ahen offering up the Social Contract one of the biggest carrots moduced was a drop in the rate romised that in 1976 prices would rise by no more than ten per ant. Already in the first nine months of this year they have risen Dy that amount, and the expected rate now is something in the sider of 14 per cent - a rate which continues to grow as the pound drops through the floor.
Even this figure under-estimates the increase in the cost of ing for working people. For the Retail Price Index is not a true or inflation. Denis Healey the wealthy, or in office blocks, but in those areas which affect the poor and the sick. In concil houses where the drop was 52 per cent, and in the crisis-ridden National Health Service where there was a fall of 66 per cent.
than wages.
covernments TOVerS That's how much your pay should have risen in three years... just to stand still NOT SO LONG AGO, problems were blamed on nasty strikers. If only workers would get down to hard work, everything would be all right. Today the Union bureaucrats celebrate the fact that the strike rate over the last nine months is lower than at any time since 1953 Next we were told that the whole problem was that wages were running at a higher level than prices. Again it was the greedy workers who were to blame. Now prices are rising higher Fewer strikes, lower wages, higher prices. And the economy is in a worse state than ever. The Tory and Labour argument that working people who are to blame has been proved to have not a shred of credibility. The demands of the Tory press, the stock exchange, the emphave been met many times over by working people. But the much filled. urged sacrifices have brought nothing Dut UlCaleT oSaSIE!
It is time the workers made their demands aimed at that the attacks on COUI standard of living are halted, and that the ordinary working people begin to exercise some real control.
Day * A Sliding Scale of Wages Under capitalism, incomes policies always mean limiting workers" wages in order to boost the bosses' profits.
We say no to incomes policy. There is only one way to protect wage rates -to tie them to the rate of inflation.
For every 1 per cent increase in the cost of living (as calculated on a trade union index) wages should rise by the This does not mean that militants only fight for a sliding Already there has been substantial decrease in the value of real wages under the Social Contract, and substantial increases on top of a sliding scale need to be won. But a sliding scale is a start - it means that workers are not having to run just to stay in the same place, but can chalk up any increase as a real gain.
It also makes the vital point that workers wHi nor suTTer consequences of an economy that they do Because the day-to-day events in the economy are not aelerminea oy anyining a. scientific as planning, they are determined by a series of irrationalities. And the dealers in the pound, the speculators, the stock market whiz-kids do not have faith in poor reasons for that lack confidence. First, the free enterprise system is in rather a mess, with profits declining at one of the highest rates for many years.
Second, the Callaghan Government - as with the Wilson Government, as with the - has proved incapable of imposing a heavy defeat on the working class. Capitalism's friends think a massive cut back in social expenditure could inflict all Britain's 2. UNEMPLOYMENT * A Programme of Useful Public Works House building is declining rapidly the National Health Service is deteri orating, many schools remain crumb ling educational slums. There is a lo of work which is not just available bu is vitally necessary.
A programme COT USerH public works would fill the social need fo improved social standards, aneun, employment more jobs Unlike tne pnoney creation scheme, a programme of useful public works would contribute to a long-term solution to unemplovment. There ar many houses which need to be buil and many unfilled vacancies in education and the NHS which need to be * Work-sharing - Full Pay Militants should answer demands for redundancies with their demand for work-sharing and a shorter working week. And because the working class should make no sacrifices, work sharing should not involve any loss of Work-sharing, tied to a sliding scale