1 Outside Pentonville Prison - the fighting spirit of the workine class, as shown in the freeing of the five, forced the Government to change its tactics The last few months have been a bewildering experience for people who look at politics in the same way as Vic Feather and his colleagues in the TUC. Mr. Feather has always believed that people should examine policies "on their merits"'-i.e. in isolation from the class struggle - but that in general Labour collaborates with the unions while the Tories put through anti-working class policies. However, with Heath's latest proposals Mr. Feather and his friends are thrown into confusion. For Mr. Heath has suggested an incomes and prices policy which appears "better" than anything Labour offered in its years of office. More than this, some of the proposals seem to be very similar to what the TUC itself was arguing for over the last couple of years - threshold agreements, a priority for high growth rates, help for the lower paid through flat rate limits instead of percentage limits on wage increases, a voluntary approach, and lots of cosy consultations with the TUC. The Tories seem to have changed their spots over-night. Suddenly, ( they have had a change of heart and are now being reasonable that must be the view of everybody who looks at politics in the traditional social democratic manner. Mr. Kaldor, painted in the most bloodthirsty shade of red by the capitalist press when he was Wilson's economic adviser in the 1960s, has said as much: he has declared that Mr. Heath is introducing socialist measures of a more left wing variety than anything that the Labour Government dreamed of!
But since the start of the socialist movement in this country there has been another way of looking at politics: the view that politics is really a struggle between different social forces not different cabinets and policies, a struggle betwen classes whose interests are diametrically opposed to each other. Those in the Labour movement who see the situation from this point of view come to exactly the opposite conclusions from those of Mr. Feather and his friends. They relate the latest move by the Tory Government to the needs of the British capitalist class in its fight against rival bourgeoisies abroad and against the working class at home. And the conclusion is that Heath's present proposals are absolutely consistent with the aims his Government has been pursuing over the last two years. They simply represent a new tactic for achieving those aims, a tactic necissitated by the changed relation of forces between the classes in the last year and by lessons the Government has learnt from its recent defeats in the class struggle.
As The Red Mole and other papers of the revolutionary left have been pointing out for a long time, the Government (and any government which accepts the capitalist economic system) has to inflict a decisive defeat on the fighting strength of the working class in order to revive the ailing fortunes of British capitalism. Without such a revival, the capitalist class will not be able to compete with its rivals in the Common Market, the U.S. and Japan. The problem has been how to defeat the working class while at the same time maintaining the smooth running of the economy? It is here that the Government has changed course: in the field of tactics, not aims. And it has changed it tactics because it has been forced to recognise the realities of the class struggle over the last year. HEATH'S DILEMMA There are basically two ways in which the Government can attack the working class. They can either go for a head-on, frontal assault, trying to smash workers wherever they go into struggle and force them to obey government diktats and Acts of Parliament destroying previous gains and rights; or else they can manoeuvre, making alliances of a temporary nature with sections of the working class or more likely with the trade union bureaucracy, and thus being able to pick off the most class conscious groups of workers one by one, preparing the way for a future frontal When the Government first came to office it tried the first tactic, frontal assault, smashing into the postal workers, the UCS workers, pushing through the Industrial Relations Act and so on. But the miners strike and the freeing of the five as well as many other less spectacular examples of the fighting spirit of the working class, have forced the Government to change tacties and buy time. It is now going for a policy of manoeuvre and alliance with the more backward sections of the working class, trying to persuade them to put their trust in the State to solve the problem of low pay and rising prices.
The big problem for the Government is that political success in winning over backward sections of the working class requires a period of cautious manoeuvring and kid gloves, while the economic interests of the capitalists require a sharp fight to hold down wage increases. A gulf is opening up between the Government's political tactics and the ruling class's economic ACCUS. The incomes policy proposals are a desperate attempt to bridge that gap Privately, according to the Financial Times, the Government is worried sick about its prospects this winter.
But Heath has one great hope: Vic Feather and theTUC. If he can win them over or at least neutralise them then he hopes to be able to smash into workers in struggle for higher pay with some hope of winning "public opinion" to his side. Union bashing would have official TUC backing. A few resounding victories on the pay front and the government could rapidly move onto a general offensive bringing the Industrial Relations Act, the special police anti-strike squads, etc. down on the working class. Even now the government has gained a lot from the TUC since the general council has accepted the principle of the incomes policy, and is simply haggling over the price. THE WORKING CLASS ALTERNATIVE Propaganda for socialism alone will not defeat the Government's tactics. Nor will agitation against the iniquities of the Tories. The task for socialist militants is to offer a practical solution to those problems which the government is trying to exploit to divide the working class, The Government's task is to demonstrate to the less strongly organised sections of working people that the only solution to rising prices and low pay is to depend on the capitalist State and to break Willie muns. In the last issue of The Red Mole we showed how that state prices and incomes policy will mean a cut in the real living standards of most of the working class. Therefore the first task in a socialist counter-strategy is TO CAMPAIGN FOR THE TUC TO BREAK OFF NEGOTIATIONS AND REJECT ANY DEAL, SINCE THE DEAL WILL MEAN AN ATTACK ON WORKING CLASS LIVING STANDARDS. Secondly, militants must expose the ridiculous idea that the people who benefit from price rises should be in charge of holding prices down, and ORGANISE A CAMPAIGN OF ACTION AGAINST PRICE RISES BY THE PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM THEM: committees of working class housewives, pensioners, unemployed, etc. should be formed with full trade union backing to take action against local businesses and tradesmen who raise prices. Small traders who oppose the price rises of monopoly suppliers should be supported by the unions, and solidarity action should be organised among workers in the industries putting up prices.
Thirdly, at this moment large sections of workers are moving into dispute over pay rises - the electricity workers are in the front line. Militants must ORGANISE A MASSIVE CAMPAIGN OF SOLIDARITY WITH ANY SECTION OF WORKERS IN STRUGGLE FOR PAY RISES WHICH EXCEED THE GOVERNMENT NORM. The solidarity shown during the miners' strike must be repeated and greatly extended in all the coming wage struggles. Every pay struggle must be turned into a battering ram against the Government's whole anti-working class policy.
Fourthly, the principle that the capitalists must pay for price rises should be written into all wage settlements: THRESHOLDS SHOULD BE THROWN OUT AND REPLACED BY A SLIDING SCALE OF WAGES: AUTOMATIC PAY INCREASES FOR ANY INCREASE IN THE COST OF LIVING. The cost of living index to be worked out under trade union control.
Fifthly, the unions must take up the struggle for the lower paid: full support should be given for across the board increases which reduce pay differentials; the trade union movement should set a NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE and organise a national struggle to win this national minimum for all those who currently fall below it. The fight for EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN should be taken up in every industry. Claims by higher paid groups of workers should include demands for SOCIAL BENEFITS -SHORTER HOURS, FREE TRANSPORT, COMPANY SUBSIDISED NURSERY FACILITIES. Such benefits are gains for the whole work force and cannot be eroded by price rises.
Finally, the question of organisation for the struggle must be tackled as a precondition for success: the trade union bureaucracy cannot be relied upon to organise an effective struggle for a single one of these objectives And the sharper the fight, the more timid the trade union bosses become, Already in many areas local committees for the defence of trade unions have been set up by rank and file militants. These must be generalised into a national network of TRADE UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEES to fight every move by the Government against the working class and prepare the way for a working class counter-attack. In addition support committees should be established in the course of all struggles to organise allies among students, unorganised workers, housewives, pensioners, professionals, etc.
Struggles developed around a programme such as this one would be able to undermine the ideological offensive of the Government against the working-class movement. Such a line up of forces could isolate the Government and make easier a real victory of the working class. Victories such as these would be concrete steps in paving the road to a socialist Britain.