Total international Chairman of the Hull Docks tells Red Weekly why his men are blacking all Spanish ships.
• What led you to put a black on goods going to and from Sain? The question came up on the shop stewards' committee when they shot the five people. The way way we saw it, they didn't have a chance of a fair trial. It was a military coutt, which could only condemn them to death.
We don't have very much information on the internal situa Lon in opain, but we nope une black will influence events there. We hope that all major ports will follow. Hull's example. We understand that the Southampton area are doing the same as us.
All-trade unionists should think hard about the situation in Spain, and take a lead from the Hull docks decision to boycott indefinitely all Spanish • The black has been imposed indefinitely then?
Yes. We agree with Jack Jones who called for maximum harass ment' of Franco, not just a 48nour stoppage Let me also say that there is no truth in the reports in the press that a busload of dockers were going on holiday to Spain. It was a busload of pensioners and two dockers were going along with them as escorts.
• At Heathrow the stewards seem to nave taken the decision and then run into some difficulty when workers refused to carry it out. How was the decision taken at Hull?
The shop stewards' committee IBERIAN FUND GROWS Readers have continued to respond to our appeal to aid the Iberian comrades of the Fourth International - the LCI in Portugal, and the LCR-ETA (VI) in Spain.
italism is finding its sharpest expression in the Iberian countries. Please help us to carty forward these struggles to a successtul revolutionary conclusion. The total collected so far is £80.38. All donations should be sent to: Red Weekly (Iberial, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. discussed the question on the Monday. Then the next day there was a mass meeting which took the decision. All major decisions, including decisions about cracking, are taken Dy the men themselves. Of course we give them our recommenda. tions.
The latest events in Portugal show once more how the crisis of international cap
red weekly 9 october 1975 side the armed forces.
sions.
Links with the workers and tenants' commissions continue to grow. In several areas, regiments give regular weapons training to civilians organised by the commisTake the Setubal soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Velasco, their commander, is a reactionary. He refused the use of army lorries to the 200 soldiers who voted to support the 25 September demonstration. The soldiers' £5-a-month pay made it impossible for them to reach Lis bon unaided. Undeterred, they approached the Setenave shipyard workers' commission and Setubal tenants commission. These raised the money for coaches to take the soldiers across the Tagus to Lisbon. Another link was forged.
Take the Setubal soldiers Lieutenant Colonel Velasco, their commander, is a reactionary He refused the use of army lorries ment', the PCP is participating in the Sixth Provisional Government On the central question of army discipline, it is ambiguous, silent, or downright counter-revolutionary. It sided with the Government in attacking the sacking of the Spanish Embassy, and has now proposed a scandalous law for strict control of foreigners. When the troops entered the radio stations, its only utterance was to express astonishment that it had not been consulted'! COMMISSIONS While the PCP supports the var ious commissions at the base, it does not see them as a transition to organs of dual power, the frame work for a future workers state. It thus has no strategy for taking the masses forward against the project of Soares, who said in a recent Le Monde interviews: 'One should accept and encourage spon taneous initiatives from the masses