SI THOMAS HOSPITAL SITE PHOENIX ELECTRICIANS EET& PU.

Trade union leaders at best are cotton-woo Graham R. (34) is an EPTU shop steward in the South London area:

(It's time there was a viable alternative to the present parties whose policies are bankrupt. The role of the union leaders has now been exposed for what it is. They are part and parcel of the capitalist system.

In the past, strong unions like those at Ford's, could establish a good rate compared with others, like the hospital workers. But now the Pay Board gets at all workers and tries to con people into thinking it's 'fair'.

Now the competition between the different capitalist countries has become so intense that each one is trying to cut production costs by cutting wage rates and introducing measures like jobevaluation. All workers are subject to the same crisis today. system of production for need It's necessary to have not . profit. That means a planned economy, rather than one dependent on the market. There's no answer except through a planned economy.

I came to politics because of the problems around mehousing and the inefficiency and corruption of a system based on getting the quickest penny you could. Looking for an answer, you can look at several policies.

The Labour Party just seems to want to shift the national income, to try to increase growth, but they're very little different from the Conservative Party.

They don't want The Communist Party just seems to be a party which backs protest to a point. But when comes taking a stand, they back down.

They covered up for Hugh Scanlon [engineers' president] when he said he would accept an amended Industrial Relations Act. They all talk left, but when it comes to it, they are, not left at all.

The Communist Party supported him because they are a party of protest and that's In my own union, Chapple's philosophy is to increase production so our members will benefit. But my firm is in a very competitive export market. For them. ket. For them me linked with duction must cutting costs mcreased productivity will lead to lower wages, because there isn't an expanding market. And if we increase productivity, so will the other companies. We'll be competing with our brother trade unionists.

Socialism means a planned economy. The trade union leaders don't support that. If anything, they're nationalists. At best, they are cotton-wool reformistsy They don't provide TE MARCS C Right: Hugh Scanlon-the CP covered up for him. Above: EPTU members on. the march.

an answer at all. They are boom men.

The sickness: of the currencies show the sickness of capitalist industry, of each country's economy. They show the contradictions within the system itself.

Whether it would be changed by putting a Labour government in committed to socialist policies, or by an alternative party, I'm not sure.

I can't see a Labour government, even if it's pledged to socialist policies, carrying this out once it gets in.

The Labour Party needs to gain a few million votes to get into office and to get them it would promise anything.

It's a coalition of lefts' and rights. It's followed a policy of consensus politics, like the Tories, ever since the war and I can't see it changing.

If it was put in on a draft manifesto of nationalizing the banks, land and . industry, it wouldn't do it.

But the very situation the leaders would find themselves in would expose them because they wouldn't have any answer to it.

Coventry toolroom workers during the 1971 fight to maintain the toolroom rate. Above: Miners' strike, 1972. 'I thought their strike showed

TATIAL

Steve and Marilyn Perk live in Coventry. Steve is toolroom worker at GEC a was on strike when he t helping to build the revc tionary party. Marilyn is housewife. The most imp tant change for her has br the rapid rise in prices.

'Housewives are waking to how this governmen conned them' Marilyn:

I think the rise prices iS just forcing us to seriously think about the future and what kind of political organization the working class are going to have.

Every time you go into a shop prices are up. It's not just the jam but the bread, and the margarine as well.

I find it more and more difficult to keep standards up. We don't eat the same way we used. to do. I never buy fruit. I used to get a bit of beef— but I can't ever buy this now. (ins The other meats are extremely = a expensive too. and I think housewives are old really beginning to wake up is to how this government consu- ned them.

a The trouble is that the IOT- housewife has no one to turn een to. The trade union leaders are traitors. I definitely think they need to be got rid of.

A big worry to me is the policy of putting the Labour Party back and then exposing them. I think this is a gamble —I would like to know exactly how this can be done.

This is the first time I have really taken a serious active interest in politics. The miners' strike had a big influence on me. I come from a family of miners. I thought their strike showed what the working class could do. If they had stayed out, the government would have come down. Since then the workers have been divided up and taken on one by one by the Tories. But I think people will be forced to get together.

I think with housewives the process began as far back as decimalization. They realized that the talk about price control was a con. Since then, of course, it's become obvious. Paper money, mainstay of the capitalist system, Is in'deep trouble' Steve: • There is a lot of confusion in the working class over what a revolutionary party means. A lot of men think it's something to do with taking up arms. Of course we may well have to do this to defend what we have won from attack by the capitalists. But revolution is mainly concerned with a change from one type of capitalist society to a socialist society.

The other big worry is over the Soviet Union. People equate socialism and communism with Russia. People are frightened of the word communism because of this. Of course, we have to explain that Russia is Stalinist, not communast.

The issue is not just one of propaganda either. Events are moving now towards crisis. The higher price of gold is the symbol of this. It shows how paper money, the mainstay of the capitalist system, what the working class could do. is in deep trouble.

The workers in Coventry have been used to a relatively high standard of living. But this is beginning to break up. Men are really beginning to think twice about the struggles the last hoping that Angs 11ICT will get better then they won't HULLS ROYCE COVENTRY have to worry about unpleasant things like politics and revolutionary parties.

In our strike they think the government might be behind the GEC strike, but they don't like to admit it. Conditions are being steadily eroded and with it a whole way of thinking is going.

Press, Thursday 31, 1973