IMGpapers 1976–79

Newspapers of the International Marxist Group and its forerunners, 1976–79

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Red Weekly No. 170, 1976 · p. 3 of the scan · 401 words

The scan: rw-no170-oct-14-1976.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from a scan of a newspaper page, and the page was cut into articles by machine, at the headlines found by their type size. Nothing has been corrected: expect misread words, text from a neighbouring article, and titles that are the machine reading of the headline, some of them only fragments. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
How this article was cut and titled: headline found by type size in the OCR geometry (split_tabloid.py); 2-3 of 5; machine-segmented newspaper page; uncorrected Vision OCR.

page 3 of the scan

out of the slump, hand-in-hand with its West German and American competitors, rings more and more hollow as the "upturn' in these countries flattens out.

The trade union leaders know that the economic miracle is built on foundations of sand. But their only response is parrot joint workers-bosses "solution' of import controls.

Dr Johannes Witteveen.

The truth is that there are no interests common to both the main classes in society. The only way out of the crisis for the bosses is a massive jacking up of the rate of REAL WAGES after taxt 1000- UNEMPLOYMENT - RISING PRICES 4 MANUFACTURING INVESTMENT that the working class should pay the full cost of the crisis. That is the real meaning of Healey's two-and-a-half year track record.

The adoption of Tory policies by the Labour Government, and the inability of the trade union leaders to put forward policies that reach beyond putting the blame for Britain's crisis abroad, means that it is vital that militants are able to put forward alternative socialist policies. The debate around the nationalisation of the banks offers the possibility for the beginning of such a campaign.

The first aim of such an alternative strategy must be the stimulation of the self-activity of the working class. The utopian solutions spun out by the Labour lefts rely on Parliament to carry them through. Anything that really threatens the entrenched power of finance capital will be met with the strongest resistance.

The City fat-cats laugh behind their hands at the enquiry into their affairs headed by Sir Harold Wilson. They know it will result in the conclusion which Sir Harold has already made public in a statement last week - that the City has done a 'valuable job' for Britain.

Massive Instead the demand for the opening of the books should be raised to reveal the massive amounts of money which local and national government pay out to the financiers in interest payments on loans, and to explain to the widest possible layers the reasons for the cuts in spending and the increases in taxes and rates.

The opening of the books can lay a real basis for nationalisation under workers control, so that the working class can direct the gargantuan funds of these institutions into a crash programme of useful public works to meet social need and employ the jobless.

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The 2 year record OUTPUT*

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