CBI bleats for

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"sale of century' PRESS British bosses are being forced to reassess their position on government aid to industry.

After only seven months of the Tory government's recessionary policies, the CBI last week: submitted a list of proposed cuts in public spendChancellor Howe a dwindling stock of housing, increasing insecurity, soaring rents, rates, mortgages and house prices, and growing queues for accomodation as council housing programmes continue to fall away.

All this is good news for the Tories' friends-the speculators, developers, landlords, bankers and building employers.

op But even with the added lure profits to come, private builders are unlikely to produce anything like the number of new houses needed to make good the cutbacks in council housing.

Not confident Plunging working class living standards, iocketing inflation, high interest rates and the spiralling market value of private housing mean that developers are far from confident of realising an adequate profit on a vastly increased number of houses.

Top estimates for new houses built in the private sector this year suggest a total of only 140,000-leaving a gap of some 40,000-100,000 between the number needed and the number available.

But of course capitalist production takes place not to fulfil even the most elementary human need-like a roof over workers' heads-but simply in order to accumulate profit.

Capitalist

The Tory government, as a capitalist government par excellence, is dedicated to profit first, profit second and profit third.

Despite the eloquent speeches and indignant: armwaving of Labour spokesman Hattersley and the torrent of reformist arguments refuting the Tory figures, nothing will prevent the Tories implementing their "sale of the century" ing totalling £1.5-£2_billion, finked to an appeal to Thatcher to make no more cuts in state aid to the private sector.

"The financial pressures on the company sector are severe and we therefore urge that no further economies be made for the present in assistance to trade and industry.

•To do otherwise would threaten adverse consequences for investment and employment"

Some fairly "adverse consequences" for employment have of course already been caused by Tory cuts in the public services, and by the savage policies of rationalisation imposed on industry by the high value of sterling and astronomic interest rates-each of which have been welcomed by the CBI.

Gesture

But with sections of their membership about to go to the wall financially, CBI leaders have felt obliged to make some gesture of protest-firstly by calling at their recent Hattersley short of mass action to bring down the Thatcher government.

The task is to prepare the ground for such action-which must unite those struggles like the steel strike now in process against the Tories attacks with the battle against the spending cuts and the destruction of council housing.

Tenants associations must link up with union branches, trades councils and working class political parties in electing committees to open up the books of the local authority housing departments-to reveal the level of interest payments to the banks, the real costs of council housing, and the completely inadequate plans for future development of housing provision.

• " Workers' inquiries in each area must probe housing needs, and expose the crisis facing working class families, to show the need for united class action to defeat Thatcher.

But, far from resting content with Hattersley's bombastic promise to repeal the Tory measures, the fight must be taken up in the Labour Party for the ousting of the right wing Callaghan leadership and for the adoption of a socialist housing policy, based on the nationalisation without compensation of the big landowners, the building monopolies, banks and building societies. conference for Thatcher to impose selective import controls and now by appealing for a continuation of goverment cash hand-outs.

It is unlikely that Thatcher will completely ignore these pleas from her staunch backers in the CBI: but on the other hand the crisis of British and world capitalism means that in any event many private firms face a gloomy future of nearzero profits, declining sales, and eventual closure.

After years of being cosseted by reformist Labour governments dedicated to keeping them in business at any price, the CBI finds this hard to take.

But there is no easy way out of the impasse of British capitalism.

There are two roads open: one is downhill through mass unemployment and wholesale closures in the hopes of eventually restoring profitability: the other requires mass action by the working class to bring down the Tories, force the nationalisation of basic industry without compensation, and the establishment, under workers' management, of a planned socialist economy