Money agreement breaks up before it begins The 'floating six begin

it likely that the joint float, due to come into operation when toreign exchange markets reopen on March 19, will have only a brief life.

The French government, which lost a big slice of its parliamentary majority at the election last weekend, is now facing intensified conflict on wages. questions with the organized working class, FLOAT Workers, who for months have been held back by the Stalinist and reformist bureaucrats of the trade unions, are determined to press home the fight now that the election is over.

With the prospect of a new round of class battles in front, the Gaullist government is determined that the EEC joint float must be as "dirty" as possible, with central banks buying dollars South Africa: Honest Jim' speaks IN THE City of London Mr James head of the Slater Walker financial ate, is known as 'Honest Jim'.

This affectionate nickname has been acquired through a favourable Press and other publicity. Because of this you don't readily associate him with asset-stripping, yet he is one of the biggest strippers in the Slater and his erstwhile partner, Peter Walker, the Secretary for Trade and Industry, remain_ aloof from this publicity while one of Slater's proteges, John Bentley of Barclay Securities, gets the full blast.

Slater is opposed to 'asset-stripping', he said in a recent interview with 'The Times'. He said he preferred "industrial rationalization and putting assets to much better use'. Which, of course, is another way of saying •.. asset-stripping!

On Monday this week 'The Guardian' presented a 'scoop' story that British-owned companies in South Africa were underpaying their African workers. This was scarcely sational 'news'. After all there are more than 500 British companies with investments in South Africa; they make up 61 per cent of the total foreign investment in the apartheid state; and the total volume of British investment in more than £2,500m.

When informed of these facts the captains of British business threw their arms up in mock horror. 'We did not know about the labour camps,' they exclaimed.

'Honest Jim' took a more penitent line. He said he was 'horrified' to read reports of conditions on wattle farms his South African subsidiary.

wish it had been brought to my attention in a less dramatic way. But I am glad it has happened.

'We will, of course, now immediately investigate the working and living conditions of all our African employees in South Africa.' At best, Slater's statement reveals the most astonishing naïveté about how the vicious apartheid system works.

At worst, it is a thorough-going condemnation of capitalism. Slater's statement, taken at face value, demonstrates the utterly impersonal relations under capitalism.

Slater in his skyscraper in the City of London is a highly-trained accountant who is solely interested in balancing the figures in his books.

On making deals Slater once said: 'It's like a knife and butter and we're the knife. As soon as the ink was dry on one bid, we launched another.' Yet he appears ignorant workers conditionse profe of the conditions of BY FOREIGN EDI keep the joint parity down. The French hope in this way to avoid being totally priced out of their export markets. They do not want the franc to float upwards with the German mark, which has been one of the main targets for revaluation.

The French insisted that the Germars revalue the mark by a further three per cent against the other EEC currencies before entering the common float. But they still say the banks must intervene.

The Bundesbank on the other hand wants to dispose of its large holding of paper dollars, which are a rapidly depreciating asset and pose a real danger of runaway inflation in West Germany.

Slater, the conglomerfor his worldwide group of companies.

Who they are, how they live, how their families survive, their education and their health—these are not questions that confront Slater and his friends every day.

In that sense Slater's comment is not only a condemnation of what his corporation is doing in South Africa, but how the system is based in Britain and every other capitalist country.

The greatest blow that British workers can make on behalf of their African brothers is to expropriate the Slater Walkers and the other money institutions in the City.

By nationalizing the companies which form the yoke of the apartheid system, the way can be cleared for the exploited African majority to make their own social revolution.

Mr Flemming Heilmann, managing director of Metal Box in South Africa, yesterday denied paying substandard wages to his 5,600 'non-whites'.

He admitted that labourers received f46 a month which is the country's poverty line set by the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce.

A former director of Metal Box was the Home Secretary, Mr Robert Carr, who introduced the Industrial Relations Act when he was Employment Secretary.

JOHN SPENCER The West German government was forced to buy some $2,700m in the week ending March 7. This was on top of the huge sums-at one point as much as $1,500m a day—that it was forced to buy in February.

WEAKENED

The total West German reserves now amount to some $31,000m. It was West Germany's inability to absorb more dollars that forced the closure of the foreign exchange markets on February 13 and again on March 2.

The disagreement between France and Germany reveals that the two countries are floating with radically different ends in for capitalism African workers in the Highflats region of Natal queue for their wages (above). The plantation workers being transported to work mostly receive & monthly wage of between {2.50 and £3 which leaves them on a starvation existence. The child mortality rate is one of the highest in the world.

Jim' view, an arrangement which cannot be conducive to lasting agreement.

Already gravely weakened by the independent floating of Britain, Eire and Italy, the Common Market is proving unable to muster the cohesion and unity of purpose required to combat the United States.

The EEC is still pleading with Washington for some co-operation in staving off slump Europe. They are asking the US government to delay its plans for freer capital exports, force US multi-national companies to send more money home and help control the use of funds.

None of these measures will find much sympathy with the Us delegation when it meets the EEC Finance Ministers on Friday. The US has made it abundantly clear that Europe is the main target in the next round of trade HELMUT SCHMIDT West German Finance Minister.

West German Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt described the joint float agreement as 'the end of Bretton Woods', , pointing out that the two main elements of the post-war monetary system— fixed parities and the dollar as the main reserve currency-were now at an end.

The capitalist crisis has cleared a way for itself through all the obstacles erected by international agreement, opening the road for the most catastrophic and thoroughgoing recession its entire history.