Last week's conference of the Transport and General Workers" Union marked the end of this summer's round of major trade union meetings. Once again Chrysler's shows the whole thing up Now that they have these 'troublesome" events very dramatically. Even after the strike manout of the way, the trade union bureaucracies are hoping that the meeting between the TUC and the Government on 27 July can begin a new tough work regime and in addition comthe serious business of putting together a sell. out deal on the question of incomes policy. However, as the recent conferences clearly show, there is a big gap between the hopes of the bureaucracy and the realities of the present situation. It is not an era of bureaucraticallyconcocted "class peace", but a new period of mass upsurge and class struggle that we are about to enter.
THE TRAP In order to understand the unfolding situation we must take a look at what is going on in the world capitalist economy. The most important imperialist economy, that of the United States, has been plagued by runaway inflation for some time now: by May this had reached the phenomenal rate of 20% per year. The American government has been forced to adopt a series The working class is at its strongest on the of drastic measures which will send the economy into a recession. A similar fate awaits the West German economy, where the government has had to face the same problems. Under these circumfrances, 1974 will almost certainly see a world economic recession. Such a recession will be a big headache for most capilalst contries, but it will be a positive disaster for Britain. Even in the midst of a boom in the world economy, the big problems of British capitalis remained unsolved. As a result the living conditions of the working class have been serjously worn down. With retail prices up 10% and food prices up 20%, the big wage rises won by the best organised sections of the working class in 1972 have been almost completely wiped out. Obviously the capitalist class is not Ikely to become any more generous in conditjons of recession.
The ruling class will find itself trapped between the growing crisis of world capitalism and the rising discontent of the British working class. Their only way out is to impose a series of major defeats on the working class and forge them to bear the brunt of the economic crisis. attempt to sack a steward last year and went on to an all-out attack on piece work this year.
agement attacks are continuing, and a disciplinary system has been introduced which creates pletely bogs down the stewards with minor problems so that they have no time to organise an effective counter-offensive. This is explained by the fact that management is demanding an Increase in production from 48 to 50 cars an hour.
These ruling class attacks on shop-floor and factory organisation are meeting fierce resistance lowever. At Coles Cranes a 13 week occupation ended in victory for the workers. At Tillotsons Gardner's and Bason-Pascoe there were also occupations. Timex and Chrysler's saw major strikes. These actions, and especially the ageressive use of flying pickets by the Chrysier workers, shows how determined the working class are to preserve their hard-won gains in this area.
STATE ATTACKS shop-floor and factory level, So the capitalist class is secking ways of contralising its own forces while at the same time isolating individual groups of workers. The most effective weapon they have for this is the state machine. This is precisely the second front on which the ruling class i attacking through the use of the repressive state machine against working class organisation. They attempt to exploit the misguided respect for the law' held by many sectIons of the working class movement, and the real threat of the repressive instruments of the state machine (the police, prisons) to confuse and demoralise the working class, In this manoeuvie they have the full backing of the trade. union bureaucrats, who refuse to condone any action that snacks of illegality"
This is the front on which the ruling class has been most successtul. Effective picketing is crucial for the victory of working class struggles - this was shown in the miners" strike, the building workers' strike, and the recent ChrysJer's strike. The ruling class understand this and are centring their fire on pickets at the moment. Yet so far the mobilisations around the defence of the Shrewsbury 24 have been tiny. The International Marxist Group was apitating allimitations. A number of court rulings have had a similar purpose.
Increasingly even the rules of capitalist legality are being igoored by the state machine. Lawyers are regularly denied to people who are being held for political reasons. CARD OF RACIALISM Steps are being taken to play the card of racialism. The 1971 Immigration Act gives the ruling class a great deal of ammunition for this. The recent ruling of the House of Lords endorsing the use of the deportation provisions of the Act, even in cases in which an offence" was committed before the passing of this Act, shows the determination of the ruling class to exploit every potential weapon. Every section of the state machine is now rushing eagerly to take advantage of the climate of fear that this decision has created in the immigrant community: police harassment, intimidation of blacks trying to claim social security, use hospital facilities, etc., are being dramatically stepped up. This naturally spawns such fascist groupings as the National Front, who for a long time have sought to acquire some popular base by exploiting the racialism that permeates British society. Now they get a pat on the back from the capitalist state, who they will certainly repay by stepping up such 'services" as the recent attacks on black trade union militants in the Mansfield Hosiery Strike In times of trouble such as these the ruling class is always able to count on one old, faithPart of solidarity demonstration during Gander's occupation in Manchesser, ful servant - the trade union bureaucracy. In 1972, after the miners' strike, the victory of the railwaymen, and the freeing of the Pentonville Five, the Tory Government was reeling, One more good push would have sent it flying. Instead the TUC and the trade union leaders put out the steadying hand of class collaboration, by agreeing to talks with the Government. Within six months, the offensive of the working clase had heen sidetracked into a blind alley by the bureaucracy and the Government had recovered sufficient strength to unilaterally impose Phase Tof its incomes | policy, despite TUC disagreement. The Tories then proceeded to stamp out say resistance to Phase II. Again the TUC handed them victory on a plate, by failing to organise any effective solidarity with the gas workers or the hospital workers. Having engineered these defeats, the TUC has now proceeded to prepare the ground for another sell-out to the Even while a great song-and dance was being whipped up about the May ist Day of Protest,' a team of negotiators, including the "lefts" Scanlon and Jones, were secretly meeting with the Government to work our the terms for the present incomes policy negotiations, TROUBLED WATERS Over the summer, however, the burcaucracy has begun to run into some trouble, Its plans for a grand autumn sell-out have met with big opposition. The most notable st-back for them was at the AUEW conference, where Scanion was forced to withdraw from the TUC-Government talks, At the NUR / conference a motion opposing any talks between the TUC and the Government was defeated by a very narrow margin. At both the Transport & General and the General & Municipal conferences a quarter of the delegates vored against the negotiations. The National Conference of Trades Councils has come out against the talks, and the ASTMS conference voted to reject any incomes policy, no matter who is in government. Only in the National Union of Teachers can it
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Bureaucracy - the faithful servant