Arthur Scargill leads the Yorkshire delegation out of the conference last Thursday Aims of Industry, along with Mr.
Cube from Tare and Lyle, have been buying up pages of adverts in the national press to vent their capitalist spicen against the threat of nationalisation plans.
The ruling class are worried.
As the economic crisis brings financial disaster to more Court Lines and more Ferrantis, and as unemployment soars over the one mil lion mark this year, workers will reply with a wave of factory occuthat go far beyond the intentions of the law-abiding and reasonable Mr. Benn Naturally, the bosses are having nightmares.
FIRST AID In the past while individal capitalists have opposed nationalisation-the ruling class has genesally been quite relieved to hand ther ailing and unprofitable companies to the State for first aid. After the war, the Labour Government nationalised the coal ind ustry, railways, canals, broadcasting, airlines, cubles, electricity, and 515. proposals because these industries were declining and under State control could continue to provide pavate industry with cheap subsidised services.
LU.M ORE SAE LEM • NO!
TO the men.
production next year are 120 mill ion tons of deep mined coal The target for 1985 is exactly the same. With an increase in productivity this can only mean only thing redund. ancies and pit closures.
This scheme is a return to the politicies of the lifties that ate away at the miners living stand ards in the fifteen years after nationalisation-policies which the NUM has fought against for ycars As Bill MeLcan, secretary of the Scottish miners put it: The policy of the union for decades has been to establish a day wage structure for all workers in the industry. This was finally estublished in 1971. It means that all miners doing the same job in any part of the British coalfields are paid the same rute. This has led to unification of the membership. This productivity scheme is a move to divide the memhership and to destroy the power of the union.
The NUM Executive will meet again this Thursday to consider where to go from here. The left pations and nationalisation demands movement tontrol.
The ruling class agreed to these FORKSHIRE shire area was defenled.
Finally, the NCH's plans for coal work force as a whole.
PLAN Bob Murphy and 30,000 bus-stop and factory gate meetings in their campaien against road haulage in 1947, The insurance companies who also felt threatened, had set up 400 anti-nationalisation committees by the end of 1949 and 4,000 employees were persuaded to work after office hours to produce propaganda against the Government.
However, while these detads give us an idea of what is to come from the bosses, recent moves by the massive Guest, Keen and Netttefolds company also raise impurtant questions for the workers"
GN decided to mount a little alised, propaganda operation of their own in the battle against nationalisation. They conducted a poll amongst their employees asking whether they would a few weeks later GN were trumpet prefer GN to stay in the hands of. Its owners or be turned over to State When the survey was finished, GN paid £50,000 for adverts in all the national papers proclaiming gleefully that 73% of GN workers were against nationalisation, The GN questionnaire was a typ ical piece of advertising technique, Le. plain deception. First they conducted a national survey. The firm's 80,000 employces all received a copy of the annual company report, written by GN chairman Sir Raymond Brookes-the most influential Jard- ion. liner in the bosses" association, the Confederation of British Indusiry GN then commissioned a survey of their workers opinions on the thoughts of chairman Brookes. The questionnaire included such gems as: One of the points that the chairman was trying to make will use the meeting to try to finally bury the productivity deal once and for all. The problem is that the idea of the productivity deal was crucial to the policy put forward by the union's right-wing at the NUM'S last national conference. The militants' wages policy calline for L65 for laceworkers, £50 for other an derground workers and [45 for surface workers proposed hy the York It was defeated because a narrow majority of deiegates were persuaded that Gormley's plan for the industry solved their problems better than simply a demand for higher wages. troi When the left talk about the need for maintaining the unity of the Un ion that the productivity deal threatens they are absolutely right. But it is vital too that they explain what this unity will be used for, They must also develop a plan one that protects the miners from the effects of inflation, from pit closures and redundancy, which improves safety and work conditions, and which improves the living standards of the Such a policy coupled with demands to democratise the union sclves would really isolate Gormley and his friends, It would put the skids under the productivity deal and use the unity of the Union to the real benefit of the membership.
Miners have been in the driving seat of the struggles against the Tory Government. Now they mist take the lead in thrashing out a programme that will unite numers with other workers to deal with the crisis.
naires.
was that the intorests of employees and shareholders are the same. F am not asking whether you agreed with this but could you tell me whether this point comes across to Alter over 70 questions along these lines, worker were eventually asked if they thought nationalisation of GN was a good idea or a had idea. Seventy-three per cont said "bad'. This was the magic figure GN eventually published.
They omitted to publish the fact that 53 per cent said nationalisation would make no difference, in answer to another question.
BRYMBO PLANT
Sonic time later, GN did the same operation on just one of their plants-Brymbo steelworks in Wales.
This plant was not chosen at ran dom, however. Until recently it Steel Corporation, but the latter had announced that after 1980 it would Tun the plant down, meaning nas sive redundancies. GN promptly bought it hack--at the bargain price of c20 million, compared to the 142 million GKN received in compensation when the plant was first nationThe Brymbo workers were all told that the results of the GN survey would be kept confidentin. But just ing out the fact that 97 per cent of Brymbo workers thought nationalisation was "bad!
They did not, however, give similar publicity to the remarks of All Matthias, secretary of the works trade union consultative committee: Any of the men who voted for remaining in the GEN group, did so in the belief that a positive response trom the workforce would make their jobs secure. We are concerned only with safeguarding our jobs at the plant and many of us are in fav our of the principle of nationalisatEven on professional survey grounds, the GN exercise was a farce, Michael Rines, editor of the Institute of Marketing's journal, was so incensed that he has filed a full complaint with the Advertising Standards Association, LABOUR PARTY In comparison with these pousonous little exercises hy the emplovers, the Labour Party has launched no massive campaign in the workers' movement to explain their propos als on nationalisation What is more, the proposals as they stand are virtually useless. What is needed to stop the massive rise in unemployment is a real assault on the power of the bosses. Yet Labour neither proposes an end to compensation payments nor an overall plan for the nationalisalion of all the major and most profitable companies under workers' conIn the coming struggles against inflation and redundancies, there can be no doubt that this debate will be taken up in earnest in the trade unions. But it won't be at the invitation of Henn and the La bour Party, and certainly not as a result of GN's little stunts ers to begin an attack on the rul ing class, will force the working class to take up the cudgels themWhen the decisions are taken in the mass meetings in the occupied Factories, and when the cry has gone out for nationalisation under workers control, it will be the workers themseives who will build to the wishes of the working cluss.
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DEALS DEALS
It will be taken up because the reality of massive redundancies, and the failure of the Labour lead.
their own organisations to force the employers to act only according
Then GN and their friends in Aims of Industry can stuff their question-