Wanted: A Plan of Action Against the Tories Gaitskell Goes

closures and • redundancies. More than 5,000 men are to lose their jobs.

The old shale oil industry in East Lothian is to close down. It was kept going by government subsidy which now to be withdrawn.

The ancient North British Locomotive Company, which has doddered on for a couple of years on loans from the banks and government, is to go into liquidation. One of its main creditors is the General Electric Company which is currently amongst the group of electrical firms lobbying the Tory ministers in its own interests.

Rolls-Royce have announced the immediate redundancy of 3,000 workers in its Scottish factories. The trouble at Rolls is traced to cut-backs in engines for the government's military programme. Jet engines are no longer part of advanced military technique.

These sackings come on top of the closures in the pits and railways. They provide some explosive material for the discussions at the annual conference of the Scottish Trades Union Congress which opened at Aberdeen on Wednesday.

On the agenda for this conference are many resolutions which express grave concern about the condition of industry in Scotland.

They call mainly for the direction of factories and other work to Scotland by the government. None call for nationalization or put forward a policy for a national plan drawn up by a Labour government.

But if the Scottish trade union leaders are not clear abou t what is happening in Scottish indusThe big shift From November the price of house coal will rise by 20/- a ton, but better grade fuel will be relatively cheaper and lower grade relatively dearer than before.

A massive increase in railway fares will become effective within the coming weeks. The cost of postage and telephone calls have only recently been subject to increases. Gas, electricity and national insurance charges have all risen within the last year or so.

All thi ese costs are outside the province of the Budget. Yet they are all, in reality, imposts levied by the government, because the services covered by them are indirectly controlled by the government.

On the other hand we have seen in the last two Budgets provisions aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the wealthy. Last year Lloyd's drastic reductions in surtax resulted in those earning up to £100 a week being taken out of the range of this tax.

This gradual process of transferring cost increases from the richer section of the population to the poorer has been going on since 1955 and its cumulative sackings are being carired out according to a definite plan.

New industries are being opened up: by BMC at Bathgate and by Rootes Motors at Linwood, Renfrewshire.

At Bathgate, BMC are now in need of unskilled and skilled labour for work on production lines turning out trucks. Their factory stands only a few miles from the old shale industry, now redundant.

One thousand workers are ready to be taken on at cheap rates by BMC.

Rootes are to employ 8,000 men and intend to transfer 50 per cent of their car production to the Linwood factory which starts work in September this year.

They are open to applicants for skilled and semi-skilled engineering jobs at rates of pay 3/- to 4/- per hour less than the rates in England.

These rates are official and signed by, amongst others, Boyd of the AEU Executive.

The men from Rolls-Royce and from the North British Loco will be seeking jobs in a few weeks, ready for Rootes and BMC to pick up.

The Rootes management are to be rewarded for their role in breaking the strike at the British Light Steel Pressings Co. last year!

The hand of the Tory government is clearly in evidence behind these dealings. Conditions in Scottish industry are to be depressed and unemployment through closures will be the weapon which will be used.

Wage rates are to go down so that workers in Coventry, Birmingham and London can be attacked. All this must be effects result in workers being compelled to work considerable overtime to enjoy the benefits of the so-called affluent society.

By the end of 1961 the index of retail prices had risen by 4% per cent over the previous year. Wages and salaries in the second half of the year increased by only 1 per cent. Behind these statistics lies the fact that workers' spending power fell drastically. The continuation of the policy of 'wage restraint coupled with the new price increases in basic commodities and services will mean on the agenda of the Scottish TUC conference. The General Council is sceptical on the question but undecided.

When it comes to breaking strikes, however, these people show marked determination.

The Scottish workers not only need resolutions opposing the economic plans of Toryism. They also need a policy to fight and replace it.

Foremost in such a policy must be a determined fight against sackings, for the nationalization of the engineering industries and the operation by a Labour government of a national economic plan. THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, Sir David Eccles, has introduced severe cuts in the school building programme of the London County Council's education committee.

The committee's plans for 1963-64 included 23 new schools costing f3,320,000. The Minister has cut this programme to 12 new buildings at about £1,900,000.

This decision is consistent with Tory policy. In their 10 years of office the shining products of the public schools (!) have shown little enthusiasm for plans to improve the conditions of pupils under the State education system.

The latest move is just another in the long line of swingeing cuts into the proposed plans of local government bodies.

The reaction from the Labour -controlled LCC is a typical squeak o indig ination a still greater working class.

This attack on working class standards becomes more and more blatant. And it becomes more directed. Even the sacred cow of 'free competitive enterprise' goes by the board in the desire of the capitalists to get a return on their capital.

Lord Chandos, speaking at the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland last week, said: 'It is equally understood that, if for reasons of immediate gain, the smaller competitors start cutting prices in order to gain more of the big man's business, they must face the consequences of a price war, which will lose them a great deal of money and possibly lose them their existence.' The tendency, reflected by the Economic Survey, of workers' declining purchasing power will continue, unless there is a strong challenge from organized labour.

When trade union leaders participate in the National Economic Development Council they do so knowing that the Tory government are plotting new ways of redistributing income in favour of the wealthy.

They make the task of organized labour a thousand times more difficult.

Fi. GAITSKELL, wearing specially re-inforced trousers, is continuing to sit on the Common Market fence. The leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party is a faithful supporter of the ruling class, but when that class itself is torn by fierce arguments over the merits of 'going in' or 'staying out', he is left dithering and undecided.

Last Saturday Mr. Gaitskell told a meeting of the Fulham from those Morrisonian gentlemen who spend their lives registering shock and surprise, like human seismographs, at the activities of the right honourable members of the government.

• We are disappointed', says the schools planning sub-committee of the education committee. A spokesman added that the decision underlined the 'urgent need for greater overall spending on education.' The decision will be fought, no doubt, in the time-honoured way of sending a deputation to the Minister, who will express concern and regret but will say that unfortunately he is unable to change his mind at present.

PART OF THE ATTACK This decision must be answered by the Labour movement, for it is very much a part of the present Tory attack upon working and lower middle class seople who rely upon 'free' education for their children.

Coupled with demands for nationalization of industry, land and building must be one calling for the complete abolition of privileged education, a rapid expansion of the school building programme and more university grants for students. (The latter have also been severely pruned by the Minister.)

First sweets and now schools come under the Tory attack. What next? Nurseries and prenatal clinics, perhaps.

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In true democratic spirit, this new line is not discussed by the rank-and-file of the Party even, it would seem, the NEC. It is instead the result of a few tete-a-tetes by the Frognal Group.

In fact, of course, there is no line. Until the ruling class can settle its differences Mr. Gaitskell will be left chewing his finger-nails.

At the meeting he announced that he intends to make it his business to ensure that the Labour Party sees the Common Market issue steadily and as a whole. Whilst he realised that the charge of sitting on the fence would continue while the party retained its non-committal attitude, he felt it would be far more damaging to reach a decision based on inadequate or partial information.

More facts were needed, he said. These would be obtained by private discussions within the Shadow Cabinet and the Parliamentary Party, together with 'pointed interrogation of Ministers'.

•CAREFUL BALANCE "This is a matter to be settled not by slogans and headlines, emotions and prejudices, but by cool, well-informed consideration and a careful balance of the arguments for and against.' But while Mr. Gaitskell awaits his orders, the rank and file of the trades unions are showing an unfortunate determination to take a prejudiced attitude to the problem.

Seeing the Common Market as a further attempt to attack the conditions of the working class, many trade union conference agendas contain motions strongly opposing Britain's entry.

Mr. Gaitskell sits on the fence, facing right, waiting for a friendly hand-down from his masters. Behind him, the forces of the Labour movement prepare to bring him down in a rather less gentlemanly fashion.

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