Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press, Trotskyism Today and the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1975–1984

Socialist Press no. 80

21 December 1977 · 12 scanned pages · about 15,618 words of machine-read text

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Scan page 1

PARRY PLANS

10% SELL-OUT

Parry Firefighters from all the will over country gather outside Congress House in London today to confront the

TUC

traitors who stand between them and their 30% claim. But it is becoming clearer oy une day enemies of the strike must be counted Terry Parry himself and the rest of the right wing leadership of the Fire Brigades Union. Government police Even as the TUC play out their role of government police force inside the trade union movement by prevent- section coming out ing any alongside the firemen, Parry his hardest trying accept the government offer

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 80 * December 21, 1977 * 15p TUC keeps firemen isolated of 10% plus promises of wage limit. 14 million workers are rises later. in the pay queue behind the And he has made no call firemen. for other unions with claims Healey's pay controls must outstanding take action be crushed if living standards are to be defended for any When the bosses' offer was section of workers. Even the put the membership latest offer the firemen .LO to it met with resounding rejec- makes that clear. tion. Yet the FBU executive The firemen have claimed met for nine hours last week now. The employers to discuss the vote. have offered only 10% with a "Flexibility" two year commitment to take tiremen level of the top 25% of skilled workers.

Afterwards, the Executive immediately proposed talks Cut in wages with the local authority employers seek By leaving controls

SULLE

pay improvement that would intact, this offer would allow Parry recall the ensure that the members are delegates conference. Licu to a seday cut in rea Monday night, after wages in future years beyond talks had allegedly "broken the of the deal-and scope down" with employers, Parry that the rises over a two year declared that he was simply period will be limited to three looking for "some flexibility sets of (say) 10% plus just under £9 spread euner on ine luo or on the over the two of phasing the future years. proposals "and then the The FBU-if accepted matter will be resolved."

this deal-would set a prece- This ignores completely government GenE

LOT

noth the need to destroy the 10%

TUC

and the

GET BACK-YOU'LL

GET YOUR CHANCE

BUT ONE AT ASTIME!

towards fixed league tables for all public sector workers- put forward by David Basnett, general secretary of the GMWU. Break off talks Firemen must demand that Parry breaks off all talks until the employers agree to break the 10% limit and offer more money now. Pressure on the TUC must be increased. Motions should passed through union branches calling on executives to support the firemen. Colecuous snoud aso of made-particularly social as being withheld

SCOULILY

from the firemen. Not enough But solidarity of this kind is not nearly enough for those who really want ot beat the coalition and the TUC. The decision of NUPE to reject the first vote of the membership and now to accept the employers offer of 10% for one million local authority workers is a vicious blow against firemen, public employees and the whole working class. So long as the TUC can hold workers back through the 12-month rule or allow them into battle only one at a time the Liberals are happy sustain the government their concealed coalition which is designed simply and solely to bolster wage control. Chief guardians The TUC are conscious of the fact that if the firemen should win, the Lib-Lab will government almost certainly fall. So, as chief allies of the Lib-Lab coalition, the TUC have been enlisted as chief guardians of the 10% limit.

For this reason the FBU strike has always been far more than simply pay battle. It involves govern- ment. Vital step Only the Workers Socialist League has from the outset focussed the need develop beyond simple calls "solidarity" and

TOT

"support", to tackle the of question mobilising pay strikes alongside the firemen.

This remains the next vital step if the 10% policy is to be broken once and for all. Next issue January 4 1978 Because of Christmas "Socialist Press' will not appear again until 4 January 1978. In the meantime the Editorial Board would like to wish all readers and Seasonal supporters Greetings. Sadat-is he bowing to Washington or to Mecca?

Playing Carter's "He who the pays tune", tune piper calls the says the old proverb. So it was last week when Begin was Zionist piper force the Palestinians into a Washington discuss his possibly compromise, latest refrain with his chief including a West Bank state backer and main organiser of with some sovereign rights.

world imperialism, President This was purpose made Carter. clear Carter's violent The "peace" proposals put denunciation last week of the forward by Begin and later Palestine Liberation Organ- partly leaked press isation as "unconstructive".

-LO no retreat whatso- "unco-operative" "un- and ever in the sovereignty of the worthy' seat at the ola settler regime beyond hand- Geneva peace talks. ing back few These statements were pieces of barren desert in the combined with efforts by Sinai peninsula to Egypt.

Sadat and the world's capit- alist media to woo so-called "Concessions" moderate Palestinian opinion on the West Bank. Such are the so-called Efforts will no doubt be concessions being granted by the Zionists. made to pull some of the The capitalist press of the bourgeois Arab regimes, particularly Syria, into the so- entire world is engaged on an called pro-peace efforts extraordinary public relations exercise on behalf of these In this process the attitude of the Soviet Union will be trying to make the plans, weak and fearful Sadat look crucial, and Carter's state- "construc ment that how like a heroic peace maker and tive" the Soviet Union has his many Arab WaKe recentv been shows that he apponents appear unreason- sees a role for them there.

At the same time the Recent visit Zionist are being colonists cast in the role of reluctant One other interesting the diplomatic but definite conciliators.

aspect of this fantasy lies Beneath comings and goings in the the reality of a hard faced Middle East has been Begin's Zionist regime unprepared to recent visit to London for 5 make any concession to Pales- days before his trip to Wash- tinian national rights and ington and bein yesterday imperialist backers December) while more ready to compro- Callaghan bourgeois and muse Social democrats and feudal Arab interests in the Stalinists, basing themselves area for the sake of inter- on peaceful coexistence and national exploitation, will not collaboration with imperial- weaken the any way ism, are both incapable of Zionist encave offering any way forward in provides an invaluable spear- the struggles of the oppressed head for them in their efforts Palestinians or the Israeli to divide and rule in the area.

working class. Lip service programme must be developed assert the Carter, as is well known, political independence has begun to pay some lip both Israeli and Arab masses service to Palestinian national from their own capitalist class nights by using such phrases as the basis on which to fight as "homeland" in some of his for an end to national oppres- speeches earlier this sion and imperialist exploit- year. The purpose of this was to ation in the Middle East.

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LOSES MAJORITY

- INTERNATIONAL'

The National Front coalition government in Turkey is in acute crisis in the aftermath of this month's municipal elec- I tions. Eight deputies have President resigned from ¡Demirel's Justice Party-leav- him stranded with only 221 supporters in coalition the 450-seat Parliament. The elections themselves marked by were increasing which ended lascist violence 67 with dead and wounded. The results the October General Election. Lost heavily The Justice Party lost heavily, particularly in the The municipal main bourgeois opposition party- RPP-now Ecevit's 42 out of 67 of these local councils, while the Justice control of only Party 15. fascist National The took control of Action Party 5 councils. But the left wing ing to part wita a el DaOn the total vote and failed to win control ol a singe arca The to Ecevit's swing 33 party-which only won councils in the last elections- indicates the growing and hostility

TESCHEN CIEL

the right wing policies of the :NF government. No way forward But it also indicates crisis political leadership OI the class, since

WULALLE

Ecevit's party is in no way a party and olters no

WONKAS

IN BRIEF

FRANCE

Workers are showing that no faith in they have policy of one-day strikes by the organised main reformist and Stalinist union Rank and file pressure has led to the contin- uation of strikes against the the policy in more militant sections of the public sector, especially the electric power industry.

NETHERLANDS

79-year old millionaire art collector and mass murderer Pieter Menten was last week sentenced to 15 years in jail for tak ing in execution l tev mass Jews in 1941. Podhoronge (then in Poland, massacre in the USSR) and the noW Dutch court has mainly used evidence provided by the Soviet government in its case gainst Menten.

ETHIOPIA

Eritrean guerrilla fighters are reported to have entered parts of the key Red Sea port Massawa and have inten- sified the seige of the Eritrean Asmara. The West Herrst

TURKISH CRISIS

DEEPENS AS NF

way forward for workers or Derw lle. Meanwhile the fascists are gaining in electoral strenoth. and growing more confident as increasing sections of the capitalist class begin to con- clude thor the old demo- cratic" forms rule 61 l adequate to solve their LIOt acute economic probiems. No stability from the The resignations Justice Party must be seen in While the immed- might be iate consequence the fall Demirel Ecevit forming a government, this will not create stability in Turkey.

IMF

The are demanding drastic measures apainst the before working class agree- loan vital preserve Io Turkish economy. Running out Industry in Turkey is even now running out of essential raw materials through lack of foreign currency. Whichever government continues in office, the capit- attempt 21131 must enforce further devaluation the lira, price increases, and wage controls if the IMF is to be placated. To do so means confront- ing workers the And this is why the fascist forces are noW gathering strength. Provocations increasing. Fitty tour students were wounded after a bomb went off in a care in Ankara known to be frequented by leftists.

lost control of Harrar which they claimed have But it is still clear captured. that in both wars the Ethiopian dictatorship hanging on to very little.

TUNISIA

The Prime Minister has annonced a new campaign of repression Mne eHi "propon- trade union against ents of the class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat the permanent revolu- tion". Such he said, people, "infiltrated" had the apparatus of the trade unions which have recently launched the strike wave against Bourgiba regime.

CYPRUS

The kidnapping of his son "EOKA-B terrorists" has by been a political godsend to President Spyros Kyprianou.

He his son back harmed; he got several days of public sympathy; but most important he got the with- drawal from the nse or ars Presidential elections only rival Glavcos Clerides, politically with the far-right associated

EOKA-B.

couldn't have heen hatter if he had staced it SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December; 1977 But in this sharpening sit- overthrow of capitalism. uation, the Turkish Commun- In the struggle against class ist Party and the trade union and conaboranion

TOI

bureaucracy santenaned programme independent to the polities of class collab- action, a revolutionary leader- oration. ship can be built. "Democratic" alternative

BOOKS OPENED BY

They still dvdcce support for Ecevit's bourgeois RPP as a "democratic" alter- native to fascism.

BASQUE STRIKERS -

And, as it did in Spain in the 1930s, such fake could position result in monumental defeat for Turkish workers. day general was called in solidarity with But while the one the locked-out workers of the Stalinists strike (opposed by the create confusion large firm sections of workers, including engineering main reformist and Babcock Wilcox. metal miners and workers, Stalinist leaders) brought This firm is one of the are engaged struggles. industry about half the These must be extended. largest in the great industrial (Viscaye) area around Bilbao employing of Biscay Overthrow 5,000 workers. halt province to a on Babcock is 10% owned by December 2. The aim must be not the the Britsh parent company, illusory one of a 'democratic The strike, which over 12% by wel known shanish Turkish capitalism, but the 100,000 workers supported, capitalist families and 8% by

NE DEMAND

30 gars difference:

THE RELEASE

Oid nazis concentratiemps

RMGARD MÖLLER

New rozis - comunicada Kremlin must open West Germany's most NATO's books recent spy scandal seems most significant. Last week it was revealed its secrets but all the world that East German agents In knows it has lost them! the West German Defence The West German Defence Ministry had discovered the Minister and some officials of detailed location of all his department have already NATO's top-secret atomic been suspended from duty.

missile sites in Western The Christian Democratic Europe. opposinon 1 uemanang uit other Social Secrets lost resignation of Democratic government chiefs. The NATO alliance has But the apparently lost every major goyertilei for trying claim credit military secret. unmasking spies who the A NATO official is quoted were appointed to their posts as saying: last Christian during the "The of the serio usness Democratic government. situation has yet to be fully realised but there can be Major consequences little doubt that the disclosures far Secrets gone-Schmidt detailed and dangerous than The events could, there- fore, have anything Kim Philby took to Idu! Moscow." for the stability of and Soviet bureaucracies were quences concerned with strengthening German The scandal is two-fold: West coalition ine government as well as for the the working class movement first, the Ma Or asolollaze NATO alliance. coup of the East Germans; world scale instead of Press carving up the world between West Socialist welcomes second the leak trom German any event such as this which themselves and the impenal- government sources ists, they would publish the of the information about the weakens the reactionary anti- for Communist NATO alliance.

NATO

secrets all the extent of the coun. A mass meeting of Babcock Wilcox strikers in Viscaye the Bank of Viscaya. The rest are small shareholders. long peer

BADCOCK

its repressive notorious for attitude its worKIorce So when the military section of the Basque nation-

ETA,

alist vicalsdlul. decided to stage a dramatic last event to intertere kid- June's elections, they killed the napped and then Chairman of Babcock's board of directors, Javier de Ybarra.

At just about the same time Babcock began sack attempt to large section of their worktorce so impose massive speed- as to up on the rest. Their plan was to sack 40% of the workforce in 12- 18 months. But the reaction of the workers has been so strong that the bosses want sell off the few to shut profitable parts and down the rest. The factory has now been occupied. The have bosses forced the been open books representatives of the workers assemblies. Owed £700 They have been prevented from moving out machinery and from paying money the government rather than to the workers. (Each worker is now on average owed about £700 by the company which refusing to pay been wages). workers The are nationalis- demanding the ation of the firm by the state

INI.

company, noldlg should the remain, say workers' representatives, "under workers' control" Despite the great material hardship involved, the action of the Babcock workers has Only been extremely out of 5,000 three workers voted against the series actions which culminated in the one-day general strike.

Sabotage But of the the struggle Babcock workers is threaten- ed with sabotage by the union's bureaucrats from the Socialist Party, Communist and National- Party basque ist Party Nonetheless the working class of Viscaye is responding to the calis of the Babcock Babcock workers. The struggle is increasingly being seen model by other workers thousands of threatened with redundancy.

the WHoDu mCnl province (the most industrial- ised in Spain) has tripled in a And there year. are now *in the province 600 firms crisis trying to dispose of a

Scan page 3

SOCIALIST PRESS Medaesday 21 December. 1977

- INTERNATIONAL•

The Moncloa Pact signed in October by the "democratic" Francoist parties has government •stability to not brought Spain. Continuous worsening OI economic conditions and the endless delays seemingly of the implementation promised democratic reforms has brought workers into the hundreds streets all of Spain's thousands in major cities. In demonstrations of up to 250,000 workers demanded democratic rights, action to end unemployment, and ware increases to maich inflation. Massive demonstrations There have also been demonstrations of for support Spain's various component nationalities and regions.

Proposals é been regional autonomy have made in regions only with

IUL-

strong traditions of nationa truggle such as Catalonia anc Euskadi (the Basque region areas like Cartill and Leon and Extremaduva.

There is hardly a province project for which some has not been autonomy This fervour for 'auton- omy springs from a combina- tion genuine popular and for national pressure The struggle national rights especially in Euskadi sirs been a major part of thes struggle masses against Francoism. Through militant mass mobilisations and threats to boycott its reforms the Suarez has been regime forced to release all Basque political prisoners captured before last December's referendum. Head off But at the time it same head off has tried to this militant predominantly class foI WORKINg Is Ovencil rights democratic by attempting to make a deal with the bourgeois national- ists (the Basque Nationalist Party) for what has become called 'decaffeinated' This plan is already at an advanced stage in Catalonia where the exiled head of the

AFL-CIO (

The leadership of America's main trade federation, the union AFL-CIO, kept the line of the movement firmly the camp of class in collaboration during its biennial congress in Los Angeles last week. George Octogenarian Meaney, leading of agent Amencan imperialsnn, was Te.

elected two more years as AFL-CIO President. But Meaney and his fellow leaders remained as hostile as ever to a policy to mobilise the working class around an independent policy. • However, with unemploy- ment still well over. 7% of the torce. thest bureaucrats realise they must appear SOme remedial action. The convention passed one resolution pleading with the -

NO STABILITY

FOR FRANCO'S

PHOTO: Derek Solera. IFL

HEIRS

FREE

Generalitat (autonomous In places this diversion has government) in 'exile made a worked. But increasingly Suarez workers have 3001 3CC September, re-installed demonstrations called was legal in office in by signatories vctober and last Moncloa Pact as an oppor- week announced his virtually powerless regional cabinet: tunity for getting on to the stration was refusing to fly composed of members of the demonstrate their the Andalusian flag from his Democratic Centre* (Suarez' hostility Suarez the administrative building. democratic francoists) the regime. Socialist Party, the Catalonian (Demonstrations with that Police attack objective CP and the bourgeois Demo- the declared would never be permitted by Catalonia Pact for The Francoist armed cratic it Spain's first the police). police attacked the crowd, making This is what happened in killed formally deciared. popular and MIR RUSTEd Illauty, the so-called Malaga two weeks ago when a Manuel Garcia, front since a nineteen- rebirth of democracy. "respectable" demonstration year-old worker and member for autonomy got out of the of the Workers' Commissions.

In other too regions Suarez' Union of the Demo- control of those who had Garcia's murder provoked cratic Centre has leapt onto further fury against the police the launched and for several days the situa- Angry autonomy band wagon. tion in: Malaga took on an It was one of a number of insurrection-like character.

several regions even Tar Allance has joinest Popul- demonstrations throughout Public buildings were the southern region of attacked and burned, barri- cades were built against the These capitalist parties a Andalusia (including a march vell as the Socialist Party and of 300,000 in Seville) as part police attacks. The Civil of a the CP have tried to use the government sponsored Governor was forced to resign question regional 'Day of Andalusia', before could be

DUCI

autonomy to create a diver- The Malaga crowd became restored when they found that Since the 'democratic ion from the struggle abou the Civil Governor, reforms' were initiated after vages and jobs and for re the agen Franco's death two years ago democratic rights, instead of of the Interior Ministry whick a fictional autonomy. had encouraged the demon- the police have murdered at

IGNORE MINERS

"leaders' of the the requirements of Carter's Carter Administration for a All these major tax cut. working class reject indepen- energy programme. Stockpiles have been built The other his henchmen dent policies. resolve the . to Meaney of the working and unless the miners and henchmen broblems supported were almost entire- class. stay out three months

TOI

stand of ly protectionist. They ally themselves ther no chance defeating the employers. industry, their national capitalist class Bat no thought could be Meaney said, was being "des- following it everywhere in its from the minds of the further by call tor trade war competition"

AFL-CIO

For the working class this leaders than to advocating organise the necessary amounts He made a call (before the fratricide. support in the transport and Congress) for AFL-CIO bureau- steel industries, and the trade As the

SWERONY

rigid their union movement as a whole.

import controls, crats conducted their enforcement of anti-dumping congress not even the slight- Hurthest of al fron laws and an end to foreign of the intentions any political ripple echo was Col investment by US companies.

current miners' strike broke break from the two parties of business-the Democrats Meaney makes no secret of big the unrufiled surface. his attachment to the main Yet the miners are locked and Républicans-that are both lined with the bourgeois parties and in a life and death struggle to LL• employers against the miners.

America's imperialist foreign preserve their union against a policy. concerted attack by the coal- fight for Party in the USA based on Strange, or perhaps not so owners and their big business then, that his reac- the trade unions is insepar- strange, allies. the fight tionary protectionist answers ably inked to to Worried falling

AFL

economic problems theit remove the reactionary identical profits, relative to the exten- those the CIO bureaucracy, and for a British so-called "lefts' of the sive non-union section of the defend the programme Tribune Group and the Com- industry, the bosses are also class interests of American munist Party! on in their attack by

YVINCED.

ACE-100000 RANN

POLITICAL PRÍSTES

Condemn As persistent reports come out of Iran indicating a wave of demonstrations in defiance of the Shah's repressive regime, a picket was staged last week outside the Italian Embassy in London, protesting against the detention of 12 students by Italian police.

least fifty demonstrators and injured and tortured have hundreds more. No democratic or workers' rights will be secure in Spain until these repressive forces of Francoism-the armed police, the security police, the civil guard and the army- are dissolved. The astronomical distance between the demand for the dissolution of the repressive state apparatus and the policy of the reformist and Stalinist leaders was highlighted week during a meeting of the parliamentary committee the future studying of the Spanish army. Army 'apolitical' of The Chairman this commission Socialist Party MP Enrique Mujica. last week's meeting After between the commission and CP's call for bloc with Generals Luis Corvalan, Secre- General of the tary Chilean Communist Party, released from jail earlier this year in exchange for Vladimir deleavsky, the wants to Chilean defeat generals by making an alliance with the Chilean generals! In a press conference last week the headquarters of the French Communist Party he proposed a class collabor- ationist alliance stretching from CP, the the Christian Democrats who wel- Pinochet's to

CONCU

coup, the "good" generals. He said that: "A of under- process all standing between the anti-fascist forces is underway in Chile. The majority of the Christian Democrats were Salvador hostile to Allende the end of his towards They government. even greeted his fall with satisfac- tion. "They were hoping that, without delay, too long the of the country would into the Defence Minister General Mujica announced approval the General's state- the ment army "apolitical'. didn't He mention, of the three course, occasions this year, on which sections of the army have semi-openly advocated a military seizure of power. this "Socialist' is off While these hob-nobbing with budding Pinochets, his 'Communist" colleague San- tiago Carrillo's chosen friends last week were the bishops.

The Spanish church issued a protest against the proposa constitutional made by Ine commission of the Cortes to Catholic disestablish the and break all constitutional links between church and state. In response to the bishops' protests Socialist Party leader Felipe Gonzales at least said: "We Socialists don't ask to participate the synod of bishops. So they shouldn't meddle in the constitution'.

Carrillo, however, never chance one to leave aside a collaboration with the tor made a Iorces of reaction. statement saying: unctuous 1 am ready listen to bishops if they have the reasonable things to say.

Carrillo perhaps about to add a state catholic church the long to things supports- he including the monarchy, the integrity repressive forces, and Ameri- can military bases. their hands. But fascism which began Canetnatel the communists, finished by persecuting all democrats.

"We wish to reach with all democrats agreement to today and tomorrow-that is fascism but also to rebuild the country and construct a To do renewed democracy. that the CP proposes a demo.

government, broadly CraLIC the basis representative, on of understanding, alliance between the Popular Christian Unity and the the and with participation of. democratic sectors of the armed forces.

think profoun democratisation of the armer Those forces necessary. whose hands are bloodstained must go But that's not the case with all the military, or even all the officers or even all the generals". It should be recalled that Allende's government carried the top purge military officers, replacing those of doubtful loyalty by "democratic generals". One most of ot the these 'democrats' was General Agosto Pinochet

Scan page 4

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE

Page 4

BOOM?

Euphoric come in thé form of an index Britain's vast new balance representine the volume of all output industries, of payments surplus beginning in 1970 at 100.

might suggest that the The recently published is entering a economy level of for production state of boom. October 1977 is 101.4. But if you look at the That one figure summar- figures to ises years of growing disaster official statistics for industrial for British industrial production which are so little capitalism. Wilson - fought the 1974 elec- mentioned on the BBC-then What means that 'Back tion saying to work you find just the opposite.

industrial production is now with Labour. Instead there is a contin- only 1% more than it was ued and deepening slump. years ago! earlier this It is 8%

· CALE

The industrial statistics 2% less than it was down on its peak level in

NEW ARMY SWOOP

In a series of highly raids are clearly designed to the north, and as long as the co-ordinated raids remin- News RUC and UDR are there to suppress nepuDucan back them up. iscent of Operation and therefore to deprive The immediate withdrawal Northern Ireland's Motorman and the intro- and the disbanding of troops republicans of any medium duction of internment, for expressing their political of the

UDR

and RUC are the British Army and the thus essential in order to put

VICWS

RUC last week swooped an • end to the repressive Democratic right measures enacted since 1969.

republican areas of The British labour move- While Socialist Press West Belfast and arrested the has an urgent respon- sharply disagrees with 15 people. bourgeois nationalism petty Principal of the The strikebreaking target of Sinn we deleno Lo "security forces" raid was the Lab pact must be broken and the hilt their democratic right the advocates British Republican Press Centre to argue their views openly.

Belfast's Falls Road. imperialist occupation of All the more so when the Ireland within Labour All oftice equipment was suppressed paper-Republican the seized and bundled into army Party must be driven out.

a focus of trucks. opposition to British imper- Everything-from a duplic- Six repression the machine ating and photo- Counties. copier to duplicating stencils, the photographic files and lists of hootings of Irish Republicar postal addresses Socialist Party chairman scribers to Republican News- Derry Seamus Costello and was taken. IRSP organiser Colin McNutt 16 Stripped bare The Hounslow Occu- December), these raids signify Republican The Advice an increase in the degree of pation faces a fresh Centre open repression being meted the road threat this week from

ACTO

also stripped bare, with the out to republicans. Cabinet David Ennals, police taking everything from For eight years now-since Minister presiding over wall-posters to rubbish bins.

the troops went in in August the destruction of the Belfast, then, eust ican just west 1969-that has repression Belfast, of the health service. been systematically doled out News printing works was to all who dared raise their Ennals has warned that broken into. voice against British thuggery.

off he wil the switch- The entire current edition board the hospital, Bludgeon was Seren an attempt to bring the occu- owner has been arrested. pation to a halt. On 16 December, Internment, torture and rriday And at meeting in the RUC announced that the squads have assassination Oxford last week, Ennals presses have been been used to bludgeon the condemned the occupation LaOC

"ALO

submIssIon, 'extremists' The official reason given now one of the vehicles for whom he accused of wasting combatting for the raids is the pressing exposing and Health Area Authority "inquirý" need for such been 1nto has money. "suspected links between taken away as well. He also denied point blank yan rein and the Provisiona It is imperative that Sinn that the smashing up of the

IRA.

Fein's right to a newspaper Hounslow Hospital ever took be restored at once. Designed to suppress place. That right will always be Ennals visit to Oxford was But the actions taken give in jeopardy though, as long as primarily bring the local the short-lived boom in 1973.

And it is even significantly less than it was in the three- day week in early 1974! These that figüres show the long drawn-out crisis of British capitalism which emerged in the 1960s is no nearer to a solution. The 'main decline in pro- duction is found in the heavy making producer goods (machinery, etc). This reflects the collapse of productive investment capitalists divert resources from productive accumula- tion to unproductive, specula- tive get-rich-quick schemes.

In this thet try escape from the low profits 'British Leyland workers at Cowley must face up to the cold reality: another major strike could finish the Company'. That-under the headline 'Cowley in danger'-was the opening paragraph an editorial in the weekly Times on Oxford December 16, about the election of Alan Thornett to the post of deputy senior steward at the Cowley assembly plant. The editorial, the latest in a long line of witch-hunting articles in the local Press, says that if the TGWU is to move against Thornett they should quickly-before he takes office after the Christ- mas break. Spectre •offers the spectre of strikes in support of Thornett bringing a new crisis if Ley- land in his elected role. And the article reflects the official line that 'apathy' describing elected Thornett, his vote as by less than 700 union's of the 4,300 members.' In fact Thornett's vote (of 796, not'less than 700') rose since the last elections in declining poll and took place Ennals loses his health service unions bureau- into line. He came to crats lay it on the fme that there would not be an extra penny for the opening of the John Radcliffe Phase Il-and that other hospitals would have to close Last month a delegation of right wingers had returned from a visit to Ennals in Lon- don saying that they had a promise that the received hospital would open. This promise Ennals intends keep. He has ordered the Area Health the

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hospital come what may and pay for it. Presumably no more beds will get smashed up and SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December, 1977 in industry worsening position British capital as a whole.

More and more, therefore, profits can be assured only speed-up the factories and pushing đown And that the now of British capital and its Lib-Lab coalition govern- The consequences of this to the working class are only too obvious-lengthening dole queues in an economy we are daily • toid has never been healthier. the capitalists know well enough that their picture of health is hardly even skin-

AN ELECTION THAT

WENT WRONG

Alan Thornett - duly elected but still witch-hunted. under the usual anti-Trotsky- ist barrage of propaganda.

What the article-wrong voting figures and all- left massive swing BILe away from Parsons. was dereated not es apathy but because his class collaboration policies were decisively rejected. Bobby Fryer-elected as convenor in place of Parsons -polled 1,195 votes. and all the Fryer And elected deputies polled far than any Tory- inspired. postal ballot would produce. In fact when the ballot was introduced three "years ago, the Press hailed it as the memory Chris Davies

PHOTO:

Ennals patients pushed out into the rain than proved necessary at Hounslow. deep. Beneath the appearances is the rotting figure of capital: ism, whose obsessive • Vu thought is how to impose a long-term historic defeat on the working class. This again become a necessary condition for the renewal of the growth of capitalist production, not only Britain but world- • In wide. The imposition of such a defeat amount .to return to barbarism. That will be the inevitable of failure build a world revolutionary the party and capitalist system. end of left leadership at Cowley. niceties However. the of democracy are not allowed to get in the way of a good old fashioned witch-hunt. It started, before the elec- tions, in the Oxford Mail, the daily sister paper to the Times. The last issue published before the vote abandoned all attempts at balance,-reprin- ting lengthy extracts from an complete with his Parsons- with list complete of favoured candidates. leaflet-and the article-complained of 'unsigned soggy socialist swill' *Trotskyist extremism' and backed by about • tyrenty people: After the the elections same paper published further lengthy statement attacking from Parsons the lefts who were elected as 'Marxist elements who are like maggots'. 'Mole' The witch-hunt was the continued national Press by both the Daily Express and the Telegraph- which ran Trotskyist under a piece headline be pressed may onto Ley- land'. The burden of this story was that Fryer was likely accepting Levland Thornett as a deputy senior steward. The sole basis for this sinister plot according to the was that Thornett Telegraph, had been duly elected! It also quoted an unnamed source as saying 'Everybody with any interest in what's going on at Cowley will be looking for the first sions that hornett has put Bobby Fryer in his pocket. Average meal So there we have it. Wrong election figures, blatant campaigning for the right wing and support for moves to set the decision aside.

average meal for the Press and one that may yet give them indigestion. For, as the Oxford Times feared, moves by the TGWU bureaucracy British Ley- ot land to set aside the election results are likely to be met by a stronger force-the anger of

Scan page 5

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Scan page 6

Page 6 Ireland

ROOTS OF

TODAY'S

CRISIS

PART 8:

Labour after the Easter Rising that after of the Irish TUC The myth Executive following the executions on the Easter Rising the June 10. resolution "re- of Irish leadership the gretting the loss" of Connolly working class, essentially O'Carroll passed, and Thomas Johnson, William while post-rising O'Brien, David Campbell, meeting of the Dublin Trades Council in July failed to con- Cathal O'Shannon and demn the executions that had turned Thomas Foran, taken place. from the national away Political development stubborn quesțion Is a full gathering of When a is myth which has Congress delegates convened been spread nonetheless-tor in Sligo in August, it was im- obvious reasons-by the possible to avoid taking some rabidly anti-proletariat leader- position on the rebellion.

ship of Sinn Fein. Thomas The chairman been fostered Johnson his address for more obscurantist reasons Chica. "This is not the place or simply larough ignorance of those decking by enter into a discussion on the themselves out in the and garb. of the wisdom or the folly trade union revolt. Easy target movement we are of varied minds on matters of historical An easy target for them to and political development."

aim at was the labour leaders would attitude to the Rising itself.

Connolly likely very At the first meeting of the have insisted on a position and against such neutrality.

But it cannot be canned was doing any that Johnson more than drawing the con- that flowed from Connolly's conception of the as a gather- proletarian party "varied minds" rather ing of than a homogeneous formed by program- matic unity The 1916 Congress agreed to form a political party that Con- was independent gress-breaking from the present situation where it had been synonymous with it. 'Splitting workers" But no practical steps were taken-partly because most of the union activists gave their time over to building up the union membership, and fear "splitting workers" prevented a formed position on the burning being taken issue of the day. militants stev revived Connolly's old party, Fein's of Sinn complained ingratitude in so quickly for- was through getting that it the sacrifices of labour that they were Taser lo bowe But in all this there was no rupture with the past. War is of politics LILe by different means and the constitutional and parliamen- that cooperation Johnson and O Brien-on be- half of labour-lent Sinn Fein was only the continuation of the military cooperation that had Connolly given nationalist Volunteers. Withdraw While thought O'Brien that Labour could bide its time, withdraw trom its selt- imposed subordinate position at a propitious moment and electoral harvest, reap Connolly too had believed it Citizen possible that the Army, the first Red Guard of Europe, could both merge with the nationalists forces and act independently at some luture dale "In the event of victory," "hold on he had told them to your rifles as those with we are fighting whom may before our goal is StoD reached." But as Labour did not lead James Larkin and did not aspire to lead the struggle against Britain, those the

SPI,

as the advanced members of the Citizen Army of guard the projected who wanted not only to hold Congress party. but onto ritles were labour leaders actually use them were pulled approached by the leader of towards the IRA. Arthur Griffith, Sinn Fein, In the 1918 election, with a proposal that labour which tested the popular atti- the formation of a join from 1n tude separation with the nation- new party Britain, Labour on alists against both the question of standing can- unionists as well as the old didates. Parliamentary Party. Labour declined, but the First time this dec- leadership nullified Two thirds of the elec- laration of independence by torate . were voting for the not only failing to stand can- first Labour's final didates in elections at that time. decision not to stand embed- time, but actually assiste ded itself very strongly into the nationalists. the popular consciousness. Not to contesting By-election an election at such O'Brien and Foran worked made Labour as a pontica force difficult to take serious- for the victory of Plunkett in North Roscommon and ly. Sinn Fein was enormously McGuiness in South Longford concerned at tne consequen- while O'Brien was involved in ces for itself if Labour candi- the nomination of de Valera dates had stood. Clare in the July At first Labour candidates 1917 by-election. were considered, but on every hardly be said It could Congress tound itseit leaders no position that the labour trying to take ignored the national question that would divide its suppor- ters in Belfast from workers wnatever was missing I lieu formal pronouncements. in the rest of the country.

Instead, wale lalung lu Self determination build their own party, they So while it supported self- laid the first foundations in general, the building up of Sinn Fein.

determination avoided public Congress When these petty bour- began to position on its application to geois nationalists Ireland. reveal themselves openly as self- the irreconcilable enemies of It dodged calling for freedom the working class that they determination and for Ireland byadopti adopting a po- always were, labour leaders yielded O 'Brien sition that like Johnson and SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December, 1977 Connolly drilling the Irish C to none in determination win for Ireland freedon which sounded the same b in fact wasn t Fein, by Sinn Again recognising Britain's right rule Ireland, declared that candidates 1918 election would not Westminster to attend their own natior assembly instead. They asked Labour to ta the same position, which only partly felt able to do.

Once plac more to sentiment Labo fro based its Westminster on recent Brit measures, imprisonme deportatio without trial, conscripti threat of and and not on England's right rule. Shamefaced Also abstained support for the Irish Ass bly, Dail Eireann. In this v of got the worst worlds. To the unionist work the policy appeared not i nationalist but shameta while nationalism, to rest of the workers In country this lack of an in made Sinn F pendent line the only appear willing and capable of e English adminis ting the tion. Eventually labour's o inclined supporters view that a half-hearted pa should stand aside for m determined spirits. Menshevik concept of the relationship betw and economics politics lent a certain complacenc the labour leadership. This was illuminated w O'Brien rejected Captain J White lab a possible candidate. had drilled white the Citizens Trained and had recently been ai ted by the British author for trying to bring miners out in protest aga the executions of the leaders. Non-participation His labour nomina conside could not be however, as O'Brien told 1 since he was not a memb a trade union! Eventually Conference in Nover Thomas Johnson on beha the Executive urged non ticipat i cal comes from call parts of Ireland for unit this question such as was the

VIL

issue. Your Executive bel of Ire that the workers in this d join earnestly that they would willingly rifice for a brief period aspirations towards poli power if thereby the fort

Scan page 7

in Army outside Liberty Hall, Dublin The Executive's position was easily carried by ninety- six volts lo twenty-tree.

Sinn Fein publications ex- pressed their Labour they said 'had done the right

LIC.

Other With happy of the pous taculty for understanding. geoisie Times warned the Irish an imaginary James was very alarmed Labour's about any al He to Thomas wrote tive in 1919: Sinn Fein What become of now. Arthur's Lords and Commoners? he the capitalists unorgan- labour cheap and do ised. only WC replied: more ad-

HEYCHECHL

seemed to becomes propaganda. A big section we day getting every 1918 election and called a public meeting to in- the Ild lionai assembly revolutionary" Dait was a body but one-party Labour, which by abstaining had eased Sinn Fein's path to now power, was render further assistance by drafting a social and econo- mic declaration of aims for the new assemblv Sinn Fein felt that they programme nether SULl now that they were assuming governmental responsibility (1) so they turned and Labour to help them to write Too radical Johnson O'Brien and Cathal O'Shannon collabora- ted on writing a draft inspired Pearse's socio- economic But views. the of was 100 radical for Sinn Fein of 1919.

Michael Collins wanted the Titoo, wednesday 2I Decemoer, 1977 Third International well, While inter- Fein the i tempted recognition the Dail- hoping no attempts to destroy Fein were ex-

JA DOUT

amples indicate the can capacity and the Sinn dependency Fein upon it. authorities proclaimed Limerick military the Limerick Trades called The response workers' with delegates in complete The Soviet dis- tually British they the with- tot the town others. known as the political went Programme on Dail, Mountjoy adopted the hunger in was implement it. From the as they could die if they chose was not to do so. tune to the Labour The Free government executive "poetry", 'communis- Belfast, the effec- strike days the Laoghaire Iviay. Labour When

NUR

The executive in chief bour- felt London, endorsed lackey J.H. Thomas, programme geois and tatives, be well conference that would to secure nation. By compro- Ramsay at the took the mised Macdonald position English

SUNRESU

delegation The limited home rule was its refusal who move struggle British against the The tragedy was leadership Bolshevik been have DaILY further, and the of the working class. It is Party meeting. *It is not necessary for that it not for Irish be Cause JH Thomas Whatever it revealed about Irish know what Irish labour this international recognition more than satistied de valera forward interests and Sinn Fein. Ilas une cause Irish delegates de- Ireland Over the last two clined to affiliate to the years." Second International an anti-Soviet Union resolution at Berne.

have eloquently Becoming infectious Decl expressed. But abstention on virtually pontical GuestIon becoming infectious and

UNCONSCIOUS

ECHOES

OF TROTSKY

lished by Fontana, price 70p.

Packed into this short propaganda, against its novel is wealth of insight into the barren

MOSI

decadence of the daily one country. life the Stalinist of Granny', he bureaucracy in the Soviet said happily, his voice still Union. there's only Only the knowledge that after his prolonged imprison- for *slandering the ment Soviet Union', Sinyavsky emi- France 1973 grated to in support cynical Karlinsky. and has since abstained from bureaucrat, He takes confirms politics that the novel embodies the sharpest ot artistic observation rather than political analysis. Trotskyism!' Perhaps for this the The of A review of 'The Trial Begins', a novel by Abram Tertz (Andrey Sinyavsky).

witch- this ninety-five book page hunting mind-blocking conveys a vivid impression of by. the the internal corruption, hollowness and instability of girl: the bureaucracy that usurped political power in the Soviet did enemies people, Union following the death of spies and Lenin, and which now rests uneasily on the nationalised property relations established But in October 1917: Seryozhas The bureaucrat's paranoid obsession with 'enemies', 'gangsters', spies' recurs again and again as the novel charts the progress of Public Globov, his wife Prosecutor and his son, during the year ot olalll s dedlil Globov, risen from peasant life public top post, LO insecurity of epitomises the bureaucial In confidence he strict told her that spy centres had X-gania been uncovered in and Y-akia. A group of crimi- mals in the Z Regional Party Committee had been plotting The enemy, to seize power. whose insolence now went beyond all bounds, attempted spread wild pame rumours were flying round the city, one more fantastic than the other-for instance that cancer germs concealed 'Stalin's statue demolished in Budapest after his death in 1953 matches had been infiltra- into the ted country. by far nameless, existed for the foreign power (you pick your struggle for freedom and for a teath with a match and its all genuinely Soviet regime. She over with you), or that, under shuddered with disgust the influence of cosmic rays, newspaper cartoon came into women were only giving birth her mind: Trotsky, or Tito, the detriment of such some our Army)'. (P.62) killer, pictured as a long- tailed rat and surrounded by Under seige his hangers-on, sat enthroned upon a hill of human bores.

The bureaucracy (P.64) throughout portrayed Demoralised by Karlinsky feeling itself under serge, the Katya's will scared not only ot working broken. class opponents from below, Remains defiant Within this unstable frame- the only release is an Seryozha WOrK. But remains occasional opportunity strong, defiant, with admiration and imprisonment. The youth in relief, the the nover bears out totsky's whom their positions depend.

of picture youth under parallels the wIth Stalinism. petty bourgeois delight at this "They have, thus, but three year's royal jubilee are possibilities open to them; obvious, as Globov's rebel- participate in the bureaucracy lious son Seryozha attends a and make a career; submit silently to oppression, retire 'Our darling! Our joy!' into economic work, sciences woman, tonner ne petty personal tnelr own craning her neck to the left. affairs; finally, She looked as if she might ground and learn to struggle foam at the mouth at and their character and Seryozha felt launcill. for the future'. embarassed by his own indif- Revolution Betrayed P 63 To his shame, ference. Alongside the repression make out, among could not of youth, Sinyarsky's novel the blobs on the grandstand, highlights the bureaucracy's the One whose proud name repression of women. intoxicated all the rest like Again seeming almost to wine (P.59) Trotsky, Sinyarsky with a Seryozha, along this question approaches young girl, come to the con- through the prohibition of clusion that a new revolution abortion, and the conscious overthrow turn by the bureaucracy Page 7 bourgeois family. Chapter one begins v Globov reading the case ‹ gynaecologist named Rabi procured vich who had illegal abortion. The empty court room The night, *No un the issue is the "lines expressed in Revolu Betrayed; 'The compel motive lations for the dis lining by of 40,000,000 points of s for authority port power. But explicit scenes the novel statement in interwoven with a pictur the real decadence and de of the leading la eration of the Stalinist bureaucrac Colleagues Perhaps the most vivi the gently ironic picture the party given by Inte gator Skromnykh for his w placed friends: 'Globoy found he enjoying himself and deci to stay late. He liked th people; they Sk nykh's colleagues, every with a face like an open b a past as clear as glass an conscience Kin stainless men of whom perhaps | the world was territied. .. The dread invis army was relaxing at festive meal". The Trial Begins is ne Font republished by clearly hoping to cash in 'dissid the now lucrative But unlike the later wo of Solzenhitsyn and othes carnes a message that is from anti-communism sardonic, Liv exposure of a microcosm the Soviet state bureaucrac Read it!

Scan page 8

TEAMSTER IN REVIEW

BUREAUCRACY

Page 8 Out of 4,000 members. Teamsters Local 544 ly a few voted against = switch to the Con- ess of Industrial Organi- tions (C10). The capitalist press, how- reported that ine dune | 1941 meeting had been ended by only 750 many ithem 'outside Trotskyists' IBT President Tobin used witch-hunting Capitalisl his He campaign. spatched some 300 suppor- S (IBT and AFL officials 1 downright hoodlums) to neapolis and began a drive ikeep alive Local 544/AFL.

Organising campaign" New officers were pointed and an organising impaign' planned. This campaign: • took the form of a horist attack the upon of

544-CIO.

Embership squads began cruising

FULL

city-many in cars with licence plates- posting truck drivers on the eets and inside Woken a eir places of employment.

The purpose was to make transport workers cards pledging support to

4-AFL

TalC forcibly collect to ambership dues. Tobin's thugs used ibs, blackjacks, chains, ives and guns. 'CIO members were beaten after having been igged trucks and from hers while working ding docks or inside ware- *Similar tactics were used assaults on 544-CIO road freight transfer the region nts throughout jund Minneapolis. Police help And of course the police re their support: *In several instances javans of IBT goons arrived truck terminals and ware- police uses escorted ad cars. "The cops then looked the

544-CIO

when ambers were slugged. They aved In ony wael groups workers sought to the firmly with ¡binites'. (P. 131) In the face of such intimi- tion the leadership of 544- proposed the member- should dual accept embership of 544-AFL. The Local 544 Union fence Guard was not abilised because the full- ager of provoking boded assault by the state Legal moves Local

544-CIO

leaders ned at demonstrating. con- qued support for their class faggle policies but attempts draw into indus- action were blocked by such as court ders to ban picketing. with this Comela have simply wOLd ced the best Militants in She legal basis for moves struggle =lass 1825i Rossereit's Wagner Abor Relations Act 11953) plemented at state level ¡ the Minnesota Stassen Act forced to negotiate Will unions representing majority of their employees the Wagner Act also included 'unfair labor practices' clauses and established National Labor Relations Board for purposes of compulsory arbi- tration. of the The provisions Stassen Act were as follows: 'No one was compelled to labor organisation. join Strikes in violation with working agreement employer were declared an "unfair labor practice'. the warehouses that permitted, be were majority of those engaged in picketing had employees of the struck firm.

At plants where no strike was actions progess, could involve no more tuan one picket at each entrance.

Sit down strikes were banned outright. In all cases, unions had to give ten days' advance notice of a desire to negotiate with employers. Another ten days' notice then was required the workers decided strike, to go on which made a tota: of twenty days before a walkout could of course, gave begin. Inal, the bosses time to prepare strike breaking measures.

The дочеЛо: appoint a state labor concil- iator to mediate worker- employer disputes. If the con- ciliator decided that an industrial conflict "affected with public interest, the governor was to have a commission of three to investigate the matter. Hearings were then to be held by the commission, and that had body thirty days which to make public the report donorent. During the thirty day waiting period the union was forbid- den to strike. It was declared unlawful to free and with uninterupted use of public roads or to obstruct Ingres to and egress from' any place of business. An even more specific stricture was included to protect scab trucking. That to a strike. Dobbs stresses at every neither is party point that use of the courts final ironic touch, court injunctions were was subordmate to the use of authorised class struggle methods. engaged in 'unfair labor prac- Plant ballots fices' and unlawful act was 'threatened'.

Dobbs feels that because the SWP did suspend With employers all over the action in deference the state refusing to bargain courts, they had not with 544-CIO its subDor- sacrificed independence. ters the Trotskyist leadership decided apply to state of the to Under the terms Labor Concinator blair for a Stassen Law Blair had ballot of employees to decide date when the announce they application for plant ballots to Wich unon to belong. would be heard. This was fixed for June Inappropriate 30th. The hearings until 2nd when Earlier when Tobin's gangs August the streets of Blair refused to petition.

were cruising

544-CIO

those dates the Between minneapon: obtained a court order against witch-hunt escalated was their thug activities. decisively. Tactics such as these must Indicted be carefully considered: Clearly Dobbs is correct to On June 27th Roosevelt the argue the inappropriateness moved against SWP head- of using the Local's Detence Trotskyists. The Guard the but the use of quarters in Minneapolis was courts against Tobin did not raided and the Trotskyists help the workers involved to on July 15th. indicted develop a line of struggle The charges which led to independent of the capitalist the jailing of the "Minneano- 18° were based on two state. of demanding The case laws. of One was an 1861 statute Blair authorise a ballot more compli- aimed at the counter revolu- employees of the Southern tionaries Let I workers' general the states but left unused In slave movement must not use these until 1941. fake 'neutral' bodies-such as Under this the Statula Trotskyists were charged with industrial tribunals. overthrow The lesson of the wagner to and Stassen Acts is that trade the government by force and who support state violence' the regulation of the labor move- The second part of placing a rope indictment was based on the ment are Smith Act of 1940 'the first around their necks. statute since the Alien and The independence of the 1798 Sedition Acts of trade unions is a principle make mere advocacy of ideas not just a good tactic. Yet a federal crime. in the particuiar circumstan- Charged ces they found themselves in the SWP felt justified in using Under the Smith Act the defendants were charged with ine courts as a lackie advocating overthrow of the Hemmed in with heavy by force, legal restrictions on all sides publishing and circulating literature advocating Tacy prepared to forming organisations physical measures in alliance teach advocate and encourage against une militants, they could not rule becoming

SUCI

of such members organisa- out any avenue protect themselves and move towards tions: distributing pubica- which 'advised, coun- position trom stronger

LIUJIO

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December, 1977.

Second of a two-part series reviewing the final history of the fight of volume in Farrell Dobbs' Trotskyists in the Teamsters' union in the USA.

'Teamster Bureaucracy' is distributed in Britain Waterloo, Pathfinder US President Roosevelt with Stalin, in 1945. Stalinists con- nived at the jailing of Trotskyists for anti-war activities, only to fall vietim to the same reactionary legislation in the Cold War period. A full study of all the a year and a day trial in the trial after the "ver adopted by 544-CIO was able to organise and the policy the SWP in the face of imper- some struggles which resulted ialist war is beyond the scope increases for the WaNt of this review. workers involved. Further to Teamster attacks put a sLop Bureaucracy material on this however Teamster series raises is to be found in James P. The Socialism on Trial Cannon's political questions not and The SWP in World War covered in this review. (both published by I we Vital question Pathfinder). nowever, a lew polnts car More space would be be The Communist made. needed to assess them fully Party for example, not only refused to join the defence a Labor Party in the USA and but enthusiasti- campaign, Roosevelt's the errors committed by the supported Cally SWP on this issue. attacks on the Trotskyists.

ten years later Less than Perhans most the Stalinists themselves were of all is Dobbs' "Afterword' the victims of the Smith Act in which he attempts to show and the were

DWI

a link between the class strug- alone in the labour movement gle record of the SWP in the defending them. 1930s and their current pract- the conviction Ironically, ice in the 1970s. of the Trotskyists was used as a precedent against the Stalin- If any honest comparison ists. is to be made between these Pardon demanded two periods it must begin by the The Civil Rights Defense.

drawing sharp contrast between the 1930s movement Committee, set up to organ- with its orientation into the ise the defence campaign, was working class and today's able to gather support trom a SWP, which is a petty bourg- wide range of academics, civil preoccupied eois grouping libertarians and, most impor- with civil rights protest and tantly, working class organis- reformist demands, in a pol- ations. itical bloc with the Pabloite For example in 1942: United Secretariat (from "around one hundred and US legis- fifty central labour bodies lation debars them from att- and local unions, speaking for iliation.) over one million workers passed resolutions protesting Vital period the violation of our constit- This review is not intended utional rights. By 1944, when the victims to answer these questions, the but of already in jail, labour were of the struggles organisations representing flavour fought by our movement 40 over 3 million workers were years ago in the USA. Team- Presidential demanding is highly pardon. Bureaucracy Ster The jury found the 18 def- detailed. Buy this book and the endants not guilty on part others in the series (Teamster one but guilty on part two of Teamster Rebellion, Power and Teamster Politics). On December 8 1941 (just Read them and rediscover day Japanese this vital period in the history attacked 13 Pearl Harbour)

Scan page 9

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December, 1977

OUR

POLICIES

In this series we have been dealing with the fight in today's conditions for the demands and principles of the Trotskyist Transitional Programme, and focussing on the difference between the transitional demands and the line argued by the reformists.

The fight for nationalisation The consistent message means of of the Trotskyist Trans- capitalist-or class as a whole. itional Programme is that The demands, the fight for the jobs, are necessary for the defence living standards and of workers' interests. democratic rights of the Nationalisation working class must not be tailored to fit in with And our answer the requirements of the empty pockets and depleted ruling class and its crisis- capitalist ridden system. mise on lnese demanas, but To defend existing jobs to call for the nationalisation and create new employment of industry, with no compen- in conditions oi slumo it is sation to the old exploiters.

fight for work- lacebody to Naturally sharing on full pay. programme of socialist revol- ution calls Rationalisation isation of all major industry.

This runs directly counter to drive with the expropriation of one employers' for sackings and or two bankrupt firms. Tanonansanion, speed-up. To finance such demands, of nationalisation and to pay wages that main- carried through, then it must improve begin with particuiar struggles 14110 anel workers living standards may through which prove beyond of Black sugar workers in Natal This space was plantation Tate and Lyle. reserved to review a TV Tate and documentary film which have sold the plantation and was not shown. that in any A few hours before the third of Thomas' dation for their workers than Anthony. documentaries was to go on that shown in the film. ine air. the big sugar mono- but wnat Enev Tate and Lyle, was dormitories in which men poly, got a High Court injunction to stop

TOTECE

film without their families. sections of the being shown. The offending in the film is British Leyland.

part shows the subhuman living They aid not try Lun" ditions in a camp lived in by injunction but black breathed a sigh of relief when particular be mobilised, class can the employing learn its strength and discard its treacherous leaders. however, at all times for the political indep- endence of the working class and insist

HILCICOL.

WE that nationalisation take the to the capitalist trusts major snareholders,

WILS

paid only

•LIC

compensation is not to compro- cases of proven need. This requirement specifically rules out the fake "'nationalisation" that has characterised reformist the complete efforts prop post-wai British capitalism through the for the national- purchase of run-down sectors of industry no longer profit- we would not rest content able to private owners. Strengthen But if the full programme to The effect of such "nationalisation" strengthen the capitalist class the by relieving it of the burden the directly sustaining Apartheid gag on TV film partly owned by the film was banned. They were sufficiently em- Lyle say they barassed to ask the director Anthony Thomas to include a that they they would «better case statement negotiate with a black trade union if 50% of their workers Jomed it. provided In theory this is a change alone of line by Leyland. In JIVe practice they know it is just The other firm mentioned words since the law in South Africa will to their assistance because negotiating he but all doubt with black unions is illegal.

High And week's

IASH

'ДІ

OCIAL

NTRACT

)CIAL

INFLICT

Leyland workers at Longbridge.

was a cover for wholesale rationalisation and speed-up, while private shareholders reap ine increusea prostis. industries while leaving the reins of management firmly alisation" in the hands of the bour- interests of capitalism, geoisie and the bourgeois launch and state Under such conditions, companies rationalisation massive schemes have been. carried land and Chrysler. through at the cost of thousands of jobs transport, mining and other industries. Another manoeuvre by the Leyland reformists in government to "nationalised" been trade union while spokesman "joint stock individuals shareholder. fighting In phony must stress to expropriate tries dubious Parliamentary which nas supported such schemes. The fight must the through factory mask giant petty exploiters. Through for only. extending far wul Liwudi involved, from the charades of ment of a Court injunction shows again But this does not defender of apartheid, as it did when the National AsSOC- that we mentary politics. for Freedom iation to prevent the injunction Union of Post Office Workers from operating a week's mail embargo against South socialist Africa government-standing last week's decision stands, then it has become illegal in this be reckoned with. country criticise capitalists

TOI

demand racist repressive "left' Labour ating ibour poncies. Page 9

SOCIAL

CONTRACTI

SOCIAL

CON-TRICK

The 'nationalisation' of Leyland under the Ryder plan give an impression of "nation- that coalition throw and behind the while serving the their weight is to independent struggles of the working class is important in

SLATE

the fight the subsidies into to expose remain impotence of these lefts' and the necessity for a revolution- privately owned-the clearest examples being British Ley- ary leadership. For us, therefore, the call for nationalisation of particular firms and branche Collaboration of industry is not an abstract genera Call

TRAGICUI

trading its on propaganda: it is an agitation- image has al slogan designed to organise able to exploit to the the collaboration of the bureaucracy, functioning, the words of leading management Alex Park as company" in which the state acts alongside another as Just against such 'nationalisation' we that the struggle particular groups of employers or indus- Report goodwill of the Labour Party, again and

COLLI

of strength workers themselves, exercised

PHOTO.

with committees to open the the business secrets of monopolies and Heffer - staunch defender NEB strategy. struggles and to lead the working class.

workers will see the need not Trotsky spells this nationalisation approach in the Transitional beyond the Programme: "The necessity of but also for a break advancing the slogan of parliamentary expropriation in the course of the Labour daily in partial agitation politicians and the establish- form, not only in ou govern- propaganda in its more com- Bre the face chatter ent that different the fact Conscious obstacle branches of industry different levels of develop- mean • different ment, оссиру can ignore parlia- place in the life of society, and through different pass Quite clearly in the fight stages of the class struggle.

today for the nationalisation "Only revolu- •a generat of particular groups of capit- tionary upsurge of the prolet- alists the question of the anti- ariat can place the complete Lib-Lab coalition expropriation of the geoisie on the of • order conscious obstacle to further day. The task of transitional nationalisation-is a factor to demands prepare the • proletariat solve this that those problem. MPs that claim to represent the interests of the working class break from

Scan page 10

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

NUPE SELLS OUT

1 MILLION ON PAY

sell out of the The bureaucracy seeks only to Local Authority manual further their aims of recruit- around workers is just ment. The original claim was for: the corner: *a £50 minimum wage The union side have not *a 35-hour week yet formally agreed to *4 weeks' holiday after 1 employers' pitiful offer, but year's service this is only due to the de- of average ear- *payment liberate stalling tactics by the nings whilst on sick leave officials of NUPE. *consolidation Phases OI Of the 3 unions involved, I and Il of the Social Con- only NUPE have rejected the tract piter. payments for *enhanced But instead of taking those not on bonus faction to support the claim, *a threshold clause to they have only put up token protect the standard of living order to win *and an increase in shift the other prestige Over aliowances. unions in their quest to in- The employers' response membership within crease to that claim was to offer a local authorities. new minimum wage Once the low paid again £42.40-a total increase of NUPE leader Fisher will suffer while the union £3.90, leaving £5 of the wage unconsolidated.

BIKE STRIKE

Average be paid only on sick leave due to industrial accident or dis- ease:

SURE CARTRO HLCIRASCILIG

shift allowance would raise it

FACES NEW ACAS

to the princely sum of 12.76p per hour for rotating shifts- an increase of 2.26p per hour, with 1.5p per hour for those on altemating sults The 'kiss of death' of

THREAT

ACAS

intervention Meaningful discussions hovering over the three- old pay strike On the threshold clause, week at the employers have said that the giant Raleigh bicycle If T.H. Raleigh can't if standards of the Shying factory in Nottingham. afford to in stay business. local authority manual em- The strike, involving 4,000 and we can't afford to work ployees lan below me value workers in the plant, has been there, there obvious then an of the agreement, official all eight made by chance for "meaningful discussions" will manu- unions involved. facturers to come in'. assess the is right to Management While Hallam The question of the claim as 39%- -which of 18 reject the company's argu- week shorter and work te conflict with the course in ments on 'viability', the fight longer holidays will be 10% pay limits. into" 'looked by the joint must be directed towards a offered 10% They have clear alternațive. commit- secretaries without blus another 4% in exchange most This struggling to ment. And perhaps for a self-financing produc- open the books of the bike all, ominous of two new tivity deal, while threatening monopoly prove the case committees will be set up to that they may be forced out for its nationalisation. look into (a) productivity and of business if the strike goes of the The intervention (b) differentials. or if the claim is met. on, NEB-which has master- This is the deal the unions Union leaders have the attacks on the minded are about to accept, despite responded by calling not for Rritish Levland work force- a clear mandate from NUPE nationalisation of Raleigh, will do nothing to assist recions to relect it. but for the National Enter- Raleigh workers their It comes nowhere near the brise Board to take the firm legitimate pay demands. original claim. But by skiiful under its wing. Instead of such diversions manipulation con- recal The alternative, according ferences, union bureaucrats Jack Hallam, Metal local fire- organise alongside been able to dupe dele- Nave Divisional Mechanics Union men to spread andstrengthen gates into believing this was their attack on the 10% Secretary, is that the market pay the best ofter that could be opened up for importers.

limit. gained. that is the best offer full that time negotiators Tactics change on could get, then they must be replaced by lay members who will take a hard line. health cuts The membership have re- ceived no lead as to how the claim could be won. Betrayal The hospitals now The Secretary of State Eltham Thie threatened the negotiators have said Social Services, Mr. for and Nottingham; Bexley that any local BruP Ennals, Waterg: Woolwile Bexley David has made and workers receive Memorial more than 10% then they will in Welling; tactical retreat his Hospital, and the British back negotia- to reopen bid to cut health services Hospital for Mothers and tions. Greenwich District, Babies in Greenwich. This is a coward's way out.

South London. It is a betrayal of trade union- While this change of plan opposition from staff and tige face huge is an indication of the level ism. of opposition Are we to ride on the back to the closure St. Nicholas, would of the firemen. when ocal community, we on the Area • Health be out there rejected the clearly Ennals picket line beside them? of 'victory' when authority's plan to close st.

Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead, is simply attempting to shift A united stand by all those in local government is needed Which has 283 beds. pick off ground five and to smash the 10% limit. Instead he proposing. smaller, diat five smaller hospitals in quently weaker The union leaders must be hospitals the Area should the same areas. and defeated,. close with a fought along loss of about 250 beds and Consultation on this new with the end at win a • theoretical "saving' of about scheduled to the low paid are PHOTO: Andrew Wiard. Report force the TUC to act.

BLACK

GRUNWICK

The ACAS recommen- dation that APEX should at Grun- be recognised wick's was finally put to death by the Law Lords 14 Wednesday last December. The burial of this diver- sionary body will only bring forward mourners from of the

TUC

bureau- ranks cracy who saw in its existence vital tool with which to hold back and fend off • demands for action to cut off supplies and services to the factory. Ward and his backers in the ruling class were jubilant and not in the least surprised.

Only regret Our only regret is that the corpse travelled so far: from High Court, which found in its favour, to the Court of Appeal, which ruled it void, to find peace in a hole dug for weeks ago by The 'highest juridical body in the land'. PHOTO: Andrew Wiard Rolls Royce strikers supporting Grunwick picket of TUC Another derisory offer from the management at the Rolls Royce Mulliner Park Ward plant in North London has been deser- rejected by the vedly strikers. After 14 weeks on strike, the management last Wednes- day offered the 600 workers plus a £60 a 10% increase special lump sum they had been Formerly offering a straight 10%. This crude attempt to buy off the striking workers was finat Taiantar hu tha strike

BURY ACAS -

Labour MP Bruce Grocott joined the ranks of the 'lefts' came to the overnight and "higher realisation echelons of the judiciary were anti-union and anti-Labour" Ahirey Wise response was 'left' while Wellelan to sponsor a spurious motion Commons which the expressed "grave concern at the Law Lords' decision'.

AUEW-TASS

Stalinist member of the TUC General Ken Council, Sensine affect the that this might functioning of his favourite of watchdog the working class remarked sadly that the decision 'drives a nail into the coffin of ACAS'. General Secretary

APEX

Roy Grantham, still unsatis- fied with the butcher's job he has carried out on the strike so far, promised to do his best to resuscitate the dead recommendation. while it does Presumably again, the rounds the legal strikers will be waiting for the outcome on the picket lines?

ois noye

RR OFFER FAILS

who later re- committee, rejection at a mass meeting on Saturday.

The strikers are demanding a 17% across the board in- crease as well as improved sick and holiday pay arrange- ments. The spate of offers (all inadequate) from manage- ment in the past four weeks is indicative of their desire to what is undoubtedly • end costly dispute. The fact that all their man- oeuvres have been relected 1s of the however a sure. sign workers' desire to pursue the strike until victorv is theits SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 21 December, 1977 sturrock, report Stalinist Ken Gill Jack Dromey's kaleidoscopic array of about-turns reached a new high when having just. called off a S.E. Region TUC conference on Grunwick (be- cause APEX hadn't given it full support!) he brazenly prophesied that "this dispute only be won by trade union muscle". Although we would be the last to disagree with this last statement, regular readers of Socialist Press will recognise that alone against the array of fake-Trotskyists reporting Grunwicks, the Workers' Socialist League has pointed to the fact that despite its strength, movement, with the likes of Jack Jones, Len Murray and Hugh Scanlon at its head, is effectively decapitated. Determined So too at a local level. only a leadership determined moolise wnole layers ol workers behind the strikers' call for blacking of all sup- plies and services can lead the way forward to victory. has said Grantham any initiative of which that he disapproves undertaken by the strikers will result in their suspension from the union.

Because of this intimida- tion, the strike committee will not be supporting the lobby of the TUC General Council on the 21st. fight for Yet even blacking action, in the form of a model resolution to all labour movement bodies, will also result in similar intimida- tion from their own union bureaucracy. Do-or-die In this do-or-die situation, we believe that the strikers must break sharply from the An appeal for bureaucracy. support must be launched and local postal, electricity and water workers must action behind brought into the blacking call. With the verbal support of huge workers sections translated into concrete soli- darity support and financial backing for the strikers and imposing blacking the question of action, closing down the factory and winning the strike will once more come to the fore. Only with such a focus will the strikers achieve what seems to be slipping out from their grasp: full reinstatement and full union recognition!

Scan page 11

Government ban 0.36% pay rise Provincial journalists have had the final insult offered of the government's pay limits shoved down their Hopeless throats-a 10% offer has been withdrawn because went 0.36% over the it limit. outflank the government.

NUJ

had already ine But the voted by almost two to one action-taking to accept the offer when the 11S0e the News- emplovers-the Society-whipped paper away from under theit noses.

Union negotiators went back to see the management which negotiated behalf. on Monday (December 19) in one of the most humiliating positions a team ot union negotiators can have faced.

Newspaper Society The class offered £7.35 for seniors with membership-who scaled down offer for junior journalists. negotiating in isolation This represented 12% The a of the lower rise for many paid journalists, but was cal- culated as being 10% of the wage bill for the industry.

the was accepted by the out claimed by the union. journalists with less than 4.000 voting out of a total The of 9,300-a of sign the demoralisation that

ICE LICE

during the negotiations. England Newspapers, The vote clearly reflected that the journalists-who had period put in a claim for £23 a week other papers -have been given no lead in minster how to win the claim. Although the negotiators discuss action in support.

CIR 100

PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report

SCHO

The Darlington picket line in the early days of the strike with the then General Secretary Ken Morgan. Talas of Catall

YOUR MAN AT THE TOP

WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY

TO FIGHT SUCH ELEMENTS...

lover recommended rejection, they While the findings to the the special kangaroo industrial action that had to court set up by bureaucracy

TGWU

attempts to witch-hunt militants devise a way round the 10% were correctly rejected by the Cowley await the rubber- membersilo after ene rallure stamp of Regional Com- of Daily Mirror journalists to mittee approval, one for Regional bureaucrat has already nailed his colours up fight

TUC,

linking up to the mast. with the firemen and other ard ack d mis, "nuior stew- not even tiny number mentioned by the rrovincial

TGWU

members at the MG Journalists Industrial Council, Abingdon plant has gone into on their print with a ndiculous witch- hunting attack against two of Instead the prospect of an those charged by isolated action divorced from Fryel court, Bob and other sections of the working Alan Thornett. held the up Democratic ballot COlE clearly see that they were not Their offence according to Newspaper Society Adams? They had the nerve offer has not only stuck to elected to 10%, it has also refused steward and deputy steward positions by a demo- to allow further claims to be cratic ballot of members in made locally, and has thrown fringe benefits the plant! Darlington strike, SCOTTISH workers need not which continues despite the fear. The US Government has of the North has lost of bringing in a no intention momentum in the Christmas school of killer dolphins to but journalists from protect the Holy Loch nuc- the West- lear submarine base, accord- 1n Press group are to ing to Foreign Office Minister meet again on January 6 to Frank Judd.

HERN ECHO

YOU

carit ch NOtJ

VIN

ISA

ITC

THERE ARE SOME MALCONIENTS

THEY CAST DOUBTS

ON

WITHIN THE UNION THAT KNOCK I

OUR ABILITY TO NEGOTIATE.

THE

HARD WORK

WE DO...

MIND YOU-WE ALWAYS ENSURE

BUT THEN TAKE THE

THEY GET A FAIR HEARING...

FIRMEST

ACTION..

JURY

Kangaroo speaks out And vicious right wing of Parsons convenor Reg was ousted by a margin of 200 the remind votes. to "This is nothing short of two far and reflects criminal, very ballots a at badly on those 2,000 plus known TGWU members who did not credited despite the facilities votes

VULC

thundered Adams provided" in a letter to the local Oxford Mail. time No right wing cries

TGWU

5,000 ing inquiry Adams was silent on the fact that Parsons was these aside by officials. previously elected UHl similar turn-out. There were right wing cries of no "apathy" then. It is purely the fact that left wing the Candidates have fought the right wings parody-the subservience to management, kangaroo court. have been elected that brings Adams to brand the election as a "parody" and the work force "damned thought- as less'" outside of The response on the shop floor to Adams' tirade was a Bakery workers who voted overwhelmingly for strike in support their pay claim have been forced to stay at work by their union and operate a Christmas work to rule. time for the The 57,000 bakery workers, who are unlikely to put enough pressure on their managements to up Christmas an im proved offer scabbed through such half hearted ache kind of witchciunt hin now facing the same strike the press as if they were out Christmas on strike Sake of public Inembers Sam Maddox, general secretary of the Bakers' day work Union, said that strike would called week. _nol be over Christmas for the sake of the ignoring the public, call of strike over bank

THEY EVEN ACCUSE US OF

ACTING AS

POLICEMEN

ON PAY...

5 issues 10 issaes 25 issues 50 issues

TO DESTROY

EXTREMIST

WRECKERS

Name..

AND SAVE

DEMOCRACY

Address

- INDUSTRIAL NEWS-

Chief kangaroo keeper Bill Roche JP near unanimous cry of 'Who ten leading left-wingers the hell is Adams?'' Cowley Assembly Socialist Press readers had including Bob Fryer an Thornett. workers that in more mysterious Its structure ensure the the same tight-knit chi ago yeal Jack Adams was right wing bureaucrats with thousands of act as prosecution, Jud Cowley, and on from ductings hearings "charges' this basis gained a seat on the ducting TGWU Regional Committee. recommending senten Repeated requests at that the Regional Committe trom two Cowley In charge of the branches-represent- affair were two macisi members-for District Secretary into the running of Buckle JP and Leyland ballots brushed Plant convenor Chairman Bill Roche JP Now Adams, as a member of the Regional Committee, is to be one of the bureaucrats whole sordid affair responsible for implementing not strength but decisions real desperate straits of a b Cowley is isolated popular support. the fight to Outside of rule their elected represen and carry forward The court itself was set up struggle against the em any TGWU rules Cowley workers hav by the Oxford District Com- chance to deal a furthe mittee in order to victimise at the kangaroo keepers

LEADERS IGNORE

BAKERS STRIKE

BALLOT

the members for just that.

shows the readiness of ba ideal workers to fight to pu was strike since it end to their appalling pay conditions. would have hit the compans at a time of bumper profits, Small enough bakeries were too busy with The claim itself put specials to have the union is small on the strike by increasing their output. Maddox says that Maddox had held back the members are taking acti threat until improve a 6% offer to after 10% without saying The when it will be introduced.

difference consolidation of Phases The 40-hour week that the 2 which would increas working, nOW together with a ban on Sun- members' overtime pay. The employers-the F lops about 20 hours off the normal working ation of Bakers-have re to consolidate, claiming Coming so soon after their this in brea ge holidays it. the Government pay poli

SOCIALIST

PRESS

* . £1.1 £2.2 . £5.51 £10.01 (Overseas rates: write for details).

I would like. issues. I enclase £.. Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hil London NW5 1HR Sherrihol.

Scan page 12

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

SCARGILL'S

COURTS

BETRAYAL

10 George Brown's scabby Christmas firemen faced a AS hristmas on strike and all sorts of "diffi- ith alties" having been put the way of their receiy- Party. launched alone with Liberal g social security money MP Jo Grimmond and Tories is a long time since Winston lan Gilmour and anvone associated this wretch which they with the labour Churchill. movemen atitled. sometime In a series of letters to the but his conduct reminds eader" of the labour that the top echelons of the bourgeois press they spoke of lovement started a members of the armed forces Labour Party and trade union still infested bllection. 'who have almost with parasites bit nothing with which to bright- every as But Lord George-Brown's this Christmas for their loathsome as Brown. en lection was not for the families, them- Earlier this month Brown remen but for the scabs of selvês" was one of the guests of hon- • drIly. worth remembering dinner given by at

O LI

that this traitor Sickening appeal the Institute of Journalists- rose to political eminence due body which the anAl In a display of Christmas to his claims to might for the Josephine Kirk recruited Brown's sick- interests of the working class.

alition spirit, Smith at Darlington, ing appeal for charity to deputy leadea of the La For several her refusal to join the NUJ the Labour was sparked off the seven month for closed strike there shop.

FUND

The labour movement not wait for such • creatures to gorge themselves blood and leave on workers' of their own accord like Brown and Prentice. They expelled must be £170.46 is the sum received over the last seven from the movement on which days towards our £600 December Fund target.

they prey This brings the total this month to £426.73.

More details With the Christmas post greatly delayed it is important that a major effort is made in the week after Christmas to raise all the outstanding money, and make an early start on the January Fund.

League. With a new set of price increases adding to our Name. . Year it is more running costs due in the New Address important than ever that the fight is taken up to raise the full amount each month.

Donations should be sent to: Trade Union/Occupation...

Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR answer the incentives diversion.

Whatever the outcome of this Wednesday's court hearing pit produc- on deals-and it is tivity be virtually certain another rebuff for those supporting democratic within the decisions Scargill NUM-Arthur and his Stalinist allies have done miners nothing but harm by taking to the courts. In seeking to involve the law and the bourgeois state in the internal atfairs of the

NUM,

Scargill not only abandoning the vital indepen- dence of the workers' move- ment, but also diverting from the pay struggle. Biased in favour Nothing be gained can from this. The courts have been exposed time and time again as biased in favour of the extreme right wing, and the armed . agents of the capitalist class. The jailing of Grunwick prohibition of pickets, blacking action by postal workers and tne Injunctions flying Newham North 11l East Labour Party are fresh mind of examples in the hostility of the courts to the labour movement. "Benevolent" judge More and more the law is being brought in Levense and democratic destroy processes. It is a matter of principle further such not interference. But even if Scargill and the three other area leaders find should happen 'benevolent" judge, nothing would be resolved. The right wing would make the running in a long drawn-out the central the while frustration of miners on the question-would wages remain unresolved. at the frustration I would like more information about the Workers Socialist Send to WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 IHR

NIONAL

Kent NUM banner on march against unemployment-only strike action on wages can DUOMO. And aw Wil Parnat Scargill effects of two years of wage controls and the prospect of a third that has driven miners towards the reactionary

TECHLYES SUICIN

squanders While Scargill time and money on lawyers, £135 claim-which the pay adopted at the

NUM

Wab and tacitly Conference endorsed in the ballot which threw out the incentives plan -has neen allowed to gather dust in Gormley's waste bin.

And MaRY Scargill, McGahey and others calling inaustral simply against incentive the schemes-separate from pay claim-would be the last straw. certainly appears from Star that Morning reports has been Stalinist McGahey holding back on action on wages. Wiard Andrew

PHOTO.

Gormiey-claim in waste bin.

A Scottish delegate confer- voted 19-7 to demand cock a special national conference to discuss "various, forms of industrial action" to imple. ment the pay claim, and to and condemn the reject Executive's plan area incentive schemes. "Complete unity" told the McGahey Star "there complete unity was on tne question or our sland as a Scottish area, but some people wanted immediate action, while others wanted to take this decision" Those delegates who wanted 'immediate action' on held the correct position. Left-talking Bitterness the endless al delays and left blather wages by McGahey and other left-talking Executive mem- Ders open Over al weck colliery, Fife, Solsgirth where miners were driven reactionary strike

W0LU

demanding incentive an scheme. Every day wasted in the courts, every day without a clear programme of action on the claim will add pay NCB and right strength wing propaganda for incen- tives, Already Scargill, McGahey Renort PHOTO: Andrew Wiard McGahey and the 'lefts' have delayed two months after the nearly NUM claim should have been settled Latter-day piecework Yet in opposing the NCB's speed-up › plans and upholding the £135 claim they have been proved to represent the majority of miners. While right wingers attempt to lead miners into the dangers of a latter-day piecework an area basis, those that showed majorities against the plan must take the claim, giving a lead to all miners.

STILL AVAILABLE

"The Hotel Strikes- Lessons for unionisation" Price 35p plus 10p p&p From the Hotel and Cater- ing National Action Com- ittee, 21, Scala St., London W10 1L0

← no. 79, 14 December 1977no. 81, 4 January 1978 →