CLASS AND WE KNOW IT

We have always said Peregrine Worsthr urne is one of the most clear-sighted observers class scene.

His article in last week's 'Sunday Telegraph' did nothing to change this view.

He begins: "The big surprise about the present state of Britain is the extraordinarily militant mood of industrial 'The truth should be faced that in many ways the class war is more of a reality today than it was before the war.' He goes on to explain: "The scale and scope of practicable social and economic advance, whichever party was in power, could never hope to end the class war.

'All it could do and has done is to enable the workers to fight it from a far firmer base and with infinitely sharper and more deadly weapons.

'What in fact the welfare state and affluent society have increasingly achieved a climate of economic security and social wellbeing in which for the first time, people can afford to be bloodyminded.

"The truth is that given society's present social values the discontented working class has more confidence in the justice of its cause than does the discontented middle class and is prepared to fight harder and longer.

"The Industrial Relations Act may place legal obstacles in the unions' way. But if they have the will to surmount them them there is no avoiding the there moment ol luth at the ena.

... instead of being the uneducated and underfed industrial rabble of the 1930s they [the workers] are a disciplined industrial army with plenty of supplies, a competent general stati and high morale.

"The emotions of the class war are still as fierce as ever. What is new now is that the conditions exist for them to be put into far more effective action' All of this amounts to a warning of Powellite dimensions and drama. It is almost a shock to find this kind of icy clarity outside the pages of the Workers Press. We do not agree of course with everything he savs-especiall phrases like 'competent general staff.

The bourgeoisie is worried, not least of all by the Tory government's ability to cope.

Refering to the mood of the working class Worsthorne 'The Prime Minister, like his Labour predecessor, consistently underestimates the intensity of these feelings, preferring to believe that the ank and file or silent majority of union members do not share their leaders' extremist attitudes.

'The result of the rail ballot does not support this complacent assumption. On the contrary, it suggests that bloodv-mindedness is both deep and widespread.' HER One of the jobs you won't