from Claude Anderson South Africa is second biggest export customer Lord Walston, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of trade, disclosed recently that provisional trade figures for the first six months of this year showed that South Africa had moved into second place after the United States as Britain's biggest export customer. In a luncheon speech he revealed that UK exports to South Africa increased by 33:. to £114 million while South African exports to Britain had increased by 12% to £115 million . Commenting on the figures Lord Walston said that Britain aimed to boost trade with South Africae even further. Although the government might regard certain South African racial policies as misconcieved, he urged that this view should not be allowed to effect trade between the two countries. On account of Lord Walston being a representative of the government, it is quite clear that whatever the government has said about - misconcieved racial policies - in South Afriva, is so much waffle. If the labour government is going to increase trade with the white apartheid dictatorship in South Africa it is going to strengthen this regime's privilaged position at the expense of the exploited and discrimated Africans. Such a statement by a representative of the government can be regarded as nothing other than the abandonment of a moral principal for the sake of greater trade profits. Spanish miners in five day underground protest vigil In the Llori mines at Mieres, a 33 man shift went down on thursday, refused to work and threatened to stay underground until the owner promised to pay the 70 man staff three months wages that have not yet been paid. An official who went down the mine with an offer of £7,200 (half the amount owed to the miners) was told the men would stay until their demand was fully met. At the near-by Dominica mines the entire 100 man staffwent on strike in solidarity with their comrades at Mieres. The Liberal party claims not to be capitalist A piece in the Liberal news commentary of July 25th explains, under a heading of ‘Liberal not capitalist', the party's disassociation from capitalism. “the term 'capitalist' is normally taken as meaning the existing British system of capital owned by the few, with power reserved to the owners of capital. The Liberal party violently opposes this system; it is to be hoped that Jeremy Thorpe's article will be taken as a final denial of the 'capitalist' tag placed on the party. The piece goes even further to rap the Labour a tradition! eee"it is part&cularly important that the Liberal's hostility to the Conservative tradition, adopted by the Labour government should not be obscured by the use of words like 'capitalist', whose interpretation is open to doubt", Familly allowances "insult to many thousands of mothers" On July 24th the Child Poverty Action Group made the following statement about the familly allowances:.e.... "The miserable increase in familly allowances this October is an insult to many thousands of mothers who have been struggling year after year in steadily worsening poverty. It does not ewten make up for price ‘. increases since the present rates were introduced." (continued)
Political notes ........ continued
"Even the April increases are only half what is needed to raise the poor
families up to national assistance level,
"To defer the full increases until April is only justifiable if they are
to be balanced by a cut in tax relief. But if that is to be done, much
bigger increases will be possible at a relatively smaller cost.
"We welcome the very sensible decision to give free school meals and welfare
milk to the larger families, But most poor families have only two or three
children, For them the increased charges of school meals and welfare milk
could be disastrous."