Sure of the poor Tory Government being caught up in a legal tangle over the dockers. These newspapers have presented things as though the National Industrial Relations Court. being set up under the law of the land, made its decision to imprison the dockers and that consequently the government stood by powerless. Now it is trying to sort out the mess, the argument goes. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not having a spy in the Cabinet we cannot say for certain whether or not the Tory Government gave orders for the Court to arrange the arrests. But what we can say for certain is that the arrests and the ensuing confrontation arose directly and logically from the policies and actions of the Government. Furthermore, we can state just as confidently. that the Tory Government has no other course of action open to it. Everyone knows that British capitalism is in a mess. Compared with its trading rivals, and especially West Germany and Japan, its industry is backward and uncompetitive. Its growth rate is only a traction of that of the most important countries in the European Economic Community. British big business knows that unless something is done - and done quickly its position will get worse and worse. Of course, like all capitalists, when faced with such problems British big business tries to blame the working class for its troubles. Thus we get a lot of talk about "wages inflation" and how prone British workers are to go on strike. Actually, the roots of the crisis of British capitalism lie elsewhere. First and foremost, this crisis arises from the fact that, in general, capitalism is an out-moded social system. The individual ownership of the means of production based on the profit motive is, cconomically speaking, as out-dated as the age of dinosaurs.
Because production is not based upon the needs of mankind but on the maximum rate of profit we get such fantastic things as farmers in the United States being paid not to produce food whilst two-thirds of the world's population is hungry. Even in "prosperous" Britain we get the same kind of thing: miners are being sacked because the demand for coal is declining, whilst thousands of old age pensioners die of cold each year because they cannot afford coal.
But over and above this general crisis of capitalism, British imperialism has a particular set of problems. For well over 150 years, British capital was able to exploit big sections of the rest of the world. First was the workshop of the world) and then through the growth of the British Empire, which, with indirectly exploited countries, covered about a third of the world, huge profits were made. This, indeed, is one of the sources of the backwardness of British industry. British businessmen found it much more profitable to put their money into sucking the wealth out of the colonies than keeping British industry up to date. However, owing to the destruction of capitalism in one-third of the world, the rise of anti-imperialist forces and the development of British capitalism's rivals, this empire has been steadily disintegrating. The present crisis of British capitalism can only be understood from this background what successive Governments have done is to try to adjust British capitalism to its declining world position. They have tried to get the working class to make sacrifices to enable British industry to be modernised and they have tried might and main to hold back the disintegration of the British Empire. The two great problems, the industrial situation and Ireland, facing the Heath Government, are merely the latest expressions of those processes.
Far from the British working class being responsible for the crisis through its "greed" or "laziness", its weakness has been in not taking advantage of the weakened state of British capitalism to establish workers power. In 1945, British imperialism came out of the war in an extremely shaken condition. Instead of taking advantage of this, the British working class, because of the Labour Government assisted by the Communist Party (which stood for increased production and national unity), was kidded into rebuilding capitalism.
In Ireland, one of the last great battles is being fought in the epic of the destruction of the British Empire. Ireland is one of the last important countries to be completely do minated by British capitalism. Whilst the Stormont regime was a relic of the past and it would be better for British capitalism's economic interests to exploit the whole country via "neo-colonialist"
(apparent political independence, but complete economic domination) means, it cannot allow the re-unification of Ireland to take place as a result of mass struggle. If this happened, the fight would go on to end the economic domination of the country.
The Tory Government's economic strategy is based upon British entry into the ComI the TUC whether or not it should pay the fine, ions of British industry by subjecting them to competition from more efficient European firms and assist the creation of more and more multinational firms). But this can only work if British exports are competitive. If they are not, British imperialism could have more to lose than gain by entry. British goods can be made more competitive in three ways: a) by modernising industry; b) by devaluation (thus lowering their prices in terms of the currencies of British capitalism's rivals); and c) holding down wage increases. Each one of these methods or combinations of them involves an attack on the working class: modernising = sackings; devaluation = rising prices; etc. Once under attack the British workers use their organisations -the trade unions - to defend themselves and their standards. The difference between the policies of the Labour Government and the present Tory Government lies in the way they tackled that response. The Labour Government sought to take advantage of the Labour Party's historical and structural relationship with the trade unions to integrate the unions via their leaderships in capitalist planning. When this ran into difficulties through rank and file resistance, "In Place of Strife" was introduced to pressurise the unions. This attempt was beaten by the mass response of the working class. The Tories, unencumbered by connections with the trade unions, chose a different method: that of a direct attack on the unions through the Industrial Relations Act. They have combined this with measures to weaken the working class through increasing unemployment, closing down concerns where the workers are well-organised (via the "lameduck" policies) etc. Of course, when they also ran into big resistance, they too retreated and avoided a direct confrontation. However, they can only avoid the crunch for a limited time: entry into the Common Market draws closer. The recent floating of the pound (which is really a euphemism for devaluation) has caused a furore in the international monetary world and can be repeated only with the greatest of difficulty once Britain is in the Common Market. In addition, the Heath Government is experiencing an increasing credibility crisis with its class. British big business must be thinking that it has the worst of both worlds: the Heath Government On 4 May a national docks delegates meeting planning and yet is also unable to stand up to the unions or even sections of the workers taking unofficial action, like the dockers.
The Heath Government is beset by crises of one kind or another: entry into the Common Market is becoming an agonising process as inter-capitalist rivalries intensify; the Maudling scandal is reminiscent of the Profumo affair; the world monetary crisis threatens convulsions which would reverse everything the Tories are trying to do, and, above all, the Irish crisis just goes on and on with no obvious solution.
Sooner or later, the Tory Government will be obliged to be completely decisive or it will have to go. So far as dealing with the unions and the workers determination to defend their living standards are concerned, the time-scale is extremely short. Failure to make real progress on this front before entry into the EEC will be extremely dangerous for British capitalism.
Thus we can say that even if they run away from this particular fight, or even if they manage to come to some temporary arrangement with the TUC, this will only be putting off the evil day. The Tories either have to try to inflict a decisive defeat on the working class or give up the ghost. If the Tories did inflict a big defeat on the unions (say by getting away with enforcing the provisions of the I.R.Act or by smashing a strike) it would be extremely serious. In the present economic and political situation they are in, the Tories would undoubtedly go on to attack all along the line. Hence, even if we succeed in getting the five released we must immediately prepare for the next battle. The unplanned and sporadic, fragmented response to the jailing of the dockers shows how ill-prepared the movement is. Elsewhere in this broadsheet we give the IMG's ideas on how the challenge should be met.
But we should not just think in terms of defence. This attack on trade unionism is a sign of the weakness of British capitalism not its strength. In the struggle to free the five we should forge a strong movement, based upon the action and control of the rank and file and, in the process create new organisational forms, which will be able to take on British capitalism.
The strength of the British working class has been demonstrated time and time again in the last period. The task is to unite that strength with the awareness that it can be used to get rid of British capitalism once and for all.
mobilisation of the working class was already