[This book is a symptom of 'the major…]

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This book is a symptom of 'the major changes which are taking place in. the labour . movement-one expression among many of a growing search by disillusioned but not totally demoralised socialists for a route to socialism in our lifetime.

The disillusion, of course, is with the policies implemented in the last two decades in the. name of socialism by eleven wasted years of Labour governments whose cynical leaders only paved the way to Heath, Thatcher, and mass unemploy•ment:

Most of those whọ had something to do with this workers' inquiry, to judge from the way they write, had illusions in Labour in the 1960s and early 1970s..

Part of what the book does is to document in great detail the Labour government's industrial policies; as they affected firms in Coventry, Tyneside and Merseyside, to show how those lusions were shattered.. • Those who claim to have no illusions should welcome the conclusion of this book and should resist any temptation towards smueness.

Because they also, however revolutionary they may profess themselves, have a lot to answer for in relation to that dismal period-they have to explain why, given the cynicism and reaction of the Labour government, they failed to present a revolutionary alternative credible enough to attract masses of workers to it.

Failed policies

This book helps to lay bare the failed policies of the last Labour governments; and gives detailed evidence to show how Wilson's, Callaghan's Varley's and indeed Benn's socialism' failed so often to benefit the working class and ended up as. an apendage to the needs of the big capitalists.

This is all documented in relation to the National Enterprise Board, the treatment of workers' cooperatives, planning agreements and government financial aid to industry. The inquiry rejects not only the sterile and reactionary policies of the Wilson and Callaghan governments but also the whole concept of socialism as being 'nationalisation plus Lord Robens'.

Trades Councils. Price £2.00.

One of their principal concerns in searching IOI an alternative/ is the fight • for authentic workers' control and democracy.

The report, therefore, is closely connected with the fight for the democratisation of the Labour Party and in an important way, links that fight with the shop floor struggles of the working class over jobs and working conditions.

The authors in fact appeal for politics to be no longer left to the politicians but for workers /to participate directly through their organisationstrades unions, trades councils, shop. stewards committees and so on.

So all that is positive and to be welcomed in this unusual book. The welcome must be modified, however, by a number of criticisms.

Colourless First of all, the book will communicate with less people than it could because of the colourless style in which it is written. An absence of stylistic gimmicks is all very well but 150 pages without a single metaphor or a single joke is hard goine.

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