GRAND XMAS Saturday, Nov. 29

Canning Town Public Hall doors open 12 noon Can you sew? knit? paint? make something for our Bazaar? give something towards our bazaar ? lave you a tin of grocery? jumblel us make this the best bazaar ever h us raise the money for our daily pr THE WORKERS' PRESS

CRISIS IN MOTORS Low pay, lon nours-and sp d-up LEGACY OF STALINIST PAGE TWO PIERRE DREYFUS, state boss of France's Regie Nationale des Usines Renault, recently told a British journalist: 'You are looking at a happy man, the head of a happy organization'.

Even the casual observer will find little evidence to justify this remark from the company's market position or from conditions within its factories. Looked at more closely, it is a piece of almost unparalleled cynicism.

Like the other French car firms Renault has steadily been losing its share of domestic car sales over the last few years and, although France's biggest industrial concern, it lies fourth to Fiat, British-Leyland and Ford in the European market.

Despite its nationalized character, the company has launched the same kind of speed-up and wage-cutting attacks on its labour force as its privately-owned counterparts.

The state take-over in 1945 was, of course, of the same order as the nationalization of coal and rail transport in this country.

Ostensibly motivated by Renault's collaboration with the Nazi invasion, it was really carried out in order to break up the workers' councils set up by workers who had themselves occupied the plants.

In spite of the stranglehold maintained by the Stalinists over trade union organization general strike through an increasingly , restrictive application of this scale.

t is this which lies at th ot of the present upsurg One-fifth of the wages are nade up by the prime, a pro luctivit payment calculated n a quarterly basis and linke o anti-strike provisions For every nine hours lost each week, 20 per cent of the total Britain, itain, hoe problems in Renault workers are throughand-through political. and improve their standard od living bring them into ope conflict with he Pompido regime's post-devaluation 'austerity' measures.

What's more, in the cours f this struggle the fruits of whole period ! of Stalinist betrayal in the trade unions come up for review.

For the French ruling class, 'austerity' is proving a two-edged weapon against car Still reeling from the sharp cost-of-living increase arising from devaluation, workers now find their wages, conditions and jobs threatened from another direction.

To add insult to the already injuriously low level of wages, Pompidou has placed a tight squeeze on hire purchase requiring a 50 per cent deposit on all goods and the full payment within 12 months.

Although Renault is still able claim home market waiting-lists for its cars, this in no way reflects increased demand.

The massive slump in the domestic market has merely been temporarily masked by are-saport market cars to vehicles a year to 12.

Yet while the turnover in the same period has jumped from £22 million to £54 million, the proportion of it going into wages for the company's 80,000 workers fell from 29.66 to 26.73 per cent.

Commented one maintenance worker:

It's not only a question of the wages, but of the hours and the work.

'They get speed-up through several methods. The most common is when they put on supplementary work during the changeover of shifts-this then gets established for all the shifts.

*I think probably do about a car a minute on the track.

'The rate of exploitation is very high. Even two years ago the union established Renault was getting about £850 out of each worker per year.

'Already .cent of workers are employed in work beneath their qualification. Of course, if they lose their job, then that means they won't be able to get their proper rate anywhere else' April and May of this year, there were over 100 different disputes arising from the management's reduction in the number categories on the wage scale.

Since the annual shutdown there have been strikes in at least dozen departments against the unfavourable application of this new scale by the 'We used to have a wagescale comprising more different categories, plained a member of the CGT. 'Now the management wants to cut this by more than half. Some workers thought they would get an increase, but wasn't acceptable. some cases they got about a centime November 1, 1969 ARIANIS D talk about marine othe talk about making the workers 'shareholders' in their industries, the company has, of course, refused to settle their demand for a pay scale of £17 10s. to £42 a week, claiming that it would cost £8-£9 million a year.

Dreyfus's attitude reflects the government's determination that the working class must be made to pay for the crisis.

But the demands of last week's strike were fundamental:

A 40-hour week.

Payment of the full prime, irrespective of Parity of earnings between provincial plants and those in the Paris region.

Retirement at 60.

Monthly payment of wages.

As another CGT member told the „Workers' Press at Boulogne-Billancourt :

"After the general strike, these problems are not raised in the way they were previously. More and more workers understand that the basic question is the fight against the government, the question of power.' But here they come up at every turn against the CGT's Stalinist leadership in Britain carworkers in Britair move into a new stage of the fight against Measured-Day Work, 'penal clauses' and the threat of unemployment, they should study carefully the credentials of not only those right-wing union officials who want them to accept these shackles, but those of the Stalinists as well.

We have already dealt with some aspects of their record at Renault. There are others.

It may come as something of a surprise to find militant workers like those at BoulogneBillancourt fighting for the 40hour week in 1969. The background to this is important.