mark later this year.
The response of the TUC leadership to the demonstration - which had brought workers from Coventry Chrysler plant to the Glasgow Persona factory - was summed up in the comment by General Secretary Len Murray who described it as the work oT extremists.
That the TUC leaders could describe a demonstration for the right to work as 'extremist! says less about the demonstrators than it does about the TUC.
It reveals just how far they have gone in becoming apologists for the government's class-collaborationist policies - policies based upon creating mass unemployment - in the unions. Social Contract Originally, Sold the Social Contract - and the more grounds that it was the only way to save jobs. They faithfully echoed Healey's words that it was better for all to take a cut in living standards than that those lucky enough to keep their jobs should scoop the pool while millions are living on the dole!.
The chickens in this argument have now come home to roost. Despite the accepted by such unions unemployment has continued to While wages, have dropped by 7.3% over the past 9 months or so, unemployment is still escalating at the alarming rate of 1000 a day.
In certain areas, the shadow of the thirties is becoming once again a Stark reality as closures and lay-offs have pushed up the total to 10%. Such figures, which hide the Shortened work-week in industries like textiles and car manufacturing, are only a laste or wat is to come.
An ASTMS document, published for the last Labour Party conference, that the jobless total by the end of the year will have reached something in the ) CONFEDERATION OF ENGINEERING UNIONS growing militancy, have generally remained isolated and, as a result, have often ended in defeat. While supporting such initiatives, the key task at present is to spearhead the fight for the right to work in the labour movement as a whole - in the trade union and Labour Farty branches - demanding that the leadership begin to challenge head-on the pro-capitalist policies of the Labour government.
The problems of individual groups of workers - from teachers to dockers -can no longer be solved in isolation. They must act as the springboard for Mammering out inside the labour movement. a programme to safeguard jobs al a national level wich the present government, elected by working people, must be called upon to implement ir the interests of working people.
The proposals submitted so tar by the TUC are totally inadequate in this trols! are no solution to mounting dole cucues. Trying to export! unemployment merely hides the fact that cutting out cheaper imported goods will only push prices up. In a situation of wage restraint, this will mean that workers will be able to buy less and will only therefore force unemployment in oiner sectors of the economy.
A mass campaign for the right to work - a campaign demanding the present leadership challenge head-on Wilson's respect Demands such as "import con be based on uniting workers and not dividing them.
Labour Unless such a campaign is developed in the period ahead, it could lead to a serious demoralisation in the labour movement, opening it up particularly to racist demagogy. This is true not only for those facing redundancies in the period ahead but also for those already on the dole whom the trade union leadership must be compelled to fight for.
In fighting to unite both employed and unemployed, socialists should be prepared to work with all forces in the labour movement in a commor attempt to make the TUC and Labour Party demand the present government act in the interests of working people - or else replace it with one that will. * WORK SHARING In factories where lay-offs are on the cards, the call should be made Tor dividing the existing amount of work among the existing workforce. * OPEN THE BOOKS Employers who refuse to concede work-sharing - and insist on the necessly tor cul-backs - must be called upon, at local and national level, to open ineir secret accounts to workers! representatives. * NATIONALISE UNDER WORKERS CONTROL If employers refuse to open the books - or 'provel thereby the case for lay-offs - the demand must be raised tor nationalisation under workers! control. Unlike the TUCIs proposal for increased subsidies for firms obviously incapable of managing their own affairs, they should be nationalised as part of a workers! plan for production. *PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME in order to absorb the thousands of unemployed, a bold public works Programme Should be called for. All cuts in social expenditure should be opposed and the labour and material at present standing
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fact that wages have complied with the Social Contract - which has even been