Agee "trial" Date

Scan page 12

picked by Home Secretary Merlyn Rees, on charges which his accusers refuse to reveal.

His "judges" may reject any of the witnesses whom Agee will have gathered in his defence.

He will not be told in advance the procedure to be adopted at his hearing.

DEPORTED

If he is found "guilty" of having endangered British "security" by his speeches and journalistic activities, he will be deported to the US, where he may well be jailed for his exposure of the CIA's covert activities.

At a press conference on December 22nd, Agee's lawyer Larry Grant (who may himself be excluded from the Kafkaesque proceedings) had this to say about the Home Office's bizarre attempt to play accuser, judge and jury:

"Mr Agee is placed in an impossible position. This is shadow boxing in the dark. He has no rights yet has little alternative if he is to make any attempt to assert his innocence.

A defence committee has been abilising support for Ager and I Mark Hosenball, who fa Sapper EUROPE 6 issues. 12 issues 24 issues THE c out a su bscriptio les, I enc similar process on January 19th.

Agee and rosenball, and their supporters in their Defence Campaign, are rightly determined to drive Rees, the Labour. Cabinet and the officials of the Intelligence Services, out into the open.

CHARGES

They are challenging Rees to bring any charges he may have in a court of law, where they can be openly examined and a proper defence preparad.

blatant resort to the dictatorial powers given him by the Immigration Act (drawing on his experience of similar frame-up methods in N. Ireland) has raised a widespread campaign of opposition in the labour and trade me 51 A member of the Polish Workers Defence Committee was beaten up when trying to attend court proceedings in Radom against six of the workers accused of 'damaging state property' in last June's general strike against the anti-working class policies of the bureaucracy.

This new piece of thuggery follows successful police efforts to prevent members of the Committee from attending the previous trial a few days earlier.

In this three workers were given prison sentences of up to three years.

The crisis of the Polish bureaucracy is now expressed in a combination of this savage repression of the working class along with a desperate attempt to stop the economic rot by lifting restrictions on the capitalist sector of the economy.

During December two important measures were passed. One of these gives tax benefits and easier supplies of raw material to Polish .£1.15 .£2.30 .21.50 .23.00 .£6.00 to S acialist Daly union movement.

Many trades union branches and bodies have passed motions of support for the two. Among leading trade union officials who are sponsoring the defence campaign are Lawrence Daly of the NUM and Alan Sapper of ACTT.

Labour, MP Jo Richardson, with the support of almost 100 other MP's has tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons for January 10th.

It is essential that all sections of the workers' movement act now to stop this arrogant attack on democratic rights.

Trade union bodies should mobilise contingents for the owned small factories, workshops and catering facilities.

The second is designed to encourage more foreign capitalist investment in Poland. It gives the same tax benefits as to Polish capitalists and also guarantees that foreign firms can repatriate 50% of their profits.

If they produce for export then there is no limitation at all on profit repatriation. The Ursus tractor factory, one of the centres of last year's strike, is itself a joint enterprise with MasseyFerguson and is financed by a consortium of British banks. • The bureaucracy calls this *allowing private initiative to contribute to the building of developed socialism' - Repeal the Immigration Act!

The demonstration will assemble outside Embankment Tube Station at 12.45pm and will move off at 1.15 to march to the Home Office in Whitehall and to the US Embassy at Grosvenor Square.

There will then be a raily at Speakers Corner.

SPEAKERS

Speakers will include Judith Hart, NUJ General Secretary Ken Morgan, Philip Agee, Jo Richardson MP, and representatives from the Cypriot Defence Committee and the Campaign for Repeal of the Immigration Act.

Information and literature are available from the Agee/Hosenball Defence Committee, c/o NCCL, 186, Kings Cross Road, WC1, to which donations and resolutions of support should also be sent. AGEE/HOSENBALL DEFENCE COMMITTEE Two Publications CIA Briefing (20p)

Jamaica Destabilised (25p)

Available from:

Agee/Hosenball Defence Committee NCCL, 186, Kings Cross Road, London WC1 Continued from Front Page linked to the rising cost of living through a sliding scale of wages on a price index worked out by elected trade union committees:

*No public spending cuts! Whereyer the cuts are imposed there must be sustained strike. action with demands that "the local labour movement rally round with full support.: The demand must be for the full service to be retained through a sliding scale of spending linked to increased costs as assessed by trade union committees, and the nationalisation of public sector suppliers.

*No redundancies! Where the employers threaten redundancies the demand must be for work sharing on full pay - the total hours of work available divided between the whole workforce with no loss of earnings.

*Oper the books! When the employer argues he cannot afford a wage increase or to sustain the full workforce, the demand must be to force the firm to open its accounts and plans to an elected committee of trade unionists. This will either prove that the case is a bluff, and spur on the fight for jobs and wages, or show that the employer genuinely is bankrupt - in which case the firm must be nationalised, under the management of the elected committee, with no compensation to the old owners, *Stop racialism! Defend the black communities by the establishment of workers' defence squads. Destroy the basis of racialism by attacking unemployment and inadequate social services - for a programme of public works under trade union management to provide jobs for the unemployed and much-needed houses and other amenities.

----- pull-quotes -----

SOCIALIST PRESS *