AS a socialist I would like to comment on the article about foreign workers in last week s paper. Fenland MP Malcolm Moss notes that: People coming to his surgeries are complaining that they cannot get jobs because the labour market for our local factorie

AS a socialist I would like to comment on the article about foreign workers in last week's paper.

Fenland MP Malcolm Moss notes that:"People coming to his surgeries are complaining that they cannot get jobs because the labour market for our local factories is controlled by the gang-masters, who favour (along with the managers) migrant workers."

This is a bit rich coming from Mr Moss whose ideological guru, Mrs Thatcher, deregulated the labour market and instituted the most restrictive trade union laws in Western Europe following her victory over the miners in 1985.

Mr Moss also notes that his constituents claim they have been "priced out of the private rented housing market because of the influx of these workers who often live in houses in multiple occupation."

Again, this is a bit rich given that Mr Moss's Conservative government stopped the building of new council houses, a policy disgracefully continued by New Labour. Mr Moss should therefore call on the government to nationalise all land, and allow Fenland Council to embark on a crash programme of council house building and repair.

Mr Moss is puzzled that five years ago jobs were being done by local people and asks: "Where have they gone in the labour market?"

The answer is simple. These workers have taken early retirement following the receipt of lump sum payments as a financial inducement to give up their unionised jobs. Migrant workers are not a problem. The capitalists who use them to increase competition between workers are.

The trade unions should organise all workers employed by gang-masters and employment agencies in local factories. The Transport and General Worker Union (TGWU) is at the forefront of this major organising drive.

JOHN SMITHEE, Kingsley Avenue, Wisbech