[For over 18 months the motor industry has…]

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For over 18 months the motor industry has been at the centre of the capitalist crisis. This is not merely the result of the increase in oil prices. Even before this increase the capitalist world's motor companies were plunging rapidly into economic crisis.

The oil crisis through its effects on the sales of cars has sharply accelerated this process. Because of the importance of the industry in total production (around 10% of total industrial output in the major capitalist countries) its impact on the rest of the economy is very marked.

It is in the motor industry that challenges which the workers' movement is coming to face in all industries have shown themselves first and with special sharpness.

It is no exaggeration to say that at present it is the workers of the motor industries who must first fight the attacks resulting from the capitalist crisis, which threatens to erode the gains of decades made by the workers' movement. The question, for us is to turm this combat into an offensive struggle for socialism.

There was a universal drop in car sales in 1974 of about one quarter compared with 1973. But, confirming that the oil price increase is not the only factor the figures for 1974 have continued the steep decline.

In the United States sales this yeat have been more than 20% down on 1974; in Britain the present best estimate is that they will fall nearly 25% on last year; in France they are 182% down on last year and the decline is still accelerating.

The reasons for these continued declines are many. Partly it is the effect of the increase of the oil price on the cost of runhing cars. But in addition the costs of insurance and repairs are rising faster than general inflation. And the steep rise in interest rates in recent years has made hire purchase (the means by which most private cars are sold) increasingly expens Ive.

And in some countries, especially the United States, car sales are now being affected by the drop in the real wages of workers which has attended the worldwide capitalist recession, both through cuts in the purchasing power of earnings and through the growing volume of unemployment.

The declining market has predictably led to an outburst of cut-throat competition between companies both nationally and internationally. Late last year the American companies introduced a system of rebates (reductions of $200-400 a car) on new purchases.

Chrysler in its 'Car Clearance Carnival' even offered an extra 100 dollars for all Ford and General Motors cars traded in. The whole scheme was extremely expensive and in the end only reduced stocks by about 8%, The main effect was simply for buyers to get new cars a few weeks earlier than they had planned. The British companies have found similar problems in the special hire purchase deals which they started earlier in the year.

LEYLAND British Leyland of