[In Britain the government has called a state of emergency and decided on a national lockout of the workers for two days in each week. This is a clear attempt to enforce its incomes-policy legislation, which is at present threatened by the actions of miners, railwaymen, ambulance drivers, and many other groups of workers. The following statement on the situation was issued by the Political Committee of the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Fourth International. It appeared in the December 21, 1973, issue of Red Weekly.]
Pursuing their aim of reducing the living standard of the working class, the Tory government has now resorted to the biggest economic lock-out and sabotage in this country's history. No one should be misled into believing that the proposals for a three-day working week are the result of an absolute shortage of energy. All the facts show that this is nonsense- there are 27 million tons of coal stocks, and oil shipments from the Middle East are continuing to rise. In any case, if there were some shortage of coal, there is an obvious answer: Grant the wage claim of the miners and railwaymen.
In fact, the three-day working week and Barber's new budget have little to do with energy, but everything to do with capitalism's need to cut living standards to maintain its rate of profit. Faced with resistance to this plan by the miners, railwaymen, and power engineers, the government has resorted to a very simple trick. By the national lock-out they hope to make other sections of the working class believe the lie that it is the railwaymen and miners who are responsible for their loss of pay, and so force them to return to work.
The Sunday Times newspaper spelt it out clearly when it said, "Its [the government's] desired effect is to get the miners and railwaymen to submit to an accumulation of pressure from fellow workers faced with the dole." The stakes in this are very high. The employers' magazine The Economist has said that if the miners could be defeated, Heath could look forward to a year without strikes for higher pay or against the rising unemployment that is going to develop in the next year. In short, the Tories are trying to inflict a massive defeat on the working class.
The responsibility for the fact that the government is in a position to carry out such an attack rests squarely with one group of people - the present leadership of the work- January 14, 1974
ing-class movement. The working class is potentially in a position of overwhelming strength. Over five million workers still have wage claims in under Phase 3, and the trade-union movement this year has grown to over 11 million members. Against the united use of this enormous strength the employers and government would be helpless.
But instead of waging a united struggle, the trade-union leaders have allowed the strength of the working class to be split up as different groups of workers go into struggle separately. Some unions, for example the AUEW [Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers], have not even taken national action. It is this failure to launch united action which has left the way open for the Tory government to step in and further divide the working class. Even now this policy is being continued: Len Murray [secretary of the Trades Union Congress], instead of summoning up the forces of the trade unions for a united struggle, has stepped in to try to get the railwaymen back to work.
These policies must be reversed. If the present Tory onslaught is to be defeated, measures such as the following must be taken immediately.
1. Smash Phase Three. No Retreat on the Wage Claims - United Strike Action to Win the Claims in Full.
If the government and employers' attempt to drive down the living standard of the working class is to be defeated, it is vital that all the wage struggles against Phase 3 be successful. There is nothing the employers would like more than for the working class to forget about breaking Phase 3 to pieces and, instead, fall back on purely defensive struggles. But the big battalions of the working class - the miners, engineers, railwaymen, and so on - are still undefeated, and the relation of forces has not changed in favour of the employing class. Smashing a hole right through Phase 3 is the best way to defeat the employers and the government and open the way to winning all the demands of the working class. This means first of all a united national strike by miners, engineers, and railwaymen, but with power engineers, ambulancemen, and other groups of workers drawn in as well.
Already an agreement has been reached between ASLEF [Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen] and the NUM [National Union of Miners] that the miners will not allow coal to be shifted from rail to road transport. This is a move in the right direction, but it is still far too little. The ASLEF and the miners must make an open public initiative for a uniting of all claims against Phase 3 or any new phase of the incomes policy. Steps must be taken at the local level as well.
When
Ernie Roberts of the AUEW spoke at the South Wales miners rally, a small step was taken towards minersengineers unity. Miners have also been invited (for example, at Sheffield) to speak at engineering shop-stewards meetings. All these steps must be stepped up enormously, and at all meetings held to discuss individual wage claims representatives of other workers with claims in must be invited to speak, so that plans for united action can be drawn up.
2. Work or Full Layoff Pay. No Sackings.
The present crisis, like all others, is a product of the capitalist system. None of the burdens of this crisis should be accepted by the working class. All existing layoff-pay and guaranteed-wage agreements must be enforced and such protection extended to all other sections of the working class. Claims for full layoff pay must be put in by every section of the working class, and these must be backed up by strike action if rejected. Sackings and unemployment should not be tolerated. The world economy in recession would bring about big moves towards increased unemployment next year. Barber's budget will now increase this trend.
Any refusal by an employer to meet the demand for five days' pay, any attempt at a lock-out, and any move towards sackings as firms try to rationalise and cut costs must be met with occupation-strikes. These occupied factories must be used as a base from which to organise for the counter-offensive of the whole working class against the bosses and the government, drawing ever wider layers into struggle for a general strike.
3. Put Power and Other Vital Industries Under Workers Control.
A whole number of workers-control measures are relevant in the present situation. Workers in public and private transport should use these facilities to transport flying pickets and prevent the bosses from sabotaging the movement of supplies of foodstuffs and other essential materials. Power workers should exercise workers control in the power stations in order to ensure that occupied factories or other industries and installations seized by the workers are not deprived of electricity.
The propaganda offensive of the ruling class must be broken. On November 13, Heath had all the Fleet Street editors attend a special briefing at 10 Downing Street to plan the campaign of lies against the working class movement. The print workers and journalists must break this offensive by refusing to produce and print such lies. Workers on the Evening Standard showed the way in the last power-workers dispute by refusing to print material attacking the power workers. Printing plants can be taken over and used to produce material for the working class, as was done by Briants at the time of the Freeing of the Five.
4. Open the Books.
The facts about the current ruling-class manoeuvre must be made known to everyone so that the government's lies can be exposed. Some of the facts are already coming to light. But all the records, plans, and statistics must be opened up for inspection.
The TUC [Trades Union
Congress] must demand the complete opening of all the books. But workers must not wait for this. In hundreds of firms and government departments the vital records pass through the hands of workers every day. Groups of workers must organise the publishing of every single fact on the real state of the economy. On this basis the trade unions and other working-class organisations must draw up plans for the working of the economy and the allocation of materials under workers control. This is the vital step towards the only real economic solution - the creation of a socialist planned economy.
5. End the Emergency Power Laws- Defend the Working Class.
The government still has at its disposal the Emergency Powers law, put into operation a month ago. This gives it virtually unlimited power to commandeer supplies and use the police and army against the unions. The army has already been used in the Glasgow firemen's dispute. An immediate demand must be made for the ending of these laws and for the defence of pickets, and the organisation of picketing pools must be launched in every area. There must be a direct appeal from all working-class organisations - above all from the TUC and the Labour Party -to the army rank and file, calling on them to refuse to strikebreak and attack trade unionists.
6. Organise a General Strike to Bring Down the Tory Government.
None of the measures needed to deal with the present crisis can be carried to success as long as the Tory government is left in office to mastermind the present economic sabotage and attacks on the working class. While simply removing the Tories will not solve all the present problems (only the destruction of capitalism will do that), nevertheless smashing the present government is a necessary step to begin to solve all the problems which confront the working class. This government is vital for the ruling class. It will not be got rid of by namby-pamby action of pleas. Only the most united and decisive action can be sure to force the Tories out-this means a general strike. This is the aim which the working-class movement must now set itself. A general strike can achieve more than the downfall of the Tories. It can open up the way to socialism. In particular, it can begin to put the control of the economy and the organisation of the state in the hands of the working class. It can begin to move towards a new type of government— not like past Labour governments which based themselves on the capitalist state (the police, army, and civil service) and which, as a result, could not act against the capitalist economy, but a real workers gov ernment which bases itself on the organisations of the working class born out of mass struggle.
7. Recall the TUC. End Talks With the Government
The present leadership of the working-class movement must be forced to show where they stand -whether they intend to fight the Tories or to cave in. They must be called on to come out into the open with their proposals for organising the struggle. If they adopt a fighting programme of the type we have discussed (which we don't believe for one moment they will), then that would unite the working class and take it forward. If they don't, then it will be clear to everyone serious about fighting the Tories that action must be taken independently.
The demands of the AUEW and other unions for a recall [congress of the] TUC must be taken up and turned into a crescendo. If there is a recall congress, it must be accompanied by one-day strikes and the biggest lobby in history. All talks between the TUC and the government must be ended. Heath has no intention of making any significant concessions. It is an outrage, a betrayal, that at this very moment the TUC is preparing for another round of talks with the government in the National Economic Development Council, rather than mobilising the working class for struggle.
8. Build Councils of Action.
Whether the TUC fights or not, the greatest possible organisation of united struggle at local level will be needed in the days ahead. The traditional way the working class has responded to this need - the way it acted in 1926- is to establish a Council of Action in every area. These ould unite every single group of trade unionists and in every area.
stewards committees, etc.
the working-class movement are:
action to win the claims in full.
lay off pay.
- Recall the TUC.
- Organise a government.
draw in tenants, students, and other allies of the workingclass movement. The role of such councils in preparing for and organising the working-class response is vital. They can organise united struggles for wage claims, unite the fight for layoff pay, coordinate the occupation of factories, take over control of local stocks of coal and other supplies, organise distribution of materials, organise workers self-defence against police or army strikebreaking, publish the facts of real supplies of material, make contact with the power workers, and so on. It is an urgent matter of the hour to set up a Council of Action
There are many ways this can be done. Probably the best is to set one up through emergency meetings of Trades Councils and special conferences called by them - but in other areas it could be through appeals from the local CEU [Confederation of Engineering Unions) by shop
The important thing at present is not how Councils of Action come into existence, but that they are actually set up. While no one should wait for the TUC to act before these steps, the TUC should be called on to promote the setting up of Councils of Action in every area.
On the basis of this type of programme the present crisis can be turned into a victory for the working class, a chance to open up the way to socialism. Of all these demands the most urgent ones which must ring out in
- No retreat on the wage claims: Smash Phase 3. United
- Break up all lock-outs with occupations; fight for full
- Build Councils of Action in every area.
general strike to bring down the Tory