On Collective Bargaining a Government Wages Dictum Era! Council Almost the Full Workers

Published by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) No 2 8 ·1Oth August 1978 Sp Labour says 'more of less,less of more' Labour in all-out attack AT LAST the General Coun with smiles like Peter Pan's estimated. The strength it cil of the TUC has been dri crocodile. gives to the employers makes ven to outright rejection of It hilS taken the TUC Gen it a mighty weapon against on collective bargaining a Government wages dictum era! Council almost the full workers. The CBl, whatever TI-lE OVERWIIELM!NG vote llealev stated that it would be and has decisively thrown out year to stand by last Con they might say about differ by the TUC General Council backed by sanctions, pres the 5 per cent gambit of Ilea gress's policy for collective entials, will advise all who for collective bargaining and sures on the nationalised sec ley and Callaghan. bargaining agreed in Sept em it represents to adhere to against another year of La tor and all the other restric lt has taken the labour ber 19'77. It should be rem 5 per cent while, at the same bour Governnient wage-fixing tive measures of previous movement 10 vears to learn embered that previously they time, opposing any controls might never have happened stages. that the TUC function is the passively accepted the 10 on profits and prices. With as far as llealey and Callag The stock market reaction maintenance ant..! improvement per cent declaration of Ilea out doubt the Engineering · han are concerned. was highly favourable and the of wages and working condi ley, never really challenged Employers Federation will The TUC's massive oppo international money dealers tions. Today, in spite of it, submitted to the tyranny circulate all engineering sition to the Government's were so pleased that the pound false claims of improved of sanctions and were pre employers speciously argu 5 per cent guideline was immediately went up in rei a living standards, we, the pared to permit the crushing ing for conforming with .fi'i~n the !louse of Com tion to other currencies. But workers, are still a minimum of the firemen's revolt. Government strictures of 5 mons and llealey waved it for the working class this of 6 per cent behind the levels Now we hear the 'true per cent to avoid sanctions aside with the claim that, was an insolent slap in the of 1975 in real earnings - and liberal voice' as expressed such as loss of Government "TUC members will adhere face. The Government's that of course only applies to through Steele who is for contracts. to the guideline set down at sugar-coating for the bitter those who are employed. For compulsory legislation on our In preparing for the struggle least to the degree that they pill of wage-fixing is dividend the ever growing number of wages and no restraint on we should read and understand have over the past 12 months. restraint which, thanks to the unemployed, the drop in the dividends, so that profits can the White Paper on 5 per cent A few days later he was even surprise support of the Scot standard of living is horri go on accruing in an ever limitation. To be deceived by more insulting by confidently tish nationalists, was kept in fying. rising spiral. Callaghan's the thought of a shorter wor predicting that "TUC opposi being for a further period. Every effort was made to promise of dividend restric king week would be a digres tion to wage controls would be But anybody who thinks that woo the unions into submis tion was empty and only came sion. The road must be straight even less this year than last. •· dividend restraint is a quid sion right up to the Tuesday about through a parliamentary and our actions clear. We When the Labour Govern pro quo for wage -fixing fully before the General Council action - not that that is any must reject the suggestion ment's White Paper on incomes deserves to be defrauded by meeting on July 26. The com more than a sop to the unions within the White Paper that policy was presented in the this Government: edians Callaghan and llealey, anyway. we might take a shorter wor !louse of Commons on July 21, Self-financing productivity within the portentious setting Thougl1 now tl1e position king week to the tune of 5 per it showed utter contempt for deals to set worker against of No. 10 awesomelv sum of the unions is clear and cent and forego a monetary the labour movement's decis worker will again be encour moned an assembly ·of the for unfettered bargaining, claim, since to achieve 3:> ion to return to collective bar aged and there will be no re whole General Council - and the Government position and hours, a 5 hour reduction gaining. Announcing the stage duction in hours of work which utterly failed to shake their declaralion must not be under- Continued on page 4 four guideline of 5 per cent, could lead to any increase in resolve. labour costs. So the Labour The Prime Minister plain Government says. tively objected that workers This White Paper on in seem to believe it is right to Victory in London's dockland comes policy is a charter for present annual wage claims. working class enslavement. Such effrontery: Why not IN TilE FACE of mounting London docks if they continued step in the murder of London. It must be torn to shreds. follow the US system of once opposition in East London to receive subsidies. The dockers threatened a In the very first issue of everv ~ years. the Government has reversed But Callaghan and the PLA national strike if the plan pro TilE WORKER, january I, Tl1e tlrime Minister, hav its plan to close London's reckoned without the vigorous ceded. They demanded that 1969, the headline described ing set the scene, handed Upper Docks. The Government opposition of dockers and British ships no longer trans the Labour Government as over to Healey who, with decision represents a signi other workers in the threat fer cargo in Rotterdam but "the enemy of the working memories of his pnntomime ficant victory for Dockland, ened area. do it in London instead, and class". Ten years later the role in the \Vizard of Oz, and demonstrates the only Their slogan was, "Keep are struggling for control workers of Britain have had sougtn to spellbind with 'eco wny to prevent closures - the locks off the docks and over the government invest ample opportunity to test and nomics'. though from time fight them tooth and nail. keep East London alive.·· The ment funds. confirm this political truth to time switching parts and For a long time the Port bleatings of the PLA about The struggle for Dockland by their own bitter experience. exuding false bonhommie of London Authority (PLA) financial difficulties were is evidently not over. Already, We simply cannot go on saying has been arguing that the discounted and there devel the Government has indicated Labour is terrible butTharct1er docks are not viable. The oped an awareness that the that piecemeal rather than would be worse. IV e have to The next issue Government has been giving closure plan was politically outright closure is the way say capitalism is terrible - the !'LA its backing. Last inspired: an attack on the forward. Dockland has won it The next issue of The Worker whichever parry operates May, Prime Minister Callag working class in an area of a victory but there is much will appear in 2 weeks' time against us. We have to be rid han asserted that there could traditional strength. Indeed, to do by all of us before final on 2-Ith !lugust. be no long term future for the the plan was seen as a crucial success is assured. Continued on page 4 page"/. /HISTORIC NOTES/ The fight for the 8 hour day THE. WEEK BY TilE L.-\ST decades of the anti-working class legislation and organized efforts, the workers eases, and that remed,· is theirs REACTIONARIES both in and nineteenth century workers were had generally oppos'ed anything would no.t be pursuaded to organize , .. There must be independent life outside the NUS have welcomed 1 ~etting weary of their position. more. But as the President told at a ll. " Broadhut·st of the Stone within the State to prevent tl':e the attempt to bring students It was increasingly irksome to the TUC of 1887: 11 Gentlemen, we masons pleaded," ... for God's Government becoming t.\:Tanny, unions under further control of vote Liberal, the 'left' of the two can do with state interference if sake, let them do this work for and the Trade L'nions will be chief the State under various 'prog parties, when the boss was Lib- the homes 01 the people can be im- themselves and no grovelling to among those who shall call this ressi\'e' pretexts. 1\Jr William eral and often sent police and proved, or work to the unemployed the doors of parliament like paup inderemlent life into being." Van Straubenzee, the architect troops to break stl'ikes . People be given, or bread to the hungry, ers seeking a weekly dole. "The The 8 hour day debate was the of the notorious proposals of were increasingly a~ered by the or hope and succour to the un- iron wor·kers and carpenter·s op first major impetus to the derrand 1071 - which pro,·oked one of the 'theory' that povertv was caused cared for of our large towns.

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