The Steel the Case for Workers Management

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Most steelworkers in Britain today face the future with confusion and growing alarm. The state-owned British Steel Corporation which produces over 90% of crude steel output, and which employs over two thirds of the total labour force in the industry, lost over £500 million last year alone.

The response of the steel union leaders has been to 'participate' in the state's plans for rationalisation. Rationalisation is a polite word to disguise plans for plant closures, speed up, demanning and productivity dealing.

60,000 jobs 60,000 jobs are to go B.S.C. alone according the latest B.S.C. propos:

This cutback comes In fact, they pose the whole question of what is 'nationalisation' as practised by the Labour leaders.

How can such 'nationalisation' be turned from its present role as an instrument to protect the bosses' profits into an instrument to serve the workers and develop socialist planning?

The steel industry was first 'nationalised' in 1951 as one of a series of reforms implemented by the Labour government pushed into power atter the war on a wave of working class militancy.

Compensation

Over 90 private companies were involved and, although massive compensation was planned, nationalisation was nevertheless seen as an attack on capitalist profitability, since the British steel industry seemed to them, quite wrongly, to be in good position to take advantage of the general boom which was first taking off at that time.

Right from the word go' the British Iron and Steel Federation (the employers' trade organisation) set out to deliberately sabotage the newly created Iron and Steel Corporation by refusing it assistance of any kind, even advice of a purely technical nature.

Act of Parliament disturbed only those naive reformist politicians who believed and believe to this day that the law is "above" class interest.

Before the year was out, the newly elected Tory government quickly set about reversing the Act, and set up a holding company to sell back the shares at "bargain' prices.

The period of stable growth in the British economy lasted little more than six years, from 1951 to 1957, before the changing balance of world market forces began to erode and undermine the prospects of the British economy.

Steel production vividly reflects this. Between 1951 and 1957 steel production rose steadily from 15.64 million tons to 21.7 million tons per annum.

After 1957, however, it became erratic, and from that year onwards there was a pattern of boom and slump, each one becoming more severe than the last.

The figures demonstrate this:

Steel production: 1958-9 20 m tons 1960 24m tons 24m tons 1962 10m tons 10m tons 1964 26m tons 26m tons 1967 21.7m tons 1970 25m tons 25m tons 1971 24.2m tons Falling 20m tons mid 1970s. Sheffield steel workers march In other words, since 1960 output has shown no tendency to rise permanently above the 20-21m ton mark.

This erratic behaviour reflects the stagnation of the economy which it serves.

It was this tendency to stagnation, therefore, that prompted the Labour government to "nationalise" 14 big steel firms in 1967 to form B.S.C.

Each firm had by then become a lame duck in its own right and was of no use to its private owners. SAY NO 8.23:

SACKINGS EA.A against wholesale sackings This was connected with the fact that throughout the boom period of the '50s little useful investment had taken place.

This can be seen in the fact that although British Steel Companies invested the same amount of capital as the Japanese between 1951 and 1962, output in Britain rose only by 13m tons, while that of Japan rose by 28.5m tons.

Ine private steel owners saw this eventually but did little except produce the Benson Report in 1965.

This pointed out that the

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OFFICIAL NO! • TO CLOSURES SHEFFIELD