So Mr. Wilson has announced a State of Emergency. The tine-worn/of ‘Successive Tory governments against striking miners, railwaymen and postmen, has now be been deployed ogainst the seamen, Mr. Wilson is to use the Navy, or troops, on ships and, if (as it certainly must become necessary, dock work as well, It is utterly rash of the Prime Minister to pretend that he is not acting against the seamen. None of the powers he has taken are directed against the shipowners, He could eaily have compelled them to answer the Hull seamen's demand that they open their books: More obviously, he could also have insisted that they yield to the 40-hour demand. If Labour had done as the TUC_ constitution says it should, the 40-hour week would be the law of the land anyway. {n I.L.0, Convention of thirty years ago insists upon a legally enforceable work week of 40 hours: but successive Tory and Labour Governments have point-blank refused to ratify it. Instead of taking such elementary steps to defend the workpeople, Mr. Wilson moves against them, In backward Indonesia the ILO Convention is law, but not in Mr, “ilson!s tough abrasive England. We now see who is to be tough and upon whom the abrasions are to be inflicted, The seamen are aware of this duplicity. On Monday the Tower Hill branch of the N.U.S. expressed their disatisfaction with Mr, Wilson's attitude towards their union. The right response has quickly come from the 60 Glasgow shop stewards, representing 75,000 meh, who immediately wired the premier to protest agninst the introduction of a state of emergency. In the House of Commons, where Eric Heffer properly insisted that if troops were moved into the docks the dockers would regard this as a serious crisis, he spoke for every trade unionist, Mr. Wilson's answer was unspeakable: he said that the some of these crises were not spontaneously organised. Reds, in short, were under the bed. It is a good job that there are reds somewhere. Obviously they have not yet arrived at 10 Downing St, M.P.s must not allow themselves to be intimidated by the premier's attacks: every trade unionist worthy of the name is in bounden duty to "deliberately organise" solidarity with the seamen, So too is every Labour politician worthy of the name, In Parliament it is vital that members should stand up against the "emergency", oppose it, and insist that the real culprits, the shipowners, be put under Governmental pressure, The shipowners must pay! “very worker must lend his support to the seamen to see that they do! Labour must unitedly call upon the premier to defend the people who elected him, not their exploiters, There must be a flood of demonstrations and protests against this emergency, which has a very simple aim - the maintenance of serfdom on British ships, and the curtailment of 211 trade union freedoms within the hoops of George Brown's disgraceful incomes policy.
(Another editorial note on vase four)