Fortunately, the blackmail attempts by the labour leaders - and their allies in the TUC - are finding less and less response among rank-and-file trade unionists. The growing opposition at the Labour Party conference, which has begun to find a broader expression in the mass demonstration on November 17th, are signs of a deep shift within the mass labthat less goods can be bought & therefore pushes up unemployment in another sector of the economy.
These policies are not only inadequate, however, but dangerous. 'Import controls' (coupled with the call by many TUC leaders for a cut-back in the number of work permits) can only create the idea that the cause of the present crisis is not the system itself but 'foreign workers' or immigrants!. Such an attitude, instead of uniting the workforce, can create dangerous divisions within it and help
create a climate which ultra-right groups like the National Front will take advantage of to spread their racist poison.
While reflecting, at this stage, the growing discontent in labour's can be no doubt that the Tribunites can offer no coherent opposition to government strategy. What is necessary in the unions and in the Labour Party - is the creation of a serious class-struggle tendency that will cut through the confused and inadequate policies of the Tribunite MPs and advance a real socialist alternative.
Future The opportunities for the creation of such a tendency will be favourable in the period ahead. Despite Callaghan's promise that the 'squeeze' will lessen by 1980, all indications that it will get worse and not better. The 'malaise! is deep-rooted. Throughout the post- war boom, British capitalism slipped far behind its - a record symbolised by the slow rate of productivity, very low investment, falling profit rates and a declining world recession is deepening these traits and the future looks bleak. * The wage curbs, imposed in 1974, are going to continue. Walter Ellis, in the Sunday Times, wrote that "the real post-tax rate of return earned by British companies fell from between 7 & 9% in the early 1960s to 3 & 4% in 1973 and 1974. It is inconceivable that industry and commerce will raise investment to the level needs with less than half the profits of the 1960s". Continuing wage curbs larger 'profit margins'. automatic wage increases in keeping with rises in the cost of living. Escalating unemployment must be met with a call for work-sharing (the 35- hour week), nationalisation of firms threatening layoffs or closure & a bold public works programme.
Such a tendency should also see as central demands stemming from broader struggles which can further unite the labour movement (and its allies) and hinder attempts, by the right wing, to divide it along racist or sexist lines. The 'resolutions' passed by Labour conferences to repeal the 1971 Immigration Act or support 'free abortion on request! should feature centrally in such a tendency. The call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Ireland should also be incorporated into the programme.
It is vital that such a tendency should not limit itself to passing pious paper resolutions on such issues in Labour Party branches... It must, itself, be rooted in the struggles in the streets & factories, both trying to stimulate mass action and carrying them into the party. It is only by linking the struggles of tens of thousands outside the party with a serious tendency fighting in their interests within the party that it will be possible to build a viable alternative to the government.
While fighting for clarity in ideas, such a tend-