in the characler. which 1974-75.
According
and throuch before the oil price increases.
of socialism bosses interest rates -new serious recession in their over the past year.
The all those JIMMY CARTER's new energy and economic policies announced in the United States on Sunday were merely a tiny indication of what is happening in the world economy today. The capitalist world is rapidly heading into a slump will be even deeper than the one of the official version, this recession is due to the Arab oil price increases. But this is simply propaganda. It was revealed at the Tokyo economic summit last month that the world economy was moving into a recession long The American economy, by far the largest in the world, is actually predicted to decline in output in the next year. Inflation in the United States is already well into double figures.
The economy of West Germany, another of the decisive capitalist powers, is showing exactly the same picture. The inflation rate there has doubled in the past year, and West Germany's Central Bank has moved to sharply increase - helping to push the economy to a 1980. In France, unemployment has increased by 18.5 per cent The effects of this international slump on the British economy are already begining to be felt. Manufacturing output this summer is already rising rapidly towards two million.
credibility lower than last year and has been falling for three months in a row. By the end of the year inflation will be nearing 20 per cent and unemployment The slump has started to undermine the newly-elected Thatcher government. Hardly anybody, except the very Rising also confusion and demoralisation. than she had wanted. recession will see to that. rich, anymore believes the story about Howe's budget making them better off. Even the opinion polls show the government's popularity sliding downhill. This opens an enormous opportunity to struggle against the government, but at the same time the economic crisis is a significant threat to the working class movement.
unemployment, falling living standards, continual slashing of the welfare state and basic rights can create not only struggle but There is no doubt where the most decisive struggles of the next months will take place. Thatcher is being blown off course by the economic recession. From a tactical standpoint, she is being foreed into a far earlier direct confrontation with the working class movement If Thatcher wins in these struggles, it will be a tremendous setback for the working class and oppressed. If she is defeated, the backbone of her government will begin to be broken.
The outcome of the class struggle in the next months will be decided by the fight against the Prior anti-union proposals, together with the battle to defend living standards, jobs, and social services, and the fight to defend other basic rights such as abortion. The world economic