[Ary militants who might have expected a lead…]

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Ary militants who might have expected a lead in the fight against wage control From the Communist Party's front organisation the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Frade Unions would have received a rude shock at last Saturday's Conference of that sody in London.

Not a single speaker other than a land-picked list of Stalinists and hangers-on, with the 'left' decorItion of Socialist Workers Party spokesman John Deason were dowed to speak; no resolutions or tendments were allowed from the door: and there was not so much as whisper of support for the inctions of workers - most notably be ioolroom workers in British Layland - who are now on strike Painst the social contract. : Derek Robinson, an executive member of the Communist Party, convener at Leyland's Longmidge plant, spoke from the Jatform without once mention* that that car firm is at present • a standstill as a result of a wave • strikes - and staying prudently ient on his own attack on the bolroom workers.

The Conference eventually passed a resolution calling for a return to free collective bargaining "after August" - thus completely accepting that the 5% wage limit should remain in force until then.

At the same time the demand was carried for a one day protest strike on April 19th to coincide with the similar call from the Leyland combine stewards' committee.

ONE-DAY This call for a one-day action, forming part of a series of similar equally futile and restrictive one-day actions, is consciously designed to do no more than ease the pressure on conveners such as Robinson from a rank and file increasingly hostile to the 5% limit.

It is not intended as the first step in a campaign - but as a means of wearing down the militancy of the working class, and, like the Leyland call, will certainly be received with considerable hostility by workers looking for a serious lead against wage control.

Under these conditions the Recall Conference of the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement on March 27th in Birmingham offers a clear and crucial alternative road. In declaring full support for the toolroom workers and other sections prepared to 'Fight Phase Two Now!', the conference draft resolution goes on to show the vital role of political leadership in the struggle against wage control and its enforcers in the TUC bureaucracy.

At the forefront of the demands in the draft resolution is the call for substantial increases now, linked to the rising cost of living (as assessed by . trade union committees) through a sliding scale of wages.

Other demands take up the fight against unemployment, for women's rights, against the cuts and against racialism.

But unlike the Liaison Committee Conference the CDLM conference is open for labour movement bodies to submit amendments or resolutions and for all political tendencies to contribute.

We urge all our readers to attend and fight for support for this Conference.

Credentials can be obtained from Kevin Lee, 44, Devonshire Rd. Handsworth Wood, Birmingham 20.

Satisfied smirks from the Tory benches and impotent howls from 'left' and not-so-left Labour • MPs greeted Home Secretary Merlyn Rees's announcement in the House of Commons on February 17th that he would, after all, deport American-born journalists Philip Agee and Mark Hosenball.

PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Agee The expulsion of Agee, whose exposure of covert CIA activity has angered those who hold the purse strings of the Labour government, was a foregone conclusion.

It was, on the other hand, widely believed that Hosenball would be let off, and Rees's decision to deport him is an indication of the government's determination to capitulate to both British and American secret services.

It is also a reflection of the weak response from the trade union movement in protest at these viciously anti-democratic and anti-working class moves.

Flushed with easy success, Rees then gave the nod to arrest journalists Crispin Aubrey and Duncan Campbell, and former Royal Signalman John Berry, all members of the Agee/Hosenball Defence Committee, on extremely tenuous charges under a section of the Official Secrets Act that Rees himself had promised would not be used.

EXPOSE

Every blow against the every exposure of British "sec is in the interests of all E ritish workers.

"Intelligence, national and international, is used daily to penetrate, disrupt and damage the trade union movement.

The Agee/Hosenball Defence Committee is continuing the struggle to force a reversal of the deportation decision. Among the planned activities is a mass picket of Callaghan at St. Pancras Town Hall on Saturday 5th March at 10.30am, followed by a demonstration from Embankment tube station to the headquarters of MI6 starting at 1.00pm, with a rally in waterloo Bull King at 3.00pm.