working class. three million.
*a staff of 250 (each presumably monitoring 12,000 price changes!)
*four telephone lines Not surprisinglv. the Prices Commi ssion reported last year that 75 per cent of price increases had never been reported at all. Mind you, the monopolies that can make millions out of a single price increase must nave stood in terror of the penalties they faced for not notifying or illegally raising prices - in 1974 a £400 Tine Any tin pot firm can run rings around this sort of control", and only rarely are they caught out during Labour's 1965 wage and price freeze that the bakers were freezing' the price of bread by increasing the price of buns, rolls and confectionery by 50 per Cena While Government attempts to hold down prices are largely farcical, capitalist industry is far from happy even with ine umited restrictions that exist in the form of the Price Code. Yes, they can be! The first thing to understand about the Government's anti-inflation policies is that they don't use the only means by which prices can be checked: the organised Every month the trade magazine total number of price alterations a year is believed by the Department of Economic Affairs to be around To keep a check on this number of prices quite literally demands putting control in the hands of those who have a direct interest in keeping Over the last year they didn't make too much fuss about it, because price increases were 'fixed' according to the size of profits, and profits were depressed because of the slump in the economy But things are different now, as falling living standards begin to boost profits. as waen it was revealed If the Government actually applied the Code, this would mean restrictions on the price increases firms would be allowed. Consequently the companies are not prepared to tolerate even the Government's minimum controls Fur thermore, in contrast with the timidity of the trade union bureaucrats over wage controls, the bosses have no qualms about threatening direct action to get their aims. down prices - the trade unionists who handle the goods and see every increase, and the working class housewives who buy the goods and suffer every increase.
In 1965, for example, the Bakers Union exposed the profiteering of the baking companies; and in 1974 the workers at Allied Suppliers in Glasgow revealed the profits being made through hoarding of lentils by their employers. The only price freeze which could work would be one placed in the control of committees of trade unionists and housewives.
On 12 May The Times reported on the mintant stand ol the bosses union the Confederation of British Industry: *Lord Watkinson, who led the CBI team, is known to take a particularly hawkish view and to be prepared to threaten non cooperation on other fronts."
What Watkinson wanted was also made clear a week later in The Time (19 May): Companies will be able to retain the rewards of improvements in efficiency rather than automatically -passue cem on in lower prices In other words: "efficiency" is forcing fewer people to work harder and provide larger profits as a result. Wage restraint is also a big help. But don't you dare touch our profits, even if you did sell the pay deal by telling the unions a lot of lies about controlling prices The Labour Government has been only too willing to oblige: At meetings last Tuesday Mrs Williams told representatives of the CBI and the retailers that no specific promises had been made to the TUC on what changes would be
Red Weekly 27 May 1976 Southern Africa 9
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The Grocer notifies an average of 5-600 major price increases. The
By John Marshall