[WAGES... Cont'd from front page In fact such…]

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WAGES... Cont'd from front page In fact such resistance has reached the point of open revolt.

As Varley sat down to discuss increased production with Jones, Scanlon, selected Leyland conveners and "participation' representatives, along with top Leyland management in Longbridge, a massive wave of strikes throughout the combine had paralysed production of all but two models in the Leyland cars range -and one of them was halted when haif its workforce joined the factory An indicator of this developing mood on the shop floor was the overwhelming rejection of Leyland's so-called 'fringe benefits' proposals which included a savage no-strike chuse.

Robinson, who had enthusiastically given his personal endorsement to the rejected proposals clearly felt he needed to regain some credibility amongst militants.

His carefully staged statement on wages therefore straddied two camps. Seeming very militant, he managed yet again to peddle the line of the management.

But the move misfired dramatically and Robinson's talk of workers "raring to go on strike" found a ready response in the factory.

Workers rushed to put Robinson's vague rhetoric into practice. Walkout followed walk-out, and line after line ceased production.

In this blast of hot air, some TUC leaders hastily altered speeches to make them sound vaguely like opposition to pay restraint.

But at the same time, the TUC continued its talks with the government on stage three. Not one leader has broken ranks to denounce or walk out of these proceedings.

Instead all are looking for a story to cover up their eventual acceptance of a stage three.

In this they will need most of all the support of the Communist Party which has already used its network of bureaucratic positions in the unions to help preserve phases wage control.

This is why the Conference this month of the CP-dominated Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions will aim at diverting from a fight to end the social contract now. Instead its purpose, as summed up by Robinson, is:

"Our aim is to bring as much pressure as possible to influence the policy of all unions concerned".

But a genuine fight for the jestoration of free collective bargaining must begin with full support now for all workers (such as the BLMC toolroom workers) in struggle against the social contract.

One obstacle to clarity within the movement against the social contract is the notion that the government is "breaking its side of the deal".

This idea has been fostered by union leaders who argue the deat sought to "fight unemployment" and "bring down inflation"

This was never the case. The system remains one of capitalism, of private enterprise, in which all the means of production and the control of them is in the hands of the capitalist class, whose only concern is their profits.

The social contract claimed to find a "common interest" between these capitalists and the working class. Such a common interest does not exist. The contract never represented anything more than a concession to the interests of capitalism.

It was because we saw this from the beginning that the Workers Socialist League has always opposed the social contract, lock, stock and barrel.

And for the same reason we supported the conference on Wage Control and Union Democracy called by the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement last October -seeing that the working class would in the next period enter struggles against the social contract in which the central question would be an independent policy for the defence of jobs and