expenditure cuts.
Although socialists should wel amount of money for a family of five would have been only 92p. Families above the average With inflation at 26 per cent, these increases would have been a drop in cutback Nevertheless, the scheme did provide financial responsibilities for children and for increased financial independHowever, even these limited gains In April Healey announced that the £2-300 million needed to im lement iged to £95 million. After weeks of backroom discussion (revealed in New Society)
ice, and the present system of payment retained with the paltry additThe reason given for this shift in attitude was that any further cut in a man's take-home pay, through direct payment to the woman, was against another The published Cabinet minutes scheme was registered by the TUC.
But then Healey used the story that scheme because of the loss of take-home pay as a means of playing on the sexist self-interest of the TUC negotiators, so that they reconsidered their position. Next day, Healey persuaded Since the explosion of the issue, pressed opposition to shelving the policy' arguments and turn to more accurate reasons, related to the Government's introduction of social Even here, however, the need to cut costs is not the whole argument. The present Ennals scheme and the original child benefit scheme, on the reduced rate, will cost the same - £95 million.
But Healey and Callaghan are exploiting every avenue to disorient and divide any opposition to Government policies, and to send the lefts up cul-de-sacs which do not directly confront the main road of anti-working class policies. The present dispute over child benefits is just one example This centres on how to implement a Special Case By isolating as a 'special case" the poor, single parent families and women from the living conditions of the whole working class, the lefts comply with Callaghan's manoeuvres to side-step the central issue of the cuts themselves. They end up claiming, like Helene Hayman, MP, that 'the argument that we are asking fir more public expenditure is false'.
We have heard fine words, like those of Maureen Colquhoun MP: *It is an anti-women decision, and by taking it both the TUC and Cabinet are publicly revealed as oppressors of women. But this response falls in with Callaghan's attempts to use the political weakness of the working class in its defence of women's rights, by playing women off against men, poor against less poor, one section of the economy This divisive response is adequately expressed in Eric Heffer's statement: "If it was a matter of choosing between expenditure on child benefit and priorities such as investment and employment in the construction industry, I would choose the industry.
The truth is that the lefts are not prepared to wage a fight against Government policy which accepts that no section of the working class should make sacrifices. This fight would mean an all-out opposition to the central pillars of Government policy. The lefts should be forced to call Callaghan's bluff by taking up the fight for the child benefit scheme as an integral part of an opposition WE REALLY MUST PO SOMETHIN LEAK !
to Healey's cutbacks as a whole Unless they do this, Healey and Callaghan will succeed in diverting their demagogic punches into channels that entail one section of the working class making sacrifices for another, while Government policy remains the same.
Celia Pugh Red Books is now in temporary premises at 183 Pentonville Roed, London N.I, and its hours of opening ane anil I Came to брт, М * NEW ISSUE OF SOCIALIST REPUB The latest issue of Socialist Rapublic, journal of the MSR (formerty RMGL Irish section of the Fourth Internati contains a report of the 1976 conference of the MSR; 'Communism and Democracy': news of the Irish women's liberation movement; and articles on Irish wages struggles; collapse of the Convention; Spain and James Larkin Price 10p, post 9p * ITALIAN FAR LEFT AND THE ELECTIONS The latest Inprecor has important mater ial on the Italian general election; joint appeal of main organisations in Proletarian Democracy: Avanguardia Operaia, Lotta Continua and the GCR (Italian section of Fourth International) explaining their attitudes to the DP; etc. The issue also contains the position of the LCI in the Portuguese presidentia elections; and items on the Syrian intervention in Lebanon and South Africa. Price 30p, post 9p * SEARCHLIGHT ON RELF The latest issue of Searchlight contains material on the racist 'martyr Relf, tracing his history, connection with fascist 'ultras", and his flirtation with the Ku Klux Klan. Other material includes an election result round-up; studies on racism in Bradford, Black burn and Oldham; and articles on Rhodesian fascists and the Union Movement; racism in the press; fascist activity in the Midlands; etc. Price 30p, post 9p. * SOCIALIST CHALLENGE NOW IN PAPERBACK Socialist Challenge by Stuart Holland is now in paperback. Holland was one of the architects of the 1974 Labour manifesto and the book has been described as a blue-print for the future', 'a strategy for socialism' and so on. All this looks a bit sick in view of the evolution of the Labour Government, but the book re mains useful: containing a wealth of material and arguments about the role of multinationals, meso-economics, in creasing state intervention in the econom etc., which needs to be studied in order to understand the mind of the left social democrat. Price £2,95, post 47p
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