Crisis worsens as government

POWERS to imprison trade unionists proposed by Wilson's 'Labour government ing economic crisis.

When Wilson visited President Johnson in Washington he went out of his way to insist that the powers taken by the government in the Prices and Incomes Bill, now going through its last stages in Westminster, were without precedent "democratic societies. even in wartime. UVAI =.-- Wilson's method for taking these powers is also 'unprecedented' Young Socialists and Socialist Labour League members were told on various lobbies of parliament that 'left' MPs intended to amend the projected Bill so thoroughly that it would be toothless and harmless. What happened was something quite different.

The powers taken by the government have been introduced after the debates in parstage, du sing the coay nitee ordinary 'democratic' procedure is dispensed with.

It was not a matter of everything being done by the traditional rules of democracy, as the reformists always told us things could be put right, but of the economic requirements of international finance capital insisting on a change in the law.

No Pretence Wilson and his Cabinet now serve these banking interests directly, and have dropped all pretences of gradually wearing down capitalism by reforms. They are tied hand and foot to the banks.

The old democratic forms become an obstacle to the continued exploitation of labour.

The seamen's strike increased the determination of the ruling class to discipline the working class.

What is urgent now is that the working class prepares for the answer to the growthe critical struggles ahead as thoroughly as the enemy.

In the first place the depth of the crisis must be understood. There will be no quick or easy solution. The six-month wage freeze is only the beginning.

The new Bill actually gives power to cut wages.

In June, according to government figures published this week, retail trading and hire-purchase was already on the decline in a serious way, i.e., before the new measures announced by Callaghan.

There was a fall from 138 to 126 points in the level of new hire-purchase credit, and HP sales fell from 87 to 80 points.

Shops selling durable goods had a decline of f8 millions to t301 millions.

New credit extended in the second quarter of 1966 was 11 per cent lower than the same quarter of 1965.

All these are signs that the economy was in decline well before Callaghan took his steps in July. It is therefore only to be expected that the 2 per cent unemployment which Wilson says will be 'not unacceptable' is a laughable underestimation.

The process of large-scale attack on the working class has already begun with the wage freeze. All the big capitalist newspapers admit that it is entirely a question of wage control and not price control. Mr. Sidney