to the whole working class. It is a test-case for other industries.
tation in the motor industry will be decided around one central issue. by whom and in whose interests, is the necessary massive reorganisation of the industry going to be carried out?
1. The extent of the crisis Thirty three thousand jobs were cut in the car industry in the year ending July 1974 - no less than nine per cent of the total workforce. Twenty thousand of these jobs went in British Leyland alone. Nearly all these sackings have been achieved by voluntary redundancies carried through with the support of the trade union bureaucracy and the Labour Government.
Despite these massive cuts, the car industry remains the sickest section of a sick economy • and there is no end in sight to its problems. By the end of the year, when a slight upturn in the world economy is predicted, British motor manufacturers will still be in no position to take advantage of the increase in the market and step up production significantly. Years of under-investment in new equipment and consequent low productivity have been compounded by an annual rate of inflation which is pushing British car prices out of competition.
Since 1972 total British car sales have fallen by over 30 per cent, and foreign cars are currently taking 40 per cent of the home market. Car output in May 1975 was the lowest for 13 years - 45 per cent below the monthly average for 1974 - and in the first five menths of 1975 car production was 15 per cent below the level of the corresponding months for 1974, which included the three-day week. British Leyland itself is operating at a weekly loss of £6 million and has an annual deficit of £290 million.
The car bosses are well aware of the situation, and know there is only one solution for them - to cut jobs. The soft-soaping reserved for union officials in the Ryder Report British Leyland achieve the increased sales which are planned, manpower reductions resulting from increased productivity (will) be partly, perhaps mainly offset by the expansion of BL's capacity' - has been dropped with the unions' acceptance of worker participation'.
Already BL has announced its intention to cut its 116,000 strong car-making division by a further 20-30,000. Chrysler (UK), which lost £17 million over the last year, has cut back its total workforce from 29,500 to 25,000. Ford's has shed 4,000 jobs since January - 2,000 of these left during the prolonged doorhangers' strike at Dagenham, which was eventually defeated.
NAMIBIA Public Meeting Wednesday 24 Septembe Main speakers SWAPO Womens Leagus APO Youth Lea Audrey Wise, MP Emie Robe Asst Gen Sec, AUEV NAMIBIA SUPPORT CONDONE PEEPED O motor vehicle manufacturing - 6.5 per cent of total manfacturing employment. The And although it is vital to fight staffing cuts, productivity drives and job loss at every level, the confronThe sackings have been accompanied by a massive productivity drive. Even at Halewood, where production lines are working at full capacity to turn out the new Escort, Ford's management are trying to push through the same productivity scheme and labour pool which led to the doorhangers stoppage at Dagenham.
2. The need for The response of the union leaders, the Labour lefts' and the Communist Party to the concerted attack on car workers' living standards, working conditions and jobs has been pathetic. While Benn and the lefts' welcomed the Ryder Report, the Communist Party - through its strong position in the British Leyland stewards combine - has helped to implement it. The system of "joint committees which has been accepted at BL, and the worker participation scheme under discussion at Chrysler, have a single aim: to give the workers the illusion of control while getting workers representatives to take responsibility for speed-up and rationalisation.
As Roy Levine wrote in the Financial Times (5 September): *The problems facing the two companies (Chrysler and BL) are basically the same. The UK motor industry has the lowest labour productivity in the world, with BL producing value added per man of £2,129 in 1974 and Chrysler £2,765 - less than half the figure for General Motors and Ford US:' Worker participation proposals are aimed at solving the problem of 'poor industrial relaThe size of the problem-stockpiled cars at Chrysler in Coventry [tions' in order to guarantee the success of the massive reinvestment under way in the British motor industry.
Yes, a gigantic reorganisation of the structure and products of the motor industry is necessary. But the precondition for this to be carried out in the interests of the working class is total rejection of the Ryder Report. only way in which the fundamental problems facing carworkers can be solved is through the nationalisation without compensation of the entire motor and component industry.
In order to prepare this, the phoney particip ation schemes of the bosses, the weak-kneed proposals of the TUC for "industrial democracy and the inadequate disclosure provisions in Labour's Industry Bill are useless. This is tellingly revealed by the secrecy surrounding all the key sections of the Ryder Report. fight to remove the cloak of commercial secrecy surrounding all the financial and planning arrangements of the employers through the opening of the books is the fight for workers control to prepare the nationalisation and socialist reorganisation of the industry To believe, as do the Labour 'left' and the TUC, that the disclosure of all the relevant information can be achieved through the passing of a Bill in Parliament is an act of both gross stupidity and betrayal. Only real measures of workers' control won through bitter struggle can break the bosses monopoly of information and prepare the way for a workers' enquiry based on workers' committees in every plant. which can draw up plans for the socialist reorganisation of the motor industry.
The capitalists would of course try to sabotage any nationalisation of such a key secWORKS NOTICE BOARD N° 2 WORKS tion of industry simply by refusing the credits and finance necessary. Workers' control in the industry could not be effective unless all financial dealings with the banks and finance houses were also revealed. The nationalisation of the banks and the finance houses into a single state bank would therefore be crucial to the success of these plans. 3. Fighting Wilson's policies Any policy aimed at throwing back the offensive of the car bosses can't be divorced from the struggle against the Wilson Government. Minister of Industry Varley is quite prepared to let 3,000 jobs at NVT Wolverham pton go to the wall. At the same time the £6 limit is cutting demand for the products of the motor industry. By raising the reactionary demand for import controls to boost domestic demand the CP and Labour left are attempting to avoid a head-on fight with Wilson over the £6 limit. But smashing the £6 limit is the most basic measure necessary to reflate the economy, boost demand, and so save jobs.
Precisely when a united fight back against the bosses' and the Government's plans for the motor industry is most needed, the Communist Party has taken the decision - through its position in the British Leyland Trade Union Committee - to fold up the Standing Motors Action Committee. This is allegedly because the convenors in British Leyland have so much on their plate at the moment that they haven't the time or money to discuss the problems of the whole car industry!
In this context the call by the Institute of Workers Control for a conference on the car industry in Birmingham in November takes on added importance for militants. If the defeat reflected in the folding of the Standing Motors Action Committee is not overcome, carworkers will be left isolated from each other and the rest of the working class, leaving them dependent on the left labour bureaucracy.
Rover (Solihull) Shop Stewards Committee has already voted to send ten delegates to the conference. It could be an important step towards building the broad unity in action amongst carworkers and the rest of the class which is needed to defeat the job-cutting plans of the car bosses and the Wilson Government. MICK GOSLING Further information on the IC Conference can be obtained from: IWC, 45 Gamble Street, Nottingham
----- pull-quotes -----
Continuing our series on the fight against unemployment, Red Weekly looks this week at the state of the car industry. Motor manufacturing is not just another sec- tor of the economy. In February 1975, 484,000 people were directly employed in Harold Wilson told the House of Commons: 'a million jobs are at stake?.
south selds scarolaer novert nen jobs of hundreds of thousands more are dependent on the motor industry. In ann The result of the confrontation in the motor industry is therefore of vital concern