This has been a week of working class victories. Three stand out. First, it is clear that the miners have won their strike. Second, the coun cillors at Clay Cross have won a resounding victory, Third, and most famous, the Tory Government has fallen.
All these represent great strides forward for the working class and a weakening of the position of the employing class. But it would be wrong and very dangerous to be complacent. A battle may have been won, but the war is still very much with us. The employing class, theit State and the reformist Labour leaders have many more tricks up their sleeve yet.
FIRST CRISIS The first crisis will come on the economic front. A recent report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows what the continuation of capitalism in Britain will mean. It predicts up to 124% inflation and a balance of payments delicit of over £3,000 million for 1974, These estimates, particularly of inflation, are if anything too low It is also known that unemployment will reach 1-1% million next winter, The attacks on the working class which the employers will demand in such a crisis will be increased by the need to negotiate balance of payments deficit.
Of course, these crises could be overcome by expropriating the capitalist class and introducing • planned economy, but Labour has not the slightest intention of doing this. Indeed, they have hardly even mentioned the word socialism' during their campaign. Although the strength and pressure of the workers movement will undoubtedly force a few concessions from the Labour leaders in the short term-repeal of the Industrial Relations and Housing Finance Acts for example-fundamentally Labour will carry on the same pro-capitalist econonic policies as the Tories, But if the Labour government is bound to carry through pro-capitalist policies, nevertheless the strugeles of the last months show that the working class is in a strong position to resist these attacks. The ruling class was unable to use repression to break the miners' strike because of the massive working class response -even a general strike-that such an attack would have provoked, It was precisely because he could not use such repression that Heath was forced to call the election.
UNDEFEATED
No section of the working class which has gone into struggle, with the minor exception of the ambulancemen, has been defeated in the struggle. The firemen, the power engineers and the miners have all won victories, and the ASLEF men have not been defeated, Of course, sections of the working class failed to go into struggle; but this represented a crisis of political perspective, not a cleap cut defeat. The working class can recover from such a situation in a few months, particularly in a situation where the class as a whole has won a famous victory over the employing class. Such a situation is totaily different to the situation where the workers have suffered a clear defeat. The UPW, for example, has not recovered three years after its defeat, nor have the London busmen alter theirs.
ing class which did not launch a strugele against Phase 3 would have responded massively to attacks on the miners. Neither did the three day week although it did have a cautionary effect, succeed in demoralising the working class. En Short, the organisational strength of the working class is totally intact and the workers' movement will be in a position to put up very fierce resistance against coming capitalist attacks. While there will probably be some temporary down-turn on the wages strupple, us the trade union leaders wheel and deal with the Labour Government, the perspective remains one of very big struggles both by the working class and other oppressed layers of the population.
KEY QUESTIONS
left understands clearly what are the key questions to concentrate its forces on. There are six points which above all stand out as the ones on which the fight back must be started. 1. Inflation With inflation running at around 15% it is vital to launch a struggle to defend the incomes and standard of living of the working class. Already, despite the fali of the Tory Government, the employers continue with their plans to cut workent living standards, The latest attack comes in engineering where as Bill Simpson, secretary of the Foundry section of the AUEW, has poirited out the workers in engineering have been of workers Even those sections of the workIn this situation it is vital that the offered about one per cent. This would mican a fall in the real income Already some union leaders are talking of selling out on wage claims. Jack Jones said on Tuesday it was necessary to stop wage claims going over the top. What he means is accepting an incomes policy. Under capitalisen this would only be used to attack the working class. All workers should follow the lead of the last AUEW and ASTMS conferences and refuse to accept an incomes policy from any Government. This means all wage demands should be forced through for the full claim, and all wage claims already settled under Phase 3 should be reopened and new demands submitted. In particular the miners claim must be met in full and the engineers must not sectle for a penny less than their full claim.
But simply putting up wages is not enough. The gains must be protected, Under Phase 3 there was a 7% threshold agreement. This meant that wages went up automatically for every 1% increase in the cost of living above 7%, This was totally inadegu- ed. ale, Every penny of wages must be protected against inflation, With a 7% threshold the income of a worker can fall by anything up to 8' without him receiving a penny more. What is needed is full compensation for every penny increase in prices. This means a sliding scale of wages or a nil norm threshold, In other words, automatic cost of living increases for every increase in the price index. Workers in Belgium have already won a similar demand. The trade unions must demand the full implementation of such a policy here, Such a sliding scale must also apply to all state benefits and a minimum wage must he introduced, In order to get a decent wage for norm, equal pay now must be lought for.
On the prices front, the Lahour Party has proposed statutory controls and some subsidies. These policies are completely inadegusto Food subsidies will come out of higher taxation-most of which will fall on the working class The machinery of the civil service cannot police prices properly.
Three decisive measures are neces sary here, First, the trade unions must start industria action against price increases, The workers at Allied Supp liers in Glasgow have already shown the way here by theit indestrial action agrinst increases in the price of lentils, Second, there must be a freeze on prices, policed by the trade unions and organisations of working class consumers, not by the civil service, In Nottingham, for example, such organisation has already started with the pickering of Marks and Spencers. Third, the monopolies (starling with the food monopolies) must be nationalis 2. Unemployment Unemployment this year is going to rise to 1-1% million. It is vital that the working class breaks this attack. Again the nationalisation of all major industry and the introduction of a planned economy is the only real solution. However, until that can be achieved the working class has to fight to prevent capitalism transterring the burden of it crisis on to the workers, This means in particular fighting for: * Work or full pay. All lay off threats should be met with the demand of "work-sharing with no loss of pay".