ENDING OF STRIKES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 82, 6 April 1944, Page 5

ENDING OF STRIKES

TROTSKYIST OFFICES RAIDED (B^ Teleßia[)li—Press AsswcUUuli—Cwyrldit,) Rec. 11.15 a.m. LONDON, April 5. Scotland Yard men early today raided the offices of the British section of the Fourth International Trotskyist headquarters in London.

The "Evening News" says that the raid was made only a few hours after it was announced that the Government intended to take drastic action to end all strikes interfering with the launching of the second front. The Trotskyist offices contained files, of "Socialist Appeal," which is described as the "organ of the Revolutionary Communist Party." The current-num-ber of the "Socialist Appeal" contains an article about the launching of the Revolutionary Communist Party. It says: "While 100,000 Welsh miners were demonstrating wonderful class spirit and solidarity in the great Welsh coal strike, another important event in the life of the working class was occurring in London: Trotskyists were meeting there for two days for the purpose of fusing together hitherto separate organisations—the Revolutionary Socialist League and the Workers' International League—into one united Trotskyist party for Great Britain." Newcastle police today raided two houses which have been used partly as offices at Wallsend and Walker-on-Tyne. They seized several documents relating to the Tyneside apprentices' strike.

The political writer of the "Evening Standard" says that the Government, is believed to have a long list of people who are instigating strikes from outside industries in which strikes are occurring; Many ringleaders among the strikers have also been marked down. Jock Haston, who described himself as national organiser of the Revolutionary Communist Party and assistant editor of the "Socialist Appeal,", made a statement: "If ' the Government imagines that by suppressing our publication is is going to stop strikes it is mad." He added that he was against the British Government and also antiStalin and anti-Hitler. "The Revolutionary Communist Party is not a secret party," he said. "The police did not find a list of our members, but obviously they knew many of the members. I don't think strikes help the enemy. They help the working class. If the Government nationalised the mines and operated them under democratic workers' technician com--mittees it would settle the coal-mine problem in 24 hours." SOME WORKERS RESUME. Strikers at some of the largest pits in South Yorkshire resumed work today, including 15,000 in the Barnsley area. Three thousand miners also returned to work in another area. The shipyards at Belfast are almost completely idle, with 27,000 workers on strike. The stoppage resulted from the Government's refusal to release five shop stewards in the aircraft industry who were sentenced on Monday to three months' imprisonment for participating in an illegal strike. It is hoped that the strikers will content themselves with a one-day protest stoppage.