point the way to a socialist solution to the crisis.
More than ever the stepr to socialim are not ar all in contradiction with the soling of the immediate problems which face the working cler. On the contrary it is only socialist measures which can protect the working class in the slightest from the effpots of the capitalist What all this mear in practice in showing the working clam that there are real alternatives to the nonsolutions of an alliance with the employers and the sepitalist Statewhich ir what Labour's social contract is. The key steps are the following.
WEAKEN THE ENEMY
THE WORKING CLASS has to take advantage of every opportunity to weaken its enemy- which is not simply British, but also international, capitalisn. In particular, this means supporting the struggles in indochina, Chile, the Portuguese colonies in Africa, and in Ireland.
The struggle in Indochina is the most Important of thee on a world scale, bui British revolutionaries can probably have the biggest immediate impact on Ireland and Chile.
The campsign for the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland, for the release of all Irish political prisoners, and, first and foremost, the Price sisters, h absolutely in the interests of the working das. Similarly, with the campaign to hreak off British diplomatic recognition of the junta in Chile and for the etry into Britain of Chilcan political refuges These steps at present are not even just an internationalist duty. Labour usdoubtedly hopes to gain some popularity rith its foreign policy. After all il besn't cost British capitalism mach (Hence, for example, cancelling the unboats" trips to Greece.) A strong ttack to show the real nature of th Government's foreign policy will help rapidly dispel the ilhasions in Labour.
DECISIVE STEPS must be taken to protect the living standard of the working class from inflation and to secure a decent standard of tiving for all. Most important of all, this means protecting wages from the effects of price increases.
With price increases running at over 15% any wage increase can vanish in no time. Astomatic cost of diving increases.
- a siding scale of wages-are necessary to protect every penny apainst.the increase in the cost of living.
Workers in Belgium and tENy have won something resembling this. The 7% threshuld agreements under Phase 3 were an Inadequate version of this. A number one additional pickets, as they persistently did with the Asians, The next time, however, the police wete fully prepared for such a minimass picket. They simply increased their permanent establishment at the site from 15 to 50, and waded in to arrest the leaders'.
In all, 13 pickets were arrested during the course of the strike, on charpes ranging from assaulting the police to contravening section 7 of the 1875 Conspiracy and Protec tion of Property Act for tailing lorries.
The Art Castings management and other local employers now know that it they decide to sack militants they can rely on the solidarity of the police, and that the Asian workers cannot rely on the solidarity of the bighly organised Coventry white working This is a pincer movement which must be crushed. Black workers caucuses should he formed in the unions to ensure that their particular Interests are not ignored, and provide the mutual support which is necessary to combat racism.
A national network of such caucuses would make it possible for black demand for the summer must be a real siding scale of wages: the 75 'threshold" msut be reduced to 0%, it must be exten ded to all the working class, include state benefits and unemployment pay, and a real worken cost of living index must be deawn up to repaice the preseet biased one.
In addition, all wage claims settled under Phase 3 must be resubmitted for the fall amount and in all wage claims not yet settled (for example the engineem" wage claim) the full claim must be fought for. For the autumn and winter, apart from the demand for the sliding scale of wagts, across the board increases which unite all groups of workers should be submitted. AGAINST PRICE INCREASES Industrial and other action against price increases must sho be taken. The workers at Allied Supplets in Glasgow and house. wives in Nottingham have already shown the way here. A campaign for a national minimums wage must be launched.
The trade unions must make it absolutely clear that they are not prepared year the AUEW and ASTMS conferences voted for this. This year this decision must be enforced and every other union shouk! pass a similar motion, Against Labour's capitalist social contract, NO INCOMES POLICY UNDER CAPITALISM must be the centrat slogan.
EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN is completely tied up with defending working class living standards, but is so important that a special campaign must be laanched on it. This was promised yours ago hy the last Labour Government. Nothing has been done about it. All unions must launch a struggle for equal pay now. Conferences on the question must he orgunised in as many arcas as posable.
AS WELL AS FIGHTING AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT the working class must force the capicalist system, which creates unemployment, to bear the cost of supporting those they deprive of work. Work or fall pay must he the key demand here.
workers elsewhere to organise support for struggles like that at Art Castiops. If necessary they could enforce blacking by bringing plants to a standstill where white workers refused to respond to the appeals of the strikeri At the same time, there must be bodies through which white and black workers orpanise to oppose racism in the unions. They must campaign throughout the movement to support tbe struggles of black workers, and Eight to ensure official support for these struggles The problem of attacks on pickets -whether hy the police or plainclothes thugs-faces any group of workers considering industrial action, and trade unionists must be prepared and organised to meet such attacks.
This requires the formation of regional orpanisations charged with the defence of picket lines, able to call on militants to join the lines when they are under attack. The exiatence of such committees would make it much more difficult tor shop stewards and trade union militants to refuse to rush reintorcements to a group of strikers whe happened to be black. The vicious police attacks on students at Essex University show what is in store for the working class EVERY MOVE MUST BE MADE 00 unite the working class across race lines All racist laws, incloding tie immigration Act, the Pakistan Act and the Aliens Acts, must be repealed. Most ungently of all, the House of Lords ruling on retrospec tive prosecution of Wiegul immigrants must be OvertuEDed for the housing problem lies in a planned economy, nevertheless immedsate steps must be taken to deal with the problem of homelessness and slum conditions All property being kept empty must be taken over by local councils at once, without compensation. Squatton, supported by the labour movement, should take over property, and demand this.
NATIONALISATION FROM yet organised to take over the whole econ limited but important nationalisations can be waged. This must start with North Sea redundancy. and in the case of property companies, there is a real possibility of nationaliss on from below', Workers can occup a base to show that workers can take alise these firms.
with the social contract and begin the struggle for the only solutionare able to orient in this way in the coming months this will be one of of eveats.
to make propaganda about them in WHILE THE ONLY REAL SOLUTION BELOW WHILE THE WORKING CLASS is not omy from below, a mal campaign for some tume.
In the case of firms creating redundancy, Place of Strife'. In 1970-71 a generat actories and haildings and, asing them a property out of the hands of the capitalists, wage a real campsign for Labour to nationAll these demands can begin to ise in practice the need to break a socialist solution, If revolutionaries the best opportunities they have had fot a long time to influence tbe course What is crucial about all those demands is not only that it is possible the unions, but that it is possible on many of them to begin to take action now. They provide one of the key ways in which revolutionaries can. carry out their central task at the present time-to help prepare, within the partial outflankings of the Labour posernment. in the coming months, the conditions for a general autflanking of Labour when the mass struggie restarts.
PREPARE FOR GENERAL STRIKE Finally socialists and revolutionaries must never forget in their work in the coming months that the fundamental evolution of the situation in Britain is towards a general strike, or similar, clash hetween the classes. This has been the trend ever since 1969 and the struggles apainst "In Place of Strife!, Only the particular form which the confrontation will take, not its content, changes with In 1969 i general strike was posed to force the withdrawal of In strike focus could have developed round the Industrial Relations Act Towards the end of Heath's term of class. office the tendency was towards a fundamental clash directly on the question of the existence of the Tary government, A General Strike to Bring Down the Tory Government' represented the clear line of adsance, The coming to office of Labour again alters the form the confrontation will take. Obviously now a mass confrontation would not bave as its first aim removing Labour. There 1s as yet nothing to put in its place. But all the economic and social forces still push towards a controntation. The slogan of preparing the general strike is still the vital une in pniting the working class to stand the best chance in the coming clash.
It is not yet clear around exactly which issues a general strike could be posed in the coming months. If Labour remains in office for any lenght of time a general strike will almost certainly be posed against the vicious anti working class measures it will pass. If a real working class offensive develops the goneral strike may he needed to oblain some key social demand of the working classperhaps against some outrageous programme of sackings or to secure a sliding scale of wages. But if the exact vital issues on which a general strike will be posed are not yet clear, the general Tine of advance 1s For the moment the question of the general strike is a propaganda one, But it also delibes certain key -tasks which are necessary to prepare for the coming confrontation. In particular, workers control and workers self-defence must continually be brought to the fore Sooner rather than later, however. the general strike slogan will become an agitational one again-either against the ruling class's counter-attack, or to secure the key demands of the working For now, however, revolutionanes both to meet the immediate needs of the situation and to prepare the way for a general strike, must take as their main tasks dcaling with the ruling class attacks and breaking up the social contract with which Labour hopes to paralyse the workers The watchwords of the coming months are that in order to smash capitaliam's counter-attack and to solve the problems facing the working claas it is necessary to break with the social contreet and start the struggie for the only solution-d socialis solution.
ALAN JONES Red Weekly 29 March 1974 Page 5
What have birth control, abortion, nursery facilities, and family allowances to do with the struggle on the factory floor? If you are a male worker, you may not see the connec tion. From the point of view of women, there are many dimensions to the cconomic struggle which male trade unionists rarely see. The lives of women workers are not so neatly divided between home and work, and the problems of one tend to spill over into the other, Women's liberation has often been treated as a joke by trade unionists, but in fact it is precisely these "private corners" which the Women's Liberation Movement has succeeded in #luminating. Without the work done by this movement over the past four years, documents like the Charter presented last week by the London Trades Council would simply women workers will be lighting in the months to come.
And in adopting these demands, recognition must be given to the contrbution made by the WLM to spelling out bow family life affects at all levels the ability to take part in any struggles.
The Charter, If adopted by the trade union movement, will represent a major breakthrough. For the unions to fight for these objectives they must overcome a deep prejudice which prevents them treating "private and "individual" problems as questions which should be tackled by the work force as a whole. The task of creating a socialist society will not be seen as merely an economic question, but as one of te-constructing the whole of society-a society where individual' problems will be solved collectively. WON Forty Asian workers were due to wotker in the plant who joined the