“Secondly the plea to Stormont is based on the…”

Secondly the I.C.T.U. plea to Stormont is based on the argument that they will stifle industrial militancy as effectively as any Tory Bill. It is all very well to boast about our "good" strike record, but when, by the I.C.T.U.'s own admission, wages here average 78% of those in Britain many rank and file workers here would ask why do we have so few strikes and how can we co-operate with capitalists in Stormont. The I.C.T.U. have successfully adopted this strategy in the South, where instead of fighting the Fianna Fail proposals for a wage freeze they have agreed to act as industrial: policemen for the employers ina policy. Blease's legal pundit Frank Hanna let the cat out of the bag when he said "enlightened employers recognise that giving the Trade Unions full scope is in their interests - I can tell you confidentally that at least ten leading employers in Britain oppose-the bill for this reason". With industrial militiamen like Blease offering service, is it any wonder!

Thirdly the Northern Committee adopted this strategy, without the support of a single person at Tuesday's meeting. In four hours not one person spoke from the.floor in their favour. Shop-stewards after shop-steward rose to denounce their strategy. It had sown confusion on the shop floor where workers were rightly convinced that the legislation would apply here. Asa shipyard man said "you have acted as the political hatchet men for the .N.I. Tory government".

One excuse the Committee put forward for their approach was that they were acting im accord with the desires of the British T.U.C. Obsessed as they are by links with the British T.U.C. they cannot be ignorant of divisions within that body. They have chosen to ally themselves with the right-wing leadership. In Britain the T.U.C. while talking about fighting the bill tooth and nail is already quietly arranging with Wilson to fight "the bill in parliament alone". As one shopsteward put it on Tuesday "Why should we trail after the British Trade Union Movement". Incidentally if the bill is passed in Britain the Northern Committee sees no point in fighting on here. Their talk of parity" 1s just a plov to avoid action here.

Blease did eventually admit that "what we are here to decide is what form of action to take" - "if the government betrays us, and we hope it is never necessary, that... ...we may hold a demonstration at Stormont". Note, no talk of industrial action, the real area where the working class have power.

There is little enough time to organise opposition to this bill which will have particularly brutal significance in N.Ireland, where with a reactionary Trade Union leadership, much future action will of bitter necessity be unofficial and hence illegal. The answer is not to call for better leadership from Blease and Co. Elsewhere in Fee Citizen in reply to a letter from him (our criticisms have evidently begun to hurt) we asses the overall reactionary role of the Northern Committee,and the lepord will not change its spots.

There is no point saying that there are left-wingers on the Northern Committee. Jimmy Graham, secretary of the A.E.F., and a prominent member of the C.P. is indeed on the Committee. He has a better record than that of Brendan Harkin ("there's more than one Harry Midgeley" - heckler) who condemned the electricity workers along with the Chairman of the Engineering Employer's Federation. but what use is a militant on the Northern Committee who put his loyalty to that Committee before his loyalty to workers as a whole, and is thus reduced to making absurd statements, such as "the T.U.C. and I.C.T.U. are not bulwarks of reaction despite what my personal views may be.”

The existing unofficial liasion committee should make plans for future independent action. P.D. calls for, and will fully support, a general strike throughout N. Ireland if the bill is introduced here. In every factory where workers read this paper, they should discuss preparations to oppose the bill.

A final word of warning for the Government. This article discussed dissension within the Trade Union Movement - indeed promotes a necessary struggle against a reactionary and useless leadership. Bradford need take no comfort from this. We can leave him with the words of another shipyard shopsteward "the boys are confused now, but if that bill becomes law they'll come out fighting".

Sir One can understand the anger of the R.U.C. at the wall of silence among people who know something about the tarring and feathering incidents.

After all they themselves are experts when it comes to walls (or conspiracies) of silence.

"Guilty ex-R.U.C. man’