Bu losses- on time for pay

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BLi made a staggering £181 million loss in the first six months of 1980, as against a £9.2 million profit in the same period last year.

When "extraordinary items", including the closure of plants (£23 million) are taken into account the pre-tax loss was £154.9 million.

With BL sales down from 414,000 cars last year to 290,000 this year, this loss amounts to the equivalent of £500 for every car sold!

But not everyone is dis pleased with these figures. While cutting back its own profit margins in order to compete for sales in Britain and internationally, the state-run BL continues to provide profits for private component firms and distributors.

Indebtedness

And while even these profits have fallen back mn recent months, this drop is the result of the Tory-stoked recession, and not the fault of BL.

For the bankers, however, BL is an even better proposition. Its growing indebtedness, coupled with sky-high interest rates, mean that this "loss making" corporation with its increasingly exploited and low-paid workforce is in fact a source of steady profits for the banks.

Interest payments are

major factor in BL's "losses"_ amounting to £44.7 million in the first half of 1980, as against only £27.6 million in the same period of 1979.

Even Sir Michael Edwardes, darling of the Tory government, felt obliged to comment on the fact that Thatcher's policy of extortionate interest rates has cost BL an extra £12 millionand called for a substantial reduction:

Plunge But even were interest rates to be reduced, the dramatic plunge in worldwide demand for cars must mean that BL will remain deep in debt for the foreseeable future. Major plants such as Cowley and Solihull are running at only 20% of capacity; Jaguar workers at Browns Lane, Coventry, face 2½ weeks' lay off through falling sales; targets for the new Metro have already been halved; and further cutbacks are UNION DUES expected this week.

This under-utilisation plant means that it is impossi in capitalist terms to return adequate rate of profit.

Derisory

This in turn intensifies management's determination to axe more jobs and drive down still further the real wages of workers on the shop floor.

The announcement of huge losses is just what Edwardes required in his moves to force through yet another derisory pay increase in this year's pay At a meeting last week union negotiators fixed a flat rate claim of £17.20 for BL workers in the November review.

But Edwardes will exploit to the full the latest figures and will also certainly insist that government cash to support the new LC-10 model will only be forthcoming if union leaders swallow another single figure pay increase and force it home without resistance.

Now that the Mini Metroonce supposedly the "saviour" of BL-is actually in production, its cancellation is no longer a viable threat. This is why the A one-day conference entitled "Bring down the Tories this Winter!" is to be convened in Birmingham on November 15.

Called by the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement, it will draw out the political lessons of this year's TUC Congress and Labour Party conference, and point to the kind of leadership needed in the battle to defeat the Tory offensive.

The campaign for the conference was launched last week at a well-attended meeting of the CDLM in Acton, where workers from Ford and CAV were stall AT THE TOP. LC-10 is now proclaimed as the model vital for the future of the firm.

With 30,000 jobs so far axed by Edwardes with the collaboration of union leaders, and a 5% pay deal rammed through last year with a savage package of strings, it must be clear that neither jobs nor wages can be defended without a full-scale confrontation with Edwardes.

Balance sheet

This also means a fight against all those union convenors and officials who accept Edwardes' arguments and regard the problems of BL's balance sheet as more important than• the plunging living standards of their members.

BL: Programme for Action As we go to press, news has come in of further cutbacks by BL at Cowley. 1,460 jobs are to go in the Body Plant in a "voluntary" redundancy programme: the Cowley complex together with the rest of BL is to shut down for an extra week at the end of this month, and then join virtually the whole of BL cars on short time among those that heard Cowley shop steward Alan Thornett.

Socialist Press urges all readers to support this important conference which will be held in Dibgeth Hall, Birmingham, 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on Saturday November 15.

It is open both to delegates from trade union and Labour Party bodies, as well as from anti-cuts campaigns and individual observers.

Further details and credentials (£1 or 50p for unwaged) are obtainable from Campaign Secretary Godfrey Webster, 169 Barclay Road, Smethwick, West Midlands.

THANK CHRIST THE T.U.C'S OUT OF THE WAY ) FOR ANOTHER YEAR! ... CAN THE PRESENT LEADERSHIP IMPLEMENT SOCIALIST POLICIES TO END UNEMPLOYMENT, END THE MADNESS OF THE ARMS-RACE, AND RESTORE THE WELFARE STATE?.