Ryder: Demand Inquiry

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A public meeting on the 18 black youth facing frame-up ¡harges in Islington was ittended by over 50 people fast week.

A resolution addressed to the ludge condemned the whole way in shich the trial had been conducted, refusing to give a fair hearing to the rouths and their parents.

Progress in mounting the labour movement enquiry on Saturday luiy 23 was also reported.

This will investigate police behaviour towards black youth in the Islington area.

It will also investigate the #reral conditions facing black people, in housing, employment, tools, youth provision, the ivenile and magistrates courts and he legal aid system.

Ernie Roberts (AUEW), North London AUEW, NW London EETPU, TGWU (ACTS), Central London ASTMS and two Labour councillors have agreed to take part and the Defence Committee is expecting the participation of other local organisations which support the campaign.

These include Islington Trades Council, Carribean Labour Solidarity, North London Teachers Association and Central Islington The Defence Committee has correctly called for a labour movement enquiry rather than one set up by the Police Commission or "independently' by the Several Communist Party-dominated organisations such as the Trades Council and the Teachers Ryder Association have proposed such an enquiry, but all those directly involved in the Defence Committee know full well that no 'fairness' could be expected from the system of law or police.

This they know from the rigging of the trial of the 18, particularly the way in which • the defence barristers have conspired with the prosecution, judge and police, over plea-bargaining, and, after immense pressure, persuaded three of the younger youths to plead guilty on minor charges of conspiracy.

IMPLICATED

These pleas implicate the older youths, and, with the trial likely to end in a full fanfare of racist publicity just before this year's Notting Hill Carnival, it is clear that the prosecution and defence are 'conspiring' to deliver maximum sentences.

The Defence Committee has also quite consciously called for delegates from labour movement bodies rather than simply inviting individuals.

By this means they hope to force through the maximum involvement of working class organisations, all too many of which have ignored the position of blacks up till now.

MOBILISATION

'When money comes as a gift there is no way of knowing whether it comes from Woolworth's or a hole in the ground."

That is how Lord Ryder-chairman of the National Enterprise Board-shrugged off his still unexplained £46,500 gift from a Canadian firm, revealed last week.

As far as Lord Ryder is concerned the money was simply a present that went wrong-not because he should never have received it, but because it has been paid by the wrong firm!

He thought it had been paid by Canadian Forest Products Ltd, a firm he did not even work for, and repaid the money when he discovered that it had come indirectly from Reed . Paper Ltd, a subsidiary of Reed International (of which Lord Ryder was chairman for more than a decade).

RESIGNATION Now the gift has been added to the long list of sensations which have absolutely nothing to do with Ryder's resignation from the NEB. Like the slush fund allegations and the Bewbush land deal affair we are expected to believe that this latest revelation has nothing to do with his sudden decision on July 2 to quit on August 1.

Another nice coincidence is that the original request for the money to be paid to Ryder was in December 1974-the same month as Ryder was appointed to start his inquiry into the future of Leyland. He was paid £47,000 a year as a chairman of Reed and £31,850 a year as chairman of the NEB.

Workers in all National Enterprise Board firms as well as those employed by Reed International will no doubt follow with particular interest such details about the payment as are allowed to emerge.

NECESSARY

One question that they might like answered is why the gift was thought necessary in the first place? What made Ryder think that there was nothing wrong with the 100,000 Canadian dollar_payment from Canadian Forest Products?

Although Reed Paper Ltd and CFP jointly owned pulp and paper factories, Ryder never worked directly for CFP.

Yet he said: "It seemed a logical reward for 11½ years service with a company as large and as prosperous as CFP.

To put this in context it is the equivalent of a British Leyland transport driver receiving a £49,500 thank you, not from Leyland (which would be a ludicrous enough proposition) but from the garages he delivered the cars to.

The man who arranged the payment-R.W. Billingsley has now retired to his vast estate outside Toronto where employees threaten journalists who turn up asking questions.

Billingsley owes his rapid promotion inside Reed Paper Ltd to Lord Ryder's interest in his career, and it was Billingsley who arranged the 'present' Workers will want to know what made this successful businessman put his career at risk arranging the pay out.

APPROACHED

When he first approached CFP the company refused to make the payment according to their executive vice president Ron Longstaff and only changed its mind when it was told that they would be reimbursed in full by Reed Paper Ltd.

Another question still to be answered is why-if everything was SO innocent-the money was actually paid through neither of these companies-but through. a shadowy "offshore" company, organisations that are set up because they are able to exist in a twilight world as far as taxes and disclosure are concerned?

Why too does the boss of CFP insist that the payment was not a thank you, but a straightforward gift-in flat contradiction of Lord Ryder's statement that it was a "post retirement gratuity"

BLUNDER The Daily Mail blunder over the forged letter implicating Ryder in