Spate of Phase deals

THE ACCEPTANCE by Vauxhall car unions of a Phase Two pay agreement is yet another consequence of the policy of surrender to the Tory pay laws which has been consistently pursued by the TUC since last autumn.

The 7-per-cent deal of £2.40 more a week across the board means that wages for the 26,000 workers will rise by less than the current rate of increase in the cost of living of 8 per cent and more.

In other words, the Vauxhall workers at Luton, Dunstable and Ellesmere Port are, like most other workers, receiving a wage cut in actual fact.

Union leaders have been able to sign such a deal without a fight after getting endorsement at mass meetings.

But the background to this string of decisions by workers of all industries not to go on strike at the present time against the state control of wages is the cowardly retreat by the TUC leaders.

Every worker now knows that to fight the fl plus 4 per cent norm means a political fight against the government involving the likelihood of criminal court prosecutions, fines, and imprisonment.

To meet this challenge, a strike movement developed which eventually forced the TUC leaders against their will to call a special Congress; belatedly on March 5. TURN TO BACK PAGE

Press, LABOUR captured four of the 'big six' metropolitan and district councils in England and Wales-Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Cardiff - in Thursday's local But the Liberals will be the strongest party in Liverpool and will hold the balance of power in Leeds.

Results in 62 areas gave the Tories control in only five- Bolton, Bradford, Monmouth, Sefton and Solihull. Altogether Labour won 1,784 seats, Conservatives 728, 'Independents' 557 and Liberals 193.

Despite the unpopularity of the Tory government, however, Labour did not make any spectacular advances.

Failure to win control at Liverpool, a centre of workers' struggles, where Labour leader Alderman William Sefton lost his seat, is an indictment of the Labour Party leadership nationally.

Despite the rents Act, the Industrial Relations Act, state control of wages, soaring prices and EEC entry, Wilson and company have totally failed to rally mass support behind themselves as a viable alternative to Heath.

This the only encourage Election:*.": Tories in their election plans, since they can reasonably expect Liberal support; to melt away in a General So the Heath government, having launched an artificial pre-election fake-'boom', draws strength both from the Stalinist-backed capitulation of the TUC and the total inability of the Labour leaders to put up any real opposition to them.

The price of Wilson's collaboration on state control of wages, his sabotage of the rents fight and his refusal to deal with the pro-Tory Jenkins right wing has been inertia at the polls.

The reformist leaders of the Labour Party and trade unions—left and right alike-and the Stalinists have shown over and over again that they cannot and will not fight the Tories.

Once again the urgency of transforming the Socialist Labour League into the revolutionary party has been revealed.

The first task of this party will be to mobilize the working class around socialist policies and to expose the Wilson-Feather leadership in the fight around these policies to bring the Tory government dowh.