| The Morning Star Left Sponsors a "Speak in™ and brings together 520 delegates representing 271 °rganizations to discuss the Socialist Way Forward for the Labor Movement. ee ae eaoming Star ‘“‘speak-in” 5 die on last week on The So- 2 ey Forward for the La- ement produced five aire. of many-sided arguments ing ie on closer work- 2 the movement and on the €ms facing it. le bs Platform speakers — peo- it Minent in the trade union ‘ Political movement, speak- ee their personal capacities ers & Introduced by the pap- wR m0 opened the conference. eeoue after, delegate—from nion branches and shop cowards’ committees, Labor, s east, Young Socialist and the Organizations —- thanked ret orning Star for its initia- at in calling such a conference this time. fot to speak from the plat- preside Mr, William Warman, Work of the sheet metal need €rs’ union, who said the Was to develop the many ap trends showing themselves “een down the country, and to Unity in action. iT) ® or in We can establish real unity eh € Left’ it could be powerful 5 i to change the policies of man overnment,” said Mr. War- oes policies were in many Beat Such that those at the at Ing could fight behind them, they had to be extended and ‘“€veloped with a real fight which auld Make the Government ac- bt the policies. matied : Lawrence Daly, Scots : TS’ general secretary, said re recent demonstration on of nam showed a rising mood . Militancy based on interna- tional solidarity. We € movement had to find Ake to harness the idealism, é Usiasm, imagination and de- Sination for struggle of the Ung people involved. Stelco’s arrogance denounce = ‘This latest, but by no means ae Y, arrogant action by Stelco Toves once again that big em- “a must be forced by law *© divulge their plans se that Toper community planning can € carried out in this and other . anes said Harry Hunter, can- \date for Board of Control in Bocton, on Stelco’s announce- €nt that its head office will be Moved to Toronto. tne € motive of Stelco in mov- .18 is as always dictated by self —Mterest. It will be strange in- ao if its hold on Hamilton’s airs are weakened ‘by the (ae In spite of the wails from Ped Hall, more,likely it will be Tengthened,”. he added. _ Referring to the anger express- throughout Hamilton politi- ditor, Mr. George Matth- - way forward Mr. Geoffrey Spiller, convener of shop stewards at EMI, empha- sized that alongside national movements the struggle in the engineering industry on wages and conditions was continuous, day by day and week by week. For more than two years of legislation and talk about con- trolling the ~unions, making . agreements legal, out lawing Strikes, the impression had been created that on*the shop floor there was a kind of apathy where people did not understand what was taking place. But during the engineering negotiations he had found “a great understanding of what had been taking place” and EMI workers had been involved from the start. g : “Our members were in a posl- tion to take the employers on if necessary for a long period — both men and women,” said Mr. Spiller. Mr. Christopher Norwood, La- bor MP for Norwich S. said there was widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct and perform- ance of the Labor Government. But, he said, this was not be- ing expressed in a correct way. Votes for the Tories in by-elec- tions did not help to get the policies the movement needed. @ They wanted to see some movement toward an. entirely different society from the one which surrounded us. Now the man ‘who was most respected was not the union leader but the financier, “not the man who has given to the country but who has taken from it.” Mr. Norwood declared that they must find a new form of Socialist unity, and end the sec- tarianism, bringing back com- mon principles. He did not believe the real hope Jay in Parliament with 20 to 30 people who were prepared to stick their neck out, but in the trade union movement, in a movement where all could work together regardless of the color of their party cards. The problems of shipbuilding were raised by Mr. Sam Barr, of Connell’s. shipyard, Glasgow, who said that because of new productivity schemes the indus- try was paying high wages. “But no one should be under any illusion as to what is hap- good will be done if the report- ed ‘anger’ is followed by the ‘angry’ ones telling the people what they know about Stelco’s deals with the city up to now. They shouldn’t keep it to them- selves — it is really city busi- ness.” i Typical expressions of opi- nion in Hamiiton were the fol- lowing comments reported in the Hamilton Spectator. Controller James Campbell said he was “extremely angry” that Stelco would decide to pull all its key people out of Hamil- ton, : “This city is growing but Stel- co has: got to pull-with us if we are to achieve the things we want: for our people,” the con- troller said. Cal circles, Hufriter said, “Some » ** Ald. William Powell, a retired pening: these productivity deals are, replacing the old piecework systems which the workers con- trolled and used in their bargain- ing.” They should, Mr. Barr declar- ed do everything in their power to press the government to na- tionalize the shipbuilding indus- _ try. The throttling of Britain’s in- digenous coal industry was des- cribed by Mr. Bill Carr (Yorks miners) as “a huge swindle.” At any time, he said, oil could undercut coal “in order to reach its aim of replacing coal with oil, and Britain could be held to ran- som by the oil barons.” e An appeal for the labor move- ment to link up with teachers to help save our educational sys- tem was made by Vera Fasham. (South Essex Communist Party). Today, the National Union of Teachers recognized that educa- tion was in the worst crisis since 1931, she said. The teachers needed the move- ment’s help, said Mrs. Fasham, and she would like to see as big a demonstration for better edu- cation as there was last week on Vietnam. Mr. Peter Krumbein (North Paddington Labor Party and Young Socialists) stressed the need for direct control. by the workers -when - industries: were nationalized. Jennie Stephen, from the Bris- tol Left Unity Committee, called for more unity between men and women on equal pay, for they had been fobbed-off with excuse after excuse about the national economy for 50 years, They should have a far more militant approach than the ordi- nary rank and file, "who should get their leader and kick their pants and not accept differentials between men, and women. @ Mr. Joseph Rourke (seamen) said he had seen the London School of Economics students at their recent teach-in on tele- vision and had jumped on a train straight away to join them. Caroline Edwards (London supervisors’ union) came with a suggestion for getting closer links between Labor and Com- munist members locally. She said that until they radi- cally changed the character of Stelco employee, said he was shocked by the move. Ald. William Scandlan, a form- er Stelco worker, said Stelco was only “paying lip-service” to the obligation the company said it owed Hamilton. “Stelco has a strong obliga- tion to the community; they’ve made their millions here,” Ald. Scandlan said. He said the company was snubbing the city which had hosted it for so many years. “Ym damr. mad,” said Health Minister John Munro, MP for Hamilton East, “It is a breach of faith with the people of Ham- ilton, _ “Hamilton is apparently good enough to sweat for Stelco, but not good enough for anything else,” he said. _ that the Labor Party they would go on providing Labor Governments of the present sort. She proposed local Communist Party branches invite observers from local Labor parties who would then report back to management committees. : Mr, Stan Cole, from the Man- chester district committee of the engineering union, said that the sudents had shown with. their unity what could be done, but the trade union movement and Socialist organizations were also involved on Vietnam. Ending the war by this type of unity, he said, could set this country back on the road to Socialism. Shop stewards’ convener at Associated Automation, Mr. Bill Holt, called for a lobby of thou- sands when the AEU National Committee met in London on. November 22. “But when it is settled we have got to say no more women get- ting less than the laborer’s rate,” he declared. In three years time the em- ployers were prepared to give £15 to laborers sweeping the floor, “but are not prepared to pay more than £13 for women who are performing miracles in the shops.” Transport workers’ leader Mr. Bill Jones said that those who intended to establish a Socialist way forward “had better be quick and do something about the growing gap between the youth of our movement and the adults.” One conference of this nature was not enough, “Today we have one Labor MP, but there should be four conferences a year and the number of Labor MP’s should grow into the doz- ens and beyond.” Mr. John Gollan (general sec- retary of the Communist Party) called for “a united Left cru- sade for a Socialist way for- ward.” He said that there was already ’ a considerable degree of unity on what the policy of the Left should be. He asked: “Can we change the direction of events” and Labor Government policy? “The big issue this conference has been corisidering is how to get the conditions for change.” Mass movements: would need to be-even bigger than in the past. He listed the three main ques- Mayor Vic Copps said he was disappointed, but added he would try to persuade Stelco executives to change their minds. Obscured by all the furor of the move was the fact that in the same quarterly report chere was the announcement that Stel- co’s profits are up 56 percent, in the first nine months of 1968. The company’s president H.M. Griffith said that this will be “a record year in terms of produc- tion, sales and earnings.” In an editorial the Hamilton Spectator said, “Stelco has every right to move; it’s useless for us to whimper. “With the brass here, Hamil- ton always tended to treat Stel- co with kid gloves on the theory that it might somehow, some- time, perform some civic service. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 15, 1968—Page 9 _ British Socialists discuss — tions on which the Labor move- ment could fight: Vietnam, to continue pressure “until the last American soldier has been withdrawn”; Incomes policy, ‘‘Action has dented it, action can finish it.” Victory for all the proposals won at the TUC and Labor Party conference. The victories of the Left mili- tants in elections to trade union office and to the General Coun- cil of the TUC, and the ending of bans and proscriptions in the Transport and General Workers’ Union were of immense signifi- cance. . Mr. Gollan said that it meant a decisive change in the balance of power in the Labor movement. The Left was starting to be transformed from “a voice of protest to a movement of deci- sion.” As a part of the crusade, Mr. Gollan called for big united ral- lies, conferences and forums. “The secret of the strength of the Right,” said Mr. Gollan, “has always been the disunity of the Left.” Mr. Bob Wright (a newly elect- ed member of the executive council of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering and Foun- dry Workers) said that this was the time to aim to change Gov- ernment policy. The Government was in. disarray and this was -because it was more interested in pursuing policies to make ca- pitalism work than in attempt- ing to replace it. e In his speech winding-up the conference, Morning Star Editor George Matthews said that it had. demonstrated the richness of ex-' perience of the labor and pro- gressive movement. There was general agreement on home issues such as extend- ed nationalization, economi¢ ex- pansion with full employment, opposition to anti-union laws and better social services. They also had much in,com- mon in their demands for inde- pendence from foreign bankers, dissociation from American po-. licy in Vietnam, and for a Euro- pean peace treaty with the wind- ing up’ of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Each organization should put forward the policies it believed in, said Mr. Matthews. “But how much more success- ful if with our independent acti- vities we came together in a kind of crusade for Socialist policies,” he declared, This would “unite all the sepa- rate streams into one gigantic flood.” d by Hunter uniquely related to this city’s steel relationship — so long as the corporate feathers were not ruffled. “Now head office leaves us. There is no ceremony; no non- sense. We are just one of the many places wherein Stelco-does business and that is that... “Hamilton and Stelco will long remain in partnership; except that now, with the last hopes of paternalistic care exhausted, the city may start acting like a grown up boy, instead of kid begging for handouts on Hallo- we’en.” 3 Commenting on this Hunter stated “I suggest that we should . act like mature men, not boys. There should. -be no maybe’s about it. I think that’s what Ham- iltonians expect.”