European drive for a 'single industrial base for the community as a whole' Cartel community

French Stalinists SUNDAY DECEMBER County Hote NEWCASTL GLASGOW SUNDAY DECEMBER Woodside Halls St George's Cross Speakers :

committee)

JOHN BARRIE committee)

WILLIE Paisley mittee. A MAJOR drive towards the creation of cartels and monopolies on a 'European' basis is being organized by the Common Market commission in Brussels.

The commission is acting on decisions taken at the Paris summit meeting of the nine heads of state at the end of October which called for 'a single industrial base for the community as a whole'.

The EEC leaders are particularly worried at the growing power of US-owned companies which have proved considerably more successful than European companies in exploiting the integrated Common Market.

The commission charges that European firms have failed to want tripartite talks GEORGES SEGUY, French Communist Party central committee member and secretary of the CGT unions, has offered his services to the state fight against inflaFinance Labou CELEBRATE JNU HIVIVI V OF WORKE PRESS BUILD THI REVOLUT Speakers :

MIKE BANDA (SLL DAVID JONES (YS BOB MAINS (Unem VINCENT FOY (Ja personal capacity) .

(SLL (YS DOCHERTY ( Tenants' Acti In personal ci MinCent natio ploye rrow hairman n Comlacity.) use the Common Market to the full. It proposes that legislation within the EEC countries be brought rapidly into a single framework enabling firms to standardize their output and selling procedures throughout the nine.

It is also planning new arrange. ments to encourage firms to merge, or failing that to form associations (cartels). The objection that this might violate the Rome Treaty commitment to maintain 'free competition' in the EEC is brushed aside.

The stimulus to this belated drive is Washington's economic offensive. President Nixon's appointee George Schultz economic supremo has made this clear already.

His No 1 task is to spearhead the attack on the EEC's tariffs and force the Europeans to open their markets to American goods on a vast scale. This is what Nixon's spokesmen mean when they refer to 1973 as 'the year of Europe' JUAN GARCIA ister Giscard d'Estaing's new anti-inflation proposals, Séguy has written a letter to Prime Minister Pierre Messmer calling for urgent measures to deal with the rise in the cost of living.

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ades Council secreta BIRMINGHAN SUNDAY DECEMBER Assembly Hall Digbeth Civic Hall Speakers :

G. HEALY (SLL tary)

WILLIE AITKIN (YS national committee)

PETER SMITH (Rover shop steward. In personal capacity.) CORIN REDGRAVE (Equity. In a personal capacity.)

Just as the cartelization of German industry in the 1920s prepared the way for the rise to power of the Nazi Party under Hitler, so today the European employers need dictatorial forms of rule totamisement teeir renc The Stalinists, like French Communist Party Secretary Georges Marchais, who claim that the Common Market can be 'democratized' through participation in its institutions, are exposing the working class to dictatorship. • As long ago as March 1970 the Brussels commission submitted proposals to make the EEC. 'an entity • .. permitting large-scale operations'. It warned:

'Too often the term industrial policy has been used to reter to activities designed to keep alive activities that no longer have any prospect of competing in the modern world.

•Much of community industry is unduly fragmented and this is serious weakness in face of competition from the United States, Japan and other outside countries' purchasing power by 10 per cent, according to the CGT price index for this year.

Seguy suggests chief Messmer: • A sliding-scale based on a realistic and coherent estimation of the cost of living should be set up as soon as possible. • A CGT meeting with Messmer in order to examine this problem 'which should be subject to tripartite negotiations at a national level'.

This policy of cringing collaboration with the representatives of the French bourgeoisie disarms the French workers' struggle against attacks on their right.

A CGT-CFDT (Socialist) trade union delegation on Monday tried to persuade Social Affairs Minister Edgar Faure to force the Berliet-Citröen management to resume wage negotiations and call off the anti-riot charges against nine men.

Two-hour strike During this meeting Berliet workers struck for two hours and demonstrated to the townhall in Vénissieux where they were welcomed by Communist Party deputy-mayor, Marcel Houel, the man who arranged the meeting with Faure.

Albert Rivait, CGT secretary for the Berliet factories, claimed that Faure's pledge to "find a quick solution with Paul Berliet' would put the management in an 'impossible' position.

Bitter scenes

But there were bitter. and angry scenes at Berliet yesterday morning as the conciliation committee re-opened negotiations.

Assembly line workers were locked out because 'of a lack of stocks caused by recent strikes, according to the factory's labour relations department.

Edgar Faure was not in evidence-he had flown to London for talks with Tory premier Heath.

They could no doubt agree that both the French and British communist parties are of no danger to the plans of the European monopolies.