Published by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxi~t-Leninist) No.8April18th, 1974 Price 3p No contract with capitalism There can be no social contract Engineers against Phase III between a capitalist government 2~ MILLION ENGINEERING WORKERS TO BAN OVERTIME and the working class The engineers smashed the eogineering employers [or a £10 backed by the overtime ban, ta Industrial Relatlotls Act. It was ·rtse in minimum rates, 4 weeks a starting poln1; and the rl&iit Workers wlll never collaborate with those who exploit them. Such their uncompromising opposi­ holiday wltb pay, a 35 hour week Pressure at the I'lght time from collaboration Is what the Labour Government proposes in lts 'soolal tion to the Act, their refusal· and equal pay for women has not that quarter In tbe Executive contract'. What Labour says to the working class Ia this: If you even to recognise the lndustrf.al drawn the crack troops into Council in closest' touch with the wUl agree to accept a cut \ n your wages voluntarlly, then lt will not Relations Court tt set up, which action. For those workers al­ real needs or the rank and rue be naceeaary for ua to \mpose wage cuts on you. made thla vicious plece o[ anti­ ready getting above E35, and prevented all attempts to delay In the election period the Labour Party boasted that it had achieved trade-union leglalatton lnopera­ this Includes moat who have put the kick of!. a 'social contract' with the TUC which promised industrial peace. The ttve, so that the Labour Govern":' up a fight ln the past, there ls The National Committee met nature of th\a so-called 'contract' became clear on AprU 4th at a ment could make the gesture or not the money incentive [or 11; November 1973 to dlscues the meeting of the TUC and Government officials under the auspices of the 'abollshlog' tt. struggle there would have been Engtneertng Emplbyers Federa­ National Economic Development Couoctl, one of capitalism' s front Phase ni remains on the in a claim for a flat £10 rise tW<>'s rldlculou~ offer of E2 . 50 organtaatlona. statute books because, apart actoa~oard . on tbe baalc.rate, no cut ln boura, SPELLING IT OUT from the miners, the workiog This claim, tn fact, makes a .nq increased holidays and a rur­ class has not yet made tt com­ concession to the social demo­ tlier postponement of equal pay . There the TUC, tn effect, Promised the Government to do lts beat to pletely unworkable by driving erath:! trick of weeping crocodile Acceptance of this derisory offer keep wage claims within Phase [II and to crack down on strikes. Un­ clalma backed by lndustrlal tears for lower-paid workers was rejected out of hand. An Ion leaders agreed to use thelr influence to get their members to be farce right through the middle while using their backwardness adventurlst call for a 'national •reallatlc' tn putting forward wage claims and to bring about a aituatio of lt. In struggle as a restraint on the strike' which could not be sus­ tn wbtch there were "fewer strllc:es, particularly lightning atrllcea" But, from Aprlll5, 2i mllllon better-paid. Engineers on the tained was ·also rejected. The and more aegotlatlon based on "new forma of conctliatlon and arbi­ engtneerlng workers will be factory floor know that where guerrllla llne of rolling regional tration". starting their action against Phase 'skilled' rates are good because actions, which our Party has put The TUC cannot apeak for the working class to entering into any IH with a ban on overtime. It of the level of struggle, there forward as the correct tactics 'contract' with the claea enemies Of workers. No more can union will be remembered that the 'leas skilled' rates are good too at tbie stage for the Working class leaden apeak for their members In accepting such a treacheroUs miners' successful action began You get what you light for. ln general as well as for the 'aareemert'. Furthermore, both of them know this aDd that Ia the tn the same way. engineers to thts particular reason they keep hedging every time the Government trlea to make STARTING POINT FOR struggle, was not adopted at the them Jive specific undertakings of how they wlll pollee their aide of THE ENGINEERS' CLAIM ttme. but tt can develop out of the barJaln. GUERRILLA STRUGGLE the national overtime ban which the Committee left to the Exe­ THE WORKERS' ANSWER The engineers' claim against the But the national claim In full, cutive Council to call at th~ most suitable time. [n our Party Prorramrne, 'The. British Working Class and tts Party', we deny that there can ever be peace between exploiters and exploited, Fz:om the action beginning on between capltaUsts and·workers. '7he working class Uvea in a state Aprll 15, englD&erlng workers ol perpetual guerrUla confliCt with the employers". This Ia the fund­ can go on bO guerrllla etruggles amantal political fact which the Labour Party and the TUC would try beat suited to their own strength to deny with tbelr 'social contract'. Already the honeymoon period of ~nd local condltlona, turning lhe new Labour Government ts c oming to an end. The engineers' e ach factory Into a fortress, as overtime ban, the NA LGO action ln London,' are just the first signs happened all over the country of a growing campaign. in the nation-wide guerrilla Roua.aeau's original social contract was based on a myth - that at struggle two years ago when some period In the paat people had agreed to restraints on the lr free­ hundreds of employers were dom in the lotereata of an orderly society. It is an even more in­ forced to settle well above the credible myth that Brlttsh workera would now, when their class pol­ Federation's offer - a rolllcg itical conaclouaneas has never bee n higher, agree to restraints on series or industrial actlona as thelr wage claims in the interests of their exploiters. each dlatrtct committee moves .toto ~truggle to the bewldlermen1 WHAT KIND OF A BARGAIN? of employers who wtll never know when and where. they are And what Ia the TUC auppoaed to have got for worker& In excha~e · going to be hlt. for auoh a bargain? A favourable budget? But when the dust raised by tha Chancellor settled, It was found to be as an1l-worklng-clasa to take wage determination "out of Whitehall and into the concUiatlon a budget ao any devlaed by the Tortes. Repeal of the Industrial Rel­ and arbitration machinery". A STRONG UNION ationl Act? But workers, led by the engineers , had already killed tt. Wilson bas boasted: "We know the trade unions . .• . we can get Mea11W'hlle, what dld still matter to workers - the Counter-Infla'tlon their cooperatioo." We workers know the Labour Party, that con­ Act, Phase m - the TUC agreed ·could continue right up to the time ~entrated expression or social democracy whlch la only capitalist lr Is the strength and lnltlatlve when the Government could replace It wtth thetr own "CoooUlatton ideology ln a cloth cap. The Labour Party long ago atgned away Ita at rank-and-file level of the soul In a compact with capitalism. Workers will never enter Into and Arbitration ServJce". The most Labo\U" was prepared to promise (continued on page 2 ln B.llawer to the demand for the return of c ol~ecttve bargatnlng was any bargain with these creatures of the exploltlcg class. 1 page 2 Engineers (continued from page 1 1 PERKINS AlJEW which enable e~lnoera President of the Union had to to fight such guerrilla actlooa apeak with such re&eJ;.Vatlo.n Thousands of workers at the supremely well aDd is reflected about the 'Social Contract' in SHIPYARDS BRITISH LEY LAN 0 Perkins Englnes diesel plants in In the line of the leaderahlp. It Ia the pre-electiOn period and la Peterborough held a token stop­ page to pressure the employer no colncidenct! that thi~ union, kept now from•jolnlog in the cho­ British Leyland repiaced piece­ Shlpyard 'NOrkers on Tyneside into offering a £5 increase to­ which ia kept in the vanguard of rus af those 'leaders' calling have given firm waroJng to the work at thel r Cowley plant with ward parity " ::til other Massey­ tbeworklac class by tlie militancy for all-out collaboration wlth a measured day work three years employer tbat they will not scab Ferguson suh!!lidiaries. At of its members baa among ita Labour capitalist goVernment ago. They are sttll having trouble on their fellow workers. Faced present the t..'<.'mpany is offering leaders the true voice of Marxlam­ by moderating their members' with action by 2000 fitters at getting the work measured. Small a Phase III !r.creo.se of £2.26 Leninlam which can never fall groups of workers have been claims. Barrow, the Vickers gr:lup with the •prvmise • of another to make Ita impact on workers threatened to break the strike by walking out whenever industrial _£2. 75 wbe11 the law permits it. In atrucgle. t r ansferring compleUon of the engineers appeared on the shop It Ia this strength which Latest News: The Secretary of State for Employment has called guided~mtsslle destroYer'Cardiff' floor. Finally when the assembly accoutts for the AUEW's success to Swan Hunter's yard on Tynestde. line speod was Increased from In doatroyicg the Ioduatrlal Re­ engineering union leaders and £50 TUBE DEMAND employers to meeting on Aprll But Tyneslde workers made it 25 to 30 cars an hour, 1200 men latiOn.