economy explains this trial of strength. With the exception of 1966-7, there has been a long period of (twelve years) full employment. The share of wages in national income had fallen continually from 1949-1959, but now slowly began to rise. The capitalists' rate of profit started falling. It did recover extraordinarily well in 1968 and 1969, but this did not last and the fall in profits has increased. The German bourgeoisie therefore has to stop playing the game of social peace and "liberalism' and go for rationalisation, cut-throat competition and radical economies in employment.
The two prongs of their tactics are to increase unemployment and exhaust the financial resources of the trade unions. The provocation of the strike and its extension into a lock-out are a part of these tactics. PLAYING THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE The West German bosses would of course rather have achieved its objectives without a strike. They were counting on the good offices of the social democratic ministers, led by Herr Schiller, to 'moderate the trade union demands. These 'geese laying golden eggs' are once more too useful to be got rid of.
But the attempts of the SPD leaders to restrain Otto Brenner and other leaders of IG Metall have been in vain. Since the wild-cat strikes of September 1969 and the token strikes of autumn 1970, the officials of IG Metall have been afraid the rank and file will escape them.
At the Congress of the metal workers' union in September 1971, a fairly strong opposition demanded that the union should break from the 'economic co-operation' so The Red Mole 12th December 1971 Page 8 there will be 12,000 redundancies by the end of 1973. Wendel-Sidelor is one of the biggest steel producers in France. It was formed from a fusion in 1968: a result of the 'Professional Plan' agreed earlier between steel producers and the State for the rationalisation of the steel industry in return for large government grants (about 3 million new francs).
WENDEL OWNS ALL Wendel-Sidelor has plants scattered throughout the Lorraine area of France. Most of these plants are old. In line with the other European capitalists the French steel bosses want to move their steel plants to the coast. A new super factory is projected for Fos, near Marseille again helped along with substantial state aid. Wendel-Sidelor wants to keep the modern plants of Sollac and Sacilor open and liquidate the rest. The effect on the region of this policy would be disastrous for the steel combine dominates the area. Its closure would rapidly bring about the closure of subsidiary industries and sub contractors. In this area 'one is born in a Wendel clinic, works in a Wendel factory, lives and shops in Wendel-owned houses and co-operatives and dies, due to the conditions of work in Wendel's factories, in a Wendel hospital".
The Company has guaranteed that every worker made redundant will be found another job at the same pay. This guarantee only lasts 6 months though after that the worker can be downgraded to a lower pay rate. Similarly, it assumes that workers are able to travel long distances to work every day after being transferred to another plant, or can move to Fos near Marseille (in any case they only want skilled workers to go there) at the drop of a hat. It does not of course include the many immigrant workers the company hires from subcontractors who will be simply dispensed with at the end of their contracts nor does it include the wider effects of the closures in the region (other allied industries will close, creating more unemployment and depressing the level of economic activity further). The great miners' strike at Limbourge unblocked the situation in the Belgian workers' movement. This situation had existed since the defeat of the Belgian general strike of Winter 1960-61. Since then combativity has been very high and the new methods of struggle used, very advanced.
The Occupation-Strike is not something which is merely talked about in pubs or meetings. It is a very common occurrence. The latest strike of this kind is in a big Steel factory called Cockerill's which is itself owned by the giant Belgian banking and finance house Societe Generale.
The problems facing these Liege workers are the same as for the workers in Lorraine or the River Don, the Ruhr or Yorkshire; these are the areas in Europe which provided the labour for large-scale heavy industrythe second industrial revolution. Now these areas are all threatened to be turned into deserts. Redundancy. New methods of production are being imposed.
Coming at this time this strike is an inspiration to steel workers in Lorraine and in Britain. Members of the Revolutionary Workers' League, the Belgian section of the Fourth International, are in the position of leadership in this occupation strike. The situation in the European steel industry cries out for international coordination and exchange of information bet. ween militants of all countries. Last week saw the link up between two large steel combines, one in Holland and the other in West Germany. The need for an all-European steel workers committee to fight against both capitalist governments and steel bosses is an urgent necessity.
(For more information write to The Red Mole, 182 Pentonville Road, London, N.1)
One of the largest circulation Urdu weeklies, Zindagi (Life), in West Pakistan has recently published a four-page attack on Comrade Tariq Ali. The newspaper which is well-known for its support of the Jamaat-i-Islami (neo-fascist Muslim grouping) and American Imperrialism entitled the article: On the instructions of Israel: The "Pakistani" who stirs a storm against Pakistan/A Profile of Tariq Ali." The attack is contained in the issue dated 24th October 1971 and has recently reached London.
The article is full of falsehoods, distortions, typified by the claim that the Trotskyist Fourth International is a Zionist-Communist While containing many distortions the article cites the numerous instances on which Ali has called for the overthrow of the military dictatorship in Pakistan, including the speech he made after a May Day Demonstration in Rawalpindi in 1970. The journal taunts the government for having tolerated these acts of treachery and ends its mud-slinging with a fairly coherent appeal to the Yahya regime: the U.S. flag outside their Embassy in London. On 28th of May 1969, the French government arrested and expelled him from France for supporting the activities of Trotsky's Fourth International and attacking France at a meeting organised to promote the Presidential campaign of Alain Krivine. The least our government can do is to follow in the footsteps of France and the U.S.A. and immediately confiscate this anti-