Tories Boost Pr Ces

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workers-achieved pay rises of anything near 20%.

On the other hand millions of workers in the public services and manufacturing industry have received far smaller increases-ranging from 5% (British Leyland) to an average 1215% before tax.

INCREASES Meanwhile two successive Tory budgets have deliberately driven up the cost of living, through hikes in VAT, duty on drink, tobacco and petrol, and huge spending cuts that have forced increased public service charges.

In the last month alone Chancellor Howe's efforts bore fruit in the form of increases in rates, rents, water charges, house repairs and maintenance, drinks, cigarettes, meat, electricity, gas, tube fares, bus fares, and vehicle licence fees.

Food prices, reflecting the Tories' commitment to the Common Market, continue to rise. Next month will see a further increase in the price of bread and petrol.

And of course it is not only wage earners who shoulder the brunt of this surge in prices: Howe's last budget also decreed that state benefits will increase by 5% less than the rate of inflation, and effectively cut the real value of child benefits.

This situation is no accidental oversight by the Thatcher government. From the outset it has shown itself determined to foist the full burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of the working class-with tax cuts for the rich, wage increases for the police, and bonanza profits for the banks coupled with closures, cuts, and plunging living standards for the workers.

The Tories have clung tenaciously to their monetarist policies, which attempt to control inflation through restricting the cash available to industry and the public sector.

CLOSURES

This policy has brought sky-high interest rates, la decline of production, a wave of closures and the threat of ruin to many weaker employers.

But with the government itself busily eroding the value of money by jacking up the prices of a whole range of basic goods and services, and with continued increases in oil prices on a •world scale, such policies have simply increased unemployment.

In such a situation wage increases are no more than a belated attempt by workers to defend their living standards against inflationthey are in no way the cause of rising prices.

Yet the Tory government are not the only ones trying to claim that the present inflation rate is the result of "excessive wage demands".

The Labour Shadow Cabinet-whose four years of wage controls helped inflict a historic cut in workers' living standards and pave the way for the return of the Tories-chose last Thursday to issue an appeal to the Tories to reintroduce wage controls.

Not 'only Dennis Healey but also one-time "left' winger Michael Foot have joined the chorus blaming the working class for the 22% inflation-and reaffirmed that if reelected they woull once again impose rigid wage controls!

There is little doubt that many TUC leaders, in their repeated appeals to Thatcher to "open the doors of Downing Street" and to make a "U-turn" would also favour a turn towards wage controls.

Frightened beyond belief by the growing power and militancy of their members, the union leaders would secretly welcome the opportunity to declare it "illegal" to fight for a living wage-as they did when Heath introduced state control of wages.

Yet for all the treachery and cowardice of their leaders, whose first priority is to preserve the profits and "viability" of the employers, the working class shows no signs of meekly accepting the Tory attacks. Union conferences and negotiating committees will undoubtedly face a wave of demands for wage increases in excess of 20%. necessity for a continuous rise in wages on a quarterly or monthly basis to keep pace with runaway inflation.

The demand for every wage agreement to include a cost-of-living clause specifying such increases must be inserted into every claim.

PLUNGE

Employers will of course argue that they could not possible afford to pay such increases. But the reality is that throughout the present crisis workers' leaders have started out from what the employers could or could not afford; the result has been a catastrophic leap in unemployment, in poverty and homelessness and a disastrous plunge in living standards and social services.

There have already been too many sacrifices to the present bankrupt and decaying capitalist system. If employers cannot offer workers a decent wage or a steady job, it proves that there must be full-scale class action to bring down this vicious Tory government, remove the wage-cutting Labour leadership, and establish a workers government that will nationalise the banks and basic industry and control inflation through establishing a planned, socialist Monetarist gurüs Lawson and Biffen

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Wednesday 21,