IT'S over 50 years discovered that Wales had a regional problem'. King Coal and the metal industries were rapidly declining and not being replaced by new industry. Unemployment was very high.
There have been attempts to remedy the situation.
Pontypridd was built in the 1930s with small light engineering factories and textiles.
But has anything really changed in those 50 years? Or have the needs of capitalism and government inaction created a totally distorted economy and a vulnerable working class?
could have no reason to be thankful for their almost total dependence on steel for employTable 1 Employment in the Ebbw Vale Employment Exchange Area -June 1973 Primary sector of which BSC Construction Services Total 13,500 Source: Dept of Employment, BSC (Industries) Ltd.
Compared with a UK average of 3.5 in every 10 people working in all manufacturing, 5.5 in 10 working in services (health, education, local and centrai goverment, banking and insurance and so on), in Ebbw Vale in 1973 a staggering 6.5 in 10 workers worked directly for the British Steel Corporation and only 2 in 10 in services. Only I in 4 workers were women.
In this situation it was no surprise that male unemployment in Ebbw Vale rose by 209 per cent between March 1974 and March 1976 during the rundown of the steelworks. Now, three years after the closure of the heavy end of the steel works, 1500 steelworkers are still on the dole; and still only 3 in 10 work in services.
Ebbw Vale — with terrible health facilities, appalling housing, freight lines, but then they make a profit — at the moment) and poor roads — is not unique in Wales. The whole OI Glamorgan, West Glamorgan and Clywd are over-dependent on metal manufacturing and coal.
Bleeding Powys and Dyfed are greatly dependent on agriculture (over 15 per cent of Powys' workers he ease. than 3 per cent). South dependent on services — Cardiff, for example, was deliberately built up as the financial, commercial, educational, administrative and so on centre of Wales. learn that 7 in every 10 people working in South Glamorgan work in these fields have to commute up to 40 miles a day from the Merthyr, Rhymney search of a job. those valleys long since.
These figures jobs disintegration of many tightly-knit valley communities, bleeding to death in the most painful.
Hand in hand with industrial decay and high unemployment go a higher death rate, a housing stock that is the worst in Britain, low Socialist Challenge since economists The Treforest Industrial Estate near yale, Employees No. rercentage 9,200 6,/4/ 3,000 and transport.
Table 2 no rail station (there are Gwent, plus Mid Table 3 the British average is less Glamorgan is overHence it is not surprising. to and many and Rhondda valleys in The jobs disappeared from Table 4 mask the slow toilet)
Wales 5 June 1980 Page 5 spending on school buildings, books and so on, a far higher use of inadequate NHS facilities and a very great dependence on terrible public Selected Causes of Death 1975 (Rates per 100,000 population)
ource: weish Since Unfit houses per 1,000 population, 1976 Population Unfit houses ner e 3122 Proportion of dwellings with exclusive use of three basic amenities (hot water, fixed Great Britain with Ford, Sony, tronics had dozens of pits, Maerdy • 165 Table 5 Total cost, produced BSC, Port Talbot materialised)
BP Chemicals, Barry bath, indoor Milford Haven Ford, Bridgend Dow Corning, Barry Percentage 82.1 DuPort, Llanelli Alphasted, Newport 77.5 69:1 Total The two big industrial estates at Bridgend, light engineering and elec lactories. Have creedo overall to cope with this rapid decline. again, workers have to travel many miles from their valley ghettoes. The Rhondda, which once now has only two left.and Ty-Mawr and Ty-Mawr under threat of closure.
The f48 million chicken feed that the Tories are giving us will only go to benent smal capitalist enterprise, as the Tories seek to protect their support in Wales There is new investment by the big comhave doubled steel production, workforce!
for only 2,500 jobs!
1982.
Many worse The announced that Port rather than quickly. Failure support. with the trol, as we've discovered spending increases new jobs And Germany and Australia.
into the capitalists' French steelworkers, present problems make one bit of difference.
It is rather sick that only two years ago BSC was planning to spend a staggering f835m a Port Talbot steelworks - this huge sum would but cut the Ford was given a £70m donation to 'help' it set up its operation at Bridgend - not cheap The latest round of job cuts in steel, accor ding to a Bangor University study, will push unemployment on Deeside up to well over 20 per cent, in Port Talbot to over 12 per cent, in Wales as a whole to a massive 150,000 plus b This is assuming there are no furthe spending cuts and that the recession doesn't get The Wales TUC and the Labour Party have done precisely nothing to fight for the policies • Wales needs, and have betrayed our interests. George Wright, general secretary of the Wales TUC, was being somewhat hypocritical when : Talbot steelworkers have no right to sell the jobs of their community. Wright did precisely zero to give support to the steelworkers during the strike. Moreover, he's said time and again that we must accept a change and that some redundancies are inevitable. His strategy is to lose jobs slowly, Port Talbot and Llanwern steel unions have now given in on the fight for jobs - they were left isolated without broad labour movement The Labour Party has certainly not put up a fight. We are still suffering from the failure of those leaders to fight for real socialist policies There are no magic solutions to the pro blems of Wales. But for a start we could figh for contre! over the economy, hand in hand international workers' Nationalisation is no use without workers' conA reduction in the working week to 35 hours, with no loss of pay, and massive public on housing, health and education, would instantly create thousands of jobs. New. investment in steel, coal and other manufacturıng would then be for our benefit Welsh coal and steel should be subsidised, as in The call for import controls plays straight hands - it just doesn't tackle the question of who controls production. Until workers control production themselves BSC will continue to sack Welsh steelworkers, the French government will continue to sack women textile workers will still get the sack, all to pay for capitalism's import controls wil no