a urging the recall the

SAVE

lUC to co-oremale • Two. lo aereat inase

SHOTTON

Sections of workers to be invited Sunday's to which 1 Cover and British held include Vauxhall, Leyland carworkers. as gasworkers, teachers, civil ser- others fighting the pay laws. Shotton steelworkers on a London demonstration.

Rickets returns to the BACK TO the 1930s in classrooms terms of schoolchildren's health. This is the only that be Concusor drawn from Tuesday's lished by Sir John (now among immigrant children, House Commons Lord) Boyd Orr in 1936. she suggested. statement that the reported then poverty disease, rickets, Tory MP for Brierly Hill, 4.5 million -10 per Mr Fergus Montgomery, people- increasing among of the population, quoted the opinion schoolchildren.

O1 SONC

including per medical expert, allegedly cer. Mr Laurie Pavitt (Labour schoolchildren had an from Birmingham General insufficient diet. Willesden West) Hospital, who had come Caude•. that there are about the comforting conclusion Needless to Tues- say. 100,000 cases bio- that rickets would "always aay s aedate endea wiln a be with us. chemica refusal by Tors argin

TICKCIS

country. Margaret Mrs Thatcher Minister, arree• greater a remedy Vickets, •Something 1 natcner rentoonce. _nke free milk in schools for would remedy rickets, cent of 600 schoolchildren children over seven. but added that milk recently tested were found Was rich source of the Thatcher said that recent symptoms have vitamin. rickets, he said. reports The _increase the incidence of rickets 'are Yet the main reason for He calling for school milk being considered introducing Was Lict return of free panet or the committee • OE schools arter worla war ll Medical Food wisease amony children. precisely combat cone new eye Aspects dence increase in Policy and it is too early to rickets'. may Montgomery's rergus needed'. Pavitt's report is not far remedy is 'dollops of cod different from details pub- Rickets only existed liver oil'!

BOOK YOUR TICKET

FOR EMPIRE POOL NOW

DEFEND ALL DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Dofond trade unionism and basic living standards Unite in action to make this Tory government resign The road to power is through the building of the revolutionary party SUNDAY MARCH 11th 3pm

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PAGE 4 Workers Press, Thursday Febr The National Union of Bank Employees has again written to the City of London police com- plaining about the treat- ment of its organizers. Last month union officials.

distributing NUBE news-sheets to City workers were threat- ened with arrest if they did not desist. Although the Metropolitan Police Act of 1867 allows the Commissioner of Police the discretion to give permission to organizations for leaflet dis- tribution, the union has been told that as a matter of policy this permission is never given.

Mr Terry Molloy, NUBE national organizer, thinks that 'Alice in Wonder- this is an situation, particularly. in land' relation to the union's recruit- ing efforts with the Bank of England, because although the management there will not grant facilities for recruitment on its premises, it has stated that it has no objection to leaflets being distributed out- side the door. written to Molloy has again the Assistant Commissioner of the City of London Police pointing out that the policy was in conflict with the word- ing of the Metropolitan Streets Act of 1867 and went on to say: Muritings of

WRINGS G

lean Trotsky

LEON TROTSHY

(E3T1-38 (1938-81

WRITINGS OF

WRITINGS OF

TEON

LEON

TROTSKU

11933-341 11834-351 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 Publicat sday February 15, 1973 'As you are probably aware, because of the Industrial Rela- London, we must also have the right to circularize prospective members outside an office or bank and, therefore, it is im- portant that we pursue the right that we claim we have to distribute literature in the City of London. I shall be grateful if you will inform me why you do not, as a matter of policy, use the permissive powers of the Metropolitan Streets Act 1967 Section 9?

is deeply ironical that It NUBE is also complaining about the police harassment because it is in conflict with 'the letter and spirit of the Industrial Relations Act 1971 and the recommended Code of Practice'. NUBE is one of the handful of unions which decided to "law-abiding' remain and the Act. For register under this reason the union was suspended from the TUC. Now leadership finds that the despite its prostration before the Tory Act this does not mean that its recruitment campaign will proceed • in the City of smoothly London. On the contrary the big City institutions and the police are to collaborating resurrect ancient statutes to attack the union's right to organize.

History of Russian Revolution -special gift pack of three volumes £1.70 including postage u require. Amount enclosed f post to: ions, 186a Clapham High Street, Lor Publications Booklist is a vailable, fre The heads of the American and Soviet intelligence agencies are publicly known figures. Their names appear in the Press off and on as they make statements or tours of duty. Not so their British counter- parts. These faceless individuals remain secretive, anonymous servants of the ruling class.

stance, 'C'. This is despite the fact that every Russian and CIA agent in the world knows who he is. It came to pass that recently his younger son was charged imported with possessing Chinese heroin. He is to appear on trial at the Old Bailey. The committal proceedings have been conducted in such a way that the charged man's name hasn't been published. Why can't the newspaper publish the man's name? is a thing Because there called a 'D-notice'. The D- notice' is an order issued by the Ministry of Defence to Fleet Street editors, the BBC and ITV which tells them what they should publicize and what they should not publicize.

Each editor has a safe in his office in which he has a hand- some folder of these docu- Whenever he is given ments. an article which may contain 'security problems, , he reaches 'D-notice' file and for his thumbs through. done of ice spasticest ane order which states names of the heads of MI5 and Mlo or any of its agents should not be used in the Press or broadcast. Since the 'other side' has a list of these perfectly good it might seem names anyway, that this security arrangement is absurd. And so it is! The situation is further com- pounded by the fact that D- advisory notices' are only pieces of paper. They are not legally enforceable in any way.

because the capitalist But Press is absolutely servile to the wishes of the ruling class— it is an instrument of it-the rulings of the faceless 'D- notice' committee are never broken. last week the West But German news magazine, 'Stern' published the name of the defendant in the drugs case.

is — apparently - John He "Stern' Rennie (24). went further. It said that John's father is none other than Sir John Rennie. Then we had an astonishing Trotsky—a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage eet, London SW4 7UG able, free, on request. Above : Head of Mi6, Sir John Rennie.

situation. Because the millions of West German readers could hear who the head of MI6 was, the British Press finally broke its code of silence.

'Daily In an editorial, the Mail' said: 'For the first time in a British newspaper, you can this morning read the name of the present head of MI6- Sir John Rennie.' And once the 'Mail' and the Daily Express' had overcome pathological their secrecy, Details have begun to emerge about the pur- chase and sale of the 23-acre Central Station site in Manchester. When the transaction was first announced last year the details appeared to be 'hush- hush'. But with the passage of time, some intriguing intorma- tion is beginning to surface.

First of all, the purchaser of the an Irish was property developer, Mr Patrick McCrea of Navan, Co Meath.

He bought the land from British Rail last year 'for more than £2m' through his com- pany, Arkle Holdings. Last month English and Continental, a London-based development group, picked up the freehold for 'more than £3m'. It would seem, therefore, that in the space of a few months the fortunate Mr 1. 1 everybody else had a go. So it's out—Rennie is 'C'.

Will the country survive this of 'national horrific breach security'? • The late Allen Dulles, head of the American CIA, was bemused by the always British insistance on anony- mity for its security chief.

once said that every He London taxi driver knew his name and address. McCrea made £lm for himself.

Not so, says the indignant McCrea. 'It is absolute rubbish to say that I have made £lm from the deal. All these sug- gestions and allegations are rubbish. I bought the site with the intention of developing it and had discussions with Man- chester Corporation over the development. 'My architects spent six months working on plans for the site and I spent a great deal of money on the plans.'

McCrea's soothing explana- tions have not satisfied Mr Alfred Morris, Labour MP for Wythenshawe. He is to ask Mr Geoffrey Rippon, the Tory Environment Secretary, to conduct an inquiry into the deal which Morris describes as a very disquieting affair'. Last word to McCrea: 'I don't understand why there should be an inquiry into the matter at all. It was a straightforward business deal.'

EXECUTED FOR A CRIME

THEY DID NOT COMMIT

BY TOM KEMP

On August 27, 1941, three men serving short jail sentences in German- occupied Paris were taken from their cells and sentenced to death for a • newly-invented crime of 'anarchist and communist activities'. They were hauled before a special court composed of some of the highest legal dig- nitaries in the country. The trial was carried out with the full panoply of French bourgeois justice, but in flagrant contradiction with the principles which it pro- fessed. It lasted only eight hours and the next day the three men were guillotined.

The discreditable manoeuvres behind this judicial murder has been brought to light in a book recently published in France, L'affaire de la section special' by Hervé Villère.

The affair began when, on the morning of August 21, a German naval officer was shot dead at the entrance to the Barbès metro station by a young communist. He was later made a resistance hero by the French CP under the name of Colonel Fabien. Marshal Pétain's govern- ment immediately expressed its regrets to the Nazi author- ities and the same day a Council of Ministers was held sai to expedite the passage of a law to repress political activity " described 'anarchist or as communist'. Each appeal court was to have a 'special section' to judge political offences inde- pendently of the normal penal code. It was to include a clause which applied the law retrospectively to political prisoners held or sentenced before it came into effect.

This clause was quite with- out precedent in French bour- geois law and the representa- tive of the judiciary in the Ministers had Council of actually written his thesis against retrospective legisla- tion of this type. But Pétain's collaborationist representing the government, major part of the French ruling class which had now placed its wager on a Nazi victory in the war, wanted to do everything possible to please the oocupy- ing power, even it it flew in face of its own legal the principles. The Germans demanded six hostages for the Barbès metro shooting. Even they were surprised at the alacrity with which the French government responded. Noting the retro- spective character of the new a German legal expert law, described it as 'a revolution in judicial the principles prac- tised in France. The retrospec- tive nature of a penal law makes nonsense of the sacro- eld sanct liberal principle "No penalty without a law"' He went on to say that France was on the road to a new kind of state order. Other Germans, not themselves given to scruples, were surprised to learn that the French govern- ment was prepared to condemn people who had nothing to do with the killing of the Nazi officer. And they rejected the French proposal that the chosen victims should, after their trial, be publicly executed at the Place de la Concorde.

Two days after the assassin- ation the leading French judges were summoned by the Council of Ministers to approve the principle of retro- spective application of the new law against 'anarchist and communist activities' , as well as the i setting up of 'special sections' alongside the ordinary courts. It then beçame possible for anyone to be condemned to death for acts committed before the passage of the law.

judges were selected to Five constitute the special court.

One or two refused when they knew what its duties would be, but it was not difficult to find others prepared to do the dirty work. Then, because legal forms were being preserved—up to a point—prosecuting magistrates had to be found who were ready to demand penalties for crimes which had not existed until the previous day. It was not difficult to find lawyers to play this role. nat It only remained to find Workers Press, Thursda victims to go through with this judicial charade. This was not easy because the French police handed over to the Germans all suspected of serious those political offences. But the gov- ernment's lawyers were in- sistent: there had to be at least one Jew, the rest should be communists. A batch of suspects were hauled before the court, which held its proceedings in secret.

The first one received ten years' hard labour, the next two 15 years. The third a Polish Jew, accused was already serving a five-year sentence for distributing Jewish aid society literature.

He was, in any case an illegal immigrant. By four votes to five the judges pronounced the death sentence. After a copious lunch the judges resumed their work in the afternoon. The next an electrician, accused was André Brechet, already sen- tenced for distributing com- munist leaflets. This time the judges voted the death sentence by three votes to two. Then came Emil Bastard, who had a police record for petty lar- ceny, but was actually serving a sentence of two years for distributing communist leaflets.

Short shrift for him-the death sentence was rapidly voted by four to one. Before their afternoon's work was done, the eminent French judges had sentenced to four other prisoners to terms of hard labour. Then came nd Lucien Sampaix, well-known 3, Thursday February 15, 1973 PAGE 5 Far left: Léon Guyénot the public prosecutor who called for death sentences. (Photo taken In 1972 in Paris, where he now lives.)

Left: The three victims; Trze- brucki, Bastard and Bréchet.

member of the staff of the Communist daily Party 'Humanité', who received a life sentence after putting up a strong defence. He had com- mitted no specific offence but was on trial for his opinions."

That meant only three death sentences while the Nazis re- quired six hostages. After a few telephone calls it was con- firmed that they would be satisfied with three lives.

The flower of the French judiciary had done a good day's work. Three unknown men bad been sacrificed for 'crimes' Which they had not committed and which had been invented for the purpose. Eminent French judges and lawyers had ilouted their own cherished principles and astonished even the Nazis by their servility.

The three men died bravely, guillotined in the courtyard of the Santé prison. The night before the execution, the mili- tant Brechet wrote a last letter to his wife which contained the passage: the day after Tomorrow, tomorrow, perhaps this evening I will be no more than a memory. 'You will speak of me some- times to our dear son. You will tell him that his father died to defend his life, the life of humble people, the workers and toilers, for those who suffer; and also for the beautiful land of France.

'It was Jaurès, I think, who said that the road which leads to victory is bordered with tombs; mine will be added to the others, and if that permits the column to advance, if only for a few yards, my passage on this earth will not have been in vain. 'You will tell him that I died proudly, as a communist, regretting nothing of my life... As for the judges and lawyers who took part in this miserable affair, they lived on to enjoy a peaceful retirement and to draw pensions from the Fourth and Fifth Republics.

Hervé Villère was able to interview some of them, as well as other officials involved, who appeared to believe that there was nothing discreditable about their behaviour. As for the French authorities today, they refuse to lift the 100-year on records con- secrecy ban nected with judicial proceed- ings even for the period of the Occupation. In a letter to Villère deny- ing him access to these records, Rene Pleven, the Privy Seal, made the point: 'In this domain the greatest. circumspection must be preserved. It is a case of avoiding as much as possible anything Which may cause prejudice to private interests and reawaken passions in public opinion.'

The French ruling class does not like to be reminded of its period of collaboration with the German occupying forces and of the crimes which it then committed and condoned. When it became obvious that the Germans would be defeated it shifted its allegiance from Marshal Pétain to General Gaulle hailed de and the Anglo-American invaders as 'liberators'. In both periods they counted on these 'survivors' to protect their property and position from working-class revolution.

And while thousands of honest militants like André Brechet went to their deaths under Pétain, the Communist Party joined forces with de Gaulle in 1944-1947 to put the discredited French bourgeoisie back on its feet. *In December 1941 he was handed over to the Nazis and shot.

KARL MARX ON MONEY AND THE FALLIN

PAGE & Workero Prods, Thuraday Fabruary 15, 1973 BY

PETER JEFFRIES

THE

BACKGROUND

TO THE

CURRENCY

CRISIS

The latest round in the monetary crisis-by far the serious since most August 15, 1971—is more than anything a great vindication of the Marx. ist analysis of capitalism.

Throughout the post-war boom period, all the reformists and revisionists declared that capitalism had changed funda- mentally. was No longer prone to crisis and breakdown, as Marx had said. This new type of capitalism (neo-capitalism' Ernest

TOTT

Mandel and the Pabloites; 'per- manent arms economy' for the International state-capitalist Socialists) meant that social revolution and the taking of by the working class power were things of the past. Only and 'dogmatists' 'sectarians' talked about such things.

Revolutionary parties were no longer necessary— structu- reforms' 'consistent raday February 15, 1873 reformism' possible througs social democracy of Stalinism. The shallowness and bank- rupt nature of this 'new think- ing' is now plain for every worker and serious socialist to see. But along with this touching faith which the revisionists had in 'welfare capitalism' went a profound ignorance of the nature of the capitalist system and particularly its monetary and credit system, a system which now stands at the centre of the crisis. Each of these new-style Fabians was able to laugh at the analysis which the Socialist Labour League and the Fourth International made at each stage of this unfolding money crisis. For the revisionists, money was merely a 'technical device', a clever way of over- coming the difficulties of barter. In this, of course, they were only reflecting the complacency which sections of the capitalist class itself displays about money and its role during a period of capitalist expansion.

During such commodities as constituting value; money is treated with contempt. 'On the eve of the crisis, the bourgeois, with the self- sufficiency that springs from prosperity, de- intoxicating clares money to be a vain imagination. Commodities alone are money. But now the cry everywhere, money alone is a commodity! As the heart pants after water, so his soul after money! pants ('Capital' Vol 1, p. 138).

This then is our first ques- tion: what is money and what is its relationship to the capitalist system? It is in 'Capital', particularly the open- ing three chapters of Volume 1, that Marx provides an answer this now vital question. He shows that money arises out of the contradictions with- in commodity production. A commodity has two 'sides' or 'aspects' . On the one hand it is an object of wealth which meets a certain definite need.

Thus a coat enables its wearer to keep warm and dry. Marx refers to this quality of the commodity as a use value.

As such a use value it is the product of labour of a particu- lar type, in this example, the work of the tailor. Marx refers to this as concrete labour.

But at the same time, a com- modity is also a value, that is, it has a relationship in ex- change which is independent of its particular use. If we say 10lb of tea equals one coat, we are not comparing their particular uses. The one is for drinking and the other for wearing. No, we are comparing their values-the fact they exchange against each other means that they are the products of equal quantities of socially necessary labour time. The fact that, under normal conditions, one coat and 10ib of tea take, let us assume, five hours of labour-time to produce, means that they have the same value.

Now when we compare the labour of the tea producer and the coat maker in this way, we are not comparing the concrete, particular, labour concerned, abstract labour in- but the volved. Marx shows that the develop- ment of commodity production necessitates the emergence of one commodity against which all other commodities are measured. This commodity Marx calls the money com- modity, or simply money. What is the role of money?

Its function is to become the embodiment of value, the measure of abstract labour- time. Without such a com- modity, the regular exchange of commodities would be im- possible, because there would be no mechanism whereby the private labour of individuals, which produces use values having an infinite number of qualities, can be compared with the labour of all other individuals. It is through money that the social nature of labour asserts itself and makes everyone, capitalist or worker, conform to its objective laws. How Marx would have laughed at the hopeless con- fusion of the revisionists whose utterly false 'theory' of money would lead one to think that the chaos now gripping every financial centre can be elimin- ated if only all the bankers of the world would get round a table and devise a new means of international payment.

. As against these muddle- heads, Marx shows that the development of a commodity which stands against all other commodities, yet united with them (in that it is only through hisen a conner ordinary value of any other commodity can find its ex- pression) is part of the emer- gence of capitalism. 'Money is a crystal formed of necessity, in the course of exchange, whereby different products of labour are prac- tically equated with one another and thus by prac- tice converted into commo- dities. Thus historical and progressive extension of ex- change develops the contrast in commodities, latent tween the use value and the value. The necessity of giving external expression this to contrast for the purpose of commercial intercourse, urges the establishment of in- an dependent form of value, and finds no rest until it is once the and for all satisfied by differentiation of commodities money? into commodities and ('Capital' Vol. 1, p. 87.)

Gold eventually came to play the role as the major money commodity within the capitalist system. This it did because of its physical quali- ties. In the first place a small quantity of gold con- tains considerable value, large because. it takes a number of hours of labour- time to prospect for, mine, refine and shape. Second, it is highly durable, does not easily wear out or rust. Third it is into bars, easily divisible coins, etc. all of a uniform quality. Particularly since the last war however, gold has : been aug Illai Wo desi the can doll fixe pos lize aim equ the the cap thr cud. the 'rep mor

PAGE 6

Workers Prose, Thuraday February 15, 1873 ooo

KARL MARX ON MONEY AND THE FALLING RATE OF PROFIT

ALLING RATE OF PROFIT

augmented by the dollar as the ty er means international maln th payment and debt settlement. gh Indeed, the Bretton Woods arrangements designed to lift the dollar to the rank of gold. Ihe Ameri- er- cans guaranteed to exchange all dollar holdings into gold at a fixed rate, $35 to ounce of ed an of gold. They were able to do this only because, in the immediate post-war period, they monopo- the world's of ne mined gold c- But although the Americans aimed to make the dollar the equal of gold, they could never succeed. For whereas gold em- ist e- bodies considerable value, paper money is almost value- he less: its production can ng be in- creased merely by speeding up lis of the printing press. es In other words, the dollar's role as leading currency could rd only be established within definite limits, determined by ce the quantity of gold within es une capilalist system 'Paper money is a token re- presenting gold or money.

Only in so far as paper money to or represents gold, which like all other commodities has value, he id i Capital vomi, p. 128) symbol value, li- In an attempt to keep the and Collaust svoLem le, through their fear of the work- ge ing strength, the Cass s ir- Americans after the war were forced to churn out more and dollars and pump them 1S into Europe. This meant that from end of the around 1S the onwards a 1950s considerable 'S, quantity of paper money within m the capitalist system ceased to gold'. st represent paper en money, with no gold backing, with no basis in value. All the crises and the measures which the capitalist class have been forced to adopt —Special Drawing Rights, two- tier systems, etc.—have been attempts to stave off the conse- quences of this fact. The decisive turning point • came, of course, on August 15, 1971, when the US Admin- istration finally broke the dollar-gold link which had sustained the 1944 Bretton Woods arrangements. From now onwards, any in- crease in production or capital accumulation could only make the crisis that much worse in that it was accumulation in a situation where the basis for international value and pay- ments had been forcibly and deliberately removed. Here again the utter confusion of the revisionists who see in every slight 'upturn' in pro- duction or "improvement' in the payments balance hopes of a new boom, however short- lived. On the very contrary, 'upturns' and 'improve- such ments' can now only aggravate every contradiction which has matured throughout the boom.

For the capitalist system the situation we have outlined would have been bad enough.

But onto the billions of un- backed dollars, masquerading as money, has been built a huge superstructure of credit.

Once more Marx shows that this development of credit is no accident, but tied inescap- ably to the development of the productive forces. By credit we mean the system whereby commodities exchange not (gold, equivalent in paper) but against promises to pay in the future. Here again, however, the limits to the expansion of credit (which the revisionists such as Mandel saw as the means of indefinite capitalist expansion) are strictly limited by the avail- able money supply. 'But it should always be borne in mind that, in the first place, money in the form of precious metal-remains the foundation from which the credit system, by its very never detach it- nature, can self' ('Capital' Vol. 3, p. 592.)

Apart from being tied to its money (gold) base, the develop- ment of credit tends enorm- ously to sharpen the contradic- tions of the capitalist system.

As Marx shows in the last volume of 'Capital, it is the credit system which tends to make available to any single capitalist the whole of the social capital. It speeds up the tendency towards the growth of monopoly and the centraliz- ation of production. In doing this it brings forth a new breed of capitalist— much evidenced in recent months the speculator. It reproduces a new finan- cial aristocracy, a new variety the shape of of parasite in and promoters, speculators simply nominal directors; a whole system of swindling and cheating by means of cor- porate promotion, stock insuri Workers Press, Thursda Far left: Karl Marx. Left: the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, Henry Morgenthau and J. M. Keynes.

ance and stock speculation' It is 'asset- and offshore funds' operator fits into the picture.

It is an indication of the depth of the impending crisis that these sectors should have been the first to feel its blast.

It is in a crisis that these contradictions burst with great violence. Now money (gold) once more comes into its own everybody rushes out of as credit and much of the swindl- ing of the boom is revealed for what it is: 'In a system of production, where the entire continuity of the reproduction process rests upon credit, a crisis must obviously occura tremen- dous rush for means of pay- ment-when credit suddenly ceases and only cash pay- ments have validity. At first glance, therefore, the whole crisis seems to be merely a question of the convertibility of bills of exchange [these are the main forms of cedit-P/J into money... At the same time, an enormous quantity of these bills of exchange repre- sents plain swindle, which now reaches the light of day and collapses.' ('Capital' Vol.

3, p. 478.) Here we can see the seeds of the giant crisis which is now being prepared. The very length of the boom and with it the extension of credit prepares for an equally catastrophic fall.

The more the capitalists have tried to dispense with money and relied on paper money, Euro - dollars, international credits etc., the harder their system must fall. 'The entire credit mechan- ism is continually occupied in reducing the actual metallic to a relatively circulation • more decreasing more and minimum by means of sundry operations, methods and tech- nical devices. The artificiality of the entire machinery and the possibility of disturbing its normal course increase to same extent. ('Capital' the Vol. 3, p. 500.) But the great expansion of the credit system since 1945 is also revealed through the aggravation of a final and major for capitalism. contradiction This is the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. Marx speaks of this law as the 'most important in political eco- nomy.' In all his investigations into the nature of the capitalist system Marx stresses one vital point. It was a system based upon production for surplus value and profit. The aim of each capitalist was the expan- sion of his capital. Once more, this did not arise from the greed of the capitalist class.

In the course of capital accumulation there is an in- exorable tendency for the orga- nic composition of capital to rise. In his expenditures, each capitalist purchases on the one hand supplies of raw materials, heat, light, power etc; this Marx calls constant capital. On the other hand he also pur- chases labour power, which Marx calls variable canital. It is called variable capital be- cause it alone can create sur- plus value. Now with each change in technique ('technical progress') the ratio of constant capital against variable capital rises.

This Marx refers to as the rising organic composition of capital. The contradiction involved in the process is this: variable capital, the sole source of sur- plus value and therefore profit, is a declining proportion of ur- total capital. Unless the capi- cris 3, Thursday February 15, 1973 PAGE 7 talists can continually increase the mass of profits (through the rising productivity of labour which goes with techni- cal improvements in produc- profit will tion) the rate of tend to fall. The aim of production is not use, but profit. A declining rate of profit spells crisis for the capitalist system. • It is here that the role of credit in . post-war economy must be understood. For it has been largely through credit that constant capital has been extended and built up. The rate of profit tends to fall in a crisis because too much capital has been created in comparison with the avail- able surplus value. The rate of profit is determined by the ratio of constant capital plus variable capital compared with surplus value (s/c plus v.)

It is because c has been 'overexpanded' that a crisis of profitability is created. The crisis is not one of the over- production of goods, as the Keynesians and revisionists imagine, but an over-expansion of capital. 'The ultimate barrier to the expansion of capital is capital itself' writes Marx.

How is this crisis tackled by the capitalists? Through a say- age competitive struggle in which each tries desperately to ensure that it is not his capi- tal which is deemed to be 'excess'. 'So long as things last well, competition effects an operat- ing fraternity of the capitalist class... But as soon as it is no longer a question of shar- ing profits, but of sharing losses, everyone tries to re- duce his own share to a mini- mum and shove it off onto another? ('Capital' Vol. 3, p. 248.) The present vicious struggle is principally one of the large capitalists against their weaker bretheren. Here, once more, we can see the Europe-Ameri- can conflict as the major ele- ment in the world crisis.

The Americans deter- are mined that the vast quantities of excess capital, built up • via credit and a lot of it now re- presenting no value, shall not be wiped out to their cost.

They are determined that it is the capital of the weaker Euro- peans and Japanese that must be driven out with the huge unemployment, bankruptcies and chaos that this would pro- duce. 'Compensation of a fall in the rate of profit by a rise in the mass of profit applies only to the total social capital and to the big firmly placed. The new additional capital, operat- ing independently, does not enjoy any such compensating conditions. It must still win them, and so it is that a fall in the rate of profit calls forth a competitive struggle amongst the capitalist, not vice versa' ('Capital' Vol. 3, p. 251.) In other words; the capitalist crisis is now a twin one which combines an unprecedented credit-inflation crisis with a tendency for the rate of profit to decline, a tendency which is 'latent', as it has no longer been for much of the boom, but one which operates openly on the surface of society.

'The chain of payments and due obligations, specific at dates is broken in a hundred places. The confusion is aug- mented by the attendent col- lapse of the credit system, which develops simultaneously with capital, and leads to violent and acute crises, to sudden and forcible deprecia- tions, to actual stagnation and disruption of the process of reproduction, and thus to a real falling off in production?

('Capital' Vol. 3, p. 249.)

speaking Here was Marx over 100 years ago! It is now up to the revolutionary move- ment to match his prophetic words in deeds and go forward and build a powerful revolu- tionary party in the working class which alone can lead the way to socialism and elimina- tion of capitalist anarchy and pi- crisis.

THE PARROT'S PERCH

PAGE 8 Workers Press, Thursday Feb Antonio Expedito Car- valho Perera (41), a university lawyer and professor, was arrested on March 3, 1969, in Sao Paulo. He was tortured throughout March in the Military Police barracks, rua Tutoia, near rua Abilio Soares, and the on third floor of the DEOPS headquarters in Sao Paulo, by successive teams under command of General Luiz Felipe, Captain Antonio Carlos Pivatto and officers Newton o Fernandes and Simonetti. underwent various Perera forms of torture, including: • Electric shocks, mainly on the neck, head, tongue, ears, vertebral column, genital areas, toes and the soles of the feet. • Introduction of instru- ments into the genital areas of the body. • Blows to the body. • Other forms of ill treat- ment. • Physical and psychological torture to third parties:; re- latives, friends and clients; He was present at torture' sessions involving other pri- soners at the Military Police quarters and at the DEOPS in the Tiradentes prison from March 3, 1969, until January 13, 1971 (the date on which he was released). He was brought on March 3 1969 to the Military Police and from there to quarters the DEOPS on March 18, 1969, returned to the military police on March 20 and then brought to Presidio Tira- dentes on July 10 1969. • His interrogation took place in the military police bar- racks, in the DEOPS and at military tribunal before the i Judge Nelson da Silva Guimaraes. He received no medical aid; the only assistance available was dispensed by doctors who were fellow prisoners, such Dr Antonio Carlos. as Madeira. He did not receive any visit from his lawyer whilst inter- by the police and rogated during the police inquiry-from March 3 1969 until July 10 1969. He was transferred to Tiradentes Prison after the the state of 'incommunicabi- lity' had been lifted-July 10 1969. He received no visits from of his family until members after July 10. Such visits were always in public and had to be authorized beforehand by Nelson da Silva Judge Guimaraes. Eleven months after his arrest he was brought before the military tribunal judge but he was not tried, simply released along with a group of others. Thirty-one-year-old econo mist Ladislas Dowbor was arrested in Sao Paulo on April 21, 1970, by the Bandeirantes Operation. "pau Torture-particularly de arara'*-was inflicted on him from April 21, 1970, at the Bandeirantes Operation, at the DEOPS in Sao Paulo (in rua Tutoia and Praca General Osorio) by Colonel Waldir Coelho of CENIMAR, by the Bandeirantes Operation and in Sao by the Death Squad Paulo. He witnessed torture being inflicted by Colonel Waldir Coelho of OB (Operacao Ban- deirantes), by members of CODI, and of DEOPS in Sao Paulo, and members of the Death Squad, in September 1968 and from April to May 1970, both in the

OBAN

(same as OB) and DEOPS headquarters. This consisted of: 'Pau de arara' • • The electric chair. • Electric shocks. He was not taken to prison was simply interrogated but interrogation in centres in April and May 1970. He was kept in solitary confinement rsday February 15, 1873

BY JACK GALE

Above: Military Police In Brazll, who ar and given a radiography ex- amination to check his physi- cal condition after at the

DEOPS.

A strait-jacket was put on him and he was given injec- tions and his wounds, bleed- ing as a result of the torture he had undergone, were treated. He was kept incommuni- cado and never received any visits or legal assistance from his lawyer. He was visited once by his brother-in-law in the inter- rogation room for three minutes. Twenty-seven-year-old law- Lucio and journalist yer Flavio Uchoa Regueira was arrested on April 21, 1970, in Rio de Janeiro by the Operations Centre for Internal Defence. He was tortured from April 21 untıl April 25 1970 at the Military Police barracks, rua Barao de Mesquita, by Major Carneiro, Captain Gomez Ziembinski, Lieutenants Volio, Timoteo and Costa Lima. He underwent various forms of torture: • Electric shocks to the eyes, mouth, genital areas and anus • Introduction of a stick in the anus. • Immersion in water to the point of near drowing. • 'Pau de arara'. Blows all over the body. Injection of 'truth serum'.

The tortures were not used in isolation but in combina- tion. From the second day on- zll, who are responsible for the torture, physical with wards, he was tortured electric shocks and beatings to the body. Throughout his imprisonment he period of was psychologically • tortured simulated executions, con- stant threats of physical tor- ture. He was woken up at all hours of the night, a black hood was placed over his head and he was brought to a place where executions were simu- lated. This lasted throughout the nine months' detention.

In this way, they tried to get him to reveal information about individuals and meeting places and tried to weaken him psychologically by keep- ing him in a constant state of fear. Regueira underwent torture throughout his detention and afterwards declared that the atmosphere in Bra- terrible zilian prisons is due to the fact that prisoners are forced be present while fellow to prisoners are tortured. Throughout his imprison- ment, at the military police barracks, he constantly saw the very people who had tor- tured him torturing others. In addition to better-known methods of torture (near- drowning, electric shocks, de arara'), one prisoner "pau Fayal de Lira also underwent the 'mad dentist' torture, a name given to this particular method of brutality by the torturers themselves. This consisted of keeping the mouth open forcibly with an instrument whilst Fayal attached to a 'dragon was chair, his torturers meanwhile used a dentist's drill and elec- tric shock treatment on him.

Regueira says that he saw the drill break three of his companion's teeth; but the the torture, physical and psychological, despite several attacks of tainting, re- mained him with an continue. the the most ever Fayal was place Was Torare Regueira army Tune of Infantry Vila Militar

DEOPS

the at army 8 to from January 14 1971. not OuCC cell The Torture tion. by worked (the shortest three hours. cal to There an hour, and it was session he He was him by an electric wire gon chair to which attached and also he electric shocks. rture session took roximately fort- arrest. is third month of was held in the on from April 21 to 70, at the Regiment School of the from June 15 Guanabara 3 to June 15 1970, police barracks from January 11 1971 and at Galeao base at 1l to anual kept in small cells indows and he had Each sull. many prisoners. rooms were interroga- carried out teams which when the long test session received no medi- The doctors were Chamber tical prisoners. tance for the there at the en

LOI

during tention lawyer in allowed sence of a po Regueira the first time of the months after He tained. released 17/1 When he wi the naval Janeiro, the that accompanied the hall and the his testimony tary • court. The distorted gave the nam Regueira tortured as a his despositio cause they how he had lea * 'Pau de perch) an iron two stands, with knees ankles tied to bodu wards defence

CONTINUED

capacity of the victims succeeding session; medical was no at the end of the sessior the period of de- whole. interrogation a lawyer may not see lient. Regueira was never with a speak He private. always of a policeman brought for irst time before judge tribunal was not tried and released on January 14 Regueira ar him others whe occupied with machine guns was not present durin stimony before the mili judge, -treatment in which he the names of his tor again once ed as a punishment for esposition and also be- know wantea o he had learnt their names arara': (Parrot's tands, passing under the the wrists and s tied together and the hanging defenceless.

MINUED TOMORROW

Miners' leader Joe Gormley line of credit with the hope that this will boost demand for given unexpected was an reception when he spoke at a engineering products, machine tools and chemicals. meeting organized by Birming- ham AUEW at the weekend to It is hoped that some major deals will now be concluded celebrate last year's battle of Saltley coke depot. betweent big Italian firms and Gormley was fêted by local state purchasing agencies in full-time officials of the AUEW the Soviet Union. Italy will be willing buy oil, and listened to respectfully by to more the rank and file when he out- petroleum and other raw lined the importance of the materials. and action miners joint by Midlands workers the on course of the pit strike.

A good example of unprincipled by French vote-catching the Communist Party is shown in its attitude towards the Euro- inhabitants of north pean Africa who were repatriated after Tunisian and Algerian in- dependence. in In Press conference a Marseilles, of the main one areas of resettlement by So- 'pieds called noirs', Francois Billoux, of the Party's Central Committee, and deputy for the town, called on the government to speed up compensation for loss of pensions and other rights. In the period after 1936, the French CP gave up any struggle for the independence the colonies and made concessions to the prejudices of the Euro- Joo Gormley peans in north Africa. When When he suggested that all the independence struggle began in the 1950s, most of its trade union battles should be base among these sections dis- conducted within the law, im- the In- appeared and it was not able plying acceptance of to win the confidence of the dustrial Relations Act and the greeted Arab masses. he was After their arrival in France with jeers the 300 engineers and miners present.

most of the settlers supported the extreme right-wing parties.

And when he went on to argue against a national miners' Their subsequent experiences, floor erupted with and the growing up of a new strike, the of 'defeatism' 'sell out' generation, has resulted in cries many of them breaking with and 'resign'. interpreted these parties. Many miners CP is now angling for Gormley's words as an accept- The their latest pay offer ance of from this with votes typically opportunist promises before the union's even all the political executive has met. while leaving national questions in obscurity. In the footsteps of the United 4.078 traffic States, Japan and other count- There were ries, the Italian government is accidents in Moscow last year, according to the city's official its ailing trying to pep up report, and about 28 by increasing trade per cent economy Soviet of them were caused by drunk- the Union and with prevent Italian exports being pedestrians. pushed out of the market.

But the daily newspaper Moskovskaya Pravda Italy has to vie with other com- per cent of plained that 83 for trade with the competitors were caused Soviet Union by offering traffic accidents 1,090 favourable credit terms. It is by careless pedestrians, now making available a £250m of whom had drunk too much.

Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37kp ¿ Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

Order from: NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG New light has been shed on the downfall of the Georgian Communist Party chief Vasily P. Mzhvanadze who was re- moved from office last September. A recent issue of the Tbilsi newspaper 'Zarya Vostoka' re- ports that Otari Lazishvili, an chaufteur, unemployed been jailed for 15 years.

Together with 18 associates, Lazishvili was sentenced for building up an illicit manufac- turing enterprise which milked the state of 836,792 roubles.

This is the equivalent to $1,020,886 at the official ex- change rate. Lazishvili had established an extensive network of under- factories that turned ground out hard-to-get consumer goods such as nylon raincoats and shopping bags and sold them on the black market at inflated prices. With the income from these operations he acquired two Villas with swimming pools, several cars and he was able to throw lavish dinners to cele- brate the victories of his fav- ourite soccer team. Workers Press, Thursdan A regular guest at these din- ners was Mr Mzhvanadze, while Mrs Mzhvanadze was often on the receiving end of generous presents. Lazishvili became so power- ful that he was virtually able to dictate appointments and dismissals of Ministers of the Georgian Republic. He was also able to control the appointment of secretaries of the Tbilsi City Committee and to influence the composi- tion of the Georgian Commu- nist Party's Central Committee.

prosecutor at Lazish- The vili's trial demanded the death penalty, which is the legal punishment for embezzling state money. Certainly people have been shot for stealing much less than the amount in- an volved in this case. The relatively light sentence may indicate that there are still some Lazishvili men in Georgia's official bureaucracy.

Last year Georgia's indus- trial output went up a mere 0.7 per cent on 1971 and labour productivity only 0.5 per cent. A number of indus- trial enterprises failed to reach their target. In particular the crisis of house-building has reached scandalous proportions. • Thuraday February 15, 1873 PAGE 8 Above: The crisis in house bulld- ing has reached scandalous Executives have proportions. been criticized for their irres- ponsible attitude. The Bureau of the Georgian Party's Central Communist Committee has publicly criti- cized the irresponsible atti- tude of the executives of certain construction organiza- tions, ministries and depart- ments over fulfilment of the 1972 housebuilding plan. The plan envisaged the com- pletion of 950,000 square metres but only 808,000 were built. Despite "severe criticism' by the CPSU Central Committee of the orgnizational and poli- tical work of the Tbilisi admin- istrative bodies they 'have not paid adequate attention of late to house building and the con- cultural and struction of public service projects', says the Georgian Party's state-: ment. There was 'a low standard' of management of house build- ing in the city. A number of city and Party officials were jailed in Tbilisi at the end of last year for utilizing public funds and resources to build houses for themselves.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Thursday February 15, 1973

TODAY'S TV

BBC 1

12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill 9.42-12.10 Schools. 12.25 Disc a dawn. at one. 1.30 Trumpton. 1.45 High street. 2.05-2.25 Schools. 3.25 Mainly 4.35 Jackanory. 4.50 Blue Peter. 5.15 John Magnus. 4.10 Play school.

Craven's newsround. 5.20 Brady kids.

5.45 News. Weather. 6.00 NATIONWIDE. 6.45 TOP OF THE POPS. 7.15 Z CARS. Miller.

8.00 SOME MOTHERS

DO 'AVE 'EM. New with Michael series Crawford, Michele Dotrice, Jane Hylton, George Baker.

8.30 REPORTER AT LARGE. Beginners Please! Precocious monsters or delightful starlets? Stage schools. 9.00 NEWS.

Weather. 9.25 LORD PETER WIMSEY. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. 10.10

FRANKIE HOWERD IN WHOOPS BAGHDAD.

MIDWEEK. 11.30 NEWS. 11.35 TAKE ANOTHER LOOK. Behind 10.45 the Garden Wall.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 All our yesterdays (London only). 11.00 Schools.

12.05 Mr. Trimble. 12.25 Witches brew.

1.30 Crown court. 2.00 General hospital. 2.30 Good afternoon.

3.25 Misfit. 4.25 Voyage to the bottom of the sea.

Pebbles and bamm bamm. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY. 6.30 CROSSROADS.

'ONE OF OUR SPIES IS MISSING|'. Robert Vaughn,

6.55 FILM:

David McCallum. Men from UNCLE.

9.00 INTERNATIONAL BOXING. Joe Bugner v Muhammad Ali.

10.00 NEWS. 10.30 CINEMA. 11.40 COOKING WITHOUT TEARS.

11.30 SCOTLAND YARD MYSTERIES. The Never Never Murder.

12.00 WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

12.15 THE PIONEERS. The Sexual Offences Bill.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

6.40

SIXTEEN

PLUS.

Discussion. 7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY. 7.30 NEWS. Weather.

THEIR WORLD. The Language of Animals.

7.35 EUROPA. A World Apart Human disability. 8.00 WEIR OF HERMISTON. Dramatization of Robert Louis Steven- 8.30 son's unfinished novel. With Tom Fleming, Edith Macarthur, Leonard Maguire, Callum Mill, David Rintoul.

TIMES REMEMBERED BY PROUD MUMS. Barbara Cartland's 9.15 mother, Polly. 9.25 HORIZON. Science Is Dead: Long Live Science. Some scien- purpose is the welfare of tists people

PLAY:

10.20 'AND ALL WHO SAIL IN HER'. By Andy Ashton.

10.50 PLAINSONG. In Concert. 11.20 NEWS. Weather. 11.50 REAL TIME.

ACHES

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Or Full subscription (six days) for months. Name Address Amount enclosed £ A new series starts on BBC 1 tonight w —a married couple in 'Some Mothers Do prone wholesale ironmongery salesman.

REGIONAL TV

9.30-12.00 London.

CHANNEL:

1.15 3.00 News. 1.30 London. 2.30 Women.

London. 4.05 Follyfoot. 4.55 Jackson five. 5.20 Crossroads. .7.00 Film: The Partner'. Secret 8.30 London. 10.30 Cinema. 11.35 Odd couple. 11.02 Scales of justice. 12.00 News, weather.

WESTWARD.

As Channel except: London. 12.37 Gus Honeybun.

12.05 12.40 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 Lon- don. 6.00 Diary. 10.30 Report. 10.59 Faith for life. News. 12.00

SOUTHERN:

9.30 London Women. 12.00 12.05 London. News. 2.30 3.00 London. 4.25 Land of the giants.

5.20 Cartoon. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 Revon at For Laramie: 8000A at Fort "Revolt 11.15 Film: News. return Gui line Moto': 12.30 "The Return of Mr Weather HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Date- 5.20 Chuckleheads. line, 3.00 London 5.50 London.

5.25 Crossroads. 6.01 Report West. 6.18 Report Wales.

6.35 Sky's the limit. 7.05 Film: 'Walk Crooked Mile'. 8.30 London. 10.30 Spyforce 12.00 Gallery. 11.00 Weather. HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: 2.30-3.00 Hamdden. 4.35 Cantamil. 10.30-11.00 Studio one. Fight rising rents and prices Defend basic democratic rights Force the Tories to resign CROYDON: Thursday February 15, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Road. 'Defend democratic rights' KINGSTON: Thursday February 15, 8 p.m. 'Liverpool Arms', , cor- ner of • Cambridge Road/London Road. 'Build Councils of Action' SLOUGH: Thursday February 15, 8 p.m. Community Centre, Farn- ham Road. 'How to defeat Phase Two' HOLLOWAY: Thursday February 15, 8 р.m. Со-ор Hall, Seven Sisters Road. 'Build Councils of Action'. WINSFORD: Thursday February 15, 8 p.m. 'Red Lion Hotel', Wins- ford, Cheshire. LEEDS: Thursday February 15, 7.30 p.m. (please note date change). Peel Hotel, Boar Lane.

SWANSEA: Thursday February 15, 7.30 p.m. Council of Social Services, Mount Pleasant Hill, (near fire station). 'Defend de- mocratic rights' GOOLE: Sunday February 18, , Wea- 7.30 p.m. "The Buchanan', therill Street. SOUTH EMSALL: Monday Feb- Westfield ruary 19, 7.30 p.m. Social Centre, Westfield Recrea- tion Ground. BRIXTON: Tuesday February 20, 8 p.m. Brixton Training Centre, Control Room. 'No state control of wages'. LIVERPOOL: Tuesday February 20, 7.30 p.m. AEU House, Mount Pleasant. DAGENHAM: Tuesday February 20, 8 p.m. Barking Co-op Hall, Fanshawe Avenue. 'Defend basic rights' SKELMERSDALE: Tuesday Feb- ruary 20, 7.30 p.m. Quarry Bank.

'Forward to the Pageant'.

EAST LONDON: Tuesday Feb- ruary 20, 'Festival Inn', Chrisp 'Common Market Street, E.14. Conspiracy LANCASTER: Wednesday Feb- bruary 21, 8 p.m. Trades Hall, tonight with Michael Crauford as Frank an lothers Do 'Ave 'Em'. Frank is an enthusia: HTV West as above expect: 6.18-6.35 Sport West. ANGLIA: 9.30 London. 12.04 News.

2.30 Katie Stewart. 12.05 ondon. 3.30 HapPy ever after. 3.00 London. 4.25 News. 4.30 Land of the giants.

5.35 Wind in the 5.20 Saro. London. 5.50 6.00 About Anglias 6.20 Arena. 6.35 Crossroads. Anglia. Crooked Ship'. 7.00 Film: "Sail a 8.30 London. 10.30 Bygotes. 11.05 Cinema. 11.35 Living and growing. 12.05 Frighteners. 12.30 Living word ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London. 12.00 Today. Women. 12.05 London. 2.30 3.00 London. 4.25 Land of the giants.

5.20 Julia. 7.00 Film: 6.35 Crossroads. Rabbin Th London. 11.00 8.30 Angling. Film: 'Back Room Boy. Weather.

ULSTER:

11.00 London. 1.31 News. 1.52 Schools. 2.40 Romper room.

3.00 London. 3.25 Women. 3.55 Harriet. Sheral hospital. 4.55 4.23 News. 4.25 5.20 Phoenix five. 6.35 5.50 London. 6.00 Reports. Crossroads. 7.00 Film: "It's That Man 8.30 London. 11.00 What's Again'. about? 11.20 Department S. all YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 2.30 jobs 4.25 around the house. 3.00 London. Funky phantom. 4.50 Rovers.

5.20 Partridge family. 5.50 London. 6.00 Calendar. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: "The Captive City'. 8.30 London. 10.30 Fenton Street (near GPO). 'Stop on Rents. Defend the retreat basic rights.' WINSFORD: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Wheatsheaf Hotel'.

LANGLEY: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Cardinal's Hat', Wood Street. 'Defend Democratic Rights.

Forward to the Pageant'. PRESTON: Wednesday February 21, 7.30 p.m. 'Waterloo Hotel' Friargate. 'The Road to Workers' Power'. WOOLWICH: Wednesday Feb- 'The Castle' ruary 21, 8 p.m. Powis Street, S.E.18. 'The Crisis of leadership'. TOTTENHAM: Wednesday Feb- ruary 21, 8_p.m. 'Bricklayers Arms', High_Road, near White Hart Lane. 'The case for a La.

bour government pledged to socialist policies' LEWISHAM: Thursday February 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers 22, Club. (opposite New Cross station). HACKNEY: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Cen- tral Hall, opposite Town Hall, Mare Street. WILLESDEN: Thursday February 8 p.m. Labour and Trades 22, Road, N.W.10. 'Road Hall, High to Workers' Power'. SCUNTHORPE: Sunday February 25, 7.30 p.m. The Kingsley Hall, Cole Street. Socialist Labour Le Lecture 2 1924-1933—The Left Opposi- tion's struggle against Stalin Lecture 3 1933-1938—From the German defeat to the founding Fourth International EAST LONDON: Thursday February 15, 8 p.m. OLD TOWN OFFICES, Poplar High Street, E14. Lecture 3. Frank and Michele Dotrice as Betty enthusiastic, well-meaning, accident Sport. 11.05 Cinema. 11.35 Mod squad. 12.30 Weather. GRANADA: 9.30 London. 12.00 Felix the cat. 12.05 London. 5.15 Partridge family. 6.00 News. 5.50 London. Sky's the limit: Put it in writing. 6.30 7.00 Film: 'Gunsmoke'. 8.30 London. London. 11.00 What the papers say.

11.15 Nichols. IEES: 9.25 Song from the

TYNE

heart. 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31 3.00 London. Place in the coum. 4.50 Stingray. phantom. 4.25 Funky 5.20 Today Crossroads Today. 6.00 Film: 'Brushfire'. 8.30 London.

10.30 Sport. 11.00 Police call. 11.05 Cinema.

11.35 Scales of justice. News. 11.50 12.20 Fights of the century. 12.35 Lectern. SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Date- line. 3.00 London, 4.25 Lost in space. 5.25 Crossroads scotch 015h Loren 6000 6.00 Today. 6.30 corner. Cimarron 8.30 London. 11.00 strip. Angling today. 11.30 Late call. 11.35 Edgar Wallace. 10.58 London News.

GRAMPIAN:

1.38 Schools. Cartoon. 2.40 2.52 3.00 London. 3.25 Women. 3.55 Har- riet. 4.25 Skippy. 4.50 Merrie melo- 5.20 General 5.50 dies. hospital. London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Try for ten. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Film: 'Coast of Skeletons'. 8.30 London. 11.05 A kind of living. 11.25 Frighteners. 11.55 Meditation. top BASILDON: Sunday February 25, end 5.20 p.m. Barnstable Community to Workers' 'Road Centre. Power' WANDSWORTH: Monday Feb- right to work' WATFORD: Monday February 26, lary 8 p.m. Trade Union Hall, Wood- ford Road, near Watford Junc- Station. 'Rise of fascism in tion Italy' Feb- ACTON: Tuesday February 27, tle, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, High Road, risis W3. 'Forward to the Pageant -The Road to Workers' Power'.

CLAPHAM: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, Clapham Manor Street, S.W.4.

'Defend Democratic Rights'.

PADDINGTON: Tuesday Feb- 'Artesian', ruary 27, 8p.m. corner Chepstow / Westbourne Park Road. CAMDEN: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Wharte- 'Les- Road, Kings Cross. dale sons of fighting the Housing Finance Act' HARROW: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Wealdstone.

'All out for Wembley Pageant'.

TOOTING: Tuesday February 27, 'Selkirk Hotel', Selkirk 8 p.M. Tooting Broadway. "The Road, rise of Italian Fascism'.

our League Lectures NEWCASTLE: Monday February

FORD ARMS,

19, 8 p.m. Shields Road. Lecture 3. SHEFFIELD: Monday February

PREMISES,

19, 8 p.m. YS Portobello (near Jessops hos- pital) 'The economic crisis and the socialist answer.

SHEFFIELD: Monday March 5, 8 p.m. YS PREMISES, Porto- bello (near Jessops hospital).

'The Revolutionary Party Britain'.

Massey Ferguson plant microcosm of workers' struggle Tractor deals rebound PEon workers THE GIANT Massey Ferguson factory in Coventry has been hit by a series of small but bitter disputes. In this article a special correspondent reports on the situation facing the work force in the tractor factory. 130 storemen in the second week of a strike for a bonus scheme meet today to decide their next move. 1,200 men are laid off in the assembly shop.

THE PROBLEMS facing the working class as a whole can be found in the situation at Massey Ferguson's Banner Lane factory.

The management grows increasingly confident the more the present trade union leadership retreats in the face of past deals being enforced, and, more recently, of agreements being broken.

During the wage agreements of the last four years, "strings' were accepted by union national officials on the basis of 'mutuality'. They also claimed the company was not forcing the 'strings'. Workers can see just meant in tney practice. Mutuality carried out in this wav- Conloany Mr tions or be locked out. A clear example of this is

MASSEY-FENUSN

an old agreement on mutual.

TOON. IN RATED

ity labour which dates

TOOLROOM

PERSUASEI.

from the days when the factory Daniel Lalle owned by the Standard

TON

Motor Company. Up end of 1972 to mobility was used to avoid redundancy. Now, however, the transfers company. men as and when it thinks nt.

Men have been moved from a factory at Boginton Banner Lane vice and grade trom 1964 grade. week

BLAST

agreement was dragged out which transferred Licalll labour suffering a wage-cut!

Custom and practice During the boom days it was estabusted • CustoN and . practice marr transferred to a higher earn- weeks men have last two Past accentens being stringently enforced, been sent home after the 1112 earnings of that gang. relation to shift commenced particularly When pointed If he transferred to a low piecework prices

CURYCHUL

received his earning gang he out that ine agreement was Many Trustrated Jower. being broken, they say they for wane care a to at fighting own averaze bonus. told longer have The wage claims 110 company is now say- appiled ing that men are been onoreo not ror monces wick All these agreements were but for The recent transferred to earning lower ycals possible made when dip' 'prime dispute gangs be paid 1S unev will and reaco compromises accordingly. oulstanaing exampie. deals based on boom-time assembly Assembly workers who Now workers' conditions. strike January stewards claiming 1n ale Unite all of against mobillty agreement witn a producuon sections returned to work on the manager literally torn promise of official action if The urgent requirement is ine company continued Inese The company had con- a leadership that starts from activities. men had cered ThaT once the realizanon tnat tne inter- Since then nothing has turned for work they national monetary crisis, the up would be paid the full developed from the for developing trade war and the side, company has even employers' are our boe Sult. produchon continued to dictate its stopped. related. It must unite all of workers interpretation of the in The only proviso was that sections defence of basic rights. ment. the stoppage was not caused will admit The joint shop stewards' Stewards also assembly disputes. that 'strings' conceded Nevertheless twice in committee policy must be: Socialist Labour League Public Meetings

UNITE IN ACTION TO DEFEND BASIC RIGHTS

CASTLEFORD

MEDWAY

ACTON

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 8pm TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20, 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY

6350 p.m. Woodlands Hall, Auo a ноте Castleford Civic Hall Crown Street Brompton Road Gillingham

G HEALY

SLAUGHTER

(SLL National Sec) (SLL Central Committee)

WANDSWORTH

SLOUGH

BIRMINGHAM

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22,

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 28

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25, 7pm 8pm Wandsworth Town Hall Digbeth, Civic Hall Britwell Community Centre Wandsworth High Street _ong Furlong Drivi speaker:

MIKE

BANDA

soetkes Mine

MANUA

Britwell Estat (SLL Central Cttee) (SLL Central Cttee) speaker: G HEALY (SLL National Sec)

BRADFORD

SOUTHAMPTON

DAGENHAM

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22,

MONDAY FEBRUARY 26, 8 p.m.

7.30 p.m. THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8pm Marlands Hall Central Library Havelock Road Manor Park Library Top of Hall Ings. Romford Rd/Rabbitts Road opp. Centre Give Speaker: ALAN THORNETT Cliff Slaughter Deputy Senior Steward Morris speaker: (SLL Central Committee) Motors in a personal capacity) (SLL National Sec)| Workers Press, Thursday February 15, 1973 PAGE 11 this Coventry Precinct crowd during the engineering workers' toolroom dispute in the area during 1971.

BY A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

MR WILLIAM CRAIG, the leader of the Ulster Vanguard is facing the threat of expulsion from the Unionist Party.

The former Stormont premier, Mr Brian Faulkner, has demanded his resignation.

Craig's call for independent Ulster an Dominion must be seen as a demagogic gesture to secure support from dissident Catholics and nothing more. prevent will not Vanguard and the Ulster Defence Association from preparing justifiable and necessary' war plans to conduct civil war against and perpetuate the •sectarian arvision ol the working class the White Paper While ostensibly warning against sectarian strife Mr Craig's cer- • Full support for manner any sec- tainly be construed in Republican defending quarters as an workers tion invocation to civil war. What else did Craig mean pay and conditions of work.

when he talked about violence against Catholies after the General Strike?

• For the annual claim soon be negotiated. 'Remember this, that such a blood bath can be No Tory o ye cans recognition of the for and all outstanding claims be settled. Above all a leadership has to be forged that will cam- paign for a recall of the TUC to mobilize the whole work- ing class to remove the Tory office and

CRAIG.

• Doesn't fool Catholics government from return Labour govern- triggered off by freelancers responsible to no one.

pledged to socialist menT That is how critical things are.

policies. On the one hand he evokes the spectre of i Central to this campaign, "blood bath', other he offers Catholics the Coventry delegation on the a arge prospect of mythical independence from West- printer and Bubin. Empire should come the to Pool, Wembley rally and Pageant and help transform 'Ulster Protestants and Ulster Roman Catholics Socialist Labour have much more in common with each other than League The with the political entity of the southern Republic.

into a revolutionary party.

Ulster workers will treat Craig's gibberish the same with scepticism that they will extend to the border poll and the White Paper. The only future for Ulster is a united Socialist Republic of Ire- mangy Dominion completely subservient to West- minster and governed by Orange dictatorship.

HULL

British imperialism does not THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8 p.m. fear Craig's UARY 27, 8pm outbursts any more 'Windmill Hotel' than the UDA's threats. Far from Witham attacking the Orange fanatics, Speaker: CLIFF SLAUGHTER 'security' forces are now stepping (SLL Central Cttee) their arrests of Republicans and intimidating Catholic

WEST LONDON

ghetto on a big scale. On Monday dozens of Provo THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8 p.m. supporters-and Workers many Lyndhurst Hall Press readers—in the Andersons- Grafton Road, NW3

EBRUARY 28

Speaker: M.

BANDA

town area were 'lifted' by the army. (SLL Central Committee) This is now a frequent if daily nity Centre Their release can occurrence. he

LUTON

secured only by forcing the FRIDAY MARCH 2, 8 p.m. Tories out. Assembly Hall "Dutch' Doherty is Town Hall Speaker: M. BANDA fight extradition Northern (SLL Central Committee) Ireland in the Dublin High Court. He claiming RCH 1, 8pm is declaration

TOTTENHAM

that any step to transfer him to TUESDAY MARCH 6, 8 p.m. any territory not under the juris- bbitts Road Lord Morrison Hall diction of the High Court in rela- tion to political offence, any Speaker

HEALY

invasion his SLL National Secretary,

CONSTUTAC

of constitutional rights and is con- trary to the constitution.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Thursday Febru IT IS becoming a very serious battle for our Fund this month.

Our total of £351.33 means we are still a long way behind what we need. We urge you all to step up the pace immediately. We know you can and we are sure you wilt raise our full target of £1,750 in time. Never has there been a more clear political situation. The devaluation of the dollar has created an enormous crisis for other currencies and exposes the depth of the economic crisis that faces the whole capitalist system. Desperately, the employing class will fight back to hold on to its dying system. We must be

FROM PAGE ONE

"pressure' on the government to change its mind, or shift to the left. We saw this policy at UCS where thousands of jobs exchanged in were an abysmal Tory deal which violated all the principles of the trade union movement, including the right to strike.

The example was repeated in struggle after struggle.

We condemned this trea- cherous horse-trading. All the time we said: Tory "This government cannot change or be bought off. It is gripped by an in- soluble economic crisis that forces it to rob the working class of all its democratic rights and reduce it to slavery under some form of dictatorship? Now we see who was right. The crisis rages with vengeance. The capitalists howl for war and blood and "The Times' talks of a Gen- day February 15, 1973

FEBRUARY

FIGURE NOW

£351.33 - 14

DAYS TO GO

prepared for even greater attacks to be launched against the working class. Workers Press is vital for the huge battles ahead. Our paper is more important than ever for bullding a revolutionary leader: ship. We need all the support you can raise. F i» us overcome the amiculties king our Fund thia month. Make a very speclal effort. This political situation demands that you do. Post every dona- tion immediately to: Workers Press February Appeal Fund 1868 Clapham High Street London, SWA 7UG

GOLD

eral Strike and asks the unions-'are you ready for power?' Only the Socialist Labour League has been preparing for this revolutionary situa- tion-our record proves this.

Now Workers Press read- of the ers and supporters movement must take a deci- sive step. They must join in the battle against mass re- pression by becoming League members. We ask all the forces in sympathy with the revolu- struggle to launch tionary the SLL as a revolutionary party by helping to make the March Pageant the Empire Pool a massive blow to the Tories. A decisive turn must be made immediately. It should be remembered that with slump and recession stalk the horrors of fascism and dictatorship. Such a political eclipse could only be three or five years away if the •working class does not take the power. Unite in a

JARROW

SUNDAY

FEBRUARY 18

7 p.m. Civic Centre, Jarrow Speaker: G. HEALY (SLL national secretary) Better safety cover than normal - claim Gasworkers angered by Press lies BY

DAVID MAUDE

OUR LABOUR CORRESPONDENT

GAS

WORKERS

yesterday slammed the safety scare whipped up by the Fleet Street Press as part of the government campaign to ram its pay-control laws down the throats of the working class. At the North Thames board's Camden Town depot men maintaining a l4-hour safety cover were angry bitter spewed lies allu forth by the media over the last few days.

the onus It's about time placed on the was said fitter Croucher. 'If there's any risk it's their tault. Ihey ve remained absolutely adamant about our pay and we re supposea to sit back and accept it. Yet because of price increases and all the other things Tories have done, we can't aford to live these davs. I can tell you, if it was left to some of us, our feelings would be to walk out on • strike over this. But we're not. In fact they've got better safety cover than they have normally.

'All these scare stories are just designed to turn people against us. We've been set up.

we shouldn't strike, anytreng, said George Dennis, atso fiter shouldn't do anything,' 'But how much are these people getting who're saying got and three kids and This 1 ve wite George dren. Ted Croucher there's see after a flat 40-hour week I take home f16. 'We It's the government's fault.

have to to ends meet, and the Boards rely on that levels. maintain _ the legal salety State take-over The job couldn't run without overtime. 'But they didn't anything say 1963, winter when, of Clydebank's because the very weather, the dropped weeks

TO I

We were working all hours of the day and night. housing affairs "They're only screaming now because the government poncys at stake.' S6 Been d the fitters THE SECRETARY of State for Scotland, Mr Gordon Camp all are electricity supply, bell, may take over the housing functions of Clydebank town pointed out. 'For the flat 40 hours council. The only alternative lies in him asking the Court of we're working now, I'll take home Session for an order similar to the one Clydebank council has about £17 just ignored, instructing them to apply the rent Act. Briant bargaining The second course is thought unlikely, and although Campbell has given the council- lors further time to reconsider still on-liquidator it is near cupositon. that he will shortly assume the of housing commis- powers SPOKESMAN for Briant was proceeding against the five.

Housing commissioners cannot man committee after their failure Colour Printing's liquidator Mr be appointed under Scottish rents Granville White to ahear imcourt on said yes- deals anon.

OUT

It is open to tne committee had been told Secretary State instruct terday that talks with a poten- to hand factory and all over town council officials to obey the tial buver for the factorv its lawful

DOOKS

ana records law. well. Prospective buyer going They are now legally in owner. Clydebank councillors meet to- Mr David Brockdorn uppea default and free discuss whether they will day to offer on Tuesday for the his to obtain judgement against them £5,000 fine imposed on pry the Old Kent Road works. company's solicitor, them this week for contempt of Michael Prior, refused to com- The liquidator from Brockdoed rejected yesterday and it may be ment The fine would have to be met offers previous that fresh legal moves are deng from rates by a ip increase on Decause they tell below the magic delayed while the latest Brock- rate poundage. £300,000 mark he regarded as a dorff offer is being considered.

starting point for serious negotia- cense the Clydebank owner-occu- tions. MEMBERS of the Confederation But the spokesman said vester.

hreatening to withhold 9p in the of Health Service Employees day that there were 'strong signs' that the two sides at last

THIS

were nave even massive support loI being charged they claim because industrial action against the Tory moving in the direction of agree.

council's failure to imple- ag. s, a a ballot revealed yes- ment. terday. voted for *The Brockdorff offer involver The council will also be faced national action. leaders the loss of up to two thirds of are expected to give strike notice the 105 jobs with a promise that rowed due to the withholding of when they meet the hospital chl- as many as possible will be „ICi ployers on Friday, bringing them employed in line with the ex- GeNeral Wirers Union and and line with the Transport pected business build-up.

In addition to the £5,000 fine, The who were or unions National Union of SuT- represented at Tuesday's thinly charged for any illegal expendi- ployees. mass picket and lobbv of parlia.

ture under the Act. ment have already endorsed the part more fist pare or ake AL a special offer phase in support of the work-in part bernauld council on it thema r National Union of Teachers strike default them order against communitiee. support of an increased Lon- There was no official confirma- laude to moemen wee act was don February 20, not even discussed. tion yesterday that the liquidator 21 and 22. total of schools participating wil now be 95.

The five schools are in the action to defend basic rights London boroughs Enfield, Havering and Heston )f the 45 NUT memhers in thesi

WATFORD

NORTH KENT

said she NuT. This 42 voted to strike said the brought the

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19,

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19,

total or leaners voung to „strike schools to 1,326 out in the 8pm 8pm of 1,479 balloted. The Shakespeare, Trades Union Hall Powis Street near Watford Junction stn Woolwich Street,

MIKE BANDA.

Speake Central Citee) SeE National Set

G. HEALY