that we are in the midst of an enormous economic and political crisis.
After years of declaring that 'everything is fine,' that 'there are just a few minor problems," the government has imposed a state of emergency and is threatening to force acceptance of Phase 3 of its incomes policy at all costs. Every single day of this year has seen wages cut into by soaring inflation. The standard of living of large sections of the working class is falling. Nothing could show more unionists. The formation of special anti-picket clearly than these facts the dead end into which capitalism has brought us.
But wome is undoubtedly to come. The enormous balance of payments crisis -a deficit of nearly £300 million in October-shows the state of British capitalism is getting steadily worse. The same thing is happening on an international scale. As even the employers" magazine The Economist put it on 17 November, Japan and America are slipping into recession." in order to try to solve its economic problems (in fact a hopeless task), capitalism will use the same methods as it has always done, holding down and cutting the living standard of the working class in order to hold up profits.
Ruling class prepare conflict with the govornment, the state and The employing class, the government and the state are quite aware of what this policy means, the engineers and the dockers would fight back Their aim is to prepare to defeat the wages struggle of the working class and to impose penal anti-union and anti-working class policies. example firemen, ambulancemen and power If this can be done under Phase 3, then it is calculated that rising unemployment, which is going to reappear in a big way in 1974, will finish off the militancy of the working class.
Once this has taken place, the Tories calculate then there is no doubt that the working class they can win a general election victory and Impose still further attacks on the working class.
The basis for such ruling class victories is already being laid and tried out. The coming wages struggles against Phase 3 aro going to be met with fierce resistance from the ruling class. aready shown how to punch a hole through The economic situation of British capitalism means that the employers cannot afford, trom the point of view of their profts, to make drawn into a decisive struggle, can smash right any important concessions on wages and conditions.
Throughout the summer the employers were making preparations for the coming battles.
Huge stake funds running into millions of pounds have, for example, been established by the Engineering Employers Federation (who employers strike funds and so on-but they last year paid out E2 million in profits compen-ase still too weak to smash any really deter. sation in the Manchester engincering strike alone). Tough tactics are already being used by employers in individual disputes. At Chrysler, for example, mass redundancies were threatened and thugs were hired to drive In addition, the ruling class is deeply divided lornes straight through picket lines. The same thug clements were used to break pickets in the pon of the traditional ruling class party, the the power workers dispute in 1970 when it encouraged people to beat up strikers. Already à press campaign has been started against the miners. The NIRC has stepped up the attack with huge fines on the AUEW and the T&G. Most important of all, the government has declared a state of emergency. This allows than to commandeer goods and to make unlimited use of the police and army. As Labour MP Norman Atkinson pointed out in the House of Commons on 13 November, it also means that the government has the right to arrest trade and anti-strike police squads has been speeded up. We have seen them in action against the Hull dockers in the last dock strike and against the pickets in the Footprint strike in Sheffield: IFall else fails, the ruling class has got this neavy brigade ready. social crisis have supported the ruling classfor example students now have their own gnevances against the capitalist system and could be won to the side of the working class. The possibilities for victory are better than at any time in the past. Provided the struggle is carried through in a determined way there is no unconquerable obstacie which the ruling class can put in the way of the working class. If the working class is defeated it will mainly be due not to anything the Tories or the employers do, but to false policies within the working class movement.
Robert Carr-has announced new action by police to combat mass pickets against the police, to arrange food and supplies for occupations, and to gain support from other groups of workers, Second, the widest possible numbers must be drawn into active involvement in the struggles It was the tens of thousands of people who were drawn into activity in the miners pickets which allowed that decisive strike to be won To get this type of mass active support, every worker must feel that he has real control and a real interest in what is going on: direct involvement in all decisions about how the struggle is to be carried on.
This does not exclude using the full time resources of the union only a fool would suggest that-but it does mean that one of the oldest rules of working clas democracy has to be given a new force: the people who take dects ions about the struggles must be those who actually have to fight them. It is only in this way that the maximum possible solicarity of all those in struggle can be gained.
Union officials have a vuluable rule to play, if they have the right policies, in contacting other groups of workers to gain support, and assisting in negotiations, However, at all times the workers actually engaged in the struggles must have the information to decide what is the best course of action and to judge what their representatives are up to, This can only be done through mass meetings and elected strike These types of moves have already developed in some recent key struggles. In the building workers strike, action committees of the various unions involved were set up locally. In the miners strike, mass meetings of the pickets were organised in some areas to decide tactics and strategy. In the Manchester engineering strikes, moves were made to set up a citywide strike committee. Most importantly of all, in the recent Glasgow firemen's strike a democratically clected strike committee, with frequent mass meetings, was able to organise successfully a struggle against the employers, the union bureaucracy and the government.
This type of organisation is also necessary in the preparation of the struggle. For example, the AUEW National Committee instructed the union executive to carry out a campaigt of publicity to explain the claim and why it was being put forward. So far practically nothing his been done on this, it is only by seizing the initiative locally that real preparation can be made for the claim.
Completely different to thus lack of preparation (until recentiy) for the engineers claim was the magnificent organisation in many areas for the strikes against the NIRC fine on the ACEW. A meeting of 600 shop stewards was held in Glasgow to decide on the strike, another of 400 met in Binningham and another of 800 in Manchester. The result of this degree of organisation wus the tremendous strikes, with