WILL IT HAPPEN Money crisis hits major AGAIN?

at Blackpool on September 5 in an atmosphere of grave crisis. Wilson and his right-wing Labour government betrays every principle which the trade union movement has fought for over the past The purpose of trade unionism is to improve the wages of its members. In practice the unions by their struggle succeed in improving the wages of millions who they have not yet recruited. Since working conditions are directly related to wages, trade unions are the pacesetters in determining the standard of living of the working If the unions give up this right to the capitalist state, and allow it to determine what the wages of the working class shall be, then what is the purpose of trade unionism at all?

If you as delegates to the TUC vote for the government of a capitalist state to decide on wages, what you will be doing is in fact voting the trade unions out of existence.

You will be handing over to the enemy the legal right to do the job the unions were founded to do.

There is no middle road. This Labour government is nothing more than a pliable tool for the banks and monopolies. Behind the scenes the whole caboodle is manipulated by the Wall Street bankers whose policy is butchery in Vietnam.

Is there a great deal of difference between the Prices and Incomes Bill and the infamous Dr. Ley's Labour Front in Hitler's pre-war Germany?

In some respects, yes. We still have a strong and powerful labour and trade union movement whose rank and file genuinely But the German workers also had such a movement in the years before Hitler took the power.

However, they lost the day because the right-wing labour and union leaders in the pre-Hitler era of the Weimar Republic tied the unions closer and closer to the German capitalist state under conditions where the rank and file could not successfully Logical outcome The Prices and Incomes Bill is a big step in this direction. Dr. Ley's Fascist Labour Front which smashed trade unionism was simply a logical outcome of the policy which the German Wilsons and Callaghans pursued, eventually opening the door for Think carefully, delegates to the TUC. The principle behind the Prices and Incomes Bill is the same principle which lay behind Dr. Ley's Labour Front. It is simply this:, Let the capitalist state decide on wages.

Are you now going to Don't be misled by Wilson and Feather and their verbal ballyhoo about the importance of a Labour government at If you vote for the Prices and Incomes Bill you will split he trade union movement as sure as night follows day.

Large sections will be forced into open conflict with the Under such conditions the right wing of Wilson, Callaghan and Co. will move more and more into the camp of the monopoly capitalists and in doing so will split the Labour Party.

Do you think a Labour government will last long in such circumstances? At the outside it will last just about as long as Ramsay MacDonald's government did.

When the MacDonald government collapsed the working class were demoralised through unemployment, as well as confused and deceived by the treachery of the right-wing At the general election in 1931, which brought a Tory National Government to power Vita FIther, J and assistson seestress need of wage freeze.

control the economic life of Right now, irrespective of what the right wing fuddy duddies may decide, they are looking out for a British Hitler.

most far-sighted amongst them, after more than a decade of government under MacMillan and Lord Home, believe that even a Tory governnent cannot extricate capitalThe MacDonald government the Tory government of Baldwin. The Wilson government Hitler and Ley finished the job and threw tens of The German labour leaders thousands of rank-and-file strapped the German trade trade unionists into concentraunions to the capitalist state through such measures as the tion camps.

Continued page LAST week saw a definite worsening of the economic crisis in Britain which directly flows from the policies of the Wilson government.

SHARE PRICES Latest figures on the London Stock Exchange indicate that share prices are now at their lowest level for nearly four years.

Last week alone the 'Financial Times' Index fell a further 14 points to 294, compared with a peak of 375 earlier this year.

In America the slide in prices has been of a similar magnitude: The Dow Jones Share Indexwhich was at a peak of 1,000 earlier this year—is now down to 780, the lowest for two years.

There is widespread fear that the slide will continue and business leaders are urging Johnson to take swilt action to arrest what many feel to be an increasingly desperate situation.

BANK ADVANCES Advances by the ll London clearing banks have fallen by £130 million over the last four weeks. This is over twice the normal decline at this time of the year.

Advances are now only f47 million below the 'ceiling imposed by Callaghan in his last squeeze measures. But bankers are convinced that this sum will be nowhere nearly adequate to meet. the demands for liquidity from firms once payments begin under the Selective Employment Tax and the Corporation Tax.

It is estimated that demand for credit will rise by f500 million to meet payments to the government under this head alone.

The answer is clear. Firms will either go out of business and in so doing raise the level of unemployment or else (and this will apply only to the larger companies) they will have to draw on their reserves to make these tax payments.

ENGINEERING Figures issued last week by the Ministry of Technology indicate a mounting crisis in this industry, the backbone of British capitalism.

The April-June quarter shows a decline of nearly 16 per cent in export orders compared to the last quarter.

Outstanding orders have fallen by 24 per cent since March, with output 3 per cent down in the second quarter of the year and deliveries to home customers 2 per cent down.

The crisis will further weaken the competitive position of this sector of the economy, on which any permanent improvement in exports depends.

As we reported last week ENV in London is to close completely and International Harvesters of Doncaster announced the sacking of 300 workers, nearly 10 per cent of their labour force.

For the last month the plant has 'been on a three- or four-day week but the crisis measures, together with a falling export order book, have brought an end to this position.

Both these developments give indication of the policy of US capital towards its investments in Europe. As part of the attempt to overcome the crisis in the United States the Johnson government has attempted to place restrictions on overseas investments.

This has made the drive for profits by the US monopolists in Europe all the more ruthless.

BY PETER JEFFRIES These firms will not hesitate to close plants, redeploy capital and men as they think fit, whatever the costs in lost employment, poverty and suffering.

MOTORS There has been the mighty fall of 45 per cent in contracts to buy motor vehicles during the last month. In this sector of the economy the credit squeeze is producing a first class crisis.

There were 176,000 contracts to buy vehicles in July: August figures are expected to be under 100,000.

There has been a 20 per cent fall in the sale of second hand cars compared to this time last year.

Eumpoumn Couchis declining market 'bound to hot up amongst the car manufacturers in this country, with an intensification of the attack on the wages and conditions of their workers.

But they are certain to face a stronger and stronger challenge from Europe and North America.

In Germany the economic miracle' is rapidly ending and will produce a crisis for the German motor industry which has made such gains in the post-war period and in the United States the motor car trade is itself entering a deep crisis with stocks of unsold models rising rapidly.

STEEL This sector is certain to be hit by any recession in motors. Already there are reports of car manufacturers delaying their orders for sheet metal.

Up to now the industry has depended on a bouyant demand for sheet steel to prevent a major recession: the 'heavy' end of the industry is already in a badly depressed state with many of the larger plants operating at only 80 per cent of capacity. It is now accepted that production will fall from 27 million tons last year to under 25 million tons.

Large redundancies have only been avoided up to now because men have left the industry for jobs where overtime has until recently been plentiful and because employers, thinking that their difficulties were only short-term, have retained men on a reduced working week.

Both these developments are now at an end.

The combined recession in steel and engineering will certainly bring a deep crisis to areas like Sheffield, which is heavily dependent on these two industries for its prosperity.

BUILDING INDUSTRY There are at the moment 24,000 completed and near-completed private houses unsold in this country.

The building industry is being badly hit by the drying up of credit to buy houses.

The 'pegging' of mortgage rates will solve nothing, even if it succeeds.

With interest rates rising all the time it simply means that the building societies are less and less able to attract the funds with which to make lendings.

There is now widespread fear of a 'mortgage famine' '. This sector

is also hit by the Selective Employment Tax (as a 'service' industry it is not entitled to any rebates) and by government cutbacks in building of all types.

The small builder, dependent on bank credit and living a handto-mouth existence, will suffer badly. Many will undoubtedly go out of business, leading to further concentration of ownership.

CONSEQUENCES THE CRISIS Clearly investment will suffer badly. With the rapid contraction of bank credite Will have to dip into liquid reserves in order to meet day-to-day payments, particularly taxes to the government.

Many businessmen are now extremely worried about the longterm consequences to their competitive position of this cut-back in investment.

Last week the Confederation of British Industry asked for a special meeting with Wilson to discuss the crisis. In particular, they intend to put pressure on him to make further cuts in government spending, rather than let investment (and future profits) suffer.

There has been widespread anxiety at the decision of ICI to review the volume and timing of its whole capital expenditure programme. If ICI, one of Europe's leading monopolists, is unable to meet the crisis, it puts the lesser fry in an even weaker position.

There will now certainly be mounting demands for further slashes 1n the Welfare State SO that private investment can be maintained at a higher level.

Many firms are now reconsidering their attitude to the supply of labour. In previous recessions they have often been frightened lose their labour: when economy picked would need all the skilled labour they could get.

Now many employers are convinced will be a long and deep recession.

Last week the 'Financial Times' urged all industrialists and the government to resist to the utmost any demands from militants for work sharing and labour hoarding as the crisis develops.

As they pointed out, this would