THERE'S A TAVERN IN THE TOWN

When you are next drinking a pint of Courage feel happy in the knowledge that your beer has just been taken over by 04 подст Imperial Tobacco, Bri tain's sixth largest business.

And if you buy a packet of Golden Wonder crisps in the pub, rest assured they are also in the safe hands of Imperial Tobacco, or Imps as they are known to the intimates of the Stock Exchange.

Imperial Tobacco is now one of Britain's most powerful conglomerates. The £777m group 1s comprised of about 70 companies and subsidiaries The group dominates, for example, the British fish and poultry market through its ownership of the giant Ross Foods firm.

If you put sauce on your food that will be manufactured by Imperial Tobacco In 1967 they bought out HP Sauce and Lea and Perrins-—the Worcester sauce people.

Canned foods might be bought another part of Imperial Tobacco.

Young's Seafoods, the Albion erited Carlo Stati and Stators sons and Slater Ltd, Finlay, the retailers horticultural nail order firm Lowland Bul Company ar still more parts empire.

In fact the company-whic employs almost 90,000 wor nearly part, lives.

stands Sir Commercial former president of that the Confederation of British Industries.

ot coursi Imps of the CB wnose so do the are o members even negotiate with the trade unions on pay while the Tories' state wages legislation remains the statute book Edward Heath, knough politically Chequers talks with the TUC leadership the subiect of controling wages.

those came of a man had a near E1, z7im tanover and profits of £80m year ear ted Tories returned he circles, atters da ruling class power, Partridge man speakind of 'unity yond class ass and the bourgeoise interests between the working corporatist ever-increasing volumes among big business and some trade leaders as the confrontation between classes steps nearer day by day In his 'imperial welcome' Courage workers and manage businesses er case where two ment, he introduced his philo.

sophy to them all:

businesses ment of common nurpose. wrote. for this this resis cal remarks vear's annual report, he was at it again with talk of the need to 'convey to the public at large the true objectives of responsible industrial and commercial management — objectives which span the interests of investors, employees, customers and the community at large'.

The true class position of such men was, however, perfectly, revealed in his other remarks in the report. There was much talk of 'efforts in both the public sector and the private sector to resist inflationary pay settlements'.

In 1971 he gave us all a taste of what was to come when he welcomed the disappearance in June 1970 of the enfeebled Labour government which had been unable to enforce the anti-union laws sponsored by ex-"Tribune'-ite 'left' Barbara Castle. "The change of government in June led to a welcome effort to lower the level of pay settlements,' his report for the year said. 'While a significant damping down of pay settlements could not come overnight, every effort must be made to achieve it in shortest practicable time, the The Industrial Relations Bill was 'an essential and long overdue measure, while 'relations between CBI stail and government officials continued be excellent' - which is hardly a surprise.

When Imperial Tobacco was set up in 1901 it was at the response of a number of British capitalists to competition from their fast-expanding rivals in the United States.

The American Tobacco Company had a near monopoly in the USA and its strategy was to overrun the British market by acquisition of all the principal domestic manufacturers, one by one.

At the turn of the century, British manufacturers, although already powerful in their own right, formed a fragmented and divided industry. There were some 500 individual tobacco manufacturers and in the retail trade between 300,000 and 350,000 shops specializing in tobacco products and ancillary goods. Once threatened by American capitalism, the British moved swiftly. A meeting of 13 leading British companies was arranged and Tobacco Cos pany formedirial After 1918 the company began its road to becoming a conglomerate, buying here, there and everywhere. First under the net were two companies, one which supplied the paper for the cigarettes and the other the packaging for the various products.

During the following 40 years, the company bought out leaf suppliers and handlers and merged the group's smaller manufacturers.

In 1927 a financial interst tobacconists. Finlay chain of tobacconists shops and kiosks, eventually taking over Finlay's in 1963.

It was in 1930 that Robert Sinclair was acquired. , Originally a tobacco wholesale firm, Sinclair's is now the biggest business of its kind in north of England and Scotland and handles household and fancy goods, confectionery, toys and stationery, in addition to tobacco.

Today, where from time to time, including the original 13 founder companies, there were 22 tobacco manufacturers under the Imperial umbrella, there are now only fourW.D.&H.O. Wills, John Player & Sons, Ogden's and Churchmans.

And it was during the 1960s that the group began to diversify completely outside tobacco to become one of Britain's most powerful conglomerates.

All the food firms previously mentioned were acquired, and moves were made into plastics and printing.

Now under high-Tory Sir John Partridge, the company intends to defend every penny of its capital through attacks on the basic rights of the working class.

When the Tory government is made to resign through the mass mobilization of the working class, Imperial Tobacco must be nationalized under workers' control and without compensation by the returning Labour government. 117-299 NiL

8 Workers Press, Friday