About the only area of the economy working at present is the Tories' economic strategy. Just look at a typical week in the Tory 'success chart". * British Leyland - 4,000 clerical jobs * Clark's Shoes - 700 redundancies; * Al Industrial Products - 300 jobs lo go, *John Myers - 1,900 sackings; * Ferodo - 100 jobs lost; * Firestone Tyres - 600 jobs lost; * Hoover - 200 jobs lost.
The jobless total is rising week after week, day after day. And it's quite deliberate. As Eric Heffer pointed out in the Commons recently, throwing thousands on the dole will, the Tories calculate, force wages down and profits up, thus making British industry more competitive.
CONTROLS This growing jobless total has prompted many in the Labour left' to advocate import controls as a solution. This is not the sole plank of the AES, of course, but it is seen as central in combatting the rising dole queues.
Such a view has rapidly caught on and now the TUC - and a wide body of workers - see them as key if jobs are to be protected. Tarrifs are being demanded to keep out Japanese cars and electrical goods, US chamicals and Polish shoes.. the list is endless. Even French 'Golden Delicious' have not escaped.
But are import controls -- or 'selective' controls as their supporters call them - a real solution mounting dole queues? Far rom it.
WHOSE INTEREST?
What those who raise such demYOU WON'T ands do not realise is that, at a time of shrinking world markets, all capitalist countries are in crisis. Lengthening dole queues exist in all countries from Japan to France, Britain to the USA.
The demand for import controls raised by the Labour left is also being raised in other countries, such as the USA, where the United Auto Workers leaders are now arguing just as strongly for protection of the home car market. Nationalist anti-import feeling is running so strong that UAW members nave actually vandallsed l ovota cars Once import controls really started, retaliation and a trade war would be bound lo lolow I when the morals country would benefit (least of all Britain with its dependance on exports). It was, after all, the 'seige economy' mentality which provoked the thirties slump, "Science has learned how to eliminate the misery, monotony and drudgery of your job. You're fired!' NATIONAL INTEREST Import controls are not only queues but they are also a diversion from solving the problems of unemployment. By blaming foreign goods for the jobless total, advocates of such demands call on workers to identify with the interests of their own (national) firms.
Waged not to fight Sir Michael Edwards but to join with him in calling for a halt to Japanese car imports.
Such a position only leads to blunting the class conflict in class of no favour of a 'national interest' in which the employers are let totally off the hook. 'Foreigners' are to blame and not the capitalists of this system who are, of course, the main force living standards. available. inadequate to stop growing jobless struggle policies. Workers at Leyland, faced with massive redundancies, are encourfor attacking workers' rights & INTERNATIONALISM Equally important, such a demand leads towards exporting unemployment. Instead of calling on workers in different countries to unite against big business, it calls on workers in Britain to 'compete' with workers in trance or Germ any for the limited jobs that are The reactionary implications of This ceman co nor nave o oc spelt out. By encouraging a nationalist outlook, it can play into the hands of right-wing demagogues wno argue inal it is not only foreigners' goods but foreigners themselves who need to be kept out. Isn't this the logic of Tory immigration policy?
CLASS-STRUGGLE Far from fighting for 'import condois wial is necatu in lic fight for jobs are clear class -In the fight against redundanc. ies, the labour movement should call for work sharing with no loss of pay (the 35 hour week).
If employers argue they cannot afford such measures, then the call should be made Open the Books. Let trade unionists examine the accounts and determine whether or not a company can sustain a full staff. If it can't, then the demand should be raised for it to be nationalised under workers' control.
At the same time, for those millions already on the dole, the labour leaders should be forced to build a mass campaign against the cuts, calling for a bold Public Works Programme to employ those on the dole in socially useful tasks.
Sabina Roberts (Streatham CLP) ANTI-DRAFT DEMOS by GRAHAM WEIGHT In the United States at present, the government is trying to draw attention away from the growing economic crisis by the threat of war. The hysteria whipped up over Afghanistan or Iran has been used by Carter to introduce a registration of youth between the ages of 18 and 20.
Regan only 'mirrors' Carter's position when he says that the USA has to project a 'strong image abroad, and that rather than being liked, the USA needs to be 'respected'.
The threat of the draft has led to mass demonstrations in the USA by young people who have no intention of being used as cannon fodder in the wars of Big Business. Under the slogans 'We Won't Die for Exxon', they have taken to the streets in large numbers. The Young Socialists Alliance (YSA) has been to the forefront of these anti-draft mobilisations.
CONSCRIPTION With the USA about to re introduce the draft. Britain will be the only «cuntry in NATO which doesn't have some form of conscription for youth. While the Tories have, so far, only hinted at the idea of bringing back conscription, it is possible they are thinking on these lines.