Workers Press no. 166

I had think Merseyside must back Pilkington strikers THERE should the Peakington, lass wor- union move- leaposition

ARROGANT

intransigence of a listic

CRIMINAL

emplot the i bet rarely one

SUBTLE

treet immense church If all these things failed it was First the S-at were This offer, se became walk-nut the arena on persuade impressed el used commi ved to tax the called

APR 22 1971

The daily organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League

THE NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY •

NUMBER 166

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1970

PRICE ba. Government inquiry begins, but May £1,000 Appeal Fund siowing down we need £739 16s 2d by May 31

THE

by

SOMEHOW,

announcement Fords in Detroit,

USA

Our fundi that and engines uans brought mission to be palls are made in Britain for a new appreciate the St Helens, Tuesday car has Americal Deen number followed almost immed- PROFESSOR John Wood, Tory chairman of the We shii have not lately by General Motors' government's court of inquiry into the seven- proposals rom the way are its we have week-old strike at Pilkington's St Helens glass- onWe know Frigidaire division works, today added his voice to the clamour Kingsbury, London, to car for a return to work. let producton i to

BY A WORKERS PRESS

case Like the company rep- the

CORRESPONDENT

resentatives, union officials, mem "Workers mass-media pundits and found, swam Fish street, L don, had a tint at into the six assorted clergy who went again gone enemationa strike break before him, he was ignored by the vast majority of the strikers. 600 at

OH KOCHO

this for there thate Lenin supplies force centenary Shopping around lecture i They scounted compa THE COMING General Election is unique in Tecent anti-Cambodian wa It is probably the first whose

DUBCEK

every sense. polling date was actually determined by con- exemplary

FRAME-UP

long-haired knowledge of impending economic SCIOuS Phen did is are in supplie doom. We're a worth vesterd as as disputes are in progres Today Tories European Industrial neitner Helens see ex

BY MICHAEL BANDA

nor Labour will dare

CAR KEY

deny this crisis. row can they. Labour Eat in tO PEOnE Wire balanc French Asia, Ey succeeded int exace bat

BY A

imperialism's general

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

raise 5020 RECORDS of a joint collecards Collapse French-Czech CP meet- Love eratong what has ing have been published er Europe ands 'L'Humanité' follow- ectush Trotskyise ing claims that the increase "with menh French Party have Exclusive helped frame Alexander interview Dubcer. share The meeting - between major with Waldeck Rochet, Dubcek Party and other Czech urged at

DAVID

leaders—was held in Prague for the strike on July 19, 1968.

ALL TRADES

Pay offer ahd S hancashire area. Merséyside

MERCER

UNIONS ALLIANCE

for Rolls

MEETING

Wearside cell, that note Royce strikers shipyards

NOTTINGHAM

closed Mama adore of i stay "Tasks of trade unionists Sunderland, Tuesday THE pro-Us forces ol today' Mary's edily appear ie and Sunderland's the right-wing Cambodian Thursday, May 21 pinned

BY A ORKERS PRESS

recine remall 7.30 p.m. monopol down around the capital nouncing caracalm People's Hall

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

eply

• PAGE FOUR COL. 9 →

of Phnom Penh. Heatheote Street rates. Management increase. end of at the Apri guerrillas s of the comrany's 40. ant es

FINAL PART

Phom Pen. document con-

TODAY

ON Acon chairman Mr George A WORK measurement dat: of abour it

PAGE THREE

set up Hand-to-hand geability of taken by high wing sterday around Yare this Workers Press taken workers alt which ro

BY BERNARD FRANKS

Socialist Labour League ccording to une Ensute buildings f Work-Study Practitioner the user ight inc rubble. talks

PUBLIC

MEETING

Ted 5 Departs concil Positions For working-class action to defeat and dis rUC Liberatouch tribute data American imperialism in the Foundation tates ndation " vill 100 different i Vietnam and Cambodia and ionintenance eveler new fields system: Sunday, May 24, 7.30 p.m.

stater teel we prod intensity scale new levels of Beaver Hall (near Mansion House tube) machine * sheet y co. 2250000 onse e ade doming data bricklaying, Speaker: paintinor MIKE BANDA, Editor of Workers Press they • ay admission 2s emphasis is given by Foun-

workers press

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLE

• board thinli THERE should be no doubt in any worker's mind that Pilkington the glass wor- kers' strike, which has now reached its most crucial stage, is the concern of the trade union move- whole ment. the at what 8,000 Look Pilkington strikers had to face: RABID opposition of the union leadership, ARROGANT intransigence of a paternalistic employer, silence of

CRIMINAL

the TUC and government. MASSIVE witch-hunt by the press aided by a section of the shop stewards. VICIOUS police provocations and last, but hardly least, SUBTLE yet immense church pressure. If all these things failed it was not for want of trying. First the workers were asked to accept an interim £3 pay offer in place of the strikers' demand for £10—inclusive of an intérim £5-a-week rise. miserable offer, as the This quickly found out, strikers nothing more than a was glorified attendance bonus since it would not be con- solidated in the basic rate but simply added to gross earnings. General and Municipal Wor- kers'

(G&MWU)

Union leaders, of course, recom- mended this offer enthusi- astically. Its purpose became clear when palpably some of Pilkington factories like Pontypool accepted the offer and went back, leaving St Helens and Glasgow to fight on their own. Lord Pilkington's delight, how- ever, was short lived. Déspite the G&MWU leaders' refusal to make the strike official and immense hard- ship this decision entailed the strikers, they decided to hold out. The union leaders' secret bal- lot ended in a resounding defeat for them and a threat of mass walk-out into the and Transport General Workers' Union by strikers.

A new ruse was then adopted: Mrs Barbara Castle and her Department of Employment

(DEP)

and Productivity threatened institute to an inquiry in the hope that the workers would go back. Her joy was shortlived too.

workers decided to continue the strike-inquiry or no inquiry. Picketing on a mass scale was resumed. Not a cubic foot of glass was produced in five weeks. Another attempt to persuadé the strikers was made when the union leaders offered every striker f12 hardship money. The strike committée refused this be impressed by to gesture. came the witch-hunt. Then Unable to find 'red plants', the capitalist press began to find. 'Red Books' and other concoctions which only served to tax the credibility of every St Helens worker.

all this failed, the When church was called in to give its benediction to the union attempts to break leaders' the strike - a move un- precedented in post - war labour history. The strikers have quite rightly this ballot which rejected was held under conditions of enormous economic and spiritual pressure. Well done brothers ! Now the full force of the state is being used on a massive scale to intimidate the striker and 'protect' re- turning workers. the Pilkington workers are If defeated it would be a grievous blow for the wages struggle in the Merseyside particularly. Every employer-not only on the Merseyside-is watching the gates of Pilkington's to- day because they know that if the workers win, they establish a precedent will reverberate which will throughout British industry.

That is the real reason for all the violénce and collusion in St Helens against the strikers. That is why this strike is a political strike.

"all workers to We call on the St Helens support strikers not only financially, but by token stoppages and other actions.

APR 22 1971

THE NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY • NUMBER 166

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1970

THE

announcement by

USA

roras In petroll. that engines and trans. mission parts are to be made in Britain for a new American • carnat Deen followed almost immed- later by ueneral Motors proposals to SWITCO ITs Kingsbury, London, to car component production. may E0 moon with of British Shopping around THE COMING General Election is unique in which Process sense. It is probably the first whose every

DUBCEK

bected to develop to a high polling date was actually determined by con- ames between d

FRAME-UP

najor con knowledge scious of impending economic e suppetee doom. Today Oreanization Commission may puss industrial neither

BY HICHAEL BANDA

nor Labour will care to

• PAGE FOUR COL. 5 →

deny unis crisis now can tney! whe balanest of re phe French the

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

crisis. RECORDS of a joint Collapse French-Czech CP meet- ing have been published • and te in 'L'Humanité' follow- to Europe claims that the balancing with high French Party nave helped frame Alexander Dubcek. The meeting - between wy aldeck kochet. Dubcek Party other Czech leaders-was held in Prague on July 19, 1968.

ALL TRADES

narket would are toed by

UNIONS ALLIANCE

pelled Garaudy 30 why 6800),

MEETING

cell, that Landed to the present Were k framing bubcek,

NOTTINGHAM

Lave be re amare market he Turkey. Tasks of trade unionists THE pro-US forces today the right-wing Cambodian Thursday, May 21 accom-

BY A WORKERS PRESS

regime pinned i am remain 7.30 p.m. down around the capital

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

cIng People's Hall of Phnom Penh. defamatory Heathcote Street communist. Liberation forces 'Referred to Macon chairman Mr George supply service for employers set up Hand-to-hand fighting i improv indu! after anyone

BY BERNARD FRANKS

or Accordine do PlacEsters to the institut rubble. cost include Deplore concl Positions Produce Liber Sour Yien Naina said in the with, seemind a stunt, shows will in and in maintenance He dy project which smoted 50 sainting indicates than the

• PAGE FOUR

emphasis is given by Foun.

The daily organ of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League PRICE 6d. Government inquiry begins, but May £1,000 Appeal Fund slowing down we need £739 16s 2d by May 31 SOMEHOW, we do not stem Our fund is still marking time.

Yesterday Ild which our total to £260 3s 10d. it all those care eho have contributed so faes St Helens, Tuesday so far, PROFESSOR John Wood, Tory chairman of the still are ole from are a number large we yetplease government's court of inquiry into the seven- comrades, we have week-old strike at Pilkington's St Helens glass- onWe know from the way our days to works, today added his voice to the clamour sales are t rising at vou are right belind us. let us move for a return to work. action Into once Around sake of donations which will the kund have

BY A WORKERS PRESS

Like the company rep-

CORRESPONDENT

take immediately resentatives, union officials, mark. mass-media pundits and Workers claims that a total of 2,500 Ethan Bid sure, London, Fund, had again gone into the six assorted clergy who went planost glassworkers before him, he was ignored remained by the vast majority of defiantly and undeniably 600 at the strikers. At the Canal Street sheet

WOTKS.

woere t several pickets In fact there were

SIPOS

Lenin this sav thev were vicious v beaten that mornine rewer mounted Intermed back at their workers were police during yesterday after- loDs than vesterdav. noon's clashes. the centenary going in appeared to be Pickets out in force at all the St Helens factories early today, despite the revival more lecture of scare stories about violence However Cowley most newspapers. where the company Dials all- company THE Beaver Hall was other float glass plant as part of its £20 million last ___________ expansion procramme pickets sall That t the

CLAIM

that during s ar coere nao been tar less niack.

mark recent anti-Cambodian lessing thesterdar. exemplary condict in the pickets also annıversary Cowler in from *exemplary conduct' angrily rejected claims in the national sec. Jelly nealy. provocation édition of retary of the Socialist Labour filthy long-haired newspaper that speaking League, on Lenin the English Elsie former strike ana Comine Federations Landed o committee Revoluton. emphasized long, con- drawn-out and Lulla lo wall yesierudy. war lay tradictory nrocess that terence yesterday. Below, More reatenea witn a knite as sn developments bening. surtace from St the British working class Helens The working begins

CAR KEY

case its unions, he said. with The police assaulted judgement of 1901 An item described as such haired drop-outs'? triggered an en in the CaDuon tO picture velopment in This carved ov Daner. they claimed, was nothing more dangerous than a car kev of Pilking- ton's security today described legislate against the posing exag- Taff Vale® Hues judgement, and this, deter workers could force trade union- wanted to go back ! turn been ists to take une revoluonar strikers nave …now road. steeled ov several weeke contribution

HIS

was tol. sharplor practice, owed nu minutes of dis. scares unconcore members the and company threat to their torward with jobs the cruder questions various aspects attempts strike-breaking socialist theory. Rank - and - file The C raised £126 oday cited towards the of three non-unionists names Workers Press fighting fund they definitely and high point say. were allowed most ballot cessful saturaay s and many held teel that glassworkers this British only the tip of an iceberg Trotskyist movement. and overnment Union Congress intervention in no sense a way what strikers feel Exclusive be apparent interview devious, but no less danger with The best to 'hold way

OUT

than Pilking. a minute longer ton's. as one striker urged at

DAVID

a recent mass meeting, extend support for the strike Pay offer throughout the Merseyside

MERCER

and S Lancashire area. for Rolls Wearside Royce strikers shipyards stay closed

THE

460 coachbuilding wor- the Sunderland, Tuesday kers locked out tor Dast weeks from the Willes. three DOXFORD and Sunderland'c den london. Rolls-kovee sirh Wearsidi shipyards remained sidiary, Mulliner Parr Ward 500 fitters and today as are to meet on Friday to de- unanimously whether to accept nice Drummoers informal management offer 20 to conunue weir ten-week-old for the company's stnke against increase bonus nronosed productivity deal. he strikers decided to cor rates. nue pressing for a £27 Management locked the "no st strings' increase. men of April the carry a ful two-week analysis the comp any's

FINAL PART

demas da which con-

TODAY ON

would about 26 tains conditions aiming week workers averare inter-

PAGE THREE

mobility. complete packet changeability of labour in the Pickets were on duty out- the Workers Press varos- side the vesterdav ater this week. told mac meetino nt the the management had Socialist Labour League offered a 6d an hour straight increase informal held

PUBLIC MEETING

Monday However, the management For working-class action to defeat 'anomalies' want phrase euphemistic could American imperialism in which cover well

DIO-

•ucavity concess ous. chair- Vietnam and Cambodia LOCK-Out committee said Watson man Kill the manzement had made lenathy Sunday, May 24, 7.30 p.m.

statements on production.

"We fee we must have time Beaver Hall (near Mansion House tube) to digest these before coming to decision, he added. Speaker : local Labour Exchange refusing to the MIKE BANDA, Èditor of Workers Press still pay benefit admission 2s ocked-out men.

PAGE TWO

THIS THE FIRST ARTICLE

OF A SERIES DEALING

WITH THE LATEST SYS-

TEMS OF EXPLOITATION

IN INDUSTRY - TO

APPEAR EVERY WEDNES-

DAY.

WE MUST say right at the beginning that it is impossible to understand the issues involved in productivity deals and related forms of payment simply by studying technically the productivity deals themselves. This technical aspect is import- ant, but secondary. No clue will be given in any uniting with particular deal that the company is all other employers in the implementation of political policy against the whole of the major working class. to understand is The most important thing why these forms of payment have mushroomed into a mass movement now, in the period since 1966. Unless this factor is understood it is possible the most superficial knowledge of to have only subject and therefore the ability to fight the these systems is developed in a totally inadequate way. We must start with basic principles. This system of society we live under is capitalism.

That is to say that the vast majority of wealth, the means of production, distribution and exchange are owned by individuals private property private who operate them not at all to fulfill the needs of society, but purely and simply for profit. The longer forthcoming, irres- moment pective Profit is no the degree of need which may exist, production ceases. This system, by its nature, is unplanned and anarchistic. Because of the contradictions inherent within it, capitalism is subject to recurring crises of a progressively Crises more severe nature. 19th occurred regularly throughout the century and the first half of the. 20th century. The last major world crisis occurred in the early 1930s The drive following the Wall St crash of 1929. capitalist nations to redivide markets inter- by nationally driven on by the crisis led to the Second World War. This, of course, resolved the for capitalism situation temporarily by the destruction of tens of millions of people and of untold amounts of wealth.

Mass destruction of this order had to be This followed by a period of reconstruction.

reconstruction, coupled with a powerful position the USA had emerged from financially in which the war, laid the basis for a post-war boom period.

When the war ended the United States proceeded from this powerful position to print, on the basis of unprecedented gold reserves in Fort Knox, billions of paper dollars.

UNPRECEDENTED BOOM

With these paper dollars, through the Marshall Plan, the United States extended her financial and political influence throughout western Europe The the nations ravaged by war.

by propping up all this was unprecedented boom result of an period from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s. During this time the working class in Britain was not asleep; they took advantage of the clamour for production to organize in the factories, consolidating their trade unions and building a powerful movement on the shop floor geared to As a result of this the the drive for wages. standard of living for large sections rose more rapidly than in any other period. But this was not the true face of things. Capitalism is not a system of boom, it is a system of booms and slumps. Under capitalism the slump is a normal part of the system and already by 1964 the boom was slowing down. The flood of US paper dollars, engulfed the capitalist world and which had generated the boom, now turned into its opposite.

Massive No longer was it the stabilizing force.

inflation had drained Fort Knox of vast quantities of gold. Now this flood of paper dollars which was providing the bulk of for inter- currency national trade had no value behind it. In faot source of the stabilizer now became the main instability. A piece of paper with 'I promise to pay' written on it retains value so long as everyone believes The books listed below were found useful in preparing this series of articles and act as a good basis for further study of the subjects examined. Reference to other works is made as the context arises Wage Labour which the existence of the capitalist class and t anitation of the working class res 'Wages, Price and Profit' by Karl Marx. Deals with the value of labour power and its relationship to surplus value. Fill in the form below and send to

NATIONAL SECRETARY, SOCIALIST

LABOUR LEAGUE, 186A CLAPHAM

HIGH ST, LONDON SW4.

Name Address

PART ONE

will be kept. Once this is doubted the promise money the whole system is undermined, the throw a panic every time a speculator markets sneezes and the spectre of a massive slump again begins to haunt the capitalist world. Capitalism faced the question.how to attempt now to stabilize itself. The answer on the face of it is quite simple.

Since the root of the crisis lay in the fact that working through the class, their union organ- from the had much ization, taken too away employers in the boom period, all the employers had to do was take it back with a bit more besides, and transfer it back into the banking houses of capitalism. This, of course, while being a simple answer in theory is the tallest order all Large sections of the working in practice. class in Britain had tasted the fruits of the boom period. The fruits of what the forces of pro- duction could do when released even for a short though remaining dis- period of time and even torted by private ownership. These sections would not let go easily the things they had gained in struggle and the organizations built to win them needed to be turned to their protection.

When the Labour government came to power -the in 1964 our movement Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists- was alone in saying clearly that a massive crisis of capitalism was developing and that the Labour government would be a government of crisis and would attack the working class in order to attempt to solve the crisis on behalf of the employers and make This analysis proved to the working class pay. be absolutely correct. As soon as Wilson came to power he began the job and set out to reduce the living standards of the working class. The problem was how could it be done.

SUBTLE METHODS

Ideally, capitalism would like to use force to do this job, that is the simplest and most effective way. But capitalism can only reduce wages by force under conditions of dictatorship such as Hitler's Germany or Franco's Spain. Where capital continues to rule under the cloak of 'democracy', therefore open force is impossible, more subtle methods of deception have to be used The working class must be convinced that it is in their interest to be robbed.

study and This is where work its related systems come in. Wilson's first task was to set committees and conferences which began to up prepare the ground for productivity, job evaluation and all the rest. modernize Wilson said he was setting out to Some may have thought British industry. this meant better factories and machines that would make working conditions better and easier.

But this was not Wilson's intention at all. He was 'modernize' For proposing only to wages. 'modernization' read job evaluation', then Measured-Day Work, work study, productivity and all the rest. All these things were started by the Labour government in response to the crisis of capitalism which grows continually deeper. This is the only which a serious study of productivity basis from can begin; not by simply examining 100 700 or such agreements, reading pamphlet written by the work study experts It is only by the study of the history of the working class and the workings of the capitalist system; by studying the works of Marxists and, in particular of Marx himself, that a real understanding can be gained.

Marx, in his work 'Capital', dealt in great detail with the bosses' drive to intensify exploitation of the workers to offset the falling rate of profit.

Although rise the gho betach the ament made compared the actual figure invested to make it tends to with the amount grow larger and larger. Marx shows how the will strive to get labour of a much employer out of each operative to try to higher intensity make up the loss. This is why under capitalism new plant and machinery in the workplace does not mean casier working, shorter hours and greater job security, but, the contrary, brings speed-up of on a operations, sackings and a drive to ensure that not a solitary second is wasted which could hold up production with the enormously expensive new equipment. It is with this background of the development of the crisis of capitalism that we can look at systems of exploitation now being the modern put forward

WORKERS PRESS

A PRODUCTIVITY deal may be defined as a 'confidence trick' aimed at solving the employers' crisis by introducing a political attack on workers at work-place level, using all the latest systems of pretext of improving the exploitation, under the wages and conditions of the operatives concerned.

Productivity bargaining was developed in the USA in the 1950s, the most widely publicised agreement being that between the East Coast Longshoremen and their employers. and offering large wages This agreement, improved conditions swept the docks clean of all the old methods of working, of old ropage, tackle, out-dated machinery—and of the dockers them- What was left was the most up-to-date selves. methods of cargo-handling applied by relatively small teams of dock operatives working at a high pitch. In Britain, during the 1950s, experiments were carried out with new working systems, new wage systems, etc., but the first complete productivity that of the deal to be signed in Britain was US-owned Esso oil refinery at Fawley. This was be based completely the principle that to on higher wages would be paid, but that the cost from of these would come entirely an increase in productivity. It is significant that this very first to introduce such bargaining was con- attempt siderably facilitated by leading members of the Communist Party, Foulkes and Haxell, the two leading members of the Electrical Trades Union.

Further experiments were tried on a local basis and the system of Measured-Day Work (MDW) over from USA and developed. was taken the After the election of the Labour government in 1964 a complete change occurred. The productivity out of the experimental stage and deal moved became a fully-fledged part of government policy.

PRICES & INCOMES ACT

THE PASSING of the Prices and Incomes Act in 1966 instituted the wage freeze which held down workers' pay while the cost of living rapidly rose.

At the same time, the Act put on a statutory basis the National Board for Prices and Incomes (PIB).

This body, consisting of employers' representatives, trade union officials and labour relations profes- sors from the universities, was to examine wage claims and to report as to whether or not they were justified. In each case the PIB rejected the demands for basic increases, saying that they did not conform to the wage freeze and that they did not conform to the government's ruling that the workers could only get increased pay by accepting more exacting or major changes in working practice. The work PIB went on to publish reports recommending the introduction of all the most recent methods of cover of 'productivity deals' exploitation under for every industry. Railmen were to be prepared to overlap jobs and do any kind of work on railway stations; busmen were to drive faster, spend less time at stops and to agree to the single-manning of buses; all craftsmen were to accept an end to demar- cation between jobs and the elimination of mates.

Airport workers re-grading and must accept 'realistic manning standards'; firemen were to be put on call for longer periods; factory and power station workers were to accept flexibility and mobility; journalists were to undergo job analysis to increase their efficiency. Nurses were to be paid hourly basis, to work revised shifts and on an accept that numbers be made up with part-time university labour; teachers were to accept a payment-by-results system; piecework and was to be driven out of the motor industry completely, and replaced with Measured-Day Work.

In effect, the Labour government has set out to change the work and increase the speed of the job of every worker without exception. In every one of these reports on 'workers' pay' and in every productivity deal that is put into operation a major emphasis is placed on work study. Over the last five-year period this official government backing for these systems has given immense impetus to the rapid development of work-study firms. consultancy National conferences and seminars are held constantly to devise new methods of regulating the worker at work. This is nothing more than the spreading of intensive methods of working every aspect of work into and into every second of the working day.

Large numbers of psychologists and professors of industrial relations have been employed by the government to develop ways of talking these

LEON

TWO

articles

TROTSKY

by

PAI

and syndicalism • ฿

AVAILABLE FROM:

NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS,

186A CLONDON, S.W. STREET,

schemes in. (They say it is all a question of 'com- munications'.) The often these government uses people commissions, like Donovan, to run royal of labour of inquiry questions or courts on They have also evolved the technique of relations. incorporating shop stewards into work study. These special courses under men are sent on management or union control, after which they are expected to sell the schemes to their members the basis of the large amounts of money to be earned. Once the deal is in, the steward may be with a job in the management, or he rewarded may be sent back to his job. Anyone who simply looks at the "bread-and-butter issues' be may fooled by these schemes during the early stages; will but anyone who looks at the wider aspects see the situation much more clearly.

At the time of the developing capitalist crisis throughout the world, with over-production threatening many markets and with currency after another one employers really falling under over pressure, are money into workers' themselves to put more pockets ? aircraft, In Britain a number of industries; of building, and heavy motor cycles sections electrical engineering are in dire trouble. Recent strikes in the steel industry reflect a much deeper crisis of production, price and sale of steel, while in shipbuilding full order books in some sections of the industry have done nothing to divert the , crisis which the government has tried to prevent in millions of pounds for rescue' by pouring operations. The basis of the Prices and Incomes Board with its particular emphasis on introduction of all the latest systems of exploitation makes it quite clear that the Labour government is absolutely dedi- cated to solving the crisis of capitalism at the expense of the working class. However, while it is true that in many cases productivity deals have An All Trades Unions Alliance banner on the February union been put into operation and some increases of output have been brought about by speeding-up, the plans of the capitalist class have received a severe setback inasmuch as the strength of the working class has not been broken. In some cases workers have been strong enough to force con- cessions even on productiviy deals and have been able to increase their basic wages by this method.

Also, the immediate preparations for mobilization by the working class, as reflected in the support for the demonstration against the proposed anti- union laws on February 23, 1969, and the strike on May 1 in the same year, showed the formidable opposition facing the government.

Now, with its so-called guide lines, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is straining itself to prove do the job of disciplining the workers that it can through their own organizations-the trade unions that anti-strike legislation is not really -and necessary. All along the line, the union leaders have given full backing to productivity deals and the introduction of work-study systems. Without their support none of these schemes would have got a foot in the door anywhere.

Basically, the story used by union leaders, officials, and many shop stewards has been that productivity deals are just a way of dodging round the wage-freeze.

The fact that such systems were actually being developed by the government has been deliberately played down by these people. Instead, they make out that the new method has simply been evolved increasing pay by the negotiators during the period when no increases are supposed to be paid. union officials were given a At the same time, "left' cover for their activities by the Communist As employers and government agencies Party. spread new methods of working, combined to maior re-organization and modernization through- CP militants told their followers industry, out that these were purely local actions by employers, "bread-and-butter issues', and should be seen as such. Members and supporters of the Socialist Labour League who set out to explain the political nature of productivity and universal application the schemes were directly opposed, in some cases by Wednesday, May 20, 1970 force, by Communist Party members. The CP with capitalism policy of peaceful co-existence directly to the betrayal of the workers' leads struggles. The savage curtailment of the number of working miners and the foothold that employers have gained in the building industry with speed-up 'weak- methods do not in any way result from the ness' or lack of fight of the workers concerned.

but have been entirely due to betrayals and retreats by the 'left' leadership the face of a In major political attack by the capitalist class.

'militants' While the continue to deny the nature of the political struggle, the employers, the consultants, and the government continue to com- bine in the development of new extensions to To the militants who 'Let's their schemes. say negotiate the deals and try to improve the "good bits" and keep out the bad bits' we say-there are NO 'good bits'. • 'The easier working system' is the sheerest form The flexibility and mobility proposals of speed-up. aim at shuffling the worker around to keep him continuously employed and to break up workshop The new wages system is purely organization. aimed at holding down wages while production— and the cost of living- -rocket. Even the money that is paid over at the early stages comes out of 'redundant' sending the wages saved workers down the road. In other words, it is blood money.

'NATURAL WASTAGE'

Let us examine just one aspect of productivity bargaining which, on the face of it, might appear most harmless. This is 'natural wastage'. For this system the firm gives a guarantee that no com- will but that when pulsory redundancy occur, workers leave or are retired they will not be replaced by new labour. This might appear reason- able to some who feel more secure when no one is being threatened with the sack.

Some union section militants have leaders and the a this out as a victory gained by actually pointed themselves in negotiation.

In fact, this method is closing down entire industries as far as new jobs are concerned side with some gradual modernization, Side by the run-down of the labour force in one trade after another becomes a continuous process.

The London docks is now being totally wound to find up as a place for East Londoners work. employers plan run-down on The continuous a the basis of the McKinsey Consultants Report that 90 per cent of the docks labour force can be dispensed with. According to recent reports 30,000 jobs were lost to the electrical engineering industry between 1967 and June 1969. A further 48,000 jobs are expected to disappear by 1972. This is equal to a cut-back of 154 per cent of the labour force in a period of five years. In the farming industry, what with moderniza- tion as well as bankruptcies and the closing down 1969 demonstration against the proposed anti- union laws. of the • small farms, a cut-back of 200,000, or one-third, of the labour force is expected over the next five years. number of Finally, it is estimated that the busmen has fallen from 250,000 to 165,000 in the past ten years a cut of a quarter in bus services in all major towns. At this continued rate, which shows no sign of abating, another 100,000 busmen will have gone in five years' time. The work that remains as the number of operatives is reduced, among the remaining workers who, is spread SO can now do this as well as their it is claimed, jobs thanks to the increase in efficiency own brought about by the new measures.

The operation of 'natural wastage' with auto- and work study is now being undertaken mation or prepared for every industry. With the slightest change in the economic situation- an inevitable change with the recession developing in the USA this policy could lead to unemployment on a gigantic scale. And remember, this is one of the good bits' of the productivity deals.

The Socialist Labour League has consistently fought to expose every attack made against the working class by the government, the emposers and the various university hangers-on, and to defeat every system of exploit- ation, every productivity deal and every new -the latest is the CAV onslaught that is devised- which sets every action of tele-control system machines and men under computer control.

Through its trade union wing, the All Trades Unions Alliance, the SLL is continually fighting to establish an alternative socialist leadership in the trade unions which can take up every aspect of the struggle in a principled way. A fight against employers' offensive is vital. It is to aid workers in the struggle against the Labour govern- ment's political attacks and in that to defeat the Tories with their plan for even of the return greater oppression of workers that we collect and examine the systems of exploitation now being prepared for every industry and for every worker under the heading of productivity deals.

Part two will appear in next Wednesday's Workers Press.

Wednesday, May 20, 1970 part of an This is the second exclusive interview by Brian Moore with playwright David Mercer. Part An one appeared in Tuesday's Workers Press a interview with David Mercer What I'm write Film so i the holan walk o de te in sapo e silized reality a kind whins ostin the "narchi to oral, bols dores comedy an But you're pr cobborain t growing these or cynical reasons or not, objec Clergymen •m wuere co vou teel yol elt to be now and strikers THE ACTION of the St Helens Calon® o vertin, and the act ot bei sintegratios many, many level. nection ninh sion, of power over action whic

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tively the Chinese do constantly reaffirm the struggle against im- perialism, the struggle for national of that fion think we're and all the rest coming into a very violent decade and I think that in the metro- politan developed, advanced countries--so-called advanced the working class is going to find itself increasingly deprived of the economic gains that it's from extracted the system - partly due to collaboration be- tween the unions of the working class and the system itself.

AFTER HAGGERTY: . . . What I wanted to remind both myself and people in Haggerty was that there are actually people in the world making revolution . . ?

I think But economically things are beginning to get so dire, that the working class finds itself in conflict with its own trade union bureaucracy, which is just as much in collaboration with the capitalist system as the Kremlin will find itself being, in collaboration with America.

Out of all this I would say something is going to emerge, something, some transformation is going to emerge which must be seen I think as having a revolutionary character. The consequences of strike for 6d an hour, and 8d an hour for overtime, the dock- ers had decided to call out other workers in sympathy. This was when Manning step- ped in. Together with the Lord Mayor of London, he used all his skill and experience over the next two weeks to persuade the strike leaders to take the 'reasonable' course. Just as massive aid was arriv- ing from the Australian workers' movement, Manning devised a series of compromise schemes. The final one was accepted by the committee, Manning himself speaking at the decisive meet- ing. The main concession he the dockers to accept was that blacklegs would be kept on as permanent employees, although all other dockers were casual minority workers. A large of strikers opposed the settlement, and many refused to work with the scabs. In 1970, as much as in 1889, workers must beware of 'help' offered by impartial well- wishers', with or without a dog collar. As the actress said.. STAYING on a theological note, did you see the interesting account in the 'Daily Express' about the Bishop of Southwell?

This prince of the Anglican Church recently recorded a message for the BBC's morning 'Pause for Thought' pro- gramme, before going to the Canary Islands to become chap- lain at Tenerife. His listeners might have paused a little longer if he had mentioned his close connection with the staff at the Eve Club in Regent Street. According to the 'Express', this establishment 'London's is lavish late- most night glamour show'. Bishop The a frequent was visitor, says the 'Express', , where would host parties for the statuesque showgirls who appear there topless in exotic cabaret' Is that what they call the Holy See? Memo to J. Klugmann: how about changing the venue for the next round in the 'dialogue' between the Communist Party and the Church? So much more informal than the local chapel, don't you think? 3,500 CLYDE shipyard workers face the sack. At Harland and Wolff and Cammell Laird, the threat of redundancy hangs over thousands of workers. Seamen the contradictions in capitalism, even in neo-capitalism, are prob- ably going to become so acute that the working classes are somehow thrust beyond questions of economism into questions of politics or the relationship be- tween their economistic aims and the political necessity of control- ling and repressing those aims.

So I would say there's going to be a period of increasing con- flict between the working classes and their unions in all the capi- talist countries. The possibility of revolution in metropolitan de- veloped countries is very much on the scene again. What I fear is that this is going to be, that the development of this is going to be, preceded by possibly a long period of huge repression by the apparatus of the state in this country, in America, in France. In fact we can see it happening, it is going on. This period of repression has begun and I think that we may have to endure a much greater degree of repression than we have so far. And I think, again looking at things in dialectical terms, that of course the repression itself will contribute to the increased awareness that the struggle is a political struggle and that the objectives are in fact the seizure of the means of production and distribution by the people. But I see the period of repression com- it going ing upon us and I see on for a long time and I see out of of the period repression coming an increased revolt.

In other words I see us com- ing into a pre-revolutionary of a revolutionary period. I just don't know whether I'll be alive to see that. Because, simply because of the huge power of control of modern state apparatuses. You know. I mean the fact that they workers press face speed-up and shrinking as well as regimentation crews, under the new Merchant Ship- ping Act. But some people in the indus- try are happy. Reginald Maud- ling, for one. Net profits of the Tory shadow chancellor's Shipping Industrial Holdings have _grown 230 per cent since 1967, and last year amounted to a cool £1.7 million.

Maudling is not entirely dependant his shipping on interests to keep body and soul together, however. He is also a director of Kleinwort Benson, the City merchant bankers whose assets total £221 million, and the Dunlop rubber company (1969 profits, £34 million). Not all Mr Maudling's ven- tures are as profitable. Until last November, he and his son Martin were directors of a company called Open Sys- tems Building. This company was founded ive years ago by Northern whiz.

id T. Dan Smith. former head of the North-East Development Council. Maudling's daughter Carolyn and his wife Beryl held sub- stantial shareholdings in OSB.

Despite its influential backing, the company made substantial losses in 1968. Maudling's resig- nation, and that of his son, followed the publication of the 1968 figures. According to 'Private Eye', he told friends he was busy' to continue on the board.

OSB is now part of the build- ing 'empire' of Pontefract mil- lionaire John Poulson. 'Private Eye' comments that: 'Last December a reorganization of the Poulson empire was rushed through in what seemed like a desperate rescue opera- tion. 'The "saviour" was Mr John King, former chairman of Pollard Ball Bearings, and a very rich man indeed. ... Pessimists close to the Poulson empire over the past few are predicting years can condition people and create psychological attitudes in people through the mass communication and media. ( They can mystify people to an extent which has been possible in history néver before. Therefore to the extent that people can be mystified and continue to be mystified, to that extent repression can succeed. But, of course, it will generate by its repression the demystifica- ion process, I would say.

BM: A case in point is the Pilkington recent dispute which, in spite of the most vicious witch-hunts, distor- tions, lles, stories of plants, etc., hostile accounts in the press, to this moment there Is, If anything, a hardening of militancy to continue the strike partly because it's one thing for the press to spread Its lles, It's another If you're Involved in that dispute to actually see these lles and to see them precisely for what they are in that sense the whole machinery of re- pression, both physical and psychological, does carry within It the seeds of its own opposite. DM : I think it carries within itself the seeds of its own oppo- I think it carries within site. itself the seeds of its own de- struction, but I suppose my fear is whether the actual material- istic conflict between workers and the unions on the one hand and other elements of revolt in society and the state on the other hand, can be translated into ideological terms. I think that England, being a country with such a long and extended tradi- tion of pragmatism and econom- ism in the labour movement, is going to have the greatest diffi- culty in making the transition from the economistic interpre- tation of the workers' predica- ment into an ideological interpre- tation of his predicament.

It seems to me that insofar as one describes oneself as a revo- lutionary at all that one's con- crete efforts must be not arro- and gantly to try teach the anything, but to workers be amongst the workers, to repre- sent the workers, to embody the predicament of the workers and try and embody this predicament and express it in such a way that the evolution from economism into an ideological interpretation will arise out of the very struggle itself. One can't be a kind of bunch of intellectuals trying to capture the working class. That's just nonsense. BM: This is, of course, why we would stress the absolute urgency for the bullding of the revolutionary party. DM: Without the revolutionary party-nothing, is the answer to that. The building of the revolu- tionary party is the only means which any of us, who are all after all, workers is the only means which any of us have in the end, to present an opposition to capitalism, to neo-capitalism, the to imperialism. It's only means we have because I mean you know all the old cliches are true like most cliches are. All power to the people, and as soon the people discover that as paper and cowill intend guns and tanks and be useless although there might that the £180,000 put up King may not be enough to all the finance gap [in the Poulson empire]:' Maudling remains chairman of one part of the Poulson hold- ings, International Technical and Construction Services, which exports : architectural services to the Middle East. Kestrel films present KESTREL FILMS, whose con- troversial 'Kes' finally opens at London's Academy Cinema on considerable suc- May 28 after Yorkshire cess in and else- where in the North, were at the reported weekend to have just completed their second film. Called 'The Body', it is a 110- minute colour first feature about the human body. While Kestrel is not saying much about the film until its release in a few months time, producer Tony Garnett told us that the film aimed to celebrate life, show that the more we know about the way the body works in the world the more marvellous it is and say very clearly that more and more it's being messed up'. 'We've tried to look at the body in the world, the body in its social context', said direc- tor Roy Battersby. 'The body isn't separate from the person, I am my body. And I am part of the material world from that basic relationship with nature, everything else springs. 'If you like, the body is a brilliant window on the world. But we also look at the window in the film.' Battersby went on to say that at the very heart of the film lay the basic contradiction between the beauty and possibilities of the human body - the human being-and the destruction and exploitation in our society.

It's about the extraordinary process of development of the embryo, it's about being born and it's about the world into which we are born. It's about growing up, what we grow up into, growing old and what faces us. We've tried to say how it is!

With a cast of real people including a retired miner, a Liverpool docker and an 80-year- working-class woman from London's Notting Hill Gate - Kestrel have had the help of some of Europe's most distin- guished scientists.

PAGE THREE

indeed be very bloody struggles in the process of this all over Europe and America and every- where else, and indeed we can see them going on in • Latin America. I think Latin America exempli- . fies the confrontation par ex- cellence. But hitherto the very fragmentation of Marxists has been inimical to their evolution into a revolutionary party. There's nothing particularly hidéous or frightening or new about this.

The Socialist Party of Russia was splintered and fragmented throughout its history, right up to the actual Bolshevik Revolu- tion of October, and it continued to be. The point about a revolu- tionary party is not only that it is the only means by which the péople will acquire and maintain and use power for themselves, but that the revolutionary party must also contain within itself these disparate elements somé- how. This was Lenin's masterly virtue as a Party leader, that he understood that you must con- disparate elements. That tain doesn't mean that you embrace fascists or wet social democrats, but certainly the dissenting views of Marxism, or Marxism-Lenin- ism, Marxism-Leninism-Trotsky- ism, about the development of history. Dissenting views of what has happened and what is going to happen and what ought to be done. These will all have to be in the end, contained, held within the revolutionary party. BM: How do you see your- self as a writer and the future for you as a writer. How do you see yourself as a writer and your work in relation to this changing situation? DM: I think that it puts me personally into a ... it puts me right in front of a split in myself which I find it impossible to bridge, to reconcile the contra- dictions of the split. Because, on the one hand, of the way I operate or function as and this is doubtless a writer, to do with the kind of culture and society that I live in ob- viously, that my way of working as a writer is individualistic and instinctive and intuitive. If I interfere with that, if I permit that to be intrefered with, if I substitute for that some kind of conscious or programmatic atti- tude to writing, I'm deeply con- vinced that I will destroy myself as a writer. On the other hand, one is also living in the world, and one understands the world as I've already described. The problem is that whatever the content of your work in a bourgeois society —you may be attacking institu- tions, attacking you may be hypocrisy, lies, mystification, you either directly or may be in- directly asserting forms of class struggle or the operation of vested interest or whatever — this content of your work be you're a successful writer, a kind of marketable comes product. You're stuck with the awful reality that you can be burrowing away after your fashion at the very foundations of your society, the assumptions, the illusions about itself and all the rest of it, and this can be bought and sold as a consumable item.

This is, of course, what hap- pens. I think that a writer in a revolutionary situation, or in an actual revolution or in a post- revolutionary situation, is oper- ating in a different kind of frame- work altogether. Whatever one may think of the Cuban regime I have had the experience of see- ing there poets and graphic artists and painters and designers and actors and producers and playwrights, not in some capitu- lating fashion collaborating with the revolution as a sort of cal- culated end, but existing as writers within the revolution in order to express and embody that- revolution and to even express the contradictions within that revolution, the problems within that revolution, the problems of transition and all the rest of it.

LENIN:

This was Lenin's masterly virtue as a party leader, that he understood that you must contain disparate elements ..?

So I think that I feel almost inescapably split because I know that a work of art, if it's any use at all, expresses the total man or woman and that the total man in my case is also a political man and therefore my plays will continue to have political mean- ings, political interpretations. At the same time I regard my actual in position my society with a kind of bewildered disgust. The things that I produced in my workroom being upstairs are bought and disseminated and take their life, such as it is, in society, almost like any other product in the great big super- market of capitalism. I'm afraid this is a contradic- tion I just have to live with at the moment because I don't see the resolution of it in myself.

I mean I see how I must exist as a poltical being, but I know how I must exist also as an artistic being. Which is not to say that I think the artist is a kind of being apart. But I don't think in bourgeois society the two can be inte- grated, really. The art can ex- press the politics, or imply the politics or offer a political in- terpretation, but things being what they are the art itself will be used for consumer purposes and I have no control over that unless I and other writers, actors, directors, producers and so on maintain the struggle in our own institutions of communication if you like; in the theatre, in tele- vision and in films. We must struggle also in these areas for the transformation of the role of what "they' call the product.

WORKERS PRESS

PAGE FOUR

CAB

S. Wales miners strikers SOUTH WALES miners have demanded, a determined demand national strike in support of a new pay demand.

Delegates to last week's conference in Porthcawl voted unanimously in favour of a f5-a-week on closed rise bringing underground workers to a f21 minimum and surface workers to £20.

shop Poor pay and conditions a national against a background of relentress Closures brought 1,600 men out at THE issues involved in 23 Welsh pits last October.

protracted strike une 630 production workers at Al Inal ume Mr Kon Saint, lodge secretary at the Crosse and Blackwell plant. Peterhead. Scotland coedely collery, sald: pay strike are mcreasey Decomme 'The miners will never be docile in their clear. again Despite attitude to strike action.

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PROM PAGE ONE

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WEATHER

But if thstrative factories the Two o two day. into action to defend or hide month midland OR. light sunny peri Max. 18C (64F). I would like to subscribe to Workers' Press for central inglandi moderate me not be tser comin: Make 16C (61F). Name Adoress becomingowers. World Scene set Organizer, Workere Press, 186a Post to: Circulation Clapham High Street, London, SWA. (Tel: 01-720-2000)

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LATE NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

Suspension Pranoational upheld impanie he French Stalinists a

ROLIS-HALVE PROFITS

WHEELIN-

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BY DAVID BARNES

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LOGIC

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BY A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

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