Socialist Press no. 21

€1,000 MILLION IN

CUTS AND SPEED-UP

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

A £1,000 million loan has been requested from the IMF by Wilson and Healy to finance a programme of massive speed- up and redundancies in a desperate attempt to solve the cap- italist crisis at the expense of the working class.

In return for the loan the govern- ment will send the IMF a "letter being extended to British industry of intent" underlining its commit- as a whole. ment to stepping up profitability The joint statement is full of ref- erences to "cooperation" of union in British industry - at the expense of mass unemployment and further bureaucrats and management. The cuts in the social services, health TUC in signing the statement and education. Their full strategy, expressed its agreement with the announced from the Chequers crucial clause: 'The Government has made it meeting last week between Wilson, Healey Varley, the TUC and the clear that it accepts the importance CBI, is a threat to the job and of sustaining a vigorous, alert, res living standards of every worker ponsible and profitable private in Britain. sector of industry". All Healey's talk of 'expanding

I STATEMENT

capacity and increasing employ Their joint statement spelled out ment in sectora lith good prod that the central problems for pects' is just so much hogwash to British capitalism are: disguise the brutal attack now "low labour pi activity reflecting lined up against manning agreements, conditions and jobs on every shop , inadequate consultation, i trictive practices, floor, which means a wave of red- overmanning which is the crucial undancies all over the country to add to the 1.25 million already question| ani sruption by ind- ustrial action? unemployed. together with We Jesulting With this commitment to deman- "declining rai • industrial prof. itability" and "a capital market which does not give priority to the needs of indust- ry". They announce their determination to overcome the problem of over- manning by collaboration (or 'par- ticipation) between TUC bureau- crats and the employers to impose massive speed up. At the same time the Labour government will provide financial aid selectively to help re- equip and speed up the most lucr- ative capitalist industries, while the others are forced to the wall, or in turn take on and speed up their labour force.

CUTS

The huge sums of money involved from cuts in spending on the nat- ionalised industries (most of which they describe as "utilities") and the Healey, Wilson, Varley and the NEDC's McIntosh social services. The statement says at a press conference after the Chequers agreement.

clearly that: ning and unemployment, it is small "For the immediate future this wonder the TUC has implicitly will mean giving priority to ind- threatened action against Trades ustrial development over consum Councils which support the mass ption or even over social object- ives". lobby of Parliament called on 26th November by the NW Region TUC, The logic of this is absolutely stating that to give such support clear. In the name of profitability they would be acting outside their in capitalist industry, hospitals, authority. schools, pensions, welfare pay- state sector must be axed in the

HOSTILITY

immediate future. Every sector of workers will suf- Jones and Murray rightly fear that fer in this process: whether they a big demonstration will provide are directly speeded up in the a focus for working class hostility "top 30" manufacturing industries, to Wilson's Tory policies, going or face redundancies through cuts much further than the reformist in social services. demands on which it was called.

CLASS COLLABORATION

mass movement which to begin the The Chequers talks show that must drive Wilson, Healey and the strategy of class-collaboration Varley out of the labour movement, pioneered in the Ryder speed up where they are protected by the plan for British Leyland is now TUC - and put an end to their react- ionary policies once and for all.

Workers voted Labour to defend jobs and wages against the Tories - not to face a state-backed employ- ers offensive on speed up.

'LEFTS'

This is why the dismal sounds of the 'left' MPs are completely inad- equate to lead the fight against the Chequers plans. The Tribune Group of MPs, the day atter the chequers? «ison bad Museu abandoned rite 1373 Mantfesto and the decisions of the last Labour Party Conference. But where has been the fight of these lefts' to oust Wilson from the Cabinet? What does it mean to bleat now about Wilson's flouting of the last Conference, if it is not backed with a campaign throughout the unions and the LabourParty to remove him?

NATIONALISATION

If these 'lefts' really oppose Wilson's policies, now is the time for them to take a stand on the fight for socialist nationalisation (specifically ruled out by Healey in the Chequers agreement) - in opp- osition to Healey's plan.

Only wholesale socialist nation- alisation, combined with a prog ramme of public works to provide jobs and expand the social services can now ward off the impact of the capitalist crisis and offer a way for- ward for the working class.

Such a programme must be fought for in the labour and trade union novement - taking up the struggle o open the books of the employers for work sharing on full pay, and for a programme of public works under workers management.

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

NO 21 * 12th November 1975 * 10p

ANGOLA-CIA'S

nEW CONGO The withdrawal of Portuguese political claims to the oil and mineral rich territory of Angola, the last remaining important colony in Africa, took place on 11th November. Re the ne independent nation, and the struggle must inevitably continue between the liberation forces of the MPLA and the miscellaneous CLA-backed gangs of Portuguese and South Afri- can mercenaries, together with the Zairesun FNLA and pro-Western UNITA organisations. The continual references in the capitalist press to the "rival liberation movements' in Angola is a conscious effort to confuse a complicated sit- vation and to cast a smoke-screen over the efforts of the US imperial- ists, their backers in Zaire, and their allies from South Africa, to retain control over this strategically impor- tant and economically rich area of Southern Africa.

THREAT

The advent of a truly independent regime in Angola would pose a great threat to the international strategy of the United States by its possession of an enormous length of the South West African coastline, and to the racialists of South Africa in their att- empt to hold on to the area of Nam- ibia immediately to the south of Angola The big international oil and min- eral countries including Gulf and Krupps who took enormous profits from the country during the latter period of colonial rule are also afraid of any regime that might threaten to expropriate them The MPLA has carried on a bitter war for national independence against the Portuguese since its foundation as long ago as 1956. It has widespread support from many different sections of the Angolan people, including most of the urban petty bourgeoisie and some whites.

It is said to be 'Marxist', but in fact is a bourgeois anti-imperialist movement of a classic sort and has received support from the Stalinists of the Soviet Union.

MPLA

The nature of the 'Marxism' of the MPLA is clear from the recent calls in their paper Vitoria e Certa for a "battle for production', and their efforts to break strikes by dockers at Luanda and by other workers.

A movement putting forward policies such as these clearly is not going to be able to carry through th revolution in Angola, but the crisis of the imperialists is such that they cannot tolerate even that. During the course of the liberation strade in Angola the imperialists have res orted to a number of methods to retain their hold over any indepen dest regine.

ZAIRE

The best channel for this policy has been Mobutu, dictator of Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) immed iately to the North, who delivered lett nationalist leader Patrice Lum umba to his murder in 1961, and since then has had the complete confidence of the CIA. During the course of the 1960's a series of sma tribalist successionist movements in the North of Angola close to the Zaire border came together under the leadership of Mobutu's brother in-law, Holden Roberto, a business man from Zaire itself, born in Ang ola. This was the basis of the FNLA Whatever the shortcomings of the other bodies, there can be no doubt about the nature of the FNLA.

During its early period its main pur pose seems to have been not to fight the Portuguese but to prevent those who were actually doing so from gaining any any assistance in the North The FNLA's support derives solely from the Bakonga tribe, which in habits both sides of the Zaire-Angol border. and Roberto himset ha stated quite explicity that he cons iders it to tall within the sphere of influence of the USA'.

POLICIES

Something of the social policies of the organisation can be gat! red fro the fact that their forces attacked o 30th April last the main offices of the National Union of Anyplan Workers, the main trade y sion bod killing 28 people. Ano * arm of Zaire and the ovement known as FLEC w as declared ibinda, a the independence anded by small oil-rich area st Zaire territory said in Nor is there more favour of the other illed liber- ation movement, the LUNITA of Jonas Savimbi There is little evidence that this movement, which controls a small area of the centre of the country around the town of Nova Lisboa has ever been engaged in any ser ious opposition actions against the Portuguese, though there are

CONTINUED ON PAGE

Page Z Ford and Rockefeller.

USA

Over the weekend of 2nd. the November Washington was hit by a spate of dismissals and and resignations as sudden Kissinger which drastic as those not certain. all, Nelson heralded the political death his agony of Nixon. Republican of Defence, The Secretary was sacked in In the James Schlessinger, staff of Ford's chief favour a stream Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA director in the Colby dropped William surprising, middle of the congressional invest- agency, to be igation of the spy. George Bush, currently ruling class replaced by capitalism the missIon l head ol Aucilall Peking. Henry Kissinger, while remain-

SPANISH SAHARA

King to press, As we go of Morocco prepares Hassan to lead his 350,000 unarmed "peace marchers' into the mine- gunsights of the fields and Call Spanish foreign legion. The should the Legion, Foreign need arise, will be joined with- in a matter of hours by jet Torrejon and fighters from the 2,000 paratroops from Canary Islands. the sacred book br Aliah, King Hassass marchers will attempt to cross the frontier Morocco into the Spanish from. where Governor Slazar has consequences terrible". In this he is undoubtedly correct. King Hassan's desert adventure

INDIA -CHINA

BORDER CLASH

Four Indian soldiers were when a small border killed patrol clashed with a detach- ment of about forty Chinese and which somewhere on troops eastern frontier with China 20th, according October on to solve. delayed statement by Her to a the Indian foreign office on statelet November Ist. the most annexed incident 'referendum' important since the fighting in the certainly of Ladakh, eastern disputed areas in 1962 immediately for Mrs. provided the pretext dictatorship to renew its Gandhis China nationalistic pressure on along the conquests its claims relinquish more than a Himalayan border which

FOI

long thousand divides the two states. The Chinese foreign office dis- fighting, claim that the Indian since Indian had taken place clash

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

stability on an international scale.

Ford tried "shuffle" politics, rather than American which confusionists alt according to him Schlessinger and Colby were simply not "my guys".

INEPT

(Lyndon Johnson is wrong to see this latest fumble as at bottom a personal failure.

whether he jumped or was pushed - (most likely he was helped to jump) is intimately linked to the inability dealing with the deepening crisis Cityford's hard line on the plight of New York is doubtless in part ing Secretary of State, is yielding resistance the crumbling reformist of the National leadership of the city's main unions chairmanship might offer to the conditions which Security Council to Lt. Gen. Brent will eventually be put forward for Kissingoft is widesy supposed but whose loyalty And in the midst of it elements of American capital see a Rockefeller announced stand retürn to policies of laissez jaire as intention not as vice-presidential candi- date in the 1976 election.

wake of the shake-up, the capitalist press has poured forth of often confused and This is not contradictory analysis. for reflects the They would of the US confusion and disarray, New York City as the world crisis of social conditions. continues to work its largely way through American society and California's disrupt political and economic is designed to get hold of valuable phosphate deposits which lie under demand for independence. Conse- quently if Moroccan troops attempt reall to clear a way for the holy march- quish the colony if an arrangement ers they are likely to face not only protecting its the Spanish foreign legion but also To this end negotiations have been underway for some time be- tween Morocco and Madrid. Span- ish bargaining power is strengthened cerned, the Spaaish Sahara question by the fact that Hassan, in laying could not have occurred at a more to the Spanish colony, opportune moment. It provided the defying a ruling of the world court.

Secondly there is no large body of opinion among the population of the colony for absorption into stubbornly refused to relinquish it.

Polisario, opp- oses both Hassan's designs and the factor is that the Algerian govern- ment is also determined that the phosphate deposits shall not pass (an cause he renter of Ta., autonomous region of China).

For Mrs. Gandhi, such incidents offer a diversion from the economic political crisis in India itself 'concessions the populist made since she imposed her state done nothing of emergency have planned official visit to 11Cs Gangtok "(capital of Sikkim, the on the Chinese immediately east of Nepal, officially India following by August) was designed to whip up in India for con- national&feeling tinued rule over the border states most of them territories inherited by the Indian bourgeoisie from the and annexations British imperialism. of Indian territory' Indian troops and years been tied down in police have against nationalist move ments (supported by the Chinese Nagaland and 1967) | border. on the Rurmese governor Ronald Reagan, who has a substantial base of support among the petty bourgeoisie After a period of quiet, Reagan coming forward as the is rapidly challenge to nomination Republican as increasing •idential candidate The alignment of the right-wing behind explain was driven home to Ford • Reagan in terms of personalities by the cool reception given to his trick gatherings speeches party bourgeois end of October. California at the fond: specially policy on New York City His must be seen as partly an attempt to head off Reagan by adapting to his viewpoint. This, too, is behind Ford's satisfaction at the promised of Rockefeller, departure name is anathema to such types as Reagan and Goldwater.

SEPARATE

and chew gum at the same towards the big city. Not only was wer base is partly of the also immersed to ir financial institutions - his brother David is chairman York will default.

LIBERAL STRATEGY

is for the government Reagan's approach is a far cry from to the shoulders of the this, even though the aims of both - to drive up the rate of profit at 'of the working class - see quite happily lip into medieva and the Reagan-Goldwater wing of These elements grouped around Republican party right-wing former

ANGOLA

documented allegations that they cooperated with them against the 40% of the population, and within recent openly supplied with American and as It also seems certain that they they ever seem to be able to put in power to him effectively even though observers see them are Portuguese and South African mercenaries.

Furthermore Juan Carlos' sup- This is a situation where all invasion has strengthened his supp- forward by the Portuguese Armed ort in the Army as his immediate power base in the coming political Organisation of African Unity have to support the MPLA, nothing has ities for a long time were under the out of sympathy with the decolon- isation schemes of the new regime fact a way of helping the right-wing soldiers who have not now gone struggle for control of the country is the fourth largest in the with the FNLA and UNITA forces.

BREAKDOWN

After the break-down of the which also supports the dictatorial "provisional government including all three groups in the summer, the thousands of left-wingers under the MPLA fought a series of military campaigns which brought most of at the end of October claimed that York Times of 25th. occupying 14,000 square kilometres Mobutu to deal with this.

Indian press as justifying their right an effort to preempt the MPLA from declaring itself as the tributes to the dangers of Indiar to offensive has SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12ih Norember 1975 geoisie to solve the insoluble, with Ford buffeted about in the middle by forces which he almost certainly does not understand Ford's pres significant move in sacking of Schlessinger as Secretary in hostility of con budget, and of Kissinger by posing the progress of the SALT negotiations.

WHOS

his removal as the Chinese were dismayed. The Amer- ican ruling class now seems ready to The Soviet bureaucracy, for its less ready than at the the international working class by connivance with the major capital- That China feels threatened by the US shift of strategy was already trip planned for the beginning of made no lasting impact on Chinese Coke and hot-dog It begins to look as if their eagerness to betray Asian recent in the invorests of tiendship" movements with the interests of USA is not paying off. Continued from front page launched in recent weeks. Some of close to Luanda in the North has been won back by the

FNLA.

RECAPTURED

that the week it seems Last Libito of and major sea ports Benguela were recaptured by whit of behalf mercenaries acting on . According to Le Monde of

UNITA.

7th. November, the pro-imperialists have not succeeded yet in winning much of the mining areas of North they lost in September.

One interesting participant in these events has been the Chinese Stalinists. With a most cynical dis- regard for the elementary principles of internationalism, they have been sending military advisers to help the FNLA, and published an editorial been pu the Peking People's Daily Zaire their support for pressing against 'Soviet expansionism'.

misrepresent- Such

CONSCIO UN

ation and active pro-imperialism is the logical outcome of the politics of 'social fascism'.

BREAK LINKS

must be The attitude that labour British adopted the movement is clear. There must be "rival of end all talk movements' independence active support for the independence of Angola under the MPLA. The Labour government must break off all its links with the reactionary leaders of the FNLA and UNITA organisations. At the same time there must be understanding the clear limitations of the MPLA and their pro-Soviet Stalinist backers.

Only interests of the African masses al socialist policies serve this time 'National liberation' by itself successful withou be cannot of nationalising policies af socialist planning capital and mineral extraction and agriculture, industrial development this way Only revolution te completed national aad dil tbose other Angola conscies that still remai colonial under the threat of catonialists and imperialism been

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12th November 1975

INDOCHINA

SPLITS

EMERGE

Political divisions between the newly liberated states of Indochina emerged in sharper relief at beginning the of November. While the Vietnam- in Hanoi and ese regimes Saigon swung themselves def- initely behind Soviet foreign.

policy, the Cambodian 'royal government of national unity' cemented its links with China and Thailand. A November 2nd joint comm- unique announced that the Thai and Cambodian governments -are to establish full diplomatic relations, following a visit Bangkok to Ieng Trime Minister now dudged tou te Cambodian deputy leading figure in the the Phnom- Penh Thailand will government. supply large quantities of rice mainly paid for by China - to the Cambodians, and will open the link hetween the two countries to help the acute shortages meet (especially fuel and cement) now hampering the recovery of the economy. The joint communique declared which brought it into - in terms harmony policy wards Cambodia - that 'the political economic and social system of each country is an internal matter cerning only the of that people country, and that all outside inter ference cannot be tolerated'.

There was no comment on the continued presence of over 16,000 US troops in Thailand, now likely to stay beyond the date effectively set for their withdrawal in March next year, guerrilla and strike movement which has shaken thé Pramoj government in recent months.

CONTRAST

This stands in sharp contrast mounting attacks by Viet- to the namese and Laotian radio stations on the Thai government, denounc- real) former support its (very Ing "reactionaries' in the Indochin- and demanding provocations, the return

O TIORI

the boats and aircraft they have stolen. The Hanoi government has now aligned itself quite clearly with ine Soviet leadership, taking its distance from China. Le Duan, First Secret- ary of the Vietnam Workers Party,

ERITREA

CRITICAL STAGE

The struggle for indepen- dence in Eritrea has reached a critical Forcibly stage. annexed by Ethiopia in 1962, after a decade of federation imposed by the UN, the ex- Italian and ex-British colony occupies key strategic a . position in the Middle East.

500 Its miles coastline, Ethiopias only access to the sea.

lie at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Israeli and US military aid to Ethiopia their protects interests the Red Ser "friendly" coastal area to Israel. The rights to the area and 10,500 square miles off Eritrea were shared out between returned from an official visit to Moscow at the end of October, having signed a joint declaration with Brezhnev. In it the Vietnamese government and party: "el cosmite of the Soret central committee The sovieT Communist Party and the Soviet government who are applying on policy the international aimed the realising at Leninist principles of peaceful coexistence, its por tati the triber on cond national liberation social progress, at consolidating by universal ecurity and at render international ing "detente' irreversible"

IRONY

Needless Brezhnev's say coexistence "peaceful has nothing to do with "Leninism'. it 1s an irony that the Hanoi leadership having only put an bloody war to free revolutionary themselves from imperialist oppres- should themselves

NOIT

to the counter-revolutionary "peace- keeping' diplo macy of Brezhnev and Kissinger. Le Duan - who also effectively Provisional speaks for the lutionary Government Vietnam; many of the ambassadors in Hanoi have also been acredited with the Saigon authorities - also led a Vietnamese delegation on:an official visit to Peking at the end Standard Jersey) and Mobil Oil. US Many other countries have interests inland, and "advisers" thousands of US nave trained the Ethiopian forces being used in the subiugation of Eritrea The Eritrean Liberation Front, which captured the honorary British last month, Consul also four Americans from the noas Kagnew communications base Asmara, 'the Eritrean capital. This "irreplaceable US communications the US satellite spy system, snooping for signals throughout the Middle East and deep the

JILU

USSR.

In 1971 the ELF was split into factions, two apparently of personal, religious and geog leng Sary, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister of September. But on that occasion there was no joint decla- ration and the two parties put forward quite distinct foreign policies. Chinese Teng vice-premier Hsiao-Ping denounced 'the rivalry between the two super-powers (ie. the US and the Soviet Union) over achieving world hegemony, while Le Duan identified the main enemy as 'imperialism, of which the leader is American imperialism' The political divisions between the Indochinese states make it clear why leng Sary rejected in Bangkok the idea of an •ndochinese ration' linking Cambodia, Laos and the Vietnams. :split between Cambodia and Vietnam of principle; reflects the Stalinist character of the leadership in each country and their domination by Peking and Moscow respectively.

BACKING

Despite the fact that neither could exist without the backing of a mass revolutionary and nationalist movement against US imperialism, they are now both drawn into the orbit of the major adjusting Stalinist powers, their foreign policies.to the expediencies of agree- of the complex system alliances ments and with pro- imperialist governments set up by Soviet and Chinese stalinist the leaderships. raphical differences. Ancestimated 600 were killed in interfactional fighting a year ago. But insubordina- from a refusal to tion resulting fight fellow Eritreans, coupled with the enormous recruitment since the Ethiopian attacks on Eritrea in forced the rebruary, unification of the movement This expected to be complete in a few months, i 'Marxist based reportedly perspective. A recently-returned British correspondent reports that "the class struggle, the history of oppression in Eritrea, and democratic centralism are the main ideological themes" the in of the orientation soldiers the "heroes" of many of them bein Marx and Lenin. The Eritreans fear that Ethiopia, having desolated the area around Asmara, will now destroy their air strikes. But the

SEVOSEN

increase in popular support for the training of 10,000

ELF,

ana ine February, recruits sin ce allows the ELF to have 25,000 men the city against 20,000 around Ethiopians. guerrilla war tactics Classical replaced by set be piece

ELF

engagements, where the able to isolate expected Asmara, Keren, and Massawa on the ground. Arms arriving from Syria include anti-tank and Iraq will weapons, anti-aircraft guns. and some SAM missiles - which were used to devastating effect against Israeli aircraft in the October war.

WHAT IS THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE?

The Workers Socialist League was formed in Decembe of the principles 1974 to struggle for the continuity Trotskyism in Britain and towards the rebuilding of the Fourt International. our work in the mass movement has seen the Leagu Since then develop into an expanding organisation with important new areas of wor (especially the Midlands and the North West), and an enlarge trade union base. In the daily struggle to take the demands and principles of Trotsky the WSL has been at t Transitional Programme into the trade unions, the sliding scale of wages, and work sharir of the fight for toretront on full pay - demands which at the T&GWU were the on Conference alternative to Jones' treacherous £6 pay plan and the wholesale acceptan of redundancies by the bureaucracy.

WSL comrades have led the struggle for th In the Health Service, sliding scale of NHS spending and for trade union committees to open th books of the Authorities, along with the fight to end all private practice policies adopted by ASTMS National Conference.

In local disputes alto corardes baye testerward in everyd th demands of the Transitional Programme, putting forward in every the only real opposition to the Stalinists and the right-wing. Our strugg for the "open the books" demand in the motor industry has won a ma response. The WSL alone among the groups on the left has fought ti speed-up proposals of the Ryder Report since its very publication, and • have leafletted almost major

BLMC

plant in the only nationa campaign against its implementation.

At the same time we have put forward a policy , to fight unemplo! calling for unity of employed and unemployed through the fight t ment, mobilise the trade union movement, and following this iniative, the fir fight for these policies has alread Trades Council sub-committee to been established in Banbury.

On every issue facing workers today the WSL is the only movemes that fights consistently for transitional demands, going beyond mere trad union militancy to pose the political issues to workers.

While these practical interventions have developed the League's gra of Trotsky's Programme there has been a consistent drive to deepen enrich the movement's understanding history and the pre oI ine part of any crisis of the Fourth International, as an essential iniative towards its reconstruction.

This has gone alongside the development in the International Pages on a whole range Socialist Press Soternatio Pal strugger agramst impedien, e weich ng ai the me rand.

programme and the Transitional Programme are an the principles of and on many of which no other movement puts forward point, perspective. We urge all readers who the need for rerolution agree on leadership, and the demands we put forward to find out more about t WSL and join our fight in the Simply fill in d labour movement. form below: I would like more information about the WSL COMPLETE and SEND to: 31 Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Name . Address Socialist Press Subscriptions 6 Issues... ...f1 .£2 12 Issues. . -fA 24 Issues... I would like to take out a subscription to Socialist Press; I would li ..... issues, I enclose £....

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Page 4

THE BIRTH OF

ULSTER UNIONISM

for nationalism! "Dissolve the art- Loyal Ulster was once the icle of union between Church and of the Irish rebellious most State", declared a protestant clergy- holding. out the provinces, man to the Daily Express in March longest against the English in- of that year, "and you will see how vaders and only finally succ- few protestants will be loyal to the England and umbing in 1607 with the def- connection Ireland". eat and flight of the Gaelic Responding to the threat of a Earls of Tyrone chiefs, the being forged between 'union' and Tyrconell. the English government and the The land that the Catholic Irish Catholic middle class the Protestan driven from was planted attempted to had been ascendancy reall nose as a champion of political an with English and Scottish farmers Unlike the English who let much land. The next year Isaac Butt, an and of the land they had acquired to Ulsterman, Scottish land- the Home Conservative, set up the native Irish, the owners let their land to Scottish Government Association, In willea a Protestant leadership predominat- creating in Antrim tenants thus and Down where they principally ed. settled a kind of extension of the Scottish lowlands.

MINORITY

In their struggle to hold on to been secured for them what had representing as they did But and English by force the Scottish only 10% of the country's popul- farmer forged a consciousness that ation and with their bourgeois and saw every advance that the Cathollc proletarian domination restricted to made or attempted to make as a the North-east the control of the threat to himself. Association passed to the Catholc So that middle class and clergy.

UNITED IRISHMEN

in the 1874 elections, of 59 Home Rule candidates only apart

•EWO

The failure of the revolt of the from Butt himself were ex-Tories United Irishmen of 1798, in which Having failed to capture the and Catholic Presbyterian Protest- nationalist movement the middle class attempted to lead the set its face against peasantry against English and land- Home Rule. Yet it required sub- lord domination, closed the door successes stantial nationalist unified capitalist develop upon a Ulster to propel the divided and ment of Ireland. Instead the Presby- disorganised landlords and capital terians were pulled away from their combine their forces into with the Cath- alliance temporary. what became Ulster unionism.

olics, the Irish Parliament was abol- In 1883 Tim Healy unexpectede ished and their representatives sent ly won a bye election in Monaghan to Westminster. rather for the nationalists 'union that the Under declared "All Ulster prematurely English government imposed Ire is ours". Two years later in the provinces land developed as two general election of 1885 the Liber- The South and Britain. als lost all their seats while the nat- West developed chiefly as an agric- ionalists increased theirs from three that provided ultural province thus becoming seventeen, Britain with cheap food and cheap largest party in the Province. Seeing labour while the North-East devel- this seemingly irresistible national- industrial province oped ist tide Gladstone openly engaged in linen, engineering and end of the year came out for Home shipbuilding, looking not to Ireland Rule and 1886 introduced the but to Britain and her Empire for of the Home Rule bills, that first her raw materials and her markets.

was defeated only because a section and depopulation 'The rural of the Liberal Party detected to the emigration that followed the Fam- Tories. ine allowed a re- oi the 1048 agriculture into organisation of

DEFEATED

larger units. Various land acts led to a lessening of the grip of the land- While the second Home Rule ords and stimulated the emergenc class bill of 1892 was defeated by the Catholi middle of a rural whose growing control of the land Lords after passing the Commons, the Ulster unionists knew that with was paralleled by the Church of the restriction that had been placed Rome's growing control over educ- ation and social life in general.

the Lords in 1911, the defeat on of the third Home Rule bill would ultimately depend upon their own

HOME

RULE

efforts. resist Home Rule an ex- To This was the background against Liberal, Colonel Saunderson revived Liberal prime minister the Orange Order as "the only body nice ine Gladstone advanced the neo-colonial capable of dealing with the condit Home Rule. Ireland ion of anarchy and rebellion which economically tied remain would prevails in Ireland" He urged Oran- but it was hoped that Britain to drill and don gemen to arm, by devolving government onto an uniforms to "drive popery and rad- Irish Parliament the social steam we have done icalism before us as would be taken out of the national- many a time before" ist movement. Orange Order proved But the In 1860 the Irish middle class of rallying the anti- incapable £20 million deposit in had of the province. nationalist forces Irish banks while having Its working class character and its that, £40 million, invested in Brit exuberance were leared sectarian ish stock. A clear indicator of their means. of driving subordination to (hence suitability the entire Catholic population for representing) British imperial Ulster into the arms of nationalis interests in Ireland; More important, the agitators. The strength of Ulster resistance Belfast bourgeoisie wanted an in- to Gladstone's strategy was slow in they and strument that emerging and consequently allowed controlled This they landlords the Catholic nationalists and their worked for and finally got with the Liberal imperialist sponsors Ulster Unionist formation. the was of no illusion of believing it Council in 1904. could be dis- consequence and the bankruptcy of Gladstone's first move in counted. leadership nationalist enabled the of his neo-colonial elaboration Belfast capitalists and the Protest- disestablishment was the strategy ant landlords to hold onto their of the Church of Ireland in 1869.

mass base which time and again was its masters. In revolt against

NATIONALISM

that 1881 the moment Protestant tenants were leaving the Orange Order the Land Correctly interpreting this as a to join Daemall nollar named the League the "National League" and invited Catholic priests onto its committees.

THREAT

An even bigger threat to Ulster a Belfast posed by

THEONSER

shipyard worker Tom Sloan who Order in broke with the Urallge 1903, formed his own Independent 1905 had Orange Order which by formed 71 and stood in lodges, alliance with the Ке тамі Council and Joe Devlin's national- ists against official unionism in the elections of 1906. Yet the enormous potential of this working class unity was squan- dered by Devlin within a year when withdrew his support for the big Belfast strike of 1907 and denoun- ced its leader, Jim Larkin. Larkin too was attacked by the more rad- Sinn Fein, nationalist party

BICA

1908 sneeringly journal in whose "that English referred to him as organiser" who fomented strike strikes for the purpose of diverting away from Ireland and to trade wards England! Devlin who had formed It was the Catholic counterpart to the Order, the Ancient Order Orange "This squalid con- of Hibernians. federacy of Catholic place-hunters William O'Brien the nationalist as MP for Cork described it "rose up..

to alienate that powertul min- of by the ority establishment of a pseudo-Catholic ascendancy leading to no alternat- ive but the partition of Ireland".

"ALL FOR IRELAND"

O'Brien and his "All for Ireland both to League" worked win the Protestants to Home Rule as well as to curb the power of the Cath- the Home olic Church movement, a policy which subject- physical abuse and ed them assault by gangs of Hibernians.

nationalists led by Red- The the one hand mond denied on that the unionists had any support in Ulster and on the other banked upon the British government coerce them into a united Ireland if they did resist. A speech by the Ulster unionist leader Edward Carson illuminates in the Speaking well this very Commons he asks "Where have we whole instance conduct of the maiority in Treland encouragement to believe that any expect fair play at their hands? Not one in twenty years.

There has been an attempt and I admit it fankly and freely by some members, led by few of the Irish the member for Cork (Redmondite how it is laughed laughter). See at. When the Hon Gentleman (O'Brien) and some others proceeded to what they called trying to recon Wister and the Protestants of cile and Ireland generally they Ulster which if they had made speeches of been made by the majority the last twenty years them for might I admit possibly have had effect on some of the union- some ists in Ireland.

"WORTHY IDEA"

certainly "Their idea was worthy idea, nobody can deny that, of bringing about reconciliation and better feeling and the moment they denounced and do that they are th ey persecuted and the can ardly hold an election in Ireland From the comfort of their masters (parliament at Westminster, Redmond and his nationalists could have had a good chuckle at Carson his "stage army Yet that a and man like Carson, a vicious enemy ot labour and democracy was able to nationalist leadership. • Carson's army did not remain a stage army for long. On the night of April 24th 1914 Fred Crawford Larne • into guided the Clydevalley harbour with its cargo of 35,000 of rifles and five million

TOWELOR

allowing Carson to ammunition, the wooden guns in the replace Volunteer of Ulster hands the Force with mausers. The Tories had encouraged the unionists to defy Home Rule and Liberal government, not the served different class because they interests but because they were not ready for a neo-colonialist solution as Gladstone proposed. They feared that any concession to nationalist sentiment in Ireland would be in feared its conse- fectious. "The quences in the rest of the empire.

MANIPULATED

This preoccupation CoRe through very clearly when we listen Tory Bonar Law the leader addressing 100,000 unionists Belfast at Easter 1912. He cleverly manipulates Ulster Protestant sym- bols but it is not for Ulster that he is urging them to fight "Once again you hold the pass You are The pass for the Empire a besieged city, the timid have lett closed your you, but you gates" The third Home Rule bill re- but the ceived the royal outbreak of the imperialist wal in 1914 suspended its implement- ation. The effects of the war, the Russian Revolution and the revolut- that swept Europe ionary waver Tory party that showed even the could no longer rule in the old sabre rattling way advance in demo- cratic sentiment" as the Times so delicately put it had to be placated while support for Carson appeared as a provocation to it. Bonar Law with his family ties to Ulster re- mained loyal but the Daily Express much more representative was Tory when un- the new mood SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12th November 1975 Edward Carson the Daily Express had until recently enthusiastically supported) h SU would be guilty of "criminal folly'

ACCEPTED

Sensing that unionist suppor in Britain was not what it had beer before the war the Ulster unionist accepted ironically what they har Home resisted for thirty Rule for themselves. Charles Craig the brother of Northern Ireland first prime minister expressed thei dilemma in Commons on th the 29th March 1920 when he said: "We would much prefer to r main part and parcel of the Unite Kingdom. We have prepared and w have made our Province prosperou under the union laws passed by this: House We de not way in any that has been i from a position way satisfactory to us. Bu every enemies in have country and we feel that an Ulste without a parliament of its ow woyld not be in so nearly as stron position as one in which parliament has been set up"

EASTER RISING

The Easter Rising and the ecution of its leaders created su a revulsion against English rule th party of Redmor nationalist completely tied to British strateg was swept to oblivion. Supplante Sinn.: Fein it prosecuted a w by against the British that as it proce began more to Take on more a social character thus stim ating Griffith and Collins to sett terms no less humiliating th had been offered to keamon while also abandoning party, nationalist population of it trapped inside Carso leaving sectarian Protestant state.

by Joe Quigley.

Michael Baxandall: Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy, (Oxford University Press paperback, 1974, £1) Reviewed by Adam Westoby.

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12th November 1975 This is a book about the to the (largely illiterate) congre- gation, helping and the beautiful and the true - pri- sermons of the priests. marily the second. To be Though Renaissance paintings exact it is about the great mainly religious, there are still steps forward which the a vast difference between them and 'Renaissance artists of most medieval paintings. To our Florence and central Italy eyes they are much more modern.

In one word they are naturalistic.

took, in the early fifteenth he religious figures aopeat century, to know and to real figures in the real world.

But, represent on flat, painted sur- in a contradictory way, this deve- faces, the depth, colour, weight lopment away from mysticism and and movement of the world towards greater realism in painting strengthened the hold of religion.

around them. The new paintings had a much But unlike the great majority more vivid and immediate impact of books art history' on the worshipper. Mr. Baxandall's book does not con- central question of this The the influence of contrate Just qn. book how was Ins new one painter on another, or on the naturalism achieved? Mr. Baxandall impact of individual 'geniuses' in about it with

OULD

making the great innovations.

wealth of beautiful examples, many of them excellently illustrated.

CHANGES

lake one central facet of the He tries to root the revolution' Renaissance. in painting in the swift changes in One of the basic problems of social and intellectual painting is perspective. The world economic, life that were taking place in the has three dimensions, while Italian cities at the time: foI painting only has two. How, then, ehich brougheat in both re to make it seem that some figures which brought distant than vocals are more materials and books and works of others? Medieval artists did not art from outside Italy; the use of face this problem directly.

the Italian For them, the relative sizes of rather thar la audie Latin, the intellectuals; the figures often represented their by return to studying the non-Christian religious importance, not their dis- writings of Greek tance from the viewer. antiquity; the Thus the Church's political role in preaching surrounding saints in a medieval 'Madonna and Child' the generally dramatic popular dic development of smaller than the Virgin Mary, but architecture, this does not mean they are 'behind' engineering, mathematics and her. Earlier, medieval, paintings were The main device which Renaissance painters used to show almost entirely produced for the depth was a geometry of pers- churches. Painters were specially skilled organised pective lines showing parallel craftsmen lines which would (in reality) travel 'guilds' and apprenticeships, and their task was to produce religious through the painting's surface as if all converging on a single point.

images to show the bible stories Detail from Piero della Francesca's "The Flagellation of Christ", Masaccio's wall painting of "St Peter paying the tribute money at the gates of Jerusalem".

IN GREATER DEPTH

In the large wall-painting by Masaccio (1401-1428) of 'Saint Peter paying the tribute-money at the gates of Jerusalem' (illustrated) the uses this technique with greatest economy and strength. The plays the building on right essential part. The two roof-edges, and the and steps,

HOOI

recede from us converge on a single Unconsciously we place all point. the figures, and the trees and hills beyond, in the space which these lines construct. It is true that linear perspective device Masaccio is not the only he takes great care to USes fashion the draperies to give solidit 'relief to the figures, and if and the illustration were in colour one becoming fain a rot what girs becoming fainter. what gives the perspective-lines their special importance is that they converge = almost - on Christ's head.

the fact It this, not just Is that he is the central figure in the main group, that makes him stand from the Apostles gathered

OUL

round him Masaccio's genius (he made this huge painting, in about when he 26) month, was takes concrete form in his ability to concentrate attention on Christ our abstract but almost unconscious - know- that all parallel lines ledge to meet in a single point.

Later (and lesser) painters used perspective lines more prominently, setting their figures in vast receding but colonnades, uses single building : with much simpler and deeper effect.

GEOMETRIC

PERSPECTIVE

Piero della Francesca (about 1420-1492) was an even greater master tosaccion in per, ective Masaccio. (In than during the last 15 years of his life he did paint at all, devoting himself mathematics.) But in some of his paintings Piero finds a way a sort of psychological way - 0i the extending picture's space 'beyond' perspective. 'Baptism of Christ by in St. John' (illustrated), for example, are obviously together. the right, John pouring water over Christ's But the third (the right head. hand one) is looking almost straight at us. This seizes our attention, and from there we follow the line of sight of the other angels towards Christ in the centre. But the effect is not merely to focus on Christ. The fact that we seem to look one of the angels arse intor a direct relationsec the spec- 1n • uS - tators - into a with the trio of angels, and thus into the space of the picture itself.

We become part of the painted With purely geometrical scene perspective, space starts at the pic- ture surface, and only recedes be- hind it, but with • Lagerce one abstract line of sight - space also comes forward to embrace us Mr. Baxandall's book (though not the along way) with many others. He makes vivid (with many good photographs!) what it was to be a painter, a or viewer of early patron - before the Renaissance pictures camera was thoughtaf 'The imitation of nature' was.

naturally, by no means the painter's only goal. multitude ways Mr. Baxandall sharpens our understanding of the living ditions in which the pictures were made; in doing so he enriches our enjoyment of them Why, for example, are Christ's robe and other significant garments often painted in dark blue? Because ultramarine was the most expensive pigment on the market, and wealthy patrons wanted to display their to tow and show thine e peity. At one stroke he (quite literally) painted onto the panel both a religious and the pride and affluence scene. of a Florentine merchant.

Mr. Baxandall is not a Marxist.

One result of this is that he tends to treat his examples in an ad hoc and empirical manner; another is that he has no overall view of social development in the early fifteenth "Baptism of Christ by St John" - Piero della Francesca Page 5 century - he tries to reconstruct it as an aggregate of the 'experience' of the time. Yet no matter how tough and intricate his subject matter he never substitutes routine enthusiasm for understanding. And the examples confirm the richness of the Marxist theory and truth of human knowledge. They show us thinking men reconstructing the world (though religious through subjects); first in their minds and then on panels. sketches They do so as the intersection of abstractions - general ideas spring ing from practice and thought out- side the particular situation.

The more conscious this process is, the higher the level it can reach.

was the commercial growth and the intellectual and scientific the early ferment of Florence in fifteenth century which formed the soil out of which men like Masaccio and Piero grew (Piero was not only a painter and mathematician, but also

WIOL

books on measurement and barrel- of his pictures re- gauging; many flect these techniques. The illustrations of this book are living refutations of all theories knowledge which see human something ready-made smoothly developing and simply coming closer to the objective closer and world. Like all knowledge, painting be just a process of can nevel error not leavef the truth the leave the "truth'. limits are at the same time part of its power, its ability to reflect th world more truly: The essential contradiction of early Renaissance painting is that manen of the imitation ho raal came grips with the real man ure' - but still only through reli- imaginery gious, subjects. at Piero della Francesca's again angel. Seen carefully, , he does not look straight into your seem to eyes, and his own eyes are slightly lidded. This cannot be an 'error' on Piero's part. If the line of sight were completely direct, there would be too great an intimacy. You would share not only the angel's space but also his world. And since Pier believes in the basic sinfulness of man, he cannot allow this So he uses his pictorial device bends he everything •to naturalism - but then he sets a limit. And the limit •is a part. - a of the truth. Like the others of ais ger.

central eration he celebrates the things of the earth as no-one had ever done before - but still on bended knee.

DEAD END FOR CAPITALISM

WHAT PRICE LONDON

Page 6 For at least thee months bourgeois political leaders and their economic 'experts' have been claiming that the world 'bottomed out', recession has world capitalist that the "turned the has economy There has certainly been a sharp production in both the United States and Japan since the early a call duction in the 24 major capitalist OECD) has remained about static enormous fall in the previous year.

immediate world economic situation must, however, be seen in context.

patients with grave illnesses sometimes feel quite well!

countries is any months the utilisation of productive capacity in manufacturing industry and there are increasing signs that speed of the economic that is curren the won veto that cut Tale. Congress is very unwilling to vote.

in spite of the and Japanese upturn, to be

HUCI

OECD yet again production for 1975. US Japan shows the change in industrial pro- France Italy Germany Britain % change in industrial production 1975 2nd ¼ 1st ¼ -8.0 -1.5 US -3.9 -1.0 Britain -3.4 -2.9 France -1.9 -2.8 Germany -2.7 Italy -7.7 + 2.6 of Japan

TRANSPORT?

London, Workers month may well be trying they voted remember why the GLC with a Labour into • large majority two years ago.

a large together with They, class voted of the middle section to Labour if for no other reason, prevent London becoming one vast over This was the theme of motorway. actual inspired Greater London the Torv Development Plan which was to all reflecting road purposes intents 81001 building plan and little else, from statisticians GLC's The own driving estimated that even by 1991, 23% of households in the GLC area and This over 30% in the Inner London area pioneered would be without cars. prospect of further

LIC

With increases in petrol prices the figures were than this. passengers be much higher may therefore Tory plan was a class middle of blatant piece of the middle could planning in favour class motorist and the road haulage companies. working class years Meanwhile the London without families, many been unable to use them due to soaring petrol prices would be left with a deteriorating public transport sys- which the a rallolas tem. Acted cost of road building massive pollution, the diversion to terms of middle roadbuilding of land vital for work- constructed amenities, ing and take the was totally ignored by the plan.

Many of these were haulage made by the Layfield Committee planning in which was set up to inquire into British bourgeoisie were too weak In none of the major European to inhe Tories were es clear evidence of an upturn yet visible. by trade union action In Britain, where the develop- a confrontation which, in the three day week, involved capital running somewhat different form recently, at a loss and experiencing severe production continued to grow until been politically possible for Wilson montis to engineer a recession immediately Since then, unlike the rest of the he took office (which it was not) British capital could not have stood Inflation is much taster than elsewhere and has not slackened off.

ATTACK

Despite the drop in production the pound depreciation When the attack of payments remains in deficit, unlike elsewhere.

Retail prices % increase on previous The biggest 1974 1975 unprecedented fall Ist 3rd 4th 2nd diture which also hit workers living standards and unemployment which 3.0 2.9 1.8 1.6 3.8 4.4 1.5 3.4 3.7 2.7 3.3 2.4 3.3 2.7 6.0 6.1 0.9 1.3 1.9 1.9 4.4 9.5 2.5 6.1 capacity utilisation still more anc In 1973 and 1974 deflationary Reduced tax revenue and increased policies were introduced through- out the capitalist world to reduce raise the inflation and the huge balance payments deficits following the oil price rises and, more basically, to printing of money attack the strength and organisation inflationary pressure. At that time the by John Lea example that the rapid deteriora- public transport system was leading increased car use led to peak hour peak hour bus load is 12 times of bus speeds, a reduction in bus usage and a further shift to private London Traffic 550 miles of bus route found that Bus passenger mileage fell by 45% though the period 1955-69 and a half fell one usage times as fast as the fall in services congestion and the fact that the response to falling revenue fares is increase fares, to off existing roads, SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12th Novemb the buses on to their feet.

the classic strategy by British Rail during piece Beeching era in which services as of which cut, nowhere. usual orbital more expensive forms of transport,

TOZOR

increase in foll, and then simply 'show' that the route the periphery 'uneconomic' and should be closed.

Several times the last ten 1n North cross-city vital Tine Likewise Rail has Line of British axe by threatened with the increase such nethods. The conclusion from this is that public transport system The need to meet the needs of working class planned shift of the people - and the majority to rail be class cannot alongside but

HUSU

such as the place of a road system devoted to the private car and the makes road/rail Transport capitalists. flexible. other words raises the employment Miners forced Tories out of office in 1974 the recession as such is no solution.

partial Hence the in other countries Tories were forced out of of the recession has not lessened the need for capital to attack working class organisation and living standards. unemployment is continuing to rise and even as fast as ever, 11 only United States has infinitessimally. Unemployment in latest available month (000s) 1974 US 5303 607 Britain Real wages fell 534 Hrance Germany 93 / 484 Italy 740 Japan is a clear indication that, This cuts in social expen- with production falling slowly, rationalisations and before. are continuing as running at that any sure sign the slump in production in no way respite in the economic means a which is threatening crisis continued accumulation of capital.

In fact any upturn in production profitability and accumulation.

will contain forces which worsen economic crisis of capitalism the the way for and pave the process entail more government "borrowing' convulsions production. A generalised economic upturn which increases would produce another upsurge in For capital GLC has taken road building in the GLDP and an improved public transport system finance.

GLC

March prompted the passenger loadiof the three private and Ways and that a peak hour tube who Haseler, resulted swingeing proposal for an 80% increase of passengers as five miles of (single a quarter. and taken the 25% congestion on public transport the next year. recommended the bus This will and the reduction of usage of parking facilities in central London.

restricted As tion government cuts bus lanes and the reduction of par- through ultimatum Crosland's the

1OCA

opened the final led say without an Labour GLC, transport has transport system serves to the attempts in as the same Such injections massive require for a freight transport by a sliding freight handling increase public which more of frequency bringing such planning at a rapia ana mercasu the commodity prices, worsen renew the balance oI payments. danger of hyperinflation and help of the maintain the to strength working class. necessary for capitalism It is this strength decisively to break alleviation europe fallen 1975 7773 1043 946 1006 667 970 rising speed-up, It respite further wich meals

CONC

fight along which cuts in stale Committee, have they are further public. last two years and the over ine freezing of fares prior to central * The working out of a plan to reduced elected trade constructed by and union representatives and expert the sympathetic to prospect for free public • cause

WORKOS

social to meet transport system This must carry the power need. to control and regulate private ca also movement. Such plan control 'the removal Tennes movements from the over freight hands of private haulage companies, and the nationalisation of these firms, the incorporation into and their al distribution integrated road/rail system. *Massive injections of finance with the plan, accordance would protected by a sliding scale.

of The fight for such a plan can fight for a public programme, works defend working and employment living conditions the

TACTICS.

against the Labour government and increased on reducing state spending intent ana. and the capitalist system which substantia. demands cuL.

TEACHERS AGAINST CUTS

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 12th November 1975 the discussion on transitional programme and Labour nature the the Party dominated the first day Socialist Teachers' of the Conference held in London on 25/26th October. 80 teachers from all About over Britain took part and discussed a fight against Healey's measures, which mean cuts and unemploy- ment, an attitude to the Rank and organisation, and resolutions for NUT conference. main resolution on action The against amended the

WSL

overwhelmingly was passed. The Action Programme called for a fight in locally elected committees of workers, in the NUT, in other teachers' unions and in the Labour Party for a) a firm commitment against any cuts being accepted at all, and all past cuts to be reversed, as part of a programme of public works under of the control the WHor movement. Such a programme must guarantee 1) jobs for all trained teachers 2) rescinding of the closures of all teacher training colleges threatened closed or with closure. b) a trade union inquiry into the local and national extent of the proposed future cuts and cuts through the opening of the books of the LEAs to local committees of trade unionists. This must be done with local confer-

CONCO

ences of and unions community organisations to obtain a clear estimate of the social need

COWLEY:

By means of a carefully orchestrated conspiracy bet- the right wing and the ween Stalinists the Shop Stewards Committee at British Leyland's Cowley Assembly Plant voted by a majority of 128 to 72 to participate in the Ryder Rep- ort Joint Management Comm- ittees which are designed to force in speed up and break the power of the shop stewards movement. During the two days of discus- class nature of so-called sion workers participation had clearly emerged. Speaker after speaker demonstrated that Ryder is a device for substantially increasing the ex- of Leyland workers, ploitation breaking agreements and taking away the conditions they have won over Prior to the many yas. Stalinists linked an organisational carve up of the agenda by the right wing through Blake, the chairman. •Cv there was majority against overwhelming Ryder. Everyone knew, from the start, the of the Cowley 1 or talle decision. The and right wing knew that a decision to reject Ryder from the Cowley Ass- embly Plant would reverberate throughout the Corporation. The slainists knew unal such a demsion

YUGOSLAVIA

least twenty-five At people have been arrested in a number of Yugoslav towns in last few weeks for the 'Cominformist' activities in they include arrests Belgrade (the capital), Croatia and Montenegro. The charge of 'cominformism' mouths of the means the 1n Yugoslav bureaucracy - support for ties the Soviet Union; choser after Stalin's denunciation of Tito and the Yugoslav Communist Party leadership in 1948 the Cominform (successor to the Third Internat- dissolved in 1943) became mainly vehicle for slander and witch-hunting against "Titoists' by and try to organise a contingent of for education in the localities as unemployed and employed teachers workers' plan to the basis for a defend and improve the educational possible supported by local associations." facilities. all Affiliation of the NUT to the should that c) We arUC education expenditure should be Labour Party was considered to be inflation of important to extend the fight on linked the rate (sliding scale of educational programme. penditure) so its real value is nol eroded and that this should be the demand the trade union movement. d) That all unemployed, eg. teachers, ancillary workers, building workers, school leavers organised by the trade unions with free membership and full trade this basis unions On umon rignts. fight for full must employment for all teachers and other workers, the reduction in class size in schools and a sliding scale of benefits for all unemployed workers as part of a programme of public works.

Trades Councils set up must unemployment no committeer which must unemployed workers. Unemployed workers must be supported in their struggle organise and fight for these 10 demands. We call on the union leader-

NUT

ships, including the organise a contingent of unemploy- ed workers on the 26th November e) We should campaign • Ior The nationalisation educational supplies (this is already Labour But when it came to deciding Party policy) whose profiteering on sesolutions for the

NUT

himders every aspect of education conference on the Sunday it was in schools. clear that the conference, and In particular should we aMy fighting for campaign in the

NUT

for especially the wide- fae intention of actually the spread support for North West TUC this programme. It remains for demonstration against them just an interesting discussion unemployment on November 26th

CP PUSH IN RYDER

The Stalinists fraudulently arg- would challenge their position in the Combine Committee where ued that Ryder was "the first step leading towards workers control" and that members been "we can build on it from within" steeped in Ryder from the begin- They claimed that Ryder does not ning. mean agreements will. be broken, The carve up began from the start of the meeting. Having been that the trade unions can maintain forced off an their independence and continuing position that Ryder was already accepted and that it can be thrown out after a years trial. be allowed, the Because of the way the agenda chairman confined the next was set up no reply was possible to 1% days discussion to individual these Stalinist positions which have clauses, saying that an overall dis- cussion would take place the been promoted through such peop- at le as Bob Wright - so-called left on making ond ot the impossible for a coherent alternative the Executive Committee of the

AUEW.

to be put. In the final session two motions were submitted: one for acceptance In swinging the vote the Stalin- and one for rejection. Ryder ists did an important job for the The put acceptance motion was employers and the Labour govern- The result first to the meeting. ment. They did it under conditions of this was that at the point where where the majority of workers were an alternative strategy could be put against Ryder. the mover of the acceptance motion On the Princess track workers had unlimited time to move and and shop stewards are resisting a reply with everyone else restricted joint ad hoc investigating commit- to 3 minutes. tee sent in under Ryder and have a mass meeting for an

DECISIVE

investigation to be carried out by the open the books committee.

Under these conditions the Stal- This shows that despite the man- inist intervention was decisive. the struggle on Ryder is ocuvies Having not spoken in the previous beginning. As omy Just workers and a half, they now come into action against speed up day moved and in defence supporter ot jobs and agree- ane It ments they will have to enter into acceptance motion. was the 'left' conflict with all intervention from the which those who have The supported participation and now swung a section of the meeting.

sit with management organising the right wing could have

COL

done it. attacks. This followed a meeting of the the Moscow Stalinists and their Party praesidium chaired by Tito supporters earlier in the month and devoted to semi-official According 'certain aspects of the hostile Belgrade at least eight

DUULLED

people will shortly be tried in Party and on attempti Yugoslavia'. verdicts and sentences will be made public. One of the main figures of this group

MOTIVE

will very probably be Dusan Brich, former vice-president of the There is certainly Croatian Republic, whose arrest, Tito to make present motive for along with seven other members of his arrests and trials of those a seoret network, was announced accused of pro-Moscow activity in August this year. public - the fact that the Yugoslav Police investigations to track of a of CP is now in the leadership political down opponents of European CPs who are minority regime are continuing. At the end opposed to Brezhnev's plans for a Serbia, Tite declared publicly that October, tour out a joint conference to set common political line. At the same he 'would stop nothing Yugoslav leadership are neutralise the opposition, made up cultivating much closer relations of handful of cominformists, with China than in the past.

liberals and nationalists.

among "socialists", proposals for the NUT

IMG

conference contained not one transitional demand and were full of "to the usual urge Varu solidarity action" They also called for a further conference "in order to thoroughly work out a strategy" Nursery teacher facing the sack putting off in the same way as the reformists the fight on programme - always until yet another meeting; the and preferably sometime distant future. This reflected their IS capitulation the tc rank-and-file-ist of conception finding the lowest common The eleventh-hour decision by British Leyland to postpone the closure of their 4,500-man Innocenti car plant at Lambrate, near Milan, is a of execution, not a stay reprieve. Leyland management offered only a two-week delay in carrying out their plans to cut the labour force by one third or, failing this, to shut the plant entirely. this time government ministers will discuss with unions and officials of the state finance corporation for industry their plans to employ the 1,500 men Leyland declared surplus to require- have ments in unused plants in the Milan area - possibly making spare parts for But government Cold. far not officially proposals - sO made public - undoubtedly accept Leyland's plans to sack one man in three. The Stalinist-led metalworkers and engineers' union for the Milan area nas inreatened - under mass pressure - to call an occupation of the Innocenti plant if management press ahead with their intention With the official rise in the Retail Price Index still over 25% and government borrow- ing steadily increasing, the Labour government is prepar- ing for a major confrontation on wages next year. The government's £6 state wage laws have held so far only because of the support of the TUC wno claim the laws are "voluntary" and represent the only way to control inflation. To cement their alliance with the

TUC.

MTS.

Williams, Prices Minister, has now dreamed up policy of selective price controls She asking manufacturers to 1S limit price rises on selected goods Aige 7 denominator of political awareness to forge some sort of on which spurious "unity". tail ends practice the IMG In the IS by continuing its work within the IS Rank-and-File front organisation. It does not carry out a consistent fight on the demands of which the transitional programme would jeopardise unity in the IS inside Rank-and-ple The resolutions for example Birmingham Rank-and-File to from Birmingham Association of the the NUT to go forward to the NUT conference contained single transitional demand.

An amendment a salarie. motion calling for a sliding scale of based working-class wages, cost of living index, drawn up by unionists' and housewives trade

WSL.

committees came from the

IMG

formally the

ALLIOUR

seconded it, no one from the IMG spokene ss, onto fit. who opposed it, lined the without Wat penly grounds that "impractical". The complete separation theory from practice, of discussion typifies from action which centrists of the IS and IMG thus emerged clearly at this most Whether the conference.

OLO

gramme adopted by the conference ever 'into the teachers unions clearly depends on the fight of the WSt and those who begin break the sterile from Propagandise of IS and IG. Far itself conference questions it poses answer the problem of principled leadership

SHORT TIME

AT INNOCENTI

to give formal notice of redundancies or closure. But they put forward no sort se retating police. The provincial secretary Rino union Cavaglioli, complained last week he had not been invited to the last minute talks between management "left' and Christian Democratic labour minister Donat Cattin. and repeated the demand that the possibility • of turning the plant to quite different sorts of production such as office furniture - should be more seriously studied.

At point, though, have no union leaders raised the question nationalisation. What makes government and management hesitate is not the union leaders, but the considerable in support che north of Italy tor the Innocent workers. The three hundred thousand Milan area have engineers in the already pledged 2-3 hours pay a month support an occupatio against the sackings. With Fiat also 12-24 days culling immediate future for tens of : in truck, thousands of workers coach and industrial vehicle plants, the struggle at Innocenti is seen as a test case.

LABOUR HIDES INFLATION

included in the price index to 5% between February and July 1976.

Firms who have to cut profit margins on • some products are to be allowed compensatory rises on other goods. This proposal has only one purpose - to fiddle the Retail Price index so as to give the union leaders their anguinch acceptance of state legislated wage cuts. the importance of It shows fighting for a sliding scale of wages committees administered by and housewives trade unionists that which can guarantee wages keept is wital that this index be cost with independent worked out by working class bodies and not by government departments

CHRYSLER: OPEN THE BOOKS

TO FORCE NATIONALISATION

Page 3 Chrysler chief Riccardo

COVENTRY

CONFED

The Coventry District of the Confed. of Ship building and Engineering Unions have still to decide whether or not to support the November 26th lobby of Parliament. At a meeting of shop stewards and representatives called by the Conted held two weeks ago and attended by over 350 stewards and white collar representatives (despite the short notice at which it was called) District Secretary Frank Chater argued against support for the lobby. Chater's recommend- ation from the platform was voted down by the meeting and a decision taken to recommend support back to the Confed. The Confed was meeting on Tues- day of this week to decide its position and as we go to press the right wing are preparing to ride roughshod over the recommendation of sup- port for the lobby. The feeling in the meeting clearly reflects the mood of thousands of Coventry workers living under the threat of the dole.

PROPOSALS

Other proposals from the stewards meeting include "opposition" to hotn voluntarv and compulsory redundancy, a policy of working.

to contract, replacement of retiring workers and putting pressure on managements to take on more Demands for a full overtime ban throughout the area were rejected. Angry reaction to the plattorm from stewards at the meeting reflects the frustration many are experiencing with the District leadership. The WS has been campaigning for the widest possible support for the lobby and if the trade union leadership in Coventry refuse to arrange transport then we will organise a coach. Telephone Cov 711135 for details. Chrysler's threat to close down its British subsidiary is part of the international crisis in the auto industry. The world market for cars has slumped by 25% in the last year, leaving most plants working at half capacity and slashing profit margins. As a result a savage war for markets between major car companies has erupted with tactics of 'dumping' becoming prevalent. The only way the stronger capital- ists can deal with this crisis is by bank- rupting their weaker rivals, "rational- ising" their own plants - forcing through massive speed-up, and driv- ing down workers' living standards.

Already this crisis has forced Chry- sler workers on to a three-day week, cutting take-home pay as the lay-off fund dries up. Now faced with mass ive losses of its UK subsidiary, Chry- sler has issued an ultimatum to the Labour government - demanding £100 million to prevent closure.

Wilson is wheeling and dealing with Ricardo behind closed doors.

What they are discussing is not now jobs are to be preserved.

but what is commercially best for British capital- ism. If state aid is used to bail out Chry- sler it will only be on condition that the industry becomes "viable". As the Ryder proposals in British Leyland show, any government aid will be tied to forcing through speed-up at the expense of jobs. Bob Morris, T&GWU convenor at Chrysler Stoke has lined up with Jack Jones' reactionary argument that The "Second Report" of the Open the Books Comm- ittee in the British Leyland Cowley Assembly Plant has like the preceeding Interim Report, become the centre of a struggle. Based on the defence of the workers on the Princess track ag- ainst management charges of *shoddy work" and "skivers paradise" the report shows that they can only be effectively def- ended through the open the books Last Wednesday the Sun pub- lished an attack on ADO 71 track workers accusing them of "skivers paradise" and "shoddy work". The same evening an even more vicious attack was presented on television based on Derek Whit takeis management statement which claimed that only 4 OK jobs ale produced per hour. ....The purpose of the attacks was to discredit the ADO 71 workers and to undermine their resistance to speed up which man- agement hope to force onto the tracks in 3 weeks time when the IEs have completed the sheets..

99% of all rejects have nothing to do with the assembly worker.

SWINDON STRIKE

The strike at Deloro-Stelite in Swindon is now in its 3rd week. Originally the dispute started over the working of a system of flexi-time. Then the management stepped in and sacked a senior steward Steve Price from the foundry. It is this victimisation, for counter- manding a management instruction, which is the reason these workers are on strike and mounting a 24 hour picket. It is quite plain that the manage- ment (the firm is part of the BOC group) is carrying out this attack on the union organisation as a preparation for speed-up and and attacks on the conditions wages which the strong union organisation in the plant has est- ablished. workers must accept part responsib- any great hope for what the future ility for the crisis. would bring". This same argument is now used Certainly there is no hope while with every group of workers - working the leadership pursues this policy.

conditions, manning levels etc. should Umy with an macpenacut and be sacrificed to preserve a "viable" determined policy can the future of industry and protect jobs. What it Chrysler workers be detended.

means is working each other out of a job to preserve the employer's pro-

SUBSIDIARIES

fits. This sort of'solution' proposed by the trade union leaders completely First, workers must demand to see jettisons trade union principles and all of the books of the Chrysler Corporation in Detroit and its ties workers jobs to the fate of cap- . Instead of mobilising • italist industry. national subsidiaries. The claim that the strength of the trade unions to the British factories are losing money defend jobs and fight for nationalisa- is meaningless until the books are tion, the union leaders, joined by the opened. How can workers accept 'left' MPs, are queuing up to see ultimatums from management bas Varley to plead for funds to keep ed on completely unsubstantiated figures? Chrysler open. They are claiming there is no other Next the booksiof all Chrysler way to keep the jobs. In fact they are suppliers must be made available saying that they will not fight for to workers committees to reveal the any policy which brings them into financial connections and arrange- conflict with the Labour government ments between the suppliers and the Chrysler Corporation.

which is defending capitalism.

It is only At the Chrysler Stoke mass meeting in this way that the real position can the AUEW convenor made it clear be established. that the shop stewards' committee The open the books committee saw defending Chrysler as the only established in Cowley in major way to defend jobs. struggles has already revealed facts which give lie to British Leyland's charge of shoddy work and laziness.

APPEAL

A thorough investigation of Chry- slers books by elected trade union "If Chrysler brought out a new model committees would demonstrate with the help of the Labour govern- conclusively the need for national- ment we would be able to sell cars isation under workers management again. We appeal to the government ana lor a system or state contract: to help Chrysler in its hour of need" to be provided to guarantee prod- The consequences of this were uction. This must be a step towards brought out by Bob Morris - he felt the nationalisation of the whole it "would be hypocritical to offer car and component industry.

CAR WORKERS DEFENDED

They are due to faulty components components? Have some of those and shortages. Therefore when same people who have argued that management begin to hand out Leyland is not profitable been suspensions right, left and centre making a rake off in components for bad workmanship" the full and subsidiaries? facts must be revealed What is raised here is the integrated nature of the whole automotive A great deal of faulty material industry. , When we say it is basic is at present being fitted on all that before workers are made re tracks. This is material which is dundant, put on short time, speed.

rot recognised as reject by th ed up or attacked for "bad work.

company but makes the job of the manship" that the books be opened assembly worker that much harder.

and the real position revealed - this must apply to the whole an example of such material (which industry and the call for full nation.

is printed in the report)..

alisation must include components and suppliers. ... Why does so much faulty material come in? It would be The report was endorsed by a full meeting of the plant's 200 shop ste wrong to blame workers in the stewards and circulated last week.

component factories who face exactly the same problems as our- Like the open the books committee first report it was carried in the local Salver. and national press and attacked by .... The component industry as a management who banned it's circul- whole is extremely large in com- ation under the threat of disciplinary parison with the motor industry.

action. The total share value of the top 13 component firms is {220m com- pared with British Leyland's value *A mass meeting of workers from of £53m before Ryder. the Princess track voted overwhel- This raises some interesting quest- mınely to relect a loint manage ions as to the links between motor ment inquiry into company alleg manutacturers and the component ation of shoddy work and for an suppliers. For example - has capital inquiry to be conducted by the recently moved out of Leyland into open the books committee.

PRENTICE RIGHT OUT

strengthens the right wing who in The three man inquiry team, the form of arch witch hunter Reg set up by the Labour Party's Underhill, who was the architect organisation committeeto of the expulsion of the Keep Left report on the appeal of right- Young Socialist supporters in the winger Reg Prentice against early sixties. his removal as parliamentary

"PROOF"

candidate for Newham North East, has reported that there Underhill has now presented "documented proof against the is no constitutional grounds Militant group. This attack on the tor his re-instatement. 'left is in order to cover the fast moves to the right of the Wilson The move follows the vote of government. no confidence in another right The WL supports the moves winger Frank Tomney passed by against right winger MPs and is the Hammersmith North Labour for the defence of the rights of the Militant group. But this must Party Such developments are in sharp be combined with the bringing of contrast to the 'left' talk of Heffer : with the working class into contlict and others inside the Parliamentary the attacks of the Labour Govern- ment and through this the expos- Labour Party who make no moves ure of the 'left' talkers in Wilson's for the removal of Wilson.

The non-activity of the 'lefts' cabinet and government. SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday November 12th, 1975 The "right" of management to impose short time working due to the world crisis of capitalism which is completely out of the control of the working class, must be ended All redundancies must be rejected.

All available work should be shared on full pay. If this is refused all Chrysler factories should be occup.

led until management concedes these demands This is the only policy which can defend jobs, but it cannot be carr ied through without a sharp struggle Stewards at Linwood have correctly announced that they intend to occupy if Chrysler tries to close down: But preparations have to be made now to occupy not.only in the event of direct closure, but over lay-offs and redundancies.

TEST

The outcome at Chrysler will be a severe test of the Labour govern- ment. Jones at the T&GWU Confer- ence said "voluntary" pay laws were necessary to save jobs. Now thousands of jobs are at stake.

Jones must be called on to mobilise the industrial strength of the T&G to force nationalisation The left MPs who have spoken of nationalisation in the past must now put forward this policy in prac tice. Îf their words are serious they must fight for the removal of the Wilson leadership and their replace- ment by one which will carry out policies in the interests of the work- ing class or else stand exposed as no more than 'left' talkers.

N.W. TUC LOBBY

The North West Area TUC has called for a lobby of Parliament against unemployment on Now.

ember 26th. The TUC national.

ly has since set out to sabotage this lobby. The Workers Socialist League calls on all members and supp- orters to campaign for this dem- onstration as part of the fight to mobilise the trade union mover.

movement against unemployment.

DEMONSTRATE AGAINST

UNEMPLOYMENT!

March called by Banbury Trades Council, Starting 10.00am.

Meeting at Banbury Town Hall,11.30 SATURDAY, 22nd NOVEMBER. (Supported by Oxford Trades Council).

DEFEND DEMOCRATIC

RIGHTS!

WRP DEMONSTRATION

Saturday, November 16th Assemble 2pm Hyde Park. March 3pm via Oxford St, Regent St and Piccadilly to Meeting 4pm Trafalgar Square As we stated in our last edition the WSL will support this demon.

stration in defence of democratic rights, and will bring its banners on the march.

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

PUBLIC MEETINGS:

WOLVERHAMPTON

Tuesday 18th November, 7.30 Rose & Crown, Penn Rd. "Attack on the Trade Unions"

LONDON

"Our programme to defend wages and jobs" Wednesday, 19th November, 7.30 Newington Small Hall, Manor Place, off Walworth Rd (Elephant & Castle 2 mins)

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

W.S.L. Marxist Society Classes every Wednesday, 8.00pm, "The Blue Room', Wadham College