Pro-prentice Coalition

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The situation in Newham Party has taken a new turn.

The 'left' dominated Labour National Executive Committee has suspended all Newham's officers and taken over the running of the local party.

This unprecedented, but not unexpected act, predictably been hailed as a 'step forward' in the Stalinist Morning Star.

It is nothing of the sort. Such a move can only strengthen the hopes of MP Reg Prentice that he can hold on to his career despite the opposition of Newham The NEC has refused to do anything until now about the situation in Newham. It has stood by whilst a Tory provocateur in the party, through the use of the courts.

Far from defending the right of Labour Party members to hold meetings and organise their affairs without the permission of Tory judges, the NEC has simply watched them do their dirty work and now moves in to pick up the pieces.

It has now stuck Reg Underhill (who just happens to be a hardened anti-communist witch-hunter) in charge: and raised a belated campaign to raise the fines imposed on the ex-Chairman and ex-Secretary of the Party.

EXPULSION

If the NEC 'lefts' like Mikardo and Heffer had given one spark of leadership by asserting the right of Labour Parties to operate without interference by the court; if they had called for the expulsion of the right wingers like Lewis, then there would have been a massive response in defence of Newham in Labour Parties and trade unions throughout the country.

The courts could have been forced to take their hands off the workers' movement in the same way that they were in 1972 when the five jailed Pentonville dockers were freed by mass labour movement action.

Without such policies every Labour Party which seeks to remove a treacherous right-wing MP will find the courts used to grind down its struggle. hospital were on average 50% above those received by the staff.

According to the records, the average wage of technicians was £6,300, whereas in fact the average was about £3,500.

The AHA records also showed consultants earning in excess of £30,000 а уеаг, an even more preposterous overestimate, whilst included in the hospital's running costs were the salaries of 4 engineers who in fact spend less than 20% of their time at the EGA.

Whether this is an attempt by the AHA to prove how uneconomic the hospital is, or whether the excess cash has disappeared into payıng for perks for the administrators 1s an open question, which is now being investigated.

Mrs. Forrest also appealed for support for the round-the-clock picket at the EGA, especially at bank holiday periods.

With three of the present medical registrars due to leave the hospital during June, the staff fear that the AHA will use the absence of medical care as a final excuse to remove the remaining patients.

An important repercussion of the EGA work-in was revealed by Chris Potter (NALGO) who reported the progress of the workin at Hounslow hospital, now in its second month.

The date set for the Hounslow closure is August 31, and the JSSC have plans to start a round-theCharing Cross). In his AHA there had been threats that student nurses would be sacked on qualifying.

The unions had resisted this, and management had attempted to sooth them by saying that those students on work-permits would be tirst to go.

PHOTO: John Sturrock, (Report).

Colin Kenny, CLASH Secretary He and several other speakers pointed out that mangement's policy was consistent with TUC demands for a reduction in workpermits, but that such a solution was not only racist, serving to divide trade unionists, but also enabled management to implement cuts on the one hand and speed up on the other.

Following the showing of a film

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Julian Murray Lewis, has disrupted Newham's right to hold meetings