the and through on capital invested socialism bosses their all all all those both ПОГ than ever today are built by This means ONEset of industrial barons have replaced another on the National Enterprise Board. Rolls Royce has passed from NEB control to the department of Industry. Is this anything to be excited about?
It was Tony Benn who set up the NEB in the heady days of the Labour government in 1974-5. It was, and remains, a central part of the strategy of Labour's left wing. The bosses were unwilling to invest, the NEB would provide the money and make sure that the grateful bosses were accountable to 'the public'. Key sectors of British industry would flourish. Unemployment would decline as the whole economy started to take off.
There was one small problem with this schema 'and that was profits. The low level of profitability in manufacturing industry remains the fundamental reason why the bosses get cold feet and take their money elsewhere. To reverse that situation the employers have to jack up productivity and in a situation of no growth in attack on the working class.
The TO WIN sackings. The NEB's money was welcome but it did not meet the bosses' central need — an all out But whatever the prospects for the NEB in its early days, they were never given the chance to be tested. Benn's Industry Bill was gutted in the Labour cabinet and Benn himself was replaced by Eric Varley in the post of Industry minister.
NEB changed its nature. It became a combination of a butcher's shop and laboratory. 'Lame duck' firms like British Leyland, Alfred Herbert (the machine tool manufacturers) and Rolls Royce were to be rationalised in a programme of closures, redundancies and speed up.
British Leyland in particular was to be parcelled up in lots and some of it sold off, like the MG plant in Oxford, others simply thrown in the dustbin as with the Triumph plant in Speke. Large holdings in companies like Ferranti obtained in exchange for understand what it means.
under ferocious pressure at Leyland.
The NEB was with mass action to defend Derek Robinson. time a puny attempt was made to keep up with the technological advances in the silicon chip industry i with a number of small research firms being set up.
The more the project progressed the less the need for the NEB. So now British Leyland will follow Rolls Royce out of the NEB fold. Socialists should not mourn what amounts to the passing of the NEB under its new lap-dog management, but The Tory attack on living standards is reaching top gear. There will be no honeymoon period under this government. They have dealt with the vacillating bosses of the NEB with contempt. Shop stewards whom they consider an obstacle will be never solution to unemployment either in its pink or blue cloaks. The solution rests in resisting the Tory offensive starting
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SOCIALIST CHALLENGE