Over 400 of the top 1,000 companies have fai ed to provide information about their profits the Price Commission, as required under the "counter-intlation" legislation.
The official response of the Commission is thi many companies have no doubt been unable t find the time or the expertise to fill in all the forens as yet. In the meantime, however, these companies could well be raising their prices an incressing their income at the expeuse of the consumer. A cut in price made by the Commi ion at a later date would do nothing to make : for the loss to the consumer. Of course, Sir Arthur Cockfield, chairman of the Commissio could take the companies to court tomorrow and extract unlimited fines for their failure to report their profits. These companies are breal ing the law. But Cockfield is not likely to be s zealous about enforcing the law as his opposit government, The only defencs against the capitalist legil machine is the ability to mobilize the working class, and thus weaken the position DANGEROUS PRECEDENTS At the present time the courts have all the material they need - in the form of legal prece to crack down on picket lines. In 1960, in the case of Piddington us. Bates, the coarts supported the conviction of a picketer for obstructing the police in the oxecution of their duty. His crime" was to have refused to obey a policeman who had told a group of strikers that they could only have two pickets on a factory gate. The court ruled that the police were entitled to do this if they had reasonable grounds to expect a breach of thie peace, In a more important case, Tynan vs. Balmer, in 1967, the courts convicted another picket on the same change. He had led 40 strikers who had picketed their factory gate, marching in a tight circle. The prosecution failed to prove that any actual blacking of the entrance had taken place, but the court ruled that the pur pose of the pickets had been to force lorries to stop so that the pickets could taik to the dri vers. This, they said, went beyond just com municating information' or peaceful persua sion, and therefore constituted an unlawful nuisance which the police were entitled to These rulings interpret the rights of pickets in such a nitros way, and the rights of the police in such a broad way, that a determined offensive hy the police and the courts would complotely tie the hands of pickets. As trade union expert, Prof, Kenneth Wedderburn puts *The only indisputably lawful pickers.. are those who altend in small numbers near the chosen place and who keep out of everyane's way. Meanwhile, the workers who they have come to persuade to join them can sweep past in vehicles which the pickets have no right to DEFEND PICKETS In the coming struggles the working class move. ment will have to adopt the flying pickets