other areas of the social services. In this struggle the working class can expect to face the bitter oppos ition not only of the capitalists. but also of the Wilson/Healey clique at the head of the Labour Why Is It tnat invand peopie nave been given tricycles which are nothing more than 'death traps"? Despite all the screams of righteous indignation that have come forth about this scandal - ranging from the Tories to the Labour Party and even the full-page exposure carried by Socialist Worker solutions have been scarce. Yet the scandal of the tricycles reveals in a stark way the relationship that exists between the capitalist state and the National Health Service.
The sick and infirm are not profitable for capitalism are financial liabilities. • So if a disabled person can walk a hundred yards or get on a bus, then they are ruled out from having an invalid car. The exhaustion that they might suffer in such a walk, or the fact that they cannot afford he ous ares are invariably on low earnings — is hardly ever considered.
DEFAULT
Cuts are therefore made by cynical •default. Cars are turned out on the cheap. No attention is paid towards providing a car that the disabled can use to take out their familv. Horror of horrors, if that happened all the disabled might start clamouring for one.
The cheap assembly means that the soft bodies simply crumble whenever the cars get in an accident. But what is one dead cripple, after all? They do not produce profit for the capitalists! CapHansm nas a clear cunos on unis matter and Maggie Thatcher made no bones about this in her diatribe about equality Mrs Castle starts from supposedly different motives, but the results are the same. She wants to split up a smalle cake between more people The Labour Minister has told the disabled that less cars will be issued to cannot drive will be given £5 a week What a sick, miserable society- that consigns its disabled to junks that fall apart on the road, and callously denies them MANUFACTURE The manufacturers, of course, are not tneir prouts moont up Workers who could make better, safer and bigger cars are meanwhile made redundant.
Let us have less of the horror stories and rauer begin to ngut lor me produc tion of useful goods that can improve the quality of life. Workers should start demanding an enquiry into the use of these resources, and start insisting that production is planned for social gain not for profit.