Kings. The Bill required nominees to disclose the true identities of the sharcholders they represented if their holdings rose above 5% of a company, The previous figure of 10% had encouraged a series of secret manouevres for company takeovers, and led to sharp business practices that were so blatant that the Tory Government had to denounce them as the 'unacceptable face of capitalism.
But the Queen, second only to God in the defence of all that is pure and holy - the interests of the capitalist class - could not be revealed up to her neck in companies sacking workers and paying sweatshop wages. A "solution' had to be found, and duly was. An impressive list of people and institutions, including the monarchy, could be exempted from disclosing their sharcholdings at the discretion "national interest'. A trade unionist could receive a two-year prison sen tence or an unlimited fine for passing on to his workmates "restricted" infornation.
Even so many firms and institutJons will plead special circumstances for witholding information under these limited proposals.
Only the organised workers' movement has the power to get to the bottom of the wheeling and dealing of capitalist firms, shrouded in the mys tique of 'business secrecy'. Against commercial secrecy, and in opposition to Labour's weak-kneed plans for "disclosure', the labour movement must ruise the demand for the opening of the books of the monopolies and the banks to workers inspection.
All the faces of capitalism are unacceptable. By better understanding it, the workers movement will be more able to quickly put an THE INEVITABLE LOBBY OF parliament was made. The local still closed down the Imperin!
Typewriter factories at Leicester and Hull and to it. MPs waxed indignant. The union tables. leaders expressed their suitable and appropriate disgust. But on Thursday, 20 Febrwuy — one day ahead of schedule--the Litton management nect sten:
Meanwhile Mr. Benn has told the workers that they have his sympa workforce itself. thy - which is ruther touching, but does not put any bread on their Over 300 worken responded to the Sull ay ocupyiog the factory. This is certainty the first step in the fight to save jobs, but raises the questien what is the "The idea of a workers' co-operative 3 vetting support anonest a number of the workers But this cannot answer the problem for the imperial workers. Although pur forward as a means of saving jabs, it would in fact lead to sackings and redundancies, this time carried out by the The Scotlish Dody Express when it rescenes under a workers cooperative, wil have blue dis about corce oy 75 per cent. Workers at Triunuph, Meriden only gof Beat's agreement to set up a cooperative hy accepting that produc tion would go up by 85 per cont, wages be kent below the avurage tor that area and the workforce slashod from 1.750 a world market and the dwindling British market of 90,000 machines per yet would not be sufficient A workers" cooperativo or a British capitalist teen woukl Jave to introduce coobbous productivity increases and make a drastic reduction in the labour fore to survive in the capitalist market. To switch to the growing feld of electric models would require massive capital invatment which, in view of the narrow ness of the British market and the sharp world competition, looks a pallid prospect By occupying the Hull factory the workers have captured the best point to start bargaining from. But that occupation must begin from the assumption that the list pricrily is keeping jobs, not providing a viable capitalist enterprise for the Labour Goverment NATIONALISE To save jobs the Labour Government must be forced to nationalise Imperial without compensation. But the struggle cannot stop there. The other typewriter and business machine plants, like Olivetti and Olympia who hetween them produce about 240,000 models a year, USE ALSO DE rEMORSE.
By building solidarity amongst the different wotklances the fight can be won to save jobs By adopting utopian schemes of workers' cooperatives of picading for some 'nice British boss to stop in and save the finn the workers wil nunain divided. Either of these two schemes will simply involve leaving matten to competition in the capitalist market, and workers can only lose out that one.