The seamen's strike in Scotland Not having the protection of Parliamentary privilege, witch-hunters in Glasgow have resorted to anonymous leaflets in efforts to split the seamen's solidarity. The leaflet, addressed to the homes of Glasgow seamen, alleged that the strike was "a struggle by the left-wing element to take over your union", the aim being "to cripple the shipping industry first, then the country," The leaflet infuriated Mr. John Docherty, a Catholic member of the N.U.S. executive, who took legal advice but was told that that the statement was not actionable. While Wilson's own smear was being repudiated in Glasgow by James Jack, General Secretary of the S.T.U.C., seamen in Greenock demonstrated their militancy by promptly voting out of office the chairman of the local strike committee, Mr Malcolm Campbell, after he had publicly stated that "most of the Greenock seamen were fed-up with the strike." On Saturday, July 2nd, Mr, William Hogarth was to have been in Glasgow leading west of Scotland seamen in a solidarity march, In the event he was there explaining the executive's decision to call off the strike, Earlier in the week the Glasgow branch of the union had passed a resolution calling on the executive to stand firm on all demands, after the announcement of the settlement the meeting in Glasgow broke up in confusion after much bitterness, but no resolutions were passed. It was in Leith, however, that the strongest reactions to the decision were felt, when the branch meeting passed votes of ne-confidence in the three executive members from Leith who admitted having voted for the resumption of work. One seaman referred to them as the "three stooges", A sour footnote to the Government's handling of the situation in the northern isles comes from Shetland where a tank land wrett was used to ferry supplies from Aberdeen, The Shetlanders warned repeat/~*that such a vehicle was completely unsuitable for the heavy seas in this region but the advice was ignored. ‘Sure enough when the supplies were landed they were found to have been water-logged and spoilt, Glasgow Labour Party's ostriches Against a background of further municipal losses and an indivilual membership less than that of the Communist Party, the Glasgow Labour Party held its A.GMe On a procedural ruling the chairman refused to allow any discussion on the electoral defeats in Maye H If the present trends in Scottish housing are continued there can be no doubt that the problem, the most unmanagesle in Britain as it is, will worsen, Builders who have negotiated contracts with local authorities are now beginning to insist on an increase in the agreed price to cover the Selective Employments Taxe This has happened twice in Glasgow in the past two weeks. Midlothian County Council has raised its rents under the threat of losing their equalisation grant, In Fife rents have been increased 25%, yet this, according to the County Finance Convenor, "scarcely keeps pace with the increase in loan charges on the housing deficit of £19 million, New subsidies were promised by the Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Bill, which lapsed with the General Election. This bill has not re-appeared and the subsidies are being paid. Needless to say, none of the above mentioned increases are being referred to the Prices and Incomes Board, nor is a 50% rail increase in the Glasgow areas
contintued over/
Scottish notes continued/
Teachers
The teaching profession in Scotiend is Split into three unions, th
Institute of Scotland, the biggest; the Scottish Secondary Seushers onica
and the anti-feminist Scottish Schoolmasters Association, Last year, after an
increase of 15% had been agreed in negotiation, the Scottish Secretary, William
Ross, unilaterally reduced the award to 13%, There has been some talk recently
of joint action by the E.I.S. and the S.S.TeA. on this issue, but these plans
collapsed when the E.1.S. refused to link the demand for the 15%
directly with a demand for the exclusion of unqualified teachers from Scottish
Schools, The sectionalism and quarrels within the Scottish teachers! unions
have rendered them helpless in the face of a Government that knows what it wants.
The reationary S.S.A. has been able to attract sympathy by putting forward an
apparently militant policy on wages and open negotiations, while the E.I.S.,
suffering from severebureaucratic sderosis, has continually made vague threats
of militant action, but seldom fulfilled any.
With the demise of the genuinely militant Young Teachers! Action Committee, the
most hopeful development among Scottish teachers for a long time, there appears
to be little prospect of the present prostration being overcome.
Industry
Signs are beginning to appear that the Government's financial measures could
play havoe with the fragile Scottish economy and the Scottish development plan
(such as it is), Colvilles, the steel group, whose performance has been
commonly regarded as a reliidble indicator of general trends, has announced that
due to falling orders and rising costs, it will, for the first time since
denationalisation, be paying no interim dividerd, The management has apparently
decided that the labour force is to bear the brunt and has launched its attack
at the weakest point as far as union organisation is concerned, the salaried
staff, 200-300 of whom are to be sacked, John Brown!s,the shipbuilders, have
announced a loss of £2,23million in the past year, compared with a profit of
£3,23million in the previous year. Nevertheless, the dividend is to continue
at 11%. Meanwhile the process of rationalisation and the integration of unions
with management continues in the Clyde shipyards. A meeting of shop stewards
and branch officials of the Boilermakers! Society in the upper Clyde has agreed
to accept interchangibility and end demarcation practices, At Fairfields a new
apprenticeship training schemhas been introduced to assist interchangibility,
and Alex McGuinness, the first full-time shop steward convenor in Britain,
was appointed there,
Unemployment in Scotland provisionally reached the lowest June total (52,457)
since 1957 according to the Ministry of Labour, and in 1965 Scotland overfulfilled
the target for manufacturing output laid down in the National Plan, achieving
4.9% growth against a target of 4,6%, and an actual performance of 3% in the
U.K. as a whole, However, the fall in unemployment could be depm@dert on a
rising rate of emigration, and the recent promising industrial developments -
have to a large extent been due to moves by giant monopoly firms: Colvilles,
B.M.C» and Rootes, Wizgin Teape, I.C.I., A.E.I., etc., who are thus steadily
expanding their control over the Scottish economy, Although Scotland receives
11% of public investment as against a population of 9s% of the U.K., the higher
proportion is almost entirely accounted for by the greater level of council
house building in Scotland. Unfortunately the Government seems to be determined
to alter this situation - not by stepping up industrial investment - but by
trying to change the balance of housing in favour of the private builders. Je
Dickson-Mabon, Scottish Undersecretary of State, has been meting their represent~
atives, and a decision has been taken to set up a working party of the private
builders! nominees and the Scottish Development Department. Meantime, local
authorities are to lose their equalisation grants if they fail to raise rentS.s
The folbwing letter was sent by Tony Topham to Frank Cousins on the 3rd of ot om writing on behalf of the Editorial Board of Humberside Voice to convey our congratulations on your courageous and principled stand against the Early Warnings Bill, which you have expressed today by your resignation from the cabinet. "Your action and the reason which has caused it, have our wholehearted support. We have no doubt whatsoever that they will command the respect and support of millions of trade unionists and members of the Labour Party. -In our own journal, we have campaigned against the present incomes policy, arguing that its effects were those of an unjust and unsocialist attack on wages, This argument has been made plain for all to see in the Government's handling of the seamen's strike. We have warned, in our columns, of the profound dangers to our trade union and socialist movement contained in the proposed Early Warning legislation, We are immensely heartened and encour— aged in our efforts by your brave and important decision, as will be so many others who believe in free trade unionism and in socialist principles, We believe that the Government's present policies in relation to wages and the trade unions follow with a terrible inevitability from its initial decisions of 1964 to "solve" the crisis of the outworn British economic system by purely orthodox methods, which respect privilege, property and the interests of international finance and capital to the point of servility. "As trade unionists and members of the Labour Party, we believe that the stand you have taken will stiffen and rally support for a common search after genuine alternative policies which mst be based on social justice, and upon socialist priorities,
Yoursis<sse