[Letting prices rip-Howe Government figures last week confirmed…]

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Letting prices rip-Howe Government figures last week confirmed that the cost of living is now racing up at the rate of 22p in the pound per year. This confirms the threat now facing every working dass family.

Living standards are being slashed by Tory policies Wages are lagging far behind a runaway rise in prices Even the ludicrously high government figure for the increase in average earnings- which they claim is now 20%- falls far behind the price explosion when income tax is taken into account.

But who is actually getting this 20% increase? Only a handful of powerful unionsminers, railwaymen, water workers and power I MONETARISM KLOSER CLOSED EHOSRITA was magic, but Calling for wage controls-Healey But such demands fall short of the needs of the working class. They take no account of the impact of taxation on workers' living standards; and in seeking to compensate for inflation through once-a-year payments they ensure that wage levels trail continuous!! behind price increases.

Indeed it is vital that the workers movement make its own assessment of the scale and pace of inflation as it affects working class families. Trade union bodies should elect price committees comprising workers, housewives, claimants, and sympathetic expert assistance with the task of compiling an ongoing working class cost-of-living index as the basis for catching up pay claims.

But the same figures will also show the

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IN 'PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report