More on the Industry Bill

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• TORIES continued te me aiding sente of wanes • GC ORT COROONCV iO • straily: p003 here wor demand. Thee ding ento ni sages is now central to every struggle of the working elass in defence of wages and conditions Other sections of workers such as railwaymen will come forward as 2 result of the miners settlement to fight for wages. But such struggles are going to be bitterly fought. Wilson has told the heads of nationalised industries - *no more miners-type settlements" . Such struggles will require leadership, and a programme on which workers can fight.

It is precisely because the Labour government, through measures such as Benns Industry Bill, is dedicated to preserving capitalison, and their counterports in the trade union leadership refuse to fait them, that workers are deprived of political direction and the Tories are able to make inroads into the innes of the middle cless.

We demand the left' MPs and 'left trade union leaders who are at present silent, come out openly and fight the betrayals of the rightwing and fight for socialist policies.

The Workers Socialist League fights to build a leadership which will campaign on a programme of transitional demands which will take the working class from todays problems, todays struggles and todays consciousness to the only solution - to take power and establish socialism. It is to stop this that the right wing come forward in the Tory party today.

In «he first exition et Socialistiness we carried on analy sis ot Wedgewood Bean'sIndustry Bill, showing how it provides state finance to capi talist industries and makes disclosure of company information provided under the "open the book" clause a criminal offence carrying a penalty of 2 years imprisonment. This is similar to the "joint surveillance" measure being introduced by the Giscard d'Estaing government in France.

On Feb 13th the Telegraph carried an article by Sir Paul Chamber ex-head of ICI which drew the following conclusion: "With the controls which the Minister will have over the board, the controis which the Treasury will have over the more important decisions of the Minister and the powers of veto or annulment in certain very important fields which are to be given to both Houses of Parliament, it might be fairly asker whether this bill gives any cause for apprehension about the future of private enterprise in this countr As Benn himself said "But we must have the investment now. We must fill our chronic investment gap, if necessary with public money. The NEB and Planning Agreements were devised to enable that investment to take place.

Curlei: the aricle had exp zins i chi the bill was drafted to Ve ma pon or decision to wison himself and not to Benn. The Telegraph says:

"This is why the Prime Minister has ensured that the bill is drafted so that he (not the Minister jor Industry, nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer) can determine the rate of nationalisation and democratisation of British industry....

"Again while the Minister has the power and the duty to make "dete minations" on the financial duties of the board, he cannot make then without the consent of the Treasur (which in these cases would includ the Prime Minister)."

It goes on to say that the power to give private industry money if they get into financial trouble is there but "There is a prohibition against the takeover of any company which coes not wish it" This is the clause reiterated by Wilson to the CBI leaders at the Downing Street meeting held on February 12th.

As if such a provision is not enough to satisfy any capitalist a pro vision is also included to allow the House of Lords, where industrialis such as Stokes sit, to veto any ord, under tie bill - to quote the Telegraph:

"Here again is a 'long-stop'; any order made under this section of the Bill is subject ot annulment by a resolution of either House of Par liament."

i is cicci thar dhe Hodostry Bill is des ses to anderente prate capitel on the one hand, while - 1o quote the lead article in the previous issue of Socialist Press: "Thé Labou Government's new proposed Industry Bill, which would setup a National Enterprise Board run by Wedgewood Benn, has the object of drawing the trade union bureaucracy right in to the inner workings of the board-room. The purpose of this is to hold back more effectively the coming struggles of the working class in defence of jobs, wages and conditions, continued from Front page ucation to be defended by the fight to oven the pecount ledee oftherlocal Authorities and for the era to campalen 10l Lahor, to nationalise all those firms who are profiting by sup. plying the education service. without compensation, under workers management.

The leaflet called for opposition to all staffing cuts and a reversal of the government spending cuts first imposed by the Tories.

Central to all these questions however is the struggle to build a new leadership in the NUT and the other teaching unions.

1,000 demonstrate against education cuts in Aylesbury