NO LEAD -John Boyd, anti-communist tuba-playing member of the Salvation Army, has romped home in the election for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers' post of general secretary.
OR sponse of the workers movement? ndard of the working class be savagely cut.
new Tory Government would suffer the same fate bring the working class under control forthwith ism. Wilson's attack on the Chrysler strikers, Jack Jones' plan on wages, the growing calls for the sacking of Benn and some form of coalition and the revelations of secret negotiations between the TUC and the CBI-events have been dramatically speeding up within the economy and and the Labour Party in recent weeks. Clearly a turn in the political situation is taking shape. But what are its chief outlines and what should be the reThe pattern is actually very clear. Underlying the recent speed up in the political crisis is the deteriorating state of the British economy. Britain now has an inflation rate which is twice that of its major rivalswith the inevitable declining position in inter-imperialist competition In order to end this situation the ruling class requires that the living staUnder normal circumstances there is no doubt that the ruling class would at present be looking to dump a Labour Government and turn to a harsh right-wing Tory one. However no qualitative change in the relationship of class forces has taken place since the ruling class defeats suffered with the downfall of Heath. The capitalists fear that any For this reason the ruling class cannot at present turn to a Tory alternative but is forced instead to look to the Wilson Government as the instrument for meeting the needs of capitalism. Ruling class policy works itself out not in terms of 'dump Wilson', as it did in 1968-70, but in terms of 'demand Wilson acts'. The capitalists demand that Wilson The problem for the ruling class in their relations with Wilson is that the Labour Party is not a party of the ruling class like the Tories but, despite its leadership, is a party of the working class. This means not only that Wilson himself can sometimes desert the needs of the ruling class on certain questions-and the capitalists have not fully forgiven him for dropping In Place of Strife-but that various Labour 'lefts' are constantly under pressure to do so in order to maintain their support within the working class. For this reason they are sometimes forced to break with what the bourgeoisie immediately requires-although natur ally the Labour "lefts' never break with the historic interests of capitalAt present the ruling class calculates that no matter what their previous betrayals the Labour 'lefts' simply cannot-for fear of being completely exposed in the eyes of the working class-afford to vote for the kind of draconian economic measures which capitalism now requires. For this reason the ruling class demands that Wilson clearly break with through Parliament. That is why the ruling class is keeping up its present clamour for a coalition and why Thatcher has promised Wilson support SOCIAL CONTRACT MARK II Despite the ruling class call for some form of coalition the emergence of such a government is not the most likely development in the coming few months. Nor is it absolutely clear that Benn will immediately get the chop after the referendum. Wilson fears that any moves to a coalition might start a civil war in the Labour Party which could well lead t' his being dumped as leader. For that reason he will almost certainly try The most obvious avenue which Wilson can try is to use the threat of a coalition to toughen up the terms of the social contract. This is almost certainly what is behind the emergence of the Jack Jones wages plan, and the secret CBI-TUC talks. Almost certainly any new version of the social contract could only last a few months, but it is hoped it would demoralise the working class and at least allow Wilson to gain a short breathing space. Only aiter this had clearly failed would Wilson unce again be lac It is also because the gaining of such an agreement is Wilson's primary aim that it is not altogether sure that he will immediately chop Bennthis would make an agreement with the trade union bureaucrats a bit more difficult to achieve. However the pressure of the ruling class on the Benn question is now so intense that Wilson may have no option but to remove him, and if Wilson wins the referendum this may convince But no matter what the details of Wilson's timetable, the tasks of socialists over the coming months are very clear. First, there must be clear opposition to any continuation or new version of the social contract, and instead the demands must be raised for a real sliding scale of wages for work-sharing with no loss of pay, and for nationalisation without compensation of all firms creating redundancy. Secondly, use of the coalition threat should be met with the demand for immediate expulsion Thirdly —and despite the fact that Benn's policies are utterly misconceived-it is clear that in the present situation any moves against Benn would be simply one shot in the opening of a new phase of Wilson's war against the working class. All moves by Wilson against the Labour In the present rapidly developing political situation it is clear that de spite differences on a whole range of questions, the interests of socialism demand united action of all working class forces against the increa-