'In Merseyside's case it seems to be a case of jam tomorrow and dole today'- A Liverpool councillor talks about unemployment in his city STEPHEN JOHNS

IN THE balmy days of the mid-1960s, when unemployment wobbled around the comforting low of 2 per cent, Merseyside's jobless problem was put down to operational mismatch' by desk-men at the labour exchange.

In other words there was no basic problem beyond the difficulties of dealing with Liverpool's large unskilled working population, sections of which apparently spent longish periods on the dole for no reason other than their inherent lack of geographic or occupational mobility'. D.OL %. 19€ 65 99 ,RE FOR SEPT.

Unemployment travel to work It was in these rather antiseptic terms that the misery of unemployment was described.

Now, in a year that has seen percentages top even the scare peak of unemployment during the winter of 1962-1963, even the dullest counter clerk at the exchange realizes that Merseyside has a nasty dose of the depressions.

This realization is also shared in a more direct and unpleasant manner by the 33,284 workers who now trail each week down to the labour exchanges in the Merseyside development area.

Over a quarter of these have been recruited to the dole in this year alone, and there is would like information about 1 I THE SOCIALIST I LABOUR LEAGUE!

Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL SECRETARY, SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE, 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4. Name Address more to come. In the Village of Moreton near Birkenhead a further 1,400 will face redundancies when those benevolent employers Cadbury-Schweppes finalize arrangements to transfer chocolate production to their other plant on the Wirral.

'When there is a statement to be made it will be made. The first people told will be those affected, Timothy Cadbury informed a no-doubt grateful labour force of impending penury via the local press.

The Cadbury redundancies deepen the gathering gloom on the Merseyside employment scene.

During 1969 and 1970 2,500 lost their jobs with the rundown of English Electric factories at Netherton and on the E Lancashire Rd.

Dunlops celebrated the New 68 69 70 71 IN EACH YEAR in the Liverpool district Unemployment in the Merseyside Development Area Year by closing their remould plant in Speke, Liverpool, and Rockware glass in Garston axed 1,300 jobs at the beginning of 1970.

This collapse of limited prosperity is despite massive government assistance to private capital on both sides of the River Mersey.

Yearly aid to grateful exploiters has risen from the €8.2 million paid out under local employment acts in 19641965 to the massive £50 million hand-out made by the Labour government last year in investment grants, regional employment premiums, Selective Employment Tax (SET) refunds and a plethora of additional perks to employers (Vauxhall and Ford alone received £1 million in training grant for their respective operations at Ellesmere Port and Halewood).

But this public munificance has made little or no impact on the basic problems of the area.

When development area policy was begun in earnest in 1966 there were 17,000 unemployed' on Merseyside. Now there are double that amount on the dole.

Youth unemployment has of 759 in the boom period period of 1966-1967 to its present level of 901, and like most other statistics concerned with unemployment on Merseyside the average is still on the up.

Over a quarter of men and women on the dole have been out of work for over six months and an eighth for over a yeal.

Though employers have received,. 'mainly from the Labour: government, £674 perjob created over the last nize years, and though new employment for 35,000 has been created, jobs lost total well over half this amount. This with the natural increase in the working population has meant a steady deterioration of employment prospects for Merseyside workers.

As Arthur Boreham, manager of Liverpool employment exchange, candidly commented recently:

"The development of. the overall unemployment position was gradually improving until 1966. Since then things have steadily got worse.' Economists claim that Merseyside is now better able to stand the gales of depression than it was in the 1930s. Then industry revolved around the port and its ancillary industries of food-stuffs, oils fats and agricultural produce.

In 1935 a mere 55,000 were employed in engineering, but by 1967 131,000 were employed in this sector.

So, say the economists, employment on Merseyside is more diversified.

But new engineering industry has been attracted only ADVANCE NOTICE 69- ₺ 50 million A TO PLANTED MASHENERS IN STOPPING GRANTS A TORIES ON PLA PHASED OUT AND FINALLY ABOLISHED IN 1974 ABOLISHED TRAINING GRANTS TO because of the post-war boom plus the massive government subsidies offered particularly by the last two Labour administrations.

The main factor that persuaded the large car interests to settle in the area and provide jobs for 25,000 workers was, for example, the government grants.

But now the boom and the grants are fast disappearing. Last year's government handout was over £58 million, but under their development area policy the Tories plan eventually to close avenues of assistance that accounted for half this sum.

Not only is this more hostile attitude, toward firms fatFEBRUARY ALEXANDRA PALACE Wood tened by subsidy beginning to bite for the more recent Merseyside dweller, but it coula also be potentially disastrous for the traditional industries.

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board is one example.

It has been told that unless the most ruthless economies are promoted there will be no governmental rescue and the Board will have to find its own way to paying-off a current £3 million debt.

The outcome of this operation may lead to the closure of half Liverpool's seven miles of waterfront and the loss of something in excess of 2,000 jobs.

A combine in even greater potential danger than the Part of the new £35 m Seaforth and bulk cargo terminal constructio site at the new end of Liverpor docks 14, 1971. 11 a.m.

Young Socialists and All Trades Unions Allia GREAT NATIONAL RALLY AGAINST TORYISM ATE aid rest and REPORTING 6,8m under local employment act 20,4m in industri grants 18m regional employment premiums in train other g 6.00 6.20 6.45 7.05 7.30 8.00 9.00 9.20 9.50 10.05 10.40 BBC 1 9.38 a.m.-12.25 p.m. Schools. 12.50 Malcolm with mother. 1.45 News and weather. 2.0 Prospectus. 4.40 Jackanory. 4.55 Blue Pete Magic roundabout. 5.50 News and weather.

LONDON THIS WEEK. Weather.

ENTERTAINING WITH KERR.

ASK THE FAMILY.

Z CARS. 'Stop Over'. Part one.

ACE OF CLUBS.

PANORAMA.

THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather. STEPTOE AND SON. 'Without Prejudice'. DRAMA PLAYHOUSE. 'The Befrienders'. V 8.50 CALL MY BLUFF.

9.20 HORIZON. 'Mind the Machine'.

telligence.

RANDY NEWMAN in concert.

NEWS ON 2 and weather. Board is Cammell Laird, Birkenhead shipbuilding across the river.

In May they announced massive losses and persuaded the Labour government to rescue them from total closure.

Now Lairds have full order books. But business was booming in May. Their problem in fact was never lack of contracts, but the prehistoric machinery and methods the firm (now half state-owned) used to build its ships.

It is still a sick concern and another crisis might not meet with a favourable response from this government.

If Lairds do go to the wall, with them will go the jobs of 8,000 Birkenhead workers— the yard is the single biggest employer in the town.

These remarks are not meant to imply that the Tory government has a straightforward and hostile attitude to assisting private firms in difficulty.

But only that aid to industry does come into conflict with their other objective to discipline the working class by depression and unemployment —a need that is particularly pressing on Merseyside with its history of resistance by workers to the schemes of TV Muggeridge. 1.30 i-3.40 Schools. 4 • 5.20 Barrier ref 10-4.35 f. 5.44 the capitalist class.

There will come a point for the Tories when it is more worthwhile for them to see a firm go to the wall rather than prop it up with more state aid and dodge conflict with the working class.

This was the meaning of Palmers - the NE shipyard that closed-and this is the meaning of Mr Powell's remarks when he says he would have allowed Rolls-Royce to 'go bust'.

And he certainly represents an element of Tory sentiment.

With deeper crisis on the cards, a show-down between the government and the Merseyside working class over redundancies is inevitable.

It may come in Lairds or it may be the Docks Board that is first to shut the gates.

But faced with such an attack on their standards workers can only fight back with the political demand for nationalization of bankrupt firms under workers' control.

The crisis, the unemployment, the sweep of redundancies up and down the river spell the end of the notorious rank-and-filism of the Merseyside workers. Politics are now thrust upon them. • Continued tomorrow. Walter Pidgeon' and Anne Francis. For twenty years Professor Morbius and his Altaira have been marooned on the planet Altair. 12.15 Weather.

HTV (West) colour channel 61 as bove exceput: 4.16-4.18 Report West: .23-6.45 This is the West this week.

HTV (Wales) colour channel 41 as above except: 6.01-6.23 Y dydd. YORKSHIRE: 11.00-2.58 London. 4.15 5000 Timeslip. M.50i London. 00 Caendar, weather. 6.15, University challenge. 6.45 London. 10.30 Name of the game. 11.55 Weather.

To secure a long-term agreement ensuring a period of Monday, November 30, 1970 CHRYSLER (UK), SCOTLAND THREE