25¢ No.52 ~¢~) )(·'23 13 September 1974 ew ontrolS reaten Gerald Ford and George Meany already approaching 8 percent in sever­ Nevertheless, the new president will clip since 1971. This is to be contrast­ Ford Cancels Federal al industrial states. (In particular in­ still have quite a few "bitter pills" for ed with a rate of growth of 1.8 percent dustries the rate is already at epidemic the less advantaged sectors of the pop­ in the 1950's and of 3.5 percent during Pay Increase levels. In New Jersey construction ear­ ulation to swallow. the 1960's. lier this summer unemployment was Depression and large-scale uneIll­ The reasons for such profligacy are SEPTEMBER 9-Nixon's resignation as over 30 percent.) ployment are indeed on the agenda, and clear. Important sectors of the Ameri­ U.S. President last month was the cul­ Liberals ana trade-union bureau­ it is evident that Ford will look toward can economy would be in dire straits mination of the deepest constitutional crats alike are now concerned that wage controls and cutbacks in social if the liquidity of their assets was ad­ crisis of the American bourgeoisie in Ford/Rockefeller may invoke the "old­ services in an effort to stimulate the versely affected by a real tight-money the last century. Yet it was not accom­ time religion" of tight money and sharp­ flagging economy. Here he will be sup­ policy. This would lead to a series of panied by a corresponding social/eco­ ly reduced government spending in an ported by all key sectors of the ruling bankruptcies, a situation which Amer­ nomic crisis or m:>bilization of the ican capital would go a long way to ',',":l'k:ng C h5s. i'iS can be seen in the avoid since it would greatly increase the .self-r:cngratulatory editorials in bOL!r- irr8.tionality and unpredictability of an ~evnnnedia in recent weeks, the alreadv inherently ."~~~t~e~ .. ruling class now believes it has suc­ cessfully resolved the crisis by shuf­ Ford Turns to the-" Workers fling a few top officials. The Working Class Will However, with the stock market There is only one source to which plunging daily, anarchy reigning in i!1- Ford can look for a partial solution to ternational monetary exchange, contin­ the economic problems he now faces, ued oil price hikes and primary com­ Never Pardon namely George Meany, head of the AFL­ modities s h 0 r tag e s, and inflation CIO. The President indicated his aware­ accelerating-the absent soc i a land ness of this "reality" by literally run­ economic crisis may not be long in Richard Nixon I ning from his inauguration toMr. Mea­ following. Under these circumstances ny's side. Nor is it any accident that a new government headed by an intel­ one of Ford's first acts as chief exec­ lectual neanderthal (Ford) and one of President Ford's shameless decree of a "free pardon" for Nixon is but the utive was to propose the creation of an the country's leading plutocrats (Rock­ latest dirty deal attempting to amnesty Nixon's crimes within the ruling agency to "monitor" wages and prices, efeller), neIther of them elected to their class. We say: who elected Ford and Rockefeller? We demand: new elections a proposal rapidly granted by an oblig­ offic~_ by anyone, can hardly expect and the fielding of a labor candidate pledged to a workers government-a ing Congress. solid public support. government which will make Nixon and his entire class pay for their real Although both Meany and Ford have With neither conservative nor liber­ crimes againstthe working people in this country, in Indochina and through­ issued countless denials that either al bourgeois economists having aplau­ out the world. And a step in that dil'ection, as well as a simple measure would countenance wage/price controls sible solution to the unprecedented situ­ of democratic sanitation, is to put this ruling-class jackal in jail. it is clear as day that Meany's accep­ ation of high inflation in the midst of tance of, and proposed participation on, sharp recession throughout the ad­ the new Council on Wage and Price vanced capitalist countries, Ford is Stability are a harbinger of future con­ resorting to a series of economic effort to control inflation while creat­ class. The myriad renunciations of trols under the joint aegis of capital "summit" meetings whose evident pur­ ing large-scale unemployment. In their wage/price controls are Simply prepa­ and the trade-union bureaucracy. pose is to shove responsibility for the usual manner, the Jeremiahs of the ration for a later coy submission to an The recent working-class militancy looming disaster onto other shoulders, ostensible revolutionary left, the Work­ "emergency" situation. and anger over the erosion of living hopefully the Democrats'. The possi­ ers League, have taken these fears to standards and decrease in real wages bility of a worldwide depression is their paranoid extreme: "These [defla­ Tight Money Shell Game must, of course, be given time to dis­ no longer dismissed as lunacy. tionaryJ pOlicies are designed to allow sipate. But the minute the current strike In this scenario it is the working the collapse of broad sections of indus­ Insofar as monetary tactics during wave subsides the despised controls class, as usual, which is being asked try and to create massive unemploy­ the Nixon era transcended the level of will be hurriedly reintroduced. As for to bear the brunt of the economic cri­ ment on a scale not seen in the United simple graft they revolved around the prices, Mr. Ford's "concern" was am­ sis. Real wages have fallen 10 percent States since the Great Depression of supposed hi g h -interest, tight-money ply demonstrated by his recent "jaw­ since mid-1972 and unemployment is the 1930's" (Bulletin, 23 August 1974). pOlicies of Arthur Burns, chairman of boning" which induced General Motors If Ford can choose a policy of de­ the Federal Reserve Board. NOW, the to back down from an exorbitant 9.5 pression and unemployment as the WL 5 September New York Times reports percent price hike to a mere 8.5 per­ seems to think, he or some liberal can that- at the first of several economic cent rise! also choose a policy of economic re­ "summit" meetings there was agree­ The first battleground against wage/ covery and full employment. Keynesian ment among academiC, business and price controls is likely to take place theory doesn't work either in stimulat­ government economists as to the need in the government sector. Ford's pro­ ing or depressing the economy. The for relaxing credit rates. Yet, in fact, posal to deJer scheduled pay increases laws of the world capitalist system the previous policy was anything but for 3.5 million federal employees is an overwhelm even the most capable of tight. obvious stalking horse to check out the bourgeois politiCians. An 11.5 percent interest rate on viability of reintroducing wage controls While Wohlforthite demonologists loans seems quite high if you are a immediately. If the labor movement may consider Ford to be an evil force wage-controlled worker trying to get does not react sharply to beat back guiding us toward economic disaster, a mortgage. But in a hyperinflated this attack, it will pay dearly for its Mr. Ford is hardly suited for the role. economy where profits have grown even passivity. He is responsible to a variety of sec­ faster than the rate of inflation, such Ford's effort to explore working­ toral interests in America's bourgeois a credit structure actually amounts to class resistance at this early date may society and has neither the mandate an "e as y - m 0 n e y" policy for big­ seem somewhat rash. However, in re­ nor the political power to trample on business borrowers. Moreover, the ality an "incomes policy" is the only Significant sections of the economy. money supply has grown at a 7 percent continued on page 1 1 £eften~ ____________ Except for De Mau Mau none of the their hostility toward white support. attacking the international w 0 r kin g partiCipants had even a semblance of The SL proposals concretized the per­ class in a manner specifically designed Boston Committee links with the ghetto. The campaign spective of united class struggle and the to prevent the development of solidarity was carned out in typical New Left Maoists deliberately and unanimously and co-ordination within the labour Against Police fashion: leaflets enthused "repression voted them down. movement internationally. Union mil­ breeds resistance," while a petition ex­ With comradely and Leninist greetings, itants in both AusJralia and the U.S. -Brutality must reply to this exclusion by calling horted its readers to "support the de­ A. Sweet mands of the community," i.e., the for all necessary industrial action to August 9, 1974 several dozen Concerned People. Suf­ be undertaken by workers organisations fice it to say that only myself and De to force the lifting of this ban which Boston Mau Mau went petitioning among Bos­ is such a blatant attack on democratic Dear Editor: ton's housing proj ects. rights. With the international capitalist In the article on ·Cop Terror" in WV At the meeting before the demon­ James P. Cannon class engaging in trade wars, protec­ No. 50 the black forty-year-old shop­ stration I requested equal speaking tionism and whipping up national chau­ keeper, James WildS, murdered by the time to address the rally as a sup­ August 26, 1974 vinist sentiment, the struggle for inter­ Boston police is incorrectly described porter of the SL.