a Dear Mr,Wilson, -
We are a few of the people who were among your warmest supporters in 1963, before you were elected to the Party loader= ship. We followed your speeches attacking the Tories with enthusiasm, and worked hard to ensure that you were elected.
Today we are keenly disappointed. We appreciate that the criss of the economy, which you inherited when you assumed office, meant that it was necessary to ask for sacrifices. British working people have always been willing to make such sacrifices, provided only that they were accompanied by serious attacks on inequality and arbitrary power. What troubles us is not that you have had to call upon the workers for additional efforts, but rather that you seem to have seen trade union rights as obstacles to your policies, so that you have begun to attack the very people whose work is vital to our movement if we are ever to adveme towards socialism. In your complaints about "restrictive practices", for instance, you ignore the fact that such practices have usually grown up mainly in order to restrict the powers of management, not simply to curtail output. This means instead of seeing the working population as the most important productive force in the economy, and giving it more power to control production, reining in on arbitrary employers and dictatorial managers, you have done the opposite: that is to say, you have worked to restore management prerogatives and control trade union freedoms,
The most serious measure you'have introduced is the new legislation On the incomes policy, the Bill to compel carly warning about wage claims. This will have a fiercely adverse effect upon the trade unions, above all at workshop level. Instead of helping forward the idee. of workers’ Control, which depends on consolidating the strength of shop stewards, the new Bill is scientifically calculated to damp down that strengths by freezing concessions at local level. As soon as its meaning tecomes clear, millions of trade unionists will be compelled to take a strong stand against it. :
The alternative incomes policy of the Transport and General Workers! Union, which would extend shop stewards! powers by : opening the books of every firm to their inspection, and allowing them to take effective action against backward and inefficient managements, iS the sort of policy we should have expected from you in the old days. We wish to persuade you to take it up again today.
In the same way, the Government's record of support for the American war in Vietnam dismays us. We know that you told us at the 1964 TUC that if we got into pawn we could not afford an independent foreign policy, But if you had defied the bankers and taken the stand you took in 1957, in favour of the colonial people, can you deny that President Johnson might have been forced to back down ?
In "One Way Only", which y
ou signed with Nye Bevan, you
La ti ag “a atural as the revolt wrote that the colonial revolution was "as ni l ee of Englishmen in the 17th century against the clains rey SS I, or the revolt of Frenchnen in the 18th eritury against the luxury of King Louis'* colonists ogainst the blind ty
court, or the revolt of the. Anerican
ronny of George III.
Tt was born
ae ; oe ei ~ is of the sene spirit which inspired the Chartists and the earl} socialist novenent in Britain. It will not be put down."
We hope you still believe those words. For this reason we are fighting to get you a able to act according to your conscience, erononic expediency.
But althouch we ere trying to help ensure that Labour wins with a majority of a hundred, we want you to understand very ;
working najority, so that you will be
and not give way to
a; clearly thet we cannot support the continuction of these policies, end that we are very:nuch concerned to hope that you will be . able to reverse then, thus reverting to the traditions of Nye Bevan, and the policies which gained you the respect of the left.
yours sincerely,
David Ablitt, West Nottn, Keith Bloor, Vice Chnn,forest ‘Ward, Ken Coates, Elected President,
Nottm.City Party. Marine Costes, West Nottn, Geoff Coggen, EC Nottn,City Party, George Cornes, Arnold L.P. Dr.John Daniels, Socialist
‘Education Assn, Norman Dodsworth, Vice Pres, Nottn,
Trades Council.
South Nottn.
South Nottn,
Labour candidate,
Meapperley Ward, Alan Hall, West Nottn, Rosie Hall, -West Nottn, Jean Holman, Co-op 1.11.5. Pat Jordan, Central Nottn, Leo Keely, Treasurer, ‘fest Nottn,. Rene Keely, West Nottn.
Alf Gardner, Zoe Gardner, Bob Gregory,
Terry Murphy, West Nottne
Stella Murphy, West Tottn.
Douglas Pitt, former secretary,
West Bridgford L.P.
Peter Price, Acting President,
Nottm.City Party.
Margaret Price, South Nottinghan
Sylvia Riley, West Novtne
Andrew Rigby, Rushcliffe.
Alan Silltoe, -
Mike Sillitoe, Central Nottn.
John Sinblett, ‘North Nottn.
Brian Sinister; South Nottn. .
Trevor Spooner, South Nottn. 4
Prof. E..\.Thompson. .
Jill Westby, Secretary,
: Abbey Warc.
Mrs.S,Whawell, West Nottie
JsP,Whawell, West Notine
* David Wood, Central Nottm.
* Jocelyn Wood, Central Nottm.
*in respect of Vietnam, excluding the rest of the letter.
This is a short list of signatories, nany other people will be signing durin: the next week, Offices and Constituency Labour Parties are listed purely for purposes of identification, All signatories are acting in their privete capacity, neta een et a ne seer epee semen a ee eR te, 49 Greenfield Street, Dunkirk, Nottincshan,